Banana Fish - Another missed flight

A Song Only You Can Hear

Here's  a new chapter for you✨ It's a bit longer (10.500 words).

Thank you so much for 100K reads, your many votes and comments. They make me so happy and give me the motivation to write more chapters.

This is the last sad chapter. It's about Eiji having nightmares and Ash taking care of him. It's also about grieving, forgiveness and shared pain.
But there's also a happy and sweet scene at the end💫

"Ash! Ash! No!"

Eiji's painful scream pierced the quiet and peaceful night. Ash was usually a sound sleeper if he wasn't suffering from nightmares. It took Eiji forever to wake him up, constantly complaining that he wasn't sleeping but more like in a comatose state. He often teased him about his low blood pressure and called him a frail little girl.

However, Eiji's desperate scream tore at his heartstrings and awoke him instantly. At first, panic shot through him, instinctively assuming that he was in danger. When his eyes had adjusted to the blinding light of the bedside lamp, however, he noticed that he was suffering from a nightmare. This time, his suffering was worse than ever before. He noticed not only because of the scream but also because he buried his face deep into his chest and trembled slightly.

Eiji had put his arms around him and had pulled him close. They often had their arms around each other or their legs intertwined while sleeping; that was nothing out of the ordinary. The way Eiji held onto him this time was different, though. Desperate. Frantic. His nails were digging into his back as he clung to him, holding onto him as tightly as possible.

Eiji's nightmares weren't like his own. Eiji was more the person who suffered on the inside, sobbing quietly and tightening his arms around him. He never shot up in panic or fear or hyperventilated, so Ash had hardly noticed them at the beginning. Yet, he had picked up on specific little details that were telltales that Eiji had a nightmare. Like the way he clung to him or the quiet sobs that broke the silence. He often drowned his face in the blanket or talked in his sleep.

He only noticed now that tears were streaming down his face while he quietly sobbed into his chest. He was so stunned for a moment that he just froze up and watched him for a moment before he put his arms, which hung loosely around Eiji's back, around him, hugging him tightly, so Eiji felt his presence and would calm down. He could comfort him, too, right? At least, Eiji had told him as much...

However, Eiji didn't react, probably too deeply immersed in his nightmare, so Ash realized that alone wouldn't be enough. Eiji still trembled and mumbled his name again and... one other name he hadn't heard in a while...

"Shorter..."

A single tear ran silently down his cheek as he heard Eiji murmuring that name.

He had tried to forget it. Not his best friend's memory, of course. Shorter had been the only friend and the only one he had trusted unconditionally in his cruel world. He had been the reason he had never lost his humanity and had never turned into the monster everyone had seen in him.

Meeting Shorter in jail had changed his life. He had taught him that friendship and good people still existed in this wicked world. Shorter had never feared him, even if he had immediately seen that he was deadly with his otherworldly looks and reflexes. Shorter had scolded him for playing with other people's feelings, insisting that only because he suffered himself didn't give him the right to treat others the same way. That if he did, he'd turn into the monster everyone believed him to be. He also taught him to win fights without killing people. So, he had saved him in more ways than one. They had grown even closer when they had learned that they had been set up by the same person: Arthur. After getting out of jail, they had been inseparable and had always had each other's backs. Together, they had been invincible...