Peace of Mind

Saturday

The building was dark, smoke clouded the air while voices echoed around him. His heart was in his throat as he searched around the crates piled high around the large building. He tried yelling only to choke. He had a pistol in his hand, the weight a comfort in case he needed to use it. Familiar voices called for him, people he would normally call his brothers, but right now they didn't matter. His leg was on fire as he limped without any worry about the damage that could be done to it. There on the floor like a forgotten rag doll, blood pooled around their body while their limbs seemed to be twisted unnaturally. Viktor couldn't stop moving towards them. He dropped to his knees tears streaming down his cheeks. His gun abandoned on the floor he tried to whip the blood from their face while speaking quietly in Russian. Their skin felt cold, the blood had dried to their skin long after they had died, alone in this hellhole. They were never meant to be in this dark world, they should still be smiling in the sunlight and dancing under the stars like they had before. Viktor sobbed into their still chest. He didn't move when someone picked his gun up. He didn't flinch when he heard the hammer pulled. He didn't care when he the bullet ripped through him.
Viktor awoke in his bed, his dog licking tears from his face. Sitting up he scrubbed his cheeks with his hands while the big poodle whined quietly. Viktor smiled and rubbed the old boy's head, "I'm okay Makka, just a dream." Makkachin seemed satisfied with this and laid back down. Viktor glanced at the alarm clock beside his bed, it was two hours earlier than he needed to get up. With a groan he knew sleep was going to be impossible with such a dream lingering in his mind. He tried to think back on it, but details became more difficult and it was soon lost. What ever, he decided to get up anyways. In the bathroom he splashed his face with water. When he finally looked up at himself in the mirror he was irritated with the dark smudges under his deep blue eyes, a telltale sign he hadn't been sleeping well lately. He ran a brush through his silver and short hair while he brushed his teeth, he felt Makkachin watching from where he was laying in the bed looking through the open door way. After finishing Viktor smiled, "Are you ready for breakfast pup?" Makka got up and shook out his silver-beige and fluffy fur before grinning in a cute doggy way. Viktor laughed rubbing his pet's head as he walked by. "Alright, lets get going than."
Yuuri saw the drifting pieces of ship floating in the waters, some of them burning. They were running out of time ushering the entire crew onto the life boats, before he knew it there was only one left, it was already full with maybe room for one more. There were three people still on the ship. He barely thought about it turning to the other two working out a way to get them both to fit. The captain shook his head, a captain goes down with his ship. Yuuri helped the last man onto the life boat before kicking the rigging and forcing the lowering into action. "Yuuri!" The captain snapped, but Yuuri didn't flinch, instead he turned wrapping his arms around their waist. "If you're going down, I'm going with you." He smiled sadly, "Maybe we'll have better luck next time." It was a reference they had shared many times before. A hope for the next life if you were willing to believe in it. The captain pressed his lips to Yuuri's forehead, "Yeah, next time for sure." The ship creaked and groaned shaking them violently. Yuuri looked out onto the water, the boats were a good distance away now. They would be safe from being dragged down with the ship. He was relived, as he looked up at the captain. They told each other they loved the other one last time before they were gone.
Yuuri's alarm hadn't woken him up. It should have but it didn't. He stared at the blurry numbers on his phone screen trying to put together their meaning. It said eight, but his alarm should have gone off at seven..... In a panicked rush he leapt from bed and grabbed what seemed to be clean clothes before dashing into the bathroom. His dark hair was a mess of dark fluff and his eyes kept that sleepy glaze even after he splashed water in his face. Either way he was out the door in record time, it's a shame he hadn't glanced at the weather before that. As soon as he stepped out of the apartment building he hit water. Buckets of water fell from the sky, but there was no time to go back inside. He made a run for it, maybe a little screaming while he did, but if so it was only a little one. The shelter of the bus stop was a also a betrayal, the bus was running behind due to the weather. So he had to keep going if he was going to make it on time. At first he bounced from one shelter to the next, but gave up on that when he felt the water soaking into his socks. He was still late bursting through the back door and into the employee lounge of the bookstore/café. Hands on his knees and gasping just as much from the cold as the run. His co-worker, a younger boy named Guang-Hong Ji, he always looked like a cross between a hamster and teddy bear to Yuuri, though he would never say that. Ji maybe mild mannered and soft spoken, but he was still a teenager and had his prides. In his hands he had a big fluffy towel, he didn't ask just tossed it over Yuuri's head and began helping dry the young man's hair. Ji's was a bit damp too, the light brown still sticking to his forehead in someplace while sticking out in others. They had been working together for a while, and in that time they had heard all sorts of comments on how much they looked alike, though Yuuri and Ji didn't see it. After all Ji was Chinese, Yuuri was Japanese, they had no relations to each other and very different features. Turns out a lot of Americans can't tell the difference. Yuuri had once joked they should bring Seung-Gil, their Korean friend, in one day to mess with people. Ji had only huffed, Yuuri wasn't sure if it was a laugh or not. Either way Ji had to go sit up front while Yuuri dug out his spare clothes from his locker. The bright yellow Hufflepuff hoodie was warm, dry, and they totally sold them in the store so bonus points for advertising purposes. There had been plenty of rainy day like this in the past and many more to come, so he wrung out his wet clothes in the bathroom sink and laid them out to dry so he could use them next time. In the actual shop it was warm, the smell of books and coffee was the match made in heaven that the shop had been designed around. The little café was like a food stall on one wall, burgundy and dark wood with a small glass case for the pastries. Ji was better at coffee, he set a cup on the counter as Yuuri walked by. Sweet! The rest of the place was half wall bookshelves organized by genre. One wall for the rentable book, the ones people could sit inside to read, only the first book in different series of course. In that area there were plush chairs and fluffy pillows with table lamps casting warm light. Yuuri's position was at the checkout counter, the computer was asleep with the bouncing logo for the shop moving lazily. He didn't expect more than the normal group today, so he didn't bother to wake it up yet. Later Ji joined him while they sat in the chair and read. Yuuri happen to glance over and notice the cover of Ji's, blood splatter patterns and the title looked like it was scratched into the binding. Yuuri shivered, always a regretful thing to look at Ji's books, someone so cute prefers to read some of the scariest things. Not really Yuuri's taste, he liked to sleep to much for nightmare fuel, though he seemed to be having them anyways. He had been staring at the page of his book without actually reading for to long trying to remember last night's dream. Most of it was pretty blurry and disoriented now, though he remembers being on a ship and holding onto someone. The bell on the door chimed startling Yuuri from his thoughts. He smiled over at the door but it dropped as soon as he saw who it was. "Oh, hi Phichit." The Thai boy huffed putting his umbrella in the rack and his hands on his hips. "Sorry to disappoint you so much." It was sarcastic and had an over dramatic eye roll for emphasis. Ji looked up, face turned pink, then hid behind his book. "Hi Phichit." He said quietly, Phichit smiled at Ji throwing a wink his way as well. Phichit was only a couple of years younger than Yuuri, maybe a year older than Ji, and the king of selfies. He even carried a little bag with him for his selfie stick and emergency makeup kit. To quote him, "There are three signs of the apocalypse, the sky falling, that guy on the corner screaming the end is here, and this eyeliner not of fleek." So far this holds true. Phichit was a photographer, he and Yuuri had dormed together during university and after Yuuri graduated they moved into the apartment together. It worked well because they were best friends. Poor Ji looked like he might explode and scrambled off to get something to drink. Yuuri gave Phichit a long suffering look, and the younger man laughed. There were plenty of comfy chairs around, so Phichit decided to squeeze in next to Yuuri and toss his legs over the other's lap. "So so so, guess what's happening next weekend." Yuuri readjusted himself to be more comfortable and set his book aside. "Form the tone you're using, I would say not watching Totoro and eating left overs." Whipping out his phone so fast Yuuri didn't see the actual action, Phichit's hands were empty, then there was a phone with a hamster and sunflower case. "That's right!" His flicked a few times on the screen and pulled up what he was looking for before showing it to Yuuri. "That's right! You see Mickey and Sara are going to this cool bar and I happened to be chatting with bae when they came over and invited all of us to come too," By bae he meant Seung-Gil, they were not actually dating. Still Yuuri looked at the screen and saw the cute logo of a poodle and a cat toasting a drink together, the name under it was Santé in flowing script. Yuuri looked over the phone and raised an eyebrow. "Okay, but do I have to?" Phichit didn't bother answering, so yes, and just went ahead and kept talking. "Everyone is going, it's going to be so much fun. Bae even offered to the our DD-"Because he doesn't drink around you anymore." Yuuri injected."So we can all relax, I heard they even do karaoke sometimes. Sara said she checked to make sure they are doing it Saturday. Which you are going to have to do because, duh, music major." Phichit moved his phone back to his lap. "You can major in music and not be a good singer." Yuuri raised sighed, he wasn't going to win anything here because- "It's a good thing you're both." Right on queue was Phichit's quick reply.
Viktor had walked his dog, eaten breakfast from the bakery down the way, and had put the orders in by the time Chris wandered downstairs to their bar. It was 11:30 and they opened in about 30 minutes. Chirs and his flamboyant self had left his blond hair a bit messy and chose to wear contacts today. He had a mug of dark coffee in one hand, and Viktor knew it was the only reason his friend was bright eyed and bushy tailed when he only rolled out of bed a few minutes ago. "Need some help?" Chris offered sitting on one of the barstools, he patted Makkachin's head when the poodle wandered over to say hi. He had a thick French accent that people liked to listen to, pair that with bright green eyes and a couple of hours at the gym three days out of the week it was like he was meant to be a bartender. They had been friends for so long Viktor couldn't actually remember when they first met, then after they had graduated university together they bought the bar and two apartments above it. At exactly 12 in the afternoon Viktor unlocked the front door, not five minutes later their fist patron walked in. Chris, behind the bar, called out to the older gentleman . "Welcome to Santé!"