Who: Tamaki and Katou What: Katou runs into a brainpuppeted Tamaki When: Mid-January Where: Out and about Rating/Warning: Low/non Status: Complete
Katou didn’t mind the snow as much as some people. Sure, he’d spent his entire life living in Orange County, California. But he also had seventeen years worth of memories of living in Tokyo, Japan, and snow wasn’t uncommon there.
Still, he prefered California like it was now. Sunny, and warm enough that all he needed to wear was a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
The voice he heard sounded vaguely familiar, but it wasn’t until he found the source of it that he recognized it. It was hard to forget Tamaki, the good-looking guy Katou had tried to pick-up when Hyde and Carolina’s dreams wreaked havoc on the county.
He approached from behind, and was nearly right behind the boy when he spoke. “Hey, Tama,” he said, an almost seductive note in his voice. “Still dating that person?”
***
Tamaki was doing what Rociel had asked him to do - distributing the game and talking to people about the Angel. He’d do anything the handsome man asked him to. Especially if it meant he got to be in a room with him. He heard someone speaking behind him, and he turned around, taking a minute to just look Katou over.
“Katou,” he said a flirty smile on his face. “I am but things are a bit rocky between us right now. Haruhi seems to think I’m spending too much time with my game.” He held up one of the copies Rociel had given him to pass out, offering it to Katou.
***
Katou frowned, plucking the game out of Tamaki’s hand. Angel Sanctuary. That was the game that Wash had been playing, and Katou got a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Yeah? You too, huh? You ask me, any video games for any amount of time is too much. What’s this thing about, anyway?”
***
“It’s so much fun Katou. I can play it for hours and never get bored. Rociel says I’m one of the best players he’s ever seen at it.” Tamaki said, pronouncing the mystery man’s name in a tone that sounded almost like he had a crush.
***
Katou’s eyes widened at the name, a chill rushing through him. Tamaki couldn’t have said what Katou thought he just said, but no matter how he tried he couldn’t figure out any other way to interpret Tamaki’s words.
Was Rociel in there right now, watching this whole conversation? Katou was a liar, and he slid the smirk into place easily. “Rociel, huh? I’ve heard a bit about this guy. You met him?”
***
Tamaki was completely oblivious to Katou’s reaction to the man’s name, wrapped up in his thoughts about Rociel and how handsome the man was. How much he enjoyed it when Rociel paid attention to him. Any attention. “He’s amazing Katou. I can’t even describe him.” There was definitely a note of something like adoration in his voice. “He’s so handsome and smart.”
***
This was weird, and it was wrong, and Katou was hating all of this. He didn’t know Tamaki very well, but he could still remember the feeling of having Rociel inside his mind and it had terrified him. He wondered if it was different for Tamaki. Katou had ingested a piece of Rociel when the angel had given him a piece disguised as drugs, and that had made him a vessel. Tamaki had just played the game. Katou wondered if Tamaki was as happy with this as he seemed, or if there was a piece of him inside screaming that this wasn’t him.
“Oh yeah?” Katou said, a bit of a nervous smile on his face. “If he’s as great as you say, you should introduce me to him.”
*** Tamaki grinned when Katou mentioned an introduction. “He’s told us to bring friends to meet him if we think they might be interested in helping him out.” He said, a bit of his old enthusiasm bubbling up.
***
“Oh. Good,” Katou said. “‘Cause I’m definitely a friend. I’d love to meet the great master Rociel.” No harm in buttering him up if Rociel was listening. Katou hoped that if Rociel had dreamed, he’d already forgotten all about Katou.
***
Tamaki felt something inside him at Katou’s saying he was definitely a friend, something that was almost like a voice saying Katou wasn’t a friend. He frowned a little bit as he shook his head. “I’ll have to see if I can’t set one up.” He said, something feeling a bit off inside him.
***
“Cool,” Katou said. “You think you could manage tonight? I’m uh… just so excited. You know, if he’s as good as you say he is.”
***
Tamaki shook his head slowly. “I don’t think I can set it up for tonight. He’s very busy.” He said, trying to shake off that feeling but failing.
***
Katou ground his teeth. This had to be the chance that he'd been waiting for. His chance to find Wash, and the Egg, and Rociel all in one fell swoop. No more waiting around for Amycus’s tracking spell to finally work. For all he knew, it never would.
He grabbed the front of Tamaki’s shirt suddenly with his left arm, slammed him into a wall, and lifted him so that Tamaki’s toes barely brushed the cement. “Listen here, you little asshole. I'm in no mood to fuck around, and if you think I won't kill you if you don't take me to your master than you're very, very wrong,” he growled.
***
Before Tamaki could respond to that threat some light came crashing down between them and forced Katou away from him, dropping Tamaki to his knees on the ground where he glared up at Katou. “You’re not a friend. And Rociel doesn’t want to meet you.” He spat out, anger clear in his voice.
***
Katou flew away from Tamaki, feeling a little like what he imagined being hit by a bus felt like. He got to his feet nearly as soon as his back hit the pavement, and extended his claws. His fingers, glamoured to look like flesh and blood, extended six long blades. He should kill Tamaki. He really should. He’d be better off dead than with Rociel in his head. And it wasn’t as though they were friends. They’d only met once.
But he couldn’t do it. Maybe in his dreams the only way to break free of something like this was through death, but he’d been in the Orange County long enough to know better. There were people with all kinds of magic that could fix this kind of thing. What Katou needed to do his best to make sure no one else ended up like Tamaki or Wash. His eyes strayed to the box of Angel Sanctuary discs that Tamaki was handing out.
“I know you’re watching Rociel,” Katou said, pointing to Rociel with a bladed finger. “And I am going to come for you.” And then he grabbed the box of games and turned to leave. He wasn’t running away. He wasn’t.
***
“Those aren’t yours!” Tamaki shouted, starting to go towards him but then he heard someone in his head telling him to stop. It sounded like Rociel and he stopped, just glaring at the man holding his games. “He’ll just give me more. You haven’t stopped anything.” He said, the anger gone from his voice and replaced with a calm as he turned and walked away.