The scene must look, he realizes dully, like a tableaux of almost comical statues. All so focused, so intent on the small body turning a graceful arc in the air above. Ren's arms spread wide, almost as though he is truly flying--
The back-breaking thud shatters the spell of slowness, but even then they are all incredulous. Even Bason…even Bason looks as though he doesn't quite believe it. Until the blood leaks darkly from under Ren's back, good god, he's never seen so much blood, so much dull crimson sticky life outside anyone's body before. If he thought it would do any good, he'd try and force it back into Ren. A mental hiccup. Ren's blood into his veins, where it's supposed to be, not spreading out like desecration onto the sacred soil and godohgod is he still breathing? Why is his face like that, so tortured and still and his eyes are closed please Ren open your eyes please –
It has to be some horrible mistake, this can't be Ren in such a vulnerable position, it's one of those things that's just not supposed to happen, can never happen, should never happen, unthinkable.
At first, he doesn't recognize the tortured scream as his own.
And then he's already moving, holding onto that single syllable as though if he says it loud enough, long enough, then Ren will hear it and then he'll tell him to shut up or call him a baka, or anything, anything but the awful silence, the stillness.
Then the cloth-masked man is in the air and there's nothing for it but to bring up the ikupasui, defend with the oh-so-brittle wall of ice and pray he can hold it long enough, just long enough for Faust to do something, anything. He falls into the familiar rhythm of combat, trying not to think about all that blood, Faust's desperate voice behind him, Ryu's and Chocolove's pained cries as they're knocked back into his own cruelly cold shield, a sort of final defiance.
And of course, in the end, not even his own small power is enough, Eres Correct chipping it away so quickly it barely has time to begin to melt.
Without Lyserg and his beautiful Morphin-tenshi, they would all be dead.
Without Ren opening his eyes and springing into action as he always does, that fate would have been reserved for the green-haired Diethyl alone.
Horohoro can't fight the pang of relieved joy at seeing that familiar tiger-gaze, but he wishes he could take back the hot streak of jealousy at seeing Ren holding someone else in his arms. He pushes it to the back of his thoughts, because proud arrogant Tao Ren will probably never even consider him that way anyway, and it would be stupid to have begrudged Lyserg his life on petty, ridiculous possessiveness that he doesn't even have the right to feel.
Horohoro welcomes him back the only way he can. "Bakayarou, do you know how much trouble we all went through for you?"
The answer is shocking, to say the least. And though Ren's monumental apology (since when did the stiff-necked Chinese boy apologize for anything, anyway?) is for all of Yoh-tachi, Horohoro sees, just for a single moment, that the golden gaze is focused on him alone. He wonders if his imagination is responsible – is that really a touch of softness he sees, trapped in the depths like a minute insect?
He just grins back, warm wetness at the corners of his eyes painfully obvious, and hopes that Ren won't notice.
"Why are you crying, Horohoro no baka?"
A mental sigh, even as he retorts and finds himself caught up in another argument with an overtone of what is for once a lighthearted camaraderie.
Some things, he notes, will never change.
~-~-~-~-~
A/N: This is what happens when you watch episode 60 too many times. XD *bashes head on wall* Can't…stop…writing…RenHoro! Not that anyone minds, right? Right. Except that I'm writing when I should actually be doing poetry analysis and studying for a unit test ^^; Ehe. Not sure when I'll next update, since the horrible deadlines are out to get me ~ no, anything but math! Plus I want to work a bit more on my Beyblade fanfics, which are getting rusty, though I'm still faithfully watching V-Force.
Ri Ame Toraookami – Sankyuu ^.^ HaoJeanne was made to be disturbing, methinks. Mahojin - ^^; Guilty as charged, I was under the influence of the descriptive writing course a month back. Plus "Horohoro woke up," which was my original starting line, sounds...meh, you know. And for 'Tenshi,' of course we have to give the X-Laws a happy ending, right? They're endearing somehow. Except maybe for Marco. Thoguh I want to write something about him too. Um. ChienEin – XD Nice way to put it. And – and – and – and - *twitch* I SAW IT! I SAW YOUR RENHORO V-DAY PIC! :glomptacklehug: BYOOTIFUL! Blue Eyed Angel2 – Yaaay! Another RenHoro fan! *cheers and waves pompoms* WAIII WAIII!
It's time to put up my Valentines pic (look in draconicality.deviantart.com – it's a couple of days late because I didn't want to do a rush job and I'm not used to charcoal pencil.) Then I'm off to finish my school projects. Then a Beyblade one-shot. Then more to add to this collection, LOL ^_^ EneriRenie, I'm still waiting for your request! (I must sound pushy but all the things I need to complete for school have been making me act like that for the past few day…I'm like Yoh, lazy lazy lazy and with the habit of rolling oranges. But I like to get things done quickly.) Ja ne, minna-san!