I come with the rain 2/3

[snoozing_kitten]

Part 1



“We can’t wait here forever.” He reasoned, his fingers slipping over the tongue while he was trying to zip up his coat. While they had been waiting it seemed the headache that had faded flared to life, pulsing faintly between his temples. He pushed the sensation down and held his hand against the only open door. “Right or left?”

“Left.” Koyama shrugged, that was the way opposite of the small gas station and he could only nod in agreement, left or right didn’t really matter.

The first shock of rain against his skin was a bit stunning, flattening Koyama’s hair instantly and making his sweater stick to his narrow torso. Yamashita wasn’t any better off, his shoes quickly becoming water soaked. They set off at a brisk walk, trudging around puddles and following the lines of the street lamps. In the slick darkness the rows of silent and empty houses was more than a little creepy.

“I feel like we are in a bad horror movie.” Koyama said displaying his oddly apt psychic powers and the fact that he’d forgiven Yamashita in one easy sentence. “Only I can’t remember the title.” He smiled faintly, water dripping off the end of his nose.

“Or how it ends.” Yamashita added, they reached the next block, the stop signs useless when faced with the hunky immovable shapes of the steel cars.

“Do our heroes mount a daring escape and regain their lost memories?” Koyama asked in a staged voice, and while it was creepy out here, he didn’t quite feel the need to whisper the way he did in the empty halls of the hospital.

“Do they manage to beat off the hoards of zombies out looking to eat their flesh?” Yamashita shot back with what must have been the first smile of hours, even as Koyama looked aghast.

“Don’t even say that!”He all but screeched and slapped his shoulder gently, Yamashita chuckled.

“Of course they win in the end.” He said with conviction, beginning to feel optimistic again. After all whatever had been back there in the hospital hadn’t managed to get its grubby paws on them. Which in retrospect was a stupid thought, and a tragically ironic time for a man to come rushing out of the shadows of one of the houses at them brandishing a rather large knife.

The next few moments were a blur of sound, noise and tepid water. Koyama shrieked, voice hitting a register that made Yamashita’s ears ring, grabbing at his elbow as the two of them scrambled madly backwards away from the man. With his heart suddenly in his throat and the mad scramble his feet weren’t co-operating and he wasn’t paying enough attention to where Koyama’s flailing limbs were going. It happened in an almost slow-motion effect, his heel caught one of Koyama’s shins and suddenly he was off balance, tipping over in his haste and the other man’s hold on him was too tight. They fell in a tangle, Koyama going down hard on his hands and Yamashita on his ass, the water at least a few centimetres thick, quickly soaking through any part that wasn’t wet before.

“Stop!” He yelled, holding his hand up, one was still trapped under Koyama, who was in an awkward sprawl next to him. “Please.” He cried.

“Oh god.” Koyama whimpered, managing to wiggle and flip himself onto his back and squish Yamashita’s hand against the concrete at the same time. “Please stop.”

“You’re not soldiers.” The man paused, maybe half a step from them, knife pointed at Yamashita’s chest threateningly.

“No.”Him and Koyama practically talked over each other, voice tripping up just as their feet had done. “Not a soldier.” “Please don’t hurt us.”

“What the fuck are you two morons doing out here.” The knife still posed an immediate threat, but when it wasn’t waving, pointy end to them, it seemed a little more reasonable. “The soldiers will find you.” With that final spit they were dismissed, the knife falling limply to his side as he turned on his feet and slid back into the shadows of the house. There was a flurry of silent conversation between the two of them, Yamashita ticking his head and Koyama frowning, he blinked a few times, and Koyama nodded in return.

Their scramble up from the ground was just as graceful as the decent down, but this time they were dripping. “Wait.” Koyama called, on his feet faster, and vanishing into the darkness ahead of them. “Please wait a moment.” Yamashita was hot on his heels, inordinately pleased when he didn’t hear any more of his panicked shrieking. The small walled-in backyard was overflowing with flowing bushes and Yamashita trampled through one as he followed the glowing whiteness of Koyama’s pants around the next corner.

“Would you stop being so damn loud?” The man was hissing at Koyama when Yamashita caught up with them. Here in the back there were children’s toys, a small plastic tricycle, and a few sodden balls.

“Please, just tell me.” Koyama was dogging his heels even as he slipped into the yawning darkness of the house, Yamashita slid in last leaving the door open for what light it offered.

“Tell you what?” He sounded more annoyed then anything, he must have been close to forty, hair beginning to grey around his temples. He squinted at them like he might have been myopic, and they were out of focus. “What huh? No one else who’s come by has known a god damn thing, then the soldiers get them.”

“So, you don’t know what happened either?” Koyama’s face fell, frown barely visible.

“No.” He said rather succinctly.

“Is this your house” Yamashita asked blandly, and the man squinted at him next.

“I woke up in front of it, and hid in here while the soldiers collected anyone dumb enough to still be on the streets.”

“So we all just wake up?” Koyama mused, but this really was getting them nowhere fast.

“That is all anyone knows, so just hunker down and, wait.” The other man put his knife down on the counter, “you can stay here for a bit, but you might want to write down what you know before it slips away too.”

“Thank you.” Koyama tipped his head in a bow and Yamashita followed his lead, realizing as the man walked away just what he had done for them.

He felt around the kitchen counters, noticing that scrawled across the countertop in neat little rows of kanji was this man’s story, illegible in the minimal light. It made him smile a little. “I found it!” Koyama said softly from the other side of the room, they had split up to look for a pen, after trying to decide what to do proved fruitless as they just talked each other in circles for a few minutes.

“Go up stairs, you’re noisy.” Their benefactor snarled at them, from the front of the house, and Koyama froze instantly.

“Sorry.” Yamashita called back, nodding his head. “Let’s go.”

Navigating dark places was old hat to them by now, even if some of the stuff from longer ago was already getting fuzzy in the back of his mind. He actively tried to recall it, think back to the sensation of vertigo as his foot had slipped off the step. The comfort of having Koyama’s hands wrapped around his sodden jacket. He was actually feeling kind of cold now.

He smiled as wide as he had ever when he saw the office, with the windows open there was just enough light from a street lamp across the street to see everything. Here would be a good place to make camp.

“Let’s get started.” Koyama shed his soaked sweater, leaving him in only a clinging long sleeved shirt, which was no less wet around his shoulders and wrists. “We should let our clothes dry for a bit.” He explained when Yamashita tore his eyes away from board shoulders and a narrow waist back up to the shadows that only partially hid his face.

“Sounds like a good idea.” Koyama lost the wet shirt and vanished for a bit, he came back with a blanket, and his belt clinking softly as he left it undone. Yamashita’s own pants were cold and clammy against his legs, his underwear every bit as wet, but it would probably dry faster if he wasn’t wearing his jeans. If Koyama was fine with shedding them, then so was he. His own legs weren’t too scrawny, wiry black hair all the way up to his knees, with a clear patch on the inside of his knees where he must have wore jeans too often.

The blanket was big enough for the two of them, skin up against chilled skin, damp hair sticking to his shoulder as Koyama bent over him trying to arrange the blanket better to keep their little bubble of warmth. He held out one arm, long fingers and neatly trimmed nails, a thin wrist, but not weak arms, muscles in the forearm that shifted under his fingers while he held the limb steady.

‘We woke up at a hospital, saw a man but couldn’t find him, escaped and went left, found a man in a house; no one knows what happened to everyone.’ Written in scrawling test up his right arm, it covered almost all the flesh there. On Koyama’s wrists he wrote ‘Watch out for soldiers.’ It looked like a badly done sleeve tattoo but it didn’t smudge under his fingers and that was good, Koyama insisted on writing on the tops of his hands ‘stay with Yamashita.’ It went on both his hands. Yamashita hoped not to get separated but in the event that they were maybe it would help, seeing as out of the… three people they had met they were the only two who had names. Either way it looked nice in black ink there against Koyama’s tan. Maybe he spent a lot of time modelling out in the sunlight Yamashita thought with a faint smile.

“You’re turn.” Koyama said softly, and he was close to Yamashita’s face, too close, his breath fanning across his shoulder as he dipped his head a little, picking the arm that wasn’t holding the blanket around them.

They spent the next five minutes there with Koyama carefully writing out the same message on Yamashita’s arm, and filling in the squiggle from before with ‘Soldiers’. It wasn’t beware of snakes at all, which made him wonder if he’d known before what might happen. Should have left better notes, he thought with a mental scowl.

“There, all done.” Koyama smiled, closing the pen lid with a snap. Now they had matching arms, and Yamashita couldn’t help but smile, still too close in Koyama’s personal space. Which really shouldn’t shock him, he’d spent every moment since he woke up all but stepping on the other man’s toes as they clung to each other. But this close the shadows made the edges of the other man’s face sharper, if that was possible and Koyama was giving him this look that he couldn’t figure out.

“God, you are so pretty.” Koyama’s voice came out breathy and he Yamashita was shocked for a moment that he wasn’t the one who said that. While half of his brain quietly freaked right the fuck out, the other thought simply stated ‘huh, well that answers that.’ Pretty eyes right up in his face, long lashes and warm cheeks.

God, Yamashita wanted to kiss him. For a moment, one perfect moment he wasn’t thinking of what they were going to do, he was thinking only of how close they were and how his whole world, his whole fucking world was Koyama. The other man really was all that he had ever known.

“We can’t.” Yamashita said softly, his breath must be fanning Koyama’s moist lips. He blinked, eyes that were falling closed snapping open suddenly like he only just realized what was happening. He had the grace to look embarrassed about the whole thing.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean anything.” He busied himself recapping the pen.

“Hey,” He reached out, fingers tangling in his damp hair. “Listen to me. I want to, god do I want to.” He stared somewhere around Koyama’s shoulder, naked skin looked soft and smooth. “But we can’t.”

“Why?” Koyama’s eyes were oddly shaped up close, long lashes, slanted and narrow eyes giving him a fox-like appearance. Yamashita smiled, pressing his lips in a dry chaste kiss against his temple.

“Because I could be engaged, you could be engaged. We could be related; or I could be a killer.” Koyama’s hair stuck to his lips and it smelled like rain water. “I can’t risk it.” He added silently ‘but you make me want to’ and hoped that Koyama’s eerie ability to read his mind picked it up.

“Stupid idea.” Koyama muttered and Yamashita could hear him smiling.

“Well at least I asked.” That got him a chuckle. “We should rest some.” He was warm and comfy, and mostly didn’t want to move.

“I’m scared to go to sleep.” Koyama admitted, shifted around so he could rest his head on Yamashita’s shoulder. “What if I wake up and don’t remember anything again.”

“I’ll stay awake.” He smiled, feeling glowy. “Then I’ll wake you up and we’ll switch for a bit.”

“Alright.” They shifted around on the thinly rugged floor until Yamashita was leaning back against the wall and Koyama was curled mostly in his lap so they could share the blanket.

He waited until Koyama was asleep then grabbed the pen, looking across his arms until he found a nice spot on the inside of his arm, almost hidden, it was clear of any other writing. Writing with both hands was awkward since he had Koyama mostly in the way but he managed it. There on the soft insides we wrote out in careful letters ‘Stay with Koyama.’

They switched places in two hours, Yamashita drifting off with his face pressed against Koyama’s bare stomach, almost completely cocooned in the stolen blanket.

He woke feeling groggy and too-warm, Koyama was shaking his shoulder. “Hey.” He whispered in his ear and he blinked the other man’s face into focus. “Time to get up.”

“Mm.” He hummed, turning his face so his nose was pressing against the other man’s ribs and that startled a small sound from him. Yamashita smiled to himself, wondering absently if he’d known about where Koyama was ticklish before. It had never bothered him as much as it did right now that he didn’t know what they were to each other. As if moving through molasses his mind came on-line, slow and stupid.

“Don’t go back to sleep on me.” Koyama tapped his cheek until he lifted his arm to swat him away.

“Yeah.” It was a physical effort to pull himself away from the other man. Koyama tugged the blanket around his shoulders with a small wince as he shifted. “I’m up.” And hungry again, but that was beside the point.

“Food, then planning.” Before they started tugging damp clothes back on they stopped and checked over all of the lines of script. Yamashita, tugging on his t-shirt crusty with mud, wandered into the dark bathroom, and hoped he got the toilet. He switched out with Koyama who was pulling on his sweater, making a face at the pants he was wearing. They weren’t so white anymore, and the knees were torn.

Instead of moving on he waited outside the door, leaning against the wall and trying to blink some of the fuzz out of his mind. Could they stay here? Koyama joined him with his clothes straightened out, rubbing his wet hands on his pants. “Breakfast?”

“Yep.” They were ambling downstairs the open back door letting in the pre-dawn light; it looked like the clouds weren’t as thick as they had been last night and for that Yamashita was pleased. He wasn’t looking forward to getting soaked again. There was another box of crackers, and some less-than-fresh looking fruit, but they split a little of it between them and drank their fill of water. At least if there was no one else they wouldn’t have too much to worry about with the food. Not for awhile anyways, unless they were stuck in some post-apocalyptic alternate universe where him and the other man would need to learn how to farm and fight, and do some Mad Max type shit.

“So what are we going to do?” He asked, and Koyama looked up, making a face at the slice of apple he was chewing on. They were soft and too sweet with just a hint of decay. How long did that mean they had been sitting there?

“I don’t know.” Koyama shrugged, taking another bite with a hint of a grimace. “But,” he frowned, swallowing visibly, “I don’t think we can stay here.” Yamashita had to smile at that, he’d been thinking the same thing but didn’t want to be the one to say it out loud.

“Sometimes I really think you can read my mind.” He said with a wry smile and Koyama blinked, a grin melting across his face.

“Maybe I am a psychic?” He smiled.

“I believe it.”

“Anyways,” His smile slowly eased into a frown, that little line between his eyebrows and now that Yamashita knew what his smile looked like in the light he sort of wanted to ease it away with his thumb. “I want to know what happened to everyone else. It doesn’t feel right to just leave them.”

“What about the soldiers?” He felt the same, but someone had to take responsibility.

“We will just be careful.” Koyama nodded, “I know it is dangerous, but I don’t feel right not trying to help.”

“That’s just the kind of person you are.” Yamashita watched fondly as the other man dipped his head with a smile. “We need to go find out what happened.”

With a plan, no doubt a dumb one, they finished their breakfast, carefully going over what each of them could remember from yesterday. Part of Yamashita’s mind would stray occasionally to ‘he thinks I’m pretty’ like a love sick teen, but he couldn’t find it in himself to be embarrassed about it. By the time they were done the sun was rising, the light coming in through the door was pinkish, reflecting off the fog left over from the night before.

Mystery-san hadn’t wanted them to go, his face pinching up tight and telling them in detail that they would not be able to come back. Yamashita thought that he might just be scared or lonely. He smiled at him, and told him with conviction that they were going to figure it out, and not to worry. Koyama thanked him again, bowing low. They left to a stream of cursing, Yamashita waved over his shoulder.

By day the street wasn’t as scary, but now there was a name for the feeling of eyes watching him from every shadow. By unspoken and unanimous decision they didn’t speak, picking a direction with a series of nods and head shakes, there was a moment of confusion when they realized neither of them could remember what direction they had come from.

Every street looked new and different and simultaneously startlingly familiar. It was unsettling in ways the hospital hadn’t been, there things were meant to be alien and strange. Here on the street was the notion of aborted thoughts, memories residing just below the surface of his consciousness. It felt like an itch he couldn’t quite scratch, right there between his eyes. Another street, the end of this one had a convenience store at the end. The sun was high in the sky by now, morning giving way to a bright and clear afternoon, only the deepest puddles remained, and while the air was still crisp it was also hot, and Koyama’s sweater ended up wrapped around his lean hips. Yamashita’s forehead was slick with sweat and it was warm under his arms, fabric clinging awkwardly in weird places, the back of his knees felt damp along with his wrists. He hoped none of the marker was smudging. Maybe they should have looked for some paper to leave their records. Up ahead the florescent lighting was on through a smashed window of the small corner store, it called like a beacon, the thought of a nice cool bottle of something to drink.

“Thirsty?” Yamashita asked, they had ducked into the walkway for one of the houses, because Koyama said he saw something.

“A little.” Koyama admitted, from their vantage point there was nothing, but Koyama’s nerves seemed to be catching, making Yamashita twitchy too. “I don’t like it, we should go around.”

“It’s right there, and I don’t see any reason not to.” Yamashita frowned, carefully looking both directions.

Koyama opened his mouth and then paused his eyes going wide, ticking his head to the side. “Do you hear that?”

“What?”

“Shh.” Koyama said swiftly, sinking back into the shadows of their hiding place. Moments of silence later Yamashita could hear it too, a soft thrumming, like the air was vibrating. “Helicopter!” He said startled.

“Here, let’s move back a little.”

Crouched under a small tree, the two of them practically wrapped around each other and trying to crawl inside each other’s skin, Koyama’s fast breathing against his neck. The noise wasn’t getting any louder, but maybe that was his heart beat in his ears that was drowning out the sound. “It doesn’t seem like it is getting any closer.” He said after a breathless moments passed.

“I don’t like this.” Koyama said quietly, his fingers tightening in Yamashita’s jacket and in return he slid his hands down his spine in a comforting motion.

“Me either.”

“I’m scared.”

“You’d be dumb not to be.” He said with a smile, and somewhere above them the helicopter was circling like a shark, or so he imagined it to be.

“I think we established that you’re the stupid one.” Koyama sounded calmer, even if it did nothing for the pounding in Yamashita’s ears as adrenaline played catch 22 in his veins. One of them needed to hold it together, and god damn it, it was going to be him.

“I was hoping you forgot that.”

Time seemed irrelevant, the heat between their bodies making the places their skin touched stick and slide uncomfortably, but neither of them was willing to let go. Fear smelled sour and tangy between them, sweat soaked in hormones baking in the heat. Eventually the sound faded enough for them to be comfortable untangling, elbows and knees catching each other in painful jolts as they scrambled out from under the cover of the small fruit tree. There were smears of blackish fruit on the knees of his white pants; the stains on Yamashita’s darker jeans were almost invisible.

“That was close.” Koyama said, glancing nervously at the sky, it was by sheer force of will that Yamashita didn’t mimic him.

“We made it.” He said simply, as if he could deflect what happened as another force of will tactic, he was fast learning that solved most of his immediate problems. “Keep moving.”

They had decided to move towards the bigger buildings, which generally meant downtown, there had to be someone there. This place was like spilled soda in the summer, packed with people from concrete wall to glass superstructure; someone who knew what was going on. It seemed like as good a choice as any. Now after hours of walking and walking, and ducking and hiding Yamashita was beginning to wonder if maybe they should have picked somewhere closer. As of yet they hadn’t met anyone else, the sun shifting across the sky was the only tell of the time passing. Well that and the progressive rumbling of his stomach.

Slowly the scenery was changing from small fenced in suburban houses to the taller apartment buildings, the two of them had to go wide out of their way in order to stick to the alley-ways between the buildings. Some part of him was still looking for a ghost, waiting for it to pop out, but with his luck it would be something a little more sinister then ‘boo’. Somewhere after the first few hours he decided that as kick-ass as the loafers looked, they were not meant for long distance hiking. They had fallen into silence a ways back, not too much to talk about when they really only had about two days of life between the two of them and had shared the whole thing. So far there had been the one helicopter and one soldier, he had been easy enough to hide from, the two of them ducking into one of the alley ways, crouching down behind two garbage bins, the smell made him want to gag on his own saliva it was so rancid.

A convenient clock tower informed him that no he wasn’t a pig, it was dinner time and there was nothing weird about the way his stomach twisted in hunger and growled loud enough for him to be embarrassed about. With that in mind, they tried all of the doors on a small strip of stores they found at the base of a squat little brick building. No go with the handles.

“What should we do?” Koyama rattled the door one more time, and just like the three times before it refused to budge. He looked around, the wide open parking lot was empty, there were a few crows sitting on the building opposite watching them with lazy disinterest.

“It’s locked.” Yamashita mused, staring at the bags of chips and crackers on the other side of the door with barely curbed hunger.

“We could...” Koyama trailed off, shifting from foot to foot and rubbing the back of his neck in a sure sign of embarrassment.

“Could what?” He blinked, trying not to smile at how unsure Koyama looked, despite everything he couldn’t help but notice Koyama every fucking minute.

“Breakthewindow.” He said in a rush, breathing out in a long stream that made Yamashita laugh. “You know, to get inside.” It was highly doubtful that there was anyone to monitor any sort of alarms. It also wouldn’t be the first window they had seen broken. There was food on the other side. He hummed absently. “Well what do you think?” Koyama’s stomach growled, and Yamashita shrugged.

“I think it is the only way unless we want to look for something else.” His stomach wasn’t on board with that option and he just nodded at the glass in assent. Yamashita went left and Koyama went right, both of them looking for something heavy enough to smash the glass with. He was just turning around a little hair salon on the end of strip when there was a loud crash and unmistakable tinkle of glass raining to the ground. Spinning on his heel he dashed back. Koyama was standing in front of the door, the top half completely smashed in. There was a wrought-iron chair still held in one of his hands. He smiled at Yamashita.

“That was surprisingly fun.” He admitted.

“I bet.” Yamashita couldn’t help the grin. Koyama set the chair down nicely, all four feet on the ground and reached through the hole to unlock the door. He watched the other man move, aware that he was smiling but unable to stop. Stuck in the middle of this cluster-fuck of god knows what, he had Koyama and that made things seem alright. He made things shiny.

They pulled together a veritable feast of junk food, finding some warm bottled tea to go with it.

“Oh my feet hurt.” Koyama moaned, sitting on the tiled floor, his back up against one of the drink fridges, Yamashita was sitting at an angle to him, back pressed against a door proclaiming ‘employees only’, between them the littered corpses of chip bags and cracker boxes. He’d taken off his shoes and was examining the redness of his feet, prodding at a forming blister on the end of his little toe. “I think I saw some band-aids over there.” He said softly, probably speaking to himself. Yamashita simply smiled, shifting on his ass; it had gone numb a few moments ago and was getting uncomfortable. With nothing but the sound of Koyama shifting around, humming disjointedly to himself, Yamashita decided to close his eyes, just for a bit, his stomach finally feeling full.

Just rest for a bit while they were safe.

He was dreaming, but none of it made sense, there were crows; four of them staring at him with beady black eyes. Oddly it looked like they were asking him something, an unspoken question hanging in the air between them. He looked to his arm wondering if maybe he had written the answer there, and while his arms were covered in scrawling writing he realized with shock that he couldn’t read any of it. Not surprisingly enough someone was holding his hand but it took awhile for him to realize why and who, Koyama was standing next to him his fingers interlocking with Yamashita’s and the pressure was almost painful twisting the finger joints together too tightly. ‘I can’t find my mom.’ He said voice wavering like he was on the verge of tears, when he said ‘mom’, for a moment Yamashita was sure he could smell something suspiciously like broth. ‘Where is she?’ He sniffled and Yamashita was alarmed, unable to speak, to offer any answers, the crows watching him, the smallest one ticking its head to the side. The crows felt comforting in counterpart to Koyama’s voice, gone too high and nasal with desperation against his shoulder. While part of him was sure that yes, indeed he was dreaming there was another large part of him that hurt because Koyama was crying and he couldn’t stop it.

Yamashita came around with a bang and Koyama’s shrieking. Heart thundering against his rib cage he scrambled to his feet, mind racing too fast all his thoughts falling into a jumbled tangle that spun uselessly. A soldier, an older man with greying hair and sunglasses slipping to the floor with a clatter and going crunch under one of his heavy boots had invaded their little safe zone. He had Koyama’s arms behind him, the other man wiggling and yelling, his feet still bare against the tile.

“Run.” Koyama yelled, and Yamashita froze, his eyes meeting the other man’s.

“Stop.” Soldier-man said around a grunt, Koyama throwing himself to the side in a bid to escape. “I’m trying to help.” Was almost lost under the clatter of things falling to the ground, Koyama’s thrashing having sent them both tumbling into one of the shelves. The man twisted so he was on the bottom, and Koyama was sprawled half on top of him, groaning softly his arms still pinning awkwardly.

Darting forward Yamashita grabbed Koyama, bodily hauling the other man to his feet, that made him cry out in pain, but there wasn’t time to stop. They had to get away now. Koyama stumbled, but Yamashita’s grip on his bicep was unforgiving. Broken glass and Koyama’s bare feet doesn’t even cross his mind, then they hit the parking lot. For a moment it seemed like they were free, like they made it, then it came out of nowhere and there was a sudden flash of pain in his face, the force of it sent him to the ground. Everything swam, black and bright in nauseating patterns, panic and a sort of detachment making his mind and stomach stutter and roll. He could barely hear through the throbbing that seemed to envelop his whole body, too hot.

“You okay?” One voice said.

“Took me by surprise.” Another replied.

“I can see that.”

Koyama was hissing and cursing low and breathy somewhere, a heat by his arm he assumed was him. “Yamashita, Yamashita, fuck.” In his pretty voice, it made his head hurt even more.

“Just call it in already.” The men said.

“Yeah, two more for pick up.” A pause, “roger that.”

The bright lights were dimming and for that he was pleased, they were making him feel like vomiting. The fuzzy voices were also shutting up, the only one that remained was Koyama crying, soft whimpers and sniffles. He couldn’t find his own voice to comfort him. Then everything just faded completely leaving him floating alone for a moment before Yamashita too faded out.

~~

Koyama yawned, it had been a long day the day before, they had a jacket photo shoot last night for a new single and those always dragged on for hours and hours. YamaPi could sympathize with him, stretching out his own back until it popped, he wasn’t too clear on the last time he’d had a nice long massage, or even just a soak in the tub. He had to get his relaxation in cheap little packages now, there was no time for long or drawn out days off. It felt like he was fresh off his solo tour and being tossed fresh out of the oven into the fire of NewS activities. He felt a pang of guilt about being so tired about it, after all wasn’t this what Ryo did all the time anyways? He needed to stay strong!

Speaking of which Ryo was losing a battle against sleep, his head tilting to rest on YamaPi’s shoulder then jolting back when the van bumped him awake. It was really cute, the way he would scowl after each time, as if mentally berating himself. Koyama was sitting on his other side; the three of them snug in the back of the company van. Ishida-san the driver was up front chatting with Tegoshi who seemed rather wide awake given their circumstances. YamaPi wondered if he’d managed to catch some rest in between shoots, he had the unique ability to catch naps without messing up his hair and make-up bad enough to warrant a scolding. It was a truly enviable talent. In the middle row, each at the window seats, Massu with his head resting against it, probably watching the scenery or also sleeping, Shige was reading, his feet pulled up onto the seat with them.

It will be good for the public to see you as a united front again after so long, they’d been told, to help quash the rumours of you breaking up, manager-san said with a nod. YamaPi could see how it would be helpful, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t dead tired on his feet and therefore allowed to be a little bitter about the punishing pace. So as long as he didn’t let anyone know he was bitter anyways, the idol world worked in weird ways. The sun was just coming up between the buildings on the expressway, taking them out to where they would be filming a new show. Something new and exciting, a two part little series about the six of them competing in a number of challenges, and writing a new song. The usual sort of stuff, you know.

To his left Ryo finally caved, his head lolling against YamaPi’s shoulder and he settled in to finish the rest of their ride being used a pillow. Koyama noticed, and gave YamaPi a tender smile, looking for all intents and purposes like a fond mother looking at her child. Sometimes his hen-ish ways were annoying but it was times like these when YamaPi was still half asleep that it was just kind of sweet. The expressway was lighter than usual he noticed while looking out the window over Ryo’s head, the few other cars around zipping around the large van easily. They wouldn’t be there for awhile yet, so he let his neck go slack so his chin rested on his chest YamaPi let himself drift off to sleep.

“Uwaa.” Tegoshi said, and Koyama nodded in agreement, the two of them craning their necks back to look at the large building. Massu and Shige had vanished on a snack run to a little gas station just down the street from the main entrance, one of the hand-held camera men tailing after them dutifully. You could trust Massu to get enough snacks and Shige to stop him when he hit too much, it was a good team.

“It is kind of creepy.” Koyama said with a shake of his head, and Ryo nudged him gently with his elbow.

“Scared?”

“Scared?” Tegoshi repeated with a grin and YamaPi could almost see the pranks unfolding in front of his eyes even as Koyama shifted from foot to foot looking uncomfortable.

“Not really.” He tried to smile, but it looked sort of unsure and Ryo snorted, clearly not believing it. Of course, Ryo hadn’t looked so great when he saw the huge abandoned hospital either, just no one else had noticed. Leaving those two to their badgering of the oldest he wandered over to where the producer for the show was standing with the director.

“Yamamoto!” The director scolded and the man blinked a few times.

“Yes?” The camera man frowned, looking around a few times.

“Why are you not in section D?”

“Section D?” He looked around again as if the answer was going to jump out from one of the pre-dawn shadows.

“Of the interior?” Director-san nodded his head at the building and camera man, also known as Yamamoto, turned on his heels to look at it.

“Oh, right, sorry sir.” With that a rather confused looking camera man left. YamaPi blinked a few times, Yamamoto looked familiar, he had probably worked with them a few times before, and he usually was on top of things, if he recalled correctly.

He was soon distracted by Shige and Massu’s triumphant return. They did a dry run of the intro, then Yamamoto fell sick, fever and he soon passed out, one of the PDs rushed him to the hospital. They were all worried, watching with bated breath as the tail lights vanished around the corner. The camera caught their reactions, and YamaPi wanted to be disgusted that his concern was just going to be marketed along with the rest of him, but he’d long ago gotten used to it.

“We’ve got to pull together and finish filming.”

It was hard, the lines were there in his head, but he seemed to be having troubles remembering the right one. He could see it on Shige’s face that he was having trouble too, but they were all exhausted, a few stumbles were to be expected. He ploughed on anyways. Since it was the first episode the teams were to be chosen and they were given a box with six balls inside.

YamaPi’s said ‘Monday’
Ryo’s said ‘Flower’
Massu’s said ‘Flower;
Shige’s said Yellow
Koyama got Monday,
And Tegoshi pulled the last one which read ‘Yellow’ in block English letters.

The roles for the PV for the drama would be chosen according to where they placed in the challenges, there was also a prize for the winning team. A hot spring trip while the others had to do a punishment episode. Over-all it was a decent idea and the fans would probably eat it up delightedly and ask for more.

The lobby was set up as the base camp while clouds began to gather outside, snacks and water all laid out on the tables. Koyama said that it looked like a ‘ghost party’ and Ryo replied something about ‘Soul Food’, YamaPi sat at the other end of the table watching as one of the PDs, a girl name Yuriko ran around double checking that all of the security feed was set up properly. He thought faintly, that he really could have done with a better partner, Massu or maybe Ryo, Koyama looked nervous already and they hadn’t even see what the staff set up. Of course he wasn’t supposed to think these things, so he just never said it out loud.

“Everyone ready?” The Director called out over the gathered staff, and they all stopped to listen. “We’re going to start filming in thirty.” The ragged chorus of approval greeted his statement. YamaPi grinned to himself as PD Yuriko managed to double-time looking like a blur of movement as she snapped at people who were not held up to her standards. Bossy, he kind of liked that in a girl.

“Shibaki?” She stopped in front of one of the sound technicians, who was curled up on the low couch. “Hey, this isn’t the time for napping.” Curious YamaPi watched them, going as far as to wander over to them. He wasn’t all that interested in the conversation Tegoshi and Koyama had been having to his left anyways.

“Yamashita, come here please?” Another PD called and he was drawn away. He couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something was off. Probably exhaustion, he’d hallucinated weirder things after staying awake for three days once.

He needed to go over the bag him and Koyama would share, there was a digital camera, two flash lights and a few other props they would need to complete the challenge, including but not limited to a wig with braided pig tails and a poster of themselves. They tested both of the flashlights, Massu pressing his to his chin and cackling until Shige shoved him with a grumble. God, it felt like forever since they had done anything like this, just playing around for the sake of it. Usually when they were not directly on camera they were studyinggoingoverlinescallinghome pretty much anything but interacting with each other like they were now.

Consumed by the spirit of member-ai (which allowed for mental jabs at Koyama’s lack of courage) he didn’t think too much about PD-Yuriko led Shibaki away, the other girl speaking low and soft and throwing terrified glances around. (’Do I know you? Where am I?’)

“Tegoshi and Kato, you’re up first.” The director nodded and the two of them grabbed their bag, heading deeper into the old hospital. If Shige was nudging Tegoshi ahead of himself no one said anything, probably because Ryo was too busy to notice. Now that Shige was gone, the shrimp chips he’d been hogging were a free-for-all.

YamaPi caught himself almost dozing several times, violently shaking his head each time, to clear the cobwebs that were gathering around the corners of his eyes. Careful not to mess up his hair too much. They were up next, so Ryo had settled in on a low couch, stretching out and putting his feet up on Massu’s lap. Massu had out a PSP and was button mashing, looking intent at his game. Where had he gotten that?

A gift? Did Massu tell him about it? Was it there while they were shooting? It looked like a lot of fun. The caterer arrived distracting him from his thoughts. They spoke softly with the staff, and everyone wore frowns all around, but YamaPi was feeling too lazy and peaceful to disturb them. He felt kind of hazy, like he’d been drinking and was at that point of the night where things got nice and relaxed.

“Yamashita? Koyama.” The assistant director tapped him on the shoulder and he smiled at him, twisting to look at him. “You’re up.”

“Let’s go.” Koyama was already standing, shaking out his arms and legs with a little sigh. His jacket and long sleeve combo rid up a little when he did showing a flash of tanned belly. YamaPi was a little jealous of his tan, knowing at least a fraction of it was natural. They didn’t all have time to go frolicking in the sunlight.

The hallway was creepy when they were alone, and Koyama made a small noise as the door slammed behind them with a resounding slam. He couldn’t wait to see Shige’s portion of the show, he was such a pussy for cheap scares, ghosts and demons always got his panties in such a twist. Koyama laughed nervously.

“This isn’t going to be much fun.” He said morosely. And YamaPi snorted, still too full of good will to bug him about it, but thinking that it would have been seriously fucking funny if they had put Koyashige through this together. They could pussy out together, with flailing and screaming and general girly reactions. Then again if they had to do any physical tasks it was better to have Koyama on his team then Shige or Tegoshi, but having Massu is like gold in games like these. If anyone was going to scream it was going to be Ryo in that team. Maybe he had a chance of winning after all?

They went up two flights of stairs, and down a few twisting hallways, the starting point was in the far left wing. The place was creepy in the hazy noon light, peeling paint and dimly lit corners, some of the inner corridors required them to pull out the flashlights. The beam swept across the inside of one of the rooms, and caught the dulled shine of a wheel chair, YamaPi shivered but moved on. It wasn’t like there were ghosts or zombies in here or anything.

“Creepy.” Koyama muttered, shaking the hair out of his eyes.

Another corner and they would reach their starting position. The light was fading slowly, clouds obscuring the sunlight, there was supposed to be a storm later, lighting and heavy rains, all that jazz. He sort of hated the fall season, what with all the rain and the temperature swings. At least this didn’t require them to be outside for long, they were not dressed for it. Koyama paused in front of him at the T-section peering down each of the dim halls with a slight frown on his face. “Umm.”

“Left.”

“Sure?” Koyama peered down both hallways with a peevish expression on his face. YamaPi shrugged, when he’d said it he’d been sure, but now looking at the two halls he was sort-of, maybe, not-really sure. Well it was a 50/50 chance either way.

“Yep.”

Koyama gave him one last look like he could see straight through YamaPi, but pivoted on his foot and started down the left hall anyways. YamaPi himself stalled before following him peering down the right hall to make sure he wasn’t missing something blatant. He followed after Koyama, letting the other man lead the way.

Ten minutes later he had to admit that they were hopelessly lost. This hallway kind of looked just like the last hallway, and a little like the one before it too. Koyama didn’t seem to mind, just picking a direction when he came to a cross-road and following it. Completely fine with just following the taller man he didn’t say anything, even though he was almost completely sure that they had just gone in a circle, or a long square.

“Y..YamaPi?” Koyama stopped at a window.

“Yeah?” He turned from his observation of the hall they had just walked from in time to reach out and grab Koyama as the older man swayed dangerously on his feet. The hold on his shoulder wasn’t enough and he simply dropped to the ground like his knees wouldn’t hold him up any more, and YamaPi had a moment to think about all sorts of danger that could be on these floors but Koyama was clinging to his leg.

“I don’t feel so good.” The point was a little moot by now, see as how he was on the floor blinking up at YamaPi.

“Can you stand up?” It was hard to crouch with Koyama clinging to his pants, but he managed it, pressing his hand against the other man’s forehead, there was a faint fever burning under his skin.

“I... think so?” YamaPi managed to haul them both to their feet, slinging the bag across his shoulders and Koyama’s arm also across his shoulders as well. He was heavier then he looked, muscle coiled tightly on his skinny frame lending weight to the few inches he had on a few of them. Koyama’s steps were winding, a swagger that he couldn’t correct, the two them listing from side to side as he tried to balance their combined weight.

“Are you okay?” His breath was huffing, “what’s wrong?” He was mentally kicking himself for not asking earlier. Why was his own thinking so fuzzy?

“Sleepy.” Koyama slurred, and YamaPi actually began to panic, fuzzy and muted but panic none the less. Everything felt like cotton all of a sudden and he could understand how Koyama had suddenly collapsed as his knees felt like jello. It got to the point where when Koyama listed to the side YamaPi couldn’t hold them up anymore and they tumbled to the ground together in a heap of limbs and fuzzy pain.

“Ow.” He said, drawing the vowel sound. YamaPi had to agree the floor was very solid. Rolling onto his back he left Koyama in a heap where the other man fell, they were just outside the door to what seemed like a small dark room, there was a couch in there, they could... sleep it off. Or wait until someone found them. Seemed like as good a plan as any.

Grabbing Koyama’s arm, and tapping on his face until he blinked several times in rapid succession. Standing was out of the question, he was so damn tired, they crawled into the room, hands and knees scraping painfully along the ground. Koyama made it half way into the room when all of a sudden he just collapsed. YamaPi managed to sit up, the world swayed alarmingly, and he just barely managed to pull himself together. From their bag he produced a marker, thinking something about... what?

As neatly as he could he tugged up Koyama’s sleeve and wrote his name on the skin he found there. When they woke up they could have a good laugh at him, tell the fans about that time they caught the crazies and had a nap together. Next he wrote his own name on his arm, pushing his sleeve up until it was cutting off his circulation. He needed to write something else, needed too... right Koyama.

Koyama?

Looking at him lying on the ground, YamaPi blinked a few times. He’d watched it happen twice today already? This morning, there was something, there just on the edge of his mind. No memory. Nothing. What if Koyama woke up first and left him? He couldn’t have the other man wandering off, he might fall down again.

His fingers felt clumsy and it took far too long to get his belt off, but eventually he had managed to tie Koyama’s hand to his own, and the other man didn’t seem to notice, dead to the world in the light from the flashlight that YamaPi had trained on him for the task. With the door closed, hopefully they would wake up together. A large portion of him knew he really should be panicking, they were sick and didn’t know why.

It seemed like far too much work to be scared, in fact it would be so much easier to just have himself a little sleep. Watch he would wake up and everything would be perfectly normal again and Koyama can laugh at him for being paranoid. Laugh, and maybe drink. He didn’t drink with Koyama enough. Speaking of which the other man was warm, the incredible heat from his body like that comfortable blanket right out of the dryer, and YamaPi pressed his face against the other man’s jacket, the rough material felt weird against the numb end of his nose. He barely had enough strength to get his arm under Koyama pulling him in close, revelling in the heat between them.

Then YamaPi slept.



--Elsewhere:


“The United Nations has approved the movement of international troops for Japan in an emergency meeting held late last night. This will be the largest single international force ever put together. Also, medical researchers around the world are scrambling to find a cure for this epidemic. Movement in Japan has ground to a stop as the military has taken over all of the air ports and sea ports for the duration of this state of emergency. The Japanese military has quarantined all of Tokyo Metropolis in an attempt to stop the spread of the memory sickness.”

The woman on the television was speaking like quarantining 39 million people was easy.

“The Prime Minister of Japan announced a national emergency early yesterday morning, when massive numbers of the population were slowly submitting to the Memory sickness. The rest of the world is holding its collective breath and waiting for word on the spread. Scientists in Japan have since discovered that it is microbial, with delayed onset, the main symptom is sudden and complete memory loss. Then we lost contact with research labs in Japan. American doctor Higgs has declared that the cause of the symptom is a toxin released in the brain which inhibits the recall of experiences and interferes with the movement of memories from short term to long term memory storage. He also says they are making progress on a chemical which can nullify this toxin.”

There wasn’t anyone left to watch the television, her voice speaking to an empty living room.

“There is no telling how this will affect Japan’s economy, as this is the first pandemic of this sort in recent history...”




Part 3