#burningalma

『 Ryoken 』

Ryoken had not seen it coming, so he just barely held back a flinch when Yusaku held his hand. It confused him, more than startled him; he wasn’t used to this sort of contact, and he wasn’t sure what had brought this about. He didn’t return the gesture, merely blinked slowly at their joined hands before glancing up at the other.

He didn’t understand.

“…Why are you doing that?”

If Yusaku was honest to himself, he wasn’t sure why exactly he had reacted like this either. Just the one moment had seemed like Ryoken was going to leave again and the next one he was already holding the other ones hand. The gesture wasn’t returned by the older one, but in all honesty, Yusaku hadn’t expected him to either. 

In the end... usually he wasn’t like this. Getting close to other people, physically contact still was something difficult to him. A concept he hadn’t really understood completely, but he was working on it. 

More he was working in making the other one stay for once though. 

“I’m.. not sure. “ his voice was quiet, but certain  as much as it could by saying words like that. Yet his eyes were shining with determination. “It just... felt right.” 

Soulburner pats Blue Girl on the shoulder, and moves forward to press a kiss to her cheek, short and sweet. He’s grinning excitedly as he leans back.

“That was a good duel ! Good work, Blue Girl !”

    The last thing Blue girl was expecting was a peck on the cheek – a manful pat on the shoulder or maybe another hug, but not an actual kiss. Stunned like a deer in the headlights, all that came out of her mouth was a shaky stutter.

“You’re an idiot. The biggest idiot.” Takeru doubts Spectre can hear him. He’s unconscious, resting in bed, because of his dumb reckless move. Who’s the rash one now, huh?

He does something he wouldn’t do if Spectre was awake. He leans forward and presses a kiss to his forehead, small but meaningful.

“Wake up soon. It’s boring when you’re not around to annoy you.”

There wasn’t much Spectre noticed in his current stage, most likely it was a weak pain going through his body. At first it hadn’t been there, but now it was steadily growing, getting stronger and at some point it actually caused him to wake up again. 

He still wasn’t sure about his surroundings, or what had happened for that matter, but honestly he had an idea about where he was. The voice he could hear was a rather good sign that he was right with that. Takeru. 

Wake up soon, hu? 

He could pretend to be not awake a while longer probably, but the worried tone of the other ones voice didn’t went unnoticed by him. So he probably shouldn’t ignore it. Even less if he was tired enough to not even feel like mocking the younger one. 

“Can’t let you get bored can I..?”

Picking off the strawberry from the top of his ice cream, Edo pushed it into his mouth with a soft hum at its sweetness. The pro didn’t know where he was, none of his surroundings looked familiar, but after a lucky find of an ice cream truck, the dessert helped to ease his nerves a bit. This was no Dark World, no need to be so on edge. Edo looked down at his sundae, dipping his spoon into it and lifting it to take another bite, only for his hand to stop in midair.

Takeru blinked. The way she worded it made him chuckle a little, after a pause, but he was happy to hear that.

“Really?” He beamed. “Thank you, Zaizen-san ! I appreciate you too !”

    It was a very weird choice of words, but it’s the best Aoi could menage without feeling too clingy or creepy. 

@burningalma / @elementumhero

    The rumour of a new attraction spread like wildfire among the workers, no one was prone to it.     ❝I heard that it’s a merman!❞ one trainer shrieked, so excited that she nearly walked into a wall.     ❝But mermaids don’t exist, how did they catch one?❞ her friend doubted her as she saved the blabbering mess from crashing, ❝I’m pretty sure it’s just another actor, honestly.❞     That peaked Aoi’s curiosity – they usually got an official announcement before a specimens was brought in, so she and the other guides could prepare. Everyone saw the usual truck that brought in different sea creatures before they’re placed in tanks, but this time they weren’t even allowed to see who was brought in. If it actually was an actor, while the truck and why the lack of proper announcement? 

    She couldn’t help but feeling the urge to investigate.     As her shift ended, she presented to exit the building with the rest of the workers (she knew no one would notice she was amiss), and strode toward the main tank hall. The brunette worked there long enough to know which spots to absolutely avoid, taking a much longer route to get to her destination.     The dark hallways soon opened up to a room washed in azure and navy blue, light illuminating from the tanks. Most of the fish were hiding among seaweed to hide from the fake-suns, very little movement was seen in the tanks.     Nothing was out of the ordinary as she passed between the animals, almost convinced that the rumour was just a figment of clueless theories and nothing more.     And then she heard the loud bang.

“What the–”

Spectre jumping in front of him was completely unexpected and unnecessary. Takeru had it ! As if that guy could get even a scratch on him–

But the man had a knife. Takeru didn’t see it until it went through Spectre moving to shield him.

“Spectre!” Takeru’s eyes widened and he moved before he knew what he was doing.

Things moved too fast after that. Pushing the guy off Spectre. Feeling his nose crunch under Takeru’s fist, hearing him cry out in pain when Takeru didn’t just leave it at that. Because Spectre was damn stupid for getting in the way and getting hurt but this guy was even more stupid for hurting him.

Spectre was infuriating in some many ways but he was, was–the point was Takeru would not let him die on his watch.

He didn’t waste much time with the attacker. He went still very soon, leaving Takeru’s knuckles coated with red. Breathing heavily, he turned around and rushed to Spectre. He frantically assessed the damage with shaking fingers, putting pressure on the wound while he tried to figure out what to use to cover the wound.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!” His voice wavered, with anger, with something else. “And you call me an idiot–Fuck, you’re the idiot–”

He wasn't really thinking. The moment he had seen that man go after Takeru with that knife in his hand.. he couldn't just stand still. He had to do something. No one would hurt the younger one, even less under his watch. After all... no matter how much he teased the younger one.. how often they got into fights. Takeru was part of his family. And he would rather die than watching him get hurt without at least trying to stop it.

His plan... well that was a lie, he didn't had a plan ready in that few seconds he had to react anyways... anyways... things didn't exactly worked out the way he wanted them to. At least not completely. The knife didn't hurt Takeru.

Instead...

The pain came before he really realized what had happened and the next moment he found himself on the ground, his chest feeling like on fire, his view blurry.

This... this wasn't supposed to happen.

He couldn't really say if he had blacked out or not, but he probably had, because the next thing he noticed was Takeru above him, his hands on his chest.  Was the younger one yelling at him? Spectre wasn't sure about it, but it most likely felt so.

He could feel his pulse rush into his ears, yet he somehow managed to get one of his smirks on  his face as white spots started to dance in front of his eyes.

"Of course you are... you're.."

He never managed to finish that sentence, as a cough interrupted him and soon enough he could feel that ugly taste of metal in his mouth. That bastard really got him here, hu?