Insomnia

By The Eternity Dragon

Chapter Ten

The idea of intent

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In the swimming layers of lucid unconscious bubbles pricked the surface, brimming with sound and flickering of lights that lingered caressing and gentle over the skin. Small sounds like the steady intake of breath and then the gentle tap, tap, tapping of high heels on the stone cold floor. The squeak of a door as it swung heavily on its hinges and the endless rattle of a building filled with row upon row of metal beeping machines.

Kai concentrated harder, one of the bubbles bouncing lightly against the slender film that shielded him from the world of the living; he opened his eyes.

The shock of the overhead light blazing down into his dazed and unsuspecting pupil sent a searing pain down his eyes and shooting through his spine, he swore and shielded his eyes with the back of his hand muttering curses into the soft exposed skin that resided there.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Someone was shouting outside the door, "For further testing? That has to be the most unsatisfactory answer I have ever heard-ever!"

"Well I'm sorry if my apparent 'incompetence' as you so kindly put it, annoys you but it is standard procedure after cases such as this." He recognised this voice, it was Justine, in her clipped pissed of tone, hands on hips, long blonde hair screwed back into a tight bun green eyes scintillating anger and being challenged.

"So you get a lot of these kinds of screw ups then do you?" the other person bit back, Kai heard her sharp angry intake of breath and the hissing reply that stuck like a snake after it, "I'm afraid I will have to ask you to leave now."

"Not until I can see my brother first!" the person snapped, "How you were licensed by the BBA I shall never know, I can assure you Mr Dickenson will be hearing of your 'standard procedures'."

"You can blackmail me as much as you want Mr Granger, that doesn't change the fact that Tyson will still have to be kept for overnight surveillance regardless of your objections. I and the company are bound by law to protect his welfare as the accident happened on our premises; there is nothing you can-"

"Well, you are obviously doing a very good job of protecting Tyson's wellbeing aren't you?"

At this Kai sat up, and then quickly wished he hadn't as the surroundings swam in a technicolor ribbon of lights that seemed to wrap around his head in a blinding headache.

Where the hell was he?

Looking about him, at the hospital bed and the drip attached to his arm, the white walls and the plush sofa at the opposite end of the room he gathered he had been taken up to the infirmary. His mind sped back to the basement and the blue lights and that high eerie screaming, and wondered numbly when he had blacked out, and his mind wondering back still further ached to know where Tyson was, little bubbles bursting like Champaign across his mouth and body.

I told him about Insomnia…

He wished Tyson were here now, or even Tala, he hated hospital rooms with their queer sterilised smell of old disinfectant, the hard fabric of the covers and the itching of the material against his skin.

They were still arguing across the hall, Justine really was loosing her temper; probably fighting the urge not to dig her nails into her formidable other's eyes.

"I have told you," she was grinding out between her pearly teeth when the bickering stopped, another voice joined the throng, "Hiro," it said in assuaging tones,

"don't be an ass and pick on Justine, I'm fine really. I just got a bit of a shock that's all, it's Kai I'm worried about, he was the one who blacked out."

"Well what happened?"

There was a quick pause, as if Justine and Tyson were exchanging quick looks with each other, "The circuits blew out on the basement floor that's all." She said, "The fumes are non-toxic but sometimes people can have or develop an allergic reaction to it; that why we want to monitor him overnight in case he shows any symptoms."

"Shouldn't he be in a hospital then?" replied Hiro in an I-don't-believe-you-for-one-second sort of voice.

"Legacy has some of the leading authorities in these areas in the world, he's far better off here in our medical facilities than anywhere else."

"I'll be fine!" Tyson chirped in, in what can only be describe as such a positive voice the sun must have cracked open the roof as shone its golden rays right across the corridor and started whistling.

"Erh, yes, he'll be fine." Justine said, in a rather disconcerted manner as though she had seen golden sparks coming out of Tyson's ears and heard the whistling sun.

It took a further few minutes for Hiro to be fully persuaded, but after a long sigh he finally went, dubiously it would have to be admitted and giving Justine one of the dirtiest looks she had ever received. When she finally deemed it quiet enough to open the door she strode in hair slightly askew, the arms of her white coat pulled high over her elbows and an agitated indignant look running up and down her face.

Kai bit back a smile that surfaced in his lavender eyes.

"Oh, you're awake now are you?" she snapped, moving to the side of the bed and taking a reading from one of the beeping machines, "I hope you enjoy giving us all heart attacks, I'll have you know I have spent the better part of my afternoon bickering with everyone and everything on your behalf."

"Well I'm very sorry to hear that."

"So am I." she snapped, and leant over him, her visage changing vividly as she looked down hard at him, taking into account his pale skin and the dangerous intensity of his eyes, fringed by those impossibly long lashes dancing like black feather across his cheeks each time he blinked, like a child, curiously disarming.

He looked calm, calmer then she had ever seen him before in fact, the bubbling anger that had been simmering away beneath his passive face had died and gone, blowing away as deftly and quickly as a dry brittle leaf in the wind.

"Are you all right Kai?" she asked gently, unsure of what to expect, certainly not that smile, it made her stomach flip and her heart beat a little faster at the clear generosity in those violet eyes.

"I feel fine."

There it was again that gentle tone she wasn't used to, she steadied her thoughts and moved on, "I'm going to send you in for scans first thing tomorrow morning, fortunately I don't think it's had any deteriorating effect on your, ah, mental state. All your blood tests came back normal, well, apart from your adrenaline count, which hit the roof! No wonder you blacked out, any higher and I think you might have been in danger of a heart attack."

He didn't answer for a moment, until a piece of her long hair slipped across her face, resting before her eyes as he reached up, tugging it gently and pushing it back behind her ears in a soothing manner that was so unlike him.

"I think I told him, Justine, about Insomnia."

"Ah," she answered quietly, a peculiar lump caught in her throat, "I thought you might."

"But I didn't," he continued, his eyes glancing up to meet hers, "tell him that you-"

Justine shook her head and closed her dazzling green eyes, pressing her tired fingers against her lips in a threadbare smile, "Thank you Kai." She told him wondering dimly how her eyes had become so bleary.

"And I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, you didn't know."

She laughed grimly against the soft fabric of her coat sleeves as she wiped her eyes, and wondered how it was that today he could be so totally at ease with himself, now she realised why Tala, after sitting for sometime in here with Tyson had made a quick exit with a peculiarly vivid expression of bitterness on his face.

The door swung gently open and Tyson stood half in the room half in the corridor, his expression curious and nervous all at the same time, as his eyes linked with Kai's, a little prickle of electricity seemed to simmer through the space between them.

"I'll go shall I?" Justine asked, more to herself than anyone else, as she was sure they weren't listening, she was smiling again as she left the room and closed the door behind her, everything was falling into place just as she had expected it to do.

"Hey."

"Hey."

The silence that slipped between them here was not so much awkward as intense, for a while neither of them spoke, Tyson sat down by the bed, placed his arms on the rail and leant on it, his high shoulders raised, his head tilted and his mouth compressed, slightly pouting, slightly smiling, slightly sad.

Kai watched him, drinking him in, not caring if he said or did nothing, just to be near was enough, just to see was more than enough.

"You really scared me you know." Tyson breached finally, his eyes not on Kai but the bedcover, "You were talking to me one minute, and then you were gone the next, like smoke just drifting between my outstretched fingers. I didn't know if you were dead, I-I panicked. I really panicked Kai," he laughed, "I didn't know what to do! I was so hopeless!"

"What did you do?" the words where still, silent, almost melodious, his eyes were dark Tyson thought, dark and unclear, almost stormy, the lids partly closed as if in laziness, pupils blacker then a starless sky. His gaze; never moved from his face; it was an intent look, an expression he thought he recognised from years ago on that perfect afternoon.

"I waited, in the dark, with you, for…ages." His own voice seeming to pluck harmonies in the unmoving hush of the room.

"Why didn't you go for help?" Tyson coloured, it seemed now the obvious choice of action to do, instead of waiting endlessly in that cold, ominous room with the walls leaning in like the pillars of a tomb. How stupid it must seem to Kai.

"It didn't occur…I wasn't thinking…I didn't…I-I couldn't leave you there…I couldn't ever leave you…." His voice trailed off and he flushed deeper, right to his toes, consciously aware of the fact that Kai was still looking at him with such intensity in his eyes, that beautiful mouth drawn into such a perfect line and his eyes scrutinising every inch of his face.

"I must sound like such an idiot." he said biting down on his bottom lip and blinking hard, "anyone else would have been much more calm and collected I'm sure. I mean really it was quite a silly-"

"I don't care what anyone else would have done." Kai said suddenly in a pained voice, and leant forwards in one fierce swift motion and kissed Tyson hard, probing his lips open with his tongue as his hands cupped the sides of his face deepening the kiss.

Tyson gasped and felt dizzy, his own body becoming limp and pressing for solid warmth against Kai, laughing a little as they broke apart and not caring for the heated blush in his own cheeks and not seeing the bright sparkle in his own eyes.

"Justine told me I was supposed to make sure you rested."

"I am resting; I'm lying down aren't I?"

"With your eyes closed Kai."

Hiwatari smiled an elusive expression that caught Tyson by surprise and left him breathless and yearning; there was something about the expression that demanded attention, the span and concentration of the mouth and that half lazy expression drifting half lidded, wanting and asking with each passing second.

I want to tell him, now…but the words died in his throat, he couldn't break the air of tranquillity with slanders from his own actions, he didn't want to say what Kai already half knew or guessed…from selfishness? Or merely self preservation?

The feeling of guilt washed over him and he pressed his face against Kai's neck, not wanting to see the world, or feel apart from this sensation, bitter and sweet, calm and turbulent, hot and cold.

"I want to tell you…about Insomnia Tyson, I want you to know before this-we-it becomes anymore complicated then it is already."

Don't tell me now; let me dream a little longer.

"Rest first Kai."

Tyson wondered if he shut his eyes long enough and wished hard enough if all the unpleasantness of this guilt would all wash away, he drank in Kai's warm smell and let his thoughts fade as if blown by a strong wind.

"Only if you'll still be here when I wake up."

It might be better if I felt now so you could never look back.

Hiwatari's eyes were closed when Tyson looked up to answer him, "Of course I'll be here, I'm not leaving you, remember?"

He didn't see the sad smile, or the regret in those blue turbulent oceans.

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A/N sorry this is late, and mostly mush 0o'

Thank you for the reviews! I got some lovely ones which really cheered me up...hmm, before I forget TyKa forever and oooh Tyson (shakes head)...