Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ My Shinigami, My Hamburger ❯ The Terminal and the Terminally Curious ( Chapter 11 )

Chapter 11

The Terminal and the Terminally Curious

There still was a significant drone of talking echoing between the station walls, even though the clock declared that it was only just past seven in the morning, Pacific Time. With the arrival of the train that housed the mortal Heero Yuy and his immortal stowaway, the engine hissed quietly and died down, allowing it to settle down into a deep sleep of sort while it would receive the needed repairs. Passengers in their jackets and freshly groomed clothes, steaming coffee and sugary breakfasts on the run in hand, mulled past the train on their way to and from their own scheduled boardings.

Beams of stunning California morning light seeped in and illuminated the dark circles beneath many a mortal eye, and Heero carefully observed all this from the door at the back platform with a backpack slung over his shoulder and a inquisitive Shinigami trying to peer over it. Despite the slight distraction tugging anxiously at his sleeve and mewling in protested as he tried unsuccessfully to look peer around his arranged husband and see the bustling train station.

Thump! thump! thump!

Heero didn't even have to glance over his shoulder to know what that incessant noise was. "Shinigami. Stop wagging your tail. For one minute, please. And make sure you hide it."

The longhaired deity promptly made a disgruntled face at the side of his head by sourly pouting his lips and giving his jacket sleeve another impatient tug. "He did already. Teishu, he only wants to look around! Why don't you move over, kudasai?" Dressed in the concealing black cloak with a hem that hovered down below his knees and black robes neatly concealing his feet, Shini looked somewhat like a black shadow hovering behind him, though Heero might have described him differently; perhaps as a little black cloud hanging over his head.

"Shinigami just wants to see," Shini insisted in a half-whine, nudging against the young Japanese man's shoulder with his chin.

When his Teishu didn't move or even respond, he adopted another stubborn expression and began pushing his way through. Before he could wedge his cherub-shaped face between his arm and the doorframe, Heero abruptly moved from the doorway, causing the Angel of Death to stumble forward with a squeak. He caught himself on the guardrail that fenced in the platform, but still looked sharply over to the mortal in a fluster.

"Oi, Teishu! Not nice!" he grumbled.

However, the complaint seemed to fall on a pair of selectively deaf ears-the mortal man had already jumped the rail, and made nary a sound while doing it. Waiting expectantly on the marble boarding platform, Heero simply arched an eyebrow and balled his fists in his jacket pockets while he waited patiently for the deity to follow him. Those close enough would have noticed the corner of his mouth tweaking slightly in amusement. Shinigami stalked up to the guardrail, still flushed red and pouting, and looked unhappily down at his arranged husband, expectant of an apology, at least.

"That was not nice, Teishu," Shini reprimanded again. He tried his best to look intimidating, though his bright face didn't exactly radiate the image of anger. Had he been able to anyway, Heero most likely wouldn't have been frightened-he wasn't in the habit of fearing of Gods of Death who were prone to bursting out in tears and clinging to their mothers. But that was beside the point. He was in a hurry to get home and out of this insane country. It made him think why anyone would volunteer for a reality show of any kind, if his troubles were any indication.

Heero simply turned to begin walking, pausing for a second to wait for the Shinigami. "Come on. Let's go."

Shini made a face. "Oi!" he drawled unhappily, still standing at the guardrail, facing the tracks from which they had just traveled on with a pout set across his face.

"I'm going to leave now," the mortal notified him finally, reshouldering his backpack as he turned completely around but did not move. He watched over that shoulder and looked up at the Angel of Death, knowing very well that Shini wouldn't remain indignant enough to be left behind. What, with him having the mind of child, that is. Slowly, he saw what he expected and the winged deity trudged up to the guardrail closest to the platform and swung over it easily, landing silently on the marble with his bare feet. His face, however, was still strung up in a pout.

It was strange to see a creature as him that had acted so young and childlike move so fluidly as he leapt easily over the rail and landed silently, despite wearing a heavy coat meant to conceal his large wingspan. Heero watched the Shinigami walk up to his side and turn that pout toward his face, and shook off the thought as Shini stopped beside him and stood silently for a moment.

"What?" Heero asked quietly, as the deity stared at him for a long, considering minute. As he was stared at, Heero noticed how evenly their eyes met, being of almost exact equal height. Finally, when the pout on his face didn't leave, he knew what the black-robed Angel of Death was pouting for.

"Sorry," the mortal said plainly. Apparently, Shini was just childish enough to hold a grudge about not apologizing, though he had lived for more than a thousand years.

His face instantly softened, then lit up in a smile. "That's all right! Where are we going now, Teishu?" Shini asked vibrantly, clamping quickly onto the arm of his jacket without need of invitation and looking around at the commuters bustling back and forth around them like many opposing river currents. "To your home, no? In Edo? How far are we from Edo, Teishu? Shini is not sure if he can fly much with both of the two of us," he rambled on, tugging playfully on his sleeve as Heero began walking toward the front of the station; his destination the street that ran in front of it. "He hears that Edo is not like Shini used to know-is it correct all the samurai and shoguns have left on a big boat? Okasan said that they de-part-ed, but he knows not why they would leave on a ship? They should stay in Nihon, should not they?"

"I think she meant they departed, as in dying."

Shini blinked curiously at him, as if he'd just remarked the sky had fallen yesterday, and he had missed it. "Oh." Heero kept walking, and when he glanced over his shoulder, Shini started up again to keep at his side. "What else is different, Teishu? He has not been between here for a long time, and the last time that he was, he did not see much things other than umi and beef on the hoof."

There was a momentary peculiar look from Heero straight across into those godly violet eyes, and he made a tiny grimace as he tried to decipher the strange and clearly American phrase. He understood that umi meant horse, but it took him a moment to realize that he actually meant cattle, not literal beef on the hoof. While he was thinking, the black-winged deity had adopted a vaguely gloomy expression as he said, "The last time Shinigami lived with a mortal, that is."

Heero grunted once, then glanced towards the door. They were approaching the glass doors and marble arches that let in the morning rays and the men and women of San Francisco who were departing and arriving, including one deity and a mortal trapped in wedlock. His hands were still balled up in his pockets, and the Shinigami had his arm latched around his, looking like a distorted version of arm candy, with horribly tousled hair and a long, oversized black cloak that dragged along the marble along with his original black silk robes. Heero didn't make another comment, and when Shini didn't elaborate on what he had meant, he assumed that the issue was dropped. Still that unhappy look remained, as he seemed to be wrapped up in his own thoughts. Heero looked one last time at him, then finally pushed it from his attention and ignored it as he walked through the marble arch out onto the steps.

Leading out from the train station was a short strip of pavement running through a parking lot and in front of the steps that led out to the main road, where early morning commuters were already beginning to experience a few slow spots in traffic, going by in their assorted, multi-colored sedans and SUVs. Of course, Heero had lived for twenty-five years on Earth and he had seen vehicles before-he didn't give traffic a second thought beyond making sure not to be struck by it, normally, like any other human being. He was already glancing around for a taxi when he began stepping down the steps and felt his elbow suddenly free from the Shinigami's arm.

Heero stopped once he felt the deity stop behind him, and looked flatly back up to him. He stood one step up, gaping quietly out at the road above his husband's head and his tangled and unbound hair tossing around in the wind. "Wow," he croaked.

The mortal narrowed his eyes at the road, where Shini was staring, then back to Shini himself. "What?" he asked.

Without a word to justify his awestruck state, he simply pointed at the road again, bringing the other hand to nibble nervously on the hem of his generous sleeve.

Heero stepped up level with him and gave a little disapproving frown as he eased the sleeve he was chewing on away from his mouth and again asked vaguely what he was looking at. Shini didn't respond as he gaped quietly, looking around at the surroundings foreignly, and Heero lifted an eyebrow in his humdrum manner. "Let me guess. You've never seen any kind of automobile before, have you."

"He has never seen so many horseless carriages in one place before!" he squeaked. "We saw one once when we snuck into Harvest, but it was of the oil driller-is this a place all of Nobles? How many are there, Teishu?"

Who was the 'we,' Heero had to wonder silently to himself.

"They're called cars," he explained dully, though the droning tone didn't discourage the Shinigami in the slightest. "And they're expensive, yes, but today most people own them. There's too many to count. They're used for travel purposes now, instead of horses."

"Oh," Shini whispered, his eyes still scanning the roads quietly. The curt explanation of the massive transition from horses to motorized machines that kicked off the Industrial Revolution in America and in turn, the remainder of the world, that Heero had given him sank in slowly, and he couldn't decipher whether the sad expression had seeped back in. It was masked by a strangled smile as the deity shook his head in astonishment and said lowly, "Guess much has become very different since then, much more than Shini must realize."

Heero stood there without a word, unsure of how to react to his arranged husband in the situation, then again found himself shaking it off in light of something more important, like getting both himself and an Angel of Death onto the earliest flight possible and returning to his home in Tokyo. He silently took the Shinigami by the wrist, clamping down on the heavy fabric of the concealing cloak, and guided him down the stairs, casually flagging a green and white taxicab as he did so. Shini followed him only with a little squeak of surprise as he was pulled down the stairs, then looked rapturously at the automobile that stopped for them at the curb and purred steadily as it idled.

"Are we going inside?"

"Yes," Heero sighed dutifully.

Shini paled slightly as he pointed. "You mean, Shini is actually allowed to ride in something such as this? Actually? He is definitely not one of your mortal nobility-he is allowed?"

"No, I'm just planning on smuggling you in the trunk," Heero ground out dryly, opening the back door with the hand that was not tugging his terminally curious husband along behind him. He was completely unexpecting of the loud, happy sound of the Shinigami yelping ecstatically and the equally overjoyed arms he tossed around his shoulders. He squeezed tightly for a second and let his nose settle into his back between his neck and shoulder. Heero staggered slightly, but the black-winged god giggled, let go, enthusiastically clamored inside, and promptly began examining the seats and windows with his fingers, nose, and tongue. He had pressed his palms against the far window and had begun curiously licking it by the time Heero was able to slip inside and slam the door. He was far too irritable in the morning to even consider trying to control someone, something like Shini, and he simply leaned back and groaned out, "To the nearest airport, please."

The driver apprehensively cranked his neck around to glance at the seemingly normal young man with long hair in a heavy black cloak happily lapping at the window and sniffing the tiny metal ashtray built into the handle bar like an investigative dog. He looked at Heero, leaning back against the seat with a sigh, and obliged without asking if the other passenger might have been dropped a few times as an infant. "Alright, mister."

===

"Where is the watering hole, Teishu? Is that it? Is it meant to look so ragged? Why are there no horses anymore? And the smoke emitting from them-auto-mo-bines, was it? -what does that smell of?" Shini rattled off eagerly. "Oi, look there! Kono wa?" The deity cheeped brightly as he spotted something blurring by through Heero's window and dove over to the other side of the car to catch a glimpse of it, crawling clumsily over his lap in the process.

"Hey, Shin-!" Heero growled, as his kneecap jabbed uncomfortably into his thigh and the tangled chestnut hair lying across his back swung into his face, still filled with bits of leaves and rather putrid Darkness oil. The wind circulating into the taxi through the crack in his window didn't help much to disperse the smell, though, because the God of Death quickly had lost interest in whatever he had spotted. Now he was fascinated with scraping at the window with a hand and trying to squeeze his face out through a three-inch gap between the glass and the frame. He was still rambling curiously on and also incoherently because his face was pinched as he tried to squeeze through unsuccessfully. He was moving clumsily across Heero's lap and the overwhelmed mortal was beginning to growl audibly without words, opening his mouth when he was jabbed with an errant elbow or knee.

"Get off me," Heero warned. "Sit in your own damn seat! Please!"

"Oohhhhh oh!" Shini made an awestruck sound as a neon-lit gentleman club went 'by. "'Topless dancers'? Only existent from the waist down, are they? Were they injured in a war?"

"Shinigami!"

"Hey," the driver announced suddenly, "could you two knock it off some, huh? I'm trying to concentrate on driving, if you don't mind. The longer you make that racket, the more you're gonna owe me."

Shini again tried wedging his face outside and this time found his cheekbones pinched painfully. He failed instinctually, as if the window was actually the jaws of some predator that had lain in wait, and kicked the back of the driver's seat sharply in his struggle to escape.

"Hey, what did I just say?! You two want out right here, or what?"

"No, the airport, please," Heero replied hurriedly. "Shinigami, what the hell are you doing? Stop it, or we'll be-"

"MMnnNHHHmmphnmeee!" Shini whimpered unhappily as his elbow slipped from the windowsill and crashed loudly against the automatic window control. He yelped as he sharply banged his elbow bone, but his face slipped out finally and he fell heavily back into Heero's lap, causing him in turn to let out a sharp grunt of surprise as he felt the forked tip of the deity's tail wedge into the top of his thigh, even through the fabric of his cloak.

He automatically jerked his leg and caused the deity to loose his balance. Shini clumsily tumbled back onto the seat, head inches from landing unpleasantly on the door handle and his legs knocking the ceiling before falling back down across his husband's lap. He was cradling his bashed elbow in his hand and squeezing his eyes shut tight to avoid the urge to cry in the face of such acute pain.

"Teishu!" he whined shrilly, significantly louder than what was acceptable to mortal ears, writhing theatrically on the seat.

"Keep your voice down, and stop moving, otherwise we'll be kicked-" Heero hissed through his teeth, unable to nurse the pain in his leg with him draped over it.

"That's enough shit! Both of you, out!"

===

Another taxi soon was flagged down, and this time, Heero made sure, with the utmost effort, that Shini sat obediently in his seat and managed to control the strangely primal instincts he had to inspect every nook and cranny of one of the few horseless carriages he'd ever been in. Despite all the militaristic training he had and every uptight inclination in him, it still took quite a lot of work just to make sure Shini didn't leap up into the front seat as soon as he spotted the numbers spinning slowly on the dash. He was sure that the glass between them and driver wouldn't have stood a chance if Shini had truly wanted to get up front, and he wasn't sure he was mood to pay for damages done to a taxi cab. No, on second thought, he was absolutely sure he was not.

Settling such a feverishly curious deity took a little snapping, a little warning or threatening, a sharp tone, and a hand wrapped tightly around his. Shini was very sitting close to Heero's side, so he was unable to move without him sensing the motion before it was made. If he even thought of trying to do something, he would know about it. It didn't make Heero very happy to be doing so, though, and there were a few moments when the deity's hand nervously petted along his own that made him frown. He hadn't had any kind of breakfast yet, and he dismissed the lightness in his stomach with that condition. Right. He'd grab a cheap coffee inside the airport.

That was if they could make it without further incident. He only hoped that the deity with the mind of a child and an immortal appetite for sating his curiosity would know better than to run out in front of traffic, or annoy anyone visibly holding firearms.

He had informed the female driver that they would like the nearest airport, while dragging along the black-clad, disheveled deity that looked almost like a young man, if not for the distinct inhuman color of his eyes. The driver had visibly noticed when she had turned her head to look at the passengers she was receiving. But she hadn't made a comment on it, but seemingly gone onto the pleasant small-talk chatter she must do for all her customers. Heero only realized now how brightly violet they were, and how average people would notice it right away. He had been dealing with the Shinigami for a few days, and because he had been so stressed, he'd simply grown to accept it. But now he began wondering if others would notice how otherworldly just the Shinigami's eyes could be.

While Heero sat silently, watching the meter spin and clamping down on Shini's hand unrelentingly, and thought to himself, the Divine sitting beside him looked quietly out the window. After watching the strange, bright, and alien mortal surroundings blur by him for a few minutes, his curiosity waned and he glanced back over to his arranged husband. His lips were dipping down in a rueful frown, and he waited until Heero felt his eyes on his face and turned his head to look at him flatly.

Heero asked him, "What?" with a lift of his eyebrow.

"He's sorry," Shini mumbled quickly. "Sorry that he made you and he become ejected by the taxes man. Sorry he caused trouble."

"You mean taxicab," Heero corrected plainly, his voice betraying nothing of the frustration he had felt, standing on the curb with a mewling husband nursing his bashed elbow and trying to flag down another taxi, less ten dollars of fare for his trouble. Shini nervously rubbed his thumb against Heero's hand as he continued ashamedly, head bowed slightly, and genuinely regretful of what he'd done. Though he really couldn't control himself sometimes when surrounded by such new and fascinating things, he knew that he had done something wrong and done something to make his Teishu even more frustrated than he had seemed before. Shini hated it when he looked so unhappy. Heero had even struck a strange-looking pole with a red flag named Expired after they had been kicked out of the first cab, and he had known then that he definitely was not happy.

"Sorry he didn't listen to you," the Shinigami added solemnly. "Very sorry."

That made him pause for a moment, and consider how many times he had ever heard of a god of any kind apologizing to a human being for not listening to them. His textbooks, all the myths and legends he had heard gave a collective, "Never." After a second of silence, Shini looked away and did nothing but sit quietly and nervously twitch in his arranged husband's grip. Heero gave a vague, noncommittal grunt, commenting on nothing in particular, and watched out the window as they drew closer and closer to the airport. His hand had gone almost into a numb state and he didn't notice when Shini's hand squeezed tightly.

Twenty American dollars later, the cab pulled to a stop in the unloading zone just outside the majestically modern glass doors and steel rafters of the airport. Just as Heero was stepping out of the backseat and circled around to pay the driver with hardly a word, the inhuman being curiously peered out the open door and craned his head up. The air filled with the roar of an airplane lifting off as scheduled, and Shini automatically began to open his mouth in wonder and step out to get a better view. He went around the trunk and began backing up so that he could see over the top of the building they were parked in front of. His mouth making an awestruck 'o', he walked backwards without Heero noticing at first. Just as he started to see the wingtips from over the top of the building, something obnoxiously loud began to bellow at him.

Shini glared at the oncoming car, wondering if all of the auto-mo-beels made such horrible noises and thinking that he definitely preferred horses, any day-

"Shimatta!" Someone snapped at him angrily, and just as the child-minded deity probably would have found himself suddenly all to acquainted with a stranger's windshield, the someone lunged out and yanked him back the arm. He was pulled out of the middle of the road in a fast blur, and as soon as he was jerked to a stop, he could decipher a very agitated, "Damn it, Shinigami!" Heero's hand was clenched around his arm hard enough to leave five neat bruises, and he was panting as he glared at the Angel of Death.

"Teishu…?" The Shinigami cracked a desperate smile and tried to chuckle weakly. He automatically went straight to apologizing-figuring out he'd done something again wasn't hard. "Heh-heh. Gomen nasai, Aruji?"

"You nearly got run over!"

"He knows," he said, chewing on a finger, "He's sorry. He didn't mean to."

Heero slowly caught his breath, and released the frightening grip on the sheepish deity, and tried to shrug off the adrenaline that had just spiked his system. He took a moment to regain control and jabbed suddenly at the blacktop beneath them.

"See the road?"

"Yes?" Shini said meekly, following Heero's pointed finger.

"Whenever you see a car anywhere near one, pay attention so you don't get hit. No, on second thought, just stay out of the road, period," he added in a haggard sigh. But seconds later his frustration hardened his tone. "Matter of fact, it's best you stay right where I can see you. And no more trouble." With that he took the Shinigami sharply by the hand and led him up to the automatic doors.

When both their weights settled on the sensors placed under the plastic mat below them, the steel-rimmed doors slid apart to let them through, and the terminally curious Shini slowed and let out a sound of astonishment before he was dragged fully inside. Heero's chest was pounding, and he had to admit, he had been afraid that the daydreaming young God of Death would have really been struck and possibly injured by that tiny red Dodge Neon, and he hated the sensation of being afraid. Especially for such a ridiculous reason.

He was the successor to the God of Death, wasn't he? How could he die? Even if he did happen to go down in a traffic accident, he had the feeling he would simply jump up and unflatten himself. Heero sighed to himself, aching for a coffee, and glanced up at the massive board of flights as they entered and checking for the earliest that would take them to Tokyo, or as Shini knew it, the New Edo.

"Alright," he grunted. "Hurry up, and we can catch the next flight. It's leaving in fifteen minutes, so keep moving"

Shini let off a low whistle, and staggered slightly on his robes when Heero quickly sped up, to make sure nothing too sparkly or shiny caught his attention.

"Ooooh, Teishu-"

"I said, keep moving."

===

Luckily, he was able to keep the peeping Shinigami under control long enough to find a relatively short line for two tickets back to his home in Tokyo, where black-winged men and white-winged domineering women didn't happen to fall out of the sky. He had scanned the crowd carefully, skimming over the people and their luggage until he had found one that was about to serve a new customer, and pulled Shini assertively along with him. He wasn't concerned about having enough money for two tickets. He was, however, more concerned if he would have the perseverance to last a long flight with the Shinigami he currently had in tow.

He was still making the standard, "Ooh"s and "Aaah"s, but at least he had quit lunging at even the most normally mundane of things. His wrist still ached a little.

As soon as the businessman in front of him smiled, nodded, and accepted his ticket, then picked up his baggage and walked off, Heero tugged Shini up to the counter along with him, making sure he could keep a tight grip on his hand and prevent him from running off after another person in a baseball cap. The polite, overly-smiley woman at the counter had a few traces of crow's feet at the corners of her friendly eyes and a distinct smoker's tint to her teeth, Heero noticed, as he ordered two tickets for the 7:30 flight to Tokyo in his deadpan tone.

"Alright, sir-any preference where you would like to sit?" asked politely, as she began typing effortlessly and smiled at him at the same time. "There are still many window seats available if you would like them."

"Yes, sure," Heero said.

"Very good, sir. Will you be paying with-"

Suddenly, Heero felt the Shinigami nudge his way past his shoulder and beam brightly at the semi-startled young girl. "Hello, Rita," he crowed happily, taking pride in discovering her name on her polished nametag, and being able to read it. "Riii-ta. It's a very pretty name! It would be nice seeing you in Hell someday! Shini hopes so, very much so. We could be friends!"

As soon as the lady began to go deathly pale, pale enough to start feeling around for the alarm beneath her counter, Heero quickly pushed him aside and tried to amend flatly, "He's from out of town. He was dropped on his head as a child. Three flights of stairs." The paying and the printing out of the tickets was done in a very nervous silence on the polite woman's part, and she could only fake a shaky smile at best. Once there were a pair of tickets granting him passage back to a country that seemed a little more sane, Heero quickly left the girl at the counter with a compensating generic smile. He'd found that if he presented most of the opposite sex with even the least enthusiastic of his smiles, they seemed to cooperate much better in most instances.

This was one of him, he decided. He dragged the Shinigami away toward their appointed gate quickly, and hoped that the woman hadn't been startled enough to call security. He mentally sighed to himself to remind Shini that most mortals didn't appreciate an invitation to Hell, despite the best of intentions. There was a lot he needed to learn, if he even wanted to survive stepping out the door. Heero didn't know where the Angel of Death had spent his time while living on Earth, but he knew it couldn't have been anywhere civilized-he had attacked a bag of luggage on wheels, claiming that it looked like a demon loose from the realm of Hades.

===

Kono wa? = What's that?

Shimatta! = Shit!

Gomen nasai = Very sorry, or forgive me.

[[[A/N]]] Alright, you'll all have to forgive me for this hot-off-the-press chapter which is probably pimpled with mistakes--but again I am going on a long trip and I won't be able to post for a few days. I know! I literally came home from the cabin [Which was a motherducking blast! I even got a tan!] and sat down to eat dinner when a trip to Milwaukee in two days was sprung on me. Arrgh. I hate it. I wonder if anyone else experiences the horror of a family who believes they tell you that they've told you about something like a trip, but it turns out you only find out about it when they start loading their bags? It's grody. Yes, grody. Eventually, I promise, Shini and Heero will get on the plane, though it's taken me two chapters longer than I expected it too. Thank you, kiss kiss, I've got to go! Jesus, is there anyplace I'm not going this week?!