As The World Caves In (Saiki X Teruhashi)

Chapter 9

Kokomi stared into the glamorous suite, her eyes still shimmering from the tears that fell earlier. She glanced at Kusuo, and he nodded.

"This is ours." He explained. "We can use it for the rest of the night before.." Saiki reflected on his words while he was speaking, and realized that they might not have been the most considerate, due to what had saddened his girlfriend before. Luckily, she didn't seem to take them the wrong way.

"How did you even.. thank you, Ku!" Teruhashi exclaimed, speeding into the room to explore it some more.

Saiki's head dipped lower, and his eyes stuck to the floor. He was embarrassed at the use of his nickname, and even more so by the fact that it was what his parents called him. Doing his best not to let his face become flushed, he accompanied Kokomi on her trip to circumnavigate the room. Most of the time, he just followed behind her as she examined each area. He had never really been into home décor, but if it made her happy, then why not take a look around. During the tour that his girlfriend conducted, Saiki noticed himself getting hungry, with a noticeable tension that resided behind his eyes. As much as he didn't want to admit it, coffee jelly is not a sustainable source of food. While she was distracted looking at a painting, he made his way to the back of the room to locate the kitchen. The migraine got worse with every step, so much so that he couldn't look at the lights without feeling an ache in the front of his mind. He ended up being greeted by a massive refrigerator, far larger than the tiny iceboxes that hotels usually stocked rooms with.

Saiki opened the door, and was greeted with a sad amount of food. There were traditional condiments on the door panel, along with a generic chocolate bar that sat near the ice maker. On the first shelf there were a few kegs of off-brand sodas, plus a bland beer that was placed there irresponsibly. On the second shelf there were various vegetables, which were still in the grocery bag they were bought in. The third shelf had another bag full of them, which resided next to few packages of lunch meat, including ham, turkey, and pepperoni. Compared to the elegance of the rest of the hotel, this stock of snacks was pretty pathetic. Kusuo sighed and closed the door, as the light from inside was beginning to strain his eyes. Before he was about to settle for a stack of pepperoni, Kokomi walked in to analyze the room.

"What'cha doing, Kusuo?" She asked.

"I'm hungry." He replied, an irritable tone in his voice. Kokomi noticed that his eyes looked tired. Not only that, but his attitude made her assume that something was wrong.

"Oh uhh, me too. What should we eat?" She responded, surprised by his change of mood. The burnt-out look he had while talking to her made Teruhashi feel sick to her stomach, it was obvious now that he was in some sort of pain.

Saiki didn't provide an answer yet, as he was deep in thought. The ache of the migraine took a toll on his ability to focus, so defeatedly, he admitted;

"I don't know.."

He was starting to concern Kokomi, he almost always had answers. She sounded more worried than she wanted to, but got her point across when she questioned;

"Are you ok? You seem.. tired."

"Yeah, I just have a headache, sorry.." His voice trailed off as he put his hand to his eyes to block the light. Kokomi took his hand and led him to the sofa, where he promptly sat down. He was starting to sweat, and the pain grew sharper, so he grit his teeth to keep from wincing. Teruhashi held her hand on his cheek, and she could feel his muscles relax as he passed out from exhaustion. The pain simply became too much to bear, so his body put him to sleep. She scrambled to check his wrist, and grew teary-eyed with relief when she felt a steady pulse.

While still keeping a close eye on him, she switched on the massive television that hung above the couch. She flipped through channels a dozen times, only finding news reports about the tragedy that would strike later. Disappointed, Kokomi settled on the one who's reporter had the most soothing voice. His tone was smooth and low, almost too calm considering the gruesome subject he was talking about. Though relaxing, the reporter's voice was also monotone and dull, to the point where Kokomi felt herself drifting off from time to time. No matter how badly she desired to rest, she fought to stay awake. After all, she couldn't have been tired yet! She peaked at the clock that was positioned behind her;