It was already dark outside when it began. She just sat there and watched. She watched her boyfriend being cuffed to a chair and she had no idea what they would do to him. But she soon understood when they came up with an injection, an injection of the dangerous drug.. Banana Fish.
She watched him being injected and all she could do was to cover her mouth with her trembling hands to not start screaming at them to stop. His screams when he looked at Eiji felt like knifes, stabbing her into her heart multiple times. All she wanted to do was to look away but she just couldn't.
The next thing she had to see, was her beloved boyfriend walking into D*no's torture room, his legs shaking. Ash was there, too, his hands cuffed and a cut on his neck but happy to see his best friend alive.
Eiji got dragged into the room just a few seconds after and while Ash was relieved to see the Japanese boy alive, Shorter's fearful screams echoed through the room again. He was so scared of Eiji. The probably most adorable and innocent person on the planet was Shorter's worst fear now.
"No no no no no! Shorter! You don't have to be scared of him! It's Eiji! Your friends! He's your friend, Baby!", she said with a loud voice, hoping he would hear her and be okay again. But she knew he couldn't hear those words, not even a single one.
Arthur gave him a knife and it started. Shorter attacked Eiji. The boy he had protected with his life. He was trying to kill him now and all she could do was watch in shock and beg and plead for him to stop. She listened to Ash screaming his name, so desperate and loud when Shorter was close to kill Eiji and when he stopped his movements and turned to walk to where his best friend was, a little hope started to grow inside of her. She hoped for the best, hoped he would be okay now, tears welling in her eyes. Her only wish was that Ash's friendship would be enough to make Shorter be the old Shorter again. Enough to heal him. But her already broken heart got crushed again when Shorter started talking.
"I can't anymore.. Set me free.. I'm in so much pain.."
The tears started to run out of the corners of her eyes. This couldn't be. This couldn't be his end. He wasn't a person to give up. She didn't want him to. She watched as Arthur grabbed Eiji and called out for Shorter to look at him. The Chinese tried to resist, pulling on his purple Mohawk and tried not to look at the black haired boy. But it didn't work. He attacked him once again and there was nothing she could do about it.
Eiji soon fell onto his back. Shorter wrapped one hand around his throat and held the knife up so he could stab him with all his strength while he screamed his lungs out.
"No! Stop this!", was all she could manage to scream, just a second before Ash aimed his gun and shot her boyfriend right through the heart. She held her breath while watching a single tear escaping Shorter's eye. She blinked once when his body fell onto Eiji's.
"No.. No.. This can't be! This isn't true! You're not dead, Baby! Wake up! I'm begging you, please wake up.. Please.."
Sadness took over her. She heard Ash screaming her boyfriends name over and over again and watched his dead body getting dragged out of the room.
She just sat there, without saying another word and more and more tears started running down her face until a warm hand gently touched her shoulder.
She turned around and lifted her head, her teary eyes locking with those beautiful soft eyes she loved so much.
"Don't tell me you watched the episode without me..", her boyfriend sighed, a small smirk on his lips though.
"Uhm.. Well..", she mumbled, wiping the tears with her sleeves.
"You're a meanie, I thought we would watch it together.", Shorter said and sat down next to her.
He laughed as he wiped at his girlfriends eyes with his warm fingertips. "Was is that bad?", he asked, trying not to laugh.
"Bad? It was a NIGHTMARE!" Episode 9 who? What even is a 9? A sauce?"
Shorter couldn't hold back now. He laughed and wrapped his big, strong arms around her, pulling his girlfriend close to his chest. She pressed her head against it and listened to his heartbeat. "Well, you promised me to watch the episode with me, so I guess you have to watch it again."
"Noooo, oh god, please nooo...", she whined and Shorter pulled her even closer to his body.
"Why not? I really want to watch it with you since this is the last episode I'll be in."
"I don't want to see you.. THAT happen to you again.", she admitted and poked her index finger into her boyfriends chest.
"Dummy, I'm right here with you and I'm not going anywhere. I'll hold you through the whole episode, I promise.", Shorter whispered, running his fingers through his girlfriends hair.
"Promise to tell me all the funny things that happened while you were on set for this episode while holding me all the way through and I'll be fine, probably."
Shorter pressed a soft kiss to her cheek and smiled. "I guess we'll need two hours for an episode of 20 minutes then, Ash fucked up a lot of times.", the Chinese laughed.
"And you didn't?"
His face turned completely red. "Uhm.. Well, yeah.. But not as often as Ash did!"
"What the hell did you do?"
"Nothing.."
"Aww, come on, tell me."
Shorter sighed. "Alright, alright.. Well, that scene in which I was cuffed to the chair and screamed because of Eiji?"
"Yeah?"
"Eiji sneezed right into my face when we tried to film that for the first time."
"Ewww, that's gross!", she laughed and Shorter couldn't help but laugh too.
"I remembered it whenever I had to scream and my screams turned into laughter. I laughed so hard, I couldn't even breathe."
The two of them eventually watched the episode and Shorter did as he had promised. He held his girl the whole time, as close as he could manage to.
"I'll always be with you, please don't ever forget that, you hear me?", he told her, while the scene of his dead body being carried out was playing. He had noticed her eyes glistening with tears again and seeing her sad was the last thing he ever wanted to see. She meant the world to him and he wanted to see her smile, no matter what. Her happiness was the most important thing to Shorter.
"These assholes dropped me two times when they tried to carry me out! I bumped my head both times and it hurt like a bitch. See? The bump is still there. Do you feel it, Babe? Do you?"