Attention Fanfiction.net Friends:
Believe it or not, I'm back tonight to post more of the fic that has so many wonderful readers following it that even though the headache won't leave, neither will the guilt associated with not posting here as promised. Therefore, I ignore the pain as best I can and bring you more of the fic that a few people are apparently rather fond of.
{smiles at all 100-plus lovely reviews as of the night if posting and feels deeply honored to be here at all}
Before we get into the story itself, may I thank each and every one of you who sent me notes privately or posted encouragement here regarding both my migraine attack and the other unfortunate event which brought me down recently? While the headache isn't much better partially due to my youngest Chibi being suddenly ill this morning and most likely needing a trip to the doctor's tomorrow, I'm pleased to say the other angst is no longer a problem. As always, the fan community has come through for me and after being told to "keep on keeping on" by some of the finest friends a hairy South American pack animal could dare to hope for, I feel ready to face the world again. I wish I could write each of you a nice long letter about how great the notes were, but for now, why don't I post the fic instead and try to get caught up on my mail later?
By the way, Part 20 was created specifically in response to so many kindly worded and supportive requests for more on what was happening with our other assassin team and I wish to thank those writers again. I hope that they will enjoy seeing what they asked for and that it will put a few fears to rest even as it foreshadows any number of things for not only *this* story but also other installments of the "Redirecting Destiny" series.
{smiles a little and takes some more migraine medication before going off to try to get a tiny bit of sleep before the elder chibi needs to go to school and the doctor's office opens for the younger one to be seen at}
Thanks again for the comments on my "intermission" post that was previously posted here as Part 19. It is now gone and those who read the reviews here later may be confused by our fun and games, but so be it. I wanted to share a few plans for the future on a temporary basis and now that I have, we can go back to the story and pretend it was never there, right?
Enjoy the Angst!
~~~Enigma~~~
(who mentions he has Parts 21-24 completed in rough draft form on his zip drive and will return to working on new parts as soon as he gets his daughter's health issues taken care of since the poor thing has something icky happening with white spots on her tonsils and that just *can't* be good! ah the joys of single-parenthood, ne?)
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Title: Cold November Rain [part 19/?]
Book 1 of "Redirecting Destiny" and prequel to "Romantic Resolutions"
Author: Enigma
Series: Weiss Kreuz
Written: January-February, 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: 2. time: 0130-0200 hours ++
*****
The small dose of caffeine in the soft drink consumed hours earlier had faded from Yohji's system as time crawled past for the former detective currently on the most important stakeout of his life.
Concealed in the supposedly secure ICU, the wire-wielding assassin shoved a rogue lock of lackluster blond hair out his eyes and made a mental note to take an extra-long shower as soon as things settled down again. He wrinkled up his nose and decided he needed to have a chat with Kritiker's cleaners regarding the process they'd used to destroy the evidence of the manslaughter he'd committed the morning prior, he could still smell the blood and Ken never had a problem with that. As it occurred to him that his brunette lover would've taken better care of his garments than the main office did, he sighed deeply and tried not to think about it too much, it left him feeling even more depressed than he already was.
A crackling noise in his ear got the jade-eyed man's attention as a quiet yet deep voice asked, "Still awake, Balinese?"
Yohji chuckled tiredly as he reached up to adjust the communications device that Weiss relied on so heavily that finding them within the pockets of the cleansed trench coats seemed only a matter of course and not the surprise it might've been otherwise. Toggling the microphone to "on" he muttered equally quietly in his own smooth baritone, "Barely, Abyssinian. I don't think Coke's got as much kick anymore as it once did."
Aya snorted in amusement from his location directly across from Ken's treatment room. The Weiss swordsman had found a spot between an equipment storage case and a rolling cart loaded with bed linens that provided him with a perfect surveillance location, allowing him a good view of Ken's unconscious form in the bed as well as the monitors above him.
Yohji had taken up position in the unoccupied room next to Ken's where he could peer past the wires and see the brunette's face unobserved by the bored night nurse at the desk thanks to a curtain that hung from the ceiling as if to provide privacy that wasn't needed. With another yawn, he asked in annoyance, "Does that woman *ever* do anything other than sit there and do crossword puzzles?"
Stroking his long gold earring as he was apt to do when something felt fundamentally wrong with a situation, Aya responded distractedly, "She's been in there every twenty minutes, Balinese. That must be the schedule."
The blond man wasn't impressed, and he growled, "It's a damned good thing Kenken's doing all right at the moment, she'd never know it if anything went wrong at this rate."
A tingle shot through Aya's spine as if a low-intensity lightning bolt had rocketed through the intensive care unit and before he could chastise his lover for tempting fate by saying such things all hell broke loose.
Alarms rang, lights flashed, and it was clear even before a preprogrammed voice alerted the nurse at the desk that the one and only patient in her care needed assistance. The woman looked up, blinking stupidly for a split-second too long for the pair of battle-hardened assassins who had lain in wait for just such an emergency.
"FUCK!!" Balinese exclaimed, fighting his way past the curtain that was now putting up a fairly good show of resistance as he tried to shove his way past it.
Abyssinian, however, was silent as he sprang from his location and leapt across the floor landing at Ken's side in less than a heartbeat.
"Siberian?!" The scarlet-haired man shouted as if the injured teen in the bed could somehow hear his plea and tell him how to help. Realizing there was no way to be certain other than reading the monitors he'd been staring blankly at, Aya took a closer look and found all of them that showed vital signs were falling into the danger zones yet he couldn't figure out what had gone wrong.
"KEN!!" Yohji screamed, bursting through the door before the nurse had even finished pushing the button to call for emergency assistance and she remained unaware of the two additional men in her patient's room. "What happened, Aya?! What's gone wrong?!"
"How the hell should *I* know?!"
Aya's voice was as close to panic as Yohji could recall hearing it and there was suddenly a gasp from the door as the nurse rushed in and froze in the presence of the pair of apparently dangerous men, exclaiming, "Who are you?! What have you done to the patient?"
"*We* haven't *done* anything to him, woman!" Yohji growled angrily, "What's wrong with Ken?! Why are the alarms going off?"
"He isn't breathing," Aya's once more dead-calm voice interrupted and drew their attention to Ken's immobile chest before swinging his attention to the monitor he now knew was the key and seeing that the equipment had undergone a catastrophic malfunction.
"Damn!!" The nurse cursed then pushed her way past both men to begin tugging at the respirator mask on Ken's face explaining, "The respirator has stopped! I've got to get this off of him!"
Yohji wanted to push her away and do it himself, yet he held himself back, terrified jade eyes glued to a heart monitor which showed an increasingly irregular rhythm being detected. "Hurry up!" He commanded urgently.
"I'm trying!!" The woman was nearly in tears as her fingers fumbled with the over-tight straps and the excessive amount of adhesive tape holding it in place. Tears came to her eyes as she realized her patient was suffocating because she couldn't do her job when it was most needed, and she begged, "It's stuck!! I can't get it off!! Help me!!!"
Yohji rushed forward to take over, but then he wisely grabbed the woman by the waist and backed away when an ice-cold voice commanded, "Stand back!"
With one gloved hand firmly placed over the nurse's mouth so she wouldn't scream and throw Abyssinian's aim off, Balinese watched as the razor sharp katana which had shed the blood of countless dozens of criminals danced and sang as it worked to remove the deadly breathing apparatus. It was a truly astounding sight as the light of a dozen blinking monitors was caught then reflected by the curved tip of the blade as it sliced to-and-fro, sparkles like fireworks flinging themselves everywhere as Aya worked with a precision surgeons alone could usually claim.
In the span of mere seconds, the Weiss swordsman had freed the mask of the inoperative respirator and Ken was able to get air yet had not begun breathing again on his own and violet eyes flashed in command to jade ones. Balinese nodded firmly and pushed the frightened and immobile nurse away from himself and quickly removed the breathing tube from Ken's throat so that he could begin mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Aya slid the katana into its scabbard within the inner folds of his trench coat and kept the useless nurse out of the way as the sounds of running feet barreled into the ICU along with shouts that indicated help was finally on its way.
The frantic young doctor running ahead of a squad of medical professionals froze in her tracks at the sight of the two leather-clad men in the tiny ICU room with a half-fainted nurse held in gloved hands. The blond man currently breathing for the patient seemed like some strange dark angel who had descended to Earth for the sole purpose of keeping the brunette alive. The scarlet-haired man was utterly cold and emotionless at first glance, simply glaring at the doctor before growling threateningly, "What took you so long?!"
The angry words broke the spell and both the nurse and the doctor came back to awareness and with clipped words and gestures, explanations were offered and observations made.
Now that competent help was at hand, the pair of assassins-cum-rescuers stood aside as far as either was willing to go while an increasing flood of personnel rushed to continue the work of getting oxygen to Ken's only functional lung even as a second respirator was brought in and activated. Luckily, with Yohji's efforts to keep the injured man's blood oxygenated, the heart rhythm had steadied enough that there was no need of electric shock to reestablish a reliable rhythm. Yohji caught Aya's grateful glance out of the corner of one eye and returned it with one of his own, yet they said nothing.
The intensive care unit was a whirl of motion and noise, commands issued and followed, and before long, Abyssinian and Balinese seemed to simply vanish among the multitude of medical personnel scurrying about.
*****
Security guards appeared at least fifteen minutes after the doctor and other emergency response personnel arrived and began asking questions. The night duty nurse had been given a mild sedative and was being questioned by one of the guards when an orderly in OR-magenta scrubs wandered past pushing a cart of bed linens with moderate difficulty.
"How many were there and what did they look like, miss?" The guard asked for what seemed like the thirteenth time since he'd interviewed numerous other people as well. So far, he'd determined there were between two and five men involved with hair colors as varied as platinum blond to jet black and skin colors equally diverse. The only thing the eyewitnesses agreed upon was that they wore dark leather and seemed to be dangerous men, but that told him nothing. Either way, the fact that the hospital's security had been imperiled meant he needed to have a report for the police and so far it was a frustrating endeavor.
She whimpered and asked, "Why does it matter? They saved that boy's life when *I* couldn't!" Her wails distracted the man from the squealing of the cart going past and he failed to note that the young man pushing it had on heavy motorcycle-style boots instead of standard-issue hospital shoes.
"Need a hand with that?" A pleasant-looking young man with a thatch of bright orange hair and wearing an orderly's uniform asked the blond pushing the cart.
Yohji looked up from where he thought he'd made good on his escape and saw someone he really did *not* want to see regardless of his elation at seeing Ken's vital signs stabilize nicely. Trying not to growl angrily, he forced a smile then said in a poor approximation of an Osaka accent, "Naw, I got it just fine, thanks."
The orange-haired youth just grinned eagerly and sidled up beside him and helped push anyway even as he whispered, "Ah, but I insist, Balinese!"
"Stay the fuck out of this, Calico," Yohji snarled in an angry hiss and could've sworn he heard the rasp of a katana being thumbed free from where Aya hid in the cart's load of linens.
"No can do," the freckle-faced youth grinned insouciantly, then added, "Persia's orders. He figured you two might pull a stupid stunt like this."
Forcing himself not to simply throw the insulting hazel-eyed nineteen year old against a wall the way he so richly deserved, Yohji kept his temper as well as could be expected and gritted between his teeth, "If we *hadn't* just pulled that 'stupid stunt', Siberian would be dead, Calico! This is *Weiss'* business not *Grün's*, so just stay the fuck out of it!"
The orange-haired boy shook a finger at the elder assassin and insisted, "Ah, ah, ah, Balinese! Watch your temper, now. You know for a *fact* that you might've just put Weiss at risk with an idiotic move like that! So be a good little," he paused so he could emphasize the next word insultingly, "*florist* and accept my help before things get worse, all right?"
Yohji utterly despised the Scottish expatriate who led the new group that Kritiker had been grooming to join Weiss in the field. He didn't much care that Persia felt they needed another team to employ on their overseas missions, yet there was little he could do at the moment about it except go along with the brash young man.
"Fuck off, Calico!" Yohji hissed again, certain now that he had heard the sound of Aya's blade being loosened and he knew that his scarlet-haired lover wouldn't tolerate much more from the rude interloper.
"Fuck yourself, old man!" The Scotsman snarled in response even though he kept pushing the cart forwards dutifully, a helpful yet completely false smile across his face in case anyone was watching them. Knowing that Yohji had no choice he added with a sneer, "Face it, Kudou, you and that little group of 'flowerboys' of yours are yesterday's news! My team is Kritiker's future, and you know it!"
"I don't think a group of gaijin Wunderkinder is what Japan needs, brat," the blond man insisted even as he spotted the exit he had chosen to extract both himself and the older of his two lovers from the current hazardous situation. [1]
Calico merely laughed at him while giving a friendly wave to a nurse who rushed past before remarking acidly, "Did you think that we were assembled for something as trivial and unimportant as *Japan* alone, Balinese? If so, then you are a greater fool than I had suspected!" With a final rough shove, he placed the cart beside the door that lead to the smoking porch outside the intensive care unit waiting room and then he added in a dismissive tone, "Go on. Go back to the posh hotel room Persia wasted his money on and fuck your boyfriend. A dog like you probably needs a good screw right about now to calm down, don't you? Or is Abyssinian not half the *man* that Siberian is in bed?"
Yohji growled low in his throat and fingered the release mechanism on his watch, eager to see his wire drink the blood of the arrogant youth who had just insulted not only his two lovers but his homeland as well. Unfortunately, he knew that if he killed the Grün bastard right then and there, he and Aya both would face Persia's wrath and as long as they needed the Kritiker leader's financial backing for Ken's recovery, it wasn't worth the risk.
Turning fury-filled jade eyes towards mocking hazel ones, he growled, "This isn't over, you little shit!"
"Oh yes it is," Calico insisted with a laugh as he stepped away from the cart and went to blend back into the chaos that had overtaken the intensive care unit with a jaunty wave and an arrogant swagger in his step.
From beneath a covering of faux-used sheets, the cold voice of reason spoke.
"Get us out of here, Balinese." Abyssinian's tones were as icy as always, yet they held an edge that hadn't been there before as he added quietly, "Don't let him get to you, Yohji. He's not worth it."
Blond hair shook with exhaustion and barely restrained fury as the older man agreed, "I know, Aya, but he just makes me want to beat that stinking grin off his face."
"So do I," the scarlet-haired man agreed with a snarl, then he asked, "Is the coast clear yet? I want to get back to check on Omi and Nagi."
Forcing himself to concentrate on what was most important, Yohji looked around and saw that they were alone, then said simply, "Yeah, it's clear. Let's get the hell out of here."
A lean form draped in a burgundy trench coat rose from within the white hospital linens and then dashed towards the door to freedom carrying a hastily rolled up set of navy blue leathers in its arms. With one last frustrated sigh, a slightly taller form raced after him, grumbling to itself, "You're wrong, Calico. This is *far* from over!"
The pair vanished into the night headed back to the Hilton and the only other two people that either man could afford to give a damn about right now. If Manx and Persia expected them to work with a self-centered, inexperienced, and ultimately dangerous brat like Calico, they couldn't be trusted as completely now as they once were.
On a hill above the city, temple bells rang out a song that told those who knew how to understand it that it was now 2:00am and the cold November rain continued to fall relentlessly.
*****
To be continued.
Author's Notes:
[1] "Wunderkind" is an internationally used term that derives from German, a composite of the words for "wonder" and "child" which means a precocious child who functions at a higher level than those his age usually do and adding "-er" simply makes it plural. Oddly enough, it is also translated as "prodigy" and isn't *that* an auspicious coincident that those of you who enjoy foreshadowing might want to keep in mind for later installments in the "Redirecting Destiny" series?
Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.
Please be advised: Parts 19 & 20 will be posted together.