20-Sept-2004
Title: Degrees of Separation
Chapter: 10
Authors: bonnejeanne and Laekin
Series: Chaotic Alliance
Fandom: Yami no Matsuei
Archived at: Currently at Love and Gundams and will also be at Katcom: http://katcom.squidkitty.org/
Pairings: Muraki x Watari, Tatsumi x Watari, Muraki x Oriya
Genre: Drama, Dark Angst, Psychological mindgames.
Rating for this Chapter: PG-13
CMA: Not intended for under-age readers.
Spoilers: None in this section.
Disclaimer: These characters are not ours. We seek no money from this endeavor, just having a bit of fun in the sandbox.
Feedback: positive feedback welcome
bonnejeanne@yahoo.com and/or seregill@aol.com.
Warnings and Author's Notes by Laekin:
Greetings! Well bonnejeanne and I ride again!!!! This time in the Yami no Matsuei universe. The following fic was collaborated on between us with Bonnejeanne handling Muraki, Tatsumi and a special guest star to be revealed later. I am responsible for Watari and Oriya.
Like "The Doll" this is a very dark fiction. It is psychologically complex, it deals with difficult situations as well as complex issues and it will not be to everybody's tastes. We ask, respectfully, that if you do not feel you can see Muraki as a three-dimensional character who is tragic in his own way, you pass over this fic. No need to explain why, we understand! Some may find the content, the emotions and the implications disturbing. If you are one of those who can be disturbed by such things, you've been warned. Any after effects are not our responsibility.
Bonne's Note: Muraki Friendly Fic, so skip if that's not your thing, no hard feelings.
Degrees of Separation: Part Ten
When they got back to the building, Watari sheered off and headed towards his lab. As was often the case when he felt himself overwrought emotionally, the young scientist sought refuge and escape in the familiar work of research, putting his mind to the task of figuring out puzzles rather than letting it torment his own heart.
And there was plenty of puzzle offered by the head. Putting on a bit of background music, just for noise, Watari quickly lost himself in delicate experiment after experiment, following the directions on the sheet he'd received from Tatsumi, running the requested tests and then also adding in a few of his own.
He worked so intently that it was after office hours when a rap on his door broke his concentration. The rap was brief, but the door shook slightly.
Sitting at his desk, surrounded by reams of computer print-outs, busy translating the lines and blips on the print-outs into words in a report, Watari frowned as he was interrupted, but his eyes didn't leave the computer screen.
"Yes?"
His tone clearly indicated that it had better be a damn good reason he was being disturbed, like Tsuzuki and Terazuma had set the building on fire again.
There was no verbal answer, just another sharp, brief rap... that not only shook the door, but there was a definite hint of something bending slightly, either the metal door or the frame. Not a lot, just enough to... well... denote a tad of impatience?
"Oh for Enma's sake!" Watari fussed, slapping down the print-outs he was holding and extracting himself from his chair.
Computer paper clung to his pant leg and was dragged across the floor, until he paused to kick it free, his expression now annoyed as he mentally made note that he'd have to refold the printout and try to find his place again.
Still wearing this annoyed expression, he grabbed the door and yanked it open.
"Hey, it's not locked you know," he muttered, eyes still cast back towards the print-out on the floor, expecting it was someone he knew and therefore could be informal with. Finally he swung his eyes off the paper to look in the doorway at his late visitor.
A man he had never seen before stood there. He was tall, about six foot six inches, or maybe seven inches, with a solid but not overly muscular build. He wore an immaculate black suit, white shirt, and a tie that appeared to be black at first glance but actually had tiny stripes of red and blue woven into the material, which looked like fine silk.
The man also wore a black business style hat, and a pair of midnight black sunglasses.
He stood in the doorway with his hands clasped across his lap.
There was a slight... dip... in the outside of the door at about shoulder height.
"It should have been locked. You have a priority one classified object inside."
Watari blinked...and blinked some more. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the dent in his door and he turned to stare at it for a moment, before his eyes swung back to the black suited man in his doorway. Black suit, tie, sunglasses.
By-passing the comment about locking his door, Watari blurted out, "Who are you?"
"May I come in?"
"Who *are* you?" Watari repeated, pushing the door a little closed and wedging his body so that between himself, and the two doors, he minimized the stranger's view of the lab. His expression was stubborn, but also uncomfortable, perhaps even a little nervous.
The man gave the impression of sighing without moving a muscle or making a sound.
Then he placed a hand on the door.
"Excuse me," he said politely.
The door moved inwards and Watari fell backwards.
Wincing as his ass landed on the hard floor of his lab, the long-limbed shinigami gave his visitor a stunned look and eyed the emergency fire alarm panel on the wall beside the door. Getting his arms and legs back together, he scrambled to his feet, keeping out of the stranger's way, yet not moving too far away from where he might be able to make a dash for the alarm toggle.
"Well, if you're going to put it that way... who are you?" This time the hint of annoyance was back.
The man had come inside as Watari was scrambling to his feet, and closed the door behind him. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper, holding it out.
"I do hope you are finished with the tests, sensei, because I have to take this back now."
Watari, surreptitiously rubbing at his bruised flank, took the paper with his other hand and shook it open, scanning it very carefully, even holding it up to the light as if checking to see if had been tampered with in some manner.
It was a form for the release and pickup of a certain object, described only by its dimensions and referred to as 'artifact A'.
Finding nothing untoward, he lowered the paper and looked over at 'artifact A'.
He was finished with the tests which had been outlined on the paper, but he wasn't necessarily certain he was finished with everything *he* wanted to do with the head. Sighing, as if the man's words put him out, he turned and walked towards the cylinder.
"Honestly, there is more I feel I could do with this artifact, I don't suppose you would..." he paused and looked the man over, head to foot and back, "mmm no probably not. Still, can you tell me who I would speak with to request another session with this artifact?"
"Certainly. You will have to speak to the man in charge."
The man in black glanced indifferently at the cylinder. He removed another paper from his jacket and held it out.
"I also need all your test results on disk. Now. And this directive instructs you to delete all original copies from your drives."
"Man in charge?" Watari asked, even though his mind was already whispering 'Enma' at him but then his attention was grabbed by the second piece of paper and he took that paper with a definite dark frown.
Reading it over carefully, he moved towards the computer, shaking his head. "I'm not finished with my final reports yet. I was working on them when you... knocked."
Delete the originals? Delete them... well... fine. He'd delete them, nothing on the paper said anything about recovering the information later. Watari carefully kept his face as neutral as possible when he thought this.
"Unfortunately my orders are specific. Your final reports will have to remain unfinished. Please save all information to the disk including unfinished reports. And, sensei? Note the fine print on the form? If you are later found to have copies of the data, well, it could be considered a class seven breach of security. You wouldn't want that on your file. It would bar you from any further contact with anything that has a security rating over pink bunny slipper status."
Watari was too annoyed to find his usual humor in the Meifu security rating system. Pink bunny slippers indeed. Without giving the man so much as a look, the scientist crossed to his computer and began to move the requested data onto a disk for transport. The actions of his long, slender fingers were precise and sharp. No researcher liked having their work taken from them half finished and very few researchers appreciated being told, 'work on this puzzle...okay give it back, sorry you're not finished yet but now forget it' it went against the researcher...err...code of...puzzlement.
The blond shook his head at himself and finished the download, then turned with the disk and held it out to the man silently.
The man accepted the disk and stowed it in his right inside jacket pocket.
"And you'll need to come with me, sensei."
A slim eyebrow lifted and Watari began to look at the papers once again.
"Where does it say that on these papers? I don't see that written anywhere."
The man regarded Watari from behind the opaque black shades.
"It say that here," he pointed to his head. "As in, those are my orders. Please don't make me call up for confirmation. I'm on a rather tight schedule. And I was hoping you would open doors for me."
As he said this, the man took out a pair of black gloves, put them on, and then cracked his knuckles.
Watari took a step back, but his voice was calm as he said, "You carried it down here all on your own, I have complete faith in your ability to carry it back. You came into my lab unannounced and left this thing without instructions... without visible instructions and now you suddenly pop back up demanding it and my work back and my silence. You have paperwork to enforce the first two but I'm sorry... call up for confirmation because I am not going anywhere with you just on your, " he mimicked the tapping of the head, "orders."
Once again, the man appeared to sigh, without making a sound or moving a muscle.
"Very well, sensei, have it your way, but I want it on record, this was not my choice. I asked politely."
Turning to the cylinder, the man in black walked over to it and placed a hand on the side. Then he appeared to pick it up with one hand and place it back in the crate, three sides of which were still intact. He picked up the loose side and placed it over the open part of the crate, and then it very much looked like he pushed the nails into the wood with his index finger.
He glanced at Watari. "Sure you don't want to help me out?"
Actually, Watari was considering a rather strategic withdrawal from the premises until the man went away and was surreptitiously inching his way back to having a straight shot for the door.
"Not at all, you seem to be doing fine on your own." There might have been a hint of a squeak in that voice as Watari watched the man appear to push the nails, ten penny strong, back into the wood of the crate.
The man in black did the non-sigh again.
"Please don't leave the room, sensei."
Turning back to the crate, he put one hand on the top of the crate and one on the side.
Then he appeared to *push*.
And the crate appeared to shrink.
He continued to push, and it continued to shrink, until the crate was the size of a small flashlight.
Then he picked it up, though it looked like it took approximately the same force as when he'd picked up the cylinder, and placed it carefully in his left inside jacket pocket.
"That's going to drag the weave out of shape," he said, a trifle unhappily.
"A good dry cleaner will fix it right up for you." Watari responded and though he hadn't left the room, he was still sort of creeping in that direction, his amber eyes wide with twin expressions of fascination, how the hell had the man done that??- and disquiet.
Creep...
Creep...
Creep...
A hand on his shoulder stopped him in his tracks. The man was not only strong, he could move like the wind.
"Sorry, sensei. I gave you a chance to do it the easy way. My orders are specific, and I always carry them out, to the letter."
The next thing Watari knew, he was being lifted and slung over the man's shoulder.
This was one of those times when Watari really wished they could use teleportation in Meifu the way they could use it on Earth. Still, he wasn't about to go quietly, even if he had an inkling that it might be informative, he just... railed against the manner of transport.
Giving a particularly wicked squirm and thrash that somehow used every muscle in his body, he attempted to throw himself off the large shoulder he was slung across.
It was like trying to throw yourself off a mountain with a vise around you.
Suddenly a ball of feathers dived into the room from wherever she'd been napping and 003 attempted to dive at the man, knocking off his hat.
Instead of batting at her or retaliating, the man said, "Oh! Birdie!" and held up his finger.
He glanced over the top of his shades.
Watari was not in a position to see much of this. All he knew was that 003 suddenly stopped attacking and sat on the man's finger with a surprised chirp.
If the man had swung a hand at 003 Watari had been fully ready to get nasty in his attempt to escape and harm! No one hurt the owl, but then the man went and did such a funny little thing and not long after, though he couldn't see any of this, he heard 003's surprised little chirp and could tell it came from near the man.
Recognizing that 003 was a much better judge of character than he was, being an infinitely intelligent owl, Watari's tense muscles relaxed, but not by much.
"Would it have been so very much trouble to have gotten an official request?"
He still twitched a little, obviously wanting down but it wasn't the wild thrashing as before.
He was allowed to slide onto his feet. The man then picked up his hat and replaced it on his head, without dislodging 003. Once his hat was on, he lifted a finger and smoothed the owl's breast feathers down, and she closed her eyes and cooed softly.
Then he reached over and placed her on Watari's shoulder.
Watari watched the man suspiciously, ready to jump to 003's defense, though it didn't appear as if the owl needed rescuing, in fact she seemed quite content. Still, he felt better when she was transferred on his shoulder and reached up to touch her, as if reassuring himself.
"I just happen to know the person you'd have to call isn't in the office right now," the man explained mildly. "And I *am* under a bit of a time crunch. I guess the higher ups didn't think you'd require more than a request. Now will you please come with me? I really would appreciate your help with the doors. And you can bring the birdie if you wish."
Watari frowned darkly and closed his eyes, giving his head a slight shake, but also recognizing that he didn't have very many options. The man had already proven physically stronger and faster then he was and he knew that Meifu was nearly deserted at this time of night.
"Can I make one call, just so someone doesn't come looking for me and... react if they don't find me?"
"I'm sorry, I must insist we leave right now. You will really regret it if we are even a few minutes off schedule. You can call the Secretary from the office when we get there. Please, sensei. Come along now."
Watari worked his back teeth together, then gave his head a sharp shake and flung his hand out, indicating that the man should lead the way.
"The door?"
This got the man in black a curious look, since the crate was in his pocket??? But Watari bit back any comment he was going to make and stalked towards the door, yanking it open. It was futile but it helped to bleed off a little of the frustration he felt.
It wasn't until the man followed, walking to the door, that Watari realized that the floor under where the man had been standing had been standing was... depressed.
With each apparently normal step he took, the floor seemed to creak slightly.
"Arigato," the man said politely. "Please walk beside me now, and I would appreciate it if you would open any doors we get to."
The scientist in Watari overrode the annoyed man and instead of some quick or smart comment, he asked in a tone of what could be genuine curiosity.
"Why?"
The man in black smiled slightly. "Because I would really appreciate it."
Watari found he almost had to jog at least a step or two to keep up with the taller man, but he managed it. A delicate snort came from the scientist as he opened and held a door.
"You're not particularly user friendly are you?"
"It all depends on who's using me," the man replied, deadpan.
With the man in black guiding the direction, they ended up going directly to Emna's main offices.
In truth, Watari had no idea what to expect. In twenty plus years in Meifu he'd never been anywhere near Enma Daioh's private offices and while he knew they existed, they were almost a myth to him. Something spoken of but never really seen.
Still, there was no denying where the man in black was leading him, because they passed through several points which held high level classification that no shinigami could go near without certain escorts. Even Konoe had to be escorted to this place.
When they arrived at the outer desk, the secretary simply waved them through, but not without a frown at the man in black and a pointed glance at her watch.
The man in black shrugged.
As they went through the outer door, they entered the long, vaulted entryway. People were moving to and fro on business.
Once they were through the door, Watari found himself slowing a step so that he was a little bit behind the man in black. One did not want to overstep oneself in such a place and Watari was quickly forgetting his ire at the highhanded way in which he'd been summoned and was overcome with curiosity as he looked around at everything.
A man, a very striking man, trailed by several others, strode towards them down the direct center of the wide walkway.
The man was tall, almost as tall as the man in black, and his features were incredibly handsome, though his skin seemed a trifle sallow. He had a magnificent mane of iron gray hair, the color not hinting at age, more like it was a natural color for him. His eyes were a curious yellow-green, lighter in shade than Watari's gold-amber.
As he approached, he seemed to expect everyone to step out of his way. He was obviously angry about something and as they got closer they could hear one of the men trailing him say placatingly, "But My Lord, they said Enma was simply indisposed, not that he refused to see you. A temporary thing..."
The angry man, striding down the hall commanded attention. That was the only word for it, commanded, and the blond shinigami's head spun towards the gray haired man and his eyes went wide as he took in the man's form and features, *feeling* the power rolling off him even though he didn't recognize the person.
"It's an insult, and it's probably a lie, intended to belittle me," the man hissed in answer to his minion, and the sibilance of his voice sent an odd chill down Watari's spine.
The man in black showed no sign of stepping either to the right or left to get out of the angry man's path.
Like a deer in headlights, Watari was caught staring, but he couldn't help himself.
As the man came near, he noticed Watari's stare and his eyes pinned the shinigami, widening as if with recognition. The widening of his eyes made it all the more obvious that his pupils were slits instead of round. He looked as though he were about to speak, and then he realized that the man in black was not stepping aside as everyone else in the busy hallway had done. He was walking straight down the middle of the hall heading in, just as this man was walking straight down the hall on his way out.
Distracted from his fix on Watari, the gray-haired man seemed to stab at the man in black with his eyes, but if they held any power, it bounced off the midnight black shades. The man in black showed no signs of even seeing the angry obstacle in his way.
In the end, the gray haired man was forced to take one step to his right to avoid an undignified collision. He hissed something for the ears of the man in black, something that the mere echo of seemed to burn Watari's ears, but the man in black paid no more attention to it than he had the stare.
Watari exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding when those slitted eyes moved away from him. Something about the gray haired man made his skin crawl and the scientist moved a little so as to keep the man in black between himself and the angry man.
It was hard, but some instinct overrode the scientist's curiosity and kept him from looking back up at the gray-haired man, at least kept him from looking directly into the man's face, though Watari felt as if those slitted eyes and the man's voice... should somehow be familiar.
And then they were in front of the huge double doors. The doorkeepers pulled them back, opening them a lot wider than they needed to for the man in black and Watari to go through.
From further back down the hall behind them, Watari heard the sibilant voice, "You see that! Indisposed indeed! Those insects were admitted..."
Keeping close to the man in black, as close as one of Tatsumi's shadows, Watari kept his mouth shut while they were in the hallway, and even when the gray-haired man began to shout, the scientist didn't turn around to look back, but the temptation was strong. He felt as if he was missing something.
~Yutaka, you idiot, the amount of stuff you're *missing* could fill the whole island of Japan.~
Watari's lips twisted as he acknowledged his wry inner voice.
Then the doors swung shut and the noise of the hall was cut off completely.
The next moment people were swarming around them and the new room was full of even more fascinating items so perhaps it could be forgiven that the scientist wandered a couple of steps away from his escort, head tilted upwards as he peered around at his surroundings.
The room beyond the doors was another huge room, with a huge chair on a dais at the end of it.
The man in black stopped just inside the door and several attendants in official looking uniforms crowded around him. He removed the crate from his jacket and placed it on the floor, then placed his hand on the top and the crate began to expand until it was back to its original size. The uniformed men, it took about six of them, then pulled it away into another part of the room.
"That was close, sire," one of the attendants said as he helped haul the crate away.
Watari heard the word 'sire' and it nudged at his attention. He turned, from where he'd been looking at the dais, and looked back towards the man in black, brows pulled together in a wary expression.
The man in black, apparently oblivious to his scrutiny, was taking the disk out of his jacket and handing it to another attendant, who bustled away with it.
Then he took off his hat and tossed it on a tall statue of some shikigami or other mythical creature near one of the hall's great pillars, and ran one gloved hand through black hair that hadn't seen a single ruffle.
"Yes it was," he said, though the attendant he was answering was in another part of the room now. He turned to Watari.
"Your reputation for independence and sheer obnoxiousness is well deserved, sensei. You almost made me late."
Watari's mind was chewing on some facts and he wasn't entirely certain he felt comfortable with what those facts were trying to tell him about the man standing in front of him.
At the mention of his reputation, the young shinigami's head came up and he looked a little indignant. "I... well... obnoxious seems a little harsh," he ended up saying, hands pushed into the pockets of his lab coat.
On his shoulder, 003 gave a little chirp and she turned and nipped him sharply on the earlobe, causing him to lean his head away from her.
"Ow, what was that..." he cut off as she chirped and hooted softly at him and it might even have looked like she used a small wing to smack him in the cheek, or maybe it was a trick of his own hair.
Glaring at her, then reaching up to rub at his abused ear, Watari's eyes moved back to the man in black and he asked in a tone that was half question, have statement,
"Enma Daioh."
"I hope you'll excuse me from getting up in the big chair for the moment, I only use that for formal audiences and this is very informal indeed," the man in black said. He smiled. It was quite a pleasant smile, for all this his eyes were covered by the dark shades. "And don't let my use of the word obnoxious rankle. It was intended as a... well if not a compliment, perhaps a fond tease. If you'd delayed any longer, or actually managed to avoid coming with me, you'd be entertaining our angry visitor from out there in your lab, alone, right about now."
The blood raced out of Watari's face and were it not for the fact that he seemed frozen in place he probably would have fallen to his knees in proper supplication. As it was, it didn't feel like he could move, so he just stood there looking stunned.
After blinking a couple of times, and finally remembering to shut his mouth before some stray fly flew in there, Watari tried to wrap his brain around what Enma was telling him. Angry visitor... the gray-haired man, lab... his lab?? The head, Saki's head. Turning his own head towards the direction he'd seen the crate disappear, the scientist stared down that way for a beat before finally looking back at Enma.
He should have lowered his eyes, respectfully, in the face of the Lord of Hades, but the young shinigami's curiosity overruled his respectability... probably, obnoxious as a gentle tease was right on the money.
"My lab, because of, Saki's head?" Blunt, to the point and probably a statement of the obvious but Watari was a tad confused by the events and...well... Enma Daioh!
The man in black nodded. "Mother's right, you are the smart one."
Watari gave Enma a slightly doubtful look. He didn't feel very smart right about then. In fact, his inability to put the pieces of the puzzle together to this point was part of his over-all general frustration but he wasn't about to let that out in front of Enma.
"Ah... why?" A broad question and Watari seemed to realize it the moment after he spoke it.
Moving on numb legs, he paced a little bit, back and forth. "Ah, I mean... why didn't you just *order* me, yourself... why would that man be interested in Saki's head... wait... why do *you* have Saki's head?"
"All excellent questions," the man in black answered. "However the answers would require an explanation that, at this stage in the situation, might very well put you in more danger than you are already in, and that, unfortunately, is a lot. How about one out of three? I did not order you because it is best that people don't realize that I sometimes leave this place in other than my normal guise. If that got around... well, I couldn't do it any more, could I?"
"Well, I mean I realize now don't I? Would it have hurt to let me realize a little sooner?" Watari was taking another breath to explain that he was not unaware that he was in hot water and that was part of the reason he'd dug his heels in, when he realized he was standing there, daring to question Enma Daioh, and his mouth shut with a snap of teeth against teeth.
Swallowing, uncomfortably, Watari looked down and quickly apologized. "I'm sorry. You're right, of course, Sire."
The man in black shook his head briefly, with a slight air of regret. "Let you realize sooner? Son, I have no control over how quickly you realize anything. That's not my job. I could have told you I was Enma, I suppose. Would you have believed me? Does Enma show up and do his own hauling? Trust me, it wouldn't have saved any time." Once again doing the non-sigh, the man patted Watari on the shoulder, his hand feeling, not heavy, but incredibly dense. "Of course I'm right, sensei. If I weren't, where would we be then?"
Eyes still cast down at his feet, Watari winced a couple of times as he was forced to acknowledge the truth of Enma's words. Had the man in black announced he was Enma Daioh, Lord of Hades, Watari probably would have really resisted, figuring the man was out and out lying to him and the same amount of time would have been lost.
Figuring that Enma had no desire to hear platitudes parroted back to him, after all... he was Enma, he *knew*, Watari tilted his head and looked up at the man... the god... standing beside him.
"What did he want with Saki's head?"
Watari's expression acknowledged the words regarding how quickly he did, or did not realize anything, and the scientist was coming to the miserable conclusion that he was no where near realizing things fast enough.
The man in black chuckled softly. It didn't sound like something he did a lot. Then he said, "He's hoping it would give him an edge in the war to come." Then he man reached up and touched a finger to his shades. "Now, I need you to promise that you won't share with others what you have learned today. I know you will want to, but believe me, I've placed a lot of faith in you, letting you find out this much. So, no telling your lover about my visit, not as anything other than, 'a man came and picked up the crate'. Hmph. Your shinigami lover, specifically."
Watari's lips twitched in a rueful expression and though he had a feeling Enma had meant Tatsumi the first time around, it saved him having to ask, 'which one?' which was a whole different can of worms entirely. Though he seemed to deflate a little as he looked up at Enma. He didn't want to be keeping secrets from Tatsumi, he'd already kept too much from Tatsumi but even as he thought it, Watari realized that he'd chosen to keep from Tatsumi what didn't need to be kept from the shadow-master but that this time the need for discretion probably was important.
"Ah... I don't suppose anyone would believe me if I did say anything." Maybe it wasn't the exact wording Enma was looking for but the scientist's tone of voice said 'I promise'.
"Don't worry, it won't matter very soon," the man in black said, "For all it seems like such a big thing now. Now you will need to go back, our angry visitor has given up and returned to his home country for the time being. He'll seethe a while before coming back. Now, listen carefully.
When the man comes who wants to see me, bring him here. Got it? No questions, just remember."
Curiosity and confusion were two keen emotions in Watari's eyes but he nodded in response to Enma's question.
"Yes, of course. As you desire, Sire."
And though it looked like he was going to be perhaps be a dutiful shinigami, Watari couldn't quite help tacking on a question, maybe Enma might even see it as a request, of his own.
"Will I ever understand what's going on here?"
The man in black smiled. "Mother says so," he answered. "And you know Mother. This is rich work for a shinigami, you're playing in deep fields, but I think you are up to it. Now, don't forget. Bring him here."
And then he reached up and took off his shades.
~ * ~
Watari woke up, his head pillowed on his arms, at his desk, with 003 curled up close by, her head under his wing.
Slowly coming awake, Watari lifted his head and looked around his desk area. It was natural, at first, to believe that he was waking from a dream. After all, he knew he'd been working late, he had Enma on the brain, thanks to the packing slip... a dream... he'd been dreaming.
Taking his glasses off to rub a hand over his face, Watari shifted in the chair and stood up. A cup of coffee was obviously necessary. It wasn't rare for him to fall asleep at his desk, though it usually didn't happen when he was in the middle of such exciting work. It wasn't until he went to step around a crate, which was no longer there, that the crate's absence suddenly sunk in.
Crate... gone... like in the dream.
Stumbling back to his computer, he looked at the now blank screen. Typing, desperately he tried to call up files, but they were no longer there. Deleted, like ordered, in the dream. Sitting back down in his chair, Watari performed one last check, digging into his computer's memory and confirming the transfer of the data... to a disk... like the dream.
The dream which wasn't a dream.
Reaching up, Watari pulled his glasses back off and lay them on the keyboard in front of him. Then he cradled his face in his hands, his voice muffled against his palm.
"It wasn't a dream... damn."
~ * ~
Watari sat for a good ten minutes with his face hidden behind his hands, coming to terms with what had happened to him, what he'd seen, and what he'd been asked not to speak of. Lowering his hands, he picked out the fuzzy form of 003 on the desk beside his keyboard and took a breath to address her when he remembered how careful Tatsumi was being about what he said and where he said it.
Shutting his mouth, Watari picked his glasses back up and set them on his face, and with his other hand he scritched the snoozing owl.
"Sleep well, little one. I'll see you in the morning."
The young shinigami walked towards the door of his lab. He didn't even look in the direction of the small rooms which made up his apartment just off to the side of the ultra modern lab. A part of him recognized that he might yet end up there this evening, but not before he at least saw Tatsumi.
It was late, very late but some instinct sent Watari heading towards the bull pen and Tatsumi's office, rather than in the direction of the shadow-master's small, cozy apartment. He'd learned over the years that the Kagetsukai kept impossibly long hours, particularly when there was something weighing on his mind, so Watari was checking the office first.
Slipping into the empty bullpen, he bee-lined for Tatsumi's door, pausing in front of it to knock lightly.
"Tatsumi, you in there?"
"Hmm?"
Watari smirked to himself. Bingo!
Laying his hand on the knob he opened the door and pushed the upper half of his body through the doorway.
"Hi. Ah... working late?"
Tatsumi looked up and nodded, then waved Watari into the room.
He leaned back in his chair, stretched till his joints popped, and then took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.
Watari gathered himself up and slipped on through the door, closing it softly behind him. He turned in time to catch the apex of that full body stretch and he couldn't help grinning a little as he watched the way cotton and wool pulled across the broad expanse of Tatsumi's torso, but he didn't say anything. Moving towards the desk, the scientist perched on the edge of one of the utilitarian chairs which sat opposite of Tatsumi and clasped his hands together on his knees.
And realized he had a problem.
He realized that he'd come down here, searching for Tatsumi because he needed the comfort offered by the other man and he also wanted the shelter of Tatsumi's arms, Tatsumi's shadows, Tatsumi's bed... but he wasn't entirely certain he had a right to request them. Particularly since he couldn't tell Tatsumi why he felt such a desperate need for them at that moment. Gnawing on his lower lip, Watari looked at the papers on Tatsumi's desk and said, "Er, pulling an all-nighter with the expense reports?"
Tatsumi put his glasses back on. "Yes, expense reports." He looked at Watari for a moment and then suddenly the shadow of his desk and chair on the floor began to spread, deepen, and surround the room, enclosing the two men in a midnight dark cocoon, the illumination within coming from the lamp on Tatsumi's desk.
Leaning back in his chair, Tatsumi regarded Watari, and then said, "I heard that you went to see Enma today. No, don't answer. You can't, I know. But there are some other things we need to catch up on as well, and I have my own sources."
The cocoon of the shadows was comforting and Watari began almost immediately to relax, only to tense back up in something that looked like panic when Tatsumi began to speak and mentioned his going to see Enma. Just as quick, the panic shattered when the shadow-master followed up his statement with acknowledgement that Watari couldn't answer him and the shinigami felt the adrenaline start to race out of his blood stream, leaving him slightly light-headed.
Sitting forward, laying his arms along his thighs and letting his head dangle between his shoulders, Watari's long blond hair swept forward like a secondary cocoon. Taking a couple of deep breaths, getting his heart to stop hammering, the blond looked up and across the desk at Tatsumi.
"Ah... we do?" His voice was a little breathless, hinting at how fast his heart was racing with reaction. It truly did amaze him, and frighten him, to wonder just how Tatsumi gathered his information sometimes.
"We do." Tatsumi watched the scientist, noting the strained reactions and almost jumpiness which wasn't in character. But at the same time it was not beyond what might be expected. "Some of it is public knowledge - current events, so to speak. Yatonogami has finally returned to the celestial realms to resume rulership of his clan and kingdom."
That brought Watari's head up with a snap.
"Yaton..." The scientist began, only to fall silent as his eyes took on a far away expression. The man, the angry man in the hallway, with the slitted eyes and the hissing voice. The man who had seemed so familiar... the man who would have been his "visitor".
Watari stood up with a deep breath and began to pace within the confines of the shadow cocoon. He lifted his hand to his head, rubbing his fingers through his long, slightly mussed hair.
"Yatonogami returned. And you say he's back in charge of his kingdom." The younger shinigami paused and turned to look at Tatsumi, his eyes obviously tired but sharply focused.
"What el... what else can you tell me?"
"There is a rumor that he is seeking something. As to what he is seeking and why, even the rumors are scarce. There are only a few dark hints, and those only spoken in the deepest of shadows," Tatsumi said. "Those hints are of a prophecy and of a coming war, that would pit the celestial realms, or a part of them, against Enma Daioh."
Circling back to his chair, Watari sat back down, his expression grave as he looked across the desk at Tatsumi.
"And this something Yatonogami is hinted at seeking... it would assist him in this prophesized war?"
It was hard for Watari, who had always known Enma Daioh as all powerful, to imagine anyone challenging his authority, so the scientist's mind reached for what did make sense.
Tatsumi shrugged. "It may take a while for me to learn any more about the subject. But that would fit the scenario at the moment. It also seems as if the listeners and watchers I warned you about may be spies for... some power in the celestial realms."
Sitting back, Watari crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and rested his chin on the folded knuckles of his hand. Some of the pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together and in a way the scientist didn't much care for.
The study of Saki's head for example. The tests, designed to measure the psychic connection Saki had with Kazutaka... how strong it was, or wasn't. The fact that Enma had specifically come and taken the head and Watari himself out of the possible path of Yatonogami.
~That was close...~
Watari remembered the words, the attitude... as if Enma had just snatched something very important away from danger. The head, the details of the tests results...the head...
~Kazutaka.~
"But why?" The scientist whispered to himself, a small furrow appearing between his brows.
Shaking off his thoughts, or at least confining them back to the safe deposit box of his brain, Watari turned to look across the desk at Tatsumi, resting his cheek on his palm.
"'May your life never be dull'... who came up with that particular curse again?"
Tatsumi smiled. "Whoever it was didn't work at this office." He sat up. "I'm going to pack it in for tonight. Coming with?"
Watari's grin reached all the way up into his amber eyes. "I was hoping you'd ask." Which was putting it lightly!
Tatsumi got up and the shadows simply thinned and oozed back under his desk and assumed their proper shape.
Reaching out, he snagged Watari's hand and then led the way back to his place.
The scientist chuckled softly but then fell into step beside Tatsumi, content to just enjoy the other man's company in a companionable type of silence as they walked through the still halls of the Division towards the cozy apartment.
When they got to the door, Watari exhaled a deep breath, already feeling a lot calmer then he had the rest of the day.
"You know... I still stand by my initial description of this place. Cozy."
Tatsumi shrugged. "I guess."
Tonight there would be no elaborate dance of formality, nor any in the bed, either. Tonight they would rest and sleep. Tatsumi would keep his lover safe, for he sensed that something momentous was waiting just beyond view.
They had known each other for decades. Traveled often together, worked together closely, so it was not hard for them to establish a routine around each other and even in the intimacy of this new step in their relationship, habits grew. They didn't need to fill the quiet of the night with inane conversation, each man setting about his nighttime routine. Watari cleaned up first, then headed into the bedroom to find his borrowed pajamas. When Tatsumi emerged from his own nighttime routine in the bathroom, Watari grinned at the well-worn black pajama bottoms the shadow-master was sporting.
Tatsumi seemed dryly amused by the grin just before he shut off the lights and otherwise prepared his home for safe sleep.
Watari followed his lover's lead and left off his top. It was warm enough in the room and in the bed and Watari enjoyed the closeness of sleeping bare chest to bare chest when he curled up against Tatsumi's side, head resting on the Kagetsukai's broad shoulder.
This goodnight kiss exchanged was warm, but the passion was banked, by both participants. Tonight was for sleep, a time to share a sort of intimacy that went beyond the physical expression of love. Arm wrapped around Tatsumi's torso, Watari snuggled in and fell asleep almost immediately, despite the active thoughts rattling around in his head.
TBC