WHO: Kaname Chidori, Johnny Domino, Sousuke Sagara.
WHAT: Hospital visit.
WHEN: July 7th
MISSION: Make sure Johnny's all right.
WATCH OUT FOR: Unexpected turn of events!

It's been a few days since Johnny Domino was given clearance to enter Japan on account of a medical emergency. A few days since the encounter with Sousuke in Africa that left Chimera heavily damaged, and left its pilot on the verge of a deadly coma. A few days since Johnny last heard from Kaname.

In many ways, the young Domino was recovering at an extraordinary pace: he could speak again, whereas a few days ago he could barely whisper. He could breathe on his own, eliminating the need of keeping him hooked up to special tubes and machines. Even more impressive - Domino could actually feel again, this particular sense having been robbed of him when his nervous system nearly collapsed.

Unfortunately, there were yet a number of issues that rendered Johnny an invalid: his lower body was still paralyzed, for one, the recovery of which the doctors could not predict. It could happen tomorrow, or it could happen in a month... furthermore, whenever Domino moved his arms, the act was accompanied by a dull pain, a remnant from the wounds inflicted on Chimera by Kaname's bodyguard. Perhaps most debilitating - Johnny had to be kept medicated, ensuring his body remained subdued so as to not overwhelm his mending physiology.

Nevertheless, Johnny found little reason to complain. It's funny, really. In the end, those crazy Japanese with their crazy gadgets Johnny never cared too much about wound up saving his life.

Night has long since fallen. Johnny's room, bare before, now contains the remnants of a farewell 'party' thrown in his honor by the Nadesico crew. A large banner hangs on the wall opposite of Domino, announcing in cheery letter: "Goodbye, Johnny". Given the circumstances, the banner may be somewhat in bad taste, but the young man has not once requested that it be taken down.

Similarly, at his bedside, a poster stands on a chair, smattered with Johnny's most memorable moments aboard the Nadesico. It offers quite a charming insight into Domino's stay onboard the battleship.

Yet right now... Domino looks at neither. He's lying in bed, upper body propped at a low angle. His eyes waver between focused wakefulness and a blurry slumber, gazing at some invisible spot beyond the ceiling.

Indeed, in many ways, Johnny is much better off than he was a few days ago. Yet at the same time...


Despite the fact that visiting hours had long since ended, the nurse still led her to his room. It might have been due to her current pitiful state of appearance: long strands of sand-matted hair fall over Kaname's shoulders; her yukata is stained with dirt.

Visiting hours were over. The nurse knew that; she had spent the past eighteen years working in the same ward of the same hospital; she had slowly worked her way up the chain of command to become head nurse. But despite the many years she had lived by rules and procedures, she found it suddenly difficult to continue to abide by regulation.

"Please, I just want to see him," she had pleaded. The girl's hair was a mess; half up, half-down, it was clear that at one point her hair had been lavishly styled for the tanabata festival she was missing. But now, her hair was matted with ashes, and the yukata she had worn to the festivities was caked with dirt. Sweat decorated her brow--likely from running, the nurse thought.

Whoever this person is, he must be important to her.

"Follow me."

The steady click-clack of geta against linoleum announces Kaname's entrance long before she hits the entrance to his room; the nurse pauses at the door, holding a single finger to her lips admonishingly, warning the girl against making noise. Whether or not this is for the sake of the nurse, or for the sake of the patient inside, Kaname is unsure, but she returns the gesture with a small, firm nod of her own. She had no intention of being loud to begin with.

The nurse leaves, back to her desk at reception. Kaname's hand tightens around the doorknob. She inhales, then exhales.

Then pushes the door open.

She finds her mental visual matches the actual; he is pale and gazing skyward, wires and tubes stretching from his body to machines beside him. She swallows again, then takes a step forward, and another until she's by his side.

It's difficult to find the words to say, so she starts with the one that comes most natural:

"Hey."


Johnny Domino pays little attention to the click-clacks coming from behind his door. It's late, he is tired, the hospital is mostly asleep... are the noises for real, or are they all in the Domino's mind? For some reason, Johnny finds himself believing the latter. While the levels of medication have been steadily lowered since his arrival, the young man still found it difficult to maintain sharp faculties.

His lazy thoughts drift around, thinking about subjects old and new, fragmented and whole... and even as the door opens and Kaname steps inside, Johnny fails to register her arrival. Only once she is a few steps away from his bedside does her presence penetrate through Domino's haze, like an invisible aura washing over him.

There's a blink, then Domino shuts his eyes tight, opening them wide a moment later as if to try and force them into coherence. He slowly turns his head to look at the newcomer. And wven through his medication, even at this late hour, and even though Kaname doesn't look at her best... Domino recognizes her. His expression shifts - surprise, regret, happiness?

"..Hi," he manages after a moment, struggling to mentally lift himself above the fog in his head. Physcially, Johnny does very little while his thoughts fight to reclaim their lucidity, simply lying there and looking at Kaname's face.

Then, finally, in a raspy voice: "I'm sorry."


There's a chair next to his bed, but she doesn't sit down; she continues to stand right where she is, gazing down with at Johnny with a carefully neutral expression.

"Why are you sorry?" Kaname asks. "It's not like it was your fault."


Johnny considers Kaname's question. Putting his thoughts into words is not as easy as one might imagine.

"Broke my promise," he answers. "Wasn't careful."

And then, in true Johnny Domino fashion, he comments: "You're wearing a bathrobe."



"It's a yukata!" Kaname says, in a voice louder than she intended. She lets out a sigh. "You know," she complains, "Sometimes I think you're almost as hopeless as Sousuke."

A moment passes, and her expression softens.

"I'm glad you're okay."


Johnny flinches at Kaname's voice. He can tell he said the wrong thing. He didn't mean to say the wrong thing. His mind grasps for a way to redeem himself.

"..you look.. nice," he ventures. Part of him wants to reach over and seek out her hand. He doesn't.

"I got your text messages," he continues instead. "All of them."


Kaname says nothing about the text messages; she can't draw forth the energy to be angry at him. Not while he's in this state.

"Are you /sure/ you're awake?" she asks instead, her tone disbelieving; he thought she looked nice in /this/ state? He couldn't be completely concious. Not if he believed that, anyway. "If you need to get some more rest, I can come back during regular visiting hours. The nurse would probably be a lot happier if I did."


"Wait!"

Johnny's tone is urgent, his voice louder than he had intended, much like Kaname before him. The idea of the girl leaving does not sit too well with him, evidently. This time, he does reach out, if only for an instant in an attempt to stop her.

Then his arm recoils as the pain blossoms following this sudden motion.

"Don't," Domino tries speaking. His voice drops in volume, yet his tone still carries the same hint of desperation to it. "I want," he struggles for the right words, fails. "You should," he makes a final attempt, growing exasparated with himself. With a deepening frown, the young man lets out a frustrated sigh.

"Kaname?.."


Kaname stops, then turns, then looks at the boy beside her. His hand had only touched her for an instant, but it made its impact.

"What?" she asks, and his words are painfully pressed forward. Though there's no reason for it, an unsettling feeling suddenly overcomes her. There's an urgency in his voice she recognizes, and she's not sure she's yet ready to hear him out.

But she does.

"What's wrong?"


Johnny opens his mouth, intending to say something. The words need a little coaxing before they emerge:

"..who are Mithril?"


Kaname's heart stops for a second, and for a moment, she is motionless, paralyzed by the weight of his words. An uncomfortable silence settles over the room as Kaname's mind comes to grasp with the reality she never wanted to face.

He knows. She's not sure what he knows, or how he knows it, or even /why/ he knows it--but he knows something. There'd be no other reason for him to confront her with that word unless he somehow knew its relationship to her.

And she knows in that instant that everything is going to change.

She gives no answers; instead, she returns his inquiry with a question of her own:

"Where," she says, finally. "Where did you hear that term?"


It's hard to say whether in his current state, Johnny is capable of noticing the little changes and nuances Kaname exhibits throughout this exchange. Whatever the case may be, the young man doesn't avert his gaze even once.

"Cecil," he responds to her question, letting out the truth with incredible ease.

"He shot you."


He shot you.

The composure Kaname has managed to maintain up until now is beginning to crumble; her voice is slightly choked as she presses forward what will likely be her last question:

"What else did he tell you?"


A wrinkle forms across Johnny's brow as he looks up at Kaname. In a sense, the medication allows his foggy mind to see things with a certain clarity he wouldn't usually be able to maintain with his usual volatile personality in place.

"You are under watch," Domino provides the answer yet again. "By Mithril."


"I've been under guard by Mythril since second year," Kaname says. It's the first thing she's confirmed since their conversation began. "Since before the incident that occured on the class trip." Kaname doesn't further explain; Johnny had been enrolled second year, and though he was not part of the event firsthand, he had to have heard the then-second years boasting about the incident at some point during his high school career.

"I was the reason why that incident occurred."


Johnny heard about the incident. He used to think it was just a bunch of terrorists targetting school-children for infamy, and waved it away as something he didn't care about. Hearing about the incident now, however, with Kaname's added commentary...

Domino's brain attempts to sift through memories and fish out any relevant detail Johnny has regarding the hijacking. These details are not much.

Domino's tone wavers slightly as he probes, tries to understand: "Why?"


Though Johnny's gaze is settled on Kaname's face, Kaname finds her own wavering from his. It would be easier if she hadn't waited so long; it'd be easier if she didn't have to tell him at all.

"TAROS, the Omnisphere, Lambda Drivers, the Orb Ship the Tuatha de Daanan," Kaname says in a low voice. "All of those are treasure troves of Black Technology. Technology from the future."

She pauses a moment, mentally fumbling for the proper words to best explain it. She takes a breath then continues.

"The reason that plane was hijacked was because I was one of them... One of the Whispered."


Johnny opens his mouth. Then pauses.

"..wuh.."

He has no clue what Kaname's talking about, what half of the names she tossed at him were. And in his current condition, trying to figure things out is that much harder. Eventually the young man settles on an official reaction.

"Huh?"


Kaname's lips curl into an embarrassed half-smile. "I'm sorry, I'm probably not explaining things very well, am I?"

She doesn't know why she chooses to continue; she had promised Tessa that she wouldn't say anything to anyone. Even Kurz, Mao, and Tessa had no idea for their true reason for guarding Kaname Chidori--though by now, some of them had likely already began to deduce the truth.

"The Whispered are the only people in the world with access to this technology," Kaname explains. "But there are only a few of us in the world." A dozen or two, Tessa had told her during their discussion onboard the Tuatha deDaanan. "Because of that, we're highly sought after by groups who covet that technology."

A beat.

"I don't know who Cecil is working for," she says. "Or if he's working for anybody," she adds, as an afterthought. "But he doesn't seem to know anything about Mythril or the Whispered."


Johnny listens to Kaname. He listens to her to the best of his ability, trying to put the pieces into a cohesive picture. Kaname calls herself a Whispered. What are Whispered? people who can somehow... 'access' technology. From the future?

How the hell does that work? Is this some psychic bullshit like Newtypes? Is there time travel involved somehow? Domino never heard about any of this. Quite frankly, it sounds like some sort of crackpot story. Giant mecha and hot blood and space travel aside... what Kaname says is very very weird.

Yet Johnny Domino accepts it. Maybe it's because he has a tendency to accept things at face value. Maybe it's because this is Kaname, and he feels like he can trust her. Maybe it's because he actually likes her. Likes her for her fiery temper, likes her for the bouts of compassion she can show, likes her for being normal...

..actually..

Domino finally looks away from Kaname, letting his tense body relax and sink into the bed. "That," he begins, trying to fully grasp the situation, voice muddled. "Doesn't sound... normal."

"At all..."


Johnny's words sting. They bear the weight of a reality Kaname refuses to accept--a reality that, after the past few weeks, she's slowly coming to terms with. One she'll eventually have to come to accept.

The truth was she wasn't normal.

"I promised someone I wouldn't say anything to anybody," Kaname says, "So I'd appreciate it if you kept this to yourself."


Domino doesn't answer, not right away. He's busy thinking, trying to regain his bearings following this confession. It's difficult to make sense of things through the influence of drugs.

Yet at the same time, Johnny can more easily grasp at the core of the matter once he reaches it. No excessive thoughts get in his way, only the bottom line. And in this case the bottom line is:

"Mithril doesn't look after you very well."


"The person guarding me has other duties, too." Duties--that word again. "Ever since the Orb Union fell, he's been busy with those other duties. If it weren't for that, I probably would have been safe."

A breath.

"He's a good guard," Kaname says.


At any other time, Johnny may have become angry. At any other time, this may have devolved into yet another argument between Johnny and Kaname. But not now. Not like this.

"This isn't about the Orb Union," Johnny comments softly. "This is about you." The young man returns his gaze to the girl.

"He shot you," Domino says, tone almost pleading. "Geez, Kaname... Cecil /shot/ you. And your apartment. And... and this hijacking..."

Suddenly: "She also shot me." This seems to come right out of the blue, a sudden subject change. But it all makes sense in Domino's mind. "This girl I met. During the Gundam Fight. She told me things about herself. And I..." Domino wets his lips, his usual hot-headed candor replaced by something much more vulnerable. "I was such an idiot. An absolute idiot. And she shot me. And it hurt." As Kaname can probably attest, getting shot does indeed hurt.

"I don't want to... I don't know. I don't want to... be an idiot with you. And I don't want..."

Domino struggles for words, tries to emphasize what he's attempting to communicate. "I don't /want/!.. to see you hurt. This Mithril. This Mithril, and its duties..." Johnny told Kaname before, hasn't he? "You were never a duty to me. Never."

The next words he wants to say, he doesn't utter. However, it should be clear, from the tone of his voice to the look in his eyes: Let me protect you. Please.


It takes a moment for all of this to finally register in Kaname Chidori's head.

For her, all of this was a distant reality she had yet to face: being a Whispered, being guarded by Mithril--these were things she knew to be true, yet refused to deal with head-on. Even now, she could only approach the truth little-by-little, slowly acknowledging day-by-day that the normal high school life she professed to have was anything but.

That doesn't sound normal at all, he had said. And he was right.

And while Kaname began to come to terms with one reality, another loomed behind it. She refused to acknowledge it consciously, but the more that time passed, the more weight of truth it carried.

That she might be sought after for the rest of her life. That the normal life she maintained even after abnormal circumstances would someday be seized from her, violently, by any means necessary.

She looks up at Johnny, suddenly glowering.

"It's not going to work out like that."

There's a sharp edge to Kaname's voice.

"You don't understand--you don't understand anything! The person who attacked you in Africa--that person is the guy who guards me!"



Johnny waits for Kaname to say something, anything. He doesn't dare blink, holding the girl in his gaze.

The glower is unexpected. Again, Domino finds himself flinching, feeling so very much exposed. Damn those drugs, damn this entire stupid situation. If only Johnny had better self-control over himself. If only he didn't go and say all those things just a moment ago!..

And then Kaname's words...

"..what?" Domino takes a moment to fully process the meaning of this. Kaname knows about the attack in Africa? The pilot of that Arm Slave model, he was from Mithril. He was Kaname's bodyguard. And he went after Johnny. This is not something the young man was prepared to find out.

And in a small, confused and lost voice, Johnny asks, "Why did he attack me?" He looks away from Kaname, repeating the question more to himself than for Kaname's sake: "Why did he attack me?"


"Where is that janitor? That entire corridor has to have the passage restricted till that mess is cleaned up. It's a biohazard!" A couple nurses in white and starched stiff hats stood around behind the nursing station all irritated. Another shook her head, "We all have our work to do, how hard a job can it be to--" Suddenly a young man appeared in dark grey overalls and cap, his brown hair sticking out from under it. He was pushing a trolly with cleaning supplies, the scent of disinfectant clinging cloyingly about him.
"Sorry I'm late, what floor was it that you said?"

"Four, critical care." The one who'd been bitching smoothly transitioned into an answer, adjusting her glasses with a faint squint. She didn't recognise this one. Though, there was already a lot of staff, people got fired and hired all the time...But he carried one of the ID badges with a matching picture. "Hurry up already."

"Roger."

The nurses shared a look amongst them.


Sousuke Sagara pulled the beak of his cap down lower, his grey eyes lost in the shadow of his bangs. Undisturbed, he hurried to the floor in question, which also had the fine work of art provided from one fo the sick patients. It reeked though the sour smell of vomit hardly phased him. Glancing at the room doors, he was atleast four away from where Kaname had been directed.

Johnny Domino.

His mouth turned down further. He pulled out the mop and bucket, tossing a sign on the floor to redirect people to safer access. The cool polished black of his glock was hidden in his deep pockets, though the towels of the cart held far nastier suprises. With hooded eyes, he started in on the mess, casting long looks at the door inquestion. He worked as slowly as possible.


Johnny's voice is uncharacteristically quiet and confused; Kaname regrets what she said almost as soon as the words leave her mouth.

She was just making trouble for Sousuke. She was making things harder on Johnny, too. Even now, she has no clue why she said it, what intentions may lay beneath the surface.

"It's easy for you to say those sort of things when you don't have any idea what you're getting into!"

She had promised the nurse she would be quiet.


Finally, at long last, there's a prick of the old-fashioned Johnny brand of agitation. Kaname's words are beginning to penetrate the milky veil wrapped around his brain.

"So TELL me!", comes Domino's sharp exclamation, a stark contrast to his calm conduct thus far. "Talk to me! Explain things to me, make me understand!" His heated words put a strain on Johnny his body is yet incapable of handling properly. Yet despite the physical protest shooting through the young man's spine, he can't stop himself from pressing forward.

"You said we were friends! You-- you-- don't you see me as a friend anymore? Don't you--" ..don't you like me?, Domino wants to say.

"Whatever I'm getting into... whatever I'm already /IN/! Stop being so stupid and LET ME HELP YOU!"

Outside, Sousuke will no doubt be able to hear the rising tones from inside Johnny's room. Making out the words is a different matter, though. Who knows what on earth is going on in there?!


Large chunky remains grinned up at him from where it was stuck on the mop strands...Hazarding just what it could be promised atleast an hour of dedicated ponderings. Sousuke didn't have time for that, his head snapping up at the sound of the raised voices, one of them distinctly Kaname's, the other-- well. He didn't have any doubt of who it was. Fingers tightened about the plastic mop handle, the other hand dropped to his pocket, slipping about the metal of the quiescent gun. He took a step foward purposefully,

//*BZZZZ*//

"..."

//*BZZZZ*//

"Tch!"

The voice continued, and its accusing heavy tone served to only make Sousuke bristle. Who did he--

//*BZZZZ*//

It was a relentless demand. Sousuke stopped, setting aside the mop handle but not the glock, flipping out a sleek cellphone.

"Uruz 7." He answered flatly, giving no indication as to his mood. His gaze never shifted from the door, his body already coiled tightly like a spring, ready to snap into action at the slightest escalation. "...What is the ETA?" Another long pause. "I...understand." Sousuke's expression finally clouded over. "Affirmative. I'll head to route C3 for pickup."

Sousuke snapped the phone shut, and hesitated. Leaving behind the cleaning equipment, the dark haired teen moved to stand just before the room door, he lifted a hand to the doorknob, as if he would grasp it to yank it open.

Yet he didn't.


Before, she could do something. When Sousuke was fighting Gauron's AS, she was able to help him learn how to use the Lambda Driver. On-board the Tuatha de Daanan, she was able to enter the Omnisphere and seize control of the ship. She'd been able to help /stop/ Gauron.

But now, all she could do was play the part of the weak-kneed fairy princess. She had been too cowardly to go into the apartment next door when she heard noises; even when she'd been shot, all she could do was beg and plead with Cecil for her life.

She couldn't do anything on her own, and everyone around her knew it.

Kaname is trembling slightly, though not with tears.

"I don't want your help! I don't want /anybody's/." Kaname snaps. "All I want is for things to be /normal/! I want things to be the way they were before all of this happened to me!"


Johnny Domino doesn't know what to say to that.

Actually, wait. He does. It takes a moment for his brain to pinpoint the words, but he does have something to say to Kaname.

"I want to be normal too!", is his furious confession, a frown contorting his features. "I want to go back to being a civilian! I want to be a nobody again! You think I like being in the military and having needles stuck into my spine and having to keep control over that giant cat?!" No doubt referring to Chimera.

"Well-- gee, sucks for me, doesn't it?!" There's bitterness now. "I can't go back. I can't be a nobody again! And I'm doing my fucking best to do something with what I have! Trying to have some lame purpose in this giant mess of a life. And you!.."

"..and you.."

Domino calms down, the fire extinguished disturbingly quick. He's exhausted. Exerting so much energy while still bedridden was not the wisest of decisions. His breathing becomes shallow, eyes growing dull.

"....and you."

Whatever Johnny wanted to say doesn't leave his lips. Slowly he sinks back into bed, having propped himself on his elbows at some point during this exchange. He is still conscious. He is just quiet, staring at the ceiling.


Sousuke froze at Kaname's last, his mouth twitched. She didn't want anybody's help, which including his own, and added to that the spectacular timing of his most recent phone call--

Right. He had his orders to leave his present activities to join up with the rest. And yet.

A firm rapping came from the direction of the door, cutting through the sudden silence within after the thunderous yelling. Maybe it was that nurse about to kick Kaname out for aggravating the poor injured patient! It certainly would be a suprise to find Sousuke with his face half in shadow, a stoic mask relequishing nothing of what he was thinking.

He never released the gun, that would be asking too much, but only due to his urgency...He didn't risk getting beaten by Kaname due to the fact, he really needed to leave. He had estimated atleast six minutes of play time, longer than that...He'd have to /fly/ to the destination to make it on time. "Miss Chidori." His voice was low, low enough to not be heard by any but her ears.



"There's nothing stopping you from that!" Kaname argues. Her hands are balled into tight fists at her side, an attempt to placate the anger rising up inside of her. It's the same conversation they've had before, inside the Bar Code Cafe, a month and a half before. "You like to act like there's nothing you can do, and every time--every time--all you do is make excuses!"

A beat. "You chose this life for yourself. You might have been pressured into it, but ultimately, you still had a /choice/."

A knock at the door interrupts her before she can say anything more; she glances over at the door to find Sousuke standing among the shadows.

Miss Chidori.

Kaname's gaze shifts down at Johnny momentarily, her gaze icy.

"I'm going," she says.

Kaname walks towards the door, the steady clip-clop of geta marking her exit; she slips through the door with a slight nod to Sousuke, then shuts the door behind her.

Not once does she look back.


Johnny remains alone.

He doesn't look at Kaname as she leaves, doesn't yell anything after the departing girl. Even had Kaname stayed, the young man wouldn't have known what to say to her. Perhaps it is better this way. Perhaps this is how it should have been all along.

And as he drowns deeper and deeper into the folds of depression, into the cold embrace of medication, exhaustion and hurt feelings... Domino has a moment of enlightenment.

Kaname and him aren't friends. They never were friends. She lied to him all along. Always yelled at him and abused him. Always acted like a bitch. Liking her was a mistake. Kaname Chidori... was nothing but someone to be reported to his superiors.

There was no friendship there.


"Miss Chidori--!" Lifting his voice a little again, holding up his hand to her back as she literally stalked away from the pair of men. He was summarily ignored...Twice in one night, he was really on a roll.

Five minutes.

The shut hospital room door beckoned with temptation, how easy it would be to enter and interrogate the injured pilot. To find out what else had been spoken of, to...No. He forced his gaze away to where Kaname had retreated down the corridor. He slowly withdrew his hand from the gun he'd been clasping tightly, and forced himself to exhale with a measured breath. If he only knew what had crossed the mind of Johnny within, he'd have kicked down the door without another hint of misgiving. He may have even go beyond considering pulling the trigger. But he'd never have to make that decision.

Four minutes.

Not tonight.

Sousuke followed after Kaname with a lingering look over his shoulder, and by the time he'd stepped out of the hospital, the night sky was lit up with a plethora of fireworks, each one a beautiful bloom of colour. Sousuke barely gave it a glance as he headed swiftly to his designated rendezvous point.

Tanabata was supposed to celebrate the joyful reunion of star crossed lovers, tonight, it promised only a bitter revenge.