a weekly thing.
So, I decided I wanted to have a regular update schedule for Code Blue. The idea behind this is that I will have some buffer chapters to post during NaNoWriMo, when I will not be writing fanfic. Or anything except the NaNo novel.
But anyway. From now on, Code Blue will update Thursday evenings, PST of course.
I've also decided that (as this story has become a monster) it shall be divided into different sub-stories. This is Part I. It will last for quite a few more chapters. Part II will probably be started up after NaNo.
Title: Code Blue - Part I (5/?)
Fandom: xxxHOLiC
Wordcount: 1,487
A/N: The final part of the MONSTER WITHIN A MONSTER that was originally to be Chapter 4. PTST!Watanuki is so much fun to write, and don't ask me what that means until you've read the chapter.
Previous Installments
Watanuki limped back to the shed, feeling very much the worse for wear. He wasn’t sure if his left wrist was broken or otherwise injured, but it hurt like hell and didn’t seem to want to work properly. That added to the pain in his leg, which hadn’t eased much if at all, meant that he had taken nearly twice as long as usual to finish the rest of the day’s work, and it was the dead of night by the time he reached his destination.
To his surprise and irritation, Doumeki was waiting outside. Before he could get a word in edgewise, the other boy spoke up. “Painkillers,” he said.
“I’m fine,” Watanuki replied before he thought, and instantly regretted it. Fortunately, Doumeki ignored the comment entirely and held out a pair of the capsules he’d offered the previous night.
“You have something to drink out of?” he continued, miraculously grabbing for Watanuki’s right wrist and not the injured left. The injured boy considered making a fight of it, but decided against that plan of action. It wasn’t as if there was much he would be able to do, and Doumeki was actually doing something useful even if he was also being an ass about it. He suffered himself to be led inside, and tried to discreetly accept the support in a way that Doumeki would not notice. The taller boy did smirk at him as he sat down, but that could have been for any number of reasons.
Watanuki pointed out where he kept the all-important water stash, and schooled the relief out of his features when he was given the two capsules and one of the mugs full of water. Doumeki, now in the albeit dim light, looked troubled, although Watanuki couldn’t say how. But the fact that the seemingly emotionless agent (or whatever the hell he called himself) found something to be wrong…was troubling.
After some amount of time passed, it became clear that whatever was troubling Doumeki had something to do with Watanuki - he’d been staring at him for a while now, and the agent looked perhaps more concerned than before. Watanuki was wondering how long it would take to find out what this troublesome thing might be, and whether or not it would be worth it to try and find out - or even if he wanted to know - when the other boy finally spoke.
“Does the doctor usually use unwilling humans in his experiments?” he asked, tone giving nothing away.
Surprised into speech, Watanuki replied, “He does. He’s got a -” About to say more, he remembered how little he knew about the purpose of this investigation and fell silent. By the time he’d come to the conclusion that it probably didn’t matter, as he wasn’t really important enough to be affected by things like that, it seemed to late to finish the thought.
But Doumeki had apparently heard what he needed. “What happens to them when he’s finished with the experiments?” he continued.
“Depends,” Watanuki replied shortly, not really wanting to think deeply about that particular topic. The situations he knew the most about included the times when the test subject was no longer able to function alone - if at all. “If they aren’t ‘damaged’, as the doctor says, they go back to where they were beforehand,” he elaborated.
“And if they were ‘damaged’?”
Watanuki, refusing to think about the fate that awaited the ‘damaged’ ones and the task that awaited him at their presence, did not answer.
“What happened to the woman this afternoon?” Doumeki persisted.
For a long moment, Watanuki could only stare in bewilderment as his mind tried to process the information that somehow Doumeki knew. Unless he had a contact with one of the men who’d witnessed it, he couldn’t have seen it. Or maybe he was actually there? But that was impossible, the logical corner of Watanuki’s mind reasoned. Dr. Kyle had spoken to all of the men there, knew them to be trustworthy enough to see his work. But they were all ambitious and would not be averse to finding out extra things any way they could.
Somehow, though, it didn’t seem likely that Doumeki of all people could be an associate of Dr. Kyle. The boy wasn’t tactful enough to deal with that kind of person - or old enough to be worthy of the doctor’s time.
“The…woman?” Watanuki replied, trying to sound neutral and probably only succeeding at sounding nervous.
“The woman in the experiment,” Doumeki elaborated. “What happened afterwards?”
“Why does that matter to you?” Watanuki demanded.
“It’s my business.”
“How?” he yelled, clapping his hands over his mouth a second later in horror. Again, he did not seem to attract unwanted attraction. Doumeki did not seem to be fazed at all.
“My job,” he said matter-of-factly, as if that were the obvious answer and Watanuki must be the epitome of stupidity for not knowing what Doumeki’s purpose here was besides apparently stalking him, not to mention for even bothering to ask. “So, what happened?”
Watanuki glared, refusing to tell this guy anything out of sheer spite. With a sigh, Doumeki stepped closer. “I need to know this. If not from you, I’ll find out somehow. It’s easier to ask you.” He folded his arms and waited as Watanuki fidgeted under his stare.
Finally the injured boy gave up. “The doctor showed her off to a bunch of his guests. Then he took her off somewhere.”
“What then?”
Watanuki looked away. “She didn’t come back to where the subjects are kept,” he muttered. He had liked that woman, as little as he knew of her. Of his entire world, she had been the only person who had treated him well, as someone who maybe could have been a friend. She had been kind. So he didn’t want to speak of what he knew had happened to her, beyond the obvious.
Fate was not so kind - or perhaps it was merely Doumeki who purposely crushed his hopes. “You know what the doctor did to her after that,” he said. It wasn’t an accusation. Somehow, that made things worse. Watanuki said nothing, and did not return his gaze to Doumeki’s face.
“If I have to find these things out the hard way, this will take more time,” Doumeki informed him. “What did he do?”
“Maybe I don’t want to talk about it,” Watanuki muttered.
“I’m sorry?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” he hissed, thoroughly angry now. “I’m tired and still in pain and I don’t want to talk about her or what happened, so leave me the hell alone!” He glared at Doumeki with as much venom as he could and shoved the other boy away for good measure. This may have been a calculated error, Watanuki realised, as Doumeki’s eyes narrowed. Even in the anger and sense of having screwed up, seeing Doumeki with expression was still an intriguing sight.
“I’m trying to help,” Doumeki said icily. “The least you could do is cooperate.”
“I’m not interested,” Watanuki spat. “What have you got to gain from helping me? Why the hell would you even care what happens to me?”
That seemed to be the last straw. “Because I saw what he did to you today,” Doumeki snapped, face suddenly far too close and set in anger. Watanuki froze as this knowledge sunk in. What the doctor had done…he didn’t even want to think about. He couldn’t think about it. Doumeki didn’t know anything about that, and he never would.
After a few minutes of tense silence, Doumeki seemed to have controlled his anger. “The last time?” he demanded in a calmer tone. “What did he mean by that?”
The last time…no. Watanuki would not think of that. He could not. There was a reason he wouldn’t, couldn’t think of the last time, and it wasn’t something he could explain. “No,” he said, trying not to shake, willing himself to stop thinking and get away from this dangerous train of thought. “No. I won’t.” Too easily memory teased him, offering a hint of panic, enough to start him off. The room whirled crazily. “No.”
Doumeki’s eyes in front of him, stable in the center of a crazily spinning room, narrowed in some foreign expression. “Watanuki,” he said, reaching out a hand to grab a shoulder, perhaps shake.
“Don’t touch me,” Watanuki hissed, jerking back. “Don’t touch me!” he tried to command but ended up pleading. No, no, he told himself. He couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t start now. And he couldn’t let anyone see him like this. “Get out,” he whispered. “Get out.”
For a moment, Doumeki stayed put, and Watanuki amid the panic grew even more fearful. He couldn’t keep from shaking any longer. But finally the other boy stood up, a helpless expression on his face. He reached out, but then pulled his arm back, and without another word turned and left.
But anyway. From now on, Code Blue will update Thursday evenings, PST of course.
I've also decided that (as this story has become a monster) it shall be divided into different sub-stories. This is Part I. It will last for quite a few more chapters. Part II will probably be started up after NaNo.
Title: Code Blue - Part I (5/?)
Fandom: xxxHOLiC
Wordcount: 1,487
A/N: The final part of the MONSTER WITHIN A MONSTER that was originally to be Chapter 4. PTST!Watanuki is so much fun to write, and don't ask me what that means until you've read the chapter.
Previous Installments
Watanuki limped back to the shed, feeling very much the worse for wear. He wasn’t sure if his left wrist was broken or otherwise injured, but it hurt like hell and didn’t seem to want to work properly. That added to the pain in his leg, which hadn’t eased much if at all, meant that he had taken nearly twice as long as usual to finish the rest of the day’s work, and it was the dead of night by the time he reached his destination.
To his surprise and irritation, Doumeki was waiting outside. Before he could get a word in edgewise, the other boy spoke up. “Painkillers,” he said.
“I’m fine,” Watanuki replied before he thought, and instantly regretted it. Fortunately, Doumeki ignored the comment entirely and held out a pair of the capsules he’d offered the previous night.
“You have something to drink out of?” he continued, miraculously grabbing for Watanuki’s right wrist and not the injured left. The injured boy considered making a fight of it, but decided against that plan of action. It wasn’t as if there was much he would be able to do, and Doumeki was actually doing something useful even if he was also being an ass about it. He suffered himself to be led inside, and tried to discreetly accept the support in a way that Doumeki would not notice. The taller boy did smirk at him as he sat down, but that could have been for any number of reasons.
Watanuki pointed out where he kept the all-important water stash, and schooled the relief out of his features when he was given the two capsules and one of the mugs full of water. Doumeki, now in the albeit dim light, looked troubled, although Watanuki couldn’t say how. But the fact that the seemingly emotionless agent (or whatever the hell he called himself) found something to be wrong…was troubling.
After some amount of time passed, it became clear that whatever was troubling Doumeki had something to do with Watanuki - he’d been staring at him for a while now, and the agent looked perhaps more concerned than before. Watanuki was wondering how long it would take to find out what this troublesome thing might be, and whether or not it would be worth it to try and find out - or even if he wanted to know - when the other boy finally spoke.
“Does the doctor usually use unwilling humans in his experiments?” he asked, tone giving nothing away.
Surprised into speech, Watanuki replied, “He does. He’s got a -” About to say more, he remembered how little he knew about the purpose of this investigation and fell silent. By the time he’d come to the conclusion that it probably didn’t matter, as he wasn’t really important enough to be affected by things like that, it seemed to late to finish the thought.
But Doumeki had apparently heard what he needed. “What happens to them when he’s finished with the experiments?” he continued.
“Depends,” Watanuki replied shortly, not really wanting to think deeply about that particular topic. The situations he knew the most about included the times when the test subject was no longer able to function alone - if at all. “If they aren’t ‘damaged’, as the doctor says, they go back to where they were beforehand,” he elaborated.
“And if they were ‘damaged’?”
Watanuki, refusing to think about the fate that awaited the ‘damaged’ ones and the task that awaited him at their presence, did not answer.
“What happened to the woman this afternoon?” Doumeki persisted.
For a long moment, Watanuki could only stare in bewilderment as his mind tried to process the information that somehow Doumeki knew. Unless he had a contact with one of the men who’d witnessed it, he couldn’t have seen it. Or maybe he was actually there? But that was impossible, the logical corner of Watanuki’s mind reasoned. Dr. Kyle had spoken to all of the men there, knew them to be trustworthy enough to see his work. But they were all ambitious and would not be averse to finding out extra things any way they could.
Somehow, though, it didn’t seem likely that Doumeki of all people could be an associate of Dr. Kyle. The boy wasn’t tactful enough to deal with that kind of person - or old enough to be worthy of the doctor’s time.
“The…woman?” Watanuki replied, trying to sound neutral and probably only succeeding at sounding nervous.
“The woman in the experiment,” Doumeki elaborated. “What happened afterwards?”
“Why does that matter to you?” Watanuki demanded.
“It’s my business.”
“How?” he yelled, clapping his hands over his mouth a second later in horror. Again, he did not seem to attract unwanted attraction. Doumeki did not seem to be fazed at all.
“My job,” he said matter-of-factly, as if that were the obvious answer and Watanuki must be the epitome of stupidity for not knowing what Doumeki’s purpose here was besides apparently stalking him, not to mention for even bothering to ask. “So, what happened?”
Watanuki glared, refusing to tell this guy anything out of sheer spite. With a sigh, Doumeki stepped closer. “I need to know this. If not from you, I’ll find out somehow. It’s easier to ask you.” He folded his arms and waited as Watanuki fidgeted under his stare.
Finally the injured boy gave up. “The doctor showed her off to a bunch of his guests. Then he took her off somewhere.”
“What then?”
Watanuki looked away. “She didn’t come back to where the subjects are kept,” he muttered. He had liked that woman, as little as he knew of her. Of his entire world, she had been the only person who had treated him well, as someone who maybe could have been a friend. She had been kind. So he didn’t want to speak of what he knew had happened to her, beyond the obvious.
Fate was not so kind - or perhaps it was merely Doumeki who purposely crushed his hopes. “You know what the doctor did to her after that,” he said. It wasn’t an accusation. Somehow, that made things worse. Watanuki said nothing, and did not return his gaze to Doumeki’s face.
“If I have to find these things out the hard way, this will take more time,” Doumeki informed him. “What did he do?”
“Maybe I don’t want to talk about it,” Watanuki muttered.
“I’m sorry?”
“I don’t want to talk about it!” he hissed, thoroughly angry now. “I’m tired and still in pain and I don’t want to talk about her or what happened, so leave me the hell alone!” He glared at Doumeki with as much venom as he could and shoved the other boy away for good measure. This may have been a calculated error, Watanuki realised, as Doumeki’s eyes narrowed. Even in the anger and sense of having screwed up, seeing Doumeki with expression was still an intriguing sight.
“I’m trying to help,” Doumeki said icily. “The least you could do is cooperate.”
“I’m not interested,” Watanuki spat. “What have you got to gain from helping me? Why the hell would you even care what happens to me?”
That seemed to be the last straw. “Because I saw what he did to you today,” Doumeki snapped, face suddenly far too close and set in anger. Watanuki froze as this knowledge sunk in. What the doctor had done…he didn’t even want to think about. He couldn’t think about it. Doumeki didn’t know anything about that, and he never would.
After a few minutes of tense silence, Doumeki seemed to have controlled his anger. “The last time?” he demanded in a calmer tone. “What did he mean by that?”
The last time…no. Watanuki would not think of that. He could not. There was a reason he wouldn’t, couldn’t think of the last time, and it wasn’t something he could explain. “No,” he said, trying not to shake, willing himself to stop thinking and get away from this dangerous train of thought. “No. I won’t.” Too easily memory teased him, offering a hint of panic, enough to start him off. The room whirled crazily. “No.”
Doumeki’s eyes in front of him, stable in the center of a crazily spinning room, narrowed in some foreign expression. “Watanuki,” he said, reaching out a hand to grab a shoulder, perhaps shake.
“Don’t touch me,” Watanuki hissed, jerking back. “Don’t touch me!” he tried to command but ended up pleading. No, no, he told himself. He couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t start now. And he couldn’t let anyone see him like this. “Get out,” he whispered. “Get out.”
For a moment, Doumeki stayed put, and Watanuki amid the panic grew even more fearful. He couldn’t keep from shaking any longer. But finally the other boy stood up, a helpless expression on his face. He reached out, but then pulled his arm back, and without another word turned and left.