They did not miss the buss, but only because they ran the last bit, out of breath with faces flushed from other reasons than exertion. Ankh spends the journey staring out the window with Eiji crowded up against him, chatting away with some children. Now and then he would nudge Ankh a little and translate some new tidbit he had learned. Ankh simply huffed and shrugged, not really bothering to listen. Words weren't important. The feeling of Eiji next to him was. Anchor. Heat. The smell on him still on the hand he leaned his chin against as he watched the scenery pass by. There had been a moment there when he had felt…
No. Not lost.
Not again.
Whole.
He was whole.
He kept telling himself that as the bus bounced along the bad road. He kept telling himself that as the traffic grew heavier, then thinner, and then…
"Eiji!" Roadblock. Trucks waiting with the engines running. Men with guns in cover.
The first shots fired are warning shots but people scream in panic all the same and Ankh catches a glimpse of the visceral fear that he had never quite understood lurking under the surface of Eiji. The widening of the dark eyes. A momentary breath sucked in and held, frozen in panic before his jaw clenches and he starts to move.
But Ankh moves first. He is pushed up against the window already so his armored hand smashes through the glass as if it wasn't there as he reaches for the roof. Claws dig into metal and he swings out and up, wind tearing at his clothes as he looks around to get the lay of the land. Eiji is a step behind and requires a hand up, face still set in quiet determination.
"They won't hesitate to shoot again," Eiji shouts, the frantic pleading more visible on his face than in his voice. "We need to get off the bus."
The wings hurt when Ankh brings them forth, but it is a good hurt. A single burning flash of almost touching the sky with Eiji is in his arms and then they land on the road, lands and rolls, leaving skin on pavement.
He had meant to keep them aloft. He really had.
Instead they make a scramble for the forest as the first bullets whizz past and Ankh feels that this idiocy has gone on long enough. He will not traipse around the greenery for days again, this time in sandals.
"Eiji!" He tosses the medals hard, and maybe there's something in the tone of his voice that changes things, because Eiji grabs them in the air and after a moment's hesitation turns to face their enemy, the heat of the transformation turning bullets to slag before they hit.
Lion. Tora. Cheetah.
Light. Too bright. Ankh shields his face with his arm as he tries to dispel the spots. It was the best combination he could think of on the spur of the moment even if he disliked leading with combos. Lion to blind and confuse the enemy, Cheetah with Tiger to take them out fast.
"Ankh, keep them safe!" Words left behind in the air as OOO speeds off.
Safe. Them? Oh, the bus is still speeding, the panicked driver as blinded as the soldiers. Typical. The annoyed huff comes without effort, but the wings does not. They hurt, and he hisses with pain as they carry him up and forward again, more leap than flight. It doesn't matter though; the end result is the same.
The shift to full greed form makes him heavy enough to crash through the front window of the bus with no damage, but he can't hold it more than a moment before he shivers back into infuriatingly soft and sensitive flesh. People scream and it is jarring and thrilling at the same time. The bus driver doesn't protest as he yanks him from the seat and steps on the breaks. Possibly because he was knocked unconscious as Ankh crashed through the window. Oh well. Eiji should be happy all the same.
—-
Eiji is not happy, but he is hiding it well. For some reason he had always seemed bothered by people looking at him in fear. Even letting the OOOs armor fade does not change the fact that the children no longer want to joke with him, and Ankh feels a sting of unfamiliar pain. He does not like seeing Eiji disturbed; it brings with it too many memories.
Memories of Eiji standing alone, looking at nothing, face frighteningly blank, mouth faintly curved in displeasure. It never failed, the moment he noticed someone watching him the frown would fade, turn into a smile, eyes narrowing into amusement. Only rarely had he spotted Ankh though, and maybe that was one reason why he had become so fascinated with the human.
Two faces. Two people. One worn in public, one in private. It was an intriguing notion for a Greed who was nothing but surface. Their feelings went to the core of their being, but Eiji… was different. Even the memories of the detective whose body he had worn at the time only held a distant sadness when he tried to use them to figure out what that unsmiling face might mean. It had been infuriating then. It was still infuriating now.
"They wanted to kill you, don't tell me you're angry that I took their money." Ankh looks over at Eiji where he sits behind the wheel of the jeep. It had made sense. Staying on the bus had not been possible. A jeep gave them transportation, and the money Ankh had lifted from the pockets would serve them better than the few coins remaining in Eiji's pocket. But Eiji is unhappy all the same. He supposes that he should at least be pleased that this is now a face the man is not afraid to wear in front of him.
"I'm not too happy about it," Eiji admits with a sheepish smile that fails to dispel the tenseness of his shoulders. "But thank you for saving the bus."
"Hmph." Ankh doesn't deign that with an answer. That particular kind of arithmetic just seemed odd to him. If it was wrong to steal the money, it did not make it less wrong just because he saved some people.
"How do you feel?" The question is cautious, and Ankh does his best to ignore it until the silence becomes too annoying even for him.
"Who knows?" He shrugs a little, watching Eiji now that the man is forced to keep his eyes on the road as the traffic turns heavy and the buildings taller where they line the side of the road.
"It sounded like it hurt." The words are small, falling one by one from Eiji's lips, filled with constrained worry. "Your wings…"
"I'm fine." Ankh shifted again, putting his foot up on the dashboard. Outside the car, the buildings roll past, slower and slower until they have come to a full stop at the side of the road. There's nothing there, no reason for their pause, and it takes Ankh a moment to realize that Eiji is shivering behind the wheel.
No. Not shivering. Crying.
Not overtly, just shallow little breaths fighting for control. Ankh watches his shoulders shake and tense, the way he fiercely stares straight ahead, the engine idling. The traffic didn't drown enough of the pain for Ankh to be able to ignore it until it went away. For a moment he ponders smacking Eiji on the back of the head calling him an idiot. But it doesn't feel right somehow.
This is the hard part. Touch is easy. Desire is easy. Pain like this… it's hard. Maybe if he had been Mezuul originally it would have come naturally, but he was not. He was Ankh, and this was something he had chosen, something he was trying to remake himself into. Something… no, someone that could understand why Eiji suddenly would fight to not burst into tears. Someone that would know enough to fix it. Because he already could not help but feel it.
"You didn't mess me up." It is the closest thing to an educated guess Ankh can think of, and from the way Eiji leans his forehead against the steering wheel he is not altogether wrong.
"Really?" Eiji doesn't sound like he believes Ankh, let alone himself. "I heard you. Just like back when… I heard you." He repeats the words instead of continuing, because neither of them needs to be reminded of the scene. Ankh trying to form a shape of his own again, failing miserably after a few seconds, forced to take refugee back with the detective against everybody's will.
"You brought me back." Ankh knows he sounds angry now, and that is because he is. He wanted to ignore this, why couldn't Eiji let him? "But I still don't have all my core medals. I'm not as powerful as I could be."
"But you're not about to fall apart?" Eiji has turned now, is looking at him with hope and disbelief.
"I'm not about to fall apart." Ankh reaches out and wills it to be true because it has to be. Any other option is impossible. He manifests his claw with a grimace that turns into a smirk, cupping Eiji's chin. "You should know by now that this body is pretty solid."
The reaction tells Ankh that it had been the right thing to say. Some of the tenseness in Eiji's shoulders fade and his eyes clears of shadows. At least for the moment, and the moment is everything that matters right now. The feel of skin warming under his hand. The slight twitch of Eiji's facial muscles as he forces a smile that becomes a reality a moment later.
"I think…" the relief is palpable in the way Eiji reaches up to cup Ankh's gloved hand in both of his own. "I think we'd better make really sure of that once we find somewhere to sleep."
Maybe it is supposed to be a joke. Ankh is not sure; cocking his head a little to try to judge what reaction is needed. In the end he decides not to give a crap and roll his eyes.
At least that way he makes Eiji laugh instead.
