The Bodyguard

All was quiet, all was still. Nothing moved and nothing seemed to exist. Where are the noises? The sounds…Straining to hear, he concentrated his all on listening for something to prove that he was alive. Just as he gave up, something small echoed through his brain, then something else, and then one more thing reverberated through his brain. They were small, but he knew they were noises, and that was something. At first, the sounds were broken and uneven, yet they somehow connected with each other and soon flowed smoothly from one to the next. The muffle sounds of birds outside chirped while something banged around downstairs; it sounded like pots and pans. Someone was probably making something to eat. Someone else, a woman, was speaking. She was worried. Another, a man, was reassuring her. That…that sounds like the Madame…and…Seimei…Nakahira thought as he rolled over, Seimei…Seimei…Seimei…



His eyes slowly blinked open and he winced when he was greeted with the sun shining in his eyes. Nakahira shielded his eyes and sat up, looking around sleepily. He didn’t remember anything that had happened. Not falling asleep, not really anything after he saw Seimei looming in the corner as a shadow. From the moment Seimei had him pinned and…



Nakahira stared down at his legs in horror; he was bare from the waist down, his pants and underwear piled up beside the bed on the floor. This wasn’t what surprised him. It was normal for him to shed his clothes at night if he got too hot or too uncomfortable. What wasn’t normal, were the long scratch marks and bruises that trailed up his thighs and his sides that made Nakahira stare in disbelief. How did those get there? Who made them? He swallowed and his throat stung. Putting a hand to it, he stood and wobbled a little as the room suddenly spun. Falling back on the bed, he put his hand to his head and grit his teeth, willing the sudden feeling to go away quickly so he could think clearly. Seimei came into my room, and woke me up. I remember that…Nakahira retraced what he had in his memory as best as he could up to the point that Seimei had him pinned down. At that moment, his brain made the connection and he remembered a bit more. The humiliation, the pleasure, and the pain that came when he found he couldn’t breathe. He panicked a moment when he thought his ears might be gone, but he sighed in relief when he found that they were still there. “At least he didn’t do something so vile as that…”



No. What Seimei did was vile enough. Taking advantage of another was one of the worst things that a person could do. It was humiliating, it was degrading, and most importantly, it was painful. The more that Nakahira dwelled on it, the angrier he got and the more he thought of Seimei’s fingers all over him, the more livid he became. He quickly got up and pulled on his pants and headed down the stairs, having to pause a moment when his dizzying head almost made him lose his balance. When he found he could walk again without falling, he headed for the front room where the Madame was sitting and asked crossly, “Where’s Seimei?”



“Why…he just left. Nakahira, you don’t look good.” She answered, getting up and going over to him. “Maybe you should sit down.”



“No…No I’m fine.” He answered and looked towards the door, wincing as his throat stung. “Why did Seimei leave?”



The Madame sat down again on the couch with a sigh. “He said he had something to take care of. He also said he was taking his own fighter unit. I offered for him to take you, but he declined.”



Nakahira felt his blood boil even more at the thought of helping that man, but he kept from directing his anger at the madam. She didn’t know, and as far as Nakahira was concerned, it could stay that way forever. He looked back to her, his eyes no longer narrowed. “He couldn’t have gotten far down the walk, could he?”



She glanced back to Nakahira and shrugged. “Perhaps. Do you want to say good bye?”



“Something like that.” He turned and hurried out the door, running down the steps and down the walk to catch up with Seimei. His plan was to find out what Seimei had thought to accomplish by doing that. Nakahira wanted to know, what his intention was. Stopping at the sidewalk, he didn’t see Seimei until he looked around and saw him walking along the far end of the low concrete wall that lined the house’s front garden. “Seimei!” he yelled, running to catch up with him.



Seimei ignored him and continued walking. Nakahira continued running until he caught up with him and grabbed hold of his arm. He spun him around and gripped him roughly by the shoulders, only to stare into those shockingly lifeless eyes behind a pair of glasses and shock himself into letting go. Those cold eyes brought back painful memories, thoughts that he never wanted to remember ever again. He shivered as he wrapped an arm around himself and looked up at Seimei, his heart beating fast and hard in his chest. Behind his glasses, Seimei smirked at him. “What’s wrong, Nakahira? Did you come to say good bye?”



“No. I came to find out what the hell you were thinking last night.” He growled under his breath. Nakahira straightened and looked at him. “What did you do to me? I couldn’t breathe, you almost killed me by suffocating me!”



“I did no such thing.” Seimei answered and adjusted his glasses. “I merely called your name to you, over and over again…”



Nakahira’s ears flattened against his head. “Liar!”



“It’s true.”



“Then how come I didn’t hear you?!”



Seimei chuckled. “Perhaps you were in too much fear? Or perhaps you didn’t wish to know I was.”



With his cheeks burning, Nakahira turned his head away. “Even if you were, why did you choke me?”



“I didn’t…”



“Bullshit you didn’t!” Nakahira coughed a moment and took a deep breath. “Then why am I like this today?! My throat wouldn’t hurt this badly if you hadn’t choked me.”



Again, he chuckled. “Have you stopped to think that maybe you did it to yourself? For some people who are under a great amount of stress and anxiety, they don’t breathe properly, and so they begin to hyperventilate. I hear it’s painful. Almost like dying.”



Glaring at the ground, Nakahira answered, “I’m not one of them. I’ve always been able to stay calm under pressure. I couldn’t have done that.”



Seimei merely smirked and stepped closer. Nakahira became on edge instantly and watched him warily. His heart began to beat harder in his chest as Seimei continued to come closer and closer, and as Seimei was close enough for their faces to touch, maybe for their lips to even kiss, he suddenly realized he was breathing far too much, and his lungs were not delivering the necessary amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide to his brain. This was panic; this was what a panic attack felt like. Nakahira stepped back and put a hand to his chest, hoping that the pain that was beginning there would stop soon. After a few minutes, it subsided and he breathed evenly and calmly. Seimei adjusted his glasses again and gave a soft sigh. “I thought so. You had a panic attack.”



How? Am I sick or something? Why do I panic when he merely comes near me? Nakahira thought as he glanced at Seimei then looked towards the ground again. “If you knew, then why did you keep going? You kept going as if noting was happening…”



Seimei glanced at his phone. Maybe he was checking messages from Nisei, maybe he was checking the time. Nakahira didn’t care anymore what he was doing at this point. When he finished, he looked back to Nakahira and smiled. “Because I like you Nakahira.”



Liar, Nakahira thought and crossed his arms, his ears still flat against his head as he looked towards the ground. You don’t like anybody. Not even Nisei, your so-called friend. Oddly, that thought didn’t hurt. What it really did, was just make him realize what he was dealing with. This man, Seimei, was sadistic. He was calculative, and frighteningly brilliant. If he wanted to, he could make the world so much better with his brilliance; and yet, he was a fugitive who was hiding from six of his colleagues and plotting to strike at them before they had a chance to do so to him. This man would do whatever it was to accomplish his goal and destroy his target. After a moment, he whispered, “Don’t ever come back here, Seimei.”



It was quiet for a while. There was no sound from either of the two men and in the stillness of the neighborhood he could feel Seimei’s cold eyes on him. He turned his back to him and he stood there, waiting for him to walk away. Nakahira wanted to hear him walk away and be able to listen to each and every step he took that took him farther away from that house and the life that Nakahira had so missed for the past few months that Seimei had come to live there. No footsteps. There was nothing. If Nakahira shut his eyes, he would have believed he was still back in his room, still on the edges of recovering his consciousness, and this was all just his imaginings. Seimei’s footsteps interrupted his thoughts and he listened to them descend as he got further and further away. When they were gone, Nakahira was tempted to turn and see if he had really left, but he didn’t really want to. Instead, he walked towards the walkway and up to the steps of the porch where he went inside and saw the Madame waiting for him. He forced a smile to her and waved before saying he was going upstairs to shower. Taking the steps two at a time, he wondered how many showers, and how many times of scrubbing his skin raw, it would take before he finally felt clean again.



Deep inside, he knew it probably wouldn’t take much. He had a relieving feeling inside his heart that the next time he saw Seimei, wouldn’t be in this lifetime.



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So I just finished the last chapter of this today. I\'m really excited that it\'s finished. I had a hard time writing it up becuase i was busy with my Tyki and Allen fanfiction. But it\'s done now and I hope you all like it =3



oh, and by the way, keep an eye out for more Loveless fanfiction. I\'m thinking about writing a Ritsu-senseixsoubi fic. ;)



Ja ne