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Puppet Master by Gaki AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out, Kingdom Hearts has taken over my brain (Cloud! Sephiroth! Rikuu! EEE) Not to mention Fruits Basket. Momi- *cough* Right. Really don't like this chapter much, but it works. Filled with the usual stuffing. Also, this chapter starts out early in the morning, like around 5 AM and flows into the day as it goes on. ^^; I hope it's not confusing. Tatsumi talks about food, Tsuzuki ponders about cookies and Hisoka falls into a much needed sleep. Muraki gets touchy feely. [1] = Book #1, Two on
Opposites of the River. Kimura Masaki (Asuka), Tsuzuki's other partner
in the manga, before Hisoka of course. He is around 17 and kind of looks
like Hisoka. More friendly too until Tsuzuki tried to do away with his
cousin. ^^; Want and need is the same thing. When a person wants something, they would do anything to get it or to have it done with. People have a vast list of needs and wants. Some need love and affection. Some want food and shelter. Sometimes people would have the urge to want, to have, something very simple. A warm blanket during the winter. A cup of water on a hot summer's day. Something that is easily acquired. Sometimes the object being desired doesn't have a physical form at all. During a tiring day of work or school, it wouldn't be uncommon to hear someone mutter to themselves... "I just want it over with already." Having calmed down the crying man, Tatsumi was seated back in his chair, legs crossed and hands clasped on his lap. Tsuzuki was back on the couch with a soft blanket draped over him. His eyes were closed as he took slow long gasps of air. Tatsumi wasn't looking at Tsuzuki, however. He was paying attention to the small rack of wine bottles he kept on the kitchen counter. Without taking his eyes off of the bottles of wine, he pushed his glasses up and asked his former partner a simple question. "Do you know why Kachou picked Kurosaki-kun as your partner, Tsuzuki-san?" Violet eyes opened slightly, gazing at the carpet underneath his black socks. "... I needed a partner and no one else wanted to be it." Tatsumi shook his head slowly, then spoke up again. "Do you know why he picked you as Kurosaki-kun's partner?" Tsuzuki frowned slightly, raising his head a bit to look over at Tatsumi. "Because he needed a seasoned shinigami to train him?" Once again, Tatsumi shook his head. "The process of selecting a partner for any shinigami isn't a point and show deal, Tsuzuki-san. Both shinigami have to be compatible to each other in order for them to be a good pair. If it were a first come first serve basis, none of the cases in Meifu would be solved." Tatsumi shook his head, turning to look at Tsuzuki before going on. "Picking out a partner for a shinigami is a long and slow process." He smiled. "Why do you think it took us so long to find you a compatible partner?" "But... what about Masaki?" [1] Tatsumi took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Masaki-kun was only a temporary partner until we could find someone who could work well with you. Much like all your other partners before him." Kurosaki-kun can do the one thing we, your former partners, can't, Tsuzuki-san. Tsuzuki turned away, shoulders hunched up as he muttered under his breath. "... what does this have to do with anything? It doesn't make the fact that I should've been there for him and wasn't any less painful. I... I failed him." "What do people usually eat with red wine?" Tsuzuki blinked, forced out of his depression by the sudden question. "What?" Tatsumi smiled gently at him. "What do people usually eat with red wine?" He repeated. He can do the one thing I can't. Utterly confused as to why the blue eyed man was asking him about red wine, Tsuzuki answered him. "Red meat or pasta..." "Right. The heavy taste of the red wine compliments the equally heavy flavored taste of meat. They complete each other. If you have one without the other, you are missing an important part of it. You are only having red meat that tastes like any other meat unless you drink a sip of red wine with it. With the red wine, the tastes explode within your mouth. The flavor of the grape in the wine and the beefy taste of the meat melt together." "I..." Tatsumi smiled once again. "Why do you drink milk with cookies?" A slight pause. "It goes down easier and... it tastes better." "My happiness is Tatsumi's happiness. Was it all a lie?" He nodded, his eyes gentle as he gazed into Tsuzuki's violet ones. Your happiness is my happiness. Your pain is my pain. But, I am a coward. I can't stand to see your pain, so I turn away. I left you because I couldn't stop the hurt in your eyes. "Yes. Think of it like that, Tsuzuki-san. Cookies and milk." Tsuzuki looked away, a frown on his face as he tried to understand what Tatsumi was trying to tell him. Tatsumi placed his glasses back on, the lights above caused a glare to cover his blue eyes as he watched Tsuzuki run his words over and over again in his head. Even after all these years, there was something within Tsuzuki that he could not reach through. No matter how many times he had reassured his co-worker, no matter how many times he had soothe tears from those eyes, Tsuzuki never truly believed his words. That was because even when he tried his hardest, he could only barely touch what went on inside Tsuzuki's head. However, the boy, Kurosaki Hisoka, and his power, he could... Kurosaki-kun could see right through you. He could understand you where I, we, can't. His chuckle seemed to bounce off the walls of the cold room. The deep sound was the only thing Hisoka could hear. He couldn't see where Muraki was standing because once again the clouds have blocked out the moon's light, leaving the room in complete darkness. Everything bad that has ever happened to him occurred in the dark. In the dark he couldn't do anything. His eyes can't pick up any sudden movements from anything in the dark. All he could do was hear, listen to the strange sounds the night, the dark, caused. It made him feel uneasy. It reminded him of that night. Bad things always occurred in the dark. The night when he visited his own grave. The night he finally met his death. He hated, feared, the dark. "What's wrong, Hisoka?" The 'Tsuzuki' that wasn't real was gone; the only thing left of him to remind Hisoka that his scars were real was the knife on the ground. His eyes were heavy lidded as he gazed at the blood covered blade. As the clouds slowly cleared, he could see the soft glow of the dawn being reflected off of it's surface. It was funny how life would always go on even when he was in pain. No one beyond these walls knew what was happening within them. People are so blissfully ignorant of their surroundings. A shuddery breath passed his chapped lips as he winced in slight pain from one of his many cuts. The bleeding had long stopped; scabs forming to block the blood flow were scattered about on his pale chest. His hands were cold, the shaking causing the shackles to occasionally hit against the wall. Closing his eyes, he swallowed thickly, letting out a soft moan of pain as his saliva made it's way down his dry throat. * My puppet... There was a sudden movement in front of him and he tried to raise his head. He was out of strength, however. His screams and struggling finally taking it's toll on him as he let his head fall limply back down, his chin touching his chest. His sight was blurred from fatigue, but he could still make out the white tip of a shoe as it reached his line of vision. It was getting hard to keep his eyes open as darkness began to seep into his mind. He dimly saw, then felt, a hand reaching out to take hold of his face. Long slim fingers caressing his cheek, neck, mouth and eyelids. Slender hands that now held him captive. Pale hands, not slightly tanned ones... "Hold it." * Come boy... It always hurt so much when he touched his skin. As if he was slowly being burned from the inside out. He wanted to turn his face away, so those hands wouldn't be touching him anymore. He couldn't. His eyes finally closed, and try as he might, he couldn't make them open again. I can't see. Don't know what's in front of me... Becoming uneasy, unsure... Afraid. His chin was lifted up, two hands were now touching him. One trailing down his neck as the other supported his head. He felt lifeless, weak and vulnerable to these strong hands. A part of him wanted to scream or struggle, anything to get away from them. Another part just wanted to give up. To just let those slender fingers do what they wanted to him. He was in the dark, the one place he was most afraid of. The one place where he couldn't do anything. He couldn't do anything but wait and let whatever creature lived in the dark take control of his body. * Into my hand... He couldn't fight back. You can't fight what you can't see. "I can see in the dark." "Do you still believe...?" A deep voice muttered against his cheek. A shiver of fear and helplessness ran down his body. Believe. He didn't know what he believed anymore. He had lost his will to believe in anything. There was nothing to believe in. Nothing... "I'll ask you once again, boy." Questions... He had so many questions that were still left unanswered. Like why? Why did his mother stopped loving him? Why did she stop looking at him with affectionate eyes? Why did his father show him that grave? His grave? Why did he say he was dead? Why... why? And how? How could they? How could they lock him away? How could they ignore his cries for help? How could they stop caring about him? How could they... how could they...? "What do you want?" Want. He wanted so many things. Wanted someone to care. Wanted someone to love him. Wanted help. Wanted protection. Wanted to stop crying. Wanting it all to stop hurting. Wanting the lies to go away. Wanting to be left alone. Wanting him to stop pushing. Wanting him to just go go go go away. Wanting him to stop pretending like he cared. Wanting to stop thinking that he did. Wanting him to just... He wanted... Later that day... Tsuzuki frowned as he tried to understand what Tatsumi had been trying to tell him earlier in the morning. Cookies and milk... The cookie, whether it be his favorite chocolate chip or the tasty cookies 'n cream, can be too sweet when eaten by itself. The milk, kept in the fridge without any other use for he was never one to drink anything healthy, tasted cold and unflavored when tried alone. However, when you put the two together, they taste wonderful. The clean cool feeling of the milk washing down the chunks of chewed up sweets was heaven. What was even better than that was to dunk the cookies into the milk, to let the sweet soak up the cold liquid before tossing it into ones mouth. Was that how it's like? Partners? A shinigami working alone can't accomplish what two can do together. Once more, if a pair of shinigami can work compatibly together, they can finish things ahead of time. Two heads are better than one, and two heads that can mesh together are even better than that. Were they like that? Were they like the cookies and the milk? Sure, there were plenty of times were he slacked off and Hisoka would call him an idiot for not working, but they only happened when there weren't any real cases. It wasn't as if Hisoka himself was a hard worker. With nothing to do, the younger shinigami would be found hiding away in the library, trying to finish the latest book he'd borrowed. Once they were together though, once they actually worked on a case, they focused all of their attention on it. Hisoka was always there to scold him for trying to do something neither of them could control. Hisoka reminded him to be serious, to not let himself get carried away with the case. To not get emotionally attached. "... when the time comes when you can't protect him, who is the one that is going to feel pain? Kindness can also be a fruitless thing." He, on the other hand, reminded Hisoka to lighten up. That the day shouldn't be spent scowling and glaring at everything in sight. That not all people were out to hurt him. That some even cared about him even if he thought they didn't. "It's natural to be worried about your partner's health!! I LIKE you!!!" [2] Cookies and milk... Two sides of the same coin, wasn't that what people say? He let out a big sigh, shaking his head. There will be time to ponder over that later, he had more important things to worry about. Like finding out where Muraki had taken his partner. A frown made it's way on his features as he looked around, having no idea where to look. A day, Hisoka had suffered in Muraki's hands for one whole day. As he turned the corner, deciding that heading back to the coffee shop where it all started was a good idea, Tsuzuki prayed silently that his partner was still alive. "W-what?" He asked, blinking widely in surprise. The young woman before him smiled patiently and asked once again, a piece of note in her hands. "Are you Tsuzuki Asato-san?" "I... Yes." She held out the note, a polite smile upon her face. "A man wanted me to give this to you." "A- Thank you." He smiled back at her as she turned and walked back into the shop. Standing still, he looked around the area to see if anything strange was up and about. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he glanced down at the paper in his hand. Brows furrowing, he unfolded it and read the neatly printed kanji on the paper. His eyes widen in shock, hands shaking as he let the paper fall from his grasp as he turned quickly and ran. Only he wasn't running away. No, he was running towards his goal, towards Muraki and... He clenched his fists, forcing his legs to go faster. So close. So close and I didn't know. I didn't KNOW. Just sat there. And I ran. I ran away. He was so close and I ran away. His violet eyes didn't waver as he made another turn, ignoring the looks of the people he rushed by as he made his way towards an old closed down puppet store. Seeing the broken down door of the shop, he heard the warning Muraki gave him when they first met. "You should be more careful, Tsuzuki-san. So that you won't lose someone important." Someone important... Faster and faster he ran, but the shop itself seemed to just move back more and more. Preventing him from ever reaching it. He bit his lip, determined to reach the door and his partner as fast as he could. In the back of his mind, he heard his own words, words he had told Hisae [3], repeating themselves as he ran. "When I was alive... I had a very important person..." Always hiding behind your glares because you didn't want anyone to get close to you. Still such a young boy, becoming a shinigami to get revenge. One so young shouldn't know what a word like that means... "I couldn't do anything for that person." I couldn't protect you when you were still alive. Couldn't stop that night from happening. But... I want to help. I want to be there when you wake up from a nightmare. Even if all you do is glare and scold me for treating you like a child. I still want to be there... "I could only watch them die..." I don't want anyone else to hurt because of me anymore. "When it all comes down to it, it's all because of you." [4] I don't... "---- running away like a coward." I won't run anymore. I won't let another bleed because of me. I'm not going to be a coward. So... Please... Please... He bit down harder on his lip, tasting the blood from the cut as he forced his muscles to move faster. Please be okay, Hisoka!
I'm so mean to Hisoka and it's only one more day before his 22nd birthday. The last part of this chapter is a bit rushed >_>; Soo sorry. |