Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Mistletoe Conspiracy Plot ❯ part 13 ( Chapter 13 )

Mistletoe Conspiracy Plot

By Mikarin continuation... from part 11

Looks like I'm back.
The question is, will I finish on time for Christmas or will I go for another year around the globe...?

(Previously...)

Afterlife was bearable with a little help once in a while. He looked at the time and winced. Maybe the boy would do him a final favor and take Terazuma for a walk when he gets back. Terazuma was beginning to fidget again.

(Let's continue...)

The girls were running amuck… paper chains, popcorn, and strings of lights.

Raising a fine twin set of eyebrows Yuma and Saya plotted.

They needed tall people to hang ornaments.

Yuma had hit the jackpot on decorations at the beginning of the year after all the celebrations were over and bought all she could carry along with her co-conspirator. Colorful metal spheres and lights galore.

Saya got lucky too with one of those hip-swaying Santas that dance when you get too close. She added it as a centerpiece decoration to the table they had set up for Wakaba's food.

On their way out to their kidnapping spree for a tall man, they collided with Shin and Kochou, from Summons, who immediately volunteered to help at hearing that Wakaba was cooking.

"Ha, who needs men," said Shin and got the afterlife scared out of her at the hands of a hip-swaying Santa.

The girls ended on a giggles attack at the frightening sight of Shin attempting to kill what scared her into her next death.

In the meantime…

Watari had done it. He hoped… for Tsuzuki's sanity, at least.

The man was driving himself crazy, all on his own, no help needed from his department.

Three different spell breakers held on hand, Watari got ready to collect his fallen friend from the pit of despair on his semi-stained and somewhat scorched floor and march right up to the library and punch a hole, figuratively.

"Tatsumi, you bastard," Tsuzuki whimpered disconsolately in his dismal corner.

In Tsuzuki's mind worse case scenario… Hisoka has bent to Tatsumi's intentions and after spending so much time locked in the library, Hisoka sees Tatsumi under a different light… brainwashed into giving in to Tatsumi.

He could see Tatsumi enjoying their first 'big' date with Tsuzuki abandoned and forgotten behind the glass window outside watching as Tatsumi devours sugary sweetness off Hisoka's caramel-licked lips. While Tsuzuki can't even touch his hair without getting a tooth loose from his jaw.

Ouch!

Tsuzuki could even feel it, right over his head, Hisoka's little knuckles leaving a small dent full of love from somewhere deep, deep, deep inside Hisoka. Tsuzuki loved Hisoka so much he'd turn even more of a masochist, just for him.

In his book, even negative attention is good attention as long as it comes from Hisoka. After all, Hisoka still has to touch him in order to hit him a good one…. unless he's throwing furniture or freshly sharpened pencils.

Hah, Tsuzuki liked Hisoka's pencils. They always stuck best to the ceiling.

"Tsuzuki get off your dark cloud and let's go get your boy." Watari knocked him over the head again.

Tsuzuki came out of his daze and looked up seeing Watari dangling something in front of him. His eyes grew two sizes and a smile appeared, at last. Gleaming with hope he jumped on his feet, birds singing his heart's joy.

Watari stepped back blinking in awe at the sudden change and only the cheery hooting of 003 could be heard from behind them.

…

AURGH!

Watari wanted to pull his hair.

Tsuzuki wanted to call Byakko and Suzaku, and destroy the library. The only thing that convinced him not to do such a drastic thing was that Hisoka would be pissed out of oblivion at him if he killed him under a falling boulder.

Fifteen minutes and many rabid curses later…

Tsuzuki returned to his appropriated corner to mop.

Watari… back to the drawing board.

…

In the confines of the library, the oblivious shinigamis roamed.

Hisoka had returned with an extra book that even Tatsumi felt the urge to pick through at such an attractive title (Sokaiya: Extortion, Protection and the Japanese Corporation).

"Just what compels you to pick books like these?"

Tatsumi blinked thinking he had spoken his thoughts, when he turned, Terazuma was browsing through the boy's selections.

Hisoka just shrugged and was about to sit and start reading when Tatsumi took his chance. Terazuma was beginning to irritate his shadows and he was getting clumsy with his calculations. The former cop was not doing anything, just sit there and stare at the walls covered with books, top to bottom, left to right. And his right foot couldn't stop shaking.

"Kurosaki-kun, would you be so kind as to accompany Terazuma to find a place with ample ventilation where he's able to smoke without starting a fire?"

Hisoka didn't question 'why him', it was obvious by the secretary's sitting stance, Hisoka also followed Terazuma's movements grouching himself up and feeling for his shirt pocket reassuredly, the outline of the box evident and the nagging feeling of jubilant eruption about to take place.

Hisoka groaned to himself--a noxious feeling--and followed Terazuma; an anxious cat ready for catnip, the uncontrollable giddiness breathing out of his skin while his face expression remained grouchy. Hisoka kept a tolerable distance lagging behind a bit.

Terazuma followed the same path as before looking for that window he and Tatsumi used before while hearing Hisoka mumbled something unintelligible with a raspy growl behind, and dying down as abruptly as it had started.

He didn't need a nanny; he could smoke on his own. Terazuma growled something too and kept it to a low murmur, after all, this is still a library. He laughed at himself for remembering that even subconsciously.

"The window," he found. "Here's where Tatsumi-san and…. And, where…?" Terazuma had turned around while talking to Hisoka but as he found out at mid-sentence Hisoka was no longer behind him.

"Grrr. Who needs a freaking nanny?!" He finally let out drawing his favorite suckers out. Terazuma had lighted his first stick and was in the process of enjoying it when he realized the kid wasn't coming. He knew he'd put some distance to keep himself from his smoking, but Hisoka always did what Tatsumi asked. After all, in the kid's eyes he was the only responsible adult he could depend on. Not even Chief Konoe fell close to the standard mark Hisoka held the Shokan secretary.

Sad to say, but Terazuma felt the same way.

During his musings Terazuma failed to notice how time lapsed. He was on his third stick when a hand grasped his shoulder firmly from behind and he jumped.

He felt himself shake all over as if a chill had run through. He hated that feeling of being busted for something like smoking, reaction he just couldn't get rid of since the days that he was in the force and smoking in the building was frowned upon by the nonsmokers. He always had to sneak to the roof just to get his fix… He wasn't the only one.

As he turned he expected the kid's mop of hair but in turn it was the blues of a tall brunette staring down at him. He hadn't notice how much taller Tatsumi was up close. Terazuma corrected, he knew Tatsumi was taller just not how much exactly compared to his own height. Usually he only dealt with the secretary through a customary distance never crossing personal space and across a type of furniture. Funny how he never noticed that was the case every time they were in a room together; be it a chair, table, and just now the enormous pile of files Tatsumi carried against his chest.

"Where's Kurosaki?" Tatsumi asked calmly, frowning just a bit, having already surveyed the obvious open surroundings.

"I don't know he didn't follow me all the way. The smoke bothers him." Terazuma shrug it off not caring either way. Again, he didn't need a nanny.

"He left his books behind." Tatsumi produced the two books from the top of the files he carried. "We should look for him and let him know the Gushoshin have given their Ok to leave the premises."

Terazuma jumped at the chance to get away, finally. He could run to Kanuki and see how the baking was going since he was supposed to help carry the loads. He volunteered and he'd been feeling a tad guilty all day for it.

"You should look for him while I check with the Gushoshin."

Terazuma deflated, he hated being cooped up in the library, it made him feel like a caged dog.

"Fine. He shouldn't be far. What's he got there, uhm, physics and I'm guessing economics? He will probably go for something like mysticism or literature just to balance the load."

"How can you tell?" Tatsumi asked quite curious at Terazuma's rare yet compelling insight into the boy's psyche, worthy of Watari's intellect, who had yet to decipher the boy.

"Have you even seen him eat? Everything balanced and in small quantities, he's desk is ordered the same way…" Terazuma left the rest blank for Tatsumi to fill in the obvious. Terazuma explained further. "How do you think Tsuzuki gets to his nerves but he has yet to kill or get rid of him? The lazy bum is too much, of everything, but in small quantities he can handle him just fine. Hm, Kanuki says is fen shui or yin-yang, some crap like that."

Well, Tatsumi was impressed by Terazuma's detective skills.

Terazuma allowed himself a bit of smugness.

"I had no idea you watched him so closely."

Terazuma bulked at the comment, no, it wasn't like that.

"Hey, I'm not like that. Most of the stuff comes from Kanuki who likes to get into everyone's business. After that it's easy to notice--after someone points it out for you." He retorted.

True, Tatsumi considered, now that he knew that, he'll probably be looking for it in Kurosaki's behavior; when something is too much, the boy tends to push back. But not everything, Tatsumi considered further, only the things he doesn't like, or make him uncomfortable. Some things, Hisoka just can't get enough. Tatsumi smirked thinking of Tsuzuki again.

Considering how Hisoka had first started, the boy had loosened up quite a bit, much like he had first done when he first started working here too. And he blamed it all on that buffoon he had once called partner and now his long-time friend.

"Well, then you know where to start. Tell him I'll have his books in my office. I need to talk to Chief Konoe before he checks himself out for tonight. Once he starts singing I might not get another chance."

Both shinigamis made a face. They knew how much Konoe liked karaoke. He'd probably be singing and drinking all night and hogging the mike all for himself.

TBC... part 13 next

A/N: And before anyone asks why I stuck a Yuma and Saya scene here...I don't know, if I ever find my missing notes, I'll know the string of reason; otherwise it may just be random authoress attack of insanity. And, it's was kind of funny in my head.
Now, if I can just remember why I even thought it....

By the way, I'm starting my own site, please visit. Slowly but surely I'll eventually end up doing all my work there before I post anywhere else.
I'll also use it as my testing ground with a beta section.
FYI: restrictions need not apply.

mikarin.us