Full Metal Panic Fan Fiction ❯ Resonance ❯ Part 2 - Submarine Sweet-talker ( Chapter 2 )

[ A - All Readers ]

Disclaimer: Ok, so I waited a few months, but oddly enough I still don't own the rights to Full Metal Panic, Fumoffu and TSR. It's all Shouji Gatou's work, I'm just borrowing it and twisting the characters to my own demented waltz. So, in other words, I am receiving no money for this caper of mine. Not very motivating, I must say... *sighs* On with it then!


Part 2 - Submarine Sweet-talker

Sousuke Sagara looked like hell. He'd stayed awake all night, waiting for some kind of reaction from Kaname, but just as she'd said, she seemed to have left the proverbial building. He hoped she'd come good on her promise to return as well, but so far there had been no sign of her waking. He could only imagine the physical pain she'd been in, never having broken any bones himself. If he compared it to bullet wounds or shrapnel, though... He shuddered, then rubbed one hand through his hair.

Before she passed out, she touched me right here too...

He dismissed the thought, and as he stood to go into the bathroom, his mobile phone rang. Sousuke glanced at the identification window, but didn't recognise the number as any of their school friends. He raised it to his ear and answered.

"This is Sagara. Make it quick."

"Mr Sagara, it's me, Tessa."

Sousuke stiffened immediately. The Captain was calling his phone! The Captain! How on earth did the Captain have his phone number? He gulped, and sat down on the edge of Kaname's hospital bed.

"Ma'am! I'm sorry for answering my telephone so rudely ma'am! Please forgive me!"

Tessa sighed audibly into the ear-piece, used to Sousuke's uber-underling behaviour, and continued down her line of questioning.

"Mr Sagara, has there been an incident involving Kaname Chidori?"

Sousuke broke into a sweat. How had she found out so quickly?

"Uhhh... That depends on what you mean by incident, ma'am."

Tessa slumped into her office chair inside the Tuatha De Danaan, and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. This guy! Honestly!

"An incident involving the rugby club, Miss Chidori falling down two flights of stairs, possibly breaking a wrist and an ankle and sustaining a head injury. Anything like that?"

Sousuke slumped to the floor, defeated.

"You seem to be very well informed, ma'am. How did you find out? Did Tokiwa call you?"

Tessa glanced over at her computer screen, seeing that Kaname still had control of the TDD's console, and smiled at the perfect control her friend had over the giant submarine.

"No. She told me herself."

Sousuke lowered the phone, dumbfounded, and looked at the comatose girl on the bed beside him.

"Frankly ma'am, I find that very hard to believe. Miss Chidori has been unconscious for almost an entire day now. Also she doesn't have access to a phone."

Tessa twirled the end of her braid, and rolled her eyes. Then again, she knew Sousuke Sagara had a lot of trouble understanding the workings of the Whispered and their technology.

"Mr Sagara, Miss Chidori has mentally taken up residence on the Tuatha De Danaan. This is only a short term exchange, until her body somes out of shock and she can bear the pain. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?"

Sousuke looked up at Kaname's body lying in the hospital bed. He still couldn't really fathom how they did it, but he'd witnessed it in the past. Those two special girls could speak through each other, control each other's actions, and now, apparently, dwell in each other's minds for extended periods of time.

"Ma'am... Isn't that a dangerous thing to do? For an extended period, I mean. Kaname... Miss Chidori explained it to me once, and it sounded like you'd lose your own consciousness if you stayed too long in someone elses mind."

Tessa's heart almost broke.

He calls her by her first name... But I'll always just be the Captain, or Ma'am. This is so unfair...

"It won't be for too long, Mr Sagara. If you're that worried about Miss Chidori, you should come out to the Tuatha and watch over both of us."

Sousuke surveyed Kaname's body once more, then sighed, sitting once more in the chair beside the bed.

"Negative, Ma'am. I will remain at the hospital and guard Miss Chidori until she decides to return to me. I mean, to her body! Forget that I mentioned anything about her returning to my side!"

Tessa started giggling, even as tears started leaking from her eyes.

"Perhaps you should just stop talking, Mr Sagara. Very well, I will take good care of your precious charge's mind, and she will return to you in due time. Good bye then..."

Tessa went to hang up the phone, but heard a faint protest from the receiver. She grasped it and brought it eagerly back up to her ear.

"Please let Miss Chidori know I won't let anybody touch her, or her belongings, until she returns. I will be taking up residence in her hospital room until she awakens."

Tessa's eyes widened at the heartfeltness of his plea.

"Do you really care about your mission that much, Seargent?"

Sousuke scratched his forehead, and glanced at his reflection in the room mirror with a confused expression.

"The mission? I'd almost totally forgotten about it... What's up with that...?"

He yawned loudly, and Tessa cleared her throat to remind him she was still there.

"I'll pass on your message, Mr Sagara. If that's all, I have to get back to work."

Tessa placed the phone back in it's cradle, and gazed down at it sadly, still twirling her braid.

"Honestly, that guy..."

She rubbed her eyes, and left the room, heading back towards the bridge.

Tessa...

The voice in her head stopped her in her tracks.

"Oh, Kaname - how are you doing?"

Tessa, you feel upset. Is something wrong? You can tell me...

Tessa's shoulders drooped, and her head fell forward, her face obscured behind her fringe.

"Kaname... I don't know where to start... How do you feel about Mr Sagara?"

About Sousuke... I like him. He keeps life interesting. Why?

Tessa smiled sadly to herself.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked you that when you weren't inside your body. If your consciousness isn't connected to your physical heart, your answers won't be as filled with feeling as they ordinarily would be. Forgive me, Miss Chidori."

You're forgiven, Tessa. Is Sousuke the one upsetting you? I'll punch him for you when I go back, if you like?

Tessa giggled into her palm, and straightened her shoulders.

"That won't be necessary, Kaname. Come on, let's get back to work. Would you like to complete some maneuvers with me today?"

That would be great... Can I be the pilot?

"Not the whole time. I need to keep up my practice too, you know."

************************************

Sousuke emerged from the bathroom with damp hair and the sleep washed from his eyes. He'd been quite demanding of the Captain, and hoped that she'd forgive him. He still didn't quite understand what had happened, but it sounded like Kaname's conscious mind was with the Captain, and that was as safe a place as any for it to be. He only had to concern himself with protection of her body.

Her broken body...

Sousuke gritted his teeth, and punched the wall in anger.

"Damn it! I don't care what she said, it was entirely my fault!"

He stifled another yawn, also angry with himself for being so tired.

"A soldier needs to have the stamina to complete his mission. I've only been awake for twenty-four hours. What's another couple of days. I need to stay awake. I need to watch over my charge..."

Her chest rose and fell in even breaths, and her eyelids flickered as if she was dreaming, but he knew she wasn't actually in there. A strand of her hair was lying across one of her eyes, and he brushed it back behind her ear. He leaned in close to that same ear to whisper her a message.

"Kaname... Please wake up soon. I don't know what to do. I humbly await your order, so please wake up and tell me what to do. Please..."

His lips accidently brushed against her ear, and he winced, expecting to be whacked by the ever present fan. He'd had dreams about situations like this, but he'd never really understood them. He rubbed a hand over his face, and looked at the clock.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt for me to have a little rest for a while. School's still in session, so no-one from there will be coming for a while. I'll just lay down some security measures, then sleep for a few minutes."

He wedged a chair under the door handle of the room, closed all the blinds, and flipped off all the lights except for the small nightlight next to the bathroom door. He nodded at his handiwork, then lay on the floor to scoot beneath the bed, only to discover all the hydraulic equipment used to raise and lower the hospital bed. He sat back up, immediately dismissed the chair as a comfortable sleeping area, then assessed Kaname's hospital bed. There was definitely enough room, and in her present state (as he had ascertained earlier) she wouldn't hit him with her fan. He climbed up and lay on top of the sheet beside her, leaving Kaname under the covers by herself. He rested his chin on his arm and gazed at the injured girl sleeping soundly beside him, and an unfamiliar feeling began to unfurl within his chest. It was warm, and made him feel safe, and a little bit happy. Very un-Sousuke-like.

"I'll protect you, Kaname. I promise you. So please, just wake up..."

Within a few seconds he had fallen alseep.

************************************

Kaname was still floating in a pleasant gray haze, feeling no pain. Feeling, well, nothing really. There was nothing but the floating, the occasional talking with Tessa, and playing with the Tuatha De Danaan. She remembered that Tessa had asked her an odd question earlier, something about what she thought of Sousuke. She hadn't even had to think before she answered. She liked him. She also liked Tessa, and Kyouko, all of her friends at Jindai High, her parents, ice-cream, puppies, submarines, reading books, shopping and a lot of other things. At this moment, Kaname was filled with like for a great number of things. But something felt wrong about that way of thinking.

Shouldn't there be some things that I like more than others? Should there be other things I can feel?

Floating in this gray area was so calming though. She knew there was someplace else she should be, but she didn't want to leave just yet. And for some reason she had an urge to drink milk tea.

"Kaname..."

A voice suddenly broke into her thoughts. A very familiar voice.

Sousuke... Where is Sousuke? He's usually very close-by...

"Kaname... Please wake up soon. I don't know what to do. I humbly await your order, so please wake up and tell me what to do. Please..."

Wake up? I'm not asleep...

Kaname frowned as there was a sudden buzzing in her left ear. It felt as if someone had just touched it very gently. Which was impossible, as she was the only one in the gray haze.

Weird...

It really did feel like there was someone here in the haze with her though.

"I'll protect you, Kaname. I promise you. So please, just wake up..."

Sousuke! Sousuke! I'm right here! I'm here! Look at me! Sousuke! Sou...

"-suke!"

Mardukas and Kalinen turned and looked at their diminutive Captain in surprise.

"Captain? Are you all right?"

Kaname looked down at herself in shock. The brown captain's uniform, the silver braid, the slighter physique. This sure as hell wasn't a dream.

"Uhhh..."

Kalinen looked more closely at her face, the motioned Mardukas to come closer.

"Her eyes - they've turned brown."

Kaname lifted a hand to her face, not her face, Tessa's face, and gasped. Mardukas looked into her eyes, worried.

"Miss Chidori, is that you?"

Kaname had already sunk to her knees on the floor, in complete shock.

************************************

Tessa tried to roll over in her bed, but for some reason she couldn't move. Then her eyes snapped open. Since when had she been in bed? The last thing she remembered clearly was sitting in the Captain's chair, running through TDD's functions with Kaname. There seemed to be something wrapped around her waist, holding her into place. She looked down and discovered an arm. She once again tried to roll over, and was met with a searing pain in both her right wrist and left ankle. She didn't even bother trying to sit up, because she knew her head would be sore too.

Not my head, though... Somehow, we've switched. Kaname musn't have been able to find her way back... This is bad...

She rolled her head to the side, without lifting it, to see who the owner of the arm was, and blushed scarlet. A sharp intake of breath gave her awake state away, causing the sleeping boy's eyes to fly open. He looked so happy to see that she was awake, Tessa didn't know how to break the news to him.

"Kaname... I knew you'd wake up..."

Tessa's blush deepened, as she gazed into the eyes of the boy she'd liked for so long, and he gazed back at her.

"Oh, Mr Sagara..."

Sousuke suddenly looked confused. Only one person on this planet called him 'Mr Sagara', and that person was...

"Uhhh..."

He looked down at his arm like it was a foreign object to him, then quickly removed it from the waist of the girl in front of him. He also leapt down from the bed, and immediately brought his hand up to his head in a hasty salute.

"Captain! I'm so terribly sorry for taking such liberties with you, ma'am! Please administer punishment as you see fit!"

Then his hand dropped, and he sagged back into the ragged hospital chair.

"Also, how is this possible? Where's Kaname?"

Tessa used the bed's lift mechanism to sit up, and looked at the dejected seargent.

"She's fine, I imagine. There's nothing wrong with my body, after all."

Sousuke looked up at the the girl on the bed, then peered more closely into her eyes.

"You turned her eyes gray."

It sounded more like an accusation than a statement. Tessa stung on the inside, but smiled on the outside.

"It's ok, Mr Sagara. We'll switch back soon enough!"

Though I'm not actually sure when - or how...

************************************

Teehee, Part 2 is finished. How long did it take? Ummm, what is it now, more than a year? My bad :(
Any-hoo, read and review, seeing as I now know where I'm going with this thing, hopefully updates will be faster!
Also, I realize in the first chapter I knackered up Hayashimizu's name, and I apologize (However, I still can't remember his first name - I'm going to have to look it up again, dagnabbit...)

Foxfire out! :)