Hey guys! Sorry It has been so long since my last post, Between college, job searching, and life I just haven't had the time. I promise this story isn't just going to sit here with no resolution. Thank you for your patience!
~Shock pt.2~
Kanda
"Yuu chan, why are you going to all this trouble for this stupid human?" Alma was less than thrilled as we were walking through the halls of the school with the unconscious moyashi. "I mean really, You could've just left him outside the tunnels and he would've come around on his own at some point. Besides, like you keep pointing out, he's just an annoying human! Just leave him already and leave this place. I don't even get why you still live here. Whenever I'm here all you do is complaaain and complaaaaai-"
"Shut up Alma. You're talking gives me a headache." He pouted, not happy with my response and we continued on towards the infirmary.
"Yeah well you know what?"
"I don't care. And if you even think of being vulgar right now I swear I'll-" Before I could finish my sentence we ran into someone, the redhead that the moyashi was usually hanging around with.
"Owww, dammit, I lost my place" he muttered to himself as he picked up several books that he had dropped. As he gathered them all back up he began apologizing; "Ah sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going. My bad."
"Maybe you shouldn't read and walk at the same time baka usagi." He immediately looked up at us, noticed the unconscious moyashi in my arms, and dropped his books again rushing to his feet.
"Allen! Is he alright? What happened?!" He immediately went back to one of his books and began flipping through the pages.
"He's just passed out because of some steam. For a fire specialist he really can't handle heat."
"You sure it's not just hot water and you he can't handle Yuu~?" Alma smirked as I rolled my eyes, trying to ignore him.
"Yeah, he never has been too good with hot water, he even gets dizzy when we take our baths." I began getting irritated and wanted the stupid rabbit to leave, all we were doing here was wasting time.
"Che."
"See? Even more of a reason to forget this stupid imprinting business and just leave him!"
"I don't remember ever telling you that your opinion mattered Alma. Regardless, even if I left him elder Mana would kill me." Usagi looked at us as if he was trying to piece together a puzzle.
"So … Were you guys training in the baths or something?"
"I don't see how that's any of your business" I began walking once again towards the infirmary and heard the boy scramble to pick all of his books back up and follow, of course Alma followed as well, but there wasn't much I could have done about that. We finally got to the infirmary and the redhead began asking questions.
"How long has he been asleep? What were you doing when he passed out? He wasn't getting sick was he?!" After the unconscious human was lain out on the bed I was going to tell the kid to shut up and mind his own damn business, however Alma was quicker to annoy me.
"Well if you're gonna go, I guess love sick is the way to do it. The kid's gotta be some sort of masochist or something."
"You really aren't helping at all Alma"
"And you're really not listening to me! Forget about the stupid kid, find someone else, someone, oh, I don't know, THE SAME SPECIES MAYBE!"
"Calm the fuck down Alma, I already imprinted on him. I can't just un imprint!" At that point we were standing face to face, each of us pissed off to the point of no return, both of us forgetting about the other human in the room momentarily.
"But you also can't further your genetic line with him! I don't know if you realize this, but there aren't many left of your kind!"
"So what? That's not my fault. It's not the end of the world!"
"You sound like you've come to terms with this, Are you seriously saying you like him now?" He sounded wounded asking the question.
"I'm saying I'm not going to just let him die. I might not be the nicest guy in the world, but I'm not cruel enough to give the kid a death sentence. He might be annoying but that's hardly reason enough to condemn him."
"But that means you're going to be miserable for the next hundred or so years! Then if you end up actually mating with him you'll wither away when he dies! I care about you Yuu and don't want to watch you go through all of that pain! Especially when we're both so young." Alma's face was red and had tears welling in his eyes threatening to stream down his face and I let out a sigh.
"Alma, you can't decide what will happen all on your own."
"No, but you can. So what if this human dies, he's just that, a human. They die all the time." I shrugged and began to ponder the situation a bit;
"Maybe this is fate." he looked at me incredulously.
"Fate? I thought you didn't believed in that. And even if it was, can't you just change it and leave? Besides, let's just say it was fate, maybe you're just such a bad person you need to be punished. You should still be able to choose someone more suitable for you. And it's still not too late, you can still mate with someone else..." He sniffled a bit and leaned his head against my chest probably trying to hide the fact that he was crying.
"I'm not going to mate with you Alma. I never was and this doesn't change any of that."
"Well why not!? If this whole imprinting on that human wouldn't have happened we could have just been happy together!" We were both getting irritated again, but before I could respond to him, moyashi's friend spoke up, half startling both of us.
"As intriguing as this argument is, you really shouldn't argue over Allen right now, or can you not tell that he's sick? I have plenty of questions for both of you, though the situation is kind of piecing itself together... kind of, but right now Allen's health should be our first priority!" He was glaring at us as if he was scolding two children. Not that it phased us any, but Alma was the first to respond;
"Your friend has been causing so many problems and you expect me to care if he wakes up from a little steam getting to his head?! I'm about ready to snap his neck and fix this problem myself! Yuu deserves better than some fragile silly little human!"
"That's not your choice to make Alma." I interjected.
"But you're throwing your life away! How do I just sit around and watch that happen!?"
"It's my choice!"
"You haven't even told him what's going on, and don't give me that 'he doesn't need to know' crap because that's not true! He needs to know what he's doing! That he's sentencing you to death. The life of one human is nothing compared to the death of an entire race!"
"I am not the entire fucking race Alma."
"Of your specific race Yuu." I sighed again and slumped down in one of the chairs.
"It's not your decision Alma. When he wakes up we'll explain the situation and he can make his own decision. The choices might be shit, but it's neither of our faults." Alma looked ready to say something when Komui's voice filled the room as he walked in.
"I'm glad to see you going over all of your options Kanda. What happened here may I ask?"
"Tch, none of your business human." Alma practically spat at him.
"Aww, and here I thought you liked me. Oh well. Lavi? What are you doing here?"
"I ran into Kanda in the hall while they were carrying Allen here, I am a bit confused about what's going on, but the more they argue the more I'm piecing together. I'm really concerned though, the topic of death keeps on coming up. Something about imprinting, killing off a race, lot's of reference to humans being different, and honestly if not for most of the research I've been doing trying to help out Allen, I'd probably be completely lost."
"Research?" I looked to the stack of books he had brought with him which happened to be a mixture of medical and magical creature based books.
"Yeah, he got really sick while you were gone and it was pretty bad. He seemed to get better but I was concerned what would happen if he got sick again and started researching his symptoms and what was going on. There was a fair amount of information in medical books, but put together it didn't make complete sense, so I started branching out to other things and eventually got into sicknesses that are usually akin to dragons of all things… It had me pretty stumped until now. You two are dragons right? At least that's how it sounds to me." The three of us just stared at him for a few seconds before Komui laughed and grinned as he began speaking.
"Ah, looks like you found out! Congratulations, though I can't say there's much a prize, or any prize at all really." The kid just sat there for a minute taking in the information before talking again.
"So then… What happened with Allen…"
"Mmmyes well it looks like Kanda here has imprinted on the poor boy and decisions have to be made."
"Such as?" This time Alma was the one to speak up.
"Such as just leaving and having the brat die off. That would make everything easier for us and we could live happily."
"Alma, I already told you that I'm not going to leave him to die. There are limited choices and-"
"Yeah, and if you stay with him without mating the council is going to make you kill him, and if you mate with him you will watch him age and then after he passes away you will die an early prolonged and painful death." Alma then also sat down, the kid following suit, probably to process the information.
"Either way it's a difficult choice to make" Komui added.
"Oh, and not to mention that Yuu is one of the last remaining water dragons left. I don't think anyone knows where any of the others are, if they're still alive."
"Alma, I'm not sure if you've noticed by now, but I really don't care whether they're alive or not. It's not your job to maintain whether a species dies out or not." Komui looked between the two of us and sat down in the nurse's chair.
"Honestly, you two do fight too much. But about Allen, Kanda, from what I understand is that when Allen awakes you are going to explain the situation and then ask what he wants to have happen?"
"More or less."
"And I trust you are prepared for either answer, whether he wishes to be your mate and be free to live with the acknowledgement that you yourself will die prematurely and that the two of you would be bound until he does die, or to lay down his own life in your stead." I nodded
"I am."
"Wait, you think there is a chance he would choose to die?" Alma suddenly perked up.
"Well, there is a chance yes, however he may need time to think-"
"But if he chooses to die Yuu gets to live out his full life! We can convince him to-"
"Alma!" I was beginning to get overly pissed off by Alma's constant wishes for death upon the kid. It wasn't his fault this shit happened. "He will make his own decision without you messing with his head. It has to be his choice you got that?" He merely sat in his chair looking pleased with himself.
"I got it Yuu chan~!"
"I wonder about that…" I was about to say more when we heard Moyashi stirring awake. He slowly sat up, blinking a bit until the rabbit jumped on him excited about his awakening. I wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying until Komui mentioned my name.
"You and Kanda need to have a nice long talk~ I thought he would have spoken to you sooner, but life goes on."
"Or not~" Alma all too happily spurted out. Elbowing him in the stomach he cried out;
"Ow~ Yuu chan, I was only telling the truth, no need to hit me!" I ignored him in favor of looking back at the boy in question and was about to begin explaining when Alma and all of his idiocy spoke up again.
"Ne, before Yuu chan gets into the boring stuff, can I ask you a question Allen~?"
"Um … Okay"
"Do you believe in dragons~?" This time I smacked him upside the head.
"Of course he believes in dragons dumbass. What the fuck kind of question is that?!"
"I just wanted to make sure!" I sighed at his idiocy while the kid spoke up again;
"It'd be kind of weird for me not to believe in them, my master being a slayer and all… Why?" He looked at us somewhat quizzically and I sighed.
"Well then, what are your thoughts on suicide? ... or assisted suicide ... for a good cause of course." Alma continued with his annoyingly cheerful persona, still getting confused looks from Moyashi.
"Alma, for fucks sake shut up!"
"What? I was just asking, I wanna know our chances for his cooperation!"
"Cooperation for what?! Why would you want to know what I think about suicide?!" Wide awake now after Alma's stupid question, he sat up in the bed. I groaned inwardly.
"Alma, you're making this more difficult than it needs to be!" At this time Moyashi's friend decided to speak up, probably making much more sense than Alma.
"Allen, I think I figured out why you were so sick …"
"Okay, but I'd appreciate it if we could stay on one topic for now. I did just wake up."
"That's the thing though, they kind of are related." This was so stupid, just all of it. I could feel myself getting more and more annoyed each time someone began talking.
"Can everyone just shut the fuck up!? Especially you Alma." Glaring at him I think he got the point I looked back to Moyashi and went on attempting to explain the situation.
"The reason you got sick while I was gone is because I unintentionally imprinted on you; neither Alma or I are actually puts both you and I into a difficult situation. Either you die now and I live out the rest of my life, or we become mates and you live out your life and I die slowly and painfully soon after you come to pass. Another solution which would be extremely difficult to pull off, if even possible would be for us to just always be together until you die. However that wouldn't be easy to do because most everyone will want you dead and I'd only be able to protect you for so long if we aren't mated." He looked confused after my explanation like he still couldn't figure out what was going on.
"Okay, so … I'm trying to comprehend this … Why do either of us have to die?" Alma then decided to be his usual pain in the ass self and opened his mouth again;
"Why are humans so stupid? It's because you're a human. If you weren't then his imprinting on you wouldn't have to be a permanent thing if you rejected him! Sure it would hurt like hell for a while for both of you, but it would end and you'd both be fine." At this Komui sighed;
"Alma, please try and see this from Allen's perspective. It's a lot to absorb all at once. And Allen, I believe it's only fair if you have some time alone to process all of this. It is a big decision. I'm sure that Kanda would find it easier to answer your questions if it was just the two of you if that's how you would like to approach it."
"Che, Alma doesn't care Komui, he's one of those who prefer him to be dead." Allen looked at the two of us, still confused;
"Why does he want me dead?"
"Because Yuu's life is more valuable than yours. He's probably the last of his kind and if he ended up taking you for a mate there'd be no way to carry on his genetic line. Besides, you have what, sixty or seventy years left to live at the most, if you were to die Yuu kun would still have several hundred years left at the very least. And even then that'd be considered dying fairly young."
"I-I see … Is there any way to undo the imprint without either of us dying? Or am I asking a stupid question." Alma perked up slightly at this question;
"Well there is a possible way, but it's not certain to work, you could still end up dead due to the pain of the process, but if Yuu was to agree to find a different mate there is a chance you could both keep your lives~"
"But there's still the chance that it would kill me …" I snorted at the supposed solution.
"I already told you Alma, I don't have interest in finding a mate. All everyone cares about is breed and appearance. It's annoying."
"Are you not a popular candidate or something?"
"Oh, no! Yuu chan is one of the most popular dragons because he's so handsome and rare. All the females fawn over him during social gatherings which is why he's reluctant to go to them." He looked back over to me looking somewhat surprised.
"So they don't care that you're antisocial and hard to get along with?" Alma chuckled while I rolled my eyes and half growled back.
"Female dragons are primitive. Beauty and breed are all that matter. They don't care about my personality or what I want. They just want to be mated with 'The last Water Dragon', it's sickening."
"I see …" Komui spoke up again;
"Allen, if you wanted us all to leave for a while so that you have time to think it would be understandable. You don't have to make a decision today." He nodded.
"Yeah, I think that would be for the best …"
Alright, so concludes another chapter! at least it's not a terrible cliffhanger like last time. Please review so I know what you think! Seriously, I love reading those.