Karneval: Tarnished Silver
Author's Note: Another short chapter. I had trouble deciding where to go with this one and still segue into the next part, so I just cut it off here and will do it as two chapters. To the Anonymous Guest who commented on Chapter 7, thank you so much! To YogixGareki Always, I hope my last PM didn't scare you away? To everyone else following the story, thank you all for the support! Quick note; Hirato and Akari's conversation is written in Bold Italics like Yogi's journal entries in Chapter 4 to show that it was something said in the past, any and all dialogue from Silver Yogi will be in Bold, and thoughts are always in Italics. I think it may be a pretty straight forward system, and I've been using it since the beginning, but I realized I might want to give a brief explanation in order to avoid confusion.
Tarnished Silver
Chapter 8: Small Comforts
Gareki sighed. He'd not had a single good night's sleep in days. He refused to return to Yogi's room and risk being seen going in or coming out, it wasn't like he expected going in there to make much of a difference anyway. He rolled over and stared up at the ceiling. He'd heard Akari and Hirato talking the night before, almost arguing, in truth.
The higher chain of command were running out of patience. They had been searching for Yogi for a week and a half. There had been no moves by Kafka, there had been no signs of the blonde lieutenant, no demands for a ransom, not that the government would have agreed to such demands from terrorist of course.
Akari and Hirato were arguing whether or not to continue looking. Hirato was insistent that they continue. While Akari claimed to understand Hirato's concerns, they only had a matter of days before the orders would be issued to stop searching for him entirely. As it stood, Akari could no longer remain on the ship, he had other patients to attend to at the Research Tower. "One more day, Hirato," Akari had warned, "If we don't find him by nightfall tomorrow, I'm leaving. Of course I'm worried. We don't know where he is, or if he's in stable condition. It was a stupid move for him to go alone in the first place, but there's nothing to lead us to him right now. If I leave here tomorrow, then I promise, as soon as you find him, I'll put him at the top of my list of priorities. But, there's nothing more I can do here."
"I just hope we can find him before command stops the search entirely," Hirato had stated with a sigh, "The ship isn't the same when he's gone for so long."
Gareki couldn't recall having ever heard such legitimate concern in either of their voices. He forced himself out of bed, got dressed, and went to find Tsukumo. She seemed to be taking things just as hard as he was, after all, Yogi was her partner, they had been raised by Circus like a pair of siblings. But, just like Gareki, she was usually really good at keeping her feelings hidden. Usually.
Gareki froze when he saw the look on her face. "Tsukumo-Chan?" She was on the verge of tears.
"It's almost been two weeks, Gareki-Kun," she said quietly. "I'm worried. We still don't know where they took him, or how they're treating him. What if…"
Gareki sighed and put a gentle hand on her shoulders. It was uncharacteristic of him to offer such straight forward comfort, but Tsukumo's current state was equally uncharacteristic. "Hey, I know. We're all worried. Like Akari-Sensei said, they don't know how to awaken the Silver Haired Yogi. But, we both know how strong he is. We just have to believe he's alright. I know we'll find him." He gave her a gentle smile.
Tsukumo returned the smile and gave Gareki a gentle hug. This was yet another rare moment shared between the two, but under the circumstances, Gareki allowed it. "Thank you, Gareki-Kun," she said quietly, "Of course you're right. I…"
"Gareki-Kun," Iva interrupted as she turned the corner. Gareki and Tsukumo both turned to face the teal-blue haired lieutenant. "There's a video call from Yanari-Kun, would you like to speak with him?"
"Sure," Gareki answered, wondering what the boy was calling for.
"Hello, Gareki?" Yanari greeted.
"Yo, Yanari, what's up?" Gareki replied, "You know Nai's not on the ship right now, right?"
Yanari nodded. "Yes, I know. He's with Ship One right now, right? I'm going to call and speak with him next. I wanted to speak with you first, though."
"Why me?" Gareki asked.
"I heard about Yogi," Yanari answered truthfully, leaning back in his chair, both hands on the arm rests, feet flat on the floor. "Any news yet?"
"Nothing," Gareki answered solemnly.
Yanari tried not to smile, Gareki's eyes were giving way to his true concerns. The boy was equally worried. "I see." He hung his head, letting his shoulder length hair fall forward and hide his face. "That's why I called," he said, pressing a thumb to his lips. "If…" He looked back up. "If there's anything I can do to assist in the search, please let me know. I still have the information sources that led me to that hint about Karoku and Eleska."
Gareki smirked. Cheeky little devil. "I see. I'll let Hirato know you're offering the assistance. You can't very well run your theme park if your most influential mascot supporter has gone missing, can you?"
"That's not…!" Yanari started to argue.
Gareki gave a light chuckle. "Relax, kid, I know. I'm teasing," he assured the boy. "Just keep your eyes and ears open, any information you come across will be helpful."
Yanari gave a reluctant smile and nodded. He blinked and lowered his eyes. "Yogi's been missing for a few days now, right? He'll be alright won't he?"
Gareki closed his eyes and turned his head with a scoff. "Of course he will, he's Nyanperowna, after all!" he told the kid, reassuringly.
Yanari blinked, letting Gareki's statement set in. A smile slowly swept across the child's face. He nodded and gave a giggle. "Of course he is!"
As the two finished the call, Gareki found himself wondering who he was trying to convince more, everyone else, or himself. He almost wished Nai had stayed with him, just so their room wouldn't feel so empty when he tried to sleep. His recent lack of it was slightly evident when he entered Hirato's quarters to inform the captain of Yanari's phone call.
"Rough night?" Hirato asked.
"I fell asleep in the middle of another book," Gareki grumbled, trying to find some sort of scapegoat.
"Is that so?" Hirato gave him a knowing smile. "I suppose it was somewhere in the middle of a doctor/patient's relative conversation?"
Gareki froze. "Alright, fine, so you knew I was outside eavesdropping last night. Who cares if that stuffy pink doctor's going back to the Research Tower? He's not doing anyone any good by sitting around here with nothing better to do than sterilize a scratched knee or two." He flopped down on the sofa across from Hirato and looked away. "Damn it, all, why is it that this guy always sees right through me?" Gareki smirked and shifted his eyes back toward Hirato. "Although, I've got to say this is the best mood I've ever seen him in. You and Tsukitachi have been too busy with the search to bother playing your usual pranks on him."
"An oversight that we intend to make up for ten fold once this whole matter is behind us, I assure you," Hirato chuckled with a wink. "Akari-San's just not as much fun if we don't ruffle his feathers every now and then."
Gareki raised an eyebrow, "I didn't think he knew the meaning of the word."
"He doesn't," Hirato chuckled, "Now, what did you want to see me for?"
"I just finished a call with Nai's friend Yanari. He's offering any and all assistance he can provide," Gareki answered straight forwardly. "The kid was worried, but I did my best to put his mind at ease. I didn't refuse the offer, though."
"At this point, any assistance is highly welcomed," Hirato nodded. "Akari-San is right, he can't remain on board much longer with patients waiting for him at the research tower. Thankfully, your suggestion to use Yogi's ID bracelet was taken into consideration, and they feel they've made some headway into making its tracking beacon work in just such a way. They're hopeful to have it ready by tomorrow, if it's still needed."
"Hopefully tomorrow won't be too late," Gareki sighed.
Hirato looked point blank at the raven haired teenager. "Gareki?"
Gareki turned to look away. "I KNOW I said that out loud," he begrudgingly admitted. "I won't lie to you, Hirato. Damned if I'd say it to anyone else, but you're one of the few people I feel I can confide in. … I'm worried about him. I've been telling everyone else that he's alright, but the truth of the fact is that I really do care enough to worry about the idiot. As good of a fighter as he is, he should have been home the following morning."
Hirato smiled. "Well, I'm glad you finally got the denial out of your system." The captain leaned back into his chair. "We're all worried, Gareki, and for the same reasons. There's no denying something didn't go as he planned and he's in trouble. But Yogi's strong and has survived so much in the last eleven years, I don't imagine him dead." Hirato blinked, clearly this sort of thing either wasn't what Gareki wanted to hear, or just wasn't the right kind of wording to comfort him. Hirato tried not to smile as a thought whisked through his head. Gareki didn't like to be treated like a child, after all, the dark haired male was more mature at the age of eight than most boys are his age now. Even so, every now and then… "Besides," Hirato said softly, with a rare reassuring smile, "He DID promise you he'd come back as soon as he could get away." The captain rose from his chair and placed a gentle hand on Gareki's shoulder, leaning in, he whispered into the lad's ears, "And Yogi's never been known to break a promise." With that, Hirato gave Gareki a friendly slap on the back, as Gareki's took in a slight gasp of air, eyes widening a little.
Gareki excused himself from the room, and quietly made his way to Yogi's room. He wasn't sure why he'd returned to this room in particular, but that was where his mind and body both had told him to go. He shut the door behind him and leaned against it, taking in the candy and strawberry scents that filled the air. The room was warm and inviting. Gareki could almost feel Yogi's arms around him. Hirato's words had made Gareki's heart clench, for reasons he couldn't fathom; or at least if he did, he wasn't going to acknowledge it. He sank to the floor and closed his eyes. They would go out to search for Yogi again very soon, but in the meantime, he wanted to be alone, taking in that small bit of comfort.
