Warnings: much, much profanity (for those of you with no brains, that means lots and lots of cursing)
After restraining Yukiko in Farfello's spare straitjacket, and resolving a small fight (read: large, bloody, and wholely amusing fight involving rather bloody nails on Yukiko's part) between Farfello and Yukiko over the straitjacket, Ken and Yohji were incredibly tired and lying on a couch, keeping an eye on the people on the room. Aya had gone off to warn his boyfriend, while Schuldig and Brad were videotaping Yukiko cursing and spitting at them.
"I bet we can make a bunch of cash off of this!" Schuldig cackled after Yukiko released a rather colorful string of words. Crawford, who was doing it only because his boyfriend was happy about it, even chuckled when she threatened to cut off "little Braddy".
"Only if you can get out of that, little girl." Brad smirked. "We have these custom-made for Farfello. You have zero to little chance of escaping."
"YOU BETTER LET ME GO RIGHT NOW, OR YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO FUCK YOUR LITTLE BOYFRIEND AFTER THIS, YOU BASTARD! I HAVE A RIGHT TO PROTECT MY OMI FROM THE LIKES OF YOU!" She screamed, still struggling to get out. Ken was mildly worried because she was actually making progress.
"Aw..." Schuldig cooed. "Someone has a crush!"
"I DO NOT, YOU DAMN BASTARD! GO FUCK YOURSELF! OMI'S MY BROTHER IN EVERY WAY BUT BLOOD, AND DAMN IT ALL IF I'M GOING TO LET YOU PUT HIM IN A COMA WITHOUT SHEDDING SOME OF YOUR BLOOD!" Yukiko screamed.
"My..." Brad mused. "She has quite the mouth, doesn't she? America certainly has much profanity these days. Say, Schuldig, why don't you poke around a bit? There's got to be some reason she's so overprotective. I've a feeling there's something more."
His lover smirked and nodded. A few seconds later, he gasped.
"She...she can block me!" Schuldig said, staring at the screaming little girl in the white straitjacket. She stopped struggling for a moment and flashed a bright, insane smile at him.
"It's not me." Yukiko said sweetly. "Sugar means mental block on all sane thoughts. Unless you're insane yourself like I am, you can't read my thoughts." And she began laughing evilly.
Ken gulped and wrapped his arms tighter around his lover.
Brad rolled his eyes.
"We'll find out sooner or later, she's too stu--KYAAAAAH!"
Yukiko had struggled free of the straitjacket and pounced.
Ken and Yohji groaned.
"Can you handle this, Schuldig?"
The German looked at the tangle of limbs, nails, and blood on the floor, and rolled up his sleeves.
"Hang on, baby! I'm coming to save you!" And he dived in.
Even after he had gotten out of bed, Omi still could not believe Aya was his boyfriend.
The picture of Aya and Nagi under the pink sakura blossoms was now of him and Aya, and there were several other pictures, too, like when the whole group went to the beach. And under Yohji's bed he found some pictures of Ken in...never mind.
He practically squealed with joy every time Aya touched him, and smiled at the cute sight of Farfello trying to be affectionate with Nagi. But...even though he was happy in this dream world, there was only one thing missing, and that thing had been the most important part of his life when Aya wasn't his lover.
Yukiko.
Her email was gone from his contacts, and there was no one by her character's name on Maplestory. No one knew who she was, or remembered a little girl four years younger than Omi from a long time ago. It was as if she had never existed.
Even Aya didn't know her, and he had the best memory of the group.
Since they had targeted her once, Omi thought Schwartz might remember her, but no one did.
Maybe, in this world, Yukiko never existed.
It was possible, he speculated. In his fantasies, he had not once remembered to use Yukiko. She was too far away in America, even though he learned English just to converse with her through email. (She was horrible at kanji and hiragana--being born and raised mostly in China, she often mistook Japanese characters for Chinese and could not read a simple book without being confused, but English was perfect for her.)
But still, it was hard without the sunny hyperactive girl. He had no more help in Maplestory anymore, and although he couldn't pour his heart out to her about Aya, they were having a highly competitive online email chess match that had just reached its climax.
Aya gently kissed Omi's cheek as the young man was washing the dishes, looking deep in thought.
"Something wrong, Omi?" He asked softly. "You've been rinsing that plate for over two minutes now."
Omi shook himself from his thoughts and kissed his love.
"No, nothing. Just thinking, that's all." He said truthfully. The redhead shrugged and squeezed Omi around the waist once, and left.
After he had finished, Omi lay down on the couch to think some more about Yukiko, and then something reached his ears.
"We love you, Omi..."
"...please come back to us." Yukiko whispered, holding her friend's hand, sober for once.
Brad was having his wounds tended to by Schuldig, who hadn't fared too well against Yukiko either, although, the damage was halved for both of them. They all left Yukiko alone with Omi's sleeping body.
"I don't care that Aya doesn't love you the way you love him, you can be Omi without him, Omi. Please, Omi. Wake up." She squeezed his hand one more time, and then stood up to leave.
Then the sunny-haired girl paused a moment, and looked back. Yukiko leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
"Things change, Omi," she whispered in his ear. Something changed on the screen that was monitoring his states of consciousness. "You musn't give up hope before it's too late, lest you miss something."
Aya watched the blonde lean over Omi, her back to him, and he felt his fists clench. She was probably kissing him, wasn't she?
She said she didn't have a crush on him, didn't she? And there was a four year age difference--of course. But Aya-chan didn't age while she was in her coma, so if Omi stayed in his coma for two of three more years--he shook the thoughts away. Why was he even thinking about Omi's love life? He had his own lover.
A small hand touched his, and he turned to see a smiling Nagi, who was also looking.
"She doesn't look very dangerous," Nagi remarked, but then looked at one of the bandages on Aya's face."But then again, looks are decieving."
"Yes," Aya thought, looking at Nagi's sweet face, and then the personality that lay behind it. "Yes, they are."
Omi heard the entire message, and he felt the faint brush of lips against his cheek.
"Oh no!" He realized. "If I can feel that, it means I'm going to wake up soon!"
But then, he could see Yukiko!
But was seeing his best and most trusted friend really worth Aya's love? Even if...it wasn't the real Aya's?
He had to think. They could wait a few more days, couldn't they?
Atogaki: Yup, I updated. Hope you're happy, every one. I tried to make this one longer, but yeah, I'm not good with length, sorry.Please review! (There's probably going to be a wait of two months for the next update, but each review shortens it by three days!)