Chapter Text
•★•••★•
"Calling all passengers! Calling all passengers! The train will arrive in ■■■■ in one minute, please remain your seats! Again..."
The intercom speaker can be heard loud and clear over the shuffling noises the people make. They would pull their luggage to them, push themselves through the cabins, or even be already seated. It's not rare knowledge to see a man reading the daily newspaper, an excited kid looking through the train's window, or an exhausted woman simply closing her eyes to rest from whatever stressful event she went through with her child.
(Skrrt, skrrt.)
Shadow Milk, situated in his train seat all throughout, sketches nothing but a line in his sketchpad.
It was simply just another day in life where he takes the Dreams Express to go back home. He adorns a simple blue shirt tucked in his black trousers with a decent belt to keep it above waist-length. His luscious dark blue hair flows down to the seat with white highlights. Black shoes sparkle bright with the exception of his heterochromatic blue-toned eyes.
They had long been dulled from the dullness of his life.
(Skkrttt.)
There's some tiny spark in them, namely when he finds inspiration, but lately he's been having none of that. In fact, he's been hit with an artist's block. Tragically. Ever since he's been hit with a bunch of assignments in the academy, his passion decided to leave him at the worst time.
"Stupid," Shadow Milk grunts quietly. A chunk of graphite lead broke off his pencil, adding fuel to his mental frustration. "Stupid. Stupid stupid...! I can't think of anything! And it's been an hour too! Argh!"
He hates his brain for not coming up with any ideas for his drawings. And it hurts his pride as much as it hurts his mentality.
Dare he admit it, he used to be the academic weapon in the past. He perfected in almost any subject, preferably debates and history; he made many social groups; he even won the academy trophies in school competitions! Seen as an idol and model, students envy him as much as they admired him. Even the professors too.
Now it's all lost in the present, where he sits in the moving train with a sense of dullness wherever he looks. He hated how he ended up now. He's grown much more snarky, clever, and tenacious. He's the total opposite of his smiling social butterfly past self, where he gives opinions and facts and truth without shame.
It didn't happen because of the bunchload of assignments he was given though.
No, it was something else.
The sketchpad looks up to him, almost mocking him for the bleak page in front of his eyes. Nothing but a mere line. How ridiculous. How incompetent.
The pencil in his hand was one hard press away from breaking apart.
Just like him.
Shadow Milk stares at the paper with dull contempt. "......"
It seems he'll have to stop for today.
Again.
•★•••★•
[DAY 1]
This marked the first evening the blue cookie noticed someone in the train.
At first Shadow Milk hadn't seen him. Not properly at least. But how can he, dwelled in his loud thoughts; how can he notice when he's far too gone in his mind? He's been stressed. Pressured. Drained.
Only when he decided to look up was when he finds a peculiar man staring back at him with a strange look of wonder in his eyes.
"... What the fuck."
It was the most unnatural thing to see. He shuddered involuntarily.
The man sitting across from his spot is dirty blonde, with darkened strands close to his ends. Short-haired, light brown dough, and adorning brown clothes, he could almost be mistaken for a homeless man. On a train, no less! How bold.
The people sitting and standing around the blonde raised no eyebrows at all. Just like everyone else, they don't care who they sit next to. At all. A clown can come in here and shout and dance and juggle balls and the people will still be a tough crowd, not caring to pay attention.
"Who the hell are you?!" Shadow Milk hissed.
The blonde simply did not respond. His mouth did twitch, but otherwise kept his silence — and staring.
"Okay. Not a talker when found out, I see." Shadow Milk fakes a smile and a broken laugh. "Stop looking at me then, you creep."
The blonde then turned to the left. Then right. He looked back, confused.
'Is this dude serious?' Shadow Milk grimaced. "I'm talking to you, cream-head...!"
The blonde widen his eyes. And then pointed to himself with a questioning look.
"Yes, you!!"
Shadow Milk earned a couple of annoyed stares back from the other passengers. He glares back, not embarrassed at all about his outburst. Meanwhile the blonde's eyes never left the blue cookie. If anything, he looked more... stunned.
"Attention all passengers, attention all passengers! The train will arrive at ■■■■ in one minute, please remain in your seats!"
And just like that, the moment was gone. Shadow Milk breathes a sigh of discontent, miffed by what had just transpired, and quickly began packing his stuff. He arrived at his home station after all, it's his final stop. Why linger longer? He's not depressed like those characters in dramas or horror games when they go through mental illusions and then the players realize they've been dead the entire time. He's not that cringe.
Shadow Milk looked at the blonde to see if he's still staring.
The blonde is still staring.
'For fucks sake, leave me alone!'
When the train finally stopped, Shadow Milk did not hesitate to get out of the cabin and left with his schoolbag. He is not sticking around for this. He'll get home, and everything that just happened will all go straight into the back of his mind. He'll forget this.
He won't acknowledge it.
He will simply forget it.
Simple as that.
•★•••★•
The passengers all left the train.
Only the blonde man remained situated in the empty train, not moving once.
He stared at the doorway the blue cookie left through. All he felt was amazement and happiness.
The sketchpad the blue cookie had on his lap, with only one line drawn on it, had dropped out from his bag. Now it laid on the train's floor, and no one but him saw it.
The blonde quietly picks it up, glancing at the name of the holder.
For his first time in eons, he smiles softly.
"I found you."
•★•••★•