Yami No Matsuei Fan Fiction ❯ Introspective Muraki\Tatsumi Piece ❯ One-Shot

Tatsumi woke up and blinked once at his surroundings. Pushing himself up off the futon, he glanced around the room. Nothing familiar greeted him and he realized this wasn't his bedroom. Walking over to the only door present in the room, he opened it and walked out into the adjoining room. Stopping just a couple feet from the door, when he saw the figure standing in front of the window a couple feet away.

Moonlight shinned in on the silver white hair that flowed down over the man's shoulders onto a white robe he was wearing. The robe seemed to collect the moonlight and glow slightly in it. Then the man's face turned to look at him. For a moment he was caught within the vulnerability expressed in the man's pale features. Silver eyes watched him silently from a face that could be compared to a china doll's. Then the lips curved faintly into a smile and he stepped back as recognition set in.

"What are you doing here, *Doctor*? Where am I?" he asked coldly, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Where are we? The setting is from a place a friend of mine owns, though its very doubtful we'd ever meet here in the waking world. This is nothing but a dream after all, Seiichirou-san."

"Don't. You have no right to call me.."

"By your first name..? Very well then, Tatsumi-san. Gomen, I did not mean to upset you."

"You still haven't answered my other question. Why are you here?"

"Because I wish to be? Because you are lonely? There are a number of reasons I could give you.. but I shall say its because I wanted to be here to help you possibly."

"I want nothing from you, especially your brand of help. Leave."

Muraki tilted his head slightly in the moonlight and then nodded faintly before vanishing from sight. Tatsumi closed his eyes and turned to go back into the room he had left, only to slam straight into a firm chest. He opened his eyes, sapphire meeting and holding silver for a moment before he began to step back away from him. Or at least *tried* to step back, an arm around his waist blocked the move.

"You're lonely, tired of being alone, you've taken care of the people who you care for, for a long time, but you're needing someone to be with beyond that, someone who can take care of you." A slim pale hand lifted and touched his face, making him jerk his head back and turn it away from him. "I saw you once when I was young, I was at the hospital and you came there. You didn't look anywhere except the path you were walking and I later found out a man on life support had died when his machinery failed for a moment. I wanted to know then who you had been; why you had been there, why did you halt the life support? But when I asked around no one had seen anything, and you seemed not to exist, but I studied for a while until I was side tracked by something else.. and then I found out about Tsuzuki-san. I was surprised when you appeared that first time in rescue of him. I knew then what I had seen, but I had made plans and I wasn't going to, couldn't actually, change them at that moment."

Tatsumi looked back at him, eyes narrowed. "You hurt him, more than once. Leave now before I pay you back for that." The hand left his waist but instead of withdrawing it rested against one of his shoulders.

"Yes, I will admit for a while I was obsessed with Tsuzuki-san, for what he held and because he was a danger, but I have no more need of him now that certain things have happened."

The deep blue eyes narrowed further and Tatsumi tried to raise one of his arms in front of him. Muraki lifted a white eyebrow before releasing him. "You think to attack me with your shadows?"

"Hai, and there are plenty in this room, Muraki-sensei." Tatsumi hissed softly as he stepped back from Muraki.

"Then attack me then, this is after all nothing but a dream. You will only be destroying an image of me; you are allowing this setting to continue. You could change it; after all it's your dream. But I know what you hoped when you looked at the card in the roses, when Tsuzuki-san turned it upside down so the M became a W. You hoped silently that Watari-san had sent them, but he didn't. And you lost any chance of confiding your true heart to Tsuzuki-san when he fell for Kurosaki-san, and we both know it. So if you can, take your anger out on me. Because I was the one who placed the boy in Tsuzuki's path."

Tatsumi startled for a moment before glaring at him again. "How do you know that? You can't read my thoughts, you weren't there."

"Dreams are a two-way street, Tatsumi-san. If you could calm yourself and actually look at me in something other than anger you might just see what is in my own mind, but I know what I said because it's at the surface of yours."

"Enough." Tatsumi narrowed his eyes at the white figure and then tried to reach out for the darkness around him, despite the words running through his mind. Doubt lurked in the back of his mind, despite the need to destroy the being before him, he had after all vowed to make him pay for hurting the one he had cared the most for since he had died. But he couldn't send the call out, or if he had automatically, no shadow had answered it yet. His eyes flickered away from Muraki to around the room. Why weren't they answering, he had called for them hadn't he?

"Your doubt destroys any call you send for your shadows. Destroy that doubt and they will answer." Muraki said quietly, making Tatsumi look up sharply at him. "Try to change the scenery if you wish, if you doubt that this is a dream or that you are in control of it, which you are."

Tatsumi looked away from him towards the window and then back at Muraki, who had moved back in front of the window again. He once more saw that look cross the doctor's face and then thought of something.

Closing his eyes he thought of daylight, and green grass stretching for miles around him. Opening his eyes he saw the sun shinning down on him, and then he saw the sakura trees blooming around him. Those hadn't been in his mind, he tried to make them leave, causing them to blur before redefining themselves.

"If you would leave the trees, I am rather fond of them." said a voice from behind him. Turning he saw Muraki once more behind him, but this time he was dressed in his more usual attire. The silver-white trench coat flowed over the white suit he wore and seemed to bring out the pale skin it framed. He was also wearing his glasses, and his silver white hair fell forwards once again to fall over his right eye hiding it from view.

Looking down at himself, he saw his normal brown suit and blue tie. Lifting a hand he felt his own glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose and belatedly realized that before now he hadn't been wearing them. Muraki's voice once more interrupted his thoughts. "I see you have replaced your shields. You can't hide forever behind them, despite your want to it seems."

"What do you mean, *shields*?" he asked him sharply.

Muraki walked up towards him, stopping when he was right in front of him once more. His visible left eye bore into him silently for a moment before he spoke. "You hide behind that suit and those glasses. You cage all your hurt, guilt, and loneliness, your wants and your feelings behind them. Your pain shows in your eyes, but you won't let anyone in to see it. You don't have any best friends, the ones who you work beside are friends, close ones yes possibly, but that's all. You care for them; you at times take care of them if it's needed. But you don't confide to any one of them what you feel, you're scared you will let them down if you get any closer to anyone than friendship and that also scares you at times. You put up a cold shield around yourself to keep everyone who does get close at bay, but when something or someone manages to crack it, you react rashly to repair it."

"You can't possibly understand or *know* all that about me. We've only met once in the waking world, you don't know me enough to analyze my thoughts or mind."

Muraki lifted an eyebrow slightly. "I told you how I know this, the power of dreams is often a double edged sword. And if it's used as a communication like I am using it now, it connects two minds. So I can see into you if I try hard enough to get past the blocks you've placed and you if you tried could do the same, although I doubt seriously you'd like what you'd find."