Chapter Text
“if the world ends tonight, please, let it end with your hand in mine.”
The sirens wailed from every direction, reminding everyone of the situation they were in. A situation no one could escape from.
The 2 barely remembered when they started running—only the fact that their hands were intertwined, fingers locked tight, as if letting go meant losing everything. The ground they stood on trembled to no end, each step uneven and bringing danger. Something loud echoed behind the couple, but they don’t dare look back. Looking back meant getting reminded of what they were going through.
“Keep running, sharp.” Jude managed to gasp out, not entirely sure if even he could continue running.
Then, it happened.
Sharp had lost his footing.
It wasn’t just a misstep he could easily recover from—his leg was buried underground the piles of rubble that continued to fell. A cry teared from his throat. please, please don’t let this be the end.
Jude dropped down beside him instantly, his heart pounding hard against his chest.
“Sharp—hey, hey. it’s okay—“ His voice trembled despite the comforting words that came out, frantically reaching for sharp.
Sharpness so desperately tried to pull free, but whatever was holding him down, kept him pinned. Panic was evident in his eyes, tears welling up. “jude—i can’t- i can’t move.” Sharp cried out, as if the truth was too much to bear.
Another loud sound echoed. Closer this time.
Jude swallowed hard. Looking around, he knew the situation was getting worse by the minute. He knew what he should be doing, anyone would do such.
To run.
But his hold only tightened around sharpness.
“I’m right here.” He said, quieter. painful. “everything will be okay.” he whispers. desperately trying to convince both him and sharp.
Sharp let out a broken, forced laugh—tears streaming down his face. “you shouldn’t be.” he whispered.
“Yeah,” Jude looked down, stroking sharp’s hand in a comforting manner. “i know.”
To them, the whole world went silent. There were no frantic yells or explosions happening around them. As if time had paused, right now, it was only the 2.
Jude leaned closer, pressing their foreheads together. “i’m right here with you. i..it’s gonna be okay.” He mumbled, his own tears streaming down.
Sharp’s fingers curled tighter against jude’s shirt. Fear and panic were evident in how sharp was acting. But as long as he was with jude, he believed everything would be okay.
They held onto each other—desperate and painful. Like even the end of the world couldn’t pull them apart.
The noise faded.
The trembling of the ground stopped.
Everything went quiet.
And then—
Jude’s eyes snapped open.
Air rushed into his lungs like he’d been drowning. His chest heaved, fingers clawing at the sheets beneath him, searching—grasping—for something that wasn’t there.
He took a look around his surroundings.
No sirens.
No trembling earth.
No collapsing sky.
Just the faint hum of an electric fan, the distant sun behind the mountain as its rays peaked through, filling the ordinary room with sunshine.
Jude froze.
Slowly, carefully, he looked down at his hands.
Smaller.
Soft.
Stable.
His breath hitched.
“No…” he whispered, voice thin and unfamiliar to his own ears.
Memories crashed over him in violent waves—the rubble, the heat, the way Sharp’s fingers tightened in his shirt, the quiet acceptance in his voice—
you shouldn’t be.
Jude squeezed his eyes shut.
“Not… not like that,” he choked out.
A knock came from the door.
“Jude? Are you awake?” a woman’s voice called gently. “You’ll be late for your first day.”
First day.
Something inside him twisted.
—
The world outside was too bright.
Too alive.
Jude walked stiffly beside the woman—his mother, he noticed—every sound feeling sharper than it should be. Children laughed. Birds chirped. Somewhere, a vendor tried selling items.
It felt wrong.
All of it.
How could the world continue like nothing had happened?
How could it exist at all?
His fingers curled tightly at his sides.
Jude’s heart began to pound—not in fear this time, but something dangerously close to hope.
If this was before—
If he still had time—
Then—
“Jude?” his mother stopped, glancing back.
He forced himself to move again.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Coming.”
But his eyes were already searching.
Scanning every face.
Every room.
Every corner.
—
The classroom was filled with noise as students came in, filling seats, forming small groups, laughing over things that couldn’t be heard.
Jude sat stiffly at his desk, barely hearing any of it.
His gaze stayed fixed on the door.
Please, he thought, over and over, like a prayer he didn’t know how to say properly.
Please be here.
The bell hadn’t rung yet.
More students entered.
None of them—
Then—
A boy stepped through the doorway.
Messy, long hair. The features of a woman, Beautiful. Eyes scanning the room with quiet uncertainty.
Jude’s breath stopped.
The world stopped.
Sound couldn’t be heard.
It was him.
Not buried beneath rubble.
Not crying.
Not slipping away beneath his hands.
Alive.
Whole.
Here.
“…Sharp,” Jude whispered, the name breaking apart in his throat.
The boy blinked, clearly not hearing him, and started toward an empty seat near the back.
Something in Jude snapped.
His chair scraped loudly against the floor as he stood up.
Heads turned.
He didn’t care.
He crossed the room in quick, uneven steps, heart slamming violently against his ribs.
“Hey,” he said, breathless.
Sharp looked up, startled.
“Uh—yeah?”
For a moment, Jude couldn’t speak.
Up close, it was even more overwhelming—the same eyes, the same expression, just younger. Just alive.
Jude swallowed hard.
“You’re… new, right?” he managed.
Sharp nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
A pause.
“…Do I know you?”
Jude almost laughed.
Not in this life. he thought.
But his chest ached with the weight of everything that happened.
“Not really,” he said softly.
Then, after a beat—
“I’m Jude.”
Something shifted in Sharp’s expression—not recognition, but something like ease.
“I’m Sharp,” he replied.
Jude nodded, even though he already knew.
“I figured.”
Sharp gave a small, confused smile at that, but didn’t question it.
And just like that—
Something impossible began again.
—
It started small.
Sitting together when seats were rearranged.
Passing notes during class.
Walking the same route home after realizing they lived only a few streets apart.
Jude stayed close—but not too close.
At least, not at first.
He was careful.
Careful not to overwhelm him.
Careful not to say too much.
Careful not to reveal that every laugh, every habit, every small detail about Sharp that he already knew.
But sometimes—
Sometimes it slips.
“You hate bitter melon, right?” Jude said casually one afternoon.
Sharp blinked. “I’ve… never told you that.”
Jude froze for half a second.
Then shrugged. “You look like you would.”
“…What does that even mean?”
Jude smirked faintly. “I don’t know. It just does.”
Sharp narrowed his eyes—but then laughed.
And Jude memorized that sound all over again.
—
Years passed in quiet, steady moments.
Elementary turned into middle school.
They grew—not just taller, but closer.
Not in the desperate, end-of-the-world way Jude remembered.
But in something softer.
Something slower.
Shared lunches.
Late afternoon walks.
Arguments over nothing that somehow mattered.
Silences that didn’t feel empty.
And Jude—
Jude held onto all of it like it could disappear if he wasn’t careful.
Because he knew it would.
Because it had.
Sometimes, late at night, the memories come back.
The sirens.
The rubble.
Sharp’s voice breaking as he said he couldn’t move.
Jude would wake up gasping, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Until he forced himself to breathe.
Not yet, he’d remind himself.
This time is different.
It had to be.
He would make sure of it.
—
By the time they reached their final year of middle school, things had changed yet neither said anything.
They were still side by side.
Still inseparable in the way everyone had come to expect.
But there was something heavier beneath it now.
Unspoken.
An ominous feeling.
Sharp leaned against the school railing one afternoon, watching the sky shift into warm shades of orange.
“Do you ever feel like…” he started, then hesitated.
Jude glanced at him. “Like what?”
Sharp frowned slightly, searching for the words.
“Like something big is going to happen,” he said slowly. “Not now. Not soon, even. But… eventually.”
Jude’s chest tightened.
He looked away.
“Yeah,” he said quietly.
Sharp studied him for a moment.
“You do?”
Jude nodded.
“I think…” he paused, choosing his words carefully. “I think when it does, people show who they really are.”
Sharp hummed softly.
“And you?” he asked. “What kind of person do you think you’d be?”
Jude didn’t hesitate.
“The one who stays,” he said.
Sharp blinked, slightly caught off guard.
“…Even if it’s dangerous?”
Jude met his eyes.
“Especially then.”
An unknown emotion was displayed on sharp’s face.
But he smiled anyway.
“…Yeah,” he said softly. “That sounds like you.” he chuckled.
Jude didn’t say anything.
He just watched him—
Alive.
Safe.
Here.
For now.
—
The bell rang in the distance, pulling them back.
“Come on,” Sharp said, pushing off the railing. “We’ll be late.”
Jude followed, falling into step beside him like he always did.
Like he always would.
For as long as he could.
And this time—
He wouldn’t let go.