The Sixth Sense but it's Karlnap

Pandas

cw panic attack?

Sapnap had thought about Karl all day, his name and face never seeming to leave his mind, he found himself intrigued by the boy's behavior. Someone else might simply brush it off as anxiety, but something in those pretty grey eyes made Sapnap believe different.

Excited steps guided him down a familiar street quickly, a hot coffee he didn't even remember buying in his burning hand and a smile he could barely contain on his lips. His head was like a malfunctioning video player; it kept playing the same thoughts and memory over and over, the memory of yesterday, hidden away in a damp alley, just him and Karl, the special moment they shared lost in each others eyes, Sapnap didn't know why but thinking about how he looked at Karl, how Karl looked at him, it made him feel kind of....fuzzy? Explaining this feeling was hard, he didn't understand it, but he liked it nonetheless.

His thoughts stopped as he found himself in front of a pale blue door, a large "67" bolted onto the front in gold, metal print. The shiny surface caught the afternoon sun, reflecting a smiling boy with a panda on his hat, the boy looked happy, the corners of his eyes creasing ever so slightly with his wide smile. He stretched out his hand, knocking softly on the cerulean wood and stuffing his cold hands into the comfort of his pockets as he waited.

A cool breeze circled him, messing his curls as it went and he grabbed onto his hat to stop it flying off again. Just then, the door in front of him clicked and opened only a small bit so whoever was behind could see out. Sapnap scanned the crack until his gaze locked with a pair of pretty grey eyes, he smiled fondly, feeling that warm, fuzzy sensation return as Karl opened the door slightly further, his whole perfect face now visible.

Karl's head lowered and his lips parted, he squeezed his eyes shut and drew in a breath before opening the door fully and stepping aside to allow Sapnap in.

"Hey." Sapnap grinned, looking to Karl's endearing eyes reverently, hoping to catch the same mysterious glint from yesterday still there, but Karl's pearl eyes had dimmed, their shine now blunt and empty. Much like his eyes, Karl's mouth stayed devoid of emotion, not even a simple word of greeting passing through those pink lips. He was pale too. Well, Karl always seemed to be pale, his white skin usually nipped rosy by the cold, but today even that light blush had disappeared, only ivory pigment left in his cheeks.

"Karl? Are you okay?" Sapnap's tone was coated in concern, but still no answer from Karl. Simply, he began walking down the hall, his fluffy brown hair not bouncing like it usually did. He pulled the cuffs of his hoodie over his hands, scrunching the jet black fabric up tightly between his fingers, quickly swiping at his face with one paw then readjusting the scrunch with his other. Hesitantly looking back down the hall, he slipped into a dimly lit room and closed the door, a short clack echoing in Sapnap's direction as the handle slid into place.

Sapnap stood, uncertain. Faint light from the kitchen glowed from behind him, the reflected image of a boy with a panda hat on the frame of a sunset painting. The boy didn't look happy anymore, the corners of his eyes weren't creased by a smile and his lips weren't upturned, in fact, he looked very much like lost panda, stuck in the branches of a thin tree during a miserable storm.

The silent hallway was suddenly filled with the echoing sound of slow moving steps, Sapnap's shoes pattering against the polished wooden floor loudly, then two noticeably longer and quieter steps as he stood parallel to the same door Karl had walked through just a moment ago. It loomed over him despairingly, just as much as his worry and fear, a pit of anxiousness forming in his stomach. He knocked.

"Karl?" Unsurprisingly, there was silence. "Karl say something if it's not okay to come in." He stated nervously, waiting out the minute of nothing before he felt cold brass touch his hand.