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"Tsukasa."
...
"..Tsukasa."
...
"Tsuuuukkaaaaassssaaaaaa-"
"Oh my god, shut the fuck up-"
Rui snickered, "Sorry about that. Just wanted to ask if you ate yet."
The blond turned towards Rui, book in hand an a clearly annoyed expression on his face. "What's it matter to you?" He spat, scoffing. "I'll be fine. It's barely noon, anyway. I can eat later."
The sorcerer frowned, shaking his head. "Now, that just won't do," He muttered. "It's important to eat- especially if we're gonna start our move to the next kingdom tomorrow! You should take this day to rest, prepare for the next day."
Tsukasa scoffed again. He really liked doing that to Rui. "I'll be fine," He repeated. "Go get your own food or whatever. I'm not hunting today anyway."
"Already exhausted from yesterday?" Rui asked, raising an eyebrow. "How's your cut holding up?"
"Fine. Fuck off."
"Did you take care of it?" Rui folded his arms. "You don't want to let that thing get infected. There's medicine in my bag if you need it-"
"Can you leave me the fuck alone?!" Tsukasa hissed, not even turning to look at the sorcerer. "I said I'm fine. Drop it and leave."
Rui sucked in a sharp breath, his lips stretched out thin as he held up his hands in a motion of surrender. "Jeez louise, sorry."
Tsukasa was a good person. Rui knew that he was. This whole mission of his was in order to save the world, too! But the one thing that never failed to tick Rui off was how bitchy Tsukasa was. Like, 24/7. He was so fucking stubborn it was crazy.
Yesterday, while Tsukasa was looking around for food in the woods, some of those shadow creatures attacked him. They managed to leave him with a pretty nasty gash alone his stomach. At least, that's what Tsukasa said happened. At least he wasn't stubborn enough to hide the truth. Sometimes.
Or, scratch that. He was stubborn enough to hide it. Tsukasa had came back into the cave limping, clutching his sides as blood seeped through his fingers. The first thing he did when Rui saw him come in was look off to the side and weakly mutter, "It's not my blood."
See, he wasn't even that good at lying. It was insane.
Rui had insisted on helping him. He begged Tsukasa to help him treat the wound, but he only got pushed away by a pair of hands coated with freshly-stained blood. Tsukasa claimed that he was fine, and left to go deeper into the cave to do things himself.
Lesson of the day? Tsukasa was a stubborn asshole. But Rui tried his best.
The next day, which was today, mind you, Tsukasa had walked back to Rui, seemingly completely fine. Then he sat himself down and started reading a book, which brought them to this very moment, where Rui was now apparently in charge of looking for any food. Speaking of, Tsukasa never even brought back any food yesterday. Which meant he hasn't eaten since then- both of them haven't.
All the more reason to find something to eat for the two of them.
Rui sighed, grabbing his cloak. "I'm going to find some food." He offered. "There's a village nearby, I believe.. I'll be back."
"There's a village near here..?" Tsukasa mumbled, curious.
"Yup. Take care of yourself."
"Don't treat me like a fucking child." There goes the one moment of respite where Tsukasa wasn't getting unnecessarily pissed at him. "I'm fine. Leave."
Rui sighed, clicking his tongue and shaking his head as he walked out of the cave- much to the blond's chagrin after it reminded him of the look a disappointed mother would wear.
He walked around for a bit, a map in his hand. Him and Tsukasa were quite disorganized when finding places to stay, it seemed. There actually was a village near this forest. The problem was, Tsukasa claimed there was no need to quote unquote 'burden' them with their presence. To Rui, it didn't really make sense. Surely, there was an inn they could stay at. The entire point of an inn was to provide travelers a place to stay- it was literally anything but a burden. Still, Rui reluctantly agreed. In the end, he was merely tagging along.
His journey didn't take too long. He found the village, found a market, bought a few things he thought Tsukasa would like, and left. By 'things that he thought Tsukasa would like', he meant vegetables. Unfortunately. It was okay, though- he could just take out all the vegetables for his own soup. How thoughtful, Rui was. Then, he left, groceries in hand as he walked back to the cave.
Tsukasa wasn't at the entrance.
Rui frowned. "Tsukasa?" He called out, "Are you in there?"
There was no reply. Immediately, he began to get worried. Maybe Tsukasa was just being stubborn again, but he also had a gut feeling that something was wrong.
Rui shook his head, sighing as he walked into the cave. Tsukasa sure liked to hide where there was. Ironic how he liked to stay in the shadows when those 'shadow monsters' were what he was fighting in the first place.
It didn't take very long for Rui to detect the sound of breathing. A few steps forward, and there was Tsukasa, lying on the ground with-
"What happened?!"
Rui gasped, immediately kneeling down at Tsukasa's side. "What happened, Tsukasa? I thought you took care of it..!"
Stubborn as ever, the blond shook his head, curling in on himself.
It hurt. He was clutching his stomach.
Rui shook his head. "Tsukasa, let me see the wound.
Another reluctant shake of Tsukasa's head. Rui bit his lip. "Stop being stubborn," He insisted. "I just want to help you. Let me see it."
Somehow, those words seemed to trigger Tsukasa even more. He curled in on himself even further, trying to hide his stomach from Rui. "Shut up," He muttered through gritted teeth.
Rui narrowed his eyes. "Tsukasa," He warned, "Come on. I won't hurt you or anything."
"Liar.."
"Excuse me?"
Tsukasa winced. Rui took this as a sign.
"Tsukasa." He whispered, lowering his voice to a much softer tone. "I just want to help, okay? Please trust me. I swear, I just want to take a look at the wound, nothing more."
Tsukasa inhaled a shuddery breath.
Liar, liar, liar. He knew. He knew better, he knew so much better.
Rui was a liar. Everyone was a liar.
"I don't want you here," Tsukasa breathed out, biting his lip. "Go away."
"I'm not leaving until you show me." Rui urged. "Please, Tsukasa."
Tsukasa gripped his shirt, his eyes darting away from Rui's. Why the fuck wouldn't Rui just leave?! He made it clear as day that he wanted that stupid sorcerer to fuck off and leave and never come back and perhaps just jump off a cliff and die.
"Just leave me alone." Tsukasa hissed. "Please."
"Not even if you're asking for it." Rui shrugged. "I can wait as long as I need to, Tsukasa."
What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck.
Tsukasa barely knew what to do anymore. He felt sweaty and hot, and the ground was cold and dirty and bugs were crawling around. His checked his wound while Rui was gone. It was red and swollen and ugly. And by god, it hurt like a bitch. It hurt so much.
But he could deal with it. He could deal with it alone, he always had. But now Rui was here, and Rui was so worried about him for some reason, which shouldn't be true because Rui knew damn well Tsukasa could take care of himself, this was no fucking different. But he was worried, and he wanted to help, which didn't make sense because nobody was worried and nobody ever wanted to help, even Tsukasa didn't want any help, so why the hell was Rui so fucking weird?
Why was he different? Why did he want to help him? He should just leave Tsukasa alone. He should just leave and go back to his kingdom and play around experimenting to make more fucked up spider mint soups or potions or whatever the hell he did as a 'royal alchemist'. Tsukasa didn't fuckin' care.
He just wanted Rui gone.
He wanted Rui gone. He wanted this odd comfort to go away. He wanted this strange feeling of company to leave, he wanted this unnecessary worrying to go away. He didn't need it.
He didn't need any of this.
He didn't.. want any of this. No matter how warm and safe it made him feel.
He couldn't have it. He shouldn't, he wasn't allowed to.
He could deal with this himself.
Sure, Tsukasa was weak and could barely gather the strength and energy in him to move. Sure, his stomach felt like it was on fire. Sure, it felt like he was dying and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hurt and it hu
...
But he could deal with all of this on his own.
He didn't need anybody to help him.
Still kneeling above him, Rui frowned, staring at Tsukasa. He wished he knew what he was thinking.
He wished he knew why Tsukasa was so unwilling to have someone by his side. Wasn't it lonely, being isolated from the world? No matter how much you try and delude yourself into thinking it's okay, you'll still feel lonely anyway. It's nothing new- the concept was nothing new for Rui.
He just wanted to help.
He just wanted to help Tsukasa.
That was all. Nothing more. Nothing in exchange or anything, he just wanted to help Tsukasa. He seemed so sad and lonely- angry at the world, at everything, and everyone.
Rui wanted to change that. He just wanted to help Tsukasa.
"Tsukasa..." Rui whispered softly, his voice breaking. "..Please. I just want to help you, I swear. I won't hurt you, I won't do anything bad. Just let me see if I can do anything to help."
No response. Tsukasa kept averting his gaze.
Rui bit his lip, standing up.
"...I'll leave you some medicine."
He walked away, coming back moments later and setting down a few bottles on the floor beside the curled up blond.
"I hope you're happy," He whispered, walking back to the entrance of the cave once more.
He left Tsukasa alone after that.
...But if Rui listened hard enough, he could hear faint sniffles paired with choked out, muffled sobs.
As if someone was crying.
As if someone was letting out all their pain and emotions, screaming, begging and crying for someone to just listen, for someone to just help me, please, I want someone here with me, please, someone, anyone-
...
And yet, Rui didn't dare move back into the depths of the cave, leaving the broken cries and sobs to be ignored once more.
..It wasn't even his fault, anyway.