5 Times Four Was Protective of Five
i. someone to trust
Das wished she had never stepped aboard the Raza. She wished that TJ was still alive. She wished that she wasn't alone. Sometimes, she wished that she had died instead. Right now, she wished that Marcus Boone would stick his hands into a blender. It had been two weeks since the crew had so generously spared her life, and they weren't exactly the most welcoming of people. For the most part, everyone just ignored her, but Boone seemed to take great pleasure in scaring her.
The mercenary ambushed her in the hallway outside of her room. He was leaning leisurely against the wall, and when she came out he zeroed in on her like a cat catching its prey.
"Hey kid."
Das crossed her arms and tried to look as stern as possible. All it did was make him smirk.
"What do you want?"
"I just wanted to see how our newest member was settling in!" he raised his hands in mock innocence. "So suspicious, jeez."
She sighed. "Look. I have work to do, so if you can just leave…" she trailed off once it became apparent that Boone was not going to listen. He fell into step beside her, looking much too cheerful.
"Right! Our little mechanic." He exclaimed in a sing-song voice. "Don't get me wrong, this ship's a total shithole, but I don't see why the Android can't just do the repairs. It would be one less mouth to feed. And besides-"
He took a few steps towards her, until Das was backed up against a wall. He was standing so close that she could feel his breath on her face. It stank of cheap whiskey.
"We would make so much more money if we just sold you."
Das shrank. Boone's smile grew wider.
"Yeah, a pretty young thing like you? If you're lucky, they'll kill you first and cut you up for parts. If you're not lucky, well, they'll keep you alive for…other things."
Das knew, she knew that Boone was baiting her, but she couldn't help the tears that filled her eyes. Boone looked positively delighted, the bastard. She hated him. She hated them all. She didn't trust herself to speak in that moment, but luckily she didn't need to.
"You know what would fetch an even larger price than a young girl? Your bounty."
The voice came from behind them. It was that guy. Ryo. The one who saved her. He was staring Boone down, his expression stone cold. Boone stepped away from her and rolled his eyes.
"Oh, come on, Ryo. You know I was just messing with the kid."
Ryo did not look amused.
Boone shifted uncomfortably, his bravado melting away underneath the sheer power of Ryo Tetsuda's scary, scary stare. Finally, he cracked.
"Fine!" he huffed, throwing up his hands. He turned and walked away, muttering, "You're such a buzzkill."
And then it was just the two of them, Das and her two-times-saviour, standing in the hallway. Alone.
"Are you okay?"
Das realized with some horror that she was still crying. She quickly wiped her face.
"Yeah, I-" she wanted to say I'm okay, but then she met his eyes and the words tumbled out of her mouth.
"I've been better."
She thought he would judge her, but he wasn't. His face was…not soft, but softer than she had ever seen it before. He almost looked human.
"Marcus' bark is worse than his bite. He won't hurt you. None of them will."
"Yeah, right."
"No, they won't. I won't allow it."
She looked at him with surprise.
"Why?"
Ryo appeared deep in thought. "Because I think they need someone like you, even if they don't realize it."
"Someone like me?" she echoed.
"Someone good. Someone kind. Someone who can protect them."
She laughed a little, but he didn't laugh back. "Oh my God, you're serious, aren't you? What could I possibly protect them from? They're the most wanted people in the galaxy. I'm just a kid."
Ryo looked at her for a long time.
"No, you're not a kid. You're a warrior, and I know that you can protect them from themselves."
Das listened to his words, and for the first time since she got there, she felt a glimmer of hope.
ii. sensory overload
"Why the air vents?"
Five looked up from the heater she had been repairing, startled. She wasn't used to hearing Four's voice. The man-Four or Ryo or whatever his name was these days-wasn't exactly the talkative type. She knew even less about him than she did about the others, which was nothing at all, except that he was a wanted murderer who could chop her up into a million little pieces before she even had time to scream.
Despite this, Five wasn't afraid. She felt…comfortable. Being alone with a terrorist. What did that say about her? Still, she decided it would be safer to play dumb.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She says, feigning confusion.
He frowns at her. "Don't do that. The others might not notice you crawling around up there, but I do, and I want to know why. Are you a spy?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Do you think I'm a spy?"
"...No."
"If I was, I would install cameras on the ship instead of risking being caught by anyone. Maybe use motion sensors and put an alert on my tablet. That would be so much more efficient."
Some of the tension drained from his shoulders. "I believe you. But then why?"
Five sighed and motioned for him to sit down. He did immediately, settling in beside her with the ease of someone who had done so many times before.
"What do you see?"
"The hallway."
"What else?"
"There is nothing else."
"Maybe not to you. But I look around and I see exactly 107 ceiling and wall panels, 32 lights and ninety-five lightbulbs. Each light fixture has three lightbulbs, except for that one. That one has a burnt one."
Four followed her gaze to a corner that was slightly darker than the rest, hardly visible to anyone else.
"What do you hear?"
"Your voice."
"What elsedo you hear?"
He concentrated for a moment. "The pipes."
"Exactly, I hear the pipes and I think: Those things haven't been looked at in a least seven years, maybe more. I can also hear the engine and tell that it needs an oil change. And I can hear voices, too. Not real ones, but familiar. Like memories, but when I try to focus on them I can't, I can't because there's too many numbers and too many sights and too many sounds and too many memories and sometimes I can't breathe-"
"-And the vents are dark and quiet. That's why you like them." It wasn't a question.
She hugged her knees to her chest. "Yeah."
They sat in silence for a moment, Four probably contemplating throwing her into a psych ward. Then he said, "Meet me in the training room at 7:00 tomorrow morning."
"What? Why?"
Four stood up and reached out a hand for her to take. "I'm going to teach you meditation. It might teach you to concentrate better."
"You're going to help me?"
"Of course not. I just realized that you're a genius, and your brain would be much more useful to us if it was focused."
Her mouth twitched a little bit, amused. "You're going to teach me meditation because it's practical?"
Four cleared his throat.
"Yes. Now finish fixing that heater, it's freezing in here."
He walked away then. Five waited until he was out of sight before smiling to herself.
iii. breathe for me
It happens like this:
Five and the crew are supposed to smuggle some stolen paintings for a woman named Astrid. It all goes smoothly, until they actually get to her house, which is a huge, pearly white mansion setting perched above a private beach. They open the door and find her laying there, dead on the living room floor among fragments of a shattered wine bottle, a single bullet between her eyes. The body was still fresh.
"Well, shit." Says Three. "What do we do now?"
"We could sell the paintings to Calchek." Six suggests, looking sadly down at the woman. "He'll probably know a buyer."
"You're right. Hell, he'd probably buy them himself, they're just his style." He places a particularly tacky painting of a three-breasted woman nursing a calf (symbolism?) into Five's arms.
"Here, kid. Bring these stupid things back to the ship."
"What? Why me?" she demanded incredulously.
"Because we're on a beach, and there's a margarita calling my name." He sticks his tongue out. Five pouts, but obeys. She lugs herself all the way down the rocky path, only to get to the bottom and hear the unmistakable sound of a gun cocking.
"Hey there, little girl. Just hand over those paintings and I won't shoot, okay?"
Its two women in their thirties, one of them holding a gun. Five is alone and unarmed, and so she uses her greatest weapon: her adorable face.
"P-please don't hurt me." She says with an exaggerated whimper. She makes her eyes go all big and watery, and watches with satisfaction as her attacker immediately lowers her gun.
"It's okay, sweetie. Just give us the paintings and we'll go away."
"Okay." She walks over to them, and when the women reach for the paintings, she grabs the gun, and shoots.
Attacker #1 crumbles to the ground, clutching her wounded leg. Attacker #2 screams, "you bitch!" and lunges at her. Five pulls the trigger again, and-
It's empty.
Five doesn't have time to react before she goes crashing into the water.
And then the woman is straddling her, gripping her hair and holding her head under the waves. Water floods her lungs, and she chokes on the taste of salt assaulting her senses. Her nose and throat burns. Her head swims. Her body starts convulsing in an attempt to push the water out. She thrashes for several long, agonizing seconds, and then the fight drains out of her, her vision blurs and she is floating, drifting, sinking further and further into a faraway, sweet oblivion.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she is vaguely aware of a pressure on her chest. It makes her jolt slightly.
It happens again, harder this time, enough that she registers a dull pain. Her eyelids twitch, unable to lift. But she hears a voice, low and comforting, murmur:
Come on, Little Warrior. Breathe for me.
Another push. The voice is closer this time.
Five. Listen to my voice. Fight this.
Her fingers began to move.
Breathe for me.
Please.
There was one last tremor, this one powerful enough to rock her entire body, and send aftershocks of pain through her chest. She gasped and sputtered up the water, feeling the burn in her throat. The blood was roaring in her ears.
"That's it," she recognized the voice as belonging to Four, although he had never sounded that way before. There was a note of merriment there, a powerful relief that came out in a shaky laugh. "Deep breaths."
Finally, her eyes adjusted to the harsh light and she squinted, finding her friend kneeling in the sand, blood speckling his sword. Behind him stood the rest of the crew, and a few feet away was a body. Her features were mangled beyond recognition. Did Four stab that woman in the face? Holy shit.
"Hi," she says, and then she vomits into the sand.
She felt four pairs of hands gently pull her to her feet. Four wraps an arm around her to keep her steady, and she's glad that blame her trembling hands can be blamed on the fact that she almost died.
"Hi." He says, with a small smile. It occurs to Five that this moment would be really romantic if there wasn't a dead body right beside them.
"Well, that's enough drama for one Tuesday, don't you think? Let's go get those margaritas, kid, my treat."
"No, Three-"
"Oh, come on, Tiny, this is a booze kind of situation. Lighten up."
"She's too young-"
"MARGARITAS FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT SIX!"
iv. burn
The Raza crew adjusted well to life on Zairon. As soon as Four (Ishida, they were supposed to call him Ishida in public) reclaimed his throne, he awarded his friends with sanctuary from the Galactic Authority and brand new titles for each of them. He proposed to Nyx; she told him to go fuck himself and then left, not willing to stay with the man who caused the death of her brother. Two was on Four's council as his most trusted advisor. Three and Six were guards. Five, much to her delight, was given a spot working for the kingdom's cyber security.
Five adored her job. She looked forward to her tutoring sessions with Teku, and her favourite part of the day was her evenings spent sitting around the dinner table with her family. Yes, Five loved living on Zairon, but it seemed that not everyone on Zairon loved her.
She should be used to it. That constant feeling that she was being watched, and of course the names. Street rat. Outsider. Filth. It was nothing new. She carried them on her back like the fine clothes she wore that made her feel like an imposture. It was the nobility that disliked her, and the most vocal of them all was Watanabe Osamu. He was in his thirties, a member of a rich house, and he always seemed to be hanging around the palace, and her in particular. Five still had no idea what he actually did except be a complete and utter waste of space.
"So how did you really get that job?" He drawled, catching her walking alone one morning in the gardens.
"You're way too young to have gone to school and earned it. You obviously can't afford college, can you even read? I bet you blackmailed him. I bet you and your little thug friends paid him off for protection. With stolen money, of course."
He smirked around his cigarette, contemplating. A finger slid up her arm. "Or maybe you didn't use money at all. The Emperor does seem awfully fond of you. Maybe you just spread your legs-"
Five punched him.
He went flying back into a bed of tulips. She expected him to get back up and scream at her, but he didn't. She nudged him with her foot. He didn't budge.
Oops. Well. At least he was breathing.
She quietly backed away before anyone noticed. She had hoped that knocking him out would cause him to forget the encounter, but of course she wasn't so lucky. The next week, he was telling anyone who would listen about how she had savagely attacked him in the garden. ("Animals, all of them. But what can you expect from such low-life criminals?") Unfortunately for him, he talked a little too loud, because Four heard him.
Five was called into the throne room a few days later. At first, she thought it was because she was in trouble, but to her surprise she found Watanabe, kneeling on the floor in front of Four. The bruise on his face was purple now, and it had caused his eye swell shut. Five noticed that he had other bruises, too, fresher ones that she was certain he didn't receive from her.
"Osamu," Four's greeting sounded pleasant enough, but it made her shiver. This wasn't Four at all, she realized. This was Ishida Ryo speaking.
"Do you know why you're here today?"
"N-no, Heika."
Ryo gave him a look like a disappointed parent.
"You're here because you've been treating my ward, Miss Kolburn with disrespect. Do you admit to making lewd comments about her to your colleagues?"
The man was silent. Ryo circled around him slowly. "Answer carefully." He advised. "Don't lie to me."
He swallowed. "Yes."
"Good. Do you admit to following her?"
"Y-yes."
"And do you admit to taking pictures of her without her knowledge and consent?"
Five looked up, startled, but Ryo was staring intently at Watanabe, who was now reduced to a stammering, terrified mess on the floor. "I-I don't-I didn't-"
"I looked at your laptop. I'm the Emperor, Osamu. I see everything, all the time."
His face crumbled. He started to cry. "I'm sorry, Emperor!"
"Don't apologize to me, apologize to her." He yanked his head back, forcing him to look at her. Five gulped. Watanabe whimpered.
"I'm sorry, fujin! I'm so sorry, forgive me, please!" He could barely choke the words out. Ryo released him from his grip, seemingly satisfied. He turned to Five.
"Alright, Little Warrior. What should I do?"
Her stomach filled with dread. "Do?" she asked, timidly. Ryo smiled manically.
"As a punishment. Since you're the one he wronged, you get to decide. I could cut out his eyes, so that he can't look at you. Or his tongue, so that he can't speak about you. I've always been partial to the eyes, myself."
His own eyes were alight with a ravenous destruction. It occurred to Five that this man who she adored so much was a barely contained fire that could consume them all.
"My Emperor," she fought to keep her voice calm, steady. "I think you should strip him of his title and wealth. Without that he's nothing."
She took a careful step towards him and cupped his cheek. "I know you're angry right now, but this is the better way, Four, trust me."
She could see the flame slowly cooling. "Come on, Four. Just breathe for me."
And he did. With all the anger deflated from his body, Ryo retreated, and Four returned.
"Fine." He said. "Get this man out of my sight."
The guards dragged him outside. The two of them stood there for a moment, just a little too close, Four seemingly trying to think of the right thing to say. Finally, he settled on,
"You know I would do anything to protect you, right?"
He reached out a hand as if to touch her face, but then changed his mind and stepped back. She didn't know why he stopped. Maybe because he was afraid of burning her.
"I know that." She says. "That's what I'm afraid of."
v.. meet the family
After the whole stalking incident, Four hires guards to follow her around. They work in shifts, and on Tuesday and Thursday mornings is Tanaka Junji, a young man with a head full of shiny black curls and a boyish smile. Five likes the weight of his gaze, and the thrill that she gets when he pulls her into a corner and kisses her with the urgency of someone who was afraid of being caught. It wasn't as if they were doing anything wrong. Five was almost twenty. So why did she feel guilty?
You know exactly why. Says a voice in her head, and it pissed her off.
She always thought that she would outgrow her stupid crush on Four, the way she outgrew neon stockings and hiding in air vents. But it just kept getting bigger, like a damn parasite. It was a part of her now, and it over the years it had evolved with the rest of her mind and body. What started as a school girl's hero-worship had ripened into a strong friendship, a mutual respect and a deep ache inside her chest whenever she looked at him.
It was love, Five had known that for a while now. She also knew that she had absolutely no business being in love with a man like Four. So she found Junji, a man whom she didn't love and who didn't love her, but they could, someday. He made her laugh. If they became serious, if they worked hard, they could be good together.
She hoped that her family thought so, too.
"Remember, we're meeting my family tonight." She reminds him. Junji groans and flops dramatically onto the pillow.
"Yamen." He says, his voice slightly muffled. "I hear Yamen is nice this time of year. We should go. I can grow a beard and herd goats."
She giggled. "Oh, come on. It's only dinner."
"Only my last meal, you mean. I have to face the most dangerous people in the Galaxy, one of whom is my boss, and tell them that I've seen their daughter naked."
Five blushed despite the fact that she had just been naked minutes before. "Don't tell them that." She smacks him lightly. "Just be yourself."
"Time to break out my awesome disco moves."
"Be like, seventy percent yourself."
…..
By the time they enter the dining hall, everyone was already seated and bickering like normal. Four stood up when he saw her, a bright smile on his face. That smile slid off when he saw Junji.
"Hey guys," she greeted. The room had become very quiet all of a sudden. Everybody's eyes were zeroed in on their interlocking hands.
"This is Junji, he works for the Imperial guards."
Four sat back down, his expression terrifyingly blank.
"I am aware. And why is an Imperial Guard at our dinner tonight?"
"Well, um." She hadn't been this nervous around her crew in a very long time. Beside her, her boyfriend was as still as a stone. Apparently all that training paid off in more than just his job. But without his easy-going smile, he looked like a stranger.
"Junji and I are dating."
Everybody started talking at once. Six and the Android launched into a thousand questions. Three yelled, "I fucking knew it! I saw the way you two were eyeing each other!" Two demanded to know why Five hadn't told her sooner. All Four said was,
"You're fired."
The chattering stopped again. There were a few surprised glances thrown the Emperor's way; he ignore them. Junji's face fell, and he hung his head in shame. Something inside her snapped.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" she demanded, low and dangerous.
Even Four looked surprised. She was rarely ever angry, and he had never heard her swear before. Well, he was about to hear a lot more before the night was over.
"Don't speak to me-"
"I need to talk to you. Outside. Now."
His jaw quenched. "Fine." He said. And they stepped into the hallway.
As soon as the door was shut, she turned on him.
"What the fuck, Four?!"
Four crossed his arms stubbornly.
"His position has been compromised. He obviously can't be trusted to watch over you."
"He's one of the best guards you have!"
"He abused his position!"
"Abused? What do you think I am, a puppy?"
He took a deep breath. "Five, I know that this is your first…relationship, and you're excited. But you're too young to understand when you're being manipulated."
Five couldn't help it. She laughed. It was a nasty sound without a trace of humour in it.
"Too young? Seriously? Do you even hear yourself right now? I wasn't too young when I was fifteen and you decided it would be a good idea for me to live on a ship full of killers! Or when I was sixteen and you taught me how to shoot a gun! Or when I was seventeen and I helped you kill your step mom and brother!"
Four's mouth opened, and then, upon realizing it was a bad idea, closed it again. She wasn't finished.
"And now, now that I'm about to turn twenty, and dating like a normal person, suddenly I'm a little girl that needs protecting?"
She stared hard at him. She wished that he was angry, because then she could yell at him some more, but his eyes just looked…sad? Conflicted? There was something there that Five couldn't name.
"I know that's not it. So just tell me. You've never treated me like a kid before."
She expected her words to make him back down, but instead he just got more fired up. "You're right, Five. You're not a kid, you're so much more than that. And you're more than some irresponsible college girl that runs off with the first stupid frat boy she sees!"
"Junji is not a stupid frat boy!"
Four snorts.
"He isn't! He may be goofy, but he's a member of the Imperial Guard! That takes hard work!"
"I don't care if he's the general himself, he's not good enough for you."
"I'll decide who is and who isn't good enough for me, Four, not you."
The muscle in Four's jaw jumped. He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You're not going to give this up, are you?"
Her expression was the only response he needed. He sighed.
"Fine. I knew this was going to happen someday, I just wished you had chosen someone more…More. You may continue your relationship with him."
"I wasn't asking your permission." She huffed, but Four ignored her.
"And the boy can continue to work as a royal guard-"
"Yes!"
"-But I'm taking him off your protection team. He can guard something I don't care about."
Five was unhappy with that arrangement, but she thought it was better to choose her battles. "It's a deal."
She stuck her hand out, and Four shook it. Then he took a deep breath, his shoulders sagging slightly.
"Alright, Little Warrior. Let's go meet your boyfriend." He said the word like it tasted disgusting, but Five was too pleased to notice. She grinned happily.
"Yes, Four let's." she opened the door, and the two of them stepped inside.
end.