Chapter Sixteen

The walls of the hospital had never looked merrier. In fact, they had never looked merry at all, and to make people happy was truly an incredibly feat. One accomplished, albeit, by the help of some pretty good news.

Annie and Eiri sat in the emergency room waiting area, finally relaxing after finding out that Chase was going to be all right. They had been sitting there for a while; according to the clock in the emergency room, it was eight, earlier than Eiri had originally thought. The nurse had just come to tell them that they would be able to see him in a few minutes. Knowing this, Annie then turned her attention to the more serious matter (in her eyes) of continuing the conversation of earlier that night with Eiri.

"So…" The blond man looked up from tapping his fingers impatiently along the arm of the chair, arching an eyebrow at her questioningly.

"So…" he echoed, darting a mischievous glance over at her. But the serious look on his face made him stop snickering. "What?"

"I just thought that while we have a second, we could talk."

"About what?" Eiri was genuinely confused.

She just looked at him, shaking her head.

"Him." The special emphasis on the word made it clear to the author who she meant.

"Oh, Him…" A few seconds ticked by…

"Okay, well, what do you want to know?"

"Anything…" Eiri racked his brains for something to tell her. What could she possibly mean by anything? He hated it when people were so vague…sighing, he picked the first random thing about Shuichi that came to mind.

"Well, he had…pink hair." The author started off slow, but kept going with an encouraging look from Annie. "And, he was little, and he had the strangest eyes, but he was, well, pretty cute I guess." His cheeks turned bright red.

"And he was crazy….he took everything completely literally, he had the strongest, craziest emotions that could change in a second. His favourite colour was pink, and he'd always wear it with all these other, clashing colour, and people would ask me if he was colourblind…" A laugh escaped his mouth as he remembered the outfit that Shuichi was wearing when he first saw the boy sing on stage…that terrible, terrible orange trench coat thing. Annie looked away pointedly as he wiped at his eyes with his sleeve.

"He had the craziest sense of humour, and he would spend hours laughing at some joke on a cartoon, and at random things on the street, and I would have no idea what he was even thinking about. And then sometimes, he would come home in such a depressed mood, crying and whining, and he could see one cute character on TV and be all happy and squealing again."

"I think that he was the most honest person I have ever known…and stubborn. When he met me for the first time, I said something to him that he…uh, didn't like, and he tracked me down to tell me off about it. He couldn't stand liars, or lying to anybody. It made him so angry once, when I accused him of lying to me…he cried."

"And he was so…affected…by everything that I did. All I had to do was smile, and he'd be mooning around for an hour. But, on the other hand, if I yelled at him for doing something stupid, he would be depressed for a day. He really cared about what I said…"

A memory of Shuichi and him, sitting in a restaurant popped into mind. They were sitting facing each other, and Shuichi was wearing some silly orange bow clipped onto his shirt, and it had just sat there, mocking the author. When he had finally lost his temper, and chucked the stupid thing across the room, Shuichi started crying. But just as Eiri was about to possibly make a roundabout apology, the boy started frantically apologizing to him, saying how sorry he was that he was annoying him with the bow, and Eiri should have told him because he would have taken it off.

The blond man felt tears coming to his eyes, and he tried his best to stop them, while he also tried valiantly to continue on in his description. It made him feel so good, to talk to someone about Shuichi; it was almost like he was with him again.

"And…I just…I can't stop thinking about him…I miss him so goddamn much. It's all I can do to force myself to eat and fall asleep at night. Even then, his face is the only thing I can ever think about. I don't know how much longer I can go without breaking down and dying. I need to let him go, but I can't..."

There was a light touch on his hand; he looked up to see Annie, with teary eyes mirroring his own, looking sadly up at him. Sniffing a bit, she held his hand up to her face and gave it a soft kiss.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I wish I could make the pain go away, but I know I can't…I'm sorry I can't help you…but only you can let him go."

Briefly, Eiri thought back to a day when he would be embarrassed by displays of affection like this, even alone, and yet here he was, pouring his heart out in a public waiting room, sobbing and completely unglued where total strangers could see him and judge him. To his surprise, that he didn't really care.

A soft noise to his right caught his attention; Annie was now crying softly into her hands. He was touched that she cared so much…

"Look…" she looked over to him with watery eyes. "You have helped…a lot. Believe me." A weak smile graced her delicate features.

"Just by talking, and listening while I talk about him, it all helps." Finally, a real smile. Mission accomplished; now Eiri could smile too.

They sat there in silence for a moment, both staring off into space and thinking different things. Eiri was remembering the last few times he had been in the hospital, specifically the time that Shuichi had fallen down the stairs in his apartment building and gotten a concussion. When he had arrived, and seen Shuichi look all twisted and broken at the bottom, his heart had stopped. And it didn't go back to normal, even after the singer recovered. After that, he had insisted that the singer take the elevator each time.

"I think…" Annie began.

"Hmm?" Eiri found himself truly curious about what she was going to tell him.

"I think that…talking about him is one of the steps to letting go. You need to realize that moving on won't make you forget him, and disrespect him, but it will make you feel better…" There was a pause, and Eiri could see that she was really struggling at the moment.

"It's okay, I won't be angry…"

"…I have an idea."

"What?"

"It's kind of a surprise…"

"Oh, a surprise? Why do you think we're in this hospital in the first place?"

Annie laughed crazily through her tears. Then she began outlining her plan…without giving away any of the…finer details.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tai happily spun around the room in circle, holding on his new friends' arms, and singing as loud as possible. It was obvious that he had found a place where he belonged, reflected Dr. James. So strange that such a seemingly serious boy at first is really a five year old boy inside. It had been a while since he had discovered the boy sleeping amoung all the children at "nap" time, and ever since then, an enthusiastic Tai had woken up in the morning with a big smile on his face, and skipped over to the children's play room to spend the entire day there.

By now, the walls were partially coloured with his and the other children's handiwork; very brightly coloured streamers hung festively off the windows, courtesy of Tai.

A message blared over the P.A system, but it was impossible to hear with the amount of noise they were making. Quickly, the supervisor of the children shushed them so she could hear.

"Would Tai Retsuri, if he is in the building, please report to the front desk? That's Tai, Retsuri."

The doctor frowned, wondering who could possibly want to talk to him at this time of night. Speaking of which, it was about time that they left the children anyways to go to bed. He gathered up a reluctant boy, who said goodbye sadly to all his friends, bending down to give them all one big hug. They all grasped at him, trying to touch his shoulders, arms and face, and be the one receiving the biggest hug. Patiently, Dr. James stood at the door; he was used to this whole routine, since it happened every time they left.

Once outside, they parted ways, Tai promising to come back up to the doctor's office before going off to bed, and telling him who had come to call.

X

X

X

X

Tobias sat in a chair by the front desk of the hospital, looking incredibly awkward. Amoung the sea of sick and grey patients, he stood out like a sore thumb. Needless to say, he happily jumped out of his seat as Tai walked into the room.

Before the boy could say anything, he looked around quickly, and pulled them into the first door he could find, which turned out to be a broom closet. Tai shuddered, remembering the last time that he was in a place like this one, but he was really more surprised at the appearance of his friend. The blond boy hadn't been around since that time that Tai had woken up and Toby had been there. It confused him for a while, but truthfully, he had been avoiding talking to Toby, because he knew that eventually he should tell him about this Eiri from his dreams.

Tobias smiled at him brightly, startlingly. He leaned back against the wall, somehow not knocking over the custodian's things.

"Hey."

"Hey." They looked at each other for a while.

"Sorry I haven't been by…" Toby blushed and looked down at the floor. "I've been really busy with school and stuff." It seemed to Tai to be a weak excuse, but he hadn't exactly been seeking out the other boy either.

"It's okay." An awkward silence, and then they both spoke at once, strangely saying the same thing.

"I have to tell you something!"

"Look out!" A menacing creaking noise that originated near Tai's ears got louder and louder, but he was too afraid to look behind him. Thankfully, a tug on his shirt pulled him out of the way.

CRASH!

He jumped backwards into Toby as an entire shelf fell over directly onto the area he had been standing seconds before. Paint cans, chemicals in bottles, and everything else on the shelf went flying everywhere, rolling to a stop near the boys' feet and the door. Now, Tai found himself in an awkward situation, pressed up against Toby in an effort to not fall down over onto the broken metal pieces of the shelf.

An arm snaked around his waist, and just as Tai was about to possibly turn around and face Toby, or maybe flinch away, he felt himself being lifted up into the air and…set down beside the blonde boy, at a safe distance.

Toby took another step back, just for good measures. It confused Tai; why was his friend acting like this? He hadn't had any problem being close…before. A blush rushed up to his cheeks.

"So, uh, what did you want to talk to me about?" The blonde boy started, and looked at his nervously. He opened his mouthly wordlessly, and then shut it again.

"I…forgot. Actually, I really have to get back…now…so…um, bye." And with that, he rushed from the room, leaving a very confused boy standing amoungst the mess, mouth open, and head tilted slightly to the side.

What the hell?

"Hey, Toby! Wait up!" Trying to race out of the closet, he tripped and fell, knocking the door shut somehow, and to his immense horror, he heard a malevolent clicking sound; the sound of a door locking from the outside…

"Oh no…"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Annie and Eiri followed one of the triage nurses down the hallways, winding through what seemed like a maze of sick people, machines, assistants, and forgotten magazines. The sharp smell of disinfectant greatly irritated the author's nose, reminding him of one of the reasons that he hated hospitals so damn much.

He looked down at his feet, just in time to see a half open magazine lying right in the middle of the floor. Unfortunately, he wasn't in time to avoid it, and his foot went flying out from under him.

And he was on his ass again…funny how it always happened in front of Annie. Actually, speaking of whom, her and the nurse had vanished out of site. Eiri sighed. So nice for her to show concern; he was in a frigging hospital wasn't he? Wasn't it their job to help hurt people? He was hurt…well, mostly his pride, but…

Whatever, he knew that Annie was really worried about Chase, so he could forgive her this time. Besides, although he really didn't want to admit it, he wanted to know what the surprise of tomorrow was, and if he was in a snit about it, he wouldn't be able to go…

So, figuring that it would be all right if he just sat on the floor for a few more seconds, since there weren't any chairs nearby anyway, and there was no way he could ever find those girls in this…crazy place, Eiri pulled himself up to the point where he could lean against the wall.

What could the surprise be? Did it have something to do with Shuichi? What could it possibly be about him…? Eiri's head spun…he needed to think about something else…

"Help!" A frantic voice, seemingly right in his ear was shouting and banging and basically raising hell. Eiri jumped straight up to his feet, spinning around to find the source of the noise. For a spilt second, he had thought that it was his dead lover calling out to him, but then reality came crashing back to him. He realized that he had been leaning up against a door that had the words: "supply closet" written across it. And judging by the sounds, someone was locked in.

"Hello? Can anybody hear me? Hello?" Eiri smirked. So, at least for a moment, somebody's life was worse than his…it was almost worth smiling about. He thought about it for a second; did he really want to let this person out, or could he enjoy someone else's pain like he used to.

"Hello?" The writer tentatively called back.

X

X

X

Tai froze on the other side of the door. Somebody had come to save him! He was going to be free.

"Um, can you let me out please?"

"Well," came the mystery voice, "I'll have to think about that…what are you willing to pay?" The boy froze…that voice! It was the voice from his dreams! Like his stranger!

"Hello?" said the voice again, "Are you still alive?" Tai let out a strangled scream and threw himself against the door. He was so positive that it was the man from his dreams, the "Eiri", never mind that the person was half way around the world away from their home, and they were speaking English, with that voice, it had to be him.

"Let me out!" He screamed frantically, scratching his nails on the solid wooden door. One of them caught, and his nail tore half off of his finger, causing him to scream in delirious pain. But he had more important issues at hand, like getting the guy to open the door so he could look him in the eye. This person may be a key to his past.

Meanwhile Eiri was staring at the door with a terrified expression on his face. What was going on in there? It sounded like someone was being killed, and now they wanted him to open the door and release whatever evil was in there? No fucking way…

"Sorry, I can't let you out." He started backing up down the hallway.

"Please!" The last syllable died off in a ragged sob, as the crazy person in the closet was probably realizing that he was gone. Eiri felt bad for just a second, but now he was even more suspicious of what the person might do to him if they got out. Just as he turned the corner, he heard one last scream of frustration, and a sound like a body thudding against a hard door.

"Eiri! Come back you bastard!"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tai wearily walked through the hallways to his room. The nurses hadn't heard him screaming for about an hour after he had "talked" to that man. He realized now that it couldn't have been who he thought it was, but why hadn't that bastard helped him anyways?

The lights in the hospital were too bright; they hurt his eyes after being in the dark for so long. Finally, he reached his room where he could turn off all the lights and collapse on his bed. Too late, he remembered that he hadn't gone to go visit the doctor, but he felt sure that when he explained, the man would understand.

The tired boy was practically asleep before he hit the pillow…but unfortunately, he wasn't to have peace this night.

A gargling sound reached his ears as Toby leaned over the bed, sorrowful face streaming with tears.

"You're were the only one, Tai, the only one!" Toby's grip tightened around his hand to the point of being painful. Shudders ran through the blond boy's body as Toby cried his heart out on the bedside. The sound was inhuman….

He didn't say anything…what was there to say? He wasn't about to deny his actions.

Toby raised his head, and he saw with the first twinge of alarm that the blonde boy was now crying dark streams of red blood from hollowed out eyes. The mangled mouth twitched distortedly, moaning.

"How could you betray me? How? I thought you loved me! You took the vow! You took an oath! It meant something to me!"

The skin on Toby's hand started blistering his arm. Frantically, he tried to pull it away from the death grip, but he couldn't budge it an inch.

Flames burst out over Toby's heart, quickly consuming the rest of the crying boy's body, as well as his own.

Tai woke up tangled in the damp sheets, feeling feverish. The dream confused him to no end, but with its scary implications, he decided that it was time to make a visit to the orphanage, and tell Toby about Eiri before things got out of hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Author's note: this one I did a little hastily, and it took me a whole night, but since I was being distracted every other paragraph, it makes the story kind of go allllll over the place…

I wanted to say thank you amazingly much you wonderful people and reviewers, I'm very happy about the new system of reviewing! - but whatever, now I can see, so talk to y'all soon!