BFishTober - Prompt One: "It's not too late, let's go."
I'm posting this late as hell, but here. Oops.
Banana Fish - Eiji Okumura/Ash Lynx - TW: Blood
It’s 5:30 pm, and Ash isn’t at the airport. Eiji bites his lip and swallows heavily, doing whatever he can to try and bury the emotions rising in him. Some part of him had held out hope, trying to find excuses for why Ash might be late. Sing had texted him some time ago, letting him know that Ash had received the letter, so he knew. Ash really wasn’t coming.
Ibe slides a hand across his back, landing on his shoulder in some semblance of a hug.
“Eiji. We have to go and get checked in.” He has a sympathetic tone to his voice, with an expression to match.
Eiji’s lip starts trembling without his permission, and he masks the tear that slides down his cheek by pretending to scratch his eye. “Right.” He says, despite feeling like his world was crashing and burning around him. He stares into nothingness for a beat.
“Right.” He repeated.
Ibe sighs and squeezes his shoulder before letting go. Wordlessly, he takes a hold of Eiji’s luggage for him. Distantly, he wishes that he hadn't tried to help him. He felt like holding onto his suitcase was one of the only things keeping him grounded.
They start at a slow pace and head for their terminal. His feet are making what is probably an annoying noise as he drags them reluctantly.
Someone brushes against him as they join the queue, and he jolts so abruptly that it takes his breath. He whips his head to the side, hoping and praying that he would be met with a blonde-headed man.
Instead, he is met with a stranger who’s giving him a strange look. Eiji swallows against the lump in his throat and whispers a half-assed apology. The man doesn’t respond, and so he turns to stare at Ibe’s blurry back. He swipes quickly at his eyes.
They're at their terminal, and his heart is starting to pound so hard that he’s genuinely a little unsure if he’s having a heart attack or not.
“Eiji, do you have your ticket ready?” Ibe’s face fades back into focus, and Eiji nods wordlessly.
He reaches into his jacket pocket mindlessly and pulls the slightly crumpled paper out. They’re third in line now.
Shit. What is he doing? Did he really think that this was all going to work?
I mean, cmon. What was he meant to do? Go back to Japan and pretend everything was normal, that Ash never existed? There was nothing waiting for him in Japan. His family, sure, but beyond that there was nothing. He would never be able to forget his time in New York, and with no future waiting for him at home… Pole vaulting wasn’t an option anymore, and he’s not the college-type. His future was here. With Ash.
Ibe is handing his ticket over, and then he’s through. Eiji thinks he might be hyperventilating.
Damnit.
His feet slap against the linoleum tiles, and he’s aware that sprinting away from security right before going through is definitely suspicious as hell, but he has to do this.
He can’t board that plane, he can't go back to Japan. He wonders if Ibe has noticed his escape yet.
At some point he realizes that he doesn’t even have his suitcase, but he doesn’t stop to look for it. In fact, he only stops once he’s outside the airport and hailing a taxi. He’s… not really sure where he’s going.
Ash could quite literally be anywhere. Where does he even start looking?
He starts with the old apartment. A good twenty-minute drive later and he’s paying for the taxi. He thanks every god he can think of that the apartment staff remember his face, but even after being let in it’s no use. Ash wasn’t here with no clue as to where he was.
If he wasn’t at the apartment he was probably out on some job, which meant Eiji would never find him. At this rate he wonders if he should just wait in the apartment and see if he returns.
With no other plan, he takes a seat outside the apartment door and catches his breath for the first time in the past hour. He’s in the middle of counting his own breaths when he remembers he can call Sing. Sing was one of the last people that he knows for sure saw Ash. His phone is in his hand and ringing before he knows it.
“Eiji? The hell are you doing? Ibe is freaking the fuck out looking for you!” Sing manages to get his sentence out before Eiji, and he winces a bit.
“Uhm. Well, it’s a little complicated. Can you tell me where Ash is?”
There’s silence on the other line, and then cursing. Distantly, Eiji is a little impressed with how many curse words Sing strings together.
“Eiji we ain’t doin this again. You got to go back to Japan. Seriously.”
“Sing, if you can’t tell me where he is, tell me, but I’m not going anywhere without Ash. You should know me well enough by now to know I’m serious.” Eiji feels a little guilty for snapping like that, but he has to find him and Sing is only delaying the inevitable.
Honestly, why is anyone surprised it turned out like this? Ash and I are a package deal. Everyone knows that.
A hint of guilt pings in his mind.
I almost left him. I was gonna leave Ash.
Sing let's out a heavy sigh, “Last I saw ‘em he was off of 6th Avenu-”
Oh shit! Of course.
“The library! Of course he went there. Thank you, Sing!”
Eiji hangs up and is stumbling to the elevator before he can even get his phone back in his pocket.
The ride in the taxi felt like it lasted forever, but finally, finally he is getting out in front of the library.
It’s a familiar sight, and he has no doubt in his mind that Ash is in his regular seat.
The library looks the same as it always does, and across the reading room Eiji can already see him. His head is pillowed in his arms, with the sun beaming down to illuminate his blonde hair.
Eiji exhales deeply and makes his way over, and as he approaches he can see his own letter. A flush creeps its way onto his face and he tries to shove away the embarrassment. It’s good that he read the letter at all, he tells himself.
He pulls a chair over and pokes Ash’s cheek roughly. He knows there’s no point going gentle, this man sleeps like the dead.
He doesn’t wake up yet, so he pokes him again.
And again.
And again.
He’s shaking him now, roughly jostling him by his shoulder.
“Ash, wake up. It’s me, I… I came back. Did you finish the letter? We have a lot to talk about.”
No response.
Eiji feels something bubbling up in his chest, not quite fear but something close to it.
“Ash? I'm not going back to Japan. What…” Ash’s arms fall away. His shirt is sticky and wet with blood. Fresh.
Eiji sucks in a breath and flounders a bit, his hands starting to shake. He shoves his shoulder much rougher now, trying to get a response.
It doesn’t work, his eyes still shut tight to the world. Hesitantly, so hesitantly, Eiji presses two fingers to the side of Ash’s neck like he’s seen in movies. He holds his breath and presses harder than he may have needed to.
Distantly, faintly, he felt it. A barely there thrumming that rises to meet his fingers. He imagines that it’s reaching out for help, begging him to save him.
He gulps in air, feeling a piece of him come back to life, and reaches down to Ash’s shirt.
He’s not skilled enough to know what kind of wound this is, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that there’s too much blood. He applies pressure and sobs in relief at the slight wince on Ash’s face.
The way his fingers slide across his phone screen as he dials 911 makes him feel sick.
The lady on the other end instructs him on what to do, but all he can hear is the slight breathing coming from Ash’s body. All he can see is the way his eyelashes flutter if he presses too hard. All he can smell is the scent of metal and blood.
Eiji is distantly aware that people are noticing what’s happening around him, but it doesn't matter. Nobody does, except Ash. Ash, whose eyes are fluttering open to groggily stare at him. Eiji cracks a tearful grin at him in response, and rubs a blood-soaked thumb across his pale cheekbone. The paramedics are crowding around them now, trying to pull his hands away from the wound.
“It’s not too late, Ash. Let’s go, yeah?"
