It had been a fairly quiet night, thankfully. Duo-kun apparently took her at her word about both of them or neither of them; she hadn't been up for anything, so he and Trunks-kun hadn't done anything. Or maybe it was just that they were all exhausted from the various things that they had been up to during the day. Either way, they had all just slept in one another's arms.
For this sort of stuff, she was fairly certain that Heero-kun would be immediately willing to join them. It was the more intimate things that she would imagine he was having issue with. Maybe. Sleeping together was, in a lot of ways, much more intimate than sex, at least as far as she was concerned. After all, sleep meant trusting someone to take care of you when you were at your most vulnerable, trusting them not abuse the faith in them you were showing.
Or something like that. She was never terribly good at putting things like that into words really. She could try and sometimes she could even make people understand what it was she was trying to say, but she wasn't too sure this was going to be one of those times.
The sleep certainly helped, she mused to herself, letting Duo-kun steer her on still unsteady legs into the main area of their building, but I'm nowhere near one hundred percent yet. I don't even think trying Sailor Moon today would be a wise idea.
Duo-kun stopped and helped her sit down. It was only after she was seated that she realized he had set her down right next to Heero-kun. Clearly this was Duo-kun's idea of putting two people who were uncomfortable around each other at ease: stick them together until they started liking one another. As a technique, it lacked subtlety, but then that was Duo-kun in a nutshell. He frequently lacked subtlety; it was part of his charm.
Trunks-kun was already there as well. It was no surprise really that he had been the first one up this morning; it was usually between the two of them, and she was certainly not at her best, not enough for getting up early enough to do the dividing out of food. He certainly did still look tired, though, and she had to wonder if he had actually gotten any sleep last night; it didn't look like it. He might have even looked a little pale--no, ashen--but surely that was her own exhaustion coloring her interpretations.
Trunks-kun's divisions were a lot neater than her own, she noted with a bit of a smile. And she certainly hoped that Duo-kun didn't change his mind about breakfast, because that meal was one Trunks-kun had already divided by three people instead of four.
She was almost willing to tell him he could divide it again, so that it was done for two people instead of three. She wasn't sure she was too hungry again today. She really had managed to seriously overdo it yesterday.
Plus there was the weird thing where she had dreamed of ChibiUsa last night; that had her off her game even more than she already was. That was a bit bizarre, to be dreaming of the future daughter she would never have, now of all times. There was something portentous about that dream, but she didn't know what it was.
If she dreamed of ChibiUsa because she was soon to be heading back to her own world and to her old destiny... Then she didn't want it. She didn't want to go back to that now. Surely she was allowed to be selfish this once, right? Hopefully she had not used up her allotment of selfish with her boys, because this--all of this--was something she didn't ever want to give up, even for her own world.
"You have to try to eat something this morning, Usagi-san," Trunks-kun coaxed, speaking quietly beside her. That he was trying to get her to eat before tearing through his own food said a lot about his concern about her not eating. She went back over that thought at time or two, not entirely satisfied it made the most sense possible, but it would have to do.
She offered a tired smile. "I'm just still asleep. Go on. I'll have something in a little bit."
"At least try some of the rice stuff again," Duo-kun added in, dangling one in front of her face. "You like the rice stuff, right, Usagi?"
"They're called onigiri," she faintly heard Heero-kun put in. And that was probably why Duo-kun insisted on calling them 'the rice stuff': it dragged Heero-kun out of his shell, if only for a moment.
"Thank you, Duo-kun," she commented, accepting it. It was better, she and Trunks-kun had found, to stay on the peripherals of those two when they started even pretending to fight.
Most days, she would just try her best to pop the whole thing in her mouth; if nothing else, being so tired was probably actually helping her manners out some, because instead she just took a sizeable bite from it to chew on instead. She could seriously get used to these onigiri that tasted like the ones from her Tokyo. They must have been leftover from that batch yesterday, because it certainly wasn't like their Reaper-provided food ever tasted nearly this good.
Trunks-kun had dug in the second she accepted her onigiri. On another, better day, she might have given some thought to trying to keep up with him. Right now, a small meal was the best she could do. Today was one day she was determined she wasn't going to push herself if at all possible, especially if she was going to have Trunks-kun to herself for the entirety of the day.
A hand swiftly crossed into her line of sight, smacking the onigiri out of her hand before she could take another bite.
For a long second, everyone was frozen, as still as a painting or a photograph. Heero-kun's hand remained outstretched, Duo-kun continued to stare at him in surprise, and she and Trunks-kun were just sort of frozen in their own shock.
The only sound in the silence was the beeping of Heero-kun's laptop. It wasn't the quiet noise of a program reaching some completion point. No, this was more like a small klaxon ringing a warning as loudly as it could, a warning of... something.
"Don't eat any of the rest of it." The words should have been a command. Instead, they almost sounded like a plea--and that was weird enough to keep her still. "It's poisoned. I think it's all poisoned."
She couldn't help it: she looked down at the food in front of them, three meals worth for all of them. She had to say, though, that she was shocked speechless. For once, she literally had absolutely nothing to say at all. You could knock her over with a feather: she was that level of shocked.
Trunks-kun seemed to recover more quickly than she was. "How long do you think it has been?"
Heero-kun shrugged. "It's hard to say. I just got a program set up to detect foreign entities last night. I was going to use it for the Reapers, but..."
But instead it had picked up the fact that the Reapers were apparently not above poisoning them to get them out of the way. Apparently, the time for bringing in new people to steal powers from, in order to overpower people here getting their abilities back, was well over. Apparently, now they had come to the 'just kill them' portion of the experience.
"The two of you eat more than Duo and me," Heero-kun continued. "It had to be intended for you. Perhaps they know you two have your powers back and are trying to rectify the situation."
"We're on their radar," Duo-kun commented direly. Heero-kun nodded his agreement with that particular statement. "That could mean they've been poisoning it ever since the old place went up in smoke." He punched one fist into the other hand. "I'm going to kill them. I'm going to kill every last one of those bastards."
"Not if I beat you to it," Trunks-kun returned in a growl, pushing himself to his feet... only to come immediately back down on one knee, suddenly a lot paler and more covered in sweat than she had ever seen him. Whatever was in the food must have just hit him.
After all, of all four of them, Trunks-kun usually ate the most, polishing off whatever everyone else didn't eat. He was also by far the most active, with his training and the flying. Presumably that might give the poison more of a foothold on him.
"Trunks-kun!" she cried, wrapping both arms around him to steady him. Granted, she was none too steady herself, so it was probably more Heero-kun's and Duo-kun's help that kept the two of them upright than anything she did.
The rather inane thought went through her head that Tenchi-san had promised that the food was safe, had always been safe. It looked like he had been wrong about that after all.
"What do we have in the way of first aid?" Heero-kun asked quietly. She rather suspected she only heard him because his mouth was near her ear from where he was helping hold them both upright.
She sensed more than saw Duo-kun shaking his head slowly. "Nothing here. All our emergency supplies were on the shuttle when we went on colony, remember?"
And that didn't make a lot of sense, but there was an option Duo-kun was forgetting. "Sylphiel-san," she reminded him. "Sylphiel-san said she knows how to do healing. She has to know something for poisons."
"I'll bring her right back," he promised, already shooting to his feet.
"No one needs to go anywhere alone right now," reminded Trunks-kun, his voice surprisingly firm.
"We're not leaving you two here!"
"We'll help you get there," Heero-kun's much calmer voice spoke over Duo-kun's. "She may have things there she needs to work anyway." When he spoke again, his voice was much lower, clearly meant just for her. "Let go of Trunks, Usagi. I'll make sure he gets there okay."
Reluctantly, she nodded, slowly releasing her hold on the other man. Somehow, true to his word, Heero-kun managed to get Trunks-kun to his feet. She could see where Trunks-kun was struggling to help as much as he could, but somehow Heero-kun was strong enough to move Trunks-kun when she couldn't even budge him.
Seconds later, Duo-kun had wrapped both his arms around her and had helped her back to her feet again. The overwhelming vertigo from just that small movement stuck with her most of the way downstairs and even onto the street. She was almost moving under her own power. Almost. Kind of. Her feet were shuffling back and forth, barely leaving the ground unless necessary, so she could sort of pretend that she was actually doing the walking.
Blackness swam in and out of her vision. She wasn't going to let herself pass out, not until she knew they were all okay. Besides, it had to be a lot worse for Trunks-kun.
No, she was with Duo-kun on this: she was going to kill every last one of those bastard Reapers. She didn't care if it wasn't something she would have thought herself capable of even earlier this morning, but right now, she could do it. If she had to, she could do it right now with her bare hands. No one hurt what was hers and got away with it. The Reapers were going to pay for this.
The journey to Sylphiel-san's felt like it took three times as long as it had only a couple of days ago. Her feet seemed to catch on every rock in the road, sending her stumbling every few steps; Duo-kun had caught her every time thus far, but she wasn't too sure how much longer he could keep it up.
Ahead of her and Duo-kun, Heero-kun seemed to be taking on more and more of Trunks-kun's weight with every step that they walked. The further they went, the less she could see Trunks-kun deliberately moving his legs as if he was walking. More and more, it was starting to look like a shuffle.
She wanted to call a timeout; both she and Trunks-kun needed a break. The realistic part of her balked though. As hard as it was for them to keep moving, it would be even harder for them to start again if they stopped. Given that putting one foot in front of the other was one of the hardest things she thought she had ever done, she shuddered to think of trying to start again.
Besides it was only a block or two. Then one. Then a couple more buildings.
At last, then, they were there.
Even though he was right next to her, wrapped more than a bit around her to hold her up, she could barely make out what Duo-kun was yelling up in the direction of Sylphiel-san's place. She faintly heard the other woman answer, and then there were stairs heading up. Thankfully, Sylphiel-san only lived on the second floor, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, she supposed. It wasn't too pleasant as it was.
Sylphiel-san and Duo-kun were talking again, the words indistinct, until she heard one that made no sense at all.
"Dicleary" rang out in Sylphiel-san's voice, loud enough to echo through her head.
She couldn't even begin to describe the weird feeling that chased hard on the heels of that word, and that was only in part thanks to the darkness finally dragging her relentlessly under.
29 October 2012
I have the distinct feeling I'm going to get shot for this particular cliffhanger.
Tomorrow's chapter may be late. My mom put in a request for a visit while I'm on vacation, which is why today's chapter is going up now. I'm not sure if I'll be back tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday afternoon. If it's tomorrow, then the chapter will be on time. If it isn't, I'll be posting two on Halloween.
See you in the next chapter!
Apollymi