This is a possible alternate ending for Gluhen. Spoilers abound.
Italics first person & thoughts.
rating: PG for language.
It was a chilly day. I was chasing after Aya, on a beach. I realize vaguely, that I was dreaming, after all, Aya wouldn't be caught dead on any beach. Wouldn't want to ruin that morgue complexion he has, now would we? Well, this being a dream and all, I just kept chasing, and the faster I forced my legs to run, the farther he got away from me.
Pffft. Typical dream.
Oh, look now, he's turned into a…girl? No, no. He was next to the girl, the tree was blocking him – where HAD that tree popped up from? Do trees even grow on beaches?-and I watched as the girl with the purple braids hugged Aya and cried on his shoulder. Hey, what's going on here? Don't cry, Aya-chan everything's ok now that you're awake and Estet is gone -
Holy shit! ESTET!
With a start, Kudoh Yohji jerked awake.
The blonde opened his eyes and realized that his hand had smacked human flesh.
"Ow! So, you're awake, are you?" asked an unfamiliar voice.
Groaning, Yohji turned his aching neck to his right and saw a rather short young man with auburn hair and a round cap – hello, fashion police, a voice in the back of his head remarked – peering eagerly down at him, massaging the side of his face where he had apparently smacked the poor kid.
"Er, hi. Sorry", Yohji mumbled, not liking this situation already. He had just awoken from something that had left his body feeling like he'd taken on a Mack truck and lost, and now some kid in a beret that he doesn't know was sponging his face off with a towel. He wondered vaguely where the others were, when he suddenly remembered.
Explosion.
Wall crumbling, falling - on top of me!
"Aya!" he sat up brusquely and ignored the fact that the bare white walls of the room were now spinning, and clutched his fingers around the foreign kid's sleeve. "Where's Aya?"
The kid looked...confused?...for a moment before responding. "Ah yes, I'd forgotten that he finally told you all about that...ahh, at the supermarket. I'm afraid we've been in a bit of a bind the past few days, what with all of Weiss getting nearly blown up to bits and having to come up with a cover story for it..."
And Yohji sighed with relief, hearing that Aya was okay.
"So, who are you? No offense, but I typically don't wake up with pretty guys as young as you in my room and all". Trying to scrounge up his usual charm and not quite pulling off a grin – it came out more like a grimace.
The kid blinked a few times as though not quite
believing that the man who had only been awake for five minutes was
trying to flirt with him, before remembering to speak. "You need only
call me Pawn."
"Uhm." Yohji had no idea how to respond to someone calling himself a
pawn, thus decided instead to gaze around more closely at the room they
were in. It reminded him of a hospital room, or rather, a room that was
intended to become a hospital room but someone had decided that, just
before bringing in the stretcher and heart monitors that it would be
better off as large broom closet. He yawned and carefully stretched one
aching limb at a time. "Where the hell am I, anyhow?" He swore as he
hit his toe on the bed frame.
"You're safe, that's all that matters", Pawn responded in a neutral, but not unpleasant tone. "The rest of your teammates have been worried, they'll be happy to know you've woken up at least..." And then he halted abruptly, mouth suddenly in a thin line. "...well in any case, I've got to go make some phone calls. Just...stay put, okay? You need to rest up before you can be up and about again. I'll be back in a while with lunch after Aya returns."
And with this, he took the towel and basin and practically flew out, shutting the door quietly.
Well. That was interesting.
Yohji looked at his surroundings miserably – he was stuck in a drab bedroom with a tiny window, he had no idea where Ken and Omi were, and Aya was avoiding him by taking his grand old time at the goddamned supermarket! He wanted to go home to his bed, he wanted his head to stop hurting, he wanted to never have to think about Estet or his fight with Aya ever again, he wanted those echoing voices to stop –
Voices?
He sat up higher in his bed and pressed his ear closer to the wall. Somewhere in the room next door, broken sounds of Pawn's voice could be heard speaking in anxious tones.
"...still not doing so hot, Queen. We don't know if he'll ever be the same even if he..."
Even if I what? Yohji massaged his temples and swore. Great. Pawn and Queen. Of course, they had to be another Kritiker group with more wacky code names. Any other group would have either killed him or had him in some torture chamber by now.
"...Yes, I think it'd be best if King came to see him….mmm hmmm, yes. I understand. I'm trying my best..." the slightly muffled voice sounded more strained now, and Yohji found himself growing all the more agitated with his situation. He felt slightly guilty for eavesdropping, but the private detective and smartass assassin in him decided he had every right, in his situation, to be suspicious.
Before he had the chance to dwell on this, footsteps sounded towards his room and he quickly laid back down in the bed, trying his best to pretend that he had not just been smushing his ear against the wall and eavesdropping on someone's phone call. The feet stopped outside the room and Yohji found himself dreading the prospect of meeting more members of the Kritiker chess-team.
He needn't have worried.
A tall woman with short sky blue hair and an extremely grim expression poke her head through the doorway, and Yohji didn't think he could be so relieved to see a familiar face.
"Rex!"
"Balinese." But gods, her face was somber. Yohji had barely a moment to wonder what the inevitable bad news may be before she spoke again.
"So you're okay? How does your head feel? No, no don't move that arm so much, you'll pull the stitches!"
"So concerned. I'm fine, I think. Except...well let me think. Oh yeah…except that I have no idea where we are, I feel like death incarnate and there are weirdos with Chess piece-names watching me while I sleep." He cringed at the harshness of his words, but felt it was justified. "Where the hell is Ken anyway? Still in the hospital?" The brunette had had one of his kidneys pierced in their latest and winning battle with Estet.
Rex shook her head. "No. Pawn and the others patched you all up, we couldn't risk a hospital so soon after castle Sheol came down."
"Hrmmph. What the hell is taking Aya so long with the shopping? Don't tell me he's still mad about our fight – I figured he forgave me when he let me borrow his beloved sword." He had never seen anyone other than Aya himself use his sword, and he liked to think that his loaning it to him was a gesture of trust.
Rex shifted uncomfortably and suddenly seemed to find the fibers of her suit jacket rather fascinating. "Ahh, I'm sure he'll come around", she said softly.
Yohji was on the verge of snorting in disbelief when another pair of footsteps was heard coming towards the door. When it opened, Pawn entered, bearing a tray laden with a light broth and steamed vegetables. When Youji stared at the bland menu less than enthusiastically, Pawn gave him a sympathetic look. "I know it doesn't look great but really, you can't eat anything too hearty after not having solid food for eleven days."
With a long suffering sigh, Yohji picked up his spoon and started sipping the chicken broth. He watched the two occupants of the room subtly while eating his meal - Rex was still looking grim and didn't seem to want to leave, and Pawn had settled back into the armchair by the bed with a book, looking like he planned to resume watch over his patient.
Yohji felt funny eating in the silent room with two people. Trying a stab at small talk with the kid, he asked through a mouthful of overcooked cauliflower, "So you said Aya was at the supermarket. I take it he must be back, considering there's now food on my plate and all."
Pawn merely looked at him with that baffled expression again – but Rex shot a piercing look at him and he stammered in response, "Oh, well yes. There's food, yes. Back from the supermarket..." Rex took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly, as though mentally bracing herself for a fight.
Yohji could do nothing but stare at this bizarreness.
"Now just what the fuck is going on here? Is he still pissed at me about everything? If that's the case then just let me talk to him already, so I can get all of this settled…so things could be the way they were before." Even as he said these words, he suddenly realized that may be why Pawn was so confused about his constant questioning about Aya. Nobody outside Weiss had known about their closeness, of course Pawn was confused. Of course.
Before Rex could respond, the door opened yet again and Yohji silently swore to himself. More goddamned interruptions.
"Yo, Pawn how's he doi – YOTAN! You're awake!" Yohji felt his heart soar a bit as the brunette limped, slightly crouched and nursing his right side, over to the bed. He did a mental checkup of the former soccer-player, and decided that he looked generally fine for someone who'd suffered an abdominal wound just the prior week. Clad in a faded too-large flannel shirt but donning a familiar pair of jungle-green track pants, Ken beamed down at his blonde friend. "We were worried, y'know. Don't you EVER talk about wanting to forget us and then get crushed by a building again."
"I'll try my best not to be tempted next time", Yohji said darkly. He already felt much better now that two people he actually recognized were in the room. "So how's Aya? These two" – he jerked his head over to Pawn and Rex – "are acting all shit-strange about him."
Ken's face darkened and he shot a dirty look at Rex. She returned the look with a determined one of her own. "Siberian", she said.
Uh oh.
"He seems tired", Rex said suddenly, still watching Ken. "We should let him finish his lunch in peace so he can rest. Persia will be stopping by in a few hours after his meeting."
"Oh no, you don't!" Yohji tried, failed to stand up, glaring at Rex. "You're trying to change the subject. For fuck's sake, let me talk to him and apologize!"
The look on Ken's face would have been comedic in a different situation. His eyes flickered from Rex to Yohji as he took in deep breaths. He then rested his gaze on Yohji firmly and said, "all right. Can you stand up? Let me help." He hobbled over to his blonde team mate, while Rex massaged her temples and Pawn watched the scene reproachfully. "I don't think this is a good idea" he said timidly. "I mean, you can barely walk yourself, Ken." Ken didn't answer.
"Let's go." Yohji supported himself on Ken's broader frame and shot Rex a defiant look as they slowly made their way out of the room.
Trying to suppress a wry smile at the image of they must look – Ken clutching his side and limping, he himself trembling and weak – Yohji made a mental checklist of all the things he needed to apologize to Aya for. Abandoning the recon assignment for three nights in favor of spending nights with Tsuiji, the death of Asami at the hands of the woman he'd abandoned Aya for, his betrayal at Sheol. The list seemed to go on forever, and he found himself going as far back as Neu...
It just occurred to Yohji now, that he had been a complete, utter bastard.
Ken was taking them down the hallway. The private investigator in Yohji took in the immaculate floors and walls. Then they stopped.
Ken gave him a calculating look before turning the knob and pushing the door open. Yohji's stomach flipped.
A teenage girl with dark purple braids lifted her head from the shoulder of the young man she'd be crying on. "Ken-kun", she whispered in greeting.
Oh, God.
"Ahhh, Aya-chan...you're back from the supermarket already..." Ken said quietly.
No. Oh hell, no.
Yohji's blood was pounding in his ears to the beat of the heart monitor. He sank onto the floor and took large swallows of air, trying not to vomit up the meal he had eaten twenty minutes ago. Aya-chan looked at him with huge somber eyes. He remembered his dream, the one in which he had awaken from barely an hour ago...
A hand was placed upon his shoulder and he looked up, dazedly, into Pawn's defeated face.
"Ran has yet to wake since we got you two out. He shows little brain activity."
Ran. They know him as Ran.
Beep. Beep.
Pawn knows Aya as Ran. Yohji heard his earlier eavesdropped conversation in his head. He had assumed Pawn was talking about him...
"...still not doing so hot, Queen. We don't know if he'll ever be the same even if he..."
...even if he wakes up, Yohji finished numbly.
Downstairs, Rook and Bishop glanced wordlessly at each other as they heard Yohji's scream.
/End./ Please review. Thank you for reading.