He felt stronger. Strong enough to continue looking for… the thing he was searching for. His brow furrowed. What was it? What was so important that he had to find it? He sat slowly, wincing as his feet touched the plush carpet. He tried to stand, couldn't, and settled for a limping crawl. He had to find it. It did not matter that he might be hurt.
Shun found him where he'd collapsed barely five feet from the bed, too weak to get any further. "Oh no! What happened? Are you alright?" He darted across the room, carefully lifting Iryu and putting him back to bed. He quickly inspected the injured knight. "Well, it doesn't look like you've hurt yourself any worse."
Pain-glazed eyes looked through Shun as he twitched, still trying to get to what it was he had to find. Shun's voice had no meaning for him, but the cup that was soon held to his lips did. Iryu drained it, then recoiled in sudden terror when Shun settled to the bed beside him.
"Relax, Black Dragon. I'm not going to hurt you. I just thought since you were awake, I could get your hair brushed for you." Shun held out the brush, his pleasant expression fading to sadness when the other took one look at it and cowered even more. "Someone's beaten you pretty bad, haven't they? Don't you worry, no one here's going to hurt you. We'll all help you get better."
He twisted his eyes tightly shut, cowering and trembling, trying to scootch further under the blankets. He was stopped, held. Helpless tears flowed down his cheeks, his head dropping submissively, his body tensing against anticipated pain. It didn't come. His hair was tugged, and there was some discomfort, but no pain.
The brush was laid beside him; he regarded it warily. His hair was tugged, not hard, and soon draped over his shoulder. He blinked at the dark braid in bewilderment. Shun babbled at him, but he couldn't make out the words. Was he… not going to be beaten this time? He'd tried to run away… yes. He'd tried to leave, to find… something. He hadn't been planning on coming back. Why wasn't he being hurt for his disobedience?
Another cup. This one was the warm, filling drink. He drank eagerly, both hands curled as much as possible around the cup. As he usually did, he tipped it up, getting every last tiny drop out. A second cup was offered, it he regarded warily. He'd been given only two drinks, water and the warm liquid. What was this? He sniffed, then snatched at the cup. It was more of the warm drink, and soon gone.
"I thought you were wanting more," Shun said with some satisfaction, watching as another cup of broth vanished. "You've been improving, you know. You're a lot better than when we first found you."
Blue on black eyes regarded bright green hair, unwilling to focus elsewhere. He wasn't sure what the man said, but he sounded satisfied. He'd done something right, that was the only time he ever heard that particular tone. The man was still talking, he shifted his attention slightly, watching the man's mouth. "… name?"
Name? He frowned. Name. He knew that word. He'd heard it before. "Iryu," he rasped in his nearly silent whisper. Iryu. What was that? Familiar. Yes. It was… name. Iryu was his name. His dark eyes lit slightly with the joy of knowing something.
"Iryu?" Shun giggled. "I guess that makes sense, since you're Shiryu's dark double. I wonder what… the other double's name were?"
Again the rasping whisper. "Cyn. Ranome."
"Cyn? Ranome?" Shun blinked. "You understand me?"
"You…. Ranome?" Iryu blinked. With his name had come the memory of a man as pretty as this one and of the blond he'd seen earlier, only darker, like shadows. But all of his memories were shadows. Some just hurt more than others, and many were so ingrained they were practically instinct. He moved carefully, minding his hurts, to lay his head on Shun's lap. "Ranome… help."
"Oh…" Shun's eyes widened. "I'll help you," he promised.
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There we go. A bit of quasi-sweetness. And in case you wanna know, Cyn is zeen, 'zine, whatever. Rhymes with magazine. Ranome, pronounce ran-oh-may. I am still in the process of coming up with a name for Dark Pegasus. My first plan was to chop off the first few letters of their names like I did with Iryu, but… I'm sorry, but dark knights named Yoga, Hun, and Eiya? *is still singing Old McDonald had a farm, eieio…* So for Cyn, I mangled some French. Ranome is just letters yanked from Andromeda.
Pegasus/Seiya. What the devil am I to do with him, call him Peg? *shudders* Or almost as bad… Gus. Nonono… I am more creative than that. *sits back to sulk* Hmph. I'm going to bed. *stalks angrily off to wonder why her usually vivid imagination goes *pht* when Seiya's involved…*
