Prince of Tennis - The Bird - Yuuta, St. Rudolph (AU) - 1/?
Sorry about the spam today, I wanted these two fics in separate posts. ^^;;
Title: The Bird (1/?)
Characters/Pairing: Yuuta, St. Rudolph, eventual Fujicest
Notes: Futuristic AU. I have no clue where this came from.
Disclaimer: Does not belong to me.
Brother?
It is while running down a narrow hallway, that he wakes up. There are others all around him - all boys around his age - and they are running, elbow to elbow. From the rawness in his throat it feels as though they have been running several miles and the hallway does not appear to end.
One of the boys next to him looks over with a finger to his lips and a look of urgency. It is then that he realizes he's said the word aloud.
A man comes from behind them and now they are running twice as fast.
Their steps echo against the too-close-together walls and now the group is a fury of legs and arms and elbows.
"We're almost there." The boy directly next to him says in a whisper. He is panting so hard he's coughing.
He is hoping that wherever they are going, they will get there soon. All of this should probably make some kind of sense, but he doesn't remember a single thing before the hallway.
Pale tiles and neutral shades spread through the walls and ceiling. The lights aren't obtrusive and just then it occurs to him to wonder why exactly they are running and what they are running from. The man isn't chasing them. He's herding them like cattle.
When the hallway finally ends it is with a tall woman with long black hair. She smiles, sweetly, and holds open a door. She wears the same smile when she turns the key leaving them with nothing but each other and the hum of the ceiling lights.
He tries to catch his breath and it is a while before he is successful. Every inch of him feels like it has been rubbed raw and he can think of nothing he wants to do more than soak in a hot tub. But even more pressing is the matter that he not sure even of his name.
The boy who sat down next to him has his knees close to his chest and his head hanging between them. They are seated on the floor because the room is empty. All of the boys seem suspicious of him, but he suspects it's because he is looking at them that way and they are returning the favor. Two of them are looking at him. The other four are not. So there are seven of them. He's remembered how to count, he thinks, dryly.
"Where are we?" He asks the boy next to him when they are both finally breathing slowly. There is a window in the center of the door, but he can't see anything past the opposite wall of the hallway.
The two standing near the corner look at him, resigned.
"You'll remember soon." The boy next to him sighs. The boy is wearing a red ribbon in his hair and he wonders if there is significance. It isn't holding his hair up or out of his face.
"Why don't I remember?" He doesn't quite understand why none of the other boys seem concerned about this.
"Just relax." The boy with the ribbon says, "It takes a little while sometimes. An hour at the most."
And he is quiet for a moment only for lack of what to ask next. It feels like cracking a code. He has to ask the right question to get an answer and the more the time he spends idle on the pale, tile floor the more he begins to panic.
He can see the air. It is thick and pulsing in his eyes. He blinks a few times when his eyes feel wet and stinging.
None of them are looking anymore, they are all waiting. They have all been through this before and they all understand and don't think he's ready to be let in on the secret. His hands become fists and he isn't sure what to do with them.
A boy on the opposite end of the room with a long face begins to laugh and makes no effort to hide it. The laughter rolls out of him in waves. "It happens to this kid every time." he says.
And then he just can't take it anymore.
"At least just tell me my na--"
"Yuuta." says a boy with dark hair and a smile. "Your name is Yuuta."
He comes closer, punctuating the words with steps.
"You've been here exactly six days, you're left handed, you're physically healthy and" Now he is squatting down at eye level, "You say you have a brother."
He opens his mouth to ask another question and then fears he might be testing his luck.
A brother. He woke up saying brother. He doesn't remember his brother.
"Do you know me?" Yuuta tests it anyway.
"Just for six days."
Having a name causes him to relax. The muscles in his neck smooth out first and his shoulders droop and then the frame of his body curls out from the wall. But this is not the end by any stretch. He still has almost nothing.
The boy in front of him hardly blinks and just continues to look at him. Continues to study him.
Yuuta wants desperately to remember at least something of the past six days.
---
The Waiting Room is another thing that Yuuta cannot remember. The room doesn't look like the cell or the hallway, but has color to it. A floral pattern decorates the walls and the floor is tiled in deep blue. There is also music of a type that Yuuta doesn't recognize, but it is relaxing in an uncomfortable sort of way. It is almost exactly what it sounds like, as he waits and waits for nearly three hours before anything happens.
After two of those hours pass, Atsushi reintroduces himself. He still doesn't remember.
They all sit in black recliner-like chairs lined up against the wall and wait while the adults do something behind a screen. Yuuta is in the seventh chair.
Atsushi tells him that it's better if he pretends like his memory has returned for now. There are still countless questions that Yuuta wants to ask.
As much as he isn't sure if he can trust the boys, he is less sure about trusting the adults. They all have uniforms that are the same shade of pale peach and they all seem friendly. But it's the kind of friendly that means they want something from him and while they may be more pleasant than the boys at least when the boys lose their patience there is an honesty about it.
Atsushi has shown Yuuta his right forearm and told him what to expect. Tiny pin pricks walk up to the bend of his elbow like footprints and the machine that made them stands against the wall. It resembles a bird. And Yuuta isn't the first one to think this, apparently, as someone has drawn an eye on it. The pins jut out from the beak and the neck curves into the body. There are buttons where the feathers should be.
He watches the adults wheel the machine to Nomura. Atsushi has told Yuuta that it doesn't hurt ("Not really, it's more like... well, you'll see"), but the look on Nomura's face is one of nerves and panic. This does not ease Yuuta's mind in the least especially while he is the last in line and imagines he's going to have to see six of these looks before he has a chance to make his own.
But when the beak clamps down on Nomura's arm it stays there long enough to breathe in and out once and then it's gone leaving Nomura looking a little dizzy and nothing more.
He only has to see five. The only one who isn't phased by it is the boy who reintroduced himself as Mizuki.
---
It has been six hours and Yuuta still does not remember anything before the hallway. He would have wondered if the hallway had even been real, but after having his forearm pricked they were run down the hallway again and back into the cell where Yuuta is told that now they wait to be fed.
It is then that he realizes he is starving. But then he takes another look at the bland walls around him and decides not to get his hopes up. The food is probably just as bland.
They have elected a boy named Kaneda to explain.
Yuuta has already learned why they were running. Or, he has learned the theory: that whatever is in the needles needs to circulate through the body directly after it is injected. He asks why they are made to run in such a small space and wouldn't it make more sense to run outside? He learns that they are roughly thirty feet underground.
Whenever they go to the room with the bird there are side effects.
"Sometimes... it can make you feel fuzzy. You can lose bits of your memory, but they come back."
"But I don't remember anything." Yuuta says.
"You should pretend you do. At least for now."
He isn't sure why, but he doesn't trust the adults either.
"Did I tell you anything else about myself?" He asks all of them. "Besides the thing about the brother."
"Nothing."
He learns that none of them knew where they came from and that Akazawa and Kaneda were the first to get there, but only by two days. Mizuki was next and the rest followed. And even Akazawa has only been there for eleven days.
Akazawa knows that when he first arrived someone called him a carrier. That's all he knows.
They are moved into another room with seven cots after they've eaten. The food was just as bland as Yuuta had imagined and he would have done anything for something sweet just for the comfort. The cots look hard and uninviting. But they are surprisingly springy when he sits on one.
They have no belongings in this room either. Just a change of night clothes (all pale peach like the adults' uniforms).
If this was eight hours, he doesn't want to know what eleven days feels like.
He lies down and sees a flash of ceiling and then he's asleep.
---
My name.
It's the second time he's woken up in the middle of saying something.
Mizuki is sleeping in the cot next to his and Yuuta nudges his shoulder until Mizuki stirs.
"You said I didn't say anything about myself other than my brother." Yuuta asks, desperately. "Right?"
"R..right." Mizuki says, rubbing his eyes "Go back to sleep, Yuuta."
"How do you know my name?" He asks like it's his last hope. "If I didn't tell you, how did you know?"
"Come here." Mizuki stands and beckons with his finger. Then brings the same finger to his lips. "Quiet."
Yuuta stumbles as he follows Mizuki to the door, groggily.
They have no mirrors, and he sees that Mizuki wants him to look at a reflection in the window. There is barely enough light. Mizuki tells him to pull up the back of his shirt and he complies, though he is confused.
And then he sees it. A tattoo with his name on it. It is on the left side of his lower back and is barely visible for lack of light.
"My family name. Does it say my family name?" It could be a clue.
Mizuki says no without looking.
"Just look for me." Yuuta is almost begging "Please?"
"There are scars over it." Mizuki says, hovering his fingers above the space on Yuuta's skin where the family name should be. "Someone tried to remove it. We can't read it."
Yuuta stays standing despite the urge to crumble.
Yuuta goes back to his cot and under all of the blankets he feels cold.
"I'm not planning to stay here." Mizuki says after they've both settled. "I'm not planning for any of us to stay here."
Mizuki turns to him and his slender fingers digging into his pillow is the last thing Yuuta sees before he closes his eyes.
"I'm going to get us out." Mizuki says.
Mizuki is the first one of the boys that Yuuta trusts.
Title: The Bird (1/?)
Characters/Pairing: Yuuta, St. Rudolph, eventual Fujicest
Notes: Futuristic AU. I have no clue where this came from.
Disclaimer: Does not belong to me.
Brother?
It is while running down a narrow hallway, that he wakes up. There are others all around him - all boys around his age - and they are running, elbow to elbow. From the rawness in his throat it feels as though they have been running several miles and the hallway does not appear to end.
One of the boys next to him looks over with a finger to his lips and a look of urgency. It is then that he realizes he's said the word aloud.
A man comes from behind them and now they are running twice as fast.
Their steps echo against the too-close-together walls and now the group is a fury of legs and arms and elbows.
"We're almost there." The boy directly next to him says in a whisper. He is panting so hard he's coughing.
He is hoping that wherever they are going, they will get there soon. All of this should probably make some kind of sense, but he doesn't remember a single thing before the hallway.
Pale tiles and neutral shades spread through the walls and ceiling. The lights aren't obtrusive and just then it occurs to him to wonder why exactly they are running and what they are running from. The man isn't chasing them. He's herding them like cattle.
When the hallway finally ends it is with a tall woman with long black hair. She smiles, sweetly, and holds open a door. She wears the same smile when she turns the key leaving them with nothing but each other and the hum of the ceiling lights.
He tries to catch his breath and it is a while before he is successful. Every inch of him feels like it has been rubbed raw and he can think of nothing he wants to do more than soak in a hot tub. But even more pressing is the matter that he not sure even of his name.
The boy who sat down next to him has his knees close to his chest and his head hanging between them. They are seated on the floor because the room is empty. All of the boys seem suspicious of him, but he suspects it's because he is looking at them that way and they are returning the favor. Two of them are looking at him. The other four are not. So there are seven of them. He's remembered how to count, he thinks, dryly.
"Where are we?" He asks the boy next to him when they are both finally breathing slowly. There is a window in the center of the door, but he can't see anything past the opposite wall of the hallway.
The two standing near the corner look at him, resigned.
"You'll remember soon." The boy next to him sighs. The boy is wearing a red ribbon in his hair and he wonders if there is significance. It isn't holding his hair up or out of his face.
"Why don't I remember?" He doesn't quite understand why none of the other boys seem concerned about this.
"Just relax." The boy with the ribbon says, "It takes a little while sometimes. An hour at the most."
And he is quiet for a moment only for lack of what to ask next. It feels like cracking a code. He has to ask the right question to get an answer and the more the time he spends idle on the pale, tile floor the more he begins to panic.
He can see the air. It is thick and pulsing in his eyes. He blinks a few times when his eyes feel wet and stinging.
None of them are looking anymore, they are all waiting. They have all been through this before and they all understand and don't think he's ready to be let in on the secret. His hands become fists and he isn't sure what to do with them.
A boy on the opposite end of the room with a long face begins to laugh and makes no effort to hide it. The laughter rolls out of him in waves. "It happens to this kid every time." he says.
And then he just can't take it anymore.
"At least just tell me my na--"
"Yuuta." says a boy with dark hair and a smile. "Your name is Yuuta."
He comes closer, punctuating the words with steps.
"You've been here exactly six days, you're left handed, you're physically healthy and" Now he is squatting down at eye level, "You say you have a brother."
He opens his mouth to ask another question and then fears he might be testing his luck.
A brother. He woke up saying brother. He doesn't remember his brother.
"Do you know me?" Yuuta tests it anyway.
"Just for six days."
Having a name causes him to relax. The muscles in his neck smooth out first and his shoulders droop and then the frame of his body curls out from the wall. But this is not the end by any stretch. He still has almost nothing.
The boy in front of him hardly blinks and just continues to look at him. Continues to study him.
Yuuta wants desperately to remember at least something of the past six days.
---
The Waiting Room is another thing that Yuuta cannot remember. The room doesn't look like the cell or the hallway, but has color to it. A floral pattern decorates the walls and the floor is tiled in deep blue. There is also music of a type that Yuuta doesn't recognize, but it is relaxing in an uncomfortable sort of way. It is almost exactly what it sounds like, as he waits and waits for nearly three hours before anything happens.
After two of those hours pass, Atsushi reintroduces himself. He still doesn't remember.
They all sit in black recliner-like chairs lined up against the wall and wait while the adults do something behind a screen. Yuuta is in the seventh chair.
Atsushi tells him that it's better if he pretends like his memory has returned for now. There are still countless questions that Yuuta wants to ask.
As much as he isn't sure if he can trust the boys, he is less sure about trusting the adults. They all have uniforms that are the same shade of pale peach and they all seem friendly. But it's the kind of friendly that means they want something from him and while they may be more pleasant than the boys at least when the boys lose their patience there is an honesty about it.
Atsushi has shown Yuuta his right forearm and told him what to expect. Tiny pin pricks walk up to the bend of his elbow like footprints and the machine that made them stands against the wall. It resembles a bird. And Yuuta isn't the first one to think this, apparently, as someone has drawn an eye on it. The pins jut out from the beak and the neck curves into the body. There are buttons where the feathers should be.
He watches the adults wheel the machine to Nomura. Atsushi has told Yuuta that it doesn't hurt ("Not really, it's more like... well, you'll see"), but the look on Nomura's face is one of nerves and panic. This does not ease Yuuta's mind in the least especially while he is the last in line and imagines he's going to have to see six of these looks before he has a chance to make his own.
But when the beak clamps down on Nomura's arm it stays there long enough to breathe in and out once and then it's gone leaving Nomura looking a little dizzy and nothing more.
He only has to see five. The only one who isn't phased by it is the boy who reintroduced himself as Mizuki.
---
It has been six hours and Yuuta still does not remember anything before the hallway. He would have wondered if the hallway had even been real, but after having his forearm pricked they were run down the hallway again and back into the cell where Yuuta is told that now they wait to be fed.
It is then that he realizes he is starving. But then he takes another look at the bland walls around him and decides not to get his hopes up. The food is probably just as bland.
They have elected a boy named Kaneda to explain.
Yuuta has already learned why they were running. Or, he has learned the theory: that whatever is in the needles needs to circulate through the body directly after it is injected. He asks why they are made to run in such a small space and wouldn't it make more sense to run outside? He learns that they are roughly thirty feet underground.
Whenever they go to the room with the bird there are side effects.
"Sometimes... it can make you feel fuzzy. You can lose bits of your memory, but they come back."
"But I don't remember anything." Yuuta says.
"You should pretend you do. At least for now."
He isn't sure why, but he doesn't trust the adults either.
"Did I tell you anything else about myself?" He asks all of them. "Besides the thing about the brother."
"Nothing."
He learns that none of them knew where they came from and that Akazawa and Kaneda were the first to get there, but only by two days. Mizuki was next and the rest followed. And even Akazawa has only been there for eleven days.
Akazawa knows that when he first arrived someone called him a carrier. That's all he knows.
They are moved into another room with seven cots after they've eaten. The food was just as bland as Yuuta had imagined and he would have done anything for something sweet just for the comfort. The cots look hard and uninviting. But they are surprisingly springy when he sits on one.
They have no belongings in this room either. Just a change of night clothes (all pale peach like the adults' uniforms).
If this was eight hours, he doesn't want to know what eleven days feels like.
He lies down and sees a flash of ceiling and then he's asleep.
---
My name.
It's the second time he's woken up in the middle of saying something.
Mizuki is sleeping in the cot next to his and Yuuta nudges his shoulder until Mizuki stirs.
"You said I didn't say anything about myself other than my brother." Yuuta asks, desperately. "Right?"
"R..right." Mizuki says, rubbing his eyes "Go back to sleep, Yuuta."
"How do you know my name?" He asks like it's his last hope. "If I didn't tell you, how did you know?"
"Come here." Mizuki stands and beckons with his finger. Then brings the same finger to his lips. "Quiet."
Yuuta stumbles as he follows Mizuki to the door, groggily.
They have no mirrors, and he sees that Mizuki wants him to look at a reflection in the window. There is barely enough light. Mizuki tells him to pull up the back of his shirt and he complies, though he is confused.
And then he sees it. A tattoo with his name on it. It is on the left side of his lower back and is barely visible for lack of light.
"My family name. Does it say my family name?" It could be a clue.
Mizuki says no without looking.
"Just look for me." Yuuta is almost begging "Please?"
"There are scars over it." Mizuki says, hovering his fingers above the space on Yuuta's skin where the family name should be. "Someone tried to remove it. We can't read it."
Yuuta stays standing despite the urge to crumble.
Yuuta goes back to his cot and under all of the blankets he feels cold.
"I'm not planning to stay here." Mizuki says after they've both settled. "I'm not planning for any of us to stay here."
Mizuki turns to him and his slender fingers digging into his pillow is the last thing Yuuta sees before he closes his eyes.
"I'm going to get us out." Mizuki says.
Mizuki is the first one of the boys that Yuuta trusts.