Night's Omen

There was very little in the world that frightened Kenji Matsumori.  Thunderstorms were one of those things.  Losing his partner (and only real friend), Erik Lucio, was another. 

Not that he'd admit to any of this, naturally.

No, rather than acting the concerned and relieved friend, Kenji was ribbing Erik with that dry, deadpan humor of his.  Part of this was to keep Erik awake and coherent during the flight back, and then the drive back to the guildhouse.  Mostly, it was to cover for the fact that Kenji had just about fainted from shock when he heard about Erik's sudden disappearance in China. 

The rescue mission had gone well.  No more lives were lost than really necessary, and no Crimson lives were lost at all.  It was a roaring success-- no pun intended.  All except one, teeny-tiny, little detail:

Erik was infected. 

If he survived, he would be turning into a tiger on a semi-regular basis.  Kenji was surprisingly okay with this.  Tigers were very powerful and important animals in Asian mythology and spiritual beliefs.  As a raven himself, Kenji couldn't really fault him for becoming a shifter, either.  So the tiger thing was totally kosher.  The "nearly getting himself killed" thing, not so kosher.

"We may be seeing you in the pool more often," Kenji remarked.  "Tigers are the only big cats that really enjoy swimming."  He'd been tossing out "helpful" little tidbits of trivia like this the entire trip back.  "Perhaps you will be inclined to bathe more often, as well."

Sitting in the car listening to Kenji rib him about his unfortunate illness, it occurred to Erik for the umpteenth time since they'd left China that he would rather be sleeping.  He was exhausted, starving and still had a raging fever, though he'd been assured that the fever and other sickly symptoms would fade as the infection finished its business.  He'd also been informed that it was much too late for an attempt at an antidote, and that trying it now would only draw out the infection taking root.  He didn't want to draw this out at all, so he was stuck with just letting it run its course.

He was apparently stuck with Ken in 'helpful mode', as well.

Every time he thought he was going to manage falling asleep in his seat, which had been on many, MANY occasions already, Ken would start talking again, drawing him away from the blessed sleep.  He could only assume that Ken was worried about him, but it didn't exactly sound that way.  He just hoped his partner would let him sleep when they got to the guildhouse, when there was a doctor not all that far away.  It didn't even occur to him that Ken might have been doing it to cover up his prior fear of Erik being dead.  It also didn't occur to him that he might not survive.  He'd been fairly sure, even when he wasn't coherent, that the point hadn't ever been to kill him, and he remembered being fed, although vaguely.  Dying wasn't in his plans for the day, anyway.

"I bathe often enough," he returned, narrowing his eyes at his partner.  Of course, he hadn't exactly been squeaky clean when the rescue mission showed up, but that was almost to be expected.  Under normal conditions, he showered all the time. 

"You'll probably catch me in the pool as often as I see you perched over someone's fireplace squawking gloomy poetry," he added, rolling his eyes and settling back into his seat.  The topic of being a tiger was still sore, though Ken seemed set on drumming the idea into his head until it stuck without pissing him off.  He was afraid to wonder if it was working.  At least he wasn't treating the subject like the plague, though.  That'd have been worse, he thought.

It was a good sign that Erik was coherent enough to return fire.  Kenji would have been even more worried about him if he'd stayed silent, or managed to sleep despite the smaller man's attempts to keep him talking.  He knew Erik was a tough cookie, and that he'd ride out this infection just fine, but having the evidence for himself was still a comfort.

Being the prick he could sometimes be, Kenji continued with his encyclopedic recitations as if Erik hadn't spoken at all.  "Tigers can reach lengths of thirteen feet, and weigh nearly six hundred pounds," he provided helpfully.  "In captivity, they eat between ten to twenty-five pounds of meat and bone per day.  In the wild, however, they are known to gorge themselves on up to one hundred pounds of food, then fast for several days after."

Kenji considered this last factoid for a moment before adding in a perfectly serious tone:

"You will need a very large litterbox."

Ken may have thought that his tiger trivia was helpful, but all Erik seemed to think of it was that it was pushing the fact that he wasn't human anymore.  Of course, he knew he wasn't, but that didn't mean he wanted all these reminders.  He didn't want to know anything about the animal form that had changed his whole life. 

Actually, all he wanted right then was some sleep. 

He wasn't even worried about food, which was actually surprising.  Normally, he'd have been starving after such a long plane ride, but he wasn't.  He wasn't going to say anything, especially after Ken's factoids about tiger eating habits, since that would only encourage his partner to continue.  He'd been delirious during most of his initial 'stay' in that chinese cell, not to mention on edge because he HATED confined spaces, and he vaguely remembered that he'd been fed.  He just wasn't going to focus on what.

"Shut up," he retorted instead.  Not very witty, but it was all he had right then.

"Sorry, Lucio.  I cannot shut up.  You might fall asleep, and until we get you into Doc Mitchell's care, I cannot allow that to happen," Kenji informed him solemnly, though he didn't really sound sorry at all.  "Besides, this information will be useful to you when you start shifting.  Are you hungry right now?  I have some food with me." 

He dug around in a duffle bag on the seat beside him, producing a bag of Doritos.  One of Erik's favorite snacks.  Waving it under Erik's nose, he said, "You should try to eat something.  The infection is running its course, but it will leave your body weakened for a time."  Granted, Doritos weren't super healthy, but calories were calories at this point.  Anyway, they'd feed him a proper meal back at the guild house.

Ken seemed to be missing the point.  Erik wanted him to shut up so that he COULD sleep.  He figured that if he'd survived as long as he already had like this, sleeping when he felt like it, it wouldn't hurt now.  If he died, then he died.  Oh well.  At least he wouldn't need to hear anything else about tigers from Ken.

Speaking of which, how the hell did Ken know all that about them?

He would have asked, since it was a worthwhile question, except that Ken was dangling a bag of Doritos in front of him all of a sudden.  Taco flavored, his favorite.  He had to wonder why Ken was carrying those around with him, but didn't bother to ask.  Ken was saying something about eating, and that was the last thing he wanted to do, even if he could always make room for Doritos. 

"I'm not hungry," he said simply, pushing the bag away.  He could have been nicer and said 'no, thanks' or something, but Ken wasn't exactly being all that nice, either.  He could have let Erik sleep instead of trying to stuff him full of snack food.  "They didn't starve me, you know."

Of course, a LOT of time had passed between his last 'meal' in that cell and him sitting in Ken's car.  There'd been awhile since he ate before Ken showed up with the rescue team, then a visit with a supernatural-based doctor, time waiting for a plane, the actual plane ride (which took FOREVER) and now the car ride.  He just wasn't hungry, though. 

Kenji stared at Erik.  Then, dropping the bag of Doritos into Erik's lap, he pointed with his now-empty hand right at Erik's nose.  His eyes were very wide, the dark circles from lack of sleep accenting them like khol.  "I was correct," he rasped, nearly whispering.  "You must be fasting right now."

Returning to his normal expression and position on the car seat, he pulled another package from his duffle bag; this one was full of gummy peach rings.  He tore them open with his teeth, then plucked each ring carefully from the plastic bag using only his thumb and forefinger, chewing each one slowly to savor the sugary goodness. 

"You may keep the Doritos for later," he offered generously, as an afterthought.

There were times when Kenji actually managed to either startle or creep Erik out.  Those moments weren't terribly common, but they existed.  When Ken dropped the bag of chips and pointed, his voice all raspy and his eyes looking creepy, Erik was both a little startled and creeped out.  Then, he realized what Ken said, and the creepy factor was gone in favor of indignation.

Well, at least Ken still had him awake.

He pushed the bag back in the direction of the duffel bag it had been unearthed from, and managed to look insulted.  "I am not fasting.  I'm just not hungry.  I'm allowed to not be hungry after being kidnapped, infected with shapeshifter blood that feels like some crazy jungle virus, and kept in a damp stone pit for however the hell long that was while my brain boiled and those crazies babbled about spirits."

Cranky?  Why, yes, what made you guess? 

Erik didn't get sick often, so it wasn't like he took it all that well.  If it wasn't as bad as it currently was, he usually just toughed it out and went on with life.  Right then, he wanted to keel over for a few days, and Ken was going to accuse him of some crazy thing he'd seen on Animal Planet, or something. 

"Dude, no more TV for you.  Animal Planet is making you weirder than usual."

Kenji quirked one of his tiny, barely-there smiles that meant he was really amused by Erik's reaction.  The fasting thing had probably been a joke, but it was hard to tell with Kenji sometimes.  Sometimes he was creepy on purpose.

"Discovery Channel, but let's not split hairs," he corrected mildly.  "You may want something to eat later, after the Doc checks you over and you've had some rest.  Depending on what form you wake up in, I'll have your steak cooked accordingly."

Erik would have tried to think of some snappy comment to respond to Ken's remark about the steak, but it brought up a good point regarding shifting.  He wasn't just going to wake up like that, was he?  God, that'd be disorienting, and freaky, for the first one.  No way that'd happen.  Would it?  He couldn't remember any stories of a shifter's first time (wow, that sounded wrong), so he didn't know if they'd just randomly change shapes.

Speaking of sounding wrong, this had better not affect his sex life.

"I'm going to start getting birdseed for you if you don't shut up," he finally shot back, though the pause was enough to either prove that he wasn't up to par, or that he was thinking way too much on this issue.  It was actually both, but a normal person wouldn't have realized that.  Unfortunately for Erik, Ken would.  Ken noticed way too much.

"You don't pay much attention, Lucio," Kenji chided, sounding disappointed in his partner.  "Ravens are not seed-eaters.  We are carrion birds.  However, I do not recommend going out to find me some nice juicy roadkill, as sweet as the gesture might be."

Erik's long pause before his fairly weak retort, however, clued Kenji in to his partner's state of mind.  This tiger thing was seriously bothering him.  Kenji couldn't fathom why; after all, being a shifter was fantastic.  Once you got control over your shifting abilities, anyway.  Ah, perhaps that was the problem.

"Do not worry so much.  It will not take long for you to master your changing forms.  You may even enjoy being a tiger."  It was about as comforting as Kenji got.  He sort of spoiled it a second later by adding, "However, it is ironic that you have a dragon tattoo on the inside of your left arm.  The dragon and tiger in Eastern mythology were always opposing forces."

"You better hope I'm feeling forgiving when I feel well enough to drive again, or you might end up as roadkill yourself," he retorted, sinking into his seat somewhat.  He felt like shit on a stick, if he was going to at least be honest with himself, and the banter really wasn't enough to distract for long.  Naturally, the tiger thing was bothering him.  Ken may have been a bird from birth, but Erik was pretty comfortable as a human.  It was even worse that it hadn't even been an accident.  This had been a deliberate move on the part of the crazies.  It wasn't like he'd killed the tiger and they'd bled on each other.  He'd been bled out and purposely given shifter blood.  That made it a whole new level of fucked up. 

"Guess I'm just all kinds of balanced, then," he muttered, letting his eyes flutter shut.  Maybe if he kept responding right up until he actually passed out, Ken would be focused enough on driving that he wouldn't notice.  It was a long shot, given how observant Ken was, but it was worth the try.

Not that they had long to drive yet.  The airport was an obnoxious distance from the guildhouse, but it couldn't have been much more than an hour.  Time was just dragging for him.

"Your empty threats amuse me," Kenji told him frankly.  He knew Erik would never try to run him down, no matter how much he annoyed his partner.  Especially since it was Kenji that had saved his ass in China (with some help, but who cared about minor details?). 

Out of the corner of his eye, the raven could see that his friend was nodding off, despite his best efforts to discourage this.  They only had a few more minutes to go before reaching the guild house, and the road was empty of other cars for as far as the eye could see (and for a raven-shifter, that was pretty far indeed).  Without warning, he swerved his Kia sharply left, then right, before straightening out again. 

"Do try to stay awake a little longer," he insisted, his polite words undercut by the sharpness in his voice.  "If you sleep now, it will be next to impossible to wake you again, and I do not wish to carry you into the infirmary-- much less so if you happen to become a thirteen-foot-long, six hundred pound tiger during your nap.  We are nearly there."

He had ACTUALLY started to doze!! That meant sleep!!  How exciting!

Right up until Ken started jerking the steering wheel around, which had Erik sitting bolt upright and clutching at the 'oh shit handle' above his door with one hand and the dashboard with the other.  They were alive, nobody was careening towards them, and driving straight and sure.

"I'm gonna kill you, you asshat," he snarled, wondering if it was possible for Ken to SHOCK him into shifting prematurely.  That'd serve the fucker right.  Of course, he didn't much want to shift at all, so that still left him doing something he didn't want to.  The thought that he might suddenly wake up as a huge cat kind of scared him, though not enough to keep him from sleeping.

His adrenaline pumping was, though.  He settled back into his seat, but didn't start to doze again immediately.  He'd have to slow his heart rate again after that.

Well, at least it got Erik awake.  "You will pardon me if I do not suspend my disbelief," Kenji told him dryly.  Erik's death threats were usually more creative, but Kenji forgave him, since he was sick and all.  It was a lucky thing they were almost at the guild house.  Kenji was starting to think that nothing short of a real crash would wake his partner if he dozed off again.

"Look; there's the guild house."  Never had Kenji seen such a beautiful sight.  He pulled up right at the curb and opened the door for Erik.  What a gentleman.