Betsu No Ai oKeiken Suru Monogatari
Monogatari No Owari
(2012)
Dreams can be funny sometimes. Without even being aware a dream can tell us our secret desires. Or a dream can tell us our biggest fears. Many times the dreams we wish to forget are the ones we remember the most. They can become part of our memories and even affect our daily lives. Then those dreams can become a reality, at least to the people being affected.
One mustn't discount dreams though, even if we want to forget. For within a dream can lie a clue to what we must do to keep ourselves on the path we want to follow. Think of a dream as that inner voice giving us guidance when we are at odds with ourselves. Perhaps if we just listened to this voice a whole slew of problems could be avoided.
/GG/
"Akihiko, I swear by the grace of god, if you do not step away from me with that thing I will toss your precious little Takahashi-brat out the window!" Kamijou snarled as he backed away from Akihiko trying to put him in a hot pink tie.
"Hiro-san, that's not very nice. What would hurting Takahashi-kun do to help the situation?" Nowaki intervened.
"Because, you overgrown idiot," Hiroki spit. "If I toss the little brat out the window then the big brat who calls himself a writer will jump out too." He glared at Misaki with an evil glint in his eye, making the poor kid gulp.
"You'll do no such thing, Hiroki." Akihiko said calmly. "You are like a declawed pussy cat. You can take a swipe at people, but it doesn't really hurt."
"Usagi-san. Why don't you let Professor Kamijou pick his own tie? He is an adult." Misaki pulled on Usami's jacket sleeve softly.
"Don't worry about the big bad professor here Misaki. I'll protect you." Usami said with a grin. He swooped in and placed a kiss on the unsuspecting youth's lips, causing the kid to stumble back and
sputter.
Misaki fell to the ground after hitting a pile of books.
"Hey, watch the books!" Miyagi shouted. "Those are first editions."
"Then why the fuck did you leave them on the floor, old man?" Shinobu asked from the sofa.
/GG/GG/GG/GG/
Okay, back up. Here's how this little tiff started.
Misaki had actually managed to graduate from university! Not necessarily at the top of his class, but with enough to keep his job and get a pay raise at Marukawa publishing. Obviously since he was graduating there were meant to be a great many individuals showing up, including his lover (I mean, landlord) Akihiko Usami.
Usami, who is friends with the faculty speaker at the graduation, had decided to come and bug said speaker about the speech. Hiroki Kamijou was not impressed and had managed to lock himself and Nowaki Kusama into his office. Everything had been going fine until Professor Yoh Miyagi had shown up, with his little terrorist stalking behind him, complaining about having been woken too early on a Saturday morning.
Professor Miyagi saw that the door was locked, so he opened the door and that was when Akihiko barged in, much to the chagrin of the occupants, who were in a heated embrace. After quite a few colorful words thrown at the author (because Nowaki wouldn't let books become weapons on such a big day) things had started to settle down. At least until Usami had decided that the blue tie Hiroki had been wearing wasn't bright enough to attract attention.
Using the powers at his disposal the man who doesn't take no for an answer, had a selection of ties shipped to the school. Misaki had yelled at said man for wasting money since he hadn't planned on using the ties in any way, save that day. This match ended with Usami trapping the boy to the sofa and one embarrassed terrorist shouting at the two to get a hotel room, the sofa belonged to Miyagi and him since they were constantly consummating on the piece of furniture.
This comment almost ended in a fist fight as various individuals (Miyagi and Kamijou, namely) argued over proper places to fuck. Miyagi had won that fight by bringing up the time in the library from years ago, which caused two young adults to gaze at Nowaki and Hiroki in wonder. Misaki didn't want to even try it, even though Akihiko said they would whether the soon to be graduate wanted to or not. Shinobu glared at Miyagi and asked why they never got to use the library.
This caused a collective sigh to emit from the two who wanted to bloody the carpet, and it became calm for a time. Until the ties showed up that was. Once the ties showed up, all hell broke loose. And that was how the argument about pink ties had started.
/GG/GG/GG/GG/
Misaki had managed to keep Usagi-san from changing the professor's tie by kissing the man and then running from the room. Usami chased after the boy and brought him back, looking a little more flushed than he should have. Shinobu ended up laughing since he couldn't understand why Misaki was so embarrassed about public displays of affection.
"Listen brat!" Hiroki snapped at the dean's son. "Just because you and Miyagi are exhibitionists, doesn't mean the rest of us are."
"I've caught you in some pretty compromising positions myself, so don't even try to use that excuse." Shinobu snapped back.
Miyagi and Nowaki separated their respective partners to different sides of the room until both could cool down. The ceremony was set to start in less than an hour and what the university didn't need was the speaker at the assembly to end up in jail for killing the dean's son. That kind of thing just doesn't look good when attempting to up enrollment.
"I still think you should wear one of these ties, Hiroki." Usami said, holding up a paisley thing that would have made a blind person cringe.
"If you think for one minute I am going to wear something that gaudy then you have another thing coming." Kamijou spit back as he finished tying the tie he actually planned on wearing. "Besides, this was given to me by someone special and I am not going to replace that type of feeling with something from your collection of crap."
"You mean your whipped puppy dog got you the tie, right?" Usami winked at the young doctor.
"Fuck you!" Hiroki roared as he got ready to launch the nearest object not tied down to the floor.
"It's alright Hiro-san. I am not even listening to him." Nowaki assured his lover.
"You should listen to your elders." Akihiko deadpanned as he took out a cigarette.
"Knock it off!" Misaki shouted. "Doctor Kusama, I am so sorry about Usami-san. He doesn't seem to have a filter on his mouth and he never had tact."
Nowaki smiled at the younger man and patted him on the head, earning a glare from both Usami and Kamijou. "It's okay, Takahashi-kun. I have learned how to take what he says with a grain of salt."
The banter continued on for a time; sometimes heated and sometimes ridiculous. The dreams of the story became a memory of the past and the hopes of the future became wishes of the present. No one really has to listen to a dream and sometimes a dream isn't realized until it is right on top of someone.
Miyagi and Shinobu stood in the doorway to the office and watched as Misaki and Nowaki kept two very stubborn men from killing one another. Both had smiles on their faces, though one was much bigger than the other. The couple entwined their fingers and didn't care if anyone else saw.
/GG/
Author's note.
I wanted to explain how this story developed since it may have come as a shock to some people. Originally when I thought of writing this I was thinking something along the lines of "It's a Wonderful Life", where otherworldly forces gave the characters an opportunity to see the other side. In my opinion I like how the canon is and adore the characters with their respective partners. I just like to play around and create shock value, which I did with this story in spades.
After moving slightly away from the "It's a Wonderful Life" idea I was given some advice such as the Ghosts of Past, Present, and Yet To Come from "A Christmas Carol". This idea might have worked too, but I wanted to create something that people wouldn't be able to tell immediately that something was 'off'. I wanted the reader(s) to feel as if this story was just AU and nothing more.
How I came up with the dream idea was from a real-life situation. I was not involved in this situation, but it is public knowledge if anyone wants to look it up. The show "Married With Children" incorporated the pregnancy of actress Katey Sagal into one of the seasons. This is common in shows to avoid going on hiatus. Sadly, after quite a bit of the season, Katey miscarried. The show had already aired a number of episodes telling viewers that there would be a new child added to the Bundy family. In order to make sense of this predicament, after Katey was willing, the producers turned the season into a dream. So almost an entire season was written to be a dream and the show moved on as if it had never happened. I commend Katey for being so brave during such a difficult time and for allowing such an idea to be written.
This is how the change over took place. I wanted the story to feel as real as possible to 'shock' the reader when the truth came out. I hope people like how this story has ended. As well, there is a lot of symbolism when in the dreams themselves. If anyone has studied dreams then they may be able to pick up on some of the symbols I stuck throughout. If not and there are any questions then do not hesitate to ask. I don't bite. Thanks for reading.
The translation for the title is – The Story of the End.
Cheers!