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Teru’s school days as of late had been filled with a sort of peaceful bliss he’d never yet known in his life. A sense of comfort, safety, and belonging that he hadn’t experienced in 17 years. It was somewhat terrifying at first, unfamiliar and untrustworthy. He had come to learn to count his blessings but not dare to hope for anything better than what he already had lest it be snatched away from him.
Akane was no exception. Their relationship had been rocky from the very start with Akane never even bothering to hide his contempt for Teru. He was smart, yet far too emotional for his own good, obsessive, self-serving, and a supernatural first and foremost (and one he could never get rid of at that). Akane’s presence was a constant threat to his ideals, an exception and a slip up in the system that made Teru reconsider his morals for just a moment on his worst days.
Because Aoi Akane, despite being a supernatural, was still so painfully human in some ways. Outside of 15 minutes everyday, he was just a normal student with no spiritual power to speak of. With his glasses, a ‘gift’ from Teru, he couldn’t even see the supernaturals anymore. He couldn’t exorcise him, he couldn’t do anything to him other than watch and wait.
Even Teru didn’t know how they had really started dating. Everything about it was odd yet Teru would never complain about it no matter how unusual the nature of it was. Akane gave him that sense of security that Teru had always chased after and he wasn’t about to let that go now or ever.
---
“Aoi! Aoi, where are you!?”
Teru’s heartbeat rang in his ears, each beat going in time with his pounding footsteps as he ran through the far shore. Water splashed up with every step, the deepening water slowing down his movements. He didn’t care, he needed to find Akane as fast as he could.
His glasses had been laying shattered on the ground back in the school. Teru had tried to brush it off as an accident and convince himself that Akane had to be fine but he just couldn’t. A horrible gut feeling had settled itself inside of him and it couldn’t be put to rest until he saw Akane again with his own two eyes.
“Aoi!” he called out again.
One misplaced step sent him tumbling forwards. He held his hands out in front of him to cushion his fall, just barely managing to land on his palms rather than his face. He swallowed a mouthful of saltwater, both his throat and nose burning. None of that stopped him, however, and he was up again almost as soon as he hit the ground.
His heart dropped when he did finally find Akane.
He was sitting against the debris of what looked almost like a crumbled house. A puddle of blood had pooled all around him, staining everything red. His clothing was absolutely soaked so clearly he had been laying in the water at some point too. His neck was craned backwards at an awkward angle and his eyes were barely open. Teru ran to him, almost tripping over himself again in his haste to get to him as fast as he could.
Teru already knew. He knew from all the blood that coated the ground, Akane’s clothes, and the water, that there was no possible way he was still alive. He already knew as soon as he laid eyes on his body but that didn’t stop the realization from hitting him ten times as hard when he pulled Akane in for a hug and felt just how cold he was.
Setting Akane flat against the ground, his hands scrambled for the still bleeding wound, applying as much pressure as he could on it so that he could stop the bleeding. Despite his best efforts, the slow leakage didn’t stop and kept gushing through the cracks in his fingers.
Trying a new approach, he folded one hand around the other and placed them against Akane’s chest and began to press down rhythmically.
One. Two. Three.
Don’t you dare die on me, Aoi.
Four. Five. Six.
I refuse to lose anyone else ever again.
Seven. Eight. Nine.
You’re going to live dammit!
Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
Please. Please don’t die on me.
Twenty. Thirty.
I can’t lose anyone else.
Forty. Fifty.
Teru felt something crack under his palms but he refused to stop. His arms ached from the repetitive movements but he would do it a thousand times if needed.
Sixty. Seventy. Eigh-
Teru jolted upwards, his mouth locked in a silent scream. Droplets of cold sweat beaded down his forehead as he struggled to catch his breath. Both his mind and heart were racing a mile a minute as he desperately tried to force himself to calm down. It was a nightmare. Nothing more and nothing less.
One breath in, hold, one breath out.
Teru fumbled for his phone on his nightstand. He quickly dialed a familiar number that he had so, so many times before. The dial tone sounded way louder than it should have in his ears.
One breath in, hold, one breath out as it rang once, twice, three times.
What if he doesn’t pick up? One breath in, hold, one breath out.
Four. Five. And then a soft click. One breath in, hold, one breath out.
There was a tired groan on the other end and the sound of something shuffling around. “As much as I love you, you do realize that it’s four am and I was quite enjoying my beauty sleep, right?” His voice was groggy and somewhat raspy, clearly somewhat half-asleep but very much alive.
“I had another nightmare,” Teru said after a moment of silence.
There was a sigh and he heard Akane moving on the other end again, probably to sit up. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No, not really. I just wanted… to make sure you were okay.”
“Do you just want to talk in general? Until you fall back asleep?”
“Yeah.” Teru laid back down, readjusting his blankets until he was comfortable and put his phone next to his pillow.
“So, how was your day?” Akane asked, his tone less tired and more soothing now.
“It’s been hard doing all the student council work with you gone,” Teru said, “I find myself wishing you would return to school already but you need to recover still…”
“How very gracious of you,” Akane said sarcastically, “I’ll be back before you know it. Hell, you might even wish you could get rid of me again.”
One breath in, hold, one breath out.
“Can I see you tomorrow?”
Akane paused for a long moment, so long that Teru had almost wondered whether their connection had been accidentally severed. “...Sure. Meet me in our special place, okay?”
“What place are you talking about?”
“You’ll know the one.”
---
“Are you feeling alright, Teru-nii?” Kou asked him the next morning, having to practically drag him out of bed.
“Mhm,” Teru hummed quietly, going through his morning routine in a blind stupor, “Never been better.”
Kou didn’t meet his eyes. “Are you sure? ...You seem really pale and tired. Have you been getting enough sleep? Have you been eating enough?”
Teru patted Kou on the head and ruffled his hair up. “Sometimes, I think you forget who the older sibling is here.You don’t need to worry about any of that. After all, I have Aoi to take good care of me.”
Kou froze in place, a look of surprise and horror overtaking his features. “Akane-senpai you say?”
Teru nodded. “Of course. Haven’t I already told you? Even though he’s still recovering, he’s always making sure I’m eating and getting sleep… To be frank, he’s kind of a micromanager sometimes.”
Kou didn’t say anything else over breakfast that morning.
---
“I need to show you something,” Kou said just as Teru was getting ready to leave for the afternoon.
“I’m afraid it will have to wait until some other time,” Teru shook his head, not even bothering to stop getting ready, “I have plans with Aoi today.”
Kou grabbed Teru’s sleeve roughly, forcing him to pause. “Please. It’s very important.”
Teru hesitated for just a moment. It wasn’t like Kou to go against what he said. It must have been something super important to spark that sort of change in behavior. “...Okay. Let me call Aoi and tell him I’ll be a little late.
---
Kou led Teru down a beaten dirt road on the outskirts of their town while Teru tried to get a hold of Akane. For some reason, he didn’t answer the first time. He tried again, not wanting to let the other boy think he was being stood up.
It got to the last ring before Akane picked up.
“Oh, Aoi. So, I’m going to be a little later than I thought I would,” Teru explained.
Kou was watching him out of the corner of his eye with a bated breath. He seemed to be listening intently to their conversation.
“Oh, really?” Akane said with a sigh, “After you forced me to come out and meet you too…”
Teru laughed, a sound that set Kou’s teeth on edge. “I know, I know. I’m awful, but I’m sure you’ll live. Some fresh air will do some good for you. I’m sure it’s gotta be awfully stuffy being holed up in that room of yours all the time.”
“It’s not soo bad. Anyway, mind explaining why you’re gonna make me wait even longer?”
“My little brother said he needs to show me something. I’m sorry, it was very last minute.”
“Fine, see you in a bit then.”
Click. The line went dead.
“How much longer are we gonna have to walk for?” Teru asked, shielding his eyes from the beating summer sun with his hand, “Not that I have anything against spending time with you, Kou, but I do have another arrangement to attend. Aoi isn’t exactly known for his patience.”
“It’s not far now,” Kou mumbled.
He led him up a grassy hill where many flowers were in bloom. It was quite beautiful and Teru thought he might have liked to stop and appreciate it if he weren’t on a schedule. At the very top of the hill nestled under the base of a tree was a large, smooth stone.
“Is this a grave?” Teru asked, his impatience being replaced by confusion, “Whose grave is-?”
Shock didn’t even begin to cover the swirling mass of emotion inside him. He stared blankly at the tombstone, his mind reading the words yet not fully comprehending them.
“Teru-nii,” Kou knelt down near the headstone, his back turned to his brother.
“What is this? This isn’t funny at all.”
“Teru-nii,” he said again, more firm this time, “Akane-senpai… is gone. He’s been gone. This is his resting place now.”
“No!” Teru yelled, smacking away Kou’s hand as he tried to reach out and comfort him, “That’s not true! I was talking to him just a moment ago! I’ll show you.”
Teru desperately dialed in Akane’s phone number once more and held his breath with each ring.
One. Two. Three.
“Pick up dammit,” Teru grumbled to himself. It was so like him to make him wait at the worst possible moment.
Four. Five. Six.
“We're sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected or is no longer in service. If you feel you have reached this recording in error, please check the number and try your call again.”
Huh?
Teru stared at his phone before trying to dial it again. It was a fluke, yeah, a perfectly timed flub. That was all. He pressed each button with careful purpose, double checking to make sure it was correct.
One. Two. Dead silence.
“We’re sorry, you have reached a number that-”
Teru’s phone was promptly chucked as far away as he could manage. Who needed a phone call when Teru could just bring the actual Akane to Kou and prove him wrong?
“Stop it! Please, just stop! Don’t do this. Akane-senpai is gone. He’s gone and nothing can change that. There’s nothing that can be done for the dead.”
“No, you’re wrong! Aoi’s not dead!”
“Wait, where are you going!?”
---
He just had to get there. If he could get to their ‘special place’ and find Akane then everything would be alright. He would prove Kou wrong. There was no way that grave was Akane’s. He had just been talking to him the other night after all!
“Aoi! Aoi! Are you here?”
“Are you alright?” Akane asked, seeming rather surprised to see him, “When you didn’t show up earlier, I started to get worried. Did something happen?”
Teru stopped a few feet in front of Akane, letting out his breath. He was alive. He was here and alive.
“Kou told me you were dead. He showed me your grave.”
Akane blinked at him. “Why would he say such a thing? I can promise you I am still very much living.”
Teru tried to hug Akane but he ended up falling down his knees and pulling him down too. He didn’t know if he had the strength to stay upright at the moment so he settled for staying like that while Akane raked a hand through his hair softly.
“Shh, shh. Everything is okay. I’m here now.”
“And your phone,” Teru said in almost a whisper, “Why didn’t you answer?”
“I’m sorry. It’s okay now I promise. I’ll always be by your side.”
“Promise that you won’t ever leave me.”
“I promise, Teru, I’ll be here with you for as long as your heart beats,” Akane replied.
“Akane… I’m so tired.”
Akane brushed his hair from his face as they laid down in the grass. “I know. You can rest now. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
His entire body felt light. Calmness like he had never known before overtook him.
“Sweet dreams…”