Weiss Kreuz Fan Fiction ❯ Neutral Territory ❯ Coming to Terms ( Chapter 31 )

Title: Neutral Territory [part 31/?]

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 very early morning. Various locations in Komagome Hospital.

*****

Once he was out of Nagi's line of sight as well as that of the recovery room nurse who had been giving him the distinct impression that she was about to lodge a formal complaint regarding his lack of a wheelchair, Aya paused before tiredly slumping against a wall.

As he let the crutches support his upper body's weight fully, the Weiss field leader felt weariness roll over him like a sluggish wave across a mournful, forgotten beach at low tide. His energy levels had ebbed as the final vestiges of the stimulant he'd ingested earlier faded completely and Aya knew that he could not go on the way that he had been for much longer.

While the realization that he had to somehow find the inner strength to cope with Persia's occasionally difficult top executive assistant percolated through his exhaustion and pain muddled mind, Aya failed to note the soft padding of determined footfalls headed his way.

En route to retrieving his scarlet-haired teammate, Yohji had allowed himself a few minutes to strategize how best to convince the headstrong swordsman to let himself and Ken take the lion's share of the burden of coping with Manx. Now, though, as he approached Aya and duly noted his nearly defeated looking stance and overall sense of near collapse, all his carefully selected words flew out of his mind and were replaced with more honest and direct ones.

Shaking his head as he came within a few feet of Aya yet remained undetected by the usually hyperaware assassin, Yohji sighed loudly and commented, "Damn it, Aya, you're a wreck."

Lifting his head slowly and hoping his purplish eyes were flashing an anger that they were not, Aya replied sarcastically, "Thanks for the compliment, jerk."

Disregarding the insult which contained no vehemence whatsoever, Yohji came to a halt in front of Aya and even though he wanted to think of an excuse to physically reach out to his friend, he did not. Instead, he said, "Ken's working on getting an office somewhere for us to talk to Manx in so it's not so public when all hell breaks loose, but right now, all I give a shit about is you." When a puzzled expression crossed Aya's face, he added plaintively, "You have *got* to get off your feet, Aya. I'm serious! Any minute now, the staff around here is going to tie you to a bed somewhere or other instead of letting you collapse, and damned if I'm not going to be the first one to offer to help!"

"You wouldn't dare!" Aya attempted to flare, yet the yawn he barely fought back after his assertion stole any thunder it might have had otherwise.

With a soul-deep sigh and a shake of his head that sent dark blond hair dancing lifelessly around his face, Yohji acknowledged without regret or apology, "You'd better believe that I would." Gesturing at the way Aya's hands clung to the crutches' handgrips so tightly that his knuckles were turning white, he continued, "Between sleep deprivation, injury, post-battle fatigue, and whatever the hell damage those stims you took have caused, you've gone right up to the edge and then blithely waltzed passed it by quite a bit! It's a damned miracle you're still standing, but sooner or later, that's going to change."

With a non-energetic toss of his head, Aya ground out between clenched teeth, "It will be *later*, Kudou. I've got a job to do first." After reaching deep within to tap his failing reserves of pride-derived strength, he pushed himself away from the wall and resumed the slow and increasingly painful trek down the corridor. Every beat of his heart sent pulse after throbbing pulse of pain radiating from his right leg then outwards through his entire being. It was sheer hell, yet he doggedly kept moving.

Automatically falling into step beside his teammate and more than ready to intervene if Aya should stumble or have further difficulty with his crutches, Yohji corrected, "No, *we've* got a job to do, but that doesn't change things. You need to cut yourself some slack and you need to do it soon or you'll be useless to all of us."

"The 'job' I was talking about," Aya explained with a sigh even as he remained focused on hobbling towards the waiting room, "is to keep Manx and the police away from Nagi. He's worse off than I am at the moment."

"Oh?" Interested green eyes glanced sideways at Aya before Yohji added, "Since when do you feel the need to defend a member of Schwarz?"

"Since he took a huge risk to save a member of Weiss," Aya replied as if it was too obvious, then added almost uncertainly, "why else?"

Continuing to gaze at Aya yet doing it more openly, Yohji inquired cautiously, "Did you already get a chance to actually figure out what kind of a kid Omi picked for a boyfriend, Aya?"

"No, not really," Aya admitted with a yawn that he could no longer suppress. "But I do know that he's taken some surprisingly dangerous steps because of how he feels for Omi and I respect that."

The measuring expression in Yohji's eyes vanished as one of astonishment replaced it in response to the totally unexpected words issuing from the lips of a man he'd wrongly assumed knew nothing of love or the value of romantic interactions. A thousand questions came to mind almost immediately, not a few of which pertained to matters that might involve them both more intimately, but they were left unspoken as they rounded a corner and encountered another one of their teammates.

Scowling darkly and waving a hand at an open door that lead to a conference room adjacent to the surgical waiting area, Ken called out, "We're meeting in here, guys."

"Be right there, Ken," Yohji assured while carefully adding a meaningful glance at Aya in a wordless request for seating inside the room for the injured swordsman. Of course, he would've preferred an arrangement that would allow the horribly swollen sprained ankle to be propped up and possibly even treated with an ice pack to aid in healing, but he knew better than to hope for quite so much.

Nodding in response to both that which was said and that which was not, the former athlete answered, "I'll let Manx know you're here." He then slipped into the room and made sure there was a chair ready for Aya even though he anticipated a bit of a fight about its use.

Only a few moments later, Yohji and Aya entered a tense room where Manx was tossing commands left and right, thereby sending police officers as well as Kritiker agents skittering off on information gathering forays. Ken's hopeful though miniscule smile as he held the chair for Aya fell immediately as the Weiss field leader instinctively sought a wall to lean against as was his custom during meetings with Manx.

Stalking up to Aya and deliberately invading his personal space, Yohji leaned in quite close and hissed softly in his ear, "what the hell do you think you're doing, fujimiya? get your exhausted ass into that chair ken's got for you right now, or so help me god, i will pick you up and put you into it myself!"

The desire to repeat his earlier assertion that Yohji wouldn't dare to commit such an act rose in Aya's mind automatically, yet when he turned to glare at him and say so, the expression of worried commitment that he saw in verdant eyes stopped him. As his shoulders slumped in defeat, Aya whispered back, "you'd really do that, wouldn't you, yohji?"

"in a heartbeat!"

Tiredly resisting the sudden and irrational desire to laugh since everything else was failing him, Aya merely nodded and then acquiesced, "i surrender."

"it's about damned time," Yohji replied with relief then surreptitiously moved to assist Aya away from the wall and into the chair that Ken continued to hold in silent offer. He was more than glad to take the unreliable crutches and carefully place them outside of Aya's reach on the off chance the swordsman might do something unwise like try to exit the room prematurely for some unpredictable reason.

As Aya settled exhaustedly into the upholstered seat with an agonized sigh, Ken favored him with a grateful expression and then turned towards a Kritiker agent standing nearby awaiting instructions and commanded without bothering to get authority to do so, "Go get Abyssinian, Balinese, and me some good, strong tea."

Somewhat confused by the unheard of change in Weiss' chain of command, the thirty-something year old man glanced at Aya who narrowed his violet eyes angrily as he stated, "You heard Siberian."

"But I thought you--" The baffled man tried to inquire, but was cut off by an angry blond.

Moving with his legendary quickness, Yohji was in the hapless man's face glaring for all he was worth as he asked in a dangerous tone, "Are you questioning Abyssinian's right to delegate authority, agent?"

"Um, no, of course not," the man replied nervously due to the extreme proximity of the deadly wire-wielder. After a hasty step backwards to create some space between them, he bowed quickly and then hurried off never once wondering if Manx might've had other plans for him.

With a small, satisfied snort, Ken watched the agent scurry off on his assignment and then he looked from Yohji to Aya and back again asking with concerned eyes the color of rich, volcanic soil if things were really as bleak as they appeared to be.

Narrow blond eyebrows drew together in a display of uncertainty for only a moment, then they sank back into an expression of defeat as Yohji shook his head slowly to indicate that his lover was not mistaken in his assessment.

"oh, fuck," Ken muttered to himself and wished he was wearing his usual jeans so he'd have a place to jam currently impotent hands that itched for an opportunity to do something more of use for his teammates than merely arranging seating and a place to meet.

As he imitated Aya and sank into a chair of his own beside the scarlet-haired man, Ken randomly recalled the unexpected and very welcome taste of freshly baked brownies that he'd enjoyed roughly 24 hours previously after getting home from dancing with Yohji. With all of the pre-battle tension they'd experienced the day before, he'd not had a chance to thank Aya for the kindness yet and did so now.

Leaning towards his friend, Ken said quietly, "By the way, Aya, thanks for the brownies. They were really good."

Busy scrubbing at reddening eyes he was once more having difficulty holding open, Aya initially missed the significance of the comment, but when it sank in, a tiny smile he was unaware of crossed his lips for a split second and then vanished before he replied, "It was nothing."

While his two teammates conversed briefly, Yohji took the opportunity to avail himself of the chair on Aya's opposite side so that the two lovers once more flanked their injured comrade like the protective guardians that they were at the moment. Because of this, he was in the unique position to have seen the small flash of satisfaction on Aya's lips and it engendered the first feelings of hope he'd had in awhile.

It had not occurred to Yohji that perhaps the dark cloud that was the exhaustion and pain which Aya was suffering beneath could have a silver lining unlike any other. But at that moment, he realized that these fleeting glimpses of who Aya truly was deep inside were far more spectacular than silver. They were more like platinum in his mind and this thought caused a smile to grace his own lips unwittingly.

"Is something amusing, Balinese?" Manx's sharp-tongued inquiry jolted Yohji out of his reverie. Her blue-green eyes narrowed harshly as she added, "I fail to find anything at all to smile about under the circumstances."

The redheaded woman stood on the opposite side of the table with her arms crossed over her chest in a clear display of anger that was not unexpected, yet Yohji couldn't help just shaking his head and commenting, "No, not at all, Manx." While running his fingers through loose blond silk that he would've preferred to have tied back at that point, he considered adding something hopeful about Aya's physical condition, but never got the chance.

"Then stop sitting there smiling like an *idiot*!" Manx exclaimed angrily in an effort to curb her own sense of desperation and worry over the mess that the mission to eliminate Glocksten and Charon had turned into.

Unexpected fire leapt into drooping violet eyes as Aya's voice interjected icily, "Do not make the mistake of calling one of *my* men an idiot, Manx." Both Ken and Yohji regarded the man between them with startled expressions, yet they didn't say a word as he added equally coldly, "Considering what we three have been through together in the last couple of hours, the only ones who can judge any of us is each other."

As surprised by the swordsman's words as the two scrub-clad men sitting beside him were, Manx paused for only a moment, then forced herself to take a deep breath and try to calm down before she made a bad situation worse than it absolutely had to be.

Deliberately uncurling her arms and then keeping her hands at her sides, Manx said, "You're right, Abyssinian, I'm sorry for saying that. But considering the fact that everything has gone so terribly wrong, I'm just having a hard time keeping things in perspective."

"Not everything has gone wrong," Ken said with a sigh. "At least those two bastards Kritiker wanted out of the picture are dead now. That's got to count for something."

"That's right," Yohji agreed. With a self-deprecating frown, he then leaned back in his chair and added, "Not that I was any help at all in offing that damned cop-killer, though."

Realizing they were about to get down to business, Manx dismissed the remaining police and Kritiker personnel and then closed the door to the office intending to keep what they were about to discuss private for awhile at least. While activating a digital recorder she'd brought so that Persia could listen to their discussion at his leisure later, she commented, "I'd assumed as much when I met up with the coroner's team at the nightclub, Balinese. Your wire doesn't result in partial decapitations of the type I saw, so who was responsible for putting down that damned dog of a man?"

Wishing this could be avoided yet knowing that it could not, Yohji admitted, "Believe it or not, it was that precognitive pain in the ass, Crawford from Schwarz who got to do the honors, Manx."

Utter shock spread across the redheaded woman's face as this sank in, then Manx asked, "I'd already been alerted that they were involved in some manner which explains the presence of one of their members here, but why on earth would he do that? And why were they even there in the first place?"

Shrugging since they'd truly not gotten around to discussing it prior to Schwarz's precipitous departure, Ken remarked, "Apparently they had the bodyguard detail for those two scumbags and that's why they were there. As to the reason he shot Charon, I'm not sure. Yohji? You got any ideas?"

Pursing his lips thoughtfully, Yohji took a moment then commented contemplatively, "I'm not sure either, but I think it had a lot to do with what happened to Omi and that Schwarz kid who got shot, too."

"His name is Naoe Nagi," Aya interjected tiredly. He wiped at his eyes with both hands before adding for Persia's information as much as for anyone else's, "He and Omi have developed some kind of relationship between them that has nothing to do with Schwarz or Weiss, but it blew up in their faces tonight. That's how they both ended up in here with bullet holes in them."

"Say *what*?!" Manx exploded in understandable fury. Slamming a fist onto the table and startling them all with her unladylike rage, she demanded, "Who the hell let Omi fraternize with the enemy that way?! Why didn't someone put a stop to that before it became a problem?!"

Regret and guilt which had been simmering under the surface suddenly boiled up as Ken said sorrowfully, "It's my fault, Manx. I knew he was seeing someone awhile back. I should've done some digging to find out who it was and prevented this."

"That's bullshit, Ken!" Yohji stated emphatically. Gesticulating for emphasis, he corrected, "Omi is seventeen years old and he does *not* need any of us butting in on his private life like that!"

Seeming to forget that they weren't alone, Ken leaned forward on the table and sighed, "But I was the one who told him to relax and go have fun with his new 'friend', Yohji. I should've made sure he didn't make a horrible mistake like I did at his age and now it's too late."

"That's bullshit, too," Yohji replied more gently. Ignoring the way Manx was fuming with a barely constrained desire for more information, he continued, "We can't be there all the time to protect him and besides, Omi's been a trained, seasoned assassin longer than either of us put together have. I'm sure our tactician did a risk-benefit analysis of this whole thing before he let it get out of control."

"Don't count on it," Aya's dead-tired voice interjected earning him a pair of surprised glances from his teammates yet again. Leaning heavily against the back of the chair that he doubted he could get out of easily, he let his eyes slip shut as he suggested pointedly, "But instead of speculating about Omi and Nagi's relationship, can we get on with the actual debriefing? I want this over with before we get an update from the OR."

Pointing at the three men opposite her with a long red-tinted nail, Manx snarled, "Wait a damned minute, Abyssinian! I'm in charge of this meeting and unless you want me to immediately place this Naoe kid under house arrest or something until I get the answers I need, I'd suggest you not stonewall me!"

Even as twin amethyst orbs drew themselves open tiredly readying for another verbal battle, Yohji saved Aya the trouble and tried to assist Ken in regaining his confidence regarding his appropriate and timely advice to their youngest teammate.

Offering a conciliatory gesture with one hand, Yohji assured, "Take it easy, Manx. We talked to the surgeon who worked on Naoe just a bit ago and the kid's in no shape to go anywhere or be a danger to anyone. An artery-nicking bullet through the arm leaves a guy too wiped out to go anywhere as I well know, so take Aya's advice and let that issue slide for now, all right?" He could practically feel the less chilly than normal violet gaze that fell on him as he pleaded in his most charming tones, "Please?"

Even though she would've preferred to get all of her answers at once, Manx wisely decided to grant Yohji's request and with a huff of annoyance, she picked up some papers and glanced at them before stating, "At least Abyssinian was able to take down his own target properly. Or was I misinterpreting the remains of Glocksten's corpse?"

"No mistake there, Manx," Ken said with a slight smile for Aya's benefit. With a dismissive snort, he added, "Did anyone find that creep's head? It had bounced away like an under-inflated soccer ball last thing I knew."

Rolling her greenish-blue eyes expressively, Manx replied, "Yes, we found it. Tokyo's finest aren't *that* inept." The hint of vindictiveness in her tone wasn't missed by any of those present as she explained, "Granted, it was face down in a muddy ditch behind the valet station and that improved the bastard's appearance somewhat, but that is neither here nor there. What matters to me is how his executioner ended up injured the way that he did. What happened to you, Abyssinian?"

Aya had been expecting this question, yet he didn't really like the idea of facing it. Heaving a soul-deep sigh, he started to open his mouth to reply, yet found someone else coming to his defense before even a word could be spoken.

"It was rainy and visibility sucked," Ken said as casually as he could. Shrugging and acting like this was far less crucial than it was, he further explained, "Aya couldn't nail the landing quite as well as usual and he slipped, that's all."

"Exactly," Yohji asserted confidently. "It could happen to anyone."

Wariness was overpowered by weariness, yet Aya looked from Yohji who surreptitiously winked at him asking him to go along with the diversion over to Ken whose nervousness following the deliberate underplaying of his sleep deprivation was all too obvious. Even if he'd wanted to disagree with their statements, now he wouldn't. If Yohji was willing to risk making himself a target for Manx's anger, he'd show his appreciation by keeping silent.

"Nonsense," Manx stated flatly. Leaning forward to gaze more closely at the Weiss field leader, she added, "The only explanation for that which I can think of involves something I was to have been alerted regarding. And since I was *not* told that Abyssinian was suffering from insomnia again, that can't possibly be the explanation, now can it?"

"Um, well…" Ken wanted to lie and deny it to help protect Aya, yet his brief hesitation allowed an unexpected turn of events to take place instead.

Reaching out lightly to touch Ken's shoulder to draw his attention, Aya interjected quietly, "It's okay, Ken. Omi doesn't need your protection and neither do I."

"But, Aya--" Ken tried to stop him, but a light squeeze to his arm before the atypical pressure vanished stopped him mid-sentence.

Turning away from the stricken brunette's gaze and confronting Manx head-on, Aya admitted with so much exhausted honesty that the woman had trouble feeling angry with him for the sin of concealment, "It was my decision not to inform Kritiker of my condition, Manx. Yes, I was sleep deprived, but I wasn't going to risk being pulled from the mission so one of the doctor's from headquarters could dope me up so badly that I became useless to my teammates."

Firming her lipstick adorned mouth into a harsh red line, Manx frowned and stated, "So, because of your damned male pride, you're sitting here now in agony and will be out of commission for weeks on end again, is that it, Abyssinian?" She received an unapologetic nod that sent scarlet earlocks into motion before she huffed angrily, "Well, doesn't that just figure! Even if Bombay wasn't injured, you'd have just effectively sidelined Weiss and I hope you're happy with it!"

"C'mon, Manx," Yohji soothed as sweetly as he could in spite of the flare of ire her cruel words had ignited within him. "Lighten up a little. Aya got the job done and we'll make sure he does whatever the Kritiker doc's want in the future, okay?"

"Oh?" Manx asked with another huff. "You and what army is going to accomplish *that* highly unlikely task, Balinese?"

Smirking slightly and hoping to break the tension at least a little, Yohji replied, "Why, me and Siberian over there are the guys for a 'mission impossible' like that, Manx!" The sudden beaming smile on his lover's face made the strange movie reference entirely worthwhile even as he turned to face Aya and add, "If you'll let us, that is. We didn't go over your head this time around, Aya, but she's got a point. We can't take such huge risks in the future, you know?"

Sighing gratefully and nodding, Aya actually surprised both Yohji and Ken by replying with uncharacteristic cooperativeness, "If that's the way you want it, Yohji, then fine." After closing his eyes and tilting his head back to rest heavily on the cushioned chair, he sighed more deeply and offered something completely unheard of, "And as soon as we know Omi's out of danger, you can have command of Weiss until I'm up to speed again."

A pair of startled green eyes widened, then blinked a few times before Yohji asked cautiously, "Did I just hear you right, Aya? Did you just offer me the con, so to speak?"

Regardless of the fact that they were using nautical jargon relating to the steering of a ship at sea, all four of those present understood what a huge responsibility Aya was offering to the slightly older assassin. Never before had Aya deferred command to anyone other than Omi and the rare moments either Ken or Yohji had spent with such an onus had always been when both field and tactical leaders were unconscious or worse.

Moving with obvious pain and difficulty yet not being willing to miss the look on his friend's face, Aya reopened his eyes and said simply, "Yes."

Unsure how far this was meant to extend, Yohji immediately tested the waters by inquiring, "So, once Omi's in the clear, if I think you ought to be admitted to this hospital and get treated for exhaustion, you'll do it even if you don't want to?"

Holding their gazes locked together through sheer willpower, Aya replied, "Yes. That's what command is all about, isn't it?"

"holy shit," Ken murmured inelegantly, then swiveled his chair toward both of his teammates and asked in a slightly more normal tone of voice, "For how long, Aya? Just what exactly are you offering here?"

Breaking his gaze from Yohji in favor of giving Ken an equally penetrating look, Aya stated, "For as long as Yohji thinks it's necessary." Without casting a glance at Manx who was dumbfounded by this strange twist, he added, "Or until Kritiker intervenes, of course. But that shouldn't be necessary."

"Why the sudden change of heart, Aya?" Manx asked, using the swordsman's common name for the first time since she'd arrived. The unprecedented offer had stopped her runaway fury in its tracks and her feminine intuition told her a great many issues were ghosting below the surface of the words being spoken like sharks or dolphins racing beneath the unreadable surface of the sea.

Still refusing to offer the woman even a split second glance, Aya shifted his eyes from Ken's curious brown ones to Yohji's baffled jade orbs and held the gaze for a moment in silence. He then admitted, "If I'd listened to Yohji earlier," his eyes flashed to Ken, then went back to Yohji, "no, to both of you, I wouldn't be incapacitated right now and possibly Omi wouldn't be in surgery. I may be a stubborn, predictable bastard at times, but I'd like to think that I can learn from my mistakes."

Words could not express the kaleidoscopic array of emotions running through those in the room following this bizarre yet welcome change.

Despite the fact that he had no name for the strange tingling hope racing throughout him, Yohji somehow found the presence of mind to extend his right hand and wordlessly offer to seal their newly made bargain with a handshake.

With the vaguest hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, Aya equally wordlessly accepted the symbolic gesture. Moving as if they had but one mind between them, the two men shook hands sealing a pact that would one day apply to far more than their dangerous night lives.

Admirably not feeling left out by the other two, Ken simply sat where he was smiling guardedly while silently delighting in the sincere hope that this was the turning point the three of them had needed for far longer than he'd been aware of before this eventful week.

Quietly regarding the three men whose lives she'd help to mold and whose destinies she occasionally controlled, Manx nodded thoughtfully and planned to pass along this latest step in the maturation process of their best assassin team to Persia. Despite their ages and their tragic pasts which had forced them all to forego childish things too soon, the men of Weiss still had a long way to go to truly grow up. This new willingness to accept the role of subordinate instead of that of commander spoke well of Abyssinian and Manx was pleased to have been present to witness it.

The momentary silence of the room was suddenly broken by a knock at the door.

"Maybe it's Omi's doctor?" Ken suggested eagerly and rose to see if he was right.

"I hope so," Yohji agreed before releasing Aya's hand almost regretfully.

Silenced by a yawn, Aya wanted to add that he felt the same way, yet couldn't. But as the door swung open, they were all disappointed to see the Kritiker agent Ken had sent on an errand standing there in lieu of a surgeon or other medical representative who could've given them all the much anticipated update on their youngest teammate.

Holding up a cardboard tray which held a trio of Styrofoam cups, the man nervously asked, "Did you want that tea now, Siberian, sir?"

Astounded that he'd apparently frightened the older man, Ken laughed a little and reached for the tray as he replied, "You bet." As he glanced at what he held, though, he frowned, then asked, "Shouldn't you have gotten some for your boss, too, bozo?"

"Who?"

"Manx, moron. Wouldn't she want some tea, too?"

"No, she wouldn't," a feminine voice interjected as Manx spared her agent further embarrassment due to having poorer manners than a nineteen year old volunteer soccer coach. Waving the newcomer away, she added, "Go check on the progress in the operating room. Remind them that we want an update before too awfully much longer."

"Yes, ma'am," the agent barely kept from saluting, then turned on his heel and disappeared as quickly as he had arrived.

Soon, Ken had seen to it that his teammates each had a steaming cup of tea to warm them and hopefully keep them all going a few hours more as they awaited news on their young friend whose life or death struggle in surgery had yet to be resolved. The brunette kept careful watch on both of the men seated near him and it was a relief when the debriefing began anew and they were all once more their calm, rational selves.

The meeting would last awhile longer and then the painful waiting game would resume as the clock on the wall slowly ticked away the remaining hours until fate made clear her plans for Tsukiyono Omi. What news daybreak might bring was uncertain, but they all knew simply surviving this most horrible of nights would be a triumph in and of itself.

*****

To be continued.

[Posting Run Dedication] This single chapter is hereby dedicated to the wonderfully patient readers who haven't tracked me down with pitchforks for being slow about getting more of this story out. That was never my intention, but as those who follow my LiveJournal already know, life became insanely hectic recently and this was the best I could do. Hopefully things will be more calm during the summer months and I will endeavor to bring this epic to a close in a timely manner if at all possible. After all, there are many other fascinating stories Melpomene and Erato wish to tell and wouldn't it be nice to see something different from them for a change?

Speaking of my LJ, my apologies to those of you who wish to leave me a message there but are blocked due to the "friends only" comment settings. After being stalked and then flamed in my own journal by people who ought to find better ways to spend their time, I selected that option hoping to avoid unnecessary pain. I may change that at some point in the future, but for now, I'll just say I'm sorry if it inconveniences anyone and invite any kind readers who wants me to add them to my friends list to let me know and I'll take care of it when time permits. Please see my "user info" page at LiveJournal.com--I'm listed there as "e_sama"--for details on how best to alert me to a request.