Title: The Night We Moved On
Fandom: Animanga – Saint Seiya
Summary: Shiryu confronts Shun about his decision, and that sets him to think about their life knowing each other. [Set before 'His Duty as A Human'. Characters: Shiryu, Shun.]
Warning: AU. Angry, doubtful Shiryu, and cold Shun. You have been warned.
A/N: The event in this installment took place one week before 'His Duty as A Human'.
Disclaimer: Not. Mine. Happy now?
"Ah, I'm sorry, Shiryu!"
"It's alright. Be careful next time." Shiryu watched the man stumbled on his feet before leaving him on the stairs hastily.
That man was the third foot-soldier that had tripped in front of him. Not that he would blame them. Ever since they returned to Earth by the end of the Holy War, everyone else had been walking on eggshells around them. Even more so now, thanks to the event that happened just that evening.
'Thank you for everything, everyone, but this is where we part. I've decided to take the offer that Lord Hades gave me.'
The Dragon Saint frowned at the memory. It was like a dream, a nightmare, when those words were spoken by the familiar, gentle voice. Especially when looking into the eyes of the person speaking it.
It was hard to imagine, let alone see with his own eyes, how cold Shun can be. The gentle, kind boy that he had always known since childhood was almost gone, replaced by the cold, emotionless young man.
It was not something he wanted to see in the other boy, not that Shun listened to anyone else now.
He could not understand anything that was happening now. Something had been changing slowly for the last few weeks that it was almost undetectable; Athena worrying about every small thing, Shun became withdrawn and quiet, and some of the revived Gold Saints had been restless.
And it used to be so peaceful before, shortly after the end of the Holy War and the Gold Saints' return. What has changed? Did something happen that he and some of the Bronze Saints need to know, but do not know?
Shiryu continued to walk down the stairs deep in thought, until he saw a lone figure standing in front of the graveyard. Recognising the person, he moved slightly faster; in curiosity or something else, he did not know.
"Shun?"
Blank, green eyes looked up at him from staring at the almost empty graveyard. Coming closer, the Dragon Saint realised what the other boy has been looking at; the former graves of the once deceased Gold Saints.
"Shiryu? I don't expect to see you at this time of the night, down here of all places."
Even the way he spoke had somehow changed, as well as the way he carried himself. It was one of the slow but sure changes that not all see in Shun, but suddenly became too obvious just that evening.
"I'm on my way down, just to think on my own. You?"
A light chuckle came out of the shorter boy beside him, a hand fisted in front of his mouth to stifle it.
'Another behaviour that he never has before…' Shun did not have a loud laugh, but he never try to stifle his laughter either.
"Such coincidence. I've been doing the same thing."
"What have you been thinking about? I don't think you have anything else, not after the decision you made."
He did not mean to be rude and harsh, but the words came out on their own and he did not get to stop his mouth from saying it.
Although he did not regret; that was what he had in mind anyway.
But his blood did almost freeze up with the way Shun looked at him. They were tinted with a calm anger; but what shocked him the most was the obvious hurt that he saw there.
But it only lasted for a few seconds before Shun turned away from and looked at the graves again, the thoughtful look returned to his feminine face.
"Hmm, I wonder. I guess I'm not supposed to regret my decision."
"If you're going to regret your decision, then why make that decision in the first place?" Shiryu could almost feel the anger that he supressed bubbling inside him. This was not the time to confuse and mislead others, but Shun had done just that.
"… I wonder why."
"Aren't we your friends? How can you do this to us?"
"It's because all of you are my friends that I'm doing this."
That answer stunned him. A few seconds later, he lashed out, almost in anger. "You don't have to sacrifice yourself for everything bad that is happening, Shun! This is just you trying to do everything by yourself. Aren't we supposed to help each other?"
"… But this is something that only I can do, and it has nothing to do with sacrificing myself."
"This is not the time to be joking!" Shiryu had to admit, he got some sort of satisfaction to see the surprised expression on Shun's face. He had been too calm lately that it starting to infuriate him. "What's happening to you, Shun? You have become too secretive lately, not even Ikki can talk to you about it."
"…"
The silent went on for a while, Shiryu not knowing what else to say, until Shun whispered, "I'm sorry."
"Huh?" He tried to take a good look when the other apologised, but Shun had turned to look another way, looking at the nearby villages instead of the graves, or Shiryu.
"… I don't know how to tell you guys. I've been talking about it with Athena, as well as some of the Gold Saints, but with you guys, I have no words for it."
"You don't trust us?"
"NO!" Shun exclaimed, turning to him at such speed with a desperate look on his face, shocking Shiryu. "You, Hyoga, Seiya and brother are the people that I will trust with my life, in this life, or the previous."
"Then why didn't you tell us, Shun?! Didn't you see Ikki's face when he left this evening?"
Shun visibly flinched, and Shiryu realised it was a low blow. Of course the younger boy had seen Ikki's face, he was the center of everything that happened. Everyone who was there was able to see the expression on Ikki's face before he turned his back towards his younger brother and left Athena's temple.
Quickly he moved to Shun's side, putting his hands on the small shoulders, which he noticed were shaking. "I… I'm sorry. That's too much of me to say that."
"No… It's alright. It's just that…"
"Just that…?"
Shun let out a shaky sigh, putting one hand on top of one of Shiryu's larger ones. "I was expecting for you to be willing to wait for me to explain to all of you personally. It was difficult trying to talk to your family about private things when there are others around, don't you think so?"
The Dragon's hands tightened on the small shoulders at that. With that, everything else made sense. Shun's reluctance to talk, sudden withdrawal from the rest of them and closeness to some of the Gold Saints and secret meetings with Athena. And there were them, their group; still close, but rarely seen without a Gold Saint around.
How come he can be so stupid not to see that? Why can't he see the reason behind Shun's change of behaviour? Why can't any of them see that Shun was scared of how his life changing at a rate that he can't control? And that his friends, his family will be out of his life before he can do anything about it?
The older boy smiled sadly, a hand went up to ruffle the green hair, in the way that he knew Ikki did to Shun all the time.
"Shiryu?"
"It's nothing. You know you can come to any of us anytime, right?" He was definitely pleased to see Shun smiled back at him albeit a bit confused, a part of his old self apparent in that gesture.
As they walked side by side, Shun's shoulder bumping into his upper arm, smiling, talking and laughing with him, Shiryu only had one thought left in his once doubtful mind.
At least he knew that whatever that was going to happen after this, when all of them would move on from here, they still have their friendship and bond in their hearts.
They still have a week left with Shun, and surely that time would be enough; to see into the boy who has a heart bigger than his life.
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Another A/N:
Done with the third installment of 'Another Life'! And this time it was from Shiryu's point of view.
It was hard for me to write him, because I can't seem to be able to understand his notion of thought in the series. So I just go along with the usual stuff about him: he a lot about his friends. But it was still hard for me to write him. So I apologise here in case any of my readers think that Shiryu was somehow out of character (Because, honestly, I can't see Shiryu lashing out in anger, but I wrote him like that here).
To the readers: Thank you so much for the support you gave to this AU! It inspired me to write like nothing else.
To Jenny DeVic: Thank you for your review and opinion! I have been thinking about the titles for sometimes, as I wanted to use them as a sign of respect and of how a certain character is to another character. But since it proves to be confusing, I decided to forgo with them for this chapter (Not that it's obvious, since these two don't use honorifics with each other).
Thank you for reading, and C&C is greatly appreciated.
Unsugar
