Hi! Happy New Year, lovely people, here's (finally) the new chap for you! Enjoy!
Munakata wakes before Suoh, which isn't really surprising since his bedmate's just had several hours of flight the day before and anyway, the man would just sleep all day if he could. Usually, Munakata wouldn't really mind, he's now beyond questioning Suoh's laziness or general barbarism, but his arms are wrappedaround him and he can't get up.
He dismisses the temptation to unceremoniously push his bedmate away to wake him given that said bedmate has to take-off later and he, well… hasn't really been able to get much restlast night. Even if Suoh's mainly the one to blame for that –he's the one who tried to seduceMunakata, after all, but whether Munakata likes it or not, part of it is Munakata's responsibility as well for accepting the invitation.
Munakata's only option is then to try and squirm out of Suoh's embrace as delicately as he can so he doesn't wake Suoh –that or staying there until Suoh does wake, but he may have to wait for long before that happens, and there's something awkward anyway about just watching Suoh sleep there, so Munakata has to settle for the first plan.
He somehow manages not to wake Suoh, thanking Suoh's heavy slumber for that. He directly heads to the bathroom and when he's done getting washed and lamenting about the marks on his body, he proceeds to gather their clothes. Finding them scattered even at his front door makes Munakata reflect that alcohol really has terrible effects on him, but he knows deep inside that things like this are going to happen again nonetheless. He sighs at the thought and puts his things in the laundry basket and hangs Suoh's on a chair in his room. Then, he goes to the kitchen to prepare their breakfast.
Eventually, he knows the barbarian's finally awake when he hears water running in the bathroom. When the sound stops, it's not long before Suoh steps in the kitchen and says, "Didn't notice you get up."
"You wouldn't have noticed a truck razing the building in your state." Munakata doesn't really want to start an argument so early in the morning, but he wants even lessto tell Suoh that it's because he'd been extra-careful not to wake him. He really doesn't feel like stroking Suoh's ego right now –or ever,for that matter. Fortunately, Suoh doesn't feel like arguing either and ignores the comment. "'m starving," he declares instead.
Before Munakata can tell him that he'll have to wait or get out of here before he eats, Suoh turns him around and pulls his hips towards Suoh's. At the sight of Suoh's face, Munakata finds that he doesn't like the cocky expression Suoh's making, with something like a predatory glint in it. He has no time to ask what's up because Suoh curtly leans in to capture his lips in a searing kiss. The sudden move makes Munakata give a tiny sound of surprise and Suoh seizes that opportunity to deepen the kiss.
Munakata's confused because they hardly ever kiss, except during sex. He's somehow conscious that maybe that's what Suoh wants with how he grinds his hips against Munakata's, conscious that they definitely have no time for another round. However, his body seems unable to process what his brain's telling to it, the taste of nicotine in Suoh's tongue -and probably the arousal caused by the grinding, too- clouding his mind so he feverishly gives in to the kiss and presses their bodies closer.
Luckily for him, Suoh unexpectedly proves to possess somematurity and eventually breaks the kiss. 'Some maturity' however turns out to be really a little of it since he's looking annoyingly smug now. He licks his lips and says, "Thanks for the meal."
Obviously unhappy to be assimilated to food, Munakata calls Suoh an anthropophagous barbarian, which only makes him laugh at Munakata's pompous vocabulary. What doesn't make him laugh, though, is the actual food that has burnt during their making out because apparently he really was literally hungry when he'd said he was starving. Munakata considers letting him there since he's said he's had his 'meal' anyway but still agrees to prepare another breakfast, not wanting to send his pilot flying with an empty stomach and take the risk to have him collapse inside his plane.
When they're ready to leave the appartment, Munakata allows Suoh to head home before going to work since he'd arrived too late to see Anna last night. Munakata goes to his office directly and checks the flights schedules and weather forecasts for today. He then takes a walk in the basement to check if everything's fine and from outside a hangar, he sees Fushimi and Yata engaged in a lively conversation. The debate, from what Munakata overhears is about Yata's (lack of) skills in planes mechanics and some kind of bet to prove that point. Munakata doesn't linger trying to listen to them, having tried in the first place because Yata isn't supposed to be on duty today so he'd thought that maybe they were talking about something serious. But nothing's ever really serious between these two, it turns out.
As he heads to the airfield, it occurs to him that the two teens have been bickering like that since yesterday and when he is thinking that he wouldn't be able to talk like that with Suoh without getting some terrible headache, he sees the red hair in person walk toward him with a somewhat uneasy expression. Munakata can tell it's his nicotine-deprived expression so he shakes his head with an exasperated smile and pulls two cigarettes from his pocket. He hands one to Suoh who thanks him and flares it immediately. Munakata lights his directly with Suoh's, keeping the ends connected for longer than necessary –his way to return Suoh's kiss from earlier. A quite literal manner of breathing toxic air, he thinks to himself as he pulls out and exhales the smoke invading his lungs.
"I'm glad to see that you aren't late," he says as a welcome.
"Told you you wouldn't make me write two reports, right?"
Munakata sighs, "Your motivations will never cease to amaze me."
"That's the only motivation my boss gives me," Suoh says teasingly.
Munakata doesn't reply, just huffs and they stand there smoking for a moment, both observing the cloudless sky in silence.
After a while, Suoh speaks, "So when's our flight for?"
Munakata doesn't understand, "Ourflight?"
"Said you'd come flying with me someday last night, remember?" Suoh reminds him.
Oh, that.Munakata'd thought it was just idle talk. "So you were serious about that?"
"Of course," Suoh states as if it was obvious.
Except it wasn't. Suoh being serious about anything is a rare thing -a similarity he shares with certain two teens who'd joined to follow him. Still, Munakata really has no objection to the proposition, thinks it might even be edifying on many levels, if only to understand HOMRA's pilots better so he says, "Just complete this current mission, it's time, and we'll decide on a date when you come back."
"So it's a promise, then?" Suoh asks beaming, taking one last drag of his cigarette then throwing it.
"As long as it gives you another motivation," Munakata says, returning his smile. Munakata watches him head to his plane and doesn't come back to his office until the plane's gone out of sight.
Munakata spends the rest of his day reading reports and giving instructions. Today's a rather calm day since apart from Suoh's, there is no other flight scheduled. When he's done with his paperwork, he goes for another tour around the basement at evening. Nobody talks about Totsuka, but the atmosphere in the workplace is heavier so it's obvious his death is on everybody's mind. Despite his attachment to public ceremonies, Munakata doesn't bring up the subject. Some anniversaries just can't be commemorated aloud, you just have to move on and work hard to improve things to make sure nothing of the likes happens again.
He is interrupted during his walk by Awashima who hurriedly calls him, "Captain, there are news about Suoh Mikoto's flight from the radio, I think you should go there."
She doesn't add anything, but Munakata can tell from her tone that it's probably not good news. He feels a pang in his chest at the idea and immediately hurries to the radios' room. There, the responsible of the communications with the pilots that night, Akiyama Himori, reports the situation to him. "Sir," he says, "Suoh Mikoto has just told us that there's a storm that's came toward his plane."
"What? But how come it wasn't in today's weather previsions?" Munakata just can't believe what he's hearing, can't believe that the responsible of the forecasts were incompetent or distracted enough not to report such essential information when there are human lives on the stake.
"I have already asked the station," explains Akiyama, "and apparently it's not the season for this kind of storm so they form too unpredictably for our current materials to detect."
So this is fatality, then, Munakata concludes in his mind. He's never been a superstitious man, but it feels like such a tragic event occurring on this very day has some hidden meaning. "How far is he from the nearest airport now?" he asks, with still some hopes for Suoh to land safely.
"The nearby airports must be inoperational now," Akiyama answers grimly. "The pilot has taken some altitude and is now flying above the storm, but he only has about ten hours of fuel left."
Which means that even if he is "safe" now, he'll eventually fall into that storm once he runs out of carburant. So Munakata'll just have to wait there, powerless, until the ineluctable comes. Munakata thinks that if Suoh's above the turbulence, they still could talk through radio, but what could Munakata say anyway? Talk about the 'weather'? That would be so out of place. Say that he's sorry he's sent Suoh in this fatal storm? That would be a pointless and too painful conversation. Or just say goodbye? He doesn't think he'd have the courage to say that now, so he decides against it and returns to his office.
On his way there, he looks at the sky above him, which is still as clear as it was this morning, and instead of the reassuring feeling it gave then, now it's like it's insulting Munakata because somewhere else, Suoh is trapped in a merciless sky.
Munakata refuses to go home tonight, and most of the unit, too, including Fushimi, who's never seemed to like Suoh but now he looks as troubled as everyone. They're all waiting for the ten fatal hours to pass in a lugubrious silence. No one brings up the subject with him, and Munakata is thankful for that, because he doesn't trust his voice not to shake if anyone asks anything about it. So when the fatal hours are through, each member handles their respective responsibilities in the same silence while Munakata reflects about this loss.
For Totsuka's death, the criminal was one of his men, so, yes, maybe Munakata could have prevented it. But this time, he had no control over the weather or even the forecasts, but Munakata still feels an enormous amount of guilt over it.
Cutting short to his meditation, Fushimi comes in looking uneasy to give him a report recording the loss of one engine. That impersonal paper traducing the death of a man into a mere material outcome seems so surreal that Munakata has the urge to tear it. He manages to repress the temptation by taking a deep breath to calm himself down but still feels the need to at least verbally exteriorize the stormy feelings in him.
"Fushimi-kun," he asks, "do you think we should have been able to avoid this?"
"So you're asking me if we should have guessed that that storm would form despite the meteorologists being unable to foresee it?" The teen reformulates sarcastically, probably to explains that this was nobody's fault.
Munakata shakes his head and says, "What I mean is that because we know that our technologies cannot foresee such events, it was a presumptuous bet to send pilots in the see under the mercy of the whims of hazard."
"Captain, aren't you the one who always talks about the 'greater good'? During the war, we left pilots under the mercy of the enemy's projectiles to protect the country. Now we leave them under the mercy of Nature to deliver essential goods to the victims of war. Suoh Mikoto is just one of the thousands of martyrs of that greater good."
Munakata smiles bitterly, "But is it all worth it?"
The mechanic seems to hesitate before saying, "Are you asking if all those lives are worth it, or if Suoh Mikoto's life was?"
Fushimi pauses and Munakata stares at him in shock, then the teen continues after even more hesitation, "Captain, I've told you before that I don't think much of all this 'greater good' talk, but I know you would say it is worth it if your perception wasn't clouded by personal feelings."
The younger boy looks away awkwardly, letting Munakata reflect on what he's just said. Munakata's mind is flooded by all sorts of thoughts, from wondering if and how Fushimi –or anyone else but him- knows about his relationship with Suoh, to wondering if he's right about Munakata being biased on this incident. Of course Munakata has always deplored the loss of his men, but never before has he questioned their mission, protecting the weak with their own lives, after one such loss. He realizes that this must be how the people close to the victims feel; this indignation toward a system that dooms men to death for people who might never know of their sacrifices, because that's how Munakata feels right now. But then he reflects that as much as it hurts, here, in this basement, he is first and foremost the Captain of the unit and has no right to blame that system, should even be the first to take its defense. Suoh too knew what he was risking when he'd joined, just like Munakata when he'd decided to get personally involved with him.
After sorting out his thoughts like that, he feels somehow calmer and says, "You're right, Fushimi-kun. It is worth it, that's why we're still there and thus we must move on. So for now until a new pilot is recruited, we must rearrange our schedules to assign Suoh Mikoto's flights to someone else."
At the words "Suoh Mikoto's flights," Munakata vaguely recalls the promise they'd made before leaving, of Munakata flying with him someday, and how he was in fact really looking forward to it. That'll never happen now, he thinks bitterly, but it's not the time to mourn over that, there's a lot to take care of now, he'll have plenty of time to grieve when he gets home, alone among the fresh memories of one year of fleeting delusions.
orz
You can throw stones at me for the wait and everything... But please bear with me for a little longer, guys, we're nearly at the end of this story 3