Somehow: part three
By Uozumi
Author’s
Notes: My muse went *boom* Maybe this'll solve my problem. ::tries to get muse to come back by writing
a new chapter - hopefully:: I own
nothing.
----
"This is
exciting," Eiji commented as they sat in his room much later. "We can look for things after I help
Ibé-san, or you can help . . . ."
Ash nodded, his
eyes drooping. The clock read ten at
night, but in America, that was the equivalent of seven in the morning. It wouldn't have been the first time he had
stayed up all night, but he just felt it this time.
Then the phone
began to ring, its ring reverberating through his ears regardless of the fact
that it was in the hall and not in the room.
Lying face
down, head buried in the pillow, Ash groaned, and promptly feigned sleep.
Eiji sighed,
and was about to get up when Nanako's voice could be heard quite clearly,
"Moshi-moshi!" She
rattled something off in Japanese, Ash just tuning it out, his body beginning
to relax, sleep settling in.
Eiji smiled
softly, and then started rooting about his bookcase. It had been so long since he had seen it, and was amazed at how
dusty it had gotten. Hearing a small
noise, he glanced over his left shoulder, and then rose.
"<What?>"
he inquired softly, noting that it seemed Ash was asleep, and finally not
feigning it.
"<Phone
call,>" Nanako motioned to the hallway, "<from
America.>"
Eiji blinked,
then quickly was out the door, took two quick strides, and soon had the
receiver in his hand, "Hello?"
"Eiji?"
a shaky voice spoke up from the other end, "I'm sorry if I woke you."
"Lobo-san?" Eiji blinked slightly, a confused expression
flying across his features. "You
did not wake me . . ." his voice came out uncertain, the vibes coming from
the phone shouting that something was wrong.
"Good . .
. . Look . . . you - you might want to
sit down for this," Max "Lobo" Glenreed sighed.
"I - I
think I will be fine -"
"Just sit
down," Max's voice was tired and tried, "please."
Eiji glanced
around, noting that Nanako was watching, but sat down regardless, picking up
the phone base so that it sat in his lap as well.
Nanako stared
at him strangely, receiving a brotherly glare in reply. Rolling her eyes, the young-looking
third-year wandered off to study for her high school entrance exams.
"I am
sitting now."
"Okay,"
Max took a deep breath, then spoke very cautiously as though each word would
break as he said them.
"Eiji,
this morning . . . .
"Eiji, Ash
is dead."
Instantly Eiji
dropped the phone, his brown eyes wide, breathing paused. His mind was screaming. This made no sense! Wasn't Ash in his room?!
"Eiji . .
. ? Eiji?!"
"I am . .
. still . . . here . . ." Eiji's voice responded shakily, his hands even
shaking as he tried to function.
"How . . . ?"
"We found
his gun outside a building - burned to the ground . . . we found his blood
there too . . . no body, but we have a note," a crumpling of paper was
heard, and Eiji felt numb.
When he was
younger and didn't want to remember something, he was given to lucid dreams,
which was probably part of the reason he had been able to remain so innocent
for so long. He had many after his
grandmother had died, but had learned to keep them to himself.
As Max read off
the letter, Eiji's ears buzzed with the realization hat perhaps Nanako had
woken him from a dream. He did feel
groggy, and as though sleep was trying to drag him down with it, but had he
been sleeping? Would Nanako have woken
him like that?
"Eiji, you
there?"
"H - Hai - er - Yes," he nodded, his voice
dry. "I - I should let you
go."
"Can you
pass it on to Shuichi?"
"Yes,"
Eiji nodded, suddenly dreading the next morning. "I will.
"I let you
go. It is long distance."
"Wait."
The two sat
through a pregnant pause, and then Max spoke again, "Are you . . . . Will you need anything? You going to be all
right?"
It was a stupid
question.
"I will .
. . ." Eiji didn't finish the
sentence, then spoke quietly, "I go now. Good night - er - Good morning,
Lobo-san."
"If you're
sure . . . ." Max's voice betrayed uncertainty, but he bid Eiji farewell
and then hung up the phone on his line.
Numbly, Eiji
hung up the telephone, finger caught in the chord slightly as he stared
off. He hadn't had such a dream since
he was ten, but he knew a lucid dream from real life, right . . . ?
He wasn't in a
dream now, was he . . . ?
Somehow, he
managed to stand up and set the phone back on its small stand, and walk towards
his room. Standing before the figure on
the floor, he touched the mattress the blonde slept upon, then Eiji twitched,
his eyes flashing slightly, then he shouted, "<DAMN, YOU, YOU STUPID
DREAM!>" and then kicked the figure on the mattress very hard and
stalked out of the room, slamming the screen to the outdoors shut behind him.
Instantly Ash
was up, and had just missed grabbing his attacker's ankles. Cursing low, Ash reached into his pocket,
then froze.
His gun!
Panicking
slightly, he got up, then cursed loudly this time, his ankle smashing into the
floor.
Hadn't his bed
been higher off the ground . . . ?
Looking around,
he blinked, then everything came rushing at him all at once. He remembered running, dropping the gun
after someone tried to mug him or something of that nonsense on his flight to
the airport. Touching his side
gingerly, Ash was thankful that he had worn his black tank. He had run into someone who wound up
slashing him on the side, and he had dropped his gun in his scuffle, then took
off for the airport before he could really get a slash to the gut.
Wincing, he
knew he couldn't tell Eiji. There was
no need to worry his host one bit. All
Ash would need to do would be to get some gauze or some sort of bandage and
come up with an excuse for it, and he could take care of the wound
himself. He had done so many times, and
he knew that even though it was somewhat deep, it didn't feel too serious.
Awake, and
feeling slightly rested, Ash gazed about the room, then narrowed his unique
green eyes.
Where was Eiji?
Getting up, he
went to walk out the front door, when he paused and looked over his shoulder
out the sliding door at a figure sitting on the porch ledge. The February wind was playing with dark
hair, two despondent brown eyes gazing off at the small backyard. Quietly, Ash stepped out, sucking in a
slight breath as his bare foot touched the frigid porch, but he navigated the
porch and stood just to the left of Eiji as the older man continued to stare
blankly at the foliage before them.
". .
." Ash opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't for reasons he
couldn't fathom.
Suddenly,
Eiji's eyes turned to him and he said something in Japanese, but by the tone
Ash knew it wasn't good, the tone almost as cold as the weather.
"Don't
speak that gibberish at me," he found his voice, folding his arms against
the February chill. "Why are you
so mad?"
Eiji muttered
something in Japanese in reply.
Ash glowered a
moment, then sighed, "Fine, be that way. Why I came here, I'll try to
remember," slowly he reached into his pocket and took out a piece of
paper. He didn't glance at Eiji as he
placed his reading glasses upon the bridge of his nose and began reading.
"'Dear
Ash,
"'I am
never good at good bye. I know that you will not come to see me, so I write
this.
"'I have
known you for months, but it feels like years.
I do not know when I start to feel this way, but I do. I hope that you live long, but that will not
happen, will it? And, that makes me
sad.
"'I wish
to see you, but that will not happen. I
hope that you are not sad. I will miss
you, and think about you alwa -"
The note was plucked from Ash's fingers.
Looking up, Ash
expected to see Eiji embarrassed and trying to hide the letter, but instead he
found a dark look in those brown eyes, and two pale hands ripping up the white
paper before tossing it into the strong wind without really a care for what
happened to the pieces afterwards.
Ash stared,
then reached up and caught one piece before it could join the rest in their
trek over the roof of the Okumura home. Opening his hand, Ash kept a grip on the struggling paper, and
read silently the phrases on it.
"Why?"
Eiji didn't
respond, merely contenting himself to watch the backyard, feeling the wind on
his face.
Ash shook
slightly at the whole situation.
Why was this
happening?!
"Dammit,
Eiji, say something!" then, before Eiji could answer, Ash added, "in
English."
The dark haired
man glared, and he spoke harshly, "You are a - a - You are just a dream. You should go now. You are not helping."
"Dream?"
Ash stared. What was Eiji going on about? He might as well have said it in Japanese for all the sense that
it made.
"Yes,
dream. A stupid dream," Eiji
whispered, his eyes glazing over with an expression Ash had never see him wear.
It made him think of when Shorter had
died, but this one was different. Ash
didn't know how it was, he just knew that it was the same, but different
simultaneously.
He wasn't sure
what really to say. He had run all the
way to the airport, pushed people, jumped over luggage, bombarded onto a plane,
and now . . . .
Ash wanted to
stand, turn away, and just erase that whole escapade. If he had known that the letter had meant
nothing . . . .
Weighing his
options, Ash eyed the room just behind them, then slowly unfolded the scrap of
paper in his hand, and held it up, reading the inscription one last time, then
let it go, watching as the paper flew off after its counterparts somewhere far,
far away.
To be continued
. . .