capeandcowllogs | of seeking

of seeking

WHO: demon midgets and sparkly psychics
WHERE: out and about
WHEN: 5/30, eveningish
WARNINGS: sparkles are impossible to wash out so yanno
SUMMARY: CLAUDE WHERE ARE Yoh hi hiei sup
FORMAT: No

Shaken and uncertain, it took a while for Soldier Blue to get his bearings. The chance meeting hours prior with Keith Anyan left him troubled, but not deterred. He had left the park with more than he had arrived with, but it was not what he was seeking.

Claude...where are you?

He was near the area where he had first come across the invisible man. Blue doubted he would be still there, but no stone ought to be left upturned. If he could just get a notion of the man, that would be enough. To know that he was safe and well would satisfy; he knew how Claude cherished his solitude.

Blue turned the corner, finding relief in the dwindling population. Night life was not as active on these streets--businesses and banks on the small patch of blocks were closed for the evening, so there was little for someone to find to do while passing darkened windows and locked doors. It made the going easier on the Mu, given the tiniest respite from the bombardment of thoughts and feelings around him. He was growing used to it.

Now, if he could just find that one mind...

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"I can't see him."

Hiei's first action was to cover the Jagan--after allowing it so much freedom, he knew he had to quiet it quickly before it decided to take advantage of his weariness. His second action was to slouch to the closest storefront and lean against it.

The wave of guilt was his own; Blue watched without a sound, a troubled frown playing on his lips. His first impulse was to apologize, but--

"Thank you. For looking, Hiei." I'm sorry.

"It was good exercise," he said dryly, eyes closed.

For once, he was speaking with genuine wryness. It had been some time since he had to stretch the Jagan that far--it took him back to the days when he was trapped in Living World while Yukina lived in Demon World.

The tone hardly eased Blue's concern, yet he made no move or gesture to convey it. What was he supposed to do?

He wanted to ask if the Jagan saw only the living, or...well. He didn't really want to think of his friend that way. Blue looked away, clamping his eyes shut as if that would shield him from the thought. No such luck.

"Good," he echoed, not nearly as neutral as he had intended.

It wasn't his place to care, Hiei told himself.

In the end, he managed a whole minute before speaking his mind. Sometimes it just wasn't worth fighting his more pathetic impulses.

"He probably just got sent back to wherever he came from."

"Yes." The preferable conclusion. Blue would hope for that--though probably implied other things as well. He wore the troubled frown only a moment longer before it washed away to something more placid and attentive. He could push aside himself for those before him.

Even so...asking someone like Hiei if he was alright seemed...

"Searching that far..." He couldn't not ask, it seemed. "It wasn't too taxing-?"

Despite the fact that he was obviously, as Blue had noted, taxed, Hiei bristled at the implication that he had overworked himself.

"I am an S-class demon," he said icily, straightening away from the wall long enough to level a glare at Blue. "That was nothing."

"Of course..." It wouldn't be stressed, but Blue wasn't about to avert his attention too readily. S-class...?

"Of course," Hiei mocked. He sagged against the wall, still wearing a painfully sulky expression.

Prickly as ever...

Blue's exhale allowed for just a touch of exasperation. "Thank you again for your effort," he pressed, stepping away, albeit reluctantly. "It saved hours."

"I'm sure."

Hiei remained leaning against the wall. Perhaps he would, for a while, catching his metaphorical breath.

Another pause. "Where is it you were heading, Hiei?"

Hiei raised his gaze to Blue again, an almost calculating expression on his face.

"Nowhere."

"I'm unfamiliar with the place," Blue replied, almost flatly. He shook his head once, starting to turn. "Elsewhere I would be willing to take you in exchange for the time you spent helping me."

Hiei snorted. It was becoming more and more apparent that hanging out with Blue provided the best entertainment.

"I wouldn't be able to show it to you," he replied, now smirking. The unspoken part of that statement, of course, was that Hiei had no objections to Blue's company.

The faintest trace of a smile of reply started to show before something...wrong gripped at the Soldier. Something cold and empty and...

Blue's head tilted upwards, hands raised to the amplifiers. It was--

"Jomy."

"What," Hiei said cautiously, still unmoving. Could their enemy in the MAC have made a move?

"I--" Blue cut himself short, turning his head in the direction of their temporary home, sending out a call and receiving nothing. He tried twice more, his expression no longer the reserved mask that it tended to be. "Something's wrong. He's not--"

He had no explanation. Radiating with a glow, manners and pardons and farewells forgotten, he vanished, teleporting back to the dingy building where he and Jomy stayed. Dingy and empty.

"...Jomy?"

Only a few minutes passed before Hiei appeared at Blue's window, crouched in the frame. For good or ill, Blue's uncharacteristic disappearance had left him curious enough to investigate for himself.

He was there, kneeling on the ground at the far end of the sparse room, a hand outstretched and tilted to the small, blue mouse that whimpered inches away. No lights on and no one else, save for the two--now three. Blue himself looked stricken, lifting his head and glancing over at Hiei.

"Now Jomy is gone. Vanished."

Hiei transitioned from the window to the inside of the room, coming to stand behind Blue.

"Will it put your mind at ease if I look for him, too?"

Turning his head back down to Rain, Blue drew a slow breath as one does listening to something grave. The mouse had seen it happen, as he was seldom ever separate from Jomy. It was no ordinary teleport, certainly. "White light...fading. This wasn't his doing." He frowned to himself, letting Rain climb to his shoulder as he rose. Hands went back to the amplifiers, and when he called, there was a faint blue discharge with the effort, calling out for Jomy again.

He waited for a response, and minutes passed with nothing until he let his hands drop. "He would hear," he murmured, turning to look over his shoulder. "I'm sorry. Hiei, would you look? If something's happened--"

Hiei let his gaze drift as he let the Jagan feel around the City, searching for the less familiar but still known spirit aura of Jomy.

After a few minutes, his gaze snapped back to Blue.

"He's gone." A beat passed as Hiei's mouth twisted. This was one of those moments that required tact and he didn't really possess any...

"He probably also...you know."

He knew. Blue's frown deepened at the mention, moving for the first time since Hiei had begun his search. Aimless. Where was he to go? Jomy was gone. The strength and truest testament of his future was closed to him now, only alluded to by the closed-off words of Keith Anyan.

Rain made a sound, yanking him back to attention. For a second, he seemed lost and out of place before settling eyes back on Hiei, anchored. After a moment, he managed a quiet reply. "Thank you...for looking."

"I told you it was nothing."

Still, perhaps it was time to leave. He was no good at giving comfort. He started backing toward the window with that aim in mind.

"No," he said, eyes fixed and certain. "It was...a great thing. Not nothing." Saved from hours--maybe days of scouring and distress was no small thing to Blue, and though he still held seeds of doubt and anxiety, it was substantially less.

"Whatever you say." Hiei lingered in the window for a brief moment, favoring Blue with an odd look. What was it that made this human so enamored of him?...

"Try not to be too torn up about it. Most people come back."

And with that, he dropped out of the window, on to lesser things.

Despite intentions (or lack of them), the phrase gave little comfort. Blue watched the window for a moment before Rain took his attention again.

The building was very, very empty.

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