This was supposed to be part of my "Crow in the Stars" AU, but when that plot took shape, this scene ceased to have a place, so here it is as a one-shot. The pairing is odd but made sense at the time lol.
The squadron sped through the black twinkling sky towards their motherships well beyond visual contact. It was a successful mission, with two enemy destroyers imploded. The squadron, under the command of Keiji Akaashi, had gotten off relatively light on casualties.
Sakunami, following up in a fighter, was impressed with Akaashi's handling of the mission. He was a sharp individual and well grounded. Kousuke's own commander Koganegawa could afford to learn from the more experienced squadron leader.
During the dogfight, Sakunami took out three enemy fighters but took a light hit to the right side of his craft. While running diagnostics, he fell behind the main force; but once confirming everything seemed to be running normally he accelerated to rejoin the squad.
Suddenly, a small boom, and the vessel bounced. It was a minor blast, not an explosive one. Sakunami's systems were still operational. Then a warning flashed on his dashboard with irate urgency: oxygen loss. The earlier hit damaged the integrity of the air tank that supplied his face mask; and when he accelerated, it ruptured.
It wasn't long before he began to feel a suction within his mask. He removed the breathing apparatus and tilted his head back. At the speed they were traveling, air in the cabin was difficult to breathe as it was. His vision blurred, soon he couldn't read the dash anymore, and without realizing it, his hands slid off the controller. He felt dizzy as he inhaled heavily but never feeling like he'd breathed enough.
"Sorry, Kogane, I won't be able to keep my promise," he murmured.
He didn't want to risk the vessel getting captured if he expired in the cockpit. With the last bit of cognizance, he reached for the lever to eject and self-destruct. Without his mask, the move would be fatal. Ahead, Akaashi's rear gunner pointed at Sakunami trailing yet again, spewing a foggy stream of leaking gas.
Sakunami pulled the plunger for the eject. His body shot into the open cosmos. His lungs tightened, but he was already getting delirious and was numb to the ice-cold, suffocating space. Nor did he notice the speeding bomber barreling towards him at breakneck speed.
The bomber slowed as it neared Kousuke's swirling body and trapped him in a tractor beam. With their suits engaged and buckled down, Akaashi's gunner opened the cockpit and nabbed Sakunami by the legs, tugging him inside rapidly. While Akaashi reversed the craft to rejoin formation, his gunner rapidly applied the spare oxygen mask. Kousuke's eyelids were limp but were just barely blinking. His pupils were dilated at first but slowly began to shrink. His wide gasps of breath began to become more calm and measured.
Suddenly, from Sakunami's perspective, he woke up in an awkward pose, lying crossways in a cockpit in someone's lap. He glanced around, unsure of where he was or how he'd gotten there. It was a few moments before he even remembered being aboard his own craft as it progressively failed on him. He had one dreamlike memory of his oxygen failing. He would never remember any of the seconds in between.
"Sakunami, don't you dare pull a stunt like that," Akaashi rebuked. Sakunami peered around the gunner's seat towards where the voice originated. He saw the squadron leader peek around the side of his chair.
"A-ka-a-shi?" he mumbled behind the mask. Then at last, the realization struck him:
He was alive.
Sakunami didn't say anything more. Instead, he choked and teared up. His stiff arms regained their mobility, and he knocked the mask from his face as he hysterically latched onto the gunner's shirt with gratitude.
"Hey! Hey!" the crewman beckoned and tried to reapply the mask to Sakunami's mouth. Before he could do so, Kousuke pressed his head into his savior's chest. The man waited as countless tears flowed down his face and soaked his jacket. He choked repeatedly.
At no other point in his life was Sakunami so grateful to be alive.
If you like this, check out "Crow in the Stars" as well!
~Breeze