Team Gai vs. Zombies [Naruto/WWZ]
Part 4: Hiding | Table of Contents | Part 6: Dreaming
Title: Part 5: Interlude
Fandom: au!Naruto, World War Z
Characters: Hanabi, Neji.
Word Count: 2,697
Rating: PG-16
Summary: Tenten, Lee, and Gai are looking for Neji during a zombie apocalypse.
Author's Notes: Renamed the overall title from "Zombie Apocalypse AU" to "Team Gai vs. Zombies". Not going back to change the previous parts' titles (I'm lazy) but this is now the 'official' title of this arc. || Not Somewhat beta'd, and not the Part 5 I was originally going for, but I think the change in perspective works. If nothing else, I manage to keep the story moving while allowing for quite a bit of information without infodumping (I hope) or having to force myself not to reveal everything. :P Also? Must thank Two Steps From Hell's Heart of Courage for the fantastic inspiration. And I must also be very annoyed with them, for not a;soghas;lohss selling their music to people not working in the film/whatever industry. There will be a part 6. | edit 5.25.10 Thank you for pointing out the placeholders, Sanzo! ^^;; They’re fixed now. | edit 5.25.10 #2 Thank you, zuul! Stuff was tweaked.
niisan - older brother (familiar but respectful)
neesan - older sister (familiar but respectful)
imouto-chan - younger sister (quite familiar)
aniki-chan - older brother (very damn familiar)
nii - older brother (familiar); shortened version of niisan
Niisan had guessed correctly. I think about ten minutes, maybe, passed before various aunts and uncles and cousins started coming by the apartment to drop off their children.
Of those, only Riza-san looked to have come voluntarily. She had that look of determined focus that reminded me of Father and Niisan, and she more than I helped to get everyone if not to calm down, then into a calmer state. Older children managed to find their own calm before they helped by assuming care for the younger, distraught ones as needed. Even I had little Kayoko clutching my pant leg and refusing to let go. The exceptions were those cousins of mine who had been the drivers of the ATVs and later the trucks: they found the nearest comfortable piece of furniture or patch of floor and promptly fell asleep.
I had to put on my bravest face as I did what I expected my father or my brother to do, which was walk around calmly and confidently and let them take strength from me. As I saw fear and a hunger for security reflected back to me in eyes gray like mine, I began to understand a little more why Niisan avoided looking at me as we waited for the rest of the family, why his shoulders drooped when Father finally got into the Hummer back at the campsite. Being the person everyone looks to for something is exhausting. But I knew, just as my brother did, that the family needs someone strong in personality to be visible and leading them.
I wished I didn't have to be strong. I want to show my frustration and worry, and have an older cousin hold me and comfort me and tell me everything will be okay. But my name is Hyuuga Hanabi, and my father is the family's head. When he is not here and neither is my brother, the family looks to me.
I help Riza-san find extra sheets and blankets to drape over those who are asleep. She then helps me transform the room that had once been Niisan's and was now a guest room into a literal bed room as we take down the extra futons and spread them out on the floor. We then start corralling the youngest children into the room. Today has been a very stressful day, and it is late, which makes them doubly cranky and surly.
Some of the children want a bedtime story. I look to help from Riza-san, for I don't have any books age appropriate. She smiles and says, "I have plenty of stories." She scoops up Kayoko and takes her to an empty spot on the nearest futon and gently sets her down. She also gives me a wink as if to say, I'll take care of this. I nod and leave the room, and don't close the door all the way.
It's too quiet now, and I don't like it. It leaves me with too much time to think. I don't want to think, because my thoughts keep straying back to the conversation in the Hummer. That Father could speak so calmly and so rationally about the existance of zombies...
I shiver, chilled as much now as I was in the car.
As a whole, the family is a fan of horror movies. I think the shared video library holds every zombie film ever produced, be it in Japanese or English. I was only recently allowed to watch them. Neesan never cared for them because they scare her. Niisan loves them, and I've heard him occasionally get into debates with Isamu-nii and Osamu-nii about the best way to survive a zombie apocalypse.
I look at the turned-off TV and wonder if that's what's going on now.
I don't turn it on to find out.
I go instead to my bedroom and pick up the wakizashi from its polished wall mount. This is my sword, a weapon Father insisted I learn how to use until I'm big enough to learn katana. I've only really used the wooden practice version in training and spars, but I've also been made to go through the kata with this so that in the event I ever need to use it, it won't be so unfamiliar. In theory. I haven't had heart to tell Joumaru-sensei that that a wooden practice sword is worlds different from a real one.
It's with reluctance that I do tie the wakizashi to my belt. It's an unfamiliar weight on my hip and it brings with it a stark reality to our situation. It's a weapon, meant for defense. Meant to kill.
The knocking on the front door has me jumping a few inches before I recognize the specific pattern. I run to the door and fling it open. "Niisan!" I cry, and fling myself at him for a hug.
Niisan holds me, and it's how tightly he holds me that tells me things are bad. "Let me in, imouto-chan," he says quietly as he brushes a hand over my hair.
I let go of him and step back so he has room. When he passes me, I see that he, too, is wearing his katana on one hip and has a crowbar on the other. I try not to shiver as I shut the door. "Niisan, what's going on?"
He puts his hands on his hips and looks around at the cousins sleeping on the floor. We can both hear the sounds of Riza-san's voice floating from the bedroom. I circle around so I can better see his face, his eyes.
I know my brother's eyes better than anyone. I've seen them hot and cold, hard as stone and gentle as cotton. I've seen them so furious as to scare me even though I know he'd never hurt me, and amused enough to make me smile if not outright laugh. I know it's because I know them so well that he didn't look at me while we waited for the family.
When I see the deep shadows in his haunted gray eyes, I realize I don't know them anymore. Something's changed. He's changed.
And there are dark spots on his shirt that weren't there before.
"We aren't staying here. Uncle's decided. They're draining the generators' fuel reservoirs so they can refill the cars." Even his voice is different. Rougher. Strained.
I gape. "What? Why?" I demand, my voice rising in pitch as I struggle with the sudden crash of panic over my mind. Father had always said this was the best place to be in the event of an emergency. We were already so prepared. There was no reason to leave. I take a breath before speaking again, making sure my next question isn't so hysterical-sounding. "Is it because of the zombies?"
Niisan flinches at the word. My brave, wonderful brother actually flinches. "Yes." The word comes reluctant and low.
I almost ask where we're going, but I already know. It's the place that we all know is the fallback position for any real emergency. I still end up asking for confirmation because I can't quite believe it. "Cheyenne Mountain?"
Cheyenne Mountain isn't the same mountain that houses NORAD. It's a compound that's even more fortress-like than the compound here. It was named after the military facility's mountain more so that just in case, people who chanced to overhear it would go in practically the opposite direction of the compound's actual location. It had higher walls, solid gates, and greater space within the walls. All of the buildings were two stories, minimum, and every building's ground floor was either a high-ceilinged dojo or an equally high-ceilinged storage space. Even the greenhouses had a bottom clearstory. Otherwise, it contained the same comforts of home.
Which made it the perfect place to be, I realize. However, getting there...
"Cheyenne Mountain," he agrees.
I frown at him. Something about how he said that gives me reason to worry.
He gives me a questioning look back. Something else is there in his haunted eyes, quick and fleeting. I'm not able to name it, so I quietly ask, "What is it?"
He walks over to the TV, dropping his shoulder enough to smoothly pick up the remote. He turns on the power and immediately thumbs the Mute button before the noise can wake the sleepers. The image that pops up is a commercial for food before he changes the channel to one of the news networks. What it showed I knew I would never forget.
Zombies everywhere. People were fighting, running, or trapped, or getting eaten by others. Mobs and riots, flashes of gunfire and the steady light of real fire. Other people who looked as normal as anyone in the compound, but for the slow, methodic limping and rigid outstretched hands. The captions and the landscapes changed, but otherwise the images were the same. I come up to stand beside Niisan, unable to look away from the horrific images. I saw a man help another who had fallen, hoisting him onto his back to get him away from the zombies. I saw a woman grab another man and kick him into the grasping hands of a zombie so she could scrabble away, and I saw the blood spurt. I want to look away, I want to throw up, but I also feel so detached. Like what we're watching is a mock documentary. But I know it's real and it terrifies me.
"This is what is coming," Niisan says quietly. He's sounding as detached as I feel. "This is what is already here."
I nod mutely. I remembered hearing the moans at the gate. It didn't sound like it very many then.
"Uncle told me this compound could withstand a siege of a couple hundred of them." I note how carefully Niisan avoids the word zombie. He changes the channel to a local station, and I see how people are streaming toward Fort Carson, maybe twenty minutes away. And I see what follows them. "Unfortunately, we're looking at thousands. Given enough time and bodies, they'll breach the walls."
My heart is thudding painfully as I struggle with my panic. I am Hyuuga and I will be panic's master instead of the other way around. I look up at Niisan, just so very grateful that he's here. He's a lot like Father, a rock of calm amidst the stormy sea, and every bit the leader Father is.
He's studying the screen with narrowed eyes. I don't know what he's looking for within the images. He abruptly turns the TV off and sets the remote on the coffee table. "Hanabi, before you leave, I want you to make sure to leave a message to Hinata, in case she comes by after we're gone. Put it in a place where you know she would look -- where only she would think to look. Let her know what happened as much as you're able in the time left. I don't know when Uncle wants everyone moving out."
"Why don't you?" I want to know.
"I'm leaving one for Tenten, and don't have time for two."
I blink, stung. More and more, that girl from his school has been at the forefront of his mind when it should be on the family. I shake my head to clear it and look back at him. "There's something you're not telling me," I accuse him.
He doesn't deny it. Instead, the smile on his face is brief and slight and self-effacing. He crouches down, careful of the weapons that look natural on him, so that we're on the same level. He's no longer looking down at me, and I'm no longer looking up at him. "I'm not going," he answers, for my ears only.
The shock of his words hits me hard enough that I lose my balance. Immediately his hands are there on my shoulders, offering support. I put my hands over his, clutching them hard as tears well up in my eyes. His eyes tell me he's made up his mind. "No, Aniki-chan," I plead, wanting that familiarity to be the rope that keeps him here with us, with me. Neesan is already somewhere out there, her fate unknown. I don't want to lose him, too. "No, you--" I stop when my voice threatens to break, and take a deep breath before starting again. "You can't. Y-You have to stay with us."
He shakes his head. "It's better I don't."
"Why!?" My hands tighten on his as tears rush down my face.
"Shhh, Hanabi." He falls silent, and I find myself listening for Riza-san's voice. I don't hear it. I have to steel myself from looking behind me and instead hope she's too far away to really understand what we're talking about. "I have a few reasons. One involves your father. Another involves finding Hinata." He doesn't say it, but I know he's thinking about Tenten as well.
I push any thoughts of her aside as there are more important things demanding my attention. "What do you mean, involves Father?" I can understand wanting to find Neesan; I want her home too. But Father is already here, already safe.
Niisan hesitates, and I find myself hating this. Hating how everything just keeps going from bad to worse. Hating that though he'll speak to me as an adult, he's still seeing me as only a child. Hating how small my hands are compared to his. Hating that I'm not enough to keep him here, keep him safe with me and the family.
"It would be better if he's angry with me," he replies cryptically. I wait for him to say more, to explain.
He doesn't. He draws me in for a hug instead. I stiffen, refusing it as a sense of finality swamps me. "Aniki-chan, you're his heir. You have to stay here. This is where you belong. What if--" I choke on the words, not wanting to finish. But I continue anyway, desperate to keep him from going off into danger. "--what if something happens to Father? You have to be here!" It's your duty!
I can tell he hears my silent cry, because his gaze slants away from mine a moment just long enough to look guilty before our eyes meet again. I know my brother. I know that duty is something he takes seriously, and that he would rather do just about anything else then abandon those he feels responsible for or to. "I have to find her."
I know he doesn't mean Neesan. Or just Neesan.
I finally let myself hug him, and I hold on as tight as I can and know my strength is nothing compared to his. I don't want to let go, to let him go to whatever path Mother Fate has decided he will walk. Too soon, he's gently pulling my arms from around his neck. "You have to be strong, imouto-chan," he tells me. "For Uncle, for the family, and for yourself. And then when I do get to Cheyenne, you two can take turns beating the shit out of me, or do it together." He tries to smile. I don't have heart to tell him how miserably he fails with how ghastly it looks. He doesn't know if he'll make it to Cheyenne. He'll try, that I know, but he's uncertain of his success.
I scrub the tears from my eyes. "I will. I promise you that." My anger at his stupidity of going out there helps clear the fog of fear. It helps me focus. And I wonder if that was part of the point all along.
"Good." His smirk is more natural, more convincing than his lame attempt at a smile. I feel some hope that we'll all get through this flutter in my soul. "I'll look forward to it. You'd better train hard." He gets to his feet and turns to go.
"Niisan!"
It's bittersweet, that he'll stop when I call him but won't stay. "If you don't come back, I'll never forgive you!"
"I wouldn't want that," he replies.
And then he's gone, the door closing behind him.
Part 4: Hiding | Table of Contents | Part 6: Dreaming
Title: Part 5: Interlude
Fandom: au!Naruto, World War Z
Characters: Hanabi, Neji.
Word Count: 2,697
Rating: PG-16
Summary: Tenten, Lee, and Gai are looking for Neji during a zombie apocalypse.
Author's Notes: Renamed the overall title from "Zombie Apocalypse AU" to "Team Gai vs. Zombies". Not going back to change the previous parts' titles (I'm lazy) but this is now the 'official' title of this arc. || Not Somewhat beta'd, and not the Part 5 I was originally going for, but I think the change in perspective works. If nothing else, I manage to keep the story moving while allowing for quite a bit of information without infodumping (I hope) or having to force myself not to reveal everything. :P Also? Must thank Two Steps From Hell's Heart of Courage for the fantastic inspiration. And I must also be very annoyed with them, for not a;soghas;lohss selling their music to people not working in the film/whatever industry. There will be a part 6. | edit 5.25.10 Thank you for pointing out the placeholders, Sanzo! ^^;; They’re fixed now. | edit 5.25.10 #2 Thank you, zuul! Stuff was tweaked.
niisan - older brother (familiar but respectful)
neesan - older sister (familiar but respectful)
imouto-chan - younger sister (quite familiar)
aniki-chan - older brother (very damn familiar)
nii - older brother (familiar); shortened version of niisan
Niisan had guessed correctly. I think about ten minutes, maybe, passed before various aunts and uncles and cousins started coming by the apartment to drop off their children.
Of those, only Riza-san looked to have come voluntarily. She had that look of determined focus that reminded me of Father and Niisan, and she more than I helped to get everyone if not to calm down, then into a calmer state. Older children managed to find their own calm before they helped by assuming care for the younger, distraught ones as needed. Even I had little Kayoko clutching my pant leg and refusing to let go. The exceptions were those cousins of mine who had been the drivers of the ATVs and later the trucks: they found the nearest comfortable piece of furniture or patch of floor and promptly fell asleep.
I had to put on my bravest face as I did what I expected my father or my brother to do, which was walk around calmly and confidently and let them take strength from me. As I saw fear and a hunger for security reflected back to me in eyes gray like mine, I began to understand a little more why Niisan avoided looking at me as we waited for the rest of the family, why his shoulders drooped when Father finally got into the Hummer back at the campsite. Being the person everyone looks to for something is exhausting. But I knew, just as my brother did, that the family needs someone strong in personality to be visible and leading them.
I wished I didn't have to be strong. I want to show my frustration and worry, and have an older cousin hold me and comfort me and tell me everything will be okay. But my name is Hyuuga Hanabi, and my father is the family's head. When he is not here and neither is my brother, the family looks to me.
I help Riza-san find extra sheets and blankets to drape over those who are asleep. She then helps me transform the room that had once been Niisan's and was now a guest room into a literal bed room as we take down the extra futons and spread them out on the floor. We then start corralling the youngest children into the room. Today has been a very stressful day, and it is late, which makes them doubly cranky and surly.
Some of the children want a bedtime story. I look to help from Riza-san, for I don't have any books age appropriate. She smiles and says, "I have plenty of stories." She scoops up Kayoko and takes her to an empty spot on the nearest futon and gently sets her down. She also gives me a wink as if to say, I'll take care of this. I nod and leave the room, and don't close the door all the way.
It's too quiet now, and I don't like it. It leaves me with too much time to think. I don't want to think, because my thoughts keep straying back to the conversation in the Hummer. That Father could speak so calmly and so rationally about the existance of zombies...
I shiver, chilled as much now as I was in the car.
As a whole, the family is a fan of horror movies. I think the shared video library holds every zombie film ever produced, be it in Japanese or English. I was only recently allowed to watch them. Neesan never cared for them because they scare her. Niisan loves them, and I've heard him occasionally get into debates with Isamu-nii and Osamu-nii about the best way to survive a zombie apocalypse.
I look at the turned-off TV and wonder if that's what's going on now.
I don't turn it on to find out.
I go instead to my bedroom and pick up the wakizashi from its polished wall mount. This is my sword, a weapon Father insisted I learn how to use until I'm big enough to learn katana. I've only really used the wooden practice version in training and spars, but I've also been made to go through the kata with this so that in the event I ever need to use it, it won't be so unfamiliar. In theory. I haven't had heart to tell Joumaru-sensei that that a wooden practice sword is worlds different from a real one.
It's with reluctance that I do tie the wakizashi to my belt. It's an unfamiliar weight on my hip and it brings with it a stark reality to our situation. It's a weapon, meant for defense. Meant to kill.
The knocking on the front door has me jumping a few inches before I recognize the specific pattern. I run to the door and fling it open. "Niisan!" I cry, and fling myself at him for a hug.
Niisan holds me, and it's how tightly he holds me that tells me things are bad. "Let me in, imouto-chan," he says quietly as he brushes a hand over my hair.
I let go of him and step back so he has room. When he passes me, I see that he, too, is wearing his katana on one hip and has a crowbar on the other. I try not to shiver as I shut the door. "Niisan, what's going on?"
He puts his hands on his hips and looks around at the cousins sleeping on the floor. We can both hear the sounds of Riza-san's voice floating from the bedroom. I circle around so I can better see his face, his eyes.
I know my brother's eyes better than anyone. I've seen them hot and cold, hard as stone and gentle as cotton. I've seen them so furious as to scare me even though I know he'd never hurt me, and amused enough to make me smile if not outright laugh. I know it's because I know them so well that he didn't look at me while we waited for the family.
When I see the deep shadows in his haunted gray eyes, I realize I don't know them anymore. Something's changed. He's changed.
And there are dark spots on his shirt that weren't there before.
"We aren't staying here. Uncle's decided. They're draining the generators' fuel reservoirs so they can refill the cars." Even his voice is different. Rougher. Strained.
I gape. "What? Why?" I demand, my voice rising in pitch as I struggle with the sudden crash of panic over my mind. Father had always said this was the best place to be in the event of an emergency. We were already so prepared. There was no reason to leave. I take a breath before speaking again, making sure my next question isn't so hysterical-sounding. "Is it because of the zombies?"
Niisan flinches at the word. My brave, wonderful brother actually flinches. "Yes." The word comes reluctant and low.
I almost ask where we're going, but I already know. It's the place that we all know is the fallback position for any real emergency. I still end up asking for confirmation because I can't quite believe it. "Cheyenne Mountain?"
Cheyenne Mountain isn't the same mountain that houses NORAD. It's a compound that's even more fortress-like than the compound here. It was named after the military facility's mountain more so that just in case, people who chanced to overhear it would go in practically the opposite direction of the compound's actual location. It had higher walls, solid gates, and greater space within the walls. All of the buildings were two stories, minimum, and every building's ground floor was either a high-ceilinged dojo or an equally high-ceilinged storage space. Even the greenhouses had a bottom clearstory. Otherwise, it contained the same comforts of home.
Which made it the perfect place to be, I realize. However, getting there...
"Cheyenne Mountain," he agrees.
I frown at him. Something about how he said that gives me reason to worry.
He gives me a questioning look back. Something else is there in his haunted eyes, quick and fleeting. I'm not able to name it, so I quietly ask, "What is it?"
He walks over to the TV, dropping his shoulder enough to smoothly pick up the remote. He turns on the power and immediately thumbs the Mute button before the noise can wake the sleepers. The image that pops up is a commercial for food before he changes the channel to one of the news networks. What it showed I knew I would never forget.
Zombies everywhere. People were fighting, running, or trapped, or getting eaten by others. Mobs and riots, flashes of gunfire and the steady light of real fire. Other people who looked as normal as anyone in the compound, but for the slow, methodic limping and rigid outstretched hands. The captions and the landscapes changed, but otherwise the images were the same. I come up to stand beside Niisan, unable to look away from the horrific images. I saw a man help another who had fallen, hoisting him onto his back to get him away from the zombies. I saw a woman grab another man and kick him into the grasping hands of a zombie so she could scrabble away, and I saw the blood spurt. I want to look away, I want to throw up, but I also feel so detached. Like what we're watching is a mock documentary. But I know it's real and it terrifies me.
"This is what is coming," Niisan says quietly. He's sounding as detached as I feel. "This is what is already here."
I nod mutely. I remembered hearing the moans at the gate. It didn't sound like it very many then.
"Uncle told me this compound could withstand a siege of a couple hundred of them." I note how carefully Niisan avoids the word zombie. He changes the channel to a local station, and I see how people are streaming toward Fort Carson, maybe twenty minutes away. And I see what follows them. "Unfortunately, we're looking at thousands. Given enough time and bodies, they'll breach the walls."
My heart is thudding painfully as I struggle with my panic. I am Hyuuga and I will be panic's master instead of the other way around. I look up at Niisan, just so very grateful that he's here. He's a lot like Father, a rock of calm amidst the stormy sea, and every bit the leader Father is.
He's studying the screen with narrowed eyes. I don't know what he's looking for within the images. He abruptly turns the TV off and sets the remote on the coffee table. "Hanabi, before you leave, I want you to make sure to leave a message to Hinata, in case she comes by after we're gone. Put it in a place where you know she would look -- where only she would think to look. Let her know what happened as much as you're able in the time left. I don't know when Uncle wants everyone moving out."
"Why don't you?" I want to know.
"I'm leaving one for Tenten, and don't have time for two."
I blink, stung. More and more, that girl from his school has been at the forefront of his mind when it should be on the family. I shake my head to clear it and look back at him. "There's something you're not telling me," I accuse him.
He doesn't deny it. Instead, the smile on his face is brief and slight and self-effacing. He crouches down, careful of the weapons that look natural on him, so that we're on the same level. He's no longer looking down at me, and I'm no longer looking up at him. "I'm not going," he answers, for my ears only.
The shock of his words hits me hard enough that I lose my balance. Immediately his hands are there on my shoulders, offering support. I put my hands over his, clutching them hard as tears well up in my eyes. His eyes tell me he's made up his mind. "No, Aniki-chan," I plead, wanting that familiarity to be the rope that keeps him here with us, with me. Neesan is already somewhere out there, her fate unknown. I don't want to lose him, too. "No, you--" I stop when my voice threatens to break, and take a deep breath before starting again. "You can't. Y-You have to stay with us."
He shakes his head. "It's better I don't."
"Why!?" My hands tighten on his as tears rush down my face.
"Shhh, Hanabi." He falls silent, and I find myself listening for Riza-san's voice. I don't hear it. I have to steel myself from looking behind me and instead hope she's too far away to really understand what we're talking about. "I have a few reasons. One involves your father. Another involves finding Hinata." He doesn't say it, but I know he's thinking about Tenten as well.
I push any thoughts of her aside as there are more important things demanding my attention. "What do you mean, involves Father?" I can understand wanting to find Neesan; I want her home too. But Father is already here, already safe.
Niisan hesitates, and I find myself hating this. Hating how everything just keeps going from bad to worse. Hating that though he'll speak to me as an adult, he's still seeing me as only a child. Hating how small my hands are compared to his. Hating that I'm not enough to keep him here, keep him safe with me and the family.
"It would be better if he's angry with me," he replies cryptically. I wait for him to say more, to explain.
He doesn't. He draws me in for a hug instead. I stiffen, refusing it as a sense of finality swamps me. "Aniki-chan, you're his heir. You have to stay here. This is where you belong. What if--" I choke on the words, not wanting to finish. But I continue anyway, desperate to keep him from going off into danger. "--what if something happens to Father? You have to be here!" It's your duty!
I can tell he hears my silent cry, because his gaze slants away from mine a moment just long enough to look guilty before our eyes meet again. I know my brother. I know that duty is something he takes seriously, and that he would rather do just about anything else then abandon those he feels responsible for or to. "I have to find her."
I know he doesn't mean Neesan. Or just Neesan.
I finally let myself hug him, and I hold on as tight as I can and know my strength is nothing compared to his. I don't want to let go, to let him go to whatever path Mother Fate has decided he will walk. Too soon, he's gently pulling my arms from around his neck. "You have to be strong, imouto-chan," he tells me. "For Uncle, for the family, and for yourself. And then when I do get to Cheyenne, you two can take turns beating the shit out of me, or do it together." He tries to smile. I don't have heart to tell him how miserably he fails with how ghastly it looks. He doesn't know if he'll make it to Cheyenne. He'll try, that I know, but he's uncertain of his success.
I scrub the tears from my eyes. "I will. I promise you that." My anger at his stupidity of going out there helps clear the fog of fear. It helps me focus. And I wonder if that was part of the point all along.
"Good." His smirk is more natural, more convincing than his lame attempt at a smile. I feel some hope that we'll all get through this flutter in my soul. "I'll look forward to it. You'd better train hard." He gets to his feet and turns to go.
"Niisan!"
It's bittersweet, that he'll stop when I call him but won't stay. "If you don't come back, I'll never forgive you!"
"I wouldn't want that," he replies.
And then he's gone, the door closing behind him.
Part 4: Hiding | Table of Contents | Part 6: Dreaming