zawamecity | [For Hiromu]

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[For Hiromu]

It's been two years since the defeat of Messiah.

I suppose things have changed quite a lot since I woke up- not, as I had expected, in the EMC's own infirmary, but in an actual honest-to-goodness hospital, hooked up to more machines than I could probably name.

Also, eleven years old.

I probably shouldn't have woken up, probably shouldn't have been able to, with all the scrambled data that made me up in a metaphysical sense, too old and too addled to just go back into my little body and be dragged out before the subdimension collapsed. But that's what happened, and I wasn't even unconscious for more than two days, which was frankly, the doctors said, some kind of miracle.

The miracle is that I'm still kicking around two years later. I'm guess I'm supposed to be thankful that my body just kicked back into gear and started aging normally, but I'm learning very quickly that having missed puberty the first time around, I'm really in a unique position to hate it exponentially more this time.

I'm living with Hiromu now. How he's putting up with me through this, I will never understand, but he loves me and I love him, we've been through so much together... And as long as we're careful not to be too affectionate when we go out of the house (as if I ever really go out of the house much anymore), it works for us.

We're both still technically employed by EMC, but mostly for protection and support. We each get a stipend for things like groceries, my parents' estate pays for the house. Hiromu has gone back to school, to university, something he never had the opportunity for before, during the fighting and all.

I mostly sit around at home, spending time with Nick and Kotako, and honestly, feeling sorry for myself.

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I chuckle softly and pull away finally, inching past him into the hall and tugging him along after me. "Yes, precisely like in Madeline."

I love his reaction to some of the things his teacher shows him. He came home from class one day subtly horrified by Babar.

"Oh." I pause in the hallway, then reach for the pastry back he is holding and head off with it, into the kitchen. "Well, I suppose it's as good as any other weekend getaway."

He moves ahead of me, pulling me along with him. Madeline was much easier to understand than that one about the elephants.

...

I catch up with him and slide my hands around his waist from behind, resting my chin on his shoulder for a moment. "You want to go somewhere else? We can do that?"

I can hear the uncertainty in my voice. I don't know how to be romantic. Just pragmatic. But I know I love him, and I want him to feel happy. I just... he's been so restless and unsettled, and I want to help him find a way to feel like he has a purpose in his life again.

I slow down when I feel his hands around my waist, and lean back against him just briefly. "No, I didn't have any ulterior motives. We can do whatever you like?" I don't mean it to come out a question, but it does.

I realize belatedly what I am actually thinking without knowing, what is subconsciously informing my actions. I turn around in his arms and tilt my head sharply back to look up at him.

"Are you trying to get me to see a therapist again?"

That comes out much more accusatory than I intended it to, especially since I know he's just worried about me, and beyond that, I know that it's at least partially the Commander's doing.

He rests a little weight on me, and I can't help but sigh in pleasure. It always feels so nice when we're together.

Except then he turns around, and looks up at me. With that expression on his face.

"No," I say hastily, because it's true, but I can't find the right words to convince him of that. "I mean, if you wanted to, I'd like that, and if you didn't like that one, I'd support you in finding another. But I'm not trying to ambush you. I just want... want to train."

What I do alone or with him is good, but I want to be at EMC too. Yes, we defeated Messiah, but that doesn't mean nothing will ever go wrong again.

I take his hand in mine and squeeze gently.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I know you're worried about me." I bite my lip thoughtfully, sigh, and then shake my head. "Training would be good. We can go tomorrow, that'd be nice."

I hold up the pastry bag again. "Now, let's go see what you brought home."

He's holding my hand. I wish - I wish we could do this in public more easily. I hate that he can't be comfortable when we're out together.

I'm not good at this interpersonal stuff. I like him. I love him, even (and he knows that, because I say it to him). But I don't know how to make him feel better when he's got this huge stupid issue, and when he's still grieving Jin-san (of course he is, the man was basically his father). Jin-san wouldn't've been able to fix it either. At least, I don't think so. But having him around would've meant another person for Emi to talk to, to be supported by, to be irritated by when Jin-san got extra silly.

"Thanks, Emi. Yeah, I am, but I'm probably not completely sane either," I say wryly. "Things are a lot harder for you day to day than they are for me, but we went through such... specialised circumstances that it's hard to feel like I'm normal either."

I brighten when he holds up the bag. There's something sickly sweet in there, with cinnamon icing. I have no idea what they're called. The bakery doesn't have labels for their little pastries. I just pointed and said two of those, please.

I do love him, I know I do, and in many ways that's about all I have. But it should be enough- I could have lost him in the battle, and I know that very acutely. I could have lost him to Enter (and doesn't that still ache deep, that I still don't know, will probably never know, whether or not Enter's data came from me, or from my brother...), but we made it through.

So what if I'm thirteen going on twenty-eight? So what if I have at least another five, maybe seven years before I can go out and be seen in public with my boyfriend? Honestly, it's not as if we wouldn't get dirty looks then, too, and not for our age.

So what if I think I'm going grey before I hit fourteen, and that puberty is terrible, and that I don't actually know what I'm going to look like in ten years, even though I have a set mental image of what I should look like...

None of that matters. Hiromu does, and I smile up at him, a real genuine smile. "We're not normal." I assure him. "But we can be not normal together."

We're both floundering.

It's much worse for Emi. And I guess I knew that I'd be in this kind of trouble, and I guess it's a luxury to be able to. Jin-san doesn't get this.

But it's still hard, I suppose.

Oh well.

He smiles up at me, and says the sweetest thing, just like always. I grin at him and kiss him gently. "Here, you eat. I'll just go in the bedroom and change."

I duck into our room, which is tiny but pretty neat as always. I can't find one of my socks, though - maybe on the other side of the bed? Maybe under the bed?

I'm flat on my stomach, wiggling under, trying to find it. There are other things under here. A book. I think a hairbrush. And there's the edge of what feels like a giant zipper, and there's a breeze pulling at me, and now it's a wind, and now it's a tornado, and with a yelp I fall into space -

I keep heading into the kitchen at first, until I hear Hiromu make a sound that is at once innately familiar, and completely horrifying. It's his oh god what is happening I need help but I don't have time to ask for it yelp (and yes, it's that specific, the oh god I know exactly what is happening and I'm going to deal for now yelp is entirely different). I drop the pastry bag and tear around the corner and into the bedroom in time to see his legs... steadily disappearing under the bed.

The bed under which I know there is not actually enough room for his entire body but now he's nearly gone and-

I dive after him without thinking, grasping onto his ankle, and I give a mon fucking dieu what in the hell is this help me yelp of my own as we go tumbling down into something, some place, that is far too fresh and green and outdoors to be under our god damn bed.

...I'm in a tree.

I'm a tree, and my head is pounding.

I'm in a tree, my head is pounding, and there's something holding onto my ankle. I blink at it, and realise it's an Emi.

I scramble for him. "Emi, please be breathing-"

I'm fine, but I was certainly worried about Hiromu for a second there. He grabs for me and I take his hands and let him pull me up with him where he's in a funny little natural hammock of vines in the crook of a forked tree.

I'm basically sitting in his lap now, but I don't mind. "I'm fine, Hiromu, are you okay? What was that?"

I turn my head, looking around and trying to find... Some indication of whatever hole we fell into this forest from, but there's nothing.

He climbs up, pretty much into my lap. I keep a hand on his back as I twist enough to look around.

"I don't know," I say blankly, shaking my head. "But it's not Earth. Or not Earth as we know it. Look at the fruit."

I should be very concerned about everything that is going on right now, but I do allow myself a guilty moment of just being close to Hiromu, of his hand on my back. He's not particularly shy with being physically affectionate towards me- when we're at home. But he has every reason to be apprehensive about it in public, so I still appreciate everything I do get.

I curse softly under my breath- mostly in French, and probably mostly familiar to Hiromu by now. He's right, though- none of those looks familiar at all. Trees are trees, and vines are vines, but there's something... decidedly foreign, if not outright alien, about all of it.

"Good to know there's an alien forest under our bed."

He has that look on his face again. That "I'm not allowed to be happy, I know I'm not," look. I think because I'm holding him.

We really need to do something about his physical situation. I know we can wait, but... this really isn't fair on him.

He says some bad words, but I'm not entirely sure what one phrase means, and anyway, where would he get the goat? Then manages a wry comment. "Yes, we've always wanted one," I agree. "Emi, you don't happen to have any weapons with you, do you?"

I can feel my brace where it should be, but it's not quite... accessible in the way that it usually is. I should've manifested it properly before I fell through, but who thinks of everything when they're falling under their bed?

"Delightful." I lean against him a little extra-heavily, under the guise of leaning out of the tree and looking down. There's some kind of creature down there, a fair sight more organic-looking than most Metaroids.

"No," I answer him after a moment of thought. My Morphin Blaster was... not confiscated, technically, but it had generally been agreed upon by the higher-ups at EMC that I should probably not use it in my normal body, at least until I'd grown up a little more. At least as old as Youko-chan had been.

"No, I don't. Do you think we'll need to fight?

He's a good, solid weight against me, and I hate that my brain automatically starts gauging how easily I could throw him to safety or at the creature below, if either becomes necessary.

Er, I don't mean I'd just randomly toss him at the creature then run. I mean if I couldn't move, myself, and he wanted a boost.

"I think it's possible," I say wearily. "I suppose it's something to do, Emi. I can't see a damn thing from up here. Shall we climb down and see if we can figure out where we are?"

I wonder what he's thinking about when his eyes go all distant like that. He's thinking about something, or gauging something. I smile for him and shift around so I'm sort of straddling him. It's a little awkward, but I just want to reach to kiss him on the cheek.

"You're right. We'll be fine as long as we're together anyway. I'll go first." I say, mostly because we don't really have another choice, seeing as I'm basically on top of him.

We're not too far off the ground, so I only have to climb down off him and down a few branches before I'm in a position that I can drop to the ground instead.

The creature, whatever it is, is pretty creepy looking up close, but it seems... Confused by me, and not (yet) overtly aggressive.

...even here, he's ridiculously romantic and sweet. Even here.

I wonder how he puts up with me, sometimes. I'm busy sitting here thinking about the bark pushing into my butt and the easiest way to throw him at someone.

He drops down easily enough, and I'm relieved by this reminder that he's far from incd apable even while he's physically thirteen. He's not as big and strong as his avatar, of course he's not, but he does all right.

I drop down next to him, and say a cautious, "Hello" to the creature.

For some reason, I'm not even remotely surprised when Hiromu greets the creature that is sniffing (sort of, I'm not sure if it has a nose) around me. It's about as tall as I am, which isn't saying much. I'm pretty sure it's just a... Creature, probably not any more sentient than a dog. But it's sweet that he tries.

It turns towards him and moves closer, still making motions as if it's examining. I can't really see any distinctive eyes, either. I wonder how it's sensing us. Either way, it doesn't seem to see us as a threat, or as food. Which is good.

"I don't think it talks, cher."

It reminds me of Nick, except it hasn't smacked me on the head for being rude yet or gotten us all lost.

Okay, maybe it doesn't remind me of Nick all that much.

"I think you're probably right," I agree. "Then I suppose we need to find a way back home."

I look helplessly around, but from down here my vantage point is severely limited, and not just because I'm short. It's also just a very busy forest, I might even hazard towards calling it a jungle, what with all of these vines.

"To do that, we have to figure out where we are. Do you have your cellphone on you?"

This is beginning to get a little bit absurd. I rush into the Forest as fast as I can when the Professor contacts me, but there's only so much I can do about closing the cracks that open in places other than Zawame, and this is the... Fourth? Fifth? Time that someone unrelated to anything has fallen through one into the Forest.

Something needs to change, I have to get more powerful and make the Forest stop doing this.

For now, I need to get this new person- no, people out of the Forest, preferably without them freaking out about me.

I step through the trees, nudge some questing buds away from my toes, and gesture at the Inves, which turns to me at first, then wanders off, as if it had forgotten what it was doing.

[Whoops, I really should've tracked this post, I didn't see Kouta's comment at all, whooooops]

There's a glowing person. I shift into a defensive posture half in front of Emi, then with some embarrassment step to the side. He can protect himself. He's a teenager. Not an infant.

"Hello," I call cautiously. He's blond. Wearing armour, but it's not like ours. This doesn't cover his head, and he's got a -

A cape.

You'd have to be really goddamn stupid to wear a cape when you fight. That alone tells me that he doesn't rely just on physical abilities.

Really! A cape!

[It's no problem! <3]

I don't take offense to Hiromu stepping in front of me. I know he means well, and it's not his fault I don't really come up to his shoulder. He has every reason in the world to be protective of me.

The stranger steps closer to his, his eyes scanning over us both. I notice his eyebrows furrow slightly when they focus on me, and I also notice that one of his eyes glows red. Because that doesn't make me uncomfortable at all.

I don't think this is anything related to Vaglass, though. Not with those plants literally growing at his feet.

"I'm sorry for my appearance." He says, sounding a little exasperated, but not, I don't think, with us. His voice has a strange echo to it, though we're hardly in any place likely to provide a natural echo.

This is just getting more and more strange, but I suppose since we fell through a hole underneath our bed, I shouldn't consider anything impossible.

"My name is Kazuraba Kouta." He says after a moment. "And if you are willing to trust me for a bit, I can take you out of this forest."

...not liking the red glow. I'm really not.

But I can't see a number in his eye. That has to be something of a good sign. I suppose. He's not attacking us. Not doing anything except projecting good will as hard as he can, and the fact that he's doing that a little ineptly makes me think he's not doing it with any kind of supernatural power.

(I mean, yes. That could be a masterful trick. To seem a little annoyed with his own appearance, like he doesn't have full control. To make us let down our guard. But I don't think it is, and if I'm proven wrong later, well, we'll deal with whatever happens. Like we always do.)

"Sakurada Hiromu," I say, leaving Emi to introduce himself or not. "It's all right by me. Emi...?"

...I remember my manners, and add a hurried, "Thank you."

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