Marionette

Cosmos, Chapter Two - Kizuato [傷跡]

Will you sink or swim?

It was an abysmally simple question with a darkness in every crevasse.

She couldn't swim in the physical sense – She'd freeze up and drown.

And in the emotional sense, she found any and every way that didn't involve swimming just to stop herself from sinking into the oceans.

If you don't keep spinning, you'll surely drown.

A sentiment instilled upon her by a scarcely sane woman – One that was the personification of the fate hanging over her own head.

But right now, she didn't have the heart to keep spinning, any more.

She only wanted to get the drowning over with.

The sounds of Koro-sensei's eager demands that everyone was to wake up now rung through the still darkness of her surroundings, nudging Amaya from the tense sleep she had been residing within.

Her eyes cracked open, her vision sightless as she blinked a couple of times.

The glimpses of blood-splattered corridors and harrowing voices still remain stuck inside her head, greeting her every time she blinked.

She felt exhausted, disconnected, though right now her body didn't instill all that pain she'd been dealing with last she was conscious.

But at least this time, she was collected enough to not fall victim to another panic attack as she glimpsed those punctures in her wrists.

The light filtering in through the window was slight, the starting rays of morning light.

It was some time before 6am, she eventually guessed.

She found that she was still in the corner of the room, where she'd curled up after locking herself away in here. She was still curled up for the most part, her injured arm still tucked carefully out of harm's way.

Except she wasn't alone.

Arms were wrapped firmly around the small of her back, the rest of her form covered by a blanket that had been pulled from the bed. And as she forced herself to sit up in spite of the grip, she found herself looking at a familiar, sleeping redhead. His breath was slow as it escaped him, a soft snore that tickled against the side of her face.

She had ended up practically sitting in his lap in her sleep, leaning sideways against his chest. He was leaning up against the wall, his head tipped forward slightly.

She didn't fully understand how she had even ended up there, or how he'd ended up sleeping here, either.

But she recalled whispered words.

'I'll still be here when you wake up.'

The rather empty look across her face softened slightly as she recalled those words.

He really did stay, like he said.

'Wake up now, everyone!' Koro-sensei's louder voice rung through the door, a sure sign that he was getting closer. The sounds of doors opening in the distance one by one echoed in milder response. 'Its time for breakfast, and the ship will be leaving in just a couple hours!'

In spite of his mach-speed, it appeared the Octopus was making a point of traveling at a human pace.

It wouldn't exactly be good if Koro-sensei decided to open the door to check on her and found the two of them in such a position. She turned her head to look back at Karma, where she decided it would be in her best interests to wake him up.