FMP Fan Fiction

Wo Futari De

by Esoteria

Chapter 1

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It was a miserable evening for walking home from school. Sousuke had, minutes ago, watched Kaname Chidori desperately look for her umbrella in her school bag, to no avail. Apparently, someone had taken it while they were running an errand for the student council. He kicked himself mentally. A terrorist's heavy breathing... a grenade pin being pulled... the bolt action of a rifle ringing in his ears... all of these things were engraved into his very being. He'd never miss them. Not ever. But he'd missed Chidori's umbrella being stolen. Instinct had told him to immediately inspect her bag for any traces of an explosive or a tracking device that the perpetrator may have left during his inspection. Most likely this fiend had carefully searched her belongings for some clue--some information about the Black Technology or the Whispered...

'Watch it, Chidori! It could be a bomb,' he had said more calmly than usual. The fact was, he simply wasn't feeling normal today.

Before he could move Chidori a safe distance from her bag a specially-prepared, rolled up paper had made contact with his head. He had bit his tongue on the impact.

'None of this today, Sousuke. There's no bomb, there's no cell phone tap, there's no microphone. Someone just took the umbrella, and used it to get home.'

She had not had her usual vigor with her reprimand either. Maybe she was tired. She wasn't sure.

At any rate, now they were both standing under an awning at a side entrance to the school, watching the janitor give them a painful "Gomen" look and a deep bow before locking the door and jogging off under his tiny umbrella.

"You'd think with all the weapons and grenades and other junk you carry around, you'd have an umbrella. Or a bulletproof shield or something." Kaname looked at him with less disgust than usual.

Exhausted eyes found Sousuke's. His lit up at the words "bulletproof shield" for a brief moment, then he looked away, scowling.

"Well, don't worry," she said, "it happens." She was being unusually understanding. For all the planning for a terrorist attack or a full-on siege of the school Sergeant Sagara had done on his own time, he could at least be prepared for an early Autumn shower. Although, admittedly, this was hardly a shower. This… was an impressive display of natural power.

"Chidori," he said suddenly. Kaname looked up. "Wait, here, I will procure a taxi and return to pick you up."

She just stared. "A taxi. Coming to Jindai High. At 7:30pm in this?" She pointed half-heartedly towards the sky. I'm too depressed, she thought. This kind of mood has to be bad for the skin or something. She paused. I guess there's one thing to be happy about, though. She stole a glance at his troubled face.

"Look," she said at last, "I appreciate it, but I think we're just going to have to make a run for it. Besides, you don't want to leave me here by myself anyway, right? Wraith probably can't see a thing from wherever he is right now."

Sousuke scowled. She was right. Wraith did nothing but observe from afar, rarely if ever intervening in any troublesome looking situation when it came upon Kaname. So now, in this weather, he couldn't even trust him to watch properly. There was no other way. They'd have to run. But it was a good 2.5 kilometers to their apartments just from the train station.

Although, he found himself wondering, if Wraith can't see us, he certainly can't hear us.... He couldn't help but ask. It had been bugging him for too long now.

"Chidori."

Kaname looked back at him. His face was still troubled.

"Sousuke, listen... I'll be okay, let's just try to get to the tra--"

"It's not about that."

She cocked her head slightly. "Okaaay..." Her curiosity brought a tinge of optimism back to her voice. Some much needed energy.

"Wraith..."

Energy gone. She knew this was coming, but she didn't expect it now.

He gathered his courage. "You have spoken with Wraith before, right...? In person."

"...Yeah." She looked away from him, but he could gather nothing from her reaction.

They stood in silence for a while.

I have to say it, she thought. I have to.

She took a deep breath. "He means nothing to me... he's not even a friend... and I know he could never do as good a job of prote--"

Sousuke had lifted his hand to cut her off. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked about that. Please forget about it." A very difficult question to ask and an even more difficult question to answer had just been averted once more.

She wanted to cry. Did he notice her always looking around to try to find him? She didn't even know if it was a "him" at all, but Wraith somehow intrigued her. Always in the shadows, aware of everything. Sousuke was reckless when Wraith was invisible. Wraith absorbed information while Sousuke ran into the situation headlong. Still... when she thought about it just a little further, the way Sousuke would always jump in front of her, always put his hand across her chest in a blocking motion while his pistol was raised to the enemy... It wasn't just "cool" or "chivalrous." It was an incredible feeling to her. One that would pierce into the most perilous and hopeless situations and bring her through them... every time. She didn't want to lose that. She began to move toward him, but he interrupted her once again.

"I think the rain has died down a bit, but it may not last. Let's go! Chidori!"

With that he grabbed her wrist and ran with her into the rain. They sloshed through huge puddles in the uneven pavement. She looked over at him through the rain. Water poured down the locks of his dark brown hair. A few droplets gathered on his eyelashes occasionally. The skin where his neck met his collar glistened as a few streams of water forced their way down to his uniform. It looked like his face had softened a bit. Maybe he wasn't as upset as she had thought? Or maybe he wasn't upset at all? Maybe it was all just part of his mission to him?

No, she couldn't think like that. She knew better. Too much had happened in his year at Jindai for her to still believe that. She looked down at his hand, at her wrist. What was he thinking every time something like this happened? Whether they were running from RK-types or Gauron or Arastols or raindrops, he would always pull her along like this... not too roughly, of course, but always edging her to move a little faster, to keep up, to stay with him. He'd look back almost frantically every few seconds to make sure she was alright. Their eyes would meet for that not-even-a-split-second... Was he worried about her? Well, of course he was. But he was always so focused on what was at hand. She always found herself thinking deeply in these situations while Sagara deftly and intelligently planned their route. Should she be trying to help guide them? She figured she'd leave that to him...

Suddenly, Sousuke miscalculated and stepped in a large pothole filled with rainwater. A huge wave splashed on his own opposite leg and both of Chidori's... all the way up to her thighs. She froze as the chill raced up her spine, around to her chest, and up to her jaw.

He looked back at her with a grimacing, sorrowful look... almost sheepish: probably half-expecting a smack to the head.

"I-- it-- it's okay... S-S-Sousuke" she managed, shivering violently.

They ran over to the sidewalk and found a small, slightly decrepit shop with an awning in front to stand under for a moment.

Chidori decided against the place she really wanted to lean and instead put her back to the glass, crossing her arms and ankles to try to stay at least reasonably warm... She noticed Sousuke scanning her pitiful figure: utterly drenched from shoulders to stomach, and again from the hem of her skirt almost to the waistline. There were a few dry spots still visible, perhaps.

Sagara opened his bag and began digging. To Kaname's immense surprise, he brought out what appeared to be a slightly undersized bath towel.

"Wh..." She shivered. "What's that?"

"A military blanket. They're wool, but this particular one is Italian and is surprisingly thin for its absorbency and warmth."

She wanted to ask "Why didn't you take that out earlier?" but thought better of it as he knelt down to dry her...

Wait, what!

"So--! Sou--! Sousuke!" She cried, "What are you doing!"

"Drying you, of course." He said it matter-of-factly, as he always did in these situations. He was rubbing her calf, and attempting to drain some water from her sock in the process... the shoes were a lost cause.

…The blanket and his hands were warm. She bit her lip and thought better to just bear it.

He has absolutely no tact for these kinds of things, she thought, shivering. But then, she liked that about him, too. And situations like this gave her something to muse on later... and shiver for a different reason.

When he finished the other lower leg and began to move up, intuition took over. She snatched the blanket from him and took a step back.

"Ecchi!" She scolded.

"Chidori, I was just--"

She sighed laboriously. He's right... I can't exactly walk around drenched like this... And I shouldn't scold him just for trying to help... With some reluctance she added, "I know, I know... just..." She growled at herself for not being able to say it. "…you know!"

It was an unnecessary request, of course. 'Don't do anything I wouldn't want you to do' or something of the sort. At this, she thought she detected a hint of annoyance when Sagara's soaked figure nodded quickly and retrieved the towel. Still, it was a nice gesture, and in some ways she was enjoying the moment.

Sousuke dropped to one knee again, and with his head clearly turned all the way to one side, dried her legs and the hem of her skirt.

She's always so difficult in the most important times. It makes no sense. But it wasn't like he didn't know it was coming. Even his now-superior Melissa Mao would get bent out of shape over some of these kinds of things. Captain Testarossa would never stand for them at all. But there was no room for modesty on the battlefield! It then occurred to him that they weren't exactly on a battlefield at the moment. He finished quickly and rose up to dry her shoulders. But before he could...

A furiously blushing face and distant eyes met him: the two were not ten centimeters apart.

…A seemingly very long moment passed. He saw something trying to come up Chidori's throat.

"B--... Baka!" She drew back a hand to strike him, but stopped and put it back down, still irritated.

He knew why she was mad this time. Nine months ago he wouldn't have understood. Now it started to make sense... at least a little. It wasn't him stooping down to dry her or coming up to continue that made her go off... it was him seeing how she reacted to it. She didn't like that. He could almost relate. Getting a rise out of an enemy in a one-on-one confrontation was one of the best ways to weaken them. Occasionally Gauron had successfully drawn Sousuke into an agitated state, and when Sousuke realized that Gauron could see this, it made him all the more angry. It worked out okay in those situations thanks to the Arbalest. Normal weapons would not have been forgiving at the hands of an emotionally distraught person. He'd have been inaccurate and have wasted ammunition. But those situations with the ARX-7 tripled, even quadrupled his efficiency using the Lambda Driver while he was emotionally involved. Sousuke had realized long ago that he wasn't sure he could ever really fight that way... drawing anger or hate out of himself every time he needed to fire his weapon… oozing urgency and the need to protect every time an ally or his own AS was in danger. He had always been behind the safe curtain of indifference in battle before. A low heart rate and calm breathing made a sniper shot accurate. The "that's just the way war is" attitude is what kept him going when an ally was killed. Now he was supposed to reverse everything with this new, underdeveloped, esoteric weapon? It was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous, even for an organization such as Mithril. These had been his thoughts before the incident in Hong Kong. And really, they still were. But now he couldn't say for sure where he wanted to be.

His thoughts finally trailed off. Images of battle and fallen comrades faded away in the reflection of Chidori's eyes. They looked at each other for another moment.

Finally Kaname's hand moved forward to take the blanket. "I'll get this part," she said. "...and thanks," she added, almost too late. Normal color started to return to her face as she wrapped up in the damp but warm blanket and retrieved her bag. Sousuke brought out another item from his bag, a very small switchblade-looking knife. He unfolded it to its full length--not quite seven centimeters including the handle--and brought it to her chest. He folded a corner of the blanket on top of another in front of a surprised Kaname's collar, and used the tiny knife as a pin to hold it together. The silver handle and blade tip reflected light into his eyes as he straightened the blanket-turned-shawl on her.

Chidori thought she saw a little smile from the corner of his mouth as he turned to pick up their bags. He handed Kaname hers, which had served and would continue to serve as a rain-block, and reached for her hand this time--not her wrist. She hesitated only a very short moment before taking his hand. Dry, warm fingers intertwined with her own dripping, cold ones. She felt warm all over, looking at that hand and the little knife... at least until the downpour hit her again. She snapped out of it and lifted the bag back over her head once more.

"Not far to the train station, Chidori!" He called back to her from his slightly shorter distance ahead.

(to be continued...)