Altered Ending - Epilogue
Title : Altered Ending
Chapter Title : Beginning of A New Life
Setting : Hidarime Tantei EYE - Episode 8
Summary : In the last episode, Kokusho Akira shot Yumeto first before getting shot. But what if that one fatal bullet had got her first before her finger jerked, firing the gun, when the gun was off target and Ainosuke stood right between the two crime planner?
Rating : T
“Well, all seems to be in order. You just need to sign here to finalize things and you’re free to go.”
Yumeto took the offered ballpoint and penned down his signature. He gathered the documents and, after giving the nurse in charge a pleasant smile, strolled off the direction where he had spent most of these last two weeks in.
“All right, Ainosuke. You can stop pouting now and…”
He had said as he slid the door open, but trailed off when he found the room completely empty. He sighed deeply before massaging his temple, muttering in exasperation as he did so.
“I knew leaving him alone was a bad idea.”
“I agree whole-heartedly.”
Yumeto was unable to smother his yelp of surprise and promptly spun around to the source of his almost-heart-attack. He frowned at the culprit’s amused smile and crossed his arms in front of his chest, face set in a mock serious expression.
“Kato-san, I would really appreciate it if you could please stop trying to shorten my lifespan. That’s Ainosuke’s job. And I personally think he is doing a very good job at it as it is now without you contributing into the mix too.”
The older man laughed pleasantly. It was so cheerful of a sound that Yumeto couldn’t help but smile. Really, he had gotten soft.
“So,” Kato said as he got his laughter in control, “what has that adorable brother of yours done this time?”
Yumeto quirked his eyebrow at the description used for his brother. Adorable? Arduous is more like it.
Kato merely smirked to his direction as an answer to his unspoken query.
Sighing loudly, he replied, “See for yourself Kato-san.” He moved to the side to give the police officer a way to see inside the room, gesturing with his hand.
The older man poked his head in and looked around for a while before straightening back up, “I didn’t find anything unusual in there.”
Yumeto resisted the urge to throw his arms up in exasperation.
“That’s the point! You did not find! Did not! I feel like I should be the one to actually handcuff him to me! And- Why, exactly, are you smiling?”
Indeed, the police officer was currently showing off his front teeth like a cheshire cat. His grin was so wide that Yumeto was amazed his face had not split in half yet.
“Are you his brother or his parent?”
Yumeto showed such indignation that if possible the smile on Kato’s face grew even wider. He sighed and leaned back to the door frame, “The truth is I feel like both on some occasions.” Kato raised his eyebrow at him and he added, with a bit of reluctance, “Okay, most of occasions.”
Kato grinned, “Well, now that we got that settled,” Yumeto threw him a look here and promptly rolled his eyes. “Where’s Ainosuke, seriously?”
Yumeto sighed impatiently, “I’m being serious now when I say I have no idea. I left him here to get the documents done and when I got back he’s not here anymore. Though, I don’t see it to be quite so surprising since he’s been pestering me to no end about how boring it was to stay in this room.”
Kato chuckled at his friend’s desperation and slung his arm around his shoulder.
“Then, we should look for him.”
Yumeto sighed heavily and muttered under his breath as his ex-partner steered him away from the room, “We would be lucky if we can find him within this hour. And thanks be to God if we could actually catch him.”
xxx
He knew that he shouldn’t leave his hospital room. Really, he did. But it was just too much of a temptation to resist and - to his defense - he had spent two weeks in that room. Two long, boring weeks.
Okay, now he’s being unfair. It was not all boring. Thanks to his brother.
A smile graced his lips as his mind wondered to the time he had spent with his older brother.
It was a bit… awkward at first to him, to be honest - especially with the memory of his rather childish behavior when his brother came back still fresh in his mind. He could hardly look at his older brother without feeling his cheeks seared with heat. It did not help that every time his brother noticed this, the older would give him a fond smile and such a gentle look. If anything, he would blush even harder.
They had a lot of talking sessions within these two weeks. Mostly about how he felt during the whole ordeal and what did his brother actually thought and felt about what he did. Afterwards, the talked about the more recent events. He was rendered speechless when his brother said that he thought that he only imagined his call in the airport. Their conversation for that day ended quite abruptly when he refused to talk to his older brother, too irritated to care how immature he was behaving.
He felt his face getting warmer and groaned in frustration, placing his palms on his cheeks in hope to cool them down. He felt like a petulant little child now, thinking of how he had acted around his brother. No, maybe a spoiled brat would have been a more fitting description.
Deciding that thinking about it would only make his cheeks turned a several shades darker, he looked up to see where his feet had gotten him to. Even before he raised his head, he knew where he was. The delicious smell that came to his nose gave it away. He was in the cafeteria.
Now that his mind did not swirl around his brother, he realized how hungry he was. The plan was to get something to eat together then - much to the younger’s dismay - get him a haircut. Seriously, of all the changes that he expected his older brother to notice about him, the length of his hair was the least on the list, if it was ever in it at all. He didn’t know what to say - or think in that matter - when his brother told him this.
He promptly stopped his musing when his stomach growled unnecessarily loud as if to reprimand him. With a sigh, he started walking around to look for something to eat. Hopefully, his brother would have found him by then, because he did not have a single yen on him. He had just had an eye on one of the stall that adorned the sides of the cafeteria when someone on one of the seats caught his attention.
He walked silently to the figure. It was unexpectedly an easy thing to do, since the person seemed to be busy with something that clasped firmly between her hands.
“Sayama-sensei?”
The said woman jumped on her seats and he was forced to step back to avoid a nasty right hook coming his way. Still, despite his effort, he ended up falling backwards avoiding it. Fortunately, instead of falling flat on his back, he fell sitting on the floor. He let out an undignified yelp and resisted the urge to rub his sore behind.
Note to self: don’t ever surprise Sayama-sensei ever again if you still value your life.
“Ainosuke! Oh, Ainosuke, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know it was you and you surprised me and I was just… Are you alright? Here, let me help you.”
He took the offered hand and used it to haul himself up.
“I’m fine. I’m fine. What got you attention so entirely that you didn’t…”
He trailed off as he caught a good glance at what her teacher had been clutching. It was a video camera. His eyes widened and his cheeks once again flushed when the scene that was so very familiar to him played right in front his eyes. Literally.
“H-How did you…”
He stuttered and turned to the school nurse, who hid the video camera behind her right away and looked anywhere but him guiltily. His eyes narrowed as he realized what had happened.
“Sayama-sensei…”
The called nurse took a step backwards as if sensing the upcoming outburst.
“Please tell me that you did not spy on me and my brother. And please tell me that you absolutely did not have it recorded!”
Sayama started to back away from her embarrassed and soon-will-be-angry student.
“Well… You see… I kind of can’t tell you that… Since I kind of have done just that…?”
Okay, if his cheeks were pink before, he was sure they were now as red as strawberry. It was bad enough that his brother had seen that childish side of him, now his teacher too?
“Sensei!”
“It was such a good opportunity.”
She turned fully around to run from her flustered but annoyed student. He gaped at her retreating form for a moment before chasing her with all his will.
“Sensei! Get back here and give me that video cam!”
He shouted as he ran after her around the cafeteria, unaware of the amused looks that were thrown their way.
“Sorry, my dear student, but that is so not happening!”
He almost whined at her, but thought better of it and just concentrated in getting that device in his teacher’s hand. So focused was he on his task that he didn’t notice two figures entered the cafeteria a few minutes after they started their cat-and-mouse chase. In fact, it was not until the video camera was snatched away from her hand - for Sayama’s case - and warm arms wrapped around his middle, effectively preventing him from darting away - for Ainosuke’s case - that they took notice of the two men.
“And what are you thinking you’re doing? You’ve just been released from bed rest this morning!”
Ainosuke turned around to face his captor and a big grin appeared on his face. Suddenly feeling mischievous, he threw his arms around his brother’s waist. He could just picture his older brother’s incredulous expression as he exchanged worried glance with the other two adults. Smiling as he felt the arms around him shifted to holding him around his shoulders and the other hand firmly placed itself at the back of his head, he snuggled closer.
“Okay… What happened?”
“I think I know what this is all about.”
Ainosuke looked up to see Kato holding the video camera that he had been trying to get from his teacher. He watched silently as the police officer gave Sayama a disbelieving look. The school nurse smiled sheepishly at him in return. Kato shook his head and turned his head to look at him.
“I suppose you found out about this, right, Ainosuke-kun?”
He smiled brightly from his place in his brother’s arms, “You can say that.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt his brother pushed him away, though not ungently. Brown eyes gazed questioningly at his, waiting for explanation. He felt the familiar warmth creeping into his cheeks and he groaned in exasperation, hiding his face on said brother’s shoulder.
“It concerns a certain talk with a certain older brother that happened about two weeks ago…?”
By the tightening of the arms around him, he was sure that his older brother had noticed which event he was referring to - it’s hard not to. After all, his brother was not called a genius for nothing. But the words that his older brother said were beyond anything that he expected.
“Can I have a copy of that?”
He started and pushed himself away with a look of horror plastered on his face. “What?!”
Yumeto smiled pleasantly at him, a hint of amusement and mischief twinkling in his eyes. As he continued to gape at the ex-crime planner that he called ‘brother’, the very same person draped an arm around his shoulder and laughed.
“What’s wrong with that? Now I can really assure you that you did not dream that conversation.”
Unsurprisingly, his cheeks flushed. Kato snorted uncharacteristically and Sayama burst out laughing only heightened the colour that decorating his cheeks. He did not doubt that they had seen the video. Many many times.
“Niichan!”
“Hey…”
His eyes widened at the gentle tone his brother was directing at him. Brown eyes searching, wanting to know what his older brother had in store now.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you felt unsafe enough that you can’t believe it to be reality at first. But I’ve said it and I’ll say it again and again until it is ingrained in your mind. I’m not leaving you. Ever. Alright?”
Ainosuke stared at his brother wide-eyed for a while before huffing.
“You’re one to talk. And that comes from the person who thought that my voice in the airport was just his imagination.”
Yumeto chuckled, "Well, what do you expect? We're brothers after all. Come on." The arm around his shoulder gently steered him away, Sayama and Kato following directly behind them. "We're far behind time and, I don't know about you, but, I'm starving."
He distinctively heard the police officer sighed behind them, but the position he was in prevented him from turning around to see the cause - not that he mind. Kato seemed to do that quite often these past months. Often enough that he thought nothing of it in particular. It was something that felt like a common occurrence to him.
But that thought immediately flew his mind, as his brother - once again - surprised him by saying.
“By the way, Sayama-sensei, I want a copy of this video you’re taking now too.”
Chapter Title : Beginning of A New Life
Setting : Hidarime Tantei EYE - Episode 8
Summary : In the last episode, Kokusho Akira shot Yumeto first before getting shot. But what if that one fatal bullet had got her first before her finger jerked, firing the gun, when the gun was off target and Ainosuke stood right between the two crime planner?
Rating : T
“Well, all seems to be in order. You just need to sign here to finalize things and you’re free to go.”
Yumeto took the offered ballpoint and penned down his signature. He gathered the documents and, after giving the nurse in charge a pleasant smile, strolled off the direction where he had spent most of these last two weeks in.
“All right, Ainosuke. You can stop pouting now and…”
He had said as he slid the door open, but trailed off when he found the room completely empty. He sighed deeply before massaging his temple, muttering in exasperation as he did so.
“I knew leaving him alone was a bad idea.”
“I agree whole-heartedly.”
Yumeto was unable to smother his yelp of surprise and promptly spun around to the source of his almost-heart-attack. He frowned at the culprit’s amused smile and crossed his arms in front of his chest, face set in a mock serious expression.
“Kato-san, I would really appreciate it if you could please stop trying to shorten my lifespan. That’s Ainosuke’s job. And I personally think he is doing a very good job at it as it is now without you contributing into the mix too.”
The older man laughed pleasantly. It was so cheerful of a sound that Yumeto couldn’t help but smile. Really, he had gotten soft.
“So,” Kato said as he got his laughter in control, “what has that adorable brother of yours done this time?”
Yumeto quirked his eyebrow at the description used for his brother. Adorable? Arduous is more like it.
Kato merely smirked to his direction as an answer to his unspoken query.
Sighing loudly, he replied, “See for yourself Kato-san.” He moved to the side to give the police officer a way to see inside the room, gesturing with his hand.
The older man poked his head in and looked around for a while before straightening back up, “I didn’t find anything unusual in there.”
Yumeto resisted the urge to throw his arms up in exasperation.
“That’s the point! You did not find! Did not! I feel like I should be the one to actually handcuff him to me! And- Why, exactly, are you smiling?”
Indeed, the police officer was currently showing off his front teeth like a cheshire cat. His grin was so wide that Yumeto was amazed his face had not split in half yet.
“Are you his brother or his parent?”
Yumeto showed such indignation that if possible the smile on Kato’s face grew even wider. He sighed and leaned back to the door frame, “The truth is I feel like both on some occasions.” Kato raised his eyebrow at him and he added, with a bit of reluctance, “Okay, most of occasions.”
Kato grinned, “Well, now that we got that settled,” Yumeto threw him a look here and promptly rolled his eyes. “Where’s Ainosuke, seriously?”
Yumeto sighed impatiently, “I’m being serious now when I say I have no idea. I left him here to get the documents done and when I got back he’s not here anymore. Though, I don’t see it to be quite so surprising since he’s been pestering me to no end about how boring it was to stay in this room.”
Kato chuckled at his friend’s desperation and slung his arm around his shoulder.
“Then, we should look for him.”
Yumeto sighed heavily and muttered under his breath as his ex-partner steered him away from the room, “We would be lucky if we can find him within this hour. And thanks be to God if we could actually catch him.”
xxx
He knew that he shouldn’t leave his hospital room. Really, he did. But it was just too much of a temptation to resist and - to his defense - he had spent two weeks in that room. Two long, boring weeks.
Okay, now he’s being unfair. It was not all boring. Thanks to his brother.
A smile graced his lips as his mind wondered to the time he had spent with his older brother.
It was a bit… awkward at first to him, to be honest - especially with the memory of his rather childish behavior when his brother came back still fresh in his mind. He could hardly look at his older brother without feeling his cheeks seared with heat. It did not help that every time his brother noticed this, the older would give him a fond smile and such a gentle look. If anything, he would blush even harder.
They had a lot of talking sessions within these two weeks. Mostly about how he felt during the whole ordeal and what did his brother actually thought and felt about what he did. Afterwards, the talked about the more recent events. He was rendered speechless when his brother said that he thought that he only imagined his call in the airport. Their conversation for that day ended quite abruptly when he refused to talk to his older brother, too irritated to care how immature he was behaving.
He felt his face getting warmer and groaned in frustration, placing his palms on his cheeks in hope to cool them down. He felt like a petulant little child now, thinking of how he had acted around his brother. No, maybe a spoiled brat would have been a more fitting description.
Deciding that thinking about it would only make his cheeks turned a several shades darker, he looked up to see where his feet had gotten him to. Even before he raised his head, he knew where he was. The delicious smell that came to his nose gave it away. He was in the cafeteria.
Now that his mind did not swirl around his brother, he realized how hungry he was. The plan was to get something to eat together then - much to the younger’s dismay - get him a haircut. Seriously, of all the changes that he expected his older brother to notice about him, the length of his hair was the least on the list, if it was ever in it at all. He didn’t know what to say - or think in that matter - when his brother told him this.
He promptly stopped his musing when his stomach growled unnecessarily loud as if to reprimand him. With a sigh, he started walking around to look for something to eat. Hopefully, his brother would have found him by then, because he did not have a single yen on him. He had just had an eye on one of the stall that adorned the sides of the cafeteria when someone on one of the seats caught his attention.
He walked silently to the figure. It was unexpectedly an easy thing to do, since the person seemed to be busy with something that clasped firmly between her hands.
“Sayama-sensei?”
The said woman jumped on her seats and he was forced to step back to avoid a nasty right hook coming his way. Still, despite his effort, he ended up falling backwards avoiding it. Fortunately, instead of falling flat on his back, he fell sitting on the floor. He let out an undignified yelp and resisted the urge to rub his sore behind.
Note to self: don’t ever surprise Sayama-sensei ever again if you still value your life.
“Ainosuke! Oh, Ainosuke, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know it was you and you surprised me and I was just… Are you alright? Here, let me help you.”
He took the offered hand and used it to haul himself up.
“I’m fine. I’m fine. What got you attention so entirely that you didn’t…”
He trailed off as he caught a good glance at what her teacher had been clutching. It was a video camera. His eyes widened and his cheeks once again flushed when the scene that was so very familiar to him played right in front his eyes. Literally.
“H-How did you…”
He stuttered and turned to the school nurse, who hid the video camera behind her right away and looked anywhere but him guiltily. His eyes narrowed as he realized what had happened.
“Sayama-sensei…”
The called nurse took a step backwards as if sensing the upcoming outburst.
“Please tell me that you did not spy on me and my brother. And please tell me that you absolutely did not have it recorded!”
Sayama started to back away from her embarrassed and soon-will-be-angry student.
“Well… You see… I kind of can’t tell you that… Since I kind of have done just that…?”
Okay, if his cheeks were pink before, he was sure they were now as red as strawberry. It was bad enough that his brother had seen that childish side of him, now his teacher too?
“Sensei!”
“It was such a good opportunity.”
She turned fully around to run from her flustered but annoyed student. He gaped at her retreating form for a moment before chasing her with all his will.
“Sensei! Get back here and give me that video cam!”
He shouted as he ran after her around the cafeteria, unaware of the amused looks that were thrown their way.
“Sorry, my dear student, but that is so not happening!”
He almost whined at her, but thought better of it and just concentrated in getting that device in his teacher’s hand. So focused was he on his task that he didn’t notice two figures entered the cafeteria a few minutes after they started their cat-and-mouse chase. In fact, it was not until the video camera was snatched away from her hand - for Sayama’s case - and warm arms wrapped around his middle, effectively preventing him from darting away - for Ainosuke’s case - that they took notice of the two men.
“And what are you thinking you’re doing? You’ve just been released from bed rest this morning!”
Ainosuke turned around to face his captor and a big grin appeared on his face. Suddenly feeling mischievous, he threw his arms around his brother’s waist. He could just picture his older brother’s incredulous expression as he exchanged worried glance with the other two adults. Smiling as he felt the arms around him shifted to holding him around his shoulders and the other hand firmly placed itself at the back of his head, he snuggled closer.
“Okay… What happened?”
“I think I know what this is all about.”
Ainosuke looked up to see Kato holding the video camera that he had been trying to get from his teacher. He watched silently as the police officer gave Sayama a disbelieving look. The school nurse smiled sheepishly at him in return. Kato shook his head and turned his head to look at him.
“I suppose you found out about this, right, Ainosuke-kun?”
He smiled brightly from his place in his brother’s arms, “You can say that.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt his brother pushed him away, though not ungently. Brown eyes gazed questioningly at his, waiting for explanation. He felt the familiar warmth creeping into his cheeks and he groaned in exasperation, hiding his face on said brother’s shoulder.
“It concerns a certain talk with a certain older brother that happened about two weeks ago…?”
By the tightening of the arms around him, he was sure that his older brother had noticed which event he was referring to - it’s hard not to. After all, his brother was not called a genius for nothing. But the words that his older brother said were beyond anything that he expected.
“Can I have a copy of that?”
He started and pushed himself away with a look of horror plastered on his face. “What?!”
Yumeto smiled pleasantly at him, a hint of amusement and mischief twinkling in his eyes. As he continued to gape at the ex-crime planner that he called ‘brother’, the very same person draped an arm around his shoulder and laughed.
“What’s wrong with that? Now I can really assure you that you did not dream that conversation.”
Unsurprisingly, his cheeks flushed. Kato snorted uncharacteristically and Sayama burst out laughing only heightened the colour that decorating his cheeks. He did not doubt that they had seen the video. Many many times.
“Niichan!”
“Hey…”
His eyes widened at the gentle tone his brother was directing at him. Brown eyes searching, wanting to know what his older brother had in store now.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you felt unsafe enough that you can’t believe it to be reality at first. But I’ve said it and I’ll say it again and again until it is ingrained in your mind. I’m not leaving you. Ever. Alright?”
Ainosuke stared at his brother wide-eyed for a while before huffing.
“You’re one to talk. And that comes from the person who thought that my voice in the airport was just his imagination.”
Yumeto chuckled, "Well, what do you expect? We're brothers after all. Come on." The arm around his shoulder gently steered him away, Sayama and Kato following directly behind them. "We're far behind time and, I don't know about you, but, I'm starving."
He distinctively heard the police officer sighed behind them, but the position he was in prevented him from turning around to see the cause - not that he mind. Kato seemed to do that quite often these past months. Often enough that he thought nothing of it in particular. It was something that felt like a common occurrence to him.
But that thought immediately flew his mind, as his brother - once again - surprised him by saying.
“By the way, Sayama-sensei, I want a copy of this video you’re taking now too.”