Greyscale - Adashi/Shadam

Chapter One

A red glow spread from the base of the spacecraft. Officers lined up and saluted, the growing flames illuminated the golden stripes on their uniforms. Flashes of orange reflected on Adam's black framed glasses.

The gap between the ground and ship widened with each second. Cadets rushed to the windows to catch a glimpse of the liftoff. A boy with black hair poked his head around the corner of a building, Adam's eyes flickered away from the spacecraft and saw the boy. His eyes were welling up with tears and the boy ran as soon as he was seen.

Adam glanced back at the, now far away, shuttle. It grew ever smaller as he stared. A hand on his shoulder brought him back to earth.

"Come on, Adam." said Andrew, walking away from the site.

"I'll just be a minute." Adam wandered over to the edge of where the shuttle had been and looked up at the miniscule dot, breaking through the clouds.

"Good luck." he whispered, "Takashi."

He turned on his heel and marched over to Block three. He saw a flash of the orange cadet uniform slip into a side door and out of sight again. He couldn't mind that now, he had work to do.

Adam's office was on the third floor and the Garrison only had stairs, so he jogged up them and decided to pop in the staff room before starting his tiresome paperwork.

The doors slid open and he was greeted with Kiesha Williams animatedly chatting to Axel at the bar. She was making him one of her signature pumpkin spiced lattes and almost spilled the cinnamon over the counter with one of her large gestures.

"And then," she exclaimed, "Brooke said that they preferred poptarts over toaster strudels and we had a half hour long argument in Target about which one to get and-" She took a deep breath and Adam saw his chance.

"Your sister came and told you that she had just put toaster strudels in the cart?" He leant against the wall with his arms crossed and a small smile on his face. This was a story he had heard many times before.

"Adam!" Kiesha put down her stuff and walked over to him. Her curvy figure snugly pressing against him as she pulled him into a hug. Kiesha greeted everyone she was remotely close to like this, except when she was in a professional setting. As the assistant nurse she barely had anytime on the job but was required to be on the premesis at all times so she spent most of her time telling stories and making coffee for all those who entered the 3A staff room.

"Do you want a coffee?" she asked, already pouring a cup.

"I'm fine, Keisha. I have quite a bit on my mind." Adam sat down on one of the bar stools and waved away the drink, he put his head in his hands. The moments of laughter he had were long gone and the reality of what he had witnessed this morning sunk in.

"More for me then." she tucked her dark hair behind her ear and brought the mug to her lips. An awkward silence fell upon them.

"The mission left today then, huh?" said Axel in his signature soft voice. Adam said nothing in return but gave a solemn nod. "Did you get to say anything to Shiro before they went up?"

"I doubt he would have even wanted to see me after yesterday. I called it off." he said after a while.

"Called what off?" Kiesha looked at Adam and Axel, in shock, "The engagement? No!"

"Don't talk so loudly Kiesha, nobody else knows." Adam looked out of the window to check if anybody was listening, it was clear.

"Oh, sorry. I can't help it sometimes." she bowed her head and took another sip of coffee.

Nobody spoke for a while, the only sound was the pitter patter of light rain on the windows and the occasionaly klink of mug against granite.

"Um, Adam?" Kiesha finally said. After aknowledgement form him, she continued, "I was just talking to Iverson and he says you can have the rest of the day off. I think it has something to do with emotional strain of, ah, um.." her voice trailed off as she tried to think of what the commander had said, "Ah! Emotional strain can lead to lack of focus so we need to avoid additional stress by lesseing the work load for those at risk." she closed her eyes as if trying to remember something from a text book. Kiesha was only twenty one, practically a cadet among those on the third floor. She was hand picked by the head nurse during a summer first aid program in Kiesha's hometown. Moving out to the Galaxy Garrison was the farthest she had been away from home. Her bubbly personality was a hit among the cadets and when one of them was injured she would offer them snacksand tell stories. Kiesha was always interested in relationships, herself being a hopless romantic, and she would ask the cadets about all of the gossip. They almost always found more interest in her stories about her relationship with Jesse, who was the youngest officer in the history of the Garrison, only being twenty when they were chosen.

"Making sure that you're mind is kept off of the thing that is causing you stress is the only way to keep focus." she finished her magical mental health speech and turned to Adam expectantly.

"I'll head back to the Barracks. See you guys at dinner." he waved half heartedly and the doors slid back open to let him out.

Adam had his hands in his pockets while he walked down the stairs and thrudged through the rain. He held his head down and barely noticed the people of lower ranks saluting to him as he passed. The uniform black boots were slick with mud when Adam reached his room.

He wiped them down before he trod on the tile and flung himself on the couch. The room felt empty without Shiro's humming in the kitchen. His chesnut hair soaked the fabric where his head was and he shut his eyes.

The past few days had gone by in a blur.

Arguements between him and Shiro sped past in Adam's brain.

"Shiro, you are putting your life at risk!"

"It's a risk I'm willing to take, Adam!"

"I love you, Takashi, but I cannot bear to see you hurt yourself like this."

"I'm not hurting myself. You just want me to stay on the ground, trapped."

"That is not what I want! I want, I need, you to be happy. I need you, Shiro."

"Then why can't you see that the only way I can be happy is if I go on this mission!"

His eyes shot open again and fell upon a picture of the day they had gotten engaged. Adam got to his feet and strode over to the bookcase. He gripped the photo frame tightly and droplets of salty tears splattered on the glass.

"Takashi," he said covering his mouth and wiping away the tears from behind his glasses. He dropped to his knees and the frame fell face first onto the tile flooring. The glass fragmented and shattered all over the floor. It embedded into Adam's hand and left cuts in his knees. Trickles of blood joined the tears pooling in the cracks of the tiles.

He gathered the glass in his hands and hastily placed it in the back of the bookcase. Streaks of maroon dripped across his hands and as he tried to pick up the picture, the back turned red. The stain feathered across the paper, only the laminate front remained untainted.

Shiro was looking up at him with the widest smile. His brilliant white teeth shone in the bright spring sunshine. Adam's lips were on his cheek and they both had new golden rings on their fingers.

Adam's fingers brushed over Shiro's face, leaving red streaks in their wake. He couldn't bare to look at him any longer. His fist closed on the photo. It crumpled in his hands and he threw it behind the books and other picture frames, with the bloodied glass.

His fists curled up in tight balls, he scrunched his eyes, damming the waterfalls streaming out of them. It could have lasted for so much longer.