it was a quiet, slow thursday at the metropolitan police task force headquarters. daisuke's eyes darted from mahoro, who was eating gummies at the lounge, to kamei who typing away at his desk, and finally...
wait wait wait.
this isn't right.
daisuke pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache starting to pound in his temples.
something was missing.
haru.
where is haru?
"mahoro san."
she looked at him, a fish-shaped gummy between her fingers. "yes kambe kun?"
"where is haru?"
"haru? who's that?"
daisuke felt sick.
"haru. haru katou."
"umm, i don't know anyone by that name kambe kun. do you, kamei san?"
kamei shrugged and went back to work.
and daisuke felt really, really sick.
"excuse me, i...i need to go." he got up from his seat and made a beeline towards the door.
"go? go where kambe kun? ah! kambe kun!"
mahoro's voice was drowned out by the rain.
the rain of that day.
he looked behind, and the office was gone.
a figure was sprawled on the ground like a carcass, crimson rain washing over it, spilling into the concrete, slipping between thin cracks like the stamens of red spider lilies.
the smell of blood in the air.
and he felt the heaviness of a lover in his arms.
he held that weight closer.
"daisuke." haru's voice said. crimson red decorated a broken body, spilling from parted lips and peeking through ruined clothes.
"is this a dream?"
the haru in that dream frowned at that, and nodded.
"i am still alive, so i guess at least it's a good dream?"
"i know." he gently brushed away a strand of hair from haru's face. "you called me daisuke."
"you're right. i never call you daisuke, so this must be a wild, wild dream."
"you are still alive." daisuke said firmly, as if to reassure haru, and most importantly, to reassure himself.
"and you are still so stubborn."
he held haru's face so gently, so tenderly that it would've made haru smile.
but death is not so merciful to the beloved.
"what do you think daisuke? am i going to die when you wake up?"
"you are not going to die." daisuke snapped. the word "die" tasted terrible in his mouth.
"how arrogant, mr rich boy. you think if you loved me i would never die?"
"because i'd protect you-"
"you didn't." haru's words were full of thorns, and it stung. daisuke couldn't tell if it was the rain or his own tears that was pouring down his cheeks.
haru smiles, his eyes cold.
"you never protected me."
"haru-"
