Chapter Text
i always went to as many of their shows as i could, despite my illness and the position of the sun. being the leader of UNDEAD had more than enough benefits in the idol industry, and - although we weren’t produced by the same company - being a part of the square meant i could always pull a few strings to get in. he never noticed; hibiki-kun was always too focused on perfection to pay attention to the thousands of faces in the crowd before him.
it was the night of their debut for the tempest night when wataru’s eyes met my own, and in that endless sea of bodies, for only the slightest of moments, the only people in that stadium were us. he, a mere court jester ascended to the righteous and holy, and myself, the king of demons, fated to live the rest of his elder days shrouded by darkness.
he was truly beautiful, then; though his persona had never really changed, the rigorous scheming and the pulling of strings by fine’s puppetmaster, tenshouin, created a refinement in the subtle ways he moved, presented himself. a vigorous repentance for his sins as an eccentric and the spoon-feeding of sweet nothings and false promises by the emperor changed him into wataru, the orchestra of heaven’s divine comedy.
the war was kind to neither of us, but he maintained his outward appearance of purity and grace. myself, however, scorned to an afterlife of hellfire and brimstone, hardened and aged by battle and though i was yet even twenty, the ache in my weary bones was evident in the way i showed myself to the world.
and, yet, as his gaze met mine, it was as if a spark had relit the blood in my veins and set my flesh aflame; a flash of blinding light from the strobe above and we were back on the roof of yumenosaki, not a jester and a demon king, no, but hibiki wataru and sakuma rei, two of three eccentrics, beginning our next year of high school and believing so foolishly that we would make it out alive.
then, just as quickly as it came, the walls crumbled around our vision of paradise. his gaze swept to tenshouin, a smile that screamed adoration, and the music continued.
we’d locked eyes a second time, long after the stage lights dimmed and the speakers silenced, but by then, the illusion had been ruined. just as eve took a bite of the fruit of knowledge, so too did our garden of eden fall apart at the seams.
i smiled. i had seen enough. the look on his face as he took tenshouin’s hand had embedded in my mind like the burn-in on a television screen, and i knew then that the directions we were fated to take had shifted far, far away.
as i retreated into the darkness, i pleaded to forget the anguish in his eyes.