Please let Heero-kun be all right. Please!
It was all she could to keep repeating those words over and over in her mind. She might have even been whispering them aloud. She didn't know. She didn't even really care. As long as Heero-kun was all right.
As long as all of her boys were all right.
It could have been seconds or hours later when Trunks-kun set back down next to her again. Thankfully this time, though, he wasn't alone.
Okay, if Heero-kun ended up dead in the next ten seconds, it was either going to be thanks to her or Duo-kun. He didn't have a scratch on him. The entire building had folded in on itself, and he didn't have a single scratch on him. How was that possible?
Personally, she was torn whether to hug him or slap him. Duo-kun, at least, didn't seem to have any such questions. She didn't even see him approach before he had both arms around Heero-kun from behind.
"If you ever do something like that again, Heero..." was all she managed to overhear. Whatever the threat was, knowing Duo-kun, she was willing to bet it was going to be spectacular. From the look on Heero-kun's face, it might have gone beyond even that.
"What did you do, Heero-san?" Trunks-kun asked quietly.
Heero-kun... Honestly, Heero-kun didn't look so good. There might not have been a single scratch on him, but that didn't mean he couldn't be shook up. After all, a building did just implode around him.
"I'm..." He trailed off, visibly gathering himself, even as he seemed to reluctantly step away from Duo-kun and in turn sink down to sit beside where she still sat. "I'm not entirely sure."
"Best guess?" Duo-kun prompted, kneeling down in front of his partner.
"I was working on the coding, the formulas for using Trunks' time machine to get us all out of here. I entered in one equation, and it was like the world exploded around me."
"More like imploded" came from Duo-kun. Inanely, she was a bit glad that she had guessed the right word for what she had seen. "Nothing was coming down. It was all collapsing in on itself."
And, she noted, glancing off to the side where their building had stood, there certainly wasn't a lot left of their former home. There was a crater and what looked like a hole sinking deep into the earth, and that was about it. Obviously, they were going to have to find a new place and soon.
At least there wasn't that much in the building of any value, now that Heero-kun was accounted for: their crank lamp, the rest of the day's food, her old clothes that she had been saving for bandages if needed, Heero-kun's laptop... Okay, no, scratch that last one: it looked like Heero-kun had managed to hold on to that one at least.
And she had just traded part of their food for clothes. Granted, clothes that they had needed, yes, but stuff that probably could have waited another day or two. Perhaps not her brightest move to date. Okay, this called for some small amount of levity.
"So basically, if I'm understanding this correctly..." She trailed off, waiting for Heero-kun's rather distracted focus to be at least somewhat on her. "Basically, you used your laptop to break science?"
Heero-kun blinked a couple of times, clearly trying very hard--and possibly failing just as hard--to follow her logic. "I suppose?" he finally responded, if a little bit hesitantly.
Duo-kun let out a quiet whistle, resettling himself to sit on the ground instead of kneeling. "That's some seriously crazy stuff, Heero."
"I did mention that temporal physics aren't my strong suit."
She smiled softly. "You did, Heero-kun."
"And that was without the actual machine hooked back into the coding," Duo-kun noted almost absentmindedly; she was starting to suspect that a lot of that was a whole layer of... something. The thought had trailed away from her. She knew she didn't think he was lying to him, not per se, but maybe it was a bit like this Ginji person and Raitei? A little?
Still, he had a point. It might have been a terrifying point, but it was indeed a point. If this happened without the time machine hooked back in and receiving the commands contained in the coding, what could have happened if that hadn't been the case? She didn't want to know.
"Is this going to happen with every variation of coding you try?" Trunks-kun asked, his voice dead serious.
Heero-kun shrugged. "I don't know. Perhaps. I managed to back up the text I got done this time, so at least this one won't end up being repeated."
"We're going to have to find you a separate place for you to work on this then."
He glanced around, shifting just slightly as if to brace for something. An attack, maybe? Now that she thought about it, it was unusually quiet out here? Okay, it was often very quiet out here, but there wasn't a single bit of noise in the least. She couldn't even hear the breeze coming through the buildings.
That was not good. She didn't know what it meant--if it could mean Reapers or Carrions--but it definitely was not a good thing.
Thankfully, they had done some poking around a couple of days ago, the same day they had rearranged the lobby as a matter of fact. There were buildings around them that were both abandoned and semi-structurally sound. They weren't as sound as their previous home here had been, but any port in a storm, as the saying went.
"We need to get off the street." Trunks-kun's voice was little more than a whisper, a murmur at best, but it sounded like a shout in the silence. "Something's coming."
"Directly across the street and one building to the left?" she returned at as close to the same volume as she could manage. It was the next closest building to intact; it made the most sense--to her at least--to go there now. Trunks-kun nodded.
Cautiously, she started pushing herself to her feet. A fresh wave of dizziness hit, but with some effort, she forced it back down. Now was not the time for that. Once they were indoors again and safe, then she would take the time to deal with that.
Almost immediately, there was a hand at her elbow steadying her. She looked up, fully expecting to find it attached to Duo-kun. Instead, it was Heero-kun.
Well... this was certainly something she hadn't expected. And hey, it was definitely something she could live with.
23 October 2012
Oh goodness, 6 o'clock comes so early. In fact, I think it came even earlier today than it did yesterday. I just have to make it to Friday... then I'm leaving early for NecronomiCon--and a week off work, the first actual time off work I think I've ever taken (that wasn't a day here or a long weekend there but an actual, proper vacation).
On the flip side, I spent several hours last night watching Horrible Histories on YouTube. I might love that series. It was started because I'm reading The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey and I wanted to see if there was an HH episode on Richard III (and there was). Then I sort of just ended up watching one after another after another.
And yeah, I know programming doesn't work this way. If I recall correctly, I was tired and wanted to blow up a building... so Heero might have broken science, but I broke computers. So there.
See everyone in the next chapter!
Apollymi