Pairing: Shuya/Noriko, Shuya/Noriko/Kawada
Summary: Sequel to "Saigo ni...". The game is over, Shuya and Noriko are on the run. Can Shuya and Noriko find the time to heal and still survive? Book refrences. het. slash.
Rating: R
Author: Molly ("Usagichan")
BORN TO RUN -----------
They were headed for the Wakayama peninsula, just like Kawada's father's associate advised. The grief was still crushing, even almost a month on the run. They changed disguises twice a day to be on the safe side. They kept their eyes down, used makeup (illegal in the Republic, but still obtainable). They took every precaution their minds could come up with, and then some.
The third day after they'd set out from Osaka, they landed on the outskirts of Wakayama. Kawada's associate had told them about a sort of underground railroad, inspired by someone named Harriet Tubman from the American Empire. It involved people literally hiding them underground, shipping them house to house until they got to the goal. At first they were instantly suspicious, but realized they had no choice. They stayed a maximum of one night and one day at each, too paranoid to stay otherwise.
Besides, that would be tactical suicide to stay in one place.
They were quiet mostly, stealthy as cats. Time passed quickly. Inside, they were just far too hurt to really interact with each other. The day was measured in the incriments of meals, travel, and sleep. They couldn't afford anything else. The pain was just too fresh.
---
The room was in a secretly constructed basement underneath her house. She was the daughter of a high-ranking bureaucrat who had given her the house, so it was the perfect place--hiding in plain sight. She'd been apart of the underground network since five years ago, when her little brother had died in the Program. She welcomed them into her home, ushered them quickly into the room when they'd arrived at sunset.
There was a bathroom installed as well as a mini-refrigrator she'd gotten on the black market. A mattress with sheets, a dresser drawer, and a small table completed the room. It was sparsely furnished, but at least it was a place away from outside, four walls and a roof.
"Sorry it's so bare." She said, turning on a few lights.
Shuya shook his head gratefully. "No, it's fine. Thanks..." He paused, trying to get her name.
She now shook her head. "I can't tell you my name. And you shouldn't tell me yours. It's one of the laws of the Underground. You may call me Onechan, if you wish."
"That's fine." Noriko said, her voice a bit creaky from not being used in a few days, "thank you."
Onechan nodded. "I'll leave you to it, then." And left.
They both sat down on the bed, exhausted to the bone, grateful for the mattress. They looked at each other closely for the first time in a few days. Then Noriko stood up, stretched.
"I'm gonna go shower." She said softly, taking off her jacket, hat, scarf, sunglasses. She tossed them on the bed, dug a towel from her bag. Shuya nodded, still rather numb. He lay back on the "bed", staring at the ceiling of the basement. He heard the pipes clanking as the shower came on, the soothing splatter of water against tiles. The sound brought him back to himself, and he took off some of his own outer clothes before taking a look around their temporary home. It was warm, it was bright, it was what they needed.
After awhile, steam wafted seductively to him from the bathroom, and Shuya found himself walking in, wanting to share in the warmth. He was so cold inside.
He saw Noriko inside the small warm cubicle and his breath caught in his throat.
Her back was turned to him, and water cascaded down her back and slightly longer hair. She must have heard him because she whipped around, hand going for Nobu's knife which she never removed and kept strapped to the outside of her thigh. Her eyes relaxed when she saw him. Shuya felt great sadness when he saw those eyes. Before the Program, they were relaxed, cheerful, innocent. Now they were darkened by what they'd seen, the sweetness in them dimmed somewhat to the outside world. They were feral, having seen battle. Her lips trembled slightly as she looked at Shuya.
"Shuya.." She whimpered, tears coming to her eyes. His eyes widened as his hands moved of their own volition as he undressed and joined her inside.
It was then he realized that they hadn't touched since before Kawada died. She reached up for him and recieved him, kissing him fiercely. She was crying hard, the salt from her eyes mixing with his own, he embraced her tightly.
"Noriko..."He whispered against her lips as she clawed at him.
"He's dead, isn't he?" She sobbed against his chest. She had grown a little in that month--she was almost level with him now, "Shougo."
He nodded against her shoulder. "Yeah. He is."
"I don't feel complete anymore..." She sniffed then tightened, "I mean, I love you, but..."
"It isn't the same without him?" He offered kindly, "I know. I feel the same way." He sighed, tears welling up again at the fact that he would never again feel Kawada's rough hands, chapped lips, or sharp teeth against his body again. He shivered in sadness.
"At least we have each other." She breathed against him, arching as his hand found the knife banded to her thigh. She let him remove it. They would not need it for now. He hung it on the neck of the shower nozzle.
Crying, having learned to be quiet with Kawada long ago, they made love in the shower silently like fishes under water. The loss of their third was present with them, both feeling Kawada Shougo's spirit dancing with their own.
Afterward, Noriko put the knife back on, both put on the clothes that the Underground provided them with. Something had changed. They had lost their love Kawada, but had gained so much more.
From Tengoku, Kawada watched his two beloveds on Earth with Keiko and Nobu. Kawada and Keiko held hands. Nobu smiled.
"Ano ne, Shougo. I wish we had gotten to know each other on earth..but thanks for loving Shuya and Noriko in my place." Nobu said with a dazzling smile. Kawada smiled himself and nodded.
"You love them still, don't you?" She smiled, squeezing his hand. He nodded, and turned to her.
"I love you still too."
"At least we're together."
"I miss them." He sighed, and Keiko held him.
"That's the way it is up here," Nobu said, "At first."
"They'll get here, eventually."
"They have all the time in the world." He smiled brightly at her, then turned to all of them, "And I can always wait."
He reached out to them, gently caressing Shuya, then Noriko's faces. He whispered in their delicate ears.
--- The next morning, they awoke embraced in their hiding hole feeling safer and more at peace than they had since the Program and Kawada. The room was oddly filled Kawada's familiar, though impossible scent. Their grief was not healed, but somehwat allieviated. Later, over breakfast, they both confirmed what they'd thought they'd heard that night in their sleep: Kawada's voice.
"Baby," He'd said to them with a smile, "tramps like us were born to run."
END.