Rock Paper Scissors

2

Since you all love this story so much I updated
After 3 months I'm so sorry
What no no no of course I'm not mocking your pain

"Mariku...."

The air around him was crisp and chilling. Biting cold made his skin feel numb, and Mariku was frozen in his spot, facing the being of nightmare material.

"Mariku..." Ryou croaked, shivering uncontrollably. His lips were blue, his face and lashes dusted with frost, and his hair soaking wet and freezing. Ryou's sunken eyes were just barely open, and his skin almost blue rather than pale. He stood there, frail, hunched, and yet too weak to make any steps toward him.
He reached out a shaky hand. "I-I'm c-cold..."

No matter how hard he tried, Mariku couldn't move, and he couldn't say anything. Desperately, he tried to make an effort to get him a blanket or a sweater or simply wrap his own arms around him, but all he could do was stand there and watch.

"P-please...M-Mariku...." Ryou shook and trembled and tried to take a step, but he tumbled and fell through the floor as if it were a lake frozen to thin ice. His torso quaked as he tried to pull himself from the hole. He looked up to Mariku with pleading, bloodshot eyes. "H-help me....I need you...."

Poor baby...

Mariku was waiting to be pulled from this— from all of this.

You're whimpering. Are you having a nightmare?

He hoped— he wished— that he could open his eyes.

Here, let me scoot next to you. Lay your head on my chest, alright? I'll hum you a little tune...

Mariku awoke with a gasp. His eyes shot open and he frantically searched the other side of the bed, checking the sheets for Ryou— arm, his back, his hair, just something that he could touch so he knew that Ryou was beside him— and when he found nothing but the cold, empty sheets, he dropped his head and let it hang.

He hadn't realized he was panting. He leaned back onto the headboard and all he could think about was Ryou. In his nightmare, he was covered in ice and frost. He shivered and quaked and Mariku couldn't do a thing to help him.

"He was conscious," Mariku's mind had seemed to be repeating what a forensic pathologist had said to him. He had poked and prodded at Ryou's dead body and Mariku wasn't allowed to see him. "At the frozen lake, he was barely alive."

Ryou must have been so cold...

Mariku had been waiting for the touch. That's what happened when he had a nightmare; he'd wake enough to let out a whimper and Ryou would scoot over to Mariku's side of the bed, and he would hush him, softly, humming a lullaby while he gently stroked his thumb against his temple.

Mariku's eyes shut tight, his grimace silent, and his tears just as real, he only wished that the soft touch he knew all too well would bring him from his nightmares.

He touched Ryou's pillow— well, the pillow from his side of the bed, Mariku had kept Ryou's pillow in a bin the closet— and pulled it to himself, hugging it as tight as he could. Mariku's tears rolled to the tip of his nose.

It wasn't getting any better. Mariku's sleepless nights were getting intolerable. It was hard to sleep without Creampuff at his side, but it was starting to get hard to sleep at all.