Title:Searching for Stars
AN: Hey, I'm rewriting this entire thing, so please keep in there and enjoy!
Just so you know! I've gone from using the 'Ronin' names to the original Japanese. Yeah, should've said that earlier huh? Eh, I'm sure you figured it out on your own anyway. Why did I? Because, the Japanese names are so much prettier. and I've gotten in the habit of reading them...I hadn't even realized I'd changed them in the first chapter until I re-read the second. Silly silly me. Enjoy.
The police tape tried, but was not much of a barrier for those curious enough to stop and peer down the cliff, and the tragedy that was laying at the bottom. From above it was a detached show of pity, tinged with a morbid fascination. Half the guard rail that once protected that particular curve lay curled and dented on burnt grass a hundred feet down. Twisted metal that still shown in patches of red was still smoking, even though the blaze it had been was long put out. With the swarm of police, and now Preventers pushing their way in, picking their way through the glass and metal strewn about the ground it was quite a sight to see from above. Below, it was a nightmare of twisted metal, broken glass, and the acrid smell of burnt oil. No one was immune to the sense of tragedy, but for one it was so much worse.
Wufei stared at the wreckage that had once been a car he had become accustomed to seeing. It was with a detached sense that he watched the wreckage now, trying desperately to numb the burn behind his eyes. The orders were all given out and being followed, and as things died down there wasn't enough to keep him from settling on the somber view that he had tried so hard not to stare at. He felt like ripping the twisted heap apart. Though his mind demanded it, he couldn't let himself think of just hours before when he had watch this same car drive away. If he did, someone was going to get hurt. He had just been leaving the commanders office when the call had come in from a local police dispatch. A car had gone off the cliff a few miles away, just outside the city. Preventers tags had been found, singed but recognizable on the shattered windshield, surprisingly intact. This is what the tags had been invented for, he thought dryly. He wanted to rip them off. The thought was irrational, but he couldn't help the accusatory feeling for the identifiers. They crushed all the hope he had that it might not have been their car. That maybe, two of his best friends weren't dead. He wanted to cry, but now was not the time.
" Preventer Chang!" A sharp voice called him to the left, excitement in the tone nearly making him snap at the young man waving to him.
" What is it?" His curt tone only earned an irritatingly understanding softening of features, but didn't dim the excitement.
" We found two people, sir! Alive!" The young man suddenly found himself inches from the intimidating form of Chang Wufei.
" Where?"
" Come on sir." The young preventer took off, his senior in tow, toward the far edge of the crash site.
For a moment Wufei felt his hope battling his reason; there was no way, and they had already checked this portion of the scene. He was about to voice this when the young man pointed to a group of paramedics who were working hurriedly a few yards ahead. His protests were silenced as one of the people moved away and he caught a glimpse of broad back and messy dark hair. His heart pounded hard as he took off toward the group. He was just feet away when another person moved. Heart wrenching disappointment stopped him in his tracks as he finally saw the mans face. He knew it wouldn't be, but he couldn't but hope, that it had been Heero. Turning his eyes away to the side he found the slight figure of another boy being carefully strapped to a gurney. He hadn't needed to see the electric blue hair to know it wasn't Quatre.
And for a moment, he let tears fall.
Sally was waiting for him in the parking lot when he returned to headquarters hours later. He warily parked close to her and took a second to wipe the strain from his eyes. Stepping out the of the car with a weary air he carefully walked toward her, keeping every presence of a confident unaffected professional. He was relieved to find only her own tears in her eyes, no pity to taint the comfort she instantly offered him. And as soon as he was in range Sally threw her arms around his neck and held on. His shoulders relaxed, sagging just a little, his own arms circling her waist. For a while, they just held each other.
Too soon it was back to the world around them. Sally pulling back only to hand a folder, then let her other hand dropped down his arm and take his hand. Giving a little tug she led him toward the elevator. They walked comfortably together in silence for a few seconds.
" You don't have to hold my hand Sally." Wufei admonished quietly.
" I'm not holding your hand, you holding mine. So suck it up Chang." Sally replied equally quiet, warmth in her voice.
" Crazy woman."
Sally leaned comfortingly against him, smiling just the slightest.
The elevator ride was spent collecting himself for the chaos that would be bound to follow. For now, all he really wanted was to be anywhere else. The day had been spent at the accident site helping with the investigation and dealing with disgruntled deputies who were miffed that they had been replaced on the site by Preventers. It had been their right to be there when it concerned two of their own, but the local police had felt overshadowed and taken that out on him. He had gotten through everything with his usual instinctive authority and his peoples respect, but it had worn on him. This hadn't been just another job.
" Duo?" He cleared his throat when the name nearly broke. He didn't elaborate, but Sally knew what he wanted to know.
" He spent the first half hour screaming at Une, then trying to leave, any way he could. Now," She paused, thinking about the aggrieved man. " he's been sitting with Trowa since then."
Wufei nodded contemplatively. Une hadn't wanted Duo to be on scene after the news had been broken. He had just been too unpredictable in his grief. Trowa had opted to stay with him silently. He himself had wanted to be with them too, but he would never tell anyone that. Someone had to get this job done right, and besides the select few sitting in this building and beside him, he didn't trust anyone else. There would be time for grief later.
The doors opening quieted his chaotic thoughts and emotions enough for him to drop Sally's hand, giving one last squeeze, before heading down the hall. Une was waiting for him calmly behind her desk when he walked in. Immediately he took notice of the quiet sobs in the corner, watching detachedly as Noin cried against Duo's shoulder, Zech's a quite presence at her back. His concern only peaked at the dispassionate glaze on Duo's face. Trowa was leaning next to him, gently resting a warm hand on his shoulder, but Duo didn't seem to care. He didn't seem to even feel the sobbing woman shaking against him, or hear the quiet words the man behind her was whispering.
No one had questioned Noin and Zech's sudden reappearance. At the moment he didn't give a damn.
" Wufei? " Une drew his attention back to her. " What have you found out?" Her voice hadn't held the careful quiet of everyone else that he'd come across today, and he was thankful. He might have screamed otherwise.
" Nothing to suggest it was anything more than an accident. Bystanders report that a trucker ran them off the road, he apparently fell asleep."
Une nodded to him and opened her mouth to speak again, but he intervened quickly.
" What about the two found at the site? Who are they?" That particular incident had bothered him the rest of his day there, and he wanted to know who they were. Something told him it wasn't just a coincidental accident. They had to be tied into everything.
Une merely pointed to the folder in his hand. He looked down in surprise, having forgotten the thing the minute Sally had handed it to him.
" We have no names yet, and no reasons to place them at the scene, but they'd did have minor injuries. Weather they were just caught by the blast or what, we don't know." There was a weariness in her voice, born of spending the day dealing with excited press and grieving people with no answers to give and none to find. He could empathize, but he chose to keep his professional mask firmly in place, though it was getting harder by the minute. He watched as Une discretely rubbed at her temple, eyes downcast for just an insant, but he could see the woman's own desperate want to be somewhere else.
Wufei felt the day catch up to him in a sudden agonizing second. They had no answers, and had lost two friends. With a snap of his wrist he threw the folder on Une's desk and strode over to the other side of the room. As Noin drew away in surprise he knelt down, wrapping an arm around Duo in an uncharacteristic move, and tightly grasping Trowa's hand. He held on.
Rain misted down around him, creating a shimmer in the air from the city lights around him. Droplets settled on the streets and walks, dripping down dark hair and tanned skin in rivulets. It was so real he could almost feel it; but he couldn't. Wind swirled the mist around him in a thin curtain that ruffled his mane of hair, but he couldn't feel it. Cars and people faded in and out in front of him like images in a broken screen, but he couldn't hear the sounds of a city he had come to associate with everyday life. The only thing that kept him from thinking he was insane was the steady breathing of his own and the boy standing next to him. Glancing over out of the corner of his eye he watched the rain darken bright hair, dampening it to a slender nose. It occurred to him that this had to be a dream then. In real time the boy next to him would have swatted at the long forelock like a kitten to keep it off his nose. He tried to lift his hand to touch him, but found he couldn't move either.
This dream was beginning to irritate him.
When he thought he wouldn't be able to take anymore the cityscape before him crumbled and burned under what looked like giant machines. A terrible awe filled him as he watched the giant mechas, flames from buildings dancing reflectively on the singed metal. For all he had seen in his young life, done and fought, he had never encountered anything like this. He struggled even more as he watched the destruction the things in front of him made throughout the city. Weapons firing became dim sounds in his straining ears, then raising to a crescendo that threatened to deafen him.
Then, in the span of a heartbeat, the city simply melted away, and he woke up.
Ryo blinked at the white above him, for a moment wondering if he wasn't still dreaming. Slanting sunlight from the window beside him quickly displaced the idea though, along with the feel of crisp linen around him. Almost immediately his brain processed the fact that he was in a hospital, but he couldn't break through the fog to answer why. His mind was rolling mixture of gray clouds and half remembered dreams that successfully dimmed the clarity he sought. The quiet was almost as deafening as the breaking city in his dream. A headache was starting to form between his eyes, but he ignored it in favor of concentrating all his energy into sitting up. His back ached with dull pain that only flared up at the slight movement, throwing him back to the mattress with a wince. The fall must have hurt his back. The fall. A prick of pain flared in his head as his mind finally cleared enough for him to think.
Ryo felt panic rise in his chest. Where was Touma?
The pain became an inconsequential whimper as his anxiety pushed him on. With a grunt he had pulled himself into a sitting position and was scanning the room with an almost forgotten sharpness. The little room was a run of the mill hospital room with the exception of some equipment he couldn't place, and the beautiful sight of the boy sleeping in the bed next to him. All the tension that had held him up drained out of him and he dropped boneless back onto the bed in relief. Touma was barely five feet away, and as far as he could see, breathing and alive.
Now all he needed to do was get a doctor and Nasuti in here to get his answer on what was wrong with his friend. He scanned the side of the bed for the nurse call button but found himself stumped. All the buttons were in a different language and didn't really look like anything he had used before. Not that he had spent a large amount of time in the hospital, but he'd had his share of visits. This looked years in advance to what he'd used. If the call buttons were like this what did that say for the rest of the equipment? A sudden thought had him randomly pushing buttons, and with only a brief struggle with the bed, finally got something to light up that he hoped was a good thing. Was there something so wrong with Touma that they had flown him somewhere else for treatment? He knew Mia would see to it they stayed together like this so it was entirely possible and by the looks of it very probable.
Just as he was pulling himself into a sitting position the door opened, and he threw a relieved look to the figure walking through. His relief quickly turned to confusion and a little trepidation. The woman was wearing a white lab coat and had the bearing of a doctor, but he could clearly see the military uniform under that jacket. It unnerved him more that he couldn't place the mode of uniform. But he had more important things to worry over than a foreign military at the moment. He only hoped she spoke Japanese.
" Good Afternoon." The woman spoke before he could. He thanked every deity he could think of she spoke a language he could understand.
" Hello?" Ryo tried cautiously. The woman rewarded him with a brilliant smile.
" How are you doing today Mr..?" She raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
" Sanada, Ryo." He filled in, creasing his brow in worry. She should have already had his name from Nasuti, but perhaps she wasn't their doctor after all. Better just to play along for now.
" Well Mr. Sanada, how are you feeling this afternoon?" She asked amiably, smiling as she came to stand beside his bed.
Ryo took a moment then to do a mental check on his body, feeling the pain melting away now that he had relaxed a bit. He wasn't concerned with his own condition at all though.
" Great. How's he?" He gestured to the still form laying behind her.
" Hmmm?" The young woman turned to look contemplatively at her other patient. She looked back at Ryo with a reassuring smile, easing some of the dread that had welled up in him at her initial pause. " He's going to be fine. A bit anemic, and a little bruised, but fine."
Ryo scowled at her definition of fine. The boy hadn't so much as twitched in the last few minutes.
" Is Nasuti Yagaiu here?" He interrupted her unintentionally as she opened her mouth again.
She quickly froze her movement, a small frown marring her lips now. The cheery, caring exterior remained, but a seriousness now pervaded her eyes as she addressed him.
" Mr. Sanada, could you tell me what happened please? I mean to land you two in a place like this? I just need to know what you remember." She smiled disarmingly at him.
" Sure." Ryo could tell something was wrong, but he wouldn't get any answers by being uncooperative, at least right now. " I found Touma in his room, he was barely breathing and his heart beat was so faint." He shivered. He could still feel that faint beat fluttering against his finger. " When I was carrying him downstairs I tripped and fell…" His memory cut off there. Something had to be missing. How long had he been out?
" I see." the doctors voice was carefully neutral, but Ryo didn't miss the confusion that creased her eyes.
" Doctor?" His sense of dread returned full force. Something was way off.
" I'm sorry Mr. Sanada, I have something I need to tend to. Get some rest and I'll be back shortly." She patted his shoulder reassuringly before turning and swiftly exiting the room.
Ryo frowned at the door. He didn't like how this was turning out. She hadn't even bothered to tell him if Nasuti was there. Groaning softly at the stiffness in his limbs, Ryo pulled himself off the bed and stumbled over to Touma's.
" Hey." He whispered to the sleeping young man, gently running his fingers through flyaway blue hair. " You gotta wake up Touma. I don't know what's going on, but if you wake up, we can work it out together." He snickered. " The sooner you get up, the sooner we can get to that dinner. Shu's probably cleaned out the entire restaurant by now."
No answering laugh greeted him and his mood deflated a little more. He could feel a lump threatening to choke in his throat, one in his heart as well. All he wanted was for those ever bright eyes to open up and look at him, see him. Anxiety rose, overwhelming and shattering, and suddenly he had to be as close to that slender body as possible, that bright soul. Carefully shifting the still form over, Ryo climbed onto the narrow bed and pulled him closer to him, laying the blue head on his shoulder and holding him close.
There was nothing more to do but wait. She had done a lot of that over the years with her boys, but she could never get used to it. She wanted to do something to make it all better. There had to be some research to be done, some lead to follow to guide them to the ones they'd lost. There had to be something. Not just this waiting.
Waiting for the two strangers that lay on her couch to wake so her boys could jump down their throats. But, if waiting was what had to be done, then so be it. She would wait.
Nasuti gently laid the cold cloth on the sleeping boys head, letting her fingers brush through dark hair. Her face was lined with worry but she refrained herself from the urge to wake the boy. He probably needed the sleep, and would have to be well rested once he woke up and faced the guys. They were already in the dining room trying to make sense out of everything that had happened. She could feel the occasional stare of one of them trying to subtly keep an eye on her. They had been against leaving the two by themselves in the room, let alone with Nasuti there unprotected, but she needed to do something. So she would tend to these young men until they woke, and if that meant shooing three anxious, overprotective troopers out of her hair so she could think, then she would.
The ache in her heart hadn't subsided but she wasn't letting her fear get to her. She had been through this all before. Disappearing troopers seemed to be happening a lot lately. Only this time they didn't have a lead to go on. Another frustrated sigh pushed out, blowing the wild brown bangs gently on the boys head. Nasuti had to giggle a little; she didn't think anyone had hair as wild as Ryos. Standing Nasuti stretched out, a small smile lifted the corners of her mouth. Gently tucking the blankets around the muscled shoulders she moved to the other end of the couch where another boy lay. Her smiled broadened at the sight. The small blonde had curled on his side, using his friends outstretched leg as a teddy bear. The tension that had built up in her lessened considerably. They would get through this, just like before. These young men may be strangers, and sorely out of place, but watching them sleep she saw no malice.
Yes, they would get through this. Just like they always had.
More soon!