Breathe for Me (jolt!) A Weiss Kreuz fanfic By Natalie Baan (released 06/04/06)   His legs felt as if tiny electric insects were crawling under the skin, buzzing, stinging. Shock after shock--first the floor falling away beneath him, then the crash of landing, the red flash of pain, and now this constant prickling and burning--he couldn't seem to find his equilibrium, to climb out of this daze. The world was spinning in and out of focus, a pinwheel flashing around him, multidimensional and disorienting, and the only real solidity was Ken's arm curved against his back, Ken's hand clutching his shoulder, fingers knotted in the hood of his jacket. Ken had taken off his gloves, Omi noticed vaguely, but...wasn't it still dangerous? /Schreint..../ From a peculiar distance, somewhere high above him, he heard a woman's voice, one of those other assassins, their enemies. /This place used to be a military lab. It's not strange to find all sorts of dangerous stuff down here, is it? For instance, something that can kill you if it gets into your body..../ Was that it? He had a moment of clarity, a pinprick of understanding and alarm. Ken, already taut with worry and frustration, tensed further as the woman laughed. /Aya, Youji!/ Ken yelled. /Hurry up and get us out of here! Omi's in trouble!/ Far off, he could just make out the sounds of blows, a low grunt and thud of impact from Aya, Youji and another of the women improbably holding a conversation at some length. Oh, but he would...if it was /her./ In any case, it didn't seem as though anyone would be coming for them soon. Yet Omi found that he didn't mind it...not that much. Anxiety had faded, he was drifting again, and it was almost nice--for once not to be planning, always trying to think through every contingency, making sure of success and of the others' safety, as best he could. There was nothing he could do right now but wait, and be held, these arms strong and sure around him, for all their owner's furious dismay. And if he were to die like this.... His eyes had closed somehow; slowly and with some effort he levered them open. Ken was staring down at him, scared, not even trying to hide it. It was wrong that Ken should have to worry about him, but he was happy anyway, gently, inexplicably, dizzily happy--not alone, no, and Ken, Ken would save him if there were any way possible. Never abandoned, not like that time.... His attention had wandered, he found his gaze tracing the tense set of Ken's mouth, lingering there, and his thudding heart lurched unexpectedly, began to race twice as fast as before. /And then...if my breath should stop..../ "Omi?" All the fever in his body seemed to have become concentrated in his face, a surging flame of embarrassment, of...of.... Ken only continued to look worried, as if nothing had changed. And maybe nothing had, except inside of him: this realization, this longing that in waking had become its own answer, could maybe answer everything that had gone wrong in their world, if only...so tenuous, so fragile, and hazy as he was he couldn't quite figure out how to put it into words, that terrifying hope, that luminous desire and need. He tried anyway, groping outward to curl his trembling fingers in the front of Ken's shirt. "K- Ken-kun...." And Youji /screamed,/ as no man should ever scream, in starkest rage and anguish. Ken's head jerked up, his gaze ripping away from Omi's; he swore softly, horrified. The twin shocks of Youji's cry and the loss of that briefly still center of his spinning world was too much for Omi--he'd lost his grip, he was falling away from what he'd just found, falling back into a darkness, and the last thing left to reach out for was Ken's voice, desperate and fading in the distance as he fell-- "/Omi!/" /Ken-kun..../ One last thought then, like light fading from the surface of an ocean, far above him: /Would you breathe for me?/   Omake! Return to Main Not for 30 Kisses Page   |   Return to Main Fanfics Page