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“Let us perish together, Itsuki Sumeragi.” offering his hand to her, a knowing smirk painting his features. Brown eyes burning with a burning passion that they had thought extinguished. His white hair gleams in the sunlight, the reflection giving of an impression that his fire shone brighter than before. It was a sight to behold, if the burning blush on the younger girl’s face said anything. A blush that definitely burned brighter than his passion at the moment.
A warm look of endearment flashing in his eyes as he meets the watery blue eyes of his accomplice.
“Looks like you’ve got some fire in you, Manyuda-senpai.”
Closing his eyes, he pushes his glasses up- striking his signature pose- and smiles, fighting the erratic beating of his heart. Vestiges of the adrenaline rush from earlier still there. “You don’t have to tell me.”
The game continues, the fourth round being the first with everyone cooperating. His predictions unfurling exactly as he predicted it right in front of his very eyes.
“Sumeragi!”
He didn’t account for the reaction.
It all happens too quickly. A chokehold, a push, a raised fist. Happening all at the same time. He jumps from the stage, running towards her in an instant. His path is intercepted as the Obami teen grabs him and holds him by his shoulders. What was he doing? He needed to save her! He needed to keep her safe!
“Relax! Miroslava won’t hurt her!”
The disparity in strength does not deter Kaede’s attempts to break out of his grasp. Only thinking of the safety of the younger girl that he cares deeply about. He couldn’t hear their conversation, but the hunched posture and hushed whispers were no doubt a tell-tale sign of an exchange of threats.
“Let go of me!”
Kaede is more determined to save Sumeragi, pushing harder, trying to wriggle his way out, as the rapscallion held him in place. “Can’t you see Sumeragi-san is going to get hurt?”
“She’ll be fine!” Ibara’s grip tightens, holding the struggling Kaede even closer to him. “Look at them!”
The scene unfolds slowly in front of him, a push, a scream, a blush. Happening all at the same time. His struggles die down, the firm grip on his shoulders loosening. His heart pounds against his chest. A warm feeling spreads. Relief washes over him, as well as confusion.
"What's going on?"
Yumeko laughs. Ibara and Miroslava smile. Itsuki blushes.
". . . You're shockingly obtuse aren't you, Manyuda-san?"
The feelings wash over him like a tidal wave. Rolling in one after the other, not giving him any chance to break through the current. Confusion. Anger. Hurt. Betrayal. And something else he doesn't know.
“. . . by believing in you, I saved myself.”
He turns the faucet open, letting the water descend into the pipelines as he stares at his reflection. He splashes a handful of water into his face, trying to get of the flashing burn curdling in his lungs. He feels the same residing ache in his ribs – a familiar feeling that he can never seem to remove from his teeth.
Is that all you want, Sumeragi-san? Is this really your only goal?
He grips the edge of the porcelain sink, knuckles turning a ghostly pale with the pressure.
You’re a fool, Sumeragi.
As expected, Kaede feels a chilling pang in the cove of his chest. It spreads like an ember, hitting at his throat. But almost immediately, it dies down.
A fool that I care for.
Kaede hovers over her like the shadow of a winter moon.No matter what Itsuki does, his heart always seems to make its way into Itsuki’s open palms. Kaede lets the tumble of morning light fill the silence in between them. But the only thing he can hear is the solace of Itsuki’s breath, the sunrise of her heartbeat, the moment when Itsuki’s lips croak open for the sound of his name.
“Man. . . yuda-senpai?” the echo of his name resounds in the empty corridors of the school. A burning spreads throughout her cheeks, not like a wildfire, but like a gentle bloom of a field of poppies.
“Sumeragi-san.” uncertainty takes over, cursing himself for not thinking of a plan. For once, just letting spontaneity take over. “I am not, as Jabami-san puts it, obtuse.”
“Eh?”
“I’m not.” Kaede hesitates, looking away and pushing his glasses up his nose. His heart gripping like the sea. His smile stays in place, frozen like a blizzard in the middle of a mountain. He finds his gaze waning back to the younger girl, where his eyes are immediately attracted to the blue of Itsuki’s.
Full of innocence and ambition, not like the President’s.
Trying to ignore the strange hammering sound his heart is making, he takes Itsuki’s hands into his. Gently tracing the bandages that wrapped around her fingers. He traces where her fingernails would be lightly, noting the way his accomplice represses a flinch as he ghosts over them.
Each scar has a name, Sumeragi-san.
Another pang enters his ribs, his breath catching in his throat until he can barely stop himself from choking. The longer he tries to ignore the searing feeling, the more it comes back to bite at him
And my heart has yours.
He shakes himself in disappointment, walking away from the girl without any explanation the day before. (Not before noticing how the intensifying blush on Itsuki’s cheeks)
He knows he can’t avoid her forever. He sees her more and more in the hallways - even when she’s not actually there- like a ghost of his past that he can’t seem to shake off. He doesn’t know where he’s going. He can only catch glimpses – the sun scalding her head, rough patches of stones digging into his feet, brushes of thorns at his fingertips, the quiet hum of late morning.
He was in the garden. Kaede takes another soft inhale, letting the rush of flowers sink into his nostrils. But the one scent he focuses on is from the woman seated on one of the benches.
The others were there as well, enjoying a strawberry sherbet with one another. Jabami-san commenting on what gamble she wants to get into next. Saotome-san trying to discreetly take the strawberries in Ryouta-san’s bowl. And Sumeragi-san. . .
Itsuki laughs along with them, smelling like strawberries – a winter haven kind of scent that makes Kaede’s skin shudder through his ribs. Even among the different aromas of the flowers, the smell of Itsuki stands out. Everything about Itsuki Sumeragi makes his head spin with the mad intoxication of alcohol. But Kaede doesn’t need to drink to know that he’s going to fall.
He doesn't need to be to see that he’s already fallen.
Kaede feels like he barely remembers the woman standing in front of him, even though he can still memorize everything from the size of her determination to the passion in her fingertips.
He remembers how Itsuki looked at him when he betrayed her.
“I’m not blind, Manyuda-senpai.” Itsuki begins, pointing an accusatory finger on his chest - right where his beating heart is. “And I’m certainly not dense. What is it that you need from me?”
Kaedei’s breath hitches as he murmurs an, “Okay.” He hesitates for a moment before he slowly bends down to the girl in front of him. He doesn’t know if Itsuki still has feelings for him after all these weeks, if Itsuki is still the same woman he’s known like the back of his skin, if Itsuki will be the one to walk away from him as easily as he left her from the Student Council.
And then, he realizes that it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know. Because Kaede will always love Itsuki the way ghosts search for a way back home – blindly, lost.
Itsuki can’t stop looking at him. His thoughts are twisting, his knuckles nearly wailing in pain as he prevents himself from coming closer. But then, he finally takes the step, wrapping his arms around Itsuki as the ramming sun sits on their shoulders.
Itsuki doesn’t know how to say that Kaede’s simple action made her feel happiness in such a way. His heart is warming right in the pool of his ribs. Itsuki places both of her hands on Kaede’s chest, her fingers taking in the constant thumping of Kaede’s rapid heartbeat. He wonders if Itsuki can hear the words through the lava heat of his skin, if Itsuki already knows how much she means to him.
“Senpai?”
Kaede pulls back, a tiny hint of a flower blooming on his face. “Sumeragi-san, I-”
“Don’t,” Itsuki begs, tears welling up in her eyes despite the burst of joy from the hug earlier. “Don’t toy with me like you did back when I was still in the Student Council.”
“Itsuki,” he says, forgetting about honorifics, forgetting about manners. His eyes half-lifted, fluttering in the spaces in between them. “Sometimes, I pretended that you were on the other side of the table, where I could touch you without flinching.”
“I’m sorry if I hurt you before, I-I want to make it up to you.”
And then – he presses their lips together, their mouths sharing the same breath, the same secret. Itsuki has the taste of strawberries in her kiss.
“And now, sometimes, I pretended that you still loved me.”
“I do,” Itsuki’s voice is quavering, trying to conceal all the mixed emotions within her. “I still do. I never stopped.”
He puts his forehead against hers, so he can clearly see the ache striking over her lashes, the tears on her cheeks, the smudged stain on her lips. Their hands seize each other, trying to keep each other close.
He watches the sky set between them, the colour of peach turns into the color of Itsuki’s hair. The different shades of the sky reflecting the chapters of his love.
“Let us perish together then, Itsuki Sumeragi.”
Their lips meet one more time. More than friends, more than accomplices.
They were each other’s savior.