These characters are under copyright by Takashi Shiina, Rokurou Ogaki, Shogakukan, Sentai Filmworks and/or Kodansha Comics or others. This is a work of fanfiction, for no monetary gain.

Chapter 6 – Once Upon a Dream

Hyoubu looked around at the long faces on the deck of the new Queen of Catastrophe and sighed. How was it possible for all of them to miss a single man so much? It had only been a month-and-a-half since Hinomiya had gone, two weeks since he'd called and spoken to Yugiri, but it felt like a year. Hyoubu had hoped this little side trip to Japan would provide the diversion his crew needed. Both Yoh and Yugiri in particular had become increasingly morose, feeding off one another's loneliness as much as consoling one another. Yoh had again, at least temporarily, become Yugiri's second favorite bedtime story reader, those nights he was unable to fill the role.

Their melancholy was contagious. Even thoughts of seeing his Queen again couldn't keep Hyoubu's own wistfulness at bay. It was frustrating to know that it wouldn't have been so bad, if it was anyone but Hinomiya. He'd be able to use his psychometry if it was anyone else, to touch Yugiri's treasured watch and see him, to know if he was well, if not happy, but the vestigial power that yet kept telepaths at bay still blocked even his psychometry.

On the bright side, that it did so was another strong indication that Hinomiya's power wasn't truly lost, but merely temporarily suppressed. Although Hinomiya had never welcomed his power, he had seemed more lost without it. Hyoubu knew that was their fault. For the first time, Hinomiya truly wanted to be a psychic, because they all were. Hyoubu only hoped Hinomiya found whatever it was that he was seeking quickly, and returned to them.

Hyoubu almost visibly winced at the mournful sigh Momotaro let out, as he sat slumped on Yugiri's shoulder, when he normally would have been chattering eagerly, and flying about her in circles, in an effort to cheer his dejected friend. Their smallest member missed Hinomiya nearly as much as Yugiri did.

When they docked in the special covered facility Muscle had rented for them, Hyoubu brought Yugiri and Momotaro outside into it, with him, Magi, Momiji and Yoh.

Muscle's eyes widened. "What happened? I thought everything has been fine, since Maldrid. Did you lose someone? Is someone sick or injured or captured?" he asked Hyoubu softly, in concern.

"Yes and no," Hyoubu responded, the thought of Hinomiya being sick or injured or captured without their knowledge making his heart pound. "They miss Hinomiya," he explained, carefully excluding himself, though he missed him just as fiercely. Perhaps even more so, though he was loathe to admit it, even to himself.

Muscle smiled in relief. "Well then, that's something I can actually help with," he said cryptically.

Wild, irrational hope flooded Hyoubu. Is Hinomiya here?

"I was about to contact you, but when you called me instead, I figured I'd keep it as a surprise. This crate is for you. For all of you. It's from Hinomiya. It arrived this morning, with instructions for me to give it to you, the next time I saw you," Muscle explained.

The disappointment quickly turned to intrigue as Hyoubu looked at the wooden crate. What could Himomiya have sent us?

"Maybe your new watch is inside, Yugiri," Yoh suggested.

The little girl shook her head violently. "No. He said he'd bring it to me. He wouldn't send it." Her voice was sharp with alarm and fear and doubt, tears threatening in her voice, as she clutched Hinomiya's watch to her chest, as she'd done countless dozens of times since he left.

"Why don't we open it," Hyoubu suggested, and so saying, he pulled out the nails using his telekinesis, and pulled off the top using his power as well. Yoh lifted Yugiri so she could see inside. There was a protective layer of packing paper and bubble wrap, which Hyoubu encouraged Yugiri to help him remove. Underneath were a number of boxes, almost all in bright wrapping paper, with colorful ribbons and envelopes attached.

Hyoubu lifted the top package and looked at the envelope of the attached card, and then held it out to Yoh. "Yoh, because you're the most impatient," Hyoubu said, smirking when Yoh glared at him, and then the young man blushed, as he looked down and realized Hinomiya was the one who had written those exact words on the envelope, which was the same shade of gold as his eyes.

"Ha, ha," Yoh grumbled, but he accepted the package eagerly, tore into the envelope, and opened the card. "Tch," he said, but his cheeks colored and he didn't show them what was written inside the card, which he tucked carefully into his jacket.

Hyoubu felt unaccountably disgruntled at not seeing the contents of the card.

Then Yoh opened the package and pulled out a paperback, pocket-sized book and laughed, for the first time in two weeks. He showed it to the rest of them: An Expert's Guide to Cheating at Pool. From the neat crease in the cover near the spine, the book had clearly been read, which meant Hinomiya would no doubt expect each of the cheats it outlined.

Next was a narrow, rectangular box even lighter than the book, wrapped in paper the exact hue of blue as Momiji's hair, and a card addressed to her. "Momiji, because beauty like yours deserves to be seen." Hyoubu handed the gift and card to her. She read the card and then opened the package and smirked, picking up the microscopic blue string bikini top and thong with one finger, and shaking her head in mock dismay.

Hyoubu couldn't help but notice Yoh's scowl of annoyance, which actually matched his own thoughts rather alarmingly well. He'd have to read that card later as well.

The next gift was larger and heavier, wrapped in pinstriped grey paper, and tied with a matte black silk ribbon. Hyoubu didn't need to look to see who it was addressed to, but he did anyway, just in case Hinomiya had written anything special for Magi. Of course, he had: "Magi, because every emperor needs a vizier."

Yoh laughed. "I bet it's the movie Aladdin and a robe! You'd make a perfect Jafar, and Momotaro could be your Iago," Yoh teased.

"Keep it up and you'll be eating crackers," Momotaro threatened.

Magi carefully removed the paper, one piece of tape at a time, instead of ripping it as the others had, revealing a book, but a hardcover one, this time: From Magi to Merlin: Right Hand to the King. Magi smiled ruefully, no doubt remembering Hyoubu's bitingly teasing reaction to the book Magi had given him for his birthday.

Hyoubu found himself smiling in true happiness, feeling at peace, for the first time in a month-and-half. For the moment, in spirit, at least, their whole family was together again.

He removed the thick layer of tissue paper and bubble wrap covering the next gift. This one was truly impressive, taking up almost all of the remaining volume of the crate.

"That one has to be for Yugiri. It's the biggest, and from the shape, it's gotta be a dollhouse. But that idiot Hinomiya should know Yugiri doesn't particularly like dolls," Yoh chided softly, but not quite quietly enough.

Hyoubu had assumed the same, but his eyes widened in intrigue as he read the envelope. "It's not for Yugiri. It's for Momotaro."

"Me?" Momotaro squeaked in surprise, and he began flying in spirals overhead, taking to the air for something other than necessity for the first time in weeks. "Open it, open it!"

"I'll read the envelope and card to you first," Hyoubu gently scolded. "Rodent, because every dragon deserves his own castle to protect." He opened the envelope for Momotaro, and revealed a card with a golden, winged dragon the same shade as Momotaro's fur, holding its stomach, as if it had a stomachache, a dented silver helmet and broken lance lying at its feet. With Momotaro's permission Hyoubu opened and read the card aloud. Inside was the word "Rodent" in Hinomiya's elegant script, above the card's message, "Sorry you had a bad knight." Below it he'd written, "I'll do my best to be a better one. May you never have the need to defend your new home as fiercely as you defended your old one. Thanks for forgiving me, Andy."

"Yugiri, why don't you help our friend open his gift?" Hyoubu suggested. He was hopeful and almost certain that Hinomiya would not have forgotten Yugiri, but just in case she was disappointed with what he gave her, he wanted her to help Momotaro. She was nearly as hard to please as he was, when it came to gifts, and he was notorious. He didn't expect Hinomiya to have gotten him anything, or for him to like it, if he had, though he'd pretend to, for the sake of the others. This one time, he wouldn't be their dark cloud, when they all desperately needed the sunshine Hinomiya had so thoughtfully provided.

He pulled the present out of the crate, and she obediently began pulling away the paper, Momotaro's excitement catching. Underneath the careful layers of paper was a beautiful birdhouse in the shape of a castle, with glittery turrets and a drawbridge door large enough to easily fit Momotaro. He eagerly went inside and squealed. "There's another present inside! I got two presents!" He sounded like a child on his birthday. "It smells like..." there was the sound of paper tearing. "It is! Sunflower seeds, my favorite!" he chittered and chattered happily.

When Hyoubu looked at Yugiri to see her reaction, her eyes were shining, but in joy, not in tears, he realized to his incredible relief.

Well done, Hinomiya. I know the present I would give you, for all this, if you were here. He smirked, imagining how Hinomiya would react to an uncharacteristic hug and a kiss on the lips from him. Only to tease him, of course.

Hyoubu looked around at his happy family, raising a brow at the way Magi's hair was looping over Yoh's shoulders, in a possessive manner. Is that conscious or unconscious, on Magi's part? The younger man appeared surprisingly oblivious to the feather-light touch. Or perhaps so used to it, he no longer even noticed? Interesting.

He had forgiven Magi for his deception the day Kaoru left the Catastrophe, though he'd made the man promise never to conceal something from him again, regardless of what he feared it might do to his health.

Hyoubu reached into the crate for what he thought might be the last gift and froze. There was a second present under the next box, as well as a stack of additional cards wrapped in a rubber band. He pulled out the top, thick, heavy present, which was wrapped in what he at first took to be flowered paper, until he saw the dozens of tiny pink and purple winged pixies peering out from behind the grasses, leaves, stems and colorful petals, the old-fashioned traditional kind of fairies, not the Disney kind. Instead of a card, there was a large tag the size and shape of a bookmark tucked under the grass green tulle ribbon on the package with Yugiri's name spelled out in fairies on it. She touched her name lovingly, but Kyoubu saw a glimmer of disappointment in her eyes. Everyone else had received a card but her.

Yugiri opened her gift with as much care for the paper as Magi had shown. Inside was one of Yugiri's favorite books, the exact same 1915 edition of Peter and Wendy that had been lost with their entire library when the original Queen of Catastrophe sank, the printing with dozens of illustrations, and the added chapter at the end, When Wendy Grew Up. An Afterthought. The first book Hinomiya had read to her. Her eyeswidened in delight, but then welled with tears, and she swallowed hard.

Hyoubu winced. Perhaps not the best choice, considering the ending of the book, where Peter has waited too long to return and Wendy is all grown up, and the mother of a daughter of her own, Jane, forever denied Neverland and Peter's companionship because of it.

But then Yugiri opened the book and her eyes widened when she saw Andy had given her a card after all. A green envelope the same shade as the ribbon had been tucked between the title page and frontispiece of the book. She handed Hyoubu the treasure of her book and with trembling hands opened the card.

Hyoubu peered over her shoulder and saw there was a picture of the Disney version of Wendy looking out of the window of her house longingly into the night sky. He winced again.

She sniffed loudly, fighting bravely against her tears, and opened the card. Inside was a picture of Peter and Wendy, and her brothers, flying hand in hand, over the city. She looked intently at the perfectly formed block lettering of her card, which differed from Andy's other writing, which had been in cursive, and then her face burst into a bright, wide smile.

Hyoubu carefully read over her shoulder. Inside the card was preprinted with the words, "We'll be together again before you know it! All you need is a little faith, trust and pixie dust," and Andy's carefully written correction below it. "All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust – J. M. Barrie." And then below that, "Please have faith in me, Yugiri, and trust that I'm not as foolish as Peter. I'll come back in a few more weeks, at the most, not years. I don't have pixie dust, or a ship that flies like Captain Hook's pirate ship or the Catastrophe, but the world is full of planes that do. I'll see you soon, I promise. Take care of everyone for me until then. Love, Andy."

"I can't believe he got the perfect gift for everyone!" Yoh complained. "He's five for five."

"Six for five," Momotaro corrected. "I liked both my presents," he crowed.

"OK, fine, six. But now it's your turn, Old Man," Yoh challenged.

Hyoubu really didn't want to open his gift in front of the others and have to feign enjoyment or show his disappointment, when they were all so pleased. The only thing Hyoubu wanted, the only thing he had ever wanted, was to have his family and friends safe and happy all around him. And the next gift was far too small and flat to be Hinomiya.

It was beautifully wrapped in Japanese rice paper, and looked like another book, though larger and wider and thicker than any of the other books. Probably some scholarly tome on emperors or kings, or something like Magi had given him for his birthday. His gift also only had a tag, though not an elaborate one, like Yugiri's. He hoped that like with Yugiri's gift, a card might be inside.

He carefully removed the paper and stared in surprise. The cover and pages of the book appeared to also be made of rice paper, the former reinforced with cardboard, the title Our Family written upon it, both in English lettering and Kanji.

Hyoubu opened it and was mesmerized. It was a family tree, a history, a scrapbook, but it wasn't blank and empty inside, as he'd expected, waiting for him to fill the pages. Instead, inside, on every page, were photographs and careful captions and paragraphs. Every man, woman and child in P.A.N.D.R.A., those who lived aboard Catastrophe, at least, was contained inside. Hyoubu's own picture and description were proudly displayed on the left of the first page, on the patriarch spot, but the matriarch section was surprisingly blank. Hyoubu would have thought Hinomiya would have put his Queen's picture there. He must not have had one.

A number of the pictures of the others had apparently been taken on Hinomiya's phone, the one they'd given him, mostly in secret, from when he had been spying on them, but printed on photograph paper. There were even pictures of Muscle and a number of his men, in the pages behind, from when they'd brought the original Catastrophe in for repairs.

But on the pages behind them were older photographs: a picture of his home in Japan, and others decades old, of his foster father and foster sister. And in the following pages, photographs of all his dead comrades, his fellow soldiers, at the height of their youth and health.

Behind those were photos of various members of B.A.B.E.L., including another few of his sister, as well as photos of Queen and her two friends, and even of Minamoto, Sakaki and the others.

Tucked into the very back of the book was an envelope that stated, "Please open this card in private, Hyoubu."

The album must have taken Andy days, even weeks, to complete. He pictured Andy, hunched over the desk in a hotel in whatever city he'd found himself in that day, carefully cutting, pasting, writing. Hyoubu was both moved and frustrated beyond words. That time could have been spent with them. I want Andy here with us. With me. Where he belongs.

He blinked at the fiercely possessive thought, and at his silent use of Andy's given name in his thoughts, for the first time.

"Damn it. I give up. He's perfect. The ass," Yoh complained, without much rancor.

Hyoubu turned back to Andy's picture and gently caressed it with his fingertip. Yes, he is.

He closed the book and tucked it under his arm, and then lifted the stack of cards from the crate. He flipped through them. There looked to be one for every single member of those aboard the Catastrophe, and from the feel of them, each contained a gift card inside. He had no idea how much money Andy had, but he suspected it couldn't be much, and that he'd likely nearly bankrupted himself with these gifts. Although he wasn't a fool, and he knew he'd need enough to survive for the next few weeks, from what he'd written Yugiri.

Hyoubu handed the stack of cards to Magi. "Please deliver these to the others. I'm going to be in my cabin for a while," he instructed, and then he teleported, bringing the book and safely hidden card with him.

He set them down on his bed and made certain his door was locked. He did not want to be disturbed. Then he opened the card, which was also of Japanese design, with no preprinted saying written inside, but there was an entire letter written within, and surprisingly, a second envelope.

Kyousuke,

Forgive me for using your given name without permission, but I find myself at more than one crossroads. I have yet to find my birth parents. I've visited the government orphanage I grew up in, the government school I was educated in, and the military base I trained on, in secret. All are as horrible as I remembered.

What am I doing here? What does it matter who my biological parents are? If they cared anything for me, they would never have abandoned me. I might have been born to them, but I was never a part of their family. I was never part of any family. Until I met you.

I need to lay the final ghosts of my past to rest, before I can come home. To try to clear my name, at least. I can see the way ahead clearly now, but I cannot yet move forward. Once I cross that bridge, it will burn beneath my feet. You hold my bridge in your hands, Kyousuke.

I know you've had a specific dream, for a number of decades. All I ask is that you remember it is not truly your dream, but the vision of a single possible future a dead dolphin saw over half a century ago. You're a student of both literature and history. You know in the Greek tragedies, the characters in the myths who listened to oracles and followed prophecies were time and again tricked and manipulated into their own doom, into creating the future they feared, instead of the one they desired.

I believe in fate, but I also believe in free choice. I truly believe I was destined to meet you, that every trial I survived was necessary, in order to lead me to you. But though we can calmly bow to the supposed inevitability of fate and follow someone else's dream, we can instead forge our own, moving forward kicking and screaming and struggling into the future we craft, the one we choose to create for ourselves.

You hold that power, Kyousuke. Please remember that, and open the envelope.

Regardless of what you decide, I will always be part of our family. I know who you are to me. Who I am to you remains to be seen.

Love,

Andy

Hyoubu reread the letter, looking for clues within Hinomiya's words to the envelope's contents he might have missed, and then in nearly breathless anticipation, and a small amount of trepidation, he opened the envelope.

Inside were two pictures, of two very different people. One was Kaoru Akashi, his Queen. The other was Andy. Under both were descriptions of them, including how and when they first met him. As with some of the other pictures and details, those of his dead comrades and of B.A.B.E.L and his foster family, he suspected his sister had aided Andy with the picture and information about his Queen.

Hyoubu frowned, with the sense that he was missing something important, not quite understanding the significance of the contents of the envelope. Both of them are already in the album. What do these represent? Where do they go?

He looked into Andy's striking eyes and then turned the envelope over in his hands. His eyes widened as he saw the shocking words written upon it. "Partner or Matriarch? It takes two to love, and please don't hate me, Kyousuke, for speaking honestly, but I don't believe Kaoru Akashi shares my love for you. If Koichi Minamoto was a psychic, instead of a Normal, would you even have ever objected to their relationship, or would you have accepted the inevitable as the gentleman you are, and bowed out gracefully long ago? She has her own dream. I've finally seen clearly that you are mine."

Hyoubu dropped the envelope, as if it had burned him, staring at it, stunned. Andy wishes to be… His immediate reaction was to laugh derisively at his audacity for even proposing such a thing and scoff that he only did so because he was half the world away. But his second was to acknowledge the depth of courage it took to voice such thoughts to him at all, especially those regarding his Queen.

The words from the card rang insistently in his ear, as if spoken by Andy's voice: "All I ask is that you remember it is not truly your dream, but the vision of a single possible future a dead dolphin saw over half a century ago." His superior's murder of his entire squad, his own murder, every action since then, for decades were all based upon that single dead dolphin's vision. His entire world view teetered and threatened to topple like a house of cards in a gentle breeze.

Andy was that gentle breeze. He had blown into his life, perhaps not quite gently, and slowly but surely changed his world, his entire world view. I forgave him for his betrayal of me. The enormity of that truly sank in for the first time. As did the rest of what happened afterwards. I couldn't kill him, when he faced me. And he couldn't shoot me. Even though we'd been set against one another as enemies, we didn't want to harm one another, to fight. And then he saved me. I'd given up, I was drowning, and stopped fighting it, but he wouldn't let me die. He rescued me from the water, and then helped me thwart our enemies. He helped me save Yugiri. And then he saved me again. He did the impossible. He shut down my power, at the cost of his own.

He frowned in puzzlement, and looked down at his hands in surprise. He'd picked up the envelope, and his fingers were caressing one of the pictures. Andy's picture. His sane, rational mind might be confused, but his subconscious and his heart seemed to know how they felt.

A future without my Queen? The very words were his answer. No.

It was never about Kaoru. She was never truly a person to me. She was a figurehead, an ideal, a rallying point. A hero, a martyr. Andy has always been… Andy.

A future. With Andy. Impossibly he felt himself smiling.

He opened the book and laid Andy's picture in the spot next to his own, the one reserved for… not his Queen, but his consort. His partner. Co-leader of his current and future world.

And he felt his smile grow, the warmth of it spreading throughout his body.

He opened his desk drawer and rifled in it for the tube of glue he knew was inside. He carefully applied the glue to the back and pressed down the picture of Andy and the notation below it, securing it to the page beside his own. Then he flipped to the pages of B.A.B.E.L. and added the picture of Kaoru into the now conspicuously obvious blank spot on the page, as if Andy had known which he would choose. Or perhaps he had merely hoped. It did not matter.

All that mattered was Andy had his answer.