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It’s hot. Like really hot in the arena. Yes, they’re all sweating but Yasushi is feeling even worse. It’s clear to all of them. It had been around a day that the games had started. They were thrown into a tropical environment and already so many people were dead. The girl Yasushi came with as well as the old women that volunteered for Yui Ueda that came with Sachio and the middle-aged woman with Todoroki. They formed an alliance of some kind but Tsukasa has a feeling that if Yasushi doesn’t stop bouncing his knee up and down Todoroki will kill him first. “Hey pretty boy” Yasushi says, sweat running down the side of his face, watching Fujio trace his fingers along one of the many scars along Tsukasa’s arm “Is there no plant here that makes alcohol?”
Yasushi was going through crazy withdrawal. Yasushi was one of the victors that used alcohol as an escape from reality after the games. Although, he was also one of the victors that was exempt from the forced prostitution due to his feral nature. The prostitution was obviously not known about publicly. It hurts because Reiji and Shoji will always be known as the victors that slept around— Tsukasa wishes he could change that but there was no one there to tell their story and Tsukasa didn’t know all of it. But Yasushi couldn’t help but constantly stare at Tsukasa and Fujio. It made him miss that piece of shit best friend of his back home. Yasushi wonders briefly how Kiyoshi is doing without him. Then he remembers Kiyoshi probably has access to all the alcohol he wants and Yasushi instantly does not miss him anymore and rather feels jealous. “Um… no?” Tsukasa says more as a question rather than an answer
Yasushi lays back onto the sand on the beach and begins to whine like a child, flailing his arms and legs around. “UGHHHH! FUCK!” He whines literally screaming, his voice echoing through the arena “IF THE OTHER TRIBUTES DON’T KILL ME WITHDRAWL WILL!”
Todoroki’s eye twitches as he picks up his spear. “Or I will—”
Sachio grabs him by the shoulder and gives the other man a look. He sits down next to Yasushi and pulls him up forcefully before handing him half a broken coconut filled with freshwater he got by jabbing a spile he got from a sponsor in the tree. “Drink” he urges
Yasushi looks like he’s going to say something but takes the coconut and drinks the water anyways, some of it spilling out from the corners of his mouth due to his extremely shaky hands. “Well, at least you’re not vomiting anymore” Fujio says to Yasushi from where he’s laying on Tsukasa’s lap
The arena had a tropical climate. Saltwater in the center and the huge cornucopia in the middle of the water with a few wedges placed out evenly and two platforms between each wedge. There were huge tropical trees and the jungle was a fucking nightmare which is why they were all on the beach. “I’m going to die ~” Yasushi whines like a child “Someone kill me please ”
“I’ll do it right now” Todoroki picks up his spear and holds it to Yasushi’s neck
Yasushi’s too stuck in his withdrawal to even flinch. “Hey don’t do that” Sachio tells Todoroki
Todoroki grumbled a few curses before he moves his spear away and plops down on the sand. “I’ll literally die guys” Yasushi whines then sits up fast, a bright hopeful look in his eyes “do you think one of the sponsors will send me some?”
“No sponsor in history has ever sent alcohol into the games” Todoroki said rolling his eyes “and I don’t think anyone likes your crazy ass enough to do so… Maybe if you were Sameoka or Himuro or maybe Yui. But for you? Never”
“What if they have some sympathy for a poor guy like me and send me some?” Yasushi asks sounding hopeful, crawling in the sand over to Todoroki and shaking him a little
Tsukasa feels almost bad for the alcoholic. He looks down at Fujio who’s looking at Yasushi with a sad expression. Fujio clearly feels really bad for Yasushi. Tsukasa lets out a little sigh and runs his fingers through Fujio’s hair, Shoji’s bracelet on his wrist shining in the light coming from above. Fujio’s wearing Reiji’s. “Someone sing this little shit a lullaby” Todoroki says and pushes Yasushi off him “Or I’ll actually kill him”
Yasushi falls back into the sand like dead weight, looking even worse than before. “Hey… You both can sing can’t you?” Sachio asks Fujio and Tsukasa
Fujio looks up at Tsukasa from where he’s laying on the blonde’s lap then looks back at Sachio. “Kind of…” Fujio says
“I mean I guess” Tsukasa says with a shrug
“District 12 tributes are known for having nice voices” Todoroki says, drawing shapes in the sand with his spear “maybe you can sing this little shit’s withdrawals away before I actually kill him”
There is a short moment of silence until Sachio speaks. “You both should sing something”
Fujio looks up at Tsukasa and Tsukasa looks at him. “I don’t think we know any songs,” Fujio says “I mean… most are banned”
Tsukasa thinks for a moment. But then he thinks it’s a bad idea and doesn’t say it. But Tsukasa realizes him and Fujio have come here to die. It was either they both survive the 3rd quarter quell together or they both die together. That was how this would work. “I know one” Tsukasa says
Fujio raises a brow. “You know it too” Tsukasa tells him
Yasushi seemed to have quieted his wailing but he was still very much failing around. “Sing it then” Sachio says, also wanting to hear them sing
Fujio sits up and looks at Tsukasa waiting for him to start this certain song. Tsukasa stares up at the sky and thinks of Shoji and Reiji for a moment. The bracelet on his wrist feels heavy and his vision through his left eye is still blurry. Tsukasa has long gotten used to the half blindness but sometimes he feels like it’s getting worse. “Are you, are you comin’ to the tree?” Tsukasa sings
Fujio’s jaw drops at the realization of what song Tsukasa was singing. Yasushi turns his head to look at Tsukasa and Fujio as well. It’s almost silent in arena as Fujio continues very hesitantly. “Where they strung up a man, they say, who murdered three”
“Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be”
They sing the next line together. “If we met at midnight in the hanging tree”
Tsukasa and Fujio might as well be dead at this point. The Hanging Tree was a banned song. Neither of them knows the origin or the original writer but it was a song sung in private at 12. But it was their song, Tsukasa and Fujio’s. They loved the song so so much, Fujio especially. He felt like he resonated with the lyrics. The Hanging Tree was a very very eerie song and Todoroki, Sachio and even Yasushi begin to realize this as Tsukasa and Fujio continue singing. “Are you, are you comin' to the tree” Fujio sings then Tsukasa sings the next line “Where dead man called out, for his love to flee?”
Sachio can’t help but think the song reminds him so much of Fujio and Tsukasa. “Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be”
Todoroki thinks of Reiji and Shoji. “If we met at midnight in the hanging tree” Fujio and Tsukasa harmonize once again and Yasushi isn’t bouncing around anymore
But it’s Yasushi who realizes something about the song. The singer of the song is the dead murderer. He's still in the hanging tree. “ Are you, are you comin' to the tree?” Tsukasa sings the first line
“ Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free?” then Fujio
Even though he told his lover to flee, he keeps asking if they’re coming to meet him. The phrase "Where I told you to run, so we'd both be free" is the most troubling because at first Yasushi thinks he's talking about when he told them to flee, presumably to safety. “ Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be… If we met at midnight in the hanging tree”
But then Yasushi wonder if he meant for them to run to him. To death. “Are you, are you, comin’ to the tree?” Fujio sings and in the final stanza, it's clear to Yasushi what the dead man is waiting for as Tsukasa sings the next line
“Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me”
“Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be” Fujio sings
Then both Tsukasa and Fujo sing together “If we met at midnight in the hanging tree”
The dead man was waiting for his lover, with their rope necklace, hanging dead next to him in the tree.
On the 7th day of the games, Yasushi isn’t trembling and sweating from withdrawals anymore and the song is echoing through his brain— specifically with Fujio and Tsukasa’s voices. They sang beautifully no doubt but perhaps it was their pretty voices that made the song even more eerie. He keeps hearing them even when his eyes are closed, even when they’re far away, even when they’re not even singing. Yasushi was mesmerized by Tsukasa and Fujio’s voices and it was clear Todoroki and Shoji were as well. “I wish they could live” Todoroki says out of nowhere to him
Yasushi stares at Todoroki and then at the two best friends who were sitting by the fire Sachio had set up, leaning into each other comfortably. Yasushi stares hard as he watches Tsukasa let Fujio lay his head in his lap. Yasushi stares hard as Tsukasa runs his fingers through the sweaty black strands. “Me too” Is all Yasushi says
Because Tsukasa loves Fujio and loves him more than Tsukasa loves his own life.