A/N: Pardon for the French, I had an impulsive urge to use some^^ (I love languages so I tend to use them quite often. Wait until I start using Latin o_O Dum mortis nos dividat... hehe)
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In Sickness and In Health
[Tu es comme la lumière; pure, fantastique, éphémère et durant à jamais, comme un rêve et plus encore. Tu m'étreins fort et me laisse voler sur tes ailes brillantes. J'effleure le ciel et cueille une étoile éblouissante dans la paume de ma main et je pris pour que ta lumière reste près de moi, pour toujours.]
~You are like light; sheer, visionary, ephemeral and ever lasting, dream-like and more so. You hold me close and let me fly with your lucid wings. I touch the sky and grasp a dazzling star in the palm of my hand and I pray that your light would remain beside mine, forever.~
"C'mon, Kai, a few steps more."
Rei said desperately to the other boy, even though Kai was dangerously limp in his arms and hadn't said anything since the Chinese youth found him. Rei had one of Kai's arms slung around his neck, the other held tightly in his grasp. The captain's entire body was slumped into the side of the other, for balance and support. Both boys were soaked, the older of the two more so.
Rei bit down the blistering ball in his throat when he felt Kai suppress a shiver. The bluenette was barely conscious, the neko-jin realized from the way the other's eyes drooped heavily, how his head lolled lifelessly from side to side. Kai's wild hair was matted to his forehead, sleeked with sweat and rainwater, the face peeking underneath a ghastly shade, the lips a purple hue. As it was, Rei was half-dragging, half-carrying his companion.
The Chinese boy himself was in no better condition. He could barely see three feet in front of him; the rain, his own hair and what he recognized as tears marring his vision. His body felt heavy, the clothes clinging to him, his pants dragging along the cobblestones, and there was the added weight of another human being bracing on him for support. Kai's body crushed against his own was frighteningly cold, frigid to the touch. And still, the rain pelted heavily down on them, mercilessly beating on their already worn forms.
Minutes – hours, it seemed – later, Rei stumbled into their hotel suite. Immediately, the other three boys rushed from where they were anxiously waiting to help Kai onto the bed. The Chinese boy looked at his captain and friend lying on the bed. He was still, lifeless almost, seeming so broken and fragile. A strained breath escaped Rei's throat.
"Where did you find him?" Kenny asked, worried and scared at the same time.
"It doesn't matter," Rei replied hoarsely, angrily wiping off his tears (which the others mistook
for rainwater) and stalked off to the adjoining room. He paced around the room, tense and ardent; like a caged tiger, thought Takao. "Idiot," the boy muttered. "That IDIOT!" Rei suddenly got the urge to smash something, to inflict as much pain onto something as he was feeling at the moment.
"Calm down, Rei," Max's hand was on his shoulder, comforting. A gentle smile was on his lips, though he couldn't hide the worry. "It won't do any good if you went on a rampage and obliterated half the Earth's population."
"But what can I do, Maxie? What if I hadn't made it on time? It would have been all my fault," he whispered dejectedly. "God... Kai..."
"Why don't you play good doctor for him, Rei? That's sure to make him feel... better," Takao said after the stretch of silence became too painful, a playful, furtive smirk on his lips. "And maybe that'll do the trick and get that three-foot yardstick out of his ass."
"Takao!" Max exclaimed, flabbergasted, smacking the wild-haired boy upside the head.
"B-but — Maxie!" he stuttered, rubbing the bump on his skull.
"It's no time to joke around, guys," Rei said morosely, opening the door a crack and taking a peek into the dim room. Kai was still lying on the bed, motionless, like a useless rag doll. "What if Kai doesn't make it?"
The other boys looked at each other guiltily, their shoulders hanging dejectedly. The seriousness of the situation weighted down on them, palpable.
"Rei's right, we have to do something," Kenny piped in, already opening his laptop to check for help tips on the net.
"I'll go and see what can be done," the Chinese boy said, heading to the other room.
"Wait, Rei, you've already done enough. Let one of us take care of things," Takao began but was stopped by Max's hand on his own.
"Just go, Rei," Max said with a little smile. "He needs you. Call us if something is wrong."
The older youth nodded appreciatively, and murmured a "Thanks, Maxie" before entering the room in which Kai lay lifeless on the bed.
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It was silent inside the room, Rei couldn't even hear the soft intakes of breath of the other boy, which seemed so much more painful than it should have been. Uncertainly, warily, he ambled up to the bed. He let the tips of his fingers brush against Kai's pale hand. He received no response. The boy then brought his hand to touch the side of Kai's face; the skin felt cold against his palm, clammy from the rain and sweat.
Rei sighed tiredly; the other blader was still in wet clothes, soaking in the bed sheets. After digging up a shirt and jumper in Kai's duffel bag, Rei removed the boy's sodden clothes, too worried to smother the heat that crept up his cheeks, and struggled to pull fresh ones on. He then took the pillows from his own bed and put them under Kai's head.
He dragged a chair up to the bed and sat, watching, bating his breath. Rei nibbled on his lip anxiously, holding desperately onto Kai's hand. 'Everything is my fault,' he thought despondently. 'If I hadn't said those mean things to you, if I had paid more attention to you instead of myself, then you wouldn't be here like this. If only I hadn't been so stupid... Oh, please, Kai, don't leave me, I can't... I can't be without you... God, please, Kai....'
"Oh, Kai..." Rei breathed out softly, choking on a sob, masking it behind a humourless laugh.
"I thought you were supposed to be the strong one out of the two of us."
Rei bowed his head, allowing his lips to softly brush against Kai's hand, whilst his tears escaped from his eyes, the small drops falling onto the pale flesh of the other.
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Kai was lost in the black depths of oblivion. There was pain at first, igniting and electrifying. Now that pain settled to a dull nagging ache somewhere in the back of his being, and he remained floating in the dark abyss of the aftermath. He was cold, oh so cold! He wanted to curl into a tight little ball and hide, flee from the cold and the darkness. He wanted everything to end.
He was just floating in nothingness, feeling both weightless and heavy. Then, at one point, millennia later, there came warmth. A little touch, a whisper against his skin, originating at his hand and travelling in cathartic waves throughout his body. He shivered, desperate for more of that warmth. He called out, an incoherent word, a name he remembered from once before. And there came light, brilliant and enveloping, embracing him, caressing him, and he knew that despite everything he would make it.
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Rei watched in the weaning hours of the night as colour returned to Kai's body. The two-toned hair was now dry, caked with sweat and rain; Rei brushed it from the boy's forehead, feeling the skin for temperature. The flesh was hot with a thin layer of sweat, an angry pink staining Kai's cheeks. His breath came out in ragged intakes, dry and seemingly in desperate need for air. The captain coughed harshly, his body jolting from the action.
Rei almost wanted to laugh, though tears were still fresh in his eyes. Colds and fevers he could handle. From years of living in nowhere among the mountains, the neko-jin became an expect in survival with limited resources. He'd nursed enough flue patients back to health. But this time it was different, this time, the stakes were raised an octave, this time, he couldn't make a single mistake.
"Just hold on for a little while, Kai, and I promise you, everything would be all right," he whispered, lightly squeezing the other's hand.
Hastily, he fetched a container with cool water and a cloth, which he moistened. Sitting down on his hunches, he soothingly daubed the damp cloth along Kai's forehead and cheeks, wiping away the sweat. Kai coughed again, which made Rei bite down on another worried sob. The Chinese boy didn't even care that he was ridiculously tired, that he hadn't slept in a long while or that he was still wearing the soiled clothes from before. Kai was more important.
And so, Rei stayed beside his friend, tenderly smoothing out his hair, gently wiping away the sweat coating his body and flinching painfully every time Kai coughed or contorted in pain.
Hours later, when the sun was high above in the sky, the torrent clouds having escaped whence they came, Kai's eyes fluttered open. Rei wanted to cry or scream, or kiss his captain to Kingdom Come
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Kai groaned mentally, feeling pain, like a massive wave, assault his head. He had retained some semblance of order now; his world was no longer a spinning, maw-like void, but a soft surface underneath him and a warm hand on his own. With a great amount of difficulty, Kai opened his eyes. At first the image was blurry, a distorted rendition of the real picture, but then the fog cleared and he could make out Rei's large, golden orbs not too far away. Kai felt the gaze like a breath of fresh air, or a ray of light, like the one in his delirium.
"Never thought I'd see the mighty Kai fall down from grace because of something as stupid as a cold," Rei teased lightly, smiling down at Kai, the boy's fingers dancing delicately over his skin. Even though there was a grin stretched on those lips, Kai saw the worry and tiredness, too; there were dark crescents under Rei's eyes, his lips held too tight for the smile to be real.
"I feel like somebody smashed my face with a shovel," Kai managed to say through his dry throat. "For how long have I been out?"
Rei checked his watch. "For nearly eleven hours now."
Kai groaned again, beginning to rise from the bed. "I need to get back to practice."
"No, Kai, you can't," said the neko-jin, pushing him back into the bed. "You're sick, you can't possibly battle now."
Sighing, Kai relented and laid down; he had to admit, the room did have a painful tilt to it and he was unusually hot. He glared at the ceiling, silently counting the pebbles, wishing the misery of the situation away. "Did you look after me all this time?" he asked quietly.
"Hai," replied the other boy, though reluctantly.
"Hn."
The silence stretched, uncomfortable and ominous. "I was scared, you know?" Rei said after a long while, looking at his lap. "I didn't know where you were and I was afraid of what could happen. And then I saw you lying on the ground with rain beating down on you... You wouldn't move, wouldn't react at all, and for a moment... I thought you'd... you'd died... And I was afraid that I'd die, too, because you seem so strong and it's heard to believe that someone like you could get hurt..." Rei knew that he was babbling now; his throat felt so tight. "And I thought that if I got you home and warmed up you'd wake up and everything would be fine..."
"And look, I'm awake and dandy," said Kai, unconsciously trying to lighten the mood. He didn't like seeing Rei so broken and sad; he never wanted to see Rei like this because of him.
"No, it's not," the raven-haired boy lamented. "You're sick and you're bedridden, and all because of me. If I hadn't said those stupid, stupid things to you, wouldn't have gone out and gotten sick."
"Rei..." Kai winced when he heard a quivering mewl escape the other's throat. "Rei, it's not your fault, you didn't do anything. In fact, you were right, I am an emotionless bastard. I don't deserve someone like you for a friend."
"Then why did you leave so suddenly?" The neko-jin asked, hurt at Kai's words.
"I needed to take a walk to clear some thoughts. You shouldn't have worried," the bluenette replied, brushing his thumb over Rei's knuckles.
"Kai, you were gone for nearly four hours in the rain, of course I would worry," he said, lightly punching his friend with his free hand. "And you did lose consciousness."
A shrug and a jest. "I just felt tired all of a sudden. Wanted to light down."
"You jerk, promise me that you'd never leave me?"
Kai grinned slightly and closed his eyes, feeling weariness gnaw on him. "Silly, I already promised you that."
"Then promise me you won't do something so stupid ever again, I couldn't stand to lose you now. We'd be always together; through the thick and the thin; through sickness and health; through tough and pain. Forever."
The two-toned boy nodded sleepily, murmuring "promise" and lost himself to blissful dreamscape. Rei watched as his friend's face became still in contentment and smiled lightly. Kai was all right, a bit weatherworn, but kicking, and that was enough to make Rei a very happy neko-jin. With a little sigh and a yawn, he closed his eyes and laid his head on the bed, the rest of him still kneeling on the floor. The fingers of one hand were intertwined with those of Kai's, and in the other hand Rei was holding the little crystalline bell that Kai gave him for his birthday.
[Ne dis jamais que tu es désolé, et ne me laisse jamais partir...]
~Never say you're sorry, and never let me go...~
(tsuzuku...)
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Also, forgive me for the crappiness of this chapter; I'm not feeling up to the par lately, maybe that's because Hikaru no Go will no longer be running ;_______________;
