Mirage Of Blaze Fan Fiction / Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing Twilight ❯ Chapter Eight: While You Were Sleeping ( Chapter 8 )

A/N: There is some slight tweaking in MoB's original timeline happening in this story. Yes, Naoe would be Nagi's grandfather. During an episode of MoB, it was implied that it had been thirty years since what happened with Minako. But that doesn't precisely work. For this story, just pretend it's been 35 yrs. Then everyone's ages will make sense.

 

SPECIAL NOTE: THIS IS A REPLACEMENT OF THE ORIGINAL CHAPTER EIGHT THAT WAS POSTED. It's quite different from what was originally posted, so, probably a good idea to reread if you've already read chapter eight.

 

Chasing Twilight

By: Banshee Puppet

Chapter Eight: While You were Sleeping

 

Takaya groaned awake, bringing his hand to his forehead and sitting up blearily. He tried to figure out where he was ,but couldn't. “The hell?” he muttered.

 

He heard a loud thud and his eyes shot up to see a bespectacled man kick the starch-white wall.

 

“Well this is just fucking wonderful,” Crawford complained.

 

The possessor's eyes widened as he remembered a certain man with a certain gun pointed at his very certain face.

 

A second voice piped up and commented, “I told you so.”

 

It was a young man, probably about that kid Nagi's age.

 

“Oh yes,” Crawford hissed, “and joining with Weiss would have been such a lovely idea. We could have had tea and biscuits together and chit-chatted about your little girlfriend and all those times we tried to kill them. I'm sure they've forgiven us for that by now,” he said sarcastically. `Don't be a fool, Nagi, Essett is the only place we belong, even if they are a bunch of double-crossing bastards!” he hollered the last bit at the ceiling as if whoever he was hollering at could hear him.

 

Takaya shifted. He'd intended to stand and get all offensive—until he realized that his ass was asleep. Then another realization hit him… “Nagi?!”

 

The boy blinked at him in a distinctive `do I know you' fashion. “Yes?” he asked as if he wasn't sure he wanted to say so.

 

“Nagi Naoe?” Takaya tried.

 

“Yes?” the boy asked again. Where was this going? He didn't know, but he had a sinking feeling it would explain how things got so damn crazy.

 

Takaya blinked. “But you don't look anything like those pictures.” Then on second thought, he added, “and why the hell were you trying to kill me?!” Scowling—ah, Takaya's favorite expression—that felt much better.

 

Crawford blinked. It seemed that, once again, they had only half the story. Damn visions should come with subtitles…and surround sound…

 

The three unlikely allies sat down and figured out what was really going on—mistaken identity, relationships and family ties. It always felt pretty shitty—being used—but being used to hurt someone connected to Nagi, who Crawford saw as family, was even worse.

 

Nagi shifted. A family member—he didn't know how to feel about that. He didn't really remember his family. He'd always just assumed he'd been abandoned. Was that not true? “So…how is he related to me then, your friend?” he asked.

 

“He's your grandfather…sort of,” Takaya answered. He was bad at explaining things.

 

Crawford thought about it, remembered Esstet's obsession with eternity. “The person inside that body is Nagi's grandfather, but there is currently no blood connection,” he stated, adjusting his glasses. “I'm right, aren't I?”

 

“Yeah. That's a good way to say it,” Takaya agreed.

 

“I will never forgive you for all eternity!” the possessor remembered. “Minako!” Takaya grabbed his head. Was this all connected to his lost memory somehow? But how? What happened? Who wouldn't he forgive? In truth, the answers were obvious, but Takaya didn't want them. `Nobutsuna, help me, where are you?' His memory felt almost physical, like his body knew a secret that it wasn't telling.

 

Crawford ignored his obvious distress. “You can't die then?”

 

“Oh, we die alright. We just keep coming back, stealing other people's bodies, whether we like it or not,” Takaya said bitterly. His reflection in a mirror and a familiar knife, he remembered it vividly now, and it made him feel ill. “Minako!” He'd tried to stop her then He had. But he felt the gush of blood, he could remember the feeling of a knife falling from his fingers and the life seeping outward. Now a new piece of this memory came to him. In the background, a baby was crying, and there was Naoe, standing over him, looking shocked…

 

Nagi touched his shoulder. “Takaya? Takaya,” he shook the young man's shoulder, dragging him from his thoughts. Takaya looked at him, confused and in pain. “Who's Minako?” he asked finally.

 

“I…” Takaya stumbled, slowly coming back to the present. “I think she was…someone I loved once…a long time ago. I'm not sure. Damn it!” he punched the wall thoughtlessly. The pain at least numbed his mind a little. “I just can't remember.”

 

Nagi tried to comfort the distraught youth, not much older than himself now. Takaya couldn't help but be comforted by him, something about his eyes, his…presence…was so familiar. `What could have been so terrible? What can't I remember?' Takaya wondered, head buried against Nagi's shoulder in turmoil. `Nobutsuna…what is it that you won't tell me?!'

 

It was now that Crawford's erstwhile visions decided to return. This one was Takaya. He was crying as he shoved away from a man in a business suit. A bright flash of light erupted before his vision so that he couldn't see anything…then the suited man hollered something, horror on his features. And red…so much red…everywhere…

It made Crawford a little nauseous, but he'd learned to well-conceal it long ago. He pushed his glasses up his nose again.

 

“Let's try to find a way out of here,” he stated finally.

 

*~*~*

 

Naoe rubbed his eyes again. It had been a long day and two a.m. was creeping up with the rhythmic beating of Chiaki's heart monitor. He'd lied and said he was the teenager's older brother so that they would let him stay. They looked enough alike that they could pass for relatives if they wanted to. He loosened his tie and shoved his fingers through his hair. He was torn—part of him wanted to run towards Takaya, wherever he might be, and the other part…he brushed a few strands of hair from Chiaki's bruised face and considered a moment. He'd been so obsessed with Kagetora for so long that he never really considered anyone else's feelings. “Forgive me, Chiaki,” he told the unconscious man. “I never considered how you must be feeling. Kagetora was your dearest friend, so many years ago, and he forgot you as well because of what I've done. And also, Yuzuru…none of us ever considered your feelings at all. And now there's a chance that you could die. I wonder what you would say about all of this, Nagahide.”

 

“Things change. People change. In the end, what we do amounts to only very little, but love is love. It's really pretty pitiful.”

 

Naoe turned to find Haruie standing in the doorway with her arms crossing her chest, but took Naoe's exhausted surprise as her cue to enter. “He's said the same before,” she added, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Go after Takaya. You're the one he'll want to see the most anyway.”

 

Naoe remembered now. Those sort of words were going quite a ways back. “Nagahide has never been in love before now, has he?” he realized.

 

“Our dear little Chiaki is a late bloomer is all,” she said affectionately.

 

Naoe shook his head a bit. “It figures that he'd follow Iosude's lead, in that case.” (ooc: see A/N at the bottom of the page)

 

“Of course, Chiaki was bound to take the exact opposite course that you have.”

 

“And you?”

 

Haruie waved the topic off. “I've been in love too many times already. I'm not interested in one of your despairing and everlasting loves. Now go on, get out of here. You're finally headed in the right direction with Kagetora. Don't fuck it up now.”

 

Naoe fixed his tie and replaced his jacket over broad shoulders. “And it only cost him his memory. Yes, I'm doing splendidly.”

 

When he turned, he found Saori and Yuzuru peeking around the door.

 

“We're not spying!” Saori assured quickly.

 

Naoe offered a very faint smile. To be so young again. The world had seemed full of possibilities once. Ah, but they were worn thin around the edges as well. Yuzuru sipped at stale coffee and fidgeted. “We've been talking,” he said finally. “You should both go find Takaya. Saori and I will stay with Chiaki.”

 

Naoe looked carefully at the young man for a moment, watched his expression—deep concern shifting to nervousness under that intense and unrelenting gaze. Perhaps, Naoe thought, love could bloom between them so they didn't have to suffer. He hoped it was true. “Take care of him, Yuzuru.”

 

“You don't need to say so. Chiaki is my best friend, so of course I will.”

 

When Haruie passed by Yuzuru on the way out, she said quietly, “then why are you still calling him by his last name, Narita-kun?” She was making a point.

 

“I…” Yuzuru blushed a bit, averting his eyes. “It's the only name for him that I know, except Nagahide, which you sometimes call him.”

 

Haruie realized it was true, no one called Chiaki by his first name. It was sort of funny. “It's…nah, you know, ask him when he wakes up. I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it.”

 

~*~*~

 

Schuldich paced the Koneko. Back, and forth. Back, and forth. Finally, Yohji couldn't take it anymore. “Will you cut that out!” the former P.I. demanded.

 

Damn it! Where the hell was Omi?! They were both thinking the same thing for very different reasons, only Schuldich couldn't admit he was thinking it at all.

 

Finally, Aya pulled the redhead down into the basement `to prevent World War III' she claimed. She was worried about Omi too, and Nagi hadn't shown up yet either, but someone had to be the level head around here and god knew it would never be Ken or Ran.

 

“Mr. Schuldich, you're okay?” she asked.

 

“Of course I'm not okay!” he couldn't take it anymore. It was like this pressure leaking into the back of his skull that she just released with those words. “He could be dead and I promised to get him home safe and he's in love with your brother and and…and I'm going to find him damn it!” Phew, that strangely felt a little better.

 

Aya blinked a few times as Shuldich stormed upstairs. `Huh?'

 

“Farfie, be good until Brad and Nagi get here,” Shuldich ordered.

 

“Like hell!” Farfarello blurted out after hours of silence. “You're not leaving me here with them!” And, they're off…

 

Ran furrowed his brow. He wasn't sure what was going on, but it was giving him a migraine…and making his head ring.

 

“Moshi moshi,” Ken said.

 

Oh, wait, that wasn't his head, it was the phone. The phone!

 

Ken felt suddenly claustrophobic as his teammates darted over to where he stood as if smothering him would allow them to hear what was going on. “Arigatou,” Ken could hear Omi say to someone on his end of the line.

 

~*~*~

“Arigatou,” Omi said, taking the lukewarm coffee from Yuuiko. “Ah, Ken, it's Omi. I'm okay. I'm at the hospital with Saori, Yuukio, and Yuzuru. One of their friends was shot. Is everyone else okay?”

 

“We're fine, a little beaten up, but otherwise okay. No word from Nagi or Crawford yet though—not that I care about THEM or anything. Schuldich and Frankenstein just stormed out of here—to go look for them, I guess. The guy who was shot, he gonna be okay?”

 

“They say it didn't hit anything major, but they didn't want to say anything else before some other test results came in. Saori is in there having blood taken to give him now, but it seems like the worst is over.”

 

“Do you need someone to come pick you up?” Ken asked.

 

Omi could see Yuuiko fidgeting in his peripheral vision. He hesitated. “In the morning,” he answered. “I want to stay a bit longer.”

 

Ran took the phone from Ken's hand tactlessly. “I'll go over there. What hospital are you at?” he said in his usual brusque tones. Good old Ran. Not much for pleasantries when Aya wasn't in the room.

 

“You don't have to…” Omi started to protest.

 

“You were kidnapped, idiot. We're not going to just leave you alone with some kids you go to school with.”

 

Omi sighed. `That's only because they thought I was Nagi,' he thought but decided not to say. What was the point of arguing with Fujimiya Ran? You'd only lose.

 

“Kanzaki Memorial in Matsumoto,” he answered with a sigh.

 

Ran gave a curt nod as if Omi could actually see it. “I'll be there in an hour,” he stated and hung up the phone. Omi frowned at the payphone. “See you then.”

 

~*~*~

`That's only because they thought I was Nagi.' Schuldich would know that mental voice anywhere, and he didn't like where it was coming from. “Farfie, I'll be right back. Just…don't get any blood on the leather.”

 

Farfarello gave him a look. The telepath was acting strange…well, stranger than usual.

 

“What?!” Schuldich demanded defensively. “I made a promise.” Also out of character for the redhead—promises. Farfarello had a sinking suspicion. He quirked an eyebrow. “You haven't…”

 

But the telepath didn't let him finish the thought `fallen in love'. His eyes darkened at Farfarello as if scolding him. “Wait here,” he said before heading inside.

 

`You idiot. You've fallen in love with a kitten?' Farfarello thought. He didn't understand love. No, that wasn't true; he understood it all too well. His mind drifted absently to his chest as he remembered the strange ache there at being called weak by the effeminate man with the long, feathery hair. What was it the other man had called him again?

“Kosaka…”

 

~*~*~

 

Omi was tired. There was no change in Chiaki and the girls had fallen asleep on one of the lobby sofas. Yuzuru hadn't left Chiaki's side since he'd arrived.

 

“Omi.” Shuldich spoke aloud out of courtesy. He was relieved. Omi was fine. Well, someone had obviously been badly hurt, but as long as it wasn't Bombay he didn't care. Omi stood abruptly and stared at the redhead, just stared. He was tired but he couldn't deny the slight `thump' in his chest. It was just that they'd been through a lot together, nothing more. “You're okay,” he stated flatly. He could tell the telepath was a bit scratched up. He was wearing one of Ran's t-shirts and there were what appeared to be deep claw marks running up his forearms, but otherwise, he seemed fine.

 

“Yeah,” Schuldich answered. “And you're fine?”

 

“…yeah.”

 

Schuldich took a step forward. “I…”

 

“Omi!” The deep, brusque voice of Ran Fujimiya. Remembering the name Omi had called out at that time made Schuldich hate Abyssinian a little more than usual as the other assassin brushed past him as if he wasn't there.

 

“You didn't have to hurry over here,” he told his teammate. “I think the worst is over.”

 

`I'm glad you're alright,' Schuldich thought, feeling a little more moody than usual, and hearing this, Omi peeked past Ran's shoulder to find the other redhead disappearing around the corner.

 

`What's his deal?' Omi wondered.

 

Schuldich's head ached. He was stressed over Omi and not shielding as well as he should be. And Omi was.. `Damn it! Idiot! He's never going to love you back. Never!' He sunk to the floor and let his posture sink as well. He had to collect himself before going outside and facing Farfarello again.

 

It was then that the lavatory door opened. He thought he'd locked it, and leapt to his feet when he saw who it was. He couldn't deal with this now!

 

“Relax,” the Possessor said. “I'm not here to cause you any trouble.”

 

“Who the hell are you?” Schuldich demanded. “What do you want? Are you one of those possessing guys?”

 

Kosaka smirked a bit and gave a faint nod. “I am.” He had a brain under that lion's mane of hair, the possessor decided, even if Shuldich DID act like an idiot. “My name is Kosaka Danjoh, and I am about to make you an offer you would be a fool to refuse.”

 

Schuldich hesitated, crossed his arms over his chest. Contrary to his better judgment, the words that came from his lips were, “I'm listening.”

 

~*~*~

 

Morning came with a whisper and Yuzuru fighting himself to stay awake when the doctor entered. “How is he?” Yuzuru asked, suddenly wide awake. “He's going to be okay, right?”

 

“The wound isn't very bad,” the doctor assured. “It will heal.” But there was something he wasn't saying. His posture told the group of mostly accidental friends all they needed to know. Yuzuru wrung his hands in his shirt, too afraid to ask, so Ran did it for him. He had a sinking feeling he knew what the problem was, and he'd been there before.

 

“What is it?” he asked.

 

“The problem is psychosomatic,” the doctor said. “For some reason or other, your friend just doesn't want to wake up.” A pause.

 

Faces dropped, but Yuzuru refused to believe it. “That's silly, he's just tired, right Chiaki. Hey, Chiaki, come on, wake up…Ch-Chiaki…stop kidding around…”

 

“Yuzuru, stop it,” Saori choked out. It was too painful to see him this way. “He…”

 

Ran slapped the young man to drag him back to his senses. “He's in a coma,” he said, forcing the last words past his lips. Bad memories there. “That won't work.”

 

“No, he's not, he…Chiaki…Damn it! Wake up!” But the possessor didn't stir, not even a little, as if he was simply somewhere else entirely—somewhere that he couldn't hear Yuzuru's voice.

~*~*~

A/N: Iosude. If the name doesn't look familiar it's because it isn't. Iosude is an OC who I'm just using for sake of fleshing out some history on someone other than Takaya and Naoe. More on him later, perhaps, but for now this is plenty to get the point across I think. Nothing like a little mystery to get the juices flowing.