Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
cw : mentions of death, somewhat vivid description of a corpse, the age gap between rui and 'kasa is like .. kinda large btw. oh ya they are aged up because as far as i am concerned, highschoolers are normally not ministers this chapter is apparently meant to make ppl cry but im bad at that so
˗ˏˋ "SO, ARE YOU INTENDING TO TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF, BABY?" he smiled, watching tsukasa get flustered again — pet names surely made strawberry plants bloom on his cheeks.
"um.. yes, so... i'm tsukasa tenma, i know you already know that. i'm around thirty-three years old, i don't really remember — wait, how old are you?!" he kind of startled the air around him, and the rather weak strings of rui's heart.
"oh..." rui looked into the distance, and quite suddenly the handle attached to the bathroom door seemed rather interesting. "oh, i'm .. like, forty one."
"..." "don't you think this is kind of.. wrong, rui."
"hey, shh. i thought you enjoyed calling me sir because i surely did."
mainly out of fear, he immediately tensed wholly again, "i'm sorry, sir."
"that's more like it, that's my boy, hmm? anyways, continue."
"ah, um.. i've been a priest most of my life, i think i replaced my dad when i was eleven. but that's because he died." his voice somehow was softer at the last few words, and his eyes glazed over with tears.
"no, no, shh. don't cry, tsukasa." rui sat up and hugged him. "there's no need to. don't cry—" but it was all hopeless, tsukasa was already sobbing in pain on rui's shoulder, leaving large tear stains on his silk amaranthine night-shirt. "oh rui, rui!! it's been so many years but how do i forget?! i cannot! i miss her so much, oh, i miss her so much and i miss my mama and papa so much too.."
"shh, tsukasa. but, don't mind me asking, darling, but who do you mean by her?"
"her? by her i mean saki, my sister! if she was blessed instead of cursed, they'd— they'd all be alive..."
(a/n ??? - - i wrote this in a flashback kinda pov because it's just easier to describe, so pretend kasa is telling the story to rui)
— :: — flashback
"hey, saki!! look at what i found!" tsukasa says as he happily strides into a room in his house. he held a few flowers in his hand and something that looked quite like a piece of broken glass.
"ooh! what's with the glass?" saki's eyes glimmer open, and they always seemed to melancholically glitter, despite her being sick most of the time.
this was one of the instances of her being sick, and since all her other illnesses had weakened her so severely, this one was deemed to be very dangerous for her. the doctor had said that she may even die. and she may die spontaneously, just drop dead.
"heheh! see! this shard of glass reflects such a pretty rainbow!" and he moved the shard around, and it indeed reflected a large rainbow in full bloom on the walls. "oh and! i got these flowers for you! i know you'll get better soon, saki. and you'll never fall sick ever again!!"
"thank you!!"
a few weeks after this interaction.
"hey hey!! saki!! look what i got for you," tsukasa sassily walked into saki's room again, this time with a stuff toy of a teddy bear, pink in colour with a dark snout.
oh, but it did indeed hurt when she didn't stir from her sleep when her delicate ears were exposed to tsukasa's voice, and when she didn't hazily sit up and smile at him.
"saki? saki?! saki tenma, you better get up!"
tsukasa's voice rang worriedly and echoed off the walls of the depleted room, and he ran towards the bed which was the same one he currently sat in and sobbed into rui's arms in and, dropping both the teddy and his cavalier charisma on the floor on his way, he pulled the blankets away to behold a sight which stings him to this day.
she was ashen, her carapace pallid and perse. her eyes closed peacefully, as if she dreamt of jovial dreams. an eidolon of a smile lurked her face, yet her body was a dire sight. her bed-sheet stained sanguine, mainly near her pewter, blue feet.
tsukasa's eyes brimmed with tears, tears so powerfully filled with melancholy which he had never harboured he shalt spill.
he lay his quivering hand on saki's leaden one. he winced at the boreal temperature of her corpse. her lips, normally roseate and quite similar to tsukasa's, were achromatic, and so were her fingernails and toenails.
"no.. it can't be so. saki... SAKI!" "MAMA! PAPA!" his voice echoed with grief, and the door burst open in almost moments.
"what happene—?!" "SAKI!!!"
both parents ran towards the bed. there was no doubt she had departed, for a living mortal surely does not ashen in a pool of their own blood.
"i'm sorry, tsukasa, but she shall never wake." his father's voice choked out, as he was attempting to prevent quite a flood of tears.
the doctor was right. saki did go way of all flesh on spur of moment.
— — flashback over
"and.. rui, my— my parents... mama, papa, they died.. too. papa died of shock and a heart attack only a few days after saki's funeral, and mama died of grief when papa died. her heart broke. it broke so much, no, she couldn't handle it. she couldn't bear living any minute of her two weeks of remaining life after saki ... you know. and when papa was gone, nothing could be abided. not a single second. she died after half a day, right in front of me ... oh, rui, how much i cried, right here. i cried so much, so loud, it echoed into the main community. i still remember it. i, bent over mama's corpse, crying her name and papa's name and saki too, some people came over and then i ... i'm not sure whether my memory is hazy or i happened to syncope, but i can't recall anything beyond this." tsukasa sniffled, his tears spilt in less quantity now and he hiccupped less, as rui ran his hand up and down his back and he caressed his daffodil-rose hair.
just rui's touch was enough to shush the crying boy, and rui truly thought this moment, despite of the topic, was rather romantic.
— — —
★☆★☆ AUTHOR's NOTES
around 1100 words. sorry, this chapter is kinda shitty and awkward. i kinda forgot how to write bc i be having fantasies of getting pegged 24/7. lmfao. k bye </3 i also make dumb mistakes so pls point them out.
