His breathing was still ragged. As it had been for the last twenty minutes Yohji had sat at Aya's side pulling back damp hair from a feverish face and checking wounds. A deep jagged gash marred Aya from rib bones to hip. The bandages that had been clumsily rapped around his torso were completely drenched in blood. The sheets were a dried rusty black and stiff to the touch.
It was…unnerving, to say the least, tosee Aya like this. Wounded, bleeding, face twisted in pain. He must have been conscious since he reacted to Yohji's touch, but the reactions were sluggish and elicited faint moans. He didn't even seem to register Yohji's being in the room.
He looked fragile. Aya had always been the dark, invincible assassin of the night, and as much as that sounded like the character profile of an action adventure villain, for Aya it was true. But this…this wasn't an invincible person and even while Yohji was thinking 'Yes! He's human' he didn't like watching it. Having Aya this hurt went a good way towards upsetting how he thought the world was run.
A small movement caused Yohji to look down at the bloody mess his silent housemate had become. His flushed face was tossed to the side, cheek cradled in a sweat soaked pillow. His fingers, alreadytangled in the sheets, clenched as Yohji watched. A low, barely audible moan that Yohji had to lean forward to catch the tail end of escaped between clenched teeth.
Yeah, he was conscious, and feeling every bit of the beating he had taken to save them.
"Hey, Aya? Can you hear me?" Yohji asked softly, reaching tentatively towards Aya. Maybe if he touched him he wouldn't feel the fever, the slick blood under his fingertips that coated Aya skin. Maybe Aya would be just fine. Another low moan of pain sounded. Yeah, right.
Aya's hand closed like a vise grip around Yohji's, startling him into a yelp. Nails that Yohji had never thought before to describe as long and sharp bit into his skin and drew blood. The thin crescents hurt like a bitch.
"Yohji?"
Yohji jumped a foot and nearly fell off the chair he was sitting in at the sound of the soft strained voice. Spinning around as much as he could with Aya fingers still digging into his hand, he spotted Omi. The kid had the arm that belonged to his injured shoulder cradled tochest and was leaning heavily against the doorframe.
"Don't scare me like that Chibi!"
Completely ignoring Yohji's use of the hated nickname Omi said, "Is he…is Aya…Is he okay?"
Yohji was tempted to raise an eyebrow. Maybe Omi was high on painkillers. "No Omi, I doubt it. He's more hurt then the rest of us." Did Aya look okay?
"Oh. Um, are you okay?"
"Yeah. Just some bruises and a headache. You should be in bed, ya know? Looks like the wind could tip you over."
"Shut up. I want to know if Aya's alright." Omi voice went a little hazy. "He…I don't remember what happened."
"You and Ken got pummeled and I was just blacking out when Aya came to our rescue."
"Oh, but…but how did he get us home? Like that?"
'Like...'? Oh, being hurt. Omi was definitely high on painkillers if he was mutilating grammar. Come to think of it, he hadn't corrected Yohji earlier. The kid really needed to be in bed if he was this out of it; he hadn't even gone totally mother hen over Aya yet. Hell, he should be blowing people's eardrums out yelling for a doctor, Aya definitely needed one. Wait,Yohji hadn't thought about that. They needed to get Aya checked out, and soon, and Yohji hadn't even considered it. Maybe he gotten hit harder than he'd realized.
"Yohji?"
"What? Oh, no. No.I have no idea how he got us home. You should go back to bed Omi."
"No, I'm going to go check on Ken. Be right back."
Omi turned and walked rather unsteadily out of sight.
------------------------------
"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, owwww! That freaking hurts! Goddamn stupid bandages! I swear I'll…I'll do something to whoever had the bright idea to bind these bandages this tight. Are they trying to make me lose my fingers?"
Ken nearly tripped over his own shoes as he made his way towards his door. Pins-and-needles were crawling like ants up and down his arms and his whole body felt stiff. He couldn't even bend his arms to a ninety-degree angle. Needless to say, he was pretty irritable.
"Hey! Where are you people!" Ken yelled a the top of his lungs out the open door, and was startled to see Omi come crashing down with a painful gasp in front of him.
"Crap. Omi, I am so sorry. I didn't know you were right there," said Ken as he rushed forward, a sheepish smile on his lips and a worried look in his eyes. "You alright?"
"Fine. Are you…?"
"Wonderful, other then the fact that I feel like I'm wearing a medieval suit of armor. Did Yohji do the bandages? That freaking idiot."
"No. Yohji didn't…" Omi tried to stand up mid-sentence and would have collapsed back onto the floor if Ken hadn't lunged forward and caught him.
"Jeez, Omi, how bad are you hurt? You shouldn't be walking around."
"I'm fine, Ken," said Omi pulling away and heading back the way he had came. "Come on…you…need to come."
Ken stood there and just watched Omi, they way he listed to one side as he walked and how his shoulder, the one that wasn't bandaged tight, rose a fell from heavy breathing. He looked like he was running on empty and having a painful job of it, but he also looked determined to do whatever it was he was doing. It was better to go along with a determined Omi rather than to fight him, especially injured.
Ken followed Omi past both Yohji's and Omi's own room only to halt in front of Aya's. Omi had a look in his eyes, on his face, as he stared into the room that seemed as if he was ready to start crying.
When Omi started walking again Ken quickly followed, only to jerk to a standstill when he glimpsed what was in the room.
Holy fucking shit.His mind couldn't take in what he was seeing at first, so he stared registering unimportant details.
The dark curtains that couldn't seem to decide between purple and blue hung slightly open on the far wall. They let in a thin sliver of sunshine that illuminated the immaculately cleaned room. A small dark-wood dresser rested to the left of the window, its table top nearly empty. The onething that occupied it was a dirty, blood covered, three and a half-long piece of sharp metal. Aya's katana.
Aya's katana that was covered in blood. The katana that he cleaned almost religiously after every assassination lay bloody and abandoned. Ken would never have expected Aya's katana to be this misused unless Aya was dead.
Unconscious was probably a better alternative though. Much better, although seeing Aya collapsed in a heap on top of blood soaked sheets was a cold comfort.
"He needs to see a doctor, and now."
"Ken? What, are…?" Yohji's voice faded into a look of pain narrowed eyes.
He looked exhausted and had a bulge underneath the bandages wrapped around his head. From what Ken could see of Yohji's wounds all the blood on his clothes wasn't from him. Some of it must have been from Aya and the bloody mound of clothes that lay on the floor.
"Are you crazy? He hates doctors, when he wakes up he'll kill us," Yohji finished.
"You are sodefinitely not thinking straight. Just look at him! He needs a doctor before he bleeds to death, or gets an infection. Omi's to out of it to be able to do anything to help!"
"Stop yelling!" Yohji's eyes seemed to flinch tighter shut at his own voice.
"I'm not! You're going to bed, right now, and them I calling a Kritiker doctor, okay? No, don't argue with me, for all we know youprobably have a concussion. Omi we'll have the doctor take a look at your shoulder too when he gets here."
"Sure, Ken. Sorry that I can't help, I'm really sorry," Omi whispered softly.
"It's fine," said Ken brusquely. "Now go to bed, you too Yohji. I'll watch Aya."
"No, I'll stay. I don't think could get back to my room right now anyway."
"Fine." So, they were getting a doctor helpAya and even if both Yohji and Omi didn't seem quite like themselves yet, they weren't seriously hurt. If they got a doctor to see Aya, patch him up and give him some antibiotics for infection, Ken knew everything would be alright.
He just couldn't understand why he suddenly had a bad feeling.
I had to hurry at the end, so it's a little choppy, but I thought you'd want the chapter anyway. The next chapter will begin the acton, and the main plot.