He yawned for the third time in the past five minutes. 'Tired' didn't even begin to cover it. He'd been in this town for two weeks already and had only slept when his body gave out and shut down. That was dangerous in itself if he caused himself major bodily harm or was unconscious when something happened. There was nothing to be done about it, however; sleep wouldn't come to him at night, not in the cold, lonely bed of his simple quarters. No, the only thing coming to him was images of a neatly kept room and its inhabitant, the place he'd much rather be at. Instead, he was stationed in this town that had produced three new Innocence-compatibles in the last month as a secret observer or defender in case another appeared or if the Earl sent akuma to attack.
"Samuel," he looked up at the smiling man, "Thanks for your help today. My wife would like to invite you to supper tonight."
"I couldn't impose like that." Samuel, the soft-spoken odd-job kid, shook his head.
"Please, you've helped so much," Daniel insisted.
"Excuse my imposition." He bowed to Clarissa.
She smiled, obviously flustered. "We're happy to have you. You've lifted much strain from my husband; this is the least we could do." He noticed a small hand clinging to the simple fabric of the woman's skirt. Big gray eyes peered at him. He had a soft spot for gray eyes.
"Come out from behind there," Daniel laughed, "greet our guest."
The fair-haired child approached cautiously. "Hello."
"Hello." Yellow hair, gray eyes. Clarissa: blonde hair, blue eyes. Daniel: brown hair, blue eyes. Not his child, very unlikely to be his child. Did he know?
"Go on, Son; tell him your name and age."
"I'm Elias. I'm four."
"It's nice to meet you, Elias. My name is Samuel. I've brought you a gift." He took out a pouch that he'd purchased before coming over.
The child pulled out wooden pieces and a rubber ball. "What is it?"
"They're pieces for a game called Jacks. Shall I teach you how to play later?"
"Yes please!"
"What else do you say to Mr. Samuel?" His mother coaxed.
"Thank you!"
They sat around a rough, wooden table with bowls of vegetable soup and crusty, fresh bread. It was obvious that this was a special occasion with the presence of treasured, metal spoons. Why was it that there were those who wasted food, throwing it out without a care or second though, while there were these kind of people who worked diligently for a get-by living?
"Thank you for the meal," they recited, picking up their utensils.
"So, Samuel, Daniel tells me you are aiming for the city?"
"Yes, ma'am. I'm out to see the sights of the world." That was his story for coming and going. Not that many would be suspicious to begin with. Call it a youth's desire for adventure.
"It must be hard to drop everything and move," Hard? His life was based on dropping everything and moving on for the sake of History, "Didn't you leave anyone behind?"
He paused. Make up another story. A mother, a father, a sibling. "I did," he stated slowly, "Someone very special to me." A lover. "They were quite mad when they found out I was leaving." Understatement.
He creeps into the room the early morning of the day he is to leave, unable to keep himself away. Barely making it to the foot of the bed before cold metal presses his throat, he realizes what a stupid idea sneaking into the room is.
"Good morning," he manages to chuckle, eyeing Mugen's wielder.
"There are hours until the sun rises. What do you want?"
"Yuu." His answer is simple, self-explanatory.
"Tcheh." He doesn't relax until there is the sound of the sword being sheathed. Reaching forward, he fingers soft hair and responds eagerly to seeking lips. A short-lived act. "Why are you fully dressed?"
"Because I'm leaving in an hour." But he doesn't say it aloud. He just wants to lock lips and throw the key out.
He tries to think about being without this boy –no, man—by his side, but it's painfully difficult. "I'm going to miss this," he murmurs against warm skin.
"What?" Shit.
"Nothing."
"I heard you just fine; I want you to explain." No escape.
"I've got an assignment."
"When?" It's more of a demand than a question.
"Today." Yuu is tensing with anger.
"When?"
His body tells him it's been mere minutes since he came in, but he knows better. "Ten minutes?" He's roughly shoved away.
"You leave this till now to tell me? Or was it your plan to leave without telling me at all?" The answer is clear without his response, but he says it anyways.
"I didn't want to say goodbye. I can't do goodbyes."
"Yes, that is your style, isn't it?" Yuu snarls. That hurts, like having a dagger twisted in your gut. But Yuu must hurt as well.
"I'll be back…" He tries.
"When?"
"I… I don't know." He wasn't briefed on the duration of the assignment; that was insignificant to Bookman.
"So you were going to leave for an indeterminable amount of time without telling me." He flinches. Wow he's stupid. And he can feel the final blow coming, knows it's coming. "How was I supposed to know that this isn't you leaving for good?" There it is. The taboo subject. The addition of hundreds more daggers. He can't defend himself. There's nothing to say. "Get out, Lavi." The coldness of his voice bites at his skin, at his heart, and he scrambles away knowing Yuu is using all of his control to not run him through with Mugen.
"Being left behind is a very lonely feeling after all." Clarissa's gentle voice pulled him back to the present, back to Samuel.
"Isn't it?" He smiled slightly, sadly. "I'll be back though. That's the important thing."
"Yes, the most important." Daniel placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. He felt like a fool, seeing the whole picture of the family, cursing his doubts of the kind woman's fidelity.
After the meal that he truthfully showered with compliments, he was pulled away by an eager boy.
"Teach me how to play Jacks, Mr. Samuel!" They moved to the floor, but Elias ran off for a second before dumping the pouch. "Here, you can have this ball back."
"Why?"
He showed him the item clutched in his small hand. "My papa already bought me one."
Samuel didn't regret coming out to this town. He would protect Elias and his family while he could, but one day, Lavi would return to the person waiting for him at home.
AN; Umm, long wait, much? My apologies are pretty much empty words because I probably could have tried harder. Anyhow, I'm trying this new at the end author note thing. It's strange to me because I'm used to introducing my works first.
Stuck to You was hard to write and, though I had an idea and outline of what I wanted, it didn't go in the direction I planned and I'm not particularly satisfied with this. It's extremely vague and confusing in my opinion, especially with the present written in the past tense and the past written in the present tense, what was I thinking? But, I'm going to stick with it so that I can move on. This piece is sloppy, and for that I'm sorry. Oh, and the OOC-ness is awful, but he's being another person, so duh, and Angry Kanda is angry.
On another note, this is the one year anniversary for this story! I didn't plan it out that way; it's pure coincidence that I've finally written a finished Stuck to You on this date, technically yesterday. Hopefully I can get in more than four updates in the next year. Actually, I hope to finish before the next year. But I start my last year of high school next week and I have a busy schedule, so we'll see.
Word Count; 1141 words.
Written On; August 17, 2009. Time taken; 151 minutes.
Disclaimer; Cruddy one-shot is mine, characters are not.