Claustrophobia
"Instructor!"
"I know. The helo's under attack."
His voice was incredibly calm, considering the situation they were in and compared to the near-hysterical note in her voice.
It was all dark in their small, cramped box and the even smaller, cramped car they were in; a simple ten-minute travel had turned dangerous. They could hear the distant repetitive gunfire, and the much-closer pinging of the bullets off of the metal of their box and the helicopter carrying them.
She looked up at him in the darkness lit only by the running lights of the car, grasping his arm as if it were a lifeline.
"What if it crashes on us?" she asked.
His face adopted a determined expression, one she used to take for anger (that expression was very similar, in her defense). "Don't worry! No matter how dangerous it gets, out pilots will protect us!"
Taking comfort, she turned to the cowering figure in the backseat of the car. "Mr. Touma, you're safe with us!" She continued to spout encouragement, as if it was more for herself than Touma.
The box shook violently, and she gasped in fright, leaning closer to her instructor for protection. He took her hand in one of his own, the other coming to wrap around her shoulders, pulling her closer as he rested his cheek against the top of her head. Her eyes opened wide in surprise, but it was quickly wiped away as the box shuddered again.
There was a clanking noise of chain on metal, then the whole box crashed to the ground…
"N-no!"
She flailed and fell from the bed, still in the memory. Her eyes flew open, but all she saw was darkness.
No.
The helicopter had crashed. She was—
"Iku?"
Why was Atsushi so calm? They were going to die!
She shuddered, the sound of guns still ringing in her ears. Facedown, she pulled her knees up to her chest, pressed her forehead to the floor and covered her ears. A sob escaped her lips. It was so dark. Why was it so dark? It pressed in on all sides, threatening to suffocate her.
"…Iku?"
With a soft click, light flooded the room, but it only startled her and, like a flash of lightning, she saw him on the ground, clutching at a badly bleeding wound in his leg, courtesy of a gun held by a red-clad officer. Atsushi was screaming at her to run, to save herself and Touma, to leave him to die.
"What are you doing on the floor?" Atsushi sounded part-amused, part-worried, and part-exasperated. "It's the middle of the night. We have to get up early for duty tomorrow."
She couldn't respond. She felt choked.
She was choking on the blood, on the darkness, on the sound of guns.
A pair of warm hands rested on her shoulders and she lifted her head a fraction. "What's wrong?" her husband asked, all the amusement and sleepiness gone from his voice. There was only concern now.
"A-Atsushi…" she gasped finally.
He forced her to sit up, but only to wrap his arms around her, pressing her face to his shoulder. "Hush."
She sobbed in response, her whole body shaking with the effort.
"We're safe," Atsushi continued softly. "We're safe. Don't cry, we're safe." He continued to murmur these words into her ear until she relaxed and realized that he was right. They were safe. There was so helicopter, no MBC agents trying to take it down to capture the cowering author. The room was lit with a soft warm light. Still, she shuddered badly, as if she had frozen on the inside. She had felt this way only once before, and that was after taking her first life in defense of herself, her fellow LDF members, and the artwork known as Freedom.
"I-I had a dream…" she said, pulling herself from another unpleasant memory.
"So I figured."
"It was about that time when we were p-protecting Mr. Touma…when the helo nearly g-got shot down…"
"Ah." He sighed, his breath warm on her skin. Still, she shuddered. He carefully picked her up, and set her on the bed, wrapping her in a thick blanket. "Tea?" he asked, shaking his shirt sleeve down below his hand and using it to rub her tears away.
Iku shivered, not at his touch, but at her dream. She nodded mutely and he stood straight, moving over to the small kitchenette in their room. Soon, the sounds of heating water filled the air. A few minutes later, Atsushi returned to the bed, a mug of her favorite blend of tea in his hand. He sat down next to her and wrapped her hand around the mug, careful to keep his own next to hers, in case her shaking caused her to spill the hot drink.
Then her bad night would only turn worse.
"Take a sip," he ordered. She nodded and lifted the drink to her lips. Atsushi settled next to her, one arm protectively around her waist.
It wasn't until Iku had finished her tea that she stopped shivering, her hand ceased their shaking, and her face, once wet with tears, dried.
"It's ironic," Atsushi said, finally breaking the silence. "I was just thinking about that the other day." He shuddered. "Anyone in a situation like the one we were in would be scarred for life."
"You don't show it."
"Not outwardly. I don't think I'll ever be able to go into a dark and cramped space again. Like those storerooms near the stacks?"
"You did seem a little spooked the other day when you went to get that book."
"It's hard to hide." He plucked her empty mug from her hands, setting it down on his nightstand next to a book with a white cover. The blue-colored text clearly read The Bluebird Knights, and it was Touma's most famous book, written during and after his desperate escape from Japan almost three years ago.
Atsushi reached for the light to turn it off, but Iku stiffened in his arms. "Don't," she began, reaching out to stop him. He paused.
"We can't sleep with the light on."
Her gaze hardened slightly with determination. "Yes, we can." She sniffled. "Please?"
Atsushi sighed. He got up once more from the bed and went to turn on the light in the kitchenette, before returning to bed and turning off the other lamp. "How's that?" he asked, stretching out under the blankets and pulling Iku down next to him. In the semi-darkness, she saw him smile.
"I think that's good."
Atsushi kissed her. "Then let's try to sleep."
Iku nodded and buried her face in his shoulder, taking comfort from his warmth.
Author's note: Once again, while watching the amazingness that is Library Wars: Wings of Revolution,I'm hit with inspiration. It occurred to me that such an event as being confined in a dark box that was dangling dangerously above the ground and being fired on at the same time would leave some trauma behind. Iku, being who she is, would show it more than Atsushi (I will never get used to calling him that; he will always be Dojo to me), but she would be able to pick out his expressions by this point to know he carries the same brand of claustrophobia that she does, (they've been married for a year or so at this point, and it's before the epilogue of the movie).
All in all, a little hurt and comfort, with some classic fluff from our favorite couple. Hope you enjoyed!
(PS: I still get thouroughly confused by this scene. Did the full thing actually happen? How did they manage to escape the MBC, because it clearly looked like they were surrounded. Any theories?)
