Work Text:
It feels like there’s something missing from his life.
He wakes up, goes to work, grabs something to eat, spends a creative evening alone or has fun at some club, and goes to sleep--that’s his daily routine. It has always been like this.
But has it?
Eiden’s gaze moves towards the window and he stares at the city painted in the vivid hues of the setting Sun. The streets are still loud and lively, but he feels lonely.
He puts down his pen, leaving an unfinished drawing of a fox together with some elegant feline beast, and stands up. Eiden’s heart squeezes in this eerie pain as he looks around. His room has been like this ever since he’s moved in, small but cozy--so why does it now feel so suffocating?
His eyes burn and he rubs them. Maybe he needs to buy some eye drops? It must be that. Eiden pulls on his blue jacket and leaves his apartment.
In the middle of the busy street, his inner loneliness feels even more suffocating.
Passing by a toy store, his eyes rest on a plushie wolf sitting next to a round owl.
His heart squeezes and he averts his gaze, picking up pace.
As he enters the pharmacy, he sees a young boy with a toy sword trying his best to hold back tears while his mother buys a pack of band-aids. In the queue, there’s also a gentle-looking priest.
Without buying the medicine, Eiden leaves.
Instead of going back home, he picks a way around. Fresh air should help, no?
A poster of a freshly opened mini zoo captures his attention--a ferret-like white creature and a black snake seem to mock him from there.
Eiden starts to run. Where to? Anywhere. Just to escape--to escape from the growing pain in his chest.
He runs and runs, and runs. Until his lungs burn, until his legs tremble from tiredness, he runs. He runs away from something--from a memory chasing him, but never catching up.
Just teasing. Constantly. Relentlessly. Cruelly. Playing with his mind, making his vision focus on things oh so normal and yet immensely painful for no reason at all.
When he stops, he finds himself at a dark park. There, bathed in the light of one of very few working streetlights, lies a lonely plushie. For some reason, Eiden doesn’t need to approach it to know that it’s a white ball of fluff with black eyes and a wide smile.
He stops, his head hanging down in resignation.
Eiden cries. For a long, long time, he cries. He cries, mourning memories lost. He cries, mourning those he wishes he could meet again.
As he sobs, a gentle arm wraps around his waist and pulls him into a warm embrace.
On this lonely night, the most beautiful rainbow fills Eiden’s heart again...
... Or so he wishes it did.