Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Neutral Territory ❯ Facing Painful Realities ( Chapter 32 )

Title: Neutral Territory [part 32/?]

Author: Enigma

Written: begun October, 2001

Rating: R

Pairings: (Omi + Nagi) (Yohji + Ken) (Brad + Schu)

Category: Shonen ai/Yaoi Angst Friendship Romance Action Violence. AU-OOC. Giftfic.

Archive: fanfiction.net & mediaminer.org [author: "E-sama the Llama"] plus Wuffie.net [author: "Enigma"]

Warnings: shonen ai/yaoi, angst, masculine friendship in many forms, various levels of romance, action, coarse language, whiffs of citrus but nothing detailed, possibly graphic violence, bloodshed, tiny bits of humor, fluff, and sap; more warnings will be added as necessary. AU-OOC. Giftfic for Rubious.

Spoilers: Aya's sister's condition and a few other small things, nothing major.

Disclaimer: "Weiss Kreuz" is the property of Koyasu Takehito and Project Weiss. All original characters featured herein (including but not limited to: Glocksten, Charon, etc.) are © Enigma, 2003, and are not to be used without permission. This unauthorized work of fanfiction is intended for entertainment only; kindly do not sue me.

Notes: Omi's first trip to the public library results in an unexpected meeting when Nagi saves his life without being aware of the Weiss archer's identity. Can two lonely teens overcome the limits of their dark purpose in life to find friendship and possibly love in the midst of "neutral territory"?

//thoughts//

{{mental speech}}

*****

Sunday morning. The surgical recovery room in Komagome Hospital.

*****

The squeak of wheels that needed oiling awoke Nagi from his hazy sleep even as the first rays of dawn's welcome light painted skies he could not see in warm hues reminiscent of the glow of a cheerful fire upon a hearth. Orange, yellow, and red danced together across the few clouds remaining after a rainy night, yet none of those most in need of the heartening change in the weather was aware of it.

Forgetting that he had large gauge IV needles imbedded in him and that his left arm was immobilized by a thick bandage, Nagi moved to rub some of the sleep from his eyes before exclaiming softly, "ouch!" He glanced down at himself and nearly moaned as horrible flashbacks of the tragic events of the night before flooded his mind, thereby shocking him into silence once more.

"Where would you like us to put him?" A voice Nagi didn't recognize inquired and drew him back to awareness of the events taking shape around him.

"Over there, beside the other boy," a feminine voice he recognized as that of the nurse who had assisted him a few hours earlier replied.

"We usually space patients in here farther apart than this. Are you sure that's wise?" Another new voice inquired. Nagi would later discover that this was the voice of the newly arrived male nurse who would take over responsibility for the recovery room from the woman who would be off duty soon.

The sound of paper rustling was drowned out as the squeak of wheels resumed and the familiar woman's voice assured, "Yes. Apparently the two boys know each other. It might bring some comfort to the one who was brought here first if he awakens to find that his friend is out of surgery now."

Unbeknownst to Nagi, due to the fact that the hospital's combination intensive/critical care unit was undergoing renovation, a patient as dangerously at risk as Omi was couldn't be placed where he truly ought to have been following surgery. Instead, he was being put in the second best location yet it was most beneficial for a terribly worried fifteen year old.

Despite the lingering exhaustion and mild confusion caused by his drug-induced sleep, the words spoken hadn't failed to register in the miserable telekinetic's mind.

//"His friend"?!//

Nagi's heart raced as he realized there was only one person they could be speaking about.

//Omi is here? Where?! Is he alright?! Why can't I see him?!//

"That's a good idea," the male voice replied and then faded away as the two nurses returned to the desk to complete the transfer of responsibility between them.

Despite it being unwise in the extreme, Nagi craned his neck as much as he could as he heard yet could not see Omi being transferred from a gurney to the bed beside his own. A mere fabric curtain separated them, yet it might as well have been an impenetrable steel wall for all that he could see past it.

As he moved upon his seemingly too-large bed, the needles in Nagi's arms shifted, but they weren't as painful as the recently sutured gunshot wound was when he inadvertently tugged it while trying to see. Predictably, the local anesthesia which had prevented him from feeling the surgery to repair the damage done by Charon's bullet had worn off while he had slept. The agonizing pain Nagi felt when he moved it was something he'd have to live with if he wished to avoid the mind-numbing effect of the powerful painkillers the surgeon had prescribed for him.

Biting back an exclamation of pain since he didn't want to distract anyone attending to Omi, Nagi silently urged the unseen medical personnel at work nearby to hurry and leave so he could call forth his paranormal powers and get the offending divider out of his way. However, there were numerous monitor patches as well as far more bags of intravenous fluids than seemed reasonable for such a small body to have attached to it to be put into place, so it took awhile.

After the longest twenty minutes of Nagi's short life, the various medical personnel required to install the Weiss archer in his temporary residence were done with their tasks and then left them alone once more.

When the telekinetic was certain that he could use his paranormal powers without being observed, his eyes darkened appreciably as he carefully nudged the curtain separating them aside enough to see Omi. However, what he saw shocked him so badly that the flimsy cloth fluttered back into place almost immediately.

Badly shaken, Nagi lay limply against his pillow and tried to ignore the rush of blood pounding through his veins as he attempted to reassure himself that the beeping of the cardiac monitor nearby meant Omi was alive in spite of appearances to the contrary. Fighting down a surge of nausea, he unwillingly acknowledged his initial assessment of his dearest friend's condition.

//Oh gods, I've seen corpses that looked more alive than he does at the moment.//

Midnight blue eyes slipped shut as Nagi focused on the rhythmic noises of the respirator that was pushing oxygen enriched air through a breathing tube inserted down Omi's throat. The sound of the mechanism that approximated the actions of human lungs brought to mind the frightening mask taped over the injured boy's mouth and nose, and this realization sent another shudder of revulsion through the too-slender teen's body.

Attempting to realign his own thoughts, Nagi remonstrated himself silently.

//Hold your horses, Naoe! Stop thinking so negatively, moron. You're not doing Omi or yourself any good at all by doing that. Just take another look since they wouldn't have brought him in here unless he'd done alright in surgery. It's probably not as bad as you thought.//

With a supreme effort, Nagi set aside his fears and sent out intangible ribbons of force to ease the thin fabric curtain out of the way once more. Bravely, he made himself take a closer look at the unmoving form so near and yet so far, silently noting the bulges beneath the white cotton sheet shrouding Omi's torso that implied the hopefully repaired gunshot wounds were now swaddled in thick layers of bandages. From there, his gaze moved past the mask on a grayish face whose eyes remained closed despite Nagi's desperate wish to see them open even a fraction.

Overall, the fallen Weiss assassin truly did look more like a corpse than he did a living and breathing person, and it was no surprise when the hot sting of tears made itself felt as the barrier was allowed to fall back into place.

Even as Nagi fought the twin desires to cry due to the agony he was in physically as well as that caused by seeing the only person he'd dared to let himself begin to love, two new voices were added to the murmurs near the front of the room. Initially, he recognized them only as "Siberian" and "Balinese", but recalling Omi's fond comments about them, he tried to label them as "Hidaka Ken" and "Kudou Yohji", respectively despite being unable to discern their words clearly.

"We're here to see Tsukiyono Omi," Ken quietly told the nurses even though they intended to see Nagi as well if at all possible.

"Just a moment and then I'll take you to him," the male nurse assured while finishing the shift change paperwork that had distracted him from the video monitors which might have otherwise revealed the use of supernatural powers nearby. After tucking the forms away properly, he rose from behind the desk and said simply, "Follow me, please."

Wordlessly, Yohji and Ken fell into step behind the man who was quite a bit older than they were and as they approached the back of the room, the former private investigator's keen sight noted that only two of the beds in the recovery room were even occupied. He felt this was most fortunate since it would mean that the two youths that they were so concerned about would get the full attention of the staff and any source of hope they could find after such a tragic night was most welcome.

The thought regarding occupied beds and unoccupied ones brought to mind Aya's words of less than an hour prior when he had made good on his offer to empower the eldest member of Weiss with full command until further notice.

Understandably, Yohji hadn't been completely convinced that particular transition would even come to pass as promised, yet it had with relatively little fanfare. The first action taken by the temporary team leader was, of course, to insist that his injured comrade be placed into a hospital room where he could get some rest even though there hadn't been a decision made yet regarding whether or not he would be admitted as a patient.

A small, cautiously hopeful smile crossed Yohji's lips as he recalled the expression on Aya's face when he'd snuck a glance into the room where the swordsman lay immediately before going to visit their youngest teammate. The dreadful exhaustion had indeed weakened the scarlet-haired man's defenses enough that sleep had been able to claim him as soon as a nurse was done applying ice packs to his injured right leg. With a bit of luck, by the time Aya caught up on some much needed rest, he might also have less painful swelling to contend with and that would be a marked improvement.

Unaware of the thoughts running through his lover's mind, Ken was considering other issues and expressed as much to the nurse by saying, "By the way, we wanted to check on Naoe Nagi while we were here, too. Will that be a problem?"

"Not in the least," the nurse assured, then added with a frown, "if he's awake, that is. According to his chart, his body doesn't seem to be metabolizing the sedatives they administered last night as quickly as it should, so he might still be resting."

With a frown of his own, Ken replied, "Oh? Does that happen often? The failure to get rid of drugs in somebody's system, I mean."

"No, it doesn't. Not if they're healthy to begin with, that is," the middle-aged nurse answered and thereby added a new layer of concern that hadn't been in the former athlete's mind previously. Before Ken could ask for clarification of that fairly ominous sounding statement, they arrived in front of two curtain enshrouded beds and before fading into the background, he said quietly, "The youngsters you wanted to see are here. I'll be nearby in case you need anything."

"Thanks," Ken said for both of them and then mistakenly reached for the curtain that concealed Nagi's bed even though he had intended to check on Omi first. Seeing a pair of frightened eyes the color of the darkest blue he'd ever seen peering out of a pale face framed by an overly large starched white pillowcase, he forced a smile of a sort and asked, "Um, you're Omi's new friend, right?"

At first, it was difficult for Ken to know how to deal with the frightened young man whose gaze held none of the icy disregard for himself and his lover that it always had during the clashes between Weiss and Schwarz which had included the telekinetic.

For the most part, Nagi had typically remained in the shadows, an unseen yet powerful weapon in the psychics' arsenal against them. The sudden and unavoidable necessity for face to face communication was changing that as was the clear presence of deep-seated anxiety in the younger teen's expression. The fact that he was recovering from an injury incurred while attempting to defend their youngest teammate made a huge difference, too, of course.

Swallowing the lump that had grown in his throat the moment he'd overheard Ken asking about him, Nagi nodded minutely and replied, "Yes, Ken-ku--" his voice quivered as he narrowly avoided calling the brunette by the nickname his cherished friend always had and ended with, "um, sir."

The slight smile slipped from Ken's lips and was replaced with a frown as he waved away the overly polite form of address even as he inquired worriedly, "Are you okay, kid? You're awfully damned pale and you look like you've seen a ghost."

Unable to respond vocally, Nagi just nodded again and shifted his gaze to Yohji who stood behind Ken quietly observing the boy whose presence in Omi's life had changed so much for himself as well as his teammates.

Drawing on over two decades of experiences not all of which had been pleasant, Yohji could easily see that Nagi had lived a difficult life and he had no doubt that the haunted expression in his eyes reflected many possibly tragic secrets. With a sad shake of his head, he gently pushed past his lover and offered, "Just relax, Nagi. With Ken and me around now, nothing is going to go wrong for you or Omi, okay?"

Shoving a second lump out of his throat that had formed because he worriedly wondered why Ken seemed to be unsure of the way he felt about him, Nagi asked, "Um, you two aren't angry with me?"

Carefully keeping a charming smile on his face, Yohji shrugged lightly and said as reassuringly as possible, "Of course not." Wishing for even a tiny glimpse of what was running through the obviously strained teen's mind, he added, "Why should we be?"

With an expression of infinite regret, Nagi turned away and replied quietly, "Omi almost died last night because of me. He might by dying right now for all that I've been told and, well, it's all my fault."

"The hell you say," Yohji gently disagreed with a sad smile that he truly meant. Reaching out to lightly touch the distressed youth's chin and thereby force him to look up once more, he stated firmly, "We're in a dangerous line of work just like you are. A whole lot of things went wrong last night, that's true, but it's not your fault by any stretch of the imagination."

"But--" Nagi tried to argue, yet was stopped mid-sentence.

"No 'buts' about it," Ken interjected unexpectedly. As often happened, his innate empathic ability had come to the fore as soon as he saw how badly shaken the frail youth truly was and he couldn't hold onto his guilt about unwittingly aiding the two boys' relationship even if he wanted to. Meaningfully resting a warm, possessive hand atop his lover's shoulder since he rightly assumed Omi had mentioned their own special connection, he further stated, "I learned a long time ago that beating yourself up over something you've got no control over is a waste of time and energy. Instead, why don't you answer my question for real?"

"Question?" Nagi echoed distractedly while thoughts of the things Omi had told him about Ken and Yohji being a couple haphazardly came to mind. He hated what the drugs lingering in his system combined with the pain in his arm was doing to his ability to think, but didn't want to admit that to these two men who were so terribly important to his best friend. It never even occurred to him that they were also quite lethal even without their weapons and if either one had wanted him dead for his role in Omi's injury he'd no doubt have been embroiled in battle at this point.

Ken sighed and then commented flatly, "I don't even know you at all, but I can tell you're pretty much a burnout case, kid. I know you're worried sick about Omi, but what else is bugging you? Is that arm of yours causing you a lot of pain or something?" As a flicker of acknowledgement which he couldn't hide fast enough for it to have gone unseen passed over Nagi's face, Ken added with a nod, "Thought so. Give me a sec, I'll go tell the nurse." Without waiting for permission to interfere from the patient himself, he started to turn to do just that.

"Thanks, Kenken," Yohji murmured appreciatively. There were many unanswered questions lingering in the air around them, but none were worth foisting more agony on the sable-haired youth than was necessary.

"No problem, Yohji," Ken replied and stepped away for a moment to confer with the nurse who was staying out of earshot yet remaining close to hand as promised.

Watching the brief interaction between the pair and marveling at how different they were from the two often combative lovers that he himself lived with whose relationship made no sense whatsoever, Nagi began to see why Omi was as dedicated to his friends as he was. This thought, however, led to one that brought a fearful expression back to his eyes as he said nervously, "Um, no one has told me about Omi's condition yet. Earlier, Aya said that someone would make sure to do that, but I guess everyone forgot."

A tiny scowl creased Yohji's forehead for a moment, then he shook his head and replied, "We didn't forget, Nagi, but apparently you were asleep when we asked the nurse in here to relay the news to you. We were a little busy getting Mr. I'm-Too-Damned-Stubborn-to-Use-a-Wheelchair tucked into a bed whether he liked it or not, or one of us would've been down to tell you ourselves."

"Oh, all right," Nagi answered in a soft voice and then pleaded for information with luminous eyes which glimmered at him like twin cabochons of lapis lazuli.

Running a hand through his loose blond hair in an effort to keep it out of his eyes, Yohji smiled once more and then said gently, "All right, but just a word of warning first, though. I haven't a clue how accustomed you are with injuries on your own side of the Weiss-Schwarz equation, but we're sadly used to this kind of near-lethal stuff, so don't freak out, all right?"

After receiving an appropriately nervous nod of agreement, Yohji continued with forced casualness, "Well, let's see. Where to begin? The biggest immediate problem that Omiitchi is facing has to do with breathing since both lungs had a bullet apiece go all the way through them," he noted but didn't comment on the gasp of shock this news caused, preferring to keep going since there was so much to cover. "Of course, that also meant a bunch of ribs got messed up, but what was tough for the doctors to fix was his diaphragm and *that* wouldn't have been damaged if that bastard Charon hadn't been shooting upwards at the angle that he did. Anyway, as thin as that membraney-thing is, they had the devil's own time repairing it, but it ought to be all right in a few months and his lungs should be good as new a little sooner."

As the leader pro tem of Weiss so casually catalogued injuries that seemed horrible simply by virtue that it was the endearing blond tactician who had suffered them, Nagi's already pale complexion lightened even further. When Yohji paused to gather his thoughts, a sudden wave of nausea tried to overcome him, yet Nagi manfully swallowed back a mouthful of bile and ignored the sensation of hot teardrops that were gathering in the corner of his eyes as he asked, "Is there more?"

Unhappily noting that his attempt to lessen the impact of this heartrending news was failing, Yohji heaved a dark sigh and dropped his affected nonchalance before saying, "Unfortunately, yeah, there is." His shoulders slumped a little as he continued, saying, "Again because of the angle of impact, both bullets ripped through some internal organs before they even got to his lungs in the first place. Omi's spleen was a total loss, but that's no biggie since it can be compensated for. The same can't be said about his liver, though, since he'd lost a chunk of it a few years past when some damned punk shoved a crowbar through him during a mission. The doctors were really careful though, and we're hoping they saved enough that it might regenerate given time and the use of some new experimental drugs." [1]

By this point, twin trails of wetness were painting themselves down previously pale cheeks which had faded to an ashen gray as the shocking news overwhelmed Nagi's self-control. Upon hearing such unfavorable news, he asked in a tiny voice that almost went unheard, "What happens to Omi if it doesn't grow back?"

Wishing there was a way to spare the boy the truth yet knowing that there wasn't, Yohji replied, "Then we hope to whatever gods might be listening that we can find a donor. Something not too terribly likely considering the way so many people don't take such things seriously while there's still time, but at least we can hope."

The full realization of how bad the situation truly was washed over Nagi and with a sob he was unable to stifle, the telekinetic turned away and let his pillow soak up his tears as they poured forth unashamedly. Somehow, he simply couldn't find anything at all hopeful in the lanky blond man's words and the fear of losing Omi left a cold chill in his heart that rapidly spread throughout him.

During Yohji's uncomfortable yet honest explanation of their friend's injuries, Ken had returned with all of the silent grace that he routinely displayed when on the hunt for Tokyo's vilest criminals. He hadn't intended on leaving him alone to face that confession of sorts, but he had faith that his partner in so many things could rise to the occasion and deliver it with as little pain as possible.

Sensing that he was no longer standing there alone, Yohji glanced over his shoulder and tendered one of the saddest smiles Ken could recall ever seeing on his handsome face. They were both completely realistic about the facts of the matter and even though Omi's condition had slowly begun to stabilize, he was not out of danger yet by any means. Should the liver fail to regenerate despite the new treatment options, an entirely new set of crises would develop, but that was something no one could predict at this point.

A few tense moments passed as Nagi tried to pull himself back together. Oddly enough, it was the almost unendurable agony of the wound in his arm that eventually allowed him to refocus on the here and now, something that was reinforced by the return of the nurse who brought the boy medication as well as soothing herbal tea. Furthermore, the nurse needed to check his patient's temperature and other vital signs and he began to do so with a quiet efficiency that bespoke decades of dedicated service.

After quietly murmuring a few words of encouragement to them both, Ken and Yohji left Nagi in the older man's care for a short time and went to check on their fallen comrade.

Neither of them was surprised or unduly distressed to see the ghastly pale complexion of the typically rosy-cheeked teen laying beneath snowy sheets since they'd been through similar scenarios so often that it was almost a matter of course for them. The same could be said for the small squadron of IV bags hanging nearby which were connected by tubing and needles inserted in various parts of Omi's body and bringing him much needed blood and other vital fluids.

Each florist/assassin found a few things to say by way of greeting mostly just to let the unconscious youth know that he wasn't alone as per standard approaches for such occasions. Neither expected a response and they certainly didn't get one, but just seeing Omi's pulse, respiration, and blood pressure displayed on the various monitors surrounding him brought them hope.

A quiet voice eventually interrupted them by asking, "Gentlemen?"

"Yes?" Yohji asked, turning towards the nurse with a less woebegone expression than the newcomer expected to see. Visitors who came to see patients in conditions as serious as Omi's was were rarely as calm as the men of Weiss were, but the middle-aged RN had no way of knowing the explanation for their seeming ease regarding the situation.

"Whenever you're done here, I believe Naoe would like to speak with you again." The nurse then frowned almost imperceptibly and added, "He's calmed down quite a bit and the painkillers I just administered ought to knock him out shortly, so I don't think it will be a problem that your visitation has lasted a bit longer than it probably should have."

"Gotcha," Yohji acknowledged, then asked, "But what's with the frown? Are his vitals not good or something?"

Shaking his head slowly, the nurse replied in a deliberately hushed tone that he hoped would not be heard above the whirring machines surrounding them, "His blood pressure is elevated more than I expected it to be despite his obvious agitation. Also, there are some other issues that I prefer not to discuss without data to back up my hunches, but suffice it to say that I'm more concerned about some things that only blood work can uncover."

"That sounds bad," Ken remarked equally quietly and shot a glance at his partner who nodded with a grim line of determination forming where his lips met.

Wearing the non-smile that indicated Balinese was hovering barely below the surface, Yohji softly suggested so firmly that it almost sounded like a command, "Then why don't you get somebody up from the lab ASAP and let's find out what's going on?"

"I'll get right on it," the older man assured, then vanished intending to get the doctor on call to officially request the tests that he felt were necessary.

The duo exchanged a wordless conversation for a brief moment, then with a sigh, Yohji told the unconscious youth whose bed they'd remained beside during the short, tense discussion with the nurse, "Well, bishounen, we're gonna go chat some more with your new best bud. Work hard on getting awake again and we'll see you later, okay?"

"Later, Omi," Ken added in a slightly distracted tone as they stepped from one curtained off area to another. He was pleasantly surprised to see that the nurse had removed the needle from the back of Nagi's left hand now that he had as much additional blood as was best and a fresh bag of clear fluids was now delivering healthful electrolytes via the needle in his right elbow.

Some of the color had returned to Nagi's horribly washed-out face, but the forlorn way that his eyelids draped miserably over his dark sapphire eyes conveyed a sense of sorrow that no simple medication could ever ease. Only the lilting alto of the unconscious boy nearby could heal some of the heartache that seemed to radiate from him and Ken and Yohji both knew it.

A brief, uncomfortable silence enfolded the three one-time enemy assassins as the two members of Weiss wondered how best to assist the fragile seeming Schwarz psychic who fate had thrust into their lives. For better or for worse, Nagi was becoming as important to them as he had already become to Omi and what this might mean in the long run was a complete and potentially dangerous mystery to them all.

*****

To be continued.

Author's Note:

[1] The topic of liver regeneration has been a hot one in medical science for decades. Until recently, the human liver could repair itself in only a very limited fashion, hence the once high rate of fatalities due to cirrhosis, hepatic cancer, etc. However, recent advancements in the world of genetic engineering far too complicated to go into here have yielded some highly promising new treatment options and I am invoking some of these within the narrative as quietly as I can. Furthermore, regarding the topic of liver transplantation, this is now considered a reliable technique, however there are far fewer donor organs available than there are patients who would benefit from them.