FicWad

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Post series, somewhere before Gluehen. The Tower came down, and not everyone made it to safety. written for lilymoon1 on livejournal





Some actions defied logic. Had he the extra strength to be nasty about the unexpected breach his logic was suffering, Aya would have thought twice, and dumped his burden back into the sea. At least that would relieve some of the pain in his shoulders. His mission clothes were definitely not meant to be water logged, and the added weight of the mostly unconscious body in his arms wasn't making his life any easier.
Funny, he had reached not for Yohji, not for Omi or Ken...they were his partners, they could and always had, managed. He trusted them, depended on their ability to take care of themselves, to see the mission through and haul themselves home.
The redhead currently doing his best to drag Aya underwater had always seemed so efficient, so lethal. And had looked so pathetic with a cut across his forehead, a glazed, concussed look to his eyes as he started to sink.
Aya was not one given to acts of compassion, especially not towards one who had had a hand in the kidnapping of his beloved sister.
But...
He must have hit his head as well, must have fallen prey to falling debris. There was no other explanation for the unwieldy bit of sympathy, of understanding, that was playing havoc with his sensibility.
It never was the weapons fault. And the members of Schwartz were, if nothing else, weapons. Tools. Schuldich had been within arms reach, had been too dazed to save himself from sinking. It might have been illogical, hauling one of his most dangerous enemies up, dragging them towards a painfully distant beach, but it had been the right thing.
Omi's idealism must be catching, along with Yohji's almost painful, albeit often feigned, optimism. That didn't keep Aya from scowling as he pounded water out of the limp telepaths chest, didn't keep him from wincing at the necessity of mouth to mouth.
Schuldich had full lips, soft, even when tinged blue with cold and a close call with death by drowning.
'And here I thought you'd never notice.'
Aya flinched, snapping his attention to green eyes that were almost all pupil with a medics nightmare of concussion and migraine, and an elusive bit of panic. "Don't do that."
'Sorry. For once I'm not doing this because I want to. Scouts honor.'
"Sure."
'I just coughed up a small salty lake. Not doing any talking anytime soon. Shit burns on the way back up worse than the cheap well whiskey I had last week.'
"Hn." Secure in the fact Schuldich was out of any serious danger if he was aware enough to be making jokes, Aya started on the task of wringing water out of his hair. His coat. Dumping it out of his shoes...
'Any chance of some more mouth to mouth?'
"I could just kill you."
'Never mind then.'
There was a moment of blissful silence, in which Aya could return to pretending Schuldich wasn't reading every little thought that passed through his head. He should have known it was too enjoyable to last.
"Abyssinian..."
It was a croaking, painful imitation of the telepaths usual charismatic malice, and Aya stoically did his best not to feel bad for the bastard. "What?"
"Can you at least roll me onto my side. Chest hurts."
"You are staying like that until I check for broken ribs."
"Going to rub your hands all over me?"
"Shut up."
Some deity must have felt bad about everything, the Fate on duty must have finally noticed how poorly balanced the scales had been, for miracle of miracles, Schuldich listened. It was a long, blissful silence broken only by the waves and Schuldich's raspy, unsteady breathing.
"They're still alive." Schuldich spoke quietly, calmly, for once lacking his usual nasty, teasing edge.
"Of course. Yours?"
Schuldich closed his eyes, for once turning down the opportunity to answer.