Light of the Dragon's Eye

Chapter Forty-One

Important announcement! School is starting soon for me, and in order to give myself an opportunity to get used to that hellhole once more, the next chapter will be a QnA for the characters! You can ask questions about Akira, Kai, Ichiro, or any other character and have them respond!

As dirty-minded as I can be, I'd appreciate it if you kept your questions clean.

AKIRA'S POV

My eyes flutter open, moonlight shining into the room. I groan and sit up, rubbing my hand over my face.

Wow, that was a wild dream...wait...shit, I don't remember anything.

I sigh and grope around for the water pitcher on my nightstand, only to find it empty. I swing my feet off the bed and run a hand through my tangled hair. My stomach growls and I grimace. Better head to the kitchen before my stomach digests itself.

Ren wakes up and leaps from the pillow to my shoulder. He burrows into my bedhead and gives a squeaky little yawn. "You're hungry, too?" I pat his head with my finger and smile slightly. "Off to the kitchen, then."

I stumble out into the hallway, still groggy from sleep, and pad barefoot through the mansion. I blink as I realize that the kitchen is lit up with lamps already. "Hello...?" I knock at the door as I step in, and struggle to hold back laughter.

Shin-ha is sitting there, surrounded by food, with his cheeks stuffed in an imitation of Ao. He looks up as I walk in, and freezes, a bean bun halfway towards his mouth.

I head over and snatch up a roll from the plates near him. "Good to know you haven't lost your midnight cravings," I say, smiling as I think back to the days when I stayed with him, where he would always try to stay quiet but end up waking me anyway with the sounds of his growling stomach.

"Puk-yuu!" Ao pokes her head out from Shin-ha's fur, nibbling on an acorn. Ren sits up with a delighted squeak, and the two leap onto the ground and hug each other. I smile at the sight, before turning back to Shin-ha. He avoids my eyes.

"Shin-ha...?" I ask weakly, aware of something lost between us. He curls inward, as though trying to minimize contact with me. "Are you...going to leave again?"

I blink. Something inside me told me that this would come up. But I don't know what to say. What can I say? That I can't stay? That we don't need each other the way we used to?

...That is it, isn't it?

"I'm sorry, Shin-ha," I say sadly, shifting closer. He ducks away when I reach for his mask. I tremble, aware that I'm losing my dearest friend. "W-When I found you, we were both the same; on the outside looking in. Neither of us had a place."

He lifts his head, and I continue, feeling as lonely as I did when I first entered those tunnels. "We used to dream about being accepted. And we've found our places. Yona and the others...they were able to show you that you had a chance to live in the light. That was something I couldn't do."

When I reach for his mask this time, he doesn't move, and he lets me lift it away. I gently take his face in my hands. "You're not alone anymore. You don't need me to stay, do you?" He shakes his head, and I wipe the tears from his cheeks with my thumbs. I lean my forehead against his, closing my eyes. "The year I lived with you was one of the happiest in my life. And that won't change, no matter how far we are from each other."

"You won't...forget me?" His voice, his soft, scared voice, nearly makes me weep. "I could never forget you. I could never-" My voices breaks off as a sob chokes me, and I press myself against him, terrified.

What a pair the two of us are, crying in the middle of the night, on the floor of the kitchen, unable to let go of the aimless children we once were.