Banana Fish - Another missed flight

From Dusk Till Dawn

"Ash has to suffer, so Eiji can hold him." That's what another fanfic writer on Twitter told me when I talked to her about Banana Fish. It fits this story perfectly.
Sorry, I just love to let Ash suffer, but they both will have a happy ending eventually.
I hope you'll like this one as well. The picture was drawn by me, it's my first fan art I drew using Procreate, so it's not perfect😅

Wide awake in the city that never sleeps. How fitting. But looking out of this hotel room's window, it felt as if New York was worlds away. Manhattan was always busy, crowded with people coming and going while you were drowning in deafeningly loud noises of every day life. At night it was calmer but never silent, as New York was swallowed up by an endless sea of blindingly bright lights that turned the night into day again, as if proving where the city got its nickname from.

But here at this hotel it was quite the opposite, like another world entirely. Here there were no skyscrapers and no bright lights. The pitch black darkness mixing in with the ghostly silence made it closely resemble Cape Cod. Without the damn wind. Only interrupted by the occasional airplane at night.

Max and Ibe had chosen a hotel near the airport for them, not only because it was close to the airport and therefore extra convenient, but also because Ash and Eiji had to lay low and couldn't risk running into anyone while waiting for their flight a few days later. And the hotel was a safe distance away from Manhattan, Harlem, Chinatown or any other area downtown where people would recognize them. Especially Ash who was kind of an urban legend around here.
And thanks to Max's article, Ash's picture had been plastered all over the news for a while. Again. That didn't make it any easier. So they both had to be extra careful that no one recognized them now. All the hard work and endless efforts of Max and Sing to help Ash get out of the country would go up in smoke in the fraction of a second...

That had apparently also been the reason why Max had drilled it into Ash's stubborn head not to do anything stupid to ruin all his hard work and keep a low profile. Obviously, Max had just been worried, knowing his impulsive behavior at times. His "dad" also knew about his reckless and sometimes self-destructive behavior from spending so much time with him over the last few years.

But Ash would never blow his cover after everything Max had done for him. Especially not after Eiji had told him how many favors Max had needed to cash in and strings to pull to arrange his stay at the private hospital, the official death certificate and a new identity for him including flawless documents. Although Sing had helped a great deal with the last one. Max and Sing had really not wasted any time to help him. Ash owed them his life. If not for the old man's lightning fast reaction to Eiji's call he'd be dead by now for sure. He'd never forget how much he had done for him. Not that he'd ever tell him that. But if he was completely honest, it had still meant a lot to him. His "dad"could be a real pain in the ass sometimes. But he was one of the few people he could count on besides Eiji.

Ash was lying in bed, his green eyes staring absent-mindedly at the ceiling above him, endless bits and pieces of his last talk with Eiji dancing in front of his eyes, like an infinite loop, repeating certain details over and over again. His mind never got tired of questioning, doubting and reflecting parts of that conversation, torturing him endlessly, so that sleep was out of the question.

Ash wished he could find sleep as easily as Eiji who was always sleeping peacefully before his head had even touched the pillow. It was already midnight and he hadn't really slept well in days, not since the day of their departure was approaching. But his damn mind had no intention to shut down anytime soon. With that pitch black darkness overwhelming him and that deafening silence echoing eternally in his ears there was no fucking way he could distract himself. He had too many conflicting thoughts swirling around in his mind – hope, relief, gratitude, worry, guilt, fear, restlessness. He also had mixed feelings about going to Japan. Yeah, he wanted to go, but at the same time his inner voice kept telling him that a new and happier life will never work out. Not for someone like him...