DISCLAIMER: Last time I checked, I belonged to Kurama. Heh.
Chapter 12: Amadeus
How did I end up here? Hiei wondered groggily as he pushed himself off of the floor to slam a hand on his beeping alarm clock. Did I fall out of bed—again?
Apparently so.
But it was 6:00 in the morning and there was school, thus leaving no time for him to contemplate the exact occurrences of the night before.
There was school. The first day back after winter break.
Damn school. Damn it to Hell.
Yukina turned mournful eyes on her best friend.
"Yukina… what's wrong? Tell me, please!" Kayko pleaded for the seventieth time that day.
"Oh—no—it's—Kayko, have you ever lost someone very dear to you?"
Kayko thought back. Well, there was her dog, Snowy… and her parakeet, Monique… her grandmother had died before she was born, so… no, not really.
Who could Yukina have lost, though? Looking around the schoolyard, Kayko found that Hiei was sitting in the corner somewhere, headphones securely over his ears... and Hina had driven them to school, so that couldn't be it… a grandparent, maybe? Or—what was his name?—Amadeus! No, Amadeus couldn't have died…
But he could have… And Yukina would be devastated, Kayko knew that for sure.
"Not Amadeus!"
Yukina blanked, staring at her friend.
"Who…?" Then: "Amadeus…"
Yukina began to laugh, weakly first before escalating to a fully-formed one, and then one that seemed choked by hysteria.
"My goldfish…? Hiei flushed him down the toilet years ago…"
And she continued laughing.
Funny how it only made her feel worse.
Question marks danced over Kayko's head.
"Okay, so, pencils out, calculators on desks, books in your backpacks, and get ready to fail. No, just joking. Well, maybe not, isn't that right?"
No one answered the math teacher, though half of the class glared at him.
Suichi was strangely calm. He'd listened to classical music (Mozart, to be exact) the night before (though half-way through the night, Yoko had somehow managed to switch it with Linkin Park), so he was feeling rather relaxed. He had had about ten hours of sleep. He'd eaten tainted waffles (dear God, the SUGAR in those things!) for breakfast, but at least it was something. Plus, he knew this topic inside and out, backwards and front, this way a—
Fwap! went the test papers into Suichi's face. He would have glared at Paul, had he not been in such a serene mood.
So, yes, this time he was going to pass. Not with flying colors, no. With, erm… damn, writing wasn't his best subject… With… really… magnificent and… um… colorful… colors. Yah. Most definitely.
Scratchscratch went his pencil rapidly over the paper, working with both speed and accuracy.
And then the Dreaded Shadow fell over his test. Karasu was leaning over his shoulder, reading his answers and leaning over his shoulder and distracting Suichi with his presence and leaning—over—his—freaking—shoulder!
JUST—GO—AWAY! Suichi shouted in his mind. Teachers, aside from being evil mutants (for not all mutants were evil—look at Logan and Scott and Jean and Rogue and Bobby…) from the planet XYZ (for XYZ was the name of the triangle he was currently trying to figure out the side of) who had eyes in the backs of their heads (they lied! They lied, dammit! They did have four eyes. Or six, depending on whether or not they had glasses.) and absolutely no lives outside of terrorizing their students (why else would they have taken the jobs?) also had telepathic powers (how else would one explain the fact that they knew everything about their students' social lives?), but were too black-hearted to heed their students' pleas to stop hovering and GET AWAY!
Karasu reached out, got a hold of Suichi's finger, and guided it away from the little π on the eighth grader's calculator, and onto the button labeled 'SIN' (Oh, that's right, opposite over hypotenuse).
He—touched—me!... He saved me from ruining that problem!... But that—that—
Strangled cries of frustration threatened to rise up from Suichi's throat. He stifled them, though, and breathed a silent sigh of relief when Karasu (finally!) left to pick on Paulie a little bit.
…If I chuck my calculator at him, will he know it was me?
Yoko stared at the board.
Gifted. How—friggin'—fun.
Mozart. That's what they were learning about. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the baroque era of music, etc., etc., that was what they were learning.
WHO CARED?!
Well, at least they got to watch a movie. Amadeus. Hmph. That Salieri guy was a nutcase, that was for sure—who in HELL admitted to murdering one of the world's best composers?
Yoko threw a note at Hiei.
Didn't your sister have a fish named Wolfgang?
Amadeus, bozo.
Didn't you say it was evil?
It was.
What happened to it?
Just shut up and watch the movie.
But of course, now Hiei was thinking about the stupid fish.
Memory
Hiei peered into the fishtank.
He and Yukina had had Amadeus ever since about kindergarten, and at age 10, Hiei knew that something was terribly wrong with this picture. Fish sure as Hell didn't live this long, no way, no how.
And there was something really wrong with the way the red-eyed fish looked at the twins… as if they were the pets and he the master and not the other way around—and it seemed like he was the type of master who got arrested for abuse of pets. The look was extremely frightening, especially after watching horror movies for six hours straight.
After all, killer birds (1), killer fish—there wasn't all that much distinction between the two, was there? Okay, so land/air and water… sure, whatever.
So, one night, after Yukina had gone to sleep, Hiei snuck into her oh-so-neat room and peered into the fishtank.
And then, he unplugged the filter and everything else, hoisted the aquarium up, and crept into the bathroom. And then, slowly but surely, he dumped most of the water into the tub. The rest—and Amadeus—went into the toilet.
But the look that the doomed fish gave Hiei right before Amadeus was swallowed up by the whirling vortex of water—that look would haunt the boy for the rest of his life and was the source of many of Hiei's nightmares henceforth.
End Memory
The fish was evil.
The movie Finding Nemo was even more evil. After all, Nemo found his way to his dad… why couldn't Amadeus find his way home to the twins? The very prospect of a killer fish (who had somehow mutated in the dingy sewers of New York) on its way home to clamp its now huge piranha-like teeth into Hiei's neck scared the twin out of his brains.
And Yukina wondered why he'd come out of the theater pale and babbling.
Holy crap, is his hair orange?! (2) Yoko wrote.
Holy crap, I think it is.
Holy crap…
Karasu watched this movie.
Oh, yeah.
Stupid movie.
Notes: (1) The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. No, I haven't watched The Birds, though at the age of about five, I was introduced to Psycho, the original version. I almost died of terror because I thought the lady made of bones was going to come and kill me.
(2) Generally in the baroque period, the men powdered their hair different colors. Blue, blonde, green (I think), and, as Yoko pointed out, orange. I can't remember if this was actually in Amadeus, but I thought it was funny.
Why was my main theme throughout this chapter Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? I dunno. I guess because it occurred to me in the middle of the night that I can't find my sheet music for 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusik' and I really wanted to play it. Yes, I've watched Amadeus (well, most of it) and I don't think it's that stupid. I also just liked the thought of a murderous fish called Amadeus who terrorized Hiei into killing him and forevermore being terrified of the movie Finding Nemo. It's a very Tell-Tale Heart-esque. Except without the killing… for now… ::evil laughter::
Ah, well. I promise I'll try to update soon. Just review, 'kay? Thanks!
Responses:
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