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The Epic	By : kyochan Category: +S to Z > Spiral Views: 1747 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Spiral, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Title:� The Epic

Chapter:� 7/ many

Authors:� Kyo-chan and
Koko-chan

Genre:� Shounen-ai

Disclaimers:� We do
not own the characters or the series.�
They belong to Kyo Shirodaira and Eita Mizuno.� This fanfiction is written by fans purely for
the enjoyment of fans.

Summary:� Just when
you think the danger's gone� (You'll hate where this chapter ends, but you'll love where the next one begins.� ~_^)

ooooo

�� It was
dark, but not cold or frightening where Kousuke was. He was at the state where
he knew vaguely that he was asleep, but most of his mind was quiet, just
existing in this place of rest. He lay in the patterns of a glowing web of
strands made of bright crimson and gentle gold. It was a warm place, and one where the Blade Child felt safe.

However, as the moments passed by, something seemed awry. Kousuke looked
around, wondering what felt wrong in this place of soft rightness, and his
green-gold eyes landed on what looked at first like a cloud, several shades
blacker than the soft darkness already surrounding them. It came closer, and
the warmth of the area began to vanish, sending the first faint prickles of
alarm up Kousuke's spine. The light from the strands around him was dimming,
and something in him knew that wasn't supposed to happen.

��

�� The dark
cloud came closer still, roiling and twisting like the worst of storms, and
Kousuke heard a silence so loud that it shrieked with the force of a thousand
blood-maddened souls. The features of the cloud were
vague, but he could almost make out the faces of suffering children in the
folds of black mist. It drew even closer, and the young cat spirit began to
tremble in barely understood terror...

��

�� ...and
in a moment that was both an eternity and yet no time at all, the dark cloud
swamped over Kousuke, cutting off the soft light from the golden and crimson
strands, and immersing the redhead in what was both a complete overloading of
the senses, yet a complete void at the same time. He tried to scream, and could
not breathe as the black mist, tasting of bloodlust and shattered dreams,
filled him and made him lose center. It was like drowning again, save that
instead of his body, it was his mind and spirit that
were sinking into darkness. The cold was so deep that his mind was going numb,
and thinking was suddenly impossible. The darkness was so complete that all his
eyes could see was blood and suffering. He could feel nothing but the burning
numbness of total annihilation. And Kousuke knew he was going to be
destroyed...

�� Ayumu's
exhaustion had helped him drift off to sleep fairly quickly, especially when
the warmth and outright lavish comfort of Eyes's bed aided the cause. For
awhile, he slept peacefully, but as the night drew on, he grew increasingly
more uneasy. It was when the almost realistic grip of a very bad dream took
hold of him that he began to toss and turn, trying to get away from that feeling.
It wasn't something he could explain easily, for it just felt like that sense
of impending doom, or that feeling people often spoke of when they thought
something bad might happen. For all that he was distanced from it, he couldn't help feeling like he was directly in its
path. In his mind, he could feel the storm that was nearly upon him, sending
the fragile strands of gold and scarlet quivering. what
is this...? He had wondered the same when he could hear Kousuke before. Was
that what it was now? Was Kousuke here? He began to reach out just like he'd
done before, wondering if he'd find the redhead nearby.

�� ...then
the touch came. It was so light, so ephemeral, and yet at the same time, so
strong that it was a spear of light, burning away the darkness as Kousuke
reached desperately to match that light touch. The Web flared back into
existance around him, and he could breathe, think, exist
again.

�� The
horrible wailing silence of the dark cloud shrieked with the anger of a
sociopath losing a chosen victim, and then was burned away completely, leaving
the Blade Child shuddering in reaction in the protection of the Web, but still
whole.

�� Kousuke woke up screaming,
the place where his rib was missing aching as if on fire.

�� Immediately,
Eyes was awake and enfolding Kousuke in his arms. He didn't know what was going
on, but Kousuke's panic touched him somewhere deep down and all he wanted to do
was get rid of it as soon as possible. One hand was in the crimson locks,
combing through them as the other hand held Kousuke close, protecting him from
whatever had scared him. His own heart pounded in his chest, as if the
redhead's fear had bled into his own consciousness.

�� They
weren't alone for long. Ayumu had bolted awake as well the moment the cloud had
receded. A cold sweat had broken out on his brow, some of his dark hair
sticking to the sides of his face and the back of his neck. It had felt like it
had taken every last fibre of his being to reach out to Kousuke and draw him
away from the darkness. The strings of the web that had enshrouded them were
pulled taut now, the slightest touch againt them reverbating through his
consciousness. Not for the first time, he wondered what was going on, but the
question had become secondary to whether or not Kousuke was really okay. He
fought his way free of the sheets and blankets he'd tangled himself up in, and
he ran down the hall to Kousuke's room, leaning into the doorway.

�� "Asazuki..."
he panted, stumbling inside. "Rutherford,
is he...all right?"

�� Kousuke had
stopped screaming the moment he felt Eyes's arms around him and the warmth of
his buried emotions against his heart, but that didn't stop him from trembling
like a leaf in the other Blade Child's arms. He wasn't entirely sure what had
just happened, but parts of it, like the feel of the madness and empty hatred
of everything that had grated against his empathy, had been very real and not
just the phantoms of nightmare. He didn't know why or how, but he knew he had
come very close to dying, and it terrified him. Only the Web had saved him. He
clutched at Eyes, uncaring of the claws that caught in the other boy's
shirt--claws...when had he changed back to nekojin form?--or if Ayumu would
think him weak for being so openly frightened and in need of comfort.

�� Eyes rocked
gently, not knowing the words that would comfort Kousuke. Kanone had always
been the one who had an easy way with words, not him. He didn't know what to
say. He glanced over at Ayumu, his gaze somewhat distant, as if he couldn't
focus on both Kousuke and Ayumu at the same time. "I..think
so.." the pianist murmured. "Kousuke..?"

�� Ayumu
couldn't help but keep walking towards them, his heart still frantic in his chest.
Even though he was looking at both of them, knew that both were alive and
relatively unharmed, the near-death that he also had felt in the nightmare had
him shaken down to the core, and had him close to panicking.

�� The redhead
felt the mirrored terror from the brunette, and looked up into those frantic
golden eyes with his own anxious green-gold. He swallowed hard, trying to calm
his own fears somewhat, and shakily freed one arm to reach towards Ayumu,
inviting him into the relative security that came with simple physical contact.

�� Ayumu
wondered if this was still part of the dream or if he was truly awake. All he
knew for sure was that he had to reach, just like he'd done before, reach until
he took hold. His fingers tangled in with Kousuke's as he sank to his knees on
the floor next to the bed.

��

�� What is
this?! his mind screamed. Why am I so scared?
What have I done to be chased like this...?

�� Eyes's breath caught, and he
winced, as if he heard a second echo of the fright from Ayumu. He was the only
one who had any control over his senses, and how he wished that he could give
that control back to the other two. He took a deep breath, trying to reach them
both, assure them that it was all right, hoping that they would see that they
were awake now. �Nothing would reach them
so long as he was there.

�� Kousuke
couldn't quite describe what he felt next. It was a little like a light caress
of a warm hand, or perhaps the brush of a bird's wing, or the gentleness of a
fox's kiss. Somehow, the last fit best, despite not making any rational sense
to the redhead. But it made him relax enough to understand that Ayumu needed
help to calm down. He pulled at the hand clasped so tightly in his, dragging
the frightened boy onto the narrow bed with them. It was a tight fit, but the
warmth of their bodies calmed the nekojin even further, and he reached with his
own empathy to join a cat's embrace with the kiss of a fox. He'd worry about
making rational sense of it later.

�� Eyes felt
like he was in a trance, the addition of a third body to the bed dragging him
out of it ever so slightly to wonder for a moment if they all would fit. But
when no one was in immediate danger of falling, he focused his attention on the
younger Narumi. The boy had so much to learn, so much he couldn't say just yet.
So he concentrated like Kousuke did to just let their combined presence calm
him. It felt...right to keep thinking of calming them, he felt his thoughts
might actually be helping.

�� Kousuke
wrapped as much soothing emotion around Ayumu as he could manage, in his mind
seeing the Web they had created together in gold and crimson, stronger now with
the renewed contact. He reached for Ayumu there, touching the source of the
soft gold that anchored the Web and creating a channel for that unknown feeling
that had first calmed him, watching in his own light trance as the kiss of a
fox touched to the brush of feathered gold-dust wings.

�� Ayumu's
wide, distant eyes fluttered closed as he drifted back into that place where he
and Kousuke had found each other while the other programming had a hold of the
Blade Child's body. He saw the strands of red and gold, just like before. And
now, very hesitantly, a weave of light blue was beginning to thread through the
other two colours, thickening the web and strengthening it. He felt at peace
again, as if the terror didn't have a chance of reaching him again, and his
breath left him in a soft sigh.

�� Eyes...Eyes is here with us
now, too... Kousuke started to purr. At that moment, the
Web felt...right. Stable. Like the foundation for something had
been completed, and now had the potential to become something much greater. He
could feel the strength in those glowing strands now, the three main colors of
the artist's wheel, and something in him knew that so long as this stability
stayed, the darkness couldn't touch any of them.

�� "I'm...not
still dreaming...am I...?" Ayumu whispered, his
voice almost inaudible because he was afraid of breaking the silence.

�� "No, I
don't think so." Kousuke replied, his voice just as soft. "Because if
it is, and I wake up to a place where I'm not feeling this, I may just say the
fuck with dignity and cry. And I'm pretty sure Eyes is getting sick of me
crying on him by now." While his tone was light, Ayumu could feel from the
Web and their own physical and spiritual closeness
that he was being perfectly serious. Later, when they calmed down, they would
probably be able to give each other a little distance so as not to go tripping
over each other's minds, but for now, the feeling of having others there
was a great comfort after the horror of the nightmare.

�� "I
never said that," Eyes murmured a little guiltily.

�� Kousuke
silently tightened his hug on Eyes, a silent way of saying he wasn't blaming
him. He was just trying to lighten things a little to make the younger Narumi
brother more comfortable.

�� "Then...does
someone have an explanation of what just happened?" Ayumu didn't want to
think about his own terror, the way it was still a very real thing in the back
of his mind or how being here with the two of them seemed to ease it.

�� Kousuke
looked perplexed.� "I...dunno. I
remember having one heck of a nightmare, and feeling like I was going to die
until you reached me. Then the Web kinda went 'POW!' and the darkness ran away.
Aaaaaand then I woke up screaming like a bat outta hell."

�� "So,
you're calling it...the Web..." Ayumu said, looking up at him.

�� "It
makes sense, doesn't it?" Eyes replied, closing
his eyes for a moment, trying to remember the flash he'd seen right before
Kousuke had woken up. He hadn't had a dream like the rest of them, but he'd
briefly seen the multi-coloured strands only moments before he'd heard Kousuke
scream.

�� "I
suppose it does."

�� Kousuke
shifted, and hissed as it jostled his still-sore chest. Why was the curse mark
aching, anyway? "That's it. No more week-long sessions of mental and
physical torture before bedtime. It makes for crappy dreams for everybody.
And a sore chest for me. I feel like a mule kicked
me."

�� "The mark?" Eyes questioned, looking concerned.
Since knowing Kousuke, he hadn't been aware of the curse's mark bothering him
at all. Considering how his own liked to ache of its own accord, it worried him
that Kousuke felt it.

�� Kousuke
nodded. "Yeah. It's weird,
it's never ached like this before. Ah, well...there's
more important things to worry about." He looked at Ayumu again, concern
in his eyes. While the jester's mask was back, the arrogance that so infuriated
Ayumu had yet to come back, Kousuke unable to summon that particular part of
his shell due to the closeness between them. "You
feeling any better, Ayumu?"

�� The
brunette nodded slowly. It was still going to take him a little bit of getting
used to with that feeling in the back of his head. But the nightmare was
over, and he'd calmed down considerably since coming into the room. "Sorry
for barging in," he apologised with a bit of a shrug. Now that the panic
was over, he felt embarassed, pressed between them as if they were all huddling
for warmth on some little arctic island. He must have made such a fool of
himself by running in and being part of the drama. He'd only meant to check on
Kousuke, but instead, they were checking on him. He very forcefully pushed back
a flush. "I...thought something was happening."

�� Kousuke's
green-gold eyes dialated just a bit, showing the last bits of remembered terror
as he looked away from Ayumu's golden eyes. "I'm...not so sure something
wasn't. Some of that...felt too real. Way too real." He hugged himself as
if cold, but his shudders were more from fear than any drop in the temperature,
his tail lashing beside him in his anxiety. "That darkness that was
swallowing me up...it was almost like I was being consumed whole and...erased, somehow. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think...I
couldn't even find any sense of me any more. Until you touched me
through the Web, I was sure I was going to die."

�� Eyes took a
long, quiet breath as he listened to Kousuke's description of the nightmare and
then looked at the redhead. "I believe...what you just saw in your mind was
the Fate that we're all trying to avoid. It was seeking you out."

�� "You
mean...maybe it came because of the way that Hunter advanced his...growth so
quickly?" Ayumu suggested. "It triggered the real thing
sooner?"� He still had no idea what
Fate was, but it felt as if it were an event, something that were
to happen at a certain point.�

�� Kousuke
paled, realizing just how near a miss it had really been. "Then...why am I
still here?"

�� Ayumu
looked lost for that answer, turning his gaze questioningly to Eyes.

�� "That
Web...was spawned from Little Narumi. If he felt the same thing that you did,
and his 'reaching out' to you is what stopped it from overtaking you, then that
is the reason you're still here."

�� Kousuke
paled even more. "But I...he...I never believed..." He stopped,
letting out a short laugh that sounded to be at least half a sob,
and he knew that if he didn't push back the hysteria, he really would start
crying again. "Well, that's just really fucking ironic. The one person who
truly doesn't believe that Fate can be avoided, and I'm
the first one Ayumu saves!"

�� Eyes
managed a wry little smirk. "See what happens to non-believers."

�� "But...I
didn't save anyone," Ayumu protested. "I didn't do a damn thing. I
was just as out of control as you were..."

�� Kousuke
looked at him and sighed. "I...dunno. When I look at the Web, the way it
seems set up is me more off to one side, like I'm just something to help keep
the thing stable. The one at the center holding the whole thing together is
you. Call me crazy--which I might just agree with you on right now--but
I get the feeling that if you pulled out somehow, I wouldn't be able to hold it
up." He looked over at Eyes. "And now you're part of it too."

�� "Of
course I am," Eyes said, though there was a slightly awestruck quality to
his voice that was hard to detect beneath the usual tones. "It's what I've
been searching for." But even he had begun to doubt in his path as time
wore on, the more the mark hurt him.

�� A mark that
was quite notably not hurting now. As long as the Web lasted, Eyes was
safe.

��

�� Kousuke
sighed. "Does anyone else feel like they've just been shoved into a
situation that they're totally unprepared for? I'm having trouble just wrapping
my mind around the idea."

�� Ayumu
nodded his head, and while Eyes remained still, the look on his face clearly
showed that he was right there with the rest of them.

�� Kousuke
sighed. He felt very confused at that moment, and wanted nothing more than to
curl up between Eyes and Ayumu to hide for the next month or so. But since
Ayumu barely even understood the whole of what they were, let alone knew about
the relationship between Eyes and himself, that probably wasn't going to
happen. Still, he made no effort to hide it when he laid his head tiredly
against Eyes's shoulder. He and the silver-haired boy had been talking about
welcoming Ayumu into what they shared, so the redhead felt it was best if Ayumu
get used to the idea of their already-existing relationship as early as
possible.

�� At the same
time, Ayumu was wondering if he should be here with the two of them now. With
the way that Kousuke looked so at ease being close to Eyes, he felt as if he'd
intruded on something he shouldn't have. The thought made him want to blush,
but he held it back. "I...I'm sorry. I can go..."

�� "You
don't have to, Little Narumi. No one is asking you to leave." Eyes assured
him.

�� "No,
we're probably more likely to ask you to stay." Kousuke agreed,
his voice soft. Since they were this close already, he decided it was best to
see how Ayumu would react to certain possibilities. And if asked later, he
could always blame it on exhaustion and near-death experiences.

�� Ayumu
lowered his head, not quite understanding exactly what was being implied.
"I can't stay forever..."

�� Kousuke
rolled his eyes. "And they call me the baka...Eyes, your turn."

�� Eyes
glanced at Kousuke as if he were unsure, and then to Ayumu again. "We want
you to be close to us, Little Narumi. We believe you belong here as much as
either of us do. You would have both of us, and we
would have you.� Together."

�� A moment of
silence lapsed between them before Ayumu's golden eyes widened. He pulled away
from them to get up. Eyes held back from reaching out to him. He believed in
choices, and something like this was something that Ayumu would have to decide
for himself.

�� "I�It's...too
sudden. Like Asazuki said, none of us is prepared for anything. We should
figure things out first." He took a few steps back, looking very much
embarrassed.

�� "'S
cool," Kousuke replied, giving a slight smile. "We just wanted you to
think about it, and know how we felt. No pressure." He shifted, wincing as
it caused a few echoing aches in his battered body.

�� It was more
like habit that dictated the quick, flustered bow that Ayumu gave. "I
see...." He backed to the door, swallowing. "If you...need me
again..." He motioned down the hall, indicating without words that he
would be going back to bed. The problem was that he wasn't entirely sure he'd
be able to sleep.

�� Eyes
nodded. "Of course." He was the picture of
calm, as if they hadn't just subtley propositioned Kiyotaka's younger brother.

�� "Ja." Kousuke murmured, watching the younger
Narumi flee. He sighed and rubbed at tired eyes. The few hours of sleep he'd
had before the nightmare hadn't helped much, but he felt too wired at the
moment to get back to sleep any time soon.

�� When Eyes
was sure that Ayumu was out of range, he tilted his head to the other Blade
Child. "I think perhaps that it was too soon to bring that to his
attention. He still has much to accustom himself to."

�� The
redhead's green-gold eyes flickered towards the other's sapphire gaze and away,
and he gave another sigh as he slumped. "Yeah, probably.
I give him points for not screaming and heading towards the hills, though. It's
just...I don't think he understands just how close I came to total oblivion,
Eyes. Just the thought of it gives me the chills, but...it was worse to think
about fading into our fate without telling certain people what they mean to
me." He paused and bit his lip. "Does that sound as stupid as I think
it does?"

�� Ever the
quiet thinker, it took a moment for Eyes to respond. He did so with a gentle
shake of his head. "No, it does not. It's only natural that Ayumu doesn't
understand how close you were to Fate. Not even Kiyotaka had a firm
understanding of what's happening to us. It's good that you're honest, but
let's not forget that he's been dragged into a different sort of fate with us,
and he is the centre. That in itself is a lot to adjust to."

�� Kousuke nodded,
inwardly struggling with himself. He also had things he wanted to tell Eyes,
about how he truly loved him, but even with the fact that mind-death had been
so close, he was still scared to say anything. Lust
and companionship were safe enough for a Blade Child, because the emotions
didn't go deep enough to be a danger. Love was another matter entirely, and the
redhead couldn't help but worry that someone as practical as Eyes would dismiss
it out of hand. "I really am a baka," he finally said, just curling
up and burying his face in his arms.

�� Eyes sat
gazing at him, hugging his knee to his chest since Kousuke had moved out of his
arms. "I don't hear you say that often, mostly because of Rio, I'd guess. What makes you say so?"

�� "Because
some things I really want to say, but it's too hard to say them." the
nekojin replied, eyes trained on his clawed fingers instead of anywhere else in
the room. "And I think that saying too much has already caused enough
damage."

�� "Nothing
has been damaged here tonight," Eyes reassured him, never turning his gaze
away. "Just keep in mind that some things can be said without the aid of
words."

�� "But
words can sometimes be more damaging than a knife or a gun." Kousuke
retorted. "And all without ever meaning to be."

�� "More often
than not, it depends on the intent of the words. Like a blade or a gun, they
can be used either to harm or protect. It is up to the recipient to decide the
eventual outcome." Eyes felt a bit more comfortable now, the dance of
words and logic more familiar to him than the blind grasping for explanations
they'd all been doing only a short time ago.

�� "Then
I guess it's a matter of trusting the recipiant not to turn those words back on
the speaker as weapons twice as damaging as before." Kousuke nodded. It
made sense. It didn't make him feel any less scared or nervous, but it made
sense.

�� "In
that instance, one should be very aware of who the recipient is before handing
them the weapons." Eyes reached out a hand to touch Kousuke's face.
"It helps to know what you're up against."

�� Kousuke
leaned into the touch, his eyes slitting like the cat he was, ears twitching
slightly amidst his crimson hair. "What I know is that if I was smart, I'd
just shut up and never say anything. However, I've already established that I
am a baka." He took a deep breath, steeled himself for the worst, and let
the breath and the secret out.

�� "Eyes...aishiteru."
- 6
- 7
- 8
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The Epic