Lost & Found - Episode 1 Part 5
Title : Lost & Found
Chapter Title : A Turning Point
Setting : Hidarime Tantei EYE - Post Special Drama
Summary : What if at the end, Ainosuke's resolve crumbles, leaving him vulnerable in front of his older brother. What will Ainosuke do? And how will Yumeto react to the drastic decision his baby brother had come onto?
Rating : K+
Disclaimer : The characters n original story are not mine. Only the changes in plot are:)
Yoshida eyed the boy who was seated in front of him - across the table - with critical eyes. Ainosuke-kun’s cheeks were flushed slightly and though he could say that it was simply because the boy had taken shower in hot water, he knew that this wasn’t the case.
The boy was developing a fever.
And from experience, he knew how handful this particular boy was when he had one.
Or maybe not.
After all, the last time Ainosuke-kun had a fever, the boy had some other, more serious issue as well. To be precise, his apparent lack of will to live.
But then, he thought as he chewed on his yakisoba, Ainosuke-kun had stayed in bed for more than a day. He had been afraid that the boy wouldn’t come for dinner, though he had hope. But Ainosuke-kun did turn up for dinner.
Although, it was more like playing with his food rather than eating.
He sighed heavily and frowned when he saw the boy tensed. Rin was growling at him from its place next to its master’s feet, as if blaming him for Ainosuke-kun’s discomfort. He scowled fiercely at the dog, still had not forgiven it for barking nonstop and baring its teeth the one time he tried to get into Ainosuke-kun’s room to coax him out.
Throwing one last reprimanding look at the dog, he settled back and continued to eat - as well as keeping an eye to the quiet boy in front of him - in silence.
Judging by Ainosuke-kun’s behavior, he was going to have to talk to him what had upset him while nursing him back to health. It was not an easy task. But, perhaps, it would be easier than his first quest.
Hopefully.
(flashback)
Yoshida frowned when he heard an unmistakable sound of someone crying. For a moment, chills ran down his spine as his mind replayed some scenes from many horror movies he had watched. But then he remembered about the boy that his leader had brought in a few hours ago.
No. Not just a boy. That boy was his leader’s little brother. That alone was enough of a reason for him to treat the boy differently. Friendlier.
However, the moment he saw the boy’s tear-stained face, his heart clenched painfully in his chest.
Scratch that reason. He just wanted to erase all traces of pain - hurt, self-loathing, heart-broken, and many more, really - from those tears filled, expressive brown eyes that reminded him so much of the boy’s brother.
He wanted, really badly, to throw his arms around the small, shaking body. To comfort and calm him. But he stopped dead in his track when the boy on the bed gave a terrified cry and scooted away from his approaching figure.
He ruthlessly pushed down the urge to walk out and call Yumeto-san and tell him about the state his little brother was in, and demanded that he came back here this instant. He clenched his fists instead.
The boy was scared. Utterly scared and horribly confused.
After all, from what Yumeto-san had told him, this crying boy had just found out that his older brother was not dead and was a crime planner. This boy had accepted it when Yumeto-san said he could kill him, telling him - and he knew Yumeto-san had realized this too - just how weak his will to live right now.
It only made sense that this boy - no, he had to stop calling him that - Ainosuke-kun would be terrified when he woke up, still alive, in an unfamiliar room and suddenly an unfamiliar man came to him.
What was he thinking? Barging in like that, seriously.
“I don’t mean any harm.”
He tried to step closer to the boy, and once again, the boy cried out in terror and scooted even farther away from him. Seeing that the boy was already at the edge of his bed, he dared not to try another attempt to get closer to him.
“Okay, I won’t move. I’ll stay here, alright? No need to be scared.”
He tried to get the boy to calm down, but apparently it did little to the almost hyperventilating boy. Seeing that Ainosuke-kun continued to look at him with horror shining brightly in his wide eyes, he thought furiously on how he should approach this skittish boy.
He decided on a very common one when first meeting people.
He took a very deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to school his emotions. Letting a friendly smile broke through his face, he unclenched his fists.
“I know you don’t know me, but you can trust me. My name is Yoshida Ichiro. Your brother had trusted your safety to me, Ainosuke-kun.”
At the mention of his brother, finally something other than hurt, confusion and terror sparked in the boy’s eyes. Hope. However small and brief it was.
Tears were still rolling down flushed cheeks, the person himself making no effort to stop them. Yoshida watched on as the boy seemed to withdraw into himself further. He couldn’t allow that to happen. He wouldn’t.
“Yumeto-san told me what happened.”
He took a cautious step ahead and was relief when the boy did not scrambled back again. Confident that he had the boy’s undivided attention, he slowly made his way to the bed.
“He was very worried, you know. He didn’t think that you would react the way you do.”
The boy - Ainosuke-kun, he mentally whacked himself - did nothing to acknowledge this. He just continued to sit there, staring at him with tears still streaming down his cheeks. He was getting really worried. He never dealt with children before, even less one who was experiencing a trauma. Now, what was he going to do?
He looked helplessly at Ainosuke-kun, wracking his brain for something, anything that would help him to get this boy talk.
Finally, after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence - with him thinking and Ainosuke-kun watching him with wariness in his eyes, still crying - his eyes brightened. How could he forget about that?
He lowered himself onto the bed, pleased when Ainosuke-kun made no movement to get away from him. He raised his right hand and pulled down his middle and ring finger, leaving his thumb, point and little finger straight.
“‘Daijoubu.’”
He saw Ainosuke-kun widened at this and continued.
“‘Everything will be alright.’”
He then lowered his hand, all too aware that Ainosuke-kun’s gaze seemed to be glued to it.
“Your brother wanted me to relay this message to you.”
Then, to his horror, the boy started to cry anew. Big, fat drop of tears falling continuously from his eyes.
What had he done wrong?
He was mentally scolding himself when a pair of chocolate brown eyes finally rose to meet his. He swallowed at the amount of hope that he could see shining in those crying eyes.
He had succeeded to put the hope there. Now, he wished that he could make this boy smile again.
(end of flashback)
He sighed heavily. It was as if they were back to square one. Ainosuke-kun was hiding something from him and whatever it was, it was making the boy upset.
Well, he was not going to allow that to happen. He was going to know what was it that started this all.
“I’m done. Thank you for the food.”
He looked up, startled, just in time to see Ainosuke-kun brought his almost untouched food to the kitchen counter. He quickly got up and grabbed the boy’s arm, preventing him from walking away and locked himself up in his room again.
Ainosuke-ku turned around to face him and he used that opportunity to put the back of his hand on the boy’s forehead. As he had thought, it was a bit warm.
“You’re having fever. Go up and get some rest. I’ll bring your medicine in a bit.”
When the boy did not object and just nodded his head before heading to his room, he knew that this was more serious than he thought.
xxx
“Then, there was no other phone calls from the kidnapper after you got back to the victim’s house?”
Kato shook his head, negative.
“No, sir. We stayed with the victim’s mother and one of us is still there at the moment. In case the kidnapper called.”
“Nothing else happened?”
“No, sir.”
“The mother never told you what happened when you were out? Nothing at all?”
Kato frowned at the questions that his superior officer bombarded him with. It was not like Detective Fukuchi at all to be so curious with a case. He would normally nod when receiving reports and then dismissed them as soon as they were done. What had happened?
“No. She was too distraught to say anything.”
Detective Fukushi hummed at that and rested his chin on his hands. Kato’s frown was getting deeper at that. Now, he was sure something must have happened.
“Fukuchi-san? Did you get any lead to this kidnapping case?”
The man shook his head and stood up, “Not quite. I was hoping that you will get some lead to this serial kidnapping.”
He blinked continuously at that particular piece of information.
“How do you know this is a serial kidnapping?”
“Actually, it was thanks to that picture you brought that I realize that. The numbers with boxes, it meant square. This kidnapping case is the second out of three.”
He stared at his superior officer, not quite believing his ears.
“You mean, the one that Ainosuke-kun drew?”
The older nodded, “That’s why I thought that you would have another picture with you right now. Or maybe the boy himself.”
“I didn’t see him today, Fukuchi-san.”
“But I did,” the older shifted his stern gaze to him. “He came here this afternoon, looking for you.”
To say that he was stunned was an understatement. He had not thought that Ainosuke-kun would be coming to the police station, seeing that he was supposed to be kidnapped.
But, honestly, ever since he met that boy, his life was never quite so normal anymore.
“And you just let him go?!”
In other time, he would have never got away with using that kind of tone to his superior. Just for this moment though, he knew that he would be forgiven.
Detective Fukuchi just looked at him with the same expressionless face before answering him.
“I didn’t know it was him until he was gone. I figured that the only teenager who would go looking for you is him.”
He felt his heart beating fast in his chest. He couldn’t believe it. He just couldn’t! If only he stayed in the office today, he would have had Ainosuke-kun safe by now. He had missed his chance. Twice.
He sighed in defeat.
“You sure he didn’t go to where that Sano Mai girl lives?”
Kato looked up at the older man and shook his head in frustration.
“I didn’t see him.”
Then, his lips formed a small smile.
“Somehow, Fukuchi-san, I know that it would not be that easy to find Ainosuke-kun.”
xxx
“What’s with the long face?”
The man she addressed jumped comically and she couldn’t help but laughed. He glared at her and she did her best to stifle it, which was not very successful.
“Sayama-sensei! Don’t sneak up on me like that!”
She grinned at him and waited patiently as he tried to calm his heart down. A sight that she found amusing. It was all she could do to not laugh, seeing that doing so would only resulted in him being irritated. An irritated Kato-san equaled to a moody Kato-san, which equaled to cold silence instead of answers.
No, she didn’t want that. Not when she had so much to ask.
“What are you doing here?”
She rolled her eyes at him, expecting the question. Honestly, after three months, she would have thought that he knew that it meant when she turned up at the police station.
“Waiting for you, of course. I want to ask you something.”
She crossed he arms.
“About Ainosuke-kun?”
She rolled her eyes again at him. Did he seriously have just asked that? When had she come to ask about anything else?
“Okay, fine, I get it. No, I don’t hear anything knew from or about him. Except…”
She perked up at the last word.
“Except what, Kato-san?”
She watched impatiently as her friend furrowed his eyebrow, thinking hard. He then turned to face her fully.
“Ainosuke-kun came to the police station this afternoon, when I was out working on a case.”
She gaped at him. He could do that? Then, why on earth hadn’t he come out earlier. Escape even. Then, why? She must have looked so stunned, as Kato-san noticed her look. One look at him, though, she knew that he was thinking the same thing.
“This is more serious that we thought, Sayama-sensei. After these past days incident, I couldn’t help but think that Ainosuke-kun choose to remain with his kidnapper.”
She nodded, she had been thinking over that idea ever since she went back to infirmary yesterday night.
She had not been able to go back to her home since the debt collector was knocking at her door. So she had to take cover in the infirmary for a few hours. She bit her lips when was reminded of her piling debts. She shook her head furiously.
This was not the time to think about that. There was more pressing matter that she needed to focus on.
“But, Kato-san. What I don’t get is, why did he do it?”
Her friend shook his head.
“Who knows, Sayama-sensei. Who knows.”
xxx
The man scowled as he knocked on the wooden door. Seriously, what was he? A delivery man? A service man, maybe? One that could be called anytime when you needed something?
His string of negative thoughts was but abruptly when the door opened. He opened his mouth to make his thought known, but stopped short when he caught the expression the older was wearing on his face.
“Yoshida? What’s wrong?”
The older shook his head and moved aside, letting him to slip inside. His mind was working through all the possibilities of what might happened in such a short time to have the older that gloomy. A sound of door beign locked was heard and he was faced with a very anxious Yoshida.
“Ainosuke-kun is having a fever.”
Yumeto nodded and absently holding up the medicine that he had brought earlier before coming here.
“You told me that in the phone. When you told me to go and buy some medicine.”
A hint of annoyance crept through his voice. If Yoshida heard it, he didn’t give any indication that he did.
“It’s getting worse, Yumeto-san.”
Annoyance was replaced by worry in an instant. All he wanted to do now was to bolt to his brother’s bedroom and see how Ainosuke was doing. Yoshida continued, as if not noticing his turmoil.
“I wanted to take him to see doctor, but I know we can’t do that. So I called you. It was really high.”
His eyes widened and he said chokingly, “I’ll go check on him.”
He turned quickly, heading towards the room his brother was in, thankful when he heard no footstep following him.
Quietly, he turned the handle and slipped into the softly lit room. A bit brighter than yesterday, but not by much. He slowly made way to his brother’s bed side, eyes never leaving the bundle that was laying at one side of the bed. His feet stepped around his brother’s pet on the way.
His eyes saddened when he saw the state his brother was in. The kid was shivering lightly, probably because of the fever he was having. He reached out for the cloth that was placed on his brother’s forehead, frowning when he found that it was already warm.
Sighing and accepting the fact that his big brother side of him was currently very winning, he sat down next to his brother and dipped the cloth to the basin filled with ice water. He wrung it out before folding it carefully and placed it back on his little brother’s forehead.
He put the medicine on the bedside table and, sighing heavily, moved to get up, but froze when he felt a hand gripping his long sleeve. Closing his eyes for a second, he mentally berated himself for not being careful.
Opening his eyes, he turned his head slowly to look at his brother. And true to his fear, he saw brown eyes that was closed a few seconds ago was now gazing at him.
Now what was he going to do?
xxx
k59 : i am so very anxious for this chapter.. not much, i admit.. but, as the title states, it is a turning point.. this, or rather, the one after this will mark how will i proceed with the story.. I have the rough work on how it’s going to be, but.. good thing i’m going on a vacation for a few days (^_^;)..