"Cato…what was that?" I tensely asked, waiting to see if anything else would happen. "Dunno. Should we check it out?" I shrugged, "It could be nothing." Cato nodded, "But it could be something." I thought about it for a moment, "Maybe we should wait and see if we hear anything else, and if nothing happens, we just leave it at that?" Cato nodded and laid back down, draping an arm across his eyes. I paused, waiting to see if I heard anything else, before laying back down next to Cato. I closed my eyes, almost uncomfortably aware of Cato's steady breathing next to me, and how heat was radiating off his body. I could hear him roll over, breathing a comfortable sigh as he lay still. A loud, but distant boom echoed again, and my eyes snapped open. "OK, I'm going to go see what that was," he said, sliding out of bed and I could hear him struggle to pull his boots on. I sat up, "I'm coming too." Cato looked briefly at me, before turning back to his shoe problem, "Absolutely not." I raised an eyebrow and frowned, "Excuse me?"
"I said no. It could be dangerous." I narrowed my eyes at him, "so you want me to just let you go figure out whatever that was without me, who by the way, can heal incredibly fast?" Cato paused, his prominent muscles in his back and arms flexing from his position. "You're suppose to be in a wheelchair," he said, looking back at me. I raised an eyebrow, "And you're supposed to be my brother. There's no way in hell or on earth that I'm going to just allow you to figure this shit out by yourself." Cato sighed and opened his mouth to respond, "Brother or not," I said quickly, cutting him off. He sighed, running a hand through his messy, blonde hair. "I don't know, Hitomi-" I cut him off again, "I've been trained by the marines since I was four, I have been turned into a living weapon, and my training coach was one of the three admirals. I. Am. Going."
"Ok, ok. Just….get your stuff on." I nodded, smiling at my small victory. I slid out of the bed, leaving the warm blankets and shuddering at the cool air on my bare legs. I opened a drawer and took out a folded blanket, preferring to just cover my legs with a blanket than to actually wear pants. I did, however, slide a soft, grey sweater over my head, effectually shutting out the cold that was slowly freezing my upper body. "Are you ready to go or not?" Cato, sulked, standing next to my wheelchair. I sat down in it, preferring to spread the blanket over my lap than to answer a obvious question. Cato opened the door and gently wheeled me out, pausing only to shut the door behind me. "Where are we going?" I asked, watching as we paused down the many, long, confusing hallways. We had to go the longer ways because of my "disability".
"Down the hallway…because we can't take the stairs?" he asked. I rolled my eyes, "I didn't mean that. I meant how do you know this is the way to go?" Cato hmm-ed, "Well, I heard the explosion come from somewhere on the right side of the boat, and knowing how the ship rocked, it meant that it had to come down somewhere close to the kitchen. So, I figured we would start there and see what we could find. Besides, even if the explosion didn't come from there, the kitchen ladies are such gossip hounds that I figured we would at least get some information."
I nodded, processing the information. Sometimes it was really easy to forget how smart Cato was. If I were a more paranoid person, I would suspect that the care free, 9 year old personality was just an act, perhaps to rob the rich, pretty girl he was currently dating, blind. However, after the years of being friends with him, though most of them didn't start as friends, I learned that the care free, annoying 9 year old personality was him. To an extent anyway. Street rats don't usually grow up in a happy environment. So, at least a little bit of that happy is not pure, but who cares.
"What are you thinking about?" I blinked, and looked back at him. "Hmm?" Cato looked briefly down at me with a grin, "You suddenly went quiet with that weird thoughtful look you have. So spill." I looked back ahead, a hint of a grin on my face, "Just thinking that underneath that five year old attitude, its really easy to forget how smart you are."
I smirked as I felt the wheelchair pause for a split second before continuing onward, "I don't know if that's a compliment or an insult," Cato said dryly. "In your case, it's a compliment." I smirked. "Gee…thanks."
"No problem!" I said, cheerfully. I gasped as I was suddenly shoved forward, and the wheelchair curved and slammed into a wall. I cried out in pain as my ring finger was bent backwards and snapped. The ship rocketed, steadied, and stilled as another explosion rocket down the halls. I hissed in pain and drew my damaged hand closer to me, grimacing at my broken finger. My ring finger was broken at the joint and was pointing at my wrist. "Fuck… that hurts." I groaned. I prepared myself, bit my lip, and quickly snapped my finger back into its original position. I sighed in both pain and relief as I felt the bone, muscle, and skin slowly start to stitch back together.
A flash of blonde suddenly filled my vision. "Oh shit Hitomi! I mean Haurta-Hitomi, fuck it, never mind. Crap, I'm so sorry!" he gasped, seeing the blood, and damage. I shook my head, "Not your fault. How would you know another explosion was going to happen?" I grimaced as Cato ripped a piece of his tank top's hem off and started to wrap my finger against my middle finger to form a splint. "Damn, I hate breaking bones, especially fingers. They always take so long to heal, and they hurt like a bitch," I said, as Cato tied off the splint. Cato stayed squatted down, and rubbed his chin in thought, "Ok, now I'm really curious what these whole explosions was." I nodded in agreement.
"This really piqued my interest now. We should figure this out."
Cato suddenly grabbed my knees to steady himself as another huge vibration rocked the ship. I steadied him by his shoulders and once the last of the rocking passed, I dimly noticed how close our faces were to each other and felt his breath on my lips. I focused on his lips and just barely moved a half inch forward. Cato sat down quickly and grinned up at me as I sat back in quiet shock. "How are we going to make it down the hallway without tripping?" Cato said cheekily, as his blue eyes grinned up at me. I smiled wearily and brought a hand up to cover my mouth. Ignoring the swirling of butterflies in my gut, I looked down the dimly lit hallway. "Fuck."