Title: Penny for Your Thoughts

Author: Crescent Quetzalcoatl

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: The usual disclaimers apply… again…

Warning: er… bad language and—er… bad plot? Yeah and I think they're OOC again… bear with me. .

Crescent seeks forgiveness:

Minna, gomen nasai honto ni! *bows really low* I checked the last review and it was last year! On Christmas day! *teary-eyed* Really, I'm so sorry of not updating sooner. You see after the Christmas break, my mind went blank and I think the smell of roasting chestnuts in the open fire *drool* instead filled my head. Well, I didn't get to eat chestnuts but still, I'm guilty. I didn't even got to greet my readers a merry Christmas and prosperous New Year. . so even if it is too late…

Belated MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Okay… *relieved sigh* onto the fic…

Chapter 7: Affair

Sunday, Kanagawa Mall.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Do you know them?"

"No."

"How can we tell?"

Rukawa stopped from walking. His lips formed into a thin line. How can we tell? I don't know myself.

The shorter boy stopped with him. "How, Rukawa?"

The raven-haired boy looked straight ahead and resumed his pace. "Let's go in."

The rave was everything one can imagine. The lights, the sounds, the people; everything seemed… natural.

No one stopped them from entering the premises, no one asked for their IDs.

"Bastards. Even minors can go in. Then they're going to suck their innocence from them," Youhei said bitterly. The raven-haired's face darkened.

"Same what they did to him," Rukawa's tone was grim, he gritted his teeth. Youhei nodded, he knew what his companion was talking about. "They took his innocence away." Youhei heard him again, the voice full of contempt.

"We'll find them," the shorter boy assured him.

The huge dance floor was filled with people dancing; bodies moving, bodies swaying, bodies gyrating to the beat, so loud and ear deafening, not minding the humid air that was starting to build up even if the basement's air conditioner was on. The two made their way to the floors slowly, bumping into another's body, they were pushed, elbowed, shoved, and sometimes 'touched' by those whose life has been constricted in the four corners of the room.

They were far from being released from their distress when they reached the far end of the basement. It seemed they have found what they're looking for. Or more precisely, who.

+++

A man who looked like in his fifties lifted a glass of wine to his lips, drinking the red bitter liquid like water. His face might remind you of a pug and his body, overweight and short for his age. But he was the boss, and he never let anyone forget about that.

"He's late," his steely voice cut through the air like knife.

"Yes, we know, Geno-san," a taller man in a dark-gray suit answered him, "But he will be here. Tonight he'll bring us a lot of money."

"He'd better or else—!"

"—I'm here."

The two men looked at the newcomer and the boss sneered at him. "It took you long enough!" he drank his wine in one gulp and with a free hand, he slapped the boy in front of him. The boy didn't react, as if it was a normal habit everytime he came to meet them.

"Sumimasen. When do I start?" he asked instead.

Another man in a black suit came up to them and saw the boy. He smirked and placed his both hands on the boy's shoulders and started massaging them. "My, my! We're eager tonight, aren't we?" he taunted maliciously.

"The sooner I start, the earlier I finish," he replied coldly, shaking those lewd hands of him.

"Listen, redhead boy! If you don't bring the kind of money, Vex here was bragging about, I'll make sure you'll crawl out of this place in agony!" Geno, the boss, probing his fat, wrinkly finger on his chest as if emphasizing each words.

The boy didn't answer.

"Oh, he will, Geno-san, he will." Vex urged the redhead to the door near them, told him to follow the hall behind it and chose the very last room as his place.

"Sakuragi…"

"What?"

"Don't make the same mistake that your brother did." Vex didn't wait for his reply.

Then the other man in the black suit started to find willing predators for they prey.

+++

"Shit! Why is he here?!" Rukawa grabbed Youhei's front shirt and started shaking him. "I thought you said he's ill!"

"He is!" Youhei's eyes were wide with confusion, "I checked him the last minute before we left. I thought he's asleep!" he tried to pull Rukawa's hands away from him.

Rukawa released him and gritted his teeth, his face marred with pain and fear.

Suddenly, Youhei swore.

"What?" Rukawa looked at him.

Youhei pointed at the man in a dark-gray suit. "I know that one."

Not knowing what the shorter boy was talking about, Rukawa followed Youhei's pointer finger with his eyes and turned back to his companion.

"Is he important?" the raven-haired asked. Youhei didn't answer instead walked to the man's direction as if he knew what was going on.

+++

Vex, the man in the dark-gray suit, rubbed a hand over his face and fingers stopping on his temple to slightly massage them. He was kind of weary that night for he'd been running a lot of errands from the boss, clearly his job was to keep the boss happy.

His hand left his face and turned to stare at the door the redhead boy had just gone to, then producing a kind of weary sigh as he turned away from it again. Only to face someone from his past.

+++

Youhei stood in front of this man and drew up his chin, looking defiantly at his six-foot height and opened his pale lips altogether.

"Yumeda Himeno."

The man paled. "How—how—?"

"Thought I wouldn't recognize you?" Youhei asked. He saw the taller one with short, black hair in blond highlights widened his eyes, mouth closed and opened like a fish, and stared at Youhei so hard that the younger boy thought his eyes would pop out.

"Mito… Youhei…" he finally spoke.

"So," Youhei drew his gaze again, "Vex, eh? What is that nickname for?

"What are you doing here?" Vex asked acidly instead.

"What are you doing here?" Youhei stressed.

Vex -or Yumeda Himeno for Youhei- stared at the boy and then to his companion. He gave them a lazy grin and asked, "It's about Sakuragi, isn't it?"

"Dammit, Yumeda! You know who he is and you do nothing about it?" Youhei burst in anger.

"Don't raise your voice against me, child!" Vex scowled at him, "You have no idea—!"

"—Oh, but I do!" Youhei cut him, "And I thought Shiomori was the last one!"

*Flashback*

Youhei stared at the man his bestfriend came to hate.

Sakuragi Shiomori.

And.

Yumeda Himeno. The man who offered him the job.

"Stop lookin' at us like were some piece of shit, Mito."

"Y'know what, Yumeda?" Youhei eyed him in disbelief, "I never thought Shio-nii-chan would have you as a friend."

"Heh! Now lookit here you little git—!"

"Stop it, both of you," Shiomori cut them rather gently. "Youhei, can you look after Hanamichi?"

"B-But—?"

"He's alone now and you're the only one that I trust." Shiomori smiled.

Youhei never liked that smile.

Because Shiomori was saying goodbye.

+++

He was just coming home for the night.

Walking in the dark alley, trudging the stony path, maybe a shortcut to his home. Something shone from his back, causing him to turn around. It beeped. Again and again. As if screaming for him to come. He had no choice; he turned and walked to it. Suddenly, pairs of strong hands grabbed him and pulled him inside.

+++

Youhei was facing him again.

But now, Yumeda Himeno was alone.

"It wasn't my fault."

"Tell that to Hanamichi," Youhei said, bitterly.

Then they were silent.

"He isn't safe," Yumeda looked at him as if in pain, "I—I will have no control."

"Promise me, he won't be next…" Youhei gripped his arm, roughly shaking him, pleading him. "Promise me!"

Yumeda shook his head. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

"Promise me!" Youhei pulled away and delivered a blow to Yumeda's stomach. The taller lad staggered backwards, onto the wall in the dark alley, did nothing but whimpered in pain.

"I'm sorry…" Yumeda whispered, "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" again and again.

*End of Flashback*

"You promised," Youhei breathe in anguish.

"I never promised," Vex felt a wave of déjà vu and put on a cold exterior. "I told you to watch him well, Mito. I told you… I'll have no control."


"But he's here!" Youhei hissed, "How can you not have any control?!"

"I'm merely but a finger in the hand. The hand belonged to a body and the body has a head that has never been touched by the hand." Vex took out a cigarette from its pack, lighted it, and breathe the nicotine flavored stick. "The only thing that I can do was to make his sessions as rare as possible."

"Bastard."

Vex turned his head to the owner of the piercing cold voice and he was met by equally piercing blue-eyes. "Who are you?"

"You don't have to know me," the icy blue-eyed boy said, "I only came here for Sakuragi."

"It'll be hard for you to get him out. He was bounded by our laws, and those laws were as of the flesh." Vex matched Rukawa's icy tone with his own. "It's not that I don't care. I have, even from the beginning. But Shiomori was the first and his job was unfinished… Hanamichi had to take over."

"He doesn't want it," Rukawa pressed.

"He doesn't have to. No one escapes from our reality, not even me," then he turned to Youhei, "You can start blaming me for everything but it'll do no good. I didn't even know he was with us until it was too late."

"What do you mean?" Youhei clenched his fist at his sides.

Vex puffed another smoke and put out his cigarette by crushing it with his heel. "They just told me that Sakuragi came back. I realized that it was Hanamichi. Once they had him, all I can do was to prevent him from learning the truth."

"Which was?"

"Shiomori had killed a very important client. He thought no one would know, he confided in me. The client was blackmailing him, seeing his need for money, the client forced him to do things he wouldn't have imagined. He refused, of course but the client was persistent, too persistent perhaps for he was very fond of Shiomori. He pushed him to the limit and Shiomori lost his patience."

Vex paused, letting silence come between them. Youhei was wide-eyed in disbelief and Rukawa was pale but he didn't speak. Vex decided to continue, his face grim than ever.

"The boss found out, of course, and he ordered us to take him out. I wouldn't do it but I have no choice, they always resort to blackmailing. But I didn't do it! I swear on Shiomori's grave!"

"Don't dare swear on his grave, Yumeda! You have no right!" Youhei hissed and pushed him with all his might. "You don't even have the right to call him Shiomori anymore!"

"Maybe I don't," Vex didn't stop Youhei from pushing him to the wall. And when the boy didn't do anything else, Vex then settled glancing at his boss from the end of the basement. "The boss is a very greedy man and an influential one. That client's money was important to him in keeping his businesses alive and—well—a dead one meant being crippled from the waist down and it certainly didn't do the boss any good. Too bad, it was Shiomori on the receiving end of his fury. I won't like it if you pulled out Hanamichi too soon, you might go after Shio a little bit early."

"Is that what you're suggesting? Leaving him here?" Rukawa hissed.

"No. I'm suggesting a different approach."

"Well, what is it?!"

"Blood money."

-tsuzuku-

Crescent ponders:

Is… Is this chapter bad? Did you understand the fragmentation? Coz I wasn't planning on putting this one, instead replace this with Sakuragi's POV or the like a month after the incident. Then I'm just going to tell the readers to mail me if they want this chap for explanations.

Uh. I really don't know. One thing, if anyone had already used the name Yumeda Himeno, please tell me so I can do something to correct my error. Gomen for any wrong grammar and spelling mistakes.

Oh well. It's here. I hope you enjoyed it. REVIEW ONEGAI! ^___^

Thank you to the following:

Tina Caps - *teary-eyed* you're not angry! *grins* I'm too grateful for words and I would like to thank you for being patient with my fic. I agree that Hana's much too good for Haruko coz she does not really care for him the way the redhead has. And she's blindly infatuated with someone who she thinks is the perfect someone for her. Youhei on the other hand loves Hana unconditionally, be it platonic or not. He's going to help him find his true happiness… Always, arigato gozaimasu!

Hikaru Itsuko - *grateful smile* Sometimes I think Rukawa got too harsh on her but well, slow that she is, Haruko really needs a little pressure, ne? For me, Youhei's the best of best friends in the world! ^__^ hope u like this chap!

Akane – I knew it, ur the lazy neko! ^__^ Well, I'm still not finished but I hope u'll not kill me in the end coz I might do a sequel! *sweatdrop* I'm thinking of a sequel but I'm not finished yet… ^^;; Thank you!

vulpixfairy*nods* as much as I really don't like her (hate is too strong word) Haruko deserves a good bashing… I think. Enjoy! Thanks!

Seki – thank you! More people really like haruko bashing! Muhahaha~cough! Yep, Youhei likes Hana too but I'm not sure how 'the like' will turn out in the end. Here's about those bastards, I hope I did justice here. I hope you read my notes up there, it's more explanatory. Thanks again!

foxhana – I really think Haruko's got blue eyes, I saw close up scenes on her in the anime, and well, she's got blue eyes… I hope I'm not mistaken. Thank you so much!

sLL – woi! Really, we can't get Haruko to die *grins* but I'll see what I can do. ^^;; I'm flattered when you said you like the way I write. I thought I was over doing it, maybe there are parts there, I'm willing to improve on them, just tell me, okay? *wink* Yeah! Don't worry Hana and Ru will get together soon, I won't promise a date but I'm trying to make this fic as short as possible. I hate it when they hurt, y'know. Thank you so much!

M-i – I agree but Rukawa needs to bash Haruko here so I think it's okay to let him be talkative. *sweatdrop* hope you like this chap. thanks!

teban – grabe ka, inisip mo pa si teban mo. Anyways, nabasa mo na agad 'to (daya) kaya saka ko na gagawin si teban mo para may kasunod na ulit tong fic ko. Okees? Bear with the drama, dear cousin, yun pa lang ang kaya ko. Gusto mo, humor? Cge pag nagawa ko un sa inyo ni teban. Hehe!

Miyahara Yuuki – Hi! nice to see you again! My fic… wonderful? *teary-eyed* thank you so much! *glomps* Those bad people were really powerful and well, I really don't want Ru and Youhei get their hands dirty. But I want them out too! ^^;;; Thank you so much for reviewing!

Annachan - *pats Annachan on the back* even if they don't really deserve such problems, at least they have each other to hold on to. They will find a way to solve it, they're strong. Even Haruko needs a little bashing to make her strong. Thank you so much, and thanks for reviewing on Christmas day!