Work Text:
Hanako stares at inky skies, painted with brush strokes of stars, and wonders if this is his punishment. The hollow, bitter cold of loneliness is nothing compared to the thoughts of finding something worth living for, only to have it ripped away.
He taps cold fingertips on cold glass and wonders.
He wonders if Yashiro is asleep. He wonders if she’s safe, curled under warm covers. He hopes she’s not lying awake thinking about distant futures and broken promises.
He has a vast amount of power at his fingertips, and yet he can’t seem to help the one living girl in front of him.
There’s a bitter taste in his mouth, like acid and citrus. The familiar feeling of self-loathing settles across his skin and burrows deep in his bone marrow. If he were to bleed right now, would maggots crawl out instead?
Glass panes shake under the force of unforgiving wind, and Hanako drifts across the tiled floor. There is no reflection when he looks into the mirror across from him, just a vacant view of his surroundings. The red stalls of his bathroom swallow him whole.
He feels helpless. He’s bound to the will of the building encasing him, so how can he hope to lengthen the life of one Yashiro Nene?
She deserves so much. Such a bright force in his life, someone so determined and kind he can’t help but be drawn towards.
He aches at the thought of her disappearing.
His sense of time is warped, days blurring into nothing more than splotches of paint. Has time already run out for her? Is Yashiro taking her last breaths this very instant?
How much time does he have left? Will he get to say goodbye?
No. He will make sure she gets to see the sunrise of a new day. He will make sure she gets to experience the changing of seasons for years to come.
He’s changed fate once. He’ll do it again.