DISCLAIMER: The characters belong to Sunrise. Chilton Price wrote the 1952 song, "You Belong to Me" and Jo Stafford recorded it.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I love these characters and their journey of finding their way 'home'. As always read, review, and most of all enjoy.
You Belong to Me
Standing in the hot early morning sun of the Egyptian desert, Midori wondered just what possessed her when she accepted Professor Sasaki's offer. Since her arrival, her mind has been erratic, even during the busiest moments, and it continually plagues her. This was the perfect opportunity to spend more time with him, but this was not what she originally had in mind.
As Professor Sasaki passed the dining tent on his way to his tent, he spotted Midori exiting and asked, "Sugiura, have you started cataloguing the pieces?"
The professor startled Midori, because her mind was still on cataloguing the pieces from this morning.
"Yes Professor, I have, but there seems to be a problem with the workers," Midori answered a bit distracted, remembering all the superstitions the workers voiced to her.
"Yes, yes, I know. Some of these men are worried about some curse or other. Never mind all that…are any of those pieces ready for shipment?" the Professor asked.
"They'll be ready in the morning," Midori replied, noticing the far off look in her mentor's eyes. "Is there a problem, Professor Sasaki?"
"No Sugiura, there isn't. Bring the cataloguing information to my tent as soon as it is complete. For now, I'll be leaving everything in your capable hands," the Professor answered, looking through Midori.
Midori thought he always seemed to be preoccupied and part of her didn't understand it. She pushed her large, wide-brimmed hat up from her eyes with her thumb and sighed heavily.
"Hey Youko, there's an 'I told you so' somewhere in this," Midori chuckled to herself as an arid breeze swept by.
As Midori headed back towards her tent, she couldn't shake the feelings of uncertainty about her choice and insecurity over her reason. She knew she wanted to be here, it was her field of study after all and it meant working with Professor Sasaki again, her mentor, but it was lonelier here than she remembered or expected.
As an archaeologist, Midori knew this was where she belonged and she was supposed to be happy in the field, searching for lost civilizations and long forgotten treasures, but she was still confused. For some unknown reason, she wasn't happy, well, not as happy as she thought she should be. Her head was beginning to hurt, so she shrugged, chuckled, and thought a drink sounded good about now.
"You are out of your mind, Midori. It's too damn early for a drink."
"Too damn hot, too," Midori said to no one, as she entered her tent.
Youko's voice had always been the one of reason and it was the voice she heard whenever thoughts like these crossed her mind.
"Okay, enough of this, I have work to do for Professor Sasaki," Midori reprimanded herself, as she sat at the makeshift desk and gathered up the paperwork she'd been working on.
With a heavy sigh, Midori started putting the papers in order. Suddenly, she remembered one of her last drinking escapades with Youko…
They had been celebrating the end of final exams at a local club, already at least one sheet to the wind, when someone fired up the karaoke machine.
Midori seemed to immediately sober up and smiled mischievously at Youko. If anything, Youko knew exactly what that smile meant…nothing good was about to happen. The wild redhead excused herself from the table, leaving a slightly nervous Youko, and headed towards the small stage.
"Don't even think of it, Midori," Youko said to herself, as she watched Midori speaking with the young woman on stage.
The sound of laughter emanated from Midori's tent as she remembered the look on Youko's face when she hit the stage singing her heart out to her extremely embarrassed best friend. Midori loved being with Youko, because they never had a bad time. Each time they got together, it was always fun and exciting, sometimes dangerous or crazy, but definitely exciting.
Youko…
Midori shook her head to clear her mind and attempted to look over some of the artifacts she had yet to catalogue. Pottery, papyrus, shrouds, figurines, and small sections of hieroglyphic tablets surrounded her and yet mocked her.
Professor Sasaki…
"All work and no play make Midori a boring girl," Midori chuckled and thought about Kei, the cute research intern.
Rational thought returned and Midori muttered, "No, you fool, she's not the one."
Midori deeply sighed and reminded herself, "All play and incomplete work, gets Sugiura booted off the site. I'm a scientist, not an irrational child…even though Youko would beg to differ."
As she was brushing off a tablet, Midori dropped it on her foot. Granted, the tablet was small, but it hurt like hell and Midori chided herself for allowing her mind to wander. She reminded herself the nature of her work was sensitive and snickered when her inner child muttered, 'You mean boring,' and required her full attention.
After making sure her foot was okay, albeit sore, Midori returned to work on the last of the pieces she needed to catalogue and prep for the morning. No matter what else was going on around the site, she knew she needed to get the paperwork to the Professor early the next morning.
"Oh please Mamoru, you couldn't find your way out of a bathroom without instructions," A boisterous male voice joked outside Midori's tent.
"You are no better, Kato, always looking for the Professor's approval. If you try any harder, you'll be as bad as Sugiura. One step away from humping the man's leg like some horny puppy," replied a softer male voice.
Midori felt fire surge through her veins and silently cursed these two idiots, who were about to meet their makers.
"Excuse me," Midori stuck her head out of the tent and said through clenched teeth, trying to maintain an even tone.
"Yes, Miss Sugiura," both replied.
"Midori, please, call me Midori. I'm not that much older than you two. I only just graduated. I was wondering if you two could help me with some of these packing crates," Midori said with a forced cheerful smile.
In her mind, Midori was plotting how she was going to punish these two fools. Since arriving at the dig, neither young man had been very helpful with sharing the labor or the chores around the site. They were disrespectful behind the Professor's back and gave everyone else a hard time when asked to help in any way.
"Actually, um…Midori, Mamoru and I were asked by Professor Sasaki to help the others inside the new chamber," Kato replied, running a hand through his long black hair, trying to fit the bishonen stereotype.
"The Professor wants a bunch of pictures of the new section of glyphs…for a montage or something…I guess," Mamoru added, holding up his camera bag and motioning to the lights Kato was carrying.
Midori was having a difficult time suppressing the laughter threatening to bubble forth, as she planned her revenge on the two idiots before her…for the earlier comment and everything else. It was also notably hilarious Professor Sasaki assigned these two clowns to a job she and he completed last night.
Last night, while the others slept, Midori and the Professor both found themselves too curious to sleep. Midori had taken her gear down to the new chamber and was studying the wall of glyphs, when the Professor came in with his camera and some modern lighting equipment to replace the torches, in order to give off the necessary light for photography.
"Ah, Sugiura, couldn't sleep either I see," the Professor said as he began setting up the lights, not paying her much mind.
"No sir, I was too excited to sleep. Are you going to take pictures now?" Midori asked as she set her brush down and watched him finish setting up the last of the lights.
"I need to have this done correctly. We all know Mamoru and Kato won't, but they need something to keep them out of everyone's hair tomorrow, while we all prepare the shipment. The shipment of artifacts needs to be ready to go when the delivery truck arrives," Professor Sasaki said as he began taking pictures.
Midori laughed, because she knew the old man was no fool.
Midori focused on the two idiots in front of her and decided to level the playing field in her favor, unbeknownst to these two, of course.
"How about getting together for some drinks in the dining tent tonight…to celebrate the new find? I'll even supply the booze," Midori said, watching in silent glee, as the two young men tried to figure out if she was scamming them.
"Sure," Mamoru replied without much thought or hesitation, "What's the danger of a drink or two?"
Kato thought he saw a glint in Midori's eyes that bespoke of a trap, but she just smiled and sent them on their way. She watched them head towards the latest find, happily ignorant. Midori retreated into her tent and laughed madly.
Danger indeed…