Blue Butterfly | Amajiki Tamaki

| 44 |

'Ah, shit.'

It was still early when the clouds gave off their rain to the grass and trees, when the road became alive with more splashes than your eyes could appreciate. Yet together they brought such a soothing sound. You felt each splash that touched your skin, watched your cardigan become a deeper, more rocky hue. Sighing, you withdrew further under the shelter of the convenience store, a grocery bag in one hand and the other void of the umbrella you should have brought along.

'I should have listened to the weather forecast this morning,' you mused bitterly, gnawing on the inside of your cheek. 'Of all days.'

Despite being stuck where you were, you welcomed the comforting sound of the rain. You sagged your shoulders, finally releasing the tension that had built up in your muscles over the past few days. 

'Calm down, everything's over. Everything's back to normal.'

Were they really though?

The events of the battle had already blurred at the back of your mind. When dawn cracked, you had finished giving your statement with Detective Tsukauchi and Eraserhead at the Police Department, before you were whisked away to the hospital by a teary Pamela. You'd ended up in the same room as Tamaki and the rest where you caught up with them for two whole days. You'd cried and laughed and cried while hugging your friends—trying to ebb the painful ache from that night that had consumed you. 

Heck, even Kou gave you a hug, mumbling a small incoherent apology for prying too much at the internship.

Albeit begrudgingly. 

The day you left the hospital had been fleeting too. It had felt like your lungs were burning, the air too hot to breathe in and the world closing in you from each end, but you didn't feel sad.

You just felt empty.

It was pure luck you didn't sustain major injuries, the scab at the back of your skull and the healing cuts a throbbing, dull reminder of your fight against Glitch. Everything seemed distant like a foggy fragment of memory, as if the event had occurred plenty of years ago when in reality, it was only three days ago you and Tamaki were facing the manic bloodlust in Neo's cold eyes and the regretful face of your father.

Thump.

'He's gone... He's dead...' There it was again; that familiar itch stinging at the corners of your eyes. 'And all he was ever trying to do... was protect me.'

Thump.

It was the last day of internships but after the whole debacle, Gang Orca had decided to cut yours short and gave the rest of you an extra day off before school. You'd woken up quite late that morning and showered, hoping to cocoon yourself for the rest of the day before the weekend swept in, but the empty content of your fridge said otherwise. You'd forgotten to restock the week before the internships, and now you were facing your frigid fate, watching sheens of rain spread over the road.

Thump.

'This is going to last a while.'

You pulled out your phone and typed away at the keyboard.

[Name]:

Help ( ͡ಥ ͜ʖ ͡ಥ) [12:17]

You then sent a picture of the setting before you, placing a crying emoji right in the corner to garner some pity.

Nejire:

AAAAA WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE [12:21]