twenty-fifth breath ✧ voice

[musubi]

[When Isamu speaks, his voice is incredibly shaky.]

You motherfuckers.

You fucking win. Are you happy?

[He doesn't clarify who he's speaking to, but the answer may be obvious.

Wanting to visit Naoki as often as he could get away with without being shooed off, the teen had headed up to his friend's apartment. But he wasn't there. It didn't look as if he'd ever been there.

He wasn't at the house. He wasn't at the New Feather lodges. He wasn't anywhere.

Naoki would have told him if he was leaving again, right? Things had just been starting to work out between them again...]

You can't... You can't do shit like this.

DO YOU HEAR ME? YOU CAN'T DO THIS.

[Filtered to Raphael, Richard, and Sanji]

He's gone.

I have to get out of here.

Just... don't look for me, okay?

[Unspoken: He'll be back. Maybe.]

Comments

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[Suddenly, Raph's voice is behind him.]

It gets better.

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

I don't need to hear that right now.

[Isamu's throat is obviously sore, and he doesn't lift his head.]

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well I say maybe you do. [He goes and takes a seat by his friend.] It always sucks, but it gets better.

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

I guess... you've had a lot of trouble with your brothers, huh?

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Why do you think I was always so damn miserable? My brothers are everything to me. And Mikey, he ain't just my brother, he's my best bud. I'd never been away from 'em that long in my life.

[But if he hadn't, he'd never have learned to admit that out loud. Still, it's too big of a price to pay for a lesson you knew all along.]

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

I'm real sorry, man.

[Turns to look up at Raph now, hie eyes red rimmed and the irises now yellow.]

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[Raph gives him a pained smile, but there's an obvious flinch at those eyes. What the hell? Emotional moment or not, that's too big of a deal to ignore.]

What happened to you?

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

H-huh?

[Isamu blinks. He hasn't seen himself for a couple days.] What are you talking about?

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Your eyes. They're freaky lookin'. Yellow. [Like Naoki's, but he probably shouldn't say that.]

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

What? But...

[He hadn't been kidnapped. He hadn't done anything too out of the ordinary.]

I... Really?

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, really.

[He squints for a closer look.]

You ain't possessed or nothin', right?

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

I'm not! I promise!

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Well how can ya tell? Don't think there's a test for somethin' like that.

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

Uh...

Well I mean...

I don't think I am...

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so why else would somethin' like that happen?

[Yeah, that's genuine concern there, bro. He actually thinks you might be possessed or something.]

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

Well, it's... not like it's the first time they've been that way.

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Oh.

[And now he doesn't know what to do. So he settles for looking his friend up and down. You look like crap, man. Especially those knuckles. You can explain the eye thing if you want, but as always, he's not gonna pry.]

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

...When I was all messed up... when I first got here, that is... they were like this.

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

Messed up like what?

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

Like not human messed up.

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[You get a hard, flat stare for that one. Don't forget who you're talking to. You gotta describe it better than that.]

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

I was... I think the term was "pseudo-fiend". The only way to survive in the Amala Network where I'd secluded myself off was to become something more than human.

I developed the ability to absorb the energy there, just like the demons could. When we first met here, I was still recovering from the change back into a regular human.

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

[Well that's a lot to take in. He was some kind of demon? Give him a second. He's kind of freaked out about how little he actually knows you even after practically a year of hanging around each other. What the hell.]

So it's happenin' again.

[Action]

[ingrate.livejournal.com]

I don't think so... I don't feel any different. [Aside from being exhausted and hungry, but he brought that on himself.]

There's no magatsuhi to absorb here.

[Action]

[meanandgreen.livejournal.com]

If you say so.

[He really has no idea what he's talking about, but he's not going to make the kid explain today. He's been through enough. The only thing Raph knows for certain is he does not want to lose another friend to something like this. He's already lost Derek to his vampirism, and watching Isamu go through something like that would be so much worse.

But for now, maybe that's something they shouldn't dwell on. There's more immediate worries at hand.]

Maybe you should go home, clean yourself up. You look like crap.