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Sighing once alone, Naoko looked to Ryu's corpse and smirked. "Crazy b*****d... Hayato's an idiot if he thinks I'm helping him... if I'm being a 'good little kitten'..." he laughed softly, shaking his head in disbelief. "Obsession can blind so easily, can't it, Ryu-kun? Really wish I could move my hands... it's kind of chilly up here..."
He wouldn't have minded using his hands to rub up and down his arms and help warm himself up... or at least crawl under the mattress sheets...
"I've damned Jun... revenge is sweet... though, I think it came at too high a price..."

Like a thief in the night...





Hopping in the shower, Hayato washed himself top to bottom, wanting to be perfectly fresh for his JunJun when he arrived.
While he was in there, he even sang...one of Hikari ya Yami's old songs.
He couldn't bear the excitement! All these years, and finally!
Thanks to one cute little blond.
He just had to do what the kitten said...hand him over on a silver platter and Jun would love him forever!

Once out of the shower, Hayato dressed himself in his best suit. A silver dress shirt with a black tie, black jacket, and black pants.
He looked amazing, stunning, even.

All put together now, he waited.

Soon. Very, very soon.

I am come to steal it all away...

Like a thief in the night...






"Come in, JunJun!" he invited happily, stepping aside as his little brother entered the house.

"Have a seat."

Jun sat down on the couch, staring at Hayato warily.
Yes, he was nervous. Hayato was the only man who had ever been able to make him feel the sort of dread he was feeling now.

"What do you want from me?" Jun asked flatly.

"Why, I wanted to make amends. I know...I know you have been angry, I mean, you shot me...but I lived, as you can see, and I wanted you to know it. Take your coat off, Jun. I can go hang it for you..." Hayato offered after explaining himself.

"I'd rather not." Jun replied, both in regard to taking off his coat and to making amends.
"Do you really think, after all you did to me, after ten ******** years that you should have been dead, that you can just call me up and everything will be just wonderful?" he spat, brow furrowed in anger.

"Jun....I...I know....but, things can be different now..." Hayato stumbled over his words, not wanting to meet anger with anger. Naoko had said...win his trust and all will be well.

"How? How can they be different? You destroyed me, brother! You took away everything! You ******** drove me to shoot you! How is any of this fixable?!" the younger brother stood, yelling.

"But Jun....I love you...and..."

"Save it! you know what...this was a mistake, me coming here...I wish...I wish you had stayed dead..." Jun marched toward the door, ready to leave.

"Wait!" Hayato raised his voice.
"Jun...I have a present for you...a present I'm sure you will love."

"I want none of it..." Jun replied, opening the door.

"I promise you...you do. It's something special to you. Something you had once before..."

I am come to steal it all away...

I can no longer return to those days free of bloodshed
These deep scars rooted within me will not disappear...






Ok...so now he was curious....
Very curious.

"Ok...then take me to it..." he said.

"Give me a moment and I will bring it to you." Hayato answered, turning to go after the "gift".

"Iie. I said take me to it." Jun wasn't a fool. He wasn't going to let Hayato out of his sights.

"....very well...." Hayato gave in, motioning for his little brother to follow.

Walking down the hall, Jun remembered the way this house used to smell of cookies and green tea all the time. How he used to sit in his Grandmother's arms by the fireplace in the winter months...
The house wasn't like that anymore...
Following Hayato, Jun paused as the older man began to head up into the attic.
He remembered that attic...and the things that would happen in there.
It scared him.
Actually scared him.
He didn't want to go...but he couldn't show his weakness to his brother.
Slowly, heart pounding, he walked up the stairs.
His mind was racing...he felt like he might go mad...
Coming into the attic he looked around...and the first thing he saw....was Oumori Naoko, naked and bound like a slave.
His jaw dropped, eyes wide at the sight before him.

"I got him just for you..." Hayato purred in his ear, putting an arm around his shoulder.

I can no longer return to those days free of bloodshed
These deep scars rooted within me will not disappear...





Jun stood and stared....then slowly took a step forward....then another...

"Naoko..." he said, kneeling down beside the blond, examining him from head to toe, running his hand along the pianist's face ever so gently, taking in the marks and the blood that covered the man who had once been his and his alone.
Silently, he looked over at Ryuukaze...who appeared to be...unconscious?
"Oh...Naoko...." he said again, taking the blond into his arms and holding him close, running his hands through blond locks.
To the pianist, it probably seemed very familiar.

At least...until the man stood up, whipping around to face his brother.
His heart was racing so fast it felt like it would burst, and his face contorted in a look of rage so fierce it would frighten even the most hardened man.

"Hayato....what have you done!" he roared, his voice booming so loud it practically shook the walls.

Hayato flinched, never imagining a reaction such as this could ever come from his little JunJun.

"I brought you what I thought would make you happy..." the older brother frowned.

"Happy? Happy?! You're more mad now than you were then!" Jun raged, turning around, passing Naoko to check on Ryuukaze.

"Hey...Ryuukaze-san...Ryuukaze?" he said as he tried to shake the man awake, only to feel how cold and stiff he was.
He realized then...exactly what had happened. Not only had his older brother taken his former lover and tormented him in some crazed bid to get to him...he had taken Naoko's lover...and...somehow...killed him.

Looking up, Jun's eyes were full of hatred and hellfire as he glared at his older brother.

"Why?" he asked, plain and simple.

"Because I love you, JunJun. And I'm not going to let you go, ever again..." Hayato marched toward them, grabbing up Naoko before Jun could move.
"Now...say you love me and that you will stay, or I'll kill the kitten too!" he practically shrieked, eyes full of sheer insanity.

Slowly, with his hands raised in a gesture of surrender.
"Ok...ok...." he said softly, slowly walking toward Hayato.

Hayato began to let Naoko go, still holding on to the pianist's wrist just in case, as Jun approached, opening his arms to hug him.

Embracing his brother, Jun shivered...then whimpered.
How had it come to this? How had Hayato even lived for this to be a possibility?
Why now?
Why, when he had just found his light?
Now, Naoko had been hurt again.
Ryuukaze was dead.
His brother had done it all.
His brother...who had made him suffer, taken everything, destroyed everything, manipulated, broken, and used him for his own twisted pleasure....
And, he realized, he had done the exact same thing to Naoko...completing the cycle his big brother had started.
It was all poison.
It was all evil.
It...had to end...now.

"Hayato..." he began, voice trembling, "I....I....I...." he wrapped his arms around himself, under his coat, as if he were cold.

"I CAN NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" Jun screamed to the top of his lungs, whipping out the dagger that he had hidden in his coat, drawing it back and bringing it down in Hayato's stomach.
"YOU DID THIS TO ME!!!" he cried, bringing the blade out, then stabbing again in the chest.
"YOU! YOU! EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!" he stabbed and stabbed, reliving everything in his mind, every painful memory, every terrifying moment, every nightmare, every twisted thing he ever did as a result.
Drawing back, Jun slashed across Hayato's neck.
Hayato was dead before he hit the ground.

Quaking, Jun staggered around as though he didn't know what to do...then he fell to his knees.
"This isn't what I wanted..." he muttered.
"This isn't what I wanted!"
And Jun cried.
It was over. This time, he was sure.
It was over, he was free, and he cried.

For the longest time, he just lay there, curled in on himself, the sounds of years of pain and suffering issuing forth from his mouth.
It was pitiable, a terribly sad sight.
Here sat a man who had killed his own brother, for the second time...who had been forced to face his demons, and save the life he had once ruined with his own hands.

After a while, the sobs and screams began to fade to sniffles and sighs.
Sitting up, he turned to Naoko.
It was done. He was the only Hayato alive in this room now.
Originally, he had taken on his brother's name as a way to carry him with him.
Though he had loathed and feared him...he had still loved him.
Now, it would be a reminder of what not to be, what not to do...
He would not follow in his brother's footsteps any longer.

Standing up, he grabbed the sheet from the mattress and walked over to Naoko, unbinding his wrists and ankles, wrapping the pianist tightly in the sheet and holding him.

"I'm sorry." he said, a few tears still slipping from his eyes.
Nothing would make up for what the man had suffered and lost here...but it was all he had to offer.

"Can you walk?" he asked, standing up and going to Ryuukaze's limp form.
Carefully, he knelt down and lifted the violinist in his arms, holding him like a sleeping child.
He hadn't known he could feel this way...hadn't known just how deep his feelings really could run...but it broke his heart.
He couldn't imagine how broken Naoko's must be.

I can no longer return to those days free of bloodshed
These deep scars rooted within me will not disappear...







Quietly, Hayato carried Ryu's body down the stairs, Naoko following behind.
He steeled himself, cut off his outward emotions, though inside he was still weeping, and outside he couldn't stop the shaking.
This hadn't been what he wanted.

For a short moment in time, he had actually thought that maybe there would be a second chance, and things could be ok.

Things were never that simple, of course.

Helping Naoko into the back seat of his car, he gently placed Ryuukaze's cold body in his lap, making sure Naoko had a firm hold on the departed violinist.

"Of course, Naoko. Hold him all you like. He deserves to be mourned properly...." he answered the blond's request with a voice full of regret.
Regret that Naoko had suffered once more.
Regret that he hadn't been able to prevent it.
Regret that a man was dead...because of him....however indirectly.
Regret that he hadn't shot that b*****d in the head ten years earlier.

"Give me a moment..." Hayato said, turning and walking back to the house.

It was a shame....he had loved this house, but it had been tainted.
His life....was tainted.

Turning on the gas to the stove, he let it seep out unhindered.
In the garage, he found a gas can, and he carried it through the house, pouring the fuel everywhere.
Walking out of the garage, he looked back one last time, took his lighter from his pocket, lit it, and threw it into the garage.
In less than a minute, the whole house was engulfed in flames.
There would be no police. And any remnants of a body that might be left, nobody would be able to identify.

Silently, he watched everything burn.
Perhaps he should be in that fire as well.
Perhaps he deserved to burn.

He couldn't though. Not now.
He had to look after Naoko.
Whether Naoko liked it or not.

Floating.....

For so long, he had just felt like he was floating.
It wasn't the normal sort of death experience. Something was different, and strange.
There was too much darkness...and too much cold.
Frigid, unrelenting cold.
Not to mention, he could feel pain.
That had never happened before...and he'd been pretty much dead enough times to know what death was like.

Of course, his thoughts on the matter didn't really seem to make much difference. He was there, and he couldn't do much about it.

It seemed like hours had passed. Maybe even days, or weeks. Ryu couldn't be sure. Everything was just so still and black.
Then he saw it, felt the familiar stirring just before heaven opened up before him.
Ah...and there it was. The fields, the warm sun, his family...
But...why was his family weeping so?
This wasn't right...and it....it didn't frighten him, but instead, filled him with anger.
What had happened to make his family cry like that?
Whoever had done it would pay.

"Otousan, Okaasan." he called out, reaching for them, wanting to be of comfort.
Then he felt himself grabbed, pulled away from the field and the family he was so familiar with.
He was being taken...forced this time to finally go into the afterlife.
There would be no escape, the hands dragging him away seemed to say.

But....what about Naoko? He had promised.

"Stop!" he yelled at the entities, but their grip only tightened.

"I said stop! I can't go, not yet!" he was screaming now, thrashing about, trying to free himself.

"No! Nooo!!!! I can't! I can't!!! I can't leave him alone like that! Are you people mad! I love him! He needs me!!!!!" Ryu shrieked into the void, pulling and kicking with all his might.

Then suddenly....everything stopped.

'Give the kid one more chance...' a soft, feminine voice echoed through the darkness.

And just like that, he was released.

He could already see it again....the light. It was beginning to feel warmer.

Ryu is.... he thought he heard his tenshi's voice.

He was what? Dead?
Well, most likely...but that had never stopped him before.

People will want to know what happened...what should I say?

Crimson eyes slowly blinked open, a cool, pale hand reaching up to cup the pianist's cheek.

"Just tell them you loved me to death, darling." Ryu whispered, smiling weakly.

He had made a promise, and he was going to keep it.
After all, they had a lot of living to do together.

"Ah! H...hey...it's ok..." Ryu tried to piece together what had happened.
Everything had gone so out of control...
He had only been trying to go pick up Naoko's cellphone, then....did a bee sting him?
He couldn't remember.
But then...he did remember being somewhere else.
The last thing he had seen...well, it had looked like an angel swinging a divine sword at him.

"I'm here....Naoko. I've got one hell of a headache...but...I'm here...."

Slowly, Ryu wrapped his painfully stiff arms around his beloved, though his body wanted to resist movement.
It didn't matter if it hurt, though, as long as he could comfort his one and only.








~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



I can no longer return to those days free of bloodshed
These deep scars rooted within me will not disappear...








Hayato stopped in his tracks....

He had just been about to explain to Naoko what he thought best, how things would probably go, and that he would protect Naoko through it all, but then...a miracle happened.

"No ******** way...." the vocalist whispered in shock.

That little son of a b***h violinist was alive!

He had been 100% certain the man was dead. No pulse, no breathing, no movement, cold to the touch.
Dead!
At least...as far as anyone could tell from outward appearances...

"Well....I suppose stranger things have happened..." he smiled, glad at least one good thing had come after all of this.