Aya crossed his katana graciously on the opponent in front of him. It was another night, another bloody mission. The night and the mission had been long and tiring. Aya couldn't wait for this mission to end.
Just a couple moments again, he told himself repeatedly. He slashed his katana again at some other body guards and ran to the stairs. He was almost flying when he ran down the stairs.
It was almost time. Both Youji and Omi had activated some kind of explosive that could be controlled from another building. Damn all of this weapon dealer, Aya cursed inwardly. He rarely, if not almost never, dealt with explosive, and he didn't like it one bit when he came to deal with it.
He almost could hear the seconds ticked away, like he had a giant clock in his head. He threw open the door and ran outside as fast as possible. He had to get away as far as possible from the building.
A car speeding, came into his view. In a few seconds, the car came up a few feet in front of him and screeched into a halt. The passanger door thrown open, inviting him to get in.
"Aya!!," he heard Ken yelled from the car. "Get in, quick!! It'll explode in a few seconds!"
Aya ran faster and jumped into the car, and before he even had time to close the door, Ken had slammed his foot on the accelerator and sped away. In a frantic haste, Aya slammed shut the door and struggled to wear his seatbelt.
After a few seconds, there were a loud, deafening explosion, erupted from the bulding behind him. Aya reflectively lowered his head, as did Ken, who still had his eyes plastered to the road they were driving on.
After the building was out of sight, Ken slowed the car down and sighed loudly. "Geez, that *was* close," he breathed out.
"Yeah, that was…" Aya nodded.
"What took you so long back there, Aya?" Ken asked, a demanding tone in his voice, layered with worry. "I almost thought you decided to die back there!"
Silence descended over them, a comfortable silence. Both of the just felt grateful that they could escape the explosion.
"Next time, remind me not to take any mission Manx offered us that has something to do with explosive," Ken growled. "You think Youji and Omi have gone back home?"
"They should be," Aya said. "I just hope they can escape the guards. Manx said that the security there is very high".
"Hmph, I'm sure they can handle it," Ken snorted.
"They have to," Aya replied quietly.
The old Corolla they drove glinding smoothly down the road of Tokyo, towards their apartment. Ken turned on the radio and hummed softly as a song came out from the radio. Aya looked outside the window, at the leaves that started to fall.
So it's autumn already, he thought. Maybe that's why he felt some strange feeling lately. He didn't want to admit it in front of his fellow assassins, but he started to think that what they said was right. That he had change, eventhough not much. That he had warmed up a bit. That he wasn't as cold as he used to be.
He didn't really know why he had change, but he almost sure that it was, beside the great, relieving news that Aya-chan was getting better, because of the certain brunette that sit beside him right now.
Hah, tell Aya-chan that his oniichan has this drastically growing strange affection for another *boy*, he mused. He didn't really sure when all this feeling started. Maybe since Ken started to talk about his thought, about his feeling more to him. Lately, Ken had a habit to come to him whenever he had a problem. At first Aya found it a bit disturbing, but as the activity went on and on, he felt glad that Ken came to him. He felt trusted.
"…because I finally decided to take on some driving course a couple months ago! Ha, if I couldn't drive, we wouldn't escape that explosion! Tell Youji about that," Ken said, the realized that Aya wasn't listening to him. "Aya?" he asked.
"Huh?," Aya was snapped out of his thought. "Gomen, I didn't hear what you said".
"What, thinking about Aya-chan again?" he smiled.
"Aa"
"It's really great to know that the doctor had taken off the respirator because Aya-chan is getting better," he beamed. "She must be about to wake up, Aya,"
"I hope so"
"I think so," Ken said confidently. "And hey, we can take the empty room on our floor for her. You will feel safer if she is beside you, won't you?"
Aya glanced at Ken and saw the gleaming in his eyes. It touched him at how much Ken care at Aya-chan. It was as if Aya-chan was his own sister.
"And maybe you will be much less colder," he smiled. "You've made a lot of progress lately, Aya, especially since the doctor told you about Aya-chan's condition"
"Really?," he asked, the corner of his mouth quirked up into a small smile.
"See? You are smiling! You did that quite a lot lately," he smiled. "You also talked more than you used to be".
Aya didn't know why, but he actually felt happy at Ken's word.
"It's relieving, you know? It's good to see the changes. I'm sure Youji and Omi feel the same too"
"They'd better be," Aya smiled.
"You know Aya?," Ken said, glancing slightly at him. "You look much more better when you are smiling"
Aya's eyes widened a bit. Was that a compliment?, he thought. Did he mean something with that words? He was turning his head to Ken, opening his mouth to say something back to him when suddenly he saw Ken's face light up dramatically like the spotlight was flooding through the widescreen. In a split second Aya thought at how surreal Ken's eyes looked bleached ghostly pale by the glaring light, before he glanced forward to discover the cause of the sudden brightness.
He turned just in time to see two huge headlights bearing down upon them… on their side of the road. Aya was like a deer caught in the light, he was fixated by the hot white bulbs and felt as if he had been staring at the sight for minutes. In reality it was only a split second before he yelled Ken's name and the brunette turned the steering wheel violently in an attempt to swerve out of the way.
There was not enough time. Aya knew it before he heard the squealing tires, the shattering glass and the dull scrunching noise as metal scraped metal. The impact shoved him sideways and he felt the seatbelt cut him in half before his head smacked into the side windows. The impact stunned him and made him dizzy.
The world spun crazily and it took a few seconds for Aya to realize that it wasn't his imagination. That the car was actually rolling. The noise was deafening, debris in the car flying at her face and arms. With a sudden jolt, the old Corolla righted itself, rocking momentarily from side to side before it finally came to a stop.
Aya saw black. He stopped thinking. He surrendered to the darkness with great relief. He would've been quite happy to stay that way for a while, but after what felt like a few seconds, his disobeying eyes fluttered open. Aya was definitely dizzy now. His head swam and he saw white spots in front of his eyes that blurred his vision. It took all of his concentration to clear the annoying buzzing noise in his mind and to try and worked out what had happened. He remembered seeing the headlights, remembered swerving sharply and he remembered calling out to Ken.
All of Aya's muffled thoughts compressed into a single word…Ken. He turned his head gingerly, his body responding slowly though his mind was suddenly clear with purpose. He could see Ken slumped against the car door, but the whole side was buckled and torn, pushing Ken closer to him than he was before. Unable to see his face because of the white airbag that had deployed, Aya tried reaching out to nudge him.
"Ken?," his voice came in a whisper but he didn't know why. He tried again, louder this time. "Ken?"
Aya felt himself panic when Ken didn't response to touch or sound. The spots in front of his eyes returned, but he fought the sleepiness he felt. He had to make sure Ken was all right.
Aya pressed his hand to his temple to try to alleviate the throbbing pain in his head. He had to decided what to do. When his hand came away sticky and warm, he realized that it was blood. He was bleeding. He often bled. Hell, he bled so much time, but that time, the idea and its meaning seemed unconnected though, and he brushed the thought aside.
Help. He needed to get help. Aya tried to open the door of the Corolla and was relieved to note how easily it swung open. But getting out was another story.
He swung his legs out of the door but as he launched himself to the ground, the seatbelt he had forgotten to undo cut into his chest and leg painfully. Cursing his own stupidity but felt himself grew more confuse and less in control, he snapped the belt off and stumbled to the ground. Aya was surpised at how comical his legs felt --- like he was so intoxicated they couldn't hold his own weight.
He didn't know where he was going, but he knew he had to find help. Almost walking into a line of trees that lined the road, he saw how close they had come to the edge of the road. It didn't dawned on him that if the car had rolled any further, the passanger side would've slammed into one of these trees. Aya was too preoccupied to even consider it.
He walked unsteadily around the front of the smacked up Corolla, smelling burnt rubber and felt the scrunching glass under his feet. He saw the bright taillights of the other vehicle further down the road. There was also another smaller light that seemed to dance around in the darkness of its own accord.
Aya didn't stop to wonder what it was. Instead he focused his eyes carefully and saw that the other vehicle was a truck. A small truck, but a truck nonetheless. He continued on towards it, but drew up short when a man suddenly loomed before him, a flashlight in hand.
"Godness, son, are you all right?!" came a frantic cry. Aya leapt back automatically as a crushing hand tightened around his arm and the light was shone right in his face. He was blinded even after the beam was turned away, and it took him a few seconds before he could make out the man who thrust his bearded face towards him. "Are you hurt? Are you okay?"
"I'm all right," he said groggily, wrenching away from the grip. Aya touched his hand to his temple again and felt a stabbing pain. He heard the man swore concernedly.
"I need help…Ken," he muttered, pushing past the truck driver to Ken's side of the car. The man dutifully held up the torch without being asked, though he took a few steps back. Aya was too busy searching for the door handle and panicked when he didn't see one. The metal was so contorted that he couldn't even open the door to get him out.
The window had been smashed, however, and Aya almost smiled when he saw the top of Ken's head in the torchlight. At least he could see the brunette's face now, and he stepped forward to get a better view.
Aya almost wished he hadn't. None of his uncountable mission, even the worst of it, could ever prepared him for the sight of his bestfriend all covered in blood. Ken's eyes were shut and for a heart wrenching moment, Aya thought that he was dead. The truck driver must had thought the same, because he heard him starting to moan and curse behind him.
Aya ignored him and stepped closer, his movement almost mechanical. He whispered Ken's name, pleading this time, and carefully put two fingers through the shattered window and found Ken's neck.
Ken's skin was slick with blood and Aya's fingers slipped before he could find any pulse. Aya was about to give up when he suddenly felt a faint flicker. Holding his breath unconciously, he waited to feel it again just to be sure. It was the greatest feeling in the world when he realized it *was* his pulse and he wasn't just imagining it. Aya sighed with relief and felt his throat unclenched slightly.
"He's alive," he murmured to himself, but the truck driver assumed he was talking to him.
"He's all right?" he asked jubilantly.
"We have to get him to the hospital," Aya snapped, suddenly feeling anger for the first time. He turned around and glared at the man, with his now hard violet eyes. "He needs help. NOW!"
"I've called ambulance already," the driver asnwered meekly, as if he was afraid of the redhead that stood in front of him. Or maybe he was. "I called them on my radio".
He regarded Aya's fierce expression through the blood and matted hair that clung on his face. Aya felt his vision turned red as the man stood there helplessly, not doing a thing.
"You were on the wrong side of the road," he said evenly, his voice low and deadly. "You came around the corner on the wrong side. You could have killed us both".
The man backed away from him further, shaking his head as if to deny the truth. He opened his mouth to protest but was saved from having to think of what to say to the young man in front of him when they both heard the wail of the approaching ambulance.
Aya's attention was drawn away when he saw the flashing red lights, so he didn't even notice the second set of blue lights of the police car that followed it. Nor did he take in the ashen face of the truck driver when the officers got out of the squad car and walked up to them. Aya's only concern was Ken.
~end of part 2~