Angel Sanctuary Fan Fiction ❯ Angel Dust ❯ You Should Know Better ( Chapter 4 )

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AN: (swirly-eyed) Ooh, the drama... (whimper) Poor Alexiel. Poor Katan, he's so put-upon... (grin) Actually, I rather like this chapter... three guesses why... Plus, it's long! Go me! Heh...

 

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Chapter Four: You Should Know Better

 

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After Alexiel managed to find her house again, she sat on the floor and cried awhile. But she never had been much of a crier - so eventually she'd decided to pick herself up and take a shower and change into dry clothes before she caught pneumonia. After that was done, she'd made a cup of hot cocoa, thought for a bit, and called Kira to tell him to come over.

 

The corners of her eyes were starting to prickle again despite her best efforts by the time she was done telling him what had happened, but when she looked up at him, his expression stopped her tears cold before they started. She frowned at him from across her kitchen table; he looked somewhere between repulsed and amused.

 

He gave a light shrug. “Well, that proves it then - your brother's a sick guy. Sorry, but hey, every family's got one-”

 

She scowled. “He's not-! He's not sick...”

 

Kira smirked. “So sane people just get the hots for their sisters all the time, huh?”

 

She naturally thought of Setsuna, and of the time she'd talked to Kurai... “That doesn't matter! It's just... I don't like him that way, and I think he was really hoping I would... now things will be messed up, if he can't let it go...”

 

Kira took his turn glaring. “So you think the guy seriously thought you'd like to go out with your own brother, and you're sorry for him? Your brother's a sick pervert!”

 

She got to her feet. “Don't say that!”

 

He stood too, and looked down at her darkly. “He hurt you, right? I told you I didn't like him; maybe next time you'll listen to me.”

 

After he stalked out, Alexiel took her time sitting back down. The little apartment she'd been so proud of felt very, very empty.

 

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Katan shuffled through the thick, soggy blanket of leaves that last night's storm had tossed down upon the sidewalk, and found that he was feeling rather dreary.

 

He hadn't been able to get much out of Rosiel after he'd taken him home, but the basics were obvious. He'd revealed his feelings to Alexiel, and she'd violently rejected him. Frankly, he hadn't been very surprised... He'd spent the night at his home, but he'd left again as soon as he'd gotten up and dressed. For one thing, he was a bit worried that Rosiel would wind up sick after getting so soaked. But secretly, his main concern was just leaving him alone for very long in such a state...

 

His concern heightened slightly when he'd arrived at Rosiel's door and knocked for a while without getting any answer, but he told himself that Rosiel was probably just still sleeping. It wasn't a big deal; he had a key. His parents were out as usual, though this didn't mean the same thing it would've at Katan's house. Both the adults had fine careers, which took up pretty much all of their attention, Sunday or not. They had both been locked in their home offices when Katan had brought their son home the night before, and hadn't noticed.

 

No, the thing that really worried him - frightened him, even - was the cheerful laughter that greeted him when he knocked on Rosiel's bedroom door.

 

“Come in, Katan!”

 

He opened the door cautiously, but Rosiel seemed to be pretty harmless at the moment. He was sprawled out on his bed, one pallid hand resting on the pillow above his head and one leg dangling off the edge, and was still wearing silky white pajamas. His loose hair pooled around him and dropped off the edge of the bed like whitewater rapids. Katan's eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed as they noted the detail of the little capsule pills spilling from the overturned bottle on the mattress next to the other man.

 

“How's the weather outside today?” he asked pleasantly. “It's quite hot in here, isn't it?”

 

Katan frowned. “It's freezing.”

 

Rosiel clicked his tongue in disagreement. “No it's not. Maybe you're sick?”

 

Katan stepped closer as his frown deepened. “What are those?” he demanded, indicating the pills.

 

Rosiel smirked. “Medicine,” he lied matter-of-factly. Katan sighed, but it was okay, since he'd already known anyway. He reached out a hand, hesitating for a moment for permission before placing it on Rosiel's forehead. The pale man blinked up at him when he yanked his hand away.

 

“You have a fever!” he blurted. “You should be under the covers-”

 

“Nonsense,” he said airily. “I'm fine.” And he laughed again, for no apparent reason. Then, as Katan watched, he reached out for a pill and raised it to his lips...

 

Katan grabbed his boarder-line anorexic wrist, and they stared each other down for a moment. Rosiel twisted his wrist slightly, and Katan let go; he smirked again. “You want one?”

 

He jerked back, eyes widening. “N-No-”

 

“I really think you should,” he insisted, sitting up leisurely. “I think you'd like it.”

 

Katan shook his head silently, eyes pleading. Rosiel shrugged, and swallowed the pill dry. Katan grimaced helplessly. “Suit yourself,” he said, sounding self-satisfied. “What did you want?”

 

He hung his head in defeat. “I just wanted to see if you were okay,” he said though clenched teeth.

 

A languid, effeminate hand slipped into his line of sight. “Are you upset...?” Fingernails grazed his cheek ever-so-lightly and the hand cupped his face, and his muscles relaxed instantly. He saw that Rosiel had gotten up to stand in front of him; reluctantly, he lifted his head to meet his concerned gaze. He was surprised to find that the other young man was shorter than him; it hadn't always been that way...

 

“I'm worried,” he whispered honestly.

 

Rosiel just smiled, and kissed him.

 

Katan's entire body went rigid. He tried to raise his hands to push him away, or - something, he wasn't sure what - but they were frozen at his sides. Rosiel had closed his eyes and linked his arms loosely around his neck, but he couldn't even seem to blink... It took him a moment to figure out what was happening when something pushed between his weakly resisting lips, but it broke the spell completely.

 

Katan fell to his knees, choking, and he stared in horror at the pill that fell into his hands. Rosiel, from where he'd been pushed back onto the bed, wiped his lips smugly. “Oh, don't be like that,” he chided, and snickered hysterically. Katan found himself just wanting to curl up on the floor, but it was overpowered by his need to get out of the house.

 

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That same morning, Sara poked her head into the living room to find Setsuna watching the television with an expression of deep concentration. She frowned. “What on earth are you watching?”

 

He blinked, and the serious expression disappeared. He studied the screen for a few moments. “Ah... an infomercial... about exercise equipment...?”

 

A rather busty woman came on the screen to demonstrate one of the machine's many uses, and Sara scowled deeply and marched over to switch the TV off. “Oniichan...” she complained. He grinned sheepishly.

 

“I wasn't actually watching that,” he admitted. “Really! I was thinking... Well, what do you think about you and me and Kurai all going to an amusement park? My treat - I've been saving my money lately... no special reason...”

 

She gaped. “What-? Those tickets are expensive! Are you sure?”

 

He grinned. “Yeah! I mean, I think it'd be a nice thing to do, you know...?” She smiled gently in understanding.

 

“Okay then... Well, what are you waiting for? Call her!”

 

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Kurai sighed, and uttered a rather distracted “Moshi moshi?” The place where she'd had to pause the computer game was... rather difficult... If this was salesman, she swore...

 

“What's up?” Setsuna greeted cheerfully; she brightened automatically. “Hey, guess what? We're going to an amusement park! You and me and Sara, my treat!”

 

She opened her mouth to respond, grinning widely because his enthusiasm was catching as much as anything else, but then she abruptly closed it again.

 

An amusement park...

 

Her grin softened to a small smile as her mind conjured up a memory of Alexiel's face. That time, she's said some really harsh things, but she'd had a point. It had been clear that she'd seen exactly how stupid Kurai had been - well, she could still salvage some of her dignity. She coughed explosively.

 

“Kurai?-!”

 

“Um...” She considered for a moment, and pinched her nose. “Er, I can't... I'm sick,” she informed him, somewhat lamely.

 

On the other end, Setsuna arched an eyebrow. “Oh really...?”

 

She nodded vigorously, forgetting that no one was there to see. “Uh-huh! You know... the rain had stopped by the time I went home last night, but it was still really cold...”

 

He frowned. “Ugh, you're right. We should've made you stay the night...” She smirked.

 

“So,” she continued, “you two go ahead without me, okay? It's cool.”

 

“What? No! We can go next week-”

 

“But what about Sara? You've already told her, right?” she asked slyly.

 

Setsuna glanced over at his sister, who was watching him expectantly. “Well... yeah.”

 

“You can't let her down! I mean, I don't think it'd exactly help your case...” Setsuna sputtered, but she just talked over him. “You'd better damn well take her, Setsuna Mudo! Take her up on the Ferris wheel, okay?” And without giving him a chance to respond, she hung up.

 

Afterwards, Kurai stared at the phone in her hand for a long moment. Then she smiled very slightly, in a faraway fashion, and went back to her game.

 

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Setsuna likewise stared at his phone, somewhat more surprised as he listened to the faint dial tone. “She... hung up.”

 

“What did you say to her?” Sara demanded accusingly.

 

“I didn't say anything; you heard me, for crying out loud!” he responded hotly, and then shook his head. “I don't know what her problem is... She said she was sick... and she says we should go without her.”

 

Sara frowned. “We can't do that-”

 

“She insisted,” he interrupted wearily. “As in, I-think-she'll-kick-my-ass-on-Monday-if-I-don't insisted... I guess she really didn't want to be a downer...”

 

Sara grimaced. “Huh. Well...” She grinned shyly. “I don't know; don't you think you'd be bored going to an amusement park with just your sister?”

 

As Setsuna stared at her, he felt a ghost of a blush pass over his face... “Nah,” he said hurriedly. She beamed.

 

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Once they got to the amusement park, they were content to stay there all afternoon. They rode everything from the roller-coasters to the haunted mine ride, played the games - Setsuna won a giant teddy-bear, and did not miss the way Sara's face colored as she happily accepted it - and Setsuna bought them a lunch of a corn dog each and nachos, plus cotton candy for dessert, in spite of Sara's worrying that she would get sick, or at least fat.

 

All in all, it had been the definition of a perfect day at a theme park, right up until they got separated.

 

Sara was just beginning to get panicky, when a large hand grabbed her elbow. She turned to look, relived, but her smile froze when she found herself looking at an unfamiliar face.

 

The boy with the black pony-tale coming out from under his baseball cap smiled winningly. “Hey, where're you from?”

 

“Tokyo, of course! Where else would she be from?” She glanced hurriedly over her shoulder to find another boy, with short brown hair, and bit her lip nervously.

 

“Um...?”

 

The brown-haired boy smiled too, in a somehow worrying fashion. “Wanna come with us? We'll show you lots of fun stuff...”

 

“Hey...” A pair arms wrapped around her from behind; her eyes flew open wide. “Take your hands off my girl!”

 

The one with the pony-tail scowled. “Tsk, she has a boyfriend...”

 

The other boy, however, was already walking away. “C'mon, let's get outta here,” he called irritably.

 

Setsuna, with his chin resting lightly on top of Sara's head, found himself grinning like an idiot as they walked away. Sara squirmed out of his grip, blushing fuchsia. “W-What'd you tell them that for?” she demanded.

 

He shrugged. “Hey, it worked, didn't it? A lot faster than arguing with them would've, too...” She smiled a little, so he abruptly nodded at something behind her. “Uh... you wanna ride that?” He continued to grin to mask his awkwardness.

 

She glanced over, and beamed. “The Ferris wheel? Yeah! I was actually hoping you'd ask sometime soon - we can watch the sun set!”

 

So they hurried over. By the time they made it to the head of the line, the clouds on the western horizon were brilliant blood reds and tangerine oranges. Sara gripped the rail excitedly as the ride started to move up.

 

Setsuna smiled to himself as he stood next to her. He wasn't looking at her, but he didn't need to to feel her happiness. “Did you have fun today?”

 

She laughed. “Of course! It was great... thank you for taking me.”

 

He did look at her then, and found her looking back at him... very close. He hadn't realized they were standing so near... Contrary to the popular theory of time standing still at moments like this, the feeling didn't seem to last very long - or at least not long enough - but even so, he could've sworn he saw recognition in her eyes...

 

The next instant, however, she looked away and sighed in a contented and one-hundred-percent collected manner at the sight of the burgundy cityscape below them. “Oh - isn't it beautiful?”

 

Setsuna was glad that the setting sun was already coloring his face red, because he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from her as he murmured, “Gorgeous...”

 

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In between staying at the park until nearly closing time and then stopping at a WacDonalds on the way home for a late dinner, they didn't get back until after their parents were already asleep. They met one last time in the hall, as Sara was on her way to the bathroom and Setsuna was on his way from it.

 

“G'night,” he said in passing, but she grabbed his wrist.

 

“Hey...” She smiled. “You're really sweet, oniichan.” And with that simple statement, she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. “Good night.”

 

Setsuna stared after her long after she'd gone around the corner. For just a second there, he'd thought... hoped?... Though, mind you, even a kiss on the cheek was, well...

 

He touched the side of his face, and gave a pained little smile. Actually, he was beginning to wonder how much longer he could go on like this...

 

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AN: Auw, I got to write fluff for this chapter! (spiraly-eyed) Wow, is that ever out of place... I'm kind of beginning to doubt my decision to keep S and S's folks together for this fic, to be honest. It makes it too easy. Kurai was supposed to make up for that, but, well... (sweatdrop) Ah, well. They'll just have to make themselves useful by balancing out Katan and Rosiel's extreme angst. (grin) Incidentally, can anyone tell I'm having entirely too much fun writing a so-called `AU'...? Heh, actually, not to diss the creative genius that is Yuki Kaori - more like dissing the lack of genius that is TokyoPop's translators - but if the dialogue of the boys who tried to talk to Sara in the park seemed lame, that's because it was a direct quote from the manga -.-; Along with the more obvious part, of course ;) That said... review? (puppy eyes)