Blue Heaven, chapter 14
Chapter 13 was here.
Blue Heaven, chapter 14
by cinnamongrr1
In spite of the early hour- it was barely eight o’clock- Yuki and Arisa were asleep almost as soon as their heads hit the pillows. But rest was not long to be theirs.
It seemed like no time at all had passed before Yuki found himself jerked free from the confines of sleep by a terrible, all-encompassing pain. Every sense was affected; a roaring in his ears, a burning in his eyes, a foul stench in his nose, and his mouth stung with bitterness.
Arisa was awake even before his breathless shout of alarm.
“Yuki,” she said, eyes huge in the dim murk of the unlit bedroom. “Yuki! What’s wrong!”
He wanted to answer her, even though he didn’t know what was happening, didn’t know anything but the searing agony that gripped him. Pain stabbed upward from his fingers and toes until it reached his chest, and he struggled to even draw breath against it, the sounds of his gasps fading against the screaming rush in his ears.
“You’re scaring me,” Arisa told him, trying to hold down his flailing hands. Yuki tried to maintain eye contact with her, but it was impossible, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he bucked in another paroxysm.
Limbs trembling, he jackknifed upright before the pain had him unbending once more, arching backward as he was assailed.
“What’s going on?” she shouted, but he had no response for her. She climbed on top of him, pressing his wrists to the mattress to keep him from hurting himself, and breathed a sigh of relief when he began to calm, his body stilling once more. The agonized muscles of his face relaxed, and he seemed once more at peace.
Arisa, panting, allowed herself to relax as well.
“What the hell was that?” she demanded, brushing his bangs off his face. When he didn’t answer, she patted his cheek, lightly at first, then a little harder to try and rouse him. “Yuki?”
Still no response, and her stomach flipped over when she trailed her hand down his throat and didn’t feel a pulse.
“Oh, shit,” she whispered. “Oh, shit.” She closed her eyes, trying desperately to remember how to do CPR from her health classes of last year. Her hands shook as she found the proper spot on his chest and began to push up and down.
After a few compressions, she scrambled off him to the side and pinched his nose shut, blowing her own breath into him several times before returning to push on his chest. Back and forth, back and forth, Arisa worked feverishly, barely able to see for the tears streaming down her face.
And then, in the moment between moving between compressions and breaths, Yuki shuddered and spasmed, sucking in a giant lungful of air. Arisa sat back on her heels and buried her face in her hands, sobbing noisily.
“Arisa-san,” Yuki whispered, “don’t cry. I’m fine now.”
She slumped down until her head lay on his chest, and lifted a hand to cup his face.
“Yuki, you weren’t breathing,” she croaked, sniffling. “For a long time. I thought… I thought you had died.”
He struggled to sit up, ignoring the residual ache in his bones, and grasped her arms before touching his forehead to hers.
“I’m sorry you were so scared,” he told her. “I was scared, too. I never felt anything like that before, and I don’t know what it was from.”
She clung to him, trembling, her hands moving over his shoulders and chest as if to reassure herself that he was truly alive.
“Please don’t do anything like that again,” she muttered, burying her face against his neck.
He couldn’t help but laugh a little. “I don’t think I have any control over it.”
“Should you go to a doctor or something?” Her breath was warm against his throat, and he rubbed her back idly, the motion soothing both of them.
“Ordinarily, I’d call Hatori, but…” With Akito wanting to find them, contacting Hatori or anyone else was no longer safe.
She nodded against him. “I know. Regular hospital, then?”
“I- actually, Arisa-san, except for the shaking… I feel fine.” It was true; there lingered a slight tremor in his hands, but apart from that, Yuki was feeling rather good, considering that a mere five minutes ago he’d been almost dead.
“Please? Just to be sure?”
It would take a stronger man than he to refuse her sweetly pleading face and big, worried eyes; Yuki sighed and nodded, climbing out of the bed. She was right there beside him when he wobbled a bit, her hand at his arm to steady him, and such was the rush of love he felt at the sight of her that he couldn’t help but drop a kiss on her mouth.
Her arms immediately wound around his neck, and she kissed him back, fervently. All the fear and worry she’d felt was poured into it, and he stroked her hair and shoulders tenderly.
“I think you saved my life tonight, Arisa,” he told her when they parted.
“I think you scared a dozen years off mine,” she shot back, and went to dig in her closet for shoes that would fit him.
“What if-“ he stammered, having a moment of insight. “What if what happened to me didn’t just happen to me? What if everyone else was affected, too?”
“Everyone else?” Arisa stared at him. “Don’t tell me that there are others-“
Yuki’s shoulders slumped a little. “Yes, there are thirteen of us in the Sohma family, cursed like I am.”
“You all become rats?”
He had to smile at that. “No, each of us becomes a different animal of the Chinese zodiac. I’m the rat, Shigure’s the dog, Kyou is the cat-“
“But there is no cat in the zodiac,” she protested, handing him a corduroy jacket.
“…It’s a long story,” Yuki said, and pulled the jacket on. He felt odd, wearing an entire set of clothes that weren’t his. At least she favoured masculine styles, or he’d be feeling pretty stupid right about now.
They were almost out the door when the phone rang. They glanced at each other in apprehension.
“What do you think?” Arisa asked. “Should we chance it? If it’s them, answering it would just confirm we’re here.”
“But it could be Honda-san,” said Yuki. “She’s probably worried sick about us.”
Arisa stepped to the phone. “Hello?” she said, her voice purposefully pitched low.
“Uo-chan?” Tohru’s voice, even over the phone wire, sounded thready.
“Tohru-chan?” Arisa said. “Are you okay?”
“Um, mostly,” Tohru replied slowly. “How is Yuki-kun? Is he alright?”
Arisa eyed him. “He’s fine, now. But he had some sort of fit, and stopped breathing. Here, you can talk to him.” She handed the receiver to him.
“Honda-san,” he said warmly. “You’re alright?”
“I am now,” she told him. “Everyone here is okay, too, and at the Honke, also.”
“So it did affect the entire Jyuunishi,” he sighed. “Is everyone accounted for?”
“Everyone except Rin-chan and Ayame-san,” Tohru replied. “Yuki-kun, I’m worried about them.”
Yuki felt like ice-water had filled his veins. “We’ll go to Nii-san’s,” he said. “It’s not all that far from here. I will talk to you later, Honda-san.”
He put the phone down and turned to Arisa. “My brother,” he told her, grabbing her hand and starting out of the apartment. “We have to go to him.”
“But, the hospital!” she protested, slamming the door behind them as they flew down the stairs.
“Later,” he said, dismissing the idea altogether. “I’m fine now, really.” On the sidewalk outside, he stopped a moment to get his bearings and decide which way to go. “You up for another run?”
She smirked at him. “Do I have a choice?”
He smiled back. “Nope.” And the took off toward the north, heading toward a shopping district that specialized in textiles and custom clothing shops. Yuki was glad they’d bundled up a bit, because even though the evening was still young, the temperature had dropped. A glance at Arisa told him that her cheeks and nose were red.
Still, he dared not slow down. Ayame was annoying and lecherous, but he had been trying so hard these past few years to make up for his desertion of Yuki so long ago. Ayame was his brother, no matter what.
“Can you go a bit faster?” he asked her. His worry must have communicated itself to her, because she only nodded and sped up.
Relief flooded Yuki when they skirted a corner and Ayame’s store came into view. The glass door was locked, however, even though a sliver of light showed at the bottom of the door to the workroom.
“I can pick it,” Arisa said, fumbling in her pockets.
Visions of Ayame, dead on the floor, swam in Yuki’s vision.
“There’s no time,” he said, and braced himself. With a single, well-placed kick, he shattered the glass panel, balling the cuff of his jacket over his hand to reach in and unlock the door. The shards of glass crunched under their feet as they bolted into the store.
“Nii-san!” Yuki shouted, hands braced in the doorway to the workroom. It was empty, though a mess, a huge tray of sewing supplies spilled all over the floor. A full second passed while fright and frustration flitted through him, and then the sound of someone groaning in pain in the office beyond the workroom caught his attention.
“Do you hear that?” he asked, dashing across the room to the door, Arisa right behind him. As he grasped the doorknob, a particularly loud moan could be heard. Alarmed, Yuki flung it open-
--and found Ayame rolling around on the floor with Mine, discarded clothing littering the ground around them. Both were naked, flushed, and clearly enjoying themselves.
The worry that had been consuming Yuki since Tohru’s phone call abruptly dissolved, replaced with a blind, almost barbaric fury.
“Nii-san!” he roared.
The nude couple on the floor froze for a moment, and Ayame slowly turned his head toward them.
“Yuki!” he exclaimed delightedly. “You brought your LITTLE FRIEND to visit! How WONDERFUL!”
“Nii-san,” Yuki said tightly, teeth clenched, “I need to talk to you.” Beside him, Arisa’s face was slack with shock.
Ayame flung a hank of long silver hair back over his shoulder and smiled charmingly. “I’m afraid this isn’t the best time for me- ooh, Mine, that tickles, hee hee- Yuki, do you think you could come back tomorrow?”
Yuki was going to have a stroke, he was sure of it. There was no way his blood pressure could shoot up so high without some serious repercussions.
“Hehehehe. Good one, Ayame,” said a voice behind Yuki. He turned to see Shigure and Hatori standing in the doorway, both equally as out-of-breath as he and Arisa had been after their frantic run to the shop. The former was grinning and leering openly at Mine’s state of undress.
“Ayame,” Hatori said, sounding torn between fatigue and amusement. “Stop that, and get dressed. Hello, Mine-san.”
“Tori-san!” The Snake immediately picked himself up off of Mine and got gracefully to his feet, unaware or uncaring that he was not only stark naked but still… interested. “Such a MARVELOUS surprise, having everyone come visit. Are we having a party?”
“Oh, dear god,” Yuki mumbled, spinning around to face away from him (and tugging on Arisa’s sleeve until she too tore her eyes from the spectacle of his brother). The rustle of fabric told him that Ayame and Mine were putting on their clothes.
“Ayame, did you experience any pain or discomfort about twenty minutes ago?” Hatori asked, as if his cousin had not spoken.
“Hm,” Ayame said, and Yuki turned to see his brother stop and place a finger to his lips in thought. It would have been an innocent, thoughtful pose, if not for the fact that Ayame had pulled up his trousers but failed to fasten them, and was still exposed in all his glory.
“It’s not that difficult a question!” Yuki shouted. “Twenty minutes ago, did you feel excruciating pain, as if all your bones were fusing together?”
Ayame’s face lit up, as if the memory were a fond one. “Yes!” he exclaimed. “It felt like my blood was BOILING! I fell over and spilled my tray of notions-oh, I DO hope I didn’t lose that spool of Egyptian silk thread, that colour is IMPOSSIBLE to find anymore-“
“Ayame.” Hatori stepped forward at last and captured his gracefully waving wrist in order to take his pulse.
“Yes, yes… so, I fell and darling Mine, here, tended me with such KINDNESS! Such DEDICATION! Such DEVOTION! And when I stopped breathing, it was her tender ministrations that prevented me from leaping forward into THE ARMS OF DEATH! With the skill of a professional nurse, she led me back from that black abyss!”
“And you decided to celebrate not dying by-by---“ Yuki couldn’t say it.
“By having sex?” Ayame supplemented helpfully. “No, not at all. The sex was to celebrate the breaking of the curse.”