Last Angel: The Zone Complex [Part 3]
A/N: Things to know:
~Cubicles are homes. They are one story, flat, yet spacious, uniform living quarters assigned to the whole populace.
~Conserves are like resale stores.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey I'm home!!!" Nemi announces grandly in an unusually sweet and girly tone as she strides into the living room clutching a chrome-colored toy in her hand , yet her happiness fades a bit when she hears no response whatsoever. She calls again, 'Micky? Babe, I'm home!"
Still nothing.
Suddenly Nemi hears the sounds of running water on the other side of the cubicle. As she makes her way over, the taps from her heels echo off of the walls and suddenly she hears the water stop.
'What the hell?'
"Yoochun??" she calls first and then runs to the bathroom door and knocks on it once.
/no response/
Yet, suddenly she hears shuffling. Nemi begins to speak softer, not feeling the need to yell at such a short distance, but also in a firmer tone of voice, "Yoochun, I know you hear me. Are you okay?"
Nothing.
"Yoochun, talk to me, please." she pleads, a nervousness creeping up from her stomach to her throat.
There's nothing for only a few more moments when Nemi suddenly loses it, "Yoochun open the door! You're scaring me."
"I'm fine." a throaty and hoarse voice finally answers after clearing his throat.
"Then open the door." Nemi requests one final time, her voice shaky.
"Okay, just a moment."
"Now." she commands.
A beep from a button being pressed on the inside is heard and the door finally slides open.
Standing before her is a shirtless Yoochun hunched slightly at the sink, his wrist dripping crimson in the silver bowl.
Nemi's grip falters and the chrome toy falls to the floor with a soundless clank. Her entire body stiffens at the sight and she can feel the emotions welling up from the very pit of her core, but she instead represses them and forces herself into the bathroom and by his side.
She grabs his wrist, forcing it under the water sensor and demanding "Cold."
"Ah!" she feels him flinch yet she says nothing, remaining stoic as she robotically begins to rinse out the cut.
She hears him utter, "Nemi, I'm-"
"Sorry?" is all she spits out sarcastically.
"Yes, I'm-"
'No you're not, no you're not!" is all she says angrily still holding his wrist under the running water.
"Nemi, I-" he tries one final time.
"Quiet, just shut up and keep your wrist under the water." is all she instructs before breezing out of the bathroom. She quickly returns with a small emergency kit.
Nemi grabs her companion's arm once more only to place it wrist up on a fluffy, white towel. He doesn't resist this time. She begins to clean out his cut systematically yet stops in surprise when she notices water droplets hitting his arm. She reaches up with her free hand only to find the source.
Tears. She's been crying and hasn't even noticed it yet.
Yet she continues on completely unphased, bandaging up the cut and placing everything back into the kit.
She's about to walk out when suddenly he grabs her wrist turning her around.
"What ?" she demands coldly, snatching back her wrist.
"Nemi, I'm sorry."
"I don't want to hear it, Yoochun!"
"I know you don't," he says gently, "but it's all I have to say."
Nemi scoffs, "How about, 'Nemi I'm sorry, and I promise to never do this to myself again.'?"
He looks her dead in the eye, his gaze completely unmoving, as he utters nothing.
Nemi, returning his gaze, only says in a finalizing tone, "This is it, Yoochun. This is the last motherfucking time. If it happens again, I'm leaving you."
Yoochun says nothing in return, but to Nemi's surprise, only moves forward. He takes the kit from her hand and blindly drops it on the sink, only to attain a firm hold on her wrist again."
"What the hell-" she's about to continue but can't when Yoochun closes in on the rest of her territory in the small bathroom and pushes her up against the wall with his body.
She tries to push him off but finds it completely futile in the end, as his body weight proves too much when directly applied.
He buries his head in the crevice between her neck and head as his arms surround her small waist, "Don't leave me." is all he says deeply.
Hearing this, she chokes up a bit, "Yoochun-"
/ignoring her/ "Don't......leave.....me." he says again between planting kisses on the skin beneath him.
Nemi can't help but whimper as she struggles to get out in as clear and serious a tone possible, "You've got to stop hurting yourself, 'Chunnie. It's just too much, I can't handle it anymore. I don't want to handle it anymore."
"I know, and I'm...so...so...sorry. " he replies, continuing on with the same actions. Suddenly he lifts her back off of the wall and scoops her into his arms, cradling her lower back and neck as he squeezes her saying, "You've got to believe me when I say that."
"I-I want to believe you." Nemi stammers, now nuzzling into him. "But you make it so hard for me, you make it so hard..."
Instead of apologizing again he only confirms, "I'm half-way through now Nem...I'm almost in control."
"The Descent?"
"Yes.../whispering in her hear/ and I promise, once it is completed, everything will be better. Everything."
Suddenly she wraps a leg around him. "Make it better now, Yoochun...make it better now."
________________________
Twenty Minutes Prior.
"Lock up for me this once?"
Zoe looks up playfully, "I don't know man..."
"Come on, don't make me beg. I just want to go home now."
"Why the hurry?" Zoe asks, straightening up some things behind the counter.
"Well..."
"Ah, wait, let me guess!" She chirps sarcastically, "Yoochun?"
Nemi only giggles and smiles while looking down.
"So, what's going on with you two and why does it involve you leaving the shop early?"
"Well, I stopped in the the conserve today, looking for fabric, but actually found him something while I was there, and decided to buy it for him."
"Aww, well that's sweet, but his birthday isn't for a while!"
"I know, but after meeting that Changmin guy, I just wanted to get him a little something to thank him for being such a good boyfriend and a sexy man in general."
Zoe only rolls her eyes at her sister's attempt at something heart-warming. "Well any reason is better than none." is all she offers.
"And here's what I got him." She adds, pulling a compact, chrome Micky Mouse toy out of her purse.
"Aww, that's so cute!"
"Yep!" Nemi beams, not waiting to get to the point, "So can I leave early then?"
Zoe looks up and over her sister, stone-faced, but then softening into a smile as she agrees, "Alright, fine-get outta here!"
"Thanks!" Nemi says in a mischievous tone before zipping around the counter and heading for the employee exit.
"Geez..." Zoe only shakes her head at her younger, with a small smile on her face.
She turns to look down at the PDA, preparing to log out for the night, when suddenly she hears the employee exit open again.
"Forget something?" Zoe asks, not even looking up, assuming it's Nemi returning.
"Yeah," a male voice answers, "the reason why I keep coming back to this shop even though you're always here."
"Well you know, Changmin, that kind of happens when you own the place." is Zoe's irritated reply when she looks up from the PDA.
"Ah, so that explains why this shop is so shitty."
"What the hell do want, pretty boy?" Zoe snaps, all patience gone.
"I came with the estimate."
"Well, I'll take your P.O.'s now, but I hope thet even you know that an estimate is only an estimate and that it may cost more in the end. So don't bitch out on me later if that's the case, okay?"
Changmin smirks at this, ignoring his disdain for her for a moment, "You're cute."
"What?!"
_____________________
Changmin strides off of the bus, once it comes into land distance that is, with an uptight feeling in his stomach. 'I hate public transportation.' he thought bitterly. 'And I hate coming to this god-forsaken shop so damn often!' He was throwing one of his classic internal fits.
He complained and complained silently all the way until he reached the repair shop, oddly enough, just as one of the employees was leaving. As she looked up and the distance between them was closed, he recognized her and she him.
She held the door open for him, "Zoe can help you, but you'd better catch her because we close in fifteen minutes." is all she said, almost in a rush as if she was headed elsewhere.
"Thanks." he said stiffly, and ducks inside.
As soon as he walked in the door he heard her voice call out to him. They went back and fourth snappily, as they seemed to do every time he came into the shop. Though there was a moment where he paused and only watched her speak; watching her morphing facial expressions (from girlishly upset to plain angry), her hand movements, and listening to the tone of her voice. He looked over her outfit once and then decided absentmindedly, "You're cute."
"What?!" he heard her snap back in an incredulous tone.
He said it again emotionlessly, "I said you're cute. You just look cute."
To his surprise her face went completely blank and blinked at him slowly once, seeming to chew over the remark in her head, as she said angrily, "Look man, I don't know who you think you are, and why you think it's cool to agitate me and hit on me in the same fucking day but-"
Changmin couldn't help but laugh to himself as he crossed his arms, "Calm down. I'm not hitting on you. I just thought you were cute at that moment."
"You mean when I was ready to punch you in your throat?"
Changmin laughed again to himself, 'Who is this girl?'...."Yes, then, at that moment, I guess." he felt shy all of a sudden so he subconsciously looked to the floor instead of towards the girl's stare.
"Just pay me the P.O.'s" he hears the girl say as she gives up on her confusion.
"Alright." he concludes, walking up to the counter.
"Do you have your micro-flash?" she asks him.
"Yeah." he replies, looking down at her.
"Give it to me." is all he's commanded.
Pulling it out he holds it in front of her face, "Here."
As she reaches up for it, he feels her fingers linger. He can't help that even if it was just for an extra second, he liked the way the warmth of them felt on his, even if it was just the gentle tips.
"Thanks." she says in a small voice.
"You're welcome." he says for the first time.
Once the exchange is made and the estimate paid, Changmin strides out of the shop with an odd feeling in his gut as he finds it hard not to look back.
__________________
Present time.
Yoochun opens his eyes slowly before fluttering his lids to take in the sights around him. When he looks around to see furniture and a kitchen near by he concludes 'So we didn't even make it past the living room this time...'
He decides to shift from his current position, of laying on his stomach with a couch pillow beneath him, to turn to his side. Halfway through the motion he makes contact with another human body, accidentally elbowing it's side.
"Ow! 'Chun!"
"Oh!" he sits up and looks Nemi directly in the eye, "Sorry." she turn over to look up at him scowling harmlessly as he flashes her one of his million watt smiles.
"See, now that's how I love to see you-smiling!"
He laughs again to himself, a bit embarrassed. He's about to position himself to place his arm around her when in the process his elbow hits something hard, "Ow!" he says, agitated. "What the-" He reaches out to grab a chrome colored Micky Mouse.
"How'd this get here?" he inquires.
Nemi laughs shyly, "I got that for you...that's why I rushed home, to give it to you."
He looks from her back to Micky Mouse, a smile spreading on his face as he teases dramatically, "Awwwwww!"
"Shut up!" Nemi slaps his bare arm playfully.
"I love it." he concludes genuinely, looking it once over again.
/giggling/ "Well you'd better."
"Or what?" he asks with a slightly raised brow, inviting play.
"Or I'd never give your ass anything else again." Nemi replies with a smile.
"Surely you don't mean that?" he asks slinking closer to her, biting his bottom lip.
Nemi's about to retort with something else when instead she decides to say, "You know me so well."
~Cubicles are homes. They are one story, flat, yet spacious, uniform living quarters assigned to the whole populace.
~Conserves are like resale stores.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hey I'm home!!!" Nemi announces grandly in an unusually sweet and girly tone as she strides into the living room clutching a chrome-colored toy in her hand , yet her happiness fades a bit when she hears no response whatsoever. She calls again, 'Micky? Babe, I'm home!"
Still nothing.
Suddenly Nemi hears the sounds of running water on the other side of the cubicle. As she makes her way over, the taps from her heels echo off of the walls and suddenly she hears the water stop.
'What the hell?'
"Yoochun??" she calls first and then runs to the bathroom door and knocks on it once.
/no response/
Yet, suddenly she hears shuffling. Nemi begins to speak softer, not feeling the need to yell at such a short distance, but also in a firmer tone of voice, "Yoochun, I know you hear me. Are you okay?"
Nothing.
"Yoochun, talk to me, please." she pleads, a nervousness creeping up from her stomach to her throat.
There's nothing for only a few more moments when Nemi suddenly loses it, "Yoochun open the door! You're scaring me."
"I'm fine." a throaty and hoarse voice finally answers after clearing his throat.
"Then open the door." Nemi requests one final time, her voice shaky.
"Okay, just a moment."
"Now." she commands.
A beep from a button being pressed on the inside is heard and the door finally slides open.
Standing before her is a shirtless Yoochun hunched slightly at the sink, his wrist dripping crimson in the silver bowl.
Nemi's grip falters and the chrome toy falls to the floor with a soundless clank. Her entire body stiffens at the sight and she can feel the emotions welling up from the very pit of her core, but she instead represses them and forces herself into the bathroom and by his side.
She grabs his wrist, forcing it under the water sensor and demanding "Cold."
"Ah!" she feels him flinch yet she says nothing, remaining stoic as she robotically begins to rinse out the cut.
She hears him utter, "Nemi, I'm-"
"Sorry?" is all she spits out sarcastically.
"Yes, I'm-"
'No you're not, no you're not!" is all she says angrily still holding his wrist under the running water.
"Nemi, I-" he tries one final time.
"Quiet, just shut up and keep your wrist under the water." is all she instructs before breezing out of the bathroom. She quickly returns with a small emergency kit.
Nemi grabs her companion's arm once more only to place it wrist up on a fluffy, white towel. He doesn't resist this time. She begins to clean out his cut systematically yet stops in surprise when she notices water droplets hitting his arm. She reaches up with her free hand only to find the source.
Tears. She's been crying and hasn't even noticed it yet.
Yet she continues on completely unphased, bandaging up the cut and placing everything back into the kit.
She's about to walk out when suddenly he grabs her wrist turning her around.
"What ?" she demands coldly, snatching back her wrist.
"Nemi, I'm sorry."
"I don't want to hear it, Yoochun!"
"I know you don't," he says gently, "but it's all I have to say."
Nemi scoffs, "How about, 'Nemi I'm sorry, and I promise to never do this to myself again.'?"
He looks her dead in the eye, his gaze completely unmoving, as he utters nothing.
Nemi, returning his gaze, only says in a finalizing tone, "This is it, Yoochun. This is the last motherfucking time. If it happens again, I'm leaving you."
Yoochun says nothing in return, but to Nemi's surprise, only moves forward. He takes the kit from her hand and blindly drops it on the sink, only to attain a firm hold on her wrist again."
"What the hell-" she's about to continue but can't when Yoochun closes in on the rest of her territory in the small bathroom and pushes her up against the wall with his body.
She tries to push him off but finds it completely futile in the end, as his body weight proves too much when directly applied.
He buries his head in the crevice between her neck and head as his arms surround her small waist, "Don't leave me." is all he says deeply.
Hearing this, she chokes up a bit, "Yoochun-"
/ignoring her/ "Don't......leave.....me." he says again between planting kisses on the skin beneath him.
Nemi can't help but whimper as she struggles to get out in as clear and serious a tone possible, "You've got to stop hurting yourself, 'Chunnie. It's just too much, I can't handle it anymore. I don't want to handle it anymore."
"I know, and I'm...so...so...sorry. " he replies, continuing on with the same actions. Suddenly he lifts her back off of the wall and scoops her into his arms, cradling her lower back and neck as he squeezes her saying, "You've got to believe me when I say that."
"I-I want to believe you." Nemi stammers, now nuzzling into him. "But you make it so hard for me, you make it so hard..."
Instead of apologizing again he only confirms, "I'm half-way through now Nem...I'm almost in control."
"The Descent?"
"Yes.../whispering in her hear/ and I promise, once it is completed, everything will be better. Everything."
Suddenly she wraps a leg around him. "Make it better now, Yoochun...make it better now."
________________________
Twenty Minutes Prior.
"Lock up for me this once?"
Zoe looks up playfully, "I don't know man..."
"Come on, don't make me beg. I just want to go home now."
"Why the hurry?" Zoe asks, straightening up some things behind the counter.
"Well..."
"Ah, wait, let me guess!" She chirps sarcastically, "Yoochun?"
Nemi only giggles and smiles while looking down.
"So, what's going on with you two and why does it involve you leaving the shop early?"
"Well, I stopped in the the conserve today, looking for fabric, but actually found him something while I was there, and decided to buy it for him."
"Aww, well that's sweet, but his birthday isn't for a while!"
"I know, but after meeting that Changmin guy, I just wanted to get him a little something to thank him for being such a good boyfriend and a sexy man in general."
Zoe only rolls her eyes at her sister's attempt at something heart-warming. "Well any reason is better than none." is all she offers.
"And here's what I got him." She adds, pulling a compact, chrome Micky Mouse toy out of her purse.
"Aww, that's so cute!"
"Yep!" Nemi beams, not waiting to get to the point, "So can I leave early then?"
Zoe looks up and over her sister, stone-faced, but then softening into a smile as she agrees, "Alright, fine-get outta here!"
"Thanks!" Nemi says in a mischievous tone before zipping around the counter and heading for the employee exit.
"Geez..." Zoe only shakes her head at her younger, with a small smile on her face.
She turns to look down at the PDA, preparing to log out for the night, when suddenly she hears the employee exit open again.
"Forget something?" Zoe asks, not even looking up, assuming it's Nemi returning.
"Yeah," a male voice answers, "the reason why I keep coming back to this shop even though you're always here."
"Well you know, Changmin, that kind of happens when you own the place." is Zoe's irritated reply when she looks up from the PDA.
"Ah, so that explains why this shop is so shitty."
"What the hell do want, pretty boy?" Zoe snaps, all patience gone.
"I came with the estimate."
"Well, I'll take your P.O.'s now, but I hope thet even you know that an estimate is only an estimate and that it may cost more in the end. So don't bitch out on me later if that's the case, okay?"
Changmin smirks at this, ignoring his disdain for her for a moment, "You're cute."
"What?!"
_____________________
Changmin strides off of the bus, once it comes into land distance that is, with an uptight feeling in his stomach. 'I hate public transportation.' he thought bitterly. 'And I hate coming to this god-forsaken shop so damn often!' He was throwing one of his classic internal fits.
He complained and complained silently all the way until he reached the repair shop, oddly enough, just as one of the employees was leaving. As she looked up and the distance between them was closed, he recognized her and she him.
She held the door open for him, "Zoe can help you, but you'd better catch her because we close in fifteen minutes." is all she said, almost in a rush as if she was headed elsewhere.
"Thanks." he said stiffly, and ducks inside.
As soon as he walked in the door he heard her voice call out to him. They went back and fourth snappily, as they seemed to do every time he came into the shop. Though there was a moment where he paused and only watched her speak; watching her morphing facial expressions (from girlishly upset to plain angry), her hand movements, and listening to the tone of her voice. He looked over her outfit once and then decided absentmindedly, "You're cute."
"What?!" he heard her snap back in an incredulous tone.
He said it again emotionlessly, "I said you're cute. You just look cute."
To his surprise her face went completely blank and blinked at him slowly once, seeming to chew over the remark in her head, as she said angrily, "Look man, I don't know who you think you are, and why you think it's cool to agitate me and hit on me in the same fucking day but-"
Changmin couldn't help but laugh to himself as he crossed his arms, "Calm down. I'm not hitting on you. I just thought you were cute at that moment."
"You mean when I was ready to punch you in your throat?"
Changmin laughed again to himself, 'Who is this girl?'...."Yes, then, at that moment, I guess." he felt shy all of a sudden so he subconsciously looked to the floor instead of towards the girl's stare.
"Just pay me the P.O.'s" he hears the girl say as she gives up on her confusion.
"Alright." he concludes, walking up to the counter.
"Do you have your micro-flash?" she asks him.
"Yeah." he replies, looking down at her.
"Give it to me." is all he's commanded.
Pulling it out he holds it in front of her face, "Here."
As she reaches up for it, he feels her fingers linger. He can't help that even if it was just for an extra second, he liked the way the warmth of them felt on his, even if it was just the gentle tips.
"Thanks." she says in a small voice.
"You're welcome." he says for the first time.
Once the exchange is made and the estimate paid, Changmin strides out of the shop with an odd feeling in his gut as he finds it hard not to look back.
__________________
Present time.
Yoochun opens his eyes slowly before fluttering his lids to take in the sights around him. When he looks around to see furniture and a kitchen near by he concludes 'So we didn't even make it past the living room this time...'
He decides to shift from his current position, of laying on his stomach with a couch pillow beneath him, to turn to his side. Halfway through the motion he makes contact with another human body, accidentally elbowing it's side.
"Ow! 'Chun!"
"Oh!" he sits up and looks Nemi directly in the eye, "Sorry." she turn over to look up at him scowling harmlessly as he flashes her one of his million watt smiles.
"See, now that's how I love to see you-smiling!"
He laughs again to himself, a bit embarrassed. He's about to position himself to place his arm around her when in the process his elbow hits something hard, "Ow!" he says, agitated. "What the-" He reaches out to grab a chrome colored Micky Mouse.
"How'd this get here?" he inquires.
Nemi laughs shyly, "I got that for you...that's why I rushed home, to give it to you."
He looks from her back to Micky Mouse, a smile spreading on his face as he teases dramatically, "Awwwwww!"
"Shut up!" Nemi slaps his bare arm playfully.
"I love it." he concludes genuinely, looking it once over again.
/giggling/ "Well you'd better."
"Or what?" he asks with a slightly raised brow, inviting play.
"Or I'd never give your ass anything else again." Nemi replies with a smile.
"Surely you don't mean that?" he asks slinking closer to her, biting his bottom lip.
Nemi's about to retort with something else when instead she decides to say, "You know me so well."