𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 † tokrev

✧𝐗𝐈

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The breeze on the rooftop was a refreshing tickle on his skin as his hair danced in the whirl as light as feather. He sometimes wished to feel so light and be freed of the burdening reality he was shoved into.

It wasn't like he ever wished to be born or live the way he was living right now. It was all the aftermath of words and actions by himself and outsiders. Society and the concept of their rules was what led others to believe in their behaviour to be morally right or wrong. It needed to be socially acceptable to be in the right, otherwise it would be branded as evil. In the end it was the fault of human consciousness to create such a toxic environment and continue to poison it to the point where people found it hard to breathe in.

The rooftop was a dangerous place for such people.

His gaze switched from the menacing edge to a pondering Mikey, who seemingly hadn't taken notice of his presence yet. Using this opportunity, he crept up to the boy and surprised him by affectionately ruffling his hair.

"A penny for your thoughts?"

Mikey snapped out of his loophole filled with doubts and concerns and stared at his gentle smile. Just seeing him in flesh and blood right in front of him blew all his worries away and caused a nostalgic warmth to spread throughout his body.

Overjoyed by the adult's presence the boy tackled him into a hug and wholeheartedly laughed when Washi was too startled to hold his balance and made them both fall to the ground.

Contrary to Mikey, the adult scolded him for his recklessness, already sensing the backache that will haunt him for the rest of the day. His scolding fell on deaf ears as the boy pleaded him to stay like this for longer. Following his request, he quietened his voice and sighed in defeat—but content.

Trivial moments like these were often overlooked and forgotten, but they were as precious as a treasure to a pirate. They were the instances where life seemed to pause for a second and they continued to exist in that time frame of pettiness.

Mundane events were responsible to make life less bleak in his opinion and that was why he let them in his life again and appreciated every second of it to not go berserk right away.

His mindless thoughts were interrupted by Mikey's small snores indicating that he had fallen asleep on him as if he was his bed—that surely irked Washi.

After many attempts of waking him up and failing, Washi decided to just carry him in a piggy-back down—would be a good workout too. So, he heaved him up with no struggles and step by step approached the room Draken stayed in.

In the meantime, Mikey woke up from the movement, but when he realized on whose back he was resting, he kept on pretending to be asleep. This was such a rare chance for him to be this close to the adult and he will absolutely exploit it as he shall know his God. It gave him a feeling of nostalgia, back then when Shinichirou would carry his sleepy self despite all the injuries draining his energy from the previous fight and Washi's taunting next to them for losing the mentioned fight.

Just thinking back to when Emma's voice shook from panic as she informed him that she couldn't reach their brother's best friend anymore gave him the chills that not even his carrier's body nor the Titan goddess Anchiale could warm up. In that instance two years ago, he lost two of the most important people in his life as if the wind blew them from his grasp up to the stars, where they stayed forever out of his reach like his dreams.

Oh, the relief he felt seeing him again made him sniffle every night and greet the morning sun with slightly puffy eyes.

Their entrance surprised Emma and Draken but laughter erupted from them as they saw the sleeping form on Washi's back. The latter contemplated just dropping the dormant one but disapproved of the evil thought. Instead, he let him safely down and in Emma's care, while he himself sat down on a nearby chair and relaxed from the physical exercise by closing his eyes and concentrating on the rhythm of his beating heart.