This chapter runs a little short, but I just couldn't resist the cliffhanger, heh.
Chapter Four
Akimiya shakes me awake at around eight in the morning. He looks . . . well, about the way that I feel. In other words, like hell. Hey, who needs sleep? We're the undead, right? Sleep is for the living.
We stare at each other for a long minute. "Nnnghk," I finally manage. I want to suggest that we put it off, sleep in, something. Or maybe just take the day off. But what would be the point? I won't fall back to sleep now that I'm up, and from the look on Akimiya's face, he won't either. We might as well distract ourselves. So I withdraw my shields back to cover only myself -- that's a blessed relief, anyway -- and try to wake up.
Work. Another day, another sixty-eight cents. Get it together, Hisoka. Up. Dressed. Breakfast? God, the thought makes me feel sick.
"Are you hungry?" Akimiya asks. His voice is still hoarse.
"God no. Let's just get to work." I know we should eat, but we'll both survive until lunch, at any rate.
He nods slightly.
And out into the real world go we.
~~~~
Demon. Large one. Oh, excellent. You know, if I'd realized that the demon was this large and nasty, I would have called for reinforcement before going in to battle it. I could sure use Tatsumi's help right now. Wonder if he'll realize that I'm in trouble? Nah, probably not. Though you never know. He's observant.
Really, though, I wish someone would come rescue me. I'm not really the type of person that wants to be rescued, but I'm in over my head and I'll admit it. It's been one of those weeks. I've barely slept all week as it is; shielding Akimiya is not really conducive to rest.
Oh dear. The demon breathes fire.
Right, so, where was I? Yeah, shielding Akimiya. He's off to one side, doing the best he can with the little onymoujitsu skills he has. Which means that he's basically accomplishing nothing and I'm fighting a bigass demon that I have no clue how to kill. Yay for me! It's really my day.
Survival skill number one: sarcasm.
Survival skill number two: my good looks and charm. See? There's that sarcasm. Know how to use what you've got.
Oh, it shoots flame and ice. I am so screwed. Tatsumi, where are you . . .?
Ah, someone's here. Think it might be Tsuzuki, because I don't see any shadows attacking. Just some very large presence behind me and -- oh, the demon's dead. How nice. I turn around prepared to throw myself into Tsuzuki's arms and start worshipping the ground he walks on.
It sure as hell isn't Tsuzuki.
"Muraki."
He smiles at me. My God I really hate it when he does that. He has the creepiest smile in the entire world. "How nice to see you again."
Right. Swallow hard, try to keep the world in focus. Damn it, someday I won't be afraid of him. Someday . . . honestly. I'm pathetic. Force back the urge to spit in his face. "You just . . . saved my life. Why?"
"Well, it's no fun if I let something else kill you, is it?" Muraki asks, obviously amused. "That's a privilege solely restricted to myself." He gives Akimiya an appraising glance. The last time he saw Akimiya, his magic was blocked. But Akimiya is taking that potion now, so it stands to reason that Muraki's powers would be just as active as my own. "It's Akimiya, isn't it?"
Akimiya just gives him a suspicious look, and doesn't answer except for a slight nod.
"Pleased to meet you." Muraki looks pleased, all right. It's making me singularly nervous. I know that he hates Akimiya; it's because of him that his last little plan to get me killed failed. I don't even want to know what he's thinking right now. "Well, it seems I've done your job for you, boy. Jaa ne."
And with that, he walks out of the room. I'm shaking all over. Every time I don't see Muraki for a while, I forget the effect that he has on me. Akimiya walks over and puts a hand on my shoulder. "You okay?"
I nod slightly. "Yeah. Let's get back though. I'm totally weirded out by what just happened and I don't want to think about it."
Akimiya looks around. "Well, we seem to be done here, thanks to him."
"Yeah," I agree. I hate it. I really am not pleased with the idea of being in Muraki's debt.
We trek back to Chijou. It's midday on a Saturday, so not everyone is there, but Tatsumi is, and he takes our report. Tsuzuki isn't; he works Monday through Friday, but Watari is. Tatsumi takes our whole report without changing expressions once until the end, when I tell him about Muraki's unexpected rescue.
"I don't like that at all," he murmurs, but lets me finish the story.
"Yeah, no kidding," I reply. "Trust me, no one likes it less than I do."
He sighs slightly. "Well, Kachou will want to hear your report tomorrow, but until then you're free to go."
"All right," Akimiya says. "Will we both need to come in, or just one of us?"
"Just one of you is fine," Tatsumi said. "You can decide between yourselves. I doubt it really matters."
We nod and leave the room. "Let's drop by the lab and see if Watari's come up with anything, okay?" I ask him.
He nods and follows me down the hall.
"Oh, hey, guys," Watari says, looking up. "When did you get back?"
"Just a little while ago," Akimiya says.
"Got any news for us?" I ask.
"Well, I think I'm onto something," Watari said. "I'm not quite sure if it'll work . . . you'll have to give me another day, at least. I should have it done by tomorrow."
"That's great," I say. "I can manage for one more night." Watari looks confused, so I take the opportunity to explain to him what I've been doing for Akimiya already. He looks pretty interested in that, and I can tell that I'm going to turn into one of his science projects if I don't get out quickly.
Akimiya sees the look on my face and smiles slightly. "I'll come by tomorrow, okay, Watari?"
Watari nods, bids us farewell, and turns back to what he was doing.
"I'll talk to Kachou tomorrow," Akimiya says as he walk out. "I'll have to come in to see Watari anyway, and since Tsuzuki has tomorrow off you shouldn't have to come in."
"Thanks," I say.
"Will you still be able to shield me tonight?" he asks.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." I lift my hand in farewell as we walk out the front gates and go our separate ways. "See you later."
~~~~
Tsuzuki listens to my story about Muraki silently, with a very troubled expression. He doesn't like this new game that Muraki is playing any more than I do, and I don't blame him. He's up to something; when isn't he? But unfortunately, whatever this game is, I don't know the rules. He's tried to get me killed before, why not let it happen this time?
I give up. I'm home, with Tsuzuki, where Muraki can't hurt me. And I don't want to think about it any more today.
"So I'm free tomorrow," I tell him. "Akimiya is going to go give our report to Kachou and hopefully get something from Watari so I don't have to shield him whenever he's sleeping."
"You can do that from a distance?" Tsuzuki asks curiously.
"Yeah . . . it's harder, but I can still do it."
"Okay." There's a brief pause while Tsuzuki considers everything that I've told him. "Well, come on! We've got the rest of the day. Let's do something fun!"
Traditionally, Tsuzuki has a pretty strange idea of fun, but I let him drag me out for the day anyway. It's good to just spend some time relaxing in his company, even if we are moving a mile a minute.
I've learned that sometimes when you really care for someone, you have to take time out every once in a while to just be with them or watch them and remind yourself of all the reasons you love them. Love gets old and stale if you don't. I don't think it ever goes away, not entirely, but if you don't try to keep it alive, love can turn into apathy very quickly.
Yeah, so maybe I'm just a cynic.
Okay, scratch that maybe.
I have all of eternity to spend with Tsuzuki, unless one of us gets killed in the line of duty. There's no limit on how long you can be a Shinigami, and even if we choose to stop doing that, we both know there's an afterlife. And we both intend to be together for the duration. I'm sure there will probably be times when we just want to get away from each other for a while -- after all, eternity is a long time.
But for now, our relationship is still nice and new and neither of us are going to get tired of it for a long time.
Yeesh. I sound like a commercial. "Shiny and new!" I definitely haven't been getting enough sleep lately.
We go out to dinner and watch some movies and the next thing I know Tsuzuki is carrying me into the bedroom. "Wha . . .?"
"You fell asleep on the couch," he tells me, plopping me down on the bed and pulling my socks off. Then he pauses. "Are you awake enough to change?"
"Yeah . . ." I sit up, rubbing my eyes. "Gotta put my shields around Akimiya anyway . . ." There's a brief pause while I do so, then I change into my pajamas. "What time is it?"
"Only about nine. I won't be in for a while yet."
"Okay." I'll admit that I prefer to fall asleep in his arms whenever it's possible, but it's far too early for him to be going to bed. I'll manage. I did for years, after all. And I'm so exhausted that I fall asleep fairly quickly, despite the fact that I'm still expending the energy of keeping my shields stretched.
~~~~
I'm dreaming again, but it's such a strange dream. It doesn't feel like the ones I usually have. But . . . there's something wrong . . . I'm in a room with someone I don't recognize. A girl. She's pretty; long dark hair, wide brown eyes. Not a knock-out, not beautiful, but pretty. I don't know her. There's a man facing her, and she's frightened. I can't see him. He's bigger than her, though. I can feel . . . malice. And underneath it a twisted sense of pleasure.
And I understand. Makes sense, really. I used to get pulled into Tsuzuki's dreams when we'd sleep together, and now I've been pulled into Akimiya's, because he's inside my shields. And his dreams are so strong . . . he probably projects them with force, too, because he's a yumemi.
But I don't want to see this.
I know what's going to happen, from what Akimiya told me, and I've experienced enough of that sort of thing, both in my dreams and in real life, that I just can't watch. I wish there was some way I could wake Akimiya up . . . but I can't. So I choose instead to wake myself up, pull myself out of the dream.
Tsuzuki is watching me when I open my eyes. "You okay?" he asks. "You were mumbling in your sleep."
"Aa . . . I'm okay." I pause, shaking myself out of the dream. There's light coming in from the windows; it's past dawn. I don't usually dream that late in my sleep cycle. I glance at the clock and see that it's quarter past eight. I don't feel as bad about abandoning Akimiya in the dream, then; his alarm clock will wake him up in another fifteen minutes anyway.
"What was it about?" he asks.
I stare up at the ceiling. It's too early to get up on our day off; I don't even know why Tsuzuki was already awake. I suppose he's in the habit of getting up so early, anyway. "I got pulled into Akimiya's dream . . . he was remembering what happened to Rika."
"Oh." Tsuzuki tenses a little, then sighs. "Poor Akimiya."
"Yeah." That's all I say. "Are we going to get up? Or go back to sleep?" Personally I don't feel capable of getting any more sleep, but Tsuzuki might still be tired. It really is still pretty early.
He smiles a little from his place beside me. I'm still lying on my back, but he's rolled onto his side and has propped himself up with one elbow. He's looking down at me with this expression on his face which really just makes me want to melt. Call me a romantic, but I love it when he looks at me like I'm the most important thing to him. Now pardon me while I swoon . . . but he still hasn't answered my question.
"I think I'm happy here," Tsuzuki says, and he reaches over with his free hand to play with my hair. Right. I must be turning the color of a tomato. Look at me, the eighth natural wonder of the world, a tomato with hair! Right . . . had I mentioned lately that Tsuzuki fries my brain when he's like this?
"We could stay here all day," I offer with a grin, knowing that we never could, because Tsuzuki will be getting hungry fairly soon. But still, the idea amuses me. It's kind of funny, because from most people, the idea of 'staying in bed all day' immediately raises eyebrows.
Well, Tsuzuki apparently has the same idea that they do, because he leans down to kiss me. Brain . . . off. Nothing is real in these moments except the feeling of his lips against mine, the gentle pressure of his fingers through my hair. If I ever forgot how much I loved him, I would only need one kiss to remind me.
We haven't slept together, not yet. It's too soon . . . for both of us. But sometimes I think when we get around to it, we're going to be the envy of everyone else on earth, because it's going to take hours. Why do I think that? Well, because Tsuzuki and I can kiss for about forty-five minutes straight without doing anything else. For some reason, when we're together, there never feels like there's any rush. No reason to hurry through the early stages just for the conclusion, because we know we're not going to get to the conclusion. Not today, anyway.
It's been six months. Six and a half? Almost seven, at this point. We move slow, because we have all the time in the world. We didn't know what we were doing at first, but that was okay. Tsuzuki's gentle by nature, and I can manage to be gentle around him. It's kind of funny, in retrospect, because we always had to ask permission before doing anything. Even the smallest touch could scare both of us.
But part of what works best about this, is that when we're in such close physical contact, we can feel everything the other is feeling. I know if I'm making him uncomfortable or moving too fast, and he knows the same about me. And we know what the other person likes, too. I don't even have to let my shields down for it to work, though I usually do. It works better that way.
I swear, though, when we get around to having sex, Kachou's going to have to give us both a week off because we'll be grinning too much to get any work done.
It's funny, though, the way I can spend hours just kissing him and not feel frustrated afterwards. I don't know why that is. I've been scared by things we've done a few times, and I know that he has too. But we get over it and move on.
Today, apparently, he's in control. That changes; the honor basically goes to whoever initiates the action in the first place. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss back with all the enthusiasm of a repressed teenager just coming home after a long week.
I don't know quite how long we stay like that, just kissing, with my arms around his neck. He finally shifts a little so he's fully above me. There are really no words for how much I love this.
//blood//
The thought that we have all day to do whatever we want, all day to just stay with him like this, is the best feeling in the world. And I know he feels it too, because I'm still so strongly linked to him.
//someone screaming//
But . . . something's wrong . . .
//no let me go don't hurt me please don't hurt me i can give you money if that's what you want please don't hurt me i'm scared i don't want this//
"Oh God -- "
//AKIMIYA PLEASE DON'T LET HIM HURT ME//
And abruptly, it stops.
"What was that?" Tsuzuki asked, and I flinch. I forgot that since he was linked to me, he must have felt that too. I'm breathing hard and I've broken out in a cold sweat. Whatever that was, it wasn't pretty.
"Another of Akimiya's dreams?" I manage hoarsely.
Tsuzuki glances over at the clock. "If it was, he's late for work," he says. "It's five minutes past nine o'clock. He can't still be asleep."
"That's true . . ." I manage. Akimiya's never been late to work before. I reach over and scoop up the phone on the night table, dialing his number. It rings for what seems like an eternity before I give up.
"If he wasn't dreaming," Tsuzuki says with a frown, "then could it have been real?"
"No," I say. "No, it felt like the dream did, it was . . . it was like Rika . . ."
"Maybe we should -- " Tsuzuki begins, but before he can finish, the phone rings. He snatches it up before I can have the chance. "Moshi moshi?" Pause. "Ah, Tatsumi . . ."
This definitely cannot be good.
"Aa . . . no . . . well, a few minutes ago Hisoka had a really weird feeling . . . aa . . . okay. We'll be right down."
My stomach has grown all cold and I can feel my hands shaking. I look at Tsuzuki anxiously. His eyes are very wide. "Akimiya never came in," he reports. "They don't know where he is."
I don't want to waste time going in to the office. "Call back," I say in a thin voice. "I can find him. I think I know where he's gone anyway."
Tsuzuki gives me a look, then picks up the phone and dials. "Aa . . . Tsuzuki desu. Hisoka says he can find Akimiya . . . aa . . . okay. Yeah."
He hangs up again. I'm already dressed and halfway out the door. He grabs me by the arm as I start to leave. "I'm coming with you."
"Tsuzuki, you can't -- "
"If you're going to save him, you'll need a partner, right?" He offers me a wan smile. "I'm coming whether you like it or not."
In truth, I'm glad he offered. I'm starting to get an idea of what we're going to be facing, and I don't like the idea one bit. So in the end I nod. "Aa. Okay. Get dressed."
Tsuzuki hastily throws some clothes on and we're out the door a few minutes later. "Where are we going?" he asks.
"Chijou." We transport down, into Akimiya's town. As soon as we get there, I know that my hunch was right. Even from this far away, I can feel him, and the screaming pain he's feeling leads me on like a beacon. I launch into an all out run, Tsuzuki barely keeping up with me. I skid to a halt in front of a white two-story and run inside, not even bothering with stealth.
I run up the stairs and burst into the bedroom. There's blood . . . blood on the walls and on the floor. The room is dishevelled; the furniture has been knocked around and scattered. There was a fight here . . . not a big one . . . one that seems like it was purposely made to look bigger than it really was.
Akimiya is kneeling on the floor in the middle of the room. His eyes are wide with shock and he doesn't seem to realize that we've come in. I hurry over to him. "Akimiya? Can you hear me?"
He doesn't answer. He doesn't even twitch.
"Hisoka."
I look up to see Tsuzuki pointing at the far wall, the one that Akimiya is staring at intently. There are . . . words . . . scrawled across it. Suddenly the world seems to be dimming very fast. My knees are shaking and I sink to the ground next to Akimiya.
'Come to me, my dolls.'
"Is . . ." My voice is trembling so badly that I can barely speak. "Is that . . . that written i-in . . ."
Tsuzuki nods, oddly calm, given the circumstances. "Rika's blood."
~~~~
I love being evil. Comments, feedback, death threats? All are welcome. ^_^