Having a few problems with that last thousand words or so.  If anyone has
any ideas whatsover, I would be more than happy to hear them. 

BTW, if you see anything at all, TELL ME!  Don't worry, you won't hurt my
feelings.  Or at least not much ^_-  And I'll only be mad long enough to
put a few new holes in my walls. 8)

WARNING!!  May be offensive to some readers.  Contains violence, and some H
traits.  WARNING!!  

In Your Eyes
By Inaba
Chapter 3 - Promises In The Dark


  Kyousuke cradled Madoka in his arms, his mind seething with hartred,
disgust, malice, turned inward.  He'd been late.  Too late to stop them.
Too late to save her!  he cried in his mind as he lifted her up gingerly,
her cry of pain raking wounds long and deep abreast his heart.  No!  
  The air hissed about him as even the earth below him crackled with
energy.  Furious, luminescent power seethed from his form as he phased out,
Ayukawa in his arms.  "A.... Ayukawa..."
  The pavement crackled with sparkling energy where they had stood.

  "Manami!" Kyousuke bellowed as he phased into his bedroom, his eyes lost
in the havoc that controled each infintesimal moment.
"Maaaanaaaaamiiiiiii!!" he screamed again, and turned his face to Ayukawa.
The pain that held her, gripping her body as it truly were the dark hands
of death, contorted her eyes, creasing her forehead as she clutched at her
stomach.
  "Ahahhnnn!" she let out a cry as he placed her gigerly on the bed.  The
agony rifling through her body, sensing every nerve and giving to it the
electric heat of it's torment.  She bit down on her lip as she heard him
call again.  "Ka... Kasuga-kun." she mumbled, gripping his arm, pulling him
to her.  The overwhelming need of his grasp too much.  The pain to great.
  "A... Ayukawa!" he mumbled in response, snapping his eyes to her as he
fell to his knees at the edge of the bed.  "Ayukawaaaa!"
  Her hand lept out to clutch against his shirt, the hot blood that showed
her pain making her fingers slip as she tried with all of her to hold him.
Tell him.  But the pain, the PAIN!  "MNaaaahh!" she screamed, her muscles
trembling about her belly, throwing a wave of nausea that ebbed upward,
blurring her mind.  
  The sound of footsteps cluttered the small room as Manami--Kurumi in
tow--bolted into the room.  "Nan, Nanio!?" she cried, her face stricken
with worry.  Her eyes snapped to Ayukawa's bloody form, laying flat on the
futon.  "Ah.." she huffed, unable to think, to control her body.  "Wha...
Wha.."
  "Manami!" Kyousuke bellowed forcefully, driving an recalcitrant stare
into his sister.  "Don't just stand there!  DO something!" he cried, the
desperation in his voice, quivering within the timbre of his own angst, all
too evident in his battle cry, "Now!"
  "Ah!" Manami bellowed, her eyes snapping back to her brother.  And in an
instant of understanding she cried, "Hai!" and turned, running as fast as
her legs would carry her, out the door.
  Kyuosuke turned his attention back to his battered Ayukawa.  Her eyes
sorrowfull, tearing even now as he pushed slow gentle fingers through her
hair.  This was the first time he'd ever seen her cry.  And in that instant
he decided that he would never want to again.
  She looked to him--her body wracked with pain--but still, Kasuga needed
her.  Another bolt of fire gripped her, and she fought it.  Fought it with
everything she had until it subsided into the back of her mind to fester.
"Da... Daijo bu." she mumbled, her voice lost among the harsh, grating
passage the screams had left of her voice.  
  Kyousuke knelt, struck.  His mouth worked but no words came out as he
looked to her.  Everything that he had ever wanted, everything that he'd
ever needed in his lifetime... 
  "Manamiiii!" he bellowed, snapping fierce eyes around to a still bemused
Kurumi.  Kurumi staggered back, struck by the force of his voice.  "Ah..
ah.... " she struggled.  Then, her body moving of it's own accord, rushed
down the hall toward her sister.  What was happening?
  Manami bolted through the door, stopping short of the end of the futon
with her arms covered in every single medicine, wrap, ointment, she could
find.  She looked down to her brother.  Looked down into his eyes.  She'd
never seen those eyes before.  
  She pushed a foot forward and thrust her burnden down on him.
"Ayukawa-san." she commanded, pushing the woman into her covers as she
moved to keep a grasp on Kyousuke.  Madoka submitted, her eyes hollow as
she watched the fear contort her love's face.  
  "Oniichan!" Manami snapped, pushing him back a step as he crowded toward
her.
  "Ha... Hai!" Kyousuke responded, pulling his eyes away from Ayukawa for
only a second, and backed away.
  "Put that stuff over there." Manami commanded, inspecting Madoka-san
quickly, then choosing a plan of treatment.  
  Kyousuke stood, edging his way into the mob around Ayukawa to assure
himself that she was all right as the two twins worked busily, doing what
they could to make the woman comrfortable.  He pushed a foot in, glimpsing
over Manami's busy hands.  "What are you doing?" he asked, his nerves wound
into a tight ball in his throat.
  Manami huffed a breath and finished her immediate task.  "Oniichan." she
commanded, her voice strict as she turned to him.  "Go wait in the hall."
she said, only allowing him a stern glance.  
  "Shi.... Shikashi...." he intoned, a hand reaching out to Ayukawa.  He
couldn't.  He couldn't leave her now.  She needed him.  And he needed her.
  "She'll be all right." Manami chided, "But only if you let us work."  She
looked up to him, her gaze cool, and poked a stern finger toward the door.
  "Ha..." he began, but for the very life of him could not finish.  The
blood, the life's blood of his daughter, opague, and gruesome on Ayukawa's
form held his eyes.  The subtle lines of her pain that creased her forehead
held his heart.  He couldn't leave.  Wouldn't.  She....
  But she needed something from him.  He could see that in her eyes as she
drew his gaze to her own.  The cold was gone.  The pain no longer there.
Only the shining face of the one he loved remained, worm by time.  "Daijo
bu yo." she said, her voice quivering in the thick atmosphere.  "Wait for
me."  She smiled up to him, and pulled her eyes away, gritting her teeth
sharply.  
  He stood, looking to her in awe.  He could not move.  It was only when
Kurumi led him out the door and closed it behind him that his thoughts
became real again.  Ayukawa had...  Ayukawa had everything taken away.  And
yet still her dignity remained.
  Kyousuke sighed, pressing his cheek against the door as tears of his own
fear and pain beaded about his eyes.  He wouldn't let her down now.  Not
after what he'd done.
  
  Yuusaku clutched at the edge of the bed, his muscles complaining
painfully at the strain.  He raised a hand up, brushing aside the stray
lock of hair that occluded the girl's bruised eye.  The very sight, already
purple, drove shrieks of madness into him.  
  That bastard, he thought, his mind turning the events over wildly in his
mind.  He'd hit her.  Crushed her with his fist before... He shied away
from the thought.  But it was no use.  It was still there, haunting him in
the back of his mind.
  He could see, even now, Hikaru's slim body--taut for action--as she lay
in wait for Ayukawa.  Could see the fury in her eyes as she threw her foot
out into the girl's stomach.  And could see the pain, the visceral agony
that had taken the girl, tears streaming down her cheeks, to the ground.  
  Yuusaku winced sharply.  But there was still more to see as Kasuga raged
in his memory; throwing his fists down furiously to protect his charge.
More to see as Hikaru's face bounced off the pavement, then lay still,
shattered.  
  He'd tried to help.  He'd tried with everything in him to fight, to rage,
anything!  But as he came upon the two, fists clenched in his own wrath, he
met with the force of the wind.  It blew him back, crushing him against the
trunk of the tree.  As his eyes peeked wide--his back thudding into the
bark--he could see Hikaru.  Her eyes dazed by the force of the impact,
being carried by that swift wind.
  He raised a hand to her, his eyes caught by the quiver in her chest as
she pulled in breath after breath.  She was alive, the thought: if only
barely so.
  His fingers rested softly on her forehead.  Resting there only for a
second.   They trailed down, picking away the dried blood around her mouth.
 Her voice, quivering a beatern, echoed forth.  "D...Dalin..."
  Darlin? he raged silently, his body struck.  Why? Why does she still
yearn for him?!  After... but his mental words held no anger.  Could not
communicate the suffering that gripped his heart.  
  How could she? How could she do this to ME?
  He pulled his hand back, away from her.  She moaned audibly, turning
hollow eyes to him.  He shrank away from her gaze, huddling his arms about
his chest.
  She blinked, then pushed her eyes around the room.  She shot up out of
the bed, then wavered, clutching a hand to her head.  "Wha... What happened?"
  He wanted to rage.  He wanted to fight.  To find something to unleash the
anger that grew inside him.  But with each quizzical look, and each
battered glimpse of her, he felt his own wrath drain away.  He was nothing
more that a shell.  Nothing at all.  "Nandemonaio..."

  Manami knelt at the edge of the futon, pushing back a stray hair from her
sweat ridden face.  The ordeal was finally over.  Ayukawa wasn't well yet,
but with a little concentration, and more power than she would ever admit
to using, she at least wasn't bleeding any more.  "All right." she said,
trying to keep her voice even.  "That's about it, Ayukawa-san.  But don't
be thinking you can be up and about, you hear?  I want you in bed tonight.
And I do mean all night." she chided, looking down a stern finger to Ayukawa.
  "Hai." Ayukawa muttered.  She wasn't really in the mood to do anything
anyway.  The pain pill had started to kick in, and blot everything else
out.  But there was one thing.  Just one more thing she had to do.  "Can...
Can I see him?"
  Manami regarded her with a stern glare.  "If I let you see him, will you
to sleep right away?"
  "Hai." Ayukawa said, her face passive, and yet her voice still quivering
from her exertion.  
  "All right." Manami said as she got up from her post.  "I'll go get him."
  "Manami-san." Ayukawa called.  "I... I just wanted to..."  But the words
wouldn't come.  She closed her eyes, then gave a slight nod of her head.
"Arigato gozaimasu."
  Manami looked back to the woman--battered and bruised.  There's hope, she
thought: for the two of them.  I do so hope they make it.  "Doomo."
  Manami turned, leaving Ayukawa with a warm, peaceful glow about her, even
if the pain in her gut twitched eagerly.  Much had happened today, that was
true.  But as she watched Manami open the door, admitting Kyousuke, she
couldn't help but feel that their decicsion was more final now than ever.
That now the two of them were more than inseperable by fate.  They were
accepted.
  The thought comforted her as she saw the worry in his eyes.  It held him,
real and tangible as his fingers as they gripped her hand.  "A... Ayukawa."
he intoned, near tears.
  She wanted to reach out to him; wanted to comfort him.  To tell him
somehow that everything was going to be all right.  But the pain in her
midriff stopped her--pushing her back into her place in the futon.  "Daijo
bu." she said, then gripped his hand firmly in hers.  "We're together."
  He smiled to her, his morose musings stopped short.  "Hai." he said,
clasping his other hand about their grip.  "Together."
--------------------------<mattj@icnet.net>--------------------------

               In the immortal words of Bill The Cat
                           "Ack!  Oopth! Thhp!"

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