Title: Cold November Rain [part 35/?]
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: 3. time: 0115-0145 hours ++
*****
It only took a moment for the elder members of Weiss to return to the quiet peace of Room 121, their hearts light as they planned to share the joy that they had found in the intensive care unit with their friends.
Aya tapped quietly on the door before opening it to discover the two teens remained wrapped around one another, deeply asleep despite the soft glow of a lamp near the bed with a note from Korat resting beneath it just like the one Yohji had found in Room 119. Glancing at his partner, the scarlet-haired man intended to ask silently which one of them ought to rouse the two sleepers, but before he could do so, he stopped, the mesmerized expression he saw on Yohji's face was too profound to disturb.
Lost in thoughts of the wondrous developments surrounding his own pair of lovers, Yohji hadn't been mentally prepared for the impact of the now familiar sight of the two boys intertwined beneath a mound of covers courtesy of the ebony-skinned nurse. Omi lay on his side, body curved protectively around that of his petite boyfriend, keeping Nagi tucked tightly against him in both arms. The sweetness of their expressions could only be described as "angelic" and it made him wish that there was a way to give them both back the innocence they'd each lost by being forced to become assassins. But that was no more possible than it was to erase the sadness and suffering any of them had experienced and with a sigh, he shook himself from his momentary reverie.
Frowning slightly at the way his partner's mood had darkened briefly, the scarlet-haired man turned his attention to the sleeping boys, found nothing wrong, then looked at the blond man beside him as he wordlessly mouthed an inquiry. "What's wrong?" Aya asked, relieved that they had learned to lip-read for stealth missions that required silence.
"Nothing," Yohji mouthed back, deliberately trying to add a smile that was as obviously false as his assertion.
The swordsman almost called his companion a liar to his face and considered dragging the jade-eyed man back out of the room to find out what had disturbed him, this was no time for new secrets to fester between them. Yet somehow he sensed it was not a greatly disquieting thing that was bothering Yohji and he assumed correctly that awakening the slumbering boys would alleviate most of the tension in the air.
With a decision not to press the issue in mind at present, Aya slowly nodded his acceptance of the falsehood and then inclined his head towards the bed inquiring how they ought to proceed.
Relieved that the man beside him was willing to let his minor dark moment slide away without discussion, the lanky blond half-smiled honestly and asked silently, "May I?"
"Go right ahead," the scarlet-haired man answered equally silently, then stood aside so his lover could approach the hospital bed where the two teens cuddled together like kittens taking a rest after playing too hard.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Yohji moved to place a warm hand on Omi's shoulder and gave it a gentle shake as he called softly, "Omiitchi, time to wake up, bishounen."
The younger blond whimpered softly not wishing to leave the peaceful world of dreams he had been enjoying that included several captivating fantasies about himself and his chosen love somewhat older and living together while attending Tokyo University in relative domestic bliss. Forcing himself to set aside a delightful new image of coming home to find a warm apartment filled with candlelight and sensual music playing in the background, Omi dragged one eye open and peered up at his teammate.
Mind fuzzy with sleep and happy realization that he was laying in bed, holding his boyfriend in his arms yet again, he asked very softly, "yohji-kun? is something wrong?"
Smiling reassuringly, the elder blond shook his head and answered equally quietly, "no, something's right for a change. why not wake nagi up and we'll tell you both all about it?"
The statement that there was a positive change to be discussed caused the cerulean eye to widen and without hesitation Omi gently rearranged his lover slightly so he could bring one hand up and caress sable hair as he urged, "Nagi-love? Can you wake up, please?"
A quiet grunt of unhappiness was his answer as the telekinetic pressed himself back into his chest and then laid still not having awakened at all. With a slight chuckle at how adorable the boy in his arms was at times, Omi stroked Nagi's cheek and insisted more firmly, "Wake up, love. Yohji-kun and Aya-kun are here to tell us something important."
Mumbling groggily, midnight blue eyes tried to open as Nagi fought his way free of his own dreams, which included a fairly dark and confusing set of scenarios where he sensed danger yet wasn't afraid for himself yet was horrified for his green-eyed teammate instead. As sleep was forced from his mind, there was one last image of bright red hair flying as Schuldich raged helplessly against someone Nagi had never seen before. A man with carrot-orange hair wore blood-spattered garments and merely laughed cruelly in the Schwarz telepath's face offering to do to him what he was in the process of doing to another whom the dreamer could not see.
Terrified, Nagi awoke, crying out in anguished horror, "Schu! No!"
"Nagi-love?!" Omi exclaimed in fright, "What's wrong?"
Breathing rapidly, Nagi was wild-eyed as he looked at the other men in the room and saw concern and affection in both jade and violet eyes before turning towards comforting and deeply loving cerulean ones. Suddenly aware that he had inadvertently gathered power as if to strike, the telekinetic dispersed the force and felt his heartbeat slow and his breathing calm as he admitted breathlessly, "It was just a dream, koi. I'm all right."
"More nightmares?" The boy who held him asked in concern. Omi hadn't missed the darkening in Nagi's eyes that had warned briefly of a substantial gathering of power that hadn't been there the morning before when Nagi awoke from the images of running blindly through darkness. Comparing the two experiences, he asked, "Was it the same as this morning's dream? The voices and all that?"
"No," shaking his head slightly and trying to pull the images back that had already faded too badly to relate the most crucial of details, Nagi frowned and said, "at least, I don't think so. I can't really remember it now, something about Schu being in trouble, I think."
Yohji suppressed a desire to growl at the mention of the powerful Schwarz telepath, a man he might've been able to be friends with had they originally met in a dance club or somewhere other than the urban battlefield where they had faced off against one another far too often. Instead, he forced himself to keep in mind that the diminutive telekinetic was the one who mattered at the moment and he asked, "Do you have precognitive dreams like Crawford does, bishounen?" Willing to follow the boy's lead if it was what would benefit Nagi most, he added, "Do we need to do something about this vision of yours if Schuldich is in trouble?"
The man's earnest voice did much to warm and calm Nagi's heart. There was so much concern and trust there that the sable-haired teen allowed himself to relax against the strong arms that embraced him and he shook his head more firmly before admitting sheepishly, "Yes, I've had a few dreams like that, Yohji-kun, I think everyone has. But I can't even remember now what seemed to be the problem with Schu in the dream so it's probably just some free floating anxiety over stealing his car or something bothering my subconscious." Realizing the wire-wielding Weiss assassin had offered to aid someone he ordinarily wouldn't have even considered giving help to in the first place simply because Nagi asked him to, the petite psychic added with sincere appreciation, "Thank you for being so concerned, Yohji-kun."
Not entirely convinced there wasn't something far more important going on than that, Yohji considered asking a few more questions, but then he recalled the reason why he and Aya were there in the first place and he decided to drop the subject in favor of something more concrete. With a half-hearted smile he answered, "Well, you're welcome, of course, but if anything about that dream bothers you later, I'd like to hear about it." He received a thankful nod of agreement, then continued in a cheerier voice, "In the meantime, do you two want to hear about something really fabulous?"
The look of concern for the boy he was holding left Omi's eyes as his lightning-quick mind arrived at the inescapable realization of the nature of their news and he gasped delightedly, "Did Ken-kun wake up?!"
Mock-pouting, Yohji made a moue of disappointment then asked, "Who told you our good news before we could, Omiitchi? Aya was *so* looking forward to telling you all the details!" He glanced over his shoulder at his partner who had remained typically silent during the discussion of Nagi's dream even though Aya was listening carefully to every word spoken. Now, however, there was an unmistakable expression of satisfaction in violet eyes and the wire-wielding assassin knew there had to be a matching look in his own jade ones.
"Really?!" The youngest member of Weiss burbled excitedly, hugging his suddenly speechless boyfriend fiercely then scrambling out of the bed to rush over to embrace first Aya and then Yohji who had stood up when Omi was trying to escape from the covers. Practically shouting with delight, the younger blond exclaimed, "This is *great*!" Then he rushed back to hug Nagi once more in celebration.
Nonplussed by the boy's excitement, the scarlet-haired man merely stood where he was and allowed his partner to continue to handle the situation despite Yohji's jokes that this was to have been Aya's news to tell and not his own.
Caught in the grips of a joy so visceral he couldn't contain his enthusiasm, Omi remained on his feet and asked in a rush, "When did it happen? Is he still awake? Can I go see him? Is he feeling better?"
"Easy there, bishounen!" Yohji laughed delightedly, the sight of Omi behaving in a fashion that he had once labeled as "beyond genki maximum" gave him more strength than he might have predicted and it only made the news that much sweeter to share. Making calming gestures with his hands, he encouraged the cerulean-eyed teen to sit down next to his quiet yet clearly pleased boyfriend and he explained, "Relax for a minute, Omiitchi! You can't go anywhere *near* an ICU bouncing around like a crazed kitten who got into the catnip!"
"Spoilsport!" Omi laughed in return then happily plopped himself down next to Nagi who had moved to sit up in bed and had a smile of gladness of his own. Turning to look at the one he adored, the Weiss archer asked the Schwarz telekinetic, "Isn't this the *best* news, Nagi-love?! I'm so happy!"
"Yes, it is, Omi-koi," the usually shy sable-haired boy beamed delightedly, silently thanking whichever gods might've intervened to insure that his ill-timed collapse an unknown number of hours prior hadn't caused the chocolate-eyed teen to remain unconscious. Then he looked at the two men standing nearby and asked, "What did the doctor have to say about this, Aya-kun? Does this mean Ken-kun will be recovering faster now?"
Aya shrugged slightly, it was clear the midnight-eyed boy didn't have much experience with serious battle injuries or he wouldn't have asked such an obvious question, then he answered truthfully, "We didn't see a doctor with Ken before we left the ICU, Nagi." He saw the inquiring look of concern on both teens' faces and he explained, "Norwegian had to go back to KMC because of an emergency but Javanese, Korat, and Yamanaka were all there so I don't think it makes any difference. As to recovery, yes, regaining consciousness after surgery is always a crucial transition, but there's no way to predict recovery time any more accurately now than we could before."
"Oh, I see," the disappointment in Nagi's eyes was so clear that Aya felt almost drawn to try to physically comfort the boy who not so long ago had lain unconscious himself.
The strange feelings in the swordsman's chest were back but before he could worry over them too much, Omi's lilting voice repeated an earlier question with more calm and control, "Can I go to see Ken-kun soon, please? I want to see how he's doing and it's been so long since I saw him this morning I'm hoping he's a lot better now." He glanced at his watch and made a muffled noise of startlement before correcting himself, "I mean, since I saw him yesterday. Shoot, I had no idea it was so *late*!"
"What do you mean, koi?" Nagi asked, surprised since he assumed it wasn't much past seven or eight in the evening based on the darkness outside their window.
"It's a little after 1:30 in the morning, love, look," he held his arm where his boyfriend could read the watch for himself and then turned to ask with hurt in his voice, "Yohji-kun? Why did you let us sleep so long? I'm feeling a lot better and all, but I would've wanted to see Ken-kun again before now if I'd had a chance."
The elder blond shook his head apologetically, then picked up the note from Korat and after seeing it was basically the same as the one he'd found in his own room, he handed it to the younger blond explaining, "It wasn't my decision, Omiitchi. It would appear that Norwegian left orders for us to sleep as long as we needed to. But I dare say we've slept enough by now so if you and Nagi want to get up and grab some shoes, we can head down to the ICU whenever you're ready."
Nodding with a smile, Omi accepted then paused and regarded his boyfriend with concern and asked, "Nagi-love? If you'd rather stay here while I go to see Ken-kun, I'm sure that would be okay." Nervous memories of seeing his love ashen-faced on a gurney came to mind and he added, "But if you *do* want to come, I promise not to check anything I shouldn't, okay?"
Trying not to show the trepidation he felt in his heart, Nagi glanced at the two older assassins then nodded, saying, "I want to come, koi. I'd like to at least get a chance to be there if he might wake up again, but if I feel like I'm going to pass out I'll make sure to do something about it this time." Ashamed, he looked down to where his fingers wove together nervously as he added, "That other time wasn't all your fault alone, you know."
Before Omi could slip into one of his guilt-ridden rants against himself, Yohji cleared his throat noisily and stated, "*I'm* going back to the ICU in a minute, guys. If you want to come with me stop chatting and grab your shoes. No bare feet in the intensive care unit, no da!"
Any dark thoughts wandering through Omi's mind were suddenly stopped dead by the jade-eyed man's inside joke with him and he smiled and answered, "All right, Chichirii! We'll hurry up!"
"Good," Yohji smirked and moved to give the two teens room to locate the few things they needed before they could go to see their friend, then added, "Especially since my Fushigi Yuugi riff usually includes that whole bit about 'Knock, knock, who's there? Kohji! Kohji who?' and doesn't *that* just sound like too much of a reference to Generator Gawl after awhile?" [1]
Omi giggled on cue while Aya rolled his eyes in mock-annoyance to unnecessary admissions to the excessive quantity of anime that was watched in the living room they all shared at the Koneko. Nagi simply wondered why so many of the shows they talked about had always struck him as too shojo to really be enjoyable at first glance, but wisely refrained from mentioning that fact.
Before long, they were ready to go and the four young assassins left the safety of Room 121 en route to the intensive care unit and whatever new twists fate held in store for them. They were hopeful that even if there weren't any new miracles to be had there would be no new disasters to face either.
Halfway to their destination, the group passed the door to the smoking porch. Omi distantly noted that he thought he saw a star in the sky, but it never quite sunk in that the distant glimmer of light meant that the cold November rain had stopped, at least for the moment.
*****
To be continued.
Author's Note:
[1] Forgive me, this is an in-joke with my chibis about Shinichiro Miki who did both Yohji of WK and Kohji of Generator Gawl! Of course, just by chance, Tomokazu Seki actually played both Chichirii *and* Kohji in FY and since he did Ken's voice in WK this is almost a weird cross-over in and of itself. Ah, seiyuu humor, I never used to enjoy it, but now that Weiss got my entire family hooked on watching virtually *all* of our anime DVD's in the original Japanese, I can't resist it!
Full Author's Notes to Run at Conclusion.
Please be advised: Parts 34 & 35 will be posted together.
This evening's posting run is dedicated to the incredibly wonderful readers who have given this fic a more resounding response at fanfiction.net than this humble llama could have ever have hoped to receive! There is currently an absolutely amazing and stupendous ~+~ 213 ~+~ reviews there and all I can say is "Wow! Thank you all so very, very much!"
{bows deeply, filled with gratitude, yet the motion subjects the llama to too much cold and he hurries to add a bit more then get this posted before going in search of warmth and sleep before the heater installation crisis of the early morning arrives}
In case anyone out there doesn't think that reviews or notes of comment truly matter to a writer like myself, please consider the following:
[1] First and foremost, without such fabulous reader support, I might have given in to all the painful angst in my Real Life and given up on not only *this* fic but several others I wanted to write and gone off to hide for who knows how long? Yeah, that sounds lame, but it's true. You, the readers, as well as my own chibis and a few exceptionally close friends who are aware of my addiction to fanfiction even know I do this all hours of the night, and without continued encouragement, it might've been easier to stop altogether for awhile. As it is, though, I kept going even though it was quietly and off-line, so here I am again, trying to make you smile. Did it work?
[2] Also, without all the wonderful comments, I wouldn't have been sure whether or not to include my OC's as much as I have and if I hadn't, poor Nagi would've been stuck eating hospital food again. Worse, without Norwegian, Javanese, and Korat, there might've been another negligent Tokyo General nurse sent to Kenken's room and heaven only knows what might've happened then!
[3] The original scheme for this story had only one major Schwarz moment in it which was Nagi's departure. Since there was such strong support for more scenes involving them, we saw the moment with Brad and Schu arguing and then cuddling in bed and doing a bit of psychic "dream hunting" for Nagi. They will be back before too awfully long, though, in part due to there being more requests for them lately and also since I'm developing a growing fondness for them in this continuity myself, something that usually leads to lemon sooner or later.
[4] Last but not least, there's one other OC that has gotten more foreshadowing thrown in than planned as well as a greater role in any number of very quiet on-going debates thanks to comments received, and that is none other than that little Scottish bastard, Calico. So far, he's moved from the background character he had been initially envisioned as having in the first versions of this plotline all the way up to the Master of Evil Level, all thanks to support from readers like you! His true moment of glory won't come for quite awhile, though, mores the pity, but I hope that his return here later in the storyline pleases his first priestess, DragonSoul, as well as all others who enjoy a truly demented yet three-dimensional villain. Not that you will be thrilled with what he does or to whom he does it, but such is the place of evil amongst good, to stir the blood and cause a reaction that helps to further the plot towards a dramatic and ultimately satisfying conclusion.
{stops preaching to the choir and thanks everyone one last time before fading into the freezing cold of his home wondering what on Earth to do to cover the sudden expenses he can't turn from if he intends to keep his lovely children warm and healthy which he *will* do no matter what!}
Anyway, to the fabulous people responsible for all those great notes at fanfiction.net, a very large thank you and a sincere promise that even if there's another glitch or two in the posting runs, this fic WILL be completed soon if at all possible! I've never started a story as ambitious as this one has turned out to be only to turn around and abandon it, so rest assured that if you continue to feed my muses such sweet ambrosia as they've received so far, they will work even harder to entertain you.
Now, I hopefully leave you with a smile and a somewhat happier heart for the bishounen at Tokyo General Hospital. Despite the angst not being over, as it was so well put by darling e.e there, at least right now, it's "happier angst" and isn't that a rare thing to find these days?
Sayonara!
~~~E-sama the Llama~~~
(who plans to get chibi-Lauren a nice treat someday soon in recognition for a well placed Kleenex warning! if Part 33 brought kind Watarou and others to tears, it was good to have included it. besides, Melpomene and Erato love causing happy tears as well as sad ones and they are both happier muses tonight because of it all)
Posted 06 March 2002, ~4:00am.