Work Text:
—
School lunch was normal.
Saiki sat in an empty classroom on the bottom floor of the school, the light from the windows majorly covered from the blinds, but a small bit of light filtered in from the edges.
His lunch was on the desk in front of him, and the muffled sound of the lively students was just hardly there, but noticeable enough to make him feel like he was going crazy. Thoughts drained in from every corner of the room and small wrappers littered the floor from the previous classes. It felt like people were right next to him, chatting loudly and obnoxiously and pressing up next to him and jumping around and running into each other without a care in the world like they were living their last breaths--
He breathed out.
His utensils were stabbed into his food, and his hands were wandering elsewhere--to his chest--and he breathed in.
He could still breathe.
School lunch was nearing its end, and Saiki wished it would be over already.
--
Next to him sits Nendou and Kaidou while Teruhashi, Hairo, Yumehara, and Kuboyasu sit across. Their lunches lay abandoned in the middle of the group as they talk and yell and argue all around him. He hated it.
--
The bell rings, signalling the next period.
His class was on the third floor.
He quickly cleaned his area, picking up his tray and tossing it in the trashcan by the door as he walks out. Once the door opened, he was bombarded with rushed voices and aggressive students. He wanted to plug his ears.
The staircase was right down the hall, barely visible through the crowd of teenagers blocking the way. He would never make it through the day if he stood in one place the whole time, so he took his first step forward.
Almost immediately, students came dashing beside him, narrowly avoiding him as they raced down the hall, until one of them accidentally elbowed Saiki in the shoulder and knocked him back into the wall.
Suddenly, he couldn't see.
--
They ate on the rooftop--it was a routine now. Kaidou was to his left, with Kuboyasu to his and his back facing the railing. lunch time was almost over, and they began packing up.
Saiki stood up, offering a hand to Kaidou to help him up as well. When Kaidou accepted it and smiled the way he does whenever somebody helps him, Saiki smiled as well. He couldn't help it.
--
They stared down at him dauntingly--the staircase leading to the floors above him. He didn't want to go, but he had to. With the halls now almost completely empty, he could relax a bit. He didn't have to worry as much.
He didn't like the blues of the staircase, he had decided a while back.
He was at the staircase when it happened.
The first step was fine, and so was the second, third, and fourth, all the way until he reached the last.
--
Their little group began to head towards the stairs, Nendou picking his nose, Teruhashi gushing over Saiki and herself in her mind, Yumehara gushing over Kaidou in her mind, and so on. Pretty much the regular for them, he had thought.
Kaidou (it was always Kaidou) was last, all the way at the back, as he had dropped his bag carrying his school supplies. Kuboyasu was helping him. He felt envious.
--
Had class started?
He didn't think so, so why did everyone's attention turn to him when he opened the door?
It was too quiet and too loud all at once, but he had to get to his seat. When he caught Kuboyasu's glance from the corner, he wanted to glare at him, to scream at him, all for what happened, but he knew he shouldn't. Because it wasn't his fault.
--
Kuboyasu also offered his hand to Kaidou to help him up, and Kaidou accepted, but when Kuboyasu lifted him off the ground, Kaidou slipped again on a book he hadn't picked up, and Kaidou flew backwards--towards the railing.
He felt scared.
--
He couldnt keep his eyes off of Kaidou's desk, wishing it wasnt empty, wishin that kaidou would be sitting there, off in his own world as the Jet Black Wings, fighting off the Dark Reunion--or, imagining what it would be like if he had more friends--or, even, just actually doing his schoolwork. His thoughts had always been so loud.
--
When the railing broke underneath Kaidou, all Saiki could think was Help him over and over and over again, but he felt like he was was stuck in place.
I can teleport, goddammit! Just go! He had thought, but nothing happened.
It didn't help that the first thing Kaidou had said after realizing he was gonna fall was--
"Saiki--!"
--
Shit, Saiki thought when he accidentally gave himself a paper-cut. He hated paper-cuts. It happened so often now that he--
He took one look at the small line of red on his finger before wiping it on his pants with a wince, leaving it alone.
--
Usually, bones, blood, and guts wouldn't disturb him, X-ray vision and all, the sight at the ground of the school was terrible.
Kaidou's limbs were bent in all the wrong ways, bones could be seen sticking out at certain joints, and the ground was stained red. Kaidou's regular messy, light blue hair was matted with blood and dirt, and the only thing Saiki was thankful for was that he never saw his face.
--
It had been a beautiful day. His funeral had been a beautiful day. His birthday—two weeks after—had been a beautiful day.
—
The warmth of his bed was hardly comforting--it felt like instead of a safe-haven from everything like it used to be, it is now just an overbearing weight and reminder that one of his... friends... would no longer ever be able to sleep and dream and lay under the covers and live a fulfilling life.
He could still remember the time he and Nendo had visited Kaidous house, at the suggestion of his mom, where Kaidou (somewhat) stood up for them in the hallway outside the door. while he enjoyed the coffee jelly his mom prepared in his room. Too bad that memory comes along with the thought of that expansive room of his in now empty and lifeless.
Saiki genuinely feels terrible for his family--his mom, his younger brother and sister, his majorly absent dad--and is well aware of the grief there going through. He'd seem them at the funeral, their eyes all rimmed with red and minds almost completely blank. His friends had been devastated--especially the ones that watched it happen.
No one has been the same since.
--
"Hey, Saiki?" Kaidou mumbled, walking backwards while they headed home for the day. "Do you... think we'll still be f-friends when we're older?" He manged to get out, cheeks slightly tinged red and face obscured by his low-hanging head.
It seemed like an easy answer to Saiki--of course not, he never even wanted anything to do with him in the first place--but when it came to saying (telepathically transmitting) it, he hesitated. When he tried to think of what it would be like without the dorky little boy with 8th-grade syndrome who somehow almost always makes his day better, he couldn't bring himself to accept that.
So when he finally allowed himself to answer--
"Yeah. I think we will."
--