Still Waters: For Absent Friends

Many Times I've Loved, Many Times Been Bitten

Max leaned over Negi's seat to look out through the window at the ground far below, where the sea had finally given way to land.

"I'm finally back…didn't think I would ever see it again."

Negi shook himself out of his doze and looked around. "Max-san? Did you say something?"

Max shook his head and sat back down. "Nothing."

'It's been four years, now…I wonder what will happen when we leave the airport?' Max leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. America…

The plane landed without incident and the passengers disembarked on American soil. Max, for his part, couldn't help but feel a tiny thrill at being home again, even if the place he had called home for so many years was actually about a thousand miles to the east. He had spent a lot of time in this city, in his younger days.

"Max-san? Is something wrong?" Negi asked worriedly.

"Nothing. Where is Takamichi?"

"He is at the baggage claim, with Shizuna-sensei," Negi replied, looking around wide eyed. He had never been to San Diego before.

Max couldn't help but smile…it appeared this was the kid's first time in America. He would have to be sure to show Negi around. They had a week, after all. But…Negi wasn't exactly a kid, anymore, not by any stretch of the imagination. All the time spent in Eva's resort coupled with everything he had been through…no, Negi was most definitely not a kid anymore.

"Ooh, look, look! What's that? I want to see. Max-san, can I go look?"

Well, he might still be a kid, at least a little.

"Sure. Meet up with us at the baggage claim in a few minutes."

"Ok, Max-san," Negi replied absently as he ran off after whatever he had seen.

Max stuffed his hands in his pockets and wandered through the familiar airport. The last time he had been here, he had been preparing to undertake a mission to Japan to locate a certain person of interest. But what he had found… He grinned crookedly and soon located Takahata and Shizuna, and the three of them waited in near-silence for Negi to arrive.

"How does it feel to be home again?" Takahata asked after a moment from where he leaned on a support pillar.

Max glanced at him, then redirected his blank gaze to the ceiling from his side of the column. "It's nice. I guess I didn't realize how much I missed it."

Takahata nodded and lit a cigarette, but quickly put it out when Shizuna gave him the evil eye. "They say you can never return home, but it's a lie."

Max nodded absently while Shizuna rolled her eyes and maintained her silence.

"I'm here, Max-san, Takamichi, Shizuna-sensei," Negi announced as he jogged up to the small group, bearing a bag of expensive airport souvenirs. "Shall we go?"

Everyone gathered their luggage, such as it was, and headed for the exit.

As the group headed outside, a familiar face greeted them. Max couldn't help but grin at the sight of one of his old friends. He strolled toward the man with his hands in his pockets. "Hey Byron. You got yourself rich yet?"

Byron grinned lazily and pulled down his sunglasses a bit. "No. Economy's in shambles. How's a decent man supposed to get ahead like this? It's gotta be some kind of conspiracy." His grin widened. "How you doin, Max?"

"Better than I was, worse than I will be. You?"

"Same." Byron eyed the other three teachers and motioned for them to follow as he led the way to the car. "So, Max Linell, a teacher. Never thought I'd see the day." He pulled out a rumpled cigarette and lit it, but held it instead of smoking it. "How's Jenny?"

"Fine. She wanted to come with me, but…"

"You'd better be treating her right, Max," Byron said, loosening his already loose tie further. It seemed he still couldn't stand the things…some things never changed.

"I'm doing what I can," Max replied. They continued in silence for a time while Negi, Takahata and Shizuna maintained a respectful distance while the two old friends caught up. "So…what's the situation?"

"It's pretty rough. You don't know just what you caused over here, Max." Byron absently dropped the burned-out-but-not-yet-smoked cigarette and stepped on it.

"How bad is it?"

"We're currently run by a committee of the section chiefs until they can appoint someone to replace the last guy. There has been a movement to nominate Wilder again, but he turned 'em down. Says he's too old." Byron tch'd in disbelief. "Yeah, I'll believe that when he's been dead two years, not a day before."

Max barked a laugh and nodded. Old Man Wilder was tough as nails. He still had a good forty years left in him, short of accident or murder.

"You really shook the place up. The research division's head and half its fighting capability gone in one disastrous mission, followed by a defection to the old man at Mahora by two of our best agents...it's been rough."

"That bad, huh?"

"That bad. You know, they've got me training rookies now. Me! Training rookies who only have eyes for the four legends of the research division!"

Max stopped. "Four legends?" He didn't like the sound of that.

Byron continued on for a few steps before he stopped. "You, Jenny, Guy, and Arvel. Can you believe that? What about me? I'm Byron the freakin Water Mage, the guy who used to regularly beat the lot of you in spar sessions, sometimes all four at once!. Where's my respect?" Byron asked, overselling badly.

"Yeah, yeah. Poor Byron. Be good and maybe I'll buy you some cotton candy," Max replied sarcastically as Byron grinned.

"Heh, same old Max."

"…yeah."

"So who're they?" Byron asked, jerking his head back at the three following them.

"The cool one's Takahata, the woman's Shizuna, and the kid's Negi."

"Negi Springfield?" Byron asked. Max nodded, and Byron whistled. "So it really is his son, huh? Looks just him, judging by the pictures."

"Yeah."

"Is he as strong as they say?"

Max nodded. "They're good people, Byron. I don't want any trouble for them."

"…there won't be. You've got the whole American Division on their toes, Max. But you're lucky you weren't greeted by a sniper."

"Is it that bad?"

"It was seriously discussed by the committee; I know that much. Don't worry, they dropped it. They decided that the risks were too great."

"Risks?"

"If you were to die under suspicious conditions here, what's to stop Jenny and that little girl over in Japan from joining together and wiping us out?"

Max grinned wryly. "Not much."

"Damn straight."

They paused by a large, white SUV and Byron produced a key. "Guess what? You guys get the whole package; a chauffer, a five star hotel, room service."

"What's the catch?" Max asked as he opened the door and got in. He glanced back to see Negi, Takahata, and Shizuna approaching.

"They want you out of here. The sooner the better. They told me to do my best, so…" Byron assumed a stiff and rather constipated expression and spoke in a deep, commanding voice. "I think it would be for the best if you turned around, got right back on that plane, and flew back to Japan tonight."

"No."

Byron grinned. "Well, at least I tried. You still planning on staying the whole week, right? Nothing's changed?" Max shook his head, and Byron fell silent as the other three teachers got into the car. "Now come on, let's get you guys to the hotel," Byron said as he turned the key in the ignition.

Conversation soon died and everyone fell into a comfortable silence as jet lag started catching up. After a long drive through crowded city streets, they found their hotel and unloaded their luggage from the car, and Byron helped them find their rooms and then left them to their own devices.

Max excused himself from the group and went to his room, leaving Takahata, Shizuna and Negi alone in the lobby.

"So…what do we do now?" Negi asked, trying to look at everything at once.

Takahata grinned slightly…Negi was acting like a student on a class trip. "We are planning to visit the zoo, later…I understand it is a good one," he said, then grinned as Negi's face lit up.

Max lay back on top of the bed in his hotel room and gazed into space, letting himself go for the first time in a long time. It was nice to be back, true; but…he couldn't help but miss Akira and Jennifer. It felt like a big part of what made him, him was missing, without those two nearby; the others too, to a lesser extent. Yuuna, Makie, and sometimes Ako, though she had been spending more time with her bandmates as time went on. They had all become almost as comfortable around each other as Max and Jennifer were with Akira. A lot of things had happened; some bad, more good, all coming together to mold the whole lot of them into something he could only describe by the concept of nakama; brothers (and sisters) in arms, war buddies…that sort of thing. It was…nice. His old friends in America had died or gone insane or drifted away one by one; with Marlin and Nil in the ermine camp in the magic world and Arvel in a coma he would likely never come out of, the last remaining members of the old group were Max and Byron. It was hard, but…there it was.

Max let out a deep breath and let himself drift off.

"Come on, Max!" Rikki called, smiling toothily at him from her perch on top of the shipping container. She held out her hand, so he took it and almost pulled her down by accident. The two of them were only thirteen, but he was already showing signs of becoming the 6'6" monster he would be later in life. "Oof, you're heavy," Rikki complained, ignoring the howling dogs and security guards only a hundred yards away and closing.

"Excuse me for livin," Max retorted as he scrambled up. To his surprise, Rikki didn't let go of his hand, but instead led the way along the top of the container and onto the next, and the next and the next and the next; she only let go when they were forced to jump across an empty space above the maze of containers in the shipping yard. Even then, she waited for him and helped pull him up when his jump went short. Her eyes shining with amusement, it was almost as if she was having the time of her life, and he couldn't help but grin at her in response.

They arrived at the edge of the stacked containers and were faced with a six foot gap between the stack and the razor wire fence.

Rikki grinned wickedly at him, took a few steps back for a running start, and jumped, clearing the razor wire easily. Max eyed the gap warily, then took off his jacket and wrapped the record book from the shipping office with it, then tossed it over the fence to her.

"Max…?"

"I really don't want to do this," he complained as he backed up to the edge of the container.

"Come on, Max! You have to hurry," Rikki said, her earlier exuberance gone. She actually seemed worried for some reason. Well, Max didn't like that look on her face, but there wasn't anything to worry over; she had the record book, she could take it to Father Brian and he would handle things from there. There was nothing for her to worry about.

"Go on, I'll hold them off," Max said, actually expecting her to go.

Rikki growled something insulting, dropped the package, and started climbing the fence.

"Wait! Don't do that, Rikki! What about the wire on the top? You'll get cut!"

"I don't care, you idiot! If you're not coming with me, I'm going to come and get you!"

After a bit of arguing, it was decided that Max would jump. 'Weird girl…she'd get all scarred up if she climbed the fence, then what? Nobody would want to marry a poor scarred up girl,' he complained mentally. He took a running start and—

*knock knock knock*

Max opened his eyes and sat up. That was right...he was in a hotel in San Diego, not a shipyard run by a conman.

"Max-san? We're going to the zoo, do you want to come with us?"

Max rubbed his eyes, which had become suspiciously moist, and stood up. "Ok. I'll be out in a minute," he replied as he headed to the bathroom to wash his face. He still had the scars where his leg had clipped the razor wire and become tangled. Whoever had attached it to the main fence hadn't done a good job; at least fifty feet of it had come loose when Max fell on it all those years ago.

He couldn't help but grin at the memory of sheer ridiculousness of it; even Rikki had burst into laughter once she saw he was all right. He turned on the faucet in the bathroom.

"Wow, look at the elephants, they're so big!" Negi gushed as he ran to the fence and pointed excitedly.

Max couldn't help but grin; Negi was acting like a twelve year old. It was especially amusing that he looked to be in his late teens now, a result of extensive training in Eva's time-manipulating resort.

"We're in the US now, Negi. You don't have to speak in Japanese anymore," Max said as he glanced at the elephants. Yep, they were elephants, all right. Now that he thought about it, Rikki had been fond of elephants too, but her favorite animals were always the meerkats. He was a Tiger person, himself. He wondered briefly where Takahata and Shizuna had gone, but shrugged it off. The two of them were probably spending quality time in a storage room or something.

"Oh, yes…I'll try to remember," Negi said in Japanese as he watched the elephants. "Oh look! It says here that this is only a temporary exhibit while they do some work on the Wild Animal Park. We were very lucky to be here to see them like this, weren't we?"

Max nodded and stuffed his hands into his pockets as he looked around at the families and other tourists; he grinned wryly. He would likely never have a family like that; it just didn't seem to be in the cards for him. Speaking of cards… He his hand touched the card in his pocket and he relaxed a little; the cool, almost plastic texture of the card was reassuring, in a way. Almost as reassuring as it was sad. Negi would experience the same thing, given time; he had too many ministra not to.

He pushed those thoughts from his head and followed Negi to the next exhibit.

Author's Note 12/6/10:I've just gone over this story and re-added the dividers and stuff to make it easier to read after FFN's mass deletion of symbols-used-as-dividers a while back. There isn't anything new...sorry about that.

Author's Note: Well, here's a side story featuring Max returning to the US, escorted by Negi, Takahata, and Shizuna. Also, we finally get to meet Byron the Water Mage, mentioned waaay back in Chapter 8 of Still Waters 1, when Max spoke with Marlin at the festival. Not to mention Rikki, who has been brought up with some regularity throughout both stories. This story will likely only be four chapters, so don't expect another twenty chapter novel, here. Also, in case you were wondering, this takes place in the early summer of 2007, the year before Still Waters 3.