Distance 4
TITLE: Distance
CHAPTER: Four
PAIRING: Ohno x Sakurai, Aiba x OC
RATING: PG13
SUMMARY: "...If you were trash, Jun would have killed you when he first saw you twenty years ago. You are here for a reason, don’t you ever forget that. You will do great things…”
When Sho woke up, Ohno was nowhere to be found. After a brief moment of confusion, Sho gathered up their belongings and folded the two blankets up as small as he could. He searched around the area thoroughly, but as expected, Ohno had left no footprints or clue to where he had gone.
Although Sho knew that Ohno would never just disappear and leave him alone, he was still quite worried about the fact that he wasn't around. To try and calm himself down, Sho settled himself on the floor, backed up against a rock. He closed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, just focussing on his sense of hearing. Sure enough, after a couple of minutes, Sho heard the very light footprints of an elf heading towards him. Ohno was obviously not worried about being seen, or he would have been completely silent.
"Oh, you're up, Sho-kun,"
"Where did you go?" Sho asked, opening his eyes and getting to his feet.
"Breakfast," Ohno smiled, holding up a rabbit. The animal had obviously been killed quickly and easily, as there was only the tiniest of marks on its body where Ohno's arrow pierced it.
"You could have woken me, I was..." Sho trailed off and cleared his throat when Ohno's icy blue eyes looked directly into his face, "Never mind. I'll get the fire going," Sho searched around in his pack for the necessary fire-starting equipment as Ohno began readying the rabbit.
"What were you going to say, before?" Ohno asked softly, his eyes on what he was doing.
"When?"
"Just now. You stopped talking. What were you going to say?"
"Nothing. I don't remember. The fire's going, how do you want to cook the rabbit?"
Ohno sighed and handed the rabbit to Sho, "You decide," He said quietly, before sitting back against the rock and pulling his knees up to his chest.
---
Crystal paced up and down Jun's house imatiently.
"I wonder if they've reached the mountain elves yet?" She wandered out loud.
Aiba chuckled "Of course they haven't. It's about a weeks walk away, at least,"
"Why couldn't I go too, Aiba-san?" She cried, suddenly whirling around to face the startled elf, "I could've helped!"
"Because the King only mentioned Ohno-ku-"
"You could have said something to him! Was Kazu-niichan there? If he was, I'm gonna kill him!"
"Crystal-chan, the-"
"Why would you send them without me?" Crystal said quietly, her eyes filling with tears, "They.. I miss Sho-chan.. And Sato-chan.."
Aiba raised an eyebrow, a small smirk playing on his lips, "How long have you loved Sho-chan?"
"Since I first saw hi-!" Crystal stopped abruptly, her eyes wide and her face burning pink, "You're sneaky!" She accused.
Aiba grinned at her good naturedly, "I suppose I am,"
---
By midday, Ohno and Sho had made good progress towards the mountains where the other clan of elves lived. However, Sho was beginning to tire slightly. Although he had been brought up by the elves, he was still struggling to keep up with Ohno.
"Satoshi-kun," Sho called quietly at the elf walking ahead of him, "I need a break, I think,"
"Just a little bit further, Sho-kun," Ohno insisted, "There's a town over that hill over there,"
"How do you know that?"
"The King told me. I have the directions to get to the mountains, and we have to go through or around this village,"
"Wait," Sho said, reaching out and catching Ohno by his elbow, "Jun-nii told me to avoid the villages,"
Ohno turned around to face Sho and cocked his head to the side, a slightly puzzled look on his face. "He said that people aren't always very welcoming to elves," Sho explained quietly, "He said to avoid people if possible,"
Ohno blinked a few times, before glancing down at Sho's hand still gripping his elbow, "Well.. if the Prince says so.." He mumbled, his face reddening into a soft pink flush, "Then we can wait until dark, and go through it then. It will take a while to go all the way around it,"
Sho nodded, and then jerked his hand away from Ohno, his face also blushing.
“S.. Sorry for grabbing you,” He mumbled, before moving away to sit down next to a nearby tree.
Ohno bit his lip gently, before following him and sitting down on the other side of the tree.
“Let’s eat now and go through the village once it’s dark,” Ohno said quietly, pulling out the packaged remainder of the rabbit he had killed that morning.
---
Once it was dark, Sho and Ohno moved over the hill and down towards the dark village. There were no lights on; clearly everyone had retreated to their beds.
Ohno couldn’t help but smile gently to himself when he felt Sho clinging to him slightly. Although Sho could see in the dark better than a normal human, he wasn’t as confident as Ohno; Ohno wasn’t complaining at their contact though.
When they reached the bottom of the hill, Ohno stopped to take a good look at the surroundings.
“Is it clear?” Sho whispered, slightly worried. He wasn’t worried for himself, but for Ohno; if they came upon any trouble, he could handle himself. Ohno, however, was never any good during the physical fighting classes back in the forest.
Ohno nodded curtly and began to walk silently across the cobblestones and into the village. Sho quickly followed, being as quiet as he could. The pair walked in silence for about twenty minutes, and slowed once they reached the centre of the small town.
Ohno froze so suddenly that Sho crashed into him. He glanced at Ohno and could make out his wide, icy blue eyes in the darkness.
“Satoshi-kun?” He whispered, reaching out to touch the elf’s arm. Ohno lifted his other arm and pointed into the darkness ahead of them.
In the main square, there was a large wooden frame, with three ropes hanging from the beam across the top. Hanging from those ropes were three bodies.
“Elves,” Ohno whispered in shock. Sho glanced up, just able to make out the slightly pointed ears poking through the hair of the elf in the centre. Their slim, lithe bodies swayed slightly in the breeze, and Sho jerked his head to face Ohno when he heard the blonde choke out a startled sob.
He grabbed the elf by his wrist and tugged him past the frame as quickly as he could; he knew how upsetting it was to the elves to see their own kind die due to the lengthy lives they typically had.
He stopped pulling, however, when he felt Ohno tense. Just as he turned around, Ohno’s long fingers grabbed his wrist in an almost crushing grip.
“We have company,” He hissed, his sharp eyes staring into the darkness all around them.
“Ah look, an elf!” A gruff voice called gleefully from the road behind the pair.
Sho whirled around to see a huge, dirty man emerging from the shadows, flanked by a pair of equally dirty men on each side. He fingered the hilt of his sword nervously, his eyes darting to the other roads as more men emerged to surround them.
“Satoshi-kun!” Sho whispered, “They’ve blocked us in!”
Ohno didn’t reply. He narrowed his eyes at the first man, a dangerous glint sparkling within the blue.
“You hung those elves?” He asked quietly, “Why?”
“Elves are evil,” The man laughed, showing a surprising lack of teeth, “And they have nice trinkets. We’ll get yours next, scum, along with the elf-banger next to you,”
“Elf-banger?” Sho spluttered, his face going red as he glanced at Ohno, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means what I said!” The man laughed.
“The hell?” Sho repeated, “I get bullied by elves, and now I’m getting bullied by a human, too? Well, at least I’m allowed to kill you,” He concluded with a smug grin as he began to draw his sword.
Ohno reached out, touching Sho gently on his arm, “We need to get out of here,” He hissed, “There are too many of them!”
“No way!” Sho exclaimed, “I can take them! Besides, he called you scum. I’m not just going to let that sit!”
“Since when have you been so bad tempered?!” Ohno sighed, unhooking his bow from his shoulder, and pulling an arrow from the quiver on his back.
“Since he called you scum,” Sho snapped, “Don’t kill all of them, I want to have a fair share!”
“Get them!” The toothless man yelled as Ohno drew back the string on his bow and Sho twirled the sword expertly around in his hand, “Kill them both!”
********
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Sorry it's a short one! But some of the next ones are SUPER long xD