A/N:Ruby-Tears, Akuma asked me to pass this little note to you. It says:
"Dear Ruby-Tears, you have such an inquiring mind. Very healthy. But it can be very fatal. As to what I did to Kazutaka, I do believe that it's between me, Kazu and Kyo-chan so bug off.
All I can say is, Kazutaka was merely the appetizer. Kyo-chan. . . ah, Kyo- chan is the main course and dessert. Ja ne!"
Gomen, Ruby-chan. Akuma can get pretty nasty when I try to get him to tell me what it was he did all this time and what kind of game he was playing with Kyo. He nearly cursed me when I pestered him too much! (Ungrateful OC). @ . @
M.s Author: Thank you ( ^ o ^ ). Did you get my email?
Lil Yaoi Kitten: I hope the story is getting even more suspenseful!
Rinny: How I come up with it? Like I said, try to not have a life *giggle*
Miss Misery: I'll try mt best to come up with more lemons. In fact, here's a little hint; things are going to get pretty sour for Kyo soon. . . . hmm. . .
Pairings: Kyo x Taka, etc
Warnings: Kyo-Torture!
Disclaimer: Sigh, YnM doesn't belong to me. . .
CHAPTER 13: To Sleep, Perchance, To Dream
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They were feeling the strain. Nearly three weeks had passed after they found Muraki and still, there was no sign of Akuma anywhere nor do they know what the latest game was all about. If anything, all they seemed to do lately was just wait until Akuma finally decided to throw them some clues, like starving dogs by the roadsides were fed scraps from a kind stranger.
Kyo and Taka frequently made periodic visits to the KoKakuRou, checking up on Oriya and Muraki. The silver-haired man still refused to come out of his room, though his hysterics had lessened somewhat, and he kept his silence, refusing to talk about anything. He didn't even seem to realize where he was most of the time.
Taka continued to do check ups for Muraki. Oriya had refused to call in another doctor and had begged Taka to help. Muraki still trusted the Shinigami only, besides Oriya, but after a while, had come to tolerate Kyo being in the room.
It was after such one visit, Kyo and Taka having returned to JuuOhCho, and were reporting in to Tatsumi.
"Any improvements?" Tatsumi asked.
"His body is recovering fine, but as to the state of his mind," Taka shrugged, "only time will tell."
"So you weren't able to get anything from him?"
"No. He hardly talks now. He doesn't get his fits as often either but he still doesn't want to talk."
Kyo was content to let Taka do the talking for them. The dreams were becoming a nightly occurrence already and he was feeling the strain. The trouble was, he could always fall asleep easily. It's the part where he could keep on sleeping after having the dreams was the trouble. Taka was starting to notice something was wrong but Kyo didn't want to say anything and the sensei hadn't forced him too. Taka knew Kyo too well. If the boy wasn't ready to talk about it, hell could open up beneath his feet and he'd still refuse to say a word.
The day passed uneventfully enough, like the other days before it. Taka and Kyo finished up their paperwork, took lunch with Watari in his lab and around 5.30, went home as usual.
Taka was making dinner, chopping up some zucchini for the lasagna they were going to have. Kyo was fond of western food, especially pasta, and Taka liked to indulge him. Kyo had seemed tired lately, a bit run down, and Taka couldn't blame him. If he was being targeted by a psycho killer, he'd be tired from the strain himself. But it was more than that, he knew. Kyo, stubborn idiot that he was, didn't want to tell him what was wrong.
He sighed as he brought the knife down a little too hard in frustration and the piece of zucchini he was cutting flew across the kitchen.
"Great. Even a vegetable is conspiring against me," he grumbled. Padding his way to the offending piece of veggie, he stooped down and with another sigh, threw it into the dustbin. He happened to glance at the clock then which was hanging near the refrigerator and he frowned.
Kyo was taking a bath, saying he needed to soak out the tension but that had been over 45 minutes ago. Kyo didn't take baths this long, he knew. The most he could go was a half hour before he'd step out, saying that he felt prunelike enough already.
He probably fell asleep in the bath, Taka thought, amused, and went to the bathroom to wake the boy up. The lasagna would be done soon and he wanted Kyo to have a hot dinner. Maybe, if he felt good enough then after having it, he'd finally say what it was that was troubling him exactly these past weeks.
"Kyo?" Taka knocked on the closed door. "Are you asleep in there? Dinner's almost done."
No answer. He frowned again and opened the door, stepping into the warm bathroom. Steam was rising gently from the waters, fogging the air and it was a moment before he realized that he couldn't see Kyo in it. All he could see was black hair floating limply on the water.
"Kyo!" Taka shouted. He quickly skidded across the slippery tiles and crouched down by the side of the bath. Plunging his hands in, he quickly pulled Kyo up from beneath the water.
The boy lay quietly in his arms, not moving, not breathing. Cursing, he dragged Kyo out from the bath and laid him down on the floor. He turned Kyo over on his face and pushed rhythmically on his back. Nothing happened.
He was nearly sobbing with frustration now but he continued to push. After a while though, Kyo finally coughed, vomiting up water. A shudder passed through his body and Taka quickly grabbed some towels from under the sink and wrapped Kyo snugly with it. Stumbling a little with his burden, he carried Kyo to the bedroom and laid him gently down on the bed, pulling back the covers and sliding the boy underneath.
"What happened?" Kyo asked, his voice was drowsy and he blinked in confusion. Wasn't he taking a bath just now? And why did Taka look like he had been crying?
Taka smiled gently, brushing back the wet bangs from Kyo's face. "You gave me a scare just now."
"What happened?" Kyo repeated. The last thing he remembered was that he was dozing in the warm waters, and he had started to dream again. When he woke up, Taka was carrying him into the bedroom.
Taka hesitated then, a frown creasing his forehead. "You nearly drowned in the bathtub just now. When I came in, you were already under the water and you weren't breathing." His voice was matter-of-fact but Kyo could see that Taka had been frightened and he felt a vague pain flash in his chest. He had made Taka scared and he hated it.
"I'm sorry," Kyo whispered, his hand reached out and he squeezed Taka's gently. "I was dreaming. . ."
"You can tell me about it later. Right now, let's get you into some dry clothes," Taka said briskly. He could tell that Kyo was finally going to tell him what was going on, but Kyo's health came first. He didn't want the boy to come down with pneumonia. Shinigamis they may be, but they could still get sick.
After he had gotten Kyo into a sweater and thick, warm, cotton pants, and had fixed him a cup of blistering hot tea, they settled down on the bed, Taka with his back against the headboard and Kyo leaning against his shoulder with a contented sigh.
"So," Taka said, his breath ruffling Kyo's hair, "are you finally going to tell me what's going on?"
Kyo didn't answer him straight away. He took a small sip of his tea, wondering how he was going to say it. With a sigh, he decided that it was better being straightforward. He was tired of trying to cope with the dreams alone anyway.
"I've been dreaming," Kyo started softly. "It started the day after you came. At first, it comes and goes. Sometimes a few days would pass before I'd dream again but ever since the attack on us with the yuurei, it's been coming every night."
"What kind of dreams?" Taka asked.
"It's about my life. What happened when I was alive. I'd see you again, and Hikaru, Ken, everyone, but. . ."
"But what?"
Kyo frowned. "The dreams go backwards. I get younger and younger and everything that happened then, I'd see again. I'd be 15 again, then 14, then. . ."
Taka tensed, his arm tightening involuntarily around Kyo. "You even dream about what happened when you were ten?" he asked, his voice just as soft.
Kyo didn't answer him, but he could feel the boy nodding his head. They were silent for a moment until Kyo spoke up again. "But there's something else."
"What is it?"
He wondered how he was going to say it. "When I dream the night when I was. . .when I was ten, I'd see again my death. It's like the two scenes get superimposed on each other. I'd see you and I'd see my parents again, and everything just went on and on-" Kyo broke off with a sob and he turned his face into Taka's chest, letting out a shuddering breath.
Taka was worried. Frequent dreams with the same theme was common. It usually meant that the dreamer was worried about something or his subconscious was reminding him of something unfinished. But from what Kyo had said, he seemed to be getting the exact same dreams. And now it was happening every night.
"Can you fall asleep though?" he asked.
"Aa, I never have any trouble getting to sleep. I *do* get kind of pretty exhausted nearly every night. . ." there was a hint of teasing in his voice and Taka couldn't help himself; he blushed.
"Baka," he muttered.
Kyo laughed softly into his chest but the lightheartedness was momentary. "It's just after the dreams that I can't fall back asleep again," he admitted.
Taka blew a noisy sigh. "All this time and you never told me a thing? What are you, the New Age martyr or something?" he demanded.
Kyo pushed himself of Taka's chest and glared at the older man. "I didn't think it was important! I thought it would pass after a while! Like the last time it happened."
Taka wanted to shake some sense into the boy. Or at least, kiss some sense into him. Kyo had always been reluctant to talk about anything that troubled him and in the past, he had nearly lost Kyo because of it.
"The last time was different!" he shot back. "You only dreamt of that night, it wasn't having your whole life movie played back every night!"
"I didn't want to make you worried! I was already having trouble sleeping before you came and when I finally got you back, I thought it was just remnants of it, that it'd pass soon!"
Taka threw his hands up in disgust. "Obviously it didn't! And what the hell do you mean that you didn't want to make me worried? I'm your husband! I'm supposed to be worried about you if there was something to be worried about in the first place!"
They were yelling at each other now. Taka and Kyo rarely fought, but when they do, things tended to get noisy. . .
"Well I love you and I didn't want to see you worried! It worries me enough already!" Kyo yelled back.
"Goddammit, I love you too! So what does THAT mean?"
They stared at each other then, faces furious. After a moment though, a sheepish smile crossed Kyo's face and he gave a rueful laugh. "Listen to us," he giggled, "We're fighting about how I'm actually supposed to make you worry about me."
Taka tried to keep his expression angry, he really did. He wasn't going to let Kyo off the hook that easily but the sight of Kyo lying on the bed, laughing, made his mouth twitch in suppressed mirth. In the end, he joined Kyo and they hugged, still laughing together.
Finally, after the last giggle died, Taka sighed and asked, "So what does it mean?" His expertise was in physical health. Dreams were something beyond his field of experience.
Kyo shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe we can ask Watari for help. He might know what's going on," he said, after a while.
Taka nodded at that. The blond scientist, though he majored in physics and chemistry, had a whole head full of knowledge from the arcane to the mundane. If Watari couldn't help them, he didn't know who else could.
"Tomorrow then," he answered. "Promise me that we'll see Watari together." It wasn't a request. It was a command.
Kyo smiled. "I promise."
"Good."
"Great. NOW can we have dinner? I'm hungry."
________________________________________________________________________
Taka didn't sleep that night. Instead, he just lay there, on the bed, beside Kyo and watched the boy fell asleep. Kyo wasn't lying. He did fall asleep easily enough and Taka watched him with loving and worried eyes as the boy's breathing deepened and a peaceful expression crossed his face. He wanted to be there for Kyo, when the dreams came. He already felt like killing himself for not realizing what was going on all this while but it can come later. For now, he wanted to protect Kyo, keep him safe from the memories.
It was the only thing he could do about it.
It was around three in the morning, before Kyo gave any indications of dreaming. His fingers were twitching lightly on the covers and he gave a small sigh. Taka sat up and watched the boy closely.
Soon enough, Kyo's hands began clutching the covers and he gave a low moan of pain. It tore at him, seeing Kyo like this, and he shook the boy gently, trying to wake him.
"Kyo," he whispered, "Kyo, wake up. It's just a dream. I'm here, it's all right. Come back."
Kyo didn't seem to hear him though. He kept on moaning and tears started falling from beneath his closed eyes. He was tossing and turning restlessly and Taka had a hard time trying to take hold of him. Taka frowned. If it was like this every night, he would have realized it. Nobody could sleep through something like this. But he hadn't been woken up by Kyo's dreams before so that meant it wasn't usually this bad.
It meant that the dreams were getting worse.
Taka gritted his teeth and gave Kyo a hard shake. "Kyo! Wake up! Please," he begged.
Finally, Kyo stopped his moaning and his eyes fluttered open. "Taka?" he asked, his voice scratchy from crying.
"Shh, it's okay, I'm here." He laid back down and hugged Kyo close. The boy buried his face in the embrace and he felt the tears slipping down gently, silent and hot.
They stayed awake until the sun came up.
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"So it's been going on for more than a few weeks?" Watari asked. They were sitting in one of the hospital rooms with him, Taka and Kyo on the bed and Watari in a swivel chair, straddling it backwards and chewing thoughtfully on a pen.
"Yeah. But it was after we were attacked in Kyoto with the yuurei though that it's been happening every night," Kyo said. "Last night, it's getting worse."
"And Kyo nearly drowned himself in the bathtub because he fell asleep and started dreaming again yesterday evening," Taka added.
Watari frowned and went on chewing his pen. After a while, he asked them, "The dreams are the same every time?"
Kyo nodded. "Sometimes it would concentrate on a certain memory, other times it just completely ignores it."
"It sounds like somebody's placed a curse on you," Watari said doubtfully.
Kyo and Taka gave him a look and Kyo said, "But I would know if I was cursed, wouldn't I? I mean, that's hardly something you can ignore or forget, somebody cursing you."
"True," Watari conceded. "But it doesn't hurt to check though. A curse would usually appear on the body, in some sign or whatever, so I better give you a look over."
"What do you mean, a 'look over'?" Kyo asked warily.
Watari waved his hands around in exasperation. "A complete body check! You might never know where a curse could turn up!"
Taka was twitching, Kyo could see that. Taka was quite possessive about other people looking at him in the buff and was not afraid to show it. Of course, Kyo never told him about the time when Watari had given him a bath. . . .
Watari noticed the twitching going on too and he gave a reassuring pat on Taka's shoulder. "Don't get upset! You're a doctor, you know that it's only logical that I do it, since I have the most experience with curses."
Taka nodded reluctantly. "I guess so," he admitted grudgingly.
Watari didn't help the situation though when he added, "I've seen Kyo naked before, don't worry! I won't take advantage of him, no matter how tempting it is," Watari grinned.
"WHAT?? YOU'VE SEEN KYO NAKED BEFORE?? WHEN??"
Oh dear. Kyo buried his face in his hands and gave a groan. He reminded himself to give Watari a kick later.
________________________________________________________________________
Watari's check up had revealed nothing. There were absolutely no signs of any curse marks anywhere on his body and the scientist was stumped. Kyo had made them promise though, to not tell the others about it and had only relented to let Tatsumi and Kacho in on it. He flatly refused to let the others know though.
In the end, Watari had suggested that Kyo spend a few nights in the hospital wing, so that Watari could keep an eye on him. Maybe then he could spot what was wrong. Kyo had agreed, although very reluctantly. He had had enough of the hospital room to last his whole undead life, but with Watari pressuring him and Taka glaring at him, he had finally relented.
The nights in the hospital wing didn't make any difference. If anything, the dreams were getting more severe and even more vivid. At times, Kyo felt as if his dreams were more real than during the times when he was awake. Watari hadn't been able to figure out what was wrong. Neither did Tatsumi, Kacho or Taka, the three of them keeping Kyo company during his stay.
"You know," Kyo started shakily. The dream had been pretty bad and he was shaking with cold, Taka hugging him close, a warm blanket covering him. "Maybe it's not a curse or whatever, maybe I'm just going out of my mind."
Tatsumi frowned at him, but he smiled a small smile anyway. "I don't think when you go crazy, you are actually aware that you're going crazy. That would defeat the whole purpose of going crazy in the first place," he said wryly.
Kyo had laughed at that but he felt better all the same.
Watari had finally relented from the night stays at the hospital but he had made Kyo promise to tell him the minute something else occurs. He and Taka now spent most of their time researching on dreams and curses, on top of their research on Akuma but nothing they turned up could explain what was going on with Kyo.
The boy also, had refused to take time off, saying that it doesn't make a difference. He'd still dream when he's asleep and when he was working, he didn't need to sleep so all the better. Tatsumi had also reluctantly admitted that they couldn't spare anyone for a break. Death cases were rising alarmingly the past few weeks and most, if not all of the Shinigamis on field duty spent days on end on Chijou, hunting down earthbound spirits and troublesome yuurei.
They were all tired, Kyo the more so with his troubled sleep but to Taka's relief, he was holding on.
On that day, for a change, everybody was in the office. Their cases had slowed down somewhat and they were taking the chance to relax a bit and just hang out together. Even Watari had left his lab with 003 and the man was now talking quietly with Tatsumi, heads bent close together.
Kyo smiled, watching them. He really felt the urge to tease the blond relentlessly, especially when Watari's and Tatsumi's knees had brushed together accidentally and neither had moved away. Kyo smirked.
Taka was sitting at his own desk, beside Kyo's and was finishing up the paperwork on their latest assignment, involving the spirit of a middle- aged woman and her cheating husband. It wasn't a happy case.
Kyo leaned back in his chair and gave a yawn. Taka looked up from the report he was typing out and gave a concerned look at the boy. "Tired?" he asked.
Kyo shook his head. "Bored," he corrected the man.
/Taka! Taka where are you?!/
"How on earth could you be bored? This is the first time in days the whole office has managed to hang out together," Taka demanded.
/Mommy? Mommy no! Please mommy!/
"Well look! There goes Watari and Tatsumi, practically feeling each other up, and I can't needle Watari about it," Kyo complained. The missed opportunity was painful to him.
/Above the crackle of the flames, he could hear something else. A sound that had made him scream in soundless fear and horror/
Taka sighed. "Give the poor guy a break, won't you?" and gave a pointed look at Kyo. Kyo was rocking himself back and forth in his chair, grinning like the Cheshire cat. Taka had taken over the report-writing for this case since Kyo did the last one and now the boy was obviously fidgeting with boredom. As a bored Kyo tended to lead to mischief, he tried to distract him.
"Get me a cup of coffee will you?" Taka asked and held out his empty mug.
/Blood was pouring down his face, hot and sticky. But it wasn't his. It wasn't his/
"Too much caffeine isn't good for you," Kyo replied automatically. "And you should know better, you're a doctor." But he took the still insistent mug anyway and got up, giving Taka a melodramatic sigh. "You never listen to me when I bug you about your health," he complained as he made his way around their desk.
/The stake had pierced deep into him and he could feel his life slipping away. It hurts. It hurt bad. But not as bad as the thought of leaving Taka behind/
"I'm older," Taka called out as Kyo crossed the room. "Besides, we're dead."
/You said everything was going to be okay mommy. You lied/
"Touche," Kyo muttered. And stopped in his tracks.
The room seemed to have gone slightly hazy, the outlines fading and blurring. He rubbed his eyes and squinted. Maybe he was tired. But the room continued to fade in and out, as dies the sound of his co-workers, talking and laughing to each other. It sounded like a badly tuned radio, now clear and later, fading away again.
Slowly, as though it was rising slowly out of some murky depth, the part of his dreams that he dreaded the most surfaced, overlapping the room completely as though he was standing in the dream. But he wasn't dreaming, wasn't he? He was still awake. He was getting coffee for Taka and he wasn't asleep. He was awake. He was awake. He was awake.
Again he saw the house burning down, collapsing into itself. He could even feel the waves of heat rolling over him, choking him. He could see himself, lying on the ground, just like that night, his mother and father beside him. And again, as in his dreams, he was also going through the moment of his death. He felt the burning pain and as he looked down, he could see the wooden stake that had killed him, piercing out of his flesh, the pointed end dripping with his own blood.
He raised both hands shakily, the coffee mug slipping out of his grasp and breaking into a million pieces on the floor. He could still hear the crash and tinkle of the mug breaking and his co-workers asking him what's wrong but it didn't register on his brain.
All he saw was the stake protruding out of him and his mother's dead eyes staring at him accusingly from where her torn, bleeding body lay on the ground.
And he screamed.
"TAKA!"
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~to be continued~
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A/N: Mwahaha! Evil me! How's that for a cliffhanger huh? Hehehe! Seriously, I can't thank you guys enough for giving such great reviews. It really made this chapter easier to type. So, any guesses as to what's really going on with Kyo? Expect even better Kyo-Torture to come up in the next chappie! As always, please review! Ja ne!
"Dear Ruby-Tears, you have such an inquiring mind. Very healthy. But it can be very fatal. As to what I did to Kazutaka, I do believe that it's between me, Kazu and Kyo-chan so bug off.
All I can say is, Kazutaka was merely the appetizer. Kyo-chan. . . ah, Kyo- chan is the main course and dessert. Ja ne!"
Gomen, Ruby-chan. Akuma can get pretty nasty when I try to get him to tell me what it was he did all this time and what kind of game he was playing with Kyo. He nearly cursed me when I pestered him too much! (Ungrateful OC). @ . @
M.s Author: Thank you ( ^ o ^ ). Did you get my email?
Lil Yaoi Kitten: I hope the story is getting even more suspenseful!
Rinny: How I come up with it? Like I said, try to not have a life *giggle*
Miss Misery: I'll try mt best to come up with more lemons. In fact, here's a little hint; things are going to get pretty sour for Kyo soon. . . . hmm. . .
Pairings: Kyo x Taka, etc
Warnings: Kyo-Torture!
Disclaimer: Sigh, YnM doesn't belong to me. . .
CHAPTER 13: To Sleep, Perchance, To Dream
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They were feeling the strain. Nearly three weeks had passed after they found Muraki and still, there was no sign of Akuma anywhere nor do they know what the latest game was all about. If anything, all they seemed to do lately was just wait until Akuma finally decided to throw them some clues, like starving dogs by the roadsides were fed scraps from a kind stranger.
Kyo and Taka frequently made periodic visits to the KoKakuRou, checking up on Oriya and Muraki. The silver-haired man still refused to come out of his room, though his hysterics had lessened somewhat, and he kept his silence, refusing to talk about anything. He didn't even seem to realize where he was most of the time.
Taka continued to do check ups for Muraki. Oriya had refused to call in another doctor and had begged Taka to help. Muraki still trusted the Shinigami only, besides Oriya, but after a while, had come to tolerate Kyo being in the room.
It was after such one visit, Kyo and Taka having returned to JuuOhCho, and were reporting in to Tatsumi.
"Any improvements?" Tatsumi asked.
"His body is recovering fine, but as to the state of his mind," Taka shrugged, "only time will tell."
"So you weren't able to get anything from him?"
"No. He hardly talks now. He doesn't get his fits as often either but he still doesn't want to talk."
Kyo was content to let Taka do the talking for them. The dreams were becoming a nightly occurrence already and he was feeling the strain. The trouble was, he could always fall asleep easily. It's the part where he could keep on sleeping after having the dreams was the trouble. Taka was starting to notice something was wrong but Kyo didn't want to say anything and the sensei hadn't forced him too. Taka knew Kyo too well. If the boy wasn't ready to talk about it, hell could open up beneath his feet and he'd still refuse to say a word.
The day passed uneventfully enough, like the other days before it. Taka and Kyo finished up their paperwork, took lunch with Watari in his lab and around 5.30, went home as usual.
Taka was making dinner, chopping up some zucchini for the lasagna they were going to have. Kyo was fond of western food, especially pasta, and Taka liked to indulge him. Kyo had seemed tired lately, a bit run down, and Taka couldn't blame him. If he was being targeted by a psycho killer, he'd be tired from the strain himself. But it was more than that, he knew. Kyo, stubborn idiot that he was, didn't want to tell him what was wrong.
He sighed as he brought the knife down a little too hard in frustration and the piece of zucchini he was cutting flew across the kitchen.
"Great. Even a vegetable is conspiring against me," he grumbled. Padding his way to the offending piece of veggie, he stooped down and with another sigh, threw it into the dustbin. He happened to glance at the clock then which was hanging near the refrigerator and he frowned.
Kyo was taking a bath, saying he needed to soak out the tension but that had been over 45 minutes ago. Kyo didn't take baths this long, he knew. The most he could go was a half hour before he'd step out, saying that he felt prunelike enough already.
He probably fell asleep in the bath, Taka thought, amused, and went to the bathroom to wake the boy up. The lasagna would be done soon and he wanted Kyo to have a hot dinner. Maybe, if he felt good enough then after having it, he'd finally say what it was that was troubling him exactly these past weeks.
"Kyo?" Taka knocked on the closed door. "Are you asleep in there? Dinner's almost done."
No answer. He frowned again and opened the door, stepping into the warm bathroom. Steam was rising gently from the waters, fogging the air and it was a moment before he realized that he couldn't see Kyo in it. All he could see was black hair floating limply on the water.
"Kyo!" Taka shouted. He quickly skidded across the slippery tiles and crouched down by the side of the bath. Plunging his hands in, he quickly pulled Kyo up from beneath the water.
The boy lay quietly in his arms, not moving, not breathing. Cursing, he dragged Kyo out from the bath and laid him down on the floor. He turned Kyo over on his face and pushed rhythmically on his back. Nothing happened.
He was nearly sobbing with frustration now but he continued to push. After a while though, Kyo finally coughed, vomiting up water. A shudder passed through his body and Taka quickly grabbed some towels from under the sink and wrapped Kyo snugly with it. Stumbling a little with his burden, he carried Kyo to the bedroom and laid him gently down on the bed, pulling back the covers and sliding the boy underneath.
"What happened?" Kyo asked, his voice was drowsy and he blinked in confusion. Wasn't he taking a bath just now? And why did Taka look like he had been crying?
Taka smiled gently, brushing back the wet bangs from Kyo's face. "You gave me a scare just now."
"What happened?" Kyo repeated. The last thing he remembered was that he was dozing in the warm waters, and he had started to dream again. When he woke up, Taka was carrying him into the bedroom.
Taka hesitated then, a frown creasing his forehead. "You nearly drowned in the bathtub just now. When I came in, you were already under the water and you weren't breathing." His voice was matter-of-fact but Kyo could see that Taka had been frightened and he felt a vague pain flash in his chest. He had made Taka scared and he hated it.
"I'm sorry," Kyo whispered, his hand reached out and he squeezed Taka's gently. "I was dreaming. . ."
"You can tell me about it later. Right now, let's get you into some dry clothes," Taka said briskly. He could tell that Kyo was finally going to tell him what was going on, but Kyo's health came first. He didn't want the boy to come down with pneumonia. Shinigamis they may be, but they could still get sick.
After he had gotten Kyo into a sweater and thick, warm, cotton pants, and had fixed him a cup of blistering hot tea, they settled down on the bed, Taka with his back against the headboard and Kyo leaning against his shoulder with a contented sigh.
"So," Taka said, his breath ruffling Kyo's hair, "are you finally going to tell me what's going on?"
Kyo didn't answer him straight away. He took a small sip of his tea, wondering how he was going to say it. With a sigh, he decided that it was better being straightforward. He was tired of trying to cope with the dreams alone anyway.
"I've been dreaming," Kyo started softly. "It started the day after you came. At first, it comes and goes. Sometimes a few days would pass before I'd dream again but ever since the attack on us with the yuurei, it's been coming every night."
"What kind of dreams?" Taka asked.
"It's about my life. What happened when I was alive. I'd see you again, and Hikaru, Ken, everyone, but. . ."
"But what?"
Kyo frowned. "The dreams go backwards. I get younger and younger and everything that happened then, I'd see again. I'd be 15 again, then 14, then. . ."
Taka tensed, his arm tightening involuntarily around Kyo. "You even dream about what happened when you were ten?" he asked, his voice just as soft.
Kyo didn't answer him, but he could feel the boy nodding his head. They were silent for a moment until Kyo spoke up again. "But there's something else."
"What is it?"
He wondered how he was going to say it. "When I dream the night when I was. . .when I was ten, I'd see again my death. It's like the two scenes get superimposed on each other. I'd see you and I'd see my parents again, and everything just went on and on-" Kyo broke off with a sob and he turned his face into Taka's chest, letting out a shuddering breath.
Taka was worried. Frequent dreams with the same theme was common. It usually meant that the dreamer was worried about something or his subconscious was reminding him of something unfinished. But from what Kyo had said, he seemed to be getting the exact same dreams. And now it was happening every night.
"Can you fall asleep though?" he asked.
"Aa, I never have any trouble getting to sleep. I *do* get kind of pretty exhausted nearly every night. . ." there was a hint of teasing in his voice and Taka couldn't help himself; he blushed.
"Baka," he muttered.
Kyo laughed softly into his chest but the lightheartedness was momentary. "It's just after the dreams that I can't fall back asleep again," he admitted.
Taka blew a noisy sigh. "All this time and you never told me a thing? What are you, the New Age martyr or something?" he demanded.
Kyo pushed himself of Taka's chest and glared at the older man. "I didn't think it was important! I thought it would pass after a while! Like the last time it happened."
Taka wanted to shake some sense into the boy. Or at least, kiss some sense into him. Kyo had always been reluctant to talk about anything that troubled him and in the past, he had nearly lost Kyo because of it.
"The last time was different!" he shot back. "You only dreamt of that night, it wasn't having your whole life movie played back every night!"
"I didn't want to make you worried! I was already having trouble sleeping before you came and when I finally got you back, I thought it was just remnants of it, that it'd pass soon!"
Taka threw his hands up in disgust. "Obviously it didn't! And what the hell do you mean that you didn't want to make me worried? I'm your husband! I'm supposed to be worried about you if there was something to be worried about in the first place!"
They were yelling at each other now. Taka and Kyo rarely fought, but when they do, things tended to get noisy. . .
"Well I love you and I didn't want to see you worried! It worries me enough already!" Kyo yelled back.
"Goddammit, I love you too! So what does THAT mean?"
They stared at each other then, faces furious. After a moment though, a sheepish smile crossed Kyo's face and he gave a rueful laugh. "Listen to us," he giggled, "We're fighting about how I'm actually supposed to make you worry about me."
Taka tried to keep his expression angry, he really did. He wasn't going to let Kyo off the hook that easily but the sight of Kyo lying on the bed, laughing, made his mouth twitch in suppressed mirth. In the end, he joined Kyo and they hugged, still laughing together.
Finally, after the last giggle died, Taka sighed and asked, "So what does it mean?" His expertise was in physical health. Dreams were something beyond his field of experience.
Kyo shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "Maybe we can ask Watari for help. He might know what's going on," he said, after a while.
Taka nodded at that. The blond scientist, though he majored in physics and chemistry, had a whole head full of knowledge from the arcane to the mundane. If Watari couldn't help them, he didn't know who else could.
"Tomorrow then," he answered. "Promise me that we'll see Watari together." It wasn't a request. It was a command.
Kyo smiled. "I promise."
"Good."
"Great. NOW can we have dinner? I'm hungry."
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Taka didn't sleep that night. Instead, he just lay there, on the bed, beside Kyo and watched the boy fell asleep. Kyo wasn't lying. He did fall asleep easily enough and Taka watched him with loving and worried eyes as the boy's breathing deepened and a peaceful expression crossed his face. He wanted to be there for Kyo, when the dreams came. He already felt like killing himself for not realizing what was going on all this while but it can come later. For now, he wanted to protect Kyo, keep him safe from the memories.
It was the only thing he could do about it.
It was around three in the morning, before Kyo gave any indications of dreaming. His fingers were twitching lightly on the covers and he gave a small sigh. Taka sat up and watched the boy closely.
Soon enough, Kyo's hands began clutching the covers and he gave a low moan of pain. It tore at him, seeing Kyo like this, and he shook the boy gently, trying to wake him.
"Kyo," he whispered, "Kyo, wake up. It's just a dream. I'm here, it's all right. Come back."
Kyo didn't seem to hear him though. He kept on moaning and tears started falling from beneath his closed eyes. He was tossing and turning restlessly and Taka had a hard time trying to take hold of him. Taka frowned. If it was like this every night, he would have realized it. Nobody could sleep through something like this. But he hadn't been woken up by Kyo's dreams before so that meant it wasn't usually this bad.
It meant that the dreams were getting worse.
Taka gritted his teeth and gave Kyo a hard shake. "Kyo! Wake up! Please," he begged.
Finally, Kyo stopped his moaning and his eyes fluttered open. "Taka?" he asked, his voice scratchy from crying.
"Shh, it's okay, I'm here." He laid back down and hugged Kyo close. The boy buried his face in the embrace and he felt the tears slipping down gently, silent and hot.
They stayed awake until the sun came up.
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"So it's been going on for more than a few weeks?" Watari asked. They were sitting in one of the hospital rooms with him, Taka and Kyo on the bed and Watari in a swivel chair, straddling it backwards and chewing thoughtfully on a pen.
"Yeah. But it was after we were attacked in Kyoto with the yuurei though that it's been happening every night," Kyo said. "Last night, it's getting worse."
"And Kyo nearly drowned himself in the bathtub because he fell asleep and started dreaming again yesterday evening," Taka added.
Watari frowned and went on chewing his pen. After a while, he asked them, "The dreams are the same every time?"
Kyo nodded. "Sometimes it would concentrate on a certain memory, other times it just completely ignores it."
"It sounds like somebody's placed a curse on you," Watari said doubtfully.
Kyo and Taka gave him a look and Kyo said, "But I would know if I was cursed, wouldn't I? I mean, that's hardly something you can ignore or forget, somebody cursing you."
"True," Watari conceded. "But it doesn't hurt to check though. A curse would usually appear on the body, in some sign or whatever, so I better give you a look over."
"What do you mean, a 'look over'?" Kyo asked warily.
Watari waved his hands around in exasperation. "A complete body check! You might never know where a curse could turn up!"
Taka was twitching, Kyo could see that. Taka was quite possessive about other people looking at him in the buff and was not afraid to show it. Of course, Kyo never told him about the time when Watari had given him a bath. . . .
Watari noticed the twitching going on too and he gave a reassuring pat on Taka's shoulder. "Don't get upset! You're a doctor, you know that it's only logical that I do it, since I have the most experience with curses."
Taka nodded reluctantly. "I guess so," he admitted grudgingly.
Watari didn't help the situation though when he added, "I've seen Kyo naked before, don't worry! I won't take advantage of him, no matter how tempting it is," Watari grinned.
"WHAT?? YOU'VE SEEN KYO NAKED BEFORE?? WHEN??"
Oh dear. Kyo buried his face in his hands and gave a groan. He reminded himself to give Watari a kick later.
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Watari's check up had revealed nothing. There were absolutely no signs of any curse marks anywhere on his body and the scientist was stumped. Kyo had made them promise though, to not tell the others about it and had only relented to let Tatsumi and Kacho in on it. He flatly refused to let the others know though.
In the end, Watari had suggested that Kyo spend a few nights in the hospital wing, so that Watari could keep an eye on him. Maybe then he could spot what was wrong. Kyo had agreed, although very reluctantly. He had had enough of the hospital room to last his whole undead life, but with Watari pressuring him and Taka glaring at him, he had finally relented.
The nights in the hospital wing didn't make any difference. If anything, the dreams were getting more severe and even more vivid. At times, Kyo felt as if his dreams were more real than during the times when he was awake. Watari hadn't been able to figure out what was wrong. Neither did Tatsumi, Kacho or Taka, the three of them keeping Kyo company during his stay.
"You know," Kyo started shakily. The dream had been pretty bad and he was shaking with cold, Taka hugging him close, a warm blanket covering him. "Maybe it's not a curse or whatever, maybe I'm just going out of my mind."
Tatsumi frowned at him, but he smiled a small smile anyway. "I don't think when you go crazy, you are actually aware that you're going crazy. That would defeat the whole purpose of going crazy in the first place," he said wryly.
Kyo had laughed at that but he felt better all the same.
Watari had finally relented from the night stays at the hospital but he had made Kyo promise to tell him the minute something else occurs. He and Taka now spent most of their time researching on dreams and curses, on top of their research on Akuma but nothing they turned up could explain what was going on with Kyo.
The boy also, had refused to take time off, saying that it doesn't make a difference. He'd still dream when he's asleep and when he was working, he didn't need to sleep so all the better. Tatsumi had also reluctantly admitted that they couldn't spare anyone for a break. Death cases were rising alarmingly the past few weeks and most, if not all of the Shinigamis on field duty spent days on end on Chijou, hunting down earthbound spirits and troublesome yuurei.
They were all tired, Kyo the more so with his troubled sleep but to Taka's relief, he was holding on.
On that day, for a change, everybody was in the office. Their cases had slowed down somewhat and they were taking the chance to relax a bit and just hang out together. Even Watari had left his lab with 003 and the man was now talking quietly with Tatsumi, heads bent close together.
Kyo smiled, watching them. He really felt the urge to tease the blond relentlessly, especially when Watari's and Tatsumi's knees had brushed together accidentally and neither had moved away. Kyo smirked.
Taka was sitting at his own desk, beside Kyo's and was finishing up the paperwork on their latest assignment, involving the spirit of a middle- aged woman and her cheating husband. It wasn't a happy case.
Kyo leaned back in his chair and gave a yawn. Taka looked up from the report he was typing out and gave a concerned look at the boy. "Tired?" he asked.
Kyo shook his head. "Bored," he corrected the man.
/Taka! Taka where are you?!/
"How on earth could you be bored? This is the first time in days the whole office has managed to hang out together," Taka demanded.
/Mommy? Mommy no! Please mommy!/
"Well look! There goes Watari and Tatsumi, practically feeling each other up, and I can't needle Watari about it," Kyo complained. The missed opportunity was painful to him.
/Above the crackle of the flames, he could hear something else. A sound that had made him scream in soundless fear and horror/
Taka sighed. "Give the poor guy a break, won't you?" and gave a pointed look at Kyo. Kyo was rocking himself back and forth in his chair, grinning like the Cheshire cat. Taka had taken over the report-writing for this case since Kyo did the last one and now the boy was obviously fidgeting with boredom. As a bored Kyo tended to lead to mischief, he tried to distract him.
"Get me a cup of coffee will you?" Taka asked and held out his empty mug.
/Blood was pouring down his face, hot and sticky. But it wasn't his. It wasn't his/
"Too much caffeine isn't good for you," Kyo replied automatically. "And you should know better, you're a doctor." But he took the still insistent mug anyway and got up, giving Taka a melodramatic sigh. "You never listen to me when I bug you about your health," he complained as he made his way around their desk.
/The stake had pierced deep into him and he could feel his life slipping away. It hurts. It hurt bad. But not as bad as the thought of leaving Taka behind/
"I'm older," Taka called out as Kyo crossed the room. "Besides, we're dead."
/You said everything was going to be okay mommy. You lied/
"Touche," Kyo muttered. And stopped in his tracks.
The room seemed to have gone slightly hazy, the outlines fading and blurring. He rubbed his eyes and squinted. Maybe he was tired. But the room continued to fade in and out, as dies the sound of his co-workers, talking and laughing to each other. It sounded like a badly tuned radio, now clear and later, fading away again.
Slowly, as though it was rising slowly out of some murky depth, the part of his dreams that he dreaded the most surfaced, overlapping the room completely as though he was standing in the dream. But he wasn't dreaming, wasn't he? He was still awake. He was getting coffee for Taka and he wasn't asleep. He was awake. He was awake. He was awake.
Again he saw the house burning down, collapsing into itself. He could even feel the waves of heat rolling over him, choking him. He could see himself, lying on the ground, just like that night, his mother and father beside him. And again, as in his dreams, he was also going through the moment of his death. He felt the burning pain and as he looked down, he could see the wooden stake that had killed him, piercing out of his flesh, the pointed end dripping with his own blood.
He raised both hands shakily, the coffee mug slipping out of his grasp and breaking into a million pieces on the floor. He could still hear the crash and tinkle of the mug breaking and his co-workers asking him what's wrong but it didn't register on his brain.
All he saw was the stake protruding out of him and his mother's dead eyes staring at him accusingly from where her torn, bleeding body lay on the ground.
And he screamed.
"TAKA!"
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~to be continued~
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A/N: Mwahaha! Evil me! How's that for a cliffhanger huh? Hehehe! Seriously, I can't thank you guys enough for giving such great reviews. It really made this chapter easier to type. So, any guesses as to what's really going on with Kyo? Expect even better Kyo-Torture to come up in the next chappie! As always, please review! Ja ne!