BT21 Short Stories

Alone (Koya-centric)

Title:
Alone

Genre:
Angst, Friendship

Summary:
Koya sleeps for too long.
(Based off this prompt: You wake up one morning and realize that you've slept for too long. Everything is covered in a thick layer of dust, none of the electronics seem to work, all buildings outside are dilapidated and there's no soul in sight.)
(I made a screenshot of it a while ago but I could't find the link again😭 Just know that it's from writing-prompt-s on tumblr, go check them out they're amazing!)

Warnings:
This might be a little creepy and there are descriptions of a dead Van (y'know, the electronics). Also the big Van robot is refered to as Van's 'main body' bc we've seen him in different sizes & i headcanon Tata has multiple robots that Van switches his consciousness between by uploading it to the body he wants to use right now.

Author's note:
Pls don't kill me lol

~*~

Koya startled awake. One of his ears fell of and flopped to the ground beside the bed. The koala took a few moments to become aware of his surroundings. Once he was as awake as one Koya could get he tensed and looked around slowly.

The room didn't look the same it did when he went so sleep. All of his furniture was broken, his belongings strewn across the floor. For one second the koala thought he had been robbed, but he banished that thought quickly. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. The only light came from the dirty and, as he noticed now, partially broken windows. There were cracks in the walls and the paint was blotchy and crumpling off at parts. It was eerily quiet.

Koya got up very slowly, hesitating to set his feet on the ground. He picked up his ear and dusted it off briefly, then held it in both hands, gently squeezing it to calm down. He took a small step, his feet leaving imprints in the dirt. His nervous gaze caught on his digital alarm clock. The display was blank. He swallowed and tiptoed over to the light switch. He switched it on carefully, flinching slightly at the 'click' it made, but nothing happened.

He turned to the window and slowly walked towards it, stepping over random objects on the ground. The closer he got the more clearly he could see outside. The surrounding buildings seemed to be in a similar state to his appartment, some were even caved in. When he stopped right in front of the window he could see that lots of broken cars were randomly parked in the middle of the street below. There were plants growing all over them and in the cracks in the asphalt. There was not a soul in sight.

The koala shivered. No sound could be heard from outside, not even the wind. The sky was a grey-ish white with no visible clouds that could be moving to provide the reassurance that time might not have completely stopped. Koya felt absolutely and utterly alone.

His friends. He needed to find his friends.

The sudden urgency washed over him and he turned around and walked towards the door. Halfway through opening it the handle broke off and the koala startled and dropped it, causing a little cloud of dust to fly into the air. He quickly turned away, pushed the door fully open and hesitantly stepped into the dark hallway.

Shaking slightly, Koya felt his way along the wall until he found the apartment door and opened it. He carefully made his way downstairs, the stairs looking like they could break away under his feet at any moment. When he reached the front door and walked outside, he stopped, unsure where to go. Chimmy's apartment was the closest to his own, so he decided to look there first.

Dodging cars with broken lights and windows and dry plants that rustled and scared him when he brushed against them he walked the once familiar streets, squeezing and un-squeezing his grip around his detached ear all the while. When he reached the building, he found the staircase to Chimmy's apartment caved in. Koya hurried outside again and started pacing, trying to calm his breathing. From here, Tata's place was closest, so he resumed his search with fast steps.

Soon he stood in front of the building Tata's rooftop hideout was on. He could see part of Van's main body peeking over the edge of the roof and felt a surge of need to go up there and see him. He carefully stepped though the half open main door, half expecting to see the staircase in a similar state to Chimmy's, but it seemed intact. When he ducked under the first flight of stairs and stepped in the center of it, looking up, he saw that it indeed was. Hurriedly, Koya began his ascend though the many floors.

On his way he kept his gaze low, checking the stairs for cracks but also not being able to bear seeing the staircase he climbed so many times with his friends in the state it was in right now. When he finally reached the roof he was panting hard from exhaustion and stress. The door was open and lopsided, barely hanging onto one of it's hinges. When Koya stepped past it, hopeful, his eyes caught on Van and he froze.

Van was covered in rusty patches, some of the metal plates making up his exterior curling up at the edges and exposing the wires and gears underneath. The massive body was still standing upright, a sight Koya was so used to, but now it's rigidness seemed distant, cold, dead. The glass of what were once his eyes was cracked and gave way to a seemingly black void.

Koya's head was an endless chant of 'no, no, please no, no' and he stumbled backwards, clutching his ear to his chest, unable to look away from the broken, empty shell that was once one of his best friends. In his panic he didn't notice he was getting closer to the edge of the roof. His foot caught on a dip in the stone where some of it had crumbled away and he heard a horrible sound of stone cracking. Then he was falling.

Koya jolted awake when he hit the carpet in front of the sofa. There were hands on his face and arms and voices shouting at him but he couldn't understand what they were saying. His head hurt and he realized with a start that he was sobbing.

"Koya! Can you hear me? Please calm down, everything's alright..."

That was RJ's worried voice. Koya pawed around blindly, his vision blurry from tears, and when he felt his friend's fluffy fur he latched onto him and buried his face into his chest, crying harder. The rest of the gang anxiously sat or stood around them where they had gotten up from watching TV when Koya had started crying in his sleep.

When Koya's sobs died down to soft sniffles he raised his head and looked around. "Guys?"

"We're all here", Tata reassured and knelt down next to Koya and RJ on the floor, extending his arm to wrap around Koya's shoulders. "Are you okay? Do you want to tell us what happened?" The others carefully shuffled closer, Cooky, who had been sitting between Koya and the couch since he fell, took the koala's hand to calm him down.

"Uh..." Koya teared up again remembering the horrible dream and swallowed thickly. "I-I..... I just had a bad dream..." The koala wiped at his eyes and looked around. His friends were all there, alive. He felt a little silly but he shyly opened his arms and they all hurried to hug him, forming a colorful cuddle pile on the floor.

Koya smiled and closed his eyes. "... It's okay. You're all here now."