GLE - This is a one-shot. I will not be adding to it or doing any sequels. It is set at some point after the first anime series when Hei and Yin return to Japan and the police are aware that they've returned. I'm kind of hoping that the second manga series, Darker Than Black: Shikkoku no Hana (which is drawn by one of the artists that worked on the anime), is a bridge between the two anime (as it is set one year after the first anime, and the second anime, Darker Than Black: Ryusei no Gemini, is set another year after that), but since both the second anime and the second manga are ongoing, I don't know. So, this story is probably set during Shikkoku no Hana. I'm going to assume that during the time in between each series, Hei and Yin are not in Japan.

Anyways, as it is, this is probably the only Darker Than Black fic that I'm going to do, and only because it is a one-shot. I really don't have much time to spend on fanfiction anymore. I hope that you enjoy it and that I stay true to the characters!

-(o)-

Night of Rest

The phone on the table is ringing. Outside the rain is falling and a distant siren is sounding, perhaps coming closer. The ringtone stops abruptly as the person on the other end is sent to voicemail.

"Kirihara, Misaki, please leave a message after the beep."

Saitou clears his throat, "Kaichou, we've got a situation. BK-201 was in another fight. There are three contractors dead. We're actually only a few blocks from your apartment. Call me back soon."

The relentless rain continues to pour down. In a back-alley, Hei and Yin retreat, and are soaked through to the bone. Hei collapses to the ground behind a dumpster, out of sight from the nearby street. His breathing is shallow and constricted. There's a patch of blood plastered to his left side underneath his ribs, and slowly his bloodied hand that is grasping at it is being cleansed by the rain.

The grey sky matches his greying face, the dark outlines of buildings and objects around him are like the dark circles beneath his eyes. He can blend into his dismal surroundings here and no one will give a second glance. The once untouchable Black Reaper has been slipping recently. Who wouldn't with all the stress he's been under? He has been doing everything alone for a while now. Protecting Yin. Gathering information by himself. Constantly looking out for assassins. Fighting on his own. He hasn't slept. He's barely eaten. His body is worn out. But all he can think is to blame himself for his wound. He hadn't noticed the third contractor until it was too late.

Despite winning the battle, he didn't get away unscathed and is now paying for it in this dark corner of this alley, slowly bleeding from the gash along his side. Yin bends over him, a pocket-sized emergency kit in her hands. She pulls out a roll of gauze and reaches towards the hem of Hei's shirt in his open jacket. As she treats him, Hei's breathing increases frantically and his vision blurs. His head drops onto his chest as his shoulders slip further down the wall behind him. Yin is still for a moment, letting the rain continue to pound upon her and Hei. The distant sound of traffic is muffled by the beating of the raindrops against the ground and all surfaces around them. She looks up at the apartment building next to them, then to the garbage can lid that has been collecting rainwater beside her.

Misaki emerges from the bathroom, feeling refreshed. A towel wrapped around her head, she crosses her living room and makes a beeline for her fridge. She extracts a snack-sized yoghurt and carries it with her back towards the couch, grabbing her cell from the table as she goes. Before she can make herself comfortable, she notices the missed call. She puts down the phone and yoghurt and grabs the towel on her head with both her hands, rubbing her hair with it a few times to help the drying process and then removing it.

Misaki picks up her cell again and dials for voicemail.

"Kaichou, we've got a situation. BK-201..."

"BK-201!" Misaki exclaims.

Wasting no more time, Misaki redresses in a rush, leaving her yoghurt untouched. As she's pulling on her socks and slamming her feet into her shoes, she's got her phone to her ear. The person on the other end answers.

"Saitou? It's Kirihara," she says. "I'm on my way, where are you exact--woah!"

Misaki stops abruptly, almost knocking a girl to the floor. Right outside her apartment door stands a small figure as the cop does her best to regain her balance.

"Kaichou? What's wrong?" asks Saitou alarmed through the phone.

"Hold on a moment," Misaki responds quickly. She finishes pulling her jacket on and does a quick double-check of her gun. It's in the holster on her waist, as it should be. She does a fast scan of the hallway, but there's no one other than the doll standing in front of her. She questions, "What do you want?"

Yin looks up with her deadpan eyes and replies slowly, "Hei trusts you."

Misaki's mind connects the dots quickly. She had once heard that BK-201's codename was Hei. This is BK-201's doll?

"Saitou?"

"Yes, Kaichou."

"BK-201 is no longer on the scene?"

"No. He was gone before we got here."

"Something's come up. I'm sure you can take care of the investigation and clean-up without me tonight."

"Kaichou? I mean, a-ah, yes we can."

"Good, see you tomorrow." Misaki shuts her phone and slips it into her pocket. Turning to Yin, she states, "Ok, lead the way."

Misaki follows the doll down the hall, but instead of turning right to go to the elevators, the girl heads left towards the emergency exit stairwell. When they get to the bottom, Misaki notices the remnants of a cardboard box that someone had used to prop the door open. So much for her building's security. With that thought, Misaki realizes that the doll has completely avoided being caught on camera, since she hadn't come through the front door or ridden on the elevator. As expected of the cautious BK-201, the doll has been trained well.

The sky is growing dark quickly, but the rain never ceases. Misaki sees the shape of a man slumped in the corner and runs towards him. The gauze on Hei's torso has been soaked through by blood and rain alike and a pool of blood has formed on the ground beside him. His breathing is erratic, and with a quick touch to his forehead, Misaki observes that he is burning up. She lifts Hei's shirt to check the wound and Yin holds out the remainder of the gauze from her emergency kit. Misaki quickly changes the gauze, noting that fortunately his bleeding seems to have stopped. Together with Yin, the two women struggle to sneak him inside. Misaki leads the way, holding Hei's upper body by bracing him under his arms and Yin carries his legs. Slowly, but surely, they make their way up ten flights of stairs, taking breaks often.

Once they successfully make it to the right floor, they enter Misaki's apartment and place him on her bed. Yin steps back as a flurry of activity engulfs Misaki. First she properly takes care of Hei's wound, removing his coat and shirt completely. When she's satisfied with her work, Misaki continues to remove most of the other drenched articles of clothing from the shivering Hei, starting with his shoes. She covers him with her bedsheets and goes to grab more blankets from the closet.

There's no medicine in her apartment, she realizes and glances quickly at her watch. 10:03 pm... it's too late to go to a store in this area. He probably wouldn't have the capacity to swallow it anyways. With no other alternative, Misaki prepares a bowl of cool water and snatches up a few towels, placing a wet one on his head. Hei inhales sharply, but then returns to a somewhat shallow breathing pattern, sweat dripping down his face. Misaki takes a moment to stare at him, to really look at him for the first time in over a year. She takes in all his features, from his wet, unkempt hair, to the stubble beginning to grow on his jawline, to the deep, black rings around his eyes.

"What have you been through...?" she whispers. She reaches towards him and brushes a stray strand of hair off his eyes.

Snapping back to awareness, Misaki turns to leave the room. The doll is sitting at the table, a pool of water beneath her, the ends of her hair still dripping slowly onto the carpet.

"What's your name?" Misaki asks her.

"Yin," the girl replies.

"Okay, Yin, let's get you out of those clothes."

After Yin has changed, Misaki goes around and gathers up all the wet clothing, hanging it up in her bathroom to dry. She prepares a makeshift bed on the floor of her living room for Yin and turns off the lights to allow the girl some rest. Once her eyes have adjusted to the dark, Misaki heads back to her bedroom where Hei is fitfully stirring, to change the cloth on his forehead.

Hei gives a particularly violent twitch in time with a slight moan. Before realizing what she's doing, Misaki reaches out and clasps his hand with her own. Hei's twitches subside and his breaths calm. Misaki almost smiles. This man before her has chosen a hard life. He made a decision a year ago that not many people would take. Misaki feels a strange sort of admiration for him, whether attracted to him or not. But more than that, she has so many questions she wants to ask him.

In the morning, if he is better, she'll have to return to cop mode and bring him in for questioning. A slight frown appears on Misaki's features, and she continues to gaze at the elusive BK-201, as if any moment he'd disappear from her sight only leaving his back turned towards her, with the chase beginning again. But here in her home, in her bed, at a deeper level of sleep than he's had in months, the feared Black Reaper seems to be nothing more than an ordinary man with a fever. An ordinary, harmless, peaceful man, with black hair and kind eyes and a serious look on his sometimes goofy face.

With that, Misaki slowly drifts off to the world of dreams herself.

Hei wakes up with a start and immediately takes in his unfamiliar surroundings before moving any further. He's in a bedroom. The dim light coming in from the window suggests late evening or early morning - it's probably the latter, since the last thing he remembers was sitting in an alley in the rain just before sunset. The cloth that was on his forehead falls onto the pillow when he turns to face the window - someone was taking care of him? His senses awakening more, he realizes that there's a soft weight on his lap, and his right hand is loosely holding someone else's hand. He can hear a few morning birds outside, the fridge humming in another room, and deep, sleeping breaths of the person sitting next to him. He sits up.

The wound on his left side gives a painful sting and he winces, resting his left hand on it lightly for a moment. His shirt is off, but the gash has been well-treated. He looks down at the person who had fallen forward from her chair to use his legs as a headrest. Surprise registers his features for a moment before he regains his collected face. Misaki Kirihara...

Gently, Hei removes his hand from her grasp and lightly lifts her arms and head, shifting out from under her. He climbs out of bed on the opposite side and quietly makes his way to the next room. He sees Yin asleep on the floor in different clothing from usual. Passing her, he goes to the bathroom, runs the water on low intensity and wets his face slightly. He looks up into the mirror. It's dark in the apartment, but he can make out the outline of his face. He places a hand on his forehead; his fever is gone. He feels groggy and painful all over, but, (amazingly), well-rested. Hei notices the clothes that are strewn about the little room, and grabs his own. Once dressed, he carries Yin's clothing out towards her. Yin's eyes are open now and she sits up.

"We're leaving," Hei tells her and drops her clothes next to her bed.

He walks back into Misaki's bedroom. The woman is still soundly asleep in an uncomfortable-looking position. Hei hesitates a moment, then carefully picks her up and carries her out of the room. He passes Yin with Misaki in his arms and heads for the couch. Softly, he lays Misaki down across it, then goes to fetch a blanket for her from the closet. As he pulls the blanket up to her neck, he bends over her, his lips an inch from her forehead. He hovers a moment, then stands straight again and strides towards her balcony where Yin is waiting.

Outside, the world is slowly waking to grey. The clouds are still covering the sky, but they're lighter today. The ground is damp. There's almost a mist in the air. It's cool and calm and quiet.

Misaki wakes before the regular alarm from her cell phone goes off. She sits up and suddenly remembers the previous night. She pushes the blanket off of her, noting that Yin is no longer asleep on her floor, and she rushes to her bedroom. It's empty, just like the rest of her apartment. He's gone. She feels a shiver and turns to head back into her living room, but not before noticing that her bedsheets, as well as Yin's makeshift bed, have been folded neatly in a pile on her bed, next to the towels and the bowl of water. In her living room, she discovers that her balcony door is slightly ajar. For someone who doesn't know the trick to this finicky door, her guests wouldn't have known the proper way to shut it and as it stands, there's a slight gap that's letting the cool air of outside in. As she shifts the door into its proper place, the reality of the situation sets in. He's gone. This feels like the last time she saw him leave her, only this time she didn't even say so much as one word to him.

Misaki begins to tidy up and finds her yoghurt carton from last night had rolled underneath the table, forgotten. She picks it up and walks into her kitchen debating on throwing it out or putting it back into her fridge. While contemplating, she opens her fridge to get some orange juice to start her day and instantly registers how much emptier it is today than it was yesterday. So, the two refugees had raided her fridge? In the back of her mind, Misaki couldn't help but hear his voice say, "Because it's you, I knew you'd understand... Thank you."

Putting down the yoghurt on her counter, Misaki treads back into her living room slowly, staring out the window as the sky grows lighter and lighter each minute. She closes her eyes for a moment and pictures his face from last night clearly in her mind.

The stars in the sky are hidden behind the layer of clouds. But even if they were visible, they'd already be fading quickly with the brightening sky. BK-201... Hei... The Black Reaper... Li-kun... whoever he is, has disappeared into the wind once more.

-(x)-

GLE - That's it, that's all folks! Short and sweet!

Ah, sorry for the "Kaichou" business - I can't imagine Saitou calling her anything but that. "Kaichou" means "Chief" in English.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed this little fic. I tried my best to keep everyone in character and to add lots of details! And yes, this is complete. As in, I am not adding anymore chapters to it, I have no intention to continue it, and I will not be continuing it, period. It's just a little taste of a great anime, and I know that it couldn't possibly compare to the awesomeness that is the real Darker Than Black. Plus, I prefer doing one-shots in general.

I'd love to know your opinions on this. This is the first time that I've written a fic since delving into the world of sound design and I couldn't help but include the sound imagery throughout, just as I would if I were looking at an animation trying to decide what sounds need to be added. Oh, and of course, I love reviews!

Well, with that, I'm signing off for now!