Work Text:
Kanade fell asleep at her desk again tonight. She wanted to stay up longer, just to finish the song she'd been working on all day. Kanade was so close to being done. She just had to add a bit of bass and maybe some synths. But of course, the consequences of not sleeping the night before caught up on her as her eyes felt dry and her eyelids heavy. She soon was dragged off to sleep.
(-.-)Zzz・・・・
Kanade woke up in a cold sweat. Her fingers were trembling with the overwhelming fear that squeezed her chest and made it hard to breathe. It wasn't long before her eyes twinged with the dull ache of tears building. A large sob grew within her throat, stretching its limits.
Kanade felt pathetic and weak for getting so distressed over a silly nightmare. Like some child. Thinking about it, Kanade did feel… small… She didn't feel 16. She felt younger… around 4-6.
Kanade has felt this way before on occasions. Usually, when she's under a lot of stress.
But just because she feels like a child doesn't mean she is one. She should be more mature and stop acting like a child. Kanade shouldn't be getting so distressed about this! What about Mafuyu? Mafuyu can't even exist without feeling constant pain, and Kanade, the one who's supposed to be saving her, is sitting here bawling because of a single nightmare?! She should just get over it.
Despite thinking this, Kanade couldn't calm down. In fact, it seemed much of the opposite as tears began to flow out of her eyes like an endless river. Her breaths became quick and short as well.
Kanade curled up in a ball on her office chair. Her bare knees soon got wet with the bitter tears of a forsaken child. She selfishly wanted nothing more than to be held in her father's arms as he whispered sweet reassurances into her delicate ears softly. But that wasn't going to be happening, thanks to her.
Kanade realized that she needed to stop crying soon, or Mafuyu would notice.
She exhaled shakily, as she got out her phone. The bright light hurt her eyes at first, but she adjusted. Kanade clicked on “untitled”. Her phone flashed, sucking her into a grey, empty world.
She curled up, trying to focus on calming down enough to go back without any more wailing.
The fuzziness in Kanade's head hadn't gone anywhere. It remained, clinging to her. Not leaving. Kanade started feeling even younger, maybe 3?
Her body heaved with another sob. She felt so scared, sad, and small. All of her feelings engulfed her into a spiral of sadness. It felt impossible to crawl out. Kanade really couldn't do anything but cry.
“Hey.” Kanade heard a cold voice call. She turned her head to look at them and saw Kaito glaring down at her.
“Are you just gonna sit here crying like a baby?” He scolded.
“‘M sowwy…” Kanade sniffled. She thought for a moment he looked concerned. But surely not, right? He cared about Mafuyu, not her.
Kaito dropped down to her level. He looked at her as if he were a scientist, performing a visual examination of his subject.
“Kanade, are you small?” The gentleness in his voice caught her off guard. Kaito was usually very blunt and stoic. Not caring about offending anyone about what he says. Hearing him talk in such a compassionate way made Kanade think she was having some sort of strange dream.
“Mhm…” She nodded after a pause.
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
“‘Dunno…” Kanade mumbled. Kanade looked at him, causing cock his brow. She flopped in his arms, Kaito jolted at the sudden reaction of the girl.
“Mph. You're a troublesome child, aren't you?”
Kanade pushed her head into the man's chest and yawned. She brought her hand to her mouth, and gnawed on her fingers idly. Kaito removed Kanade's hand from her face.
“Don't,” Kaito told her.
“‘M'kay.” Kanade murmured into his shirt. She fell asleep as soon as her heavy eyelids shut.
Kaito pulled Kanade closer to his chest. He held her in his arms. Kaito looked down at her peaceful sleeping face. She had sleepless stains under her eyes. She felt pretty light too.
Whatever… He was just glad the girl was getting any sleep at all.
(-.-)Zzz・・・・
Luka walked through the empty Sekai idly.
“Ugh… I'm so bored…” She groaned. Luka looked around, just to see if anything interesting was happening.
As she was doing so, she saw Kaito sitting down on the grey floor of the Sekai. A playful smirk appeared on her face as she chuckled.
Ready to tease the man, Luka walked over with delight. She opened her mouth, but halted as she saw familiar silver hair sitting in Kaito’s lap.
“hm?” Luka approached closer. She gazed down, and realized Kanade was the one that Kaito was in his arms.
“Fufu, maybe he's not so heartless after all…” Luka appraised. She walked away, not wanting to ruin the special moment they were sharing together