#*jack fiction

Back when they were alive, Kiyotaka was the guy to keep everyone on task. He'd bark out the times and the obligations without so much as glancing at a clock or at a phone, "Oowada-kun, Kuwata-kun, it is now noon and you have places to be!". Classes to attend, practices and recitals and meetings to get to. It even got to the point that he'd send texts to make sure the problem students in his class would get where they needed to be.

A team is only as strong as its weakest member, Kuwata-kun.

He said that a lot.

Now, though, the life has been snuffed out of them by the girls who join them all at breakfast. They're trapped in the fucking school, still unable to leave. No obligations anymore, never again. No sense of time. The clocks don't move, and the windows are bolted over so they can't see what's out there in the first place.

Leon doesn't get out of bed, some days. What's the fucking point? No matter where he goes, he sees Junko in his head or maybe by a water fountain and he screams and falls to his knees and feels the repeated impact on his skin, baseballs crushing his bones and shattering his teeth. This is nothing compared to the guilt and the panic - "I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, I'M FUCKING SORRY". He screams this in a soundproof room, but no one else out there needs to hear the screaming to know its happening. They're screaming, too.

Out of all the other killers, he likes Mondo the most. He always had. Celes is terrifying and Hifumi is all right but a little strange, and the sisters Despair are out of the question. Leon likes Mondo even more, lately, because he understands the way that everyone else looks at them a little sad or angry or disappointed or scared.

Sometimes Mondo gets dizzy and falls to his knees and shakes and they have to move him to his room. He'll come to and sprint to the nearest trashcan to throw up and he rinses his mouth and sits down. He gets it. Leon wishes, sometimes, that he didn't get it, but its comforting to know he's not alone.

Its one day ( or maybe night or evening ) when Mondo opens Leon's door and lets himself in. Leon pulls an earbud out of his ear and turns the device off. Mondo's pompadour is down and messy.

"Hey, Kuwata." his voice is usually gruff, but now he's just tired.

"What's up, man?" Leon asks, sitting up on his bed, wrapping the cord around the iPod. The gang leader takes a seat on the bed, folding his legs there and clamping his hands on his calves. He manages to look absolutely wiped and determined at the same time.

"Fujisaki still isn't lookin' at me, and I told Aniki how much it bothers me." Mondo shrugs, here, "He told me I'm rushing shit and I kinda deserve it in the first place."

He lowers his voice in a startlingly spot - on impression of Daiya, "'You got anywhere to be, kyoudai? Forgiveness doesn't happen when you want it to.'"

Leon had talked to Daiya a few times. He had been here when they all started waking up. Daiya is scary and sometimes he bleeds from his forehead or his mouth, and bruises bloom across his collarbones and chest, but he never screams.

Leon doesn't say anything because Daiya is right. He knows this, and knows that Mondo knows it too.

"Guess I'm just fuckin' ... Ansty, dude. I mean you're all right with Maizono, huh?"

"Only 'cause she tried to kill me first. She's a lay it out kinda chick." he draws his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around them, hunching into himself, "And I dunno if all right is the word for it. I'm uncomfortable around her."

"Sometimes I think it would have been better if Maizono had killed me. You know, put all those stares and whispers on her. And then I ... I kinda ... Hate that I think that way." he continues.

Mondo's eyes seem to unfocus and he's deep in thought, but he nods. Yeah, that's the kind of shit that wears down his sleep - eight hours, four, one, none. What if he had kept himself in check?

Well, given that even Naegi and Kirigiri and Enoshima are dead ... He'd be dead anyway. Mondo's hands curl into fists and he wants to throttle himself or Daiya or Enoshima and Ikusaba or ...

Leon is sitting up, reaching out a hand to pat his cheek. He keeps it there, squints at him with those strange eyes.

"Hey, none of that. Calm down, man."

He lets out an exhale he didn't know he was holding in and focuses his gaze back on Leon. The smaller of the two shifts even closer, mimicking Mondo's posture. Their legs touch, and Leon puts his hand on Mondo's. Its platonically intimate, if such a thing were to exist.

"Your brother is right - we got time. Who knows how much time? We're not gonna wake up one hundred percent fuckin' frosty with one another, but its gonna happen. You want to forgive yourself and I know Fujisaki still likes you, that your kyoudai and aniki got a lot of love in 'em for you.

"Bottom line is, we fucked up, even if Enoshima and Ikusaba were pulling the strings. But ... If we're at the bottom now, all we got to do is go up, yeah?"

Mondo kind of gapes at Leon for a moment, but closes his mouth and nods. He sits forward and bumps his forehead against his friend's, suddenly looking very serious.

"You been talking to Naegi?"

Leon has to laugh. "You caught me. Little dude knows what's up, sometimes. Makes me feel better."

The gang leader shuts his eyes and Leon does too, like maybe they're praying silently for forgiveness. Murder mates.

Some of the fire is back, and he doesn't sound so exhausted anymore, "You an' me, Leon. We're gonna be all right. We all are."

he laughs at that and nearly spills his coffee because she's so embarrassed about how they messed with one another when they were young. out of their house, they're the ones who have known one another the longest.

petra finishes up the plants and sets the can down, striding over to her partner. his hands on her hips, always, fit together like they're puzzle pieces. she frowns.

"you smell like a lemon headlight."

"what's this about headlights now?"

"auruo! i won't have you talking like that around my plants!"

she remembers his laugh. deep, shaking; he bends over and bites his lip and very much tries to play it cool. she remembers that he's always been such a dork. even on their first ... expedition ...

"petra?"

comes back to earth, to now. he looks concerned. auruo bossard smells like a lemon headlight and not like the earth. auruo bossard does not claim kills, nor assists. neither does she. none of her boys do.

hand on his chest, she steadies herself, grounds herself, breathes. he knows the look, the symptoms.

"do you ... have today off?" she asks, eyes flicking up to meet his.

"yeah. i'm supposed to write some stuff with levi and erd today, so ... i don't know, d'you want me here?"

"ah, no, i'll be fine. gunter is scheduled today."

to make him feel assured ( because she knows he will make the others come over and hover ) she pecks him on the lips and bumps their foreheads together.

"i love you, auruo."

"love you back, petra. even if you did give me a wedgie at homecoming."

He's king shit here, in the dark carnival, where they imbibe on moon mist and paint with baser blood. Licks his lips; it tastes like grease paint and cool colors, like a successful culling. Thumbs it and mixes the blue with the grey. 

He wants to bathe himself in the blood, rub it into his skin. This is what he lived for; he's come into his caste, what he was meant to be.

A horrible thrum of mirth wells up in his chest, his blood pumper.

More more more crackles between his ears, echoing loud in his skull.

He gets his wish.

Something metallic sounds off to his left; the little olive blood is quick, but he's quicker. He snaps her wrist and the claws drag across his face and it feels so motherfucking good, 'cause he's gonna get her back.

He does, he more than does.

petra frowns at the words on the screen; she might have blocked the sender had this not been a normal occurrence with a trusted friend. seems like its acting up again in earnest, she thinks, and waits until the next red light to text back.

( ⊹ ) text from : sucre.

i can't tell if you're hopeful or not.

levi can tell she's trying to make light of it despite her anxiety towards the strange dreams they share. the first time he told her about his death dreams she shut down and didn't talk to him for a few days. he thought, at first, she was just a girl with sensibilities far too delicate. terribly wrong, as it were.

he stubs the cigarette in the ash tray on the table; too full.

( ⊹ ) text from : sunshine.

everyone is coming over tonight. turns out they're not as busy as they'd hoped.

she manages a grin at that; there's groceries she has to drop off on the way to levi's apartment and she should definitely change out of her work clothes. maybe pick up ice cream or something, since the boys won't. then they'll complain and fight over who goes to get whatever the hell they decide on.

( ⊹ ) text from : sunshine.

and don't bother getting dessert, hanji ended up getting me literally two and a half cakes from wal mart. what am i going to do with two and a half cakes.

now she laughs.

( ⊹ ) text from : sucre.

smash them in auruo's face. :P

he laughs, too, on the other side of town.

( ⊹ ) text from : sucre.

how are you with everything else though? i'm headed home, first, so i can pick up anything you need.

sometimes he thinks it might be okay if petra were to take care of him. all of his bills and groceries and shit he doesn't want to deal with. it'd definitely be okay, but he'd never let her.

maybe he'll just be fine if she sticks around - petra and everyone else. even auruo, even hanji.

( ⊹ ) text from : sunshine.

i'm fine. drive safe.

somewhere petra realizes that he just wanted to make sure she was okay, in his strange way. she nods and smiles despite the uneasy feeling towards their dreams, their sense of gravity shifting to people.