Long lost days of you and me

[vermicompost]

Characters: Kariya Matou and open
Setting: The dormitories and the meadow (or anywhere else, if anyone would like to take him somewhere, as he isn't very mobile on his own– he likes visitors, and trips.)
Format: Action to start, but prose is fine, too
Summary: It's only been a year or so, by Kariya's reckoning (when he can remember), but time and magical parasites have taken their toll.
Warnings: blood and possible body horror or angst



Kariya's Room:

[It's difficult for him to move at all, yet he has his wheelchair, and he can push it a little ways. It's hard for him to leave the dormitories, yet sometimes he still tries. Not now. For the moment, he's resting in his room, his eyes closed, even though he isn't sleeping. It's hard for him to fall asleep.

His body is smaller than it used to be. He's shrunk. Both his eyes are oddly whitish, both sides of him equally affected by what lives within him. His pale skin is all lines and veins, and the movement of the worms within him is evident beneath it, where it shows. His skin appears so thin, it seems it might break at any moment. All of him seems like it might break. Sometimes it does. His skin cracks in lines where it's thinnest, and the blood seeps out. He hardly notices when that happens. Maybe it's because it happens all the time, or maybe he simply isn't thinking clearly enough to realize.

He mutters to himself sometimes, and today is no exception. Sakura, he says often, or he mumbles something about going back home. Back home. He's going to get there. He'll go back to the War, he'll fight and he'll win, and he'll make everything all right again. Suddenly, he speaks, his voice firming, loud enough to be heard clearly.]

I'll help everyone go home.

[That's what he'll do.]

The Dormitory Hallways:

[Kariya wheels himself slowly along. He probably won't get very far, but he likes the feeling of moving forward. (He hasn't told anyone he was going.) He likes to travel. He used to travel once, didn't he? He feels so confined when he's in his room too long, trapped in one place. It's better to get out and around. Unfortunately, the corridors are so confusingly, frustratingly similar.

When he's gone a certain distance, he forgets how far he's come and where he was headed. He stops in the middle of the hallway, not sure whether to go forward or back. Maybe if he waits here long enough, he'll remember. Or maybe it wasn't so important. This is a change of scenery, isn't it? He sits back and gazes down the corridor, a wasted figure with white hair, waiting for someone or something interesting to arrive. He can't see very well, but his expression, if anyone were close enough to read it, is a hopeful one.]

The Meadow:

[It's a good day when he can get to the meadow. Some days, he's stronger, if only a little. The meadow is his favorite floor. It's beautiful there. It makes him smile. The grass and the flowers remind him of the park where he used to play with the children. Sometimes he thinks it is that park. But not today. No, he's thinking more clearly today. He moves a thin arm and manages to take out his photograph, from where he always keeps it, in the pocket of his jacket. It's wrinkled and torn and stained with blood, but it's his. His picture of his family: that's Aoi standing beside him, his wife, and with them are two little girls: their two daughters, Rin and Sakura. When he goes home, he'll see them again. They'll be happy again.

He's forgotten that he never married, that he never had children. But why would he want to remember a thing like that?]

Comments

[redbranch]

Huh?

[He quickly looks down at his clothing. Same blue tights that he always wore.]

I look the same as I did yesterday.

[vermicompost]

[He shakes his head. Now that he's focusing, the difference seems clear, even if it's nothing major.] No, your clothes and hair...

You've changed them.

[redbranch]

I did. A couple years ago.

[He frowns.]

Don't you remember?

[vermicompost]

Years? We've only been here a couple years. I think. [He doesn't always trust his memory.]

I don't always remember. Rin would know better.

[redbranch]

I'll ask her about it later.

[He probably won't. Like her "father", Rin's perception of time is a little messed up.]

It's not that important anyway. What's important is we survived being in the Tower for however long we remember, and that we're alive right here, right now.

[vermicompost]

Maybe it has been longer...

[He is highly suggestible at times.]

You're right. That's what matters. That I'm here with Rin, and my friends. Though I'm not surprised you've survived, Lancer.

But I still want to get home.

[redbranch]

What can I say? I don't die easy.

...Take Rin with you when you do, okay? I'm sure it'll be a nice surprise for Sakura. See how great an adult her sister grew into.

[vermicompost]

No, you don't. I'm glad. What would we do without you? [He smiles. Lancer's casual attitude about such things is reassuring, somehow.] I guess I don't either. Somehow.

I can't leave her behind. She's my daughter. But I don't think she wants to go. [He frowns at this. It's one of the things that troubles him. One thing among many, considering where they are.]

She has grown up into a wonderful young woman, hasn't she? [You'll get no argument from Kariya there.]

[redbranch]

Maybe it'll be possible to connect this Tower and our worlds. She has that power, you know. Then you can all go back and forth.

[That is, if their worlds were still out there.]

Yeah, wonderful...just the right age, you know.

[His voice takes on a teasing tone.]

[vermicompost]

I don't know if that's possible. And if she doesn't want to go back to our world, why would she connect them? No, she thinks we should live here.

[He doesn't quite understand her resentment of Aoi and Sakura, or why she wants to stay somewhere like this.]

Yes, she– the right age for what?

[He doesn't quite get it, Lancer.]

I think Lancer needs to be slapped at this point

[redbranch]

[He gives Kariya a mischievous smirk that might have fit better on the face of his younger self.]

To have trysts with.

Yes! Lancer, don't torment poor Kariya like this.

[vermicompost]

Trysts? [Kariya's eyes widen, then he frowns.]

No, I don't think... That is, I don't know if Rin– If she likes someone that way, I'd be happy for her, but she's still young. [She's still his little girl, Lancer, you jerk.]

Kudos to Kariya for taking it so well

[redbranch]

[He laughs.]

Don't worry. I don't think she has anyone like that yet. She's just at an age for it, that's all. Go easy on any potential sons-in-law that she might find you, okay?

[vermicompost]

Trysts. [He says it again. He'd flush if not for the deathly pallor the worms have bestowed on him.]

You're not thinking–

[But when Lancer laughs, he relaxes.]

You're joking, aren't you? [Kariya is slow to catch on to jokes.] I don't think Rin is interested in things like that. [Not the fierce, red-eyed Rin he knows, and loves as much as he'd loved her as a child.] But if she were, of course it would have to be someone good enough.

[Someone who looked after her, who was loyal to her, someone strong and capable.]

[redbranch]

Maybe I am joking. But who knows? Rin is the exact type of woman that I like.

[He still has a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.]

Still, you're right. She's probably not interested. She's got more important things.

[vermicompost]

Lancer. [Now he'd really be flushing, if he could. He might be just a little pink.] Is she? [Kariya still isn't sure if this is a joke or not. He decides he doesn't want to know if Rin really is Lancer's "type".] You shouldn't talk about Rin that way.

She wouldn't be interested in you.

[Kariya says this bluntly, but he doesn't mean it harshly.]

I wish she would find someone she likes. Sometimes I think she might... [But he trails off, with a shake of his head.]

[redbranch]

Yeah, she is.

[Or at least she used to be. He sounds just a little more serious as he says this.]

But I'm probably not her type.

[Discounting the insanity, he could still list a multitude of reasons why an actual romance between them would fail.]

Oh? She might? Congratulations, then!

[vermicompost]

I wouldn't tell her that. [Kariya shakes his head again. He really didn't need to know that, either.]

Probably not.

No, I don't know– [Kariya is just a bit flustered.] She hasn't said anything, so please don't tell her I said anything. It's just, little things. Maybe it's nothing.

[redbranch]

You'd know, though. You're her father. And a man's gotta act on his gut instinct sometimes.

[vermicompost]

It might be nice, that's all...

Would I? Oh no, I think that's more something a mother would know.

[And Aoi isn't here, of course. It's been so long since he's seen her.]

I wish her mother were here. She'd be able to help me with these things.

[redbranch]

[There's a moment of silence, and then he nods.]

But you're all she has right now. So you get the final say.

[vermicompost]

I want Rin to be happy. That's all I've ever wanted. I don't want to order her around. Not as if she'd listen to me. [He smiles, fondly.]

But mothers know more about these things, don't they? When I was Rin's age, I was already dating her mother, so I don't have much experience.

[redbranch]

Ah, I was married even before I was her age, so I don't really know either.

[That's what happened when you started charming ladies when young. All the older men urged you to hurry up and find the perfect woman so you wouldn't steal away all their wives.]

And I've never raised a child to her age before.

[He lets himself wonder for a moment what an adult Connla would be like. More responsible than his father, most likely.]

[vermicompost]

People did marry earlier then. I suppose neither of us are experts. Maybe Rin knows better than both of us. I just hope she'll find someone to be happy with, like I did.

[He sobers as Lancer mentions not raising a child to her age. It's not the first time they've spoken of Lancer's family, and he doesn't like to bring up painful subjects. After all, he's avoiding his own painful subjects so well.]

I'm sorry.

[redbranch]

It's alright. Was a long time ago.

[Now that he's older and more inured to pain of the emotional kind, he can easily speak of these things.]