Woot! Chapter 2! I admit, I'm having fun with this one. This chappy is just some Muraki drabble. I hope to speed things up soon, though. I don't usually type up my fanfics, so I only have my For Remy uploaded here… but I'm working on it…
Tatsumi: That's because you shirk your work every chance you get! You're as bad as Watari and Tsuzuki!
Ryoko: waaah! Tatsu-kun's picking on meeee!
Tatsumi: Hmph. You deserve it, slacker.
Okay. Read now.
Chapter TwoTsuzuki blinked. "W-what?" A worried expression replaced his relieved smile. "Come on, Watari…it's me!"
Watari merely stared, apparently confused. "Um…" he said, scratching his head. "Nope. Sorry, but I've never seen you before."
Tsuzuki looked at Tatsumi, his eyes pleading. Tatsumi felt his chest get tight. The secretary kneeled before Watari, looking straight into confused amber eyes. "Watari, do you know me? Do you remember who I am?"
Watari shook his head. Tatsumi shifted his glasses.
"Kurosaki!" he barked, his voice the only sign that the situation disturbed him. Hisoka stepped forward, and Tatsumi faced Watari again. "Do you know Kurosaki, Watari?"
Watari stroked his chin with his finger. After a few moments, he spoke. " Bon."
Hisoka gasped, and Tatsumi leaned in. "You recognize Kurosaki?"
The scientist smiled. "Not at all. He just strikes me as a 'Bon.' Don't you think? " Watari chuckled to himself as the others sighed. Watari shrugged. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm pretty sure I've never met any of you before, even when I was alive."
Amazing, Tatsumi thought. He doesn't remember us, but he's acting completely normal, as though his lab simply exploded. This was definitely amnesia. The explosion had done something to his head. Tatsumi felt a little unnerved. Most people would have a nervous breakdown after suffering even the smallest degree of memory loss. Watari seemed completely content with his state of mind. He even knew he was dead. But that was, at the same time, just like Watari. The wannabe scientist was usually chipper and up for anything. He didn't get emotional about things. When things got bad, Watari was there with a level head, even when Tatsumi himself lost it…
Tatsumi didn't have much more time to dwell on this, for Watari was getting to his feet and dusting off his lab coat. "Well," he said. "I really blew it this time."
"Damn right you did," Terazuma muttered. Watari looked at him for a moment and laughed.
"You came to see if I was okay, Kazuma?" he teased, slapping the ex-policeman on the back. "How nice of you."
At this, Tsuzuki burst into tears. "How could you, Watari? I thought I was your friend! Now you've forgotten me, and you still remember Terazuma?" he whined, fleeing from the room in the typical Tsuzuki fashion.
"What's with him?" said, Watari, confused. With a sigh, Tatsumi followed Tsuzuki out the door.
"Stay with Watari, Kurosaki!" he ordered over his shoulder. "He may still be unstable."
Watari made a face at this, crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out at the retreating Shinigami in protest. "I am not!"
Hisoka rolled his eyes and sat down on the cot Watari kept in the corner, as a hoot rang through the silence. 003, flying down from a stack of papers taller than Enma himself, perched herself on Watari's shoulder. He welcomed her with a tummy rub and a smile.
"Okay, I'm done. I'm going back to work," Terazuma said loudly, and promptly left the room.
Watari giggled a little, and then grabbed a swivelly chair near his desk, sitting down and facing Hisoka. "So, Bon, are you new?"
Muraki sipped his tea smirking. He had this feeling, out of nowhere, that Tsuzuki was thinking of him. True or not, Muraki enjoyed the feeling. Being entranced by the older man's eyes and face, Muraki relished him in his mind. He imagined touching the Shinigami's skin, thinking of how he would protest, but ever so gently, as his heart tormented him. He would get angry and attack the doctor, but the thought excited Muraki even more.
Oh, Tsuzuki….
A knock at his door sprung the doctor from his thoughts, a scowl covering his usually serene features. He'd told the nurses to let him be…
A man with long black hair entered the room. His elaborately sewn yukata and wooden getas were quite out of place in the hospital. The man was a smoker, and held his pipe in this hand still, though out of out of courtesy for the patients he had neglected to light it. He took a step towards the doctor, and Muraki's nostrils were filled with the sweet aroma of pipe tobacco, sake, and something of an entirely different era.
"Oriya," Muraki muttered.
"Muraki," Oriya spoke the words clearly. "I came to apologize."
Muraki turned to face him, his fake eye glinting in the soft light of the sinking sun. "For what? ' he asked, placing his tea on the desk.
"For Kyoto." Oriya said, more quietly this time. "I was being a little rash. I should have stalled them longer."
Muraki didn't answer. He knew that his plans were flawed, and that they would probably end in his demise, but what he didn't expect was this reaction from Oriya. After all, he hadn't died. It wasn't even Oriya's fault. Tsuzuki had stabbed him before the other Shinigami arrived. If they had arrived later, he would have burned in the hellfire with his precious Tsuzuki. So in a way, Oriya had helped save his life.
"It wasn't you, Oriya." He said finally, cryptically.
"That boy," Oriya continued in a low voice," He reminded me of you" He's thinking of Kurosaki, Muraki mused. "He said he was fighting to take back his home. I know that is what you've been doing these past few years. Maybe I let him go too soon, because of that."
"Like me, eh?" Muraki muttered, staring out the window, a small smile creeping to the corners of his mouth. "So the poppet begins to reflect the master…."
Oriya took a step forward. "Poppet?"
"Do you know what I did to that boy, Oriya, to make him hate me so much?"
Oriya didn't respond, and Muraki continued "I raped and killed that boy a few years ago. H was, for a lack of a better phrase, in the wrong place at the wrong time. He saw me at Crimson Moon. When I murdered Cecile. He was so sweet looking, I yearned to touch him, and so I did. "Muraki's eyes had begun to sparkle with madness from the memory." who would have thought," He murmured almost dreamily," that he would lead me to Tsuzuki? "
He turned to face Oriya now, and Oriya felt the hairs stand straight on his neck at the look on the doctor's face. "That boy enabled me to meet the man I have dreamed of since childhood, the man with amethyst eyes and demons blood…"
Oriya made a soft "tch" sound, turning his head. Muraki never showed his emotions when thinking of Shinigami. Oriya had dealt with this for a number of years, as he had dealt with the murders, but it still made him sick inside. And now Muraki was going mad with it. There was something about this man that was crying out for something. He had only met Muraki in middle school, but he had sensed it in him then, as well. Only once had he shown any true emotion. The doctor had been as cold and aloof as he was now, and only slightly less insane. He was sure this man was searching for something more than simple love. He had watched helplessly as his friend walked away, unsure of his own future, but unable to turn back.
"So," he said in a shaky voice." What are you going to do now? "
Muraki sobered for a second. He shot Oriya a look that told him he already knew the answer. "What will I do? I'll make him mine."
TBC