The Return! Private to one Ziggy Stardust. And Ziggy's parents, maybe, why not.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

On borders on Nexus, maybe, whenever that might be, or maybe in some forest, there's suddenly something up in the sky. A giant robot, mostly white. And giant is not an euphemism for slightly big, there, he's really giant, alright? Yeah.

The robot... he lands on the ground, and stops.

Suddenly, at the foot of the robot, an ethereal White Lion appears. Yea, literally. It's not a familiar sight, and he won't feel familiar to anyone who comes by. But he'll feel ancient, to anyone who comes by. Yes, no mind abilities needed for that. He'll just give that impression by his very being.

Ancient one.

And he can be seen. He looks like he's made simply of light, or maybe of something even far more ethereal. He's intensely white-blue and is glowing. Anyone who comes by can see him. He strolls around, seeming to be waiting for something.

After perhaps an hour or three, said something does happen, apparently.

Something shimmers, at the foot of the robot, blue-white light shimmers. Finally, the light forms a silhoutte, at first, of a man, perhaps.

And keeps forming, slowly. It might take a few more moments.

The White Lion meanwhile, now, as this strange probably to any onlookers if there be any, light show commence, jumps swiftly onto the giant robot, and disappears.

All that stays behind is said giant robot, and also, at the foot of it, the slowly forming... person, man, it's apparent now. One with a multitude of feelings. Might feel familiar. Very, very familiar.

Comments

[somekindofspaceuncle]

Sorry, he's quite asleep. Though he might know what she's said after waking up.

And he wakes up soon.

"I never meant to leave."

[sordiddetails]

She's braided a flower crown and has it wrapped up in her hair by the time he wakes up.

She sighs when he comments. "Ziggy has taken your absence hard. He spent days searching for you before he gave up."

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Can I go see him...? Please?"

"Or. Does he no longer wish to see me...? If seeing me would just upset him, I'll wait."

"It's fine if he never forgives me, for having left him. I just want-"

Sigh.

"I just wanna see him again."

[sordiddetails]

"We can go to him." She stands up and closes her eyes against what she has to tell Hiroki.

"He's in bad shape. About a week after he spoke to Shiro he overdosed. That was the first of three or four times." It's probably hard for the man to hear and she understands. "He hasn't wanted to talk. I'm not sure if he's been trying to drown out the pain, commit suicide, lock himself in his memories, maybe all of them. He's not eaten in weeks either an lost weight."

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Tell me how I can help. Please. I'll do anything!"

[sordiddetails]

"I should take you to him." She mentions and holds out her hand to him.

She leads him to her, and Tom's, house. They find Tom sitting at the bedside reading in the spare bedroom. Ziggy is in the bed under a silk sheet. His skin is ashen white and there are dark circles under his eyes. The lack of food has sunken his cheeks in some. He looks sickly and weak but sleeping soundly.

"How is he?" Aletayria asks. Tom looks up to answers but he soon scowls when he sees Hiroki. He doesn't want to but it is the gut instinct.

"He's not been awake yet." Tom forces a smile at the young man because he doesn't want to isolate him.

"It's good you're here." He addresses Hiroki before standing. "you should spend some time with him."

Aletayria touches Hiroki's arm and whispers telepathically. "Forgive him. He's the one that found our son when he was unconscious the last time."

[somekindofspaceuncle]

Right now, major Tom could've probably shot Hiroki and the young man wouldn't have noticed. Mentally, he's laser focused on Ziggy.

He kneels at his bedside and looks like he's not planning to move from there, come hell or high water, until Ziggy wakes.

[ziggyplayedguitar]

Aletayria sympathizes with the young man's position. She had imagined, at times, something happening to Tom in space. "If you need anything, let us know."

And then they leave Hiroki with Ziggy. He's unconcious but still aware, like when the mice came. He feels the shift and the arrival of something familiar, however, all he can do is grumble. Though he does appear to be waking up.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

Hiroki's not saying a thing, just waiting with a bated breath. Maybe this is all in his head, maybe he's only imagining that Ziggy's waking up, after all.

He's still naked, but if you asked him, he wouldn't even remember that unimportant detail right now. Well, he might have Aletayria's shawl on himself.

[ziggyplayedguitar]

It takes awhile before Ziggy's eyes open, blinking at Hiroki like he's a mirage. The eyes are not the ones Hiroki is used to seeing. Ziggy is without his contact lens, but the colors are the same, the right bright turquoise and the left a deeper turquoise. Both eyes have slit pupils like his mother.

"Hiroki?" He speaks with disbelief and then nervously reaches out. He's not sure what to make of the dead being here.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Ziggy," he says, reaching out, too, with his left arm, his only arm that is, and taking Ziggy's hand gently, staring right at these eyes he's just seeing, "Ziggy. Ziggy. Ziggy."

"I, uhm--- the White Lion made me a body. Pretty spiffy, huh? Er, that's the lingo in your time, isn't it? I read books, I'd know. Hmm, no. I didn't read those books. But I have them read."

Also, speaking of bodies, still naked safe for the shawl.

[ziggyplayedguitar]

Ziggy touches him like he's not real, or might disappear. He just stares at thier hands, fingers intertwined, now he's forgotten to blink. He don't understand.

"He said you were dead." Ziggy is trying to sit up. He's naked under the blankets too. It was merely convenience to heave him that way when he had been vomiting so much after overdosing.

He's feeling weak but clambering to sit up, to be closer. "Hiroki?"


He can't believe it, wants to but it feels so surreal.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Because I was. I am? It's complicated. Let's say I was reborn? Thanks to Shiro, and thanks to the White Lion, and thanks to Atlas. And so-- I am... well, I am. Here."

"Ziggy. Ziggy."

He's not moving, just gripping Ziggy's hand a bit harder.

[ziggyplayedguitar]

If he doesn't help Ziggy is going to fall out of the bed as he tries to pull himself into Hiroki's arms.

His mind had been quiet but it's starting to wake up. The paladin will surely feel it. There's fear and uncertainty but it is quickly being replaced with love, excitement, and joy.

"You're not dead?" Ziggy repeats. He's still having a hard time believing it after the weeks of believing he was dead.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"'m not dead now, Ziggy."

"Hey. Hey, Ziggy. Take it easy. You've worried Mother and Father a lot, you know. That's rude of you."

He leans closer and kisses Ziggy's forehead. Utterly real Hiroki Shirogane here, with all the familiar contents. Though he can also surely feel something about him, some ancient energy, unfamilliar one to Ziggy yet, woven through Hiroki, almost like stitches holding Hiroki together. But all that there, all the inside, apart from that, is truly Hiroki, the one he knows.

[ziggyplayedguitar]

The kiss to his forehead makes him shake and he clings to Hiroki. He gets his arm around Hiroki's neck and won't let go.

"I..." Ziggy starts but he's lost in the feeling of touch. "I..didn't want to be awake anymore when you were gone."

He's not saying it directly because he wasn't actively trying but there's still an undertone of suicide in his words. Ziggy didn't want to die, but he also didn't want to be awake either.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"That's fine. I'm here now. Okay? So, you have to take care of yourself. Understood? And then I'll always be here. Always."

[ziggyplayedguitar]

If he can manage it, Ziggy is going to crawl right into Hiroki's lap and huddle himself against his chest. He's a mess from thinking Hiroki was dead. It broke something he needs to rebuild.

"I need you here."

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Okay. Okay. Ziggy. Just promise you'll care for yourself, too. Listen, okay? You've gotta promise me that. You've gotta promise me that you won't overdose, ever again, Ziggy. Promise me."

Hiroki says it quietly, but like an order. It sounds like an order, like an ultimatum, almost. It's just... the thought of Ziggy, doing that... so, he...

Well...

"Ziggy, promise me."

[ziggyplayedguitar]

"I'll try." It's all he can do right now. Promise to try. He knew he was going to die anyway, to save the Earth. However, the desire to die is fading.

"I'll try." He repeats again.

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Ziggy..."

"Alright, Ziggy."

Hiroki closes his eyes, leans closer and kisses him most gently. He's crying. He's also glowing a bit. Just a thing that might happen, sometimes, now. Blue-whitish light. It's warm.

[ziggyplayedguitar]

Ziggy falls desperately into that kiss. He thought he'd never touch them again, never feel his presence. Ziggy can't help the tears from his own emotions and the flood of them from his partner.

"Hiroki, I love you." Ziggy whispers when the kiss finally breaks. "I need you."

[somekindofspaceuncle]

"Don't be silly, you don't need me at all, Ziggy. You can have anything you want, anywhere. You can have the moon. You don't need me. You don't need some reforged leftovers. But if you want me, I'm here. I'm here, Ziggy. Ziggy, do you want me? If you want me, I'm yours. Whatever it takes. No matter what you do, or say, and how many you love, and even if you love others more than you love me. It's fine. I'm yours, if you want me, if you want me even a little. Yours, Ziggy."

Hiroki's still glowing, hasn't really noticed it yet. He smiles softly.

[ziggyplayedguitar]

Hiroki's words take his breath away and turn the relatively happy tears to sad sobbing. Ziggy starts pulling away to climb back in the bed. After what he'd experienced being forcibly told he doesn't need Hiroki is painful.

"Maybe I should have died." He needs away from Hiroki, sorrow and rejection flaring wildly in his emotions. "...if you don't...if you still think you mean nothing to me."

Ziggy really wants to just shrink away into nothing. It's true that he wants him but if the careening into drug laden despair taught ziggy anything, it was that he truly needed this man in his life. Not just want, needed. To have that so bluntly rejected felt crushing.

Sorry in advance... :( ... pffftt

[somekindofspaceuncle]

Oh, no. Ziggy can probably feel sudden and utter despair and self-loathing in Hiroki right now, surely pretty palpable.

Hiroki leans closer. And that bluish-whitish light evelopes Ziggy a bit, too.

And Ziggy can suddenly see memories, fragmented... with a feeling like watching those particular ones through the fog, or through prison bars, or through a veil purposefully put over by someone, back then, but the memories are there, and they're strong. And full of pain. <>Sorry.<> But Hiroki doesn't know he's practically broadcasting them, fragments of painful memories, right now.

Hiroki doesn't know Ziggy's seeing this right now.

So while this is happening there, there's just this feeling that Hiroki feels he's hurting somebody he loves, again. Hurting his beloved right now just as he's hurt his little brother or something else. Just causing suffering to--

So while this is happening there, he leans closer.

"Ziggy, Ziggy, I'm sorry. Ziggy. Alright. I love you. I truly do. I don't know when I've started to fall in love with you? When I saw you? Maybe later? But, that's not important. Now, I love you. I love you. I mean, like a lover. And more. More. I wanted ---- no, I'm fine with waiting. Alright. Listen. I love you. Listen. Fine. You need me. Fine. As long as you need me, I'm here. Ziggy, please. You can need me if you... need to... I just... I shall stay here, forever. Forever."

He's honest. With all of his mind and soul.

"Well, you can die if you want to. I'll just kill myself, if you do. At once. I, I love you. Ziggy! Fine, you need me. And I need you, you can't even-- I can't even-- I need you. I need you, Ziggy. That's why-- that's why!"

He stops glowing. And looks close to fainting from exhaustion.