when im gone - Cells at Work! CODE BLACK!

you keep me crawling

"Get up and work, Cell! Get to work!!!"

The erythrocyte's arms trembled under the weight of their body; it seemed a herculean task for them to even get up, as if their whole body was magnetized to the floor. The sound they choked back was indescribable to the point Iro didn't know how it didn't crack their ribs open, and they bolted like a beaten dog, an animal put to shame in front of a crowd.

Iro almost didn't feel the next cell walk awkwardly through him. He watched numbly as his friend's silhouette got smaller, smaller, until it disappeared in the sea of blood cells.

He dropped his outstretched arm, felt hot tears welling up at his eyes, and screamed hoarsely, fingers raking through his straight, blonde hair.

He was barely holding it together, his painful, gasping breaths dissolving into silent sobs, a single, terrifying thought amplified a thousand times in the void of his mind: My friend just tried to kill himself.

Why? He cried in his mind, but he already knew the answer to that.

"He trusted me. But I betrayed him. I'm not fit to carry on living, so please dispose of me."

Ichigo had fallen to his knees in front of everyone there, and begged for mercy.

"Please... just end me already!"

Iro had sunk to the ground with them, both arms around their trembling body, screaming into their ear, begging for him to stop, just stop, but his cries went unheard, as nobody could, and would, listen to the pleas of a ghost.

He had looked helplessly up at the judge, who began hollering at the top of his lungs that his friend was getting ahead of himself and that the only thing they needed to do in that moment was get back to work.

As if he was in any condition to, Iro thought spitefully, glaring up at that horrid old man, who had now casually gone back to judging passing red blood cells.

Iro sucked in a few deep breaths, and frantically wiped his tears away, gripping the sides of the spleen gate and forcing himself to his feet. He was far from calmed, but he couldn't afford to have a mental breakdown now, for his friend might be trying to end himself in some other stupid way and he needed to watch over him.

Not like I can stop him, anyway, he realised, feeling his his heart ache at the near constant reminder that he was not alive. But still...

He heard the bang of the gavel falling. The blond cell darted off just in time for the trapdoor to open for another retired, old cell, searching for that bird nest of brown hair over the sea of red hats.

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A/N:

I'm sorry this part was so short, my motivation plunged a little and i really wanted to get on to the next part. Also sorry if it sounds a little dry, but I really hope you could feel the distress AC1677 was going through when he witnessed his friend trying to slide down the sewer.