Author's Note: Uh...
Thanks to those who reviewed. As always, your encouragement keeps me writing.
Between Dawn and Death
"When a man dies, his secrets bond like crystals, like frost on a window. His last breath obscures the glass."
- Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
Chapter 4
You have allowed yourself to become weak.
Please...
You have undone all that I have worked for. What happened to your heart of stone, Ken? WHAT HAPPENED?
I beg you...
No matter. We can start over. I can make you strong again. All shall tremble in fear at the whisper of my name. OUR name.
Kaiser...
And Ishida shall be by our side. Only his beauty is deserving of the power we hold.
Don't hurt him...
How much longer can you resist me, Ken? How much longer can you keep me locked here in the darkness?
Oh God, Yamato. Get away from me. Get away...
OOOOOO
The world had changed. Or perhaps, the world had stayed the same. Only he had changed. Yamato sighed gently, tapping his pencil lightly against the blank page in his notebook. Around him, over him, the teacher's voice flowed away.
Life droned on, one second at a time. Live a day, lose a day. Sooner or later you will have no more days to lose, no more days to live. It's called death. Sorry, time's up.
How pointless then, to spend his seconds, his minutes so mechanically. He ate. He slept. He walked as if in a daze. He wrote songs. He sang. He went to school. He sat in class. Then he ate again, slept again, walked circle after circle of the same events, the same movements. Colors dulled. Everything felt...grey.
They have a name for this too, he supposed. It's called depression.
Tired of living already? How sad. You are barely seventeen.
"Ishida."
He blinked. Once, then twice. The class stared at him.
"Yes?"
"Please answer my question."
He shifted casually. No one could beat Ishida Yamato at hide and seek.
"I'm sorry."
"You haven't been paying attention for the last fifteen minutes."
"I'm sorry."
The teacher sighed and turned back to the board. "See me after class."
A nod, nothing more. He never tried to explain himself. What was the point, anyway?
The teacher didn't look up as he approached her desk after class. "Yamato."
He straightened. "Yes."
"What happened?"
He blinked.
"You were doing so well. What happened to make your marks drop so? You used to pay attention in class, too."
He didn't say anything, just stared back calmly until she looked away.
"Fine, I won't push you, but I will also not tolerate this lack of effort. I teach an advanced class. Get a tutor, pull your grades up, or you are out."
"I don't need a tutor."
She studied his face for a moment. "Get one, or I will assign one to you. Plenty of girls would love to tutor Ishida Yamato, no?"
He gritted his teeth. Even the teachers knew of his unwanted popularity. Life sucked.
He didn't answer, just walked away. She didn't need him to say anything, because they both knew she had won.
OOOOOO
"Why won't you ask him?"
"Why won't you leave me alone?"
"Onii-chan, do you really want some love-sick girl to help you with advanced Chemistry?"
"That's for me to know and none of your business."
"What are you so afraid of?"
Yamato leaned back against the tree trunk, his legs dangling gracefully from the branch he was perched on. He closed his eyes and let the cool breeze play with his golden hair. "I don't ask favors."
"Ken is a friend, Oniichan, friends help each other out."
"Is that so?"
Takeru let out a long sigh of frustration and turned to leave.
"TK."
"What?" He grit out.
"Mom and dad has both given up on me. Why not you?"
He whirled around to stare coldly at his brother. "If you would just open your eyes and look for once, Oniichan, then maybe you'll see all the people in this world who truly love and care about you."
Yamato showed no sign of movement, but his lips curved ever so slightly in the beginnings of a smile. "You still love me?"
"Of course I do. Just as you love me, Oniichan. Family, that's what we are until the end. And don't you dare forget it." He left then, left without looking back. This was how he missed the full smile on Yamato's lips.
Ishida Yamato rarely smiled. But even angels could not smile like that.
OOOOOO
"I see." Ken tensed.
Trouble.
"He's too proud to ask you himself, so I'm asking for him. Would you tutor my brother? I'm sure he trusts you more than some clingy fan girl. I mean, you'd never jump him, or anything."
Oh Takeru, how wrong you are...
I'm going to say no.
Oh Ken, how stupid you are...
Anything to keep him away from YOU.
Like you have any hold over me.
Laughter echoed in his head. Ken watched in horror as his mouth moved to form the words.
"Sure, I'd love to."
OOOOOO
He was wearing a neat blue shirt, black jeans, white socks.
Beautiful.
"Come in." A turn of his head, golden bangs falling lightly over blue eyes, a hand loosened from the open door, and his scent carried over on an invisible breeze as he walked gracefully into the kitchen.
Ken trembled.
"Tea?"
He can be yours. Reach out. Take him.
"That's all right."
Take him.
"Thanks for coming, Ken."
Take him!
OOOOOO
"The C-H bonds in methane?"
"Sp3 hybridized."
"What about when carbon forms a double bond?"
"Unhybridized p orbital, 3 Sp2 bonds, double bond made of one pi bond and one sigma bond."
Ken smirked. "You know an awful lot for someone whose grades are slipping."
Yamato shrugged. "I said I didn't need a tutor."
"Your teacher disagrees."
A thin line formed over his lips. "Sure does. But then that's why you are here, right?"
Deep blue eyes looked straight at him, piercing in their brightness.
So fierce. Yet so delicate. Are you really just going to let him go?
"Right." Ken looked away. "I better be going then. Same time next week?"
A nod of confirmation.
Ken paused as he saw Yamato put away his notes and pick up his guitar.
"Are you going to practice now?"
Another nod.
Long fingers caressed the strings gently, as if touching a lover. Ken couldn't move away, couldn't tear his eyes away. Yamato's eyes were closed, his mind already somewhere else.
His throat suddenly dry, Ken asked a question no one had ever dared ask Ishida Yamato before. "Cou...could you sing a song...for me?"
Slowly Yamato turned, slowly his eyes opened, studying the younger boy intently for a moment. "I have a concert tonight," he said finally. "I'll get you a free ticket."
Anger. Jealousy. They burned white hot in his chest as he turned without a word and walked away.
Because deep down, Ken knew Yamato would have sung for Taichi.
OOOOOO
Author's Note: Aww, aren't they just so cute?
Rubisco. Is. An. Enzyme.