Omens (part 2)

By Yai-tzu Hin

Warning: No part of this story or cast of characters may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author, Yai-tzu Hin. If you do, dogs will wake you at 3:00 am in the morning, your hair will go gray at an early age, all you pens will run out of ink at the most inconvenient time, and your computer will always freeze up in the middle of the best part of a fic.

I don't hear anything.

That's because there is no one about.

Where is everyone?

Gone.

Gone?

They'll be back, don't worry.

Where am I?

Between life and death.

Who are you?

Someone.

I can't see anything.

Because you're afraid to. Open your mind's eye.

How?

Don't think about it, relax. There, that's it. Now can you see?

Yes. You are a guy.

I know.

Not that bad looking either.

Um, thank you. Do you remember what I said earlier?

No.

You have to decide.

Decide what?

Whether to return to life or move towards death.

Oh, that.

Yes, that.

Let me think about it some more.

Are you sure you won't forget this time?

I'll try not to. If I don't, will you remind me again?

Yes.

"She's still unconscious? It's been almost twenty-four hours." Yatsurugi said worriedly as Keien sat on his bed. Leaning forward Keien rested his elbows on his knees.

"I don't know if she'll ever wake up." He muttered into his folded hands. "The doctors are confident that she'll come out eventually. I'm not so sure. What if she never wakes up? Meiko will be on life support for as long as…"

"As long as your family can pay. Then they may pull the plug." Yatsurugi finished gloomily. "Keien, I wish there was some way I could help her, but there are limits to what angels can do."

"I know. I feel so helpless waiting. I don't know what to do."

Yatsurugi sat down on the bed next to Keien. He'd been sitting on the floor of his room reading when Keien had come home from the hospital that morning. Keien had wandered in for some company and a sympathetic ear. To Yatsurugi, it looked as though Keien would collapse at any moment from exhaustion. This was not a good time to talk; Keien should be sleeping.

"Keien, get some rest. You look drained. You don't have to move, just use my bed." Keien nodded. Yatsurugi hugged him then kissed him gently on the cheek. Keien stared at him with tired eyes. "Get some sleep, I'm going out to get some groceries."

"I'll try." Keien whispered. Yatsurugi released him and walked out of the room, turning the lights out as he exited. After the door was shut, Keien sat in the dark for a moment thinking. He was too drained to concentrate though and finally lay down. The comforter was soft and warms. Keien wrapped himself in it breathing in Yatsurugi's scent. Snuggling down into the nest of blankets and sheets, Keien smiled and thought how fortunate he was to have Yatsurugi as his roommate.

Out in the living room Yatsurugi smiled at Keien's unguarded thoughts. They warmed him, making him realize that he had to do what he'd secretly thought about for the last couple of hours. Closing his eyes, he relaxed his entire body letting all his defenses drop. Tiny wings sprouted from his shoulder blades then grew to their full size. Flapping them twice to work out the kinks, Yatsurugi hopped into the air and disappeared.

"REIMU!"

Reimu looked about him. This was the third time he'd heard it. He knew that voice and it sounded aggravated. Sitting cross-legged in midair above Meiko's hospital bed he waited for the inevitable.

"REIMU!" the voice boomed again.

"Hai…" he called out reluctantly. Suddenly Yatsurugi appeared before him. The guardian angel seemed put out and Reimu knew why.

"You didn't answer me earlier." Yatsurugi pointed out crossing his arms in front of him. "Why?"

"I would be lying if I said I didn't hear you. The fact is I didn't feel like answering." Reimu said. He glanced up at Yatsurugi with a somber face. "I know why you're here. I'm surprised Kayumi hasn't come to breathe down my neck yet. I can almost hear her asking me what the hell I thought I was doing letting Meiko get off the sidewalk." Yatsurugi's irritation vanished in light of his old friend's mood.

"Reimu, I'm not here to yell at you or blame you for this." He swept his hand over Meiko's body. "I'm here to find out what exactly happened yesterday. I have a roommate who is going out of his mind with worry and if there is anything I can do to relieve it I will." Reimu smiled for the first time since yesterday morning.

"I had a feeling that you would take human form someday to be with him. I wish you had told me though."

"I didn't even tell Kayumi. I just did it." Yatsurugi answered coming to sit next to him. "But this isn't about me. This is about you and Meiko. Now what happened?" Reimu remained silent for several minutes before answering. His light brown wings twitched as he thought.

"Meiko was walking to a bookstore when she heard the truck crash into the cars. People were trying to get out of the way. They screamed as they ran it was horrible. I just watched as panicking people tried to escape. I saw a child by itself standing in the crosswalk crying for its mother. Its guardian angel was trying to urge it to run. Oh God, Yatsurugi, the child wouldn't move and there was nothing anyone could do. Suddenly Meiko rushed out into the intersection. She scooped up it up and using her momentum, she headed for the other side. She was almost across when the truck roared through. Yatsurugi, I should have stopped her. I should have kept her on that sidewalk." Reimu wrung his hands. "It's my fault she was hurt."

"Shh. It's not your fault. She made up her own mind. We can't control their thinking, we're just guides."

"But we're guardian angels! If I don't guard her from danger the what good am I?" Reimu demanded. Yatsurugi sighed.

"We guard them from dangers that is true, but we can't protect them from everything. We're not meant to. If we protected them against everything then they would never learn. Don't blame yourself for what happened. It was her choice, not yours." Yatsurugi explained quietly. "Did the child survive?"

"Yes."

"Then she performed an act of heroism, that will go well on her records. You should be glad for that."

"It doesn't make me feel any better." Reimu answered. "She hangs in that place between life and death. I'm afraid she'll cross over."

"It's not bad. All cross over eventually."

"But she's so young!" Reimu protested. Yatsurugi sympathized with the young guardian angel. This was only his second charge. The first had died at age seven from a gun wound. Reimu hadn't taken it well, but it had been an accident he couldn't have prevented. Yesterday, he'd had a small chance to prevent Meiko's injuries, which ate at him like a relentless worm.

"Have you talked to her?"

"Yes."

"Remember that this is her decision, not yours. Meiko must make up her own mind."

"I know." Sighing, Reimu fiddled with the lacing on his shirt. It was of a style favored by swashbucklers of days gone by. He wore pants made of something resembling buckskin with knee high riding boots. A rawhide strap held his long blond hair in a ponytail, which spilled down his back in a gentle wave.

Yatsurugi shifted his weight from one hip to the other, then gave up and sat down in one of the soft hospital chairs.

"By the way, why did you vanish when we showed up yesterday? I know you were in the room up until we came in." he said.

"I didn't realize it was you and Kayumi at first. I had other things on my mind at the time and wasn't paying attention to who was coming or going. It was only afterwards that it dawned on me who you were. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I understand." They sat in silence for a few moments before Yatsurugi noticed the time. He still had to pick up the groceries.

"Listen, I'm going to go. Are you going to be all right?"

"No." Reimu answered. Yatsurugi looked at him doubtfully. "But I will try."

"I'm going to stop by and tell Kayumi before she shows up." He stood up and Reimu floated down to the floor.

"Yeah, she tends to get a little over protective sometimes."

"That's mostly with Haruka or me. I don't think you have much to worry about, she wouldn't scold you. Deep down she knows this wasn't your fault." Yatsurugi clapped him on the shoulder. "You'll be fine. Being a good guardian angel just takes time and experience, but I understand how you feel."

"See you." Reimu said as Yatsurugi nodded a farewell and disappeared. "Thank you my friend."

Keien woke up to the phone ringing. Groping in the dark it took him a few minutes to realize that he wasn't in his room. Stumbling out of bed, he fumbled for Yatsurugi's lamp. The ringing abruptly stopped. Finding the lamp, he turned it on and walked towards the door just as Yatsurugi burst in.

"Keien! Oh, good you're awake. It's your mother." Keien took the phone and listened to his mother's excited words. He nearly dropped the phone in shock.

"Is everything all right?" Yatsurugi asked impatiently. He prayed nothing had happened to Meiko, he had only left Reimu a half an hour ago.

"We'll be right over." Keien said, then hung up. Turning to Yatsurugi he hugged him, crushing the thinner man in his embrace. "Meiko woke up."

"Thank heavens."

Meiko lay in bed with the world's biggest headache. She was tired of having people poke and prod her. She felt like a pincushion. Her mother had cried and her father had expressed his joy in his usual stoic way. Keien and Haruka had arrived at the same time and practically fell over each other to hug her. Of course being hugged hurt with her broken ribs, but she was glad to see her family anyway. Since she had woken up at least one family member had been at her bedside during the day. They left at about six or seven to go home and eat or in Keien's case do homework. A couple of her cousins and one aunt had also shown up to see her. As much as she loved her family, she was getting sick of them.

Glancing at her bedside, she counted the vases of flowers again. There wasn't much else to do, so she began to read the cards again. She smiled at Kagamida Imizu's card with a happy winking smiling face and the words "Get well soon so we can check out the guys at the library again." She remembered how Imizu had rated Keien and Yatsurugi and snickered. At least she had good taste in men; too bad they weren't interested in her. Yatsurugi and Kayumi, who Meiko had learned, was not only Haruka's new roommate but Yatsurugi's sister too, had written a very sweet card. She wasn't sure who had the nice penmanship, but it was very graceful.

She leaned back on the hard hospital pillow and stared at the ceiling. The pattern the dry rock or whatever the ceiling was made out of, was interesting. She spent about five minutes playing connect the dots in her mind. Unfortunately the picture was the same one she had been drawing in her mind ever since she had woken up. The picture of the man from her dreams. A tall man with long pale blond hair pulled back in a ponytail. He had blue-green eyes and a soft concerned voice. God, she thought, he was gorgeous! Too bad it was just a dream.

"Knock, knock." A by now familiar voice called as she entered.

"Good day Kayumi." Meiko said.

"I'm here to warn you that Haruka and Keien are on their way up with your parents." Meiko groaned and muttered not again. "Listen, if it makes you feel any better the doctors are thinking of sending you home. Unfortunately that would mean being with your parents for a while. At least two weeks."

"Two weeks!"

"Don't shout." Yatsurugi said coming up behind Meiko.

"Oh, great. Now everyone's here! Why don't I just hold a flipping party in here!"

"Actually, Kayumi and I are going to meet an old friend for dinner. We just dropped off Keien and Haruka." Yatsurugi reassured walking over to one side of the bed. Kayumi remained by the doorway glancing about the room in an irritable manner. She was wearing her hair pulled back in a bun. She wore a dark blue spaghetti strap dress that only came to just above her knees and heels to match. She had two necklaces of varying length around her neck, both gold and earrings to match. Yatsurugi was wearing a nice dress shirt with a pair of black slacks. The vest he had on was a mosaic of deep greens, blues, purples, and mahogany. Over it he wore a long black coat with gold buttons. Kayumi was holding her coat, which looked like suede. Meiko had to admit that they were dressed to kill and she envied them for it. She wanted to go too.

Yatsurugi leaned over her and kissed her lightly on the forehead. "Get well soon." He whispered as he turned to leave. Kayumi was smiling.

"Get well soon Meiko. We're all pulling for you." She said with a wink. Yatsurugi waved and left the room. "Now don't get any ideas." Kayumi warned with a smile. "My brother has eyes for only one person."

"Now if we could only get them together." Meiko replied. Kayumi laughed and waved farewell.

"We're working on that. Later. Ja ne." With that Meiko was once more alone, but not for long as her family was undoubtedly on their way up.

Reimu waited just outside the room. Yatsurugi saw him as soon as he exited.

"So where are we going?" he asked brushing a lock of long blond hair off his shoulder. He had his hair pulled back in its familiar fashion, which hung down to his rear. Yatsurugi wondered if he ever sat on it on accident.

"We're going to a nice French restaurant. Kayumi's driving."

"Come on you two." Kayumi said shutting the door behind her. "Let's go before the Nakabori family arrives. The last thing we need to explain is how come there is now a gorgeous blond dressed in semi-formal wear with us. I hate trying to explain odd things to people."

Both men shrugged and then headed out. They had some catching up to do and the Nakabori family needed some time to themselves. The sun shone warmly as it began to descend in the west. The evening promised to be clear and everyone was glad.