Disclaimer: I don't own Yakitate! Japan or Emerald City!
It's been a while since I wrote a oneshot for the "Home" Continuum, so I'm really glad that I got around to writing this! I hope you all enjoy reading it!
Warning: Spoilers for Yakitate! Japan and Emerald City. Established EamonnxMeister, canon-typical violence, temporary amnesia as caused by magic, and references to past oneshots in the "Home" Continuum.
Please note: I am aware that Tip/Ozma in Emerald City canonically identifies as a he, but given that this fic is in the POVs of Sylvan and Eamonn, both who are presumably unaware of this (especially Sylvan since he's not from Oz at all), Tip/Ozma will be described with she/her pronouns.
Also, I have very limited knowledge of French and I've provided the translations for all dialogue used in French in the author note at the end of this fic. Feel free to correct me if I have something wrong! Thanks!
Reconnect
Summary: Eamonn and Meister accidentally end up in Oz, and Ozma tries taking away Meister's memory to make the Lion of Oz suffer for it.
What she didn't expect was Meister having a chance to remember Eamonn, despite her efforts to remove all memories of him.
"Please don't take him away. Please."
The Lion of Oz begged on his knees, right in front of Queen Ozma, because he knew he couldn't do anything else but beg.
Ozma looked to him, her eyes cold and calculating. Eamonn knew if he didn't do something, Sylvan would be dead.
Or worse.
He thought of what she'd done to his own family. Sylvan and the others from Pantasia were all he had left. He couldn't lose them!
He didn't want to lose Sylvan. He was the only person he really had left, other than Monica. Eamonn was also thankful that Monica wasn't here with them right now, because god knows what Ozma would've done to her and it hurt Eamonn to think of that happening, too).
How did they get here again? A tornado? They'd been on a date, walking along the port in Tokyo when the wind came.
Now they were back in Oz, and Eamonn was frankly terrified for more than good reason.
The Queen took a deep breath, approaching Sylvan. The General Manager of Pantasia was currently restrained by two guards, a third one pointing a spear at his throat. With a wave of Ozma's hand, he saw Sylvan shudder, eyes closing shut…right before he collapsed into the arms of the guards restraining him.
"No!" Eamonn ran towards him, only for the air to tighten around his neck. A guttural gasp escaped him as he raised his hands towards his throat, and from the corner of his eye he saw Ozma near him, a fist raised as she looked him in the eye. Her gaze was stern, befitting of her reputation, and as she opened up her hand, the force around his neck vanished. Eamonn hit the floor, knees weakening and resulting on him falling completely.
"Send them both to the dungeon." Ozma spoke. He did his best to look up, but the guards grabbed him then and there, dragging him (and his lover) to the dungeons below.
"…van? Sylvan…"
Sylvan's eyes blinked open. Swallowing, he grimaced at realizing he was on the floor. There were bars, in front of him, and beyond that there was another set of bars, with a man standing behind those ones.
Wait. Bars?
Sylvan's vision cleared, and he looked around, eyes widening as he sat up and took in the sight.
A dungeon. He was in a dungeon. Why?
"Why am I here…?" He looked to the man in the cell across from him. "Who are you? What's going on?"
"Sylvan?" He saw desperation in the other's dark-haired face. "Sylvan, it's me, Eamonn."
The name didn't ring a bell. "Who?"
"Eamonn, I'm—" The man faltered, before shaking his head, pounding a fist against the bars. "Damn you, Ozma! Not again!"
"Again?"
"She took your memory." He saw the other man tremble, his voice shaking. "She's done this to my family before. Now she did it to you."
Someone took his memory? Sylvan shuddered at that. How the hell does someone take his memory? "Who's she, exactly? Why would she..?"
"Ozma. The one who trapped us in here!"
"Halt!" A set of two guards, both dressed in dark green uniforms, approached their cells. "Cease your speech at once!"
Sylvan's cellmate growled, before taking out what Sylvan noticed was a taser. "Not today!"
One click and a few zaps later, both guards fell to the ground, twitching a bit. A heaviness settled in the bottom of Sylvan's stomach at the sight, and he had to look away momentarily.
"Thank goodness they didn't find this on me." He heard the cellmate mutter, after a moment of silence. "Or else I couldn't keep talking."
Sylvan looked to him, swallowing as he pushed blond hair out of his face. "What would they have done?"
The other blanched. "You don't want to know."
Sylvan decided that he didn't want to know anymore, and he took a good look at the other man. He had dark hair, and some facial hair, and he was also dressed in a Pantasia security guard uniform.
So…this was a man from his own workplace? He certainly looked the part. Didn't make sense as of why they were in this dungeon, though. Was it a bread reaction? Perhaps they were in a different world because of it or something?
Sylvan wouldn't be surprised anymore if this was the cause of their current situation. People reacting to food in such extremes appeared as a commonality these days, in his experience. Then again, there was something awfully familiar about the man in the cell opposite him. Maybe he should try inquiring further.
"I…" Sylvan pointed at him, through the bars. "I know you. I don't know your name, though. Or at least…" He paused, swallowing. He tried to think, staring at the man's face. It did give him a reminder, but he couldn't quite place on what it reminded him of. "I definitely don't remember your name."
He said this Ozma took my memory. Maybe we can get it back if he gives me enough hints.
"Eamonn," The other man breathed. "I told you when you first woke up. My name is Eamonn."
"Eamonn." Sylvan repeated. He tasted that name on his tongue, savoured it.
"We met when I hit your car, falling out of the sky." Eamonn kept talking, hands gripping the bars. "You got me to the hospital, where all those healers—doctors—got me repaired, and then you brought me home. You took the time to make sure I had a place to stay, something to do. You let me work at the bakery that you're General Manager of."
Sylvan closed his eyes, putting a hand to his own temple. He tried to picture it in his head—a man in lion-like armor, falling out of the sky, watching him wake up in the hospital. The smell of too-clean linens came to mind, the beep of a machine or two, came back to him. And, he supposed, it would make sense that he would take someone to the hospital if they got hit by his car. That made sense.
Somehow it all felt familiar, but it felt too blurry to be sure. Sylvan cursed himself for not recognizing it soon enough. He could almost picture it all happening, but it still so vague trying to do so.
"We fell in love."
Sylvan's heart skipped a beat at hearing it. He looked up at Eamonn, staring, and the other man just nodded, running a hand through his own dark hair.
"We fell in love," Eamonn repeated, licking his lips. His dark eyes gazed at Sylvan's blue ones, desperate. "Hell, you dragged me along to France only about a month or two into the relationship! You even introduced me to your sister, Sophie. And you even took me along when we confronted your father a while ago. I waited outside for you, and Yukino was being a frigid bitch."
Sylvan heard himself laugh at that. "Yukino is a frigid bitch." He knew he generally didn't swear, but in this circumstance, he didn't exactly care right now.
Eamonn's eyes lit up. "You remember now?"
Sylvan tried to recall the memories Eamonn spoke of, but then shook his head."…No."
"Merde!"
Sylvan's jaw almost dropped at the other swearing, but not because Eamonn was swearing. "You know my mother tongue?"
The other nodded, a puff of air escaping him. "You taught some of it to me. I'm still learning. Je t'aime, je pense tu es—"
"Je pense que tu es," Sylvan corrected.
"Okay, je pense que tu….Est-ce que tu te souviens de quelque chose?" Eamonn bit his lip, licking his lips again. His face strained, and Sylvan guessed he was trying to remember more French in an attempt to help him remember. Sylvan knew the answer to the question, though.
"Non, je ne me souviens pas."
He saw Eamonn's face fall, and Sylvan felt this aching within him,
"Mon coeur…"
My heart.
"So," Sylvan started, "We were lovers."
"Are." Eamonn corrected. "We are. We still are."
Can one be lovers with someone who just forgot their entire relationship?
To be fair, Sylvan thought, it wasn't his fault that he actually up and forgot. This Ozma, whoever she was, did it to him.
But his heart hurt for the other man who was apparently his lover, because this apparently happened to him to his entire family before. And Sylvan knew that losing family hurt.
"Hey…" Sylvan took a deep breath, looking Eamonn in the eyes. "I know that I don't remember right now, but…maybe I'll remember soon?"
Eamonn locked his gaze with Sylvan's own, and Sylvan, despite a jolt of his own heart at the suddenness of it, couldn't tear his eyes away. Eamonn's gaze then softened, before he sighed.
"Maybe." Eamonn paused, then looked to the unconscious guards on the floor. Reaching through the bars, he reached one of the guards' coat, before tugging it off. "We need to get out of here. Let's hope he has a key."
Sylvan hoped there was a key.
There was a key.
They got out.
Eamonn made Sylvan change clothes with the guard so that he could blend in better, and Eamonn himself changed clothes with the other guard. Eamonn explained to Sylvan that these uniforms were common for the Wizard's Guard or now, he supposed, Ozma's Guard because the Wizard that ruled before was dead. The Lion of Oz still remembered wearing it back when it was just the Wizard's Guard, with no Ozma seemingly existing or in charge, and he found himself missing that a little bit.
Then again, Oz was not his home anymore. It hadn't been his home for nearly a year, now, and he swore to put it behind.
Both of them managed to sneak past several guards and go by relatively unnoticed because of this. Probably helped that the helmets they wore covered their hair pretty well, as well as their faces for the most part.
The Lion of Oz just hoped they could find a way home. There had to be one, right? He recalled a machine that could do such a thing, but did it still exist? Did it even work?
If it could bring the girl from outside Oz to Oz and back, then surely it had to work on both him and Sylvan. Having a bread reaction would not get them out of here, nor did Eamonn want to try it.
But then Eamonn felt a hand on his forearm, and he turned to see Sylvan clutching his head.
"Sylvan?" Eamonn helped him stand properly, holding him close to his chest for support. Thankfully the two were alone at the moment, so they weren't drawing suspicion. "Are you okay?"
"Eamonn?"
Sylvan looked him in the eyes, and Eamonn saw the recognition in them. He swallowed, words escaping him slowly.
"Do you…remember me, Sylvan?"
The younger man looked a bit dazed, at first, but then a slow smile came across his face as he nodded.
"Yes. I remember."
Eamonn and Sylvan's steps towards their ticket home went at a faster pace after that.
"How did your memory come back? Did I just have to keep talking to you the whole time?"
"It took me some time to remember what you were talking about, but I remember it all now! Maybe it's one of those slow-activating cures that delays itself until later. Then again, I know nothing about magic. This is…this is just what I understand."
"I had no idea if it would break the spell! I just thought something might jolt your memory. You're saying it just had a delayed reaction?"
"Exactly. Hey, Eamonn?"
"Yes?"
"You mentioned your family earlier. If you were able to restore my memory just by bringing up everything we did together, do you think…?"
"My family? You think we could…"
"Maybe. If we just talked to them like you did with me—"
"No."
"What? Why?"
"Sylvan…when we got together, I swore I'd leave things in the past. And what happened with my family is already too far in the past. Maybe, if at the exact time they lost their memory and all and if I got the chance at the time, I might've been able to do this, but…it's been a long time since I've seen them. I don't know if they'd believe me."
"…Oh. I…I'm sorry."
"Also…I just don't want them to remember that they're associated with someone who betrayed King Pastoria. I don't want that burden on them."
"As much as I hate to admit it, I understand your reasoning. I won't push it."
"Thank you."
"Ready to go?"
"Let's get out of here."
Ozma and several of the Wizard's Guard stormed into the lab, accompanied by West, and Eamonn cursed him not being able to barricade the doors to this place in time. He and Sylvan just got here minutes ago, trying to figure out how to turn on the machine so they could get back, and things just had to get more complicated!
"How did you get out?" West demanded. Eamonn feared she'd start casting spells at them, but she didn't. "Surrender yourselves at once!"
Sylvan glared right back at her, and Eamonn almost shuddered; he forgot how angry the man could be when he wanted to, like how he was back when meeting with his father.
"No." Sylvan's voice was low, but clear. "I'm taking Eamonn back with me. And you're not stopping us."
"Not so fast!" West raised a hand, to magically grab Sylvan or magically chuck something at him, but Eamonn took out the taser, firing. A screech escaped the witch as she lit up in front of the others. Several of the Wizard's guard let out shocked gasps, surrounding her as she fell to the floor, twitching, and horror reflected in Ozma's eyes.
"How…?" Ozma started, raising her hand to use magic, but Eamonn pointed the taser at her next.
"Don't you dare!" Eamonn yelled back. Ozma doesn't know what this thing is. I can use this to my advantage. "It's magically charged, I'll use it on you and it's more powerful than you. Take a step closer and I'll use it!"
All the guards with Ozma flinched, some of them slightly lowering their weapons, but Ozma barely lowered her hands. Eamonn and Sylvan both knew that Eamonn spouted complete lies about the taser, but whatever they knew on hand was going to work.
It had to. Or else they weren't getting home.
Eamonn looked to Sylvan. "I need to thank Kuroyanagi for teaching me how to use this."
Sylvan nodded. "Agreed." He looked to Ozma, taking a deep breath. "Let me and Eamonn go, and we won't have to hurt any more people like your companion."
Ozma lowered her arms, before raising one to signal the guards to lower their weapons. "How did you do it?"
Sylvan blinked, pausing the controls. "Do what?"
"My memory spell. No one's broken that before."
Well, Eamonn thought, Sylvan's not about to tell you that right away, is he?
Sylvan could only shake his head, continuing to talk. Eamonn kept the taser pointed at Ozma, but also reached for the machine's controls to subtly, but slowly, move them into place.
"Why should I tell you?" Sylvan asked. "Shouldn't the powerful also know how their power works? How it affects those above and below them? You wield a great amount of it, but with great power comes responsibility."
There was something in Ozma's eyes Eamonn couldn't place, and he felt a small amount of pity for her. Did she not realize how much effect she had? Surely West might've coached her on the ways of power's effect on others by now.
"He took away my family."
Her firm response made Eamonn almost growl, but he bit his tongue.
Sylvan, however, snapped.
"You took away his. And you're supposed to be merciful."
That stunned Ozma into silence. Sylvan took the moment to press a button on the control panel after noticing Eamonn had all the controls in place.
Before anyone could stop them, as they both squished themselves into the machine and shut the door, they held each other as the wind rushed around them…
And everything vanished around them at once.
The sound of water lapping against wood made Sylvan wake, first. He blinked, looking around…
Only to see that they were at the port. He recognized it as the one they were at for their date.
And that meant…
"Eamonn?" Sylvan turned his gaze towards Eamonn, gently extending a hand towards him to rest on his shoulder. The other man lay on his side just beside him, eyes closed. Sylvan shook him a little. "Eamonn? Are you okay?"
He's breathing. He's alive.
Sylvan wondered if they broke any ribs on the way back. Maybe we should go to a hospital once we wake up. Or call a taxi to get there. Something like that.
Eamonn's eyes fluttered open, and he looked into Sylvan's eyes. They did not speak, for a moment, until Eamonn slung an arm around Sylvan's waist, holding him close and burying his face into the Pantasia General Manager's neck. Sylvan slowly, carefully, wrapped an arm around the other man in return, hearing muffled sobs.
"We're alive," Eamonn breathed after pulling his face away. "Gods, we're alive."
"I know." Sylvan whispered back to him, kissing him on the cheek. "I know."
"You saved me."
"You saved me."
Both quietly lay there beside each other in silence, catching their breaths. Eamonn pulled Sylvan into a kiss, and Sylvan let him kiss him. There was something sweet about it; maybe it was the fact that they were alive and home together, safe, but it felt like more than that. He was just wasn't sure what.
Eamonn pulled his head back to breathe. "…That thing you said. It was good."
"What thing? I think I said a lot before we escaped Ozma."
"With great power comes responsibility." Eamonn breathed. "That's quite…prominent. And original of you."
Sylvan chuckled sheepishly. "Uh, I pulled that from Spider Man. Not quite from me, but it seemed appropriate at the time."
Confusion flashed in the other's eyes. "Spider Man…?"
"It's a movie. I'll show it to you sometime."
Both of them couldn't help but laugh; laugh out of relief at being alive and being back home. Eamonnt hen winced, putting a hand to his chest.
"Eamonn!?"
"…I think my rib's broken."
The relief Sylvan felt came to a halt at that statement, but he knew this was a problem far less worse than what they just went through. So…
"We're going to the hospital."
"Agreed."
Eamonn did not break a rib, much to his relief, but then the doctor reported it was fractured.
Eamonn was not amused.
"At least it wasn't anything worse." Sylvan sighed. Both men were waiting to leave, Sylvan having . Sylvan himself hadn't sustained too much damage, same for some bruises. "Did you happen to shield me when we…fell back into Japan? That might explain your injury."
"Yes." Eamonn remembered holding the man tight with the wind around them, the hard impact afterwards. "I did."
"No wonder you hurt yourself." Sylvan looked him in the eyes again, taking his hand in his and squeezing it. "The doctor said it'll take six weeks…"
"Sylvan, I can't be out of work for six weeks."
"We both literally almost died in Oz. I argue that you can at least take tomorrow off."
"Fair point." Eamonn found it amazing how they were talking about this so matter-of-factly. Even their escape from Oz felt the same way, at the time. Maybe that was just how they handled things, and he was somewhat grateful for it. Better to try to talk it all out than break down and lose all hope. "Does this always happen?"
Syvlan stared at him, brushing a few strands of hair out of the other's face. "What always happens?"
"You and me getting into the craziest situations." Eamonn tried his best not to laugh as he leaned into the younger man's touch. "First I fall out of the sky. Then we fall in love. Then we fall into Oz and we somehow get your memory back while escaping."
"And now we're home." Sylvan ended, before kissing him. "And I'm glad we are."
Eamonn smiled, closed his eyes, and then opened them, gazing into his lover's own again as he pulled back to breathe.
"I'm glad, too."
Author note: Here are the translations for the French dialogue used in the fic!
Je t'aime, je pense tu es—": I love you, I think you are—
"Je pense que tu es," : I think that you are
"Okay, je pense que tu….Est-ce que tu te souviens de quelque chose?" : Okay, I think that you…are you remembering anything?
"Non, je ne me souviens pas." : No, I do not remember.
"Mon coeur…": My heart