Aerial Attack - An Akashi Seijuurou Fan Fiction

Page 9 : Eternal Lullaby

Her petite frame keeps inching closer with the shut door to his ward. She's hesitating. The strength she's clawed together in her fragile fist looks to have faded underneath the shadow of doubt.

Aori draws a deep breath in, still unwilling to enter the door behind which is lying in her await the red-haired boy.

Her heart skips a beat when rhythmical clatter of steps fills the medicine-scented air and she throws her stare to the left, where the main staircase is. In a moment, a short, young boys enters the hallway, hiding his face behind a huge bouquet of flowers.

Aori can recognize her little friend, even when he's concealed his round face and is taking tiny, disoriented steps towards the private ward of his master.

"Kahu," tears start beading in her eyes again, but in a split second her joy of finally seeing her friend is replaced with a fit of anxiety soaking her to the bone.

By no means does she want Kahu to go first, neither does she want them to enter the ward together. She and she alone need to see Seijuuro, to put an end to this mental struggle for good.

"Don't enter, please! Give me five minutes!" Aori exclaims and darts head first inside. Without realizing it, she's just drawn nearer something she had been trying to delay for however long she could manage. A shaken sigh escapes her lips as she presses her back to the door, pleading silently that it will open and drag her back outside.

Akashi's eyes are fixed upon her, boring holes through her small body. His left iris is peeking through his swollen, blue eye sacks, his pupils blown wide. There's no readable expression present on his bruised and cut face, but the tired orbs of his say more to Aori than she'd wish to hear.

She gulps down the air she's been holding and sticks closer to the door, raising her small frame against it. She tries to reach for the knob, but she's dived too deep to turn back now.

"Come closer." The boy demands in a feeble tone, still it has its royal ring to it making Aori obey without questioning. Her feet bring her to loom over his bed, but he won't look up at her.

"Sit down so I can see your face." He orders again, and she listens. Such a good servant she is at times like this.. Akashi must be proud..

"What makes you listen to what I say now?" He mutters as he reaches up to stroke her hair.

She winces, but doesn't move a finger. Her throat refuses to answer, and she can feel anger bubbling up inside of Seijuuro as he grabs the hair on the side of her pate tighter.

He yanks the girl's head down abruptly, pressing it flat on the edge of the bunk. They look each other in the face from the same angle, and now his mien grows colder, his eyes --- ablaze, while Aori's shows despair and fright. Her soft lips tremble and voice fails to come out, cold sweat comes running down her forehead.

"Look at this face carefully, Aori, remember these scars and these scratches, remember all of them." Akashi says in a horrid tone and the girl starts to flap her head under his heavy palm, whimpering and peeping helplessly. She squints her eyes and tries not to look, but his words, like a blade, cut through her mind.

"Open your eyes." Says Seijuuro sternly, thus Aori finds herself gazing him in the eye again.

A wicked smile shapes on his lips and he puts more weight into dawning her head on the mattress. She whines and she struggles, but all in vain.

"Do I need further evidence to prove that your life belongs to me?" His voice is unusually calm, unfit for the expression he's wearing.

Aori doesn't reply for a moment, but as pain reaches her head, she tries to shake it and utters an endless line of apologies into the bed sheets.

After several seconds of playing with her downright fear, Akashi thrusts her head off the bed, nearly causing her to tumble down.

"Go." This combination of only two letters sends her flying out of the ward in tears. She shuts the door behind herself and runs away, into the lobby, bumping into everyone and knocking off whatever gets in her reach.

Her heart crumples into itself from all the pain she has to endure, she doesn't look back. Why did that car hit Akashi and not her?

...Or why at least did it fail to kill him?

Kahu, in the meantime, has already dropped the bouquet of flowers that was sent to Akashi, and is now rushing after his friend, scattering beautiful petals across the hallways.

He finds her sitting in an overcrowded lobby with her palms shielding her face and shoulders twitching constantly. He takes the empty seat beside her and pats her bony shoulder soothingly.

She reacts to the touch like a radar, immediately draping her arms around the small boy.

Kahu doesn't ask anything before she spills her whole heart on his shoulder, until then, he holds her in a strong hug and hums something that reminds Aori of a lullaby her mother used to sing to her.

She dries her eyes clean and forces a heartily smile for Kahu, then nods dismissively. She doesn't want to tell him what happened, she can't bring herself to mention it ever again.

"I'm staying, Kahu." She announces with a feeling of a stone weighing her heart down.

"I won't run away again, I really won't." She breaks down, forgetting to erase the smile off her face. It worries him, but he won't remark, if she feels safer this way.