Destination, Part 6 (second of a double post!)

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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Destination Part 6

    Yuki entered Hatman's office with the phrase 'I wonder how he took it' in her mind. Fortunately she was a farily good judge of body language, and easily determined that Jay Boaz was still oblivious to what Liu Xi had done. He was still able to concentrate on work, and wasn't slouched or distracted. Until he noticed Yuki walking toward him, that is.

    "Did you--" Jay began, intent on asking her something about Lair Legion business.

    Before he finished the sentence Yuki slapped a folder onto his desk. "Jay, I've been keeping organized records for a long time. It's part of the P.I. biz. So if you're smart you won't ever ask me if I finished my paperwork."

    Jay nodded, dismissing the point without argument. "I guess you talked to Liu Xi last night before I got there. Did she tell you anything?"

    Yuki stood close to him and leaned back against the desk, arms folded. "You know better than to ask me questions like that."

    He shrugged. "I know, but...she seemed afraid to tell me something. I thought maybe if I knew...she might be relieved that she doesn't have to tell me, and I can help her."

    "Trust me, the only person who can help Liu Xi is Liu Xi. It's just something she has to work through. Leave it at that, okay? Because if you obsess over discovering her secret I've been authorized to distract you."

    "Distract me how? Taking me on a high-speed flight like you did with Visionary won't work on me." Jay punctuated that with a knowing smirk.

    Yuki raised an eyebrow and looked down at Jay sitting in the chair for a moment. She then slid sideways onto his lap, gently slid her arms over his shoulders, and kissed him sensually for a full minute or so. When she moved her face away from his she laughed when he abruptly fell backward into the chair for a moment as if he didn't expect the seperation. "Now you have something new to think about," she said as she rose and headed out of the room quietly.

    It seemed to work well enough that he didn't even see that Liu Xi had entered the office until she spoke.

    "I think I know what I have to do," she said quietly. She was carrying a duffel bag which she dropped on the floor next to the desk. She said nothing about what she saw or didn't after entering.

    "What's in there?" Jay asked, reaching for the bag.

    "It's a surprise." Liu Xi pulled it just out of his reach with her foot.

    "Are you feeling better with a good night's sleep?" Jay asked.

    "I didn't sleep that well," she replied quietly. She wasn't shaking or upset anymore but her voice still sounded a little distant.

    Jay instinctively stood and hugged Liu Xi gently. This time he was surprised that she hugged him back instead of standing there like a stone sculpture as she did the night before.

    Liu Xi seperated from him and took a step back. "You smell like Yuki," she noted. She looked him up and down and added, "and you seem to have enjoyed that kiss a lot."

    Jay flushed for a moment and quickly said, "Sorry, she was just--" He calmed when he remembered that Liu Xi wasn't so easily disturbed by those situations. "She is kind of attractive. You're not jealous of what you saw, are you?"

    "No, I gave up on that. I...wouldn't have had a chance," she noted, looking away from him for a moment. She took that opportunity to move the duffel bag farther away.

    "What do you mean?" Jay asked, curious about the way she phrased that.

    Liu Xi shrugged. "I'm too small and not very exciting."

    Jay was stunned into silence, wondering just where she came up with that. He then realized the answer to his own question. "What did Dream tell you?"

    "He said you like girls who are...bigger," she replied.

    He was still confused. "Taller you mean?"

    "Yes." Liu Xi nodded. "Taller and--" She made a nearly covert sweeping motion with her hand over her chest, though less to be discreet and more because she wasn't sure how to put together the words not to sound rude. "Zdenka is...perfect in that way. Yuki is your type also."

    "That's what Dream thinks?" Jay mumbled to himself, wondering if it was his own fault for giving that impression or if Dream said that to Liu Xi just to annoy him. He began to think about Whitney and Chiaki and started to feel a little embarrassed, wondering if it was coincidence or if it was indeed a pattern.

    "Anyway--" Liu Xi nudged the duffel back with her foot. "I've done something terrible, and I hope this begins to make it right. It's something I want to give to your friend Mac."

    "Mac Fleetwood?" Jay asked.

    She nodded. "For his shelter and feeding place for the poor. I want you to give it to him but not look inside."

    "Okay," he agreed. "In fact, we can go now."

    "Don't you want to kiss Yuki some more?" Liu Xi teased.

    "Just go," Jay ordered as he quickly herded her out of the office, following her to close the door as they left.


---

    Liu Xi was impressed that they still had a car left after all the battles and disasters the Lair Legion had been through. It wasn't a particularly special car, but it was new enough and in good shape enough to get around.

    Jay was driving, she sat in the passenger seat with the duffel bag bunched onto her lap. She didn't say much during the short drive to Mac Fleetwood's place in a quite seedy neighborhood. It was a short trip because of one of the benefits of the ongoing threat of the Parody Master - the streets just weren't as busy as they once were. People went out only if they needed to, not as much just for fun.

    As soon as the car stopped, it started raining hard. It had been raining at the mansion too, and Liu Xi was starting to feel like it was following her. She and Jay had to race for the entrance of the building, a small door with bars attached to it to thwart break-ins.

    There was an interesting philisophical conflict at that point, because the door was locked. An unwelcome site, but then there was an awning above the door protecting the two of them from being soaked while Jay rang the doorbell and waited.

    The door opened a minute later, and Mac greeted Jay enthusiastically. He then greeted Liu Xi in a more reserved manner, but just as friendly.

    Jay spoke first when Mac assked why they decided to visit so early. "Liu Xi says she wants to give you something for the shelter," he said. "She won't show me what it is."

    "Come on in, step into my office." Mac stepped aside and led the two of them into the building, turning on lights as he went. Most of the building was dark and silent.

    A moment later they were inside his office, and he closed the door after they entered. "What have you got there Miss?" Mac asked.

    Liu Xi lifted the duffel bag and placed it on the desk. Mac looked inside...there was a couple thousand dollars tucked away inside. He picked up a bundle of them and looked at Jay, and then Liu Xi. "Where did you get this?"

    Jay had the same question. He looked at Liu Xi.

    "It's money people have been paying me for small things, and as gifts," she replied. "It's everything I have. I saved it all, and now it is for you."

    "No, no...we can't let you do this--" Jay began.

    "I told you," she interrupted him impatiently. "I've done something terrible, and I want to do something good to feel better." And in a more gentle voice, "I have friends who take care of me. I don't need the money right now."

    "Are you sure you want to do this, young lady?" Mac asked. "This is a lot of money to give away if you're not rich."

    "No, I don't think--" Jay began.

    "Let her decide for herself, Jay," Mac scolded him suddenly. "Maybe to her, this is the first step on the road to finding herself."

    Jay looked at Liu Xi, who nodded slowly. "Okay, but do me a favor, Mac. Put it in a safe deposit for a few days in case she changes her mind."

    "I won't," Liu Xi replied stubbornly.

    "Yeah, for you I can do that." Mac nodded. He zipped up the duffel bag and set it aside. "I could use a ride to the bank. I've never carried this much to the bank and...well, this neighborhood--"

    "I can do that." Jay led the way outside, Liu Xi following closely and Mac lagging behind as he paused to lock the doors and turn off the lights.

    Liu Xi seemed to be perfectly quiet and composed in the back seat of the car as Mac and Jay chatted away in the front seat, all the way to the bank and back to the shelter.

    It was only after Mac was dropped off, and Liu Xi moved to the front seat, that she couldn't hold back her thoughts and feelings anymore and she started crying quietly.

    "If you regret giving away all that money--" Jay began.

    "No, no." Liu Xi wiped her damp eyes with her sleeve and tried to calm herself again. "It's that...we're so good together. I'm going to miss that."

    Jay's smile disappeared and he looked at her for a moment, both a little curious and a little shocked at what she said. He hoped it was just because she still had a weak grasp on the English language sometimes.

    "When you learn the truth of what I've done," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "I'm afraid we won't be friends like this anymore." She put her sleeve across her face to cover the fact that she was crying again. "And I would deserve it," she added in broken speech.

    Jay had pulled over and stopped the car by then. He hugged Liu Xi gently with one arm. He was starting to realize that whatever Liu Xi did, it had to indeed be horrible for her to cry so much. She usually faced problems with strength and a little stubbornness.

    "I don't think anything can be bad enough for me to desert you," he reassured her. "Dream and I had a huge falling out and we're friends again. I never liked Dominic but we get along okay now. Joe Pepper and I were never friends, and he murdered Exemplary but we still get along and work together."

    He didn't notice till he stopped talking that at some point during that last sentence he could see a flash of horror in Liu Xi's usually warm brown eyes, and she was shaking again. He began to suspect what she might have been talking about - having to do something horrible to survive while stranded in Comic Book Limbo with Exu, the god of murder. He started to feel lightheaded, and repeated in his mind that he had no proof of what he suspected until she told him.

    Without speaking another word, Jay started driving again. Liu Xi began to calm herself again, and she stared out the side window but didn't speak either.

    "It's what you think," Liu Xi whispered quietly as the car headed down the narrow driveway to the Lair Mansion. "It's exactly what you think."

    Jay felt all the blood rush to his head and his extremities go cold. He turned around to face Liu Xi, who was looking away. And now it was him who was shaking. So much so that he clipped the doorframe of the Lair Mansion garage with the car's passenger side mirror on the way in. Liu Xi shrieked at the noise.

    He thought about launching into an angry tirade once the car was damaged, of cursing in English at Liu Xi as much as she sometimes cursed at him in Chinese, if that was even possible. But then he saw her bundled into the corner of the passenger seat, shaking again but trying to appear composed. The poor girl was so destroyed by what she'd done she could barely function anymore. She was at home now, but as terrified every moment as she was in Comic Book Limbo.

    Jay also had his own anger to deal with. But was it righteous anger or selfish anger? His visits to Mac always left him questioning that sort of thing, especially since Liu Xi was with him...and she made a very extreme gesture to try and redeem herself. And from the look of her, it wasn't nearly enough. That spoke volumes about her conscience.

    "Liu Xi," he whispered almost absent-mindedly as the two exited the car. "I enjoy your company but...I need to be alone for a little while. To think."

    Liu Xi was secretly biting her lip, trying not to cry or shake as she nodded. She would have to save the rest for when she was alone in her room. She only hoped Jay would be able to bear looking at her, or being friends with her, after that.


TO BE CONTINUED?

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, and may not be
-- reprinted without permission.
-- Liu Xi Xian, Yuki Shiro, Lara Night, Chiaki Bushido (Psychic Samurai) (C) 2006 by Jason Froikin, all rights reserved
-- All other characters property of their respective owners

Post By Anime Jason Sun Dec 24, 2006 at 12:14:31 pm EST	Subject Destination, Part 6 (second of a double post!)

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