Attention Fanfiction.net Friends:

Hello! Thanks for dropping by Angst Theatre tonight and apologies again for leaving both you *and* Omi hanging last night. It certainly wasn't intended as an extended torture session but consider it practice, that is *not* the worst cliffhanger in this story, mores the pity!

I'm glad that some of you got a laugh or a smile from my "intermission" post and even though it's being replaced by this piece of fic, I'm glad it served its purpose and let you know that I hadn't abandoned you, I just needed to sleep.

A special note I wish to add is that all the comments here are wonderful and I'm extremely grateful for them! They're leading to some rather interesting changes in the story, but more about that after Part 10 ends, I need to get the hell out of the way and let Nagi do something about his boyfriend right now, ne?

Enjoy the Angst!

~~~Enigma~~~

(who hasn't got a clue how many more parts this story is going to have but assures you it isn't even *half* over yet! ah, the angst, the glorious angst!)

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Title: Cold November Rain [part 9/?]

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: 1030-1050 hours ++

*****

Nagi's moment of indecision had seemed to be a long one, yet it had been incredibly brief and Omi's descent towards the icy waters below the bridge had only progressed a few meters. Then everything seemed to happen at once.

"OMI!!!" Nagi's temporally frozen scream finally emerged along with the strongest outpouring of his psychic abilities that had ever occurred in his young life. The dilemma between hiding his true nature and rescuing his chosen love had been proven invalid by the strength of his feelings for the imperiled youth.

Huge tendrils of telekinetic force rippled out from the teen's too-slender body and reached like immense invisible hands to gently enfold the older boy in midair then lifted him carefully back up towards the bridge.

Nagi's eyes had gone almost black with effort and sweat dripped from his brow yet he continued to push his extraordinary abilities to their limits and soon he had Omi safely in his arms. The power drain was inordinate, though, and the diminutive telekinetic collapsed physically under the combined weight of himself and his somewhat heavier lover to lay struggling for consciousness even as they both fought to get enough air to breathe.

Even though the two youths involved in the bizarre rescue couldn't speak, the people surrounding them could, and voices from the faceless mass cried out in understandable confusion and fear.

"Are you all right?!"

"Oh my god! Did you *see* that?!?"

"What the hell just happened?!"

"Somebody call the police or an ambulance or something!!"

"No, please don't," Omi asked in a breathless voice gazing first at Nagi's ashen face beneath him then back at the frightened people crowding around them.

"Why not?!" A youthful schoolteacher demanded, his class of rambunctious seventh-graders hushed in awe by the miraculous sight they'd witnessed.

Omi just shook his head in negation as he moved to reverse positions with his smaller lover, cradling the exhausted psychic in his arms hoping against hope that Nagi would recover quickly. He then turned huge pleading cerulean eyes to the people pressing close and begged, "There would be too many questions and there really aren't any answers. Please?"

"I'm not sure about that," the concerned man answered in a tone that expressed carefully controlled disbelief. He then turned to one of his students and asked, "Lori-chan, do you have that bottle of water I asked you to carry for me?"

A surprisingly calm girl with piercing sea green eyes pulled a sapphire bottle from her knapsack and handed it to him, "Here you are, sensei. Is everything okay now?"

Her question held far less fear than Omi might've expected and he wondered why the elfin child didn't have the same shocked look on her face as all of the others did, but his thoughts were cut off before they were fully formed as the teacher handed him the water. Breaking the seal and helping Nagi to take a much needed sip, the youngest member of Weiss forgot to worry over the schoolgirl who had already vanished back into the crowd as if she had never been there in the first place.

"Are you all right, Nagi-love?" Omi asked with concern, not giving a damn about how any of the bystanders might react to the endearment being exchanged with another male. After all, they had all just witnessed something truly astounding, why should a simple admission to a same-sex relationship make even a tiny impression on their already awe-struck minds?

Eyes shifting slowly back to their normal midnight hues instead of the frightening dead blackness which had filled them earlier, Nagi nodded weakly, then forced a small smile as he gasped softly, "Yes, I'm all right now that I know you're safe, koi." He leaned his head gratefully against Omi's shoulder and took another sip of the water the schoolteacher had given them, his soul rejoicing that his beloved partner was uninjured.

Other people in the crowd offered assistance or words of concern as the pair regained their strength and far overhead, the sun peeked through the clouds for the first time all day.

A ray of sunshine danced down through the sky to dazzle those gathered on the bridge and it sparkled and shimmered on the water far below even as Omi finally rose to his feet and pulled Nagi along with him. The couple then offered their thanks to those like the teacher who had helped them as well as the others who simply didn't make matters worse than they had to be, then they made a hasty retreat to Schuldich's Ferrari.

Quickly climbing into the unfamiliar yet impressive vehicle and watching with a sad smile as his lover drove them away from the parking lot Omi couldn't remember walking past even though he had, the blond teen asked, "Nagi-love? How did you know to look for me?"

Nagi's previous smile wilted and he sighed slightly as he admitted, "Yohji and Aya IMed me this morning looking for you, Omi-koi. They were very worried about you."

Omi frowned unhappily and felt guilty as memories of just what he'd been running from returned and he asked, "What did they tell you about what happened?" As it occurred to him there might be news he had yet to receive about his injured teammate, he added quickly, "Did they say how Ken-kun is doing? Is he out of surgery yet?"

Shaking his head sadly, the sable-haired teen replied, "No, there wasn't anything new on his condition the last time I called, koi. As to what they told me, well, it wasn't everything, but what I saw on the news this morning told me more than I might've wanted to know."

Temporarily distracted, Omi asked, "Why do you say that? What did you see on the news?"

Nagi fought the desire to shudder with revulsion as images of the pieces of the mutilated dead left behind by two outraged assassins came to mind and said simply, "The bodies, Omi. All the people that Yohji and Aya destroyed this morning. Someone found them and called the police. They showed it on TV."

"Oh god, no!" Omi gasped aloud and shame scorched him deeply before he whimpered quietly and dropped his head into his hands, "All my fault, that's all my fault! I should've known better than to think it would be an easy assignment! And now someone may come after Aya-kun and Yohji-kun and it's all *my* fault!"

"No, love! I'm sure it's not your fault," Nagi rushed to reassure, hoping to defuse the situation before Omi could drop back into the dark cloud of sadness he'd been lost within when the Schwarz psychic had first arrived at the bridge. However, before he could add anything to support his argument, unexpected music caused them both to jump slightly.

The soft, melancholy strains of a classical composition in a minor scale played from Nagi's cell phone and the petite psychic scooped it up and answered guiltily, "Yes?"

"Nagi? Is that you?" Aya asked uncertainly, the scarlet-haired assassin not as familiar with the telekinetic's voice as the other members of Weiss were by this point.

Surprised that it wasn't Schuldich calling to demand that he return the stolen car immediately or face countless days of painful humiliation instead of being turned over to Crawford for punishment, Nagi answered almost happily, "Aya-kun? Yes, it's me."

Standing in the surgical waiting room and watching his elder lover outside stretching and enjoying the first rays of sunshine that had reached them so far as well as the last of the cigarettes, the violet-eyed man almost smiled as he asked, "Did you find Omi yet? I assumed you had since it had been awhile since we heard from you, but Yohji wasn't as confident as I was, so I thought I'd call and find out. What's your status?"

A sudden flush tinted alabaster cheeks as Nagi realized belatedly that he hadn't notified them that he'd found Omi and he rushed to answer, "Gomenasai, Aya-kun! Yes, I did find him. Uh, it's kind of a long story, but I'll let you talk to him."

Aya cocked his head in confusion then said simply, "All right."

Nagi handed the phone to his boyfriend and Omi greeted his teammate shyly, "Hello, Aya-kun. I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble."

"Don't worry about it now, Omi," the usually icy swordsman's voice held an unfamiliar tenderness as he asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yes," the Weiss archer answered automatically, unwilling to burden his teammate with the truth about his exhausted and badly stressed condition. Then he rushed to ask, "How is Ken-kun? Is he out of surgery yet? Is he going to be okay?"

Scowling as the sun sank beneath a bank of clouds and left Yohji with his shoulders slumped as he took a last few puffs on his cigarette, Aya answered sadly, "No, Omi, he's not out of the operating room yet and they haven't told us anything new in hours. Just get back here as soon as you can, alright? You shouldn't have left when you did and Dr. Yanagisawa is quite concerned about you as are Yohji, Manx, and myself."

"Dr. Yanagisawa?" Omi asked in confusion then remembered the man who had seen to it that Ken didn't die of blood loss through the use of himself as a transfusion donor. "Uh, let me guess. I'm supposed to be in the waiting room resting and drinking plenty of fluids and aren't, so he's angry, right?"

Aya wasn't even tempted to chuckle the way that Yohji would've been by such an admission of knowledgeable guilt and he replied, "Precisely. Can you give me a time estimate on your arrival? I think Yohji will want to know." Of course, the pale-skinned Weiss assassin wanted to know, too, but he'd displayed as much emotion as he could handle at the moment.

Omi glanced at Nagi and asked, "How soon will we be at Tokyo General, love?"

The Schwarz assassin glanced at the street signs and answered, "Another fifteen to twenty minutes, koi."

Nodding his appreciation as well as his understanding, Omi spoke into the phone, "Fifteen to twenty minutes, Aya-kun." Somewhat nervously, he added, "Um, Nagi will be with me, will that be okay?"

Violet eyes blinked in surprise at the question. The telekinetic had gone to unknown lengths to find and retrieve Omi at the request of himself and his elder lover and Aya was baffled as to why his young friend would doubt that the boy would be welcome amongst them now. He asked, "Why wouldn't it be? Besides, I'd like to get a chance to thank him personally for accomplishing what Yohji and I couldn't."

Omi's mouth hung open for a moment in a look of surprise and then he smiled an almost normal genki smile and he agreed, "Okay! We'll be there soon, Aya-kun. Bye!"

Aya snorted softly as the line went dead and he shook his head before placing Manx's cell phone into a pocket and proceeding to share the news with his partner outside where the air had gone chill once more.

Even as the two eldest Weiss members shared news, the youngest one turned to glance at his lover and asked, "By the way, Nagi-love, when did *you* get a driver's license? Oh, and whose car is this? It's really nice."

Relieved that Omi was back to normal at least temporarily, Nagi answered, "I *didn't* get a license, koi, I'm too young yet, remember? As to whose car this is, well, believe it or not, this is Schu's and you're right, it is pretty nice."

"This is *Schuldich's* car?" Omi asked in astonishment, "How did you get *him* to loan you his car to come after me? You didn't tell him about--?" His words trailed off meaningfully and he swallowed hard wondering how everything would change if Schwarz knew about their relationship now.

"No, nothing like that," Nagi said quickly. "I, er, um, 'borrowed' the keys on my way out the door. I rather think he won't be too happy about it, but it was worth it since I found you before something awful could happen."

Omi's expression darkened once more and he shook his head, then looked out the window at the city flashing past as he answered dejectedly, "I hope you won't get in too much trouble then, love. As for finding me before things could get worse, it could still happen, you know. Ken-kun isn't out of surgery yet and until he is and they say everything's going to be all right, I won't make any bets as to when it's safe to say *that* again." His words ended on a forlorn sigh and then cerulean eyes slid shut as the older of the two teens let his head fall back against the headrest for a few minutes of quiet introspection.

Nagi regarded him with sadness and drove on in silence. He made sure the heater was pouring as much warm air as it could over them both since they had gotten soaked in the moments they'd lain on the wet surface of the bridge after his powers had literally brought Omi back from the hands of death.

The rest of the ride to the hospital included brief words of encouragement and love from the sable-haired boy to the blond who barely found the energy to answer them most of the time.

By the time the red sports car pulled into the parking lot of Tokyo General Hospital, however, the mood was somber and their thoughts revolved around a chocolate-eyed young man that they might never see alive again and it was all they could do to hope otherwise.

*****

To be continued.

Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.

Please be advised: Parts 9 & 10 will be posted together.