Fandom: Alice Nine
Pairings: ToraxSaga
Genre: Angst, Crackish (at times), Drama, Romance, Suspense,
Rating: R
Warnings: Psychological Screwiness, a lot of it.
Summary: As the days fade, time marches onward. Or so it seems. Is this life real? Does it matter? Is anything real… or is it just a dream?
Disclaimer: I don’t claim to see the future, know much about psychology, or wish ill upon any person, living or dead. This is a work of pure fiction. I don’t own the people portrayed herein, I have no affiliation with the band or any of its members, nor do I have any rights to any copywrited material contained in this story.
I wonder if you can hear me. You never listened before, you always just pretended. I didn’t mind though. I didn’t question you because it didn’t bother me that you didn’t pay attention all the time. You heard the important things and I had someone to talk to uninterrupted so I didn’t mind. But now I can’t tell if you’re listening or not and this is the most important time for you to hear what I’m telling you. I want to tell you I love you. You know that already but if you can’t hear it anymore nothing that’s happened until now matters.
I love you.
He found himself coming awake in a hospital bed once more, too many times for his liking in the past few days. A dull ache settled through his body, letting him know he wasn’t getting off free, which dulled slightly as he woke up more. He was nervous about opening his eyes, worried for what he might see when he did. He didn’t recall exactly what had happened to land himself here again but he remembered a dream from the night before. It had been about something comforting and warm, a feeling which eventually gave him the courage to open his eyes when pure will power proved too weak to do the job alone.
The lights in the hospital room were dimmed down low, casting shadows into every corner of the room to match the darkness of the night outside the window. There were needles and monitor cables attached to his arms once more and a soft beeping off to his left told him his heart was still beating properly.
At the foot of the bed, a figure was slumped over and sleeping, dark hair tousled and unkept from who knows how many days of neglect. For a moment he thought it was Saga but it was fleeting as he examined the man closer.
“Shou?” he whispered softly. His voice cracked on the words from disuse and caused him to cough a little as the singer jumped slightly. He sat up and glanced around sleepily, rubbing an eye clear before he spotted Tora sitting up watching him. A relieved breath blew out of the other man’s body at the sight before he stood to move closer to the head of the bed.
“Tora.” Shou breathed, patting the guitarist’s hand with a weak smile on his face. “We were worried about you. You’ve been out for two days. The doctors said your skull fractured worse when you hit the floor-”
“Shou, why are you crying?” The other man cut his sentence off abruptly and turned away but Tora had already seen the puffy blood-shot eyes and tear stained cheeks. A sinking feeling settled into his stomach as the singer whipped at his face furiously for a moment and took a deep shuddering breath before he turned back to the bed and looked Tora in the eyes once more.
“Th-the doctors said you’ll be ok Tora.” Shou said slowly. He could hear what a stain it was for the other man to keep his voice level as he spoke and his heart sank even lower. This was wrong. “Nao and Hiroto are sleeping in the waiting room, I’ll go get them in a moment and your doctor…”
Tora let his eyes drop to his lap as Shou spoke slowly, sticking here and there on some words but plowing forward nonetheless. He felt his hands fist on the blankets covering his legs as he suddenly realized why the other man would be crying and why he wouldn’t tell Tora about it.
“What’s wrong with Saga?” his voice was low and slow as he asked the question, looking anywhere but at Shou for fear of seeing the look on his face and having his worst fears realized. Silence dropped between them as Shou seemed to struggle with his words briefly. His hands twisted and fidgeted with each other. Tora heard him take a few breaths as if he was going to finally speak but nothing came out and the silence grew longer and heavier. Tora knew what he was going to say before he even formed the words.
“His heart stopped.” Shou finally said, words sharply edged with the pain behind them. “This morning… the doctors tried but they couldn’t… he was already too far gone when…” Shou stopped talking for a moment to scrub at his eyes once more before he dropped into the chair and buried his face in his hands.
Tora stared at the sheets in shock as Shou’s voice finally gave up and he broke into silent tears, shoulders trembling every so often. The guitarist tried to wrap his mind around the idea that he’d never see Saga again but no matter how he did, the thought didn’t fit. He had just seen the other man, just watched his slow breaths and heard the little heart monitor beeping out his life’s rhythm. His mind raced as he curled up on himself to rest his head on his knees and squeeze his eyes tightly shut.
All the things he hadn’t told the other man raced through his mind in that moment as he heard Shou mutter something about getting the others and start walking to the door. Memories of the past few days and seeing the other man follow him everywhere, tell him how to find his feelings. Days spent skipping around on stage with Saga and wandering through parks with the band, nights at home alone together and staring at the other man’s face in the darkness of their own worlds. He gasped for breath as his mind forcefully rejected the thought. It couldn’t be true.
And then it dawned on him, some knowledge nagging at the back of his mind. It really couldn’t be true.
“This isn’t right.” He said to himself. He heard Shou’s steps slow to a stop as they reached the door as the singer heard at least part of what he had said.
“What?” came Shou’s whispered reply, the voice cracked and frail from the emotion that was surely running through the other man’s body. Tora only half heard the question, his mind was gone back along the road he had traveled in the dream with his silver-eyed accomplace. He knew he was missing something important. He remembered watching Saga sleeping on a bed next to him… had he dreamt that?
“This isn’t right.” Tora repeated for Shou’s benefit, shaking his head as he looked up into the singer’s astonished eyes. “Something’s wrong.”
“Don’t you see yet Tora?”
“Did you hear what I just said Tora?” Shou asked in that same broken voice. “Of course something’s wrong, Saga died today!” Tora continued shaking his head at Shou’s words despite the singer’s obvious distress. It was wrong, something was wrong.
“That’s not it Shou…” Tora said, allowing his voice to trail away to silence as his eyes dropped to his hands resting in his lap. They were still lightly wrapped in gauze but none of the pain of the last few days was present anymore, even the ache he had awoken with. He flexed his fingers carefully as Shou stared at him in disbelief. There was no pain. “This isn’t right” He repeated as he reached for the corner of the bandage.
“I’m already awake.
“Tora what are you saying?” Shou asked. He took a slow step towards the bed as Tora began unwrapping the clean coverings on his hand bit by bit. Eventually a small pile of white fluffy material was strewn across his legs as he stared down at his calloused palm, completely devoid of scars or bruises.
“I’m saying this isn’t real Shou.” The guitarist stated blankly as he held his hand up for the other to see.
You’re the one who’s still sleeping.”
“Tora, what are you…?” Shou’s voice cracked and faded away as he stared at his bandmate with confusion in every line of his body. After a moment he shook his head and turned away from Tora to the door once more. “I’m going to get- what are you doing!”
Tora ignored him as he shoved the sheets aside and climbed out of bed carefully, mindful of every signal his body sent him. No pain reared it’s ugly head, not even when he pulled the IV needle out of his arm. Shou froze at the door and then moved around the bed to try to keep him sitting.
“It’s not real Shou, Saga’s not dead!” The singer’s hand fastened on Tora’s for an instant before it faded through and flickered. Shou’s body followed, flicking and melting away at the edges as Tora watched. He tilted his head at the ghostly form of the singer who stared back at the guitarist in shock.
“Tora?” he asked, voice garbled and distorted like it came through several feet of wall. He tried to reach out again but couldn’t make contact with his friend’s body. Tora just watched as Shou stared down at his own hand and back up at him before he turned and left the room without a sound.
“It’s not real.” Tora repeated to himself and the empty room firmly.
“So you get it now.” A new voice said. Tora looked up with full knowledge of it’s origin and was rewarded with the sight of Saga standing at the foot of the bed, eyes glinting silver as he smiled at his lover gently.
Tora nodded at him in silence as he resumed unwrapping the rest of the gauze from various places on his body. Saga watched the pile on the bed grow steadily from where he stood leaning against the wall, smiling the whole time. Tora glanced up at him every few seconds as if he was convinced the other man would disappear just as Shou had done but the bassist seemed solidly stuck with him this time. Not a flicker nor a spot revealed any changes in his form.
“How do I wake up?” Tora asked as he placed the last of the bandaging on the bed. He felt lighter after removing the coverings, like a weight had been lifted from his heart with the gauze. He was sure he could fly if he needed to. “This isn’t real, how do I wake up?”
“I don’t know.” Saga replied matter-of-factly. He waved his hands around them to indicate the room at large. “You’re in control. What do you want to be real?” His hands fell back to his sides for an instant before raising into motion once more, fidgeting with the edge of his shirt. “What do you think of me Tora?” The bassist’s eyes flicked up in his direction before he cast them down to the floor and up once more. He seemed nervous as if he couldn’t be sure of the answer to his question.
Tora thought on it as he considered the memory of Saga in front of him. All he had seen and felt here hadn’t really been happening but did that necessarily mean it wasn’t real? The look in his eyes watching Saga sleep, the sorrow he’d been feeling the past few days watching Saga struggle to live, even the burst of pain when Shou had told him he’d never see his lover again moments before. They were all real emotions from his heart, emotions he’d been trying to run from.
He wanted to see Saga again, to hold him and tell him what he meant. That’s what he wanted to be real.
Tora took a step in the bassist’s direction, careful and slow. Saga’s hands stopped their fidgeting to stare at Tora’s feet as they continued to carry him across the floor slowly and surely in his direction until they stood face to face. He reached up and cupped Saga’s chin gently, bringing it up until their eyes met.
“You’re only my memory of Saga.” Tora said slowly as he stared into the silver eyes in front of him. “You’re only my memory but you’re the memory of what’s real, the only thing that’s real to me anymore. You’ve been here the whole time, trying to get me to figure this out. You represent what I want most right now, what I’ve always wanted and never realized.” He stopped talking and inhaled gently, taking in the bassist’s scent filling the air around him once more. His eyes slid closed and the memory of watching him sleep in the moonlight played once more on the backs of his eyelids.
“I want to wake up to you Saga.” Tora said quietly. “Only you.”
Saga’s eyes fluttered closed and open again as Tora watched, hand slowly making it’s way across his cheek to cup the back of his neck. The silver blended into the brown Tora knew so well for a small instant before flicking back again when the bassist blinked. “If that’s what you want Tora,” the other man whispered softly. “Then do it.”
Far off, he heard raised voices echoing from the back of his mind. He centered his attention on Saga as the door to the hospital room slammed open, brought his other hand up to cup his lover’s cheek as Shou and Hiroto came tumbling into the room followed by some hospital workers, all flickering and melting at Shou had done before.
“Time’s up I guess.” Tora breathed. Just as the unknown workers reached out to try and grab them Tora closed the scarce inches between them and covered Saga’s lips with his.
Three things happened immediately and simultaneously. The forms of the others in the room seemed to whip into a whirlwind around the two men, a warm soothing sensation grew and spread from every spot Saga and Tora touched, and a high singing note sounded in his ears which grew in volume as the moments sailed past. Pain bloomed in Tora’s chest, causing it all to falter for a brief moment before the chaos returned stronger than before.
He heard someone calling his name from far off as Saga gently pulled away from his lips and let him go. Tora stumbled back as the singing grew louder until it blocked out every other sound and sight in the room. He felt himself drop to his knees as the pain shot through his chest once more and died away. He looked up through the confusion and pain to catch one last sight of Saga’s silver glowing eyes before the world started crumbling away to be whipped up into the whirlwind around him.
He closed his eyes, seeing Saga’s smile firmly in his mind’s eye as he allowed the darkness to take him as it clearly wanted to. The pain stabbed into him once more, the single sustained note grew and blotted out every other thought until it was his entire world, and then everything stopped and he was falling down a dark well.
There were voices around him, floating in and out of his range of hearing. He strained to hear as the darkness lightened briefly. The only thing he could understand was the last of a sentence spoken by an unfamiliar voice.
“… wait it out and see if he comes back…”
He struggled to emerge from the darkness, to reach out to the speaker. After a while, when the voices had faded, he allowed himself to sink back into unconsciousness.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A.N: I was wrong last time. I made you wait two weeks again. T_T Sorry, I’ve been having sleep issues which are causing concentration issues. I hope the chapter didn’t suffer for it. >_< I also said there were three chapters left but there was only two; this one and the next/last one. And really the next one could have tagged along at the end of this but I thought it deserved its own place in the story. It’s the most important part to this whole thing, or I think so anyway. This turned out so different than I expected, this ending. I hope you guys liked it anyway and thanks so much for reading along the whole way. The last one will be done soon because I’m going to get it written before I go on vacation on Thursday so look forward to it.
<3
P.S. Sorry for imperfections on this one. I wanted to get it posted tonight so there may be typos though I did edit it furiously. >_< I'll fix them if I find any.
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