[multi-chapter] Destiny Calls [Ohmiya] [02/10]
Title: Destiny Calls
Pairing: Ohmiya
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, mystery, suspense
Summary: Plagued by dreams in which he sees the same man die over and over again, Nino is trying to do the impossible, to escape fate that has chosen him of all people to be a life saver.
Previous chapters: 01
A/N: For my complete fic list click here :)
“Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.”
- Voltaire
Dream 2 - Doubts
The first thing Nino did when he came home was throw himself onto his bed. He didn't care that his shoes were still squeezing his toes uncomfortably or that his coat was stretched almost painfully across his torso. He only felt the need to press his face into the pillow, to neither see nor hear anything.
He didn't manage to grasp the pictures floating through his head and press them into the pillow as well, no matter how much he wanted to in that moment.
'He was there.'
Gasping for breath, Nino lifted his face off the pillow, rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Once again he saw the man's face in front of his mind's eye. Desperate, he started tossing and turning, trying with all his might to get the man out of his head.
He couldn't do it.
Somewhere close church bells began to ring, telling him that it was six o'clock. The air smelled foul, dust and dirt made his eyes water. He staggered down the street, feeling unbelievably tired. But something kept him moving further and further. The sounds floating in the air grew louder, steel struck steel, with a loud screech a hole was drilled into a piece of metal.
And smack dab in the middle of the construction site a man stood, seeming very out of place and looking confused.
Sparks flew up, behind him, next to him, lighting up his face. Then there was the roar of a crane, in its precarious grip a number of iron girders that it was swinging over their heads.
He felt tense again as he turned his gaze upwards to follow the girders' journey with his eyes. An imaginary rope wrapped itself around his body, a cord just waiting for the moment when it could tighten and strangle him.
And then it happened. The iron girders slipped and careened towards the ground. They missed him by a hair's breadth, but they didn't miss the man in front of him. He had to watch the first girder strike him on the head. He went to the ground immediately, only to be struck by another girder.
He wanted to close his eyes, wanted to escape the horrible spectacle in front of him, but he couldn't. He couldn't move, couldn't rescue the man - it was already too late for that.
He studied the thin rivulet of blood that ran across the ground to his feet intently, giving it more attention than it deserved so he didn't have to look at the downed man. Acrid bile rose in his throat.
Nino awoke with a start. Sweating and gasping for breath he sat up in bed, trying to come to terms with what he had dreamed. What he had dreamed again.
'He... died again,' he realized ominously as he wiped his sweat-soaked forehead with the back of his hand. His hair was plastered to his skull unpleasantly.
"Is it my duty to save his life again?" he asked his reflection in the mirror, after he had somehow dragged himself into the bathroom. He had saved his life the day before after all and now he had watched the man die again in his dream. So was it his duty to go to the construction site and prevent the man from being crushed by the iron girders? Nino shook himself when he remembered the massacre.
He knew that today would be another day that would be over before it had really begun.
"Don't tell me you... no, I don't want to hear it, you know?" Jun began the moment Nino set foot into the café, as if he had been able to see it in his eyes. Jun was good at that - you didn't have to tell him what was going on, he found out on his own.
"I want to keep my simple, carefree life, thank you very much," he finally added, elegantly turning his back on Nino with the last few words and devoting his attention to a mountain of dirty dishes.
Nino sat down at the bar, this time without a sigh, without making any kind of noise. He just sat there, silently looking down at the coffee Jun had pushed towards him as an afterthought.
When he hadn't moved after ten minutes, Jun clicked his tongue impatiently.
"It's not your coffee's fault, you know?"
Nino lifted his eyes to him for the first time that day and gave him a pained smile.
"I wish it was, then I'd at least have someone to blame," he replied sullenly, rotating his cup once, twice, before finally lifting it to his mouth and taking a few big gulps.
"Knowing who is to blame right away is boring," Jun grinned and threw the towel over his shoulder. Nino pushed the thought how laughable he looked again out of his head. He only leaned forward, looking deeply into Jun's brown eyes.
"You know... I liked my boring life."
For a moment Jun stayed silent, pity swirling in his eyes. Nino couldn't bear to see it so he looked back down at his coffee, absently stirring it. After a while he lifted his head again.
"Do you know if there's a construction site around here somewhere?" he asked, trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.
Jun stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger as he thought, "Hm... I know that they're building a new shopping center a few streets over. They've been working on that for a while now."
"The one next to the old church?" Nino pressed on, almost sure that it was that very shopping center he had seen in his dream. He remembered hearing the church bells ring close by. At six o'clock.
Jun only nodded, his face expressionless as usual when he was thinking. Nino could imagine what was going through Jun's head at that moment; he was only waiting for the curiosity to become too much for Jun, for him to ask about the dream after all.
"Is the coffee good?" Jun asked instead, catching Nino by surprise. Jun knew that the coffee was always good, after all. He took a moment to think, to ask himself if there wasn't more to the question, but couldn't think of what it could be. So he just nodded, confused.
Despite having been plagued with doubts the whole day, doubts like annoying old friends that you just can't escape, Nino wasn't surprised to find himself in front of the old church at close to six. A few feet away a narrow alley led to the construction site. There was little room to maneuver because they had dug up half the street when they started building the shopping center. You could only pass on foot and even that was difficult. It wasn't a street Nino would usually choose, he felt claustrophobic too easily.
But now he was here.
'One day you will go completely insane, Ninomiya,' he told himself for the fourth time that day, but failed to get himself to reconsider and go home.
For a while he leaned against the cardboard wall surrounding the construction site and waited. Where would the man of his dreams come from? Or was he there already, lost in the middle of the construction site and waiting to be rescued? Nino shook his head; of course he wouldn't wait for that.
'Why do I assume he will be here anyway? Just because my dream almost came true that one time?' A crooked grin accompanied these thoughts. A kind of indifference rose within him, making him sigh.
"This is cra-," but he didn't get further than that with his pep talk, because in that moment the bells started ringing.
'It has begun!'
Gripped by a sudden fervor Nino started running. He ran as fast as he could through the narrow alley, an alley that didn't seem to want to end. He ran past walls of cardboard full of bright graffitis, all the while trying not to ask himself why he was doing this. He only concentrated on running. Because he knew that he was late. Because he knew the bells had started ringing a few seconds before the tragedy had happened.
While he ran his own, fast breathing was so loud in his ear that it drowned everything else out. But when he suddenly stopped, thinking he had reached the spot he had stood in in his dream, he heard the noise again. Metal clanged on metal, hammers struck steel. The construction work was in full swing and the crane above was swinging iron girders over his head.
'It's going to happen again,' he realized, alarmed, when he saw him; only a few feet in front of him. Just as lost, as out of place as he had been in his dream.
"Look out!" Nino yelled and ran towards him, forcing himself to not look up, to not watch the iron girders that would tumble down on them any second now. He concentrated only on the man in front of him, who was looking at him with wide eyes and automatically backed away. That was good, he needed to get away, needed to step to the side, away from the crane, from the iron girders.
Nino didn't want to see him being crushed by the metal.
"Get away from there, damn it!" he shouted as he reached the man. He didn't think, he just grabbed the man's arm and pulled him along. Together they stumbled a few more steps and then it happened.
With a loud bang one girder after the other crashed down in front of their feet. At once wild shouts rent the air, the crane came to a creaking halt, workers came running towards them. Despite the jumble of voices around them, Nino didn't hear a thing.
Two deep brown eyes, wide with fear, stared at him. And Nino could do nothing but stare back.
"You are...," the man began, but Nino panicked as he realized that he knew that voice. He knew the nice, high voice, slightly distorted by shock, but still clearly familiar. He had heard the man speak so often in his dreams in the past.
The realization frightened him.
"Don't... don't say anything. Please," he replied quickly, soundlessly, before he was pulled to his feet by a worker.
"Boy, that was close. This isn't a playground, go on, leave," the worker grumbled. Nino nodded quickly and then took advantage of the opportunity. Without turning to look at the man of his dreams again, he squeezed through the group of workers surrounding them and disappeared.
And he knew that he wasn't the only one whose head was buzzing with a thousand unanswered questions.
next chapter
Pairing: Ohmiya
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance, mystery, suspense
Summary: Plagued by dreams in which he sees the same man die over and over again, Nino is trying to do the impossible, to escape fate that has chosen him of all people to be a life saver.
Previous chapters: 01
A/N: For my complete fic list click here :)
“Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous.”
- Voltaire
Dream 2 - Doubts
The first thing Nino did when he came home was throw himself onto his bed. He didn't care that his shoes were still squeezing his toes uncomfortably or that his coat was stretched almost painfully across his torso. He only felt the need to press his face into the pillow, to neither see nor hear anything.
He didn't manage to grasp the pictures floating through his head and press them into the pillow as well, no matter how much he wanted to in that moment.
'He was there.'
Gasping for breath, Nino lifted his face off the pillow, rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Once again he saw the man's face in front of his mind's eye. Desperate, he started tossing and turning, trying with all his might to get the man out of his head.
He couldn't do it.
Somewhere close church bells began to ring, telling him that it was six o'clock. The air smelled foul, dust and dirt made his eyes water. He staggered down the street, feeling unbelievably tired. But something kept him moving further and further. The sounds floating in the air grew louder, steel struck steel, with a loud screech a hole was drilled into a piece of metal.
And smack dab in the middle of the construction site a man stood, seeming very out of place and looking confused.
Sparks flew up, behind him, next to him, lighting up his face. Then there was the roar of a crane, in its precarious grip a number of iron girders that it was swinging over their heads.
He felt tense again as he turned his gaze upwards to follow the girders' journey with his eyes. An imaginary rope wrapped itself around his body, a cord just waiting for the moment when it could tighten and strangle him.
And then it happened. The iron girders slipped and careened towards the ground. They missed him by a hair's breadth, but they didn't miss the man in front of him. He had to watch the first girder strike him on the head. He went to the ground immediately, only to be struck by another girder.
He wanted to close his eyes, wanted to escape the horrible spectacle in front of him, but he couldn't. He couldn't move, couldn't rescue the man - it was already too late for that.
He studied the thin rivulet of blood that ran across the ground to his feet intently, giving it more attention than it deserved so he didn't have to look at the downed man. Acrid bile rose in his throat.
Nino awoke with a start. Sweating and gasping for breath he sat up in bed, trying to come to terms with what he had dreamed. What he had dreamed again.
'He... died again,' he realized ominously as he wiped his sweat-soaked forehead with the back of his hand. His hair was plastered to his skull unpleasantly.
"Is it my duty to save his life again?" he asked his reflection in the mirror, after he had somehow dragged himself into the bathroom. He had saved his life the day before after all and now he had watched the man die again in his dream. So was it his duty to go to the construction site and prevent the man from being crushed by the iron girders? Nino shook himself when he remembered the massacre.
He knew that today would be another day that would be over before it had really begun.
"Don't tell me you... no, I don't want to hear it, you know?" Jun began the moment Nino set foot into the café, as if he had been able to see it in his eyes. Jun was good at that - you didn't have to tell him what was going on, he found out on his own.
"I want to keep my simple, carefree life, thank you very much," he finally added, elegantly turning his back on Nino with the last few words and devoting his attention to a mountain of dirty dishes.
Nino sat down at the bar, this time without a sigh, without making any kind of noise. He just sat there, silently looking down at the coffee Jun had pushed towards him as an afterthought.
When he hadn't moved after ten minutes, Jun clicked his tongue impatiently.
"It's not your coffee's fault, you know?"
Nino lifted his eyes to him for the first time that day and gave him a pained smile.
"I wish it was, then I'd at least have someone to blame," he replied sullenly, rotating his cup once, twice, before finally lifting it to his mouth and taking a few big gulps.
"Knowing who is to blame right away is boring," Jun grinned and threw the towel over his shoulder. Nino pushed the thought how laughable he looked again out of his head. He only leaned forward, looking deeply into Jun's brown eyes.
"You know... I liked my boring life."
For a moment Jun stayed silent, pity swirling in his eyes. Nino couldn't bear to see it so he looked back down at his coffee, absently stirring it. After a while he lifted his head again.
"Do you know if there's a construction site around here somewhere?" he asked, trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.
Jun stroked his chin with his thumb and forefinger as he thought, "Hm... I know that they're building a new shopping center a few streets over. They've been working on that for a while now."
"The one next to the old church?" Nino pressed on, almost sure that it was that very shopping center he had seen in his dream. He remembered hearing the church bells ring close by. At six o'clock.
Jun only nodded, his face expressionless as usual when he was thinking. Nino could imagine what was going through Jun's head at that moment; he was only waiting for the curiosity to become too much for Jun, for him to ask about the dream after all.
"Is the coffee good?" Jun asked instead, catching Nino by surprise. Jun knew that the coffee was always good, after all. He took a moment to think, to ask himself if there wasn't more to the question, but couldn't think of what it could be. So he just nodded, confused.
Despite having been plagued with doubts the whole day, doubts like annoying old friends that you just can't escape, Nino wasn't surprised to find himself in front of the old church at close to six. A few feet away a narrow alley led to the construction site. There was little room to maneuver because they had dug up half the street when they started building the shopping center. You could only pass on foot and even that was difficult. It wasn't a street Nino would usually choose, he felt claustrophobic too easily.
But now he was here.
'One day you will go completely insane, Ninomiya,' he told himself for the fourth time that day, but failed to get himself to reconsider and go home.
For a while he leaned against the cardboard wall surrounding the construction site and waited. Where would the man of his dreams come from? Or was he there already, lost in the middle of the construction site and waiting to be rescued? Nino shook his head; of course he wouldn't wait for that.
'Why do I assume he will be here anyway? Just because my dream almost came true that one time?' A crooked grin accompanied these thoughts. A kind of indifference rose within him, making him sigh.
"This is cra-," but he didn't get further than that with his pep talk, because in that moment the bells started ringing.
'It has begun!'
Gripped by a sudden fervor Nino started running. He ran as fast as he could through the narrow alley, an alley that didn't seem to want to end. He ran past walls of cardboard full of bright graffitis, all the while trying not to ask himself why he was doing this. He only concentrated on running. Because he knew that he was late. Because he knew the bells had started ringing a few seconds before the tragedy had happened.
While he ran his own, fast breathing was so loud in his ear that it drowned everything else out. But when he suddenly stopped, thinking he had reached the spot he had stood in in his dream, he heard the noise again. Metal clanged on metal, hammers struck steel. The construction work was in full swing and the crane above was swinging iron girders over his head.
'It's going to happen again,' he realized, alarmed, when he saw him; only a few feet in front of him. Just as lost, as out of place as he had been in his dream.
"Look out!" Nino yelled and ran towards him, forcing himself to not look up, to not watch the iron girders that would tumble down on them any second now. He concentrated only on the man in front of him, who was looking at him with wide eyes and automatically backed away. That was good, he needed to get away, needed to step to the side, away from the crane, from the iron girders.
Nino didn't want to see him being crushed by the metal.
"Get away from there, damn it!" he shouted as he reached the man. He didn't think, he just grabbed the man's arm and pulled him along. Together they stumbled a few more steps and then it happened.
With a loud bang one girder after the other crashed down in front of their feet. At once wild shouts rent the air, the crane came to a creaking halt, workers came running towards them. Despite the jumble of voices around them, Nino didn't hear a thing.
Two deep brown eyes, wide with fear, stared at him. And Nino could do nothing but stare back.
"You are...," the man began, but Nino panicked as he realized that he knew that voice. He knew the nice, high voice, slightly distorted by shock, but still clearly familiar. He had heard the man speak so often in his dreams in the past.
The realization frightened him.
"Don't... don't say anything. Please," he replied quickly, soundlessly, before he was pulled to his feet by a worker.
"Boy, that was close. This isn't a playground, go on, leave," the worker grumbled. Nino nodded quickly and then took advantage of the opportunity. Without turning to look at the man of his dreams again, he squeezed through the group of workers surrounding them and disappeared.
And he knew that he wasn't the only one whose head was buzzing with a thousand unanswered questions.
next chapter