The rest of the world was in black and white, but we were in screaming color. Vivid, bright, nearly blindingly vibrant color. Even from where I stood several feet away, I could see the way kyoya's dark eyes glimmered and shifted over me as he took me in, and in fine detail the rain slipping off his dark hair and down his face forcing him to take his glasses off and tuck them into his pocket.
"Kyoya?"
I took a small, hesitant step forward, looking around as i did so to see where we were. We appeared to be on the front porch of some rich person's mansion. Tall pillars of marble stretched from floor to ceiling, and the polished marble floor led to a grand oak door.
"Nala."
He nodded his head, before proceeding to turn around and start walking away down the porch if whatever grand mansion we were at.
"Hey! Wait! What're you doing?"
He didn't pause as he kept heading for the front door.
"An experiment to ascertain whether or not I should open the door."
"Door? Experiment? Open it for who?"
He practically snarled at my questions as he spun to face me.
"Stop it Nala. You're not making this any easier for me." His chest heaved as he sucked in deep, angry breaths. "I can't look at your bright, hopeful eyes and keep my door shut. I can't seem to avoid the knowledge that i'll open the damn door and won't be able to help you. So just leave!"
To say the least, I was a bit shell shocked. Kyoya had never spoken to me like this, but one more look at the turmoil raging in his eyes, and the anger that his words had caused in me slowly slipped away. Stepping forward till I was directly in front of him, I placed a hand on his shoulder, feeling the muscles tense under my hand.
"Kyoya," I sighed sadly at the look of anger and frustration on his face. "You have this incredible gift, and you don't try to change what you see. You have the ability to meet your visions half way in real life. You don't have to wait for them to slam into you as hard as they can. You can fight back! The thing is," I looked straight into his flashing eyes. "Do you have the courage to take charge of the future and what you see?"
It appeared to be his turn to be shell shocked.
"Nala..."
"Mm?"
He reached out and touched my face, running his hand through my now damp hair. His fingers were oh so soft and a small involuntary shiver ran through me at his touch.
"You're actually here...you came into my vision."
I blinked...how did he know? For all he knows I'm a figment of this dream he's in. As if I'd voiced My thoughts out loud, he answered them.
"First of all," he held up a finger, "you're in color, the visions almost never are, and never people. Unless, they're actually in the dream with me. Secondly," another finger went up. "You can touch me, and I can touch you, I can't touch my visions. I can only watch and listen to them."
"Oh." I blinked as I shifted uneasily under his stare. "Well that's awkward."
He surprised me, by laughing. Throwing his head back, the shadow king shocked me completely by full on laughing at my statement. His eyes were shut, his shoulders shaking, and chuckles, warm and happy, was escaping him. The sight of the normally calm, and composed Kyoya having a moment like this was enough to make me question my sanity. Maybe i'm unconscious and having a nightmare? Weirdly, that didn't appear to be the case after i pinched myself and nothing happened. Wow… I stared in shock at Kyoya. Finally, he must have felt my stare, because the chuckles slowly subsided, and he straightened his shoulders, his regular, rigid composure sliding back into place like a switch had been flipped. However, if i hadn't known him as well as i did now, i would have missed the glimmer of humor in his eyes.
Speaking of his eyes…
"OOTORI YOU TOOK YOUR GLASSES OFF!" Dashing forward i grabbed his face between both of my hands and pulled him down to my level so i could peer into his eyes without their shield there. "You look so different! Why, i could even swear i see humanity in those big ol' eyes of your when you aren't blocking them behind your creepy, i will flash if you piss my owner off and he wants to look scary, glasses!"
I didn't even think about the awkward position i'd put us in when i pulled him down to eye level like i had until he cleared his throat.
"Miss Fuyumi."
"Yeah?"
"Nala."
"Oh! Oh! Oh!" I hastily let go and scrambled back, face flaming. "Sorry i didn't even think about that…"
He shrugged, and turned away.
"It's of no matter, now, i need to go to see this vision, if you don't mind…"
He trailed off and i got the basic idea of what he wanted.
"Right, here," I turned around, "Let me just casually walk out of your magical brain ability. Be a dear and point me to the nearest exit?"
He sighed in exasperation at me.
"The sarcasm wasn't needed Miss Fuyumi, but, i see what you mean. I guess you'll just have to come with me."
"Great! But, um, where are we going, and how do we get there?"
Another half shrug.
"I'm not sure yet, but i suggest you start walking."
-V-V-V-V-V-
We did as he suggested, walking off the porch and into the rain. It was strange to say the least. It wasn't quite as black and white as i'd first thought it to be, but rather, the colors were so very pale and subtle they were almost unnoticeable, but i did notice, that as we walked, the colors began to get brighter. I wonder what's up with that? I glanced at Kyoya, debating questioning him or not, but decided to put it on hold till we were back in the real world. So this is what he goes through when he has a vision? Just dropped somewhere and searching till he finds it? He looked so solemn as he stared straight ahead, eyes sometimes flicking around as if searching for something, and as we walked through the gentle drizzle, my respect for him doubled.
"What did you mean earlier about taking charge of what i saw and how i reacted?"
Kyoya's question startled me, and jerked me out of my own thoughts. I frowned down at the street we were walking along, kicking a pebble ahead of me.
"I mean, i guess you're able to say you really can see what will happen, but at the same time you hold the power to change it. You only see the result of one choice, but you can always, if you have the influence anyway, make the other choice, because it could result in a different ending than the sad ones you seem to have." Tipping my head back to look up at the sky, i continued. "Everyone can make a choice after they've learned what the result will be, and it's easy for them to say they could have chosen the other way after it's happened. But, you can't know what the other choice will result in before choosing it, and there's always the possibility that it will end better."
A moment of friendly, but thoughtful silence passed before he spoke.
"You're really a strong believer in changing one's future for the better no matter what, aren't you."
It wasn't a question, but i answered anyway.
"Yeah. After everything i've gone through, and am preparing to go through, i have to believe i can make it better. If it comes down to it," I sighed sadly, my voice going from thoughtful to horribly solemn, "I will fight the fates to keep my myself and my friends safe. I won't let a silly decision, or vision, change that determination."
"Are you sure you aren't just being stubborn? You can't fight fate Nala.." I could feel him narrow his eyes on me. "You're trying to stay unscarred aren't you. If you've come this far Miss Fuyumi, you'll have to let someone get hurt eventually, or it'll hurt a lot more for all of you when it actually happens."
"Ootori," i flicked a glance at him, to find him already watching me. "You need to reject all your common sense, like that, to make the impossible possible. I threw my common sense out of the window at the age of nine, and i learned to believe in six impossible things before breakfast, every day, just so i could make it through. If i had your common sense, i wouldn't be here right now with you. You need to relax a little, and unwind, otherwise you'll never be able to see your second options."
He shrugged with a small chuckle.
"I do believe, that this will always be something we disagree on Miss Fuyumi."
I smirked up at him.
"Yeah, i think so too."
We fell back into a companionable silence, still walking through the familiar, yet different streets of the town of Ouran. The world around us was dark, even the low glow of the moon through the clouds wasn't enough to brighten it too much, yet as we walked, the colors were still becoming more and more discernable and bright.
"You know," Kyoya tipped his head to stare at me, eyes narrowed in thought. "I heard an argument go on in class between several male students the other day. Knowing your views on feminism, i thought you'd like to hear it to prove them wrong."
I grinned wickedly.
"i would like nothing more. Can i go to your class and confront them tomorrow?"
With a nod, Kyoya began telling me the story, finally summing it up with the boys final point and question.
"His final piece was this, 'Feminists say that if they walk around naked and get raped, it's not their fault. Let me ask you this, if you owned a bank and left the doors wide open with no security and you got robbed in the middle of the night, is it the robbers fault or yours?'"
My jaw had been tensing throughout the entire story at the boy's idiocy, but at this 'final point', my jaw dropped.
"Are you kidding me? Are you freaking kidding me? What an idiot! Literally the robber's fault! They walked in and took something that wasn't theirs! Dur, now it's stupid to leave the doors open, but are you kidding me? The robber should have the decency and common sense to know better than to just take it!"
My companion, nodded, but before he could respond, he seemed to tense up and stopped where he stood.
"We're here."
His words were quiet, but there was a sense of dread, as if he knew the vision wasn't going to be pretty. This is when things got real weird.
The street went black, street lights flickering before finally giving up the fight and going out with a sizzle and a crack. I took a step closer to Kyoya, my own body tensing as an indistinguishable feeling of dread slid over me as i suddenly saw a young woman hurry by us in the dark. It was obvious she was homeless. Her figure was all bones and skin, her hair limp and scraggly, but it was her eyes that brought tears to my own. Lack of food had made them sink back down into her face, dark circles smudge beneath them, but it was the look in them that was heart wrenching. They were so full of fear, despair, and an absolute brokenness that made me take a half step forward with my hand extended to her before Kyoya grabbed my shoulder and tugged me back next to him.
"You can't help her." His own voice was colder than ice, and so hollow as he spoke. He's tried to before...how many times has he seen this? And struggled to help them? Not even having someone there to help him through it? He does this alone so much….
Tears pooled in my eyes, but before i could speak, a ragged scream broke the air, Kyoya's hand tensed on my shoulder, but i felt no pain, only shock, and fear as a scream of my own ripped past my lips at the creature that reared up out of a small side alley, and ripped the woman into shreds. The last thing i saw, was her broken eyes go glassy, and the boots of a man walking up the road calling for the monster to 'heel and not attack the civilians' before we were ripped out of the vision.
I came to screaming, because not only had i seen the Waru kill an innocent woman while i stood there helpless, but a man had controlled the monster, and that man had been Officer Tokiya of the Ouran police department.
**Author's note**
Yes, i totally admit i'm slightly everywhere with this, but please trust me when i say i have a plan! I'm going places with this, and everything is going to tie together eventually, i'm just trying to pull all my loose ends into a metaphorical single thread. But, what did you guys think? See! I didn't forget Tokiya! And he's controlling one of the Waru? What? Also, what did you think of Nala being in the vision? Did that make sense? Or was it too confusing?