Thin as Rice Paper

By Nix Winter

Disclaimer: I don't own Weiss Kruez.

The aftershock rolled the floor under Aya's feet, staggering him back towards the door. Outside the dark of the building an ambulance screamed and a radio bleed American rock loud enough to herald the end of the world.

"Youji! " Aya screamed, not even sure now why he'd thought Youji had come in here.

A flash of dark blue, the same as Aya-chan's new trench coat, caught Aya's eye and habit had him back out the open doorway. An older woman, erect and proud, turned to smile at him. He blinked, held breath parting his lips. The entire world was surreal.

The woman's smile remained as she spoke. "Ran, I am so proud of you."

The dead know everything. Ran stared at the broken sidewalk where his mother had been. Tokyo was falling down, but Ran was falling back together. The grains of his sanity slid back into the chalice of his mind.

The dead walk the earth when the ground is torn open. It has also been said that the most sparkling moment of sanity happens right before one's mind shatters like so many sparkles in the wind. The building he'd just come back out of crumbled like a house of stone cards. Debris dropping as the structure gave way. He couldn't move, body held in a frozen chill as slender female fingers caressed up the back of his neck.

"Surely, you're not surprised to see me?" Neu asked, sexual invitation dripping from her words. "Or maybe you thought you'd kill forever and never die?"

"You!" Aya regained control of himself and spun around. "What have you done to Youji?"

"What have I done to Youji?" Asuka rolled her eyes. "I tried to warn his friends and your sister. She's not good enough for him, but I still tried to warn her. I tried to show you where he was, but did you go in and get him out? NO! You had to go and do the worst thing you possibly could!"

"You stay away from my sister! Why can't you just die and pass over to the other side? Have you been haunting Youji? Is that why he's been so sick?"

Asuka sneered. "Oh dying's not that easy, Fujimiya. And yes, I've been haunting Youji, but I'm not the only one."

"I'll get a priest and help you cross over," Aya threatened. "Leave Youji alone, Asuka, please. He loved you, and what happened is killing him. Please, Asuka, leave Youji alone."

"I will, if you will," she said, pointing over his shoulder.

Aya turned, numb, feeling like the air around him dragged, tugged at him like water. And there was his body, laying on broken pavement like a battered doll. Concrete rubbish lay against his face, cheek torn, red bright against jagged broken concrete.

"But I didn't feel a thing."

"Have you ever been strangled," she asked, now sitting on the hood of a car by where Aya's body lay.

"You shouldn't have been trying to kill us," Aya said, arms hanging at his sides, waiting for his chest to rise, waiting for some sign that his body was alive.

"Hurts like a bitch, getting strangled, but I'm not going to forgive you for getting yourself killed. All you were supposed to do was save him. If he were happy again, I could cross over, but no, you've got to stand under falling rocks."

"It's not like I meant to get my head cracked open!" Aya snapped. "Where is Youji?

"Youji is in the basement of that building that just fell on you," Asuka said.

"Aya!" Youji screamed.

Spirit form Aya felt as if his heart would have stopped when he saw Youji, cheeks sunken, dark circles under his eyes a child holding around his neck, so skinny, and he was nearly the most beautiful sight. Youji stumbled, shook as he let the child off his back, then scrambled to Aya's body.

Youji had such long fingers. Aya loved Youji's fingers, loved his wrists, the strength in him, and he wanted to make things right. He wanted to tell Youji how he felt, explain. "Youji, I was looking for you. That kiss, it meant something to me, but I wanted to be a man with honor again before I kissed you again."

"God damn, fucking stupid, Aya! What the hell did you think you were doing?" Youji pulled the concrete away from Aya's face, shaking fingers touching torn skin, smearing blood. "Aya."

Bloody fingers searched for Aya's pulse, even as the American doctor knelt by him. "Someone you know?"

Youji nodded. "It's Aya. How could Tokyo just fall down and take him away?"

Her fingers had Aya's wrist. "He's not dead, Youji. Can you carry him?"

"We should get a backboard. He may have spinal injuries," Youji said, leaning so close trying to feel Aya's breath. Americans.

"And rocks shouldn't fall from the sky. That building's still coming down and there may be more aftershocks. He's bleeding badly and I can take care of him, but I haven't got a lot of time to do things nicely. Just across the street, through the doors, and we'll find a gurney."

She was rising then, motioning for the kids to come with her.

Helpless, undecided, Youji knelt there, fingers caressing Aya's hair as sirens screamed, people screamed, cried. It was the sound of Tokyo wailing and he didn't know what to do. He'd done so many things wrong and he couldn't bare to make another mistake, to hurt Aya more than he already had.

And then there was Asuka's voice in his ear, "Just pick him up. He'll be alright, and he does love you, baby. Just pick him up, and Youji, you didn't hurt me, you saved me, freed me, and I know he loves you, so I can leave now."

"Asuka?" he whispered, but the chill was gone, away from his heart and darkness faded back like holding Aya was the bleach to clean his soul.

Aya was heavy in his arms and sweat broke out over his face as he shoved himself to his feet, but he was okay.

The doctor held the door for him and he carried Aya into the dark of a hospital running on emergency lights. It would be okay. Somehow.