#hey.........

snapshot: during the storm, reigen runs back into someone familiar. (or, gatsby and the green light)

;;

“Hey,” Dimple says, soft. The gruffness of his voice still laces the word. Tapers off like gravel ground beneath a tire. But it’s gentle, all the same. “It’s been a while.” 

Reigen stares, the blood from his forehead trickling down, down, into the wind-bitten skin of his chest. It’s cold. The world is dark, pressed and pummeled into black nothing, the stars somewhere far above, circling where he can’t see, may never see again.

But Dimple’s here, somehow. Glowing and pulsing still like he never left. A beacon through the storm. A lighthouse, a green light. A familiarity with sharpened teeth, a redness so bright it almost bleeds. 

Reigen thinks it could stain, if he just got close enough. If he was a different man, he might reach for it.

But instead, he grinds his teeth together. Looks up, swallowing thickly as he curls his hands into fists.

“Yeah,” Reigen says at last. “It has been.”

;

When Reigen opens his arms, eyes unblinking even through the harsh wind, Dimple hesitates for a split second before phasing into his ribcage.

There’s no snark, for once. No banter. Just quiet. 

A flicker of low warmth crackles over Reigen’s bones. The weary, torn flesh beneath Reigen’s tattered shirt. 

Thanks, Reigen finds himself thinking. And instantaneously, he hears – feels – a new voice from the back of his head. An unexpected coolness that he finds he doesn’t mind.

❝    i’d  prefer  it  if  you  didn’t  get  so  close  to  me.    ❞

she's not my actual mama i know thatb ut i call her that because she loves me like one. or a sister? or a friend? i don't know! but she loves me and i love her and i don't like it when she cries herself to sleep