[original] 'Til Death Do Us Part {Oumasai}

Chapter Fourteen: Dreams

"I look over to the room he's in. You'll be okay, I promise."

I pray with all of my soul this is true. I feel myself collapse to the floor, even my body's giving up. I slowly feel any sense of hope fade out of me as I drift to sleep, hearing inaudible voices surrounding me.

I began chasing him around the room as if we were children, giggling as I hold his scarf in the air. "Come and get it~" I say, laughing. I eventually outrun the small boy, he never was the fastest. I stop for a moment to catch my breath. Suddenly, he tackles me; pinning me to the wall. "You know, Shuichi, I've always been a big fan of yours~" He twiddles with my fingers, I feel strange. "And I've always been a bigger fan of yours" I smile as he begins fiddling with my hair. "I'm gonna treat you like a prince~ Only the royal treatment for my precious."
———

I jolt awake, shivering. That dream was odd, it felt familiar. Like it was an old memory. I feel sweat drip down my forehead, still feeling odd from the dream. I finally take in my surroundings and realize I'm in a hospital bed. Ah, right; I passed out. I sigh, now I can't even stay with Kokichi. What if they're hurting him? I can't even stop them. What if they scare him? Or make him sad?

I feel tears well up in my eyes. I feel so bad for him. He's hurt, alone, and probably scared. I see the curtain that surrounds me slowly peak open, a familiar face poking through. It's Kokichi's mom, worry apparent in her expression. She sees I'm awake and breathes a sigh of relief. She steps closer to me, a fuzzy figure behind her. It's a person, though I'm unclear who it is; my vision is a little blurry right now. She rushes towards me and hugs me, now that she's closer I notice that her face is stained with tears, is Kokichi okay..?

I shake that thought out of my head. "Shuichi, I'm so glad you're okay." She was worried about me? I feel bad now, she didn't have to worry about me. She steps back "You have to take better care of yourself, for Kokichi." I look at the wall, I know this. I can't handle the responsibility of being an adult, hell I eat a bowl of ramen for dinner every day. I bite my lip "I'm sorry..." I feel tears slowly develop in my eyes, hold it in just a little longer.

"Don't apologize, Shuichi. It's okay, just try to take care of yourself. I'll leave you two alone now." She smiles. You two? She must mean that person that was behind her. She walks away to reveal the blurred figure I saw before. The tears in my eyes let themselves drop as my vision focuses on the person standing before me, the love of my life, Kokichi Ouma.

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a/n

im really sorry this chapter is way shorter than usual, i've been really busy lately with school ending soon and homework and everything. ive also had to do a lot of christmas shopping and stuff so i haven't had a lot of time to work on the story and i am so sorry. I'll try to get chapter fifteen out asap, although with this being the last week of school i will probably be pretty busy (i have a lot of projects due in the next few days) but i'll try to be more active on winter break! thank you all so much for reading & voting for this story!! I'm so lucky to have so many great people reading this story! Thank you all so much for 2.5k reads that means the world to me! Ily all so much!
-Max <3