So… this is my first time writing a KnB fanfiction.
To those who were waiting for an update for my other Chihayafuru fanfic, - wait a minute, calm down dammit, put those knives away – let me explain. I am not giving up on that one, but I am experiencing a major writer's block for it. I am trying to write decent paragraphs for it, but I just end up deleting it, feeling that it has not nothing to do with the entire fic. If you are also an author, you will understand what I am talking about.
On the other hand, I have always been a fan of KnB, and my absolute KnB baes are Akashi Seijuro and Kasamatsu Yukio. Which tells you a lot that I am greatly attracted to Point Guards. Not sure why, but it's probably because of the fact that they are the brains of the team, and I simply adore men with brains. Heck, I have a crush on Izuki Shun as well, though not that comparable to the first two I mentioned above.
The quote at the beginning of the story is not mine, obviously, it belongs to some Asian drama I've seen before and I felt it appropriate to use here. I'm just borrowing it.
That said, we can proceed to the fic itself. I do not own KnB, but I do own my OC. Please do not use her and the plot of this fic without my knowledge, because I promise you, in true Akashi style, "I will end you."
On that happy note, feel free to read on.
I have been granted permission to become a doctor.
I humbly vow to give my life to serve humanity.
The health and life of my patients is my priority.
I will fulfill my duties to my patients… regardless of their race, religion, or nationality.
I shall not use my knowledge inhumanely… even when I am under threat.
I hereby take this oath on my account…. and on behalf of my honor.
She was exhausted.
Well, that was nothing new. Working in a hospital was never a walk in the park. Whoever said that being a doctor was easy? She would like to kick that person in the shin and tell him to go to hell.
She absent-mindedly rubbed on the sleeve of her white coat, which had a smudge of blood. The emergency abdominal surgery which she had to lead earlier had been successful, although there had been a few scares. One of her assistant surgeons accidentally pulled on the wrong nerve, almost resulting in the patient's loss of proper digestion. It might sound laughable, but it was no laughing matter. One wrong touch to a person's precious internal organs will cost them all their careers – and that person's life.
She stared blankly at the pristine, white wall in front of her, not really seeing anything in particular, fingers curled tightly around the cup of coffee she was holding, the white styrofoam material nearly bending with the force. She knew how she was too exhausted to even think properly, but this was different. She was quite aware of how long she was staring at the wall now, but her thoughts were a jumbled mess, just a dense, swirling dark cloud in her head. It was almost alarming, she thought, at the back of her mind. Her thoughts had never gotten this cloudy before.
And then all of a sudden, there was a blinding flash of light.
Her grip on the cup of coffee disappeared and the cup plummeted towards the floor as she clutched her head, suddenly feeling as if the world was spinning and the walls were closing in on her. It was fortunate that she had finished the cup of coffee long ago, but now she felt was if someone had taken her brains out and was frying it in a microwave.
She can hear voices… everywhere. Growing louder and louder as if they were closing in on her. A gaggle of different voices, some shouting what she could hear were instructions, to move her gently, in case they wanted to break her neck.
Huh?
And then a deep, baritone voice. Panicked. Lonely.
Precious.
She was gasping, her chest tightening, feeling that she was beginning to hyperventilate or something. Her vision was still spinning, and she could feel herself beginning to be drenched in sweat. Oh. This was not good, - I have to do something, anything, I can't breathe, Jesus, I can't breathe, kami-sama –
"Shhh. Shhh. Masakochii. I'm here. Look at me. Look at me."
In her panic, she lifted her head so fast with one of her fists aimed straight towards his face, but the man who called her blocked her fist easily, unfazed, concern written clearly across his face and golden eyes. Like a welcome oxygen, said woman turned to the man who had found her and she had not noticed had already sat beside her, grasping her shoulders, trying to get her attention and possibly comfort her as she went through another episode of a memory loss attack. Panicked and confused tears pooled in her eyes, and she couldn't stop herself from launching straight into his arms, the man's arms immediately circling her shoulders and pressing her to his body in a gesture meant for assurance and comfort.
"Masakochii." He murmured softly, rubbing her back in circles. "Why do you keep wanting to loiter in an empty area like this? If I didn't know you well and I didn't know this was your favorite place, you would have the worst case of hyperventilation earlier." He chided softly, running a comforting hand against her chocolate brown tresses, as she tried her best to breathe evenly and calm down, still clinging to her best friend with a death grip, arms shaking and straining with the effort. He was trying to distract her from her current predicament, she could just tell.
"Ryo-kun." She half-laughed, half-complained, torn between the two emotions, struggling to stop the panic tears from escaping her eyes any longer and not continue acting pathetically in front of the blond ex-model. "You didn't tell me you're already home." She loosened her grip from the taller male, noticing how he was bent towards her tight embrace, the fact that they were sitting not doing anything to negate the difference in their heights.
"I was thinking of surprising you, since I just came home from a flight." He responded, tone worried, finally releasing her fully to get a good look at her, golden orbs scanning her much smaller and frail form. "I wanted to say 'Tadaima' but when I found you I was not expecting you to be like this." His forehead creased. "Masakochii. I have just disappeared for a month and yet you look like this. Why are you so thin? And you're still having these attacks – "
She held up a hand to silence his rant, effectively cutting him off. "First off, Kise Ryota, I'm not thin, I'm sexy. And as for these attacks…" he could see her hands still shaking as she struggled to gather her thoughts currently in disarray that he decided to take her hands in his stronger ones and squeezed them, "They're… they're more frequent now. I'm not even sure why."
Ryota frowned, not liking what he was hearing. "Please don't tell me you're forcing yourself to remember them."
"No, no, that's not the case – "
"Don't lie to me, Aoyama Masako. If you're not forcing yourself to remember the last year you wouldn't be having these attacks all of a sudden." He stood up, giving her a look, challenging her to deny what he was saying.
She pouted, her lower lip pushing forward a bit. "…Maybe."
"Thought so."
She frowned. "Is there anything wrong with me trying to remember the missing part of my life? It's irritating, Ryota, feeling as if I'm missing a chip or something!" She was exasperated, but he was even more exasperated.
"You know better than to go against your medical advice, Masakochii. Hell, do I have to remind you you're a doctor yourself?" He retorted, sounding frustrated despite of himself. "I don't know how it feels to be missing a part or something, but I can say one thing – you have to be patient unless you want those memories to completely disappear." His statement came out harsher than he had originally intended to.
Masako stared at him, unable to believe that the ex-Miracle was scolding her. Him, of all people. This was not how she had envisioned their reunion will be.
"No, I'm not taking that back." He continued, as if reading her thoughts, which she guessed, was not exactly a difficult task for the former Kaijo Ace. Kise Ryota, in all the years she has known him, despite being a narcissist and downright impossible person was not the type who didn't know how to observe people around him. "But I'll let it go for now, because I just came home and went here immediately to see you, not to argue with you. I missed my best friend, and I just wanted to take her out to the movies with me and talk all night until we both drop from the exhaustion."
She nodded, vision thick with frustrated tears again.
Ryota stepped forward and raised a finger to catch the tear forming at the end of her right eye, and took her into another embrace. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so harsh. I just came back and seeing you like that… Well it's safe to say you've had me at a loss of what to do."
She embraced him back. "I'm sorry… for making you worry."
Ryota dropped a kiss on her head. "Is it your end of shift now?"
She was about to answer when – Aoyama Masako-sensei, you are now needed in operating room 5. We repeat, Aoyama Masako-sensei, you are now needed in operating room 5.
Masako made a face. "Does that answer your question?"
Ryota laughed, unable to resist the charm on his best friend's face. "Go. I'll be waiting for you in the lobby."
Masako wanted to protest – "But I'm guessing it's another emergency surgery, so I don't know how long it would take – "
Ryota pushed her to the direction going to the west wing of the hospital. "Go. I can wait. I've done this countless of times before. I can always entertain myself."
"Ryota – "
"Go, or no ice cream later."
And those words convinced Masako to listen to the blonde and finally leave him there to wait.
As he stared at her retreating form, he wondered how long he can continue acting like this when he knew that his time with her was just borrowed and actually limited.
Hurry up and find her, you idiot. Before you really lose her.
He was a man who rarely loses his composure.
But when he does, all hell breaks loose.
He slammed a folder down into his worktable, ignoring the multiple flinches his action had inspired with the ten or more butlers who were currently of service to him.
"You're claiming that you saw Kise Ryota in Sapporo and you were unable to tail him?" He hissed angrily, eyes flashing as he stood up, running his hands through the vibrant color of red locks, bright against the afternoon sunlight the windows of his office were allowing to permeate inside. "What was he, an unidentified apparition or something?"
"No, Seijuro-sama, of course not. But he was smart, he must have known that someone will be sent to tail him – he just disappeared before any of us were able to confirm if it was really him." The head butler, the elderly Hasegawa-san who knew him the most since his childhood days, was the only one brave enough to reason out.
"That man has thought this out. I'm sure he was the one who had informed Kise to be on guard. Of all the years I have known that idiot, he was never one to be careful." Akashi Seijuro snarled, hands curling into fists, and he was itching to hit someone. Anyone. Preferably an elder man who was the cause of all his problems.
"I think it's time that we give up on this, Seijuro-sama. Your father – "
" – is the cause of all this and I am willing to bet this entire corporation that he was enjoying this little game of hide-and-seek." Seijuro snarled once more, nails digging into the palms of his hands in deep and unexplained anger. "First, my mother. Now her. Is it any wonder that I grew up like this?" He ranted, the perfect mask of indifference and calm which he wore cracking, allowing them to see a bit under the cold façade of the current head of one of the giant business conglomerates of Japan.
The head butler cleared his throat, possibly to remind him of that same fact. "Leave us for a moment." He commanded the other butlers, who all stood up in one fluid motion, bowed deeply and took their leave one-by-one. "Seijuro-sama, we have been searching for her for over a year now. For all we know, your father may have already shipped her out of the country without her being aware of it."
The mask cracked and totally fell away, as Seijuro stopped his pacing and dropped onto his huge swivel chair, resisting the urge to wring his hands out and pull at his hair. He did rub his temples though, feeling a headache coming on. Only around Hasegawa-san can he act like this, as Akashi Seijuro, not as the current head of the Akashi Corporation. "I'm well aware of that fact, Ojiisan. But do you expect me to just up and leave things like this? No. I will not. I will not give that man the satisfaction of winning over me. Not now, not ever."
The elderly head butler sighed, knowing and well aware that his charge has not been raised to the man he is now to accept defeat that easily. "Seijuro-sama, you need to rest."
"I am resting." He retorted frustratedly, gesturing to the clean worktable in front of him, and still the elderly butler shook his head. He went to the small kitchen connected to his master's office, (perks of being a business tycoon,) finding the tea he had prepared earlier to have been ready. Carefully pouring his master's favorite tea in the porcelain teacup, he went back to the ex-Miracle and set it down in front of him.
"I meant proper rest. You have not slept properly." The elderly man chided softly, offering him the tea he had made.
"How do you expect me to be able to sleep properly when I am no closer to finding her now?" Still he took the tea being offered to him, muttering his thanks. "She's been missing for over a year. If I didn't know that man, if I didn't know he wasn't involved or anything, I would have taken it as her avoiding me, done being with me and all the complications of being together with me. But something was unnatural even from the start of her disappearance, it's like she just literally disappeared from the face of the earth. Like her existence was erased. Too perfect, never leaving any trace. I refuse to believe that man doesn't have anything to do with her disappearance." His fists clenched around the teacup he was gripping with deadly force.
"Seijuro-sama…"
Seijuro slammed the teacup down into the table, bloody irises blazing with barely contained fury at the man who had been fond of ruining any happiness he had ever had in his life. He had, at one point in his life, understood why that man had acted the way he did, why he had raised him to never accept defeat, and why, why, he had never allowed him to stand still even when his mother had died. But this was a whole new level of different, this was taking it too far.
Too. Damn. Bloody. Far.
"If he thought I will let this go, he was bloody mistaken." Seijuro continued, the elderly man listening to his monologue without complaints, "If there is one mistake he had ever committed in his life, is that he had raised me like this – to never accept loss. Well, I will not allow him to hide her from me."
"I will find my fiancée. Kise is the key. And when I do, there will be hell to pay."
So you might kill me with another Author's note, but yeah, I know it's a short chapter, even for me. They might probably get longer as the story progresses, I don't know. But thank you for reading, and I do hope to hear from you by clicking that little button below to review.
Till next time, Lovelies~~
With all my love,
Michiko