So here's the next chapter.
Chapter II
By Kia
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It had started to rain. Blank hadn't even noticed as the first drops of water had made their way down from above and not for quite some time after. He was too busy reading his book which he had managed to keep just a little longer despite Marcus' protest and which was very good for keeping his mind off other things, and so it was almost an hour after Zidane had left that his gaze fell finally out of the window and onto the wet stones of the street, shimmering in the light of the street lamps. The low growling of thunder could be heard in the distance and it made him shudder for a second, feeling like a bad omen or something. Like a warning that the world was going to end soon, a sign of upcoming disaster. Blank frowned once more, tearing his eyes off the window almost forcefully. He usually liked thunderstorms, so why was he so nervous about it all of a sudden? He just wasn't himself this evening.
It wasn't even two minutes after he started to read again that the door suddenly flew open, causing both him and Marcus to jump to their feet in shock, starring at the person who came in while at the same time instinctively looking around for anything that could serve as a weapon if needed.
But it was only Lario, the bar owner who came in without knocking, a serious, even worried look on his face as he stepped through the door, water dripping onto the floor from his hair and clothes. In his arms he carried the limp form of a young boy, whose hair was just as wet as Lario's while his body was warped up in the cloak of the large man, looking so frail against in the strong arms of the man holding him.
"Zidane!"
It wasn't until Marcus' concerned cry that Blank finally got over his shock and was able to move again, immediately running over to the older man who was now laying his burden down onto the couch.
"What happened?" he asked, his concern all too clearly in his voice as he looked at his younger friend. Zidane was pale, unmoving, his eyes closed and his breathing low. God, please let him be okay! As Blank placed a hand on his forehead he found it burning with fever. "Zidane…"
"What happened?" Marcus echoed Blank's question. "Is he that drunk already?" Judging from the sound of the voice he didn't believe that himself, so it was an useless question and Lario only shook his head.
"He only finished his first drink when he suddenly started to cough violently and collapsed. Camilla almost had a heart attack."
Blank didn't doubt that for one second. Camilla was Lario's wife and beside the fact that she was very fond of Zidane no-one used to be happy when somebody was knocked out by a drink they mixed. Though Blank didn't really think that his friends condition was caused by whatever it was Camilla had made for him.
***
Fife minutes later Lario picked Zidane up again and helped Blank putting him to bed while Marcus ran off to find Baku and the others – wherever they might be at the moment. After he made sure that Zidane wasn't likely to die within the next hours the large man went back to his bar and left Blank alone with his friend, the rain that was still falling against the window and an almost painful feeling of guilt in his heart.
It was his fault, wasn't it? After all he had known that Zidane had been out in the cold for hours and like Marcus had said, he hadn't really eaten for days. So it was no surprise that he got sick. Yet, noone of them had seen it. Why had noone seen it? Looking back Blank found that Zidane had already been quite pale when he left, yet even with all his sneezing he hadn't for one second thought that it could be any more than a mere cold.
If he had only seen it. If he had known something was wrong he wouldn't have let him go alone. He wouldn't even have let him go out at all. How could he have been so blind?
An extra loud thunder pushed him out of his thoughts. The redhead automatically looked out of the window and up to the dark sky to see it being torn by lightning. Zidane stirred softly and mumbled something Blank couldn't understand but he didn't woke up.
Blank carefully placed a hand on his forehead. Still hot. He sighed and wished for a damp cloth or something else to cool down the fever. But there wasn't anything like that around here and somehow the boy didn't want to leave his friend. He knew it was stupid, sill he couldn't bring himself to leave Zidane for even two minutes.
If only he hadn't let him sit out there in the wind like that for so long.
If only he had gone with him to the bar. If only he hadn't been so lazy.
"I'm sorry…" he mumbled, though he knew Zidane couldn't hear him. To his surprise he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"It's not your fault." Marcus said. Blank hadn't even heard him coming. Had he been so lost in his thoughts?
It didn't matter. The older boy was wrong anyway.
"It is." he said. "I should have gone with him. What if he hadn't even made it to the bar but had broken down earlier? Then he would be sill lying out there in the rain and we wouldn't even had gotten the idea to search for him. He could have…" He broke off. Stopped himself before he could say the next word. For he didn't want to hear it.
Marcus shook his head and tied a smile. It didn't work.
"If you see it like this it is also my fault." he said, looking at Zidane. "But whether it is or not, thinking about 'what ifs' doesn't help." Well, there was some truth in that but it didn't help either, didn't make anything better, not for Blank. He finally looked up and found them alone in the room. Marcus returning alone meant that he hadn't found the others. It wasn't any surprising, for it was a big city and they could have gone anywhere, but right now Blank would have been glad if they'd been here.
Marcus noticed his looking around and interpreted it right.
"They'll end up at Lario's Bar sooner or later." he said. "Then Camilla will send them here. I spoke to her."
"Thank you." Blank answered, though he didn't quite knew why he said that. He quickly turned away again to look at Zidane again who hadn't moved since Marcus came in and just seemed so small and frail as he lay there.
'Please let him be okay!' he thought even though he didn't knew who he was talking to. If there was any god in the sky above them he didn't like him nor did he like Zidane. He had proved that often enough.
After a minute Marcus sighed and turned around. Blank didn't bother to look up as he felt him leave.
"I'm going to get a cloth and some cold water for sleeping beauty here." he said and left the room.
Blank didn't even hear him.
-tbc-
05.31.2002
Could it be that my writing just gets worse with every part I finish? I'm really having trouble with the grammar in this story… I shouldn't writhe something I'm not good at, so this will probably be my last story with more that one chapter – at least for a pretty long time… T_T