Chapter Text
Karasu opened the door abruptly and squeezed inside the thin gap it allowed as fast as he could before shutting it as quickly but also as softly as he could behind him. He stood behind the door with his hands pressed against it tightly and waited to see if he could hear any shuffling or groaning on the other side. After 10 minutes of nothing, Karasu finally steps back with a heavy sigh.
He turned around slowly in order to not make a noise, just in case. He looked around the small house he was able to squeeze himself into in order to hide from the zombie hoard waiting for him outside.
The building was in fair condition for the current state the world was in. All the windows seemed to be intact (which is extremely rare), and the front door he just entered through even seemed to have a working lock (which he immediately switched over so nothing could enter.
Though then again, if something was in here, it would tap him. Still he decides to keep it locked cause he much rather face whatever's in here than the hoard of at least 12 zombies out there).
He took a step inside the dark room, the only light source coming from the open curtain facing the moon. ‘Well that’s dangerous’ he thinks to himself as he approaches the open window. If a zombie were to look through that, he’d be toast.
However, as he tried to close the curtain, he quickly realized why it stayed open. Looking up towards it, the curtain was completely torn to shreds near the top and tangled in a way where it wouldn’t be moving anytime soon.
“Shit…”
He decides to leave the curtain alone. It would only make more noise if he tried to fight it.
He starts looking around the house again, trying to assess the best place to stay out of the window's view yet still comfortable enough to rest for the night. He knows he can’t really be picky in the apocalypse, but he hasn’t found a habitable house in ages so he thinks he deserves to treat himself just this once.
As he’s searching, he realizes what he thought was a one story house, turned out to have stairs leading upward. How could he have missed that? To be fair, he wasn’t really paying attention to everything about the house due to trying to survive a hoard attack. Not to mention it was pitch black outside and hard to see anything from a 5 foot radius.
Karasu sighed deeply before deciding to climb the stairs. He should’ve known it was too good to be true. He’s already preparing for the u[stairs to be completely destroyed and worn down. Maybe even hiding a zombie somewhere.
He spots a piece of broken wood near the top stair and grips it in his hand. It’s not like the bat he recently lost, but it’s better than exploring empty handed.
He stepped up the last step and looked around the top floor as best he could in the dark. Without the moons shining up here, everything got 10 times harder to see.
“How convenient.” Karasu says, dragging his breath.
The top floor has 4 different doors (all of them are closed shut and look fairly intact). He decides to take a guess and opens the first door on his right. He grips the wood in his right hand and opens the door with his left.
He opens the door quickly, expecting an attack, only to see…nothing. It was a simple empty bathroom. The toilet and shower looked disgusting and covered in mold, but other than that, everything looked fairly normal.
Karasu let out a shaky breath before exiting the bathroom. He then decides to try the door next to it. Same thing as the bathroom. Just an empty bedroom. Karasu was beginning to have more hope that he found a lucky house after all.
He made his way to the back left door. He was about to open it like the other two when something made him freeze. Something felt wrong. In the past year of living in the apocalypse, Karasu has learned one very important lesson.
Always trust your intuition.
And right now, his intuition was telling him to not take this door for granted. Whatever it was on the other side sent immediate alarm bells ringing through his body.
Karasu took a deep breath, preparing to face head-to-head whatever was in there. He was just praying that his intuition was dead wrong and he simply felt this way because of the state of the world he lived in now.
He twisted the doorknob and pushed opened the door. At first glance, everything seemed normal. Nothing came out screaming at him. There was no sound of groaning or scratching. He took one step inside, lowering his plank of wood ever so slightly at the sight of nothing.
Maybe his intuition was wrong…
He heard something to the right of him and reacted just quick enough before a wooden chair leg hit his head. He jumped to the left and quickly steadied himself. If he hadn’t played soccer back before the world went to shit, he doubts he would’ve had quick enough reflexes to dodge that attack.
He looked towards the perpetrator with wide eyes. How’d he do that? He didn’t even hear him. He should’ve known. His intuition has never been wrong.
It was hard to tell what the man looked like in the dark but he could make out that he was a male human and not one of those rotting creatures. At least not yet.there was no way of telling if he was bit or not.
The man was clutching the chair leg tightly, enough to make his arms shake with the force. Or maybe he was shaking for another reason. Karasu couldn’t care less. All he knew was he had to calm the man down before he actually did any damage.
“What the hell man!?” Karasu yelled as quietly as he could.
The man still hasn’t said anything yet. It was clear to see he was fairly scared. His green eyes open wide beneath the white and green hair. Karasu also noticed how the man seemed to be guarding his left foot, keeping most of the pressure on his right.
The man followed Karsu’s gaze to his ankle and grimaced. He looked back up, seeming no less scared than before.
“Who are you?” the man asks firmly. His grip on the chair leg has yet to even loosen. His voice sounded wavered and tense. Given the situation, Karasu couldn’t blame him. He really needed to calm the situation down. He wasn’t really looking forward to a fight today.
“Look. My name's Karasu Tabito. I don’t mean any harm alright? I was just passing by when I got trapped by a hoard outside. I only came in here to hide for the night.” Karasu said as calmly as he could.
“And why should I trust that huh?” the stranger asks, not as politely as Karasu was hoping for.
He sighed for about the 50th time since entering this house. He then proceeded to move his hands in a surrendering position. He just needs to convince this guy he isn’t going to do anything (which is true. All he wants to do is lay down for the night and rest for the first time in weeks).
“I don’t wanna hurt you alright?” Karasu said slowly.
“Yeah sure. How many times have I heard that one?”
The man was relentless. In a normal life, Karasu would call him annoying and probably pick a fight with him just to show him up in the first place. But this isn’t a normal life. This isn’t a normal world. Not anymore.
Karasu does something probably labeled as irrationally stupid for the situation he’s in.
He lowers himself to the ground and drops the wooden plank before straightening up again.
“I’m not looking for a fight.” Karasu states. “I just need a place to stay for the night till the hoards leave.”
For a moment, he thought the man was going to use this advantage to attack him again. His grip tightened on the chair leg and Karasu truly thought he was going to swing it again.
But that grip loosened not even seconds later before the man lets out a tired sigh and drops the chair leg completely. He mumbles something Karasu can’t understand under his breath before limping slightly towards the bed.
Karasu stands there awkwardly as he watches the man lop down dramatically on his back. For a man who was planning to knock his head down with a chair leg, he seemed fairly calm now at this moment. He was completely different than he was 2 minutes ago.
“You don’t get any bites on you do you?” the man asks suddenly. Karasu looked down at the man's legs hanging off the bed and noticed his left ankle again. It was definitely swollen. Bruised too.
Karasu stood there staring at him before realizing he was asked a question. “Uh- no! I’m clean. You?”
“Same.”
The conversation died there. Karasu couldn’t understand why it felt so awkward now. Maybe because they just tried killing each other 5 minutes ago.
Karasu decides then, to finally start moving, and sits on the bed next to the man. They sit/lay there in silence for a minute or so before the man speaks up again.
“Otoya Eita.”
“Huh?” Karasu looks over at the man strangely. The man sighs and sits up on his elbows.
“My name. You gave me yours earlier. I’m just…returning the gesture.”
“Oh.”
They stare at each other for a bit before the man, Otoya apparently, lays back down fully on his back. Karasu turns forward again. His muscles began to lose their earlier tension, finally allowing himself to relax again after the recent situation.
He lets out a sigh before his eyes involuntarily shift to look at Otoya’s ankle again. Up close, it looked worse. The bruising was dark and splotted over his entire ankle. The swelling was bad too. He must’ve hurt it badly for it to be this inflamed.
“How’d you hurt your ankle?” Karasu finally asks. The silence is stiff after that. Otoya slowly sits up slowly and looks down towards his left ankle. A grimace crosses his face when he tries to move it.
“Twisted it.” Otoya says casually. “I was running from a zombie and ended up slipping on a loose cable on the sidewalk.”
“Can you move on it?” Karasu didn’t really understand why he was so curious. He wasn’t planning on staying any longer than tonight (even though he will probably never find a house like this again. He knows staying stagnant is what causes people to die nowadays).
Otoya hesitates on his response, probably questioning if he should trust a complete stranger with this information. “...Not much honestly. I was lucky to find a house this intact to hide in for a bit.”
Karasu nodded his head as he looked around the room. The window was perfectly intact, it’s curtains drawn as tight as they could go, though a slight gap was left open. There was a bag in the corner near the door. Probably Otoya’s things.
Otoya noticed him staring and quickly glared at Karasu. “If you plan on stealing my things, just know I can still fight a bitch.”
Karasu held up his hands in surrender, though much less tense than he was before. “Don’t worry. I wasn’t planning on it. We may be living in shit but it doesn’t mean I have to succumb to those terms.”
Karasu couldn’t help but smile weakly at the small chuckle that left Otoya’s mouth. His shoulders relaxed at the action. The air around them felt just a little less uncomfortable.
Otoya then carefully crawled onto one side of the bed and laid down facing the door. He grabbed a blanket with only a few holes in it off the bed and wrapped it around himself.
“Uh…what are you doing?” Karasu asked.
Otoya only rolled his eyes. “Sleeping. I’m tired.”
Karasu looked at him skeptically. “And you really trust sleeping next to a complete stranger?” Karasu asked again, pointing towards himself in confusion.
“Normally not. But frankly, I'm beat and I wouldn’t be able to do anything tomorrow if I don’t get at least a wink of sleep…” Otoya states. He yawns right after, only proving his point. He closes his eyes afterward.
Karasu sits there uncomfortably once again. This man was so strange to him. First he tried to kill him, and now he’s completely let his guard down. He’s even sleeping knowing that it leaves him defenseless.
“Oh. And if I find out you took anything, I'll personally hunt you down. And you should know that I’m very stubborn and hold hella grudges. So don’t do anything stupid crow boy.” Otoya says, eyes still closed. Karasu gasps in mock offense at the nickname.
“I ain’t no crow you damn scrub!”
“Sssshh. I’m sleeping.”
Karasu swears he’s gonna punch this guy. He would too, to teach him some manners, but he’s caught off guard by a yawn of his own. ‘Fuck…maybe i should sleep too’ he thinks before eyeing the other side of the bed.
He looks back and forth between the empty side of the bed and the sleeping stranger, before eventually deciding he was too tired to argue with his own brain right now. He crawled to the other side of the bed and laid on his side facing the door, just like Otoya.
Before he knew it, his eyes shifted closed, the only sound in the room now being the soft breaths coming from Otoya’s sleeping body and his own light snores.