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Chishiya was bleeding. Nothing new.
This time, it was different. He felt an intense sharp pain right below his abdomen, his white sweatshirt painted red. Blood on his hands and on the ground.
Gosh, now it has started to hurt. He could barely keep a straight face anymore. He couldn't move, the bullet would bug him if so. Oh, he was shot. It happened so quickly that he couldn't put his thoughts together. What happened? As if his senses were completely shut down.
He could see the car, the street, every building in that area, but not the shooter. He could hear Arisu screaming and Usagi calling out his name, but it was too faint in his mind to understand anything further.
It was odd for Chishiya to not understand everything that happened in his surroundings. Perhaps... truly out of character.
He tried to look around. Every move made him one step closer to death. He knew he shouldn't—considering his field too, but it was common knowledge—that would certainly increase the bleeding, but not that he cared. If he was going to die, at least he wanted to know.
He should've called it. Should've known.
He could easily say who it was, based on a very significant feature—the patterned black shirt. Face covered with burn marks and a singular piece of cloth, standing on the top of a wrecked car; holding a shotgun tightly, as if his entire life depended on it.
Ah, Niragi, of course. Who else...
Chishiya looked around once again, he couldn't see Arisu and Usagi anymore, almost like they'd disappeared into thin air. Why so all of a sudden? Did they mean to leave Chishiya alone with no one other than his angel of death? Did they want him to die in a ditch and a puddle of his very own blood? Was that truly how Chishiya meant to them? To ALL of them?
He claimed he didn't care. It was uncommon for him to actually find something important enough to care about—or at least that's how it looked like. But he couldn't fool himself anymore. Not now, not in this situation.
Niragi walked up to him, still holding the shotgun ever so tightly that his fingertips were losing color, and still with that annoying, aggressive, offensive smirk.
Niragi was standing right above his head, bowing slightly for their eyes to meet. They were so close, but yet, there was too much distance. A moral barrier, perhaps. Something that divided them, that separated them from each other in that situation; as if Niragi meant to say, "Look at me, I'm standing above you now. I'm the one watching you die from the higher ground." A form of degradation as Chishiya hated to below anyone.
He opened his mouth to say something, but the words froze mid-way, stuck in his throat. He meant to ask something, a key question, "Why?", though it was clear as day why it had happened. For sure, some psycho guy would follow you if you had burned him with a flamethrower, pushed him off a building, and left him to die—worst if you'd broken up with him just before them all.
The words transformed, forming a whole new meaning.
"Please..."
The words barely came out, a low whisper. His hands on his face at a short distance, almost blocking the contact, wanting the entire thing to just come to an end. For the world to stop.
It was odd for Chishiya to beg. Fairly unusual. As far as he could remember, the last time that he begged someone, was during his childhood—to his ignorant father. Goodness, why is Chishiya thinking of him at this moment?
His murmuring was greeted by a chuckle from Niragi. Although Chishiya couldn't see him, he sure heard everything, despite his hands blocking his whole view. He didn't need to see his murderer, he didn't need to see the world, and he also didn't need the world to see him. Not now, not in this situation.
Yet, sensing a movement and the change of brightness caused by a shadow over him, he opened his eyes.
He wished he hadn't. It was easier to accept fate just as it is to struggle and get the very same results.
Niragi was holding the shotgun pointed directly to his head, right in front of his face, where he could make sure Chishiya felt it. Not the pain, he wasn't pushing, nor did he pull the trigger; he meant for more monstrous things to be felt. The fear, the apathy; even regret, perhaps.
Was that the very last scene he was going to see? How was he going to say goodbye to the world?
It was odd for Chishiya to wake up panting with a cold sweat, jumping from his sleep. He wasn't unfamiliar with nightmares, but at worse, he would just open his eyes, take a deep breath and move on. What was so different this time? He sat up, his eyes examining his surroundings, slowly getting used to the dark.
"Shun...?" Kuzuryu said half-asleep, who had woken up from Chishiya's movements, desperately looking for his glasses on the nightstand. "Is everything... okay?"
Chishiya didn't respond, just a nod—a motion of approval, though it was all too clear that he was far from being alright.
Kuzuryu sat up next to him, matching Chishiya's level. His hands moved to Chishiya's face, brushing a strand of hair and tucking it behind his ears.
"Was it a nightmare?" Kuzuryu asked gently, seeing the sweat on Chishiya's forehead.
Chishiya, being the person he tended to be, was about to deny it all, to tell him everything was okay and just go back to sleep. He tilted his head to face Kuzuryu, wanting to tell him it's all fine.
It was dark, just the pale moonlight and the streetlamps shining behind the curtains luminated the room, just enough for Chishiya to see the caring gaze and concerned look on Kuzuryu's face. How could he lie to him, ever?
"Hmph, yeah..." He hesitated before answering, which eventually came out barely beyond a whisper.
Kuzuryu just nodded, more awake than a few minutes ago. The concern was brushing off as he saw Chishiya willing to talk about it, but the care stayed on. He didn't push his husband to open up, but he meant it in a way to say "If you want to explain it, I'd be listening gladly."
It required Chishiya a 10-second stare at Kuzuryu's eyes to get the signal and give it all out. He was being vulnerable, he assumed; he hated it. Breaking the eye contact, he sighed and looked down at the blanket covering his lower half.
"It was Niragi. And it was like..." He tried to explain things with his hands in the meantime. Not actions, more likely the emotions that he was feeling. "A gun. He had a shotgun. And then... it was like, you know, being... defenseless. It's unlikely for me to be defenseless. Then it was... pain? I guess. And there was nobody else."
"Nobody else? Not at all?" Kuzuryu questioned, paying close attention to every word Chishiya was saying.
"No, no one." He paid it some thoughts and continued, "Arisu and Usagi appeared at first, but then- gone, disappeared." He corrected himself with more accuracy.
"It must be tough, I know," Kuzuryu didn't spare any pity, but genuine consideration. "I, too, must admit that I've been having weird and almost repetitive nightmares lately. You know better, the court and acid dreams." He chuckled, but it came out closer to a sigh. He wrapped his arm around Chishiya and placed it on his shoulder, pulling the blond closer to himself; and Chishiya didn't pull away.
"Still, as terrifying as they are, you are well aware that they're merely just nightmares, simply only dreams." Kuzuryu managed to continue, "Niragi might be a past-lover of yours, but I'm quite sure he wouldn't follow you with a shotgun—the same way I'm pretty much certain that they don't hang buckets of acid above people in courts." His words made Chishiya snicker a bit.
"And," Kuzuryu spoke softly, making Chishiya look up at him. "Even if Niragi decided to do anything similar, I would be there to protect you, dear."
Chishiya smiled softly, just the corner of his lips moving, placing his head on Kuzuryu's chest, almost snuggling against him. He rolled his eyes, as if he meant to say "Ah, cheesy, aren't we?"—appropriate reaction coming from Chishiya, but that was not what he truly meant.
"I know, Keiichi." He purred back. A lot of unspoken words lingering beneath what he simply replied. He meant to say "I'm grateful that I have you in my life" or anything similar, but it was difficult for him to say it out loud, and he was also aware that Kuzuryu already knew that.
Chishiya didn't need pity, didn't need too much comfort, for anyone to lie to him for the sake of calming him down.
"It's alright to fear things sometimes." Kuzuryu never lied. Not to Chishiya, at least; not for comfort. "Even for you."
It was hard for Chishiya to accept this, well damn knowing that it was true. The irony, he feared accepting that he's allowed to be scared of things.
"In case you needed a reminder." Kuzuryu's finished statement was with Chishiya letting out a huff. Not mocking, but in understanding; approval or acceptance, even. He grabbed the older man's shirt tightly, pulling him as close as he could, rubbing his cheek against Kuzuryu's shoulder in a cat-like manner. The lawyer couldn't help but smile at his husband's behavior, seeing how his little habits are similar to a sly cat.
"You know," Chishiya broke the silence, staring at the blanket and kneading it playfully at the same time he spoke. "I think... you'd make a good father."
Kuzuryu's face reddened slightly, caught off guard by the randomness of the doctor's words. Although it was dark enough to not be seen by a glimpse, Chishiya was sharp enough to tell.
"What made you say that, though?" Kuzuryu's tune hinted a mixture of trying to maintain calmness and a subtle nervous laughter—rather shook by what Chishiya said all of a sudden.
"Hmm, is it not obvious?" He raised an eyebrow; there were visibly a lot of reasons why Chishiya would say something like that, but Kuzuryu was asking for the very specific reason of what made Chishiya decide to say that at such moment. "Simply said, you don't force yourself into caring, you don't push yourself to be concerned. It's all so pure and genuine, unlike other people." Unlike Chishiya's very own father. "The difference between them is a whole world. A part of your job, too, perhaps."
A quiet hum escaped Kuzuryu's lips.
"Are you, perchance, suggesting something?"
Chishiya looked up once again, his smug and sinister smile barely hidden.
"Might be; only if you want it to mean something."
Kuzuryu responded with a soft chuckle,
"Don't you have a morning shift tomorrow, dear? You'll die if you don't get enough sleep." He said as he was pushing Chishiya to lie down again. "Plus, I, too, have a court case tomorrow; it's going to be a long day for us both, I suppose." He exhaled sharply, lying down next to Chishiya.
"But maybe..." Kuzuryu continued, taking his glasses off. "I assume... I can consider what you said."
And without his glasses, the world was blurry enough, and he failed to see the small, mischievous smirk forming on Chishiya's face.