Prologue:
Blood and repulsively disintegrated cadavers was all he could see each time he closes his eyes to sleep. For some reason, - God knows what, Ryo just couldn't drift into sleep like he used to, especially after working two days straight off his ass on a case. Moreover, it wasn't as if it was his first encounter with the red fluid that runs through the veins in a human anatomy. But something in the recent case daunted the half- Japanese even in his dreams.
Ryo had actually lost count of the times he tossed and turned on his side of the bed since he turned in that evening. Frustrated with kicking and wrestling with the blanket, the man finally bolted up, sighing in aggravation. Ruffling his blond tresses, he stifled a yawn as a cup of hot cocoa came into mind. But in the midst of imagining the hot cup of drink draining down his throat, the sleepy jet black eyes abruptly widen as chill crept up his spine, waking him in every way when it finally struck him that his partner/sleeping companion/lover was not at least disrupted by his restlessness. Worse yet, Dee wasn't even in bed.
Stretching over to feel the other side of the bed, the man noted how cold it felt. Unquestionably, Dee was up for quite some time and yet, throughout the sleepless night, Ryo wasn't even aware he was gone. Maybe his mind was a little preoccupied but he had always been a light sleeper. The slightest movement would trigger his mental alarm system, instantly waking him from even the sweetest dream. So, how the hell did Dee manage to leave the room without waking the 'sleeping' figure next to him? The thought alone made Ryo queasy in the stomach. Knots were forming by the time he called out for him but no reply came back.
"Dee?" he tried again, slightly louder than before but not loud enough to wake the blond teenage boy in the next room.
Eyebrows knitted in perplexity. It wasn't in the other man's nature to stir before the sun is positioned somewhere around 90 degrees in angle above the roof. Being on familiar terms with the younger man, Dee doesn't walk in his sleep. So, where on earth could he be at such an untimely hour?
'Could he be having the same distraught thoughts?' a theory came into mind. Under common circumstances, Dee would be cool and level-headed about homicide cases and it wouldn't stop him from sleeping like a log, irregardless of the level of gruesomeness at a crime scene. But it had to be the first time anyone has seen the color on the face of the dark-haired man, drained pallid at a crime scene. The whiteness on his face was almost terrifying, so petrifying that Ryo nearly shipped him to the hospital together with the corpse in the ambulance.
If Ryo hadn't known better, he would have come to a conclusion that Dee might have known the deceased, - but he didn't. In fact, in the following two minutes, all Dee did was mumble to himself. Either way, Dee has been acting strange since the afternoon. Instead of adding sugar into his cup of coffee, he threw in two spoonful of salt; and rather than lighting a cigarette, he toyed with the platinum lighter in his hand till he accidentally burnt his index finger. Above all, despite the slapdash smile of his, the flaxen man wasn't all that convinced that Dee was being his usual self.
Ambling to the door, Ryo pushed away the thought, 'There's no point worrying about that blithe man. He's probably feeling a little distracted. He'll be...' But the thought faded into oblivion the instant he heard the other man's voice faintly from beyond the door. Opening the door ajar in silence, not wanting to startle him, he saw Dee standing out in the balcony with the windows wide open, - talking to the other person on the other end of the line with burning fury.
"...I don't want to hear any of this! Hell with it, Raven!! I don't want to be a part of your goddamn plans. Just leave me alone like you did for the past five years!! ... Damnit, Raven!! Don't you dare drag Jacq into this... I'm warning you..." his tone was dangerously low as the last few words escape his lips, - almost threatening, it sounded. Obviously, whomever he was talking to, Dee was enraged by him. It wasn't too often seeing Dee this angry. The last time Ryo remembered seeing Dee this infuriated was the time Penguin's orphanage was blown up.
Still listening in silence, Ryo wasn't making out heads or tails to any of the words Dee had said.
"Look, Raven. For the last time, I'm not going back into the pits of darkness. Look, I'm sick and tired of arguing about this with you! I feel even sicker each time you call reminding me about the past!... When I left five years ago, you gave your word ... Damn it, Raven! It makes no different now or then! It's all the same!! Don't you dare back on your words now!... Since when do you give a fuck about what the Elders have to say?! I don't give a damn about life back then. I don't even care how luxurious it was or how rich we were. No matter what you say, I'm not going back to that inhumane life!! ... God, what do I have to do to make you understand?! I have a life now, a life worthy of living... Though it isn't much... yes..." he sighed in defeat, "... incomparable to the how much I make in the past, but at least I earned it, - every sweat and blood of my own... Yes, I know the consequences of my decision. I will not back from my stand now. But forewarning Raven, if our paths ever cross, I will not hesitate again..." Dee pulled away his cell phone and cut the call hastily from being persuaded further.
Never had Ryo ever seen Dee's smoke-green eyes glint so beautifully under the moonlight. It was as though a burning fury was flaming inside of him, - something that made Dee completely irresistible, yet so distant. Ryo swallowed hard down his dried throat. The attraction of the other man was a test of Devil's temptation.
Absentmindedly, or should he say, oblivious under Dee's charms, Ryo knocked over the coffee table when his legs indistinctively drew the distance between them closer.
"Ite..." he cursed under his breath that caught the other man's immediate attention.
"Missing me already?" Dee teased, boring his usual smirk.
"No," Ryo replied with a frown, " But I didn't hear you wake up."
"I didn't want to wake you," he replied as he stepped back into the parlor, "...I know you had a tough day and your sleep wasn't quite pleasant..." smirking at the sight of astonishment on Ryo's face, Dee gestured his hands for the other man to join him on the couch, "Don't think that I didn't notice those tossing and turning. I know you have a lot in mind..."
Ryo cut him of abruptly, "I should be the one saying that, Dee... I know something is bothering you, but you're not going to tell me, are you?"
Staring into the pitch black eyes, Dee's dark olive green eyes lowered, bearing seriousness on his face, "Promise one thing, Ryo. Don't ask."
"How can I 'don't ask'?! You've been acting strange these two days and have you any idea how worried I am?" shades of dark crimson crept up his cheeks when he realized that he caught himself too late from saying too much regret in his heart.
"That's why I don't want you to ask. I don't want you to fret over my problems,"
Throwing his arm around the other man, embracing him protectively, as he blurted through constrained tears, "What do you mean 'your problems'?! I'm your partner, I deserve to know!"
"The more reason why you shouldn't know about it...Look, Ryo. My problems...it isn't as easy as it seems,"
"God, Dee!!" Ryo yelled softly with frustration as he pulled apart, "It's not like you to hide something from me! If it is that hard, tell me and we'll get through it together!"
The younger man's eyes softened but he couldn't hide the sadness reflected in them, "Maybe someday...someday when all of this is over, I'll tell you all about it."
Ryo was dumbfounded. Something was seriously wrong with Dee and he was dying to know, - so desperate that his heart was throbbing painfully against his rib cage. The tears on the verge of his eyelids were practically begging the dark-haired man to kiss away his fears, because right now, Ryo was feeling awfully vulnerable owing to a dreadful intuition. Not even Martians invading Earth or deadly epidemic diffusing could strike as much fear in the man's heart as much as losing Dee.
Blood and repulsively disintegrated cadavers was all he could see each time he closes his eyes to sleep. For some reason, - God knows what, Ryo just couldn't drift into sleep like he used to, especially after working two days straight off his ass on a case. Moreover, it wasn't as if it was his first encounter with the red fluid that runs through the veins in a human anatomy. But something in the recent case daunted the half- Japanese even in his dreams.
Ryo had actually lost count of the times he tossed and turned on his side of the bed since he turned in that evening. Frustrated with kicking and wrestling with the blanket, the man finally bolted up, sighing in aggravation. Ruffling his blond tresses, he stifled a yawn as a cup of hot cocoa came into mind. But in the midst of imagining the hot cup of drink draining down his throat, the sleepy jet black eyes abruptly widen as chill crept up his spine, waking him in every way when it finally struck him that his partner/sleeping companion/lover was not at least disrupted by his restlessness. Worse yet, Dee wasn't even in bed.
Stretching over to feel the other side of the bed, the man noted how cold it felt. Unquestionably, Dee was up for quite some time and yet, throughout the sleepless night, Ryo wasn't even aware he was gone. Maybe his mind was a little preoccupied but he had always been a light sleeper. The slightest movement would trigger his mental alarm system, instantly waking him from even the sweetest dream. So, how the hell did Dee manage to leave the room without waking the 'sleeping' figure next to him? The thought alone made Ryo queasy in the stomach. Knots were forming by the time he called out for him but no reply came back.
"Dee?" he tried again, slightly louder than before but not loud enough to wake the blond teenage boy in the next room.
Eyebrows knitted in perplexity. It wasn't in the other man's nature to stir before the sun is positioned somewhere around 90 degrees in angle above the roof. Being on familiar terms with the younger man, Dee doesn't walk in his sleep. So, where on earth could he be at such an untimely hour?
'Could he be having the same distraught thoughts?' a theory came into mind. Under common circumstances, Dee would be cool and level-headed about homicide cases and it wouldn't stop him from sleeping like a log, irregardless of the level of gruesomeness at a crime scene. But it had to be the first time anyone has seen the color on the face of the dark-haired man, drained pallid at a crime scene. The whiteness on his face was almost terrifying, so petrifying that Ryo nearly shipped him to the hospital together with the corpse in the ambulance.
If Ryo hadn't known better, he would have come to a conclusion that Dee might have known the deceased, - but he didn't. In fact, in the following two minutes, all Dee did was mumble to himself. Either way, Dee has been acting strange since the afternoon. Instead of adding sugar into his cup of coffee, he threw in two spoonful of salt; and rather than lighting a cigarette, he toyed with the platinum lighter in his hand till he accidentally burnt his index finger. Above all, despite the slapdash smile of his, the flaxen man wasn't all that convinced that Dee was being his usual self.
Ambling to the door, Ryo pushed away the thought, 'There's no point worrying about that blithe man. He's probably feeling a little distracted. He'll be...' But the thought faded into oblivion the instant he heard the other man's voice faintly from beyond the door. Opening the door ajar in silence, not wanting to startle him, he saw Dee standing out in the balcony with the windows wide open, - talking to the other person on the other end of the line with burning fury.
"...I don't want to hear any of this! Hell with it, Raven!! I don't want to be a part of your goddamn plans. Just leave me alone like you did for the past five years!! ... Damnit, Raven!! Don't you dare drag Jacq into this... I'm warning you..." his tone was dangerously low as the last few words escape his lips, - almost threatening, it sounded. Obviously, whomever he was talking to, Dee was enraged by him. It wasn't too often seeing Dee this angry. The last time Ryo remembered seeing Dee this infuriated was the time Penguin's orphanage was blown up.
Still listening in silence, Ryo wasn't making out heads or tails to any of the words Dee had said.
"Look, Raven. For the last time, I'm not going back into the pits of darkness. Look, I'm sick and tired of arguing about this with you! I feel even sicker each time you call reminding me about the past!... When I left five years ago, you gave your word ... Damn it, Raven! It makes no different now or then! It's all the same!! Don't you dare back on your words now!... Since when do you give a fuck about what the Elders have to say?! I don't give a damn about life back then. I don't even care how luxurious it was or how rich we were. No matter what you say, I'm not going back to that inhumane life!! ... God, what do I have to do to make you understand?! I have a life now, a life worthy of living... Though it isn't much... yes..." he sighed in defeat, "... incomparable to the how much I make in the past, but at least I earned it, - every sweat and blood of my own... Yes, I know the consequences of my decision. I will not back from my stand now. But forewarning Raven, if our paths ever cross, I will not hesitate again..." Dee pulled away his cell phone and cut the call hastily from being persuaded further.
Never had Ryo ever seen Dee's smoke-green eyes glint so beautifully under the moonlight. It was as though a burning fury was flaming inside of him, - something that made Dee completely irresistible, yet so distant. Ryo swallowed hard down his dried throat. The attraction of the other man was a test of Devil's temptation.
Absentmindedly, or should he say, oblivious under Dee's charms, Ryo knocked over the coffee table when his legs indistinctively drew the distance between them closer.
"Ite..." he cursed under his breath that caught the other man's immediate attention.
"Missing me already?" Dee teased, boring his usual smirk.
"No," Ryo replied with a frown, " But I didn't hear you wake up."
"I didn't want to wake you," he replied as he stepped back into the parlor, "...I know you had a tough day and your sleep wasn't quite pleasant..." smirking at the sight of astonishment on Ryo's face, Dee gestured his hands for the other man to join him on the couch, "Don't think that I didn't notice those tossing and turning. I know you have a lot in mind..."
Ryo cut him of abruptly, "I should be the one saying that, Dee... I know something is bothering you, but you're not going to tell me, are you?"
Staring into the pitch black eyes, Dee's dark olive green eyes lowered, bearing seriousness on his face, "Promise one thing, Ryo. Don't ask."
"How can I 'don't ask'?! You've been acting strange these two days and have you any idea how worried I am?" shades of dark crimson crept up his cheeks when he realized that he caught himself too late from saying too much regret in his heart.
"That's why I don't want you to ask. I don't want you to fret over my problems,"
Throwing his arm around the other man, embracing him protectively, as he blurted through constrained tears, "What do you mean 'your problems'?! I'm your partner, I deserve to know!"
"The more reason why you shouldn't know about it...Look, Ryo. My problems...it isn't as easy as it seems,"
"God, Dee!!" Ryo yelled softly with frustration as he pulled apart, "It's not like you to hide something from me! If it is that hard, tell me and we'll get through it together!"
The younger man's eyes softened but he couldn't hide the sadness reflected in them, "Maybe someday...someday when all of this is over, I'll tell you all about it."
Ryo was dumbfounded. Something was seriously wrong with Dee and he was dying to know, - so desperate that his heart was throbbing painfully against his rib cage. The tears on the verge of his eyelids were practically begging the dark-haired man to kiss away his fears, because right now, Ryo was feeling awfully vulnerable owing to a dreadful intuition. Not even Martians invading Earth or deadly epidemic diffusing could strike as much fear in the man's heart as much as losing Dee.