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IN SAFE
HANDS
By: Anime Angel ~^0^
Gene woke up with a start, darting his eyes
quickly around the room. He had heard something...but what? Then it hit him: it
was Jim again.
"NO!" the boy's voice flooded into his
room, high and shrill.
Oh great...he thought, rising out of bed.
Letting out a tired yawn, the red head grabbed a shirt and slipped it on over
his head. It was going to be another long night; he could tell just by how loud
his younger partner yelled.
"NO DON'T! PLEASE!"
The outlaw sighed and made his way into the hall,
his large feet tiptoeing quietly over the cold linoleum flooring. As he neared
Jim's room, the familiar sounds of the boy tossing and turning reached his ears.
"Aw dammit," he whispered, swinging the
door open as quietly as he could. Sure enough, the boy was turning over and over
in his bed, mumbling, murmuring, and every once in a while letting out a scream
or two. Gene just stood there for a moment, in the doorway, listening and
watching the distressed kid.
"No..." Jim moaned, thrashing once or
twice in the sweaty sheets.
"Hey...hey buddy come on." Gene
whispered, finally making his way over to the bed and pushing the blond over on his
back. With the sudden movement, Jim began to screech.
"DON'T TOUCH ME! NO ANIKI HELP!" the boy
screamed, causing the outlaw to cover his ears. He was glad that the girls had
gone out for the night....especially since Suzuka was such a light sleeper.
Besides, Aisha would never let Jim hear the end of it if she learned that he was
having 'bad dreams'.
Gene's train of thought was cut off as the boy
next to him kicked him as hard as he could, causing him to double over in pain.
"JIM! IT'S ME!" For a moment Gene's
words seemed to calm the blond, but after a second he was right back to swinging
his small arms wildly about. "Jim!"
"STOP! PLEASE!?"
"JIM! WAKE......UP!"
"No..."
Gene was puzzled; why wasn't his younger partner
awake yet? It had never been this hard before...and it was then that the outlaw
noticed that Jim's breathing was becoming irregular. Instead of slow and steady,
the boy was gasping, and once or twice his intakes of air stopped all together.
"C'mon buddy, wake up...you always do it ta
me, now it's my turn..." Gene shook
his younger partner hard, and suddenly the blond's eyes flew open. For a moment
the outlaw thought that he really wasn't breathing, but after a moment the boy
let out a small, ragged breath, followed by another.
"It's okay kid, you were just having
another nightmare is all."
"Aniki..." Jim gasped, his body
freezing in the outlaw's arms. He stared straight at Gene, never even turning to
look around.
"Hey, you okay?" Gene ventured,
lowering Jim back down into his pillow. His words were met with a shaky sigh.
"Aniki it happened again," Jim
murmured, shaking slightly and still staring. "I...I didn't want...it to...."
The outlaw watched as the boy's eyes began to
tear over, but Jim forced them away before Gene could
see him cry. After a moment of ackward silence, Jim looked back up at his older
partner. The fright seemed to have receded some...
"I'm sorry, Aniki," he mumbled,
suddenly calm. "I...you can go back to bed now. I'm...I'm fine."
Yeah right. "Uh-uh, I don't believe ya
kid. I am NOT leaving until you tell me what is going on! What are those
nightmares about, huh?"
Jim simpy closed his eyes. "Nothing,"
he murmured. "Don't worry--"
"WORRY?!" Gene was mad now. It was a
little too late for him NOT to be worrying. "Jim, tell me."
"No!" Jim snapped. After a moment, the
frustrated look in his eyes disappeared. "Just go back to bed, Aniki."
The outlaw was about to say something more, and
make Jim 'fess up, but the boy turned over and shut his eyes tightly closed.
Fine, you wanna be that way kid? Okay with me.
Just don't come crying when I don't come and wake ya up.
But no matter how many times the outlaw told
himself that he would just stay in bed next time, the memory of Jim's labored
breathing crept back into his mind. Gene had a feeling that he was going to be
back in the boy's room the next night, and the night after that, if something wasn't
done...and quick.
It was much later the next afternoon when Jim got
up enough courage to ask one of the girls about his nightmares. He wasn't sure
why, but he felt so ackward about the whole situation. It was as if him having
nightmares was....wrong. Like, he wasn't supposed to have bad dreams at
his age, OR maturity level. In fact, he was a little embarrassed that Gene kept
having to wake him up and hoped the outlaw wasn't beginning to think of him
like a baby.
"Hey Suzu, have you ever had re-accuring
dreams?"
Suzuka looked over at Jim, who had long since
ceased typing on his computer, and was looking at the assassin intently. The two
were sitting in the 'dining room', both occupying themselves with some daily
task.
"No, I can't say as I have, Jim. Why...have
you?" Her question was met with a cringe.
"Well, sort of....but...I just don't know
what brought them all on. It's like, they appeared outta no where." Jim's
blue eyes were filled with worry. "I don't know what to do, Suzuka. I keep
waking Gene up, and then he gets all frustrated with me."
"Have you told him that you've been having
the same one over and over?"
"No..." Jim sighed. "I can't. He'd
think I was stupid or something." The boy let his lips curl into a frown.
"Knowing him he'll think I was just a little baby."
Suzuka searched the young blond's eyes for a
moment with her own, brushing her dark hair back and trying to pick up something -- anything -- that would give her some clue
as to what the nightmares were about. She didn't really want to ask directly,
but when he refused to make eye contact, she did.
"Well, what are your dreams about, hm?"
Jim's head snapped up, as if he had known that
the words would come.
"Oh...well...just jumbled up stuff really,"
he said quickly, turning away. She knew right away he was lying.
"Jim, what are they about?"
"Oh come on Suzu! I already told you--"
"First of all, my name is Suzuka," the
assassin said, smiling at the use of her nickname. She actually enjoyed it when
the crew called her by that -- it meant that they really thought of her as part
of their band -- but of course she would have never let on about her feelings.
Aisha would only then abuse the use of 'Suzu', so it was her best bet to let on
that she didn't like it. "And second of all, I am a master at detecting
lies.....and your's is most definately a lie."
Jim sighed, knowing that it was no use to
continue the argument with Suzuka.
"So...?" The assassin waited
expectantly.
"Aw man! You're just
like Gene!" And with that Jim got up and promptly exited the room, leaving
Suzuka to wonder if his last comment was to be taken seriously.
Jim stared into the mirror of the business' dirty
bathroom, his thoughts a mix of
worry and frustration. Looking at himself now, he noticed for the first time
that his eyes were bloodshot, and rimmed with dark circles -- the kind that
meant you weren't getting enough sleep.
"Damn, what the hell is wrong with me
now?" The other half of Starwind and Hawking began to twirl a piece of his
dirty blond hair, still gazing dreamily into the mirror. What IS wrong with
me? he thought again. I mean, Aniki and I haven't picked up a job in
weeks, so it couldn't be stress. And we haven't had THAT much trouble with money
since we payed Fred back most of our debt. So what could it be? Jim began to
run all the possible causes through his mind, scratching off each one as he
came up for another reason. Stress, insomnia, Tv -- they all seemed a
little off, like they couldn't be the cause of his terrifying dreams. So then
what -- or who -- was causing them?
"The only possible answer left is..."
Jim swallowed as confusion began to knot in his stomach. That couldn't be the
answer...could it? "The only answer is that it .... it really
happened...but how?"
To be continued...
*Dum dum DUMB that was. Nevermind... *sigh* I am
really tired and having some problems so it might take a while before I write
anything on this or anything else. Hope you like it, even though it is sort of
short and...not the best one I have done....*sorry* Feel free to drop me a line!
anime_angel95052@yahoo.com or you can review or something. Thanks to DJ LA
for posting my fanfics at Hawking
Enterprises , and Hanmyo and Air Hound for sendin' me nice e-mails. See ya
folks later! ^_^