Desperation Is a Quiet Spiral
Ryuen wasn't eating again.
Not out of rebellion. Not out of pride.
But because food tasted like ash when you lived in a state of perpetual suspension-dangling on the edge of a silence that had come to mean more than words ever could.
Each passing day without a word from Ayanokouji stretched the air thinner around him. He couldn't focus. Couldn't plan. Couldn't even enjoy the things he once weaponized: chaos, intimidation, dominance.
He didn't want noise.
He wanted reaction.
He wanted to feel real again.
And the only person who seemed capable of granting him that reality... was the one who refused to look at him.
So Ryuen made a decision:
If Ayanokouji wouldn't speak to him on his own terms-
He'd force him to.
⸻
Staged Collision
It started small.
A subtle elbow in the hallway. Just enough to brush Ayanokouji's side.
No response.
The next day, Ryuen stepped into his path near the vending machines, too close to be coincidence.
Still nothing.
On day three, Ryuen dropped a book on Ayanokouji's desk during break. It wasn't a message. It wasn't a threat.
It was bait.
Ayanokouji didn't so much as flinch.
Just stared down at the page he was reading-as if Ryuen were air, furniture, an irrelevance beneath consideration.
It was maddening.
And deeply intimate.
Because Ryuen realized that not being acknowledged by someone who knows you completely... is far worse than being hated.
⸻
Provocation: Open and Unfiltered
He escalated.
Cornered Ayanokouji on the third-floor staircase-isolated, between classes, where even the cameras wouldn't reach.
He stood at the landing like a question mark that had grown legs and teeth.
"What?" Ryuen said. "You forget how to talk now?"
Silence.
No blink. No change in posture. Ayanokouji just looked at him-measured, remote, dispassionate.
Ryuen stepped closer, violating space.
"You break me open like some goddamn toy, then toss me aside like I wasn't worth the trouble. You like watching me wait for it, don't you?"
Still no answer.
His throat felt tight.
"You want me to beg for it?" he hissed. "Is that it?"
That's when Ayanokouji finally spoke.
One word. Calm. Surgical.
"Why?"
Ryuen froze.
Not because of the question.
But because it wasn't a command.
YOU ARE READING
Chains of Command
FanfictionAfter the rooftop confrontation, Ayanokouji defeats Ryuen-physically. But what neither expected was what the fight would reveal. Ryuen discovers something he can't unfeel: a need for structure, for control-not to exert it, but to submit to it. And A...
