U:M ficbit 1
Nov. 12th, 2006 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76I think this fits into the shared universe ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hoshikage and I are writing in someplace after her current story, Crystalline Chaos (see her lj for chapters one and two), and possibly after Reflections in Rhapsody. So spoilers for those, A Human Heart, and Splintered Secrets, as well as a warning for mild mild shounen-ai.
Somehow it seemed strange, Konomi thought numbly, to have Mirai and Ryuu waiting outside the infirmary doors with her. She supposed it was because they were usually the ones who got hurt, not-- She bit her lip and waited. She was very good at waiting outside this room, she thought, blinking back tears.
Mirai slid an arm around her shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze. "It will be all right, Konomi-san," he said, and she could help smiling at him even though he didn't sound any more sure than she felt.
Eventually the captain came out of the room, Teppei following shortly behind him. "The situation," Captain Sakomizu said, "isn't good."
Konomi's heart nearly failed her as Teppei started in on a more detailed description of what was wrong with her friend. She could only follow about half of it, but even that half was too much.
George stalked out of the room, not even seeming to see the rest of them, and slammed a fist into the nearest wall. It didn't seem to be enough; he hit again, and again.
Ryuu grabbed George's arm before he could dent the plaster any more. "You're not doing her any good with that!" he snapped.
George turned to look at him, and Konomi's heart nearly broke again. She knew what /she/ was feeling; she couldn't even imagine what George was going through. "No one can do her any good!" George replied, his face slick with tears, contorted with misery. "She's going to... Marina's going to...." His voice failed him.
"We don't know that," Mirai said, stepping forward.
"That's right," Konomi joined in. "She might get better, right?" She cast an imploring glance at Teppei.
"She's young and strong," Teppei allowed, "and she knows she has a lot to live for. Sometimes the will to fight makes all the difference."
"Even if she lives, though...." George's voice failed him.
"She will live," Mirai promised rashly, making Konomi and Ryuu both look at him. "She has to!"
George stared at him until Ryuu turned his attention away. "You're a wreck," Ryuu said critically. "Let's get you cleaned up and something to eat. How else are you going to stay up with her?"
"Ryuu..." George said, staring.
"I've been there," Ryuu said flatly. To Mirai's credit, he didn't twitch. "Come on." He cast a look at Mirai and led George away.
"Poor George-san," Konomi murmured.
"Konomi-san," Mirai said quietly, "can you go help Ryuu-san? George-san might need a sympathetic ear and Ryuu-san isn't always...." His voice trailed off.
Konomi smiled at him. "Tactful?" she suggested. "I'll go help him, Mirai-kun," she said.
Mirai smiled back. "Then I'll stay with Marina-san until he comes back."
Konomi nodded and scurried off after the two men, glad to be doing /something./ As she rounded a corner, she heard Mirai ask "How badly off is Marina-san really?"
*
The machines detailed a soft heartbeat as Mirai kept watch. Marina lay in the same bed he'd had so many stays in, hooked up to many of the same machines. At one point it had become a joke that they should just paint flames on the bed to mark its importance to their team. For some reason, Mirai was now wishing they had. The oxygen mask over Marina's face helped her breathe, the IV drip provided liquid and nutrients.
She wasn't going to wake up.
When the GunLoader had crashed, the safeties had failed and she'd been thrown free through the cockpit shield. The cuts on her chin and cheeks detailed her exit. She'd tumbled through the air and landed head-first onto a pile of metal debris in the junkyard. Her helmet had absorbed most of the impact, but not enough. There was pressure inside her skull, swelling and blood where there oughtn't be. The tumble down the scrap heap had ended in an eight-foot drop onto a metal bar right in the center of her back. Even if she woke up, she wouldn't ever be able to walk or ride a bike again. Never to run. She'd be confined to a desk position, support at the Phoenix Nest or possibly a copilot in one of the GunPhoenix's units, assuming she could ever face going back into the machine that had nearly taken her life.
But she wasn't going to wake up.
//It's not your fault,// Ryuu said, comfort laced through with his own threads of sorrow echoing between them. //There was nothing you could have done.//
Mirai hadn't been in the fighter with her. He'd been fighting the monster instead, and hadn't even known she'd been hurt. The fighters were supposed to have been designed for their pilots' safety.
//If you'd been there, you'd only have been hurt with her.//
//I dragged her into this life,// Mirai responded, tears slipping helplessly down his cheeks. //It's my fault.//
//She knew the risk, Mirai. We all did. It's no one's fault.//
It wasn't fair, Mirai thought. It wasn't fair at all that he could heal himself of nearly any injury while his friends couldn't. Just because he was an Ultra and they were human....
It wasn't fair.
It wasn't fair /at all/.
*
When Ryuu stumbled halfway down the hall and pressed one hand to his head, Konomi looked worridly at him. "Mirai, what are you...?" he questioned aloud, then his eyes snapped wide. "Idiot!" he snapped, and started at a run for the infirmary.
Konomi looked after him, then started running, along with George. She caught sight of Teppei down a hallway they passed, talking with the captain, and called out to them in a hurry. "Captain! Teppei-san! Mirai-kun's..." and there she stuttered to a halt because she didn't know what Mirai /was/ doing, just that he was doing something that had Ryuu worried.
She ended up arriving at the infirmary just moments after George, the Captain and Teppei on her heels. George had stopped at the door, though, instead of going in. Ryuu's arm barred him as faint light, growing brighter, spilled out into the hallway from within. "Idiot," Ryuu breathed, seeming to have an argument with himself, if one didn't know better. His eyes were unfocused as he continued, "You said that was impossible. No, don't tell me that--!" Whatever Mirai answered seemed to shake him, and his concentration abruptly snapped back to the here and now. He looked sideways at George. "Fine," he said quietly. "Don't touch him. Or her." He lowered his arm.
"What's he--" George demanded.
"He's healing her," Ryuu said quietly. "We'll probably need a bed for him too after it, but he thinks he might be able to pull Marina through."
George started immediately into the room. The rest of them followed more sedately, the Captain closing the door so Mirai's light no longer lit up the hallway.
A figure glowing too brilliantly to be identifiable as Mirai, or as anything but solid light, stood by Marina's bed, holding one of her hands in his own. Konomi had to shade her eyes, couldn't look at him, but got the impression that his eyes were closed as well. Swirls of golden light coasted forward from him, rippling over Marina's still form, almost like a hand caressing back mussed hair. Slowly, her hand began to glow where it was gripped by his, the light spreading up her arm like thick syrup. Slowly, Mirai's form began to dissolve.
*
Mirai ghosted along Marina's nerves, delicate and swift, trying not to send her body into shock from the unexpected invasion, trying not to let her instinctive responses throw him out as an alien and an intruder and an enemy. He sent pulses of warmth to the bruises and cuts he passed along the way, healing them as he skated up her form to her brain, where the worst of the damage was. This was injury as he could never experience it--injury that warped the net of energy dwelling within human bodies, sometimes destroying the person utterly. This was the injury that was going to kill one of his friends.
He couldn't allow that.
*
Marina sped around the track, taking the corners in a sweet glee, shifting her body weight, the wind and the sound of the engine in her ears. This was it, this was freedom. She felt like a bird, weightless in her element.
She sped past a young man who had no business being in the middle of her track.
He still stood there as she approached him on the next turn, and she braked, tires protesting, engine shuddering, and deliberately did /not/ run into him the way he really deserved, standing there like an idiot. She unfastened her helmet and pulled it off. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Get off the track before someone runs you over!"
"I need you to come with me, Marina-san," he said, extending a hand to her.
"What?" she demanded incredulously.
"We need you," he said. "GUYS needs you. You can't stay here."
She had no idea what he was talking about. "Are you crazy?" she asked. "I've never heard of GUYS. Who are you?"
He smiled sweetly, childlike. "A comrade," he replied.
There was a flash in her mind of a man's voice yelling her name. She shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. I need to practice for the preliminaries."
"You can't stay here," the young man said stubbornly. "You need to come with me, Marina-san."
"What are you talking about? I don't even know you!"
"Marina-san!" he barked, and she was surprised at the anger in his voice. He almost never got upset. But then she didn't know him, so how would she know that? "Look down!"
Involuntarily, she did, and gasped. The track had turned to black slime, like thick crude oil, and she was sinking into it. So was he. They were up to their thighs now. "What is this?" she asked, struggling, swiping at it. It was sticky and clung to her.
"I need you to come with me," the young man asked again, his hand still out to her. "While there's still time!"
"I don't even know you!"
"Yes, you do," he said surely.
*
"Dammit, Mirai," Ryuu growled. "Don't you dare.... No!"
George looked up from where he stood on the other side of Marina's bed. Mirai had turned wholly into a cloud of diffuse golden light that hovered over the bed, over Marina.
Ryuu took Marina's hand. "Don't do this to me, Mirai," he whispered, then opened his eyes again and looked at George. "Take her hand!" he ordered. Startled, George obeyed.
"What's he doing?" he asked quietly. Marina's hand was soft and dry in his, bike grip calluses running along the pads and base of her fingers.
"Getting her back or dying trying," Ryuu reported, eyes closed again as he blocked out any kind of distraction. "Mirai..." he whispered.
George looked down at the still figure on the bed. He didn't know yet if she was as dear to him as Mirai was to Ryuu, but he thought she might be, and wanted the chance to confirm it. "Marina...."
*
"Trust me!" the stranger demanded again, one hand still reaching for Marina over the thick slime that was nearly up to their necks. "Marina-san!"
She didn't know him.
//Marina...// another voice ghosted through her mind.
"George...?" she asked confusedly. She looked back at the young man, and for an instant he seemed familiar. "Mirai...kun?" she asked stupidly, not knowing why she knew his name.
His hand reached out to her, a red-and-gold brace on the forearm of the yellow and gray jacket sleeve.
She knew that brace. It had saved her once before, pulled her from death once before, somewhere....
She grabbed his hand.
His face lit up the instant she did, and so did their joint grasp, like a star flaring to life. But she didn't look away and neither did he as the world whited out--
*
Marina's hand tightened on George's. "Marina?" he asked, eyes flickering to her face, and then to Ryuu's. But Ryuu was frowning.
"Mirai...."
*
She was safe, but he was lost and nearly spent. He didn't know the way back, had never been trained in the healing arts, didn't know where to go, how to leave her safely....
//Lean on me,// someone thought, and Mirai distantly recognized the thought as coming from the other part of his soul. That person, so far away....
A torrent of warmth, of strength untapped, rushed down the bond between them. And he knew he couldn't take too much; that other person didn't have the knowledge or the power he did, to recuperate quickly. But there was one more thing he needed to do, to make things right, and he turned to do it before going back to safety. He felt amused acknowledgement, and acceptance, and a warning to be quick about things, as that other person knew his limits.
He was swift, urging cells to regenerate, to grow, to reconnect with one another. And the human body wanted to heal and be whole but didn't know how to, so he guided it, shaping, giving it the energy it needed to reverse the damage, pouring himself out more carefully now, because the person from whom he drew was not limitless in his strength. But finally the work was done and he followed that voice back gladly, more tired than he thought he'd ever been....
*
Marina's eyelids flickered and opened as Ryuu set down her hand and backed a step away. George hardly noticed, all his attention focused on her. Her eyes were directly on him. "Marina...?" he questioned barely daring to hope.
"George...?" she questioned almost dreamily from behind the oxygen mask. "I dreamed... there was a light...."
He smiled weakly, relieved, feeling like he was about to start crying again. And, really, he wasn't sure he wasn't. "That would be Mirai."
"Mirai...kun...?" she asked, and turned her head just slightly to look at the other side of the bed, where Mirai had reformed and Ryuu was holding him up.
Mirai smiled just faintly. "Welcome back, Marina-san," he said, and passed out to much commotion. George started forward, but Marina's hand kept its grip on his, and there were enough people fussing over Mirai already that there was no room for him anyway.
He looked back down at her, at the stubborn, sarcastic young woman who had somehow come to mean so much to him, as a teammate and a friend and something more. "Welcome back, senorita," he said, and touched his lips to the back of her hand as a few tears spilled free.
*
Mirai's bed was set up in the same room as Marina's, a privacy curtain drawn between them. Ryuu sat in the chair next to it, eyes closed, waiting for Mirai to wake. He felt weak inside, empty and drained, but couldn't begrudge the drain that left him feeling more than a little kittenish. Marina would be able to walk again, and that was what mattered.
Mirai's eyelids slowly flickered open, and Ryuu smiled. "Ryuu-san...?" Mirai asked.
"Yeah," Ryuu replied, leaning forward. Mirai's eyes tracked around the familiar room; Ryuu could feel things coming together for him.
"Marina-san?" he asked eventually.
"She'll be fine," Ryuu replied. "Thanks to you."
Mirai seemed to relax a little, and closed his eyes again.
/Partnership/ welled up between the two of them, a hand clasped in hand, and Ryuu understood it for what Mirai meant, a "Thanks to you too." Then, a chastisement as he felt how bone-weary and drained Ryuu was, that Ryuu should be in his room in a bed as well. After all, it wasn't like distance made any difference between them.
//I just wanted to be here until you woke up,// Ryuu retorted. "You worried me," he whispered aloud. //You scared me.//
Apologies, and love, nearly as tired as Ryuu was, wrapped around him. And Mirai's own undcertainty and fear as well. He'd never trained in healing and it was so much harder to heal someone else and he knew he'd nearly died with Marina and he never, ever wanted to do that again, to risk losing Ryuu but he knew he would if he needed to, and a desperate wish for some kind of training or guidance in this that he knew he couldn't receive while he was on Earth.... It all trailed off eventually and Ryuu found that his cheeks were wet as he grasped Mirai's hand. Because Mirai was right and there was no guarantee this kind of thing wouldn't happen again, and that it wouldn't be worse then.
"All we can do is try, and hope, and pray," he whispered, head bowed. Because losing Marina would have been bad, but losing Mirai would be so much worse that he couldn't even begin to comprehend it.
Eventually he managed to calm down enough, and to soothe Mirai's own fears enough, that he was able to accept that he really did need to go to his own bed. "I'll be back in the morning," he said, standing, Mirai's hand in his. "You get some sleep too."
"Yes, Ryuu-san," Mirai replied with a smile and a small squeeze of his hand. Ryuu hesitated, then leaned over and touched his mouth to Mirai's.
Mirai's eyes widened and he felt a scrambling for the meaning of the gesture. Ryuu responded simply with a warm feeling of love, of care, and Mirai relaxed into the gesture. "Good night, Mirai."
"Good night, Ryuu-san," Mirai replied, and closed his eyes.
Ryuu stepped around to Marina's side of the curtain, shaking George's shoulder where he'd fallen asleep in his own chair. "Come on, Ikaruga, sleep in your bed. You won't make her happy by getting a crick in your neck."
"Don't call me that," George sleepily complained, but obediently shuffled after Ryuu toward their private living quarters.
Ryuu shepherded George into his room then turned toward his own. It wasn't until he was settled into his bed that he reached out for Mirai again. //Mirai?//
//Ryuu-san?//
//If you really want to learn healing... there must be a way.//
A patient sigh. //There... might be. I'll contact them and find out.// Soft bemusement. //Go to sleep, Ryuu-san.//
Ryuu closed his eyes and curled closer to that shimmering golden presence, and obeyed.
hoshikage and I are writing in someplace after her current story, Crystalline Chaos (see her lj for chapters one and two), and possibly after Reflections in Rhapsody. So spoilers for those, A Human Heart, and Splintered Secrets, as well as a warning for mild mild shounen-ai.Somehow it seemed strange, Konomi thought numbly, to have Mirai and Ryuu waiting outside the infirmary doors with her. She supposed it was because they were usually the ones who got hurt, not-- She bit her lip and waited. She was very good at waiting outside this room, she thought, blinking back tears.
Mirai slid an arm around her shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze. "It will be all right, Konomi-san," he said, and she could help smiling at him even though he didn't sound any more sure than she felt.
Eventually the captain came out of the room, Teppei following shortly behind him. "The situation," Captain Sakomizu said, "isn't good."
Konomi's heart nearly failed her as Teppei started in on a more detailed description of what was wrong with her friend. She could only follow about half of it, but even that half was too much.
George stalked out of the room, not even seeming to see the rest of them, and slammed a fist into the nearest wall. It didn't seem to be enough; he hit again, and again.
Ryuu grabbed George's arm before he could dent the plaster any more. "You're not doing her any good with that!" he snapped.
George turned to look at him, and Konomi's heart nearly broke again. She knew what /she/ was feeling; she couldn't even imagine what George was going through. "No one can do her any good!" George replied, his face slick with tears, contorted with misery. "She's going to... Marina's going to...." His voice failed him.
"We don't know that," Mirai said, stepping forward.
"That's right," Konomi joined in. "She might get better, right?" She cast an imploring glance at Teppei.
"She's young and strong," Teppei allowed, "and she knows she has a lot to live for. Sometimes the will to fight makes all the difference."
"Even if she lives, though...." George's voice failed him.
"She will live," Mirai promised rashly, making Konomi and Ryuu both look at him. "She has to!"
George stared at him until Ryuu turned his attention away. "You're a wreck," Ryuu said critically. "Let's get you cleaned up and something to eat. How else are you going to stay up with her?"
"Ryuu..." George said, staring.
"I've been there," Ryuu said flatly. To Mirai's credit, he didn't twitch. "Come on." He cast a look at Mirai and led George away.
"Poor George-san," Konomi murmured.
"Konomi-san," Mirai said quietly, "can you go help Ryuu-san? George-san might need a sympathetic ear and Ryuu-san isn't always...." His voice trailed off.
Konomi smiled at him. "Tactful?" she suggested. "I'll go help him, Mirai-kun," she said.
Mirai smiled back. "Then I'll stay with Marina-san until he comes back."
Konomi nodded and scurried off after the two men, glad to be doing /something./ As she rounded a corner, she heard Mirai ask "How badly off is Marina-san really?"
The machines detailed a soft heartbeat as Mirai kept watch. Marina lay in the same bed he'd had so many stays in, hooked up to many of the same machines. At one point it had become a joke that they should just paint flames on the bed to mark its importance to their team. For some reason, Mirai was now wishing they had. The oxygen mask over Marina's face helped her breathe, the IV drip provided liquid and nutrients.
She wasn't going to wake up.
When the GunLoader had crashed, the safeties had failed and she'd been thrown free through the cockpit shield. The cuts on her chin and cheeks detailed her exit. She'd tumbled through the air and landed head-first onto a pile of metal debris in the junkyard. Her helmet had absorbed most of the impact, but not enough. There was pressure inside her skull, swelling and blood where there oughtn't be. The tumble down the scrap heap had ended in an eight-foot drop onto a metal bar right in the center of her back. Even if she woke up, she wouldn't ever be able to walk or ride a bike again. Never to run. She'd be confined to a desk position, support at the Phoenix Nest or possibly a copilot in one of the GunPhoenix's units, assuming she could ever face going back into the machine that had nearly taken her life.
But she wasn't going to wake up.
//It's not your fault,// Ryuu said, comfort laced through with his own threads of sorrow echoing between them. //There was nothing you could have done.//
Mirai hadn't been in the fighter with her. He'd been fighting the monster instead, and hadn't even known she'd been hurt. The fighters were supposed to have been designed for their pilots' safety.
//If you'd been there, you'd only have been hurt with her.//
//I dragged her into this life,// Mirai responded, tears slipping helplessly down his cheeks. //It's my fault.//
//She knew the risk, Mirai. We all did. It's no one's fault.//
It wasn't fair, Mirai thought. It wasn't fair at all that he could heal himself of nearly any injury while his friends couldn't. Just because he was an Ultra and they were human....
It wasn't fair.
It wasn't fair /at all/.
When Ryuu stumbled halfway down the hall and pressed one hand to his head, Konomi looked worridly at him. "Mirai, what are you...?" he questioned aloud, then his eyes snapped wide. "Idiot!" he snapped, and started at a run for the infirmary.
Konomi looked after him, then started running, along with George. She caught sight of Teppei down a hallway they passed, talking with the captain, and called out to them in a hurry. "Captain! Teppei-san! Mirai-kun's..." and there she stuttered to a halt because she didn't know what Mirai /was/ doing, just that he was doing something that had Ryuu worried.
She ended up arriving at the infirmary just moments after George, the Captain and Teppei on her heels. George had stopped at the door, though, instead of going in. Ryuu's arm barred him as faint light, growing brighter, spilled out into the hallway from within. "Idiot," Ryuu breathed, seeming to have an argument with himself, if one didn't know better. His eyes were unfocused as he continued, "You said that was impossible. No, don't tell me that--!" Whatever Mirai answered seemed to shake him, and his concentration abruptly snapped back to the here and now. He looked sideways at George. "Fine," he said quietly. "Don't touch him. Or her." He lowered his arm.
"What's he--" George demanded.
"He's healing her," Ryuu said quietly. "We'll probably need a bed for him too after it, but he thinks he might be able to pull Marina through."
George started immediately into the room. The rest of them followed more sedately, the Captain closing the door so Mirai's light no longer lit up the hallway.
A figure glowing too brilliantly to be identifiable as Mirai, or as anything but solid light, stood by Marina's bed, holding one of her hands in his own. Konomi had to shade her eyes, couldn't look at him, but got the impression that his eyes were closed as well. Swirls of golden light coasted forward from him, rippling over Marina's still form, almost like a hand caressing back mussed hair. Slowly, her hand began to glow where it was gripped by his, the light spreading up her arm like thick syrup. Slowly, Mirai's form began to dissolve.
Mirai ghosted along Marina's nerves, delicate and swift, trying not to send her body into shock from the unexpected invasion, trying not to let her instinctive responses throw him out as an alien and an intruder and an enemy. He sent pulses of warmth to the bruises and cuts he passed along the way, healing them as he skated up her form to her brain, where the worst of the damage was. This was injury as he could never experience it--injury that warped the net of energy dwelling within human bodies, sometimes destroying the person utterly. This was the injury that was going to kill one of his friends.
He couldn't allow that.
Marina sped around the track, taking the corners in a sweet glee, shifting her body weight, the wind and the sound of the engine in her ears. This was it, this was freedom. She felt like a bird, weightless in her element.
She sped past a young man who had no business being in the middle of her track.
He still stood there as she approached him on the next turn, and she braked, tires protesting, engine shuddering, and deliberately did /not/ run into him the way he really deserved, standing there like an idiot. She unfastened her helmet and pulled it off. "What are you doing here?" she demanded. "Get off the track before someone runs you over!"
"I need you to come with me, Marina-san," he said, extending a hand to her.
"What?" she demanded incredulously.
"We need you," he said. "GUYS needs you. You can't stay here."
She had no idea what he was talking about. "Are you crazy?" she asked. "I've never heard of GUYS. Who are you?"
He smiled sweetly, childlike. "A comrade," he replied.
There was a flash in her mind of a man's voice yelling her name. She shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. I need to practice for the preliminaries."
"You can't stay here," the young man said stubbornly. "You need to come with me, Marina-san."
"What are you talking about? I don't even know you!"
"Marina-san!" he barked, and she was surprised at the anger in his voice. He almost never got upset. But then she didn't know him, so how would she know that? "Look down!"
Involuntarily, she did, and gasped. The track had turned to black slime, like thick crude oil, and she was sinking into it. So was he. They were up to their thighs now. "What is this?" she asked, struggling, swiping at it. It was sticky and clung to her.
"I need you to come with me," the young man asked again, his hand still out to her. "While there's still time!"
"I don't even know you!"
"Yes, you do," he said surely.
"Dammit, Mirai," Ryuu growled. "Don't you dare.... No!"
George looked up from where he stood on the other side of Marina's bed. Mirai had turned wholly into a cloud of diffuse golden light that hovered over the bed, over Marina.
Ryuu took Marina's hand. "Don't do this to me, Mirai," he whispered, then opened his eyes again and looked at George. "Take her hand!" he ordered. Startled, George obeyed.
"What's he doing?" he asked quietly. Marina's hand was soft and dry in his, bike grip calluses running along the pads and base of her fingers.
"Getting her back or dying trying," Ryuu reported, eyes closed again as he blocked out any kind of distraction. "Mirai..." he whispered.
George looked down at the still figure on the bed. He didn't know yet if she was as dear to him as Mirai was to Ryuu, but he thought she might be, and wanted the chance to confirm it. "Marina...."
"Trust me!" the stranger demanded again, one hand still reaching for Marina over the thick slime that was nearly up to their necks. "Marina-san!"
She didn't know him.
//Marina...// another voice ghosted through her mind.
"George...?" she asked confusedly. She looked back at the young man, and for an instant he seemed familiar. "Mirai...kun?" she asked stupidly, not knowing why she knew his name.
His hand reached out to her, a red-and-gold brace on the forearm of the yellow and gray jacket sleeve.
She knew that brace. It had saved her once before, pulled her from death once before, somewhere....
She grabbed his hand.
His face lit up the instant she did, and so did their joint grasp, like a star flaring to life. But she didn't look away and neither did he as the world whited out--
Marina's hand tightened on George's. "Marina?" he asked, eyes flickering to her face, and then to Ryuu's. But Ryuu was frowning.
"Mirai...."
She was safe, but he was lost and nearly spent. He didn't know the way back, had never been trained in the healing arts, didn't know where to go, how to leave her safely....
//Lean on me,// someone thought, and Mirai distantly recognized the thought as coming from the other part of his soul. That person, so far away....
A torrent of warmth, of strength untapped, rushed down the bond between them. And he knew he couldn't take too much; that other person didn't have the knowledge or the power he did, to recuperate quickly. But there was one more thing he needed to do, to make things right, and he turned to do it before going back to safety. He felt amused acknowledgement, and acceptance, and a warning to be quick about things, as that other person knew his limits.
He was swift, urging cells to regenerate, to grow, to reconnect with one another. And the human body wanted to heal and be whole but didn't know how to, so he guided it, shaping, giving it the energy it needed to reverse the damage, pouring himself out more carefully now, because the person from whom he drew was not limitless in his strength. But finally the work was done and he followed that voice back gladly, more tired than he thought he'd ever been....
Marina's eyelids flickered and opened as Ryuu set down her hand and backed a step away. George hardly noticed, all his attention focused on her. Her eyes were directly on him. "Marina...?" he questioned barely daring to hope.
"George...?" she questioned almost dreamily from behind the oxygen mask. "I dreamed... there was a light...."
He smiled weakly, relieved, feeling like he was about to start crying again. And, really, he wasn't sure he wasn't. "That would be Mirai."
"Mirai...kun...?" she asked, and turned her head just slightly to look at the other side of the bed, where Mirai had reformed and Ryuu was holding him up.
Mirai smiled just faintly. "Welcome back, Marina-san," he said, and passed out to much commotion. George started forward, but Marina's hand kept its grip on his, and there were enough people fussing over Mirai already that there was no room for him anyway.
He looked back down at her, at the stubborn, sarcastic young woman who had somehow come to mean so much to him, as a teammate and a friend and something more. "Welcome back, senorita," he said, and touched his lips to the back of her hand as a few tears spilled free.
Mirai's bed was set up in the same room as Marina's, a privacy curtain drawn between them. Ryuu sat in the chair next to it, eyes closed, waiting for Mirai to wake. He felt weak inside, empty and drained, but couldn't begrudge the drain that left him feeling more than a little kittenish. Marina would be able to walk again, and that was what mattered.
Mirai's eyelids slowly flickered open, and Ryuu smiled. "Ryuu-san...?" Mirai asked.
"Yeah," Ryuu replied, leaning forward. Mirai's eyes tracked around the familiar room; Ryuu could feel things coming together for him.
"Marina-san?" he asked eventually.
"She'll be fine," Ryuu replied. "Thanks to you."
Mirai seemed to relax a little, and closed his eyes again.
/Partnership/ welled up between the two of them, a hand clasped in hand, and Ryuu understood it for what Mirai meant, a "Thanks to you too." Then, a chastisement as he felt how bone-weary and drained Ryuu was, that Ryuu should be in his room in a bed as well. After all, it wasn't like distance made any difference between them.
//I just wanted to be here until you woke up,// Ryuu retorted. "You worried me," he whispered aloud. //You scared me.//
Apologies, and love, nearly as tired as Ryuu was, wrapped around him. And Mirai's own undcertainty and fear as well. He'd never trained in healing and it was so much harder to heal someone else and he knew he'd nearly died with Marina and he never, ever wanted to do that again, to risk losing Ryuu but he knew he would if he needed to, and a desperate wish for some kind of training or guidance in this that he knew he couldn't receive while he was on Earth.... It all trailed off eventually and Ryuu found that his cheeks were wet as he grasped Mirai's hand. Because Mirai was right and there was no guarantee this kind of thing wouldn't happen again, and that it wouldn't be worse then.
"All we can do is try, and hope, and pray," he whispered, head bowed. Because losing Marina would have been bad, but losing Mirai would be so much worse that he couldn't even begin to comprehend it.
Eventually he managed to calm down enough, and to soothe Mirai's own fears enough, that he was able to accept that he really did need to go to his own bed. "I'll be back in the morning," he said, standing, Mirai's hand in his. "You get some sleep too."
"Yes, Ryuu-san," Mirai replied with a smile and a small squeeze of his hand. Ryuu hesitated, then leaned over and touched his mouth to Mirai's.
Mirai's eyes widened and he felt a scrambling for the meaning of the gesture. Ryuu responded simply with a warm feeling of love, of care, and Mirai relaxed into the gesture. "Good night, Mirai."
"Good night, Ryuu-san," Mirai replied, and closed his eyes.
Ryuu stepped around to Marina's side of the curtain, shaking George's shoulder where he'd fallen asleep in his own chair. "Come on, Ikaruga, sleep in your bed. You won't make her happy by getting a crick in your neck."
"Don't call me that," George sleepily complained, but obediently shuffled after Ryuu toward their private living quarters.
Ryuu shepherded George into his room then turned toward his own. It wasn't until he was settled into his bed that he reached out for Mirai again. //Mirai?//
//Ryuu-san?//
//If you really want to learn healing... there must be a way.//
A patient sigh. //There... might be. I'll contact them and find out.// Soft bemusement. //Go to sleep, Ryuu-san.//
Ryuu closed his eyes and curled closer to that shimmering golden presence, and obeyed.
