norm POV
"It's Darnell. He's the cause of this", the redhead opposite him said.
Ran expected Yoji to start fussing around in his usual ways, but was surprised when Yoji knelt in front of him, reached over and patted him on the head.
"That wasn't too hard to say now, was it?" Yoji gave a smile. Ran was puzzled as hell.
The blond got up and slid his hand into the pocket of his jean where a distinctive rectangular box was. "I pretty much guessed you weren't normal, Aya. Ever since the day you were missing from the latest mission..." Yoji jerked his cigarette pack and picked one out with his mouth, keeping it in place with his teeth. He glanced sideways down at his teammate.
It seemed like the redhead was a little more encouraged with the topic he was way clearer in. Aya stood up carefully and faced Yoji without a hint of fear from exposing his current secret. "Mind explaining how you found out then?"
"Your new training habits and of course", Yoji pointed to the objects behind Ran. "...those. On the day you were sparring with Ken in the attic. I caught sight of the tips. I thought my eyes were fooling me at first. My suspicions were raised even further when I intended to head into your room to find you. What did I find? Feathers, all over your supposedly clean room"
Ran frowned at the blond and naturally, the latter knew why.
"Look, sorry I barged in without a notice. I went to look for you at the roof and damn", Yoji chuckled as he lit his cigarette. "You were flying man."
"If it amuses you so much go get yourself genetically engineered", Ran scoffed, brushing past the blond. "It's not like I wanted them anyway."
Ran almost slipped backwards when he felt his arm being pulled. He was pressed up against the blond's chest uncomfortably due to his wings wedged but found it even more nerve-wrecking when Yoji had to just whisper into his ear instead of speaking normally.
"...but you were beautiful."
The redhead started blushing from two things: the close contact and the blond's words.
"Stop uttering rubbish Kudou. Let me go!" He growled as fiercely as he could to hide his rising embarrassment. Apparently, Yoji took no words to consideration as he pulled the arm adjacent to his, making the other turn to face him instead.
Ran attempted to glare. Note the word 'attempted'. Yoji was grinning with suspicion written all over his faceand it was starting to freak the redhead out.
"What the hell is wrong with you Kudou."
"Nothing, just taking a good look at the real you", he replied and reached his hand over Ran's shoulder.
The redhead's gaze followed the arm for a tiny while better reluctantly shuddering when he felt Yoji's hand catching the back of his neck. Yoji's damn stinking cigarette smoke was choking his lungs and stinging his eyes but no matter how much his head was telling him to move his legs weren't listening. Neither were his wings which was twitching in temptation of flight.
Unknowingly, he leaned into the gentle touch. Stupid, stupid Kudou, his brain chanted. His eyes shut with the slightest pleasure when Yoji's hand dropped a little lower to the spot directly under his neck, slightly above the area between his wings. Through the thick fabric of his top, the touch tingled even more. Unable to keep up with the dumb sensation flowing in his blood, he dropped his foreheadhead on the blond, and due to their heights, directly onto his collar bone.
Ran gave a soft groan and Yoji gave a smirk. However it turned to a frown when he felt someone, or something else's presence close by. He stopped what he was doing and wrapped both his arms around Ran protectively, glaring into the darkness.
The redhead heard a series of familiar wing beats. He was about to break off from Yoji when the blond held him in place and in his current posotion he couldn't even look over his shoulders properly.
"Let him go", a dangerous voice said.
"Height..." Ran whispered. He could smell blood. A very strong scent of it emitting from the half-breed.
"So you're the one bothering Aya." Yoji said, frowning.
"Let him go", Height growled once more, and Ran heard his advancing footsteps.
Ran almost yelped when Yoji pulled him to his side. He glanced up and his eyes widened at how badly injured Height was. The other was practically bleeding from slashes covering his arms and legs. The feathers on one side of his wings were ripped from their places and were messilly hanging from their tips. The worst injury, the redhead reckons, was a large gash in his middle. It was really bad, since Height was holding onto the wound and having to hunch and cringe in the pulsing pain.
"Height!" Ran called out. He knew what the other was up to. He definitely didn't want it to happen, seeing his current state. He grabbed Yoji's arm and pulled the blond back, hinting for him to not attack.
The blond didn't take the hint, though. He shook off the hand and immediately threw his wire into Height's direction.
Height barely shifted away from the line as he half hovered, half sidestepped.
"Yoji stop it!" Ran barked, pushing down the blond's arm and stepping in front of him.
"I heard the conversation before Aya. He's the one murdering the townspeople, isn't he?" Yoji hissed.
"Well, yes but-" He couldn't even finish when he was pushed aside, falling to the ground and hissing at the pain running from his calf.
Height dived at Yoji, knocking him to the ground as a he gave a war-cry. The blond picked himself up, only to have a blow across his face, once more falling back to the ground. Half dazed, he opened his eyes to find Height perched over him on the alleyway wall.
"Ran is mine, so keep your hands off him", Height snarled.
Yoji unexpectedly lashed out his arm and successfully caught the hald-breed by his arm, the wire biting into the very same spot of open flesh. Height screeched in pain as the blond pulled him down to the ground.
"Get it in your head you don't belong here! Go back to your damned forest and stay there in your stupid twig nest!"
Height glared up with a hiss before beating his wings down with enough strength to propell himself upwards and forwards, crashing into Yoji before biting the wire to release himself.
"Both of you stop it!" Ran shouted angrily. However the two continued to battle it out.
Pissed, he charged up and knoecked the both of them down when they were close to each other.
"Will you two just stop it already?!" He growled, leaning on the uninjured leg. Both Yoji and Height stared up at him, both softly panting. "You", he turned to Yoji. "Stop killing everything you see and you", this time to Height. "There are some things which can be dealt with without killing each other."
Ran took a deep breathe, annoyed as hell. Refusing to hear anything comment either one have said, he turned around and rubbed his head. This is going to be hard...
A hand touching his shoulder made him jump. He looked over and saw a sad look on his face. It made his chest hurt.
"Height...?"
And the half-breed took off without a word. Ran gaped at the leaving person.
"About time he left", Yoji growled. Ran glared over his shoulder. "What?"
The redhead took off as well.
It was a little hard trying to track down the half-breed, but finally found him settled on a large oak, resting. He landed a few feet away from Height.
"Height?" He asked softly.
Height had his eyes closed, breathing slowed.
Assuming the latter was asleep, Ran closed in the distance and knelt in front of Height. He watched closely as the tiny scare lines across the face slowly disappeared. The open flesh on his arms and legs were also healing inhumanly quick. However he noticed that the one Yoji's wire wound on wasn't making any progress.
He didn't have his small dagger so he couldn't remove the wire which was still in Height's flesh. He decided to do it the old way. Praying hard that Height would remain asleep, he leaned over, putting most of his weight on one knee as managed to grab hold onto Yoji's wire with his teeth. With one careful tug, the wire broke and descended to the ground.
"Thanks", he heard a mumble.
Ran looked up to see blue eyes lazily staring down at him. The redhead turned his head away with a small nod.
"So.. your wounds are healing..."
"Pretty quickly, much faster than before."
An awkward silence washed over the both of them and Ran sat back, keeping his knees close to him.
"I'm sorry I attacked your friend."
Ran sighed. "No. It was his fault... What happened to Fang's pack?"
"They withdrew after Fang was hung. Then I went to look for you", he mumbled. Out of the blue, he reached over to a wound in his middle and started to pierce himself, digging into his own flesh as he grit his teeth tight.
"Height?" Ran asked as he winced.
The half-breed pulled out a white, irregular shaped tooth and peered at it. "Stupid dogs."
"Are you sure you're going to be alright?"
Height grunted and tossed away the tooth. "Perfectly fine... And you?" He asked as he looked at the redhead's bloodied jeans.
"Yeah, I'm fine too..." He mumbled.
"I'm sorry I sounded stupid just now... but believe me Ran, I don't like it when someone else is that close to you..." Height said. Ran could hear a slight awkwardness in his voice.
"But... why?"
Height gave a sigh, brushing and scratching his head childishly.
"Because I love you, that's why..."
HAPPY NEW YEAR AND CELEBRATE WE'RE THREE QUARTERS THROUGH THE STORY!! (most likely i think ) uh i know Yoji's advance is a little too quick on Ran but um... don't mind please? omg it was a sucky jump let's ASSUME yoji likes Ran ages ago.. dorts.
OMG LMAO i love you people XD i feel so.. encouraged!! i know i never really got to reply any one's reviews -bangs head against wall- but really when i read em i'm happy!! XDD so, using this particularly FREE time i SHALL reply!!!
evalita: Oo i love ya man(woman.. whateva haha) you're like my top reviewer.. and i appreciate it everytime ( i never fail to see you not reviewing wootss) Glad you like the story.. i love it too weee.. tho you do gimme some questions that makes me go 'uhhhhh' like ten times over... awkward... lol! but i still love reviews they make me feel happy :)
gonyos and Isi: whaoh. cool nicks you two Oo anyway. thanks for the support and reviews!! -waves madly-
hitomisure: omg you scared me when i read the part 'oh, and i don't like one point' i almost fainted... i have a weak heart for people who dun like what i do.. dorts i'm rambling.. OKAY... anyway.. ya i laughed at the reason why you didn't like the point XD yeah Height is not nice... sometimes. Oo but come on he has a reason to do so! you'll find out soon enough.. anyway as you can see Height ain't too happy about Aya runnin off with Yoji.. ouchies with the injuries.. wee it's a war between the two!!!! stay in with Weiss? lol maybe maybe not ;P
btw, i fel a little.. embarrassed and awkward to read the shitty front of this story XDD -blush blush- i was really bad then lol!