“For the love of God just shot it Tsukasa.”

The sound of a shot is heard, quickly followed by a scream of pain.

“I said shoot it not me.”

Tsukasa shoots again, this time hitting the monster, making it release its grip on Katsumi, and it then turns to face him. It has the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a tail consisting of a serpent; it is known as a Chimera. Katsumi quickly rolls out of the way gritting her teeth against the pain. Unable to get up, due to the bullet in her leg. Tsukasa aims at the monster again, and shots just before it jumps for his throat. The monster roars in pain and shatters into dust.

Tsukasa is stood looking at Katsumi after shooting the Chimera. He is wearing his big black boots, which have lots of metal work on them. They go half way up his shin, though these are covered by black trousers. They are slightly long and bunch up over his boots. His trousers are loosely fitted and made of a light denim material. He also wears a fairly tight blood red tee-shirt. Over the top of all this he wears a leather coat, long and black. It is so long it nearly reaches his ankles. In comparison to his dark clothing his skin looks very pale and his eyes look very dark though they are only brown. He has long chestnut hair which is slightly wavy. His hair goes halfway down his back, though it is not all the same length. He has it tied back in a pony tail held back by a leather tie. Around his face he has bangs, shorter bits of hair that don’t quite fit back in his pony tail.

Katsumi is sat on the ground, her injured leg lying flat on the ground her other is bent upright, her arms are behind her, supporting her. On her feet are tan, high heeled boots. She is wearing a pair of low cut red/purple jeans with boot leg bottoms. Only now there is a hole in them near the top of her left leg, where the bullet went in. She also has on a black strappy top with a beige linen coat dress over the top, not done up. Over all of this she has a black leather coat which is fitted and is down to her ankles but is currently fanned out behind her in the red brown dust. She also looks very pale skin, but this is dotted with freckles. She has striking green eyes with pale green eye shadow. Her hair is deep henna red and is also dead straight. Her hair goes down to her waist.

“Wow, that’s a different way to die.”
“……”
“Hey Tsukasa, where ya going? I’m injured, remember? You shot me.”

Tsukasa looks over his shoulder at her and, with no discernable effort, flicks a cure spell towards her. Her leg is bathed in a pale purple light, and the wound heals, leaving no trace of its existence.

“Tsukasa, wait up.”

He keeps walking, so Katsumi has to break into a run to catch up with him. Even in high heeled boots she manages to catch up with him quite quickly.

“What did you do that for?”
“What?”
“Waste a cure spell on that injury. How many you got left?”
“Enough.”
“But why’d you heal me?”
“You were injured, now you’re not, so why are you complaining?”
“I’m not, I’m just saying…”
“Well don’t.”

With that said Katsumi realises that Tsukasa, as normal, did not want to talk to her. They walk on in silence, each thinking their own thoughts.

*~*~*~*~

‘Why is he like this, quiet and withdrawn all the time? What happened on his world that caused him to be so cold, and depressed? I don’t understand what horrors he’s seen, he won’t talk to me about what happened to him.’

‘I feel so alone when I’m with him, because he won’t open up to me. He’s shutting me out, trying, I guess, to prevent himself from getting hurt, or hurting. But I want to know, want to help. I want to be there for him, I want to help him out of his depression, show him what a wonderful thing life is. I want to know if… if he feels anything of what I feel for him.’

The landscape they are walking through is rather barren and bare. Here and there they can see jagged rocks, huge and almost intimidating and seem to have a threatening, malicious intent. Dotted here and there are a few succulent type plants and there is a small copse of trees just visible in the distance. On the horizon are some huge mountains, with snow capped peaks.

As they walk Tsukasa and Katsumi are creating quite a lot of dust which is clinging to the base of their coats and their boots and base of their trousers. Katsumi at first kept on trying to brush the dust off, but now has give up, seeing that it is futile.

It is notable that as they walk Katsumi looks round at the landscape curious about the world they are currently travelling through. Whereas Tsukasa looks straight ahead while he is walking. His gaze taking in every little detail, though his head never moves.

‘I wonder if Tsukasa will ever let me in, will ever tell me what he went through.’ She looks at Tsukasa out of the corner of her eyes, admiring his beauty and is amazed by he good he looks. ‘I think he really is amazing, he doesn’t realise how good he looks. I wish I could persuade him that he is a really great person, or at least that I think he is.’

‘I wonder if anyone from my world has found a way out like I did. Away from what chaos was doing to my world. It really was dreadful. So much despair around me. I couldn’t take it; I don’t know how any one could have.’

As she is thinking Katsumi looks at the horizon at the setting sun. It is setting behind the tall mountains, painting the sky wonderful colors of red, orange, purple, and other colors to rich to describe.

“Hey Katsumi. We ought to stop for the night soon.”
“Hmm? Oh right. Yeah, ok. Where were you planning on stopping?”
“I thought we could take shelter by this little copse. I’ll go scout out something to eat.”

With that he left, leather duster flapping in the wind behind him. Katsumi watches him go. Enthralled by his appearance.

‘I’ll never get tired of that sight. He looks amazing in that coat with it flapping in the wind. And his trousers, emphasizing the gorgeous shape of his legs… Black really does suit him. And that tight, deep red, tee-shirt, help show off his wonderful body. Oh how I wish I knew how he felt about me.’

While she thinks Katsumi first clears an area of any rocks to make it slightly more comfortable to sleep on. She then places all the rocks she has moved to create a fairly large circle and finds some dry twigs and flint and sets about trying to getting a fire going. She is sat next to the pile of twigs trying to get a spark from the flint, but isn’t having much luck. Tsukasa returns with his arms fairly full of things he has managed to find.

“This is about all I can find.”

He carefully puts all the food down on the ground, and takes the flint form Katsumi, after striking the flint together a couple of times, gets the fire going.

‘How can he get the fire going so quickly? When I couldn’t get any sparks let alone a fire.’

“So what food did you find?”
“It’s sat right there, look at it.”
“Not much then is there.”
“This world doesn’t seem to be aimed at supporting life other than plant life.”
“Oh well, I’m sure I can concoct something from this meagre supply of food.”
“If you think you can find more, go ahead.”
“I didn’t mean it like that; I just meant that there isn’t much here to make something out of.”
“Let’s just make something edible.”

Katsumi sets about sorting the roots and berries that Tsukasa has managed to collect and tries to make something edible, Tsukasa sets about trying to find enough fuel for the fire for the night.

*~*~*~*~

‘This is such a strange feeling. It is as if I have been watched all day. I can sense someone in the vicinity, someone familiar. But there is no one else here. This world is barren. No life. Nothing that could be this strange presence. I know there is someone there, but where I don’t know. I can’t just go wandering off, who ever it is will see me coming, and probably never let me see them.’

‘I don’t know what to do about it. I can’t tell Katsumi, it will only worry her. And I can’t connect to her. She is from a different world, we have nothing in common. How can I talk to her if I am from a different world? I don’t know how to connect to her, how to talk to someone so different from myself.’

‘But this presence. I don’t understand why it has been following us all day. And yet the feeling of it is becoming weaker and weaker. As if the person or presence is moving away from us. Well if it is walking away, then I guess it means that there is no threat from it. It can’t hurt us if it is no where near us.’

“Tsukasa.”
“What Katsumi.”
“Did you not want to come and have something to eat?”
“Oh right.”

Tsukasa returns to the fire side, dumping a load of twigs and dry sticks next to the fire. He brushes off his coat and top and then, swinging his coat out behind him so as not to damage the leather if he sits on a stone, he then sits down. He accepts the small amount of food that Katsumi has prepared.

“Tsukasa?”

‘Oh great she wants to try and talk to me.’

“……”
“What was your world like?”
“Why?”
“Well you never talk about it, and I wondered if it was anything like my world.”
“What did you call it?”
“Terra.”
“And how did you get out?”
“I found a weakness in the fabric of space, there was an area I found where I could see two different worlds. One was Terra, the other I couldn’t tell you where it was. The part of Terra I could see was green and luscious, full of long grasses and trees. The part of the other world I could see was a much different place. I could see water, and lots of it, through in the water I could see plants. Trees, bushes they were all growing through the water, though nothing like this happens on Terra, or happened. Terra had very little water, which is why there were not may people on Terra. We had a small population of 5 million people roughly speaking, though now I’d be surprised if there were a thousand people. How about you?”
“What do you want to know?”
“About where you came from, your memories of it.”

Tsukasa sits silent for a few minutes looking directly into the fire. When he speaks his eyes glaze over as her remembers. His voice contains so much warmth that Katsumi is amazed.

“My world, Gaia, was wonderful. We were a peaceful community. Never at war, if there was a disagreement, you talked it through, never took up arms. In fact I only have my gun from travelling through another world. I found it in another reality, and being naturally curious I fired it, not knowing what it was. But that is another story. Gaia was beautiful. There was so much greenery there, and the colors were so rich, I can hardly remember them due to the fact I have been here too long. The landscape was not destroyed by buildings, ours did not destroy the landscape, and we worked in harmony with it. We didn’t do anything to damage the environment. There was such biodiversity in Gaia it was amazing. I wish I hadn’t had to leave it. But the tragedy that hit Gaia meant that I couldn’t stay. We weren’t over populated. And there weren’t uncountable millions of us; we learnt that it is better to have only a few people, rather than loads. And that is why there were only about 1 million of us. There was plenty of space for everyone. And we had no crime on Gaia. There was no need for authorities. We all lived in harmony with each other. That is until…”

Katsume and Tsukasa sit in silence; Katsumi waiting for Tsukasa to continue, whereas Tsukasa is content staring into the fire, remembering.

“Until what Tsukasa?”
“Hmm?”
“You said ‘That is until…’ but you never finished.”
“Oh right, never mind.”
“But I’d like to know what you were going to say next. Gaia sounded so amazing, I want to know more about it.”
“Not tonight. We should get some sleep.”
“Oh right, I guess I’m on first watch then.”
“That is the normal procedure. Goodnight.”
“Oh, good night then Tsukasa.”

Tsukasa moves over a little from Katsumi. He takes his small back pack and uses it as his pillow, and taking of his coat he uses that as a blanket. He settles down, facing away from Katsumi, but does not sleep. Instead he lies there thinking.

‘That has brought back so many memories for me. Many that I had buried deep inside me, that I hoped I would never have to directly think of again. I almost gave in to feelings, and that is something I promised myself I wouldn’t do again. I don’t want to feel again, or at least I don’t want others to realise that I feel things. I can feel them but I don’t want to show emotion. That is weak. I need to be strong. I can’t let myself be weakened by feelings. If I do something tragic may happen again. And I can’t face that. Not again.’

*~*~*~*~

‘I wonder what made Tsukasa close of so suddenly. For once he was being really open and it felt like we actually connected for once. And then suddenly he clammed up. I wish that he wouldn’t do that… that he would talk to me… talk about what he feels… about what he has been through. I just want to be let in… just want to be let in…’

‘He really must be tired. Then again he always falls asleep fast. And always with his hair tied back. How I’d love to know what his hair feels like, it looks so silky during the day. I just want to know if it lives up to that.’

‘He looks so peaceful lying there, so gorgeous. His hair must feel amazing; it is shining in the fire and moonlight, creating silver and red highlights in his hair. To touch his hair … I’d love to, but I can’t he’d probably hate me for it.’

Tsukasa starts to move restlessly in his sleep.

‘Huh? What’s going on? He normally sleeps so peacefully …’

Katsumi quietly moves over to him and gently she lifts his head off the back pack and places it on her lap. She ever so gently pulls out the piece of leather Tsukasa uses as a hair tie and runs her fingers through his long hair. She also pulls his bangs away from his face, as they normally obscure his face as he sleeps. He seems to clam down as she continues to run her fingers through his hair so she continues to do this, ignoring the cramp that is forming in her legs.

‘Tsukasa; what’s going on in that mind of yours? Why did you suddenly clam up on me today? Tell me what’s troubling you?’

‘You really are beautiful when you’re asleep you know Tsukasa. Although you are ghostly white compared to everything else. Curled up almost cat like, and oh so very beautiful. And your hair is so soft, and silky, I would love to lose my hands in it and myself in you. But I don’t know how you feel as you never show any emotion, no joy, no pain, no sadness. I need you to so I can help, but I can’t if you won’t let me.’

She shifts position slightly, to try to ease the pain in her legs. As she moves Tsukasa rolls over so he is facing her. He moves in closer to her as if trying to take comfort in Katsumi. She is surprised by this but does not move, just hugs him closer to herself.

‘I really don’t want to move, or even wake you Tsukasa. You look so peaceful and I feel closer to you no than I ever have. I need less rest than you, bit I can’t stay awake all night. I need at least four hours sleep, but you need eight. This means I am on watch more often than you are, but I don’t mind. I want to help you, help you open up; to overcome whatever it is that has made you withdraw into yourself. And also, I want you to love me. To hold me when I’m scared, or lonely. I want to fall asleep with you next to me and to wake to find the same thing. I want you to be mine …’

She looks at her watch, just distinguishable in the moon light.

‘My God. Four hours have already passed? I need some sleep yet I don’t want wake Tsukasa. I really do have to though, as I’m falling asleep.’

“Tsukasa, Tsukasa, wake up,” she says while pushing his hair out of his face.

His eyelids slowly flutter open and he blinks several times trying to clarify his vision. He slowly looks up at Katsumi, confusion obvious in his sleep filled eyes.

“Wha … Why … What’s going on Katsumi?”
“You were restless in your sleep, and I didn’t want you to hurt yourself by falling off your backpack. So I comforted you.”
“Where’s my hair tie?” he asks as he gets up and finds his hair loose.
“Here,” she says as she hands it over.

He quickly gathers up his hair and ties it back, bangs present as usual.

“You can go to sleep.”
“I’m sorry Tsukasa.”
“…”
“Night.”
“…”

She moves away and settles herself down to sleep.

‘Damn it. I didn’t mean to widen the gulf between us. Now he really doesn’t trust me. Damn it, damn it, damn it.’

She falls asleep relatively quickly, annoyed at herself for pushing Tsukasa further away.

*~*~*~*~