Together at Last || Banana Fish ||

Dream

Eiji opens his eyes, feeling somewhat refreshed. He sits up, stretches his arms and then to a sudden realization, he is no longer in his hospital gown. Looking down at the clothes he's wearing, he picks up both his arms to see rejuvenated skin, no longer frail and wrinkled. He turns his head to look around the room he awoke in.

I know this place.

He gets up from the bed and passes a mirror. Only through his peripheral vision he catches a quickly glimpse. Eiji stops before he gets to the door, turns back around and goes to see his reflection. Shocked to see his nineteen year old self again, he touches all parts of his face wondering if this is all a dream. He smiles, then laughs to himself and heads for the door. 

After putting on a pair of shoes that reminded him of his old ones that he used to own, he trails down into all parts of the house.

I feel like I've been here before. He thinks to himself as he takes one last look around the interior.

Eiji then opens the front door and a gust of fresh air hits his face. He then steps out into the open field. Taking in a deep breath of the nice, crisp air and turns around to see the house. 

He grimaced at the sight for he remembered, it was Ash's old home. The very house they visited when they spent their time in Cape Cod.  The nostalgia and sadness mingled inside of Eiji's body, but he would not let that get to him. 

Eiji turns back around and continues to walk forward only a few more feet from the house. He stops and stares out as many different thoughts crossed his mind. But before he could even collect them all to even process where he was, he was interrupted.

"Long time no see."

He hears a voice from behind. Scared to even turn around, his expression grew dreary for he knew whom this voice belonged to. 

As Eiji slowly turns around, from his peripheral vision he catches a glimpse of purple in the light. Once his body has been completely turned, he is finally able to make out the two silhouettes that he has come to face. 

"S-Skip...Sh-Shorter," Eiji stutters as he calls their names. 

Tears start to flood his eyes as he starts walking towards them. His walk now turning into a slow paced run, but as he got faster he stumbled. That didn't stop him from closing the distance between them. Raising his arms as if he was about to leap into a hug, Shorter and Skip raise their welcoming arms, and flash a smile. As Eiji leaped into them, the boys tightly embraced each other. Eiji was crying with happiness from seeing them again. 

As the loud commotion slowly died down, Eiji hears another voice call out to him, a different one this time. 

"Eiji."

Eiji's eyes widen, he slowly released his grip from hugging Shorter and Skip, then drops his arms to his side. He closes his eyes for a short second, and once he opened them again both Shorter and Skip were gone. He quickly turned around to where he heard the voice. 

A person stood there with luxurious blonde hair that glistened in the sunlight, naturally flowing with the light breeze. Hands tucked into both pockets in ripped blue jeans. A simple white t-shirt that rippled with the wind, and eyes that sparkled as green as jade. Lips pinned at each corner into a smile Eiji could never forget in his life. 

More tears quickly flood his eyes yet again and he calls out to him, "Ash!"

Ash chuckles with the sight of seeing the overly-whelmed Eiji again. Unable to even control his tears from flowing, Eiji notices the distance between him and Ash was closing fast. He was running towards him. 

"Ash!" Eiji calls out his name again.

Quickly taking out his hands from his pockets, Ash opens his arms ready to catch Eiji, for he knew that this was the moment they had both been waiting for.

As Eiji's body strongly hits into Ash, they both wrap their arms around each other and embrace tightly like never before. 

As Ash's eyes slowly start overwhelming with tears, he rests his head on Eiji's shoulder then mumbles, "I've been waiting for you, Eiji."

They both slowly pull away from each other without letting go, and look at each others crying. Ash and Eiji both place their hands on each others faces, knowing that the warmth of each others skin is real. As they smile, they slowing bring themselves together and put their foreheads against each others. With a feeling of relief they both smile then laugh.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

As the laughter fades away, the scene suddenly appears back at the hospital. 

The same nurse that had once been in Eiji's room before, goes back in once more. Not even two hours had passed since she had last been in the room. 

Carrying a bag of saline, she goes over to the side of Eiji's bed and takes the almost empty bag off the hook it's hanging from, and replaces it with the new one. Slowly taking the IV tube that runs into Eiji's hand, she carefully removes the cap of the old saline bag and replaces it with the new one. Making sure the saline is flowing properly, she looks over to see Eiji's blissfully sleeping face.

She notices the slight smile that is pinned on Eiji's lips and the two single tears that run down his face. As she smiles at the sight of his face, she says, "Must be a nice dream."

Silence filled the room, there was nothing but white noise. Subtle yet shallow breaths were being taken at this very moment. The sound of a heartbeat grew louder, yet slowly started shutting down. Once again all remained quiet. Then the sound of the flatline filled the room. 

As the commotion drew in of the nurses running in, trying to resuscitate the lifeless body that remained, their voices slowly faded out, a bright light gleamed through the window, and another voice was heard. 

*Echoing into the room*

"Eiji, are you ready?"

"Yeah Ash, let's go home."

Finally, they were together at last.