A/n: Hey there, and welcome to my first CC fanfic! I read the manga some months ago, and it's currently my reigning favorite. I'm so happy that it takes place in America...I can finally write an AU and not feel so guilty about it!
Ephemeral means fleeting. This is a dystopian/sci-fi story set somewhere in the distant future...but it's a future that is not so implausible, save for the whole demon concept. No, you won't see hovercars or anything, but well, you'll see some future aspects.
"Five weeks."
An angry voice added, "We've been here for five damn long weeks."
"I hear we're supposed to integrate with another group," supplied a third. "Maybe things'll be more interesting then."
Silence befell the circle of young adults. Melding with another group was never a good sign. They'd gone through the process twice; it meant that each side's population had shrunk considerably enough to be merged with another band of survivors.
"They'll probably have some news about the war. Or better yet, rumors," someone suggested. The 'camps' never received outside information about the war. Only government-issued press releases were allowed to pass through the stiff wall of soldiers that guarded them- and everybody knew to take them for half of what they were worth.
Chapter One
A Chance Meeting
Whenever the higher-ups decided to bunch two refugee camps together, they did it mostly out of convenience.
Otherwise, why else would they keep crowding so many people together? Before rumors of the merge had spread amongst the community, Lancaster Site had just gotten to the point of being borderline bearable. When they had first arrived, settling down was chaos. With the sheer volume of people flocking in to claim a piece of space, even the soldiers with their rifles had difficulty maintaining order.
First, fights broke out over the last barrack beds. Then, arguments were made for tent spaces that were closer to the kitchens. These eventually dwindled into petty disputes over space infringement. All this was expected- they were only people, after all.
But conditions eased up. As their numbers were composed primarily of seniors and children, diseases ran rampant. It didn't help that many things had to be shared: utensils, clothes, the five showers and port-a-potties- even sleeping space. The infirmary tent was open twenty-four hours a day. With time though, the operating hours returned to daylight. The soldiers buried the deceased a bit aways from the site, careful to dedicate their tasks exclusively to the night.
On a merging day, the two groups would stand on opposite sides, to size each other up. Then, the awkwardness would be broken by a gregarious few, followed by the rest. And life would go on: people bonded, shared stories and exchanged information.
Rosette Christopher was more often than not one of the few who dove straight into the sea of new faces. Like the ones who proceeded and followed after her, the nineteen year old had a purpose. She needed to find someone. Social anxiety was considered but a small tick on an elephant.
"Joshua!" she called out loud, hands cupping in front of her mouth, "Joshua Christopher!"
A cacophony of other names responded. None of them sounded remotely like her younger brother's name. So on she continued.
"Joshua Christopher! Is Joshu- OW!" Rosette stopped mid-sentence as she bumped into someone, small and short. The force of the impact, fueled mainly by the element of surprise, knocked her off her feet and onto the shoes of another.
"Hey watch it, lady!" the disgruntled owner of the shoes said before moving on, "This is my last good pair!"
Rosette scowled at the man's back and rolled up her sleeves. "That jerk," she mumbled.
"Hi, are you all right? Sorry about bumping into you," a voice apologized. A hand came into view.
"Wha?" she responded intelligibly. Nevertheless, she took it and stood back up. She stared down at the owner, who happened to be a relatively young boy who appeared to be ten or twelve.
"Yeah, sorry about that," he said, with a sheepish smile.
"Whatever. Just watch where you're going," Rosette replied. She sent him off with a half-hearted scowl.
That was a first. Usually, the kids who roved the place liked to think of themselves as outcast rebels. Not that they weren't, but the image was a bit overused. Everybody had a story.
Nearly two hours later, Rosette's search turned up fruitless. Disappointed and feeling a bit worse for wear, she returned to base- or where her tent was set up. It had been raised among three other slapdash shelters belonging to her friends: Elizabeth, Matthew, and Billy. They stuck together, and often spent their time huddled around the small fire Billy made with a packet of stolen matches.
When she got there, the blonde was surprised to see that the boy she'd crashed into earlier was sitting next to Elizabeth, talking animatedly.
"Hey Ellie, what's up?" Rosette asked, as she came within distance.
The brown-haired girl looked up, and nodded in acknowledgment. "Hello."
"Oh, it's you," the young boy said brightly. "I didn't think I'd see you again."
"Me either," replied Rosette, somewhat ruefully. She walked and sat down on a log adjacent to the pair. "My name's Rosette. You?"
"Chrono," he said.
Her eyes widened. "Wait, Chrono? You can't be-"
He laughed. "No, not the demon. It's just a name that someone gave me. Everyone has the same reaction when they hear it."
"Tch. And you wonder why," Rosette sniffed. "Obviously, you need a name that fits you more. How about...Timmy? Or better yet, Tiny Tim?"
"Well you don't look like a 'small rose' to me," he teased back, a wide grin on his face. Rosette promptly punctured it with a stiff punch to his arm.
"You should tread carefully, Chrono," Elizabeth said flatly. "Rosette doesn't like snipes at her femininity."
As Chrono chortled away, Rosette glared at her friend. "Ellie! How could you say that?"
"It was the truth. Does not every girl secretly fear that she is not feminine enough to be accepted by the conventional standards of society?" she asked rhetorically, distant eyes lifted toward the sky.
"Uh... yeah, you're right," Rosette said, with a confused scratch to the head. She shot Chrono a stumped look.
"Anyway," continued Elizabeth, "Chrono and I were discussing Chaucer. Care to join?"
"Who?"
"Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales-"
The call of a bugle horn interrupted Elizabeth. At that, the entire area fell silent as each person listened raptly to a corporal who stood at the site's main building. He wore a beret and a cameo jumpsuit with a heavy vest.
"Attention everybody. We have made a number of updates to the locator cases. I repeat, we have made a number of updates to the Missing Persons Database. All interested in browsing may come. Form an orderly line at the corporal tent, please."
An excited buzz filled the camp as people dropped what they were doing to head on over to the info tents. As much as they disregarded the berets' government news, they hounded the MPD. The war had resulted in many casualties- but a more magnanimous amount of people were either declared missing or lost. While most files had 'pending' statuses, quite a few bore the coveted 'found' time stamp, along with a general location. The MPD was an electronic interface that existed prior to the outbreak of war. When the latter did strike, the information of every American citizen was entered for record's sake.
"I'll be back," Elizabeth said immediately, standing up. Rosette noticed that her friend's brows were already furrowing as she made her way over.
"All right, be careful then," Chrono waved, with a hopeful smile. Elizabeth's long brown hair eventually melded into the crowd.
Rosette sighed, and laid down on the ground so that her head rested on the log she'd been sitting on. Staring longingly at the gray sky, she addressed Chrono, "Why aren't you going to the MPD?"
"Me? I don't have anyone to look for. And I'm sure no one's looking for me either," he responded easily, as if he'd been asked that question quite often. There was no hint of anger or remorse in his voice. For that, Rosette felt a strange pang of respect.
She stole a glance at him. For a kid, he looked happy. His clothes- which consisted of basic black suspenders, a white button up shirt and loafers- were worn, but not dirty. He did have unusually long hair, however. It was a dark raven. His overgrown bangs were held back by a strip of black linen.
Rosette jumped up so suddenly that Chrono started.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"Get over here," she demanded, while pointing to the empty log in front of her. "Right now."
He looked bewildered, but shrugged and sat down on the indicated spot. Rosette stood behind him. "You're not going to hit me again, are you?"
"What? Of course not, that'd be abuse" she said airily. "But we have to do something about your hair. It's getting pretty annoying to look at. Look, it gets in your way all the time!"
"It's no big deal," he said, sounding sheepish.
"Listen up. I have a rock that I think is sharp enough to cut hair-"
Chrono blanched. Rosette didn't strike him as an artsy barber. "Um, NO."
"Fine then."
He felt two hands separate his hair. "Hey- what're you doing now?"
"I'm braiding it, you moron."
"Oh...okay."
And so she did. Skillfully, she separated his tresses into three three parts. While she braided his hair, she wondered aloud, "Where are you from?"
"Dunno. They found me in Michigan, though."
"Found you? Don't you know where you were born at?" Rosette implored. What a weird kid...
"No. A government worker found me around Hiawatha Forest, I think. I don't remember anything before that though." She said nothing, as probing too deep would probably make him uncomfortable. She didn't want to chase him away so soon. Chrono was an interesting kid.
Rosette finished up, and fished a rubber band out of her pocket. "There," she said, patting the neat braid. "Now you're free from annoying hair."
"Thanks," he said. Then, he leaned over and picked up an old, heavy bag. He started digging through it.
"What do you have in there?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You sure ask a lot of questions."
"'Course you don't expect me not to. Hey, I just noticed- are you Albanian or something? I've never met someone with red eyes," she said, peering closely at him.
Chrono didn't look away. "Do you mean albino? Wouldn't I have white hair and pale skin then?"
"Oh, you're right," she murmured, but with a questioning look. He had tan skin and very dark hair. It was pretty odd, but the red eyes seemed to suit him fine.
"Genetics," he said simply, before returning to his bag-marauding. Rosette noticed several tattered book spines in the jumbled mess.
"Wow, you have real books with you!" she exclaimed, but toned down almost immediately. Although most people had gone to check the MPD, several had lingered and were looking in her direction.
Books were a luxury nowadays. Even before the war, they had been pretty rare. Since the technology revolution, most printed texts had been converted to digital formats. Unfortunately, the Great Blackout- which had occurred only five years ago- erased most of them. Formerly obsolete texts became well sought after. Only the resource vacuum that was the war prevented a massive movement to reprint and rewrite all books. Still, no amount of reparation would undo the damage already done. Some texts and stories were lost forever but to those who could dimly recall them.
When Chrono saw that no one was paying them any attention, he took out three books and passed them to her. He handled them with a fond air. "Well, since the secret's out.."
"Christ, these are genuine books!" she breathed, running a hand over the worn surface of All Quiet on the Western Front. Rosette eagerly flipped through the pages until she moved on to the next hardback that read Hamlet in peeling gold letters. "Amazing... No wonder Ellie was so smitten with you- you're one of those well-read people! She loves stuff like this."
The young boy smiled proudly. "I found a secret stash when I was out exploring one day. I wandered away from the group one day while we were traveling out in the Wastes. It was a really old house that was hidden away..."
"Yeah, it was probably one of those Old World houses."
"I think it was. Most of the furniture had rotted away, but they had a fireplace and everything. I think there was even a chandelier, but it was so dusty I hardly recognized it."
Rosette stopped looking at the books to stare at him. "Really? That's so cool! How did you even manage to get away from the berets?"
He shrugged before saying, "A fight broke out over some snacks. While the people and guards were busy trying to diffuse it, I decided to get away for a bit. And since fights over food last a while, I knew I had time."
"Nice thinking," Rosette complimented. "Do you mind-"
"Go ahead. I've read them over more times than I can count. Have you ever heard of George Orwell? I have Animal Farm and 1984 too if you want to read something different."
"Whoa whoa whoa. Animal Farm and 1984? Aren't they banned by the government?"
"They're what?" he stammered, eyes growing wide with worry.
Rosette, on the other hand, laughed and slapped him heartily on the back. "You're so funny when you're concerned! The ban's definitely not a problem for people like me," she hearkened, with a tap on her chest. "We'll be good friends. You're quite the rebel, Chrono."
He rolled his eyes. "I'm not. I didn't know it-"
"-Was an offense that could land you up to fourteen years in what's left of federal prison?" she finished for him. She smirked smugly at his deflated stature. So innocent.
A sudden thought crossed her mind. "By the way- how old are you? Eight or thirteen?"
"Enough questions!" Chrono said. He took out a small pile of folded clothes. "I'm doing laundry."
"Perfect! I was just about to do some laundry too," Rosette said happily, before accidentally knocking over a pile of plastic plates. "Oops.."
He wondered when Elizabeth was going to come back.
A/N: There you have it. I pulled Ellie from the bonus chapter 'Elizabeth 1921' (Ellie is Rosette's first friend at the Order). Billy and Matthew, I borrowed from the orphanage. I'm not a big fan of making OC characters, so there you go.
I hope I didn't rush things too much. And sorry if the story seems so closed in terms of setting. Don't worry, I plan to turn throw some things around soon-probaby next chapter. I have a lot of concepts for this story- I just need to piece them together! On seemingly random terms I use- they'll be explained later. Please review and tell me what you think!