I'm not going to even try to explain myself, being gone for so long and "abandoning ze story" which you can thank school, band, etc, etc *insert more bullshit excuses.* I just felt I needed to update, I would've done it a month ago but ya know... shit happens and plans change. I'm happy that you all still enjoy the story, like I said before, you're support for it (and me) are what motivates me to write/update. Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites, and follows and please enjoy this somewhat long chapter! :)
P.S. This chapter has page breaks to separate events/time skips if you're wondering why the format changed a bit. Same medical disclaimer like the previous chapters and I don't know jack about debit cards, so this going off completely internet research and personal experience. Italics still count for characters thoughts
-2:56 AM-
By the time Tsubaki had managed to epically dash for the landline again, everyone was worried.
"Yes?" Tsubaki's concerned voice gasped out from the leap he had made.
"Yes sir," a mans voice he did not recognize responded, "you have a collect call from Mr... Azusa Asahina. Are you accepting the call?"
"Yes, yes!" Tsubaki urgently responded, "Just put it through!"
There was a click and Tsubaki was immediately met with heavy breathing. "A-Azusa?"
There was an eery silence for a couple seconds until the recognizable voice responded, "Y-y-ya it's me." His voice was cracked and Tsubaki immediately yelled back, "What happened?!"
"I was m-m-mugged," he had to stop to catch his breath, "my right shoulder is bleeding heavily. I managed to stop the bleeding temporarily... but I don't know how long I can go before I pass out."
By this point Tsubaki turned to the other brothers (who were listening intently to their conversation), still keeping the phone in one hand up to his ear and beckoning them towards the elevator with the other.
Fuuto mouthed, "What happened?"
God dammit, there's no time to explain! Tsubaki's adrenaline was pumping through his veins and he wanted to scream . Ukyo must have seen the worried look in his eyes and laid a hand on the young boy's shoulder, turning him towards the elevator. The rest followed suite in a hurried collected mass.
Wataru was making his way towards the elevator with the rest of them but was soon stopped Kaname.
"Wataru, this isn't for children like you."
"Hey!" The young boy yelped in frustration from the large blond blocking his path to the elevator, "Azusa is in trouble right? Wataru only wants to help!" He attempted to push the blond out of the way, but only succeeded in half-moving his leg.
"A no is a no, Wataru." Ukyo added, side glancing towards the boy as he stepped into the elevator with three others.
"But that can't be fair!" Wataru was red-faced and frustrated, his stubby legs stomping the ground angrily along with his hands waving wildly.
"This is serious!" The pressure must have been getting to everyone by that point, especially Tsubaki and he couldn't help but snap, "Azusa could be dying as we speak! Even if you wanted to help you wouldn't be able to do anything, you're only a child!" Tears were prominently welling in the man's eyes, glazing them and his voice was that of a scream, "So just shut up and stay here!"
The room was silent. That is, until the silence was broken by Wataru's soft whimper which quickly erupted into a roar of tears. "T-Tsubaki is a super big meany! Wataru only wa-a-anted to *hiccup* help! You must hate Wataru!"
His childish shrieks were the last thing needed in this situation,
"I swear to god if I have to hear that shit one more time I'm gonna-"
"A child will be a child, Tsubaki." Louis laid a shoulder on the white-haired man, the feeling of his touch calming him, "Keep talking to Azusa, he needs you more than anyone else right now, I'll look after Wataru along with Hikaru."
The hair stylist approached the boy and placed a hand on his head, ruffling his hair gently. Wataru hiccuped and kept crying but buried his face into the his chest, Louis wrapped his arms around the boy as he did this.
I'll have to apologize later. Tsubaki made a mental note as he turned his attention back to the landline I'm his role-model, I have to set a better example...
"Don't worry, we'll be down there asap. Just hang in there."
"I-I'll try."
"No." Tsubaki said with finality, "You BETTER not pass out." A slight smile tugged his lips as he said, "Or else you owe me fifty laps around the block, no breaks."
There was a weak chuckle on the other line and Tsubaki knew his brother was smiling, "Is that a threat?"
"Of course it is!"
"Haha," he stopped once more, "But don't you dare leave me alone."
"Don't worry, I'll stay by your side." Tsubaki calmly told him.
"Like always?"
"Like always."
There was silence for a couple more minutes as Tsubaki stayed with Azusa on the phone to at least give him some sense comfort.
Azusa eventually broke the silence, his voice coming out as merely a whisper now, "Hey Tsubaki."
"Ya?"
"If this were the last time I ever heard your voice " he said meekly, "Well, I'm glad that we were able to spend so much time together, as brothers."
Tsubaki's eyes widened upon hearing this, "Don't you even joke about that!" his voice cracked midway through the sentence, "You're gonna be ok..." Tsubaki felt like he was lying to himself. That sentence gave him more comfort than what it did to Azusa.
More silence, more desperation.
How long does it take for an elevator to go down five levels? Tsubaki was biting his upper lip, it felt like it had been at least thirty minutes since he watched them leave.
Suddenly, there was a loud thud on the other line.
"AZUSA!" was Tsubaki's first reaction.
No response.
No... he slammed a fist onto the counter. I was too late.
But then he heard rustling and movement and was soon greeted with, "We have him," by an older deep male voice, which Tsubaki assumed to belong to Masaomi.
Without even bothering to respond, Tsubaki slammed the phone down and dashed to the elevator.
As the doors closed, he took one last look into the spacious dark room in which the three figures were, Wataru was still crying.
When Tsubaki had finally scrambled out of the elevator and to the outside, he was completely horrified by what he saw.
His brother was covered in blood, his bare chest exposed to the elements as he was wrapped in Fuuto's blanket. His glasses were on the ground, smashed. His whole body was shaking.
"Give him some room!" Masaomi yelled as he helped Azusa to his feet. When the man had finally locked eyes with his twin, it was as if a secret connection that only they knew took hold of him.
Tsubaki shuttered and stifled a cry as his eyes began to water up at the sight of his brother. He was just glad he was alright.
"A-a-Azusa!" He screamed as he dashed over and hugged his brother with all his might.
"Hey!" Masaomi yelled as he was pushed out of the way, "He's still injured!"
But Tsubaki didn't care.
He didn't care that his brothers blood was staining his own clothing; they shared the same blood.
He didn't care that Azusa's salty tears were leaking into his wounds, Tsubaki hurt to. They shared the same pain.
He didn't care that Azusa needed a hospital... well he did... but they shared the same needs.
"I love you, Azusa." he whispered into his twins ear.
And Azusa felt exactly the same way.
After a lengthy emotional reunion between the twins and the other brothers, they had finally carried the man back up and laid him on the sofa (which they kicked Hikaru out of). Azusa insisted on staying at the house despite Masaomi's clear pleads to send him to the hospital.
"In the morning." Was Azusa's only response.
"Don't be stubborn," Masaomi was going to run out of cleaning alcohol by the end of the night, "When we found you, you were quite literally on the verge of passing out. Besides, you can't hide your pain, each time I pad down the wound, you're whole body suffers a spasm."
"It's involuntary."
"Which only means that your body's trying to tell you something isn't right."
"Wait Masaomi," Yusuke had spoken up, "Don't you have a fear of blood?"
Subaru nodded, "Yeah, I think he does. I remember when I fell off my bike and the handle lodged into my hand. Masaomi fainted at the very sight of it."
"Well, I mean that was pretty justified," Fuuto responded, "I remember I had a bloody nose once and Masaomi had to leave the room after just catching a glimpse of it."
"That's funny," Iorri said indifferently, "It's pretty much like an oxymoron."
Masaomi was now blushing at this point, both from embarrassment that all of this was in fact true and that he had never gotten over such a thing. A doctor who's afraid of blood... he thought as he wrapped Azusa's shoulder, which he had managed to clean and temporarily stop the blood seeping from it, in a gauze bandage.
"Look at him now though," Tsubaki chimed in, gazing at his brother at work, "He's overcome that fear when it really matters the most, for his brother."
"I guess so." Subaru nudged his shoulders up.
"Well Azusa, you will have to get stitches; that much is certain." Masaomi observed his handiwork.
"I'm fine." He responded, which was a complete lie, he was still in great pain and he felt really sleepy.
"Whatever you say," Masaomi looked him straight in the eye, "but as a patient, you must know it's not the best idea to lie to the doctor, it leads to greater problems later on."
"I promise you can take me to the hospital in the morning."
The same response was nagging at Ukyo each time he heard it from his brother, causing him to finally ask the million dollar question, "Why don't you want to go?"
Azusa was a silent for a moment, "I want to get that son of a bitch back."
"Oooohhhh," Fuuto was all ears, "Revenge? That's my sort of thing!" He leaned in intently next to Azusa.
"Is this about pride?" Kaname asked him, "Your pride was beaten down along with your body during the mugging, could that be why you seek revenge? Or maybe it's just intense hatred?"
"It shouldn't matter," Subaru said, "It's his decision, right? Let him follow through with whatever he says."
Ukyo sighed and adjusted his glasses, "And there you all go again, jeez, how many times are we going to assault someone in one night?"
"Well I wouldn't call this assault," Hikaru was trying to look on the bright side of things, "It's more like 'justified ass beating' if you ask me."
"That is so ironic coming from you." Tsubaki chuckled glancing at Hikaru who glared at him, "Well I'm all for whatever we end up doing, as long as Azusa's happy with it."
"There are plenty of dark alleys at this hour," Iori muttered, "It would be so easy..."
"Nothing good comes out of revenge everyone." Masaomi was putting on his big boy pants and taking charge, "It's late, everyone's tired and pursuing this will lead to more problems. Let's just go to bed, take Azusa to the hospital tomorrow morning, and report this to the police."
"See I would agree with you," Yusuke said, "But the fact of the matter is this guy could be on the run as we speak. Sure, we wait until tomorrow to report the situation to the officials, but that would give him plenty of time to flee the area, and with Azusa in the hospital we won't have a description of this guy to go off of. Police are slow to act on situations like this anyway. So, at the very least, I believe we should get a description of him and figure out his address. That way, even if he does flee the area, we'll have clues to go off of if we find anything of relative importance in his home."
The whole room was silent, everyone in utter shock.
"Y-Yusuke," Ukyo broke the silence, his jaw hanging open, "W-what was all that?"
Yusuke seemed confused, "What?"
"That whole plan with reasonable supportive logic, where... where did that come from!?"
"Oh that," Yusuke grinned, "I watch a lot of police and detective shows, I'm pretty much going off CSI and Sherlock Holmes here."
"Oh." Ukyo hanged his head low, he had his hopes up for the boy If only he could have been that detailed and reasonable in his papers for school...
"But otherwise," Yusuke said, "Ya let's beat the living shit out of this faggot!" He waved his bat, which he still surprisingly had on him, around his head.
"How are you all going to find out where this man lives?" Louis asked the group.
"Shit... I didn't think that far ahead." Yusuke laughed nervously.
A groan escaped Azusa from his place on the sofa, "He took my wallet and cellphone."
"Find my phone app!" Tsubaki practically screamed, "That's an awesome idea!" He whisked out his phone and was disappointed to find it didn't have a charge.
"That's right genius, power's been out." Fuuto sighed, "None of us got a charge, and neither does Azusa's cellphone anyway."
"Looks like we're going to have to go to basics." Ukyo said.
"And that would be?"
"You have a debit card, correct Azusa?"
He nodded.
"Our mugger was in need of cash, and fast," Ukyo thought intently, "He was clearly willing to take any means necessary to obtain it. So, now that he has those in his possession, I'd think he'd want to use them as soon as possible. He probably is also going off the notion that we will or already have contacted the authorities, so he'll probably attempt to use up all the cash now rather than risk it later."
"But don't those kinds of cards require a 4-digit PIN?" Subaru asked.
"Yes, they do." Azusa had spoken up, "But I had just received that new debit card about a week ago, and I personalized the PIN to match my birth year..."
"Which is clearly presented on your driver's license."
"Yes."
"I'm sorry, but that was a horribly stupid idea Azusa." Tsubaki said straightforwardly.
"I know, I know," Azusa bowed his head in shame, "But it's too late for that now anyway..."
"Well I'm not finished yet Azusa," Ukyo continued, "Each time you make a purchase, it is recorded in a debit card statement online. Now, assuming this man is quickly using the money up on your debit card as fast as possible, we can look back at the statement, trace the man wherever he went and possibly gather information on him. We might even strike lucky and get his address or have a look of some video feed. It's a long shot, but it's worth a try."
"But how would we even pull up the statement?" Hikaru gazed at the glasses-rimmed blond, "Powers out equals internet is out."
"Natsume has a computer at his apartment right?" Tsubaki said, "How about we try him, he's about three miles away, maybe he didn't get hit by the storm."
"And if he did?" Fuuto was always looking on the worst side of things, "What then?"
"Well then we're shit out of luck." Yusuke hissed.
Everyone shifted their gaze towards Masaomi, they knew the oldest would have the last word, and Masaomi seemed flustered by all their stares, "U-um well I don't want for Azusa to lose his stuff... but I also don't want any of you to get hurt..."
"We'll be fine." Subaru said reassuringly, "We're thirteen brothers for a reason."
A slight smile tugged Masaomi's lips when he heard that, "Well than I suppose we're going for it."
I always enjoyed Azusa and Tsubaki's brotherly connection (note that I said BROTHERLY).
Awe sad depressing chapter followed by emotional chapter! Masaomi actually does have a major fear of blood, they make that clear in the novel and game while in the anime they didn't really elaborate on it. And that thing of Subaru and the bike thing (Ew) that actually did happen, to my brother. I was too little to remember it, but from how my dad told me it was... pretty nasty. He still has the scar. And if you haven't noticed already, I suck at grammar... soooo GRAMMAR NAZIS can SUCK IT cause I ain't changing any time soon! Wooooo, sorry if that was kind of a shitty way to end the chapter, it's late, and I'm trying to update before I go to sleep.
Everyone's favorite carrot-head coming next chapter, remember to drop a review! Thank youuuu