dancing on bones (our souls of iolites and emeralds)

Chapter 8

Halloween is coming in a week.

There's so much Kusuo has to do, but it suddenly all feels secondary because Voldemort is coming and Kusuo is the only one who knows . Halloween is on its way, and his family is running out of time, and Kusuo is terrified in a way he never had been before.

He's not the hero with unstoppable determination and willpower.

He's not the methodical planner who has 12 Easy Steps to Kick Voldemort's Ass.

He's a one year old with a miniscule amount of magic, psychic powers and clinical depression.

(He's a twenty-eight year old shut-in who li ved for his cat, his friends, and occasional discord calls with his big brother that lived a continent away. He's the mom friend who kept everyone together to ignore the fact that he was falling apart until it got too obvious and he collapsed in on himself.)

He's tired, and he's scared, and he's losing his crutch.

His time is running out.

Everyone's time is running out.

//

There's no storm the day of October 31st. No downpour, symbolic of the deep worry he felt. There's not so much as a cloud in the sky. No, it's warm, and sunny, and criminally humid the day Kusuo is scared his family is going to die.

Kusuo has dry eyes as he watches Lily leave for work. He takes in the curve of her cheeks, the slant of her eyes, the shape of her grin. He memorizes the way the sun sits in James' hair, the way it glints off his eyes to make them brighter, the way it's trapped in his teeth as he smiles. He looks at Harry and watches the way the light frames his face and his caramel complexion glows.

Kusuo looks at this family he's decided to live for, with sunlight in their souls, and despairs with dry eyes because he cannot afford to forget a single detail.

The Potter's are going to die. There's no one to force him to be a semi-functional person the way Mama and Mikoto did and Kusuo is man enough to admit that his codependency has come back to bite him in the ass.

Kusuo's family is going to die, and there is not a cloud in the sky as his sun disappears.

//

When he's practicing with runes again Sirius looks at Kusuo slowly, consideringly before asking,"Do you ever see things, kid?"

Kusuo blinks up and so Black continues, "You know, things that haven't happened yet."

He almost says no, but then decides that this would serve as a good alibi. So he nodded his head yes. Being thought of as a seer would probably work in his favour.

When Sirius's thoughts all but scream "I knew it! " he doesn't have the heart to correct him.

//

They don't die that night and Kusuo thanks the gods that he didn't believe in.

(he thanked them far too early. why couldn't things ever go his way?)

//

The next day Kusuo is sitting with Remus and Sirius when he finally gets it. The runes he had been trying to perfect for months.

He and Sirius set the runes.

Plaster it on every doorway and window sill in the house.

"It'll work," Remus tells him when they've placed it all. He crouches besides Kusuo att the activation point, smiling at his clever angles and when his hand ruffles Kusuo hair, it's warm and devastatingly proud.

(It's the first time he feels like he deserves that pride. The first time he feels like the genius they all say he is, the being deserving of their love and admiration.)

He meets Remus's eyes as he almost smiles.

"I know," Kusuo says with a confidence that is not manufactured for once. It will work, and he doesn't have a single doubt.

(And when he activates it? It glows. Steady, steady, steady and not even once does it falter.)

"I did it," he breathes as he feels the executioner lift his blade away from the Potter family's neck. "I did it."

Sirius, laughing, picks him up and swings him around and Kusuo allows himself to feel something other than apathy for a moment because holy fuck he really did it.

"You did it," Sirius says into Kusuo's hair as they cling to each other.

"We're gonna be safe ."

"Yeah, Fae." Sirius pulls back with the proudest smile. "You'll keep us safe, from whatever it is you're seeing."

//

Kusuo was wrong, and his world burns for his hubris.

//

It was Midnight, just barely 12 A.M., when the life that Kusuo just built for himself comes crashing down.

A/N

UM

PLEASE DON'T KILL ME?????????????????????

The Potter's died on November 1st instead of Halloween.

It's been a while, huh. Sorry about that, I've just had a lot going on lately.

You look good today, dear! How has your day been?

By the way, if you were a straw, you'd be a crazy straw. Not because they're crazy, but because that's my favourite. But you're also pretty crazy. It's okay though, because you're my favourite.

Have a good day/night and remember I love you!

😊