Banana Fish - Another missed flight

The Rocky Road To A New Dawn (3) : Even If The World Turns On You ...

"Now that you finally don't want me to leave you anymore ...", Eiji began, finally approaching the topic he feared the most.

"I never told you that!", Ash interrupted him stubbornly, sitting up and glaring at him, his green eyes flashing wildly with annoyance.

Eiji glared right back at him but there was humor sparkling beneath the irritation in his brown eyes.

"But you didn't tell me to leave either. You had the chance. You didn't take it. Now it's too late.", Eiji replied as stubbornly, a devilish grin spreading over his face. "Not answering is an answer in itself, you know?", he replied, resting one hand gently on Ash's shoulder. He just frowned up at him.

"Whatever...", Ash crossed his arms and turned his gaze away from him. But Eiji had still seen a glimmer of happiness in his green eyes. "You're hopeless.", Eiji told him, smiling anyway.

"So what I wanted to say before you so rudely interrupted me ... now that you don't want me to leave anymore...", Eiji repeated, stopping him with an annoyed glare from doing so again, "why don't we move on? To the topic we've both avoided until now ...", he explained, once more turning serious.

Ash saw him hesitating for a fraction of a second and the color of Eiji's eyes darkened to a chestnut brown while he sighed and said to him in a painful voice:

"You still haven't told me what happened after Sing gave you my letter..."

Yes, Eiji knew more or less what had happened when seeing the crime scene. But he wanted to hear it from Ash himself. He just had to know if his letter had really been the reason Ash had been too distracted to notice Lao attacking him. He had mixed feelings about that. He wanted to know the truth but was afraid to hear it at the same time.

After a moment of watching Eiji, Ash sighed in defeat and reluctantly nodded. "I guess after saving my life you deserve to know ... but you won't like it. You're sure ?", he finally asked.

Eiji hesitated for a second but nodded in confirmation. "I am sure."
"Ok, then ... .", Ash replied sadly, wondering where to begin.

"After Sing had left, I sat down at a bank next to the public library reading your letter. After reading it and finding the plane ticket, I decided on impulse to go to the airport after all and see you off myself. I couldn't fly with you to Japan but I at least wanted to tell you in person. Your plane ticket had shown me how serious you had been about inviting me to Japan. I hadn't realized that before. But I knew I had to tie up some loose ends here in NYC before I could leave.", Ash tried to explain honestly.

Eiji nodded, showing him that he understood his reasoning. "And that was when Lao attacked you, wasn't it?", Eiji asked, swallowing hard, his voice barely a whisper. As if whispering it would make it less real. As if whispering it would undo it. As if it would hurt less. If Ash hadn't been so close he wouldn't have heard him at all.

"Yeah...", Ash replied in a glum tone, his eyes downcast, "although it had been a surprise attack I've never seen Lao coming. He totally caught me off guard because the only thing on my mind was reaching you in time...", he admitted, his green eyes downcast, flooding with regret.

"I knew I didn't have much time left. So I started running, never paying any attention to my surroundings for once." Ash had a really miserable look on his face when he finally looked up again.

"I'm so sorry, Ash. That's all my fault." Eiji began sobbing, sitting on Ash's bed with a hand over his eyes, his head pulled back in a last attempt to stop the tears from flowing down his face. "Lao only got so close to you because my letter had distracted you, right? I realized that when I saw the crime scene.", Eiji explained, turning to look at Ash with pure sorrow dominating his features.