𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐈𝐓 ➛ ryusae

chpt 40 ➛ shidou and sae

13:04 pm

The room was still, the afternoon sunlight slipping through the curtains. Sae's bed, where Shidou lay half-buried in the sheets, was warm, safe, and wrapped in a silence so heavy it almost felt like it was holding him. 

The faint noise of the outside world—the occasional passing car, distant shouting from the training field or passing students—barely reached him. He'd been drifting in and out of sleep for hours now, clinging to the scent in the pillow, to the illusion of being held by someone who wasn't there.

And then, suddenly—

Knock knock.

Soft. Hesitant.

Shidou stirred under the soft weight of the blankets, clinging to the smallest piece of warmth you could find. He shifted, one leg tangled in the blanket, groaning under his breath, not fully awake but not quite asleep either. 

"Rin, fuck off," he mumbled hoarsely into the pillow, dragging the word out with a lazy slur.

But then—

Knock knock.

Another pause.

And then, a voice.

"Shidou?"

His entire body went still.

That voice wasn't Rin's. It wasn't from anyone in Japan.

It was a voice that hadn't touched these walls in what felt like months.

But Shidou knew it like muscle memory.

Familiar in the way your own heartbeat is. Etched into the shape of every memory that mattered. The voice he could pick out in a crowd of thousands. The one that soothed him when nothing else could, that haunted his dreams and everything in between.

His eyes snapped open.

He lay frozen for a second, heart pounding hard enough to shake him, trying to convince himself he hadn't just dreamt it.

But then, his head turned.

And there he was.

Standing in the doorway of the room that hadn't seen him in what felt like forever.

Sae.

Hair a little messy from travel, face tired, and a little flushed from whatever emotion he was holding back. His hand was still on the doorframe, fingers curled around it tightly. His suitcase handle dropped from his hand and hit the floor with a soft clunk—now lying by his feet, as abandoned as the space he'd left behind.

For a moment, they just stared at each other.

Frozen.

Shidou's lips parted, but no sound came out. His mind was blank. Like the world had muted itself to let him feel instead of think.

He sat up slowly, tears starting to gather in the corners of his eyes before he could stop them, his chest tightening so fast it felt like his body didn't know whether to breathe or break.