Secret Injuries, a Get Backers fanfiction

The Lightning Emperor let out all the anger that was boiling inside him. He clenched both of his fits and electricity spread all over the room. Noooooooooooo !!

Midoban's eyes suddenly opened. He was panting and covered in sweat, brown hair stuck to his temples. It took him a few moments to come back to his senses and realise he had just had a nightmare. Again. But this one was different. It seemed so real… And he had the feeling it had lasted ages. Just as if the Jagan had been used against him.

Still gasping for breath, he looked around him. He was lying in a double bed, in a room he didn't know. Probably in a hotel. As he tried to get up, he felt a sharp pain spreading over his entire body. He stirred up the blankets and realised he had bandages around his torso and around his arms too. He froze. He tried hard to remember what did happen in the last minutes he was awoken but failed. Everything was blurry in his mind. Had he used the Jagan more than three times within twenty-four hours? Anxiety began to sweep over him and he didn't like that at all.

He heard footsteps in the next room, and he clenched his fits. He stared at the door, heart beating fast. He felt so weak he was not even sure to be able to use his Jagan or his Snake-Bite, and for the first time in his whole existence, he feared for his life. The door opened and his whole body relaxed when he saw a familiar blond head appear in the door frame. Despite the lack of light, Ban had recognized it immediately. If his best friend was there, he knew he was safe, no matter what happened. And his fear of Ginji's being hurt -or worse- disappeared.

"Ban-chan," the blonde guy whispered and his mouth dropped open. Taken by surprise, he released the glass of water he was holding and the glass fell on the floor, breaking noisily into small pieces. Ginji remained speechless and motionless in this small pool of water and glass. Only his eyes blinked and seemed to be watering. Once again, Ban tried to get back to his feet, despite the pain. Within seconds, his friend was at his side. He always was.

"Don't be silly Ban-chan, don't you see you're too weak to stand up?"

Ban stiffened and his heart stopped beating as he felt Ginji's fingers on his bare chest, forcing him gently to lie onto the bed. His reaction to Ginji's touching him could seem weird if he tried and thought about it, but he didn't care, he just appreciated that brief moment.

Ginji sat on the bed and stared at the floor, looking concerned. The burning pain Ban felt and the fact he could not even remember what happened was certainly a sign that something did go wrong, but his fearless and cheerful friend looking so worried was undoubtedly a bad sign. Something very bad must have happened.

"Ginji," he said softly, his voice trembling more than he wished, "what happened? What's this all about? I can't remember anything. What went wrong?"

"That, I don't want to tell you right now, Ban. Sorry" Ginji said, without even looking at him.

Ban gulped. He was dying to know what had happened, how he had been hurt, and why his friend looked so concerned and sad. But he knew that when Ginji called him just 'Ban', it was useless to insist. The little bugger could be very stubborn at times and no one, not even him, his best friend, could make him do something he didn't want to. So Ban wisely decided to leave it alone. For now. But he sure had the right to know the answer to a few of his questions at least. Wasn't he the one lying in bed with what looked like bad injuries?

"How long have I been sleeping?" he asked Ginji. "Felt like I've slept an entire day!"

Ginji let out a long sigh.

"A bit more than two days to be exact." He paused, looking embarrassed. "You were unconscious, actually." His voice was barely audible.

Ban's eyes bulged with surprise.

"Unconscious…?" He repeated, blankly.

Ginji sighed again and tears silently ran down his cheeks. Ban had a lump in his throat at this sight. He hesitated a second, and then put his hand on Ginji's. The young man winced at the touch and looked at Ban from the corner of his eye. Ban frowned.

"Ginji, look at me"

Ginji closed his eyes and shook his head. Ban tightened his grip on his friend's hand.

"Now"

His voice was steadier and didn't give Ginji any choice. The blond guy wiped his tears away with his free hand, took a deep breath and slowly turned his face to Ban. Their eyes met. The cold sapphire ones and the deep kind chocolate brown ones. The exact opposites. Ginji looked intensively at Ban, those eyes widened when he suddenly realised he didn't have his glasses on. He felt naked without his glasses, but he decided to ignore it. He narrowed his eyes and studied his friend's features more carefully.

Ginji clearly was exhausted. He even looked older than he was. His skin looked thinner and paler than usual, and he had huge dark rings under his eyes, from which all joy and naivety seemed to have vanished and been replaced by sadness and anxiety. It broke Ban's heart to see him in that state. Where had his happy-go-lucky and funny partner disappeared? Why did the World seem to have been turned upside down and that he, Midoban, couldn't remember anything about it? He'd have to find out! He didn't mind the horrible pain he felt, he just wanted to bring back joy into his friend's life.

"You haven't slept at all for three days, have you?" He asked Ginji, still clenching his hand.

Ginji offered him a slight and sad smile.

"Never mind, Ban-chan, all that matters is that you came out of coma. I was so afraid that… you know… wouldn't wake up at all…"

He closed his eyes and shook his head, as if he was chasing away some bad vision from his mind.

"By the way," he asked, looking at Ban, "how do you feel?"

"Well, I've been in better shape, but I suppose it could be worse," Ban casually replied.

Ginji started to cry again, so Ban hastened to add:

"I'm ok, really. Just that pain in chest… But I'll recover soon"

He smiled and blinked at his partner, which made Ginji's features relax a bit.

Ginji had a baby face and beautiful brown eyes. It had never occurred to Ban how gorgeous his best friend was. And he wasn't sure what to do about that. He wasn't used to have such thoughts about a man. The World really was upside down. Without thinking, he released Ginji's hand and brushed his fingers on his friend's cheek. Ginji startled once again, but didn't make any move to push Ban's hand away.

"You'll be ok too," Ban told Ginji.

The blonde blushed and gently smiled.

"Ginji," Ban said with as much kindness as he could put in his voice, "are you finally going to tell me what makes you so sad? What happened? Why am I hurt?"

Ginji clasped both his hands on his lap, and stood up with a smile Ban could tell was not sincere.

"I'm hungry, aren't you Ban-chan? I'll go and get us sushi take-away! Or would you rather have a pizza?"

Ban sighed.

"Take whatever you want, I'm not that hungry anyway"

Ginji looked guiltily away.

"I promise I won't be long, Ban-chan," he said with a little boy voice.

"You'd better not!" mumbled Ban.

"And you'd better not be out of bed when I'm back or I swear you'll spend a very bad time!" Ginji teased.

At least he was back to a bit of humour, Ban thought.

"Ginji! Take care!"

Ginji stopped and turned back. He smiled at his friend and nodded before getting out of the room.

Midoban stared at the window, the night had fallen and the city's lights illuminated the room. He was lost in his thoughts when Ginji came back with a bag full of food about twenty minutes later.

"Ban-chan!" He exclaimed. "It's me!"

"Really? And there was me thinking it was Santa Claus. Too bad" Ban smirked.

Ginji made a face and rolled his eyes. Ban had always loved to mock Ginji, in a gentle way of course. And at that moment, it was all he was able to think of to cheer up his friend.

"I'll help you to sit down" Ginji said, putting the bag on the night table.

And before Ban could even reply, Ginji had put his hands under his arms and was stirring him up very carefully. But the pain was too heavy and Ban scowled.

"Sorry" Ginji apologized.

He then put a pillow behind Ban's back.

"Are you okay?" He asked his friend.

"Yeah, thanks" Ban replied.

He'd always been the one who looked after Ginji whenever he was ill, or hurt, or just feeling bad. It felt weird to be the one to be looked after this time. That sort of embarrassed him, but he was touched to see how much Ginji cared about him.

Ginji smiled at him and sat on the chair next to the bed.

"Now, food time!" he said and handed take-away sushi to Ban, who was finally starting to starve.

"Gee! You want my stomach to burst, don't you?"

Ginji grinned.

"Well, you haven't eaten for more than two days, you need your strength back!"

"Where did you get the money for that?" Ban asked suspiciously.

"Actually, I only paid 480 yens for all that. It was all I had left once I had paid the hotel bill. Oh, and the Subaru's been towed away again apparently, so we'll need money for that too…"

Ban sighed guiltily. Having their car towed away was quite an usual thing, such as spending most of their money to get it back, and Ban was the one to blame for that.

"Don't tell me all this food cost you only 480 yens?!" He said, ignoring the car subject on purpose.

"Nah! I just told the waitress I was looking after my best friend who was very ill, that we were broke and starving, and that I'd rather die than let you starve. Then I smiled at her. She said it was cute and gave me all that. I've even had to insist to make her take all the money I had"

"You little fool," Ban said fondly. "You'd get anything with a smile, don't you?"

It was so true. Ban would give his life for this smile. Only Ginji's smile could melt his heart and he feared it more than any weapon. Fortunately enough, even though Ginji perfectly knew he could easily convince Ban to do things the latter didn't want to do, he didn't seem to know how much power he had on him and if he ever found out… Well, Ban would rather not think about that!

To that, they engorged their food quickly and noisily, and Ginji stole a vegetarian sushi from Ban, but Ban didn't even complain. He was too happy to see Ginji back to his old-self.

Once there was nothing left to eat, Ginji rummaged through the bag in which he had carried the food, and took out a rather big tube out of it. Ban looked at it suspiciously.

"Ointment" Ginji anticipated. "In case you wouldn't have noticed, you've been badly burnt," he said, looking sadly at Ban's chest and arms.

Burnt? No, he hadn't noticed indeed. In fact, he hadn't really taken the time to think about what exactly his injuries were.

"And you're not going to tell me how, I suppose?"

He cast Ginji an inquisitive look, but his friend tried to avoid his eyes and began removing his bandages instead. Bugger, Ban thought. He was too weak to fight anyway, so he let Ginji playing nurse.

When all the bandages were gone, Ginji made Ban lie and straddled his hips.

"The ointment, now!" He exclaimed "If it hurts, just tell me"

Ban's eyes bulged. He was flabbergasted. Lying on a bed, with Ginji straddling his hips. Ginji, his best mate ever. Ginji, with his deep brown eyes and his sweet smile. The beautiful Ginji. That didn't look anything real. Was he having a dream again? A nice one for once? He didn't dare to move an inch, afraid that all this might go away. Ginji noticed his friend had become deathly pale.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to rape you!" He teased.

Ban nearly choked and Ginji proceeded to spread ointment on his torso. That cold contact made Ban twitch, but it didn't last long because with Ginji in this position, cautiously massaging his chest, he began to feel quite hot. He blushed when he started to show evident signs of how much he appreciated that moment. He silently cursed himself for being so… lovey-dovey. Ahem. It was a great relief for him to see Ginji hadn't noticed anything, or had at least the decency to ignore it.

The sudden sad look on his friend's face made him come back to his senses.

"Oi Ginji, what's wrong?" He asked.

The blond guy shook his head and Ban could see he was on the verge of crying again. Good times never last long, he thought.

"Nothing," Ginji said. "It's just… Oh, Ban-chan… Those are really bad burns… The ointment may allay your pain, but the burns will never disappear… Your skin will probably remain as it is right now"

He burst into tears. He rolled to the other side of the bed and buried his face into the pillow. Ban felt the urge to hug him but didn't dare to. He wasn't used to human contact.

"Ginji, stop crying, you idiot!" He wasn't used to be very tactful either. "I don't give a fuck my skin doesn't recover!" He carefully put a hand on his friend's back and gently shook him "Come on! This won't make the world stop spinning around! I'm sure it will even make me look more stunning than I already do!" He joked.

Ginji's tears turned into a laugh. He turned and leaned on his arm to face Ban. Not as stunning as you, though, Ban thought, looking at his best friend. What was happening to him? Everything seemed so strange since he had awoken. He was burnt but didn't know how it happened, Ginji had acted weird, and now he felt things for him he had never felt before. Sure, they'd known each other for a while now, they worked together and were very close. But he never thought of Ginji as a…

"Ne, Ban-chan?" asked Ginji, and Ban was happy to see his friend was wearing his usual ingenuous look.

He smiled and rested his head on the pillow. Ginji lifted his head and cautiously rested it on Ban's chest, making sure he didn't rest it on his burns. He then stared at the ceiling, just like Ban. Ban who didn't know what to think of the situation. Ginji often hugged him or touched him, but he never thought there was more than friendship to these gestures. Tonight he saw things differently. Ginji had been so kind to him, so… sensuous. Questions were rushing through his mind and he started to think he wanted more than Ginji's friendship. He needed more.

He became suddenly aware of Ginji breathing deeply on his chest. He glanced and noticed that he was fast asleep. The vision touched him. Ginji seemed so fragile, and yet he was so strong, even if he seemed to ignore it, just like he ignored many things. He was the Lighting Emperor after all, that was not to be forgotten! But at that moment, his face was so peaceful it was hard to believe he once was the feared leader of a rough gang. Ban was submerged by emotions that were new to him. He wrapped his arm around Ginji's shoulders and absently began to run his fingers through the blonde spiked hair. He forgot about his pain, and closed his eyes.

When he opened them the following morning, he realised not without a certain relief that he hadn't had any bad dream. Ginji was still sleeping, hugging him. Ban smiled. He carefully extricated himself from Ginji's arms but his friend slept like a baby, and nothing seemed to be able to wake him. Ban got out of bed for the first time since he had came out of coma. The simple fact of standing up brought back the pain, and he had to clench his teeth not to scream. Well, he just couldn't pee in bed! He silently made his way to the bathroom and relieved himself. Then he decided he could do with a hot bath and turned on the tap. He removed his bandages and a moment later, he was sitting in the bathtub, surrounded by cherry scented lather, and it felt really good despite the pain all over his body. He washed his hair and body, and then rested his head on the edge of the bathtub. He closed his eyes, thinking of all the things that happened in the last hours.

"Morning, Ban-chan!"

Ban startled so strongly in the bathtub that he splashed water all around him, and Ginji was apparently finding it very funny. Ban gasped for air, he was panic-stricken. Fortunately enough, the lather hid the most intimate parts of his body. He already felt naked without his glasses, so let alone without clothes!

"What.Are.You.Doing.Here??" He finally managed to snap at Ginji.

"Well, you weren't in bed when I woke up, so I started getting worried and decided to check the bathroom" Ginji said in the most innocent way.

"Well, I'm here and I'm okay, so piss off now!" Ban shrieked but Ginji ignored him.

"Are you feeling better? Do your burns hurt?" He enquired.

Ban sighed with exasperation.

"Do you mind if I finish washing up?" He snarled.

"Not at all" Ginji replied, and sat on the edge of the bathtub.

Ban rolled his eyes, but once again, Ginji ignored him.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled.

"Well, next time you come to the bathroom while I'm in there, be a good boy and knock on the door!" Ban sneered.

"No, not for that. I'm sorry about your burns and all the trouble I caused. I really am, Ban-chan!"

His voice quavered, and Ban was very confused.

"You see," Ginji went on, "it was my entire fault! I'm so sorry!"

He buried his face in his hands and started to cry. Ban felt unease just like he always did whenever his friend cried, which happened quite often as Ginji was such a sensitive boy. Part of his charm, Ban thought.

"Ginji, I'm not sure I get it right … but I'm sure crying is pointless," he said softly.

Ginji took a deep breath.

"Alright, I reckon I owe you the truth," he sighed. "We were on a mission, had to get back an old lady's dog, remember? Hevn had told Akabane to join us and it made you angry. We were walking together and Akabane was teasing me, as he usually does. He went on about how you and Hevn had been very close lately, you joked about Hevn's cup size, and Akabane made fun of me, telling me I was jealous and all…" Ginji blushed. "Well, I was, actually, although I wouldn't have admitted it. Anger boiled inside me. I started generating high voltage and turned into Raitei. You tried to calm me down but failed, it was too late. Akabane said he'd leave us to our lovers' quarrels and I suppose he achieved the job and got all the money. Then it's a bit blurry. Everything happened so quickly. All I can remember is that I was so upset I couldn't control anything anymore and the minute later, you were hurt by lightning bolts, hence the bad burns, and you fell onto the floor, unconscious. I came back to my senses. I was so scared! I shook you but you stayed motionless. I thought you were dead! But you were in a coma. I brought you here, and I spent two days crying over you, waiting desperately for you to wake up… And you know what happened next…" He stopped, eyes full of tears.

Memories slowly came back to Ban's mind. Raitei. Anger. Lightning bolts… So it wasn't a nightmare, it was all real… Ginji looked into Ban's eyes.

"Oh, Ban-chan! I'm so sorry!" He said through sobs. "I've been so stupid!! I will understand if you don't wanna talk to me anymore… I can leave and never come back"

His entire body was shaking. Ban stared at him through his snake eyes and both of them remained silent. Suddenly, Ban burst out laughing. Ginji was flabbergasted.

"What makes you laugh?! Don't you realise I could have killed you?!" he screamed, tears falling down his cheeks.

"Sorry Ginji, I can't help it!! I mean, you've got me all worried since yesterday. I was wondering how I had been hurt, I thought someone had been killed or something like that and now you're telling me all this happened because you've been jealous of Hevn? Oh dear, I've never heard anything as funny as that before!"

"It isn't funny!" Ginji sulked. "You've been badly hurt and the fault is entirely mine"

"I told you," said Ban, still laughing, "I don't care about the burns. I'm sure the pain will soon be gone. And as far as Hevn's concerned, she's just a friend, nothing to be jealous of!" He added with a malicious smile.

Ginji turned red.

"Will you ever forgive me?" He stammered.

Ban stood up and slightly pressed his lips against Ginji's.

"I'd forgive you anything, you silly boy!"

Ginji goggled and both young men blushed. Ginji was speechless.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Ban teased.

Ginji shook his head and grinned. Then Ban tugged his friend's arm and made him fall fully clothed into the bathtub.

"Ban-chan!" Ginji shrieked.

Ban was splitting his sides laughing. They started to splash each other with water. Ban couldn't remember having been so happy in his life. The World really had been turned upside-down, but in a very good way. He bent over his best friend and newly lover, and kissed him, deeply this time. This probably was the sweetest kiss ever. When they parted, Ban smiled at Ginji and said:

"Promise me next time you're jealous, you'll just go and tell me, won't you?"

Ginji grinned.

"Promised, Ban-chan!"

Ginji then hugged Ban so tightly that the latter could barely breathe, and kissed him fully on the mouth.

Together, they had finally managed to get back joy into their life. Well, they were the Get Backers, after all! With almost 100 success rate!

FIN.