Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

That night, he knew that it had been the last straw.

He couldn’t take it anymore. He felt that if he stayed any longer at that horrible place, he might as well expire altogether.

So, he did the thing he always did best, one uneventful, starless night in SEKAI.

He ran.

He wasn’t really running anywhere, actually. Any direction would do, as long as it put as much distance between that horrible place and him as possible. Head spinning and gasping for air, he ran, down alleys, across parks, along roads, between houses. 

Their laughter, their voices, it seemed to follow him, even as he ran further away from the school. Like a chorus of mocking ghosts, clamouring and deafening, their echo increasing by the minute.

Stupid goody-two-shoes!

Self-righteous freaks like you shouldn’t even exist.

Think you can “fix” us, huh? I’ll make sure you need fixing after this!

Just die already!

Go away!

Dumbass!

I-

He kept running. He didn’t stop until he saw light again, emanating warmly from the windows of a complex of buildings, and swiftly homed in on it like a desperate animal does a shelter during a snowstorm.

He chose a quiet, dark spot under a flight of stairs, crumpled to his feet by a messy deck of chairs, and shattered.

Tears rolled down his face in increasing speeds to stain his clothes, and his body shook with each quiet, gasping sob. He squeezed his eyes shut and put a hand over his mouth, it throbbed from the punch they gave it, and so did his cheek, and his eye, and the other parts of his body that were subjected to their violent and various ministrations.

His chest hurt the most, a crater of pain slowly opening wider and wider, until it left nothing but a painful, gaping void.

He’d finally gone and done it. He was free from that wretched place, and they couldn’t hurt him anymore.

Still…

…Why did it hurt so much?

Did he still care about them, even after all they’d done to him?

He wanted so badly to care about everyone, to help everyone. Was that wrong of him to feel that way?

Maybe it was. Maybe, if all he was going to be met with was violence and insults slung at him that hurt more than the most vicious slap or punch…

He shuddered, turning away from the thought. No, he couldn’t just bring himself to stop caring about others. Then he would become just like them.

But what could he do? Now that he’d left his SEKAI…

The person whom that SEKAI came to life for probably needed him, and there he’d went, running away from them like a coward.

All because he couldn’t stand up for himself. All because he couldn’t be brave enough to stay a little while longer. 

A need to punish himself overwhelmed him in a heady high; he felt dizzy with it. He couldn’t figure out any other way to pay for what he did.

But something, probably the last scraps of his rational thinking, was dragging him the other way, screaming at him not to do such a stupid thing.

He should do it.

But he didn’t want to.

He feared the pain, and so found himself stuck in a mental tug-of-war, the byproduct of it an increasing self-loathing, which he felt as if he was drowning in.

Before he could make any further resolution on that thought, he realised the alcove had become slightly dimmer. He looked up.

Another shadow was looming over him in the many shadows that called the alcove home. The shadow of a person, standing just a few feet away from where he was curled up against the wall.

His eyes looked from their surprised face, cast over by shadow, their soft, brown hair backlit by the light coming from the hallway, then, to the fork they held in their right hand, perfect for stabbing into one’s flesh.

“Are y—“

KAITO hadn’t even meant it, but his right arm flew up in self defence, and he was already backing away from this short-haired person, bumping up against the tangle of chairs—

Pain flared in his left arm and back, and he recoiled almost immediately, hissing in pain. The person let out an alarmed exclamation, seeming to say something to him, but he only processed the words “easy” and “you okay?”

Slowly, they bent down, attempting to look him in the eye, but that only filled him with more fear, and he recoiled further in on himself, feeling as if he was breathing through an increasingly hot pillow.

“No,” he croaked, hating how his voice trembled, “Don’t. Please.”

Silence. He couldn’t bring himself to look up at their face, to see how they had reacted. His skin tingled unpleasantly, as if on hyper-alert for any sort of small metal utensil that might penetrate it- any moment now.

But none of that came. They seemed to slowly, cautiously stand up, pause, and blow out a loud sigh.

“You just… stay here, okay?”

Then they turned and walked out of the small enclave, and KAITO heard their footsteps echo and disappear down the warmly-lit hallway.

When they returned, in their hand was not a culinary item that could be used secondarily as a weapon, but a small, metal box emblazoned with a bright red cross.

A first aid box.

She knelt down, opened up the first-aid box, and pulled out a roll of medical gauze, some tape and finally, what looked like a small plastic bottle of yellow liquid- antiseptic, maybe?

Was she going to treat him?

She reached up toward his face with hands full of medical stuff, and instinctively, he flinched backward at the motion.

The apology was spilling out of him before he could hold it back. “I’m sorry—“

“It’s okay,” she said softly, “Whenever you’re ready.”

Internally screaming, he gulped, took a deep breath, and steeled himself.

She began first with the cut on his cheek. It throbbed a little as she put the bandage on, and he jolted under her hand (“sorry”), but she didn’t seem fazed. She continued her task slowly and purposefully, her hands seeming to glide over his face as she worked. 

Once the bandage had been securely taped in place, she worked on his eye, then asked him to roll up his sleeves so she could work on any potential bruising on his arms. 

KAITO swore he could see some form of pain flash across her face as he did so, as if by seeing his wounds, she felt the sting it gave him too.

She got to work anyway, silently pressing band-aids onto wherever the skin was broken, and applying medicine where it was necessary. She moved down his arms, then prompted him to take off his jacket so she could work on his back. KAITO’s face felt as if it was on fire the entire time. 

After a few more long, agonising minutes of silence occasionally broken by the ripping of medical tape or bandaids, and when he had pulled his jacket back on, she lowered her hands, tilting her gaze upward to look at KAITO.

He carefully reached up to caress his face, feeling the roughness of the gauze the brown-haired person had put there. 

He looked up, trying to meet her eyes for a second, but that filled him with a strange, dread inducing repulsion he couldn’t explain. So he stared intensely at her hands instead, the hands which were just used to heal him, even if only by a little, folded neatly on her lap.

“Do you feel better now?”

She asked, in that same, soothing, careful tone. 

He was wary, so it took him a bit to respond, but he did give her a stiff nod, which seemed like it was enough for her.

“That’s great,” she murmured, “I’m glad you’re doing at least somewhat better.”

He remained silent, because whatever could he say in response to that?

“I don’t think this is a suitable place to spend the night,” she quickly said, changing the topic of conversation, “We have dorms to stay in, and I know one that’s been empty for a long time. I’ll take you there.”

His eyes widened, and KAITO’s thoughts began to flare in all sorts of directions.

She’s letting me stay?

Am I encroaching on their private space or anything?

What if I trouble them?

No, no no no, I don’t want to trouble anyone!!—

“—ey. Hey.” A gentle, yet firm voice pulled his freefalling mind back to earth. He looked up, meeting her eyes for a fleeting moment before his gaze darted back down to her hands, as if the very act of meeting her eyes burned him.

“You…” she paused, as if trying to find the right words, “…kinda zoned out there for a moment.”

He remained silent, heart thumping painfully against his tightening chest.

“…Okay, let’s just do this slowly,” she sighed, getting to her feet.

Although KAITO did flinch at her offered hand, she waited until he took her hand in his, and slowly, carefully, helped him to his feet.

Her hand felt warm, in his cold, sweaty palm. She led him out of the dark alcove, into the light, and KAITO had to squint a bit before his eyes adjusted to the brightness.

Like a parent leading their child, and with seemingly innumerable patience, she led him down the quiet, barren hallways, past empty classrooms, down and up stairs, giving him moments to pause and collect himself when he needed.

As they walked, KAITO stole a glance at her face. Her eyes were focused on the path ahead, 

Finally, they reached a certain door, and she opened it to reveal a small, but cozy-looking room. It wasn’t much, consisting of just a single-person bed, a closet, and what looked like a study desk, but it was still… something. 

What KAITO noticed in the warm light the corridor provided was that this room seemed rather blue. The sheets on the bed were blue, the closet was blue-themed, and although the desk was somewhat white, the small lamp placed on it was blue.

A room that seemed to be made for him, yet, the idea of remaining in this room, by himself, for the night…

She made a move to guide him to the bed to sit down, but he refused to budge, standing rooted to the spot. She turned and fixed him with a quizzical look.

“Do you… not… want to stay here?…”

He shook his head, gripping her hand tighter as if to prove his point.

Somehow, in that short period of time, when he had been met with such impossible kindness and patience by this person, he’d formed a bond with them. 

And now, being alone, or even the idea of being anywhere without this person, it filled him with dread.

It took her a while, but realisation slowly dawned on her face.

“You don’t want me to leave, do you?”

Embarrassment flashed across his face in a warm tide, but he gave a small nod in response.

She gave a reassuring smile back, and squeezed his hand.

“Then, I won’t go anywhere. I promise.”

Relief filled his heart at her words, his shoulders sagging as the tension left them. He couldn’t help the weak smile that crept up his face.

She guided him a little further down the corridor, to another room. This room didn’t look at all like the previous room he’d seen. Unlike the white, barren walls of the first room, the walls of this room were filled with love— namely, numerous posters, crudely scribbled crayon drawings, music scores… KAITO saw a parcel string extending from the bunk bed to the closet, from which numerous polaroids hung from wooden clothes pegs. The desk was home to a red lamp from which a warm, yellow light projected, illuminating this person’s various projects, papers scattered all across the desk, and across the floor of her room.

It felt more like… home, than the first room they’d seen, KAITO decided.

She let go of his hand to hurriedly gather the papers scattered across the floor, and KAITO felt his heart sink just a little when she did.

“Sorry, I haven’t had someone stay in so long, and you’re quite the unusual guest…” she hurriedly clambered up to the top bunk of the bed, and dusted off the sheets, then fluffed up a pillow. “I hope you don’t mind heights, though if you don’t want to sleep in the top bunk we could always switch.”

“I don’t mind,” he blurted out automatically.

Honestly, KAITO was just extremely glad this person was giving him anywhere to stay at all. He’d been pretty sure he’d be homeless the first night he’d ran away, but thanks to this person, he wasn’t.

She’s so kind, he thought with an ache in his chest, trying to hold back tears. She doesn’t even know me. She could have just left me there, but…

His gaze sunk to the floor, as the thoughts came, surrounding him like an ominous wind.

I probably don’t deserve her kindness…

Yet, why was he allowing himself to stay in her room? Why did he still drink deep of it, if he knew he didn’t earn, or deserve it?

“I don’t have clothes in your size, sorry, we don’t have anyone as tall or grown as you around here,” she sighed, scratching her head. “You’re fine sleeping in… those, aren’t you?”

She gestured to his white blazer and jacket, dirtied over with dull brown footprints, ripped and scuffed in some places.

“I’m okay,” he breathed, without thinking of his own preference yet again.

She raised a skeptical eyebrow, but seemed to drop the matter.

“Okay, you just stay up there for now, okay? I have to… call my friends. To tell them I won’t be able to make it to night practice.” She explained, sliding into her spinning chair at the desk and opening up her laptop.

Oh. KAITO’s face darkened as he felt another pang of guilt. 

“I’m really, really sorry—“ he apologised, wringing his band-aid covered hands, as if trying to explain himself for something he did. “You don’t have to stay with me— you can go join your friends if you want— I- I really—“

She raised a hand, and he jumped, both arms raised to his sides. He stole a glance up at her face, and his heart sank to see pain etched between the lines of a comforting smile. 

He was hurting her, with his very presence, with how pathetic he was.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his voice small, barely audible in the silence of the room.

“Please stop apologising, you did nothing wrong,” she cooed, “I can reschedule practice with my friends to another time. What’s really important now is you.”

Oh. Oh.

He… was important, to her?

“Now you go get the rest you deserve,” she insisted, “I’ll deal with everything else. And I want you to know— no matter what happened to you in the past— you’re safe here. Nobody will or can hurt you, you got that?”

Her words hung in the air, in the warm quiet of the room.

KAITO, completely lost for words, could only stare at her, a nice feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time filling his chest, making it feel warm and fuzzy inside.

He felt like he should at least give her a response, so he nodded as fiercely as he could, which made her laugh. The sound was akin to a trumpet, loud and happy, and KAITO decided he liked it, and wouldn’t mind hearing it more.

“Go sleep,” she chuckled, “Or I’ll see to it myself. Just kidding,” she quickly added when a small flash of fear made its way across KAITO’s face.

He clambered up the ladder, and attempted to lie down on his side, but it made his bruises hurt, so he tried sleeping on his back. He soon found out that in no matter what way he laid down, it would hurt, so he unhappily settled for laying on his stomach, where it hurt the least, but forced him to sleep in an extremely awkward position which he was sure would give him terrible neck pain when he woke up.

If he woke up, would all this turn out to be just a dream? It hurt everywhere when he moved, though, so probably not.

He hadn’t even realised how tired he was. He tried to keep himself awake, to see what the brunette had to say to her friends on call, but before long, he’d been taken by the obliviating, dark clutches of sleep.

Chapter Text

This feeling… How does she put it?

MEIKO only had him for five days, but if anything happened to him, she would kill everyone in this SEKAI, and then herself.

She was just kidding, of course. She loved everyone and wouldn’t resort to such drastic measures if such an unfortunate thing happened, but she loved the mysterious blue-haired guy that appeared under the staircase one fine night with all her heart.

She would bring him food, bags of ice to bring down his wounds, and even tell her stories about her day. She found that he was in fact, very willing to listen, from Rin and Len’s daily antics to Miku’s not so subtle pining for Luka, he listened through all of it, never once taking his attention off her, even when her rants seemed to go on for hours.

Sometimes, when MEIKO woke up in the middle of the night for god-knows-whatever reason, she could hear him crying quietly above her, and thought he must have had a nightmare.

And MEIKO couldn’t, and didn’t bite back down the flare of anger within her, directed at whoever or whatever had hurt him so badly, that he would end up the way he was right now.

He seemed nice enough, but he was very, very quiet, only ever speaking when prompted.

And he had a tendency to apologize a lot.

Even if the bad thing that happened was obviously no fault of his. 

Even when it seemed to MEIKO, that nothing bad had happened at all.

When she asked him to move from where he was sitting on the floor so she could reach her cabinet, he apologized.

When she caught him staring at her polaroids with more longing than he should have in his eyes, he apologized. 

When MEIKO herself accidentally bumped into him reading a book while she was pinning up a music score, he apologized, faster than she could open her mouth to do the same.

“You don’t have to keep apologizing, you know,” she tutted, driving the red pin home onto her corkboard so that the music score of “Mikaboshi”, a song that she’d been wanting to sing for a long time, stayed firmly in place.

“Sorry,” he blurted, before realizing what he just said and slapping his hand to his mouth like he’d just let slip some kind of forbidden swear word.

Her heart sank a little at his actions, but she couldn’t help but laugh a little. Did she find his jumpiness around her cute?

“It’s nothing,” she reassured him, sitting down at her desk to open her foolscap paper to a new, fresh page. “Don’t worry about it, I’m not mad.”

She hurriedly clicked her pen and started scribbling to end that conversation, and was relieved to hear the slow flipping of pages continue after a few seconds of silence.

——————

The days flew by. Rin and Len finally learnt how to sing that one song in unison without one overwhelming the other, Luka caught Miku making eyes at her, again, and MEIKO teased her endlessly about it.

And no matter how vainly MEIKO tried, she could not conceal the fact that she was becoming more and more blatantly absent from their regularly scheduled practice sessions. For a good cause, of course.

“MEIKO, I know you said you’ve been having… difficulties of your own, but this is ridiculous,” Luka sighed one day after MEIKO had come to inform her that she would be missing their night practice session for tommorow for the 5th time. “Just what kind of calligraphy project could you be working on that would make you miss five night sessions in a row?!”

“It’s a very big one,” MEIKO said vaguely, “I need some time to think over the meaning of the characters, what kind of ink I'll be using, et cetera.”

Luka eyed her suspiciously, and MEIKO fought to maintain a straight face.

“I feel like there’s something you’re not telling me, MEIKO.”

“What? Me? No way,” she replied too quickly, “I’ve always been honest with you all, why would I lie now?” 

“People always say that when they’re lying, you know,” Luka scoffed, “Why don’t you come clean to me now? I promise I won’t tell anybody else.”

MEIKO really did contemplate the thought. If she did come clean to Luka about Blue Hair Guy, would she be able to help him? Out of everyone else here, she trusted Luka the most, their dependable, patient senior, even if MEIKO was a senior herself.

But she saw the fear in his eyes when she led him to the empty room that night. Not to mention that he was on edge basically all of the time he was around her. What would happen if he were to meet another person?

Maybe other people really were just not what he needed right now. Maybe he needed space.

And she could take care of him, even if it meant doing it all by herself.

“I’m sorry, Luka, but I think you may be thinking a bit too much.”

MEIKO didn’t look up to search Luka’s face for a response. Hoping that Luka would drop the matter, she turned away, walked in big strides in the direction of her dorm, and didn’t look back.

——————

Luka was not, in fact, deterred in her quest to find out just exactly what was busying MEIKO so much that she didn’t have time for five consecutive night sessions in a row.

She couldn’t deny she was a little frustrated with her brown-haired friend for avoiding so many of her questions, but mainly, she was concerned for her. 

If she kept missing her practice sessions, and got too caught up in whatever she was doing in her room, her playing would start to slack, and she would have to work doubly hard to get up to standard again when the time called for it.

So after that little altercation she had with MEIKO in the classroom, she vowed she would get to the bottom of this, by hook or by crook.

And it did just so happen that the school they lived in housed two certain yellow-haired, playful little crooks.

“You want,” Rin said slowly, as if Luka had spoken in an alien language and now Rin had to translate it, “Our help?”

“Yes, it would seem so,” Luka said with a nonchalant smile, not missing a beat.

The twins looked at each other for a good moment with fish-like expressions, mouths agape and cyan eyes wide. Rin dropped her orange connect four piece, and it fell to the table with a tiny plastic clatter.

Then, Len cleared his throat and said dramatically, “Well, what horror could have possibly happened that THE Luka needs our help to solve it?”

“Well, you know MEIKO’s been ‘absent’ a lot from our practice sessions lately, especially at night,” Luka explained calmly, “That’s exactly what I need your help in.”

“Well, yeah, but we all know that once MEIKO has her mind set on something, none of us can convince her to change back,” Rin shrugged her shoulders, dropping her last piece in place to form a diagonal line that elicited a groan of dismay from Len. “So what, you want us to like, pester her into submission or something?”

“No,” Luka said simply, a grim smile making its way up her face, “I need you two to do what you two do best.”

Now both of them were really listening, the classroom silent but for the whirring of the fans above.

“…And what, exactly is that ‘thing we do best’?” Rin asked tentatively, making finger quote signs in the air.

Luka gave a light chuckle at Rin’s question, as if she thought the answer was already obvious.

“Working together to get what you want, of course!”

Chapter Text

Getting recruited by the prim and proper senior Megurine Luka to perform an act of thievery on her fellow senior, MEIKO, wasn’t on his 2019 bucket list, but Len pulled it off anyway, somehow.

And to tell the truth, he was excited. 

It wasn’t often he was allowed to pull one on MEIKO, the green light given by Megurine Luka herself. He could get away with his antics, without having to worry about his ear being pulled off, for hecking once!

Len grinned to himself, and did a little hop and skip, anticipation humming in his veins at the imminent mischief he was about to commit. He felt exactly like what the others often chided him to be— a little gremlin.

To tell the truth, he too, had been wondering just what was up with MEIKO that got her to miss so many of her practice sessions, but as a perpetual slacker himself, he just assumed it was stress taking its toll on her that made her want to take a longer break from her drum-playing activities.

But it seemed like Luka thought it was something more, and so had asked for Rin and his help to, to put it into Len terms, do a B and E into MEIKO’s dorm.

Breaking and Entering, for those uninformed in their internet acronyms.

Rin would corner MEIKO in the canteen, insisting she come to play a game of Connect Four with her in the classroom— or any game would do, as long it gave Len enough time to steal the key to her dorm and make a break for it.

MEIKO couldn’t say no to Rin’s wet kitten eyes, so they didn’t have to worry about her turning down the offer.

Len would return the key to its original place after looking over whatever huge project (or not) MEIKO said she was too busy with to come to practice for, and report back to Luka on what he’d seen, like a faithful little soldier. 

Simple as that.

Right?

Len heard the pleading voice of Rin and MEIKO’s weak protesting, and he knew he must have arrived at the crime scene, and ducked behind a wall, watching Rin do her work.

“…Rin, I really, really don’t have time for this…”

“Pleaaaaaaaase, MEIKO!!” Rin whined, balling up her little fists, “After I beat him at connect four yesterday, Len threw a tantrum and said he wouldn’t play with me anymore, and Luka and Miku are always too busy practicing… you’re the only one left I can ask, please…!”

And… here it comes, Len thought, unable to suppress the grin creeping up his face.

Rin’s eyes went comically wide and shiny, filled with a pathetic, yet endearing pleading only attainable by wet kittens and as far as Len knew, Rin Kagamine herself. MEIKO groaned, shaking her head, already falling victim to Rin’s spell—

“Please, MEIKO….”

The brunette sighed, raising her hands in defeat, giving Rin a resigned smile. “Fine, but only for a couple of games, okay? I REALLY need to go after this, to do important stuff…”

As Rin cheered and bounced on her heels, Len frowned. Only a couple? That would give him less time than he thought he would have, but no matter. He would make it. 

Once Rin had dragged MEIKO to the room they would be playing in, Len waited patiently outside the door, for them to sit down and play. He hoped Rin would be able to stall for long enough to allow him enough time.

Luka said MEIKO had a habit of putting her keys on the metal chalk holder of the whiteboard. True to her word, MEIKO placed her keys on the little metal holder protruding from the bottom of the whiteboard, along with a small packet of canteen food she had been holding, before moving to the table to play snakes and ladders with Rin.

Len didn’t waste any time in swiping those keys, and snuck quietly away from the classroom, before bolting straight for the stairs that would take him to the 5th floor, where MEIKO’s dorm was.

When he reached the door emblazoned over with MEIKO’s name, he paused to clutch at the stitch in his chest, and catch his breath. Man, he really was out of shape. But that wasn’t the point right now…

He thought he heard something move inside the room, but didn’t stop to think about it. He couldn’t, under the pressure of time. 

Without hesitation, he thrust the keys into the keyhole, twisted them, and threw the door open.

——————

“—Okay, Rin, that was a fun game of snakes and ladders, but I really, REALLY have to go now.”

MEIKO said firmly, standing up from the table before Rin could protest.

“But- but—” Rin pouted, turning her lip up. “You…really won’t play with me anymore?”

“No means no, Rin,” she said gently, already walking toward the whiteboard to retrieve her keys and the food she’d bring up to blue hair guy.

Who was probably already wondering why she was taking so long, she thought with a frown. She could explain to him later, no matter.

“Wait!” Rin’s abrupt, unusually panicked exclamation stopped her in her tracks. MEIKO whirled around to look at her, the blonde was fidgeting nervously with the hem of her skirt, her gaze seeming to dart everywhere around the room. 

“I- uh—“

Something was up, MEIKO realised. Rin never fumbled for words unless she’d done something wrong and wasn’t able to explain it. And Rin was horrible at lying, MEIKO knew that. 

“Is there something you need, Rin?” MEIKO asked, but in that passive aggressive, “calm” tone that was only really reserved for when someone had royally fucked up.

MEIKO saw the tiniest “oh shit” expression flash across Rin’s round face. Good, she got the memo…

She noticed Rin’s gaze kept darting back to one specific spot behind her. She turned around to see just what it was that was making her so nervous—

Her keys were gone.

Before she had time to process just what that meant, all hell seemed to break loose, very slowly and calmly, like an unfortunate sequence of events.

There was a faint scream that seemed to come from above. Then, Len came running into the room, face shiny with sweat and alight with distress, her keys in hand— blabbering something about “fucked up” and “guy with blue hair” and “freaked out”—

MEIKO didn’t wait for either of their responses, running past the two and up the stairs, toward her dorm—

Which, she realised with a sinking dread, had its door open, and Miku and Luka standing open mouthed in front of it, staring nonplussedly inside. At the blue haired person, looking as if he was on the verge of snapping, as his wide eyes took in the sight of all these new, unfamiliar people.

Len and Rin soon trailed up behind her, scrambling up the stairs.

“I didn’t do anything!!” Len spluttered, “He just— He was just sitting on the bed, and I was talking to him, and when I called Luka and Miku over, he went bonkers— I swear—“

With Len trying frantically to explain himself, and the others with open-mouthed, and the blue-haired person freaking out on her top bunk, MEIKO could only groan out one, drawn out, long word in her mind—

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

——————

It took MEIKO close to an hour to calm him down, and even more so to get him to be okay enough with her not being at his side, because holy shit was she going to have to do some serious explaining after what happened this evening, and he couldn’t have him with her as she was doing that, of course.

It was already well into the evening when they all gathered in a classroom way up on the top floor, waiting to hear MEIKO out.

MEIKO looked over the faces of all her bandmates. Miku just looked confused, Rin and Len had guilt written all over their faces, and Luka’s expression was inscrutable. It didn’t give her a good feeling.

MEIKO took a deep breath, mentally prepared herself, and chuckled,

“Well, we all know why we’re all gathered here today, and it sure isn’t for practice.”

A sad attempt at humor. She never really was one for defusing tension, was she?

When nobody said anything, her smile faded as soon as it came. MEIKO hated silence, it itched like an uncomfortable rash in an inconvenient part of your body that you couldn’t scratch.

She swallowed, and continued, “Okay, I know you all must all be mad at me for keeping this secret from you for so long—“

Luka raised a hand, and MEIKO immediately fell silent, closing her mouth.

“You’re right. I am mad at you, MEIKO,” she stated, in that tone only really reserved for these kinds of situations.

Or, shituations, as MEIKO loathingly referred to them as.

MEIKO took a deep breath and prepared herself for what was likely going to be a really long, uncomfortable conversation, but Luka continued, cutting her off.

“I’m only mad at you because you didn’t tell us about this and chose to keep it to yourself,” Luka elaborated, folding her arms.

MEIKO paused for a tentative moment, the gears in her brain whirring at top speed. What was Luka trying to say?

“So… you’re not going to ask me to kick the guy out…?”

Luka sighed, long and loud, and MEIKO’s chest tightened, fearing the worst.

But then she smiled.

“Not if you explain yourself first.”

MEIKO released a breath she didn’t know she was holding, and she couldn’t help but smile weakly back.

In the first place, she wouldn’t have any reason to worry at all. How could she ever thought that Luka would be that narrow-minded?

“Okay, so…”

She began with the first night she missed night practice, when she’d found him under the stairs. Then, his strange fear of being anywhere away from her, or her room in general, and his wounds and how she thought he’d gotten them.

And how she had to miss several sessions of practice to bring him stuff, or stay with him in general, especially at night, when he was at his worst.

“…so that’s how… all this happened.” MEIKO finished.

The room fell silent again, only broken by the soft whirring of the fans above.

MEIKO’s gaze roved over her bandmate’s faces, searching for an answer. The discomfort on everyone’s faces when they’d first come into the room had disappeared, now replaced by an emotion that MEIKO could only describe as a cross between shock, and disbelief.

“That’s really…” Rin whispered, looking down at her shoes, “Upsetting.” 

Len didn’t say anything, but guilt lingered between the lines of his face, and he fidgeted furiously with his right sleeve.

“So you’re saying, when you went to take an extra chair for yourself, you found…” Miku gestured vaguely with her hands, “…him under the stairs, and he was all beat up and injured. And you decided to take him in without telling us.”

“Exactly,” MEIKO confirmed with a sharp nod of her head. 

Better to be honest with them now than never.

“Well…” Miku pondered, “Why?”

Ah. She expected they’d get to this part of the conversation sooner or later, but was hoping to avoid it nonetheless.

“You saw how he freaked out when Len called you all over, I—” she began quickly, and the blond shifted uncomfortably where he stood. “—No, Len, it isn’t your fault! I just…”

She trailed off, trying to find the right words to say.

What had made her push Luka away that day, when she’d thought she could take care of him all by herself?

“…thought he needed some space.”

Mmm, that sounded about right. MEIKO hoped the rest would get the message.

…Why was nobody responding, though? They were all looking at her like she’d just spouted some obscure conspiracy theory that came from the other side of SEKAI. 

“Um, if you all still aren’t comfortable with him here, I can—“

Luka laughed, the sound akin to that of a tinkling bell, and MEIKO felt just the tiniest flare of irritation in her chest. First being all serious and stony-faced, now giggling away as if gossiping over a cup of tea. Why did Luka insist on being so unreadable?

“It’s always so like you to insist on solving everything alone,” Luka sighed with no real frustration. “MEIKO, I’m sure all of us here want to help Blue, even if we were shocked to learn of his existence at first, don’t we?”

She turned to the other three behind her, who all nodded their heads at varying ferocities, and equally as sincere expressions.

Looking at all of them, a flower of warmth seemed to bloom in MEIKO’s chest, spreading throughout her like some kind of warm, fuzzy starfish.

“You guys…”

“We’ll help him get on the right track to recovery again, then if he wishes to, he can stay with us, or travel to another SEKAI. To do that, though, we’re going to have to make him feel as comfortable with us as possible, since we’re all practically strangers to him, except MEIKO, of course.” Luka explained, gesturing with her hands.

“I’ll play him lots of awesome songs!” Rin piped up, face glowing.

“I’ll give him lots of yummy bananas and snacks!” Len added, not wanting to lose to Rin.

“Watch that you don’t poison him, Len. I read somewhere that bananas are radioactive in large amounts,” Miku teased, earning a dissatisfied pout from Len.

“Hey, I’m not stupid enough to give him a diet of fully bananas…”

As the three descended into playful banter and discussions on ways they could keep Blue Hair Guy entertained, MEIKO and Luka looked at each other with a smile. Although the SEKAI was chilly tonight, this classroom felt warmer than ever.

“Awwwww, this is just like the beginning of one of those found family stories you always find on online fiction sites!! So cute…” Rin gushed, cupping her face in her hands.

“Mhm, mhm. Wait, who taught you that?!” Luka exclaimed, her eyebrows flying up her head.

Rin didn’t say anything, beaming at her innocently, while Miku suddenly became very interested in her shoes.

Luka paused, before realisation dawned on her and she sighed for the umpteenth time today, turning away from the duo.

“Just remember to read with care and supervision…”

Miku and Rin cheered in unison, and Luka rolled her eyes, but MEIKO would be remiss not to notice the slight smile that pulled on her lips.

“Okay, okay, I think it’s time that everyone get to bed.” Luka made a shooing motion toward the rest. “Good work today, everyone, it’s been quite the wild day and I’m sure everyone wants their rest.”

As if on cue, Len let out quite the monstrous yawn, rubbing his eyes. “I didn’t even realise it before, but now I’m sleepy…”

“Yeah, I’ve never stayed up this late before…” Rin murmured, squinting at her watch. MEIKO looked at hers as well, it was already 15 minutes past 11. No wonder she felt so fatigued…

Everyone seemed to be in agreement that now would be a very good time to tuck in, so they shuffled toward the classroom exit, Luka lingering back to switch off all the fans and lights.

“Okay everyone, have a good night’s rest!” Miku called to the everyone as they cleared the room and dispersed. “Byeeeee~”

As she climbed the stairs toward her dorm, MEIKO looked out the window at the night sky, and saw it was still beautiful as ever. 

Today had been quite the wild day indeed, but MEIKO didn’t feel the least bit weighed down by it. In fact, she felt quite light, like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders and chest cleansed of the cotton wool that was choking it up before.

That good mood was slightly ruined, though, when she got a text from Luka saying she’d have to do extra practice to make up for the sessions she’d missed. But it was nothing she couldn’t handle.

There was nothing she couldn’t handle, really, if she just had her friends by her side, MEIKO smiled as she thought to herself.

Chapter Text

KAITO really hadn’t meant to set everyone off like that.

He really, really hadn’t meant to. He tried to make that abundantly clear to MEIKO after that little confrontation with the yellow-haired boy, and though his pleading was always met with frantic reassurance and rapid head-nodding, he still felt as if the ground beneath was going to open up like the yawning mouth of a whale, and swallow him whole.

When she came back late in the night, he couldn’t bring himself to turn over in the bed to face her. She didn’t say a word, didn’t call out his name, just shucked off her school blazer, hung it up in the closet, and clambered straight into bed beneath him.

Is she mad?

Frustrated?

Tired?

Whatever she was feeling right now, he knew one thing. It was because of him.

She must think poorly of me, after I overreacted on all her friends like that.

And I probably got her into trouble, too…

A sharp pain bloomed from between his ribs, and that night, he cried silently into her pillow, until he drifted off into a restless sleep.

He dreamt of waking up back at his old SEKAI, where he was in a locker and all the others were screaming and laughing at him yet again. The world around him was foggy and muffled, but he saw clearly the melange of emotions on their faces.

There was anger, disgust, pleasure, even, written all over their faces.

But buried beneath all that, fueling all the violence and the hate, KAITO saw pain.

Pain that he’d tried so hard to ease, pain that was now being turned on him, ten times more vicious than before.

KAITO didn’t understand. 

Where exactly had he gone wrong?

He didn’t have time to finish that thought, because hands grabbed at him from all sides, tearing at his clothes, pulling at his hair and face, clamping around his throat—

[ I’m sorry, I’m sorry— ]

And he was shoved backward, and he fell through the wall of the locker into pitch-black darkness, rushing, plunging toward a point of no return, an all-consuming abyss where his cries reached no one—

 [ No—!! ]

And just like that, he was back in the rumpled nest of MEIKO’s top bunk, the sheets he was tangled in warm and damp.

His hands couldn’t stop trembling, his chest tight and painful, heart hammering against his ribs, ears ringing. Every breath was an uphill task, and he could still feel their hands on his skin, his face, his neck, all slicked with cold sweat.

He hated it so, this sensation and this unexplained fear of basically everything, that followed him around all the time, that crept up and pounced on him in his most vulnerable moments, that seemed to explode and drown out everything else around him in a terrifying scream of white noise when it did.

Until it calmed down by itself, or something else pierced through the noise, anyway.

He’d tried his hardest not to wheeze, not wanting to wake the person beneath him up, but realised he’d failed when he felt the movement of the bed next to him, and rough, but warm and gentle hands.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured into his knees, because even the act of looking at MEIKO right now was unbearable. 

Not when he was like this. Shaking and crying on someone else’s bed after a nightmare— what kind of person was he?

“It’s okay,” he heard her whisper. “I’m right here.”

He must have drifted off in her arms soon afterward, because the next time he woke up, the afternoon sun was filtering gently through the curtains of the window and he was alone inside her room.

He laid there in the quiet room, allowing himself to close his eyes, just for a few moments. 

Silence was nice. You could get lost in it like one does in a forest, and there would be nobody to answer to there, no screaming or angry people to worry about. Just you, and yourself.

And also, moments of silence of these, KAITO found, were extremely hard to come by.

He sat up, looking over the edge of the bunk bed, and immediately spotted something straight out of the ordinary.

MEIKO’s study table was littered over with papers and assorted stationery as ever. But on top of all that lay a huge banana, along with some packaged bread and a packet of chocolate milk.

[ Did MEIKO leave her lunch behind? ] He thought, climbing down the bunk to check on the mysterious snacks. Upon closer inspection, he found a yellow post-it, crudely folded and tucked under the banana. In scribble-like handwriting, it read:

“So sorry for that little incident yesterday, I totally went way out of my zone there. But I hope you like bananas and chocolate, man! ;)”

A questionable doodle of a banana was the sign off at the bottom right corner of the post-it.

KAITO stared at the note for a good long while, going over it twice, thrice, to check that he hadn’t misread anything.

Were these snacks really for him? But by who, exactly?

As if on cue, his stomach grumbled, embarrassingly loudly. He realised he hadn’t eaten since breakfast yesterday, and the terrible hunger was only just starting to catch up to him.

He looked back up, at the snacks on the table that were practically waving at him to come over and eat them right now.

It wouldn’t hurt to take a bite or two… right?

————————

The weird gifts accompanied with different coloured post-it’s of various handwritings just kept coming.

After Snack Guy’s gift, which he thoroughly enjoyed, a bag of assorted orange-flavoured sweets appeared on the table with an orange note that said, “Oranges are MUCH better than bananas~! Hope you like these sweets, big guy :D”. He tried one sweet and found it wasn’t half bad, but disliked the sour aftertaste it left in your mouth. 

Then the next day, a blue notebook with a pen, mechanical pencil and lead appeared, with a teal note that read, in noticeably much more legible handwriting: “For your thoughts and the feelings you can never seem to be able to get out in words :)”. He used it to write, and draw various things lying around MEIKO’s room, the people in her polaroids, and even a sparrow which just happened to make a stop on the windowsill. Surprisingly, KAITO found, it was rather therapeutic.

A day came where there was nothing waiting for him on the table, and KAITO began to worry that maybe he shouldn’t have just taken everything that appeared on MEIKO’s table every fine morning. What if everyone was annoyed at him? What if they were actually meant for someone else and they kept disappearing because of him and MEIKO was just not saying anything? Worry after worry planted itself in his mind, and it was all he could think about for the entire day.

He tried to focus on the doodles he was making on his notebook in the present, the photo of a short-haired, beaming girl he was taking reference from, his pen making scratching sounds across the crisp yellow sheet of ruled paper.

One stroke, two strokes, and a third, for her face.

I probably should have asked MEIKO before taking those gifts.

Draw her hair, and then her bow, and—

What if they’re not gifts at all, and instead some important items intended for some guests?

Two lines and dots for the eyes, and—

What if those gifts had been meant for someone else and I’d just spoilt it all for them?—

No. He bit his lip, shaking his head, as if to get rid of the stifling cloudiness he only just realized was crowding around it. He took a deep breath, and saw that his hand was shaking.

When he looked down at the notebook again, he saw a dark, inky slash in the notebook paper where he was drawing in the yellow-haired girl’s smile. What had meant to be a cute doodle of the girl in the photo had now turned into something straight out of a children’s horror book.

He sighed, staring at the horrific caricature of his own accidental making.

Surely it was nothing bad, and he was just thinking more than the average person should be thinking, as usual.

He would ask MEIKO about it, and she would explain the whole thing to him, and that was all. It was so simple, even a child could accomplish it.

Right?

Chapter Text

Because MEIKO kept encouraging (read: annoying) him to try to step out of the room, and also because he was beginning to feel a bit weary of those four walls, however colourful and decorated they were, KAITO decided to do just that one fine morning, when he thought surely nobody would be on the dorm floors, all busy with some kind of practice or play on the other levels of the School.

With some difficulty, he pulled on the blazer that had been left for him in the cupboard a few days ago. He remembers the first time he saw it, when he was, once again, a mess of apologies and embarrassment. 

“We made this for you! It’s blue, your color and everything.” MEIKO had beamed at him, showing off the crisp blue blazer. A lot of care had been put into making it, KAITO realised, and it matched the style of MEIKO’s, and probably by extension, the rest of her friends as well. 

“No, really, you didn’t have to,” KAITO defended, his voice turning into a nervous laugh, squeezing his fingers. “It’s not like I’m—”

“Going to wear it anyway?” MEIKO finished the sentence for him with a chuckle. “Well, Sir, you’d better get used to it, because you’re a part of us now. Even if you don’t know it yet!”

When KAITO didnt reply, her expression softened just a little, and she moved to tiptoe and hang it in the empty cupboard next to hers in the wall.

“It’s there, whenever you’re ready, okay?” She reassured him, with a warm smile.  “Take your time.”

He adjusted his glasses one more time, and turned to face the mirror. 

His eyebrows flew up his head, and the person in the mirror copied his expression, betraying nothing but surprise and disbelief. He almost didn’t recognise them, by how clean and cool and confident they looked.

His old blazer had been boring and monochrome and fitted him poorly, but this one was colorful, teeming with personality. The studs on the lapels shined like stars, and there was a pocket where he could hang his glasses when he wasn’t using them. 

And he looked good in it, KAITO realised, staring at the person in the mirror with increasing awe, as if he’d never expected himself to look like this at all.

Whoever made this blazer and pants for him must have put in a lot of thought and care into every fold, every type of fabric, every decoration used and every feature put into it. It was something made specially for him.

Who, then, could this person be?

He thanked them profusely, whoever they were and wherever they were. And so, wearing his new clothes, he stepped out of MEIKO’s room and gently closed the door, praying to no one in particular that he wouldn’t run into anyone in his journey through the halls.

——————————

Everyone thought Luka was simply incapable of making mistakes, as their cool and kind senior, even if she tried.

Well, that wasn’t true. 

She did make mistakes. Just not often.

Luka had left the music sheet she was supposed to use to teach Rin today somewhere in a classroom on the 11th floor. She’d suggested that they switch songs for today, but Rin seemed quite adamant on practicing that one specific song, so that was why Luka was fighting for her life on the stairs now since their school didn’t come with the sense to randomly generate an elevator along with it, despite it being 12 floors high.

Luka couldn’t blame Rin for being excited, though. It was an emotional, bittersweet song, with a strong melody and lots of drums and guitar, and the lyrics talked about a last glimmer of hope in the midst of seemingly infinite darkness. They hadn’t found a suitable vocalist to sing that song yet, so the default was Miku for now, since she was kind of a jack of all trades and apparently the most popular outside of SEKAI. 

It should be this classroom that I left it in…

She made a turn and came to a stop at a simple wooden door, emblazoned with the characters “11-05”.

Something caught her eye, though— or well, ears, in this case.

The low, rich sound of a bass guitar resounded from within the classroom. Accompanying it was a soft, barely audible humming, almost drowned out by the sound of the slowly strumming guitar. Someone was inside, playing.

“There are no dreams, at the end of this path”

Luka took her hand off the metal doorknob, and listened intently, closing her eyes in order to fully immerse herself in the sound.

“Even if someone says that, laughing, I can see a fragment of the truth”

That melody… it was that of the music score she had been looking for.

“With these eyes, hold out your hand forcefully…”

And that voice… she didn’t recognize it at all? but why did it sound so familiar, then?

“…And cut your way through!”

(But she couldn’t help but feel that their voice was strangely perfect for the song in question.)

“My lonely journey stretches on”

Luka’s curiosity overpowered her. She peeked in through the small glass window, and what she saw took her completely aback.

Was that the same person she’d found panicking in MEIKO’s room that day? But it must be, because he had the same unruly, deep blue hair, and similarly colored eyes. He looked so relaxed, his playing looked so natural… too natural, in fact. A completely different person from what he was just a few weeks before…

(And he was wearing the blazer she had put together for him with MEIKO’s help, Luka noted with a warm sense of triumph.)

He sat, legs spread in an awkward position, on a messy stack of tables near the window, and next to him was a little bird. A little bird, which seemed to be enraptured by both his singing and playing.

When he stopped, and set down his guitar, the little sparrow chirruped incessantly, like it was approving of his little performance.

Luka didn’t know why she was so surprised when he smiled in response, slowly setting down his guitar so as to not spook the bird.

In this moment, he almost seems like one of us…

As if that night had never happened, and he had been with them all along.

She couldn’t help the small smile that crept up her face.

Her moment of admiration was cut short when she realized the sparrow had noticed her and was now staring straight at her through the tiny glass window. She tried to move away, but it was too late. Her eyes met those of the blue-haired individual, and both of them froze like deer in headlights.

Now would probably be an apt time to make her escape.

She only had enough time to see a furious blush color the other’s cheeks before she dashed away, her long pink hair fanning out behind her.

She didn’t know where she was running, and it took her a while to notice she was going down the stairs. She stopped somewhere between the 6th and 5th floor, leaning on a railing and pausing to collect her thoughts.

For one, she would definitely have to apologize to Rin later, and say she lost the music score. She would get it back later.

For another…

She now knew exactly who would be singing that song they were all having trouble deciding vocals on.

It would take some work, but she— no, all of them could make it happen.