Chapter 24 Ryuji

I woke up to my whole body burning. Great. First I freeze, then I burn. Perfect.

It was probably a good thing, at least if everything was tingling like a bad acupuncture treatment, it probably meant that I didn't lose a leg or something to frostbite.

And there was light coming in through the windows and wall cracks. Which meant that the goddamned snow had finally stopped. It was still cold, but it wasn't as crazy as yesterday.

I shifted slightly and didn't resist groaning when every nerve in my body shot off pain.

"Hey." Honda's voice was soft. And deep. His looks may not be a 10 on the Richter scale, but his voice was a 25. "You awake? How you feelin'?"

"Like someone strapped a sparkler to a vibrator and jammed it up my ass."

He chuckled and kissed my forehead. "Good. Think you can stand?"

"I'd rather just lie here. Unless you made breakfast."

"Sorry, love, no breakfast. But if you can, you should walk around the room. Help your blood circulation." He leaned down and put his arm around my waist. "Come on."

I could stand. It felt like my whole body had fallen asleep and hurt like no end of hell, but I managed. He helped me limp around the room and I got to see the maps and glass cases for myself.

Three quarters of the way round, I stopped.

"Is that a door?"

"Yeah. It's only a bolt lock, too."

"So the door is basically open." He nodded. "So why aren't we leaving?"

"Because we don't have a shovel." He sighed. "Both doors are blocked - front and back. The snow's up past the door frame and it's either too thick or too heavy for me to just dig through."

"So we are actually snowed in." He nodded. "Oh my fucking god, are you kidding me? Un-fucking-believable!"

"Yeah, and my phone died overnight. I never did get a signal anyway." He cleared his throat, in that 'let's change the subject' way of his. "Hey, since you can move, let's go upstairs. There's not much to see up there, but I mean, this is a museum."

"Oh sure, let's go tour the rest of our tomb."

"It's not going to be a tomb."

"Provided we don't starve to death before spring thaw."

"We'll get out before then, I'm sure." He made sure I had my balance, but I managed the narrow stairs on my own.

"Oh look." I glanced around. "Nothing."

I mean it's not like I was expecting a recreation of the battle, but this was utterly pointless. Someone's house was on the battlefield, so the army used it. The end. How do you make a museum out of that? What was this, the 'you haven't wasted enough time yet, so come do nothing in here' exhibit?

But in the corner, the one near the window that overlooked the traffic light, I did see something interesting.

A flashing red light.

A flashing red light on a security system.

The little green light was off, and the little red 'Alarm' light was blinking. Hopefully it had a signal. And hopefully someone in this frozen hellhole country gave a shit about a flashing red alarm at an empty old wooden house.

"You find something, Ryu-chan?"

"Nothing much." I turned around to face him. He looked worried at first, but his expression quickly changed, and suddenly, he was actually blushing. "What?"

"I just... No, you'll laugh at me."

"Oh! I know. You thought about sex and got all hot, didn't you?" He's such a boy scout! He'd probably have a fit if he knew he set off an alarm. I'll let the cops tell him if they actually show up.

"Not really." My Hiro muttered, still bright pink. "Just, sometimes I forget how gorgeous you are and then I see you and it's like, wow..."

Oh right. That's why I gave up the clubs and the drugs and the rotating ukes begging to be my next. That whole speech last night about me deserving some kind of fantasy girl. Like I want some girl. Like I want anything other than my big, stupid, Let's-go-play-in-the-snow, idiot, asshole, Mr. 'It will be fun' boy scout they actually named 'Hero'. Because he says bullshit like that.

And he actually means it.

Maybe we could get married.

Author's End Note:

Standard reviews welcome. Even if you don't feel comfortable commenting, I would deeply appreciate a ":-)", ":-l", or ":-(". I feel a bit alone on this one. From the stage, the lights are blinding and you don't know if anyone is watching if the audience is silent. Let me know you're out there, please. Thank You. SJ