Attention Fanfiction.net Friends:
Let me thank you all so very much for the supportive response this story is getting! To have so many wonderful comments is truly awe-inspiring but better yet, it is *fic*-inspiring as well and my muses are considering buckling down again and getting to work on more of the rough draft of this one very soon! It still only runs through Part 20, but with the marvelous comments received here and from the ML's I'm sure it will get back on-track soon!
Also, please allow me to answer a few of questions/comments from the feedback this story is generating. First, I'm using what I believe to be a fairly novel relationship between Weiss, Kritiker, and the police and am fully aware that most fanfiction is based on Weiss being a vigilante group to the best of their knowledge. "Dare to be different but keep it logical", that's one of my mottoes! Second, Ken's eyes are indeed a bluish color in the anime, but like many other fanfiction writers, I prefer to use the manga coloration since brown fits him better both aesthetically and personality-wise. Last, as mentioned by several wonderful readers, no, I will *not* be killing Siberian as Silvi-chan feared (gomen, Silvi-chan, but your remark was so cute it finally hit me that this *does* sound like a classic Southpark line "You killed Kenny!" heheh!). Neither will I be allowing Schwarz in on Nagi's secret, but I'm having a helluva a time finding ways to keep it logical that Schu doesn't know already.
{smiles, hopeful that his muses will think of something good, then wonders if anyone wants another glimpse of Schwarz before too awfully long, then ends this note quickly}
Thanks as always to those of you who take the time to let me know what you think about this story! The notes help more than you know and as soon as I get some sleep over the weekend (explanation to follow later) I'll try to get more edited to pick up where Part 6 ends soon.
Enjoy the Angst!
~~~Enigma~~~
(who has no clue why fanfiction.net isn't relisting the title of this fic under the "Just In: Weiss Kreuz" listings when it's gained entirely new parts for three nights in a row now, but hopes people will check back regularly since there *will* be more soon if at all possible!)
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Title: Cold November Rain [part 5/?]
Book 1 of "Redirecting Destiny" and prequel to "Romantic Resolutions"
Author: Enigma
Series: Weiss Kreuz
Written: January, 2002
Rating: R
Pairings: (Yohji + Ken + Aya) (Omi + Nagi) (Brad + Schu)
Category: Dark! Yaoi Angst Action/Adventure Violence Blood Squick Language Romance. AU-OOC.
Archive: fanfiction.net [author: "E-sama the Llama"], Scripta Manent: http://digilander.iol.it/sakaba/Home.html
Spoilers: None, safe for new viewers as well as old.
Warnings: dark! yaoi, heavy angst, action/adventure, graphic violence, large quantities of blood, squick: medical and other, coarse language, agonized and overwrought romance, rare touches of sap, cigarettes, destiny, cruel cliffhangers, original characters. AU-OOC.
Disclaimer: "Weiss Kreuz" is the property of Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiss. This unauthorized work of fanfiction is intended for entertainment only; kindly do not sue me.
Notes: When Ken falls in battle, how can the other members of Weiss cope with the guilt and blame that they all seem to share and will he survive in spite of the odds against him?
++ date and time reference within the storyline beginning with the day of the battle ++
{{telepathic speech}}
*****
++ day: 1. time: 0800-0830 hours ++
*****
While life in the Schwarz penthouse took a turn for the worse, the situation at Tokyo General Hospital became more complicated.
Ken had been in surgery for several hours and Omi had been placed into a bed in the recovery ward immediately after the transfusion ended minutes before the first incision was made. As Yohji had feared, the transfer of blood from Bombay to Siberian had been more than what would ordinarily be deemed safe. However, it had become clear from the very beginning that the brunette's wounds would continue to leak vital fluid until they could be closed through surgical intervention and the hospital's supply of types B and O blood were too shallow to be trusted.
Thus, while volunteer donors were being screened by the hospital staff as quickly as possible, Omi had insisted that the connection between himself and Ken be held open despite his waning capability to sustain the loss of blood in his own veins. As a result, the cerulean-eyed boy rested fitfully under the watchful eye of several nurses with the occasional visit from the middle-aged doctor who had already explained the situation to the youth's two teammates.
Outside the surgical waiting room was a small designated smoking area and this was where the eldest members of Weiss had moved after being told at the three hour mark that it was too early to know the outcome of the procedures being performed on their lover.
Leaning against a wall and drawing a deep lungful of nicotine-laden smoke in gratefully, Yohji let his green eyes slide shut behind his sunglasses and he tried to focus exclusively on the acrid taste that danced on his tongue. His usual garments had been replaced by hospital scrubs and he made an odd image, as if he was a too-young physician casually wasting time with a carcinogenic substance that he ought to have known better than to be indulging in.
Across the small enclosure was a similarly dressed man, yet there was none of the false relaxation in Aya's tense stance as he glared cold violet death at the thick dirty clouds in the morning sky above. Without turning around, he asserted quietly, "This is all your fault you know, Kudou."
Sighing and shaking his head even as he sucked on the cigarette between his lips seeking more of the relaxing drug within it, Yohji didn't answer.
They'd been having the same argument for the last hour or so, on and off, but the truth of it was that each blamed himself and by encouraging the other to accuse him, he felt even more justified in his belief in a bizarre mutually masochistic fashion.
The Weiss swordsman, however, was interested in more verbal dueling and didn't appreciate being ignored, so he turned to face his lover and teammate before stating, "Omi was *my* responsibility and Ken was *yours*, Kudou. *Mine* got out of there in one piece, why didn't *yours*?!"
Taking a hard drag on the nearly finished cigarette before flicking the butt away from him, the taller man turned to regard him with a venom-filled glance before he deliberately blew irritating smoke in Aya's face and answered, "I've got no fucking idea what makes you think you're so goddamned perfect all the time, Fujimiya! Ken's in there possibly *dying* because we *all* failed him and yet you dare to throw it in my face that Omi's fine?!" He snarled angrily, "Like hell the kid's 'fine' anyway! He's got one of those fucking hospital patient ID bands on his wrist, too, and is in there sleeping off his *own* blood loss and you give *me* a fuckin' lecture?!"
"That 'blood loss' is your fault, too, asshole," Aya growled, moving to grab Yohji's scrubs into one powerful hand and considering letting his fists speak his mind for him yet he put it into words instead, words snarled directly into Yohji's shocked face. "Why the hell didn't you make sure Ken stayed at his position or at least follow him when he went to check on that noise? If you had, he wouldn't have faced those bastards alone and he probably wouldn't have gotten shot *five* times, you fucking failure!"
Yohji visibly reeled under the violent explosion of words and before he could answer, Aya added in a tone as cold and cruel as he could make it, "The last time you failed a partner, someone *died* because of you. Is that what you want to have happen to Ken, too?"
Fury raged in green eyes and Yohji's mind was filled with memories of watching someone close to him dying in a hail of bullets and he roared as he slammed one powerful fist into Aya's abdomen. The punch brought the swordsman the flash of pain he felt he so richly deserved and in some small corner of his mind, he congratulated himself on succeeding at driving his elder lover to violence so easily.
"Asshole!!" Yohji roared, temporarily lost to fury as memories of past mistakes rose up in his mind in response to Aya's harsh words. "What the hell makes you think you're any better than me, you cold bastard?! At least what I feel for Ken involves more than my *dick*!!"
The wire-wielding assassin's words were more cruelly cutting than he himself knew. Aya had struggled with his feelings wanting to deny he'd truly fallen in love with both of his teammates since "love" was such a dangerous emotion. He preferred to claim that what was between them was purely physical so that if a situation such as the one they were currently trapped in should arise, it might not hurt as badly as it did. However, his delusions were crumbling and to hear it thrown in his face was more than he could stand.
Without conscious thought, Aya's right fist lashed out, smashing Yohji across the jaw and sending him reeling back against the wall behind him and stars seemed to dance before his eyes for a moment before cocking his own fists and preparing to fight back.
Before the blond man could answer violence with violence, however, Omi's exhausted voice cried out behind them, "Aya-kun! Yohji-kun! What are you *doing*?!"
Bodies readied for battle, the two men spun to see the seemingly small and weak figure of their young friend standing beside that of a tall redheaded woman who gazed at them both with unconcealed anger in her blue-green eyes.
"Answer Omi's question," Manx demanded coldly, "Tell him what you two idiots think you are doing out here trying to bash each other's skulls in."
Dropping their hands to their sides, Aya and Yohji succeeded in looking guilty yet still justifiably angry as the elder of the two answered, "This doesn't concern you, Manx. It's about Ken and this is just between us."
"No, it's not," the woman insisted angrily and moved to place a restrictive hand on Omi's shoulder over his own atypical hospital attire, holding him back for fear that the other two men hadn't returned to their senses yet. With a glare of her own, she stated flatly, "This is a *team* matter and *not* one to be settled by brutish expressions of stupid machismo."
Aya's silence wasn't unexpected but Yohji's was and finally it was too much for Omi to stand and he asked in a soft voice, "Why are you hitting each other, Yohji-kun? Aya-kun? What are you trying to prove?"
"It's *his* fault," Aya glared, amethyst eyes flashing with fury at his lover as he finally spoke once more, "that Ken's in there right now. If he'd done his job properly, we'd be home safe and sound by now and none of this would've happened!"
"Bullshit," Manx stated flatly, taking the conversation away from the men entirely. "You of all people should know that not all parameters of a mission can be controlled, Abyssinian."
"You weren't there, Manx," the katana-wielding assassin growled, glancing at Yohji with a look that said the matter was far from closed, "*He* just let Siberian walk off into what turned into an ambush! If he'd followed him, at least he might've been there to defend Ken when he couldn't defend himself!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" The woman snarled angrily, "This is a dangerous line of work, you *all* know that! Any one of you is a target at all times when you're on a mission!"
"Of course we are," a too-quiet voice spoke up as Omi entered the guilt arena and stated his own point of view on the matter. "However, if this is anyone's fault, it's mine. I should've realized that we were going to run into trouble with their computer systems and have been ready for it."
"No, Omi, that's not true," Manx turned towards the agonized young man, hoping to offer him comfort despite not knowing the whole truth of the matter.
However, the seventeen year old shrugged her hand off of his shoulder as he stated more vehemently, "Yes it is, Manx! It's *my* job as tactician to see to it that we have *all* the details we need before going into a situation like that and I failed to identify what was easily the most important one."
A quiet choking noise became an agonized sob as Omi hurried to condemn himself. Slender arms wrapped around the surgical scrubs he, too, had been given to wear in lieu of his bloodied assassin's gear as his thoughts ran wild and he exclaimed, "Now Ken-kun is in there fighting for his life! The building is still standing with all of the equipment the drug makers need to keep hurting people! And there's a stack of bodies that will implicate Yohji-kun and Aya-kun as murderers and it's all my fault!!"
The guilt-ridden teenager's voice broke as the enormity of the failed mission crashed in on him and Omi suddenly turned from them and bolted, dashing away from the safety of his friends' presences as he vanished back inside the hospital, fleeing them as quickly as he could run.
"Omi! Come back!" Manx cried out, painted fingernails reaching towards the door before it even had a chance to close behind the blond youth.
Growling angrily at himself as well as at the universe in general, Yohji shouted, "Omiitchi! Wait up!" He then dashed after the younger assassin, fully intent on retrieving him before he could do himself too much harm, running in his currently weakened condition was more dangerous than Omi knew.
Aya simply cursed softly, "Fuck." Then he sighed sadly and shook his head as the female Kritiker agent glared at him expectantly and he explained, "I should have recalled sooner that he said he blamed himself for this in the car on the way here. Don't worry, Manx, Yohji will bring him back."
The woman snorted angrily, fed up with the stupidity of some of her best operatives then she turned to walk back inside intending to wait for an update from the surgical team and remarking acidly to the scarlet-haired man who followed her, "He damned well better, Abyssinian. I am *not* amused by the three of you acting like idiots while Siberian suffers. If you can't handle a difficult situation better than this, I'm frankly amazed that your team has survived as long as it has. What kind of a field-leader are you, anyway?"
Aya said nothing in return since he, too, was wondering the exact same thing.
*****
Running down corridors that smelled like disinfectant and worse, Yohji searched for his young teammate, occasionally calling out, "Omi? Where are you? Omi!" There was never any answer and eventually he came to a halt where two major corridors intersected and escalators pierced the building carrying passengers both up and down within the huge medical complex and leading to an almost limitless number of potential destinations for the runaway teen.
With a deep sense of frustration, the former detective begged someone who wasn't there to hear his words, "Don't do this to me, Omiitchi. Please don't make me go back and face them without you."
An attractive young woman who was walking by carrying an armful of files paused to ask, "Excuse me? Did you say something, sir?"
Woebegone emerald eyes turned towards the woman who had assumed he was just one of the numerous attractive young interns who came though the hospital that she'd never have a shot at, and Yohji asked hopefully, "Have you seen a guy running through here, miss? He's a friend of mine and I've just *got* to find him! Blond, blue eyes, about so tall?" He held his hand up to a level somewhere below his collarbone and looked at her expectantly.
The auburn-haired woman shook her head sadly and answered, "No, I'm afraid not, sir."
"Damn!" Yohji cursed and then turned to race off in search in another direction leaving the perplexed woman behind him.
Shaking her head sadly again, she resumed her trek and commented to herself, "I wish he hadn't run off like that. I was going to suggest he get in touch with security and let *them* look for his friend for him."
As Yohji dashed through different levels and areas of the hospital in a search foredoomed to failure, under a stairwell in a remote corner of the basement, a disturbed young man sank to the floor and wrapped trembling arms around his knees and rocked in place.
Quietly mumbled apologies left Omi's lips over and over yet went unheard over the noise of the equipment that sent heat throughout the large facility. He was lost in his own world of guilt and shame, until his exhaustion from reduced blood levels combined with the ill-advised flight from his friends caused him to sink into a troubled semi-consciousness.
The youngest member of Weiss would remain undisturbed for some time and his absence would only add to the tension between his teammates.
*****
To be continued.
Please be advised: Parts 5 & 6 will be posted together.