Fading stars (ch 1/?)
Title: Fading stars
Author: Me ^.^
Pairing: Masuda/Tegoshi
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Angst, romance
Summary: It felt like a dream, like a nightmare, something that would turn out to be his imagination once he woke up. Because this just couldn’t be real, how could his beloved and peaceful hometown suddenly have turned into a field of something that looked like, no, more like definitely was…war?
Notes: English is not my native language, I’m still studying it, but I'm doing my best to avoid mistakes.
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How did this happen? Why did this happen? It felt like a dream, like a nightmare, something that would turn out to be his imagination once he woke up. Because this just couldn’t be real, how could his beloved and peaceful hometown suddenly have turned into a field of something that looked like, no, more like definitely was…war? The khaki green jeeps and the groups of men carrying machineguns was enough to prove his theory, it was like taken from one of these action-movies that stood in his bookshelf at home.
Tegoshi didn’t understand, he had been driving his car for just half an hour ago, feeling relaxed and happy that he would soon see his parents’ again after a long time. But he had been stopped along the way, now being pushed forward by some armed men through this scenery that belonged to a nightmare. But he had heard it before; that reality could be scarier than any dream.
They walked for quite a while, Tegoshi lost track of how long the distance they had moved was or how much time had passed. He started to feel sick because of all the worry that had started to build inside him, and he would have done anything to just get out of here. They were walking through the city he knew so well, all the hotels, shops and other buildings was still there, but were used for something completely different nowadays. Between the big buildings, barracks had been arrayed, standing in straight lines, their function unknown for Tegoshi.
The man walking in front of him moved towards one of the barracks, pressing a code on a box on the door, opening it when a silent ‘click’ was heard. Tegoshi felt his body getting pressed forward, and he was soon showed into a room in the back of the barrack, the man looking at him form the doorway. “Don’t try anything, we’ll be back soon.”
The door closed, leaving Tegoshi all alone in the dark space. The panic started to fill him up, what would happen to him? What had happened to his family? Without being able to do anything about it, the tears made their way down his cheeks, and he let them fall. He was scared, so scared; locked up in a dark, small space, not knowing what would happen to him or why he even was there. He pulled his knees up, pressing them against his chest in an attempt to get as small as possible. He fingered on the ring on his left hand, and thought of his fiancée, the girl he loved so much. Would he ever see her again? The thought of them being parted forever broke his heart, and even more tears made their way down his cheeks. This was too scary and terrible to be a dream, even though he wished otherwise. But how could it happen? He hadn’t heard of this on the news or read about it in the newspapers, and something like this should be widely known, shouldn’t it? But on the other hand, who would report it if everyone travelling to the city was caught like he was? And the ones already living there was most likely to have gotten the same treatment. He had heard about some military leader having the power to take quite big decisions for the country though, and some people opposed his decisions with violence, creating a civil war against the military force. If this was what that man had created, with or without reason, Tegoshi understood that people were displeased. There was no way Japan needed such a big national defence, or did they?
Tegoshi got dizzy just from thinking about it, it was all so confusing, so unknown for him. He wondered what they would do to him. Lock him up somewhere? Torture him, trying to get some information out of him? No, that wasn’t likely at all, what did he know? He couldn’t see a reason to why they were doing this, but that wasn’t strange. Firstly, he couldn’t think straight at the moment. Secondly; he knew nothing about this kind of business, whatever it was. But he was still scared, scared to the point where his body was shaking, and the tears were streaming down his face just because of pure fear.
Tegoshi suddenly heard voices, dark, mad voices, outside the room he sat in. They sounded angry, like they were arguing about something. It did scare him, it made him afraid of what would happen next, but just waiting like this for his doom was torture as well. He blinked in the light slipping into the room when the door was opening, a man standing in the doorway, looking at him. Tegoshi couldn’t see his face clearly in the light that his eyes hadn’t got used to yet, but he did figure that it wasn’t the same guy that had locked him in there before, and it did comfort him a bit. It could get better now, or it could get worse. A lot worse.
****
“Masuda!”
Masuda turned around when hearing his name get called, seeing a dark-haired, quite muscular man walking towards him. “Sorry, Ryo, but I’m very busy at the moment.”
The man nodded understandingly. “I know, but this is something that is urgent for you, I know it.” Masuda nodded to him to go on. “One of the captains caught a civilian by the line to the city again. They’re having him locked up in one of the barracks.”
“Are you serious?” Masuda sighed deeply, grabbing his bomber-jacket from a chair. He muttered under his breath. “I told them to stop doing that.”
Ryo followed behind him, walking from the former office-building, that indeed still were an office, but with a different purpose. “Which barrack?”
“D-37.” Masuda just nodded, shoving his hands down his pockets, moving towards the area Ryo had pointed out. It was strange that he had gotten used to this, to the tanks, the soldiers, the smell of oil and gun-smoke. This used to be a beautiful city, he was sure of it, full of life and lights. Now it was destroyed, full of evil. It had started with some politician that thought that it would be a good thing to upgrade the army for “safety-reasons”. Maybe the country really had felt threatened from outside, or maybe it was just an intern war between mighty men wanting to show off their power. Now it had all run amok though, when the military force has started to take some of the power in their own hands, wanting to change the society on their own.
People didn’t know anything about it, the politicians in charge of the national defence was on the same side as the leaders of the military and managed to keep the truth a secret from the people. Or well, people knew that the national defence was growing and that they had gotten more power, but they didn’t know the purpose. Masuda didn’t know it either, at least not all of it. But the little he did know wasn’t something he liked, but if he wanted to keep his life he better kept his mouth shut. All he could do was to lead the company he was in charge of, make as many people as possible survive. That was his goal by being here, save people; give them the possibility to meet their beloved ones again. His parents’ had been killed in the war, and he had no one he treasured to return to. He had nothing to survive for, so all he could do was to save those who still had people the loved. Not that they should ever have gotten parted in the first place. That’s why Masuda prohibited his troops from taking outsiders in, the less people getting into this terrible place, the better.
Masuda sighed deeply before pressing the code, hearing the door to the barrack open, and stepping inside. Three men were standing inside, discussing something inaudible for Masuda. He coughed loudly, sternly gazing at the men. “Why did you bring an outsider in here?”
The men turned around quickly, saluting, all of them looking quite nervous. Masuda sighed. “In my company, I’ve prohibited it.”
“We got order to find more soldiers.”
“From who?”
“The general.”
Masuda nodded slightly. “I get it. But I will take care of this one.”
The man in the middle took a step forward. “But we got order to-“
“Don’t interfere with me. That too is an order.”
The man obeyed, stepping aside so Masuda could open the door to the room where the prisoner sat. He opened the door slowly, gazing over the floor, seeing a boy in one of the corners, knees pulled up to his chest. He had most definitely been crying, and he still looked scared, his eyes showing true, pure fear. Masuda wondered what these men had done to him, but on the other hand; this situation alone was enough to scare the crap out of anyone. This boy looked so vulnerable like this, and Masuda felt his heart hurt slightly. Someone like this didn’t belong in war, and he shouldn’t be there. Masuda reached his hand out, offering the boy help to stand up. The boy just stared at him at first, looking like he didn’t know what to do.
“It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.”
These words seemed to be enough to convince the boy that accepting the help wouldn’t involve danger, and he grabbed Masuda’s hand, his own shaking. Masuda helped the boy to his feet, placing a hand on his back, leading him out of the room.
“Colonel, where are you taking him?”
Masuda let his gaze fall on the man who had spoken. “To my place. He’s my responsibility now.”
“But the general ordered us to-“
“Are you trying to oppose me?”
The man shook his head after a while. “No. I’m sorry.”
Masuda turned his gaze to the boy again, guiding him out of the barrack, towards the headquarters for his company.
****
Tegoshi’s entire body was trembling, and his legs were barely able to hold his body upright. Again, that uncertainty came back to him, making him wonder what would happen next. That hand on his back made him feel a tiny bit safer though, because the man that had picked him up didn’t seem evil. He had certain gentleness over him; and his eyes reflected nothing but honesty. Or maybe it was just Tegoshi imagining it all. But it didn’t feel like he was, because the man didn’t seem to suit being a soldier at all. Tegoshi decided to grab some courage and took a deep breath. “Where are we going?” He could feel the man squeeze his shoulder lightly. “To where I live.”
Tegoshi didn’t ask anything more; because the man’s quite stern tone scared him a bit.
“Are you okay?” His voice sounded nicer now, almost with a touch of affection. Tegoshi turned his head a bit, gazing discreetly at the man, nodding his head. “I understand that you’re feeling confused and scared right now, but I will answer all of your questions later on. First you need some food and rest though.”
Tegoshi’s heart did lighten when hearing these words, because it did prove that this man wasn’t some stone-soul, and just that fact alone comforted Tegoshi.
“What’s your name?” The man was speaking again, and Tegoshi hesitated a bit before answering. “Tegoshi Yuya.” He took a deep breath before speaking again. “What’s yours?”
“Masuda Takahisa.”
Tegoshi nodded slightly before looking up at the big building in front of them, the one he knew had been a big office before. He could feel Masuda squeezing his shoulder. “This is where I live with the rest of my company.”
Tegoshi looked up at the big building, wondering what was hiding inside. But he should be happy that he had been picked up by someone like Masuda, he was sure things could have been so much worse than they were now. It wasn’t like he had a choice; all he could do was to trust Masuda.
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Don’s ask where I got this idea from XD I know that there’s no logic in combining Tegomass and war, but the idea popped up even before I started to write on voice, and I haven’t been able to erase it XD
I’m still very unsure about the idea though, and if I continue on it, I will probably have it as a side-project and write on something else at the same time. Because this one will need its time and a lot of planning, and to not grow tired of it I need something “lighter” to write at the same time^^
Like I said, I’m still unsure about whether to continue this or not, but I decided to write it as a test and see how it turned out. In other words; my love for war-stories like avatar was stronger than my willpower to not write this XD
Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it ^.^ Comments are very loved ^.^<3333