Arashi - AU - Voyager 11/12
Title: Voyager
Chapter: 11
Fandom: Arashi
Pairing: ohmiya etc.
Word count: 3598
Notes: i don't exactly know.
earlier chapters:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7.5 | 8 | 9 | 10
11. No map
They didn't look like much, Nino thought. Sho was holding the twin amulets in front of him, looking like a proud and extremely tired father, and Nino didn't exactly know what he was supposed to say.
He settled on "Great job," and took the amulets from Sho. They both had a jewel in a silver frame, hanging from identical silver chains. The small stones glimmered in the light, one blue and the other one red. The frames were stuck together like they were magnetic but came apart when Nino tugged at them gently.
"Yours is the blue one, Ohno's is the red one," Sho said. "You'll just have to wear them all the time while Ohno is in there. The red one grounds you; it keeps your mind from wandering away from your goal."
Nino handed the red amulet to Ohno, who slipped it around his neck.
"The blue one makes you more aware, more sensitive. You are able to feel the connection better," Sho continued, giving the blue amulet to Nino. When he put it around his neck, there was a sudden surge of something inside him. When Ohno shifted next to him, Nino could feel the small hairs in the back of his neck standing up.
It was different from the iron tight bond between them. It felt a little like Nino could sense each and every one of Ohno's cells next to him, like he could feel Ohno's lungs expanding when he took a breath and the blood in Ohno's veins flowing with every beat of his heart. For a second, Nino wondered how it would feel like to have sex while wearing the amulets. He could feel Ohno picking up his thought and shifting uncomfortably next to him. Nino could feel how Ohno's heart started beating a little faster.
There was something he needed to ask from Sho. He had been wondering about it since last night. "When you cast your binding spell, you did something to us, didn't you?" Nino asked, keeping his eyes on Sho.
It was Jun who answered while Sho just managed to look sheepish. "That was actually me. Sho was just going to use the usual binding spell on you that needed to be done in order to make the amulets work better. But I... enhanced it a little."
"And you didn't tell us because..." Nino asked, raising an eyebrow. He wondered if everything that had happened was because of Jun's little enhancement, and he could easily feel Ohno's confusion through their strengthened connection. He knew Ohno was wondering about it too.
"Because it's better not to force things," Jun said and there was a small smile on his lips.
Nino kind of wanted to kick him.
"Anyway," Jun said. "It's not like a spell can actually manipulate feelings anyway. You can't make anything appear out of nowhere."
"After this is over, we can undo the connection," Sho said apologetically. "It isn't a permanent thing."
"What if..." Ohno said, surprising Nino. "What if we don't want to break it?" he asked, blushing a little.
Jun stared. "You want to walk around with someone else in the back of your mind all the time?" he asked, bewildered. "I imagine you can practically read each others' minds by now!"
"He said ‘what if'," Nino cut in, shifting his weight from foot to foot so that he was leaning closer to Ohno, their arms pressing together from shoulder to elbow.
"It feels less lonely this way," Ohno said quietly.
Sho cleared his throat. "I... I think the connection might break on its own after a while. Or it might get stronger. I don't know. You can never be really certain with spells like these. It really depends on you two more than the magic."
"See?" Nino grinned, tugging at Ohno's sleeve. "Mages. In the end, they're never very good for anything."
"Hey!" Sho and Jun protested.
--
Ohno didn't say goodbye when he left. He just glanced at Nino over his shoulder, eyes a little hesitant and gave him a faint smile. "Then, I'm off," he said and walked through Nino's Door without looking back.
Nino sat down on the floor in front of the Door and started his waiting. He could feel their connection, strong and steady, glimmering gold and red and a faintest shade of blue in his mind.
Sho crouched down next to him and put his hand on his shoulder while Aiba flopped down on the other side of him and leant against his side, warm and reassuring. Nino could feel Jun hovering over them behind his back and grinned. "Are we all going to just sit here until he comes back?" he asked.
"You are going to, aren't you?" Sho said and settled down.
"We might as well keep you company," Aiba muttered, resting his head on Nino's shoulder.
--
Nino was warm and comfortable between Sho and Aiba and even Jun had sat down, finally, leaning his back against Nino's so that he felt like he was surrounded from every side. It was calming him and slowly lulling him into light sleep. His connection to Ohno remained strong and unwavering. He could feel Ohno's determination.
Aiba was already asleep. Nino could feel the press of Aiba's dreams against him, almost as real as the weight of Aiba's body. He wondered when it had become so easy to feel him, to fit Aiba so effortlessly into his world. Sho was leaning on him on the other side, eyes heavy-lidded and face relaxed. Not quite asleep but calm and lost in his thoughts. Jun's breathing was steady against Nino, but then he moved, pulling Aiba into his lap so that he wasn't crushing Nino anymore.
Nino closed his eyes and allowed himself to drop further down into sleep. He had never slept this close to the Door and it felt like the staircase was reaching out to him now, pulling at him, beckoning.
Nino let himself go.
--
He woke up and something was wrong. He could still feel Ohno, but the connection between them was flickering, jumping around too much, like a radio station you couldn't quite catch. Nino stirred, dislodging himself from the tangle of limbs that was the other three, and stood up. His joints ached from sleeping on the hard floor.
"What is it?" Jun said, his voice sharp and sounding fully awake. He hadn't probably slept at all. Aiba was still sleeping and Sho was only starting to wake, looking at Nino with sleepy eyes and a confused expression.
"Something doesn't feel right," Nino frowned. Then he paused and swayed a little where he stood. It was hard to stay upright. His mind felt unbalanced.
Jun was next to him instantly, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. "Ohno?" he asked.
Nino nodded. The connection was fainter now, more like as it had felt when they still hadn't been wearing the amulets. "I think... he just took the amulet off."
Jun's hold on Nino's shoulder tightened. "Is he insane?"
"I'm going after him."
It was an easy decision. So easy that Nino wondered if he should feel worried about it. He seemed to decide things - to feel things - a little too easily when Ohno was in question. Spell or no spell, it didn't matter. Nino was ready to risk his life for him and he didn't care how dramatic that sounded. Jun's meddling might have shortened the time needed for these feelings to form, but Nino wasn't going to lie to himself. He had been attracted long before any magic was involved. He tried imagining not going after Ohno and it was impossible. He had promised.
"Have you lost your mind too? What good can you do?"
"I still have the connection your spell did," Nino said, tapping his forehead. "I can find him and get him back."
"Or then you will get lost and we can't get you out. How can you get back if there's no one here to guide you?"
Nino was tired of arguing. He had made up his mind. It was simple, really. "Aiba," he said, glaring at Jun. "Aiba will help me." There was a plan forming in his mind now and Jun couldn't convince him to abandon it anymore. They could manage this.
"Wait a minute," Aiba said, getting up from the floor. Nino hadn't even noticed that he had woken up. "How can I help?"
Nino turned to Aiba and took the amulet from around his neck. "We have a connection," he said, almost desperately. "We've been living together for a while now and we are close enough to use that with the amulets. And it's not just that. I think there was some kind of a bond between us straight from the beginning."
Aiba frowned, shaking his head, glancing from Nino to Jun and back again. "I don't understand."
"I have barriers," Nino said, now definitely sounding desperate. He wondered if he was just repeating those words like a mantra or if they still held some truth in them. So many people had been able to get through them lately. "You were able to get into my dream before we had even really met. My barriers are designed to keep anyone who doesn't belong out of my dreams. And you got in anyway."
"So..." Aiba said slowly. "That means that... I belong?"
Nino nodded. "You have to do this. Sho and Jun can't. They aren't like us. They don't know how to get me back."
"I don't either!" Aiba exclaimed, frustrated.
Nino smiled. "Yes, you do. Just don't try to force it. It's natural to you; you do it instinctively if you don't think too much about it. You're powerful enough and really good at sensing things. I'm sure you can handle it."
Aiba frowned and glanced away from Nino. "It makes me nervous when Nino's being this nice to me," he said quietly.
"It's going to be okay," Nino said, handing the amulet to Aiba. "You're going to get me back from there."
Aiba nodded and slipped the amulet over his head. The jewel in it flashed and Nino wasn't sure if it was only reflecting light or if it was something else. He imagined that the stone had slightly changed its hue to something a little bit greener.
"Oh," Aiba said. "This feels weird."
"Of course it does," Jun said. "The amulet wasn't made for you."
"I can sense something on the other end, though..." Aiba muttered, leaning against Jun. "But it's not Ohno, I'm sure."
"It'll still work, right?" Nino asked, suddenly unsure.
"It should. Just wear Ohno's pendant and you should be able to make a connection to Aiba," Jun said.
Sho remained silent. Then he reached out and grabbed Nino's hand, covering it with both of his hands and pulling it close to his chest. Nino could feel Sho mutter something from under his breath and he felt his fingertips tingle. "Stop putting spells on me without asking," Nino whined, but couldn't stop a smile forming on his lips.
"Just a small one. For protection," Sho muttered.
"And you told me that you had faith in me. That you didn't worry about me," Nino grinned.
"Shut up," Sho mumbled, not looking Nino in the eye, but he pressed a kiss on Nino's fingertips before letting go.
Nino nodded to Aiba and Jun and squeezed Sho's hand. Then he turned around and walked to the Door. He took a deep breath and stepped through it.
The connection between him and Ohno pulled at him while he hurried down the staircase, the noise of his feet on the iron steps muffled in his ears. The thread was almost physical, he could nearly see it stretching in front of himself, glimmering in the darkness. He stepped into dreams as quickly as he could, ignoring the calming feeling that tried to wrap around him. He couldn't stop.
The thread he was following felt tight, like it was close to snapping.
He walked into a dream and realized he was back at the garden Ohno had showed him. The sunlight was just as bright as before, the flowers just as beautiful. But the place felt abandoned, somehow thinner, and he couldn't see anyone sitting around the tables and he couldn't hear the birds in the trees. The place felt completely empty, the dream crumbling around him. He hurried onwards until he found what he was looking for: a small but deep shadow behind a tiny gardener's shack, near the glass walls of the garden.
Nino had never attempted anything like this, but the dream was even thinner here and he could feel the thread pulling him through the shadows. He stepped in, trusting the connection between him and Ohno to lead him through safely.
Suddenly everything was different.
Nino was standing on a highway cutting through an endless desert. Everywhere he turned, he could feel a new destination tugging at him, wanting his attention. The road divided into four and he was standing in the middle of the crossroads, feeling like he was being pulled into four different directions at the same time, like he was being pulled apart.
The connection between him and Ohno was spread thin. He could barely recognise it as Ohno on the other end.
Nino closed his eyes, took a deep breath and fought the rising panic back down. Then he let the thread pull him onwards.
There were roads everywhere. He could feel them, almost see them through his closed eyes. But he couldn't look at them. It was too easy to stray from his path. The roads called to him so strongly that if he didn't concentrate he would be just as lost as everyone else who wandered into these lands. He only opened his eyes when he was sure he wouldn't lose the connection with Ohno. It felt faintly stronger now, closer.
There were roads, bridges and highways crossing behind him, in front of him, above and below him. Countless pathways and infinite empty spaces, roads leading anywhere, everywhere and nowhere. Nino could see them all now. If he wished, he could travel them all and get lost in them, turn away and keep on dreaming, travelling, exploring. This was the ultimate trap for someone like him, someone who couldn't stop finding new pathways everywhere, couldn't stop drifting. But he was here on a mission. There was a reason. He had a destination. He could feel the thread, glimmering gold and red and blue, tugging at his mind. He had a direction. He pulled at the thread and walked down a lost, dusty highway into what looked like a sunset but was something else instead. It hung over the road, far closer than the sun. "Dream sand," Nino thought. It was raw, wild dream matter and he was going to walk into it. He didn't even hesitate.
"Satoshi," he called out while he let his mind reach forward, even though he knew it was useless. "Come back."
The red dust went into his eyes and they watered, making tears roll down his cheeks. And then he couldn't tell if they were only from the dust and the sand and the orange glow burning in his eyes or if he really was crying. Everything around him was empty and silent. He couldn't even hear his own footsteps.
He wasn't crying. He knew he had no way out of there, not without Satoshi, he knew that, but he didn't care. There wasn't exactly any point in going back without him anyway.
He wasn't crying. Not here, alone on a highway somewhere behind his Door but not in anyone's dream. It would have been pathetic. He was a Traveller. He knew roads, even the ones that weren't immediately obvious. He wasn't some helpless thing that had lost his only love.
He wasn't.
"You are here somewhere. I can still feel you in the back of my mind," Nino said out loud to the nothingness around him, mostly just to hear something, to assure himself that he still had a voice. "I... I want you to come back. I can't... I." The words got stuck in his throat. The dust was everywhere now and the trail was getting weaker, the thread was thinning. He brushed his hand angrily over his eyes, wiping the tears away. This was pathetic.
What was Satoshi expecting from him? What could he possibly say to make things better, the connection more solid? Everything he could think of seemed too much, too stupid, too dangerous. Their bond remained, but Satoshi wasn't answering. Grains of sand scraped against him, making his skin feel raw and exposed. The salt in his tears stung his cheeks.
Nino had to remind himself that he really wasn't someone who would risk a life just because doing something about it was embarrassing.
"Okay, fine," he huffed, trying to sound annoyed. It didn't work because his voice kept trembling and losing force. The sand got into his mouth and scraped against his teeth when he clenched his jaw, trying to concentrate. The thread was flickering weakly, almost failing before Nino grabbed at it and tried to force it to stay firmly in place.
He spit sand out of his mouth and pressed his eyes firmly shut. He felt light-headed and disoriented to the point that he wasn't sure which way he had come from. The light glowed orange through his eyelids and everything was so quiet that he could hear the rush of his own blood in his ears.
Then the thread failed and there was nothing more than the sand.
He was alone now. The echo of the other heartbeat that had always been in the background, unnoticed by him, was suddenly silent. The world seemed to tilt dangerously and he stumbled, suddenly unsure of what he was doing there. His memories felt blurry, like a fading dream, and this was all the reality he had.
"I love you," Nino said into the storm, not even sure who he was talking to.
The wind died down a little and he opened his eyes, not expecting to see anything than the sandstorm, orange and glowing in the strange light. But then it cleared for a second and he saw something, just on the other side of the cloud of sand. It was a person, with miles and miles of colourless asphalt stretching behind him towards the horizon. There was a flicker of something in the back of his mind and he remembered again. And then the golden thread was back, fine and delicate, like a strand of gold string. But it was there. "If you are lost," he said to the unmoving image, "just follow the connection, idiot. I'm waiting for you and this sand is really getting on my nerves. I might leave if you don't hurry up." Nino stopped and thought for a second before adding: "I love you and I have ramen. Come on, Satoshi. Your food is getting cold." He would have laughed at his own words if he hadn't feared that it would come out as crazed giggles.
The storm calmed down, the suddenly gentle wind blowing it away. Fine dust had gathered in the corners of his eyes and Nino wiped it away so he could see properly again. He was standing on another crossroads, or maybe it was the same one and he had just walked a circle in the storm. Maybe things moved here, he didn't know. The road was trying to pull him forward, trying to force him to continue his journey, but he resisted it. Barely. It was whispering to him about things he had never even dreamed of.
The thread between him and Satoshi was stretched so thin that Nino didn't even really feel it anymore.
A little bit hysterically, Nino thought: "I will treat you to as much ramen as you want if you just come back."
"Do you really have food or did you just say that so I would hurry up?" Nino heard a familiar voice whisper into his ear. "I found my sister. Thank you for coming to get me."
"It was for completely selfish reasons," Nino thought and turned to face Ohno. There was a woman standing behind him, with the same eyes and the same mouth as Ohno, looking at him with interest, but feeling a little bit hazy around the edges, like she still wasn't completely there. Nino could see Ohno's amulet around her neck. She didn't say anything, just kept looking at Nino with her soft, familiar eyes.
Seeing Ohno and the amulet quieted down the pull of the road in the back of his mind. Other connections got stronger, like the faint green of Aiba somewhere deep in his mind. He was now certain that he could get them all back home.
"You love me, huh?" Ohno said quietly.
Nino pulled him close, ignoring his sister and burying his face in the crook of his neck. The hum and the tugging in his mind cleared almost completely, leaving his senses full of only Ohno and the touches and feelings that refused to fade. He could feel the happiness radiating from Ohno but there it was again, that undercurrent of something a little like regret and Nino didn't know what to think.
"You owe me for the ramen," he mumbled against Ohno's neck.
"What ramen?" Ohno asked, puzzled.
"The one I'm going to buy you after we get out of here."
Ohno laughed.
Chapter: 11
Fandom: Arashi
Pairing: ohmiya etc.
Word count: 3598
Notes: i don't exactly know.
earlier chapters:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7.5 | 8 | 9 | 10
11. No map
They didn't look like much, Nino thought. Sho was holding the twin amulets in front of him, looking like a proud and extremely tired father, and Nino didn't exactly know what he was supposed to say.
He settled on "Great job," and took the amulets from Sho. They both had a jewel in a silver frame, hanging from identical silver chains. The small stones glimmered in the light, one blue and the other one red. The frames were stuck together like they were magnetic but came apart when Nino tugged at them gently.
"Yours is the blue one, Ohno's is the red one," Sho said. "You'll just have to wear them all the time while Ohno is in there. The red one grounds you; it keeps your mind from wandering away from your goal."
Nino handed the red amulet to Ohno, who slipped it around his neck.
"The blue one makes you more aware, more sensitive. You are able to feel the connection better," Sho continued, giving the blue amulet to Nino. When he put it around his neck, there was a sudden surge of something inside him. When Ohno shifted next to him, Nino could feel the small hairs in the back of his neck standing up.
It was different from the iron tight bond between them. It felt a little like Nino could sense each and every one of Ohno's cells next to him, like he could feel Ohno's lungs expanding when he took a breath and the blood in Ohno's veins flowing with every beat of his heart. For a second, Nino wondered how it would feel like to have sex while wearing the amulets. He could feel Ohno picking up his thought and shifting uncomfortably next to him. Nino could feel how Ohno's heart started beating a little faster.
There was something he needed to ask from Sho. He had been wondering about it since last night. "When you cast your binding spell, you did something to us, didn't you?" Nino asked, keeping his eyes on Sho.
It was Jun who answered while Sho just managed to look sheepish. "That was actually me. Sho was just going to use the usual binding spell on you that needed to be done in order to make the amulets work better. But I... enhanced it a little."
"And you didn't tell us because..." Nino asked, raising an eyebrow. He wondered if everything that had happened was because of Jun's little enhancement, and he could easily feel Ohno's confusion through their strengthened connection. He knew Ohno was wondering about it too.
"Because it's better not to force things," Jun said and there was a small smile on his lips.
Nino kind of wanted to kick him.
"Anyway," Jun said. "It's not like a spell can actually manipulate feelings anyway. You can't make anything appear out of nowhere."
"After this is over, we can undo the connection," Sho said apologetically. "It isn't a permanent thing."
"What if..." Ohno said, surprising Nino. "What if we don't want to break it?" he asked, blushing a little.
Jun stared. "You want to walk around with someone else in the back of your mind all the time?" he asked, bewildered. "I imagine you can practically read each others' minds by now!"
"He said ‘what if'," Nino cut in, shifting his weight from foot to foot so that he was leaning closer to Ohno, their arms pressing together from shoulder to elbow.
"It feels less lonely this way," Ohno said quietly.
Sho cleared his throat. "I... I think the connection might break on its own after a while. Or it might get stronger. I don't know. You can never be really certain with spells like these. It really depends on you two more than the magic."
"See?" Nino grinned, tugging at Ohno's sleeve. "Mages. In the end, they're never very good for anything."
"Hey!" Sho and Jun protested.
--
Ohno didn't say goodbye when he left. He just glanced at Nino over his shoulder, eyes a little hesitant and gave him a faint smile. "Then, I'm off," he said and walked through Nino's Door without looking back.
Nino sat down on the floor in front of the Door and started his waiting. He could feel their connection, strong and steady, glimmering gold and red and a faintest shade of blue in his mind.
Sho crouched down next to him and put his hand on his shoulder while Aiba flopped down on the other side of him and leant against his side, warm and reassuring. Nino could feel Jun hovering over them behind his back and grinned. "Are we all going to just sit here until he comes back?" he asked.
"You are going to, aren't you?" Sho said and settled down.
"We might as well keep you company," Aiba muttered, resting his head on Nino's shoulder.
--
Nino was warm and comfortable between Sho and Aiba and even Jun had sat down, finally, leaning his back against Nino's so that he felt like he was surrounded from every side. It was calming him and slowly lulling him into light sleep. His connection to Ohno remained strong and unwavering. He could feel Ohno's determination.
Aiba was already asleep. Nino could feel the press of Aiba's dreams against him, almost as real as the weight of Aiba's body. He wondered when it had become so easy to feel him, to fit Aiba so effortlessly into his world. Sho was leaning on him on the other side, eyes heavy-lidded and face relaxed. Not quite asleep but calm and lost in his thoughts. Jun's breathing was steady against Nino, but then he moved, pulling Aiba into his lap so that he wasn't crushing Nino anymore.
Nino closed his eyes and allowed himself to drop further down into sleep. He had never slept this close to the Door and it felt like the staircase was reaching out to him now, pulling at him, beckoning.
Nino let himself go.
--
He woke up and something was wrong. He could still feel Ohno, but the connection between them was flickering, jumping around too much, like a radio station you couldn't quite catch. Nino stirred, dislodging himself from the tangle of limbs that was the other three, and stood up. His joints ached from sleeping on the hard floor.
"What is it?" Jun said, his voice sharp and sounding fully awake. He hadn't probably slept at all. Aiba was still sleeping and Sho was only starting to wake, looking at Nino with sleepy eyes and a confused expression.
"Something doesn't feel right," Nino frowned. Then he paused and swayed a little where he stood. It was hard to stay upright. His mind felt unbalanced.
Jun was next to him instantly, steadying him with a hand on his shoulder. "Ohno?" he asked.
Nino nodded. The connection was fainter now, more like as it had felt when they still hadn't been wearing the amulets. "I think... he just took the amulet off."
Jun's hold on Nino's shoulder tightened. "Is he insane?"
"I'm going after him."
It was an easy decision. So easy that Nino wondered if he should feel worried about it. He seemed to decide things - to feel things - a little too easily when Ohno was in question. Spell or no spell, it didn't matter. Nino was ready to risk his life for him and he didn't care how dramatic that sounded. Jun's meddling might have shortened the time needed for these feelings to form, but Nino wasn't going to lie to himself. He had been attracted long before any magic was involved. He tried imagining not going after Ohno and it was impossible. He had promised.
"Have you lost your mind too? What good can you do?"
"I still have the connection your spell did," Nino said, tapping his forehead. "I can find him and get him back."
"Or then you will get lost and we can't get you out. How can you get back if there's no one here to guide you?"
Nino was tired of arguing. He had made up his mind. It was simple, really. "Aiba," he said, glaring at Jun. "Aiba will help me." There was a plan forming in his mind now and Jun couldn't convince him to abandon it anymore. They could manage this.
"Wait a minute," Aiba said, getting up from the floor. Nino hadn't even noticed that he had woken up. "How can I help?"
Nino turned to Aiba and took the amulet from around his neck. "We have a connection," he said, almost desperately. "We've been living together for a while now and we are close enough to use that with the amulets. And it's not just that. I think there was some kind of a bond between us straight from the beginning."
Aiba frowned, shaking his head, glancing from Nino to Jun and back again. "I don't understand."
"I have barriers," Nino said, now definitely sounding desperate. He wondered if he was just repeating those words like a mantra or if they still held some truth in them. So many people had been able to get through them lately. "You were able to get into my dream before we had even really met. My barriers are designed to keep anyone who doesn't belong out of my dreams. And you got in anyway."
"So..." Aiba said slowly. "That means that... I belong?"
Nino nodded. "You have to do this. Sho and Jun can't. They aren't like us. They don't know how to get me back."
"I don't either!" Aiba exclaimed, frustrated.
Nino smiled. "Yes, you do. Just don't try to force it. It's natural to you; you do it instinctively if you don't think too much about it. You're powerful enough and really good at sensing things. I'm sure you can handle it."
Aiba frowned and glanced away from Nino. "It makes me nervous when Nino's being this nice to me," he said quietly.
"It's going to be okay," Nino said, handing the amulet to Aiba. "You're going to get me back from there."
Aiba nodded and slipped the amulet over his head. The jewel in it flashed and Nino wasn't sure if it was only reflecting light or if it was something else. He imagined that the stone had slightly changed its hue to something a little bit greener.
"Oh," Aiba said. "This feels weird."
"Of course it does," Jun said. "The amulet wasn't made for you."
"I can sense something on the other end, though..." Aiba muttered, leaning against Jun. "But it's not Ohno, I'm sure."
"It'll still work, right?" Nino asked, suddenly unsure.
"It should. Just wear Ohno's pendant and you should be able to make a connection to Aiba," Jun said.
Sho remained silent. Then he reached out and grabbed Nino's hand, covering it with both of his hands and pulling it close to his chest. Nino could feel Sho mutter something from under his breath and he felt his fingertips tingle. "Stop putting spells on me without asking," Nino whined, but couldn't stop a smile forming on his lips.
"Just a small one. For protection," Sho muttered.
"And you told me that you had faith in me. That you didn't worry about me," Nino grinned.
"Shut up," Sho mumbled, not looking Nino in the eye, but he pressed a kiss on Nino's fingertips before letting go.
Nino nodded to Aiba and Jun and squeezed Sho's hand. Then he turned around and walked to the Door. He took a deep breath and stepped through it.
The connection between him and Ohno pulled at him while he hurried down the staircase, the noise of his feet on the iron steps muffled in his ears. The thread was almost physical, he could nearly see it stretching in front of himself, glimmering in the darkness. He stepped into dreams as quickly as he could, ignoring the calming feeling that tried to wrap around him. He couldn't stop.
The thread he was following felt tight, like it was close to snapping.
He walked into a dream and realized he was back at the garden Ohno had showed him. The sunlight was just as bright as before, the flowers just as beautiful. But the place felt abandoned, somehow thinner, and he couldn't see anyone sitting around the tables and he couldn't hear the birds in the trees. The place felt completely empty, the dream crumbling around him. He hurried onwards until he found what he was looking for: a small but deep shadow behind a tiny gardener's shack, near the glass walls of the garden.
Nino had never attempted anything like this, but the dream was even thinner here and he could feel the thread pulling him through the shadows. He stepped in, trusting the connection between him and Ohno to lead him through safely.
Suddenly everything was different.
Nino was standing on a highway cutting through an endless desert. Everywhere he turned, he could feel a new destination tugging at him, wanting his attention. The road divided into four and he was standing in the middle of the crossroads, feeling like he was being pulled into four different directions at the same time, like he was being pulled apart.
The connection between him and Ohno was spread thin. He could barely recognise it as Ohno on the other end.
Nino closed his eyes, took a deep breath and fought the rising panic back down. Then he let the thread pull him onwards.
There were roads everywhere. He could feel them, almost see them through his closed eyes. But he couldn't look at them. It was too easy to stray from his path. The roads called to him so strongly that if he didn't concentrate he would be just as lost as everyone else who wandered into these lands. He only opened his eyes when he was sure he wouldn't lose the connection with Ohno. It felt faintly stronger now, closer.
There were roads, bridges and highways crossing behind him, in front of him, above and below him. Countless pathways and infinite empty spaces, roads leading anywhere, everywhere and nowhere. Nino could see them all now. If he wished, he could travel them all and get lost in them, turn away and keep on dreaming, travelling, exploring. This was the ultimate trap for someone like him, someone who couldn't stop finding new pathways everywhere, couldn't stop drifting. But he was here on a mission. There was a reason. He had a destination. He could feel the thread, glimmering gold and red and blue, tugging at his mind. He had a direction. He pulled at the thread and walked down a lost, dusty highway into what looked like a sunset but was something else instead. It hung over the road, far closer than the sun. "Dream sand," Nino thought. It was raw, wild dream matter and he was going to walk into it. He didn't even hesitate.
"Satoshi," he called out while he let his mind reach forward, even though he knew it was useless. "Come back."
The red dust went into his eyes and they watered, making tears roll down his cheeks. And then he couldn't tell if they were only from the dust and the sand and the orange glow burning in his eyes or if he really was crying. Everything around him was empty and silent. He couldn't even hear his own footsteps.
He wasn't crying. He knew he had no way out of there, not without Satoshi, he knew that, but he didn't care. There wasn't exactly any point in going back without him anyway.
He wasn't crying. Not here, alone on a highway somewhere behind his Door but not in anyone's dream. It would have been pathetic. He was a Traveller. He knew roads, even the ones that weren't immediately obvious. He wasn't some helpless thing that had lost his only love.
He wasn't.
"You are here somewhere. I can still feel you in the back of my mind," Nino said out loud to the nothingness around him, mostly just to hear something, to assure himself that he still had a voice. "I... I want you to come back. I can't... I." The words got stuck in his throat. The dust was everywhere now and the trail was getting weaker, the thread was thinning. He brushed his hand angrily over his eyes, wiping the tears away. This was pathetic.
What was Satoshi expecting from him? What could he possibly say to make things better, the connection more solid? Everything he could think of seemed too much, too stupid, too dangerous. Their bond remained, but Satoshi wasn't answering. Grains of sand scraped against him, making his skin feel raw and exposed. The salt in his tears stung his cheeks.
Nino had to remind himself that he really wasn't someone who would risk a life just because doing something about it was embarrassing.
"Okay, fine," he huffed, trying to sound annoyed. It didn't work because his voice kept trembling and losing force. The sand got into his mouth and scraped against his teeth when he clenched his jaw, trying to concentrate. The thread was flickering weakly, almost failing before Nino grabbed at it and tried to force it to stay firmly in place.
He spit sand out of his mouth and pressed his eyes firmly shut. He felt light-headed and disoriented to the point that he wasn't sure which way he had come from. The light glowed orange through his eyelids and everything was so quiet that he could hear the rush of his own blood in his ears.
Then the thread failed and there was nothing more than the sand.
He was alone now. The echo of the other heartbeat that had always been in the background, unnoticed by him, was suddenly silent. The world seemed to tilt dangerously and he stumbled, suddenly unsure of what he was doing there. His memories felt blurry, like a fading dream, and this was all the reality he had.
"I love you," Nino said into the storm, not even sure who he was talking to.
The wind died down a little and he opened his eyes, not expecting to see anything than the sandstorm, orange and glowing in the strange light. But then it cleared for a second and he saw something, just on the other side of the cloud of sand. It was a person, with miles and miles of colourless asphalt stretching behind him towards the horizon. There was a flicker of something in the back of his mind and he remembered again. And then the golden thread was back, fine and delicate, like a strand of gold string. But it was there. "If you are lost," he said to the unmoving image, "just follow the connection, idiot. I'm waiting for you and this sand is really getting on my nerves. I might leave if you don't hurry up." Nino stopped and thought for a second before adding: "I love you and I have ramen. Come on, Satoshi. Your food is getting cold." He would have laughed at his own words if he hadn't feared that it would come out as crazed giggles.
The storm calmed down, the suddenly gentle wind blowing it away. Fine dust had gathered in the corners of his eyes and Nino wiped it away so he could see properly again. He was standing on another crossroads, or maybe it was the same one and he had just walked a circle in the storm. Maybe things moved here, he didn't know. The road was trying to pull him forward, trying to force him to continue his journey, but he resisted it. Barely. It was whispering to him about things he had never even dreamed of.
The thread between him and Satoshi was stretched so thin that Nino didn't even really feel it anymore.
A little bit hysterically, Nino thought: "I will treat you to as much ramen as you want if you just come back."
"Do you really have food or did you just say that so I would hurry up?" Nino heard a familiar voice whisper into his ear. "I found my sister. Thank you for coming to get me."
"It was for completely selfish reasons," Nino thought and turned to face Ohno. There was a woman standing behind him, with the same eyes and the same mouth as Ohno, looking at him with interest, but feeling a little bit hazy around the edges, like she still wasn't completely there. Nino could see Ohno's amulet around her neck. She didn't say anything, just kept looking at Nino with her soft, familiar eyes.
Seeing Ohno and the amulet quieted down the pull of the road in the back of his mind. Other connections got stronger, like the faint green of Aiba somewhere deep in his mind. He was now certain that he could get them all back home.
"You love me, huh?" Ohno said quietly.
Nino pulled him close, ignoring his sister and burying his face in the crook of his neck. The hum and the tugging in his mind cleared almost completely, leaving his senses full of only Ohno and the touches and feelings that refused to fade. He could feel the happiness radiating from Ohno but there it was again, that undercurrent of something a little like regret and Nino didn't know what to think.
"You owe me for the ramen," he mumbled against Ohno's neck.
"What ramen?" Ohno asked, puzzled.
"The one I'm going to buy you after we get out of here."
Ohno laughed.