Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Museishi ~Silent Death~ ❯ One ( Chapter 1 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Elsewhere 
Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Horror / Psychological / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.28.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.5K | Visits: 302 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Sailor Moon Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Horror / Psychological / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 03.28.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.5K | Visits: 302 | Status: Completed
Fandom: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (anime)
Date Finished: October 23rd, 2004
Classification: Horror, Suspense, whatever you want to call a Creepy!Fic
Pairing: None especially; all non-canon pairings are only hinted.
Rating: PG-13
Note: Written for the sixth Gundam Legends challenge. (http://www.wiwp.nu/halloween/)
Museishi
~Silent Death~
By Elsewhere
elsewherecw@shaw.ca
Disclaimer: The characters and story of BSSM are not mine. Oops. ;P
Lyrics belong to Malice Mizer, from the song 'Kyomu no Naka de no Yuugi.'
Distribution: If you want this story for any page other than the ones I've sent it to, please ask me first, so I know where it goes.
Spoilers: Subtle spoilers for the entire Stars season and parts of the R and S seasons. I repeat, they are subtle. If you read this and you have not seen the show (or even if you have), you may not catch the subtleties; if you read this and you haven't seen the show, you won't catch the subtleties, but you also won't be spoiled or terribly lost in terms of plot, either. ^_~
WARNINGS: This fic contains semi-graphic descriptions of blood, gore and death.
Dedication: This is dedicated to zed adams, who convinced me to participate in the Gundam Legends...otherwise I wouldn't have written this. ^^ (In other words, throw your tomatoes at her if throw them you must! *snicker*)
Note: My God, there's no sex!! What kind of crap am I writing here!? 'All non-canon pairings are only hinted!?' Wow, I must really be sick!! Oh, and BTW, the Three Lights are just here, okay? There was no time for a set-up, so let's just say they're visiting Earth and have done with it, 'kay? 'Kay.
Legend:
Emphasis is shown with * *
Thoughts are shown with / /
Summary: A camping trip gone awry leads the senshi on a frightening adventure.
Part One:
*****
Caught between the crevice of delusion
and reality
surge vague twine rip assault mind
Through the pieces of shattered glass
Countless rays of light are reflected
*****
One o'clock in the morning, and by the sound of the occasional grunt or swear in the silence, it was obvious that no one in the tent had managed even a wink of sleep. Half an hour later the sound of shifting sleeping bag material had grown constant, and the silence had been shattered by a particularly loud swear when a cold foot kicked abruptly out of a sleeping bag, hitting one of the would-be sleepers in the shin. The cold was stifling; their breath created mist in the air. Four pairs of eyes, shimmering with awareness in the bleak darkness, stared widely up at the canvas above them until finally, the silence grew too thick.
"Whose bright idea was it to go camping, again?" The voice sounded tired and irritable, laced with sarcasm, its owner impatiently running his hands several times through his mussed silver hair.
"Suck it up, Yaten. You didn't have to come." The reply was equally as exhausted and strained.
With a loud sigh, Yaten flopped back down into his sleeping bag, unsuccessfully trying to get himself warm.
Half an hour later he sat up again, this time with a loud growl.
"It was *your* bright idea, Seiya, you and *him* and Haruka-san, and why the *hell* did I listen to you and come on this *stupid* camping trip?" Yaten ranted until he was out of breath, then took a breath and ranted some more. "You never said anything about rain or mud or thunderstorms---" A rumble of thunder sounded, as though accompanying his words. "---and goddamn you, you never mentioned that it would be THIS COLD."
"I'm sorry, Yaten-san," a quiet voice said into the ensuing silence, not sounding terribly contrite at all.
"Don't be, Mamoru-san," Seiya said, rolling over onto his front and leveling his gaze at the blurry, upright blob in the middle of the tent. It didn't occur to him that giving an annoyed look to someone who wouldn't be able to see any more clearly than him was a useless endeavor. "Yaten, it's not like we could account for the weather."
"The weather reports said it was going to be a balmy spring evening," Taiki added, from where he was lying on the other side of Yaten, sandwiched between the small teen and Mamoru.
"*Screw* the weather reports," Yaten hissed, throwing himself down against his pillow again and wrapping himself in his sleeping bag as tightly as he could. "If I get hypothermia and die out here, I'm coming back to haunt you...*all* of you."
Seiya sniggered. Taiki sighed. Mamoru was silent.
Then Seiya reached out a hand into the black and felt the strength of Yaten's tremors, and his humor faded, becoming mild concern.
"Come into my sleeping bag," he suggested, and it was a true testament to Yaten's desperation that he scrambled over into Seiya's sleeping bag, into Seiya's arms, without even a peep of protest.
Fifteen minutes later Yaten was still shivering uncontrollably, his teeth audibly chattering. Seiya held him as close as he dared, worried at the way Yaten was clinging to him, face pressed into his neck, seeking any warmth he could get.
"It is rather cold, though," Taiki's calm voice commented into the silence. No one responded.
Five minutes after that, Seiya's worry had reached the point where he was willing to dare incurring Yaten's wrath.
"Are you okay?" he asked into the smaller boy's ear, trying to keep his voice low, but in the silence surrounding them, he heard his voice carry evenly through the tent. He winced, and felt Yaten let out a cold breath against him.
"No, I'm not," Yaten answered, in such a quiet, even tone, so lacking in his usual sarcasm, that Seiya instantly felt a cold sensation shiver down his veins. "I'm...cold."
That pause was more unnerving than anything that had happened so far. Seiya was glad he wasn't the only one who was worried; the next minute saw both Mamoru and Taiki sitting up, shivering in the darkness.
"What do you mean?" Taiki asked, a light note of concern in his usually calm voice.
"I mean that I'm *cold*, damn it," Yaten said, his teeth chattering harder than ever. His eyes were tightly shut, as though he was embarrassed to have them open while he said it aloud. "There's something wrong. This isn't just a storm..."
"What the hell do you mean, it isn't just a storm?" Seiya asked, his voice rising a notch. "What's happening?"
They all knew not to pass off Yaten's words as simple superstition; an empath's gut feelings were rarely wrong.
Before Yaten could answer, they all jumped at the sound of something thumping softly against the outside of the tent. They were all frozen in place as they listened to the zipper being opened. When the tent flap opened and a flashlight was poked inside, they were all still rigid with shock.
"Sorry to bother you in the middle of the night," a soft voice said, instantly recognizable. "It's only that...um, are all of you all right?"
It was Seiya who let his breath out first, his hands loosening slightly from where they'd clenched against Yaten's sweatshirt.
"Shit, Ami-chan...you scared us..." he whispered before he licked his lips, trying to return some sense of moisture to his dry mouth.
"Did I? I'm sorry...I did knock," Ami said, ducking a little further into the tent and tilting the flashlight in such a way that they could see the earnest look of apology on her face. "Although it seems you haven't been able to sleep...?"
"No, we haven't," Taiki said, somewhat curtly. "What is it, Ami-san?"
She didn't even flinch, instead taking a breath before she explained, "None of us have been able to sleep either. Haruka-san-tachi's tent has flooded, so they went to sleep in the van, but our tent seems in danger as well, and..."
She paused, and the four men peered at her curiously.
"And what?" Mamoru asked.
"...And Rei-chan says we should leave," Ami said finally, her voice trembling slightly as she said it. "She says there's something wrong with this place, with this night...that it's not an ordinary storm."
"And you believe her?" One might have expected Taiki to be skeptical; it was even more eerie that his voice held a tone of calm acceptance.
"Yes," Ami said, and without another word, Taiki turned to Seiya, automatically looking to his leader for the final decision.
"Right, that's it. Let's get the hell out of here," Seiya said, and beside him he felt Yaten shakily nod his agreement. The next minute found the four of them hurriedly packing away their sleeping bags and camping gear before they stepped out into the rain. In seconds they were drenched; glancing at the perilous landscape around them---already it would be hard to get the cars out of the mud they'd sunk into---and the two tents that had by then partially disappeared into a muddy puddle that seemed intent on becoming a lake, they decided quickly enough that it wasn't worth it to take the time to take down the tent. Abandoning it, they made their way quickly to the van. Mamoru and Seiya exchanged a few murmured words before Mamoru made his way over to his car; Minako, Rei and Makoto were already piled into the back seat, and Usagi was curled up on the passenger side, waiting for him.
Seiya knocked on the van's side door and waited until it slid open.
"Thank goodness...we thought you'd never come!" Michiru exclaimed, reaching out her hands and helping each wet, bedraggled boy into the van in turn. They piled into the very back, where they'd been relegated by Haruka's silent order---one of those 'if looks could kill' situations---at the start of their camping adventure.
Seiya leaned forward over the middle seat and apologized when he dripped on Ami's shoulder. She was sitting right in front of him, with Hotaru next to her and Setsuna on Hotaru's other side. Michiru had climbed back into the front passenger seat, while Haruka sat in the driver's seat, impatiently drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.
"Mamoru-san and I agreed to try that bed and breakfast we passed a couple kilometres back," Seiya told them.
"I don't think that place was open," Michiru commented, a look of strain on her face.
Seiya glanced around at the others. Hotaru seemed unusually pale even for her, her hands restlessly clenching and unclenching in the fabric of her jacket. Setsuna was staring out the window, totally silent. Haruka grimaced slightly even as she turned the key in the ignition and the van rumbled to life.
"I doubt that place has been open for years," she said, obviously irritated. "It looked as though it should be condemned."
"Well, you tell us another choice," Seiya said, his own tone hardening with annoyance. He was too cold, wet and tired for once to step lightly on the eggshells Haruka tossed liberally around when the Three Lights were in company. "The nearest motel was an hour back."
"We've got to get out of this storm," Yaten interjected, his voice still somewhat hollow. He too was abnormally pale, and while Haruka revved the engine, trying to move the van out of the muddy rut it was stuck in, Yaten's hands came up and, seemingly unconsciously, clutched onto Seiya's arm.
"I agree, Haruka-san," Ami said quietly. "I think this is the best option."
"All right, all right," Haruka muttered with a final grunt as she finally managed to get the van moving. The headlights illuminated nothing but gloomy blackness ahead of them as they started out towards the highway. Mamoru's car had already long since left.
At two-thirty by the van's clock, they pulled onto a bumpy, gravel road that seemed to shift and slide beneath them as they drove the short stretch from the highway to the bed and breakfast they had spotted earlier. As they drew closer, it was Michiru who pointed a finger and remarked on the obvious.
"The lights are on...it must be open after all," she said, sounding relieved. A collective sigh seemed to move through the van, but everyone remained silent as Haruka pulled to a stop next to Mamoru's mud-covered sports car.
They piled out of the van, back into the downpour, and stopped briefly to grab a few bags, hoping for dry clothes, before they all ran up the creaking wooden steps of the dilapidated building to the front door. It was an old house, very Western, almost Victorian but off in some respects. Stepping into the warm hallway of the building after being outside for so long felt like heaven.
They stood, shivering and dripping guiltily on the carpet, while Haruka, with a soft sniff, rang the dusty bell on the counter. A glance at the register showed a list of recent guests, and their other five companions were on it, their signatures barely dry.
After a moment, a door opened down the hall and a tall, gaunt man with a pair of reading spectacles balanced precariously on his nose walked towards them.
"May I help you?" he asked politely as he reached them. He glanced pointedly at the muddy stains they were all making on his carpet, but only once, to his credit.
"Yeah...we're with the group that came in just now," Haruka said, seemingly a bit miffed that the man was taller than her.
"Ah, yes...they have already reserved your rooms," the man said with a smile, and then he gestured to a closed door to his right. "Your friends are currently in the drawing room, warming themselves by the fire. Please, feel free to join them. I will send someone down with towels and hot chocolate."
The man left before they could properly thank him, so they all bustled towards the 'drawing room'.
"Huh...a 'drawing room'...I never thought I'd live to see one," Yaten said, scowling. With the warmth of being inside a heated building, his pissy attitude towards life in general seemed to be returning.
Inside the room, they were instantly greeted by relieved and happy shouts of, "Thank god, we were starting to wonder where you were..." from their waiting friends. A few wet hugs were exchanged, and then the call of the huge, roaring fire was too great to be ignored.
"The furniture..." Ami made a weak protest as Minako took hold of her shoulders and steered her into an armchair close to the fire.
"Fuck it," Seiya said bluntly, too tired to even attempt his trademark cheerfulness. He slumped into a chair of his own and covered his eyes, only opening them when he noticed the way Yaten knelt right in front of the fire, holding his hands out to it beseechingly, seeking warmth.
Five minutes later, a squat, pudgy, middle-aged woman with her hair done up in a complicated, braided bun at the back of her head came into the room, rolling along a cart laden with thirteen cups of hot chocolate and a pile of towels.
"There, there now," the woman said, instantly revealing herself as a fussy, old-mother-hen type. "You're all soaking wet and chilled to the bone! You'd best get some hot chocolate into you, dry off a bit, and get upstairs and to bed."
"Yes ma'am, we'll certainly do so," Taiki replied with a smile as he picked up the pile of towels---they were warm, as though they'd just come out of the dryer---and started passing them around.
"We've definitely got to get out of these wet clothes," Seiya remarked. "We'll all catch pneumonia at this rate."
"Exactly," Ami and Taiki said at the same time, only to glance at each other and blush slightly.
The woman smiled kindly as she passed around the steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
"There, now...drink that up and get yourselves to bed," she said again before she left, rolling the squeaking cart out of the room the same way she'd come in.
"The sleeping arrangements are going to be the same," Usagi said. She sounded remarkably timid, and her eyes were turned downward, as though there was something fascinating in her hot chocolate. "They only had three rooms."
"Fair enough," Seiya said with a shrug. "We don't mind sharing with Mamoru-san."
Yaten coughed into his hand, and Seiya glanced at him warningly. Yaten had made it plainly obvious beforehand that he *did* have issues with sleeping in the same room as a man---a genuine human male, that is---but now wasn't the time for one of Yaten's little tantrums.
They sat in relative silence, only the occasional murmured conversation between them breaking that silence, as they all toweled themselves off as best they could and drank their hot chocolate. Then, feeling considerably warmer, they unanimously decided it was time to get upstairs.
"Do they have showers?" Michiru asked, scratching at her wet hair.
"Do they even have running water?" Haruka deadpanned.
"Yes, they have running water, and showers," Rei said, a bit testily.
"We'll have to take it in turns so we don't use up all the hot water, though," Minako commented, and everyone nodded their agreement.
"Let's figure this out upstairs, please?" Yaten pleaded, and without another word, all of them trooped upstairs, still leaving a wet trail of footprints behind them.
In the hallway upstairs, Usagi gave out the room keys and they split up into their groups. A few minutes of whispered conversation and they'd decided who got to use the showers first, mainly based on who had been outside the longest, or exposed to the worst of the elements. Yaten, Ami and Hotaru disappeared into the bathrooms and the others, behind closed and locked doors, set to the process of stripping off wet clothing and changing into dry.
Seiya tried to appear as calm as he could while he stripped down to his birthday suit; he felt self-conscious being naked in front of Mamoru, and the fact that Taiki seemed perfectly calm about being in the same situation made him feel stupid. At least Mamoru hesitated briefly when he reached his underwear, too, glancing up towards Seiya, who had by then turned his back on the others and was searching through his duffel bag.
"So, umm...what's it like, being the opposite sex and all?" Mamoru asked a bit nervously as he slid off his boxers and turned away, trying not to blush. While it was hard to think of the two obviously-male teenagers before him as anything but just that---two young men---he also always couldn't help but think that somewhere beneath that illusion lay the truth, and he was actually standing naked in a room with two young *women*.
Taiki and Seiya were silent at first, glancing at each other, Seiya with a bemused smirk and Taiki with a raised eyebrow.
"Why do you ask?" Taiki asked after another moment had ticked by, just long enough for Mamoru to regret saying it.
"Yeah...thinking of trying it out?" Seiya said, still not turning around, though his amusement was plainly evident in his tone. "I bet you'd make a beautiful chick, Mamoru-san."
"N-no, I was just...making conversation," Mamoru said, and even as he said it, he realized how dumb it sounded. With a quiet sigh, he shook his head. "Never mind."
"Not at all. It's a perfectly reasonable question," Taiki said as he toweled himself off. "And the answer is quite simple: it is exactly how you would expect it to be."
"I confess to never having thought far enough to have expectations," Mamoru admitted without looking up, as he searched for a fresh pair of boxers.
"It's weird for the first few months, and then you get used to it...or most aspects of it," Seiya explained. "For example, consider what it would be like if one day you woke up with breasts. Your entire balance would be different; you'd have to learn to walk differently to accommodate the weight on your chest. Then take away your crown jewels, and imagine how different it'd feel to walk without 'em. Or better yet, take our situation, and consider learning to walk *with* them..."
"Seiya," Taiki chided, as by this time Mamoru's face had turned an interesting shade of pink. "I hardly think..."
"No, it's all right. I did ask," Mamoru said with a smile. "You're right; I never put much thought into it before."
Seiya chuckled, but the sound was cut off by a sudden rough swear as he dug around in his bag.
"Damn it, I don't think I packed an extra pair of boxers...Taiki, you got any?"
"I'm wearing my extra pair," Taiki said, placing his hands on his hips before adding in a teasing tone, "And what did I tell you about always packing an extra pair of each type of clothing when you go on holiday..."
"Yes mom," Seiya said, rolling his eyes.
Just then the bathroom door swung open and Yaten came out, wrapped in a towel but still shivering, the scowl still firmly set on his face.
"Hey Yaten, you got any spare boxers?"
"Get your own boxers," Yaten snapped before he snatched up his bag and disappeared back into the bathroom, obviously unwilling to make the same concessions as his fellow bandmates and let it all hang loose in front of Mamoru.
"I'll take that as a 'no'," Seiya said, and then he finally turned and, gathering his courage, posed the question. "Mamoru-san...do you...?"
"No, I don't; I'm sorry. If I did I would lend them to you," Mamoru said honestly. His eyes flickered briefly downwards and then he glanced away, again somewhat pink. "Believe me, I would."
Taiki cleared his throat, and Seiya, a bit flustered, turned away.
"Well crap," he muttered, and then he tied a towel around his waist, screwed more of his courage to the sticking place, and strode to the door. When he was across the hall, he hesitated briefly before knocking on one of the other room's doors.
"What?" a sour voice asked as the door swung open. Seiya grimaced as he lifted his head to meet Haruka's eyes.
"Um, do you have any spare boxers?" he asked her, sheepishly.
The look she gave him probably could have killed small animals.
"What makes you think I wear boxers?" she asked icily.
He decided it was in his best interest not to answer.
"Nothing...uh, never mind," he said, and as he turned and sprinted back across the hall into his own room, he heard the familiar sound of Michiru chiding her partner.
"No such luck?" Taiki assessed from one look at Seiya's blanched expression. Seiya didn't bother to answer, instead silently going back over to his bag and sifting through it until he found a spare pair of pajamas. He pulled them on, shifting in them a bit uncomfortably; he wasn't used to going without any kind of underwear, but he'd have to make do for one night.
Yaten had already become a lump on the other side of the bed Seiya had planned on sleeping in, so with a shrug, Seiya got in on the other side. He glanced over to Taiki to make sure this was all right with him, and found Taiki already preparing the bedside next to Mamoru, who seemed to be dozing lightly, his nose red with cold and his face surprisingly child-like in its relaxed state.
"All right, I'm going to take a shower," Taiki said quietly, leaning closer to Seiya, obviously hesitant to wake Mamoru. "Do you want me to wake you when I'm done?"
"Nah; I'll wait 'til morning. Probably more likely to be hot water then anyway," Seiya said with a wink, and Taiki smiled back at him before he disappeared into the bathroom. Seiya sighed, turned off the bedside lamp that was providing the room's illumination, and settled down, snugly wrapped in the bed's covers.
*****
In my ruined and dissolute mind
I ridicule nihility, I dissipate in solitary
Cold blood flows
My faded mind is flipping through
*****
END PART ONE
Date Finished: October 23rd, 2004
Classification: Horror, Suspense, whatever you want to call a Creepy!Fic
Pairing: None especially; all non-canon pairings are only hinted.
Rating: PG-13
Note: Written for the sixth Gundam Legends challenge. (http://www.wiwp.nu/halloween/)
Museishi
~Silent Death~
By Elsewhere
elsewherecw@shaw.ca
Disclaimer: The characters and story of BSSM are not mine. Oops. ;P
Lyrics belong to Malice Mizer, from the song 'Kyomu no Naka de no Yuugi.'
Distribution: If you want this story for any page other than the ones I've sent it to, please ask me first, so I know where it goes.
Spoilers: Subtle spoilers for the entire Stars season and parts of the R and S seasons. I repeat, they are subtle. If you read this and you have not seen the show (or even if you have), you may not catch the subtleties; if you read this and you haven't seen the show, you won't catch the subtleties, but you also won't be spoiled or terribly lost in terms of plot, either. ^_~
WARNINGS: This fic contains semi-graphic descriptions of blood, gore and death.
Dedication: This is dedicated to zed adams, who convinced me to participate in the Gundam Legends...otherwise I wouldn't have written this. ^^ (In other words, throw your tomatoes at her if throw them you must! *snicker*)
Note: My God, there's no sex!! What kind of crap am I writing here!? 'All non-canon pairings are only hinted!?' Wow, I must really be sick!! Oh, and BTW, the Three Lights are just here, okay? There was no time for a set-up, so let's just say they're visiting Earth and have done with it, 'kay? 'Kay.
Legend:
Emphasis is shown with * *
Thoughts are shown with / /
Summary: A camping trip gone awry leads the senshi on a frightening adventure.
Part One:
*****
Caught between the crevice of delusion
and reality
surge vague twine rip assault mind
Through the pieces of shattered glass
Countless rays of light are reflected
*****
One o'clock in the morning, and by the sound of the occasional grunt or swear in the silence, it was obvious that no one in the tent had managed even a wink of sleep. Half an hour later the sound of shifting sleeping bag material had grown constant, and the silence had been shattered by a particularly loud swear when a cold foot kicked abruptly out of a sleeping bag, hitting one of the would-be sleepers in the shin. The cold was stifling; their breath created mist in the air. Four pairs of eyes, shimmering with awareness in the bleak darkness, stared widely up at the canvas above them until finally, the silence grew too thick.
"Whose bright idea was it to go camping, again?" The voice sounded tired and irritable, laced with sarcasm, its owner impatiently running his hands several times through his mussed silver hair.
"Suck it up, Yaten. You didn't have to come." The reply was equally as exhausted and strained.
With a loud sigh, Yaten flopped back down into his sleeping bag, unsuccessfully trying to get himself warm.
Half an hour later he sat up again, this time with a loud growl.
"It was *your* bright idea, Seiya, you and *him* and Haruka-san, and why the *hell* did I listen to you and come on this *stupid* camping trip?" Yaten ranted until he was out of breath, then took a breath and ranted some more. "You never said anything about rain or mud or thunderstorms---" A rumble of thunder sounded, as though accompanying his words. "---and goddamn you, you never mentioned that it would be THIS COLD."
"I'm sorry, Yaten-san," a quiet voice said into the ensuing silence, not sounding terribly contrite at all.
"Don't be, Mamoru-san," Seiya said, rolling over onto his front and leveling his gaze at the blurry, upright blob in the middle of the tent. It didn't occur to him that giving an annoyed look to someone who wouldn't be able to see any more clearly than him was a useless endeavor. "Yaten, it's not like we could account for the weather."
"The weather reports said it was going to be a balmy spring evening," Taiki added, from where he was lying on the other side of Yaten, sandwiched between the small teen and Mamoru.
"*Screw* the weather reports," Yaten hissed, throwing himself down against his pillow again and wrapping himself in his sleeping bag as tightly as he could. "If I get hypothermia and die out here, I'm coming back to haunt you...*all* of you."
Seiya sniggered. Taiki sighed. Mamoru was silent.
Then Seiya reached out a hand into the black and felt the strength of Yaten's tremors, and his humor faded, becoming mild concern.
"Come into my sleeping bag," he suggested, and it was a true testament to Yaten's desperation that he scrambled over into Seiya's sleeping bag, into Seiya's arms, without even a peep of protest.
Fifteen minutes later Yaten was still shivering uncontrollably, his teeth audibly chattering. Seiya held him as close as he dared, worried at the way Yaten was clinging to him, face pressed into his neck, seeking any warmth he could get.
"It is rather cold, though," Taiki's calm voice commented into the silence. No one responded.
Five minutes after that, Seiya's worry had reached the point where he was willing to dare incurring Yaten's wrath.
"Are you okay?" he asked into the smaller boy's ear, trying to keep his voice low, but in the silence surrounding them, he heard his voice carry evenly through the tent. He winced, and felt Yaten let out a cold breath against him.
"No, I'm not," Yaten answered, in such a quiet, even tone, so lacking in his usual sarcasm, that Seiya instantly felt a cold sensation shiver down his veins. "I'm...cold."
That pause was more unnerving than anything that had happened so far. Seiya was glad he wasn't the only one who was worried; the next minute saw both Mamoru and Taiki sitting up, shivering in the darkness.
"What do you mean?" Taiki asked, a light note of concern in his usually calm voice.
"I mean that I'm *cold*, damn it," Yaten said, his teeth chattering harder than ever. His eyes were tightly shut, as though he was embarrassed to have them open while he said it aloud. "There's something wrong. This isn't just a storm..."
"What the hell do you mean, it isn't just a storm?" Seiya asked, his voice rising a notch. "What's happening?"
They all knew not to pass off Yaten's words as simple superstition; an empath's gut feelings were rarely wrong.
Before Yaten could answer, they all jumped at the sound of something thumping softly against the outside of the tent. They were all frozen in place as they listened to the zipper being opened. When the tent flap opened and a flashlight was poked inside, they were all still rigid with shock.
"Sorry to bother you in the middle of the night," a soft voice said, instantly recognizable. "It's only that...um, are all of you all right?"
It was Seiya who let his breath out first, his hands loosening slightly from where they'd clenched against Yaten's sweatshirt.
"Shit, Ami-chan...you scared us..." he whispered before he licked his lips, trying to return some sense of moisture to his dry mouth.
"Did I? I'm sorry...I did knock," Ami said, ducking a little further into the tent and tilting the flashlight in such a way that they could see the earnest look of apology on her face. "Although it seems you haven't been able to sleep...?"
"No, we haven't," Taiki said, somewhat curtly. "What is it, Ami-san?"
She didn't even flinch, instead taking a breath before she explained, "None of us have been able to sleep either. Haruka-san-tachi's tent has flooded, so they went to sleep in the van, but our tent seems in danger as well, and..."
She paused, and the four men peered at her curiously.
"And what?" Mamoru asked.
"...And Rei-chan says we should leave," Ami said finally, her voice trembling slightly as she said it. "She says there's something wrong with this place, with this night...that it's not an ordinary storm."
"And you believe her?" One might have expected Taiki to be skeptical; it was even more eerie that his voice held a tone of calm acceptance.
"Yes," Ami said, and without another word, Taiki turned to Seiya, automatically looking to his leader for the final decision.
"Right, that's it. Let's get the hell out of here," Seiya said, and beside him he felt Yaten shakily nod his agreement. The next minute found the four of them hurriedly packing away their sleeping bags and camping gear before they stepped out into the rain. In seconds they were drenched; glancing at the perilous landscape around them---already it would be hard to get the cars out of the mud they'd sunk into---and the two tents that had by then partially disappeared into a muddy puddle that seemed intent on becoming a lake, they decided quickly enough that it wasn't worth it to take the time to take down the tent. Abandoning it, they made their way quickly to the van. Mamoru and Seiya exchanged a few murmured words before Mamoru made his way over to his car; Minako, Rei and Makoto were already piled into the back seat, and Usagi was curled up on the passenger side, waiting for him.
Seiya knocked on the van's side door and waited until it slid open.
"Thank goodness...we thought you'd never come!" Michiru exclaimed, reaching out her hands and helping each wet, bedraggled boy into the van in turn. They piled into the very back, where they'd been relegated by Haruka's silent order---one of those 'if looks could kill' situations---at the start of their camping adventure.
Seiya leaned forward over the middle seat and apologized when he dripped on Ami's shoulder. She was sitting right in front of him, with Hotaru next to her and Setsuna on Hotaru's other side. Michiru had climbed back into the front passenger seat, while Haruka sat in the driver's seat, impatiently drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.
"Mamoru-san and I agreed to try that bed and breakfast we passed a couple kilometres back," Seiya told them.
"I don't think that place was open," Michiru commented, a look of strain on her face.
Seiya glanced around at the others. Hotaru seemed unusually pale even for her, her hands restlessly clenching and unclenching in the fabric of her jacket. Setsuna was staring out the window, totally silent. Haruka grimaced slightly even as she turned the key in the ignition and the van rumbled to life.
"I doubt that place has been open for years," she said, obviously irritated. "It looked as though it should be condemned."
"Well, you tell us another choice," Seiya said, his own tone hardening with annoyance. He was too cold, wet and tired for once to step lightly on the eggshells Haruka tossed liberally around when the Three Lights were in company. "The nearest motel was an hour back."
"We've got to get out of this storm," Yaten interjected, his voice still somewhat hollow. He too was abnormally pale, and while Haruka revved the engine, trying to move the van out of the muddy rut it was stuck in, Yaten's hands came up and, seemingly unconsciously, clutched onto Seiya's arm.
"I agree, Haruka-san," Ami said quietly. "I think this is the best option."
"All right, all right," Haruka muttered with a final grunt as she finally managed to get the van moving. The headlights illuminated nothing but gloomy blackness ahead of them as they started out towards the highway. Mamoru's car had already long since left.
At two-thirty by the van's clock, they pulled onto a bumpy, gravel road that seemed to shift and slide beneath them as they drove the short stretch from the highway to the bed and breakfast they had spotted earlier. As they drew closer, it was Michiru who pointed a finger and remarked on the obvious.
"The lights are on...it must be open after all," she said, sounding relieved. A collective sigh seemed to move through the van, but everyone remained silent as Haruka pulled to a stop next to Mamoru's mud-covered sports car.
They piled out of the van, back into the downpour, and stopped briefly to grab a few bags, hoping for dry clothes, before they all ran up the creaking wooden steps of the dilapidated building to the front door. It was an old house, very Western, almost Victorian but off in some respects. Stepping into the warm hallway of the building after being outside for so long felt like heaven.
They stood, shivering and dripping guiltily on the carpet, while Haruka, with a soft sniff, rang the dusty bell on the counter. A glance at the register showed a list of recent guests, and their other five companions were on it, their signatures barely dry.
After a moment, a door opened down the hall and a tall, gaunt man with a pair of reading spectacles balanced precariously on his nose walked towards them.
"May I help you?" he asked politely as he reached them. He glanced pointedly at the muddy stains they were all making on his carpet, but only once, to his credit.
"Yeah...we're with the group that came in just now," Haruka said, seemingly a bit miffed that the man was taller than her.
"Ah, yes...they have already reserved your rooms," the man said with a smile, and then he gestured to a closed door to his right. "Your friends are currently in the drawing room, warming themselves by the fire. Please, feel free to join them. I will send someone down with towels and hot chocolate."
The man left before they could properly thank him, so they all bustled towards the 'drawing room'.
"Huh...a 'drawing room'...I never thought I'd live to see one," Yaten said, scowling. With the warmth of being inside a heated building, his pissy attitude towards life in general seemed to be returning.
Inside the room, they were instantly greeted by relieved and happy shouts of, "Thank god, we were starting to wonder where you were..." from their waiting friends. A few wet hugs were exchanged, and then the call of the huge, roaring fire was too great to be ignored.
"The furniture..." Ami made a weak protest as Minako took hold of her shoulders and steered her into an armchair close to the fire.
"Fuck it," Seiya said bluntly, too tired to even attempt his trademark cheerfulness. He slumped into a chair of his own and covered his eyes, only opening them when he noticed the way Yaten knelt right in front of the fire, holding his hands out to it beseechingly, seeking warmth.
Five minutes later, a squat, pudgy, middle-aged woman with her hair done up in a complicated, braided bun at the back of her head came into the room, rolling along a cart laden with thirteen cups of hot chocolate and a pile of towels.
"There, there now," the woman said, instantly revealing herself as a fussy, old-mother-hen type. "You're all soaking wet and chilled to the bone! You'd best get some hot chocolate into you, dry off a bit, and get upstairs and to bed."
"Yes ma'am, we'll certainly do so," Taiki replied with a smile as he picked up the pile of towels---they were warm, as though they'd just come out of the dryer---and started passing them around.
"We've definitely got to get out of these wet clothes," Seiya remarked. "We'll all catch pneumonia at this rate."
"Exactly," Ami and Taiki said at the same time, only to glance at each other and blush slightly.
The woman smiled kindly as she passed around the steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
"There, now...drink that up and get yourselves to bed," she said again before she left, rolling the squeaking cart out of the room the same way she'd come in.
"The sleeping arrangements are going to be the same," Usagi said. She sounded remarkably timid, and her eyes were turned downward, as though there was something fascinating in her hot chocolate. "They only had three rooms."
"Fair enough," Seiya said with a shrug. "We don't mind sharing with Mamoru-san."
Yaten coughed into his hand, and Seiya glanced at him warningly. Yaten had made it plainly obvious beforehand that he *did* have issues with sleeping in the same room as a man---a genuine human male, that is---but now wasn't the time for one of Yaten's little tantrums.
They sat in relative silence, only the occasional murmured conversation between them breaking that silence, as they all toweled themselves off as best they could and drank their hot chocolate. Then, feeling considerably warmer, they unanimously decided it was time to get upstairs.
"Do they have showers?" Michiru asked, scratching at her wet hair.
"Do they even have running water?" Haruka deadpanned.
"Yes, they have running water, and showers," Rei said, a bit testily.
"We'll have to take it in turns so we don't use up all the hot water, though," Minako commented, and everyone nodded their agreement.
"Let's figure this out upstairs, please?" Yaten pleaded, and without another word, all of them trooped upstairs, still leaving a wet trail of footprints behind them.
In the hallway upstairs, Usagi gave out the room keys and they split up into their groups. A few minutes of whispered conversation and they'd decided who got to use the showers first, mainly based on who had been outside the longest, or exposed to the worst of the elements. Yaten, Ami and Hotaru disappeared into the bathrooms and the others, behind closed and locked doors, set to the process of stripping off wet clothing and changing into dry.
Seiya tried to appear as calm as he could while he stripped down to his birthday suit; he felt self-conscious being naked in front of Mamoru, and the fact that Taiki seemed perfectly calm about being in the same situation made him feel stupid. At least Mamoru hesitated briefly when he reached his underwear, too, glancing up towards Seiya, who had by then turned his back on the others and was searching through his duffel bag.
"So, umm...what's it like, being the opposite sex and all?" Mamoru asked a bit nervously as he slid off his boxers and turned away, trying not to blush. While it was hard to think of the two obviously-male teenagers before him as anything but just that---two young men---he also always couldn't help but think that somewhere beneath that illusion lay the truth, and he was actually standing naked in a room with two young *women*.
Taiki and Seiya were silent at first, glancing at each other, Seiya with a bemused smirk and Taiki with a raised eyebrow.
"Why do you ask?" Taiki asked after another moment had ticked by, just long enough for Mamoru to regret saying it.
"Yeah...thinking of trying it out?" Seiya said, still not turning around, though his amusement was plainly evident in his tone. "I bet you'd make a beautiful chick, Mamoru-san."
"N-no, I was just...making conversation," Mamoru said, and even as he said it, he realized how dumb it sounded. With a quiet sigh, he shook his head. "Never mind."
"Not at all. It's a perfectly reasonable question," Taiki said as he toweled himself off. "And the answer is quite simple: it is exactly how you would expect it to be."
"I confess to never having thought far enough to have expectations," Mamoru admitted without looking up, as he searched for a fresh pair of boxers.
"It's weird for the first few months, and then you get used to it...or most aspects of it," Seiya explained. "For example, consider what it would be like if one day you woke up with breasts. Your entire balance would be different; you'd have to learn to walk differently to accommodate the weight on your chest. Then take away your crown jewels, and imagine how different it'd feel to walk without 'em. Or better yet, take our situation, and consider learning to walk *with* them..."
"Seiya," Taiki chided, as by this time Mamoru's face had turned an interesting shade of pink. "I hardly think..."
"No, it's all right. I did ask," Mamoru said with a smile. "You're right; I never put much thought into it before."
Seiya chuckled, but the sound was cut off by a sudden rough swear as he dug around in his bag.
"Damn it, I don't think I packed an extra pair of boxers...Taiki, you got any?"
"I'm wearing my extra pair," Taiki said, placing his hands on his hips before adding in a teasing tone, "And what did I tell you about always packing an extra pair of each type of clothing when you go on holiday..."
"Yes mom," Seiya said, rolling his eyes.
Just then the bathroom door swung open and Yaten came out, wrapped in a towel but still shivering, the scowl still firmly set on his face.
"Hey Yaten, you got any spare boxers?"
"Get your own boxers," Yaten snapped before he snatched up his bag and disappeared back into the bathroom, obviously unwilling to make the same concessions as his fellow bandmates and let it all hang loose in front of Mamoru.
"I'll take that as a 'no'," Seiya said, and then he finally turned and, gathering his courage, posed the question. "Mamoru-san...do you...?"
"No, I don't; I'm sorry. If I did I would lend them to you," Mamoru said honestly. His eyes flickered briefly downwards and then he glanced away, again somewhat pink. "Believe me, I would."
Taiki cleared his throat, and Seiya, a bit flustered, turned away.
"Well crap," he muttered, and then he tied a towel around his waist, screwed more of his courage to the sticking place, and strode to the door. When he was across the hall, he hesitated briefly before knocking on one of the other room's doors.
"What?" a sour voice asked as the door swung open. Seiya grimaced as he lifted his head to meet Haruka's eyes.
"Um, do you have any spare boxers?" he asked her, sheepishly.
The look she gave him probably could have killed small animals.
"What makes you think I wear boxers?" she asked icily.
He decided it was in his best interest not to answer.
"Nothing...uh, never mind," he said, and as he turned and sprinted back across the hall into his own room, he heard the familiar sound of Michiru chiding her partner.
"No such luck?" Taiki assessed from one look at Seiya's blanched expression. Seiya didn't bother to answer, instead silently going back over to his bag and sifting through it until he found a spare pair of pajamas. He pulled them on, shifting in them a bit uncomfortably; he wasn't used to going without any kind of underwear, but he'd have to make do for one night.
Yaten had already become a lump on the other side of the bed Seiya had planned on sleeping in, so with a shrug, Seiya got in on the other side. He glanced over to Taiki to make sure this was all right with him, and found Taiki already preparing the bedside next to Mamoru, who seemed to be dozing lightly, his nose red with cold and his face surprisingly child-like in its relaxed state.
"All right, I'm going to take a shower," Taiki said quietly, leaning closer to Seiya, obviously hesitant to wake Mamoru. "Do you want me to wake you when I'm done?"
"Nah; I'll wait 'til morning. Probably more likely to be hot water then anyway," Seiya said with a wink, and Taiki smiled back at him before he disappeared into the bathroom. Seiya sighed, turned off the bedside lamp that was providing the room's illumination, and settled down, snugly wrapped in the bed's covers.
*****
In my ruined and dissolute mind
I ridicule nihility, I dissipate in solitary
Cold blood flows
My faded mind is flipping through
*****
END PART ONE