Title: And We Don’t Say Goodbye
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Characters: Ibu Shinji, Oishi Shuichiro, Kevin Smith
Prompt: 007: Days
Word Count: 633
Rating: G
Summary: Parting is the hardest thing to do.
Author's Notes: Assume all dialogue in here is spoken in Japanese. And this had to be the most FRUSTRATING fic for me to write, because I finished it, I loved it…and then my hard drive died right before I could back it up. Bye bye “days” prompt. So this version is much different from the first, but it also expanded on one of my favorite parts of version one. I guess everything happens for a reason.
This follows
Go For the Gold.
Main table can be found
here and
here.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Shinji clung to Oishi’s arm as they stood in the airport. “I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t want to go, either.” Oishi smoothed back Shinji’s hair and kissed his forehead softly. “These past several days…I think I had been living for them, and I’m not sure how I’ll be able to get through until December, now.”
“It’s so far away….” Shinji gazed out the terminal window into the thick haze of early September (though, truthfully, it could’ve been the thick haze of Newark as well; in some ways the pollution made Shinji feel a bit less homesick). “It’s…maybe I should give up, go home….”
“No!” Oishi looked shocked to even hear the words come from Shinji’s mouth. “Shin…you love this program. Even I saw it. I saw how you’d talk about your classes, the experiences…you’d be miserable if you just left it.”
Shinji seemed to almost deflate at that. “You…have a point,” he conceded. “I do love what I’m doing. I’m just…scared.”
“Scared? Of what?”
“That you’ll find someone else while I’m gone.” Shinji looked out the window again, eyes following a plane just taking off. “I know it’s silly, but I’m still scared.”
Oishi turned Shinji so that he could look into his boyfriend’s eyes. “You don’t need to be,” he said softly. “I made my choice, when I nearly lost you. Thinking about a life without you, forever…it hurts too much. You never have to worry about losing me, because I have no desire to be lost.”
Shinji gazed into Oishi’s eyes, blinking back tears. “I love you, Shuichiro,” he whispered, holding Oishi tight and kissing him almost desperately, oblivious to the swarms of people scurrying around them.
They only parted when the boarding announcement was made for Oishi’s flight, but even still they held onto each other’s hands. “Let me know the moment you’re home,” Shinji whispered. “I’m going to worry until I hear from you.”
“The very second I walk in the door,” Oishi promised. His eyes were wet and his voice was shaking some as he brushed his lips over Shinji’s one more time and murmured, “I love you, my Shinji. I’ll be counting the days until I can welcome you home again.”
He drew back slowly, Shinji brushing a final kiss across Oishi’s fingertips before letting go reluctantly. “And I’ll be counting the days until I see you again.” He smiled, a weak attempt, but a smile all the same. “You…you better go.” He paused. “If you have time…call me when you get to L.A.? I know you have to change planes and all.”
Oishi nodded, trying to smile as well. “I will,” he promised softly, picking up his carry-on bag. “Take care of yourself, Shin-love.”
“As long as you do the same, ‘Chiro. Love you.” His smile actually got a little more steady. “I refuse to say goodbye to you.”
Oishi chuckled. “Because it isn’t, Shin. We’ll be seeing each other before we know it.” Oishi wasn’t sure if he was convincing Shinji or himself. “I love you, too.” Oishi’s smile was the last thing he gave Shinji, the last look he gave his lover as he headed into the breezeway that connected terminal and airplane.
Shinji stood for a long time at the window, watching the plane, watching as it taxied away from the gate and out of sight. He watched until he was sure that the plane had to have taken off, and still he couldn’t look away.
A gentle touch on his shoulder broke Shinji’s reverie, and he turned to see his roommate’s blue eyes, soft for once. “Come on, Shinji,” he said quietly. “Let’s get some dinner and go back.”
Kevin gently guided Shinji away from the window and didn’t once comment on the tears streaming down his friend’s face.
--The End--