NO, THAT'S WRONG! ~~Naegami~~

Chapter 22: You're Okay

//tw substance abuse, drowning mention

Makoto had never been a good swimmer. Like most things, his swimming skills were distinctly average. He'd done maybe three lessons in his life, but that was the extent of his ability. His skills certainly didn't include retrieving limp human bodies from a school pool. And yet that's exactly what he was doing. Without thinking, he dove into the water, desperate to rescue Byakuya. He immediately realised his mistake, and shrugged of his jacket as best he could whilst underwater. He was still being slow, too slow. He had forgotten to take a deep breath before diving in, and his lungs were already beginning to burn with lack of oxygen. He stretched his hand out, but just missed the collar of Byakuya's shirt. He began to worry that he might have been too late. Goddammit! If he'd only gone here sooner instead of ringing Byakuya's doorbell twenty times...

No, there was no time for that kind of thinking right now. He needed to save Byakuya, not mope over anything else. He swam a bit closer, and finally managed to grab a hold of the blonde. He tried to swim back up, but the extra weight of Togami made it next to impossible. Still, he couldn't give up now. He couldn't give in to the screaming of his lungs, the beating of his heart, the throbbing in his brain. He couldn't see a thing, his eyes shut against the invasive water. He swam up and up and up and up and up for what seemed like years. He knew he wouldn't make it, they would both sink back to the bottom. He had been stupid, stupid, stupid. But still he kept swimming, and just when he thought about giving up and letting himself be taken by the water, his head broke the surface.

He gasped and coughed, expelling all the water from his lungs. His legs were still screaming at him as he desperately trod water in an attempt to stay afloat. Byakuya was still a dead weight behind him in the water.

No, not dead. He mentally chided himself. Don't think like that, Makoto.

Swimming to the side, he clung on to the wall of the pool and, through what felt like a Herculean effort, pulled himself and Byakuya out of the water. Byakuya's eyes were closed. He wasn't breathing. Makoto now began to panic in earnest. This was his fault, wasn't it? He was the one who confessed in that stupid, selfish way that caused Byakuya to come here. If Byakuya was seriously injured- or worse- the blame for that would lay squarely on Makoto's own shoulders. He pulled out his phone and dialled one of the only numbers in it.

"Hina?" He said shakily when the girl picked up, fighting hard to hold back tears. "Can you come to the pool as soon as possible? Something... something's happened to Byakuya."

***

"Here, take this." His father said to him, handing Byakuya a small container that held what looked like small pills. "They'll help you with your headaches. Just don't mention them again, okay? And get back to work."

"Father, I- " Byakuya began, before remembering what his father had told him all those weeks ago. "May I speak, Father?" His father only acknowledged him with a curt nod. If he'd been paying less attention, it's likely Byakuya would have missed it.
"It's just that..." He faltered, trying to get his thoughts together. "Can't I lie down for a bit? Maybe take a day off for a few days. Just until the headaches subside. It's the work that's giving me these headaches, so maybe if I rested for-"

"Rested?" His father repeated, face flat and emotionless. "You want rest? Tell me, Byakuya, did you rest when you were fighting to become my heir? Do you see me resting as I carry the entire weight of the Togami corporation on my shoulders alone?"

"N-no, Father, but-" Togami started.

"Do not talk back to me, child. I will hear no more of this rest. It is unbecoming of the heir to my empire. You are lucky that I am not punishing you further. Your grandfather would not have been so kind to me at your age." His father sneered, turning away from Byakuya. "I generously gave you the painkillers. Use them. Leave me now."

   "Yes, Father. Thank you, Father." Byakuya lowered his head and walked out of the office, feeling the disappointment of his father weighing on him like a leaden cloud draped around his shoulder- a stole of shame and responsibility that he had always worn with pride.

   It was only now that he felt its weight threatening to crush him into the floor, crush him into nothingness. He had fought all these years, all this time, to get where he was now. It was only at that moment that he doubted whether it had all been worth it. The lies, the backstabbing, everything done by and done to, had it all just been a waste of time? Being in the 1% was stressful, tiring, sometimes even painful. Wouldn't it be better to live in blissful ignorance? As one of the 99%, he could spend his life doing whatever he wanted, not caring about what was or wasn't allowed, or acceptable, for a Togami to do. Wasn't that preferable to this?

No. No. Togami was stronger than that. How stupid he had been even to entertain the idea. Life in the 1% was hard work, but it was necessary. That's what Father had told him, so it had to be true. The crux of the matter was that Byakuya couldn't go back now. He stared at the pills in his hand for a long moment, before placing one in his mouth carefully, almost gagging as he washed it down with water. Hopefully this would help. It had to.

~~~

Where... where was he? He looked to the bright white wall, the linoleum floor, the cabinet in the corner. He knew this place, but he didn't know where it was. His brain was foggy, unresponsive. It wasn't cooperating with him, refusing to carry information from one side to the other. It was like there was an impassable cleft in the middle of his brain. Or maybe he just thought there was; his head hurt enough for him to believe it had been cut in two. There were posters on the wall; they were too blurry to read but they were pink and blue. The door was pink as well.. did that mean anything? Was he just picking out random pieces of information to distract himself? Pushing through each thought was like wading through a marsh, the mud pulling him back, sucking him down with it. He wanted to lie down. Wait... he was lying down. He was lying down in a bed in the corner of the room. This wasn't a bedroom, right?

"Oh my God." A blurry face said from beside them, that he could have sworn wasn't there three seconds before. The voice was familiar though. And this time he didn't have to think to realise who it was. "Byakuya, you're awake."

"Mmkto.." he mumbled. He had words and he wanted to say them, but at some point from his brain to his mouth they must have taken a wrong turn, or gotten confused and muddled, shifting and twisting into something unrecognisable.

"Shh, shh, don't try to speak. The nurse said you should rest a bit longer." The blurry figure said. Byakuya couldn't see it, but he was convinced that it was smiling. He heard it in its voice, he felt the warmth of it on his skin. It was nice. He wanted to it to keep smiling. He reached out a hand, and- after some trying- found the hand of the figure, and laced his fingers with its own. He needed it. He squeezed its hand, trying to communicate that, even if he couldn't speak, he could hear it and he could feel it.

All of a sudden, his vision sharpened. Not his vision of the room around him; the words on the posters were still garbled nothingness to him. But that didn't matter. Because he could now perfectly see the person holding his hand. The first thing he noticed were the dark circles decorating his hazel eyes. How long had this person waited, keeping himself awake out of worry, while Byakuya had been sleeping? The next thing he noticed was his hair. The normally bouncy ahoge was stuck to his forehead, and his hair seemed to have been weighed down by something. Maybe it was wet? That didn't make sense. It wasn't raining in here, he was inside. It might have been raining outside, though. The weather had been nice recently, though. The park across the road was always littered with picnics and happy couples eating sandwiches in the past few days. He wanted a sandwich... what was he thinking about again? Right. The figure. His rumpled hoodie, his small nose, his kind smile. Makoto Naegi looked at him reassuringly, though his eyes betrayed a sliver of fear living behind them.

"It's okay. You're okay. I'm here."

Word count before A/N: 1533

A/N: Haha remember when I said there would be a shorter gap between updates? Sooooooo, I might have been a littleeee bit mistaken. Sorryyyy about thatt, but I'm actually quite happyyyyy with how this chapter turned outttt !! I hope you are tooooo, and all of the comments and votes and reads reallyyyyy mean sooo much to meee. I readdd every single comment and it makes me soooooo happyyyy that people are actually enjoyingggg this. That's... pretty muchhh everythinggg. Be back in either two daysss or a yearrrr !! Alr peace.
--Winter