VIVIDWords | AkiToya (Project Sekai)

Underneath the Red Moon's Gaze {12}

     In hindsight, Akito thought to himself, bringing Toya to the hospital would've been a better decision. Instead, he sat on his bed, watching the writer typing away on his laptop. The clicking of the keys filtered into his ears, scratching and grating, yet there was a sort of peacefulness, clarity, to the noise. He could see the way Toya was slumped over, the more straight posture he had seen recently gone, his breath uncharacteristically loud and erratic.

     "I don't get why you don't wanna go to a hospital," Akito spoke, resting his head against the palm of his hand. His voice held a tone of hesitance and curiosity to it, sounding almost breathless.
     "You should know why," Toya responded, an unidentifiable edge in his tone. His writing paused briefly as he let the words sink in, pushing the tension back into the ginger's body, before continuing sharply, his body unconsciously leaning forward to the screen.

     The ginger sighed, lying down onto his back instead of sitting against the headboard. The green coat he was wearing a few hours before hung loosely off his arms, drowned in the scent of Toya. Seeing how on edge the other was, he thought to himself that he should've called an ambulance, regardless of whether or not Toya wanted to go. He should've been more insistent with Toya going to sleep during the few times they had texted as well, instead of leaving it with a simple 'okay'.

     The silence between the two was unbearably loud.

     "What're you writing?" He asked, his brows furrowed as he attempted to decipher the reason as to why he had let Toya into his apartment, if he had done anything wrong, and if there was anything he could do to help.
     "A book."

     He sighed, bringing a fist up to his face. Only a few hours ago was he filled with worry, panic, and some unnamed feeling he could recall only feeling back when he was sixteen, yet now all he had in him was mild frustration and exhaustion. Closing his eyes, he attempted to doze off, ignorant of how risky it would be with Toya's current state.

     "It's the prequel to the one you read, if you were wondering," the split-dyed turned his head towards the ginger, watching his face flush.

     Akito could hear him typing away once more, picturing in his head a faint smile on his face as he looked back at the screen. He was unaware of how the mental image only reddened his face more, yet it didn't matter to him.

     He felt a bit less tense, with Toya replying without any prompt. That release of stress could've came from the idea that he hadn't messed something up, that he wasn't uncomfortable from his own impulsiveness, he supposed.

     "Thank you, by the way, Aki."

     Those words, though, went unheard as he dozed off, his usual insomnia not there to bug him.
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     He woke up a few hours later, the sun having fully set sometime during his nap, no longer adding any light to his already dim room. The consistent sound of tapping echoed throughout the room, something that would typically set Akito off. Yet, momentarily, he was undisturbed by it, the drowsiness only a few notches away from turning off his senses.

     That moment of pure clarity, though, was shortly followed by a brief panic, realization, and confusion, before settling on surprise.

     "Why're you still here?" He asked, sitting up, leaning against the headboard of his bed.
     "My apartment isn't close, and I seemed to lost track of time," he replied, still staring at the harsh lightness of the laptop. "I also felt too tired to walk that far, sorry."
     "What time even is it?" Akito reached for his phone blindly, instead bumping his hand into everything but.
     "Quarter past one."