Hishex

“Dan,” he can hear the scowl in Shun’s voice, “you can’t just run away from this again. I won’t let you.”

“I wasn’t running away,” Dan huffs. “I don’t run away from things.”

“Bullshit.”

“Bullshit?” Dan finally turns to face him. Shun’s arms are crossed over his chest, hair battle tousled, covered in scrapes and bruises - they both are, after what felt like days trapped in Bakugan Interspace, and then the final battle on Earth. . .Shun looks just as tired. But it doesn’t stop him from staring Dan down like he might as well be Mag Mel himself - or Barodius, or Spectra, or Masquerade. Shun has never been afraid of their enemies.

“Bullshit,” Shun repeats, shoulders stiffening with Dan’s attention finally on him. He lets his hands fall to his sides, balling into fists as he meets Dan’s gaze head on without even a flinch. “You ran away to New Vestroia without telling anyone where you were going and why. Miyoko asked Marucho and I where you went and we couldn’t even tell her. Do you have any idea how worried we all were?”

“Oh, so you were worried when I disappeared, but not before?” Dan asks, incredulous. “What the hell was I supposed to do when everybody was acting like Drago and I were acting weird and out of control on purpose, huh? You think I wanted to put anyone else in danger when I didn’t even understand what was happening to me? To us?”

Shun opens his mouth to reply, but Dan blows right through him, because somehow, even after all of the shit they just went through, he finds the energy to be angry about it all. Shun wants to talk about it? Dan’s gonna give him everything he’s got. “We almost killed someone, Shun. What if it was you or Marucho, huh? You think I could forgive myself if either of you got hurt because Drago and I couldn’t control what we were seeing and hearing?”

“Why didn’t you just tell us what was going on?” Shun asks, exasperated.

“Would you have believed me?” Dan counters.

“Daniel,” Shun pinches the bridge of his nose, looking for all the world like he’s two seconds away from smacking Dan across the head. Dan almost wishes he would - getting into a fist fight would be easier than talking about this. Getting his ass kicked by Shun would be a relief compared to the mental games he had to play against Mag Mel and Razenoid. It would hurt less.

“What?!” he snaps. “Say it, Shun!”

Shun takes a deep breath, fixing him with a sharp glare; the ‘you’re really being an idiot, Dan’ glare and the ‘I’m really getting annoyed’ glare and the ‘I can’t believe I have to explain this to you’ glare. “Ever since the Bakugan arrived on Earth, nothing is unbelievable anymore. We went from designing a game with sapient monsters to escaping their equivalent of purgatory together; we joined an alien Resistance and saved the Bakugan’s homeworld three separate times; we fought in an intergalactic war over the power of creation; we spent the last few weeks summoning giant metal titans in augmented reality to fight a dead emperor and his Bakugan- in what world would I have not believed you?!”

Dan hates when he’s right. But still, it bites that - that everybody just thought he was playing around. He didn’t know. How could he have known?

Why is he still getting grief for not wanting anyone else to get hurt?

“You’re always trying to deal with this stuff on your own,” Shun says. “But we’re a team. How many times do we have to tell you for you to get it?”

“I dunno,” Dan scowls. “Why don’t you ask the empty space in my head where Mag Mel was? There’s room for the lecture now.”

Silence yawns between them, sharp and biting and not at all comfortable like it usually is when Dan and Shun hang out together. Shun’s brow creases in the slight, almost imperceptible way that it does when he’s thinking. Dan waits, weary, the anger draining out of him as fast as it came.

“You scared us,” Shun steps closer. “You scared me. What if you never came back?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Dan scoffs. “Of course I was coming back. And if you were scared, why the hell are you so pissed off?”

“You almost died,” Shun’s gaze grows distant, lips pressing into a thin line. “We thought you were gone, Dan.”

Dan blinks. He feels like he lost the plot somewhere - wasn’t Shun just lecturing him about leaving to train on New Vestroia? What the hell is he talking about now?

“You almost did it to me again,” Shun’s voice shakes. “First the Doom Dimension; then, just now with the Dark Moon. You idiot. . .”

“What are you angry about now,” Dan throws his hands up. “It was me or the world, Shun. Me, or five different worlds with trillions of lives! What the hell are you mad about?”

“You idiot,” Shun hisses. He takes two quick steps towards Dan, hands fisting in the lapels of his jacket. Dan braces himself to get thrown on his ass, Kazami-style. Shun doesn’t throw him on his ass.

“You’re the only one I have left. I’m angry because I love you,” he says, and kisses Dan. Dan blinks, and the empty space in his head doesn’t seem so empty anymore. No, he’s reeling from the onslaught of questions - how long, since when, has Shun always-? 

(He suddenly remembers being twelve years old and kissing Shun on a dare. His first kiss. Shun’s first kiss. How he’d thought, Man, if only Shun were a girl, I’d totally ask him out when the game’s over. How he’d made up all that shit-talk about fighting anyone who broke Shun’s heart in a parking lot. Oh. Oh man. Has he always been such a clueless moron?)

(Is he gonna have to fight himself in a parking lot? Shun must be keeping an itemized list: Every Single Time Daniel Linh Kuso Has Broken Shun Kazami’s Heart By Being A Total Capital-B Baka Idiot Stupidhead.)

Shun pulls away, a whirlwind of emotions crossing his face - fear, frustration, hope, consternation - before he schools it, tucks it all away like they’re playing cards and he doesn’t want Dan to know he’s got a winning hand.

He wants to point out that Shun’s wrong - that he’d have Marucho, Dan’s mom and dad, Taylean, their friends on Earth, Vestal, Neathia, Gundalia, New Vestroia - that Dan can’t be the only one that matters to Shun, above everyone else.

(But if it were Shun in his place, wouldn’t Dan be just as angry? Just as scared? Just as devastated if Shun actually died?)

“I-” Shun grimaces in the wake of Dan’s silence. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have-” He looks ready to run. If he does, a horrible feeling in Dan’s gut says he’s never going to catch him again.

“You’re not running away from this,” he grabs Shun’s arm, well aware that if Shun doesn’t want Dan’s hands on him, he’ll have no problem kicking his teeth in. He hasn’t won a physical fight with Shun in years, not since they were idiot kids chasing each other on the playground and fighting over Gundam figurines. Fuck - the last time Dan got the drop on him, Shun still landed on his feet. “I won’t let you.”

The irony of throwing Shun’s words back at him isn’t lost on him. Shun doesn’t look at him, ears turning red. . .but he doesn’t pull away, either.

Dan takes a deep breath, a step forward; slides his hand down to Shun’s wrist, twining their fingers together.

“Oh no,” Dojo said, his eyes widening as he saw the Wu begin to glow as the two dragons continued to argue. “Omi! You need to let go!”

“Dojo what is happening?!” Kimiko asked, noticing the unexpected glowing as well.

“They are activating a Xiaolin showdown!”

“What?” Clay asked, his own gaze moving to the top of the well where the Dragon of wind and the Dragon of water were, “But Omi and Rai are on the same side!”

“Not currently they aren’t.” Dojo said, sounding almost terrified at the prospect. “At least, not as far as the Wu is concerned, They-“

“They are in disagreement about where the Wu should go.” Chase Young cut in, a sharp satisfied look on his features as everyone but the two warriors on the well turned to look at him.

“You slimy-“ Clay started only to be cut off by Raimundo’s voice picking up above them all.

“Fine then, if you are going to take the Heylin side on this then I have no choice!” He yelled, his grip tightening even more on the Wu “Omi, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown!”

Omi’s own eyes widened at this declaration, seeming to notice for the first time that the Wu had started glowing. “Wh-What?!” He stammered out, his own grip loosening in obvious shock.

“I wager my Falcon’s Eye against your Orb of Tornami!”

“But I-”

“First one to make it out of the well wins!”

“No!” Omi finally managed to cut in, “I am not taking the Heylin side!” He insisted, his eyes darting over to the others gathered as if looking for support. All he found was worry and confusion from Dojo and his other friends and an expectant gaze from Chase Young. “I-I do not wish to fight you!”

“Then let go of the Wu Omi,” Reimundo pleaded one last time, his expression hard now, “let me have it. Let go.” he ordered and Omi tried to remind himself that Reimundo was the leader, that he should follow his orders, but then his gaze found Chase’s again and he closed his eyes.