Perfection 5

They only stayed in that little house for a few days.  During the daytime, they had to stay inside for the most part, since the city was so close and someone could very easily see them flying.  They tried to sleep when the sun was up, but usually ended up staying awake throughout most of the day.  At night, though, was when they went out for some fresh air and a bit of exercise, though Uruha couldn't fly yet.  

The blonde noticed that sometimes Aoi was very quiet – well, he was always relatively quiet, but sometimes more than usual.  He tried to cheer Aoi up, then, with a smile or by saying something funny.

One night, as Uruha lay on the sofa and Aoi on the floor – there was no bed in the little house and Aoi had insisted that Uruha have the couch – Aoi made a tiny, pained sound in his sleep.  Uruha, who had been unable to get to sleep, looked down at him, concerned.  "Aoi-kun....?"

Aoi whimpered again, breathing hard, twisting his blanket around his slender form.  "No, Kai," he breathed, and a tear slid down his cheek.

Uruha slipped off the sofa and onto the floor beside Aoi, and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder.  "Shh....." he whispered.  "Aoi, it's okay...."  His hand stroked down Aoi's side and back up again, and his fingers ran softly through the black hair.  "It's okay, just sleep....."

After a few minutes, Aoi calmed down and lay still, his breath coming more slowly now.  Uruha smiled at him and laid his head back against the dusty cushions of the sofa; he fell asleep there with his hand in Aoi's thick, dark hair.



Two days after this, Uruha woke up and stretched, spreading his wings out above him.  He looked up at them and smiled: both were working properly now.

"Aoi," he said excitedly, and the black-haired boy looked sleepily up at him from the floor, blinking.  

"...Yeah?"

"My wing is much better this morning!  I bet we could try to find Kai now."

The blonde's eyes were sparkling, and Aoi couldn't understand why he was so enthusiastic to go back to that awful place.  Then again, Uruha hadn't received quite the abuse that Aoi had, that Kai had and probably was now – if he was even alive.  "You can fly now?"

"Yes, look!"  Uruha ran out the door and leapt up into the sky; Aoi followed him.    The wide, snowy wings – catching the moonlight beautifully – held him aloft and he glided about in a wide circle before dipping down and landing again before Aoi.  "See?  It's fine now!"  He stopped for a moment and then said, in a quieter voice, "Thank you for helping me, Aoi-kun."

"It was nothing – and what else could I have done, princess?  Watched you splat on the ground?"

"You didn't know me," Uruha shrugged.  "So why couldn't you have?"

"I couldn't have let you die!"

"So you're not sorry you saved me?"

"No, of course not!  Why would I be?"

"I don't know."  Uruha paused.  "Sometimes it seems like I annoy you a little.  With being cheerful, or something."

"No," Aoi said, shaking his head.  Well, sometimes Uruha did get on his nerves a little – he had endless questions about everything and was always so damn innocent and cheerful – but he couldn't really help what had happened to him and how he had grown up.  It wasn't his fault that his life had been perfect and Aoi and Kai's had been hell.  "No, you don't annoy me, Uruha.  I'm really glad I didn't let you splat on the ground."  He tried to keep his voice from sounding too sincerely caring, and didn't entirely succeed.

"Yay!" Uruha smiled, lighting up his whole face; his cheeks looked faintly pink.  "I'm glad, too!"  To Aoi's surprise, the hazel-eyed boy flung his arms around the blue-eyed one's throat and hugged him tightly for a few seconds.  

"Um...."

"Sorry," Uruha said, quickly letting go.  "I just thought that friends hugged each other, and I thought we were friends...."

"....It's okay," Aoi said, though he could feel that his cheeks were flushed.  "Of course we're friends, princess," he added, and the blonde smiled again.  ".....But you didn't know that friends were supposed to hug each other....?"

"No.  I've never had a friend before," Uruha said simply.  "So I didn't know."

Aoi didn't say anything, but found himself thinking that maybe his own past had been better than Uruha's in at least one way.  Maybe he had been usually trapped in a kind of living hell, but he'd had a friend, at least.  Kai.  And now Uruha was going to help him get Kai back, so that made two friends.  Effing awesome.

"Are we leaving now?" Uruha asked, and Aoi nodded.

"Sure."  It wasn't like they had anything to take with them, so they could just go whenever they pleased.  All he had to do was slip his gun into its holster on his belt, which he did now.  "Since it's dark, we should be able to get pretty close without them seeing us.  You just have to be very quiet, okay?"

Uruha nodded.  "Okay, I can be quiet."

"You can?"

"Yes, I can.  I just usually don't like to, is all."

Aoi laughed a little.  "Okay then, let's go."  He took off into the air and Uruha followed him, flying up in the breeze so quickly and lightly that he looked like a snowflake; the impression was enforced by his white clothes and skin.

The blonde glanced over at Aoi and smiled, who couldn't smile back quite as happily.  Even if it was to find Kai again, going back to those people couldn't feel like a very good idea, and, even though he would never admit it to Uruha, he was nervous.

After only a few minutes of silent flying, the building was in sight.  It was tall and slender, almost the entire outside covered in windows which shone in the moonlight.  The little metal which was visible from out here was gleaming silver, so the whole structure seemed to practically glow.

From out here, it was impossible to tell what went on inside.

Aoi felt his apprehension grow as they flew ever nearer; but every time he looked over at Uruha, the blonde seemed to be mostly unaffected.  He hadn't spoken in several minutes now, which was quite a feat for him, and it felt odd to be right beside him and not hear him talking brightly.

"Stop here," Aoi hissed, and glided down toward the ground; Uruha followed him.  "We shouldn't fly any closer; they'll see us too easily."

"So what will we do?" Uruha asked.

"Well...."  Aoi glanced toward the building again; they were just inside the fence that surrounded it.  "Oi, don't touch that!"

Uruha drew his hand away from the chain-link fence, looking alarmed.  "Why not?"

"It's probably electrocuted!"

"....What does electrocuted mean?"

"Um.... well, electricity is basically lightning – that bright light in the sky when it's storming – and if something is electrocuted, that means that electricity is in it, and when you touch it, you get a shock," Aoi tried to explain.  "It hurts, so keep your pretty little hands away, princess."

"Oh."  Uruha paused.  "Did they do that keep people in?"

"Yes, or out, whichever one.  Luckily for us, they didn't expect to have to keep their own creations out, and I guess they thought we wouldn't get away, so we didn't have to touch it."

"How do we get inside?"

"See over there?"  Aoi leaned closer to Uruha and pointed at a door; it was for trucks to be loaded and such, and a camera was visible, watching the doorway.  "I can shut down the camera and we can get in there."

"How do you shut it down?"

Aoi smiled.  "Easy."  He bent down swiftly and picked up a good-sized rock from the ground; he tested its weight in his hand.  "I'll just throw this at it.  You stay here a minute."

"'Kay," Uruha said obediently, and Aoi could practically feel the blonde watching him as he sneaked nearer, just outside the camera's field of vision.  He stopped a short distance from it, enough to the side so it couldn't see him, aimed carefully, and cast the stone at it.  The throw was perfect, and the camera was instantly disabled.  

"You can come over here now," Aoi hissed at Uruha, who ran bouncily toward him.

"That was perfect," Uruha said, and Aoi shushed him.

"Not so loud, princess, just because the camera's out doesn't mean they can't hear us.  There are windows right next to us, you know."

"Sorry," Uruha whispered.  "So we get in here?"

"Yeah," Aoi said.  "These doors have the poorest security of the whole place, so it'll be a piece of cake to get in.  Plus, I was just near here the other day, before I saved you from splatting, and I saw a guy put the code in.  Makes it even easier."  He indicated the number pad beside the door and his fingers flew over the keys.  "5-9-2-7-3-0," he said softly as he typed it in, and the doors slid open for them.  "See?  Easiest thing in the world."

Uruha seemed to be impressed.  "Wow, Aoi-kun – I didn't know what that pad was for."

"You still haven't seen much of the world, have you?"

"No."

Aoi smiled at him.  "Come on – we'll have to be careful in here, princess."

"'Kay."  Uruha peeked through the doorway at the darkness beyond, making sure no one was inside.  "There's no one in here, Aoi-kun."

"Good.  You need to be really quiet, okay?"

"I know."

"Just making sure."  Aoi stepped through the wide doorway into the dark room, the walls of which were stacked high with boxes and crates.

"What's in all these?" Uruha asked softly.

"I'm not sure, but probably things for their experiments.  Quiet, there might be cameras in here, too."  He took another step, watching carefully for any movements or surveillance devices.  

Uruha was pressed rather close to Aoi, who didn't blame him at all.  Being back in this place made him more nervous than he would ever admit to anyone, and Uruha didn't even know all of what these people did.  "So where do you think they have Kai?" Uruha whispered.  He was looking curiously around the room, despite how apprehensive he seemed.

"...The only place I can think of is our old room, that we used to share.  I guess we could look there first...?"  Aoi wasn't at all certain.

"Where is that?"

"On the twelfth floor... we need to find an elevator or stairs – there's one over here, come on."  Aoi led Uruha across the room to the elevator door and pressed the 'up' arrow.

When the doors slid open a moment later, there was already someone inside: a man with a long white coat.  His eyes widened as he saw them and he began to say something, but before he could make a sound, Aoi had whipped his gun out of his belt and shot him.  The man fell without making a noise, though blood instantly stained his immaculate coat.

Uruha's eyes were wide.  "Aoi, did you kill him?" he asked, his voice coming out louder than was safe.

"Shh, princess, they'll hear us!  And no, he's not dead, it's okay.  Come on, quick!"  He indicated the elevator.

"....What does this do?"  Uruha seemed puzzled by the fact that it was merely a small room.

"It's an elevator," Aoi explained.  "Come on, watch."  He took Uruha's hand and pulled him inside, then pointed to a button.  "Push that twelve."  He bent quickly and drew a card from the man's belt, then slipped it into his own pocket.  "We'll need this."

Uruha carefully avoided both the unconscious, bleeding man lying on the floor and the puddle of crimson.  As soon as he had pressed the button, the elevator shot upward, making his eyes widen.  "What...?"

Aoi smiled.  "It goes up, or down, whichever you need, and takes you to the right floor.  Cool, huh?"

When the elevator jerked to a stop a few seconds later, Uruha almost fell and clutched Aoi's arm to keep his balance.  "...That was fun!" he said softly but excitedly.  "Can we do it again?"

"No, we're here on the twelfth floor now," Aoi said.  "Sorry, princess.  Come on, though, let's find Kai."

"Okay..." Uruha sounded disappointed, but stepped out of the elevator after Aoi.

They were in a long hallway, lined on either side with doors as far as the eye could see; each door had a number above it in deep blue letters.  The walls were tall and pure white, lit with the same blue lights Uruha had seen the first time he'd left his room; for nighttime they were dimmer than before.  

"So.... which door is it?" Uruha asked, but Aoi was already down the corridor.

"This one," he said, stopping before a door that looked exactly the same as the others except for the number above it: 156.  Slowly, he slipped the card back out of his pocket and ran it through the slot beside the door; he held his breath as the door slid upward.

Kai wasn't inside; no one was.  Aoi let his breath out in one long sighing exhale.  "He's not here....."

The room was completely empty of life, its bare, cold, white walls and floors just as he remembered them.  The same two (uncomfortable) cots stood there and there were the same silver chains on the wall for the days when they were being unruly, but Kai wasn't there.  

Aoi turned away and the doors shut, but Uruha took his hand and squeezed his fingers, smiling at him.  

"It's okay, Aoi-kun, I'm sure he's here somewhere," he said brightly.  "We just have to find where, okay?"

It was impossible for Aoi's mood not to be brightened by Uruha's cheerful expression, and he smiled too.  "All right," he nodded.  "Let's look somewhere else, then."