Angelic Layer Fan Fiction ❯ Mystic Visions ❯ Growing ( Chapter 5 )

AN: (cackle) Fluff alert! Yes, it's the long-awaited Fluff Chapter... not to say that things will be easier from here on out, sort of the reverse actually, but at least they'll get a small respite before things have to get nasty... cackle... I had loads of fun writing this chapter, can you tell? On top of the fluff, this first scene here was one of the first ideas I got when coming up with this fic, it's been waiting to be written for a long time... so if it's kind of cruddy, that's why, heh.

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Chapter Four: Growing

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The next morning, Oujiro was left with nothing more than a fleeting sense of vague emotions, as mercurial and impossible to grasp as smoke. He didn't think that Wizard had been involve, for of course he didn't know for certain if he had forgotten any of the dreams that he'd had about Wizard - if he'd forgotten them then it sort of followed - but the ones that he could remember lately had all been just as crystal-clear as any other part of his life...

 

So to summarize, he had now managed to enjoy two consecutive nights of uninterrupted sleep. So he should be happy. Right.

 

Perhaps it would help, he reflected pensively, if only this teacher wasn't so god-awfully boring. She had obviously been perfecting her technique for years; she spoke in a drawling monotone which could easily cause the inattentive listener to forget how a sentence had begun before it was finished, and she could not even be bothered to notice the several students who had already passed out, which at least would have given the rest of them something to snigger at.

 

And perhaps it would help if it wasn't such a beautiful, cloudless day out there; perhaps it would help if breeze coming in the open window wasn't so warm and enticing. Oujiro stared out said window with glazed eyes, and probably would have let his jaw go slack if he wasn't The Prince of the Layer. Class presidents... did not fall asleep in class, they did not...

 

-jiro.

 

He twitched guiltily, and looked to the front of the class. The infamous teacher gave him an odd glance, but continued her spiel.

 

“If t is a real number and (x, y) is a point on the unit circle corresponding to t, then sine t-”

 

Oujiro frowned. Then who... had said his name...?

 

Oujiro!

 

This time he managed to control his reaction, remaining perfectly still - or, perhaps, frozen... No one else, he noted, gave any sign of hearing anything. But infinitely worse... was the fact that, Kami-sama, he knew that voice...

 

Oujiro-sama? Don't be coy, I know you can hear me. Just concentrate...

 

`I-I can...' he thought, and shuddered involuntarily at the resounding reply of Ah-ha! that greeted it.

 

There was a long moment of silence - except there wasn't, exactly, because he could still hear the teacher quite clearly. See her, too, and feel the soothing summer wind on his skin and his knuckles going white on the edge of the desk... `Kami-sama, what's happening?' he panicked.

 

Not a clue, Wizard said cheerily. But I guess it's the next step in... whatever's been happening... Isn't it exciting?

 

In his despair, Oujiro scoffed out loud (the boy next to him glanced his way, but a quick smile easily sent him back to his window-gazing). `Exciting? Exciting? I'm obviously losing my mind, and you think it's exciting?-!'

 

Wizard merely laughed at him - it was a pleasant sound like the tinkling of bells, and Oujiro probably would've found it soothing under, well, just about any other circumstance you'd care to mention. You don't honestly still think I'm a figment of your imagination, do you? he wondered. How immature.

 

Oujiro's jaw clenched. `Kami - no. You are a figment of my imagination, and I refuse to talk to you!' His hands clenched and unclenched under the desk, and he screwed his eyes shut in an effort to block this foreign presence out.

 

You shouldn't do that, Wizard remarked, still sounding entirely too amused. You'll strain yourself...

 

`Shut up!' A pained grimace crossed his face - but, well, it needed to be said, right? Wizard seemed to take it in stride in any case, `hmph'ing in mild irritation.

 

Fine, then. But don't say I didn't warn you.

 

It was at about this point that Oujiro's world faded to black.

 

X................................................................ ..........................................................................X

 

At first glance, the concept of fainting seemed to be rather distressing - but upon further consideration, Oujiro had a feeling that he would rather have stayed unconscious than faced the alternative. The world around him remained generally black - but he was suddenly very aware of a blue blur hovering over his face, which focused gradually into Wizard's beaming face.

 

“Oujiro is finally awake!” That said, and while Oujiro was still too dazed to defend himself, the Angel leaned down and gave him a resounding kiss on the lips as if it was all a matter of course. “Now, I warned you this was going to happen, didn't I? You're probably going to miss the rest of your classes now-”

 

“Don't. Don't ever. Do that again.” Oujiro shuddered violently, and staggered to his feet, groaning. “Oh... I - I just fainting in class, didn't I?”

 

“I warned you,” Wizard reiterated in a sing-song voice, rocking back on his heels to peer up at his Deus. Oujiro narrowed his eyes, but after a moment he just shook his head wearily and turned away.

 

“What's going on?” he murmured. “I hope you have a better idea than I do.”

 

“It wouldn't be too hard,” Wizard suggested, though he at least had the decency to not sound too terribly snide about it. Oujiro glanced over his shoulder to indicate that he was listening, to find that the Angel had flopped onto his back; he gestured in an all-encompassing way at the seemingly endless night that surrounded them. “This is my world,” he stated. “It's been like this since before I can remember, and I never thought about it - until you showed up.” The way he grinned at that made Oujiro feel vaguely uncomfortable; thankfully he didn't elaborate. “This world has been expanding since then; you've been becoming clearer and clearer. Today I got a glimpse into your world for the first time... I've been getting close to communicating with the other Angels, too.” He smirked at Oujiro's scandalized expression. “There are a lot of them out there, aren't there? It really is exciting, you know - everything is growing so fast!”

 

“W-Where do you think it will stop?” Oujiro whispered, though he wasn't sure if he really wanted to know.

 

Wizard sprang nimbly up and sauntered across the nothingness to his side, looking like the Cheshire cat. “Who knows?” he returned. “Maybe it won't stop until it's touched all the members of the MYSTIC project.” Oujiro took a step back, wondering when he'd learned that name; Wizard closed the distance with two steps forward. “Maybe it won't stop until it's touched all the Angels in the world.” Ghostly pale fingers slipped across his cheek, and blue eyes darkened. “Maybe we'll eventually share this body, as two halves of the same soul.” While this statement was still echoing around in his head, Wizard pressed a gentle kiss to his lips, and for once he just couldn't seem to remember why he should protest.

 

While Wizard's hands lingered at his hips, toying with the hem of his shirt in a most infuriating fashion, the Angel abandoned his lips in favor of the general area of his jaw, ear, and neck. Flushed and not entirely all there at the moment, Oujiro found himself gasping: “How... how could this... reach the other angels? If they don't have the MYSTIC software...”

 

“Who knows?” Wizard repeated, breathing the words into the vicinity of his collar in a way that made his knees give out. After Oujiro had slid to the ground, Wizard made himself comfortable on his lap, and pulled back briefly to look at him with sparkling eyes. “But at the rate things are going, it seems like anything is possible...” He then silenced any reply Oujiro might have made by returning to the plundering of his mouth.

 

Oujiro flushed a bit more as he realized that this statement might be suggesting something about his present behavior. Just then, however, Wizard's cool fingers finally made it under his shirt to glide over his stomach, and his brain was filled with a white static that thoroughly eradicated that train of thought. A strange heat was coiling in his abdomen that made him squirm under the other's touches, and he was feeling a bit light-headed but it was alright, it was so right that he wondered why he'd ever-

 

Misaki.

 

Could you, he wondered, cheat on someone with a dream? Technically?

 

...Oh, bugger.

 

Oujiro pushed feebly at Wizard's chest, but his limbs were treacherously limp just now, and he was beginning to wonder what he was going to do, when Wizard himself abruptly jerked back. The Angel pouted. “Hey, that's not fair! Why are you leaving already?”

 

Oujiro glanced down to find that he was, indeed, fading around the edges. Then he glanced up again, to take in Wizard's blushing countenance and swollen lips... Damn. “I'm sorry, I can't control it,” he stammered, and scowled when he realized that that wasn't what he should be saying, not at all. Wizard just smiled his glowing smile.

 

“Oh, well - if you really can't help it, I guess...” He stole one last quick peck, and rested his forehead against Oujiro's. “I'm sorry I haven't seen you the past couple days, by the way. I should be able to talk to you anytime from now on.”

 

Oujiro held on to Wizard's hand and stared into his eyes until the last possible moment, and didn't feel half as bothered by this parting assertion as he should have been.

 

TBC