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5:00 am. Rin woke up in the Blue Lock dormitory, wrapped in its plain fitted sheets. They have the texture of paper, more than linen. He stared up at the dull gray ceiling, smooth and clean. Upon further notice, however, cobwebs could be seen strewn across the corners. The room lacked any windows, so it left Rin and his (unfortunately) roommate, Shidou, in solitary confinement, devoid of sunlight.
Rin grabbed his duffel bag, neatly packed his things into it, and left Shidou sleeping alone in the dorm.
Practice did not start until 7, so he had plenty of time.
5:15 am. Rin does not stop for breakfast. He simply slipped on a pair of tennis shoes and exited the building. He’s the only person awake at this hour, surely. He walks away, without a trace left behind. He knows there are cameras watching. He does not care.
Rin must’ve been walking for a while now. He walked along the filthy pavement, dirtying his clean, white shoes. It doesn’t matter now. Rin walks, and walks, and does not stop until his feet are sore and his tendons aching. He reaches a 13-floor abandoned apartment building, as far as he could find from Blue Lock.
The elevator is broken.
6:10 am. Rin braces himself and slowly ascends up the staircase. On most days, his legs are in good shape and his movements articulate, but not today. Today is different.
Rin climbs, and climbs, and climbs the stairs. It seems as if his poor shoes have their soles broken, and the neatly tied laces have come undone long ago. In reality, they barely have a scratch on them. More, they say. We can go farther.
6:20 am. Rin finally reaches the roof of the building. The duffel bag weighs down on him, and his bones ache with a dull pain. Just a little more. He fights the urge to collapse and drag himself along the floor to the edge.
Upon reaching the edge of the roof, he finds that the sun has started to rise.
Pale blue fades into yellow, then a bright gradient of scarlet and pink, vermillion highlights tying the scene into a nicely wrapped bow. The paper-thin clouds carefully decorate the early morning sky, a grand display of oil splashed onto a canvas that is not his. This is not his sky.
Every shape, color, and sound is where it should be. A delicate orchestra of senses, or a meticulously crafted and curated bouquet of flowers. The world is so, so calm right now. Rin chose such a beautiful day to do this.
Until he notices the red in the sky is the same color as his brother’s hair. The same color lightly dotting the peeling bandages wrapped around Rin’s wrist. He exhales and reminds himself what he is here for.
6:30 am. Rin unzips the duffel bag. He lays out several envelopes, each sealed plain and neatly. He sets down an orderly, small stack of papers containing his final will and testament. Everything is almost in place now.
Rin looks past a thin layer of broken glass on the roof, and is met by his own face. Glaring and cold, those dull eyes that were once so bright. It looks too much like his brother’s. He wants to disfigure it, tear it off, anything to keep it from staring woefully back at him, pleading and brimming red.
Red. That damned color.
With the envelopes, papers, and bag set out, Rin is ready. He steadies himself through a series of calm, rhythmic breaths.
6:32 am. Rin slips off his shoes, and leaves them at the edge. He turns around, facing away from the edge, facing towards the sky. What a beautiful sight it is. What a beautiful time to die, right here, when everything will be at peace and he will be put to rest at long last.
Rin smiles.
It’s the first time in a long while he’s done that.
He wants the sky to be the last thing he sees.
Rin, still facing up, lets his legs give out beneath him, and lets go of the weight chaining his feet down. He waits for the wind against his back to cease and to hear the crack of bones and blood spattered across the pavement.
And so, Itoshi Rin is falling,
Falling,
Falling,
Falling,
Falling….
No, that didn’t happen.
5:00am. Shidou Ryuusei wakes up to the sound of Rin shuffling around, doing whatever the hell he’s doing. What is he doing? Shidou pretends to be asleep while seeing Rin pack up a bunch of his shit into a bag, fucking off to who knows where. On a whim, Shidou decides to follow him. He’s curious.
Shidou follows Rin for a while, struggling to keep up. He’s been walking with a purpose for quite a while now, and by now the sun has peeked out from the horizon. He can hear the gentle coo of mourning doves. Shidou feels uneasy as he follows Rin into a building, up a staircase, and onto a roof. Shidou is a bit exasperated, but that’s nothing compared to Rin. Poor underlashes junior looks like he’s about to tumble down any second!
6:30am. Dread fills his stomach as he watches Rin haphazardly set out a stack of papers and envelopes, shuffling them around into a poor excuse for an organized pile while muttering to himself. He takes in the way Rin’s eyes are darting around, and how the light of the rising sun hits his face. Normally Shidou would say otherwise, but right now, Rin seems to be anything but beautiful.
10 seconds after 6:32 am, Shidou’s eyes widen and his pupils contract to pinpricks.
11 seconds, 12 seconds, Shidou lunges and in what little time he has left, catches Rin by the wrist.
Rin waits, but the sensation never comes. He hisses at the burning feeling of pressure on his damaged wrists, and peeks his eyes open to see Shidou staring back at him.
God, Rin looks so cold. Not in the usual way. Here, his eyes are glazed over, looking through Shidou like he’s a ghost. Warm tears well up and threaten to fall, fall, falling…
Rin’s eyebrows are creased and Shidou can’t bear to look at him. But he looks nonetheless.
Rin’s lips open and mouth out a few words. No sound comes out. Rin is far too weak to make any sound right now, but he doesn’t need to.
“Let me go,” he mouths.
Shidou snaps out of his gaze, shakes his head, and pulls Rin back up from the ledge. He realizes the firm grip he has on Rin’s bandaged wrists, and holds Rin in a warm embrace.
Rin does everything he can. He tries to punch, kick, slap. Anything to get out of Shidou’s grasp.
How dare he? How dare he intervene, fuck everything up like this? How dare he stop me, when I did all this, and planned so perfectly every minute detail?
“Stupid bug-eyed antennae freak…” his insults fall on deaf ears, and Rin lets out muffled sobs into Shidou’s shoulder.
He’s calm now, like the chirping songbirds beginning to perch on the ledge.
7:00am. Shidou looks around, hastily puts everything back in the bag, and hoists Rin up, beginning the journey back. Rin hugs his arms around Shidou’s neck, and allows himself to rest, for once. As long as Shidou is holding Rin, he will live to see another sunrise.