The Unlucky Thirteenth (Akise Aru Fanfiction)

Fifteenth

Future Diary (Mirai Nikki)

The Unlucky Thirteenth

Fifteenth--Raindrops on Windowpanes

Bleary lids opened to jostled movement. Amaya blinked, for a second not knowing anything about her surroundings. Her hair floated in her eyes, the crystal blue dulling as she remembered the fire, the pain, the death. She did not allow herself to cry, however. She could not. What had happened could not be undone.

She tried to move. Her grime-covered shirt itched her skin, creased in strange ways, and adhered to her frame. A force pinned her underneath the blanket and to the couch. She looked over, suddenly aware of the person beside her.

Amaya had always been an early riser. Someone in her family had always been awake at almost any hour, be it Akihiko on his laptop or phone or her father struggling to get the bills paid in time after he had put it off for so long. By nature, an early wake-up was common. This upbringing had saved her life in more than a few sticky situations.

Now, she wondered why it had always been so. Now that she knew her brother's betrayal, why had he always been planning, constantly making efforts to go somewhere and to get out? Perhaps it was just paranoia making her feel this crazy and suspicious.

Amaya could tell a lot about a person by the way they slept--which was why she usually studied a victim in their sleep the night before a murder.

The way Akise slept now, with his head curled off to the side to avoid a cramped position, told her she could trust him. No person's sleep was that relaxed if they had something to hide. The way he curled his shoulders in and hunched over told her that he was grieving, although silently.

But most of all, the way he lay with his back toward the door as if defending or shielding from an unknown threat told her that he was protective, and that she could count on him in practically anything. The way he curled in told her the same thing.

What was he so protective of?

A reevaluation of the circumstances told her that he was protecting her. She blushed furiously. Bolstering her nerve (he was asleep anyway), Amaya laid her head on his shoulder. He moved and she quickly closed her eyes, breathing deeply. He had no reason to suspect it. He fell asleep before her, so she would be fine.

Why was she so jittery?

He smiled to himself, shifting and noticing her tense. Akise chuckled silently to himself. It was adorable how shy she was.

The two lay in silence for several moments. Amaya had no idea he was awake, and had been awake for a while. She had assumed he wasn't an early riser--and that was true. Akise valued his sleep, but today was just one of those days when he woke up early.

Probably because of the events of the previous night. Grief assailed him. Kurusu was simply gone. While Akise didn't blame Amaya for not being able to stop him (Kurusu was as stubborn as a bull most days), he secretly wished she had tried a bit harder and had been able to stop him.

He knew that wish wasn't fair to her. She had tried. He had not even been there to stop anything or to help anyone. He really should be blaming himself or even Kurusu, possibly even Uryuu Minene for her bombing.

His thoughts strayed to Nishijima's broken face and he concluded that he could have done nothing had he been there. Amaya had tried. Nishijima had tried. Kurusu had simply gone off the edge, driven to madness.

Akise would have to check up on the detective's family in a couple days, just to see how they were doing.

Amaya shuddered against him. He smiled, before pulling the blanket around her again. It wouldn't do to have her freeze.