Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Drifting ❯ One-Shot

Drifting

Author: Crimson (crimson@glomped.com)

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Disclaimer: Ronin Warriors are © Sunrise, Inc. All rights reserved. Drifting is © Crimson Productions 2000 in association with Glomped.com. Plagiarism is illegal and considered a crime. Italicized words are lyrics from the song "Flow" by Transister.

Author's Notes: A little bit of angst on everybody's favorite water-boy...

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I'm always swimming against the flow of the tide.

Another lonesome, cold Friday.

Cye Mouri gave a loud sigh as he sat in the living room bundled up in a heap of blankets. It was the of dead winter, a time of the year he reminisced about the warmth of summer days on his shoulders and of swimming in the gleaming lake behind Mia's house. Something he couldn't do in the middle of December.

The auburn haired young man had just returned from a walk outside, where he had tip toed across the frozen lake and, surprisingly, it had held his weight. As the weather turned colder, he could feel his body heat leaving him and the frost biting at his exposed skin. Well, he was only wearing a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt, with some boots. Not exactly the warmest clothes for the negative degree weather.

So he had returned to the protection of the living room, where Ryo had made a blazing fire before he had left for work that morning. Cye had to add a log ever so often to keep it going, and to keep the house warm.

The Ronin boys were against turning the heater on this time of the year, because they knew if they did, they wouldn't want to turn it off. Sometimes, when it was it's coldest, Mia would turn it on at night so they all wouldn't freeze to death in their beds. Not a glamorous way to pass onto the next world.

Of all of them Cye was sure he dreaded the cold the most.

Sage never complained. Of course, he never complained about anything, much less White Blaze's snoring. He always adapted very well to any situation, and the cold was nothing the Ronin of Wisdom couldn't take.

Kento would groan about putting an extra layer of clothes on. "Man! When I have to go to the bathroom, it is such a pain in the butt!" he exasperated yesterday night, returning from a bar. But generally, he didn't mind. His best friend loved snowball fights, and especially belting Cye in the forehead- he always got a good laugh.

Ryo loved the cold. Period. He was always the one volunteering to shovel the snow in the front yard, drive to the grocery store through the blizzards, and retrieve the mail when the temperature dropped so much that even the exceedingly furry tiger wouldn't venture outside. But who could blame him? He had been raised in the mountains- and when he got cold, he would just have to snap his fingers to create heat or a fire at the leisure of the Wildfire armor.

Rowen you couldn't tell if he enjoyed the frigid air of winter, or if he despised it. Cye didn't think Rowen had the time to even think about it! With piles of advanced classes taken on at one of the Universities in Tokyo, he rarely was home in Toyouma with the rest of them. And when he was, he was locked in his room studying or out cold catching up on some well-deserved sleep. He wouldn't even come down for dinner, Cye always had to bring up a plate of food to make sure the blue archer ate.

Mia wasn't too fond of cold. She hated being cold in the house, well that was obvious with all her constant nagging at Ryo about building fires. But going outside was a whole different matter. In fact she was the one always suckered into playing in the snow with Kento, the two of them always waiting for an unsuspecting victim to attack. Most of the time it was Ryo, then Cye, on occasion Rowen, and when they were desperate White Blaze. The two learned one day that it was a bad idea to attack Sage Date with snowballs. The lesson was learned the next day when Mia found the shower water freezing cold and ran screaming out. And later on when Kento found the remote to the television suddenly 'mangled' into tiny pieces.

And then there was Cye, who waited ever so patiently for the winter storms to blow over and the sunshine of spring to warm his body. Every year…every snow storm, he'd wait. He wouldn't be his bubbly self until the buds on the trees would slowly start to bloom…and he would remind everyone in the house daily that spring was on it's way.

Kissing the life into something…that's already died.

Cye sighed even louder then he did before. Snowflakes were starting to fall down from the darkening sky, covering the small rays of sunlight that managed to find their way into the house. If it started snowing, really snowing, Cye knew he would probably be left alone for the night. Not that he minded, but being alone in a cold house was just so desolate and depressing.

Sage was out of town. His family had called for him to take over the dojo for the weekend while they went skiing. He hadn't made a fuss about it, but Cye could almost tell, almost, that he was a bit agitated with having to leave on such short notice. Rowen and him had made plans that weekend to go to a local club and 'search for chicks' as Rowen would say, but Sage had left without a complaint, in his usual manner. He wouldn't be back until Monday.

Kento was out in town shopping for Mia's upcoming birthday. He had said he was going to the mall to catch a movie, but Cye was informed from him earlier that he was birthday shopping. He had asked him, "What should I get her, dude?" and Cye had replied, "Anything you get her will be fine." And with that, Kento had packed up and gone into the city searching for the 'perfect' present. If the snow built up so that he couldn't come back to the house, Kento would probably stay at his family's house above their restaurant instead of coming home. Driving in one of these snowstorms was horrible, and could easily lead to a car crash.

Ryo had taken Mia out to dinner and then to a dance for some local charity. Though he claimed it wasn't a date, everyone else knew better. Cye decided the two should just give up pretending- and just flat out tell everyone that they cared for each other. Besides, the rest of them already knew what was going on…with Kento snooping about looking for evidence. He knew Mia and Ryo would more then likely stay at a hotel tonight, since Ryo had left a note saying so before he went to work. He was to pick Mia up the moment he got off, and wouldn't be home until the morning.

Rowen was at the University, studying for only God-knows-what. Cye knew that if he was planning to come home tonight and it was snowing, he would only turn around and head back to the library and pull another all-nighter. And if he got tired, he knew plenty of the students at the dorms where he could crash. And then get up to study more.

Cye looked up and as if on cue the snow started coming down harder.

I've been drowning forever.

I'll let go.

I'll dive into the river, and flow…

Cye heard a small buzzer go off in the kitchen indicating that the soup he was heating was done. With a small push off the couch Cye wandered dazed into the rather large kitchen, and took the pot off the stove. With the steam rising in small circles, filling up the room with it's warm delightful smell…Cye realized he was no longer hungry.

With a half-hearted smile, he poured a little bit of the pot's contents into a bowel and grabbed a spoon and padded back into the living room. There was no point in wasting his efforts, at least he could choke down some of the nutrients and then claim to have eaten.

It seemed he was being left alone at the house more and more often. It's not that he minded-

Okay. So he was lying to himself. He did mind. It seemed that he had nothing better to do then just sit around the house and wait for somebody to come home and tell them what they had been doing. And then offer to cook them whatever they pleased, only to find they already had dinner plans.

It was getting to the point that Cye would almost want to ask them to stay with him. Almost. Cye was too quiet, and too shy to ever put his needs before anyone else's. If they had plans already- fine. Let them be.

Right?

You said you could hear bells in the traffic below.

Loud ringing interrupted his thoughts, and the timid warrior of Torrent jumped suddenly at the noise of the phone.

He almost felt relieved he was jolted out of his daydreams. Maybe he underestimated his friends. Maybe they were calling him to let him know they couldn't make it home, but they wish they could. Maybe they were calling and letting him know they would be home any minute. Maybe they were checking on him to make sure he was all right.

Or….maybe not.

Cye put the phone back on the hook to find no one there. Just a flook call, nothing to get so damned worked up about.

The bearer of Torrent's hopes fell through the floor. Forcing himself back to the couch with the three blankets, he once again wrapped his body in its pseudo-warmth, searching desperately for the love and kindness he was being denied from the people close to him.

'Did they not have time for me? We're they too wrapped up in their own thoughts to remember me? Am I just their fucking cook?'

Cye shook the words from his head. That couldn't be right. It wasn't their fault, after all, if they were ignoring him then it must've been something he did.

Maybe he was interrupting their lives, and when things settled down they would return to normal.

Maybe he hadn't said the right words of encouragement to them lately.

Maybe his cooking was bad. That would explain no more group dinners anymore.

Maybe he had lost his touch.

As Cye thought those words, he in fact, did lose something. The twinkle in his ocean blue eyes. His gaze returned to the continuing falling snow and the house remained quiet as it had been for hours.

I could hear sirens, car engines fighting the snow…

I've been drowning forever.

I'll let go.

I'll dive into the river and flow.

Flow...

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End.