Capitolo 2 :: TRAGEDY HITS CLOSE TO HOME

Pubblicato: 03-12-05 - Ultimo aggiornamento: 05-04-06

Capitolo: 1 2

The doorbell kept ringing. And ringing.  

»The idiot probably forgot his keys again,« Kaori muttered, glancing at the clock. Half past midnight?! »He's home early.«  

The doorbell rang again.  

»Yeah, yeah,« she grumbled. »Coming!« Kaori opened the door with enough force to send it against the wall. »You're drunk again... Saeko?«  

The Detective looked at her with red eyes.  

Kaori's heart stopped. She's never seen the policewoman crying before. »God, what happened? ... Is it Ryo?!«  

Nogami Saeko shook her head, dabbing at her eyes with a Kleenex. »It's not Ryo... Kaori, you better sit down.«  

Kaori swallowed, walking to the sofa. This wasn't good. »Saeko, do you need anything? A glass of water?«  

»No, I'm fine,« the other woman murmured, eyes empty. »Sit down, please.«  

Kaori sat, back rigid.  

»It's Miki,« Saeko sighed. »She's dead.«  

The redhead stared at her in shock. »What? When?... How?«  

»There was an accident,« Saeko's voice trembled. »She went off the road.«  

Kaori shook her head. »No, impossible. She was the best driver I've ever known. She couldn't...«  

»It was raining, Kaori.«  

Kaori, her eyes wide, but incredibly dry, looked down at her hands, calmly clasped in her lap. »Does Umibozu know?«  

Saeko nodded. »I told him as soon as they found the remains.«  

»The remains?«  

»Her car...« Saeko took a deep breath. »It exploded.«  

»I see.«  

Appalled, Saeko looked at the younger woman in front of her. How could Kaori be so calm? How could she speak so naturally about her best friend's death? Opening her mouth to yell at her, she noticed the strain around Kaori's mouth, the emptiness of her stare... She was waiting to be alone to break down. Saeko admired her.  

»How did he take it?« Kaori's calm, deadpan voice snapped her out of her reverie.  

»Badly... Not that he showed it or anything...«  

»Did you see his face?«  

»Like carved in rock. He didn't say a word, just closed the door in my face. Maybe someone should...«  

»No,« Kaori interrupted her. »I think he should be alone for a while. He's different... just like Ryo. They don't take loss the way we do. It runs much deeper...«  

»Yeah, I know,« Saeko breathed. »I should go.«  

»Yes, please.«  

At three o'clock Ryo finally stumbled in front of his apartment. Burping, he laughed idiotically, scratching his groin. Hopefully Kaori was asleep and she wouldn't hear him. He wasn't exactly subtle and silent when smashed. He laughed again. The laughter ended in a hiccup and another burp.  

Finally finding the lock with the right key, he pushed the door open.  

The apartment was immersed in darkness.  

She was asleep. He really had been born under a lucky star.  

Tiptoeing toward the stairs, hiccupping along the way, he felt it. Like a breath of air on his nape, making the hair at the back of his neck rise, goose bumps arising across his skin and his groin tighten.  

Even drunk, he recognized the sensation. And he knew she was near. The only woman capable of making his heart skip a beat, his breath hitch in his throat, of making his body tighten with such bittersweet pain. Her. The one and only.  

Kaori.  

»Wait! Kaori-kun! Hold the hammer!« Even saying that, he realized the vibes she was transmitting were innocuous ones. Not the usual vibes that flooded him she squashed him into a pancake.  

Where was she?  

Closing his eyes, he searched for her with his senses. He could always pinpoint her. Right now, she was... the sofa.  

Turning the small table lamp on, he looked down at her... and paled, his heart stopping, seeing her expression. He was sober in an instant.  

»Kaori?« he murmured.  

Nothing. She just kept staring into nothingness, her eyes wide and empty.  

»Kaori?« He crouched in front of the sofa, gently touching her knee.  

She gave a start, finally looking at him.  

»Ryo?« Her voice sounded so small and she looked so fragile and defenseless curled there on the sofa in her big pajamas, his heart squeezed.  

»What happened? Kaori, God, are you hurt?«  

She shook her head, her big, hazel eyes filling up with tears. »Ryo...«  

He kneeled in front of her, searching her face for clues of what happened. He barely recognized her at that moment. »What is it?«  

»Miki...« Her lower lip wobbled and a tear trickled down her cheek. »Miki's dead.«  

Ryo's world turned black and white as his face lost all expression. Miki was dead. Another loved one left this world. He was tired of losing people he cared about. And what about Umi? How was he supposed to look into his friend's face? What was he supposed to say to him?  

He hated feeling like this. He didn't know how to cope with grief. He never had to learn. While growing up, it was kill or be killed for him. No remorse, no grief, nothing. Just emptiness inside, growing and growing, until it consumed his soul.  

He looked at the woman in front of him, with her face streaked by tears, her hands fisted in her pajamas. Why were people crying when someone died? He never cried. He wasn't sure he knew how...  

»Ryo...«  

The sobbing plea in her voice turned the colors back on. Kaori. Now the important thing was taking care of her. Looking after her. Let her grieve. He was thankful. At least he didn't have to think about his own inadequacy.  

»Come here,« he murmured, gathering her in his arms. This was the only time he could hold her close, feel her supple body against his own, and breathe in the clean scent of her hair and skin. When she was hurting. When she cried.  

Sitting on the sofa, he took her onto his lap, soothingly caressing her back. »Cry, Kaori. Go ahead and cry...«  

Kaori's hands grabbed his T-shirt, her face burrowing against his chest as she sobbed. She's never felt this miserable before. Not even when her brother died. How was it possible? Did she care more about her friend that her brother? Her own flesh and blood? That thought made her cry even harder, her smaller body trembling in Ryo's strong embrace.  

Burrowing closer, she realized he's never held her like this before. This close. It was like he was experiencing her grief, crying her own tears. Tapping in on her emotions, because it was the only way for him to grieve, too.  

Ryo looked down at the exhausted woman sleeping on his lap. Tiny spasms still shook her slender frame from time to time, but at least the tears have stopped.  

She told him what has happened to Miki and it made his blood run cold. It could have easily happened to her... And then? What would he have done?  

Tenderly kissing her hair, he leaned his head back, falling asleep with her still cuddled in his arms. 

Capitolo: 1 2