Yaten tossed a phone at Seiya as soon as she opened the door to their apartment. Luckily for Yaten, Seiya caught it just before it hit the wall- let it be known that Yaten had zero aim. "What now?" Seiya asked, collapsing on the couch.
Yaten raised an eyebrow, and just like that, Seiya could tell she knew already. Seiya groaned- how did she do that? "How'd you find out?"
"Someone caught photos of you and Haruka Tenoh standing in a parking lot." Seiya glanced at Yaten's photo in her hand- yep, there was her, Haruka, and Michiru, though the latter was blurred in the background. "What kind of bad action movie do you think you're in, Seiya?"
"One that makes a lot of money?" Seiya suggested.
"You're already a wannabe action star with this new racing thing," Yaten said. "Now you want to add a rival into this mess?"
"Hey, I'm making money for real now," Seiya said. "Remember when I could barely pay rent when we were doing those singing gigs?"
"And you can use that money to pay for your amputation bills in a few months." Yaten leaned forward, resting her hands on her knees, green eyes sharp on Seiya's face. "What's the actual reason for this sudden racing career?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Seiya thought she could see long blonde hair flying into the rub, followed by a bubbly laugh and borderline aggressive cheer. Bright blue eyes that she could see even in her sleep.
She just wanted to be good enough for her.
"It's like you said, Yaten. I'm going to be an action star." Seiya tossed the phone back to Yaten, who grabbed it, glowering all the while.
Yaten didn't believe Seiya for one second, of course. There were few things Yaten knew about people- one was that she was bad at them. The second was that they usually lied. And the third, was that the only person she actually understood was Seiya. And Yaten liked it that way. Since they were children, it had always been her, Seiya, and Taiki.
So when Seiya lied to her, Yaten knew. She always knew. Sometimes, Yaten thought that she might know Seiya better than she knew herself. Usually, there was something consoling about that- after all, didn't everyone want to find that one person that made more sense to them in the world?
People didn't talk enough about what happened when you found them and they couldn't understand you the same way.
Yaten ran a hand through long white hair, already annoyed at where her thoughts had led her. Disgusted with herself, she vowed not to worry about Seiya until Seiya came to her. After all, Yaten had a life. Yaten had a career, and it didn't include worrying about Seiya's apparent desire to get herself killed in a fiery death of tires and grease. Seiya could take care of herself.
As it turned out, Seiya could not take care of herself. It was 2 am and Yaten was just coming off her singing gig, finally pulling out her phone, when her entire world seemed to shrink.
[11:00 USAGI]: hospital!
[11:05 USAGI]: now! Seiya!
[12:00 SEIYA]: everything is fine, don't freak out.
[1:00 TAIKI]: have you heard from Seiya? Tsukino is freaking out, and all seiya said was that it's okay.
[1:30 USAGI]: where are you?
[1:31 one missed call from TAIKI.]
[1:32 SEIYA]: I'm not injured, Michiru is. Go home when you get off work.
Yaten took one moment to wonder who Michiru was, a second moment to be annoyed at Usagi for texting her, and then a third moment to completely ignore Seiya and hop into a cab. Somehow, she spat out the hospital's address, and then they were flying along. Yaten's fists clenched at every red lights, heart pounding. Why did people have to be so vague over text? she thought in despair. Normally she hated the idea of that many people contacting her, and she had instructed both Seiya and Taiki not to text her more than two lines, which of course, they only followed when someone could be dying.
Yaten could strangle her friends.
Yaten kicked the hospital room door open, and six heads whirled around. She ignored them and honed in on Seiya, who was standing there, looking completely fine, except for the dark bruises under her eyes from the late hour. Yaten stumbled over, unsure if she wanted to punch her or hug her. She settled on placing a hand on Seiya's shoulder, unsure if she was comforting herself or Seiya. "You," she said, squeezing a bit too tightly, "are entirely too much trouble."
Seiya smiled softly. "I told you to go home."
"Well when that one," she jerked her head at Usagi, who pointed at herself in confusion, "andTaiki text me, I thought you had almost died."
"Sorry. I thought I told you it was Michiru." Seiya nodded to the teal haired woman lying in the hospital bed. Yaten finally took the time to notice the other people in the room. The injured party raised an eyebrow, gesturing to her wrapped arm, and the saline drip connected to her elbow.
"Hello," she said, voice smooth, despite her injury.
"Hi," Yaten said, shortly. "Who are you and what the fuck happened?"
The taller blonde, who Yaten only now recognized as Haruka Tenoh, rose angrily from her seat. "Don't talk to her like that."
Yaten bristled, ignoring Seiya's hand on her elbow. "I will when someone finally explains why the hell we're all here at 2 am."
"I believe that is my fault for getting shot," Michiru said dryly, even as Haruka said, "No one asked you to come."
Yaten ignored Haruka in favor for Michiru, who looked remarkable for a woman that just got shot. "Shot?" She turned back to examined her friend closer, as if Seiya would be able to hide a bullet wound from her. Now she had to worry about both cars and guns?
"It was at the ceremony," Usagi spoke for the first time, voice quiet with exhaustion. "They were after the top racers."
"... Someone's trying to kill motorcycle racers?" Yaten glared Seiya. Only her friend would end up in an actual action movie. "Why?"
"We haven't exactly figured that out yet," Michiru said.
"Great," Yaten said. "Just great."
"The police told us we should stay here until they give the full clear," the only man in the room explained. By his position next to Usagi, Yaten assumed it was the boyfriend that Seiya had taken to complaining about. "They said it would be easier to keep track of us in a hospital, rather than at separate apartments for the evening."
"Amazing." Yaten plopped down into one of the extra chairs, feeling like her entire body could melt into it.
"You don't have to stay here, Yaten," Seiya said.
"Are you kidding? And have you maybe get shot again? Not happening," said Yaten, firmly.
"Fantastic," Haruka said. "Come join the sideline spectators, great idea, and we can all stare at Michiru's arm for the rest of the evening."
With that, Haruka stalked out of the room. Yaten didn't bother asking what her problem was, because as far as she could tell, Haruka's anger issues out did Yaten's own anger issues. Yaten glanced over at Seiya, who shrugged.
Usagi broke into the silence- "Mamo, I'm hungry," she whispered.
It was 2:30 am and Seiya was standing in front of a hospital vending machine, debating between some sort of chips, chocolate, or gummies, feeling that this was perhaps the most important choice of her entire life. Theoretically, the chocolate would hold up better, but what if everyone got sick off the chocolate? That would mean she should go for the chips, but the bags were so small, that she would have to get more than the chocolate to actually feed Usagi's stomach. Why didn't anything deliver this late at night? Why wasn't the cafeteria still serving food? Why-
"Just get all of them, Seiya, you know Usagi will eat anything."
Seiya nearly jumped out of her shoes at Yaten's voice. She had been so quiet on the way over here that Seiya had barely noticed her. It was so normal for Yaten to be around that sometimes, despite herself, Seiya forgot her friend was still around. But there she was, sprawled out in the chair, feet thrown over the arms, as she was unable of sitting straight in any chair possible. In her hand, she scrolled through her phone, though Seiya knew she couldn't be texting anyone. Yaten barely deigned to text Seiya, let alone anyone else.
Seiya felt oddly like the two inches between them was greater—as if, even if she reached out to touch Yaten, she couldn't actually feel her. Despite being her closest friend, Seiya couldn't tell what was going on in her mind.
It bothered her.
"What are you looking at?" Seiya asked, abandoning her candy mission for a moment.
Yaten flickered green eyes over to her. But she only said, "Seiya, come on. Usagi will funnel it all down in about two seconds."
Seiya frowned, wanting to press Yaten more. But she was too tired to start a fight with her. Shoulders dropping, she confessed, "I only have two dollars."
Yaten groaned, standing. "Aren't you supposed to be the super rich racer? C'mon, move." Yaten shooed her away, and pulled out more money. Before she knew it, Yaten was shoving an armful of candy and chips into Seiya's arms, while popping open her own iced coffee.
"You shouldn't have caffeine this late, you know," Seiya said.
Yaten looked unimpressed. Probably just to spite her, she tilted her head, chugged the rest of the coffee, and tossed it into the trash can, all in one go.
"Don't complain when you get a stomachache later," Seiya said.
"Please." Yaten eyed the candy in Seiya's arms, even as a pack of Twizzlers tilted dangerously to the side. "I'm not helping you carry that."
"How kind of you," Seiya said, attempting to adjust. They both watched as the Twizzlers fell down on the floor. Together, they stared at the candy, both unwilling to move. Or rather, Yaten was unwilling to. Seiya was incapable.
Finally, Yaten broke and grabbed the candy. "What would you do without me?" she asked, as she took more than half the candy away from Seiya.
"I really don't know." Seiya closed her eyes, lungs seeming to constrict upon themselves, as if the smoke was back and she couldn't breathe words came spilling out before she could stop—"You should've been there. Not that I would want you there, but it was awful, and Usagi was screaming, and there was all this smoke, and I didn't know what was going to happen, and, and, I thought, if you had been there, you would have known what to do."
"Seiya."
"And then I thought, you know, what if I never saw you again? Or Taiki? And the last thing I was doing was trying to impress someone, who I don't think-"
Seiya's throat swelled, and suddenly, she couldn't speak anymore. She swallowed, glancing away from Yaten, face feeling quite hot. She stared determinedly at the vending machine, feeling extremely aware of the fact that she was about to cry over an armful of candy that she hadn't even bought for herself.
"She loves you, a lot."
Seiya whipped her head back to Yaten. Yaten, who tolerated Usagi at the best of times, and had never once commented on Seiya's interest, even during high school. It was so early in the morning, that Seiya almost thought she was imagining the entire thing.
"Maybe not in the way you want, but she does." And then she added, looking a little pained that she was saying anything, "We all do."
Seiya coughed out a half-sob, half-laugh. "Wow, Yaten," she said. "Don't be so dramatic."
"Oh, fuck you." Yaten breezed past her, already halfway down the hall, before Seiya caught up to her.
"Yaten, I love you too."
Yaten sniffed. "And don't you forget it."
I have zero idea why I wrote this. Writing partner came up with the title from the musical Once.