Prince of Tennis - The Bird - Yuuta, St. Rudolph (AU) - 4/?
Title: The Bird (4/?)
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3
Notes: Ok, I've decided that I'm going to steal the plot from this and turn this into an original fic. For now, I'm still going to write it with the Tenipuri names and when I finish, I'm going to change them and possibly some other random details. I've locked all previous chapters and will lock all future ones. Feedback is very appreciated. Now let's see if I can eventually finish this thing~
Never mind. Unlocked. Doubtful that this will be finished, but I can always hope...!
"Do you want to move again?" Yumiko asks.
They have moved twice that year. Two times less than last year.
"No," Shuusuke says, a finger on his lips. The sky is dark and it is only early afternoon.
---
The town furthest South is evacuated. The brown sky has been creeping North for a steady three days.
This is what the news says and though the people have been hearing about it for months, they are not prepared to leave.
Some of them stay in their homes, the dirty parts of the town are opened up and the infections spread.
The man behind the news desk tells them not to panic. His face is calm and steady, even when the glass bursts and the TV set is left sputtering with the last few sparks of electricity.
Something breaks from the inside.
And by the end of the day, the town is no longer a town.
It's less than a ghost town. A patch of land without enough substance to be haunted.
---
Yuuta is alone.
The other boys have scattered and Mizuki is unconscious.
He holds onto Mizuki and presses his own pale peach t shirt into the wound. He does not know if the bleeding will stop but there is nothing else for him to believe.
He remembers the sky. But not this sky. This one is murky and brown. He remembers one of a different color that he cannot picture clearly.
He wants to run like the others did. Yuuta is fairly sure that none of them know where they ran to. It doesn't seem to matter.
Mizuki's eyelids flutter. Yuuta presses harder.
He watches the town furthest to the South disappear, from the outskirts.
---
Shuusuke turns off the news once he realizes they are saying things he already knows.
"Even you couldn't have predicted that," Yumiko says, smiling and setting a hot cup of tea on the table in front of him.
"I was going to give it another year," He says, his voice light and dancing around the words.
"I have three photo albums of that town," She says.
"Good."
---
One day passes before Yuuta realizes that he is starving. His vision is slightly blurred, but he has blamed this on being above ground. He knows it's not the first time he's ever been above ground, but it feels that way.
The air feels too light and he is panting, afraid that there is not enough to keep him alive.
One day passes before Yuuta stops to think about the adults. That is why the others ran, he thinks. His legs writhe under him. He has wanted to run too, but he is afraid to move Mizuki. Even if Mizuki dies here...
He doesn't think about that.
One day passes before Yuuta sees another person. He blinks and his eyes sting and hurt and he wonders if he has been crying for that whole day.
"What the hell happened to you?" The man says, stepping out of a car that has stopped only yards away. Yuuta can see him, but cannot focus, and he looks like he is behind a dirty window.
Then the man turns to someone in the passenger seat and asks them to call the emergency line and Yuuta jumps.
"No!" Yuuta says, "Don't call."
He is just as confused with his outburst as they are.
"But you--"
"Don't," Yuuta says, "please."
"Is he dead?"
"He's breathing," Yuuta doesn't realize how much he means the words until he says them out loud.
The man approaches them slowly, his features look soft when Yuuta can make them out.
"I'm not going to hurt you," He says and Yuuta does not believe him.
But he is too weak and hungry and tired to move. The man touches him and it vibrates uncomfortably through his limbs. His body is so tight that when the man relieves him from pressing on Mizuki's wound he falls limp.
One more day passes before he wakes up.
---
When the city furthest to the South disappeared, an SI factory went along with it. Investigators go back one week later to look through the debris and find what they need to make a case, but there is nothing.
They predict two weeks.
They move and wait for the next town to fall apart.
----
These are not peaceful dreams.
They are like trying to force two mismatched puzzle pieces together.
There are the hallways of the place underground. Yanagizawa jumping out of his skin. Lights that look like sunlight. Blood down his thighs as he rips at his back. Mizuki's eyes.
He wakes up and the transition between sleep and awake is smoother than it should be.
The man and his wife have put him and Mizuki in a small room that they say their children used to live in. There are two beds that face a window. Air from outside streams inside and Yuuta still feels that it is not thick enough to fill his lungs.
He starts panting again.
Mizuki is in the bed beside him and Yuuta wants to crawl over and wake him up. It has been two days and Mizuki has not opened his eyes.
But he is alive.
---
Akazawa ends up in the town to the East. He is barefoot when he arrives there. The pale peach slippers were thin.
His feet are cut and sore and he collapses on himself when he sees life.
There are people here and a town. There was a world above the whole time.
And then he sees a glowing sign with a stylized coffee cup and is drawn to it like a moth.
He bursts inside and at the smell of warm food he is ready to beg.
"I can work," He says, "I can do anything, just..."
The woman behind the counter is quick and catches him just before he falls, her arms behind his shoulders.
The news reports seven boys that are missing.
She isn't paying attention to it anyway.
---
"We need to go," Mizuki has finally awakened and it is in the middle of the night.
He wakes up Yuuta and is pulling on a pair of shoes, holding his side where the wound is still fresh.
"When did you--"
"We need to go now."
"They've been taking care of us."
"You trust them?"
"You mean you weren't really--"
"I've been listening," Mizuki says and Yuuta is unsure all over again.
Mizuki closes the space. He hands Yuuta a pair of shoes and urges him out of the bed.
"It's not... them," Mizuki says, "It's..."
The man opens the door.
"You're awake?"
"Seven boys missing," Says the voice on the radio.
Then the comforting bedroom with the cracked window isn't inviting anymore.
"Kaneda Ichirou, Yanagisawa Shinya..."
"Are you--"
"...Nomura Takuya, Akazawa Yoshirou..."
The room spins and spins.
The man is caught between suspicion and confusion.
Mizuki is angry.
"...Fuji Yuuta."
The spinning room stops.
---
In the sixth town, Shuusuke turns off his radio.
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3
Notes: Ok, I've decided that I'm going to steal the plot from this and turn this into an original fic. For now, I'm still going to write it with the Tenipuri names and when I finish, I'm going to change them and possibly some other random details. I've locked all previous chapters and will lock all future ones. Feedback is very appreciated. Now let's see if I can eventually finish this thing~
Never mind. Unlocked. Doubtful that this will be finished, but I can always hope...!
"Do you want to move again?" Yumiko asks.
They have moved twice that year. Two times less than last year.
"No," Shuusuke says, a finger on his lips. The sky is dark and it is only early afternoon.
---
The town furthest South is evacuated. The brown sky has been creeping North for a steady three days.
This is what the news says and though the people have been hearing about it for months, they are not prepared to leave.
Some of them stay in their homes, the dirty parts of the town are opened up and the infections spread.
The man behind the news desk tells them not to panic. His face is calm and steady, even when the glass bursts and the TV set is left sputtering with the last few sparks of electricity.
Something breaks from the inside.
And by the end of the day, the town is no longer a town.
It's less than a ghost town. A patch of land without enough substance to be haunted.
---
Yuuta is alone.
The other boys have scattered and Mizuki is unconscious.
He holds onto Mizuki and presses his own pale peach t shirt into the wound. He does not know if the bleeding will stop but there is nothing else for him to believe.
He remembers the sky. But not this sky. This one is murky and brown. He remembers one of a different color that he cannot picture clearly.
He wants to run like the others did. Yuuta is fairly sure that none of them know where they ran to. It doesn't seem to matter.
Mizuki's eyelids flutter. Yuuta presses harder.
He watches the town furthest to the South disappear, from the outskirts.
---
Shuusuke turns off the news once he realizes they are saying things he already knows.
"Even you couldn't have predicted that," Yumiko says, smiling and setting a hot cup of tea on the table in front of him.
"I was going to give it another year," He says, his voice light and dancing around the words.
"I have three photo albums of that town," She says.
"Good."
---
One day passes before Yuuta realizes that he is starving. His vision is slightly blurred, but he has blamed this on being above ground. He knows it's not the first time he's ever been above ground, but it feels that way.
The air feels too light and he is panting, afraid that there is not enough to keep him alive.
One day passes before Yuuta stops to think about the adults. That is why the others ran, he thinks. His legs writhe under him. He has wanted to run too, but he is afraid to move Mizuki. Even if Mizuki dies here...
He doesn't think about that.
One day passes before Yuuta sees another person. He blinks and his eyes sting and hurt and he wonders if he has been crying for that whole day.
"What the hell happened to you?" The man says, stepping out of a car that has stopped only yards away. Yuuta can see him, but cannot focus, and he looks like he is behind a dirty window.
Then the man turns to someone in the passenger seat and asks them to call the emergency line and Yuuta jumps.
"No!" Yuuta says, "Don't call."
He is just as confused with his outburst as they are.
"But you--"
"Don't," Yuuta says, "please."
"Is he dead?"
"He's breathing," Yuuta doesn't realize how much he means the words until he says them out loud.
The man approaches them slowly, his features look soft when Yuuta can make them out.
"I'm not going to hurt you," He says and Yuuta does not believe him.
But he is too weak and hungry and tired to move. The man touches him and it vibrates uncomfortably through his limbs. His body is so tight that when the man relieves him from pressing on Mizuki's wound he falls limp.
One more day passes before he wakes up.
---
When the city furthest to the South disappeared, an SI factory went along with it. Investigators go back one week later to look through the debris and find what they need to make a case, but there is nothing.
They predict two weeks.
They move and wait for the next town to fall apart.
----
These are not peaceful dreams.
They are like trying to force two mismatched puzzle pieces together.
There are the hallways of the place underground. Yanagizawa jumping out of his skin. Lights that look like sunlight. Blood down his thighs as he rips at his back. Mizuki's eyes.
He wakes up and the transition between sleep and awake is smoother than it should be.
The man and his wife have put him and Mizuki in a small room that they say their children used to live in. There are two beds that face a window. Air from outside streams inside and Yuuta still feels that it is not thick enough to fill his lungs.
He starts panting again.
Mizuki is in the bed beside him and Yuuta wants to crawl over and wake him up. It has been two days and Mizuki has not opened his eyes.
But he is alive.
---
Akazawa ends up in the town to the East. He is barefoot when he arrives there. The pale peach slippers were thin.
His feet are cut and sore and he collapses on himself when he sees life.
There are people here and a town. There was a world above the whole time.
And then he sees a glowing sign with a stylized coffee cup and is drawn to it like a moth.
He bursts inside and at the smell of warm food he is ready to beg.
"I can work," He says, "I can do anything, just..."
The woman behind the counter is quick and catches him just before he falls, her arms behind his shoulders.
The news reports seven boys that are missing.
She isn't paying attention to it anyway.
---
"We need to go," Mizuki has finally awakened and it is in the middle of the night.
He wakes up Yuuta and is pulling on a pair of shoes, holding his side where the wound is still fresh.
"When did you--"
"We need to go now."
"They've been taking care of us."
"You trust them?"
"You mean you weren't really--"
"I've been listening," Mizuki says and Yuuta is unsure all over again.
Mizuki closes the space. He hands Yuuta a pair of shoes and urges him out of the bed.
"It's not... them," Mizuki says, "It's..."
The man opens the door.
"You're awake?"
"Seven boys missing," Says the voice on the radio.
Then the comforting bedroom with the cracked window isn't inviting anymore.
"Kaneda Ichirou, Yanagisawa Shinya..."
"Are you--"
"...Nomura Takuya, Akazawa Yoshirou..."
The room spins and spins.
The man is caught between suspicion and confusion.
Mizuki is angry.
"...Fuji Yuuta."
The spinning room stops.
---
In the sixth town, Shuusuke turns off his radio.