Advent '09 [13/25]
Advent 09
December 13th - 12 days to go
Kyoko was worried.
She didn't know much about medical issues, but she did know that Sho was in trouble. And if even she could see that something was wrong then you definitely knew something was wrong.
He was sluggish, that was the only way to describe him. His breathing was shallow and he kept blinking really slowly, like he had to pull his eyelids apart every time.
She had dozed for a while a few hours ago, then woken in a fit of panic when Sho started shivering violently. She was cold and shivering too, but she had really feared for him then, scared that he would bite off his own tongue and bleed to death.
He had tried to talk to her, to tell her that it was alright but she had made him be quiet and hugged him.
If she was honest with herself she wasn't sure why she had, whether it was to stop the shivers, to try to warm him up or just to seek comfort that he seemed to want to give her, despite everything.
Their coats were still zipped together. A few hours ago they had pulled their arms into the small space created between them to keep their hands warm. Kyoko was also still sitting in Sho's lap, she had tried to move but he had held her still saying that there wasn't any point in both of them loosing heat to the floor.
She had still protested until Sho admitted that she was keeping him warm. After that she had kept quiet, though she still felt a little weird about it when she thought too much on it.
The hug seemed to help a little with Sho and Kyoko reckoned it was the heat. To try and create more she started to briskly rub his arms, feeling his skin and her own hands become warmer with the friction.
Sho moaned quietly and Kyoko looked at him. He was staring at her, his eyes half open. He looked feverish and ill.
She wanted him to stay awake.
"Sho?" She asked softly, "Why did your manager bring you here?"
It was a prompt to get him to talk, plain and simple.
It took him a few moments to process what she asked and then try to work out a reply. Kyoko could see his mouth moving as he struggled to form the words.
"It was a s'rpr'se." He slurred, his eyes closing.
"A surprise?" Kyoko asked, watching with relief as Sho's eyes blinked back open.
"Yeah. 'Cos I'm going on tour."
"Haven't you already been on tour?"
"Yeah," his voice came out a little stronger, "B't not jus' Japan, s'w'rld tour." He sounded proud about it.
"World?"
"Yeah," he yawned, slumping forward slightly, "'parently people like me."
"How did they find out about your music?"
Sho shifted minutely and Kyoko felt overjoyed at the small movement. "W's ona film o' some sor'."
"Really?" Kyoko asked, impressed despite of herself.
Sho nodded slowly, his eyes closed. There was a few moments of silence as Kyoko tried to think what to ask next.
"M' stom'ch hur's." Sho mumbled quietly.
"Yeah," Kyoko agreed, "I think it's just hunger though."
"Mmm," Sho hummed, and Kyoko could hear that she was losing him.
"Sho. You have to stay awake." She ordered.
"But'm tired."
"So am I but we can't fall asleep here, we could die."
She felt Sho clumsily pat her arm, struggling to smile at her, "S'alright, won't let 'nythin' happ'n to you."
She felt her eyes prickle at the sight and burrowed closer to him, tucking her head under his chin, trying to hold back her tears.
-/-
Ren had wanted to stay at the cabin all night but the rescue workers that were rushing about had practically forced him to leave and get a room at the hotel. They claimed that he was only getting in their way.
He didn't want to admit it to himself but he knew he was only hindering them as well.
Even so, he could not sleep, staying up all night and looking out of the window for the first sign that the storm was abating. Guilt plaguing him whenever he thought about his actions.
He could do nothing but pray that it would end soon.
It wasn't until early morning that the falling snow seemed to thin. It wasn't much, but instead of not being able to see anything at all, Ren could now pick out the courtyard across the street.
Throwing on his clothes he sprinted out of the room and back to the cabin. With the storm letting up the workers would be leaving again and he just had to be there.
Indeed, when he arrived, flushed and out of breath, there were two dozen or so men and women is bright yellow jackets standing together in a group. Before he could ask what was going on, they split into a number of smaller groups, half of them taking the lift up to the top of the mountain and the other starting to walk up from the bottom.
Seeing a worker with a clipboard and walky-talky, obviously someone coordinating the search efforts, he made his way over to them.
"What's happening?"
The worker seemed to recognise who he was as he smiled grimly. "Your two friends are the only two left on the mountain. Half of our team is coming down from the top whilst the other half is going up from the bottom - we're going to see if we can find them that way."
Ren breathed out a sigh of relief until the workers next words had him choking.
"You should be warned, after the temperatures last night and the amount of experience that they have...it doesn't look good."
"But," Ren said, "there's always a chance right."
The workers silence had the hope dimming in his chest.
"Sorry kid, but even if they managed to find shelter, I don't think it's going to be pretty."
-/-
Despite Kyoko's best efforts, Sho kept falling asleep.
She had taken to poking him sharply in the side every so often to rouse him, but even that wasn't working as well as it should have been. And what was worse was that, even with their close proximity, Sho had started shivering violently again.
"'M hot..." he murmured.
Kyoko looked up at his face, taking in his pale skin, flushed cheeks and lips that were turning blue, and all she could think about is that he really shouldn't be hot.
"You can't be hot." She said after a moment. "You're lips are blue."
"'M still hot. Too hot." He said, wriggling.
Kyoko was confused for a moment as to what he was doing until it became apparent that he was trying to undo the jackets. She quickly grabbed his hands.
"No!"
"Wha'? Why?" he whined.
"Um..." Kyoko stalled, trying to think of a reason that she knew would make Sho keep the jackets on, "Because...I'm cold." She said eventually, "And you're keeping me warm."
Sho huffed but relented. "F'ne." He slurred before his eyes closed once again.
-/-
The storm had finally stopped completely.
Ren looked up into the sky, unable to believe that only a few hours ago he had been unable to see a few feet in front of him - and now it was practically fine!
The change in weather was good for another thing though, he could now get a call through to Lory.
The phone hadn't even finished ringing once when Maria answered.
"Kyoko?"
Ren felt a flash of guilt rush through him at the tears he could hear in her voice.
"It's Ren."
"Ren!" Maria cried, "We were so worried! We were trapped and didn't know where you were! Is Kyoko there? Is she alright?"
Ren licked his lips. "Maria, could you put the President on the phone?"
There was silence on the other end for a moment. "O-ok." Maria said in a small voice.
Ren listened to the shuffling before Lory answered. "Ren?" he asked, "Is everything ok?"
"No." Ren said, his throat thick with guilt and grief, "No it isn't."
"It's ok Ren," Lory said understandingly, "Just tell me what happened."
After fully explaining what had occurred the day before, Ren was relieved to note that Lory didn't mention anything about his part he played at all, instead he was focused more on trying to find a way down the mountain so that he could meet up with Ren.
"Don't worry, Ren." He said, "I'll sort this out."
-/-
Kyoko was tired.
Sho had fallen unconscious a few minutes ago but she just couldn't bring up the energy to wake him again. She could feel the cold now and she had begun to shake badly.
In her daze, she had thought it slightly amusing that she had begun shivering only after Sho had stopped.
The outside of the cave they were resting in was white, and it took a few minutes for Kyoko to realise that it had stopped snowing. She felt a little glad, because there was more of a chance that they could be found now.
Surely someone was looking for them?
She had the thought that maybe she should go outside and try to attract attention with her ski jacket, but the thought of moving all that way exhausted her even more. Instead she curled into Sho's body more, wrapping her arms tighter around his chest and trying to still herself.
She could here Sho's rapid heartbeat from where she was resting her head against his chest, his shallow breaths hardly moving her, slowly lulling her into sleep.
She was so tired, and so cold and she just wanted to rest. To wake up and find herself back in her own bed.
Through half-lidded eyes she stared at Sho.
He looked so peaceful. And she wanted that peace too. Slowly, she levered herself up and placed a chaste kiss on his unresponsive lips.
As she closed her eyes and rested her head back on his chest to hear his heart, she tried to convince herself that that wasn't a goodbye.
-/-
There were voices, but they were muffled.
Kyoko forced her eyes open, her vision was assaulted but yellow blurs. They were speaking to her...
...or was it at her?
She couldn't tell.
She could hear words like 'Hypothermia', 'Profound', 'Severe' and 'Dead'.
Their voices were harmonious and when they touched her face and neck they brought warmth.
Kyoko smiled to herself. Maybe dying wasn't so bad if she could be warm again.
She relaxed as they lay her out on something hard and started to move.
Everything would be fine, she thought, before she slipped back into unconsciousness.
-/-
Ren was nervously pacing in front of the cabin.
It had been a couple of hours since he had called Lory and more than half a day since the rescue workers set out.
He was distracted from his pacing at the sight of Lory driving over to them on a snowmobile that he had found from somewhere. Ren wasn't going to question the hows and whys that allowed Lory to always manage to pull something like this out of the hat in an hour of need.
He was just grateful.
"Ren." Lory rushed over to him and pulled him into a hug. "Have you heard anything?"
"No, I -" Ren started to say, but was swiftly interrupted by the sound of the coordinators walky-talky blaring into life.
Both Ren and Lory watched with increasing concern as the man answered the call with a swift reply in Italian before turning to face Ren and Lory.
"My team have found your friends. They are alive at the moment, though my medic says that he doesn't hold out much hope for one of them. They're bringing them down now and will be swiftly transferred to the nearest hospital.
"You're welcome to follow them."
"Thank you." Lory replied, keeping a tight grip on Ren's shoulder to stop him from rushing off now that he knew that they were found.
The worker nodded before turning to Ren with a stern look. "Next time, don't take inexperience skiers up on runs you can't handle."
Ren looked down, shame washing through him. He thought that Lory would comment on it but Lory just nodded to the worker and dragged Ren away.
"Come on Kuon," Lory murmured quietly into his ear, "We should head over to the hospital, I doubt that the doctors will let us see them until they've been stabilised but it will be warmer waiting for them there then out here."
Ren nodded and followed his mentor, vowing to make up for what he had done to both Kyoko and Sho when they got better.