*****6: What No One Can Admit*****
Standing just outside Kannuki Wakaba's bedroom door, Professor Tatsumi Seiichirou is giving the letter that has summoned him here one last look, with a rather wry smile brightening his handsome features.
/Tatsumi-sensei. You are my dear friend and master, and know more about obscure diseases than anyone in the world. You are a philosopher and metaphysician, and the most advanced scientist of your day. You have an absolutely open mind, an iron nerve, a temper of ice, an unyielding determination, and the most compassionate heart that beats. I beg you, with full humility, to come to the aid of my dear, sweet Wakaba-chan./
Laughing ever so lightly at the shameless flattery of this letter, Tatsumi muses on the possibilities presented before him. His own reputation aside, he would very much love to meet the young woman who has captured his former student's heart. It is Terazuma's post-script, however, that has brought him so many miles from home, and on such a desperate errand.
/P.S. Do remember that I once saved your life./
Tatsumi enters the lavish bedroom, sweeping inside with grand authority, and wasting no time as he goes directly to Wakaba's side. Terazuma's dark features brighten instantly at the sight of his most cherished teacher, feeling the weight that has been hanging so low on his shoulders lift ever so slightly as he is offered this first sign of hope.
"It's as though she is fading away." he explains from his seat beside the bed, still grasping Wakaba's hand tenderly between his own. "Every day she becomes more pale, gasping for air."
"Wakaba-chan, can you hear me?" Tatsumi whispers softly beside the young woman's ear, crouching down on the opposite side from Terazuma. Wakaba stirs and opens her eyes, but appears dim, as if she is still dreaming. "I am Tatsumi Seiichirou. I have come from Osaka at Terazuma-sensei's request, and would like to ask you a question or two, if I may. Would that be alright?" Wakaba nods, blinking past her heavy fatigue. "Good. Now, have you had a fall lately? Or...a fright of some kind? Anything out of the ordinary?"
Achingly, Wakaba attempts to sit up. "Only...the dreams." she breathes, straining her neck as she lifts it from her pillow.
"Tell me."
"I tried...not to sleep...I tried so hard...not to fall asleep -"
"Why, Wakaba?" Terazuma presses, beside himself with worry, and not comforted nearly enough by his old friend's presence.
"What do you remember of these dreams?" Tatsumi asks in a measured voice that has been trained to know patience. He is focused completely on the young woman in front of him, leaving Terazuma's worry and desperate questions far behind.
"A wolf. The cry of a wolf. And...the sound of the sea outside my window." Wakaba recounts, just as she is meant to.
Already, Tatsumi appears deeply troubled by this reply. "Anything else?" he presses, hoping there is more. Even the smallest glimmer of something more would be better than the answer he has been given.
"Only that." Wakaba whispers, so out of breath without even exerting the smallest amount of energy. "I'm sorry."
"Don't you dare be sorry, Wakaba." Terazuma instructs, squeezing her hand reassuringly. Slowly, she turns her head towards him and smiles, a very tired, very sad, little smile. "Just rest now, alright?"
"Rest." Tatsumi repeats, brushing the hair out of her eyes, and helping her lay back down again. "You need to save your strength."
Although the educated professor smiles warmly down at Wakaba as she slips off to sleep, it instantly vanishes when her head falls limply to one side, revealing two tiny red marks on her neck.
As if jolted from within, Tatsumi springs up and rushes to Terazuma, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the bed with powerful force.
"Who has access to this room?" he asks sternly.
"Just myself, the main servant, and a friend who is out of town at the moment." he explains, knowing not to beat around the bush when he has been asked such a direct and fiercely spoken question. "Why do you ask?"
Tatsumi hesitates, clearly troubled, but plagued by more than just Wakaba's condition. To tell his dear student something as devastating as what he must soon explain is a hard truth to swallow. "I cannot say quite yet, but trust me and do as I say if you wish to save her. Understand?"
Instantly, Terazuma nods, and allows the fervent professor to lead him back to his chair. Tatsumi then retrieves his bag that had been left near the door and begins to remove strange equipment from inside.
"She wants blood, my friend, and blood she must have...or she will die." he explains quietly, rushing back to the bed once he has collected what he needs. "Roll up your sleeve. There is no time to waste."
Terazuma complies, having many questions, but allows them to remain unanswered. He trusts his former instructor with his life, and with Wakaba's, and is willing to do anything and everything it will take to save her life.
Watching Tatsumi's lightening fast movements, the young doctor takes notice of a long, thin tube with needles at both ends, as well as a weathered hand-pump. Although the instruments are foreign to him, he recognizes what they must be for.
A small prick pinches Terazuma's arm as his mentor inserts one of the needles into a particularly ripe vein, and then connects the tube to Wakaba. In almost no time at all, clear white becomes blood red as the young doctor's life-force is offered up to his beloved.
"Sensei..." Terazuma begins, flinching slightly at the discomfort each squeeze of the hand-pump causes him. "...you seem to have a theory as to what is causing all this. Please...tell me. A dream could not produce such weakness. Wakaba didn't even stir when you pricked her skin. What does this all mean? The marks? The dreams? Blood...?"
"Wakaba?! What's happened to her?!" bellows a sudden voice, before Tatsumi has the chance to answer. Tsuzuki is standing in the doorway, but he remains there only a moment before diving for the bed and grasping Wakaba's limp hand. "She's not...she isn't -"
"She'll be fine, Tsuzuki." Terazuma assures, wincing as Tatsumi removes the needle and begins packing up the equipment. "Tatsumi-sensei has just finished a minor blood transfusion. Sensei, this is Wakaba's dear friend, Tsuzuki Asato."
Kindly, Tsuzuki smiles and stands, having happily accepted Terazuma's words of comfort, and extends a grateful hand in introduction. "Konnichiwa, Tatsumi-sensei. Thank you for coming."
"It is an honor, Tsuzuki-san." Tatsumi complies, offering a firm handshake and a small, courteous bow. "We've done all we can for Wakaba at present, but I am afraid the cause is still a mystery."
Tatsumi tosses a stern look to his pupil, a look that goes unnoticed by Tsuzuki, but the hidden message states that only the two doctors are to know the truth until all the facts are known. Terazuma will just have to wait to hear Tatsumi's speculations, and upon hearing them, he must keep them quiet until they can be certain.
Who wants to invoke panic if there turns out to be nothing to panic about?
"Tsuzuki...you've just returned from Budapest?" Terazuma inquires, ushering the men out of the room so that Wakaba can rest in peace.
"Hai, just now." Tsuzuki replies, walking at a leisurely pace along with the two doctors as they make their way into the spacious living room.
"And Kurosaki-san, how is he?"
"Much better. He seems so much more like himself now that we've come home. I think all he really needed was to return to Japan. It has proven to be the best medicine."
Just then, as the three men sit themselves down in various chairs in the living room, Hisoka enters from the atrium, walking mechanically into the room with a somewhat vacant expression.
"Ah, here he is." Tsuzuki smiles. "Hisoka, this is Terazuma and Tatsumi-sensei. They've been looking after Wakaba, and...they...eh? Hisoka...?"
Although the men had stood to greet Hisoka upon entering, Hisoka has turned away from them, and is walking slowly towards the middle of the room. There is an eerie light shining in the young man's face, and he speaks with an odd, detatched terror, as if he were about to go mad. "It was him...the man himself." he breathes.
Pointedly, Tatsumi shoots another look to his former pupil, though Terazuma does not yet comprehend its meaning.
"Just now...on the street...I saw him with my own eyes! Dear God, help me, it is my nightmares brought to life!"
Rightfully distraut, Tsuzuki rushes to Hisoka's side, desperate to touch him, but afraid to bend what little sanity his partner seems to have left. "Hisoka, what are you talking a -"
"But he has changed. The faded eyes, the weak and sickly form are gone. I thought I was imagining it, but there can be no mistake. It was him. Forgive me...if only I had known..."
"Enough!" Tsuzuki cries, hating that he must see his dear friend so broken once again when he has so recently been put back together. "It's over. You're home and safe and -"
Tsuzuki's words are cut short, for he gasps, taken aback as Hisoka retrieves a dagger from inside his cloak.
Terazuma and Tatsumi have long since swarmed closer, and visibly tense at such a frightful sight, taking poise in case there should be cause to act quickly.
"I don't know what I would have done if I had had a knife with me then..." Hisoka ponders, so stricken and reverted back to the man he had become before Tsuzuki found him. "It would have been bliss to find release in the blade..."
"Hisoka, no!!" Tsuzuki screams, tears building in his amethyst eyes. The others hover close, ready to lunge forward at a moment's notice. Tsuzuki, however, can barely keep himself standing. "Please, Hisoka...put the knife away. You can't mean to do this..."
"I have set him loose on Japan! On the world! An ever-widening circle of death is on our doorstep because of me!!" Hisoka falls to his knees, holding the knife to his chest. All three men stand alert, afraid to make a false, and possibly fatal move. "I could have stopped him, but I was too weak! OH, GOD, FORGIVE ME!!!"
The knife plunges down, but it does not make contact with Hisoka's tender skin. Tsuzuki has latched onto his partner's waist, and the two doctors are holding back his arms, having to use all their strength to keep the dagger from finding its sheath.
Dragged from the room, Hisoka kicks and screams, leaving the knife to fall to the floor, and Tsuzuki to stumble behind. Soon, the men are gone, only Tsuzuki remaining, and he succumbs to bitter tears, wrapping his knees in close to his chest as he huddles on the floor.
Just to his right, his and Hisoka's bags have been set aside by the maid. Raising his head, Tsuzuki finds instant fascination with his own bag, and reaches over to remove something from inside. What he retrieves is a simple, leather-bound book.
Hisoka's journal.
Settling in cross-legged, right there on the floor, Tsuzuki wipes at his stubborn eyes, staring hard at the closed book. He is still staring, still sitting frozen and frazzled on the floor, when Tatsumi enters.
"He's calmed now. I had to give him a sedative, but I think it would be best if..." Tatsumi trails off, taking notice of the younger brunette's silence and demeanor. Tsuzuki hasn't acknowledged him. "Tsuzuki-san?"
Quietly, with uncharacteristic resolve, Tsuzuki answers. "He seemed so much better. And now...it's as if he never recovered. He doesn't even know..."
"Know what, Tsuzuki-san?" Tatsumi inquires, crouching down beside Tsuzuki on the floor.
For obvious reasons, Tsuzuki's thoughts are not completely clear, and he hadn't realized he was speaking so openly. "Nothing." he replies quickly. "Forget I said anything."
The smallest smirk creeps into the doctor's expression, and he sits down completely, crossing his legs to match Tsuzuki as he joins him on the rug. "Ah...I see. You haven't told him...that you have feelings for him."
Tsuzuki jumps, spinning around to stare wide-eyed back at the handsome doctor. "How did you...I mean...that's ridiculous! What would make you think that?"
"You don't have to hide your feelings from me, Tsuzuki-san. Actually...I have the same tendency."
Tsuzuki's jaw drops full to the floor. "You mean...you like..."
"Men? Well, currently I am uninvolved, but...yes, quite exclusively."
At first, Tsuzuki can't help blushing as the doctor's words sink in, but eventually he realizes just how comforting the thought really is. "Arigato...Tatsumi-sensei, for being so honest with me. I guess I'm still a little in denial. I don't know how Hisoka feels, and...I'm afraid he'll...be disgusted with me. I have to tell him, no matter how wrong I am, but how can I if he isn't the Hisoka I know? I just don't know what to do."
Tatsumi mulls over Tsuzuki's confession, watching the violet-eyed young man very closely, as if assessing his words and disposition, and finding them at fault. "First of all, never believe loving someone is something anyone has the right to be disgusted by. Second, never think yourself wrong for succumbing to that love. And third, have faith in Kurosaki-kun's ability to fight what is happening to him. Tell him. Tell him you love him. There is no better medicine than companionship, and even if he does not return your feelings, if he is truly your friend, he will not turn you away."
No words could possibly fit better for what Tsuzuki needed to hear just then, and the young brunette almost smiles, relieved miraculously by what the doctor has shared and expressed.
A smile cannot come so easily, however. Not when the darkness outside continues to creep steadily over the grounds, casting ominous shadows upon each fissure and crack, as if the abyss itself has substance - as if the darkness could reach out with tangible fingers and crush the life out of anyone who dared cross its path.
"Whatever his answer, he still hasn't overcome what happened to him. We don't even know what it was, let alone how to free him from it. I'm so afraid...afraid we won't learn the truth until it's too late. Knowledge is useless to the dead."
Nearly forgetting his manners, Tatsumi practically smirks at the idea. "Not so, Tsuzuki-san. It is, in fact, on account of the dead that I have come."
Silence. That rather queer thought quivers through Tsuzuki like a coarse wind, coming out through the other side only to leave him with the smallest traces of discomfort and cold, without ever truly understanding why it lingers.
At a slight loss for how to reply, Tsuzuki instead lifts the journal, gesturing for the doctor to take notice of it, and forcing himself to betray a treasured trust.
"I'm almost certain the clues we're after are in this book." he explains, toying with the weathered cover. "Hisoka made me promise not to read it, and that if I have to, I can never tell him what I find. But even fearing the worst, I have to know if I hope to save him from this."
Looking painstakingly into Tatsumi's clear, blue eyes, as if the mere thought burns his fragile heart, Tsuzuki finds the resolve he needs to continue.
"Will you help me, Tatsumi?"
With a kind smile and nod of acceptance to Tsuzuki's difficult proposal, Tatsumi settles in closer to the young man beside him. Slowly, Tsuzuki opens the journal, and in moments the darkness outside seeps its way in, throwing all the world into chaos.
*****A/N*****
Long time no write, huh? So Sorry. I was in Europe for three weeks, and then I had to move into my dorm, and everything was crazy. However, I fully intend to finish this. Hope you like. Next is showing what happened between Hisoka and...well, who do you think it was? *evil snicker* Love you!
Standing just outside Kannuki Wakaba's bedroom door, Professor Tatsumi Seiichirou is giving the letter that has summoned him here one last look, with a rather wry smile brightening his handsome features.
/Tatsumi-sensei. You are my dear friend and master, and know more about obscure diseases than anyone in the world. You are a philosopher and metaphysician, and the most advanced scientist of your day. You have an absolutely open mind, an iron nerve, a temper of ice, an unyielding determination, and the most compassionate heart that beats. I beg you, with full humility, to come to the aid of my dear, sweet Wakaba-chan./
Laughing ever so lightly at the shameless flattery of this letter, Tatsumi muses on the possibilities presented before him. His own reputation aside, he would very much love to meet the young woman who has captured his former student's heart. It is Terazuma's post-script, however, that has brought him so many miles from home, and on such a desperate errand.
/P.S. Do remember that I once saved your life./
Tatsumi enters the lavish bedroom, sweeping inside with grand authority, and wasting no time as he goes directly to Wakaba's side. Terazuma's dark features brighten instantly at the sight of his most cherished teacher, feeling the weight that has been hanging so low on his shoulders lift ever so slightly as he is offered this first sign of hope.
"It's as though she is fading away." he explains from his seat beside the bed, still grasping Wakaba's hand tenderly between his own. "Every day she becomes more pale, gasping for air."
"Wakaba-chan, can you hear me?" Tatsumi whispers softly beside the young woman's ear, crouching down on the opposite side from Terazuma. Wakaba stirs and opens her eyes, but appears dim, as if she is still dreaming. "I am Tatsumi Seiichirou. I have come from Osaka at Terazuma-sensei's request, and would like to ask you a question or two, if I may. Would that be alright?" Wakaba nods, blinking past her heavy fatigue. "Good. Now, have you had a fall lately? Or...a fright of some kind? Anything out of the ordinary?"
Achingly, Wakaba attempts to sit up. "Only...the dreams." she breathes, straining her neck as she lifts it from her pillow.
"Tell me."
"I tried...not to sleep...I tried so hard...not to fall asleep -"
"Why, Wakaba?" Terazuma presses, beside himself with worry, and not comforted nearly enough by his old friend's presence.
"What do you remember of these dreams?" Tatsumi asks in a measured voice that has been trained to know patience. He is focused completely on the young woman in front of him, leaving Terazuma's worry and desperate questions far behind.
"A wolf. The cry of a wolf. And...the sound of the sea outside my window." Wakaba recounts, just as she is meant to.
Already, Tatsumi appears deeply troubled by this reply. "Anything else?" he presses, hoping there is more. Even the smallest glimmer of something more would be better than the answer he has been given.
"Only that." Wakaba whispers, so out of breath without even exerting the smallest amount of energy. "I'm sorry."
"Don't you dare be sorry, Wakaba." Terazuma instructs, squeezing her hand reassuringly. Slowly, she turns her head towards him and smiles, a very tired, very sad, little smile. "Just rest now, alright?"
"Rest." Tatsumi repeats, brushing the hair out of her eyes, and helping her lay back down again. "You need to save your strength."
Although the educated professor smiles warmly down at Wakaba as she slips off to sleep, it instantly vanishes when her head falls limply to one side, revealing two tiny red marks on her neck.
As if jolted from within, Tatsumi springs up and rushes to Terazuma, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from the bed with powerful force.
"Who has access to this room?" he asks sternly.
"Just myself, the main servant, and a friend who is out of town at the moment." he explains, knowing not to beat around the bush when he has been asked such a direct and fiercely spoken question. "Why do you ask?"
Tatsumi hesitates, clearly troubled, but plagued by more than just Wakaba's condition. To tell his dear student something as devastating as what he must soon explain is a hard truth to swallow. "I cannot say quite yet, but trust me and do as I say if you wish to save her. Understand?"
Instantly, Terazuma nods, and allows the fervent professor to lead him back to his chair. Tatsumi then retrieves his bag that had been left near the door and begins to remove strange equipment from inside.
"She wants blood, my friend, and blood she must have...or she will die." he explains quietly, rushing back to the bed once he has collected what he needs. "Roll up your sleeve. There is no time to waste."
Terazuma complies, having many questions, but allows them to remain unanswered. He trusts his former instructor with his life, and with Wakaba's, and is willing to do anything and everything it will take to save her life.
Watching Tatsumi's lightening fast movements, the young doctor takes notice of a long, thin tube with needles at both ends, as well as a weathered hand-pump. Although the instruments are foreign to him, he recognizes what they must be for.
A small prick pinches Terazuma's arm as his mentor inserts one of the needles into a particularly ripe vein, and then connects the tube to Wakaba. In almost no time at all, clear white becomes blood red as the young doctor's life-force is offered up to his beloved.
"Sensei..." Terazuma begins, flinching slightly at the discomfort each squeeze of the hand-pump causes him. "...you seem to have a theory as to what is causing all this. Please...tell me. A dream could not produce such weakness. Wakaba didn't even stir when you pricked her skin. What does this all mean? The marks? The dreams? Blood...?"
"Wakaba?! What's happened to her?!" bellows a sudden voice, before Tatsumi has the chance to answer. Tsuzuki is standing in the doorway, but he remains there only a moment before diving for the bed and grasping Wakaba's limp hand. "She's not...she isn't -"
"She'll be fine, Tsuzuki." Terazuma assures, wincing as Tatsumi removes the needle and begins packing up the equipment. "Tatsumi-sensei has just finished a minor blood transfusion. Sensei, this is Wakaba's dear friend, Tsuzuki Asato."
Kindly, Tsuzuki smiles and stands, having happily accepted Terazuma's words of comfort, and extends a grateful hand in introduction. "Konnichiwa, Tatsumi-sensei. Thank you for coming."
"It is an honor, Tsuzuki-san." Tatsumi complies, offering a firm handshake and a small, courteous bow. "We've done all we can for Wakaba at present, but I am afraid the cause is still a mystery."
Tatsumi tosses a stern look to his pupil, a look that goes unnoticed by Tsuzuki, but the hidden message states that only the two doctors are to know the truth until all the facts are known. Terazuma will just have to wait to hear Tatsumi's speculations, and upon hearing them, he must keep them quiet until they can be certain.
Who wants to invoke panic if there turns out to be nothing to panic about?
"Tsuzuki...you've just returned from Budapest?" Terazuma inquires, ushering the men out of the room so that Wakaba can rest in peace.
"Hai, just now." Tsuzuki replies, walking at a leisurely pace along with the two doctors as they make their way into the spacious living room.
"And Kurosaki-san, how is he?"
"Much better. He seems so much more like himself now that we've come home. I think all he really needed was to return to Japan. It has proven to be the best medicine."
Just then, as the three men sit themselves down in various chairs in the living room, Hisoka enters from the atrium, walking mechanically into the room with a somewhat vacant expression.
"Ah, here he is." Tsuzuki smiles. "Hisoka, this is Terazuma and Tatsumi-sensei. They've been looking after Wakaba, and...they...eh? Hisoka...?"
Although the men had stood to greet Hisoka upon entering, Hisoka has turned away from them, and is walking slowly towards the middle of the room. There is an eerie light shining in the young man's face, and he speaks with an odd, detatched terror, as if he were about to go mad. "It was him...the man himself." he breathes.
Pointedly, Tatsumi shoots another look to his former pupil, though Terazuma does not yet comprehend its meaning.
"Just now...on the street...I saw him with my own eyes! Dear God, help me, it is my nightmares brought to life!"
Rightfully distraut, Tsuzuki rushes to Hisoka's side, desperate to touch him, but afraid to bend what little sanity his partner seems to have left. "Hisoka, what are you talking a -"
"But he has changed. The faded eyes, the weak and sickly form are gone. I thought I was imagining it, but there can be no mistake. It was him. Forgive me...if only I had known..."
"Enough!" Tsuzuki cries, hating that he must see his dear friend so broken once again when he has so recently been put back together. "It's over. You're home and safe and -"
Tsuzuki's words are cut short, for he gasps, taken aback as Hisoka retrieves a dagger from inside his cloak.
Terazuma and Tatsumi have long since swarmed closer, and visibly tense at such a frightful sight, taking poise in case there should be cause to act quickly.
"I don't know what I would have done if I had had a knife with me then..." Hisoka ponders, so stricken and reverted back to the man he had become before Tsuzuki found him. "It would have been bliss to find release in the blade..."
"Hisoka, no!!" Tsuzuki screams, tears building in his amethyst eyes. The others hover close, ready to lunge forward at a moment's notice. Tsuzuki, however, can barely keep himself standing. "Please, Hisoka...put the knife away. You can't mean to do this..."
"I have set him loose on Japan! On the world! An ever-widening circle of death is on our doorstep because of me!!" Hisoka falls to his knees, holding the knife to his chest. All three men stand alert, afraid to make a false, and possibly fatal move. "I could have stopped him, but I was too weak! OH, GOD, FORGIVE ME!!!"
The knife plunges down, but it does not make contact with Hisoka's tender skin. Tsuzuki has latched onto his partner's waist, and the two doctors are holding back his arms, having to use all their strength to keep the dagger from finding its sheath.
Dragged from the room, Hisoka kicks and screams, leaving the knife to fall to the floor, and Tsuzuki to stumble behind. Soon, the men are gone, only Tsuzuki remaining, and he succumbs to bitter tears, wrapping his knees in close to his chest as he huddles on the floor.
Just to his right, his and Hisoka's bags have been set aside by the maid. Raising his head, Tsuzuki finds instant fascination with his own bag, and reaches over to remove something from inside. What he retrieves is a simple, leather-bound book.
Hisoka's journal.
Settling in cross-legged, right there on the floor, Tsuzuki wipes at his stubborn eyes, staring hard at the closed book. He is still staring, still sitting frozen and frazzled on the floor, when Tatsumi enters.
"He's calmed now. I had to give him a sedative, but I think it would be best if..." Tatsumi trails off, taking notice of the younger brunette's silence and demeanor. Tsuzuki hasn't acknowledged him. "Tsuzuki-san?"
Quietly, with uncharacteristic resolve, Tsuzuki answers. "He seemed so much better. And now...it's as if he never recovered. He doesn't even know..."
"Know what, Tsuzuki-san?" Tatsumi inquires, crouching down beside Tsuzuki on the floor.
For obvious reasons, Tsuzuki's thoughts are not completely clear, and he hadn't realized he was speaking so openly. "Nothing." he replies quickly. "Forget I said anything."
The smallest smirk creeps into the doctor's expression, and he sits down completely, crossing his legs to match Tsuzuki as he joins him on the rug. "Ah...I see. You haven't told him...that you have feelings for him."
Tsuzuki jumps, spinning around to stare wide-eyed back at the handsome doctor. "How did you...I mean...that's ridiculous! What would make you think that?"
"You don't have to hide your feelings from me, Tsuzuki-san. Actually...I have the same tendency."
Tsuzuki's jaw drops full to the floor. "You mean...you like..."
"Men? Well, currently I am uninvolved, but...yes, quite exclusively."
At first, Tsuzuki can't help blushing as the doctor's words sink in, but eventually he realizes just how comforting the thought really is. "Arigato...Tatsumi-sensei, for being so honest with me. I guess I'm still a little in denial. I don't know how Hisoka feels, and...I'm afraid he'll...be disgusted with me. I have to tell him, no matter how wrong I am, but how can I if he isn't the Hisoka I know? I just don't know what to do."
Tatsumi mulls over Tsuzuki's confession, watching the violet-eyed young man very closely, as if assessing his words and disposition, and finding them at fault. "First of all, never believe loving someone is something anyone has the right to be disgusted by. Second, never think yourself wrong for succumbing to that love. And third, have faith in Kurosaki-kun's ability to fight what is happening to him. Tell him. Tell him you love him. There is no better medicine than companionship, and even if he does not return your feelings, if he is truly your friend, he will not turn you away."
No words could possibly fit better for what Tsuzuki needed to hear just then, and the young brunette almost smiles, relieved miraculously by what the doctor has shared and expressed.
A smile cannot come so easily, however. Not when the darkness outside continues to creep steadily over the grounds, casting ominous shadows upon each fissure and crack, as if the abyss itself has substance - as if the darkness could reach out with tangible fingers and crush the life out of anyone who dared cross its path.
"Whatever his answer, he still hasn't overcome what happened to him. We don't even know what it was, let alone how to free him from it. I'm so afraid...afraid we won't learn the truth until it's too late. Knowledge is useless to the dead."
Nearly forgetting his manners, Tatsumi practically smirks at the idea. "Not so, Tsuzuki-san. It is, in fact, on account of the dead that I have come."
Silence. That rather queer thought quivers through Tsuzuki like a coarse wind, coming out through the other side only to leave him with the smallest traces of discomfort and cold, without ever truly understanding why it lingers.
At a slight loss for how to reply, Tsuzuki instead lifts the journal, gesturing for the doctor to take notice of it, and forcing himself to betray a treasured trust.
"I'm almost certain the clues we're after are in this book." he explains, toying with the weathered cover. "Hisoka made me promise not to read it, and that if I have to, I can never tell him what I find. But even fearing the worst, I have to know if I hope to save him from this."
Looking painstakingly into Tatsumi's clear, blue eyes, as if the mere thought burns his fragile heart, Tsuzuki finds the resolve he needs to continue.
"Will you help me, Tatsumi?"
With a kind smile and nod of acceptance to Tsuzuki's difficult proposal, Tatsumi settles in closer to the young man beside him. Slowly, Tsuzuki opens the journal, and in moments the darkness outside seeps its way in, throwing all the world into chaos.
*****A/N*****
Long time no write, huh? So Sorry. I was in Europe for three weeks, and then I had to move into my dorm, and everything was crazy. However, I fully intend to finish this. Hope you like. Next is showing what happened between Hisoka and...well, who do you think it was? *evil snicker* Love you!