Work Text:
Kuai Liang almost hated the fact that the clan, in general, had moved on months after Tomas had gone missing, and many people considered him dead by now. Perhaps, they simply needed it to go on. He couldn’t really blame them. Besides, despite Tomas being quite respected as a person and the clan’s second in command, none of these people had been nearly as close with him as Kuai Liang himself was. Admittedly, he wasn’t the only one, because Hanzo desperately wanted the missing man back as well. Smoke had disappeared without a trace during a small assignment that hadn’t promised any complications and shouldn’t have taken more than a couple of days. It was the investigation of a promising recruit for the clan, and it was nothing that Tomas hadn’t done before. And yet, he hadn’t returned, and upon investigating it, Kuai Liang had come to the conclusion that his disappearance was not related to the task he had been on. Something else had happened.
He had a contact in the Lin Kuei, who kept disproving the idea that Tomas had been captured or killed by their former clan. There was no indication of that being the case. Kuai Liang continued to suspect that his brother had something to do with it, regardless. But, so far, there was nothing substantial for him to dwell on it.
Scorpion had almost lost track of time, but he refused to give up. He was fortunate that he had Harumi and Takeda helping him to run the still growing clan, the young man staying with them in their time of need, abandoning everything else. And then there was Hanzo, who had looked so lost and small for a while after his guardian’s sudden disappearance. Every time there was a lead, the boy’s eyes looked up at his Grandmaster with hope and barely contained impatience, and every time Kuai Liang had to shatter that hope by shaking his head and patting Hanzo’s shoulder, in an attempt to provide some comfort.
“I’m sorry, Hanzo. We’ll keep searching, I swear to you,” he kept promising. And he meant it, too.
“No new developments so far. You’ll be the first to know,” he assured softly after yet another unsuccessful attempt to find Smoke.
As he served a meal for the two of them and they sat down at the table one evening, as they typically did, he noticed that the boy was deep in thought, chopsticks in his hand, but the food seemingly forgotten.
"Is something on your mind?" Kuai Liang enquired. Hanzo's eyes then became focused; he blinked and looked back at the man across the table.
"What if he hit his head and doesn't remember us? What if he has amn... Anmesia?"
"Amnesia? Yes, it is a possibility. We're looking into everything," Grandmaster assured. While he doubted it was the case, he didn't lie about taking everything into consideration. Satisfied (for now), Hanzo returned to his meal and Kuai Liang gave him a small smile. It wasn't, by far, the first time the boy had made a suggestion, without outright telling how much he missed Tomas and wanted him back, but Scorpion could read between the lines. He knew it was a way to find out and make sure that Kuai Liang hadn't even started to forget or let go, or become any less invested in searching for Tomas than he had been months earlier.
Hanzo had gone through some very bad experiences, despite his young age, that was indisputable, even though he still wouldn't talk about it; that he had to go through something like this now was brutally unfair.
Yes, Kuai Liang wanted to make sure the boy knew that he’d do everything in his power and more, but, at the same time, he was worried that he had been giving the child false hopes to hold onto. Was it wise to continue to reassure Hanzo or would it have been better to start preparing him for the worst-case scenario that they would never see Smoke again? It was a big responsibility, and, one day, almost surprising himself, he realised that he had, pretty much, become a parent to Hanzo in all but name and blood, even though it had taken quite some time. That was how the clan had already started to see him before he'd even realised it himself. It was something that Tomas had become to this boy, and he would want somebody to take his place if he couldn’t be there. Kuai Liang could tell how much Hanzo needed such a person in his life. Although sometimes Grandmaster could observe the lack of enthusiasm and effort, he did his best to keep the boy occupied with training, studying, and simply spent time with him. He taught him, trained him, took him out for a walk, took care of him, held him on a couple of occasions when he knew it was required of him. He even moved the boy into a spare room of his own quarters and stopped sliding the door of his own bedroom shut, leaving it slightly ajar to send a clear message that he was available at all times for the child not to feel abandoned.
Despite his business as a leader of his clan, he did his best to just be there for Hanzo. It really was a blessing to have Takeda with them, because he and Hanzo got along surprisingly well, which, for this particular boy, was more than a little unusual. He was behaving relatively well, too, barely causing any trouble, as if fully aware that Kuai Liang was busy leading the clan and continuing to desperately search for Tomas and not needing anybody to create problems on top of that. One day, it dawned on Kuai Liang that it could also have something to do with a child’s logic that could, potentially, make Hanzo think that, if he was good, if he behaved, Tomas would miraculously return. It prompted Gandmaster to carefully and a little indirectly assure the boy that Tomas would’ve never abandoned him, regardless of his behaviour.
They never touched anything in Tomas’ small house. They merely covered some things with sheets to avoid dust to settle on them, but, otherwise, respected his private space, so that when the owner returned, he would find everything the way he had left it. ‘If he returned’ remained unsaid.
Time went on inexorably, days went by and events took place, but Smoke continued to be an almost tangible absence, leaving a lot of tormenting questions unanswered. Where was he? Was he alive? Was he hurt? Was he suffering? What was he currently doing? What was he thinking about? Was he trying to contact his clan somehow, but they’d failed to learn about such attempts?
Someone once suggested that maybe he had escaped and wanted to live a different life, but Kuai Liang didn’t believe that for a moment. He had offered Tomas freedom from this life, filled with duty, serious responsibilities and, at times, hardships. And his second in command had made it clear that he had no intention to leave it. He would’ve told Kuai Liang, instead of disappearing and leaving everything behind, both material and not. Smoke was, very much, a part of this clan that he had very actively helped to establish, not at all an outcast that he had been in their former clan. To be fair, at this point, Kuai Liang would’ve been just happy to learn that Tomas was alive and well, if something like him deserting the Shirai Ryu had occurred; that would’ve been enough, really. But, again, Scorpion didn’t believe it at all. Tomas wouldn’t have left him and Hanzo in such a limbo just to start a new life elsewhere. From the very beginning, Smoke had been so invested in them building the Shirai Ryu together, and had felt so at home here that Grandmaster could only compare it to somebody who had been walking hunched over for most of their life with their head bowed, finally, straightening their back and looking forward with hope.
On top of that, something had been changing between the two of them. Something new had been forming, and calling it romantic would be quite accurate and felt right, even though it hadn’t had a chance to move past being platonic. It had been gentle and affectionate, the two of them making small steps. Neither of them had felt the urge to rush it, and the progress had been slow, yet steady. Kuai Liang had no doubt that Tomas had been very much into it, and they’d both wanted to see where it would take them, despite the fact that they hadn’t openly discussed it. It had been there: in the look of his eyes (and Scorpion’s own as well, he was sure of it), in the way they both touched each other.
Kuai Liang wanted and needed him back, regardless of their changing relationship. Smoke had to be found. Grandmaster even took a trip to Bali to check on the report that there was an unknown man at hospital there that looked somewhat similar to Tomas. The man had no ID on him, and he had a brain damage, which made him incapable of telling who he was (incapable of talking or moving, actually), and no friend or relative seemed to have been searching for that man. Turned out, it was just a tourist who had been a loner and travelled alone as well. His grey, unfocused eyes haunted Kuai Liang for days afterwards, because they did resemble Tomas'.
Scorpion also had to check several dead bodies in morgues in various parts of the world, only to sigh in relief every time, because none of them were Smoke, even though there were some similarities, indeed, or he wouldn’t have been alerted in the first place. There were so many missing people all over the world that Kuai Liang was seriously concerned that his Tomas would remain one of such unidentified bodies or patients, and it would just slip through his fingers, so he had to be sure. Thankfully, grey-haired young men, with the addition of some other features that Tomas could be identified by, such as complexion, scars and birthmarks, were too rare for Grandmaster to be bothered like that often. And the vast majority of them used a hair dye or had ash-blond hair that wasn’t like Tomas’. What of the other features, they were also questionable, and the majority of the bodies had been quite damaged, which was why he had to check. But, no matter how damaged or decomposed they were, they were not Smoke. Kuai Liang would know if they were; he had no doubt about it.
At the same time, he was fully aware that there were plenty of ways to kill somebody and leave no trace. There were so many places in the world where a body would never be found to be identified by anybody at all. There were so many ways to make a body completely unrecognisable, even if it was found later. The possibilities were countless and when he was thinking about them, the world felt even more enormous than it actually was.
As tormenting as it all was, Kuai Liang couldn’t abandon his duty to the clan; Tomas himself would never approve of it if he did. However, the search remained among his main priorities, and always would be, until he found Tomas; dead or alive. He refused to believe that his second in command was dead though. He knew he was, perhaps, deluding himself (and continuing to torment Hanzo with false hope, to boot) and refusing to be realistic, even though he, normally, was a very rational person, who didn’t indulge in wishful thinking and didn’t shy away from harsh truths. But, even on bad days, he still had that hope deep inside. He refused to give up, refused to listen to the careful and caring voices of people around him that, perhaps, it was time to start letting go. If Tomas was dead, Scorpion wanted to see the remains that he could bury and mourn and, hopefully, find some closure, even though that wasn’t, at all, a preferable outcome. If there were just bones left of his Smoke, Kuai Liang wanted those bones.
The old saying that claimed that no news was good news in and of itself, in most cases, only worked for some time and to a degree. But, at some point, it always stopped being any sort of a consolation. It had been one year, two months and eighteen days since Smoke had gone missing. The active search had been over for a while, every possible scenario revisited and re-examined more than once, Tomas’ steps retraced over and over again, only to lead nowhere. New leads had become extremely rare months earlier, but Kuai Liang never hesitated to investigate even the most unlikely ones.
One day, a new potential lead came from Kenshi of all people. It was nothing but a rumour that he had heard from his former associate in the Yakuza. It was nothing clear, too. But, to Kuai Liang, it was enough to start a new investigation after all of the other leads had long since been exhausted, and there even hadn’t been any more information on unidentified bodies that fit Smoke’s description for a while for him to check.
The Red Dragon syndicate was where the information soon led him. One of the their men, after being introduced to Kuai Liang’s fire, sang like a bird, and revealed the location of an old, long abandoned prison, which now served as a hideout to a relatively small group of the syndicate’s people. Takeda was devastated when he learned that they could be behind Tomas’ disappearance. He had been a thorn in their side for a while, and he had no idea that, while he had been helping to keep things together in the Shirai Ryu, Tomas had been allegedly held captive by the syndicate. Apparently, they’d intended to use their prisoner against their enemy, but, since Takeda was no longer on their radar, Tomas remained their captive with no clear purpose. More specifically, as it was later discovered, they had intended to find the Shirai Ryu and offer Kuai Liang to give them Takeda in return for Grandmaster’s second in command. It was quite worrying that they knew about the clan, as well as the fact that Takeda had some relation to it. Except, they had failed to locate and contact the Shirai Ryu with all the measures that had been taken for the clan not to be found. Because of that, and because Takeda had really gone down in their list of priorities, due to the lack of any new activity on his part, they had no idea what to do with Smoke, the higher ups had, pretty much, forgotten about him.
Well, they had wanted to find Kuai Liang to bargain with him, and now he was coming after them; except, he wasn’t interested in bargaining.
Together with three of his people, including Takeda, Kuai Liang cleared the prison of its current inhabitants, almost quietly, their actions calculated and precise, taking their enemies out one by one. An attack like that had definitely not been expected, so it was already too late by the time the syndicate’s people realised what was going on, and the fact that they seriously outnumbered the attackers did little to help them. Soon enough, it was over.
While the rest of the Shirai Ryu were making sure there were no more enemies left for them to dispatch (apart from two: incapacitated, but left alive for now, just in case they would be needed for information), Grandmaster began searching for the person he had come here for, trying to keep anxiety under control, because he had no idea if Tomas was still alive. And, if he was, what condition was he in? Scorpion wanted to hope for the best, but he was a realist. Besides, his hopes had been shattered way too many times. The abandoned cells were dark, quiet and, so far, empty. Unless Tomas really was no longer alive at this point or had been relocated elsewhere, he should be in one of them, though there were three floors of such cells for him to search. But basement was also a possibility. Kuai Liang already knew the layout of the building, so he was moving with the confidence that he wasn’t really feeling, because apprehension and hope were battling inside him.
Disappointment and frustration almost made him groan when, instead of Smoke, he found a woman, dishevelled and wide-eyed, fearfully pressing herself into a corner of one of the cells. After assuring that he wasn't here to hurt her in any way, he enquired who she was, and she explained that she had been kidnapped and held for ransom, because the Red Dragon higher-ups wanted something from her father who was a boss of a smaller crime organisation. She had spent what she believed was over a month here, she wasn’t sure how much time had really passed, and had no idea whether her father had given her kidnappers what they wanted and they had simply refused to uphold their part of the deal. Scorpion then asked her if she knew if there were any other prisoners here, but she had no idea. Sighing to himself at the lack of any useful information, Kuai Liang broke the lock on the barred door of the cell, freed the captive and let her leave on her own. He trusted his people’s judgement not to harm her when she encountered any of them on her way out, mistaking her for one of the Red Dragon’s people, especially seeing the state of her. Unsurprisingly, she looked absolutely miserable after a month of confinement, but what could spending over a year here do to a person? Feeling a little disheartened, Kuai Liang continued his search with, nevertheless, unwavering determination. He couldn’t imagine this going nowhere and how he would have to cope if something so promising turned out to be another dead end. Taught by the previous experience numerous times, he could faintly feel the despair creeping into his heart, but he managed to keep it at bay.
As he was walking down the dark corridor of this old, dusty facility on the third floor, he noticed how silent the place really was. He imagined he could almost hear his own heartbeat. But then… A soft clink of what sounded like it could be a chain stopped him in his tracks. The noise had come from one of the cells ahead of him, Scorpion was pretty sure of it, and he wasted no time to find out what, or who, had caused it. There, behind one of the barred doors, he was almost startled to see a chained person sitting on the hard, concrete floor with his back turned to the door; nearly motionless. For several moments that felt too long to be mere moments, Kuai Liang couldn’t move, couldn’t blink. The mixed feelings of anguish and relief washed over him at the thought that the frail person behind the bars barely looked like Tomas in the dim light, but was, in fact, Tomas. No matter what, Kuai Liang would always recognise him. He had to force himself to breathe, because his own emotions were making it hard.
Still unable to speak, he heated up the lock on the door, until it started to melt, and broke it, feeling the strange need not to make too much noise so that he wouldn’t startle Smoke, who still wouldn’t move, and Kuai Liang still couldn’t find his voice to announce that it was him, that he was here. He entered quietly and almost hesitantly approached the stooped figure of the man who looked exhausted, as if the very chains were weighing him down. There were manacles on his wrists and ankles and the chains attached to them were on the floor around him. Their other ends were firmly attached to the wall, and they weren’t long enough for him to really be able to move around the cell. There was little in the cell, no bed, but there was an old, slightly rusty tap at one of the walls (if a sink had ever been there, it was long gone), which, at least, meant there was access to water. It couldn’t be said about nutrition, judging by how emaciated Smoke was. Kuai Liang noticed all those things almost fleetingly, because Tomas himself was the centre of his attention. Scorpion knelt on the floor, once he was in front of the younger man. Slowly, Tomas raised his head. The grey eyes he had missed so much seemed too large now, simply because their owner was so gaunt. At the same time, said eyes looked tired; too tired to express the surprise that he was probably feeling. Hopefully, he wasn’t too damaged to feel at least something right now. Him appearing spacey could be some defensive mechanism, due to the lack of pretty much anything to focus on. But food deprivation could also play its part, as well as the trauma. Kuai Liang forced the lump down his throat. The next moment he found himself holding his Smoke, so thin and unbelievably fragile, and let his warmth soak the other man, like a protective cloak wrapped around him. Tomas leaned against him immediately, seemingly without thinking. Despite him being weakened overall, his joints felt stiff, as if cold, past hypervigilance and continuous tension had permanently settled inside the body that was wasting away from the lack of nutrition. Kuai Liang felt the strong urge to infuse it with his warmth. He stroked the long, slightly tangled hair and wanted to just feel Tomas against him, to make sure the man really was alive, his heart beating, his chest, with all of the ribs painfully visible, nevertheless, expanding and contracting as he was breathing. Tomas was alive.
At some point, he opened his eyes and noticed something scratched on the mildly dilapidated concrete wall, likely with some sharpened, small stone or a piece of said wall itself. He almost looked away, not making much of it, but then, suddenly, recognised himself in the image. Tomas may not be an artist, but it was still quite detailed and, yes, recognisable. In the dim light, Smoke had been retracing the lines over and over again with that stone, or whatever object he had used. Kuai Liang’s heart sank even deeper when he imagined Smoke talking to this image of him. It reminded him that, sometime after Tomas had gone missing, Kuai Liang had started to light a candle in front of his picture and burn incense. He had done it quite often. He had talked to Smoke, told him to hold on, wherever he was. Scorpion had sworn to never give up on him, told him he was missed and loved, shared his hopes of finding the missing man, shared the news about the clan. Apparently, Tomas had used the image he had scratched on the wall to talk to him, almost halfway across the world, in this dark cell of a third-world country’s prison.
Tomas, apparently, noticed what he was looking at as he, too, had opened his eyes and his pupils moved towards the wall in question. Calmly and sadly, they both looked at the image for almost a minute, continuing to hold each other.
“I’m here now,” Kuai Liang assured him softly.
“I imagined you coming here so often that I’m not even sure this isn’t a dream,” Smoke whispered, possibly trying and failing to huff out a laughter. He seemed somewhat ashamed that Kuai Liang was seeing him it such a state. The older man frowned at that and just held him a little tighter to, hopefully, make his presence, his warmth and feelings even more evident.
“This isn’t a dream; I am here,” he promised, his throat tight. And he would spare neither time nor effort to prove it to Smoke, he swore to himself. He would take care of this man. He had found him, finally, and he had absolutely no intention of letting go. He was aware that he had often been a source of comfort to Tomas, ever since he had been brought into the Lin Kuei after his family had been cruelly taken away from him. Kuai Liang didn’t mind being such a source for the rest of his days, if necessary, and support Tomas with everything he had, even if he wasn’t always good at expressing his feelings; and probably wasn’t all that good even now.
Once they both were, more or less, assured that, yes, this was real, it was time to get Tomas out of this miserable hellhole. Kuai Liang opened a flask of water tied to his belt, warmed it a little in his hand and pressed the opening to the other man’s dry lips, supporting both the flask and the impossibly light body. Tomas made several sips of clean, now warm, water. Thanks to that tap in the cell, water did not appear to be restricted. He must have been using it to keep himself hydrated and at least somewhat clean, as hard as it was. But the spot where the chains were attached to the wall made it necessary to move towards the tap every time and the steadily weakening body must have been making even such a short trip harder and harder.
“Do you even want me now that I’m like this?” Smoke suddenly sighed and tried to wrap his arms around himself, once his thirst was quenched.
“How can you even…” Kuai Liang had to stop, compose himself and make his voice calm before assuring: “I need you more than you can imagine. I will always need you.” He had to stay strong for both of them now. The condition of Tomas was not easy to bear, but they would fix this. Scorpion was adamant about it. They would nurse him back to health, take care of him, and he would be back to normal life, sooner or later. With the right measures taken, this was reversible (not the experience, sadly, but his current condition), unlike death that, typically, wasn’t. Tomas was alive; that was what mattered most. Regardless of anything, Kuai Liang would always accept him. And he would always love him. It hadn’t exactly taken Tomas to disappear for Kuai Liang to fully comprehend the true depth of his feelings, because he had known for a long time.
The captors had done a pretty thorough job with the manacles, making sure Tomas wouldn’t escape with the help of his abilities, though both the manacles and chains bore some signs of Smoke trying to wear them down against the wall and the floor in despair. It took Kuai Liang some time to unfasten them without causing Smoke’s frail hands and wrists any pain. They must have been readjusted to prevent the captive who had been losing his weight from using it to his advantage and slipping them off. Kuai Liang ended up using his weapons to unfasten them. Immediately, he massaged the freed hands and wrists a little. There were faint scars on them, another clear evidence of Tomas’ attempts to free himself. He could see and feel the evidence of a past fracture, too, which had mended the wrong way; likely self-inflicted during one of such attempts. It had, likely, been calculated, but, unfortunately, ended up being futile. The damage would have to be addressed later; it wasn’t urgent, since the trauma was old.
Tomas actually sighed in what could only be relief, once both his hands and ankles were free. Kuai Liang then wondered if he could find something here to wrap around the other man to prevent him from getting cold again. His upper body was naked and he had felt quite cold to the touch before Kuai Liang had shared the heat of his body. While the place wasn’t particularly cold in and of itself, the lack of energy due to starvation and having nothing but concrete walls and floor around him must have made Smoke feel cold a lot. Besides, he could use some comfort as well, and not being seen like this by others was one of such comforts. Scorpion promised to come back at once and left the cell, but made sure he first remained visible, then within earshot for Tomas to know that he was still close as he was searching for something, preferably a blanket, even though this part of the prison was quite bare. Fortunately, he found a blanket in another cell that, unlike Tomas’, at least, had a bed, atop of which it was folded. It seemed clean, albeit dusty. He shook it well before coming back and wrapping it around Tomas. The younger man seemed slightly more focused and his expression was somewhat concerned.
“Kuai Liang, is Hanzo alright?” His voice was quiet and a little apprehensive, as if he was almost afraid to ask.
“Yes. He’s doing great at his training, but, just as before, not nearly as enthusiastic when it comes to studying. He’s had a small growth spurt, but he’s still the same; probably a little more disciplined though,” Kuai Liang replied with fondness in his voice, before adding: “He’s waiting for our return. He misses you very much.” He couldn’t wait to inform the boy that Tomas had been found, alive.
“I miss him, too,” Smoke whispered, the corners of his lips twitched downwards.
“I know.”
“I knew you’d take care of him.”
“I’m doing the best that I can,” Scorpion promised, aware that he wasn’t perfect and, most likely, made mistakes.
“You always do your best.” With that, the grey head tiredly lowered itself on his shoulder yet again.
“Hold on. I’m going to help you up on your feet. We’re leaving.” Grandmaster didn’t want Tomas to spend another minute here.
“Alright,” Smoke whispered, not lifting his head off the warm shoulder. Continuing to hold him close and secure in his arms, Scorpion got up on his feet and made Tomas stand up as well. It didn’t take long for him to realise that the younger man could barely walk. It wasn’t just the weakness and the lack of energy caused by the depletion and, for a while, he had probably only moved to crawl to that tap, so walking again was, understandably, hard, but there was also something else in the way his left leg was positioned. With some apprehension, Kuai Liang knelt and carefully palpated it below the knee through the pants, only to find yet another malunion. He didn’t let his dismay show. Instead, he just carefully picked Tomas up, trying to ignore the unusual lightness of the body, and soon that damned cell was left behind. At first, he was a little worried that Smoke would see it as indignity to be carried like this, but, instead, Tomas relaxed against him completely almost immediately, his initial surprise at being picked up quickly disappearing. He was now very visibly lethargic, yet relieved, so tangibly relieved. He didn’t bother looking around on their way out, his eyes were closed most of the time. Wrapped up in a blanket and being in the arms of the man he trusted, he looked quite comfortable, probably for the first time in a long time.
Takeda, who had been waiting just outside the prison, paled dramatically upon seeing Tomas, even though he did his best to appear stoic. Grandmaster would have to seriously talk to him to make him understand that none of this was his fault, even though he had been the real target. Scorpion was yet to learn how they had managed to find the opportunity to capture specifically Tomas when he wasn’t even the one they’d needed. One thing was clear: his second in command had refused to reveal the location of the clan to them for their plan to work, which explained some new scars on his body. Kuai Liang held him even closer at the thought. They must have sent very capable people to capture Smoke upon discovering him, somehow, because he, most definitely, wasn’t easy to capture. All of that could wait, because Tomas’ well-being was much more important right now.
Apparently, their reunion and even that small amount of activity that had followed it was too much for Tomas and had led to exhaustion, so he fell asleep, just letting go of all the concerns and letting the warmth and the trust soothe him. It was then when one of their people quietly approached and told what they had learned from the two captive Red Dragons. Those who had been in charge of guarding Tomas, saw him as a ‘goner’ anyway, so they’d barely paid attention to him, apart from keeping him barely alive, just in case, by providing an occasional meal and preferring to stay away otherwise and forget about his existence (especially after one of them had been strangled to death by one of the chains that had kept Tomas confined), since he was more like an inconvenience now than a potentially useful prisoner he had been in the beginning when Takeda had been in their syndicate’s list of priorities. So, they’d just let him waste away. Kuai Liang didn’t let his anger wake up his second in his arms.
“Grandmaster, what do we do with the captives?” the same man who had just informed him of what he’d learned asked.
“Chain them, lock them up in two separate cells far away from each other and leave them to their fate. If they get too violent trying to escape in the process, don’t hesitate to end their lives on the spot. We’re done here.” Kuai Liang didn’t feel merciful right now. If those two were lucky, somebody would come to this godforsaken place to free them. If not, they would rot to death here, just like they’d almost done to Tomas. Perhaps, someone from the syndicate would, eventually, investigate as to why they’d lost contact with their people stationed here, however, they appeared to have been left to their own devices, at least at the moment, so it was hard to tell when it would happen and whether it would already be too late for those two or not. His subordinate bowed and hurried to follow his Grandmaster’s order. Both he and his partner, who was currently watching their captives, were capable men, so there was no need to supervise or wait for them, because they would do what was expected of them and catch up shortly.
Not wasting any more time, Kuai Liang turned all of his attention to Tomas, who, of course, required medical help. A couple of hours later, they managed to find what appeared to be a decent hospital, and Scorpion could, hopefully, entrust its doctors with the precious man he had just been reunited with. It wasn’t easy, especially since Tomas was already awake at this point, and his tired eyes wouldn’t look away from Kuai Liang’s face. Scorpion promised to be close by.
He knew that reintroducing food would have to be very slow and gradual after such a long time of barely getting anything to eat, and simply letting Tomas have a meal could lead to serious complications. Oxygen and fluids were administered, as well as an intravenous nutrition after some blood tests. There were some other health concerns that had to be addressed. Other than that, there were no recent injuries on Smoke to treat, apart from a couple of rat bites that weren’t very recent, but were healing too slowly, likely due to the infection that had, fortunately, resolved itself, so those injuries needed proper attention. Once the doctors and nurses were done, he was left to rest in a hospital room, where Kuai Liang wouldn’t leave his side.
But Tomas didn’t want to stay, he wanted to go straight to their clan’s settlement, as soon as possible. Grandmaster didn’t like the idea at all; besides, he was worried that such a long way home would be too hard for Smoke in his current state. Tomas didn’t need to be vocal to show how unhappy he was about it, and Kuai Liang was unsure he could deny him anything. He only managed to convince the younger man to stay at hospital for another day and night, and even that wasn’t easy. Scorpion didn’t find it in him to be firm or patronising, or even just tell Smoke to be reasonable. In addition, he was almost relieved that Tomas had it in him to show some defiance, even if just a little bit, because it meant that he wasn’t mentally broken, despite everything that had happened.
The doctors were obviously unhappy about discharging him so early, and Kuai Liang was even more so, but he had to respect Tomas’ wishes, especially after him not having any say in anything for such a long time. After going through some more tests, another general checkup and receiving recommendations from doctors, including those regarding refeeding, they left the hospital. It appeared, the real serious step to recovery was simply bringing Smoke home. Then his health would be addressed again. Thankfully, the clan had good medics, so he was going to be carefully monitored. Kuai Liang had no choice but console himself with that thought. All he could do right now was to make their return home as swift and comfortable as possible for such a long distance. Takeda took care of it and was quick to arrange everything, obviously feeling the need to be helpful.
Seeing their settlement again was a little overwhelming for Tomas and he wasn’t ready to be seen by the people, so he had to be brought in almost discreetly. Small things had changed, but Kuai Liang didn’t think there really was anything here that would surprise his second. He was back where he belonged.
They had cleaned him up at the hospital, but he couldn’t get enough of warm, almost hot, water and gentle scrubbing with a washcloth. He tired himself out very soon, even with a lot of help from Kuai Liang, but still didn’t want to stop and seemed quite content, as if it was all a ritual for him to be able to leave those almost fifteen months of suffering in the past and start moving on. Of course, it wouldn’t be so simple, neither physically, nor emotionally, but maybe it was a start. He asked to change the water a couple of times, and his wish was granted without a word. Scorpion also helped him shave, as well as washed and detangled his hair before combing it well, mostly doing all of the work, especially due to the past trauma to Smoke's hand that would make it all even harder for him to do on his own. They would cut the hair later, if Tomas wished.
Once they were done, a medic visited them to examine the second in command and give him some medicine and some food his patient could, hopefully, stomach; a small amount of it for now. It wasn’t easy, but Grandmaster knew Tomas would cooperate with everything. Smoke tended to do it for him, if not for any other reason.
Earlier, Hanzo had run away and locked himself up in his room upon seeing Tomas. Smoke hadn’t seen it at the time, but Kuai Liang had, and he knew he had to give the boy some space. He had never really seen Hanzo crying, but as the latter, finally, emerged from his room, his eyelids looked swollen and reddened. Grandmaster didn’t mention it, because he knew Hanzo would appreciate it if he didn’t, but he squeezed Hanzo’s shoulder lightly and rubbed it in a now familiar gesture to show his support and reassure, yet again, that the boy could rely on him if he needed to. It felt good that he had managed to keep the promise he had given this boy. It wasn’t a child’s job to take care of an adult and nurse them back to health and back to their normal life, but Scorpion knew that Hanzo would absolutely want to participate. Apart from him simply caring about Tomas, it would also help him feel some amount of control after feeling so helpless to change anything while Smoke had been missing.
And there was a lot to do to help Tomas get back on his feet. Kuai Liang would massage the stiff joints and help flexibility return into his body. Thanks to the good care and good food, strength would, eventually, return into his emaciated frame and a healthy colour would return to this skin. The malunions would, eventually, have to be addressed as well. As Kuai Liang would later learn, the broken leg had been a ‘punishment’ for an escape attempt, but the hand fracture, just as Scorpion had suspected, had been self-inflicted in an attempt to remove those manacles, because, after that, Tomas would’ve been able to use his abilities to escape. Sadly, it had not helped. The bones would have to be rebroken and properly aligned, causing as little suffering as possible, and only when Tomas was strong enough to endure such a surgery. Everything he needed to go back to normal would be provided for him. He was alive and he was home, with the people who cared about him deeply.
Since his living space needed some tidying up, Kuai Liang brought him into his own bedroom after helping him to get dressed in Tomas’ own sleeping clothes; the familiarity of wearing it again seemed like a good idea. Kuai Liang helped him get comfortable in the warm bed before he encouraged Hanzo to, finally, stop hiding and ‘secretly’ spying on them and talk to Smoke instead. He gave the two of them some privacy, while he was busy with other things. When he returned a couple of hours later, Tomas was still awake. Scorpion decided to find himself a spare futon and sleep in his study, leaving the bed to the younger man. But before he could, Smoke asked:
“Can you stay here with me?”
“Of course,” Kuai Liang replied before he knew it.
He soon realised how tired and sleep deprived he was. During Tomas’ hospital stay he’d only had a couple of brief naps, having that irrational fear that, if he had fallen asleep, he’d wake up only to find the other man disappearing again, and the waking nightmare would start anew. That fear was gone now that they lay in the same bed, bodies pressed against each other. Just as he had been doing for some time now, he had left the door slightly ajar, instead of sliding it shut, in case Hanzo would wake up and want to check on them in need of a reassurance.
Tomas was quick to settle and relax against Kuai Liang, and the silence between them wasn’t uncomfortable. Apparently, they both felt relieved to just have each other close right now, and that certainly was what Kuai Liang felt. He wanted to wake up next to Smoke. He needed it. Hopefully, a good sleep in a soft bed and in the arms of the man who loved him, after many months of sleeping on a cold, hard concrete floor, would, at least in some ways, make Tomas feel better and definitely safer.
And then, in the comfort and darkness, they shared their first kiss. It was gentle and, perhaps, it was quite a light kiss, too, but it was also very real and very meaningful. It was a serious promise they both made each other; the promise that what they'd started before Tomas’ disappearance was not only not left in the past, but would continue to develop, at their own pace.