Work Text:
It had been one week.
One week since Tsukasa… had killed himself.
One week of sleeplessness nights.
One week of grieving.
One week of regret.
One week of wishing, begging for something that would never come back.
Unless…
Six days of hard work.
Six days of barely leaving the garage.
Six days of neglecting his needs in favour of working on…
What would Tsukasa say about this? Would he scold Rui for not taking care of himself? Would he scream in terror at the machine he was building? Would he try to take care of Rui? Would he be disappointed that Rui never saved him? Would he look at Rui in disgust? Would he laugh at Rui as he tries to get him back, when all he had to do was just… look after Tsukasa more?
…
No, Tsukasa isn’t mean. He shouldn’t let his self-hatred cloud his view of Tsukasa. But there always was that voice in the back of his head, nagging at him.
“I should have done more,” it says.
“I should have been there.”
Rui sighed, trying to place these thoughts at the back of his mind. It doesn’t matter anymore. He finished the final detail on this machine he was creating, and now silence began to fill the air.
The silence was heavy as he stared down at this new creation. So heavy, he could feel every breath in crushing his lungs. He placed his wrench down on his desk. There wasn’t much left to do now. He just had to…
He swallowed. He worked so hard on this creation, but he still felt terribly anxious even glancing at the thing. It was pathetic.
He took a deep breath, attempting to soothe his nerves, attempting to calm his racing heart. He had worked so hard for this moment, he wasn’t about to let a little anxiety mess this up for him.
He stepped onto the machine.
It was kind of bizarre. He had always wanted to do this when he was younger, and now he had done it.
He created a time machine in less than a week.
Rui knew this was risky. He was absolutely certain that messing with time would come with consequences.
For this reason, he quickly grabbed his phone and composed a message to the Wonderlands x Showtime groupchat, saying:
“If anything happens, I love you.”
His heart ached as he looked back on conversations. The groupchat had been so lively before, but now it had become so dry.
…
But that doesn’t matter.
He clicked the send button and turned off his phone, in case Emu or Nene had still been awake and decided to call him. That would be too bothersome right now.
He placed his phone face down on his desk.
This was it….
He prayed the time machine would work. He wanted so desperately to see Tsukasa’s bright smile, hear Tsukasa’s cheerful laugh, smell the perfume Tsukasa loved to wear so much.
He wanted to hang out with Tsukasa again. He wanted to talk with him again. He wanted Tsukasa to open up to him. He wanted to help Tsukasa, because all Tsukasa ever did was help others.
His breath shook.
…
He forced himself to suck up that feeling of anxiety, and get on with it already.
His hand hovered over the red button.
The button that would supposedly take him back.
… He really hoped it would work.
Shakily, his hand pressed the button.