Disclaimer: Dekaranger is not mine
Notes: This fic marks the end of my Ban/Hoji claim for the LiveJournal community 30smiles. I'm proud that I accomplished something that I set out to do, but I'm also sad that I no longer have an excuse to write my silly Ban/Hoji fics. I'd like to thank everyone at 30smiles for the opportunity to flex my writing muscles. :)
This is so long for now,
We'll meet again somehow,
Until the day we do,
I will be thinking of you!
'Farewell', the cast of Jem and the Holograms (lyrics gacked form And did I just use Jem lyrics for my Deka slash fic! WHY YES I DID.
Oh, and spoilers for the end of Tokusou Sentai DekaRanger, obviously.
--
It had been a week since Agent Abrera's deletion, and things were slowly returning to normal at the Earth branch of SPD-- except for the fact that Akaza Banban would be leaving that day to join the Fire Squad.
Ban himself had changed, too. He still had his overly cheerful moments, but those were becoming fewer and further between. Something in their last battle together had made him calmer, quieter, but stronger. It was easy now to see why Gyoku Rou wanted him on his team... and leave his old teammates to resume their normal lives before he came.
Things would never be normal for Hoji again.
And that was why he had to do this. He had never been good with farewells-- not with his parents when they died, not with Miwa when she moved in with her husband, and now would certainly be no exception. But he refused to just let Ban go and leave this hanging in the air.
Finally, he found him up on the roof, watching the sunrise. This was going to hurt, this was going to hurt mare than anything he had felt in his life, but he made himself sit next to Ban anyways. "You're leaving this afternoon. Shouldn't you be packing?"
"Hm? Oh, I don't have much stuff, so I finished that a long time ago." Ban leaned back and smiled broadly, but it was painfully obvious that his attempt to act relaxed about leaving the team was just that.
Hoji leaned in close. "Ban, listen to me."
"Yes?" Ban breathed the word more than he spoke it.
"... Gyoku-san is a good leader, but he's even tougher than Boss when it comes to mistakes. So don't mess up and make the rest of us look bad."
"Oh. Right." His smile was even more transparent than the last one. "Don't worry, partner. Justice always wins out in the end, right?"
Hoji nodded weakly. Just forget your damn pride for once in your life and tell him how you feel! He decided at this point he had nothing to lose if he gave up saying it altogether and kissed him good-bye instead.
So he did.
When he pulled away, Ban was smiling again, only this time it was for real. "I never would've expected that kind of behavior from you, partner."
"Neither did I. Desperate times, I guess," Hoji admitted. "I just wish I'd kissed you before the day you have to leave."
"Well," Ban said as he rested against Hoji's side, "I'm going to come visit you guys every chance I get. Somebody's got to make sure Tetsu's keeping you guys from getting soft, right?"
Hoji smiled back. "Sounds like a plan."
The sun was coming up, Ban was leaving, and things would never be normal again for Hoji.
But everything would be okay now, and that was better than normal.