Thin as Rice Paper Chapter 11: eleven, a weiss kreuz fanfic

This as Rice Paper 11?

By Nix Winter

Notes: So sorry it took so long to update! I had the story all planned out, but just couldn't feel the solution when I sat down to write it. Now it's going to go in a very different direction. Gods save the rubies and moonlight! And please forgive me if this is small, sometimes my chapters are small when I'm struggling with blocks and stress and junk. bows

Chapter 11

Youji leaned against the wall, body shaking, hair clinging to his face and the back of his neck. Dust, sweat, outright fear flattened him and his fingers stroked the wall behind him, rough and broken cement. It was as if he could fade and be thin as a rice paper wall, far from the cries of sirens and the crying child he couldn't find in the darkness. He wanted the feeling of wanting to live again. Damn selfish of him, he thought as Tokyo was falling down around his head.

He wanted to see Aya again, with stray red hair fanning across a pale face, violet eyes intent on some innocent flower arrangement, as if that's all they'd ever been. He wanted to hear Aya's voice again, even if all Aya had to say was that he was an idiot. Life was so precious. If all he had for the rest of his life was time to think of Aya's memory, it was worth having.

There had to be someway to get close to a straight guy that hated him. And as if his soul wanted to prove that the insane suicidal urges weren't gone, he considered wooing Aya-chan, marrying her, and showing up for New Year's Celebrations with a nice bottle of sake and eyes for his brother-in-law. He could just see Aya, er Ran, now… "Shi neeeeeeee!' And that would be the end of that… blood al over his new suit, Aya-chan screaming at both of them, sword threw his gut. That was probably as close to penetration he was going to get from the red head.

A light flashed over his eyes and he shielded his face with one arm. "Hello?"

"What the hell are you doing down here," a woman asked, her voice full of authority. She came out of the darkness, a large flashlight in one hand, a medical kit in the other. "How did you get down here? Do you know how to get back to the surface?"

And quite suddenly, Youji realized he didn't know how he'd gotten where he was. He had been going home to the Koneko. He'd been going to try to talk to Ran again. And then… the ground had started rolling, building parts rained down on him, and he'd… he squinted… he'd heard a child crying in a building. No seen a child hanging from a window. And then… he wasn't sure. "I don't know how I got down here. I saw a child, and then I was here."

"Christ," she said, and then he could completely pick out an American accent, west coast. The flashlight's light hit him in the eyes again and again and she leaned close. "I'm Dr. Kimberly Ashton. I'm part of the Children's Hospital. Did you hit your head? Can I look?"

"I'm fine," he said, willing it to be true.

"Damn it all," she snarled, raking the light over him. "Are you a patient? What's your dx?"

"I am not a patient. My name is Youji," he said, pausing, frightened because he couldn't remember his last name. He couldn't remember… something important. He just remembered Ran, and his friends he worked with at the flower shop. He remembered that he'd decided he wasn't going to starve himself to death, but not why he'd wanted to do that in the first place. "Do you have any food on you?"

She blinked. "We have some emergency supplies. There are 9 child patients. They were all outpatients. We were in the elevator when it dropped."

"Are the kids hurt?"

"There were 11 when we started," she said, aggressive, as if she blamed him, in some way. "It's not your fault though. Come on. Can you walk?"

"Of course," he snapped back, as if he blamed her, swaying on his feet as soon as he left the wall. She grabbed him and pulled him close. "I'm just a little hungry."

"Right. Youji. Just starving to death. Do you have an eating disorder?"

He was about to ask if she thought she was a doctor or something, but he guessed she was. "No. I don't have an eating disorder. Not anymore. Do you have a cell phone? I need to call someone."

"No signal down here. When we find our way backup, you're welcome to use my phone." She kept her arm around his waist, holding him close, more medical than any kind of kindness really.

"Deal."

Aya watched the building shake. He stood there in the street, ignoring the fire truck that raced behind him. He had no reason to suspect Youji was in that building, and yet it was as if he could feel Youji pulling at him. Or maybe it was just watching the coming disaster as the building began to shudder and fall in on itself.

A flash caught his attention again, and he realized he'd seen it already, which is what had drawn his attention to the building. His gut told him that there was a swordsman in that about to fall building. And that Youji was in there. Somewhere.

Note: Will try to update soonest!