Chapter Text
Was being breathless part of the plan?? Yes, apparently. It was hot outside. Not that it really mattered. So.. what was I to do?
”Alright everyone! We must stick together! No matter the situation!”
That’s what he said, at least. They never returned for me. As much as I am used to this abandonment, it didn't stop from bringing me pain. It all happened so fast, when regular society.. Turned into a dystopian horror in which we have to live in— Ah!
Pain coursed through my leg and hand; I must've fell. I saw red from the corner of my eyes. Crap! I was bleeding. I was already breathless. It hurts to move. I didn't even know where I was. This must’ve been fate. It was impressive enough that I survived this long. Accepting it, I closed my eyes. Wet cheeks weren't on the to-do list though. Suddenly something dragged me away, which hurt, but.. nothing bit me. There were screams of.. those things before it went completely silent. I opened my eyes in response.
A redhead, taller than me if I had to guess. A katana in hand. Wait. Did this person fight them?! It was soon placed back in its holder, before striking blue eyes met mine. Opening then closing my mouth, I blinked. The redhead was real, I wasn’t dreaming. And.. this redhead was a guy. About my age, if not a little older. A hand on my back and behind my knees made me relax a little. Before he lifted me up with ease. Now I saw the muscles on him earlier,it made him very handsome. I’ve always felt this way towards men, which I was teased for in previous groups. This dystopian society wanted man and woman, to repopulate this place. People like me were shunned.
Next thing I knew, I got placed on a log and the guy was looking through his bag. He put some stuff on a cloth before putting his hands on my face. Oh, his hands were clean! His hands were warmer than mine. They soon moved elsewhere before seeing my hand. His.. was so much bigger than mine. The redhead put something that burned so bad that I teared up again. A warm hand wiped my wet cheeks. It was silent as he patched me up. He offered me a cup of what I guessed was water. So I accepted it, I was thirsty.
I can feel his gaze on me. Our eyes met again and we looked away, awkward. I’ve never heard him talk even once. Wait.. was he an introvert?
“Thank you, for saving me.”
That caught his attention. He was staring at the ground, did it bother him? Well, he was alone. Could've been a loner. If so…
Oh it hurt so much to walk. What was I thinking?! The guy sat me back down. He then stood up.
“I’ll get us some food.”
I gave a small hum. Wait. Did he talk!? He gave me a bag before grabbing his bow and arrows and leaving. It was silent after a couple minutes. Realistically, I know hunting for food takes a while, but what if he doesn’t come back? Was the bag full of useless stuff? Ok I doubt that, he looked like he wouldn’t carry that sort in his bags. Wait.. is this?
There was a blanket; that looked super warm, a flashlight, some sort of trinket I can’t figure out, and a pair of jackets. There were some snacks near the bottom but I didn’t want to take those. I checked out my surroundings; we are in the middle of nowhere. Would he be able to find his camp again?
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It’s been a couple hours, and a few hours surely doesn’t take much for the temperature to get from hot to cold. It wasn’t freezing, but will be in about a couple hours. Hearing a twig snap, I bit my lip. Listening carefully to the sounds. There was no groaning sound. Still, I quietly picked up the bag and walked(well limped) away from it. Didn’t hurt as bad as before. From afar, I found a bush of red. It was curly, and definitely not leaves. If it was him… no, I shouldn’t bother him since I already wasted his time. I noticed some berries nearby; they looked edible. So opening the cloth, I began picking them. When I got them all, I closed the cloth and used one of my hair ties from my pocket to tie it. Once the pouch was in the bag, I closed it and got it on my shoulder.
I felt a presence next to me, but I tried not to think about it. If it was one of those that tried to kill me, they wouldn’t get to me now! Since.. There was an animal carcass nearby. Gross.
“Did something happen?”
I never felt happy to hear another voice. Having to look up to face him, I realized; oh, he’s taller!
“I heard a noise and moved..”
He made a small ‘umu’. We stared at each other a little.
“I thought you wanted some time alone.. so I left…”
That guy… Is so stupidly earnest.
“I did…”
I sighed. I’m sure that despite being a loner, he had a group to return to.
“You can return to your group…”
This guy had two sides to him. Scary and clueless. How does such a guy have both sides!? Now before I can revel in jealousy, my stomach spoke louder than words.
“...I can handle it–
“No. Join me”
When I tried to leave, he grabbed my wrist. It was silent for a couple minutes. He was handsomely stubborn.
“You have teammates much stronger than you! I’m just deadweight!” I scolded him.
He didn’t budge. So I continued.
“Every group I was in abandoned me because of that.. I can manage, I have been for a month.”
The guy’s grip seemed to have loosened. Which I gave a sigh of relief. Having a warm hand exactly on mine didn’t. I looked at him, puzzled at this action.
“Then stay with me. I’ll protect the both of us.”
. . . what?
“The strong should always protect the weak, I’m not leaving you behind.”
I gripped the handle of the bag. Should I trust him? He looked so genuine. He seemed to notice my worries and then dug in his pocket. I blinked at this. We both heard something move. Once he put what he hunted in the bag (which was quite a lot, to be frank), he tied it around his waist and lifted me up again.
This guy…
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This looked like his actual camp. It was pretty high up. He started a fire which immediately felt nice. He had wrapped the blanket that was in my bag around me, the ladder that was used to get up here was on the floor nearby. There was a door as well, it was currently covering the opening where we came from. Which was pretty smart. It looked pretty homey. He carved out a window so there was some light (it was currently covered, though). There was a small hole at the ceiling, probably to get rid of the carbon dioxide from the fire. There was a single sleeping bag, big enough to probably fit two people but that wasn’t the problem. I smelled something before the guy gave it to me. I accepted it. As we ate, it was silent. It was for the best.
After a while, I cleared my throat.
“If we’re going to be a group, we should at least get to know each other.”
He gave me a confused look. Oh that boy.
“I’ll go first:
“I’m Aira, I’m 16 and I was born on November 27th.”
That.. was strangely relieving to say. He mumbled my name a few times, I found that strange.
“Aira… I like that name.”
My face flushed at the compliment. It took about five minutes before he made a small ‘oh!’. “Hiiro.”
It was silent again. I made a small gesture, Hiiro then continued. “I’m 17 and I was born on January 5th.”
A whole year older than me. Was this a blessing or a curse? Hiiro got up and uncovered a smidge of the window, just enough to see.
“I’d guess that we’d have to get moving soon.”
I turned to him. “Why?”
He sighed. He walked back to me.
“I was intending on moving places anyways. I’ll let your leg recover a few days before moving.”
“...what if I heal slowly?”
Hiiro put a finger to his chin.
“I’ll place you on my back.”
My face felt like a sauna. The fire looked fascinating at this moment.
“You should sleep in the sleeping bag.” Hiiro told me.
“But that would hurt your back..!”
If he’s gonna protect us, he needs it more than me! I suddenly stood up, which hurt but Hiiro was there to support me.
“Then to get what we both want, let’s share it.”
. . . Now why did I suggest that? Next thing I knew was that Hiiro was snuggling into my side. It was…comforting. It made me feel less gross.
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“Is your bag ready?” Hiiro asked as he swung the bag on his shoulder.
I nodded and did the same. My leg healed enough to walk to our next destination. My palm is still really bad. It scabbed over. Hiiro nodded and opened the door. He put the ladder down carefully. Once we were down, we walked to a nearby town. We stocked, we looked around, and grabbed necessary items for survival.
“There are hair ties here”
I looked over. There were a lot. Grabbing a handful, Hiiro helped put them in my bag. He grabbed a pink one and pulled my hair back. He looped it a couple times before letting go.
“....”
“I think it’d help in case we’re on the run again.”
I could only smile at him. I noticed he got a lot more snacks than usual. “Some for you and some for me!”. Oh this guy is sweet.
I grabbed extra items for myself, can’t hurt! Hiiro turned to me.
“Do you even know how to use that?”
Honestly, no. Not at all. But why did that matter? Hiiro grabbed extra items and wrapped them around my body (without my backpack).
“If that is what you want, I’ll teach you.”
I nodded in affirmation. I noticed a white thing in his hand. As he took my hand, something got wrapped around my wrist. And his. What the!
“Uhh. What is this?”
“I zip-tied our hands together so—”
“You what?!”
I immediately shut my mouth. He quickly tightens the zip-tie. What he was doing was.. keeping us together.
“I don't want to separate us, so I did that.”
We began walking together to our new temporary spot. It was tight enough for it to keep us together, but gave our hands blood flow. We could move our hands. It was weird. I genuinely expected to hate it. But.. It felt nicer to feel warm skin.
“Wait, Hiiro.”
He stopped walking and turned to me. I used my free, non-injured hand to grab some supplies (namely scissors).
“For when we need to take it off.”
We placed the items inside Hiiro’s bag, hidden deep inside so they didn't do anything. We were on our way after that.
It had to be a couple hours, my legs began hurting. With my injured one acting up worse. I ignored it, I didn't need to slow him down. Not for this. Suddenly he stopped.
“You’re limping.”
I was? Guilt immediately washed over me. Before I could swim in it, we both heard growling. Crap! I felt a warm hand embrace mine and we made a run for it. It hurt worse, but neither of us could do anything about it.
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How long has this been? The pain went away with the adrenaline. sure I tripped a couple times but Hiiro helped me back up.
Beep! The hell?? We looked to our left.
“Get in!”
When did this green haired guy get a car?? Suddenly a strong grip was on my wrist and dragged me over to the car. Hiiro grabbed the other hand of the person, and we were in the car.
… What just happened?? The other survivor in the car got duck tape and placed it across our thighs. After some sort of signal, the car went faster. Excuse me?? When I felt a soft squeeze of my hand I remembered we were still holding hands. I squeezed it back. Eventually we stopped and the green haired man got out of the car. The other survivor (who I learned has purple hair in a braid), got the duck tape off. They noticed the zip tie and unlocked it for us. Hiiro got out first, then me. But my knees buckled; thankfully Hiiro caught me before I fell. The two let us in.
Being placed on a bed, I looked around the room. Looked comfortable. Shuffling, I quietly gasped at the sting on my leg. I felt part of my pant leg get cut. I blinked. The purple haired person grabbed a wet cloth and a clean cloth before wrapping it around specifically my knee. Which was the main cause.
“...you sprained it”
How?! They only tended to my leg before getting up. My hand was carefully lifted.
Their hands were oddly soft; undoing the bandage. Ow. That looked so bad.
“Cover his eyes.” Was all they (he?) said.
So Hiiro did; where did he even come from?? Sharp pain in my palm made me tear up. Eventually the pain went away and a soothing cream-like thing came on. When I was able to see again, they were wrapping my hand back up. I saw.. what was in that… They picked it up.
“The blister swelled during the car ride, I took it out worried that it’d cause a wound and get you infected.”
Nausea ate at me. So the green haired guy offered me a bucket; which I did end up using. I was offered water which I accepted.
“I’m Tatsumi. Our medic is Mayoi. Mayoi prefers the use of they and them when referred to.” The green haired man introduced.
Mayoi only shyly waved. Hiiro spoke up for the both of us, thankfully.
“Hiiro. My friend’s Aira! I actually found him a couple weeks ago.”
The other two nodded.
“It’s best you both stay here until Aira’s leg recovers. Your palm will be fine.”
I nodded.
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Hiiro spoke up.
“I originally hunted for myself, but I’m glad I hunt enough for everyone!”
I was so grateful for him. Soon, they started discussing plans for when I heal.
“So—
“Can’t we just be a group of four? I think it’ll help with our sanities..”
All three of them looked at me. That made me nervous. Thankfully, they agreed. I sighed shakily. It’ll be ok. I won’t get abandoned again. I think..
“One rule: do not abandon Aira.”
What? I looked at Hiiro, shocked at his response.
“Why would we abandon him?” Tatsumi asked.
“....”
“I’m useless, I am essentially deadweight and—
“That gives us more reasons to keep you around.” Mayoi sternly said.
Huh??? They had a protective maternal-like expression on their face. Mayoi untied my hair and began brushing it. It felt… Really nice. A warm blanket wrapped around me again; just like the day I met Hiiro.
Warm atmosphere, wrapped under a blanket, boarded windows and a door with locks instead of a wall of something. I did see spikes in front of the building. Where were we anyways?
“We’re in a jail cell.”
Wh-
“What..?”
“It’s only temporary; until Mayoi contacts their family. Then we’ll live underground.”
Underground.. that definitely felt safer than here. After my hair was brushed, I leaned to whoever was closest to me and let sleep take over.
It’ll be ok. I’m safe. They’re safe. They won’t abandon me..
It’ll get better, Aira. Just give it time.