Sleep

Weren't we the stars in heaven? Weren't we the salt in the sea?

Beyblade Burst - Dante Koryu & Lui Shirosagi

(Continued from previous part)

-

Valt picked up on the second ring.

(Of course he did. He always did. That was just Valt, another thing that separated him and Lui.)

"Hey, Lui!" A pause. "Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?"

Lui blinked back tears just at hearing Valt again. He didn't call him nearly as much as he used—read: wanted—to. He quickly wiped them away. "Hey, Valt. It's–" He peered at the clock on the wall. "–it's only nine thirty. I'm fine."

"Yeah? What have you been up to? It's been a while since we caught up."

Lui dragged a hand over his face. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm–I'm staying at the Victories' this week. Delta is a shit cook."

"The Victories? With Dante?" Valt was silent before adding: "And Delta is not a shit cook."

Lui let out half a laugh at the comment, still unused to hearing swears come out of the mouth of none other than Valt Aoi. "Dante..." Oh, fuck, this was the actual emotional shit he called Valt for. "Dante hasn't been doing well as of late. Delta was the one who asked me to come over for a bit."

Shuffling. Valt probably sat down somewhere. (Because, knowing him, he was probably in B.C Sol's forest training with his bey.) "What's going on, Lui?"

"From what Delta's told me, Dante's uncle doesn't want to keep the warehouse anymore. Doesn't want...Dante anymore. Or the Victories."

"That's awful. No wonder he's upset."

Lui slumped where he was sitting on the steps to upstairs, combing a hand through his fiery blue curls. "Valt, how...how did you do it? How'd you fucking convince me to...live again?"

Valt didn't answer for a moment. Shit. Lui overstepped.

"Sorry, sorry, stupid question–I'll let you get back to training–"

"Lui, wait. It–it's not a stupid question. It's...just a hard one to answer. You–you did all that on your own. Me, Rantaro, Free, Kristina, everyone else–we just helped you get there. It was you that kept at it."

Lui furrowed his brow. "You dragged me all the way up to Spain! How–how is that letting me do it on my own? If it wasn't for you, I would've still been throwing my life into cigarettes, and bad habits, and–"

"If it wasn't you who did that, then what stopped you from going back to it when you left?"

Oh. Oh, fuck.

Lui had relapsed, he knew. Had nights where he didn't sleep until Valt called him and he fell asleep over the phone. Had days when he'd smoke just to take the edge off. Had evenings where he wouldn't eat unless he facetimed Gabe or had him come over to his place. He hadn't been perfect after his time at B.C Sol, but he hadn't gotten worse either.

And Valt Aoi was on the phone telling him that simple fact meant he'd done more than he thought he did. Grown more. Lived more.

That it wasn't Valt who did that.

It was Lui.

Lui couldn't muffle the sob that choked out of him, fingers pinching at his nose bridge to wipe away his tears.

"You still there, Lui?"

Lui nodded, despite Valt not being able to see him. "Yeah, yeah. Fuck." He sniffled, giving up on trying to hide his crying from Valt. "Then–then what was the point? Why invite me to B.C Sol, why fucking take care of me, why bother?"