Guardian Angel

Chapter 9: Unexpected Occurrences Can Ruin Your Whole Day


"So? Have you the information?"

"Yeah, it's right here."

"Well?"

"He's twenty-eight years old, and a super famous novelist…'

"Yeah, yeah, I know that already. Get on with it."

"He's currently living in one of the best parts of Tokyo. A luxurious pent house on the top floor of Teito Towers. No spouse, and currently one housemate."

"Who's the housemate?"

"Takahashi Misaki, eighteen, freshman of the Economics department at Mitsuhashi University."

"Any more information on him?"

"Not really. All I know is that he's been living there for approximately a month. Reason unknown, but he isn't paying rent."

"…"

"Sir?"

"Do some more research. I want to know everything there is to know about this Takahashi kid. Something's up. Akihiko isn't the kind of person to be letting some kid freeload off of him without some special connection."

"Yes."

"Run a background check on him, also. Is there anything else?"

"Well, there is something. This bit of information took some real digging to get. Evidently Usami paid a great deal to keep this under the radar: he's been in the hospital with serious bodily injuries for about two weeks now-"

"What? Why?"

"Apparently fell down a flight of stairs"

"Huh? Why would he do that? He wouldn't make such a careless mistake."

"I don't know, sir."

"Fine, you're excused."

With a curt bow, the butler turned and exited the room. A man sat behind a wide desk with his face in his hands and rubbing his temples, frustrated and nervous. He spun his chair around and stared out of the window that covered the entire wall at the flower garden, its many petals beginning to wilt in the late season. Opening a side drawer on his desk, he gazed in at the many books he cherished. He picked one up and stared at the cover nostalgically, remembering when it's pages were nothing but a dream in a notebook carried around by an apathetic boy who always got what he wanted, trying to fill a void. He sighed and set it down.

"Akihiko, it's been too long…"

One week later…

Misaki's POV

"So Usagi can be released today?" I asked joyfully.

"Well," a nurse mused, "he's not completely healed yet, but he's made one of the most miraculous recoveries I've seen! At this rate he should be back to normal within days."

"Good. Let's go," Usagi said, bags already in hand.

"Ah! Wait, sir, the paperwork!"

"Misaki will cover it."

I deadpanned. "Will I, now?" I sighed and the nurse led me to the front desk. I stared blankly at the sheet of paper. "Usagi! Get your ass back here, I don't know any of this!" After arguing with Usagi for another minute or so about why I didn't know his social security number even though I was his guardian angel, he ended up doing filling out the form after all, taking time to explain everything to me. (I guess so I can do it if there's a next time.) I took his stuff outside to the car that he'd called to have brought here while a doctor talked to him about the dos and don'ts of after-surgery activities. Struggling to carry all four bags, I finally managed to get to the red sports car but stopped dead when I saw someone standing beside it, eyeing a sheet of paper in one hand and holding a bouquet of flowers in the other. "U-Um… Excuse me, are you lost?" I said, shuffling the stuff in my arms so I could see him.

He looked up at me and something flashed in his eyes that I couldn't quite place. He smiled slightly and said in a very deliberate manner, "I don't think so. You see, I'm looking for someone called Usami Akihiko. I heard that he is at this hospital."

I nodded. "He is, but he's being released today." I fumbled with the keys for a second until I got the trunk open. He moved to help me put the things in.

"So you know him?"

I nodded. There was something in his voice that told me he already knew that. I examined him more closely. I thought there was something strange about his accent, but now that I looked closer, he really did look foreign. There weren't that many Japanese people with light, almost white blond hair and deep blue eyes accented by a tan complexion.

"Great! Oh yes, what would your name be?" He smiled in a friendly, earnest manner.

I was about to answer him when I heard a voice behind me say, "Huh? Brice, what are you dong here?" I turned to see Usagi standing there, puzzled.

Suddenly, the man, Brice, smiled broadly and began speaking in a language that I recognized as English. Usagi replied in English as well, but not quite as enthusiastically. I stood there dumbly, trying to decipher what they were saying. Usagi glanced toward me and switched back to Japanese. "Er… Misaki, this is Brice. He's a friend from England."

Brice also spoke so that I could understand him now, "Hello, Misaki. Nice to meet you." He extended a hand. I shook it. Then he went into another rant in his native language.

"Brice," Usagi interrupted him, looking a bit perturbed. He kept glancing askance toward me to see my reaction. "Why are you here?"

The enthusiastic blond looked almost looked hurt. "I just wanted to see you, it's been forever it seems. Eighteen years?"

Nodding warily, the expression on Usagi's face clearly said "Not long enough," but the words were left unspoken. He and Usagi (halfheartedly on his part) started talking about things I didn't know about. Things that happened before I was born. The whole time, Brice seemed to be keeping an eye on me, and in turn, I glanced back at him every so often as well. Something's up, I kept telling myself. Then immediately contradict with logic; Usagi probably just felt awkward to talk to one of his old friends with him around. And Brice too. So I tried to keep out of their way and careful not to interrupt.

After hearing about how Brice was new to the area and needed a place to stay, Usagi hesitantly invited him to come stay at his house after asking me if it was okay. Of course, I wasn't in any position to deny him. We picked up his suitcases then proceeded onward. The whole way home, they, mostly Brice, reminisced past experiences and I sat there quietly, trying not to listen to the way they were so familiar with each other. When we got there and were standing in the living room, Usagi said to him, "You can stay in one of the guest rooms."

"Um, Usagi-san, there are no guest rooms available."

"Hmm? Don't we have three?"

"Yes. One of them you have your train set running through, one is stuffed full of Suzuki-sans, and the other one I'm in."

"Oh. You can just stay with me, can't you-?"

I covered his mouth quickly and laughed, then whispered in his ear, "Baka! Of course not!" Louder, I told Brice, "You can have my room. I'll stay down here."

He smiled softly in a way that seemed, to me, almost cocky. "Arigato."

I returned a half-smile, then frowned when he turned around. Yeah, I could already tell that we weren't going to get along…

When he went upstairs to get situated, I pulled Usagi into the kitchen where I was fixing supper. "Usagi, about that guy…"

The look he gave me looked very solemn and disappointed. "Yeah, I know. I was wanting to fuck you silly when we got home, but…"

"T-That's not what I meant, baka! I mean, doesn't it seem like there is something… off about him?" He cocked his head, perturbed. "Never mind." I sighed and turned back to the carrots I was chopping. Suddenly I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and felt his cool breath on my neck.

"Thank-you for worrying about me when I was in the hospital," he breathed. Losing my train of thought, I could do nothing but just stand there forgetting how to breathe, my grip on the knife loosening until in fell onto the cutting board. He turned me around and kissed me softly, something I didn't know how to respond to. All too soon, he pulled away at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.

"Hey, Akihiko, is it okay if I use your shower? Traveling is so filthy."

"Yeah," he responded. "Third door on the right."

"Kay."

I was still just kind of standing there then, but I didn't miss the look Usagi gave me once Brice was gone. Hurriedly, I moved away from the novelist, but he caught me around the waist before I could escape and pulled me to him. "U-Usagi! Not while he's here-" I a pair of lips silenced me, but this time I would not give in. I struggled to get out of his grasp, but before I had made much progress I stopped dead, feeling my blood run cold and my heart stop. Brice had just walked back in holding a wash cloth and stood at the door, staring at us. In the moment I saw him, his face was twisted not in surprise nor disgust, but in a brief expression of anger - no, annoyance. Maybe both, but by the frosty hot glare he cast me I knew without a doubt my prior suspicions lay not far from the truth.

"Shit…" I muttered, seeing Brice turn on his heel and disappear down the hallway. I pushed even harder to detach Usagi from myself and this time succeeded. "Usagi." I nodded toward the hall and he seemed to take the hint, but his reaction was much stranger than I could have imagined. Instead of shrugging it away or cursing, he smiled, wider and more wickedly than ever. He chuckled, almost cynically, and muttered something I couldn't quite hear (and I'm not sure if I wanted to).

Then Usagi swooped back in on me, but I would have none of it this time. I ducked away from Usagi and pressed myself as far away as I could get in the limited space of the kitchen area. "That's enough," I said too loudly, trembling slightly and feeling piteous sobs swell into my throat. I covered my mouth and, catching a glimpse of Usagi's confounded expression, ran from the room and up to my room. Why was I crying? Why was I crying? Nothing had happened, he hadn't hurt me, and it's not like I… disliked him kissing me. And what did I care if that stranger knew? I didn't, that was the point. It didn't matter to me whatsoever besides for purposes of my own pride, and glory knows I had very little of that left by now anyway. It nothing to cry over, so why?

Then I felt it: the sudden burst of emotional energy that tore through my body and pelted me with the blurry images it brought with it. They flew by my consciousness so quickly I could barely make out the true images, only outlines. Shadows of sounds skipped in my ears, words that melted together in a legato slur too jumbled to decipher. An un-tuned ensemble of varying, frightening emotions splashed over me with unpredictable force: anger, haste, worry, fear, desperation…

Then, it was over as quickly as it had come, leaving me in a shadow of panic and confusion until my vision became splotchy and the world darkened to black.


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