It was almost noon by the time Sage woke up again. His entire night had been a hectic nightmare, and it took him a few minutes to get orientated once he shook the cobwebs from his aching head.
"Morning, glory," Ryo said from the other side of the room, where he had just finished pulling on a t-shirt over his long sleeved Fox Racing shirt, "Sleep well?"
"I feel like I have a permanent hangover," He grimaced and sat up, then realized what time it was, "Why didn't anyone wake me up?"
"Cye thought that it would be a bad idea. Something about sleep being good for the soul," Ryo grinned, "Just kidding. I just woke up a few minutes ago myself. Shower is all yours while Cye gets breakfast and the others."
Sage was thankful for the beating heat of the hotel shower. It bruised and invigorated him. He was equally grateful for the fact that he brought his own shampoo. He was used to taking short showers, but he spent a longer time under the water, just letting the jet beat the kinks out of his back.
Once he had finished doing his hair, he opened the duffel that Tyler had given him last night. Inside he found the normal necessities, underwear, t-shirts…
Somebody had a sense of humor. Under the three white button-ups and two pairs dress pants, khaki both, were three pairs of casual pants, all jeans. Also hidden underneath were long sleeved and short sleeved shirts, obviously someone's idea of casual.
He decided on the jeans and a gray t-shirt with 'Army' written on the front in black letters. Staring at himself in the mirror, he realized that he missed going casual. It felt like he was sixteen again.
"Who's up for Krispy Kremes?" He heard Cye call from outside, and the door closed behind him. Sage chuckled and stepped out of the bathroom, setting 'his' duffel under the coat hangers.
"Hey, Sage! I remember something about you bringing chicken sandwiches last night, but I can't pick it all out," Cye grinned and pointed at the open box that lay on the bed that the maid had fixed, "Dig in. Ryo is going to get Rowen and Kento."
"Hmm, Krispy Kremes…" Tyler laughed from where he sat by the window, "The food of all ages, races, and nationalities."
"Definitely," The Briton chuckled and grabbed his own doughnut, joining Sage at the table. He stepped on a discarded shoe, Ryo's by the look of it, and lost his balance. The blonde grabbed his wrist, keeping him steady, "Thanks. You've been working out."
"I guess," He shrugged.
"You aren't the wussy little brain-buster that you used to be," Rowen shot good-naturedly from the doorway. He, Kento, and Ryo came into the room. Sage stood.
"Hey, Sage." Kento seemed a little awkward, and Sage knew that he probably did not look any better.
He nodded, "Hi. Um…" He gestured to the box, "Hungry?"
"Aw, c'mon, Blondie. You've been gone for a while, but that doesn't mean that we all changed." He grinned suddenly and loped over to the box, wrapping his arm around Sage's neck, "Course I'm hungry."
They laughed and Kento released his neck while going for a couple of doughnuts.
"What happened to Kento?" Ryo whispered to Rowen, "I thought he would never talk to Sage again. Now look at them. They're joking like nothing ever happened."
"I guess Kento had a heart-to-heart with some psychologist chick last night when he was blowing off steam," Rowen shook his head, "All night he was mumbling stuff about Gwen, bagels, and some girl's doctorate papers that she was writing."
"Whoever she was, she did a number on him," Ryo grinned, "Think Kento finally got a girlfriend? Wonder if he is planning on getting her to move to Toyama with us."
"I heard that!" Kento stuck out his tongue, "For your information, Gwen is a very nice person."
The rest of conversation was spent talking about different things, how Mia and Yuli were doing, what was new in Japan, how Kayura and the Warlords fared. Then Kento broke the carefree mood.
"So, Sage, why are you coming back to Japan with us?" He sipped his water.
Everyone saw Sage's face go dark, even though he tried to hide this by taking a drink of coffee. Tyler saw his discomfort and made the save of the century.
"Hey, Sage, you were supposed to wash your stitches last night, but you never did," he tossed his friend the iodine, "You'd better do that before anything else."
After Sage had disappeared in to the bathroom, Kento looked at Tyler strangely, "I don't get it. Why'd you just do that? Can't he talk about it, or is it classified, for-your-eyes-only stuff?"
"About a week ago, Sage killed Saeki, remember? You guys were there." Tyler lowered his voice, "Well, Saeki had a following, and they're hell-bent on getting rid of Sage. Witness Protection wants him in Switzerland, on a flight that left last night. If he doesn't show up in Zurich, Switzerland at about eight p.m. our time, they're probably going to assume that they got us."
"How do you let them know that you are still alive?" Rowen asked, biting into his custard-filled.
"We can't, at least, not unless I can get back into the office." The roan-haired agent shook his head, "If I do that, I'm afraid that I'll be followed. If that happens, they could follow me back here and kill Sage."
"This is a whole lot of cloak-and-dagger games for a simple agent," Ryo said off-handedly, fishing for more information.
"Sage has something that the bosses call 'other-sight,' where he can see other people's auras and tell if they're telling the truth, what emotions they're feeling, stuff like that," Tyler shook his head, "He's a 'valuable asset.' They won't let him go without a fight."
"Makes me feel so much better," Kento grumbled and polished off his third doughnut.
"Hey, if he wasn't a lucky bastard, he'd be locked away in a room somewhere, with experiments and stuff like that," He snorted, "Tabloids would say that he was kidnapped by aliens."
"When does our plane leave?" Sage held the unopened bottle in his uncaring hands, "And how are we going to get tickets if we can't contact the office?"
"I'll call and fill them in the situation," Tyler grabbed his cellphone and left, quickly.
"Hey, Sage, it's not that big of a deal." Cye shrugged, "I mean, we've dealt with a lot bigger problems. Besides, Mia will be glad to see you."
"Sure," Sage was quiet and withdrawn for the rest of the day, reading and looking out the window until the sun sank below the horizon. He fell asleep quickly, and the others were worried about him. And about Tyler, who had not yet returned from making his call.
"That's it. I'm going after him," He sat up suddenly.
"Who? Me?" Tyler stepped in the door, looking tired, "Kento introduced me to his friend Gwen. We went out for coffee and lost track of time. Sorry, buddy."
Kento stepped into the room behind him, with a young lady on his arm. She wore a black stocking cap over dark brownish-red hair that looked either wet or on its fourth day. Her skin was almost as white as the snow that should have been falling outside.
"Hey, Sage, Ryo, guys, this is Gwen," Kento grinned, "Gwen, this is Ryo, Cye, Rowen, and Sage."
"Pleased," She smiled, tossing her head to shake a stray piece of hair out of the way. She shook hands and caught the way that they were looking at her, "I guess I'm not the way that you expected psychology majors to look, huh?"
"Not even close," Ryo grinned and shook her hand.
She glanced at her watch, "Well, it was nice meeting you, but I really do have to go, Kento. My make-up class starts early tomorrow morning and I can't afford to be tired. And I promised that I'd meet a friend at a club tonight."
"Gwen? Just a second," Sage stepped forward a moment, "Just out of curiosity, do you have a tattoo?"
"Why?" She looked at him, confused. Kento also gave Sage a weird look.
"Just curious," He shrugged.
"Yeah, I have an angel's wing on my shoulder," She set her backpack on the floor, leaning against her leg, while she slipped the collar of her shirt down over her shoulder. There was a black outlined angel wing stylized on her shoulder blade, "Now, why did you ask?"
"Friend of mine knows you," Sage smiled slightly, "He works in a tattoo parlor in uptown and mentioned your name, said he did his best work. I just wanted to see what he did that he was so proud of. Now I see he really does have bragging rights."
"Thanks," She smiled and picked up her bag, "See you, Kento. You have my number. Oh! I'll be at the airport if I can."
"All right, I'll see you," Once she was gone, Kento turned on Sage, "Now what was that?"
"I just wanted to know whether she was a friend or not," He sank back on the bed, "That friend at the tattoo parlor? He does the marks for Saeki and his gang, or used to. He's been struggling for customers ever since I put Saeki down."
"And you wanted to see if Gwen had the mark," Cye fit the pieces together, "If she did, then we couldn't trust her."
"Bingo," Tyler gave Sage a 'what-will-I-ever-do-with-you?' look and tossed a folder into his lap, "You could trust your partner a little more, eh? That's Gwendolyn Scot's entire record, from parking tickets to high school detentions."
"You did a background check on my friend?" Kento began to turn red.
"Welcome to the world of the FBI," Sage sighed and didn't even look at the folder. He handed it to Kento, "Read up, if you want. Otherwise Tyler can burn it. It's copies, right?"
Tyler nodded and Kento took the folder, biting his lip. He shrugged and set the folder down on the table, trying to forget. Meanwhile, Ryo came back from never-never-land, casually inspecting his shoes for scuffs.
"Our plane leaves tomorrow morning," He grimaced, "I don't think Sage should have to be cooped up in this room until then."
"Nope. Leaving would be putting all of us in danger," Tyler crossed his arms.
"Aw, c'mon, Tyler! I don't want to sit on that couch all night and wish I was somewhere else," Sage sighed, "How about the Metropolis? That's a nice quiet place to go where we can't be recognized."
"Quiet? Sage, you couldn't walk in there without being recognized," Tyler grimaced, "You can't go anywhere to relax, at least no place we've been before! People know you too well. You make friends too easily. Somebody could point you out and it would be all over."
"Someplace new then, someplace that these guys would enjoy too," The blonde gestured to his friends, who were standing around in various poses of indignant expressions at being left out of the conversation.
"What about a restaurant? A nice, Japanese-style restaurant—" Tyler was cut off by groans and grimaces from all around the room.
"What you Americans call Japanese food is horrible!" Cye made a face, "I mean, the only place worth eating is McDonalds."
"Hardee's, then?" More groans and the sounds of Kento mock-puking.
"Even I can't eat that," He screwed up his nose.
Sage glanced at Tyler, a knowing glint in his eyes, "How about…LeAnn Chin?"
"Okay, even this is better than home, and that's saying quite a bit," Rowen admitted, taking another bite of his orange chicken, "This is good. Nice and spicy hot."
"Same way you like your women, right?" Kento snickered and the rest of them laughed. Sage had to admit, this was better that sitting in the room, wasting away into a pile of bones and blonde hair. Kento noticed his tired look, but thought it best not to say anything.
Sage readjusted his letterman's jacket and sighed, leaning back in his chair. It felt weird to be hanging out with his friends ago, after so long. He was still surprised after all he'd done to them, that they even accepted him as a human being.
Especially Kento.
He heard the glass shatter just after a body flew into him, knocking him over backwards. He hit the ground hard, but the brick hit harder, smashing into the wall and putting a huge crater into the plaster.
Cye was on his knees, holding his head gingerly. Rowen was kneeling next to him, holding a napkin to his bleeding forehead where the brick has grazed him on its deadly path.
It's happening… Sage's eyes widened as Ryo, who had saved his life, helped him stand up. They're starting to get caught in the crossfire. I've been seen with them. Saeki's friends know who they are…
"Sage? Sage." Tyler shook his shoulder, "You okay?"
"Let's go back to the room," He said shakily, "I don't feel like being in the open anymore."
Their plane ride was uneventful, other than Kento's not-so-secret glances at the picture Gwen had given him when they left. Sage was going to comment, but he thought best not to.
Meals were a covert thing. As soon as the waitress left, Tyler would take Sage's and his plates and throw them away, just in case. So, for the long flight to Amsterdam, Blondie had to live on peanuts and little things that he had bought in the airport.
The in-flight movie wasn't even that good, and he found himself dozing off, which didn't surprise him. His life had been an action/adventure flick, so he didn't need to watch it on television.
He took another bite of his apple and closed his eyes, thinking of home, where he was going to be in several hours. If they met their connection like they were supposed to, he would be sleeping off jet-lag in his old bed, in his old room.
He missed that room. After many failed attempts at trying to recreate it in New York, he found that he was a failure in interior decorating. He kept trying though, and eventually cobbled together a believable mockup of his former abode.
It seemed to make him homesick, but he refused to change it, even after he had caught himself crying a little.
The plane hit a pocket of turbulence, which jolted him from his reverie, then returned to normal. His stomach growled in protest and fell into a series of rather painful cramps and nausea.
"Hey, Tyler, I gotta hit the lav, okay?" He scooted past the empty seat and his friend, who had insisted on the aisle seat. The aisles were completely open, as everyone was either engrossed in the movie, or reading, sleeping, doing something worthwhile to waste time.
The bathrooms were all open, except one, which made the choice easy. Sage just ducked into the nearest one and locked the door behind him.
He splashed water on his face, trying to regain his composure. He hated flying. It made him nervous, sick, and all around irritable sometimes. He was too busy focusing on getting home to be cranky this time.
Something bumped against the door, and he heard stewardesses talking outside. Plastic glasses and empty pop cans clattered against each other as they began to clear out their carts.
Hmm, stuck in a lavatory. Grimacing, he sat down on the closed toilet and waited.
Sage took the time that he was trapped in the bathroom to reflect on how much he really took for granted. Actually, he counted his fingers over and over again until a female gasp and scraping noise came from outside.
He opened the door and the stewardess apologized profusely. She was quickly forgiven and Sage moved quickly back to his seat, where Tyler had begun to get worried, "Where have you been?"
"I got barricaded in the bathroom," He smirked and settled into his seat again.
Time passed quickly from then on, as Sage somehow found the strength—or fatigue—to fall asleep.