(A/N: I realised I forgot to put any copyright in the last chapter although I'm sure everyone knows I don't own Tetsuo, Kaori, Kai, Kaneda, Kei or Yamagata. Or anyone else from Akira. They belong to Mr Otomo. Come on, people! These short fics are written using criteria from the drabble(low hyphen) me community on livejournal(dot)com. The first of these pieces is based on some scenes from the manga, book 6. I don't own the scenario.)

Dust To Dust

Tetsuo's feet crunched over the stony ground. Kaori was heavy in his arms; her head rested against his arm, her hair soft on his wrist. The wind was picking up, flicking at her hair and her torn, grubby school uniform. A thin line of blood was oozing from her mouth, oddly shiny against the dry skin of her lips. No retching gore for Kaori. She wasn't a show-off, an attention-seeker…

He'd closed her eyes himself, but only because she would be embarrassed if she saw people looking as she was carried through the rubble by the great Lord Tetsuo. People might laugh. Even now he was taking care to keep her skirt pulled straight, the hem tucked under his arm. He wasn't going to have anyone perving at her.

Her shirt was damp. Though the blood was starting to dry now, becoming rough and scratchy. He hoped when she woke up she wouldn't be too uncomfortable. He'd try and find her some other clothes. All right, so there wasn't much around, but he was Prime Minister still (wasn't he?) He'd get someone to find something for Kaori to wear. He'd like it to be something pretty, something she'd be happy to get. He'd like to make her smile.

The air was dusty and thin, and between the ruins the shadows were very deep.

At least he'd got his real arm back now. His junk and metal one might have hurt her, dug into her spine.

But soon he'd make her wake up again and then – and then –

They'd be all right, somehow. So his minions had turned on him. So his former best friends were out to murder him. So the rest of the world was attacking his city. He didn't care about that. Kaori would be saved and then he'd keep her somewhere safe until the fighting had stopped and when everything was calm again, he'd come find her and they'd go live someplace where she could be happy.

The city was so much quieter now. He liked it. You could hear people coming. And you could see the sky – shrieking above you like the white of a giant eye – and hear the air sighing through empty rooms and smashed windows and past the crumpled neon signs that still clung to the sides of the buildings. It was peaceful. She would understand that – she'd got a life for herself here now – he'd made her happy –

She had died running to warn him –

He'd made her happy and that was the end of it.

He reached the top of the small hummock, a bare patch of ground in the sea of wreckage. He knelt down, let her slide from his arms. Crumbs of dusty earth stuck to the blood patches, and the drop of it at her mouth was smeared across her cheek.

He was the great Lord Tetsuo and with his powers he could do anything. He'd had a city torn down and ripped people apart by thinking about it. He was scared of nothing (almost nothing) and he would bring Kaori back to life now.

He wanted to believe that, but staring at her eyelids and knowing behind them her eyes were still open wide in the shock of the bullet sending her flying, he was fearful now, he was whispering, "Maybe it's too late to save you…" Maybe it was harder to make people live than die…

But a breeze skimming the back of his neck chased the fear away, and he knew any minute now she would wake up.

DarknessFalls

The last thing Kai wanted to do at one o'clock in the morning was hurry back to a bar that they'd left half an hour before just because their leader had forgotten his jacket.

He and Yamagata caught up with Kaneda just as the latter leapt off his bike, ran towards the Harukiya stairs, and then disappeared. There was a yell, and a crash.

"Kaneda?" Kai yelled, hurrying over to the top of the steps. "Are you okay?"

"Ow…ow…"

"You break anything?" Yamagata called.

"I dunno…ow…"

Kai crept down to Kaneda, who was lying awkwardly at the bottom of the steps.

"Try standing up," he said.

"I got that far. It don't work," Kaneda snapped. "It really hurts, and…there's nobody in the damn bar, is there? It's closed, isn't it?"

"Looks like it," Kai said, squinting through the dank, beery darkness. He knocked anyway, but there was no reply.

"I knew that."

"Sure."

"Hey!" Yamagata yelled down from the top of the stairs. "What's going on?"

"I think he's busted his ankle. We could try lifting you out," he said to Kaneda.

"Yeah, right, and drop me halfway."

"Nice to see you trust us so much."

"Has he broken summat?" Yamagata called.

"How should I know? All he keeps saying is it hurts!"

"Look at it. See if it's…y'know, twisted. Or if there's any blood, or bone sticking out."

"I can't see a thing down here. It's night, in case you hadn't noticed." Nevertheless, he slid back Kaneda's trouser leg and squinted at the pale smear of ankle. It was at a slightly odd angle, and when he touched it Kaneda yelped and tried to hit him, so he said, "It don't look good…"

"Thanks for the official diagnosis, doctor," Kaneda muttered.

"I'll go see if I can find…I dunno, an ambulance or something, then…" Yamagata's voice faded away.

"Don't say a word," Kaneda said to him as silence fell again. "Not one."

"I wasn't gonna."

"Good." Kaneda shivered, and tried to pull the sleeves of his T-shirt down a little further. "Man, I could really do with my jacket now, you know…"

Kai could sympathise. It was a cold night, the floor was damp (he hoped from rain) and there wasn't even faint warmth from the streetlamps far above them.

"Were the steps icy or what?" he asked.

"I don't know! I just tried to walk down them and they…ha, they tripped me up for no reason…"

"Sure."

"I'm fr-freezing…"

Kai moved a little closer to him, and said, "It's still hurting?"

"Still hurting…"

Kaneda shivered violently, and whimpered as the movement jarred his foot. Kai had a brief fight with his conscience before deciding he owed it to the gang to make sure its leader didn't die of hypothermia, and pulled off his own jacket.

"Won't fit me…" Kaneda said, yawning. "Too small…"

"Oh, shut up. Wrap it round you. You're going blue."

"You can't tell, s'too dark." But Kaneda took the jacket and pulled it awkwardly round his shoulders.

They sat in silence. Kai's teeth were starting to chatter, and he could feel goose bumps ripping along his arms. He tried, and failed, to read some of the graffiti on the walls around them, and wondered if Yamagata had forgotten them and gone into another bar or something.

"How long've we been down here?" Kaneda whispered.

"A minute? Geez, try to learn some patience. It'll do you good."

Kaneda didn't even respond, which was a bit worrying. Kai glanced at him. He looked pale, but then maybe that was the dark.

"Kaneda?" he said. "Maybe you should try standing again."

Still no response.

"Oh, damn," he muttered. "Kaneda, this is no time to doze off…"

He shook the guy, trying not to jar his foot. Kaneda blinked and muttered, "It's freezing…blanket…"

"I gave you my jacket, what more do you want?"

"M'cold," Kaneda whispered, and he curled up against Kai, his head lolling on the boy's chest.

"I'm cold too," Kai said, more to the watching dark than to anyone else, and put his arms round Kaneda, and let his head rest on the other guy's shoulder.

They stopped shivering so much. That alone made Kai almost comfortable. By the time Yamagata came back with two grumpy paramedics, Kai'd almost got used to keeping Kaneda warm in the darkness.