Future of the Present.

Luke fell back, not expecting the blow from Hikaru. he grabbed the wooden chair that had fallen near him and held it above his head, usuing it as a type of shield as he ducked away.

he had to get to taro.

Kitamaru snarled and threw another chair at Luke and ran to Hikarus side, pulling her to her feet
The others moved to circle Luke, hefting pipe wrenches and firearms

Luke stood, sweat now making his clothes stick to his body. He held himself well, ready for any attack as he looked about.

Take a pipe, presume that they have a tight grip, spin the person into another.

Knock the fire arms away and aim them towards another when shot.

Palm the others noses, knock them to the ground and get to Taro.

Those were the plans. Now all he needed was them to make the first move.

Hikaru laughed "Quick little bastard arn't you?"
she moved behind Taro,
"But quick enough? well that remains to be seen."
she pulled out her second handgun and loaded it pressing it to the blondes skull
one more step and its all over for sunshine here"
she smiled sweetly "and we don't want that do we?"

Kitamaru fired a round at the bodyguard

Luke was panting, his fists clentched. He glared at Hikaru, a stare that would have made even the devil shake with fear. "Do that and any money he oues you is gone." Luke panted before swallowing. "I'll pay you the money. His debt is now on me, so let him go." He pointed to taro before pointing back at himself. "And now its with me."

In a flash he took hold of one of the pipes and swung the person around into a few others. Stepping forward he took hold of the handgun someone pointed at him and pushed it away, palming tha person in the face.

He spun and elbowed another in the face before snatching a gun from another person. he pointed it at Hikaru.

Thats when things started to get dizzy. Luke swallowed as he started to sway. This was not good. Not now, any time now.

He fell to his knee's and looked up, his hand clutching his gut. Two Hikarus and Two taros. Not good. He shook his head and tried to focus. He looked down and pulled his hand back. Blood? How...

He swallowed again and started to gag, blood now entering his neck and begging to be thrown up. Blood started to drip from the corner of his eyes.

Luke clutched the ground beneith him as he tried to breath. He blacked out. Anything after that a blur.

He wouldn't remember the throwing up of blood on the carpet, or the bleeding that came from no-where. Closed skin slipping through. He wouldn't remember any of it.

Just the pain and the darkness.

Hikaru looked slightly amused,
"hmm, well thats conveniant. Although I had hoped we could play some more"
she kicked the gun away from Luke
"String him up boys, put him next to the other one. It seems he's finished this himself,
He should have taken better care in his condition."

Kitamaru grinned
"Yeah, getting into a fight is probably not the best thing to do when dying of a brain tumour or whatever"

Hikaru touched her hand to her bleeding neck, then licked the blood off her fingers
"mm, I want to get this patched up too. I'm getting more blood in my hair than I'd like.
Lets get out of here, these two are finished"

They left the apartment and Hiroku and the others drove off leaving Hikaru and Kitamaru
"Where too now?" he asked

"My place, I want to get cleaned up and make a few phone calls plus there's bottle and a half of vodka to be rid of if you want to come too."

"Yeah, I'm sure someone will turn up sooner or later for those two. 's not our problem."
they left

Running a hand through his hair, Sadaharu started to serious doubt if this was the right thing to do after all. He was standing outside the apartment block, grimacing in distaste. He was mad - wait, scratch that, he was furious but now that his mind was clear, clearer than it had been for longer than he'd like to remember, he could see what Luke was trying to do. He could see why Luke would do that.

And he had to apologize, even if it didn't go down and just landed him back on the streets, he had to try. He had a backup plan anyway. There was a bottle of vodka, relatively safe with Matt. Assuming he didn't drink it of course.

Shrugging his shoulders, the boy started up to Luke's apartment.

The first indication he had that something was wrong, was the stench of blood. Of course, the place was a slum, but it wasn't entirely normal, right? He pushed the door open and everything that had been bothering him, his own little nagging problems, everything just vanished.

So much blood.

He stepped inside, unable to think straight as revulsion and horror shockwaved through him. It was only when he heard one of the blonde's rattling, blood filled breaths that he snapped into action. He set about teari

Everything was a sick shade of red.

He set about freeing the two from the blood-soaked ropes binding them and then stepped back, holding his now bloodied hands out before him. He ran to the phone and frantically dialled the emergency number.

Sadaharu was told to wait as they rushed both Taro and Luke into the hospital on different carriers.

"Get them both into surgery!" The doctor exclaimed. "I don't care what this one said, this needs to be done and done now!"

It was then Taro and luke parted on the different hospital beds, unsure if they would live or die. Complicatiosn happeneds all the time right?

Yawning Zetsubou crawled out of bed, he'd had a late night in the shop and had enjoyed a hearty sleep-in. Right now though he was heading towards a nice warm shower and looking foreward to hours of glued-to-computer-ness, thanks to his assignment and Uni.

He was currently taking the business course and only had to come in on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. It made it easier to run the shop, but a whole lot harder to run his life.

He was interupted from his loveley shower plans though, when a way-too-hyper-for-this-time-in-the-morning Anei bounded through his door, grinning at him and tackling him to the ground.

"Morning sleepy-head!!" Anei cried, pinching Zetsubou's cheeks.

"Anei!" he cried, fending her off, "what the hell are you doing here!? Arn't you meant to be at a movie shooting or something?"

Giggling, Anei shook her head, "nuh uh, that's not til this afternoon, and your coming too!"

Taro slowly tried to sit up, pointedly ignoring the mysterious hospital food on the tray beside his bed. He gasped as pain assaulted him and dropped back onto his bed, sinking into the fluffy pillows behind him with a small frown. He was still recovering from the mass of internal bleeding that the attack had caused him, and was still covered in bruises. But overall... He was doing better than Luke. Far better.

He knew he was stable, but he also knew just how long it had taken to get him to that point, and that was not comforting. He gabe a small sigh so as to not aggravate his lungs or put preassure on his ribs.

He was uninformed, and today he was going to storm over to Luke's doctor and demand some answers. Even if it killed him... Or his own doctor killed him.

Ayama stepped into Taros room. The usual smoke she usually had hanging in her mouth had been confisscated by the doctor and she seemed none to pleased by it.

"Seems the bodyguard I hired you was no good." She commented, looking Taro up and down. "But he seems in worse conidtion so i take it he put up a fight."

He touching a hand to his bandaged chest, eyes dropping to the boring bedspread. "He nearly died." Taro said quietly. "And it's all my fault. If I'd just..." He trailed off and rose a hand to his bruised face. "There was six of them." He murmured. "How is he? Any difference?"

"His eyes flickered under the lids." Ayama said. "Other then that we have nothing."

She couldn't believe how he looked. Her best money and he looked like he'd been hit by a bus! How was she to explain this?

that didn't matter right now. She had something else to tell him. Taking a deep breath, Ayama sat on the side of his bed. "Listen and listen carefully. No-one else must hear of this coversation. I know that you and mister comatose Bodyguard are more then just friends and so, I'm going to tell you this. Taro, Luke is my cousin."

"Your... cousin?" Taro asked, not seeing the severity of the statement. "Never would have guessed." He said with an attempted smile. So she knew. He shut his eyes momentarily to stop the hot tears pricking at his eyes. He still hadn't improved. He wanted nothing more than to stop this, intervene, do something, anything. But here he was stuck in a bed. "What's this about?"

"Luke. He wasn't always like he is you know. He was once a bright and cheerful boy. You'll never guess this but he used to smile, and I mean he used to smile alot. He used to have a younger brother, Joey, a boy who idolised him in every way. Only they got into some pretty bad troubles together."

Ayama took a deep breath. "It was after Joeys Death that Luke took a turn for the worst. It was his brothers that that got Luke to the way he is now. Well, partly. The army did the rest. Now, the thing about the army is they turned Luke into a sort of killing machine. He was the poster child of succes in ranks. It was during one of his trecks that Luke had his first attack.

"He had been sick for years before hand. For as long as I can remember anyway. But it had never been as bad as this. Anyway, the Army kicked him out and after some tests, the doctors couldn't discover what was wrong with him. They had Ideas but it was experimental but would have cost him alot of money. This is where this job comes in. Luke was paying for this suurgery. They offered to do it and for him to pay it off in bits but... He's so good natured he couldn't do it. get me? Anyway, I gave Luke the highest paying job but his conidtioned worsened. When you came into the picture he only had 6 months left. Any questions?"

Taro froze, fragments of his already unstable perception of Luke's illness falling to the floor. "You're... You're telling me that he could have been..." He painfully sat upright, resting his back against the stack of pillows. "All he needed was money, they could have stopped this?" He asked, anger edging his usually soft voice.

"He told me he was sick. He told me that he only had a small amount of time left, but he never, never mentioned this!"

The blonde's face was lined in distress, one hand clutching at his chest as the other took a grasp on the sheets.

"Go easy on him. It was his choice to make. He'd rather have died and help those around him then lived and seen those possible helpers die himself." Ayama said slowly. "Its luke for gods sake. If he wasn't acting chiverous every moment of every god damn day what else would he have done?"

"So he thinks it's okay for everyone that cares about him to watch him die? I need to see Luke." Taro said quietly, "I don't give a damn what the doctors say, I need to see him." He seemed composed, but was only one single straw away from either breaking down in tears or leaping up and running to Luke. He didn't know which, but niether would help, seeing as he'd faceplant and be stuck in here anyway.

"Now your talking silly." Ayama scolded. "Your staying right here until they say your allowed to move elsewhere. Its not that I like you or anything is just that your my income. Now stay put. Lukes comatose anyway. It'd be like talking to the damn dead."

"No; it'd be like talking to his subconscious, maybe I'll get to talk some sense into him." Taro said angrily. "And I tell you what-" He broke off in a fit of coughs. He dropped back into the pillows, holding his torso, and groaned when it subsided, raising a hand to touch his lips. Blood. He sighed softly and resigned himself to the fact that Ayama was probably right. "Tissue, please." His lungs had been drained, but one had been punctured, and the pipe wrench... He was recovering, but his lungs had taken a beating.

Ayama handed him a tissue before leaning over him and saying. "Be careful. I own a few wings in this hospital so I'll be in and out and making sure your staying put." She kissed his forhead. "Luke's strong. He'll be fine."

And with that she walked out.

Still yawning Zetsubou stood next to his sister and her little entourage of bodyguards, make-up artists, hair stylists and personal planners. They all knew him well by now and ignored him for the most part as they fussed around Anei.

Her hair stylist was currently gushing about how Anei would make a positively adorable Sarah, she paused and stumbled over the English name, and that they were so proud of her; most of the entourage had been with Anei since she first started her career.

Right now they were waiting on the director to show up, but even without the man it was crazy around the set so Zetsubou was taking refuge in his sisters caravan.

"So Zet...How was the date?" Anei asked, causing Zetsubou to flush and glare at Anei.

"It wasn't a date." he muttered angrilly, but relented at Anei's raised eyebrow, "It was nice I guess, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a huge pervert."

This of course made Anei giggle, "that's Yuki for you."

A huge crash made them both jump, both turning to stare at the hair stylist.

"I KNEW IT!" She cried, shooing everyone out she turned her attention on the siblings, "Your the noodle man arn't you Zet!?"

Zetsubou sighed and collapsed against the wall, "Yeah Penai, I am." He grumbled to his eldest sister.

(( SHOCK!!! *Giggles* I got bored, Penai was going to be their cousin, but that either means Satori is her mum or has another sister, besides for Zet and Anei's mum, who is dead. So new sister it is.))

Yuki made his way on the set, his hair and make-up already done. This would kill him. His package was shown to everyone. Brilliant. He grinned.

Sadaharu stood just outside Luke's room, leaning wearily against the wall. The friendly nurse had given him a free coffee, and he now believed that to be the single thing keeping him up at the moment.

------

Hatori, the doctor currently looking after Taro, was trying to calm the fragile blonde. He was shaking, sweat forming on his face as spots of blood spread over the tissue held to his mouth, groaning as the harsh coughs subsided. Hatori rubbed his back and said something in that always serious tone of his, but his patient wasn't listening.

Taro's mind was entirely elsewhere. If they hadn't been found, would they have died? Could he have? He never knew what to think, but now he was certain he didn't want to know. Death could mean eternal damnation, he had no place anymore.

And Luke. Luke, who put everyone's daily happiness before the importance of his own life. He had died, they had been seconds from losing him. Seconds, and now he knew that every day of doubt, pain, of suffering that the one he loved had endured wasn't nessecary. It made him twist with a kind of guilty shame. He should have spoken to him, found more our rather than just...

But what could be have done? He wouldn't have let him pay, wouldn't even tell him about it.

Taro suddenly realized that Hatori was starting to look anxious and he forced a smile to his face. "I'm fine." He took a soft breath and closed his eyes. "Can I go to Luke yet?" He asked in a whisper.
"You should have said the ainkillers were wearing off earlier." Hatori noted. "And it's still no."
Taro winced when the needle pierced his arm. "Please?" He was hurting, but it was surely nothing to Lule, so his own pain meant nothing. Not when Luke's was his fault. Hatori didn't answer, just stood by as Taro fell into a forced sleep.