Cowboy Bebop Fan Fiction ❯ Fantaisie Sign ❯ All The Times That We Have Been Through, You Will Always Be My Best Friend ( Chapter 9 )

DISCLAIMER: Cowboy Bebop and its characters are owned by the anime companies that made them, and not by me.

Author's Note: This fanfic is in the first-person style, with the POV being Edward's for all but a few chapters (and when the POV is different, I won't switch mid-chapter, the whole chapter will be like that). I've never even attempted doing something like this before, so bear with me.

French Note: For the few (non-generic) French language bits in this fic, I'll be using Babelfish. So pardon my French. ^_^

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The police arrived quickly, with an ambulance right behind them. As the officers began loading up Frémont's men into a paddy wagon, uniformed ambulance workers began tending to our wounds.

"Are you sure you don't wish to come to the emergency room?" asked a neatly dressed woman as she bandaged Asada's wound.

"No, I'm fine, really," Asada said. "It doesn't hurt that much, and it's really not that severe..."

"You should probably go just to make sure!" I advised her, concerned about the large wound she had sustained right above her eye.

"Ed, really," she said, pulling a small plastic case out of her pocket. "It's just a good thing I always carry my contact lenses with me...."

"If you ask me, you look prettier in glasses," Sylvan said kindly, holding an ice pack to his forehead. Asada smiled at him.

"Oh, I do, do I?" she asked. "Well, if you want to fix my glasses for me, go right ahead...."

Asada winked at Sylvan. Sylvan chuckled, and I felt relieved. Sylvan and Asada were already well enough to crack jokes... that was a good sign. I was just glad Fremont's men hadn't hurt them badly...

"Well, if none of you wants to go to the hospital, then our job is done," the head paramedic said, turning to his staff. "Let's roll."

As the cops and paramedics drove away, Asada and I walked back over to Sylvan's mother.

"Oh, Edward, Asada, I'm so very sorry you got caught up in all this," Sylvan's mom said regretfully. "If there's anything, and I mean anything I can do...."

"It's quite alright, really!" I said, trying to do the best I could to make her feel better. "Ed is just glad that you and Sylvan and Asada-person weren't hurt..."

"That's right," Asada said. "I'm pretty sure I'll be fine..."

"Asada, I'm especially sorry that you were hurt..." Sylvan's mom said, beginning to cry. "I mean, you got cut, your glasses were broken, Frémont held you hostage..."

"Really, I..."

Asada paused for a second, and her face took on a slightly fearful look. Her lip quivered.

"Asada, are you okay?" I asked, walking up to her.

"Just... I'm just fine, Ed," Asada said, turning back toward me. "We should probably head back to the college..."

"I'm going to stay with my mother tonight," Sylvan said. "We live nearby, I'll drive her to her home. You two just get a good rest... you've been through a lot."

I nodded.

"So have you, Sylvan..." I said seriously. "Those bad men... they hurt you..."

"Don't worry about it, Ed," Sylvan said, smiling. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay? We can meet at six and go out for dinner somewhere, okay? Anything that will help get our minds off of this evening... Asada, you can join us if you want!"

"No, no, that's alright..." she said, still a bit nervously. "I already had something planned, but thank you!"

After hugging Sylvan and his mom one last time, Asada and I left the Fantaisie Sign and walked out to Asada's car.

"Asada, are you sure you can drive?" I asked, concerned that with everything that had happened still fresh in her mind, Asada wouldn't be able to drive home... of course, I was probably as nervous as she was, since nothing like what I had just been through had ever happened to me before, not even on the Bebop!

"You know how?" Asada asked, looking into my eyes.

"Yeah, Ed's dad taught Ed to drive a long time ago!" I said, and it was true. My dad taught me to drive his truck when I was fourteen, and even before that I'd already driven several other kinds of vehicles. I didn't have a license, but Asada didn't have to know. Unless she asked...

"You've got a license, right?" Asada asked. Uh oh. I began to open my mouth to confess that I didn't, when she interrupted me with "Oh, I'm sure you do, you're a smart girl! Thanks for offering to drive us back..."

Again I wanted to confess, but I decided that what Asada didn't know couldn't hurt her... unless I crashed, but I wasn't going to let that happen. I climbed into the driver's seat, and Asada got into the passenger's side next to me. I started the ignition and drove back toward the campus.

---

Navigating through the streets of Paris and following the on-board map computer, I made it back to New Parisian Liberty with little difficulty. Asada didn't say very much as we drove back, and neither did I, still a bit in shock over the events of the past few hours. We pulled into the parking lot of Dejoule Hall and exited the car.

"Well, I guess it's time to tell you.... Edward doesn't have a license," I said as I handed her back the keys to her hovercar.

"You... don't have a license?" Asada said, blinking. "Ed, you lied to me?"

"Edward was going to tell you, but... Ed still felt really bad about what happened tonight and Ed didn't want to burden you with having to drive back here, and-"

"I can't believe it!" she said, tears coming to her eyes. "What if a cop had pulled us over? They could have had my car towed! Or it could have been worse! What if we had crashed?"

"Asada, I'm sorry," I said, scrambling to find something to tell my friend.

"Look, Ed, next time you should tell me these sorts of things!" Asada shouted. "Like how you should've told me today I could have been killed! You let me go in there without even letting me know that I could lose my life!"

Of course, she was wrong... I told her about the French syndicate, and she still wanted to go in and face them... but I wasn't going to say anything. I knew we'd both been through a lot... I was lucky that my friend was still alive, I shouldn't expect her to be the same happy person she always was, at least right after the incident.

"Ed, I'm just under a lot of stress, okay?" Asada said, starting to walk toward the building. "I mean, I just had a damn four-foot knife to my throat! So lay off."

Asada walked up to the door and started to go inside.

"Wait!" I yelled, calling out to her. "Please, Asada... I'm sorry!"

"Good night, Ed," Asada said sternly. "See you tomorrow. If I'm still alive, anyway."

I felt terrible... my new friend probably hated me, and it was all my fault! I ran into the building and looked around for Asada, but it was too late. She'd already gone into her dorm. I sighed and trudged up the stairs to my own room, hoping tomorrow would be better than today had been.

---

After calling my dad (not telling him about my recent life-and-death struggle at the Fantaisie Sign, I'd save that for later), I flopped down onto my bed and tried to forget about the day's events.

"Ed's just glad that's all over... but... Ed just hopes Sylvan and his mommy will be alright... and that Asada will be Ed's friend again..."

Still feeling guilty, I started to turn on the TV, but stopped.

"I should try to talk to Asada again," I thought. "I need to tell her I'm sorry..."

But before I could even get out of the bed, there was a knock on my door. My eyes lit up. Had Asada come back on her own? I quickly got up and happily walked over to the door.

"Thank goodness," I said to myself. "Ed just hopes Asada has forgiven her..."

But when I opened the door, it wasn't Asada at all. It was the girl that came to my room in my very first day here.... she had been so mean to me the first time, I wondered if she'd come to apologize? She'd brought two of her friends, apparently... but something wasn't right. The three girls all had mean scowls on their faces, causing me to recoil back toward my bed. The ringleader wore a blue tanktop with dark blue denim jeans.

"Can Edward... help you?" I said meekly.

"Yeah, Edward can help me. By getting her fat, usurping ass out of our dorm right now!" the first girl shouted.

"Excuse me?" I said, taken aback. "That wasn't very nice..."

"Look, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way," said one of the girl's friends, who wore a bright red letter jacket.

"And you wouldn't like the hard way," said the other friend, who wore a dirty-looking schoolgirl outfit. "Do we make ourselves clear?"

"I'm sorry, but this is Edward's dorm," I said to them. "So please leave, okay?"

"It looks like you're too dumb to understand what we mean," the letter jacket-wearing said. "Well, let's just show you!"

"Wait a minute, you're the three mean girls that trashed Ed's stuff yesterday!" I shouted, instantly drawing the connection between them and what had happened to my clothes after I went to sleep on my first night here. The three girls smirked.

"Yeah, it was us," said the girl in the blue shirt. "And now we're gonna do this!"

The blue-shirted girl pushed me back toward my bed, causing me to stumble. I barely kept my footing, and I clenched my fists, preparing for the girls' next assault.

"Edward is only gonna warn you meanies once... stay out of Ed's room!" I shouted. The three girls began to laugh.

"That's it, get her!" the blue-shirted girl yelled. The two other girls ran at me. Not wanting to hit them, I fell to the ground and rolled between the legs of the girl wearing the schoolgirl outfit. I stood up next to the blue-shirted girl, pushed her out of the way, and ran out of the room. The blue-shirted girl quickly got up and pointed at me.

"After her!" she shouted. "We'll teach her a lesson!"

"Geez, I can't avoid danger today!" I thought. "I can't believe this!"

I ran down the hallway as the three girls chased me. Suddenly, a hand reached out and grabbed me by my shirt. The hand pulled me through a door and gently shut the door behind me. Looking around as the light in the room flashed on, I realized I was in a storage closet.

"What's going on?" I said. "Who-"

"It's me, Ed! Kirsten! Remember?"

So it was Kirsten who pulled me in here! I smiled as I looked at the face of my savior, Kirsten. Three other girls were in the room.

"Piripi! Kimberly! Sani!" I said, seeing my three friends in the closet. "Boy, is Ed glad to see you three!"

"There's like, six people who are attacking the touring kids," Piripi said. "They actually left Sani and Kimberly tied up in here!"

Sani nodded.

"They were gonna make an example out of us or something," Kimberly said. "Kirsten, Piripi, and three other kids found us. We sent those three out to get campus security, and we're just hiding in here."

"I'm pretty sure it's just a bunch of pranks that are getting out of hand," Sani said, "but we don't want anyone to get hurt. What happened to you, Ed?"

"Three of them came into my dorm and attacked me!" I said. "But I got away."

"Well, you are pretty flexible, Ed," Kirsten said. "I mean, you're a great dancer, right?"

Kirsten giggled.

"Hey, wait," Piripi interrupted. "Where's Asada at?"

I gasped.

"Asada and Ed kinda had an argument, and she went back to her dorm," I admitted.

"You think she could be in danger?" Kimberly said.

"Of course she is!" Kirsten shouted. "We all need to go and check on her!"

I nodded.

"Asada's had a really rough day today," I said.

"What kind of rough day?" Piripi asked. "Like... a bad hair day?"

"No, no, it's.... well, Ed really doesn't want to talk about it," I said, trying to change the subject. "Let's just go find her!"

Slowly, Kirsten opened the closet and peered out into the hallway. I half-expected to see the three mean girls, roaming about and looking for us, but was relieved when there was no one outside. Kirsten quietly signaled for us to step out into the hallway.

"Okay, Asada's in Room 217, which is just down this hall," Kirsten said. "Remember, there's strength in numbers, so stay together!"

As we walked down the hall to Asada's room, we looked around from side to side, watchful of the hostile students that were roaming around. When we finally got to Room 217, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Okay, now when we get in, we've got to be ready for anything," Kirsten said. "They could all be in here, doing terrible, mean things to Asada! So be ready to kick some butt!"

"Wow, Kirsten's thinking exactly the way Edward is," I thought. "She's one swoooooookie girl!"

But when we opened the door, we were greeted with a different kind of surprise.

"Hold on a second, okay, Curtis?" Asada said, sitting on her bed and talking to a very handsome blonde-haired boy with a very easy to notice goatee. She got up from the bed and walked over to us. "Hey, guys... what brings you all here?"

"Are those the other new kids?" asked a black-haired girl standing next to the bed. A boy was with her, smiling at us. He wasn't as handsome as Curtis, but he was okay-looking, with short brown hair and a stubbly beard. Asada nodded and gestured us into the room.

"Asada, who are these?" Kirsten asked. "Did they come here to escape too?"

"Actually, we're part of the gang," Curtis said. "We came in here to trash Asada's room, but... ya know, she's so beautiful! I couldn't go through with it."

"Stephanie's gonna be so pissed," said the black-haired girl.

"Oh, screw her," the other boy said nonchalantly. "We never should have started this crusade against the touring students."

"It was my idea... well, mine and Stephanie's," Curtis admitted. "She's my girlfriend, you see..."

"Wait, is Stephanie the girl going around with the other two girls?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, she is," Curtis said. "She's really been having a vicious streak lately... I just wanna have fun, but now this whole 'initiation' thing is getting out of hand."

"I'll say!" Kimberly shouted. "Stephanie and her posse tied up me and Sani and left us in a closet!"

"She was going to spray us with spray paint, but the cans she and her friends were carrying were empty," Sani said. "And then our friends found us."

"You tell your dumb girlfriend to leave us alone!" Kirsten shouted angrily. "We've got every right to be here, and-"

"Kirsten, please," Asada said quietly. "Curtis knows that now..."

"Hey, what the hell's going on here?" shouted a voice from behind us. The other girls and I turned around to see Stephanie and her two mean friends standing in the doorway.

"Curtis, why haven't these girls been taught a lesson?" Stephanie said angrily.

"Look, Asada's already been through too much tonight," Curtis said, pointing at Asada's bandaged eyebrow. "She was in a robbery!"

"I don't care if she was in the middle of the Gate Disaster, we need to teach these dumb new kids a lesson!" Stephanie shouted. "They can't just get away with invading our dorm like this!"

Curtis started to say something, but was interrupted when Kirsten stormed up to Stephanie and got right up in her face.

"Look, you stupid slut, you're not gonna get away with attacking MY friends!" Kirsten shouted, standing eye-to-eye with Stephanie. "You wanna teach me a lesson? Huh? Huh?"

"Let's take this outside!" Stephanie shouted. Kirsten smiled a devilish grin.

"You're on!" Kirsten replied. Kimberly, Sani, and Piripi began chanting 'Fight!' over and over again, and soon, Curtis and his two friends began chanting it as well. Even Asada joined in, her spirits lifted by the long conversation that her and Curtis apparently had.

"Ed can't let this happen... Edward doesn't want to see Kirsten get hurt!" I thought. "Even though Stephanie might be vicious, all these pranks and stuff are supposed to be for fun, right? And now it's going to turn into violence..."

I pushed my way inbetween Kirsten and Stephanie, determined to stop the confrontation.

"Please, don't!" I shouted. "Edward doesn't want to see either of you get hurt... can't you work this out some other way?"

"Ed, let me handle this," Kirsten growled through clenched teeth. "Sani and Kimberly are my new friends too, and I have to get revenge for what that bitch did to them!"

"Aw, the little pink-haired wimp doesn't want to get blood on her pretty clothes, is that it?" Stephanie said tauntingly. "You know, I think I'll just warm up by fighting you!"

Before I could react, Stephanie gave me a hard shot to the nose with her fist, sending me reeling back. Piripi caught me, and I could feel a slight trickle of blood coming from my nose. Kirsten went into a rage.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Kirsten shouted, diving on top of Stephanie and knocking her to the ground. "Eat this!"

Kirsten punched Stephanie hard in the mouth, then began pummeling her several more times before the other two girls grabbed Kirsten and pulled her off of Stephanie. I could barely see through the fracas, so I struggled to my feet and ran outside to get a closer look. Stephanie's two friends had grabbed Kirsten's arms and were holding her back as Stephanie crawled to her feet.

"Those punches hurt, you know!" Stephanie screeched angrily, spitting out a tooth. Wow... I didn't know Kirsten was capable of that...

"Lemme go!" Kirsten shouted, straining against the two girls holding her. Asada, Piripi, Kimberly, Sani, and I began to rush out to help Kirsten, but Curtis quickly dashed ahead of us and ran out to Stephanie.

"Stephanie, just stop!" Curtis pleaded. "We've already done enough damage as it is-"

"No!" Stephanie yelled. "There's no way I'm letting this slut get away with what she did! Now, are you gonna help me, or not? C'mon, hit her! Show her not to mess with your girl!"

Curtis walked up to Kirsten, who was still struggling to break free from the grip of the two girls holding her.

"Curtis, no!" Asada shouted. "Please, think about this..."

"Stephanie, you... you're not my girl anymore," Curtis said, turning to her. "Not if you're going to be like this."

"What?" Stephanie replied. "You... you're breaking up with me?"

"Hold it right there!" shouted a campus security officer as he ran down the hall toward Stephanie. Stephanie's two friends dropped Kirsten and started to run, but were quickly stopped by three more officers. In all, four security guards came. They quickly apprehended Stephanie and the other girls, and I breathed another sigh of relief, what I figured to be my ten billionth of the night.

"Wait, officer!" Stephanie shouted, pointing a finger at Kirsten. "She hit me too! She knocked out one of my teeth! Arrest her too!"

"I didn't see anything," Piripi said. "Did you guys?"

"I didn't see nothin'," Asada said casually.

"No, wait," Kirsten said, stepping forward. "She's right... I did hit her. Several times."

"But it was only to protect me!" I said, not wanting Kirsten to get arrested. I pointed at Stephanie. "That mean girl hit Edward right in the nose!"

"Well, right now it's just the three young ladies under investigation," said one of the security officers. "If the other young lady only struck back to protect herself or others, then it's not a crime. And, from the way you guys are telling it, there's a lot going to support that theory."

"I should probably go with them too," Curtis said.

"Yeah, us too," said the black-haired girl who had been with Curtis.

"Me too," said the stubbly-bearded boy. "We were pulling pranks too."

"Yeah, but you didn't actually hurt anyone," Asada said. "Officers-"

"Look, for now it's just the three girls," said the officer again. "We'll be launching an investigation of our own in a few days. You kids just get some rest, alright? There's nothing to see here."

The four security guards escorted Stephanie and her two friends away.

"Well, that was exhilarating!" Kirsten said, looking down at her knuckles. "Ouch, I'm gonna need a couple of bandaids..."

Kirsten walked over to me.

"Ed, are you alright?" she asked me. "Stephanie hit you pretty hard..."

"Ed is fine!" I said, smiling. I was telling the truth, my nose had stopped hurting a little while ago, but it was still bleeding slightly. Piripi handed me a towel, and I gently shoved it up my nostrils. Piripi giggled.

"Hee, you look funny like that," she said, smiling. "Not that you getting hurt is funny or anything!"

"Ed knows what you mean!" I said happily. "I'm just glad that everyone else is okay!"

"Well, this is the last time I'm ever pulling a prank on anyone," Curtis said. "Too many people could get hurt..."

"Don't feel bad, Curtis," Asada said, putting her hand on his right shoulder. "You were just... just misled. Your intentions were good! Well, sort of, anyway."

"And I feel bad about Stephanie," Curtis said sadly. "We've been together for four months, and I just... hate to see it end like this..."

"She was mean," Piripi said. "You don't need someone like her anyway!"

"And every ending is really just a new beginning... right?" Asada said sweetly, staring up into Curtis' eyes. "It'll be okay, I promise."

"Asada.... thank you," Curtis said. "I know I'll be okay now."

"You guys are just too sweet!" Kirsten said happily. "So like, are you guys gonna go out now?"

"Kirsten!" Asada shouted, playfully nudging her. "The guy just lost his girlfriend, give him a break!"

Curtis started to laugh, and then everyone in the room began to laugh as well, including me. After being so fearful and afraid just an hour ago, I was happy... happier than I'd been since I'd gotten to Paris. I'd gained so many new friends today, and Asada was happy again. It can only get better from here...

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Or can it? Well, of course! Ed would never lie! But what if it DID get worse? Would Ed really be a liar? Eh, I'm not the philosophical type. I'm the type who likes to read nice reviews! ^_^ Hope ya liked the latest chapter!