tampered | Log; On-going [Reunion at the Fountains]

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Log; On-going [Reunion at the Fountains]

When; June 13, Late Afternoon
Where; The Fountains
Rating; PG
Characters; Nanami

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Summary; A touching reunion between two siblings, one of whom doesn't realize she's supposed to be dead. Now the question is, is she trying to hug him or kill him? Apologies to any traumatized bystanders around the fountain!
Log;

Riou ran through the city.

Nanami. Nanami. His sister. He had spent nearly his whole time within the city trying to find a way back home, back to his duties, responsibilities. Purpose. But that entire time he had secretly hoped-- dreamed-- this was a place where the impossible became possible, wasn't it? Where time held no sway. Where the dead walked with the living.

Nanami... I'm so sorry...

Riou was jolted out of his thoughts as he nearly slammed into another dead end. The hell? That building hadn't been there before, had it? He'd traveled to the fountains so many times before, yet now, when she was waiting for him... He took off again.

But was there a curse today? Was there a curse today?! She had never come before-- no matter how much he may have wished-- not even during that curse where he was haunted by ghosts from his past. But, even still-- Dammit, why hadn't he been paying closer attention to the network?

Riou hadn't thought there was a curse when he had set out early that morning for the northern forests, on yet another search for the elusive 'Tenzan Pass' where he and Jowy had fought that duel. But then he had somehow managed to break his tablet on the way there-- his eleventh! but that didn't matter now-- and had only now just gotten back into the city to purchase a new tablet.

To see Futch's post, pointing him to--

Nanami.

"ARGH!" Riou half-shouted as he suddenly came upon the library, not caring one whit at the passersby goggling at him. The fountains not the library...! The city was bloody playing with him today! If you thought of a destination supposedly the city would lead you straight to it, in theory at least. It hadn't always worked that way for Riou, but even his own pretty good sense of direction was failing him today.

Right. The fountains. Even if he had to go through every other bit of the city to find it. Riou spun on his heel and was off again.

Was she real? Really real? And if she was-- was she dead? Would that mean she was trapped in the city forever, if that was the case? Oh god, he'd wanted to see her again, but not if that was the price... And if she wasn't-- the war-- No, none of that mattered right now. He could do-- think-- later. He just had to get to her...

Not too late. Not too late...

Riou came skidding to a halt. The bustling sounds of the crowd. The tantalizing scent of exotically cooked foods. Colorful street vendors and shops carefully tended by keepers suddenly lined the streets. It was the Square... and at it's center...

The Fountains.

Surrounded thickly by people, as usual. But even amongst the crowd, one figure stood out to him. So familiar and yet... he should never have been able to see her again. He had failed. She was lost to him forever back home, but here, now... Riou swallowed the lump within his throat.

"... Nanami!"

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Nanami shuffled around the fountains, staring at the ground and kicking up stray debris. As much as she itched to run out and find Riou, wherever he was now, she knew that after running around the city all day, waiting for him to find her was probably the best option.

The people around her moved warily, and whenever she made eye contact they shrank away. Nanami felt she had more than a few apologies to make, considering all that she had done during the day.

At the moment, though, it really didn't matter to her. What was most important was that Riou had finally contacted her and now he was coming to the fountains to meet her.

She could have sworn he had been right there behind her when she had arrived, but then, when she had turned around, he was gone. She still had no idea where she was, as she hadn't even stopped to ask anyone. She had only been focused on finding Riou.

A familiar voice broke her thoughts and she scanned the area wildly before she finally spotted the face of her adoptive brother.

"Riou!" She yelled enthusiastically and tore off through the crowd, pushing people aside when necessary.

And, in a moment that was eerily similar to their reunion in Kyaro, Nanami tackled Riou to the ground, grabbing him roughly by the collar and shaking him around.

"Where were you? I looked everywhere and didn't find you! Are you sure you're not hurt? Where are we anyway? Riou, you can't worry me like that!"

Riou blinked-- once!-- as his sister came pelting towards him, people staggering away from the onrushing teenage girl as if by force of will. And then he was hitting the ground with a suspicious 'CRUNCH' coming from his pocket where his newest-- and twelfth!-- tablet had been stashed, Nanami atop of him.

He really-- ought to--- have known-- better. After all-- this time--... Now-- was she trying to strangle him-- or bash his head against the ground into submission--?

"...guh," Riou said eloquently when he was able to catch his breath in between shakes. "Nanami that really-- is you?"

It was a reflex, really. Her brother went missing for awhile, she'd rough him up upon his return. When she was worried, she tended to be overzealous. The device she had found with her upon her arrival seemed to have snapped in half, but she didn't care. She'd found Riou, there was no need for it anymore.

She abruptly released him for a moment, but then threw her arms around him immediately after.

"Of course it's me, Riou! What did you expect?"

Riou carefully sat up and ruefully rubbed at the spot on his head that had made far too enthusiastic contact with the hard ground. "I...." he said and trailed away as Nanami hugged him. His arms came cautiously up to wrap around her. Warm. And he could feel it, beating fast and strong, against his own chest. Counterpoint. Her heartbeat.

Not a curse... Not a curse?

Not dead. Oh god.

"Nanami...I...." his voice choked off.

He hadn't cried. Not when Dr. Huan told him she couldn't be saved, not when they had buried her. He hadn't the chance-- he hadn't been allowed to-- the leader couldn't fall apart like that, not when so much was at stake, not when everything still hung in the balance, and he knew he had to push forward, if he stopped to think, if he looked back at what was lost...

Fall apart

Even in the city. She'd always been there, of course, always at the back of his mind. But he hadn't allowed himself-- if he started to think like that, if he started...

Riou buried his head against his sister's shoulder.

Though she initially intended to barrage Riou with more questions about his welfare, their whereabouts, and if his presence here meant he was finally giving up that foolish leadership, all thoughts of that were lost when she heard her brother's voice break. Even more troubling was when her shoulder was suddenly damp.

"Riou, are you crying? W-why are you crying? It's okay! I'm here, right? You don't need to cry..."

Confusion filled her, but she knew Riou would explain himself. She rubbed his back and waited for him to let it out.

It wasn't a dream. Please, not a curse. Nanami was really here in the city. Alive. And he-- he was probably scaring the crap out of her acting like this. If he was really being granted the chance to reunite with her-- the city is a place for second chances and new beginnings-- he wasn't going to waste it-- he wasn't going to bawl like this! Stop it, stop it, it was all right, it was really finally all right...

Riou took a deep breath and pulled back slightly to scrub at his eyes. "It's just been... a really long... year," he finally said and smiled at her. And then sniffled a little, to his embarassment. "You... just arrived here?"

Something about that question didn't click right with her. Just arrived?

Her brow furrowed and she pushed Riou back, hands on his shoulders, to look him in the eye.

"Yeah, I just got here," she said sternly. "Do you mean to tell me you've been here longer?"

And then the question of where they were returned to her. They had been on the elevator in the castle, going for a briefing about the Rockaxe infiltration, but when she had stepped off, she was somewhere completely different.

"But you were with me! Right behind me! At North Window Castle, and we were going to talk to Shu about Rockaxe..."

"Yeah, I've been here for... awhile longer," Riou said as he pushed his hair out of his face. His eyes dropped as he fumbled around for his tablet. "Has no one else told you about this place?"

He pulled out a handful of plastic shards and metal doodads that might have once been a tablet. Well, crap. And that was twelve down. And two broken today alone! Maybe those talking items had been right on that curse day and he was the destroyer...

And then his head snapped up at something Nanami had said. Rockaxe

"Rockaxe... Don't go," Riou said sofly. Then louder. "Don't go to Rockaxe!"

"But how could you be here longer?" Nanami still couldn't comprehend how that was possible, but then...she hadn't given anyone the chance to explain anything to her. All day, if someone couldn't tell her immediately where Riou was, she'd just run off to the next location. "No, no one has told me about it. I didn't really give them the chance."

But then the abrupt change in Riou's demeanor startled her. What was wrong with Rockaxe?

"What do you mean don't go to Rockaxe? Shu wants to send you there, so I have to go to protect you, whether you like it or not," Nanami said with a pointed look, just daring Riou to tell her no. Though she was honestly afraid of the tone in his voice.

"This... would be a lot easier to explain if I could just show you the pamphlet that we give to the new arrivals but..." Riou leaned back.

This was far from the best place for having this talk, sitting in the middle of the Square, surrounded by a crowd of strangers boggling at the two crazy teens who had been flailing on the ground. But-- how long did Nanami have here? Some people arrived and seemed to vanish again within days, maybe even hours. He had to make sure that she at least understood...

"We're not in the same world anymore, Nanami. This place is a completely different world that draws in people from all different worlds... even others from our own. And the people-- we-- we're all from different times. I'm... from a few months further in the future than you and--"

Oh, the people from his home world would probably be having kittens over this. Time paradoxes and preserving the timeline and destiny and... Screw the timeline and destiny!

He didn't really think that he could change his past. He was pretty sure that whatever he did in the city, everything would be the same once he returned home, everything except him that was. Nanami would still be dead in his world but... but still, Nanami's future could be changed.

That book in the library. What had it been--? A different alternate universe created with every different choice that was ever made? A universe where Nanami didn't go to Rockaxe and still lived... dead in his world, but still living in another...

"Something bad will happen if you go to Rockaxe."

A different world? The future? That explanation did little to dispel her confusion, if anything she was even more confused than before. The urge to shake Riou around again and demand answers to a thousand questions was a great one, but considering his previous reaction, she quelled that urge and decided to ask her questions when they weren't sitting on the ground in the middle of a group of people.

"Bad or not, I'm still going to protect you no matter what," Nanami said and smiled reassuringly. Perhaps he still hadn't learned, even after all that time, that she'd throw her life on the line for him without a moment's hesitation.

She turned away and considered something for a moment, a question she had wanted to ask him earlier before she had been distracted by his tears.

"Riou...if you're here, and the army isn't, does that mean you've finally decided to forget about that silly idea of being the leader?" She glanced hopefully at him.

Riou bit back a sigh. But had he really expected any different reaction? Even if he told Nanami that she had died... protecting him and Jowy... would she have done it the same way all over again? He already knew the answer. But it didn't have to be that way, end that way, did it?

He caught at her hand.

"Try to remember if-- when you go back. To send someone else to burn the flag. To take bodyguards with me the whole time, if I'm too stubborn to listen about it. And we'll talk more about Rockaxe later..."

And he hoped that there would be more time to discuss it later. He hoped that she would remember as people often lost their memories of the city upon leaving it. And if she didn't... he hoped that she could at least stay here, alive, with him a while longer...

Stay...

"Some people from the army are here but... most of them aren't quite like they were before." Riou looked down. They've all moved on. All except for me. And I... "And I... didn't chose to come here, I was taken. I should... at least check back there and see how they're doing..."

Nanami nodded. "Yeah, it was that boy Futch who told me you were here in the first place, but there's no North Window, no Shu, no Ridley or any of them..."

She thought about what Riou said for moment. His desperation about what would happen when they went to Rockaxe, that he had been in this foreign place for awhile, but apparently hadn't gone back yet?

"You make it sound like you can't just go back."

She hesitated for a moment. If he didn't have to, and she didn't have to, she didn't want to go back. Not yet, at least. She'd traveled all over the City/State thanks to the war, so a foreign place was no big deal as far as she was concerned, even if the explanations behind it made no sense.

"Since they're not here, and we're not there...will you...let me be selfish for a little while? Shu and the City/State are taking my little brother away from me, and, if I can, I want to keep him to myself for now..." She didn't look at Riou, instead focusing intently on the ground. She had already lost Jowy and Pilika to Highland, and that was more than enough.

"No, no North Window here or Shu-- although I sometimes wish he were here-- but besides Futch, there is Jeane, and Viki, and Tyr McDohl but they're all from much further in the future than you and I. And Luc as well, but you must avoid him, because he's changed. And... Jowy's here as well."

She'd at least could be happy about that. Yet things were complicated between him and his childhood friend, to say the least. At times he really had not the faintest clue what the heck the blonde was thinking or trying to do but... at least he and Nanami would be able to approach Jowy now without having to fear for various lives.

Probably. Knowing Nanami-- and her cooking-- maybe Jowy should be fearing for a thing or two.

"And as for getting back... it's very hard to find an exit. I'm afraid that most of us are rather stuck here and..."

Eleven weeks he had been here when Jowy found a way back to a world where Riou had been one week missing. How much difference in this time passing? And was he really needed back there, still? At one point he had thought-- but no, he had really been needed back then-- but now...? He had tried to get back to them, as much was in his power but making him choose between the country and his sister again...

Oh well, it seemed that he'd be trying that "Those who'd given up searching for an exit will find one" theory far sooner than he'd once thought.

"... I'll stay with you here as long as I'm able," Riou said and, eyes closing, wrapped his arms around Nanami.

Nanami blinked wildly and gave Riou an incredulous look. "Jowy's here?"

She wondered why Riou seemed so calm about it, but then maybe they had learned to get along again here? She started fancying the notion of the three of them all together again, and decided that when she found Jowy, she'd either cry or beat him up or perhaps both. But if she didn't have to honestly fight him?

"We're...stuck?" While she didn't mind being away from the war, being stuck here wasn't the most ideal of situations either. Her thoughts drifted back to earlier in the day, and she realized that she really would have several apologies to make...and doors to replace. Perhaps a little food to show how sorry she was?

She smiled and leaned in to hug her brother close. "Good, I'm glad. You'll have to tell me all about this place, and why there are people from the future here, among other things."

Her eyes flickered around her for a moment and she laughed nervously. "But maybe not here?"

"Yes, apparently Jowy's been here quite a bit longer than me. He's from a time in between you and I and... the war is over between us. You should be able to see him, if you want," Riou replied.

And he had very little doubt about her wanting to. He just hoped Jowy was in a good mood. Although with Nanami whatever mood he was in probably wouldn't matter.

"I'm afraid we're stuck for the moment," But yes, more discussion, definately not here. Riou carefully pulled Nanami and himself to their feet. A few bystanders who had been walking past edged away a little faster. Oh lord, had they been making that much of a scene?

"Are you hungry? The best cafe's tend to be around here. Or if you're tired we can go to one of the apartments." Riou had been hopping in between random apartments during his stay in the city, so whichever one was the closest would do for him. "We should stop by a computer vendor, though, the network really is the best way to keep in touch and I can show you the guides to the city..."

"Are you kidding? As soon as I find out where he is, I'll-" She cut off there, remembering that she couldn't very well go tearing off through the city again. Brother first, Jowy later.

At the mention of food, Nanami made a teasing face at Riou. "What? You don't want Big Sister to cook for you? Though I am kind of tired...After all that today, I think I could use a little rest. 'One of the apartments'? Do you own more than one?"

Computer and network must have been those things that people were talking to her over earlier in the day, so if she was staying, it would be wise to have another of those devices handy. Perhaps she would be able to speak to Jowy that way.

"All right, lead the way!"

"I'm sure he'll want to see you too." That or flee in terror. One of the two. Heh, he really ought to be bringing Nanami by Jowy's place sometime soon...

"With things basically being free here, there's really no need to cook. Ever. You can pay for things with shiny rocks or lint or hair strands and they've got stuff from all the different worlds here-- it's one of the good points of the city." And the bad points principally being lead by the curses. Which he would have to get around to explaining. Eventually. "The apartments are free as well. I've been bouncing around them for awhile."

Now to the closest computer vendor. He couldn't very well go back to that first tablet seller who had gotten rather creepy and the one where he'd just gotten his poor doomed twelfth tablet from not so long ago was clear across the Square. Riou wandered down the street, barely a halfstep in front of Nanami, his eyes continuously flicking over to her lest she suddenly disappear while he wasn't watching.

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Log; On-going [Reunion at the Fountains]

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