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“Eiri! Wake up! Open your eyes…please…!” Haku shouted as he shook Eiri almost violently as the latter is cradled by his messiah.
Haku slightly opened his eyes, beads of cold sweat trickling down his face.
“Ha…ku…” He managed a little smile and placed a hand on Haku’s cheek and fell on ground before his palm touched the older man’s face.
“Eiri! No…don’t go. EIRI!”
~~~
Haku shot his eyes open and sat on his bed. He looked at other bed in the room and saw his new partner sleeping on it. He looked at the clock and it read: 3:13 AM. He heaved a sigh before falling back to sleep again.
“No more…” he thought as he covered himself with his blanket. “I don’t want any more pain.”
[Wake up, wake up! Eiri-kun, wake up!]
Eiri involuntarily woke up. He sat up and his sleepy eyes drifted to the alarm clock on his bedside table.
5:55 AM.
He scratched his head exasperatedly, piqued at being woken at an ungodly hour. He looked at the form sleeping peacefully in the bed on the other side of the room thinking just what to throw at the guy. But if he makes noise, the people sleeping next door would hear his irk, and most likely, to his dismay, he'll be the one to be blamed.
“How the heck does he sleep with all these alarm clocks?” he thought leaning an arm on one of his knees. He massaged his aching temple and reached for the toy gun he kept under his pillow just in case something like this happens and shot the alarm clock with his rubber bullets. He expected it to alarm at once, but it didn't.
"That's weird." He thought and laid back down on his bed again, he stayed alert. It might go off anytime, but five minutes, ten, twenty minutes later, nothing. He just stared at the ceiling and closed his eyes as he fell asleep.
[Get a grip, Eiri-kun! Get a grip, Eiri-kun!]
He slapped a hand against his face and covered his ears with his pillow.
6:50 AM
“Mou, give me a break!” he muttered.
“Eiri,” a familiar voice called.
“What?” Eiri asked. Wait, what? He turned to face the person who called him. Now that’s even weirder. Haku’s awake? At the second alarm that went off an hour later? He usually doesn’t wake up until Eiri loses it. “Haku?”
“Something wrong, Eiri?” the taller man asked, and his Messiah didn’t choose to hide his thoughts. Haku, however knew what Eiri is thinking. He's been Eiri's messiah for almost a year and by merely glancing at the sniper's expressions he could easily read him like a book. After all, Haku is Eiri's messiah, that much is expected. he raised a plastic bag containing his juice box and several boxes of sweets half way up to show Eiri.
“I ran out, I was going to buy one.” He answered not waiting for Eiri to speak.
“What?” Eiri sat up, forgetting he’s still sleepy. What’s the matter with this day? When did he start buying his own sweets? He usually ask either Eiri or Souma to fetch it for him...something’s off today.
He just sat on his bed, dumbfounded. He wasn't even able to say anything as Haku walked out of their room. Eiri wondered to himself what could've happened before today. Yesterday Haku was...clingy. He refused to let Eiri out of his sight even for once, even when going to the toilet. Which annoyed the sniper to the point of wanting to chain his messiah to their room.
Eiri was downright annoyed and surprised. Yes, it was a welcome change but something didn’t feel right.
While Eiri was away, Haku cleaned their room (of course leaving some of his precious boxes and treats behind). He made sure to sweep the floor and keep his collection of sweets in the boxes piled at the foot of Eiri’s bed.
Eiri came back to find their room tidy. He always thought that Haku’s idea of clean is to just throw away the empty wrappers and boxes and leave everything else on the floor as it is. It is actually too tidy, even more so for the fact that Haku is on his bed sleeping.
“Seriously, what happening?” Eiri asked himself, scratching his head. Haku’s not acting himself since the moment he woke up. He went to his messiah’s bed only to find him soundly sleeping, he sighed deeply and just sat on his bed. Before he knew it, he was lying on his bed fast asleep. He woke up and saw Haku's bed fixed. He sat up and looked around, he felt his blanket fall from his shoulders. Eiri blinked, he didn't remember putting a blanket over himself. Heck, he didn't even remember when he slept. He brushed the thought away, deeming it useless.
"Maybe he went out again." He thought. Haku must've left while he was sleeping.
The day went on as usual.
He went to their classes, practiced with their juniors along with Souma and Shuusuke and he did his usual sniping simulation, one he did since day one.
As normal as Eiri's day is today, he didn't feel it as such. He wasn't yelling at Haku for leaving his trash all over their floor, he didn't nag like he usually does when they're eating lunch.
Yes, he did want another messiah. But who knew Eiri would miss Haku this much? The gaping hole his messiah left is too large for his tiny body and when Haku didn't return at 6:00 PM, he decided it's time to look for him.
He went around the Church and asked around, but he saw not even a shadow of his partner.
6:27 PM.
Eiri sat at the common room when his co-seniors came, Shuusuke with his messiah Souma.
“Eiri, you look overworked.” Shuusuke said as the two of them stood in front of the sniper who just huffed in response.
“Hey, have you guys seen Haku?” he finally asked after a while. Tiredness are evident in his voice, but more than that, Shuusuke felt that Eiri was deeply worried.
“Not since this morning, why?” Souma asked sitting down on a chair in front of the younger man.
“Is there something wrong?” Shuusuke followed up.
“No, it’s nothing.” Eiri answered breathing heavily and his shoulders falling.
Shuusuke observed him scrutinizingly, the sweat on Eiri’s brow told him he’s been searching around for his messiah and the expression etched on the sniper’s face show something that is, not out of his character, but more like contrasted to his relationship with his messiah.
Lately, Eiri would wake Souma and Shuusuke up with his usual daily nagging at Haku to get rid of his countless alarm clocks. It happens everyday, and he speculated Eiri’s been at it since the day he was assigned to be Haku’s messiah. And in their everyday endeavours, it would seem like Eiri would have Haku jump off a cliff or something anytime.
He also noted that Eiri haven’t been nagging at Haku lately, especially this morning and now Haku’s nowhere to be found.
“Did something happen?” Shuusuke asked. He didn’t expect the smaller man to answer though. Eiri just shook his head and stood up.
“I’ll be just in our room.” He said and walked out.
He sat in his bed as he thought about his and Haku’s relationship as messiah’s so far. All this time, Haku has shunned him, refusing to be reached.
He saw a discarded note on the floor beside Haku’s bed. He had failed to notice it since he was focused on looking for his roommate. He took it and read it, afterwards he crumpled it and decided to go out into the city.
He took off his coat and dashed out of Church.
8: 49 PM.
He went to a park and saw several men surrounding Haku. His eyes widened and his heart started beating fast. Without thinking, he raised his voice,
“Haku!” he cried.
The man standing behind Haku whipped out a gun and pointed it at Haku, the latter instinctively turned and slapped the gun off of the man’s hand and jabbing his throat. Eiri lunged at the man who’s about to shoot Haku’s back as the others ran away.
“What are you doing here?” Haku asked standing in front of Eiri.
“Why didn’t you tell me you have an assignment?!” Eiri answered, angrily grabbing Haku’s collar.
“What is that to you?” Haku asked casually.
“You…! Aren’t you my messiah?!” Haku merely looked at Eiri with a blank expression. “I couldn’t tell what you were thinking lately. You’ve suddenly grew distant more than you were. Are you trying to shut me out?”
“What if I am?” Haku retorted almost mindlessly. Eiri looked at him unbelievably. Did Haku really just say that? Eiri gritted his teeth and pushed Haku aside.
Saying nothing, he just left Haku standing there who weren’t looking at his messiah’s retreating back but away from it. He just took a sip from his juice box and followed Eiri back to the Church.
As Eiri went in the room, he angrily punched the wall. Church was no different from the mafia who took him. He scorned himself for being naive. Why did he even think Haku's gonna be different from all the people who used him so far? He clenched his fists.
"I'm just trash." He whispered. "Wherever I go, I'm always just trash."
'Suregi' as they called him in the mafia, he didn't know what it meant until Ichijima told him. "Trash" that's what they call him, and that's what he'll always be. And he expects that Sakura will just discard of of him when he's no longer useful to them. Again, just as the mafia left him to die after completing his revenge mission.
"Sakura's no different." Eiri thought, suppressing the tears that made their way up his eyes. “Once they’re done with me, they’ll just leave me to die.”
“You’re no different, Haku…”
The next day, the two went to Ichijima's office separately. Eiri stood beside Shuusuke, with Haku standing at the opposite end beside Souma.
Souma and Shuusuke looked at each other.
“Did something happen to those two?” Souma asked.
“I wonder…” Shuusuke answered pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
Ichijima always found it amusing, how the two always seem to bicker but this seemed serious. The mission he gave Haku yesterday was supposed to be for Souma and Shuusuke, yet Haku took it alone and didn't tell anyone about it, even his messiah, Eiri.
He deemed that Haku didn't want any more losses and took the assignment as a suicide mission. But Eiri was sharp. He knew something was wrong and searched for Haku.
"This is getting more interesting." He mused.
"Chief?" Shuusuke called as Ichijima just chuckled to himself and stood up with the help of his crane.
"Now then, it's time for your mission." Ichijima said as the four cadets in front of him stood in attention. "Confidential information has been stolen by the Council members and we are tasked to retrieve it..." as their chief went further into details, Haku slightly glanced at Eiri who's still clearly annoyed at him.
After they prepared themselves to depart, Souma tried to patch things out for Haku and Eiri, but that clearly didn’t work and they went on with the mission as planned. Contrary to what Shuusuke believed, Haku and Eiri worked efficiently as part of their team minus the fact that they’re not communicating, Haku providing them with digital cover and Eiri, on the top of a nearby building, sniping at pursuers behind them. Thanks to that, they were able to retrieve the stolen data. And just as they’re about to pull back the Council members opened fire on Souma and Shuusuke, prompting Haku and Eiri to leave their posts and back the former two up.
Haku and Eiri met at the foot of a staircase where Souma and Shuusuke are about to descend, shooting all that came their way.
As Eiri turned around, he saw a man pointing his rifle at Haku’s back and without thinking, he went in the line of fire and he was shot - five times. Two in his left chest and three in his abdomen. Haku turned just in time to see Eiri falling on the ground. Shuusuke shot Eiri’s shooter and descended on the floor Haku is in.
Eiri lies bleeding profusely on the ground, trembling and gasping for air. Shuusuke deemed that he’s been shot through his heart. Haku kneeled down and cradled Eiri’s limp body in his arms.
“Not again…” he thought.
“Eiri…” he called almost violently shaking him to wake him up, but Eiri’s eyes won’t move and one realization yelled at him loud and clear: “Eiri, my messiah’s dying.”
Haku felt something hot in his eyes and his face is also heating up. He stared at Eiri’s bullet-ridden body and he coughs out blood. His vision became blurry and felt tears flowing freely from his eyes.
“Eiri…” he called. “The room’s a mess. Aren’t you angry?”
Eiri rolled his eyes to Haku as he continued on gasping and coughing.
“I left candy wrappers all over our floor, aren’t you going to say something? Eiri, there are ants in our room, are you going to yell at me? Eiri…” he murmured as he finally broke down.
Eiri, on the other hand, wanted to respond to Haku. He wanted to say something. He wanted to nag at Haku, but there’s something stuck in his throat that he can’t even say a word. Eiri struggled as he raised his hand to Haku’s face smearing it with his blood.
“Ha...ku…” is all he managed to say as his hand fell back on the ground and his body weight doubled. His unresponsive eyes, still open staring at nothingness, is where a single teardrop found its way to his cheek.
“Eiri…?” Haku called. “No...not again…!”
“Eiri, wake up!” Haku shouted as loud as he could, not minding if there are enemies around.
Shuusuke kneeled beside Eiri and checked his pulse in his wrist. It’s not beating, there’s no pulse. He moved to Eiri’s neck and it told hims the same thing. Shuusuke felt the same pang he felt when his first messiah died.
“How is he?” Souma asked eagerly. Shuusuke looked away not wanting to see the faces of the two that await his answer.
“Eiri…” he answered, his voice breaking down. “...he’s gone.”
Souma’s eyes widened and Haku just held Eiri’s body close, refusing to believe what Shuusuke said.
“Eiri…!” Haku cried still trying to wake his messiah up. “EIRI!!”
A few days later, Haku stood before the markless spot where they buried his partner -- the messiah who tried to reach out to him, and whom he rejected for fear of this very loss. This is the third time he lost his messiah, and it’s too much to bear.
“Eiri,” is all he could muster. His chest felt heavy, his shoulder felt like it’s being pulled down by something heavy and his mind, sprawled all over the place. He just blankly stared at the newly patched soil on the ground, hoping against hope that it wasn’t Eiri who was buried there.
“This is too painful.”
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.
“No more...I don’t want any more pain!” he thought as he raised the gun that he’s been clutching to his temple. And without second thoughts, he pulled the trigger.
~~~
Haku shot up from his bed, panting heavily and his shirt, drenched in sweat. He looked around and realized that he’s lying on his bed in their room - his and Eiri’s room.
“Just a dream…” he thought. “It was just a dream.”
He looked around and tried to find his messiah.
“Eiri!” he whispered with panic evident in his voice. He glanced at his messiah’s bed and saw him soundly sleeping. He stood up and went to Eiri’s bed to make sure.
“He’s breathing.” He reassured himself sighing. “Eiri’s alive.”
Without thinking, he climbed up Eiri’s bed and wrapped his arms around he sniper’s waist as tight as he could that Eiri woke up.
“In the name of…?!” Eiri exclaimed. If Haku wasn’t holding him tightly, Eiri would’ve jumped in surprise. “Haku…? What happened?” he asked softly.
“You’re not going anywhere, right Eiri?” Haku asked almost childishly, nuzzling Eiri’s neck from behind.
“What’s the matter with you all of the sudden?” Eiri asked.
“I’m not going to lose you, right Eiri?” Haku asked again.
Eiri just clicked his tongue and scratched his forehead.
“No, you’re not going to lose me, Haku.” He assured Haku as he held Haku’s hands.