Chapter Text
April, 12008 - Bellforest, The United Federation of Predgio Towers
The blood on her fingers was stark against her pale skin.
It was the same color as her own blood, a deep, forbidding red, but Eureka knew it was different, no matter how similar it looked. A knot formed in the back of her throat, her teeth biting down on her lip, trying to stay in control, trying not to think of the past. Someone needed her just now; it was no time to dwell on unpleasant thoughts.
"Mama, it hurts," Linck sniffled, his dark cheeks wet with tears as he clutched at his arm. Already the handkerchief she'd wrapped around the wound ten minutes earlier was soaked with his blood, and she felt almost dizzy with the worry she'd been trying to ignore for the past half hour.
"I know, I'm sorry," she said, gripping his hand and trying not to panic. "But it'll be okay, I promise," she added, trying to sound like Renton.
I wish he was here, she thought anxiously. They'd both been summoned to the tower for work, but Eureka had managed to get permission for leave when the phone call came in from the school.
Less than twenty minutes later she was hurrying to the hospital with Linck seated next to her on a small transport, his face pale and his arm bloody; he'd fallen on a stray piece of LFO debris while playing. She parked in a rush and carried him in, too worried to overthink her actions.
"I have an emergency," she said as soon as she was face to face with the receptionist. "He's bleeding, it's a bad wound-"
"Wait, wait, hold on, miss," the woman said, not unkindly. She gave Eureka a reassuring smile and took a sheet of paper from a stack, fitting it onto a clipboard. "We'll get him looked at, don't worry. First, I'll need his name and age."
"Linck, 7 years old," she said out of habit.
"Last name?"
"Thurston," she said. The receptionist did a double take at the name and looked like she wanted to ask something, but in the end she shook her head slightly and continued to write on her clipboard.
"How did he get hurt?"
"He tripped and fell on an LFO part," she answered, trying to soothe the boy crying in her arms.
"And your relation to him, miss?"
"Mother," she said immediately, and the receptionist stopped writing to frown up at her.
"Do you have ID or any other form of documentation?" she asked suddenly.
"Oh... yes, right here," she said softly, reaching into her pocket for the small wallet she now carried everywhere. It wasn't the first time that someone seemed alarmed at the fact that she had children, but Eureka was never sure if it was because of her apparent age or something else.
She pulled out a small card and handed it to the woman, who she took one look at it and made a puzzled expression.
"Miss, I can't use this, it doesn't have an age or a last name on it."
"It's government issue," she said, clutching Linck to her chest. "Special clearance level three."
"But..."
"Please, call the tower if you have to, but he needs to be looked at!" She said urgently.
The woman stared at the little plastic card for a moment longer, and Eureka felt her heart sink as she realized the woman was clearly examining the photograph and reading the physical descriptions that followed, which proved that she wasn't wearing contacts to make her eyes almost red, or dye to make her hair seem blue. By now, she must have noticed that under "Race," the word "Coralian" followed.
"You're that girl from the news," she realized, giving her an odd look as she returned the card.
"Yes," Eureka said quietly, avoiding her gaze.
"I see." The woman finished writing something and then pointed at the chairs. "They'll call you when it's your turn, she said coolly. Eureka nodded, feeling a little faint.
"Thank you," she said softly, returning the card to her wallet and carrying Linck to the waiting area. She heard the woman pick up the phone on her desk and ask the operator for a link to the tower.
She tried not to think of the exchange as they waited, her fingers squeezing Linck's as reassuringly as she could. She should have been used to this by now; ever since she'd arrived in Bellforest, things had been different. She was glad for many of the changes; she lived with Renton and his grandfather now, and their children, and she was happy in her new home, even if she missed the people from Gekkostate and sometimes got homesick. But there were also much more difficult adaptations she'd had to make, and the world knowing about the existence of Coralians was one of them.
April, 2027 - Iwato Jima, Okinawa
He'd never been so ecstatic to feel physical pain. He'd scraped his knee and probably bruised both of his arms, but Ao didn't care. His hand shaking, he dug into the sand, letting it trickle beneath his fingers.
"I can touch it," he said aloud, his voice hoarse. "I can... I CAN TOUCH IT!" he shouted, running a hand through his wild blue hair, a mad sort of laugh escaping his lips. He almost wanted to throw himself on the ground, just to bask in the fact that somehow, somehow, he was alive, alive like he hadn't been in far too long.
"Fukai... Ao?"
Startled, he looked up at the sound of his name. He'd seen their IFOs less than an hour ago, but he hadn't dared to believe that it might be Elena and Fleur. Yet there they were, his former teammates, almost exactly the same as he remembered them.
Or at least, one of them was. Fleur Blanc was exactly the same as she'd been the last time he'd seen her in his own timeline, though perhaps she was a little taller than she'd been, a little more mature. Her blue eyes still sparkled the same, however, and she still wore her blond hair up in the same plait as always.
The other girl was a little strange. She reminded him of Elena, but there were obvious differences. This girl was white, her eyes hidden behind a pair of glasses. She seemed more serious than the Elena he remembered, than the dark-skinned girl he'd last seen in the Caribbean sea, though he supposed that made sense. That girl's path had been changed, the moment he took his mother's place and left her in her own time instead of warping her future. He supposed she would be an adult now, assuming she was still alive, so this new girl must have been the real Elena Peoples, the one his Elena displaced. She was a stranger, but there was still something painfully familiar about her.
He wailed like he'd never cried before, the tears streaming down his cheeks, his voice cracking from lack of use. He didn't care that he was being embarrassing, or that he was supposed to be made of stronger stuff than this. There was only so much a person could take, so much loneliness and pain before it overcame them.
For the first time in what must have been years, Ao finally felt like he'd come home, and he almost didn't care that it wasn't the same home he'd left behind.
Almost.
The doctor frowned as he examined the wound. Despite the fact that it had been cleaned thoroughly with alcohol, it was still bleeding profusely.
"He'll need stitches, it's fairly deep," he finally said, sighing. Linck was still crying, his hand clinging tightly to his mother's while he sat on the table. "And at this rate, we may need a blood transfusion."
"That serious?!" Eureka cried. "But he's still conscious-"
"It would only be a precaution. What's his blood type?"
"A positive," she said, and the doctor made a small groan. "That's in short supply," he muttered, looking over Linck's chart.
"Use my blood," she said immediately.
"You're compatible?"
"I... I should be," she hesitated.
"Should? You need very specific blood types to donate-"
She wanted to explain, to tell him that her blood was tested to work with all types of human blood, that it had been examined intensively over years of experimentation and that it was constantly adapting, changing to fit the proper situations. But she knew he wouldn't believe her, and if he did, he'd balk at the idea of transfusing alien blood into a boy. She wouldn't blame him if he did.
"M-my husband is a match," she said faintly. The doctor looked surprised for a moment, giving her a thoughtful look as his eyes were drawn back to the chart.
"Mother, huh..." he said to himself under his breath. He seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, but turned back toward her. "Can your husband come in for a transfusion?" the doctor finally asked.
"He's at... work," she said, unsure what to call it. "But they should let him come for an emergency."
"I see. Well, we'll try an intravenous and see if that's enough for now," the doctor said, sighing. "And you should test for your blood type, in case an emergency ever arises like this, ma'am."
"I... I will," she said, her fingernails digging into her palm.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd had real food. It tasted wonderful, even if he wasn't entirely sure what he was eating. His English had suffered from lack of use, and he found it wasn't as easy to understand what Fleur and the others were saying as it used to be. They were speaking a bit too fast for him to follow.
"What?" He asked, pausing with his fork halfway to his mouth as Fleur asked him something in rapid, accented English.
"Do you want something to drink?" she asked, more slowly.
"Oh. Uhm, water, please," he said, feeling a little self-conscious about his own accent. She smiled at him and signaled at the waiter.
"What language do you speak, Ao?"
He turned to see Elena looking at him curiously.
"Lan... Language?"
"You have an accent," she noted. "Mama said when she met you, you spoke in English, but like it wasn't your native language."
"Mama?" he asked, confused.
"Ellen Brooks," she explained, pulling out her phone. She showed him a picture of herself, flanked by two women. One was dark skinned and looked oddly familiar.
"Is that-?!" he exclaimed, snatching the phone and staring, wide eyed. It was definitely his Elena, the same dark skin, same playful amethyst eyes, same mischievous smile. But she was far older now, somewhere in her forties or fifties.
"She says you saved her in the Caribbean," Elena explained. "Over forty years ago."
"Ah... so she's still alive," he said, his voice thick with emotion. He handed the phone back, staring down at his plate. "Yeah, I... I remember her."
The two girls exchanged a look, obviously burning up with curiosity. In the end, however, Elena merely asked him the same question as before.
"So, what other languages do you know?"
"J-Japanese," he said, uncertain.
"Really?" Elena asked, curious. "You're from Earth? You were born here?"
The question hurt, but he tried not to show it.
"Yeah..."
"Hmm... You don't look Japanese," Fleur said, frowning slightly. "Actually, you don't look Asian at all."
A sharp pain went through his heart.
"You don't have to be Asian to be Japanese," he said stiffly. "Just like you don't have to be white to be European."
She blinked, surprised at his tone.
"Oh, uh, yeah, that's... that's true..."
"Besides, I'm not Japanese," he said, irritably stabbing at his food. "I'm Okinawan."
Even if I don't look it. Even if Anma and Dad are from an entirely different world, even if I'm not entirely human.
I'm still Okinawan. I'm still Fukai Ao.
For better or worse.