HE LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVES [Open]

[fatherofcute]

Characters: Maes Hughes and the occupants of the Winding Way
Content: Ah....those that knew Hughes was "dead", finding out that he's alive again?
Setting: Anywhere on the Way
Time: BACKDATED to sometime before the children were rescued from Grita.  ((I'm so lame for not putting this up sooner. orz))
Warnings: Anything you might bring with you?  Angst

Comments

[tiny_tinker_toy]

Rikku had been avoiding the deck for a while now. After finding Hughes like that...she really just couldn't bring herself to go up there.

But she had no choice today, and it was a nervous Rikku that went up to find the stupid helmsmen to give them their stupid instructions. Really, why couldn't they do it themselves?

She was so busy complaining about them mentally that she didn't notice when she ran into someone. "Ack, sorry!"

[fatherofcute]

Hughes had just been standing up on the deck, enjoying the fresh, open air. A...nearly dramatic and startled gasp escaped him when a body knocked him forward a few steps. He spun to face the new person...and grinned. "Rikku."

[tiny_tinker_toy]

"...Aren't....y....you're supposed to be dead!"

Rikku froze when Hughes turned and she got a good look at his face. She'd seen him. She knew he was dead. She found the body.

Why was he not dead?!

[fatherofcute]

"Heh, yeah, I know. But a favor was called in and I was gotten some help. And none too soon." He could tell she was seriously disturbed, and in a way he could take no amusement from. "I'm okay now, though. Not even a mark to show for it. See?" He tilted his head, and touched his neck where the wire had bitten into it, sure enough, not even a hint of a mark.

[tiny_tinker_toy]

"But...I saw you! I saw you hanging there!" Rikku pointed up at the mast, not looking when Hughes showed her his neck. "There's no way you coulda 'got help' and be alive!"

[fatherofcute]

Hughes looked to where she pointed and grimaced. Ichigo hadn't told him that bastard had gone and strapped him to the mast. "I wouldn't have thought there was a way either. But there was, and one special young lady used a very special ability and..." He shrugged. "Here I am. It really is me, Miss Dalabane."

[tiny_tinker_toy]

Rikku shook her head. "There's no way. You could be a zombie, come back to eat us all. Prove it! Prove you're really Hughes!" It was just too wild to be true, it really was.

*wishes she could post with two icons at once*

[fatherofcute]

Prove it?! How was he supposed to prove it?! "But..." He sighed, shoulders slumping so much he was nearly bent over. "How am I supposed to prove I'm alive again?" A thought occurred to him, he didn't know if it would work, but it would be worth the moment of bliss even if it didn't. He popped up straight again. "Of course I'm alive! I have a darling, beautiful, smart and loving little girl that would be very sad if I died. See?" He already had a well worn sepia pulled from his jacket pocket and outstretched towards Rikku, his face practically glowing with love for the little girl he would NOT be disappointing!!

XD

[tiny_tinker_toy]

She smiled when he flashed the picture--she really was a cutie--but it didn't convince Rikku. "What about blood? Can ya bleed?" she asked. "Undead can't, right? So, if you bleed, you're really Hughes."

X3

[fatherofcute]

Yeah, he didn't figure it would work, but it had been a good excuse to show off his daughter again.

Bleed? He really didn't want to bleed again, but what could he do? "Yeah. I bleed." He slipped a knife from his sleeve and gave his pinky finger a shallow slice, nothing more than a deep paper cut really, but it was enough to bleed. A line of deep red gathered along the line, then slipped around his finger in a bright trail. He slipped the knife away and held out his hand for Rikku to see.

[tiny_tinker_toy]

...Yep, he bled.

Though she'd never really been close to Hughes, Rikku wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. "How the heck did you, um, get better?" she asked. "Cuz, well, you looked very much dead."

[fatherofcute]

He wrapped his arms back around her, pinky finger daintily held away from her to keep from smearing blood on her back. "I think I was, or...very nearly anyway," he answered softly. "Ichigo has a friend with an amazing healing ability. She brought me back."

[tiny_tinker_toy]

"Amazing is right!" Rikku made a note to ask Ichigo about his friend later. "Are ya, like, sick or anything from being mostly-dead?"

[fatherofcute]

"Haha. Amazingly not. I feel just as good as I did before anything happened to me." He shifted her back and pulled a handkerchief and wiped the blood off his finger, pinching the tip to get it to stop bleeding.