a boy and his pet dino

[gaiapediatan]

Characters: Phillip and you.
Setting: Starting in his room, but gonna end up in the hallway pretty quick. Catch him at either point~!
Format: Starting prose, matching you~
Summary: This is not how you want to wake up, the day of a hostage situation.
Warnings: Probably some small time angst. ALSO, SPOILERS FOR KAMEN RIDER W.

Comments

[thisclinchesit]

Going the other way, Shoutarou paused a few doors down when he heard something he hadn't heard in a long time. Fang.

He shook his head, leaning against the wall and rubbing his face and eyes. Frog Pod was in his trunk, and the memory for it was in his pocket. It wasn't trolling him by mistake. "Must be going crazy..." he mumbled, shaking his head.

[gaiapediatan]

Maybe Fang had a sense of trolling itself, considering it whirled its little dino head down the opposite end of the hallway. It gave a roar, which only seemed to irritate Phillip's mood even further.

"Fang!" First he couldn't get rid of the thing- now it was running off on it's own? Whoever programmed the damn thing...

Of course he had to follow the damn memory. It wasn't like he expected it to be a bloodhound, but leaving it unattended would probably be worse than ignoring it.

[thisclinchesit]

There's the roar again, hah.

Heh. Ha ha. Hahahahaha.

Shoutarou leaned against the wall, back to the direction Philip and Fang would approach from, and chuckled nervously to himself. "...guess I am." The stress of being in this place in general, plus dealing with the fallout of his spat with Francisca must be making him crack.

[gaiapediatan]

If you think you've lost it, how do you think your aibou feels, spotting you down the hallway? Despite Fang roaring a third time, Phillip didn't even seem to notice, too busy gawking.

Glance at Shou. At Fang. At Shou. At Fang. At Shou, leaning against a wall looking pensive and in thought.

...yeah, that had to be the real deal.

"Shoutaro!" YOUR AIBOU IS RUNNING AT YOU, HIDARI. WHAT DO?

[thisclinchesit]

Why, continue to think he's imagining it, of course. And shake his head, smacking his forehead with his fist a few times. "Get ahold of yourself, Hidari..."

[gaiapediatan]

How about when said Phillip is actually shaking your shoulder?

"Shoutaro, what are you doing here?!" He wanted to ask a lot more than just that, but- oh, screw it. "Are you injured?"

[thisclinchesit]

Shoutarou's head slowly turns, and he blinks several times before his head weakly shakes. "I... You're not here. You're not real... You're one of those phantoms..."

[gaiapediatan]

"Phantom?" What was he talking about...? Maybe another Dopant had been involved with the hostage situation?

"I'm no phantom, Shoutaro." How to prove it? Well, it'd be the same way to prove Shou himself wasn't a fake. Phillip dug in his pocket, and pulled out Cyclone.

[thisclinchesit]

Shoutarou backs up just a bit as Philip pulls out the Cyclone memory.

This can't be right. Philip can't be here right here, right now. There's a small part of him that's hopeful, though...

He reaches into his jacket, and pulls out the Double Driver, staring at it for several seconds before he puts it on his waist... If this is really Philip...

you knew this was coming

[gaiapediatan]

...and the belt manifest around Phillip too. It took him a moment of looking up and down the hallway before he finally spoke up again.

"Do you have the courage to ride with the devil, Shoutaro?"

CYCLONE

Too bad Shou's too rattled

[thisclinchesit]

Normally, this is where Shoutarou would get Joker out, but... Instead, he just points, shaking his head idly. He looks like he's seen a ghost, to be honest.

"What...but... You can't be here! YOU'RE DEAD!"

fine, ruin the moment with your /halfboiled tears/

[gaiapediatan]

"...dead?"

Yeah, what the hell is he supposed to say to that? The memory was stuffed back in his pocket, and Phillip shook Shou's shoulder a little.

"I am without problem, Shoutaro. I'm not dead."

A pause, and he tentatively broached his earlier theory. "Was there another Dopant besides Kurata Kenji? They may have messed with your perception of events." Shou always was soft-hearted when it came to illusionary stuff.

HE'S THE BEST AT HALFBOILED

[thisclinchesit]

That name snaps him back to reality - being mindlinked to Philip helped stir the memory. "Kurata Kenji...Arms Dopant..."

His face is even more perplexed now. "But... That was over a year ago - why would you show up from -that- ti-- Wait, those kids all from the same world had a lot of time discrepancies..."

He mutters for a moment, then it finally hits him...

[thisclinchesit]

Philip is here. He's from the past, but he's here and alive and not-dead and oh god what are his emotions doing.

The detective makes a strangled noise, and promptly sets to tackling the other man in a hug.

[gaiapediatan]

It was only momentary, but Phillip got some sense of something being wrong from Shou's end of the driver, but couldn't sort it out before being...hugged.

Clearly, something was wrong here, and he had to get to the bottom of it- especially this dead business -but now wasn't the time. It was awkward and uncertain, but the hug was reciprocated. At least they hadn't toppled to the ground because that'd just be hysterigay.

[thisclinchesit]

Shou finally let go after a moment, grinning ear-to-ear and totally just had something in his eye, he was not crying shut up.

"Oh man...I ...I..."

Words failed him.