for Joe

[yellowlion]

I yawn, and turn the page. It's not that late, really. I shouldn't be tired. But the house is unusually quiet and I'm finding it incredibly hard to focus on these reports.

Oh, well. I sip my coffee, then pick up my red pen again and make myself concentrate.

Comments

[gibken]

I run until my body literally can't keep it going. No particular direction, no particular destination, just running, trying to outrun my own thoughts, the frightening feelings that have plagued me since Basco showed up dead on our doorstep. No, before that. It's been longer than that.

I collapse to hands and knees in the street, my stomach's roiling but nothing's happening. I didn't have dinner, after all. My head is pounding, and my throat hurts, and I'm sobbing brokenly. I need to get up, I need to go home and try to explain to Jou how there's something wrong with me. Out here in the middle of nowhere I recognize that I need help.

"Ohh la la," An unfamiliar voice purrs in front of me. "What have we here?"

I lift my head, but my eyes are still hazed with tears and it's dark enough that I can't see properly. "What-"

Something presses down over my lips. It's too thin to be a finger, never mind cold and slick. Like some kind of wire or electric cable. A weapon? "I think I could make some good use of you."

Whatever weapon he's using is longer than I thought, and he's good with it. It slips around my neck and tightens across my throat, and then-

[yellowlion]

I calm down gradually, a little. He left his phone and his henshin device thing. Mobirates, I think. He'll be back for both of them. He wouldn't go join the Gokaigers without his Mobirates, after all.

I pace. Twitch. Pace some more. I don't touch the blood on my knuckles. I head down to the little bench used mostly by Joe, and I do sit-ups until my muscles rebel, then I look at the clock.

Nearly half an hour.

I stand up.

He's -- he's not coming back.

I jerk into action. Car keys, phone so I can call people when I'm running around the school, the park, anywhere else I can think of that he might go.

[captainmarvelous]

Don brings me the phone, letting me know it's Jou, Joe's 'foster' father. I grumble at him only a little as I grab the phone from him.

I was in the middle of eating, damn it.

"What!?" I growl into the phone.

This had better be important.

[yellowlion]

"Joe's gone," I say far too quickly into the phone, with no preamble. Marvelous didn't use one either. I dodge down another corridor, towards the music classrooms. "He's not with you, is he?"

[captainmarvelous]

My hand tightens around the phone, my knuckles going white. "What do you mean he's gone?"

I'm already reaching for my Mobirates with my free hand so I can try and reach my wayward first mate that way.

[yellowlion]

"We had a fight and he bolted," I say tersely. Dammit. He's not there. I didn't think so, but hope's always plagued me.

[captainmarvelous]

"Did he take his Mobirates? His Ranger Key?"

Do you know anything you stupid fuck?

[yellowlion]

"Not a goddamn thing. He just ran."

I ball a fist and drive it into the wall next to me. Doesn't help.

[captainmarvelous]

"Fuck." I put my Mobirates away.

"He's not here." I finally supply, just in case that wasn't obvious. "Do you know where else he would have gone?"

[yellowlion]

"I've been looking. I'm telling everyone I know and they're all looking, too," I say, about ready to terminate the call. I have better manners than that normally, but he knows enough, he doesn't know where Joe is, and he can start looking now too.

[captainmarvelous]

"I'll have my Green sweep the area for any sign of him," I tip my chin to Don to make sure he heard me. "Call me if you find him."

Fuck.

[hotshotlightning]

It's been a busy day. After dragging Gamu back to his room and tipping him into bed to sleep it off, I'm glad to be back.

Not for the first time, Kazari's flap turns out to be the more convenient way in and I walk in that way. It takes a moment to register but then I recognise Joe's phone and henshin thing on the kitchen table and an uneasy chill runs down my spine.

"Joe? You around?" He has to be, he wouldn't just leave these lying around. "Joe?"

[yellowlion]

[ooc .....okay now you have to tell me what happened!]

I'm just back from my latest scout around. I've left a note in Joe's room to tell him to contact me, dammit, but nothing downstairs -- which was obviously stupid.

"He's not here," I say as I clatter down the stairs. "Tried to contact you, sorry."

[hotshotlightning]

[ooc, no clue. just a busy day, I guess]

I check my phone hurriedly and wince as I see the number of missed calls. Oops. "I was kinda busy," I say with a sigh. "Sorry. But where is he then? Why doesn't he have his phone or Mobirates?"

What if he needs them and doesn't have them?

[yellowlion]

[ooc: XD oh fine, we should play out more of that stuff]

I shake my head, walking swiftly to him to squeeze his shoulder lightly. "Not your fault. Didn't mean to sound accusatory, sorry." There's been more than enough of that in this house today already. "He... ah, hell, Katsumi. We had a fight. He walked out."

[hotshotlightning]

[Indeed. XD]

"It's fine." He looks worried, this can't be good.

...Oh. Oh, that's great. "What kind of fight?"

I can't believe he'd just walk out, though. It's so out of character.

[yellowlion]

I'm not going to get too far into the details. I don't want to make Katsumi take sides, or even make it sound like I want him to. "He asked me about some things from his past, and he didn't like my answers."

I rub my forehead. "I messed up, and now he's gone, but we'll get him back."

[hotshotlightning]

"He'll come back though, right?" Unless he went right back to the pirates... No, not with his Mobirates still here he didn't. Why would he leave without them, though, it's not a good time to be walking around defenceless out there, he knows that. What's going on with him?

[yellowlion]

"He will," I say fiercely, desperately. "But I don't know how soon, or in what shape. We have to find him."

[hotshotlightning]

Would JK know? I eye Joe's phone, wondering if I'd be crossing a line if I called his boyfriend looking for him.

"Kazari, maybe? He's good at the whole tracking thing, he might be able to find him faster."

[yellowlion]

I nod. "...yeah, you're right. I tried to get him too but I need to try harder."

I should've THOUGHT of that.

[hotshotlightning]

"Jou, breathe," I suggest, gripping his shoulders tightly to make him look at me. "You can't help Joe if you fall apart trying to do everything."

He always does this, blaming himself for everything. It's not productive and it won't get us Joe back any faster.

[yellowlion]

He grabs me by the shoulders, and I meet his eyes, astonished, then nod reluctantly.

He's right. I guess.

"I can indulge in guilt later," I mutter.

[hotshotlightning]

...Huh, would you look at that, it worked.

"Right, focus on helping now, feel guilty later. Okay? So what're we doing now?"

I've been scientist wrangling all day, what's a bit more? Even if it is my dad this time instead of Gamu.

[yellowlion]

"Working out where to look next, I guess," I manage. "And who else to contact."