Chapter Text
It seems the sky is breathing, pulsing with every beat of Saiki's heart. The world is falling in on itself and he can vaguely hear the chirping of birds as the notes flutter in one ear and out the other. Everything is soft and fleeting, yet, after the edges of his vision start to blur, mending forest into snow, and snow into dust, the universe turns dark. Pearls of white were twinkling like Christmas lights, growing closer and closer. Saiki felt himself reach out to them but his hand was made of stone.
Why can't he touch the stars?
Blinded by a flash of velvet eyes, Saiki opens his own.
The ceiling fan is rotating lifelessly, chasing itself in tasteless circles. Saiki is left to the thoughts of his neighbors, which now trickle in as gently as a rip current: Not gently at all. It's a solemn ritual in his day, but he doesn't flinch in the slightest, only pulls his comforter from his body and shuffles out of bed. Saiki drags himself through his dusky house and into the bathroom. He's able to tell quite easily that neither of his parents have awoken.
Good grief. Here he was on his one day off, not even managing to sleep in. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Saiki looks up from his feet and into the mirror, squinting when a glint of red resurfaces in its reflection. What is this? Honestly, waking up at the crack of dawn had not been at the top of his to-do list. Saiki couldn't help but speculate over the timing. And it wasn't just the timing that was suspect, but the awakening too. Remembering the specifics of his dream was a struggle, but Saiki could have sworn he’d seen those ruby red eyes before… Oh well, it wasn't important. Breathing through the uneasiness, he levitates his toothbrush from the counter, letting the motions guide him through the rest of his morning routine.
At some point, Saiki had landed back in bed.
He would have liked to fall back asleep, but the gleam of that milky white paper on his desktop was starting to sear itself into his eyes. The paperwork was impossible to miss, and easy to loathe. You know, trigonometry wasn't an easy class, even for him. In fact, Kaidou struggled every now and again, and he attended at least 3 hours of cram school twice a week. A hassle for the hapless.
Saiki went to lie down, but an unbidden memory clawed its way to the present:
"The triangle function we learned about in class has me locked in a mental prison. I need to defeat this conundrum by sneaking a peek at your homework."
Saiki buried his head into a pillow, smothering the small sound that escaped him. A cough, he assured himself.
Truthfully, he had heard enough of Kaidou's rambling inside of school. There was no way he'd put up with it outside of the institution. Saiki huffed stubbornly into feathered stuffing, feeling his breath recoil across his face. Morning wouldn't come for a while and there was certainly something better he could be doing with his time than fumbling over his homework. Peeking up, his eyes locked onto the TV. That would work, Saiki figured. He languidly raised his left arm and summoned the remote from the now noticeless desk. The TV flicked on at his initiation and the blurry figures on screen glided aimlessly. Their movements were dream-like.
Maybe it was just his mind that was stuck in a haze. And maybe it was a bit too early to effectively concentrate. But Saiki refused to let that stop him. He strained against the rising tides of exhaustion:
Yes. What an interesting show, he thought wistfully. Very…interesting…
The physical world sank like an anchor. Waving away all protests of wakefulness, the darkness of sleep seeped through him. Hours passed.
By the time reality came pouring back in, bright sunlight was already streaming through his room. So… he’d fallen asleep. Except – how could an all powerful psychic with the leverage of a God be conquered by something as trivial as sleep? Honestly, it wasn’t rational.
Saiki moved to roll out of bed when a harrowing intrusion struck.
"Sai-kiiii-", The exclamation had swooped directly through his window.
No, absolutely not.
Using his telekinesis, he whipped his curtains shut without a second thought.
Indeed, not even a century of sleep would help him through that.
Committed to learning from his mistakes, Saiki lodged a sound barrier between him and what could only be Nendou shouting his name from the front gates. He needed this room to stay quiet.
All through winter, staying inside had proved to be a formidable task, what with Nendou inviting him to eat Ramen so often, Saiki wasn't sure he'd be able to afford college. Saiki seriously considered plunging himself back into sleep but there was no ignoring the possibility that Nendou would put a gorilla-shape hole through his gate. He outright refused to use his restoration ability on another chunk of his home. Well over a hundred times was enough.
Saiki was forced to activate his clairvoyance. The scene unfolding outside rushed dismally into his mind:
Alright. There was Nendou, large and senseless as ever, clambering onto his fence like the ape he was. Go figure. And then, oh,
Kaidou was pulling helplessly at Nendou's jacket, trying to tug the idiot off his property.
…Typical. Saiki wasn’t impressed. After all, it was just the usual foolishness his friends got up to. It was the same shenanigans every day, and that was just the problem. This day was supposed to be friend-free. Saiki felt as if he hadn’t slept in centuries and his homework had yet to be vanquished. Hang on, vanquished? No, polished off. He was just about to break off from surveying when, out of nowhere, Kaidou lost his grip and fell backward onto the sidewalk. Fast.
Everything distorted and reverted on the spot. Saiki nearly missed the knob of his door in his haste.
What was he doing?
"Runt! Do you have a boo-boo?" Nendou was hollering directly into Kaidou's grimacing face, holding him well off the concrete.
“Put him down.”
Saiki’s bare feet were burning like fire against the frigid snow.
“Dont die yet, runt! We haven't gotten ramen!” Nendou was blissful in his ignorance.
“Put him down.” Saiki repeated again.
Nendou’s shoulders dropped. Kaidou was gently lowered to the sidewalk and Saiki crouched down to his level. The burning frost that latched onto his feet went neglected. He scoured with tired eyes for any sign of blood but none ever came. In fact, Kaidou appeared to be completely sound. He only groaned softly in pain, going to touch the back of his head. Saiki watched, at a complete loss for words.
Kaidou causally straightened himself upward. Like it was any other day.
…And that was when he realized. This was quite literally any other day. The world had changed astronomically since he was eight.
Not to mention, God hated him.
Nendou spoke slowly, much to Saiki’s dismay. “Buddy… do you…”
There was more? Saiki turned slowly where a rare look of comprehension was dawning upon Nendou’s face.
Now that was just implausible. See, it wasn’t true. No conclusion could be taken from this, because, well, Saiki hadn’t meant to teleport to his door and he hadn’t meant to check on Kaidou either. This was all a misunderstanding, and surely Nendou understood that… actually… Nevermind, Nendou was an idiot. But then how could he tell–
“-Really like playing wilderness survival that much? We're supposed to take turns, you know.”
…
Exactly, how could he tell that Saiki liked playing Wilderness Survival? How embarrassing. Saiki kept his expression to the floor and dispatched a thought transfer to his side.
Nendou spoke up again, and almost immediately this time.
“Oh well. I’ve got a better idea, how about let’s go get some ramen”.
Another crisis averted. It was true Saiki couldn’t access Nendou’s inner voice, most likely due to the fact he had none, but that couldn’t stop him from using his foreboding technique. After all, reading thoughts and implementing them were two entirely different things.
Kaidou went to raise himself from the ground, leading Saiki to stand wordlessly as well. More aware of the burning on his feet than ever, he activated his pyrokinesis which helped to fight against the biting snow. A similar warmth blossomed its way up his neck and he could only attribute it to his powers spreading further than anticipated.
Kaidou was opening his mouth to string out, no doubt, more of his delusional ramblings. But, after a few beats of silence, Saiki was troubled to note that no such rambling occurred. Kaidou, to his wholehearted disappointment, was looking needlessly guilty and Saiki shortly realized that his bare feet had been spotted in the open.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you Saiki.” Kaidou mumbled and for a moment, he struggled to meet his eyes, shifting uncomfortably to either side.
Saiki was about to say something, certainly sarcastic rather than comforting, but couldn’t find the right words. He shrugged perplexedly, hoping to brush past the awkwardness.
An unbidden gust of wind sifted through Kaidou’s hair, causing the pale blue strands to flutter without pattern or practice. Things felt surreal, just for that moment. Saiki vacantly noticed a hand being placed on the small of his back and it took a couple, disquieting seconds to realize that Kaidou had been steering him gently to the doorway.
“You should get some shoes on. Your feet probably hurt.” Kaidou murmured as Saiki stumbled along.
They passed the threshold of his door, winter scenery turning into a familiar, cozy framework. Kaidou was pointing at his blue lace-up shoes in the corner of the hall.
“Those are yours, right?”
Saiki nodded in one frantic motion and snatched the trainers from their shelf. Making to fit them on, he tried to ignore the burning in his face, that damn pyrokinesis, and opted into weaving his laces together with much more emphasis than necessary. Nendou attempted to engage him in a one-sided conversation, but Saiki was so busy pretending to occupy himself by unhooking his coat from its rack, that he neglected to respond.
The group of them were out the door in quick succession and winter soon unfolded back onto the scene. By the time Saiki realized that refusing ramen had ever been an option, he was far too late.