VIII (Aoi Kurashiki x Reader)

XXI

I'm late...for the millionth time. Here's one of my favorite chapters <3

It started with a tremendous noise, like a clap of thunder. That was approximately nine hours ago. A bomb had gone off on the ship we were on. That was when we first met. Aoi and I, when our resonance first began. When we melted into each other and became one.

I wouldn't know until nine years later, but we were bonded as one. We shared the same pain, physically and mentally. "Come on! Over here!" Aoi screamed. We all followed him.

'We' as in seven other children and I, all around my age. One was Aoi's little sister, Akane. We ran down a long straight hallway and burst into a large hospital room.

Everyone started talking at once, arguing about what would come next. Two of the boys got into a fist-fight. Me? I began to cry. "I wanna go home!" I wailed, curling my arms around my chest. One of the older girls slapped me. At the sudden loss of noise, Aoi rushed over seizing the girl by the wrist with a glare.

It had been two hours since the Nonary Game began and we were starting to fall apart. But, just when all hope seemed lost... Light started talking. He was blind, nine years later, we would call him Snake. "Everyone! Could you come over here for a moment?" He was older than most of us and his voice had authority and dignity.

The fights died down and we gathered around him. "I have a little sister and she's very important to me. Right now, she's over in Building Q and is desperately trying to send information over to me. Her name is Clover and today is her ninth birthday."

Bumping shoulders with the other children, everyone desperately crowded in a circle. Reaching a hand in his pocket the older boy held out a pile of four-leaf clovers. The teen spoke in a calm tone despite the panic in the room. "I was going to give these to her as a birthday present. I was outside picking them when I was abducted." He smiled, eyes closed tight. Looking to my right, I caught blue eyes. Those cold blue eyes. Aoi forced a smile. "I'm sure I've already told you, but I'm blind, so collecting nine of a very specific plant was rather difficult."

He paused to run his thumb over the clover's stem. "But my sister means a lot to me and I hoped these would show her how much I cared." And I understood, we all did. "Every one of you has a brother or sister in Building Q with Clover. For their sake, we have to survive, we have to get off this ship."

I was painfully reminded of the distance between me and my brother. I wanted to escape, to hug him again, tell him how much I loved him. "If we're going to make it out of here, there are three things all of you should remember. We need trust and love, and we have to have faith in one another."

The eight of us raised our heads, gauging one another's reactions. Our jaws were set, our mouth's nothing but a line of determination. 'To have faith in one another' If that meant getting off this ship, being able to see my family, my friends, I'd do it in a heartbeat. "If we can take all three of those things to heart, then I promise good luck will come our way."

The boy distributed the clover's, smiling at the silence of the room. Raising his remaining clover Light tapped a finger against one of the leaves. "Each leaf on a four-leaf clover represents those words." His finger danced across the leaves, naming each one. "Trust, love, faith, and luck. I want each of you to hold onto yours, they're a promise between friends."

Friends... Locking eyes for the third time with Aoi, I blushed, reminding myself to press the clover when I got home. He still had one last thing to say. "Now, don't ever forget... So long as you have that, we will always be connected. Do you understand?" When he finished, the tension of only a few minutes before was gone. We were... calm.