守りたい // hidekane

:re 3

The sound of the glass colliding with the floor, smashing into tiny little pieces beneath his feet, and disturbing the quiet of the place wasn't enough to make Hide's haze falter.

He doesn't even register the heat of the coffee that spilled all over his chest, clinging onto his skin like a leech, dripping all the way down to somewhere in his stomach. His pure white uniform is stained, and he knows he's going to get an earful for that and the poor cup, but he finds he can't care enough about that, especially not when—

Not when.......

The customer's eyes are downcast, but wide, probably because of the incident, and his mouth shaped like an "O". There's an apology sitting on his lips right now even if it wasn't even his fault, Hide thinks, because he knows. And sure enough, it comes with the bow of his head, his hair, white but black at the roots (like Hide's faded yellow one, he thinks absently) bouncing along with him.

Hide feels frantic hands wipe around his chest when he comes back to his senses.

"I'm so sorry I should've taken it already I—" His voice is shaking, like he's going to cry over a spilled drink.

Hide tries to respond, It's okay it's no big deal, but the words don't — can't slip out of his mouth, the thing lodged into his throat, it's stupid flimsy and probably worth more than his life, yet it doesn't register his words, doesn't say it for him and all the weeping man is left with is silence. Hide's hands hung uselessly in the air and the customer is still wiping his shirt with tissue papers like his life depends on it.

Like a saving grace, Touka slips in beside them, shooting Hide a questioning glance to which he nods to, words evidently failing him. He wonders nostalgically at what point they started to understand each other in that way.

Ever the reliable manager, she moves quickly to diffuse the situation, " Sir, it's alright." The man stops his frantic wiping, bowing once more in apology. Hide still can't talk, and it's making him restless, but he returns the act with a gesture he can only hope comes off as an "It's okay". The customer, although obviously still agitated, seems to loosen up at the reassurance.

"We're sorry for the inconvenience, we'll be back with another cup in a few minutes." And she leaves the scene with Hide under her arm, while Yomo takes over the role of cleaning up the mess he created.

Then he's sitting on the couch of the staff room, he realizes, and Touka is looking at him like she's expecting him to answer a question she never even asked. He moves his hands, "Sorry. What did you say?"

She looks away, agitated but not unkind, "Nevermind. Let's talk later, okay? Just rest here for a while." Then she's gone before he could even say a word (not that he could).

There's a cup of coffee on the table that isn't his, but Hide takes it anyways. It shakes in his hands, and he doesn't drink it, relishing in the warmth it gives off instead. He closes his eyes and he sees the customer from earlier, wide eyes and shaking apologies and all, and Hide thinks it's stupid that he's even this lucky in the first place. The coffee is black, and that's just what he had ordered too. It was the color of his hair, too.

When Hide had woken up in the sewers that day, he was all alone.

It was cold, empty, quiet, and all synonyms thereof, and most of all he can't feel his face.

The last few hours all passed by in a blur behind his eyes, the timeline is all messed up, he can't remember which day is which, can't even think at all. How long has it been? An hour? A day?