Author's Notes: I got bored at work on Halloween. Thought of this.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Immortal Beloved
Chapter 1: Talking Stiffs
"You know what, sometimes I think you spend more time with the dead than the living."
Misao looked up from behind the nurses' station, raising a brow at the comment made from one Takani Megumi M.D.
Misao merely rolled her eyes and took the Sour Apple Blow Pop out of her mouth.
"I'm a pathologist, Megumi-san. It's my job to hang out with dead people. And besides, I'm thinking of hooking up DSL and a satellite link TV in the morgue and some recliners."
Megumi shook her head.
"Very funny Misao-chan. But really, when was the last time you had a date?"
Misao made a mocking thought expression.
"Hm, probably when Kaoru-chan set me up on a blind date with your boyfriend!"
The year before, Misao's best friend Kaoru had arranged for her to meet Sagara Sanosuke, who was Kenshin's friend. The two met and ate dinner, but really didn't hit it off romantically. Sanosuke was too much of a brother to her.
Which worked out well since three months later he met Megumi and they did hit it off.
"Well maybe you need to get out there and meet some people...living people. Really, Misao-chan, you work fifty or more hours a week and when you aren't here you're lounging around your house watching anime."
"Yes and it's such a comfortable living, but you forgot the part where I get weekly gigolo visits and make boyfriends out of strippers!"
Megumi's mouth twitched into an almost smile.
"Very cute oh Genki Shinigami. I should set you up with that Yukishirou guy from Radiation."
Misao's almost choked on her gum.
"To hell with that! He's got a freaky complex about his sister and he makes me nervous."
"Hmmm..."
"Megumi-san stop. I don't need your help."
"I guess like your patients, your social life is DOA."
"At least I didn't scream when I got locked into the morgue as part of traditional hazing." Misao commented and Megumi frowned.
Biting into the remnants of the lollipop part of the candy, she began chewing the gum and cursed when her pager went off.
"Well geez ladies, I'd love to stay and chat, but I got to get my butt back to the morgue. I've got an incoming stiff from that autos versus pedestrian."
"What time do you get off tonight?"
Misao sighed.
"I don't. Ironically got the graveyard shift tonight since Okon took the night off to have sex and sake with the Lush King Hiko."
Megumi sighed.
"Figures. Well off to the dead zone with you."
"I'm going." Misao called out, hopping into the elevator and yawning. She made a note to stop at the soda machine for a quick caffeine booster. Putting her hands in her lab coat pockets, she waited for the familiar ding and stepped out, walking down the cream colored hall to the steel double doors and into the black and blue tiled morgue.
Her black sneakers shuffled quietly against the floor as walked to her desk and sat down, flipping through the file folders on the desk.
Rubbing her neck, she finished up on her reports when the doors opened and two orderlies rolled in with a corpse.
"The autos versus pedestrian?"
"Yeah. Apparently he ran into traffic and pushed a kid out of the way and got hit himself." the orderly Shiro murmured.
"That's terrible." Misao murmured as they placed the body bag on one of the exam tables.
"Yea. Makimachi-sensei, how many is that for you tonight?"
"Just this one so far. Thankfully it's been a quiet night." she murmured.
"Must be weird working with dead people."
"Indeed it must. But I find them easier company sometimes." she quipped back, shooting a glare at Shiro as she walked over to the exam table.
She unzipped the body bag half way and was slightly startled by the pale corpse. He was..or had been a handsome man. Young too. She guessed mid-or late twenties early thirties.
"Well doc, we'll leave you to it, Kuro here and I need some java."
"Lucky bastards." she muttered as she waved goodbye.
She cracked her knuckles and set up her tools as she hummed. She grabbed her medical goggles and slapped on a pair of gloves and grabbed a face mask.
"Well Mister whoever you are, at least you saved a kid." she murmured as she unzipped the body bag all the way as the fabric fell away she had to gasp out loud.
Even wounded...the man was gorgeous.
Tall, athletically built....
She was almost afraid to touch him to perform an autopsy. To defile such a tragically lost beauty....
She took a deep breath and exhaled.
"It's really a shame you're dead, you're quite handsome. I wonder what you were like when you were alive. Probably a model...or a J-rock singer." she mumbled as she picked up a scalpel to prepare to make a Y-Incision.
She hesitated and with shaky fingers trace the contour of one cheek.
"I wonder what your name is."
As she the blade made the first contact with skin, Misao was startled as a hand gripped her wrist tightly, jerking the scalpel out of her hand and with a gasp she turned her head to meet a pair of icy blue eyes.
"Who are you?" Aoshi asked, his voice strained.
For Misao, who was so used to talking to corpses and never expecting a reply, it was too much as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she passed out, hitting the floor with a thud.
Aoshi sat up slowly, stretching sore muscles as the wounds on his body healed. He look over at the young doctor on the floor and frowned.
He had been careless. Getting into that accident...but he could not ignore the child in danger. He had not been awake when the paramedics came, when they pronounced him dead, when he was stripped and put into a body bag and presumably brought here to the morgue.
He heard a soft groan and watched as the doctor rubbed her eyes and sat up.
"Are you quite alright?" he asked, and watched as she quickly swung her head to face him with wide eyes as she immediately scurried backwards until she slammed against the morgue wall, hyperventilating. She threw her goggles and face mask off and tossed them at him.
"W..Wh...What the hell! You're dead...this can't..this is a dream!" she said, pinching her hand and murmuring ow.
"This isn't a dream." Aoshi said, swinging his legs over the table and standing up, the body bag falling off as he padded towards her completely naked in all his pale perfection.
"H...How?" she mumbled, drawing her knees to her chest as she stared up at him.
He glared at her as he reached next to her to the coat wrack and grabbed a lab coat and slipped it on.
As he buttoned it up well enough, he grabbed Misao and pulled her to her feet.
"Your name...what is it?"
"M..Makimachi Misao."
"Well then Misao, to answer your question before you were about to cut me open, my name is Shinomori Aoshi. Now we have an unfortunate situation."
"What?" she asked, and Aoshi couldn't help but notice the way her lips puckered to say that.
"You saw. Saw me awake again..when I should be dead. The secret not meant to be shared." he said, seemingly more talking to himself than her.
"What are you?" she whispered, and caught her breath as his face was so close hers that she could see the blueness of his eyes...and the emptiness there.
"I am like you...but I currently lack the ability to die."
She blinked.
"You're immortal? That's not possible." she said, moving away from him and towards the phone.
Before she could even dial it was taken out of her hands and yanked from the wall.
She turned and faced Aoshi again, this time swinging with a punch as she tried to get away. He was fast to dodge and soon Misao found her arms pinned behind her back as she was pressed agaist the wall.
"Listen very carefully, Misao. We are now both in danger. There are others like me who want to destroy me and therefore I've made carefully sure mortals do not know about my immortality."
"I..I won't say anything. Just please let me go!"
"I cannot. You are now a part of this. You must come with me. It may not be safe here."
"I can't leave! I'm working."
"It wasn't a suggestion, it was an order. Move." he growled, leading her out of the morgue and to the elevator. He was behind her and holding her arm in an iron locked grip.
"Are you going to hurt me?" she breathed out, trying to remain calm. She couldn't possibly try to run once out of the elevator. Security wouldn't stop him. She would have to go with this strange man.
Aoshi didn't reply right away. He could scare her into cooperating... and yet he found he could not.
"No. I am not going to hurt you." he murmured. The doors slid open and he walked her out through the lobby and onto the street as he stopped.
"Do you have a car?"
"Yes. In the garage."
He led her to the garage and she directed him to where her car was. They stopped at a blue Jeep as Aoshi placed Misao in the passenger seat and asked for her keys. She reached into her pocket and gave them to him, and watched as he hopped into the passenger seat and started the Jeep. She leaned back and closed her eyes.
Aoshi thought she was going to cry and felt a trace amount of sympathy for the young woman. But she did not cry as they drove through the streets of Kyoto.
She ranted.
"Why me?! Why does weird freaky stuff have to happen to me?!! Megumi-san was right! I spend too much time with dead and now it's coming back to haunt me!"
"Oi."
"I mean maybe I don't go out that often and so maybe I talk to dead people and haven't had a date in like ages but what kind of fate is this?!"
"Oi..."
"Oh my life will be a sad headline! Kyoto Pathologist Kidnaped by Talking Corpse. I should of just gone out with that creepy Enishi guy like Megumi-san suggested.!"
As they pulled to a stoplight he grabbed her mid-rant and slammed his lips against hers, listening to her startled squeak and using it to his advantage to slip his tongue into her warm mouth.
As the light turned to go, Aoshi moved away and focused on the road, his expression neutral.
Misao was wide-eyed as she looked at him, and then back at the road.
She didn't utter another word.
"Where do you live?" Aoshi asked a moment later.
"Next to the Aoiya on Hijikata Street."
"I know where that is. Which house is yours?"
"The blue one."
He merely nodded and continued driving while Misao looked out the window. She didn't want to look at the man who had just kissed her, or think of how very good it felt.
They did not talk the rest of the way there as Aoshi parked Misao's Jeep in the driveway and got out, going to Misao's side and ushered her out and to the door of her house. Misao didn't have her purse that day and so she had everything in her cargo pant pockets.
Fishing her keys out, she unlocked the door as Aoshi gently pushed her inside and shut the door, locking it and glancing out the window.
Misao walked to her couch and sat, her hands folded into her lap.
She watched as Aoshi paced her living room, looking around.
"Where is your bathroom?"
"First door on the left in the hall."
He looked towards where she pointed.
"Do not think of running while I shower."
"Right. Run for a walking not dead guy. That would be smart."
He glared at her, not appreciating her sarcasm, but figured it was the way she dealt with the situation.
He walked into the small yellow bathroom and shut and locked the door. Letting the white labcoat fall away from his skin as he stepped in the shower and turned on the water, letting it wash away the dirt and blood on his skin and warming his chilled body.
Everything had gone wrong.
He had been so close to finding the others...and then that kid...and the cars..
He knew they'd be looking for him and now he had unwittingly dragged the young doctor into his situation. She looked quite young, but he guessed she was early to mid-twenties. And quite oddly dressed for a doctor.
She was wearing black sneakers, cargo pants, and a black tee-shirt. It was completely different from the professional image expected from a doctor. But then again, she did work only with dead people. Perhaps it was an interesting twist of fate.
Her eyes...were so blue. He knew he would never forget those eyes.
Meanwhile, Misao got up and walked into her bedroom, stripping off her labcoat and changing into a zip-up hooded sweatshirt. She was surprised at how calm she felt, and wondered what was going to happen to her.
Aoshi sounded like he was in danger, and that she was now in danger too.
She suppressed a shiver and walked out of her bedroom only to be stopped by the sight of a dripping wet, naked Aoshi.
"Y..Y..You're certainly not shy about walking around naked!" she stammered, turning to face her back to him as she reached into her closet and grabbed a towel, throwing it behind her and heard him catch it.
"You can turn around."
She did and exhaled loudly as she saw he now wore a towel around his waste, but it was not that much of a relief.
Not that she minded a half-naked man as gorgeous as him in her house...aside from the immortality and kidnaping thing.
"I..may have some clothes you can wear for now."
She left him standing there in the hall after saying that, going through her closet for a box of old clothes left from when her cousin Saitoh had stayed with her.
She grabbed a pair of black trousers and a navy shirt and a pair of boxers and handed them to Aoshi.
"My cousin's about the same height and build as you." she murmured as she walked away into the kitchen to make some tea.
Aoshi got dressed and walked to the kitchen and sat down at the table as Misao prepared tea. When it was done she set two cups down and poured. Seating herself across from him she took a sip, then lowered her cup.
"Alright dead man. Start talking. You claimed to have gotten me into something that doesn't sound good, so tell what I've gotten mixed up in."
Aoshi set his cup down and met her gaze.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
Am I evil? Yes I am!
Cliffhanger for y'all!!!!!