Travel Ban Semishira

Flashbacks and Comfort

Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Haruichi Furudate. None of the art belongs to me. Full credits go to the various artists. Author-chan out!

Shirabu's POV

Kenjirou was laying on something soft. Much softer than the grass of the past few nights, or his sleeping bag before that. He wondered what it was. Maybe he should open his eyes. No, that seemed like too much trouble. He was tired.

Shirabu wondered how Eita was doing. Then it all came back to him. Being knocked out. Waking up to Eita, Tendou and Ushijima saving him. Hugging Eita. Being carried by him. Kenjirou's eyes shot open.

"Eita!"

The pinch server was at Shirabu's bedside in an instant. Kenjirou looked up at him. "Eita, are you alright? You got in a fight."

Semi nearly spontaneously combusted.

"Am I alright? Am I alright?! I'm fine, Kenjirou! I should be the one asking you that! What happened to you?! You're bruised, scraped, burned, dirty, marked with red skin, and thin! You were literally being mugged when we found you! You've been asleep for two days, for Asahi's sake!" He paused for breath. 

Shirabu smiled weakly. "Two days? Wow. The bruises are from making my own trail and a flash flood. The scrapes are from making my own trail and jumping in a patch of greenbriar vines to get away from mating black bears. The burns are from the forest fire. The red skin is from bugs. The dirt is from, well, everything. And I've been rationing my food and hiking nonstop for days, of course I've lost weight."

Semi gaped like a fish. "Flash flood? Black bears? Forest fire?" He gulped. "What the hell?"

"Exactly what I asked. Repeatedly," Kenjirou sighed. "It was quite the experience."

Eita sat down the edge of Kenjirou's bed. "Spill. Now," he demanded.

So Shirabu did. He detailed his experiences with the guards, bears, flood, and fire. However, he skated over the fear he'd felt during the storms, embarrassed. He didn't want his boyfriend to know how scared he had been.

When Kenjirou reached the end of his narrative, Semi surprised him by hugging and kissing the smaller boy tenderly. Shirabu gladly reciprocated. For the first time since he heard the Tokyo reporter on TV, he could relax. 

Semi broke away after a long moment. "Don't ever scare me like that again, you asshole," he muttered.

Kenjirou rolled his eyes playfully. "Alright, dumbass." His belly rumbled. "Do you have any food? I'm starving."

It stormed two nights later. Shirabu was still staying at Semi's house, utterly worn out from his ordeal. But when he heard the thunder, it was like being back in the mountains. 

The house vanished. Vegetation surrounded him, and his backpack lay a few feet away. Kenjirou was in his sleeping bag in the creekbed again. Lightning flashed. Fire crackled angrily in the distance. Water shot through the creekbed he had slept in, easily seizing Shirabu and carrying him away. He was thrown weightlessly into the turbulent water. His backpack disappeared. His lungs begged for air. He swallowed water. 

Fire scorched him. The red blaze burned into his eyes, blinding him. Smoke filled his lungs. Flames reached hungrily for his helpless body. Incredible heat surrounded him. All around, thunder boomed and lightning flashed. Shirabu screamed.

"Eita!" Rain pounded him like bullets. "Eita!" Wind tossed him to and fro. "Eita!" Flames burned his face.

"EITA!"

Semi's POV

Semi was sleeping upstairs when he heard thunder roar. Lightning lit up the sky. Oh, it's storming.

Someone screamed. Kenjirou! Semi realized. He ran downstairs. Shirabu was tangled in blankets, screaming his head off. Tears ran down his face. His eyes were wide and blank.

Eita ran to him. He pulled the blankets away. "Kenjirou!" 

Shirabu abruptly stopped screaming. "Kenjirou, I'm right here," the pinch server said, embracing his terrified boyfriend. "It's okay, you don't have to worry. Shhh, I'm here." He continued to whisper reassurances to the second year, rocking him back and forth like a child.

"Eita?" Shirabu mumbled. He touched Semi's face, running his hands over Semi's features like he was blind.

"Yes, it's me," Eita told him. "It's okay, I've got you." Shirabu buried his head into Semi's shirt and cried.

Time passed. Eventually, Kenjirou's sobs stopped. He raised his head. His eyes returned to normal.

"You never used to be afraid of storms," Semi said quietly. No trace of his usual sassy attitude colored his voice.

"I wasn't," Shirabu replied. "But when you're out in the middle of a storm, alone, being whipped by wind and rain in the middle of nowhere, things change. And… It stormed right before the flood and fire. When I heard the thunder… It was like being back there again."

"But you're not back there," Semi reminded him. "You're in my house."

Kenjirou buried his face back into Eita's shirt. "You don't know what it's like," he whispered brokenly. "When the flash flood hit, it carried me away like it was nothing. I couldn't breathe. It was a miracle that I didn't drown. It was storming the whole time. When the forest fire got started, I couldn't breathe from the smoke. I could barely see. I thought I was going to die." 

Eita considered this. He's right, he realized. I don't know what it's like.

"You're right," he admitted aloud. "I don't know what it's like. But I'll help you as much as I can." Semi curled himself around Shirabu. He rubbed the second year's cold hands with his own. He felt Kenjirou relax. They cuddled closer.

"I'll stay with you, Kenjirou. Always. Just never leave me again."

"Never," Shirabu whispered, his eyes closing in sleep.

"Never," Eita echoed, turning it into a promise.