Putting Pen To Paper - Naegami Story

International Hope! Arc - 24: I've lost count

Byakuya slipped the pages of half-written letters into the inside pocket of his blazer, flushing when he saw the mirror in the room. The ship had special rooms for its guests, but the presence of a mirror on such an unsteady floor was still unnerving. Makoto hadn't been exaggerating about the rocking of the ship, nearly every step he took was uncertain. Such a delicate thing on such a swaying place. His reflection was confounding. He didn't like staring back at the eyes he saw, they were alien, dry but glassy with the emotion that had been bubbling over ever since he had first heard of the thing that threatened his world.. This wretched sickness, grasping his heart and squeezing it. The pads of the fingers were rough, rougher than anything he had ever been touched by before.

His eyes. His eyes were sunken. His eyes had forever been icy blue, but now, now they were sickly, almost turning green.

Byakuya couldn't keep looking at himself, so he turned to the clock, the only sound in the room besides his heavy breathing. It was late. He was late.

Rushing from his room-how was his room so cold? He was nearly freezing, only realizing the pricks across his skin when he turned warm once leaving the doorway to his isolated, temporary abode-he hurried to the place where Hina would be waiting for him. She was there, on the deck, arms crossed.

"Asahina," he said, touching her arm gently. She looked over at him, forcing her lips into a smile. "I didn't mean to be late,"

"No, no, don't worry about it," She shook her head, gazing back out on the waters, inky dark and navy beneath them.

His fingers tensed against her. "What is it you wanted to talk about? Kyoko...have you heard from her?" A small spark of hope flickered up in his chest, the frame that had thinned over the past week of worry.

Silent, she shook her head. "No, sorry."

His brows dipped. "Don't be,"

"I just need to talk to someone..."

He waited for her to continue. She didn't. "What about?"

"Yuta," The name made her lips stretch downward, eyes turn lidded, nose scrunching in a salty threat. "Yuta, he..."

"Yuta?" Saying the name out loud gave his memory a foggy recollection of smiling stories and laughter. "Your brother,"

"Mhm," It was barely a sound, a weak, thin humm of affirmation as her eyes watered. "He's...he's gone..."

"Your brother?" He reached his other hand to grasp her arm, smoothing his palm up and down in an attempt to soothe her.

"Komaru told me, she saw it happen, he...when he tried to get away from Towa he..." Her voice was suffocated by her emotions, and she stepped forward, closer to him, as if asking permission to collapse in his arms. He removed his hands, and she fell forward, wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him close and starting to cry into his chest. Such loss fell against him, a deep grief that shrieked through the night and reverberated in his bones.

He started to cry too.