voidtreckerexpress

Who: Taiki and Open
Where: Luggage, sleeper carriage 4 corridor, greenhouse.
When: Egret, Day 22
What: Taiki returns and has feelings.
Warnings:

Luggage Carriage

The mission had been terrible. Terrifying, heartbreaking. As battles went there had not been too much blood, but considering he had still been weak it was enough to keep him slightly feverish, uncomfortable and unable to rest. Lord Gyousou had kept him out of the way of the fighting but he had known it was happening. People he had met on the train, people he liked. They were fighting, being hurt, hurting and even killing others. He wasn't a child anymore, but that didn't make it easier.

But now. Now he had no idea where he was. It was dark and when he moved his arms and legs he was contained. Trapped. Had they been captured? He can't remember. He closes his eyes, letting despair wash over him. It takes him a moment to realise the cause of that hopelessness. He can't feel Gyousou. The ouki is gone.

He panics, legs and arms lashing out against whatever he is in. He kicks upwards and feels only relief when the lid moves. He pushes and feels a little sheepish when he realises he was not trapped at all.

He sits up and looks around, confused. But he remembers, the welcome leaflet had said about disappearing and reappearing in a suitcase. This is the luggage carriage and he is back on the train.

He still can't feel the ouki. Had he somehow been brought to the train, leaving Lord Gyousou on the space station. Was he too far away?

He is still weak, it might be that he is too far away to feel him. He sits silently for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

Sleeper Carriage Four~ Corridor

He made his way back to his room, warily. Anyone he passed got a wary nod, though he worried about the amount of people. It quickly negated his theory about people being still on the mission...

Outside his room he paused as he searched for his ticket. He looked up at the screen and paused. His name, as well as Yuffie and Wen Qing's were there in red, orange and blue. But Lord Gyousou's was gold.

"What does that mean..."

Greenhouse

After a shower and a change of clothes he made his way to the greenhouse. It was one of his favourite places on the train, even if there weren't all that many plants yet. It was a hopeful place, full of life ready to bloom.

And in the far corner, out of the way was where he headed to. That was where he and Lord Gyousou had planted the kouji. The kaihaku could grow in even the least fertile of scrub land and so they had planted it out of the way, to leave the flower beds and good soil for the other plants. There had been soil in the pot it had been in, so that would be enough.

It wasn't fully grown yet, it had no flowers but still he sat next to it, knees drawn up to his chest, reaching out to run his fingers through the soil. It was silly. It didn't bring him any closer to Tai, didn't change the fact that he was on this train, that his king was missing. Somewhere unknownable. Didn't change the aching loneliness in him or the bleakness that came with being parted. But it still made him feel a little better, to be here.

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He nods into her shoulder, he would return. He had to return. That was perhaps a very naive thought. He might not return. Things didn't always work out the way you hoped, more often than not worst case scenarios became reality.

He can only hope. He had not thought he had much hope left inside him. But still he finds more. He can take strength from Wen Qing's arms and believe her words.

"He will." It is only hope. He doesn't know for certain. He doesn't know where he is. He doesn't know where he himself was. He cannot remember anything.

At least that is some small comfort, Lord Gyousou is not being hurt, wherever he is.

"Sorry..." He reaches up to scrub at his eyes.

"Don't apologize when you have done nothing wrong," she says curtly, her voice maybe a little bit sharper than intended from the sheer frustration of having to watch a loved one suffer and being unable to do anything about it. She's really getting mightily sick of that. "If anything, whoever is running this train should be apologizing to you."

But that's not going to happen, so she nudges him over to sit down on the bottom bunk.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty? Is there anything you need right now?" And then, after a moment, "I heard when people return they wake up in a trunk. Is that true?"

He startles and opens his mouth to apologise again, for angering her. But then curbs his tongue as that is the reason she is annoyed at him at the first place. He moves where she tells him to and sits down on the bed, pushing his shoes off with his feet before bringing his knees up to his chest.

He shook his head, Inigo had gotten him food. "It is. I wasn't sure where I was at first, but I was inside a trunk. It was closed, but not locked." Luckily.

Edited 2020-04-21 04:37 (UTC)

"How terrible! That's no way to treat people, does the train not have any consideration for people getting panic attacks? The damage they could do to themselves before they manage to open the trunk...!"

It's very inconsiderate, indeed, and something to be addressed, though she isn't sure how. A worry for another day, today there is Taiki to concern herself with.

"If you would like to rest, I'll be here in case you wake up. Or we could go and take a look at these board games." She just figures he shouldn't be left alone to dwell on Gyousou not being around.

"It was quite worrying." He can imagine people panicking, it is not nice to be trapped, even if for a small amount of time.

He was tired, but he knows a lot of that is the bleakness that comes from being parted from his king. Wen Qing is trying to be kind and he nods. "Games would be nice."

He knows nothing about board games, but he is happy to accompany her.

She doesn't know anything about the board games they may have here either so...

"Maybe we can find dice," she suggests. "Playing with dice should be easy enough, and the same all over. I talked to a young man on the network who mentioned teaching others the game from his home country but I haven't had time to seek him out yet."

Honestly, she actually just wants to keep him distracted so she figures even them just rummaging around the games without playing one will get the job done.

"Why don't you sit in the games car and I'll get us a nice hot cup of tea from the kitchen."

He nodded, he actually didn't have a clue about dice games either but if Wen Qing knew some he would hope he could pick it up quickly. He would do his best to be a good student.

"Um... Only if you are sure. You don't have to." She doesn't need to get him tea, she is always so kind to him.

"I know that I don't have to," she just says curtly, the matter done for her with that.

She sees him to the game carriage before quickly disappearing for the dining car to get them two large mugs with tea bags dangling in them.

"I hope you like herbal tea," she says when she returns, "I picked something that should be soothing for your stomach and your nerves. Did you have time to look around yet?"

He just nodded, too intimidated to argue further and entered the games carriage. He hadn't spent all that much time here so it took him a while to look around and see if he could find games with dice. There were a few and he had started piling them neatly.

"I do, thank you." He smiled at her and moved across slowly to where she was.

"I found a few... some look easy enough to play."

She thrust a mug of steaming hot green tea at him while she kept the other to herself, sitting down with the mug cradled between both hands. It wasn't quite as fancy as the bowls from which they would drink at home but far more practical for carrying your beverages halfway across the train, for sure.

"Alright, then we will take a look at these games," she said, though she made no move to do so quite yet. She peered at him. "Sit with me, Taiki?"

He took the mug with a nervous smile, it smelled nice at least though he judged it still a little too hot to drink.

At her command he moved to her side and sat down, hands clasped around the mug he studied the tea with fascination. He feels bad for her concern for him but at the same time knows that his apologising irritates her, which leads to awkwardness and she really is quite intimidating. So he sits silently.

While Wen Qing commonly enjoyed being known as intimidating, she wouldn't be very pleased to know she was intimidating even to Taiki. That had never been her intention, it was just hard to shut off that side of hers.

She opened one of the cardboard boxes and started to inspect the game, finally finding instructions. She skimmed them, lips thinning as she went. That all sounded very complicated to her, but it had after all been her suggestion.

"Maybe we should just have a cup of tea for now," she suggested, giving the instructions another doubtful look.

He sits quietly at her side as she inspected the board game, staring into his tea for the most part thought he glanced at her a few times as she read.

Perhaps he should help, he was probably better to understand rules of such games, as he had come across them on earth. But he doesn't want to interrupt her, nor is his heart in more than sitting quietly, the loss of Lord Gyousou hangs over him like a shadow.

"Yes." He nodded at her, judged the tea cool enough and took a sip. "It's very nice."

She looks at Taiki, taking in how quiet and withdrawn he is. Mourning. Of course he is mourning, and there is nothing she can truly do to make it better. That's the worst part of it for her, really.

Feeling a little awkward about it, she wraps an arm around him and gives him a little tug, wordlessly offering a hug, though she's not going to force him into it either.

He is happy enough to be hugged, he doesn't know Lady Wen very well but she has been nothing but kind to both him and Lord Gyousou since the first day they met.

He leans into her and eventually reaches out to put an arm around her in return, trying to portray his thanks without words.

Because he's not sure he's capable of speaking without crying.

Returning

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