The culprits are from the last visiting flock. Hizashi fumes.
They could have injured Sundown Red, and for what? The opportunity to gain custody of the nestling? There's a difference between bringing a young back home in good faith and purposely framing someone by putting a nestling in danger.
They're lucky Hitoshi ran into them and didn't fall for their tricks. He suspects they were going to blame Sundown Red's wounds on Hitoshi. He can hear the complaint already. 'The Yamada flock brought a dangerous outsider into their settlement and put every nestling in danger. How can we trust them to take care of their nestlings?'
This was a premeditated plan too. Looking back, their flock has been stretching out the goodbyes over several events so as to not awaken any suspicions when they were going to enact their ploy.
On the bright side… This entire awful event will ease taking custody of the little double-soul. It must undeniably be fate. How could anyone explain the circumstances that brought them to his flock? What are the chances of Hitoshi stumbling onto them and bringing them to Hizashi?
Their right side looks exactly like a recently passed member of the flock and their left, Mellow's hatcher. (Hizashi isn't supposed to know, but rumours and speculations travel fast in the flock.) The Spirits have given the newly named nestlings a sibling. Two naming ceremonies happening so close to each other is truly an auspicious sign.
It's not like the other flock will miss them. They've been uncharacteristically silent since their hurried leave. No loud requests to take the double-soul back.
Not that they'll ever return the nestling. That flock is old fashioned and follows the belief that double-souls are unnatural. Their prejudice can be felt through the nestling's discomfort at being preened and given attention.
The stage is hastily reconstructed to welcome the new flock member. They haven't gotten confirmation from the council yet, but the little double-soul is theirs. If the neighbouring flock tries to take her, Hizashi's flock has more than enough tricks and debts to be collected up their sleeves.
This naming celebration isn't as big, but the flock easily finds as much jewelry to gift them. They preens and keeps running their talons over the bracelets and jewels, keeps letting surprised squawks when people give them affection during the entire parade. They take well to their new younger namemates and haven't asked for Hitoshi yet.
Hizashi's friend's been resting in the shuttle for the entire time. Hizashi's relieved Hitoshi isn't suffering from overheat. The panting, general weakness, and slight disorientation had been alarming, but Hitoshi's quick recovery and body temperature points the diagnostic more toward a mix of overexertion and trauma memory than overheating.
Hizashi doesn't believe he'd hurt them, even in the midst of a haze. The proof stares him in the face, the two nestlings uninjured despite Hitoshi's panicked state. He's told Hitoshi as much, when he was preening his head fur in an attempt to ground him more firmly in the present. Even Shouta had helped with a few stiff head pats—which Hitoshi accepted with the most uncomfortable expression—until he'd deemed the process too arduous and placed their mèos in Hitoshi's upper limbs.
He's glad Hitoshi declined attending the naming ceremony. Despite how much Hitoshi has acted nonchalantly, Hizashi's worried he won't be able to leave without the double-soul nestling, especially with the protective display Hizashi had been able to break through. He's the one who found them and any See'krtsh from these parts would consider this enough justification to make them a member of their flock. With Hitoshi having such a small pack, how could he resist the appeal of expanding it with a basically flockless nestling?
The only thing that might have prevented Hitoshi from latching onto them was his belief they belonged to Hizashi's flock, but the Naming ceremony dispelled that thought. Hizashi fears Hitoshi will be heartbroken once they're back on the ship. He's hoping time with Engine and Lamp will soothe the worse of his empty nest sickness.
When he shares his worry to Shouta, his bondmate answers skeptically, "Are you sure? Has Hitoshi told you about this?"
"Not really? But you've seen how he holds Engine and Lamp!"
Shouta doesn't look convinced by Hizashi's very valid argument. "You're worried about Hitoshi reacting poorly because of his hypothetical kits."
"Well, when you say it like that," mumbles Hizashi.
Shouta nudges Hizashi's face with his cheek. The fur there is mused from rubbing cheeks with Sundown Red—who's going to be under strict supervision for the next seasons, what was she thinking sneaking out like that?—and the double-soul. The look of absolute bafflement on the double-soul nestling had been a sight Hizashi will never forget. " If he had kits, he didn't die from being taken away from them. He'll be fine with youngs he barely knows."
Shouta's right. Hizashi's projecting his worry onto Hitoshi because he can't help his flock deal with the neighbouring flock in a way that won't fall back on his flock.
Speaking of his flock…
They keep hanging around the shuttle in the hopes Hitoshi will come out so they can braid beads into his fur or slide bracelets on his limbs. Hizashi tries to chase them away, but let it not be said that his flock isn't unrelentless when it comes to repaying debts, even when Hizashi told them repeatedly that he doesn't need help with the life debt he owes. He only manages to make them fly away when he promises to give them to Hitoshi in their place.
Hizashi wished he had more time with the double-soul and his newly named nestlings, and that Hitoshi could get another meeting with mind healer Stripes, but unfortunately, the sudden attention means they have to leave earlier than they planned. While the region's council is usually lenient, Hizashi doesn't want to risk it. Hitoshi's in a precarious position, and discovery of his human nature could put Hizashi's entire flock in danger.
Hizashi cries a little when he says his goodbyes. He follows his flock for one last flight dance, occasionally letting out low caws that are echoed by his entire flock. They cling to Hizashi and Shouta all the way to Sector 9, the nagging thought that this might be the last time they see each other until a rebirth weighing down on all of them. Hitoshi stands further away with his head turned to the side to give them some privacy. He's wearing as much jewelry as he can manage and the beads in his fur rattle on each step.
Eventually, they have to let go. They receive wishes of safe travel and are made to promise to take care of themselves, as well as update the flock frequently.
They go through the same decontaminating procedure as when they landed. The custom officers are given another token of their gratitude in the form of 2000 credits each. The ship's sudden drop of temperature makes him shiver.
Shouta bumps their side together, wrapping his scarf around Hizashi to keep him warm. It always takes him some time before he accustomed himself to their colder and emptier ship.
"Your flock is nice. Loud, like you."
Hizashi chirps happily at Hitoshi's teasing tone. He thought Shouta had been mistaken when Hitoshi tried to stay behind, but it turned out to be easy to deal with. It's Hizashi's fault anyways; he should have prepared Hitoshi more for their departure instead of taking for granted Hitoshi's easy affirmation-shaking when he told him they were leaving.
Even though Hitoshi could still have a delayed reaction, Hizashi's more at ease when he supervises Hitoshi putting his harness on and clipping himself in. He'll try to distract Hitoshi more in the next few cycles, take his mind off the nestling.
Shouta and he inspect their ship before turning on automatic lift-off when they get permission from central.
They sit back while the heavy weight that presses them in their seats grows stronger and stronger, before it alleviates until they're almost floating in their seats. Hizashi checks and double checks the engines, the hull's and the stabilizers' integrity, while Shouta switches the ship from take-off to idle, the artificial gravity bringing them back to their seats. They work with a practiced ease that's almost instinctual, mostly muscle memory, going through protocols swiftly. He would usually have taken the occasion to use this as a teaching opportunity for Hitoshi, as this has several different steps from escaping a trading post's gravity, but they're all tired now. There will be more occasions.
It barely takes them thirty clicks to be done. Shouta puts the ship on low thrust and taps in the coords Hizashi's hatchmate gave them, before he stretches his back, slipping a treat to Engine and Lamp. They impatiently click to be let out, barely appeased by Shouta's pets.
"Alright, so we're going to go check the ship out and then we're out of here."
"What do I do when we see the ship?" Hitoshi struggles a little at unclipping his harness from the jump seat, the cycles of no practice sending his previous progress to a backslide.
Hizashi laughs. "Well, first we'll look for any identifier on the hull, follow it around. If we can, we'll hack into it to look at its previous travel logs, and if necessary, we'll have a nice discussion with them to clear any misunderstanding." The nice discussion might or might not involve some threats, depending on what information they've collected. Hitoshi agreement-shakes, his brows slightly scrunched up. "You'll stay here until we come back. You should stay clipped in, actually. We'll be flying in manual, until we're further away from my planet."
Hitoshi stares at him. Hizashi hasn't really gotten a good handle on the whole point of human eye-contact yet, as the gesture has been used in very versatile situations, but he holds Hitoshi's gaze to reciprocate.
Hizashi breathes out when Hitoshi looks away first. That was a bit intense.
They're cruising at a good pace; they should have sights on the problem ship in under a cycle. In the meantime, Hizashi makes some small talk with Shouta, bringing up new gift ideas for the next time they'll visit. When he switches the communal screen from their logs to message his flock, he sees there's an encrypted message from Tensei. He takes the time to tell his flock they've taken off safely, crooning when he receives pictures of the double-soul sleeping with the other nestlings, before opening Tensei's message. It's layered more heavily than usual and the file is bigger than a text message should be. Toshinori's in charge of extracting information, but Tensei has apparently been sifting through what Toshinori has been able to decrypt while they were on planet.
Found add info about DW. Thread carefully
Under it is a video file, the preview too blurry to parse. They simultaneously turn toward Hitoshi. He's fallen asleep, face comically squished against the side cushion they put up for his neck. His mouth is slightly parted, a line of drool drying on his chin. During their time with the flock, Hitoshi has started sleeping at the same time as them, napping when it's mid human cycle instead of playing with the mèos or doing the work Shouta assigned him.
Hizashi silently closes the message from the communal screen, moving it down to their padds. Without a word, Shouta puts on his earpieces and they both dim their screens to privacy mode.
It starts shaky. The person holding the camera points it toward two Qeow'Fiu. They wave their tentacles at the camera, friendly insults toward the person behind the camera. Despite suspecting where it's going, Hizashi's stomach drops when it pans toward an arena.
Oxidized blood stains the floor and reinforced walls. The haptics in his pads tells him the announcer has started speaking, but the crowd is too loud for him to parse through what they're saying.
Soon enough, a E'Ehs is pushed in the arena, the door closing behind them. They bang on it, their terror showcased on big screens to the delight of the crowd.
The camera turns toward the Qeow'Fius again. They mimic the E'Ehs, recreating their moon eyed look and their frightened pleas before falling into snickers.
When Hizashi looks up, he sees Shouta staring impassively at his padd, his upset showed through pinned back ears and the tense muscles of his scarf.
The video continues. The announcer makes a big speech Hizashi skips by increments. It ends with them gesturing toward the spotlights where another fighter comes out, hair sticking wildly up, blood crusted on their fingers. They snarl at the bright light shining in their face, their features distorted by rage and a sticky substance that drips across their cheek and down their neck.
There's no mistaking their identity with the bright light. It's Hitoshi, wild and feral.
The E'Ehs screeches, a horrible sound picked up by the microphones installed around the arena and broadcasted over the crowd's yells. Blindly, it runs head first toward their opponent, flaring their defensive spikes out.
The video starts shaking when the camera jumps up and down at the inevitable bloodshed that's about to happen. Hizashi can't help but squawk when the E'Ehs is picked up like they're nothing, their spikes bending under Hitoshi's grip. He glances toward Hitoshi, afraid he'll wake him up and somehow turn into a bloodthirsty monster.
Hitoshi's sleeping peacefully, his blank skin and smooth expression barely a reassurance.
Hizashi barely took his gaze off the screen for a second, which makes it even more shocking when he looks back and finds that there's only Hitoshi on screen, a new spray of blood tarnishing his face. In his grip is an unrecognizable purple mass of sinew and meat. There hasn't even been enough time for the E'Ehs to scream.
His padd falls with a clatter. The video pauses to a close up of the big screen showing Hitoshi's face, the E'Ehs' remains out of view. His mouth is slightly agape in shock, mouth skin parted to show teeth. The external parts of his brow fur are tilted down and his eyes are pulled wide open, glossy in the bright light. He looks devastated.
Hizashi blindly closes it with a trembling wing. He's seen enough.
Reigning his breathing back in control is hard. He brought Hitoshi to this flock. He let him roam with barely any supervision, he put his flock in danger.
"Hizashi."
Shouta frames his head with his scarf. His fur is bristling, but he's calmer than Hizashi expects. His crest is flattened and he's held in a firm embrace by the scarf. There's no judgment. Shouta waits patiently for Hizashi to corral his thoughts while he strokes Hizashi's face, steadfast.
Now that the shock violence is wearing off, the panic dampens enough for him to get his thoughts straight. Hitoshi is as much a victim as the E'Ehs. Hizashi will not blame him for what he did to survive. He replaces the image of Hitoshi, plastered with blood and insides, with him cradling Engine the same way he would hold a human nestling. It's a more accurate depiction of his friend. A truer one.
"We already knew about this," Hizashi signs after a long stretch of silence. Shouta hums at his words. He doesn't call him out on how Hizashi sounds more like he's trying to convince himself than stating a fact. "This doesn't change anything."
"It doesn't," his mate confirms. He's warm against Hizashi. "You didn't wrong the flock."
He holds Shouta's scarf and rubs his beak onto the soft skin. His heart swells at the reassurance. "If you say so."
"I do say so," Shouta huffs fondly. His scarf settles over Hizashi's heart. "It's a shame we couldn't stay longer. Stripes would have given him more help."
Hizashi shoves down the recurring shame that always follows when he doubts Hitoshi's character despite his friend having only ever tried to help. There's no use dwelling on his own feelings. Hizashi will do better. They'll have to tell Tensei to send over more useful information next time. He pushes his head into his mate's scarf. "I knew you liked him."
Shouta shoves him. It's gentle, without any real annoyance. "Keep your eyes on the path."
Hizashi cackles when the ship they've been trailing tries to grapple the back of their ship. The shot narrowly misses them.
Shouta's teeth are bared. Hizashi's mate is enjoying himself, taking pleasure in the fact the thieves have fallen for their ploy.
The thieves have been stealing wares from jewelry smiths being exported and imported, and it's only because they've not injured anyone yet that Hizashi doesn't board their ship and give them a piece of his mind.
They're currently playing a game of chase, cruising fast enough that they won't be caught, but slow enough the thieves won't lose interest and go back to Hizashi's planet.
The pursuit lasts long enough for Hitoshi to thankfully relax and finish the reading assignment Shouta gave him. He'd been agitated when they found the thieves' ship and no reassurance from Hizashi had settled his restlessness. Hizashi moves Hitoshi's exercise regimen up his priority list; Hitoshi must be feeling really cooped up if he insists on boarding the ship.
When they near the local non-ISC patrol—there's a singular ISC post in Hizashi's galaxy, but he trusts the locally set up system they've had with the neighbouring planets infinitely more—Shouta overheats their thrusters until they explode, while Hizashi works on destabilizing their core generators.
"Almost done—"
The ship suddenly jolts. The harness straps hold steady, keeping them all in place, but they hadn't accounted for the vertical positioning of Hitoshi's neck, for the way it doesn't have as much muscles or support in the front.
His head snaps forward, the whiplash only lessened by the side cushions and the fact their ship wasn't hit straight on by the grapple. He's almost thrown off his chair, prevented from smacking the control panels by a third of a tail.
The steady vrrr of defense mode drowns out every noise for a few clicks, Shouta having immediately put it up. It slows them down, but with the other ship's thrusters and generators down, Hizashi and Shouta hold the advantage.
"Fuck, Hitoshi, are you okay?"
Hitoshi grips the chair's sides like he's about to get up.
"No, don't move, don't move, don't move," Hizashi signs. Hitoshi thankfully stops twisting around, laying still. He shows Hizashi his fist, with his stubbiest digit held out toward the ceiling. His extremities can move, fine movement possible, no tremor, eyes open and symmetric. Open expression, alert, no signs of stargazing. Hizashi glances down quickly. No incontinence.
"I'm flying us away," Shouta warns. His scarf flies over the control panels. His gaze flickers toward Engine and Lamp, a breath of relief when their carrier stops scanning and the small screen indicates they're in good health. "Already pinged the nearby patrol."
Hizashi waits anxiously for them to be far enough to sail on automatic safely, asking Hitoshi questions in the meantime. He's not taking this seriously; he answers like he's only saying what Hizashi wants to hear. It barely takes them five feeps, but it stretches out for so long that he has the time to think of every way Hitoshi can die. As soon as they're taken off manual, he jumps out of his seat and rushes toward Hitoshi.
He runs his talons over the back of Hitoshi's neck to feel for any break or bone displacement. "Does it hurt when I press down?"
Hitoshi goes to shake his head from side to side, but Hizashi holds his head in place. "Don't do that!"
"Sorry."
Guilt makes itself known when Hitoshi's shoulders go up at his sharp admonishment. He needs to keep Hitoshi calm, and he can't do that when he's panicking. He smooths out Hitoshi's head fur. "Just, don't move, okay listener?"
Hizashi doesn't manage to stop Hitoshi from rubbing his face with an unhappy expression. He doesn't move his neck though, so Hizashi leaves him be while he searches for any sign of pain.
"I am fine," Hitoshi says petulantly. He sniffs. The skin around his nose wrinkles when he does it. "Not even dizzy. The other ship—"
"—is not going anywhere," Hizashi completes rapidly while he palps Hitoshi's upper spine. Although the back of Hitoshi's neck has dipped scars, it's free from any new scratch marks. Good. "We're safe here and we have nowhere pressing to go. Let me worry."
Hitoshi hums reluctantly. He sniffles again. This time, he brings his digits to his face and his fur brows scrunches down in an almost confused expression. For some reason, he tilts his head forward slightly despite Hizashi warning him not to move.
When Hitoshi pulls his hand away, the scolding he wants to sign dies at the tip of his wings. Any irritation he felt due to Hitoshi's inability to stand still is smothered out and replaced with helpless horror.
Hitoshi's fingertips come back stained bright red.