Hidden Meanings

Untitled One-Shot

Zyicho's gonna be an asshole.

2:12 AM.

A brunette tore her gaze away from the clock to the pure white snow outside the window. The lights outside were the only things that provided light in the midst of the darkness of the room.

Awake, scared, depressed- she closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the burning in her nose that warned her she was going to cry again. She was alone, and she tilted her head downwards, placed her cup of milk down, then clamped a hand over her mouth, tears sliding down her cheeks one by one.

Unknown to her, and invisible, several people were scattered around the room.

"She's a silent crier," one commented, twisting his shoulder-length hair in his fingers. "For someone as bubbly as she can be..."

He left the sentence unfinished.

"I know, Shinji-kun," a blue-haired woman informed him, her gaze trained on the crying author. "She can't hear us, she believes in nothing right now."

The aforementioned 'Shinji-kun' raised his dark eyes to meet her mint-green ones before going back to his book. "She doesn't deserve this."

"I sure think she does. Look what she's done to us," a boy said dryly, pinching the bridge of his nose before tucking a strand of loose silver hair behind his ear. "Karma, isn't that right?"

"Zyicho!"

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug as the woman scolded him lightly. "Sorry, Ashita. It's the truth in my eyes. You want me to say what's the truth, no?"

Ashita's shoulders slumped as she turned her look on the two occuping the couch- a redhead with flat grey eyes, as well as a blonde-haired teenager.

"You're a brat, you know?" The redhead asked, her tone implying that she was speaking to Zyicho. His eyes narrowed in his only response as she allowed her head to drop back. "I, for one, habor no grudges against her."

Shinji held up a finger. "Neither do I," he said in a bored tone without glancing up from his leather-bound book. He ran a hand through his jet-black hair, raising an eyebrow. "She doesn't have any..what do you call it, sins?"

"I prefer transgressions."

Ashita frowned, glancing back at the depressed author. "Miles-kun, what about you?"

The blonde-haired male looked uncomfortable at the thought of speaking. "...no one deserves depression."

"Casper-kun? Mo-kun?"

"Agreed," both twins said in unison.

Zyicho huffed, then stubbornly averted his gaze to the ground. "Whatever," he growled.

"It is not whatever."

His grip tight on Zyicho's collar, Miles' dark brown eyes never left the teenager's golden ones. "Depression isn't fun to have."

"You say as if you have it."

His grip faltered before tightening, his knuckles white. "Rio might be morbid, it doesn't mean she deserves feeling like her friends are gonna replace her, that she's a worthless piece of shit, that everyone hates her and she's useless. She wants to die at least once every damn week."

"Miles," Casper said quickly, taking a step forward to intervene. Shinji held out a hand, his eyes flashing a quick warning (and wandering back almost lovingly to the discarded book on the chair) that he shouldn't get in between.

The redhead, Rei, was up off the couch as well, her frame taut and muscles tensed as she glanced between the two of them.

Zyicho didn't reply, although he broke eye-contact with the blonde. "...does she recover by making us suffer?"

"Listen," Miles spat. "Without her, we wouldn't be alive. You might be some loser wannabe boy- or girl, who knows- with blonde hair and blue contacts as well as a Starbucks shirt and jeans. But no- you're Zyicho Rixen with silver hair and golden eyes, and that's thanks to her. She brought us to life- each of us. Ashita, Mo, Casper, Shinji, Rei, you, me, and her crapload of other characters."

With that, he finally go, seeming to be content with what he just said.

The silver-haired spared a glance at Rio out of the corner of his eye as Miles walked off, pausing in front of a doorway. "Depression is like drowning and watching everyone breathe perfectly fine around you."

He then disappeared.

Ashita nervously wrung her hands as her son slowly walked over to their author, hovering near her shoulder and placing a pale hand there.

"What's he doing?" Mo wondered out loud, and wrapped his arms around himself as he watched.

Zyicho gestured with the other hand for everyone to come on over, and they obliged- Shinji first, with Rei following, then the twins and the blue-haired woman.

Without warning, he leaned down to whisper a phrase in the brunette's ear, his hand squeezing her shoulder lightly as he did so. Startled, the brunette looked to the side, as if right through them.

Then she smiled through her tears.

Nothing is more beautiful then a smile that has gone through a thousand tears.