Dekaranger, Hoji, Ban
Fandom: Dekaranger
Rating: PG
Length: 643
Summary: Ban is leaving Earth. Hoji had always seen it coming.
From the first day they met, Hoji knew everything important there was to know about Akaza Banban. He was reckless, bordering on thoughtless. He couldn't take orders. He fought with his heart, with only occasional recourse to his brain. He'd been shuffled from post to post like a bad-luck charm and he wouldn't last long on Earth either.
Over the next several months he learned other things about him. Ban believed wholeheartedly in his teammates, fought with his whole being, and possessed a thirst for and a belief in justice that was as unshakeable as it was passionate. While he made mistakes, his heart was never false. Hoji could recognize these things in Ban, and in his own way even admire them, but nothing diminished the truth of his first observations. Reckless. Won't last long. And that was as deep as his feelings went for the man who insisted upon calling him his partner.
Hoji managed to believe this up until and including the moment Ban stowed away on the meteor mission. If everything had gone as planned, he would still have believed it. As it was, Hoji still woke with nightmares of that moment of shocked horror, the completely unexpected despair, and the utter devastation that racked his soul as he watched Ban and the meteor explode into a trillion particles of dust. The soft sound of the auto-pilot disengaging, proof that his ship was no longer under Ban's control, felt like his own heart snapping quietly in two.
Later he learned that Ban had survived, but it was far too late to continue lying to himself. Even as he had done his best to distance himself verbally and publicly from the erratic and headstrong DekaRed, Ban had cannonballed into his heart and stubbornly refused to leave, to the point where - against his will - Hoji had almost come to expect him there, to depend upon it. And in the last, desperate fight against Agent Abrera, Hoji suddenly became so afraid that he would lose Ban's presence in his life that he forgot, for one crucial moment, that Ban didn't have it in him to stay.
He'd called him 'partner'. To his face, in a way that could not possibly be misconstrued. And it was the most senseless, thoughtless thing Hoji had ever done because hadn't his first impression of Ban just been confirmed? Ban wasn't staying on Earth. Hoji should have saved his breath and his pride, because when the battle was over Ban was still accepted to Fire Squad. Ban was still leaving.
He had said goodbye to him yesterday. Ban had wept and thrown himself at Hoji's neck, and Hoji had stood straight and stiff and tried not to think even as his arms tightened inexorably around his partner. If he thought, he had a terrible suspicion that the tight feeling in his eyes might turn to tears to match Ban's, his iron control shattered to pieces over the shock of losing Ban not once, but twice in the same day. And this time, Tetsu could not miraculously bring him back.
Now he was walking the corridors of DekaBase, quickly, purposefully, as if his body could trick his mind into believing that he had someplace to go. He refused to notice how his feet shied away from any place that Ban had frequented. He had his duty and his little sister to attend to, and that was enough for anyone.
Thinking of his sister jarred one thought loose from the tight prison in his mind."But aren't you friends, Onii-chan?"
He stopped and raised clenched fists to his forehead, gripping his hair in a futile attempt to drive the memory out. "I just sense that we won't be comrades for very long."
The problem with cannonballs was that they were so messy. And it was so like Ban to leave a mess behind him.
He forced his body to move.
No, Miwa. We were never friends.
Because Hoji had always known that Ban was going to leave him.
Rating: PG
Length: 643
Summary: Ban is leaving Earth. Hoji had always seen it coming.
From the first day they met, Hoji knew everything important there was to know about Akaza Banban. He was reckless, bordering on thoughtless. He couldn't take orders. He fought with his heart, with only occasional recourse to his brain. He'd been shuffled from post to post like a bad-luck charm and he wouldn't last long on Earth either.
Over the next several months he learned other things about him. Ban believed wholeheartedly in his teammates, fought with his whole being, and possessed a thirst for and a belief in justice that was as unshakeable as it was passionate. While he made mistakes, his heart was never false. Hoji could recognize these things in Ban, and in his own way even admire them, but nothing diminished the truth of his first observations. Reckless. Won't last long. And that was as deep as his feelings went for the man who insisted upon calling him his partner.
Hoji managed to believe this up until and including the moment Ban stowed away on the meteor mission. If everything had gone as planned, he would still have believed it. As it was, Hoji still woke with nightmares of that moment of shocked horror, the completely unexpected despair, and the utter devastation that racked his soul as he watched Ban and the meteor explode into a trillion particles of dust. The soft sound of the auto-pilot disengaging, proof that his ship was no longer under Ban's control, felt like his own heart snapping quietly in two.
Later he learned that Ban had survived, but it was far too late to continue lying to himself. Even as he had done his best to distance himself verbally and publicly from the erratic and headstrong DekaRed, Ban had cannonballed into his heart and stubbornly refused to leave, to the point where - against his will - Hoji had almost come to expect him there, to depend upon it. And in the last, desperate fight against Agent Abrera, Hoji suddenly became so afraid that he would lose Ban's presence in his life that he forgot, for one crucial moment, that Ban didn't have it in him to stay.
He'd called him 'partner'. To his face, in a way that could not possibly be misconstrued. And it was the most senseless, thoughtless thing Hoji had ever done because hadn't his first impression of Ban just been confirmed? Ban wasn't staying on Earth. Hoji should have saved his breath and his pride, because when the battle was over Ban was still accepted to Fire Squad. Ban was still leaving.
He had said goodbye to him yesterday. Ban had wept and thrown himself at Hoji's neck, and Hoji had stood straight and stiff and tried not to think even as his arms tightened inexorably around his partner. If he thought, he had a terrible suspicion that the tight feeling in his eyes might turn to tears to match Ban's, his iron control shattered to pieces over the shock of losing Ban not once, but twice in the same day. And this time, Tetsu could not miraculously bring him back.
Now he was walking the corridors of DekaBase, quickly, purposefully, as if his body could trick his mind into believing that he had someplace to go. He refused to notice how his feet shied away from any place that Ban had frequented. He had his duty and his little sister to attend to, and that was enough for anyone.
Thinking of his sister jarred one thought loose from the tight prison in his mind."But aren't you friends, Onii-chan?"
He stopped and raised clenched fists to his forehead, gripping his hair in a futile attempt to drive the memory out. "I just sense that we won't be comrades for very long."
The problem with cannonballs was that they were so messy. And it was so like Ban to leave a mess behind him.
He forced his body to move.
No, Miwa. We were never friends.
Because Hoji had always known that Ban was going to leave him.