Waiting
Warnings: The standard ones for Banana Fish. A little cursing. Nothing much else till next chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own, so please don't sue.
I know this story sucks. Its been over a year since I wrote anything. Feel free to totally blast it. (though constructive criticisms would help improve it.)
Ash paced back and forth across the tiny L.A.. hotel room floor. Shorter sat at the table, leg jiggling, and once every five minutes (Max took note) he looked out the window onto the busy city street. Max was watching Shorter, which is why he noticed his promptness at every five minute mark at looking out the window. Ibe was slowly stirring more and more sugar into his luke-warm coffee. And Eiji? Their little prince was fast asleep on the couch, possessively holding a pillow to his chest, a small smile on his face.
There was no plan.
All bets were off.
The place they were looking for?
Destroyed by arson.
The contacts they thought they had?
Dead.
Now there was nothing to do but sit and wait, wait for something to happen.
Wait for someone out there to slip up.
Wait for a clue, a plan to hit them.
And it was getting damned annoying.
Finally, Max had had enough. And the object of his pent up energy was going to be Eiji's pillow whether Eiji liked it or not. He was sprung up from his seat and lunged at the pillow, yanking it out of Eiji's tight grasp. Almost. Eiji caught the tail end of it, and hung on for dear life, tumbling onto the floor, and almost knocking into the coffee table.
Time stood still, Ash stopped pacing, Shorter stopped jiggling, and Ibe finally stopped tearing the tops off of little packets of sugar.
Ash glared dangerously at Max. "What the fuck did he ever do to you? Huh? Okay, so he seems to be handling, for lack of a better word, the situation well. He ain't disturbing nobody. And you go and try to take a bit of his comfort away from him. What's wrong with you?" he growled.
Max didn't respond directly at first. Instead, he looked down at Eiji's face, with the little smile returning, "Fine, keep your stupid pillow." He spat out the words, and then returned to his normal place at the table.
"There are plenty of pillows in the bedroom, you know," Ash said, who had returned to pacing.
"A little possessive are we?" Max said sarcastically. Ash looked about ready to sock one to him, when Shorter stood up.
"Hey, we don't need no fights in here. We sure as hell don't need anyone calling the cops on us right now either. Especially considering those two's immigration status at the moment," he said, waving his arms frantically, as though he could magically simmer down the tension in the room.
The next person to blow was Ibe. For a good half-hour now, he had become a whole hell of a lot more interesting for Max to watch than Shorter was. He was putting sugar packets into his new cup of coffee at a break neck speed, stirring frantically.
"Hey, Ibe, think ya got enough sugar in that?" Shorter commented, lamely. Ibe looked up suddenly, and gripped his cup all the harder. He then took a deep swig of it. The cup broke. Max rolled his eyes, Ash sighed, and Shorter stared out the window, because, after all, it was the five-minute mark.
I suppose we can all come to the conclusion that Shorter is just too easy going to really blow up in a situation like this.
Ash stopped pacing at a quarter till five. Eiji had been up for an hour, and was now looking for patterns on the ceiling. Everyone was starving, but there was no food in the place (Ibe had used all the sugar), and in reality, no money to buy any with. So, Ash grabbed his jacket, and walked over to Eiji. Tapping the smaller, but older boy twice on the cheek, he asked "You want to go for a drive?" Eiji smiled brightly and immediately followed Ash out the door. Shorter gazed at the door with an uneasy look, then grimaced.
"Just so long as he doesn't hurt him," Shorter whispered, but it wasn't lost on Max's ears.
"Relax, will you? If the kid hasn't been deflowered yet, well then, its high time he was anyway. Besides, its downright obvious that Eiji likes Ash in that way, if you know what I mean, and Ash seems to be a little too protective of Eiji to really hurt him," Max muttered, keeping his voice low, as Ibe was now asleep at the table.
"Yeah, but, well, you saw how pent up Ash was…he'll just…as much as I think of him as a brother, I don't think Eiji can really handle…" Shorter trailed off. It was no use. There was probably no stopping what was bound to happen.
"Where'd Ei-chan go?" Ibe said, looking up.
"To get some grub with Ash. They'll be back soon," Max replied. The room fell silent once more.