Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Stolen Breath ❯ Blindness ( Chapter 3 )

(Author Notes: I have no idea what came into me during the chapter… I apologize for its weirdness. You'll understand what's wrong by the end, and I'll explain why it happened next chapter. Remember, it makes yaoi (and yuri, and straight) authors happy when you review! Enjoy!)

Stolen Breath

Chapter Three: Blindness

I awake from a dreamless sleep, smiling faintly as I wake. No nightmare this time. I stretch, sighing with contentment as the memories of the day come flooding back to me. Hell, who cares if I'm in a hospital? Neither Marron nor Goten saw me, and I'm becoming friends with Him…

"Jay, you awake?" I jump slightly on my warm bed, before realizing who had spoken.

"Yeah," is my reply as I slowly open my eyes. For some reason, my eyes can't seem to focus that well. I blink rapidly until my eyes adjust to the dim hospital room, taking longer than normal. Oh well. I do have a head trauma after all.

"Say, I've got a bone to pick with you." I raise an eyebrow.

"A bone to pick with you? Nice phrase. American?" My contempt for them is audible in my sneer. "How about, I've got something I want to talk to you about?" The slight, friendly tease flows from my lips, and I half-smile.

Joking with Trunks…

"Whatever," Trunks says, but I can tell he's smiling. "Anyway, how old are you?"

I frown slightly, calculating in my head. Let's see, I was eighteen when I became an android with Juhachi. Trunks was seventeen right now and was just born when I became an android, and that means I'm around thirty-five. Damn.

But I still look around eighteen, for I haven't aged, as Juhachi and Juroku have. After all, they are more human than me. Oh well.

"Would you believe if I said I was thirty-five but looked like I was eighteen?"

"No."

"Fine then, I'm eighteen."

"That's only a year older than me!" Trunks declares. "Now you can't call me kid!" I snort in amusement.

"Why not? I'm more mature than you," I conclude.

"You are not!"

"Are too!" I quickly counter. Trunks doesn't seem to have any reply other than dissolve into laughter. After a pause, I do too, barely recognizing the unfamiliar sound that comes from my throat.

I haven't laughed in so long.

Trunks tells me all about His best friends, Marron and Goten. I listen with a smile as He unknowingly describes my niece to me, praising them both over and over again.

When He finishes, He questions suddenly, "How about you? What are your friends like?" The smile on my face fades.

"I don't have any friends," is my quiet reply. Before I can listen to any of his protests, I collapse back onto my pillow. I am asleep before my head hits the pillow.

)) TRUNKS ((

How could a nice guy like Jay not have any friends? I recall his angry words towards the `dearie' nurse (as I have nicknamed her), and smile wryly. Although he does have a temper.

Relaxing onto my own pillow, I fall into a light doze.

But not before promising to find out more about my newest friend Jay.

)) JUUNANA ((

~-~ I am lost again. Lost in the darkness. There is no sound, only silence. No sensations.

Wait, I take that back. There is a single sensation that causes my dream body, of which I cannot see, quake and tremble.

I am freezing.

I struggle to move, knowing it's hopeless, knowing I'm trapped within the endless night for always.

Perhaps I'll be able to hear my own scream.

And so I howl into the ice and blinding blackness, finding my nightmare shape to have lips to wail.

Howl a single name that I cling to. Howl a single plea to save me. Howl a single prayer to just let me die and go to Hell, which would be better than this…

Then, for the first time, the darkness begins to shift. I stare in a mixture of shock and wonder, as the darkness seems to clear slightly. Hopeful, I await my savior.

The darkness alters its covering slowly to reveal…

Yet more night, which is even darker than the first. This is the color of oblivion, of emptiness.

My true fate.

Unexpectedly, the thought calms my dream mind, and the wails die on my lips as the nothingness creeps through the darkness towards me.

This oblivion would take away all the pain. Forever more.

Unconsciously, my dream form, which has suddenly taken shape, steps forward to embrace the void that beckons me.

Take away my pain, are the words I cry. Take me to a Hell that has no pain, no sorrow, no…

Anything.

The word jolts me, and I falter in my steps towards nothingness. Anything would mean no Trunks…

The oblivion seems to sense my hesitation, and grows angry and even, impossibly darker, seeming to drag me forward.

As before, I scream for Trunks, for anyone, for Kami himself to save me.

The only reply is harsh, cruel laughter as I attempt one final, futile time to pull myself from the void's now chilling grasp. My scream dies on my lips once more as I fall into oblivion- ~-~

I rouse to hear the moniker of Jay cried in my ears. My eyes fly open, and I am blind, the darkness taking my sight with it along with the dream. Panicked, I clutch at the sweat-soaked blankets, feeling perspiration running down my face as I struggle to catch my breath.

"Jay!" The name is repeated as the same person cries it once more, the word filling my ears amid the pounding of my own heart.

Jay. My name.

"W-what?" I shakily gasp out, trying to gather enough precious oxygen to actually fill my lungs.

"Are you okay?" the voice asks in concern, a warm and real hand pressing gently down on my shoulder. I close my eyes, trying to pretend that when I open my eyes I will be able to see.

"I can't see…" I whisper frantically to the person whose hand is on my flesh. "When I open my eyes, I can't see."

"Try opening your eyes again," the person worriedly suggests, and then I recognize the voice.

Trunks.

Obeying, I crack open my eyes, and peer into only darkness. The darkness that threatens to seep into through my eyes and dissolve my world into nothingness-

Choking back a scream of frustration, I jerk my body away from His hand, for His grip suddenly burns my skin.

"Don't touch me!" I cry out, though the rest of me only wishes to be held by Him…

But I don't deserve Him. Not now, not ever. Oblivion had seen to that.

Now I can't even protect Him. Even as a friend…

And if I can't, then what's the use of even living?

Curling away from Trunks's worried questions, I open my eyes wide until it hurts, and wait for the nothingness to take me away.

)) TRUNKS ((

Jay turns from me, his eyes suddenly blank and staring. It's as if the fire that burned within his azure gaze has been abruptly doused.

"Jay." His name exits my mouth breathlessly. The vacant, frightening expression on his ashen face doesn't change. "Jay!"

Nothing.

My own cry of aggravation escaping me, I act on instinct. Marron and Goten have long since left, and the `dearie' nurse is nowhere in sight.

My arm rises over my head, and then it's open palm against Jay's smooth cheek.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh is all I can hear for a moment, then, slowly, hesitatingly, Jay blinks, a dim light burning in those bright blue orbs. A dulled brightness, but nevertheless a brightness.

As he slowly shakes his head, gaining control of his body, I study him.

The nurse had spoken during her last visit that they had had to wash his half-conscious, delirious form when he had arrived at the hospital. His hair, the color of lustrous obsidian, had been parted in the middle by the nurses, and flows to his shoulders, when not pushed away from his face from the white bandages that cover his forehead. His eyes, which now fill with alarm and disorientation and an odd blankness that partially hides the two emotions, are a stunning, remarkable cobalt azure. Despite the gauntness that precedes one who hasn't eaten in many days, I could still see the graceful movements in his body as he turns that declares him someone who knows martial arts.

"Jay," I say, trying to ignore the crimson mark on his face that my own hand caused, "everything will be all right. The doctors will know what to do about your eyes. Just calm down." With that, my hand creeps to his control panel, and I rapidly press the panic button.

Ah, the irony. Telling him not to be frightened while I press the panic button.

)) JUUNANA ((

"That's you, Trunks. Right?" I question, trying not to go to pieces once more.

If Trunks didn't want me to die, I wouldn't…

Not if He wants me to live.

"It's me, Jay. Do you need anything?" His voice is gentle, and once more it's hard to catch my breath. If only I could see the expression on His face… To see His smile… I recall His question, and realize that I have a raging thirst.

"I-I'm quite thirsty," I admit. There's a pause, then I hear the sound of pouring water. Then an object is pressed into my hand, and I instinctively hold onto it. A glass of water.

"Thank you." My gratitude is quiet as I, after a few moments of confusion, press the glass to my lips, and drink. My limbs still feel oddly heavy, as if Oblivion tugs as me even as I am in the land of the living and reality.

"The doctors will be hear any second now," says Trunks softly. His words are followed by the sound of pounding feet, and a door- presumably our door- is flung open with a loud crash.

"What is it?" comes another memorable voice, and instinctively I react, dropping the glass to shield my face from another member of the past.

)) TRUNKS ((

"Jay!" I exclaim as I lean forward to catch the glass with Saiya-jinn speed before it can spill onto his already soaked bedspread. Jay doesn't reply, shaking uncontrollably, his hands and tresses hiding his face from my view.

"Trunks, what's wrong?" asks our guest, looking slightly stricken as he adjusts his thick-rimmed glasses. "I was heading here to check on you, and I heard a doctor say something about an emergency call for your room. I came as fast as I can."

"Something's wrong with his eyes," I said, motioning rather helplessly towards my shuddering friend.

Friend. I've only known him for less than a day, we've hardly spoken to each other, and already I'm calling him a friend?

"Trunks, I don't want anyone to see me." Jay suddenly speaks, his voice trembling but determined. "Please go away." I cross my arms stubbornly.

"No," is my flat reply.

"Yes," Jay insists, while our guest looks on in puzzlement.

)) JUUNANA ((

"No," Trunks repeats stubbornly, and I shake my head, ignoring the dizziness the motion causes me. I can't tell where He is anymore, or the other man.

Even from his voice, I can tell how much he's grown since I last saw him. Of course, that was nearly two decades ago.

"Please," I say once more. Does He really want me to beg?

Of course, He doesn't know that his friend and I have met, on a battlefield long, long ago.

"Jay," He says, and this time there is puzzlement in His voice. "Why not?" I stare blankly into darkness, trying hard not to laugh.

"Why not, Trunks? I already told you, I'm fucked up. I've got a fever of 103, probably higher by now; I'm dehydrated; I'm starved; my head feels like it's wrapped so tight that it's about to burst; and now I'm fucking blind! Would you want anyone to see you, stranger or not, if you were like that?"

Trunks is silent.

)) TRUNKS ((

Well, what the hell am I supposed to say to that? I look over towards our- my guest, but he looks at a loss.

"Jay, the doctors will fix your eyes." My attempt at calming him fails as he bitterly laughs, shaking his head from side to side, still covering it.

"J-just go over to your side of the room and pull the curtain so that it's blocking me, will you?" he says, sounding suddenly exhausted. Apparently he doesn't realize that the curtain is already in that position.

"All right," I say quietly, complying and leaving Jay in a shaking ball on his bed.

The doctors will know what to do.

They have to.

Or I will have to definitely kick their ass.

Whoa, calm down. Why am I so protective of someone I just met? All he did was listen to me babble about my best friends.

It is then I hear my guest repeat my name. He sounds concerned.

"Yes?" I state, turning to him.

"Are you okay?" he questions, and I sigh. Why does no one believe me?

"I'm fine. All I have is a concussion," I inform him.

Noticing my sigh, my older friend shrugs. "Sorry. Goten and Marron still seemed worried-"

"After I told them I was all right over twenty times?" I manage a small grin at my friends' concern.

"Yes," is his amused reply. I smirk, as does he.

Now, at last, the doctors arrive, and my guest is swept away by the worried crowd.

"Bye Trunks!" he calls, waving to me with a grin.

"Bye Gohan!" I call, and then he is gone, and I am left alone.

Alone with Jay and so many doctors…