Leashed | • • • | Blue Exorcist

Call Me King

Rin's POV:

I sat in group therapy, going along with it robotically. Doing the stupid self-love chant Chiyo-senpai forced on us. "I am worthy of love and affection. I love my body and what it does for me. Today is about progress, not perfection." I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Maybe it would add a little flair to the monotonous meeting.

Chiyo-senpai continued to chirp on about the positives and what we were all capable off. Same shit, different day. While she continued to drone on and on, I felt someone poke my arm, I turned to my left, meeting the two grey eyes of Akiko-chan. She was one of the youngest in the ward. At the ripe old age of eleven, she'd managed to lead a pretty horrific life. Abused by her alcoholic parents, she was eventually removed from the house when she didn't show up to school for a week. She'd gone into detail one day while I and a few others were bullshitting in the commons. Her sperm donor was an absolute shit human being. He'd broken her ribs, knocked out a molar, and she'd had a concussion and black-eye when authorities found her. The scum she called her mother wasn't much better, allowing it to happen so she herself wasn't beaten.

I blinked away the thought, giving her a small smile. She returned the gesture, "Wanna play cards after this?" My smile grew a little wider and I nodded. There wasn't much to do in this prison, and the computers were limited and only had solitaire and minesweeper installed. Cards were a favorited pastime in the ward, a lot of us betting portions of meals on who we thought the winner would be.

Her eyes lit up and she turned her focus back to the session.

After I'd had my fun in the ICU, I'd been moved back to the psych ward. Not everything returned to normal, however. Showers were supervised, which was something usually only required for those who shaved. I was not allowed to have my curtain closed at night. And most of all, they put me on meds. It was a very low dose, and I hadn't asked what it was called, but the nurse assured me it was a med commonly prescribed first to teens with depression.

It'd only been three weeks since I'd maimed myself, so the chemicals haven't stuck. If anything, I felt like shit on them, a little like a zombie, food wasn't as appetizing, but those were typical, I guess.

I'd made a few acquaintances in the past few weeks, but the friendships didn't go much farther than cards or TV shows. I'll admit, I was hella lonely here, even with all these people around.

"Alright, everyone. That's all the time we have for today. You're all dismissed." Chiyo-senpai snapped her fingers a few times - the wards way of clapping I've come to find out, apparently clapping is too rowdy. "Good job everyone, I'll see you here tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah," I muttered as the group broke into chatter, all of us rising from our seats and spilling out into the commons area. Akiko-chan found my gaze and motioned me over to a table. I laughed lightly when she pulled a deck from her jean pocket. "You came prepared, I see"

She giggled, "I don't leave my room without them. Wanna play Go Fish?" I nodded, taking my seat and taking the cards as she passed them out. Over the course of several minutes, bystanders surrounded us, entertained by our game. A few would walk back and forth, looking at Akiko and my cards before nodding and taking a step back. It was honestly sad how seriously the ward took these games. We didn't get out much.

"Any eight's?" I questioned. We were at the tail end of the game, and I had amassed six sets of cards. We were reaching a turning point, our plays would determine who came on top, but not by much.

She groaned, slapped two eights on the table. I smiled at her sheepishly, scratch that, seven sets of cards. She sighed and rifled through her hand, looking between her hand, mine, and the two cards that lay left in the deck. I knew what she was thinking, and I sorta felt bad for her. "Ugh," she finally said, slumping her shoulders. "Any two's?"