And now to continue this random updating spree, here's this! Hope you enjoy!
Animestar73: Hm... I don't know, I'll accept mental begging this time, but next time I'll need to see some real groveling. XD, thanks for reviewing!
Black Ice Phoenix Wolf: Wow, glad you like it so much (hearts) (since I can't make the heart face) , here's the next chappy, thanks for reviewing!
CelestialClouds: You're going to make me blush... gah! (hides face) But thank you! And don't worry, the plot gets more involved, if possible. Thanks for reviewing!
Red Kitsune Flames: Well, here's a little more something. I know, I take forever, I'm sorry! Thanks for reviewing!
phoenix of hell: I know, I updated a lot and then just fell off the face of the earth. But I make some reappearances every now and then. Thanks for reviewing!
Solo Maxwell-Yamato: XD, well, Eriol isn't quite the brightest bulb... just slightly dimmed from use. And yes, you love him, you love him soooooo much! And.. x-x, let's not bring my sanity into question... alright, would you prefer KanoneKiyotakaAyumu? There, Kanone's on top! XD, ph34r it (along with my usage of leet). Thanks for reviewing!
Polaris18: I know it's been a while since I updated if I'm still replying to reviews from this screen name. And yes, much betrayal and backstabbing, as always. But it makes it fun, and there's always twists. Thanks for reviewing!
"What do you mean he's gone?" Ayumu asked, sitting on the soft couch in shock.
"I mean he came and then he left." Eyes answered simply, not bothering to fill his boyfriend in on the details. He didn't enjoy lying, not to Ayumu anyway, but sometimes these things are necessary to protect those dearest to you. That's what he told himself, anyway.
"But...he didn't say anything?" the brunette wondered, looking up with a lost and confused look that Eyes hated to see. "He just...left?" The older boy nodded silently, not daring to speak another word for fear that his heart might betray him just to see his love smile.
A knock on the door interrupted the tense silence that had captured the two and Eyes glanced to the boy at his side before rising to answer it. He hoped like hell it wasn't Kiyotaka; if it were, Ayumu would no doubt be more than suspicious of him and it would push him just that much closer to his brother. Luckily for the Blade Child, it wasn't a Narumi at all on the other side, but he wasn't sure it was much better.
Identical blue orbs grinned back at the older sibling, "Hey there, bro." Eriol greeted, raising a hand.
"What are you doing here?" Eyes asked in a hushed voice, not wanting Ayumu to be a part of the conversation. Until he was sure of everything, he didn't want the brunette involved any more than he already was.
"Honestly, you ask it like I'm up to something." He pouted, sighing and waving a hand to dismiss the whole subject, "I'm here because of Kanone."
"Then you can leave." The pianist stated, coldly, "If you have no business other than Kanone, then I have no business with you."
"He's not after you or Ayumu!" Eriol shouted quickly before the door could be slammed in his face.
Eyes and Ayumu both looked up and the former cursed his brother's loud mouth. The brunette joined the two silver-haired boys and he looked to the younger one, "What are you two talking about?"
"It's none of your concern." Eyes promised, kissing his lover's temple, "Just Eriol being his normal, foolish self."
"I doubt it." Ayumu replied, almost as icily as the ice prince himself. He knew better than to kill the messenger, but he had a feeling that Eyes was only relaying messages he wanted Ayumu to hear.
Eriol all but ignored his brother's partner, and turned to the boy himself, "He wants Kiyotaka." He continued.
"Wha...who does?" Ayumu interrupted again, feeling left out and concerned for his brother at the same time.
"Kanone." Eyes sighed, glancing to his brother, "How and why do you know?"
The latter shrugged and shifted slightly under his elder sibling's stare, "Well... he told me, of course."
"Why have you been talking with him and why would he tell you?"
"And why would you tell Eyes?" the younger Narumi added.
Eriol sweatdropped at the barrage of questions, "I'd tell him because he's my brother." He addressed Ayumu first, then turned his attention to his brother, "And I've been talking to him because...well..." How does one go about telling their brother that they're living with their enemy? Not to mention other factors, but that might give the elder boy a heart attack right now.
"Well what?" Eyes pressed, impatiently. He wasn't in the mood to talk about Kanone, and if that's all Eriol was here to speak with him about, then as much as he didn't want to admit it, he didn't want his brother there.
"I'm living with him and Kiyotaka was there this morning." He said quickly, as if spouting the words out would lessen their impact, "I realized then that Kanone was after Kiyotaka, not you or Ayumu."
"I don't believe that." The younger Narumi whispered, "I don't believe Kanone would do all that if he was just after my brother. Hasn't he known where Kiyotaka was the whole time?"
"Actually, no." Eyes was the one to speak up this time. Ayumu and Eriol both raised an eyebrow at the stoic boy, "Kanone was the most clueless of us all. Kiyotaka never contacted him or even spoke much with him after we went our separate ways."
The silver-haired teen's boyfriend detected nearly a hint of regret in his lover's voice. He hated it more than anything else; hated Kanone right at that moment more than anyone. He ignored his anger and looked to Eriol, "So...do you know where my brother went after he left there?"
"He didn't say anything," The second oldest pondered, "but I'm assuming he would have come back here."
"You said he left, though." The brunette looked to his boyfriend, frowning slightly.
"Well, he came here afterwards, I suppose," The latter answered quietly, seeing his plan crumble before his eyes, "then left."
"Left?" Eriol cocked an eyebrow, "He didn't mention anything about leaving..."
"Why would he mention anything about it to you or Kanone, anyway?" the elder twin demanded, narrowing his eyes at his mirror image.
"Why don't you ask him?" came the evasive question, "I don't see why you expect me to know everything."
"Well, when you act like you do, one can be unsure if you really do or not." Eyes replied, sarcastically.
The other twin just shrugged, "Anyway, I only came to tell you something."
"Well?" Ayumu pressed when the blue-eyed boy fell silent.
"Stay away from Kanone."
Those four words elicited a quirked eyebrow from Eyes, "I had planned on it." He informed the other boy, "Kanone's the one who insisted on bothering Ayumu and I."
"Why do you care so much what we do with Kanone?" the brunette questioned, frowning. He hoped, for Eyes' sake, that Eriol wasn't so close to Kanone as he implied.
Of course, in response, Eriol just shrugged and turned his back to the couple, "Can't I have a private life of my own?" He didn't wait for an answer before walking away and out of their sights.
As the two were left alone, Ayumu turned to the older boy, "Kiyotaka...didn't really leave, did he?"
Eyes hesitated before sighing and casting his gaze to the side, "No." He murmured softly.
"Why did you lie to me?" Ayumu's head was spinning; he wasn't quite sure what was going on, but he knew he didn't like it.
"It was for the best. Kiyotaka will only betray you." Eyes sounded sure of his words, but deep inside, he was wondering why he was so sure. Was it really like the elder Narumi to betray his family? If it was, wouldn't he have never come back? Or was it something deeper; something personal? That image of Ayumu curled up in Kiyotaka's arms was burned into his memory. For the first time in his life, Eyes was fiercely jealous.
"He won't betray me, don't say that." The brunette shook his head and withdrew when Eyes attempted to cup his cheek, "No... the Eyes I fell in love with would have never lied to me like that."
"I'm the same person I was before." Though, every one of his words felt more hollow and empty than the last.
"You're not." Ayumu argued, facing the door that Eriol had left out of previously.
"Where are you going?" If he thought he was going to go hunt down Kiyotaka, then he had to stop him. He didn't know why, but he knew something bad would happen (though, a small voice was asking him bad for who?)
"I can't just go for a walk?" the brunette questioned, grabbing his coat off the rack and slipping it on, "I need to think."
"Don't go to Kiyotaka." The desperation in his voice was remarkable; Ayumu had never heard Eyes so scared before, and frankly it was unattractive.
"I won't..." he trailed off 'on purpose' he added in his head. It wasn't his fault if he just... ran into Kiyotaka on the street, right? Even if he was wondering those alleys near Kanone's apartment and all of Kiyotaka's most likely hangouts.
"Don't trust him, Ayumu. I don't want to lose you."
He heard his boyfriend's words, but all he could think was how much Eyes sounded like that ever-famous manipulative villain that tried to convince the naive protagonist that his side was the right one. Shaking his head of these thoughts, Ayumu walked out the door, closing it with a firm click behind him. If there was one thing Ayumu wasn't, it was naive.
---
Down every alley he could think of and up every street, Ayumu couldn't get the spinning thoughts out of his head. He walked certainly far enough, but his head wasn't cleared in the slightest and he knew that it wouldn't be until he had some piece of mind. Eyes wouldn't give it to him, and he'd bet that only one man could. Thoughts of his brother plagued his mind; he'd never thought his return would cause so much distress. He couldn't say that he wished Kiyotaka had never come back, though, he was thrilled to have his only sibling return to him.
"I just wish... things didn't turn out like this." He thought, closing his eyes as he paused outside an apartment complex. Slowly, he gazed up to a certain window that had a light on (one of the only ones that did at this hour). He thought back earlier to Eriol's message. "Kanone only wants Kiyotaka... why? And what does Eriol have to do with any of this? He's on Kanone's side, but..." The unasked question was, again, why. He had too many questions and he wanted answers. He knew one brunette could give them all to him, but seeing Kanone was more dangerous than anything right now.
Logic failed him, though, as he started his ascent up the stairs to a certain door. When matters of the heart intervened, logic hardly stood a chance. While Ayumu could usually rationalize with himself, he had never felt a pull so strongly as this one. This wasn't only messing with his boyfriend, but his brother as well; he couldn't just ignore it.
Approaching Kanone's door, he bit his lip in an attempt to keep his breathing steady and knocked twice, gently. He thought, for a moment, that no one was home, that perhaps the light in the window had been the apartment next door. However, soon a rustle came from inside and footsteps creaked slowly to the door. The brunette then had a thought-- what if it was Eriol that answered? He didn't want to talk to his boyfriend's brother, and he certainly didn't want him knowing he was here. If he went and told Eyes that Ayumu had been to see Kanone, who knew how the blue-eyed boy would react?
He glanced around as the lock slid out of place and the knob turned. He needed a place to hide, at least until he saw who was behind the mystery door. He spun on his heel, but didn't get far at all as he saw Kanone coming up the stairs to his immediate left holding a bag of groceries. The brunette blinked a few times at his guest before smiling, "Ayumu, how ironic that you would come by at this time."
At that same moment, a voice sounded behind the brunette that sent a chill down his spine, "Ayumu? What are you doing here?"
XD, hate me for my cliffies. It was too tempting to pass up, but I won't leave you hanging for long. As soon as I get caught up on a couple more of my fics, I'll come back to this one. So, who do you think it is? Eriol? Kiyotaka? Could it even be.. gasp, Eyes? Who knows? Review!