Ch. 15
The Daring Hope
Omi had taken his courage and decided that one day that enough was enough. Yes it still pained him to remember and yes he was still almost positive that these people hadn't missed him. After all he had the memory of a deep emptying ache of finding out that they hadn't looked for him, hadn't finished the mission. But…the e-mails… they showed signs of deep grief and hope of his return. He didn't want to continue their pain. He only wanted to end it.
And perhaps when he saw them…perhaps he would be able to truly remember everything. That was what he had thought. That was what he had hoped.
Walking behind his parents on their way to the little flower shop though had given him time to be almost eaten alive with doubts and fear. The closer they got, the worse he felt. He knew that if he asked, they could return home and apologize for not going but Omi couldn't bring himself to say the words he knew would free him from this meeting that needed to take place.
Still he paused when the door opened and let his parents inside in front of him. He saw the violet eyes of a man that looked at him with lots of emotion shining through them. And he was surprised. Omi had to bite down hard on his lip to keep from gasping whether from pain or remembrance he wasn't sure. Perhaps it was both since remembering usually brought in the pain. Silence had followed their entrance and a paralysis had made its way to all of the people in the room, allowing Omi time to move his wide blue eyes from Ran's face to the others. Ran. He looked at the taller man with wavy golden hair nearly down to his shoulders. Flirt. Tease…Yoji? Maybe…He tried to hide a wince. This was starting to hurt really bad. A slight tremble was starting to travel up his leg as his stomach started to jump and coil within him. His eyes moved to another face. A girl's face. His student… Ran's sister…He refrained from closing his eyes at the sight of her. Pain was filtering through him but not only in his head now, near his heart as well. Omi bit his lip harder and looked at the redhead woman that was standing with her hand on Aya-chan's shoulder. Manx. He remembered her more clearly then the others for some reason. Perhaps it was for the fact that he had heard her voice… or maybe it was because she had known him since he had been ten. He didn't know.
He looked at the last face and blinked. In his mind their was a memory of laughter, of kindness, of worry and of abandonment. Who…Soccer balls being kicked in a green field. Children begging for his attention. Ken…
It was during this time that Ken snapped out of whatever had been holding him back and came forward, pulling Omi into a tight hug. The boy stiffened in the embrace not ready to have anyone invade his personal space so rapidly. His hands had come up in pure instinct to push away the intruder but the mere contact he made with them to the other boy's chest brought in an all too different pain. He closed his eyes and gave in. After all, he'd decided that this meeting would be for them. To relieve them from the pain they had been carrying. He no longer wanted to be their burden. He didn't want them to worry about him. His breath came in a bit faster. Omi felt with shock as the older boy was holding him started to shudder and warm tears were suddenly dampening his shoulder. His eyes snapped wide open.
"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" He started to whisper, feeling frantic now. This had been wrong. He shouldn't have come here. "I'm sorry…i…" Aya-chan made her way to the two as Omi's legs buckled underneath Ken's weight. They both landed kneeling on the ground, Ken refusing to let go of the one he'd thought he had lost forever. The girl came, her arms wrapping around the two in a gentler manner, her voice saying words that Omi's scared mind couldn't understand at the moment but he knew they were meant to be soothing. Tears also were pearling down her face and it just made his fear be mixed with the emotions of guilt. "I didn't know… I thought…" His voice was ragged. He never noticed as Manx waved his parents into another room away from the reunion. Ran and Yoji came, kneeling as well around them but not touching knowing that more would destroy the younger boy. "…why? Why didn't you guys search for me?" The wail finally escaped from Omi's mouth, his hands coming to curl into Ken's shirt, the pain the movement caused simply ignored as internal wounds were finally going to be healed.
"Oh Omi…" Yoji hissed.
"I couldn't… I tried so hard to remember and search for you guys only to find out that-that… you guys had just moved on…I-i… didn't mean anything. Just—" Ran closed his eyes.
"Omi. We tried to find you, we searched all that we could but someone tampered with the computer. All your files were missing and so were the ones that concerned the mission. Someone had hacked into Kritiker's database… And then Manx said that they'd found one of the victims with your blood type dead and…we lost hope." The usually stoic man whispered. Omi shook his head at his words as Ken stifled his sobs and hugged the younger boy harder to him if that was even possible.
"no… no… the files were there." The images of darkened memories filing through his head. He couldn't see what was happening now. He was just lost as he remembered. "no…no…they were there. I had access to them. They were there!" Ran's violet eyes seem to snap into confusion. "But the voice… the…telepath." Omi's eyes widened. "It isn't over yet. Schwartz… were involved. The game..." He trailed off and all of sudden many things that hadn't seem to make sense started to click into place.
"Damn it. Those bastards." Yoji's hissed out in anger this time. "When I get my hands on them…" He growled. Aya-chan made a muted noise.
"Enough…" She whispered. "That's for later but now…" She raised her hand from where it had been resting on Omi's shoulder to cup his cheek. "This is enough for now." She moved away and nudged Ken, gently soothing the older brunette into letting go. Then just as quietly she pressed the notebook into the soccer player's hands. "We missed you so much…" She whispered. Ken nodded, unable to formulate any words as he wiped away the last of his tears with the back of his free hand. Omi's own hands had cramped in their position and it was with slight gasps of pain that he removed them from Ken's shirt so he could take the notebook that was being given to him.
"We…" Ken started gruffly.
"Ken," Yoji came to the rescue, fishing a cigarette from somewhere and lighting it. "Bloody bastard couldn't deal with you gone you see… acted like a real ass, moping around and bitching the whole time. But he had the brilliant idea of…" Yoji waved his hand in the air, scattering the smoke somewhere else before Ran or Aya-chan could confront him about smoking into the house. "…writing letters to you so that when we did find you, you'd know how much—" He didn't need to continue and again some instinct led Omi to react in a certain way he had never thought he would react. His bandaged hand reached and took the cigarette from the older man's mouth as the other hand hugged the notebook to his chest.
He didn't know what to think, what to say, how to feel even. This was too much, too fast.
"I h-have a new family now…" He whispered. "I…can't. I can't do this again." He blinked as much as he could to keep the tears from coming down. "It hurts to be back here… it hurts to remember… I…I didn't want to come back here… I didn't…" He bit down his lip again as a sob tried to come out from him. He stood up as well as he could. "Okaa-san… I wanna go now…" His mother appeared from the other room before Omi could even start to panic at the fact that she wasn't in the room. She wrapped him in her arms, hiding him from them.
"Okay…okay Omi. We'll go now…" It was strange hearing the English in the room. And cold hurt and shock was coming to wrap itself around the members of Weiss. Too many things had changed.
Ran snorted, he should have known better. They should have known better. It had been foolish to think things could go back to how they had been.
"You will always be welcome here, Omi." Ran said softly, a small pained smile reaching his lips.
The blue eyes that looked at him with silent thanks gave him the answer he needed. Things would be different but he could deal with that. He watched the little family walk out and Manx came into the room quietly.
"W-wait!" Ken called out at them as they were leaving. "Could… we come and see you? You… you can't just leave again!"
"…I'll be back," Omi called out softly after what seemed the longest of times, sounding a lot calmer now that he was around people that didn't beg for his mind to remember. "Ken-kun…" With that they were gone.
Manx sighed softly.
"So boys, how was it seeing him again?" She asked. Aya-chan smiled tentatively, her eyes sad.
"He seems so hurt…" She whispered. "Will every meeting we have be like this?" The girl asked the question that no one was actually willing to let loose. "Perhaps it would be better for him not to see us…"
"No!" Ken raged at her. "We just found him, we can't just lose him again." He slammed his wrist on the window pane. "It would be too unfair." Yoji sighed unhappily.
"What did his parents say?" Ran asked finally breaking the silence once more. "You took them out of the room for a reason didn't you?" The redhead nodded at the question, her lips pursed as usual when she was asked something that she didn't quite want to deal with.
"I wanted to know how deeply the medicine's hold was on Omi's mind." She stated this strangely calm. "Though he's been remembering more than anyone ever hoped, it does truly pain him and it is not stable. It comes and goes." There was a little pause followed by a soft sigh before she continued. "Omi will never join Weiss' ranks again." This time as she began to speak again there was a slight twisted pain that showed in her face, expressing emotions that they'd never seen on her before. "I'm sorry for all of this. I was aware that Schwartz was involved somehow but I had counted on the fact that all of you, especially Omi, had before been touched by the telepath's mind. I thought that to catch the telepath in his own game, it would be better if he thought that none of you knew about him until it was the right time. I misjudged the situation and Weiss has suffered the consequences for it." Throughout this, Manx had kept her eyes straight, looking at them and receiving their judgment as realization sunk into each of them. "…I, a woman named Lakers will now be in charge of Weiss but if any of you ever need anything, please let me know. I will come." She paused again, her hand brushing the hair out of her face. "Don't give up hope on Omi though. He might not be able to fight along side of you but I don't see him ever giving up in trying to remember everything. I will miss you." She walked away then, ending a chapter in her life as it started a new one in theirs.
Their hope hadn't died. It probably never would. And Ken would never let it end that way. He had made up his mind. He would go to Omi if it was too painful for Omi to come here. There would have to be a way. He wasn't going to make the same mistakes twice. Looking at him, Aya-chan smiled.
"When do you want to go visit him…Ken-kun?" She asked sweetly, causing him to look at her in surprise and then he laughed. No, there really was no reason to give up hope. Everything would turn out okay with just a little more time.
A/N- Maa… How is this? Is the story still interesting you??? It will soon be ending. Very very soon…