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𝟐𝟏 || 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐒 ||

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Everything is dark.

    Dark, empty, and suffocating.

    Keisuke keeps closing and reopening his eyes, hoping that something will change but, of course, he's met with the same darkness he's been trapped in for who knows how long. It doesn't matter where he sets his sights to; he's met with the same view of an endless void.

    The boy scoffs, irritability bubbling at the pit of his stomach as he whips his head around in search of anything that stands out. As expected, he sees nothing. Just blackness.

    What the hell...

    With a heavy sigh Keisuke continues his search through the darkness.

    How did he end up here? He doesn't know.

    Where is everyone? He still doesn't know.

    Where's the exit to this boring place? Again, like the last two answers, he doesn't know.

    He's lost track of time; if he has to guess, he's been in this dark world for maybe an hour or so just walking on seemingly nothing yet something at the same time.

    He wishes he knows where he is. God, Mikey's gonna have a field day when he finds out that keisuke got himself stuck in some weird dimension. The lost boy can already hear the teasing words that would spill out of his friend's mouth.

    'Oh my god, what are you? A six year old who lost their mommy?' Is something Keisuke can totally see coming out of Mikey's mouth. And, of course, Haruchiyo isn't any better.

    'Seriously Keisuke? Do we need to put you on a leash?' Haruchiyo would probably say upon finding out about Keisuke's predicament. He has always been an instigator, even if he keeps denying it...

    If Senju heard about Keisuke getting lost in this weird world, she'd probably laugh her ass off and mock the boy. Like her older brother, Senju is also an instigator, although she's a lot more open about it than Haru is.

    Takemichi, on the other hand, might actually fret over Keisuke and hug him with those oddly comforting arms of his. He'd probably cry, like he always does when something unfortunate happens, and Keisuke would have to be the one comforting him instead. He'd ignore the way his heart squeezes at the sight of tears rolling down Takemichi's cheeks in steady streams, dripping onto the floor beneath their feet as he hugged Keisuke with allll his might...

    ...why is Keisuke even thinking about this all of a sudden? He needs to find his way out of this place before his mom finds out that he's missing! Aw man, his mom is gonna raise hell when she finds out he got lost—

    A loud murmuring cuts through Keisuke's thoughts.

    Whipping his head around, for the hundredth time, he finally spots something in the distance.

    A kid is on the ground curled up into a small ball...weird...

    Keisuke ignores the bad feeling in his gut and runs towards the kid. Maybe this stranger will have the answers to Keisuke's long list of questions! Well, he only had like three questions, but whatever! All that matters is that Keisuke gets the hell outta here and back to his apartment before his mama starts freaking out like a crazy lady.

    The closer he gets to the kid, the more he's able to fully register their appearance. He spots the platinum blonde buzzcut, the Godzilla shirt, blood stained fingers gripping his legs and immediately starts running faster and faster.

    It's Haru!

    What's he doing here? How'd he end up in this place? What happened to him? Why is there blood? Why is he curled up like that? Why is he mumbling? Why, why, WHY?!

    "HARU!!! HARU OVER HERE!!!"

    Haruchiyo doesn't react to Keisuke's voice in the slightest.

    "HARU—IT'S ME, KEISUKE!!!"

    Nothing.

    By the time Keisuke finally reaches Haru he's hyperventilating—breathing in and out rapidly as he stares down at the motionless figure of Haru. In an effort to get the boy to yell at him, Keisuke kicks his leg hoping it would do the trick.

    But nothing happened.

    Ok...this is really starting to freak him out.

    "H-Haruchiyo?" Keisuke calls out again. And, like the countless other times he tried grabbing Haru's attention, he doesn't move an inch. Not even a centimeter.

    He's like a statue—frozen in time and lacking a pulse.

    "Cmon, Haruchiyo, stop playing around and tell me how you got here!" Keisuke shouts, feeling his own heart picking up speed the longer he stares down at his friend.

    Keisuke falls to his knees. "Wake up Haru!!"

    He reaches out and grabs ahold of his friend's bloody hand. He doesn't know why Haru's hands are covered in this red substance, and he desperately wants an answer from his unresponsive friend, but he brushes the question away and focuses on the task ahead of him. "We gotta get out of here!!!"

    The skin to skin contact does nothing.

    The hell is Keisuke supposed to do?!

    It's not like Keisuke can resort to his 'attack till he fights back' plan considering how Haru's already got blood on his hands...literally.

    How can he get Haru out of this trance of his—

    Wait...Keisuke has an idea.

    It's kinda a bad one considering how uptight and rigid Haru is on a daily basis, but maybe, just maybe it'll work...

    After sending a prayer to his mother, Keisuke sets his sights back onto Haruchiyo. He lets go of Haru's hand, takes a deep breath, and—

    He places his hands on both sides of Haru's head and yanks up, letting Keisuke get a good look at Haruchiyo, to hopefully make the boy snap and fight back in that way he always does when someone's touches his head, but—

    Keisuke's eyes widened.

    Haru's entire face is smothered in blood.

    The boy is smiling with two holes on the sides of his mouth. His cheeks, his chin, his neck is just drenched in blood and—and he's smiling!!!

    HE'S FUCKING SMILING!!!

    "HOLY SHIT HARU, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" Keisuke's screams earn himself a quiet giggle from the boy covered in blood.

    What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck

    "WHO DID THIS?! TELL ME DAMN IT!!!" Haru's laughs get louder and louder with each question Keisuke asks.

   "STOP FUCKING LAUGHING AND ANSWER ME!!!"

    Haru straight up cackles in his face—more blood pours out of the two holes by Haru's mouth. The red substance trails down his face, drips off his chin, and lands on the fabric of Keisuke's jeans.

    Drip. Drip. Drip.

    Keisuke is about to have a whole ass panic attack if Haru doesn't start acting like a normal human being.

    "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

    The noise makes Keisuke's ears ring.

    Keisuke quickly unlatches the boy's head and covers his ears as Haru's laughter gets louder and louder.

    There's nothing Keisuke can do.

    He failed.

    He failed Haru.

    He couldn't protect him.

    He couldn't save him.

    He couldn't—

    Then, with a jolt, Keisuke wakes up.

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Mikey brutally attacked Haruchiyo over a toy plane.

    A toy-fucking-plane.

   It's a very hard pill for Keisuke to swallow and, at times, he wonders if what he saw actually happened.

    Mikey still drags him and Michi out of their apartments to hangout against their will, so nothing different there. His eyes—although dark and unsettling—no longer hold that emotionless look from the day he pierced Haru's skin with his own fingers. He makes the same witty jokes, fights people who piss him off, and pulls the two boys around town by the hand without a single care in the world.

    He's acting like nothing has happened.

    And...Keisuke's not sure how to feel about that.

    Haru didn't deserve to be punished in such a painful way. It was no doubt an accident; Haruchiyo isn't the type to break things intentionally like Mikey and Keisuke.

    Keisuke sighs.

    He was still a little uncertain as to what he should do...but he can worry about Mikey's mental state later.

    Before Keisuke can talk himself out of it, he unlocks the door to the Hanagaki's apartment with the key he snagged last year.

    Upon opening the door, he's greeted with the sight of a familiar messy apartment. The Hanagaki's aren't exactly the tidiest people Keisuke knows, but it never bothered the boy. Keisuke himself isn't the cleanest person in the world, but his own mother is very strict when it comes to keeping their apartment sparkly clean. As Keisuke steps around the cardboard boxes and dirty clothes, he thinks about how disgusted his mother would be upon entering the Hanagaki's apartment. She'd probably volunteer herself as a cleaning lady and fix the apartment till it was shiny and brand new.

    Keisuke eventually makes it to Takemichi's room. When he opens the door, his brown eyes are immediately drawn to the bundle of blankets on the bed curled up in a ball. The blankets would rise and fall very slowly, like the person—or kid—under them is trying to get their breathing under control.

    With a sigh, Keisuke moves around the toys on the ground, makes it to Takemichi's bed and—

    "MICHIIIII!!!" Keisuke screams while tackling the boy on the bed.

    The hidden kid yelps in surprise. His shouts are muffled by the blanket covering his body, creating incoherent sounds that sound vaguely like 'get off!' And 'leave me alone!'

    Keisuke ignores Takemichi's poor attempts at getting out of his hold and tightens his embrace around the boy with a wide smile.

    "You can't keep hiding from me Michi!!!" Keisuke exclaims loudly, his head nuzzling against Takemichi's through the blanket. If anyone were to see Keisuke like this, he'd be mortified...but for now—At Least—he doesn't have to worry about someone walking in on him practically cuddling his best friend. He'd never admit it out loud, but he might've memorized Ms.Hanagaki's schedule just so he could break into their house to see Michi whenever he wanted (he has a feeling she already knows about it, but she hasn't said anything yet).

    "I'm not hiding!" Takemichi protests weakly from underneath the sheets.

    "Then look at me!"

    Takemichi finally stops squirming around (hallelujah....). Keisuke can sense movement from underneath the blanket, but he continues to wait with baited breath for Takemichi to remove the bundles of blankets that kept him hidden from the whole world. Very slowly, the blankets are pulled down to reveal the curly haired boy.

    His blue doe-like eyes are filled with tears. His nose, scrunched up and bright red, is producing an alarming amount of snot. His lips quiver and shake under Keisuke's gaze; the urge to comfort the crying boy has never been stronger.

    "W-Why are you—"

    "I keep seeing him in my dreams, Kei-Chan!" Takemichi whines while clutching the blankets close to his chest. "He's hurt and smiling and laughing like he's not bleeding and I can't do anything to help him!" He rambles madly, his whole body vibrating with fear.

    A sense of dread enters Keisuke's mind as he thinks back to the nightmare he had about Haru.

    Keisuke isn't the only one having dreams about the incident.

    Keisuke sighs, a rush of relief sweeping through his body. He knows he shouldn't feel relieved about his friend having the same gruesome nightmares, but At Least now he isn't alone. He's not the only one who sees an injured Haruchiyo everytime he closes his eyes—he can't help but admit to himself that it eases his mind a bit.

    "...You're getting nightmares about Haru too?" Keisuke decides to ask just in case; he doesn't want to automatically assume that they're sharing the same dream, but if they are...

    "Y-Yeah...you've been getting nightmares too?"

    Keisuke heaves out a shaky laugh. Suddenly filled with exhaustion, he slumps his body against Takemichi and indulges himself in the warmth his body gives off. Instead of pushing Keisuke away, Takemichi welcomes him with open arms, wrapping his limbs around Keisuke's shoulders and pulling him into a comforting embrace. "Maybe," Keisuke mumbles out, his face reddening at the easy admittance.

    "...Is Haru bleeding in your dreams?" Takemichi asks quietly, his hands reaching up to play with Keisuke's wild black hair. A content sigh escapes Keisuke's lips at the soft touch.

    "Always."

    "...Do you ever see Mikey?"

    Keisuke tenses up at the name.

    As if on instinct, he looks around the room, half-expecting Mikey to show up and drag them out with a smile on his lips like he never brutally assaulted their best friend.

    "N-No." Really? Now he's stuttering?! What has this world come to?!

    Keisuke desperately hopes that Takemichi won't draw attention to his mess up. Instead of pointing out the stutter that slipped past Keisuke's lips, Takemichi hums defeatedly and sinks deeper into the blankets that surround his body.

    "Mikey's always in mine."

    Keisuke perks up.

    "Really?" He finds himself asking, a little shocked at the new information. Whenever he dreamed about the incident, it was always just him and Haru in a pitch black room that never ended. To hear that Mikey has made a guest appearance in Takemichi's dreams instead of Keisuke's, leaves a sour taste in his mouth.

    Takemichi nods. "Yeah..." he confirms, his voice filled with fear and exhaustion. "He was holding me down—keeping me away from helping Haru..."

    A cold chill runs up Keisuke's spine.

    He desperately wants to protest that Mikey would never do such a thing—that he would never subject Takemichi to such a fate, but after everything that's happened...

    ...He's not too sure anymore.

    Keisuke tightens his arms around Takemichi as he hears the boy sniffling louder and louder.

    "Takemichi, listen to me."

    He can hear the sound of his sniffling getting quieter as he tries to give his friend his full undivided attention.

    Good.

    "From now on, I'll always be by your side, Michi! Let me protect you with everything I've got, ok?"

    A small laugh escapes Takemichi once the declaration leaves Keisuke's mouth. He immediately pulls away with his cheeks set aflamed, watching the once crying boy laugh his heart out like Keisuke just said the most funniest thing in the world.

    (He ignored the way his heart fluttered at the sight...)

    "Hey! What's so funny?!" Keisuke exclaims angrily, feeling himself getting more riled up with embarrassment as Takemichi continues to laugh like a hooligan.

    "Nothing!" Takemichi shouts from in between laughs. "Nothing at all—I swear!!!" Despite swearing to Keisuke, Takemichi keeps cackling.

    That does very little to reassure Keisuke...

    "HEY!!! STOP LAUGHING!!! IM SERIOUS!!!"

    "I-I'm sorry Kei-Chan!!! It's just—"

    "It's just what?!"

    "I—I was about to say the same thing to you!!!"

    Keisuke's world suddenly stops spinning.

    "...what?" He asks, a little unsure if what he's hearing is what he thinks he's hearing.

    Takemichi smiles sheepishly, his cheeks lighting up with a small blush.

    "We'll—We'll protect each other!" Takemichi declares with a bright smile on his face. His eyes no longer hold any tears, his red nose isn't fighting to keep the snot at bay, and he's beaming at Keisuke like he holds the world in his hands.

    He swears, to whatever god watches over them, that his heart skips a beat.

    The more he stares into Takemichi's big blue irises the more he feels himself heating up. His hands begin to shake, his ears start to overheat, his mouth feels unbelievably dry, and—

    Oh no...

   Is this...? Was he in—

    "Kei-Chan? Are you ok?" Takemichi asks, successfully cutting through Keisuke's thoughts before they get even more confusing.

    He'll figure this out later...

    Ignoring the rapid beating of his heart, Keisuke puts on his best smile.

    "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine—hey, I got an idea!"

    Takemichi's face immediately falls.

    "...is it a bad one?"

    Keisuke rapidly shakes his head.

    "No—it's the past plan in the entire world!!!"

    Takemichi heaves out a sigh and leans back, fixing Keisuke with a raised brow. "What are we gonna be doing?"

    Keisuke smirks.

    "We're gonna break Haru out of the hospital."

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"We're gonna get caught, Kei-Chan!"

    Keisuke rolls his eyes and continues to drag Takemichi through the hospital.

    So far they're been able to avoid any doctors by ducking under tables and army crawling across the floor (which are definitely gonna leave a few bruises on Keisuke's elbows...) but they've yet to find the room Haru is staying in.

    "We will get caught if you keep raising your voice Michi!"

    "S-Sorry!"

    Without anymore complaints from a certain blue eyed boy (AHEM, TAKEMICHI, AHEM), they continue their top secret mission by evading the doctors and taking cover every time an employee walks by.

    Keisuke can't help but feel a little giddy; traveling through the halls and hiding from workers makes him feel like he's in an action movie! Man, Keisuke can already see it now: The Great Adventures of KeI and Michi! A show where Keisuke and his trusty sidekick, Takemichi, complete dangerous missions and return home as heroes. Maybe they'll live together in a big mansion too! One by a river that has three stories filled with cats of all shapes and sizes! They'll hang their rewards up on the walls for everyone to see, hand out autographs to fans, save the world over and over again, return home together and melt in each others arms—

    Wait whAT?!

    Keisuke nearly trips and falls on his face.

    "Kei-Chan! Are you ok?" Takemichi exclaims from beside him, his warm hands reaching up to keep Keisuke steady and he wonders, for a split second, what those hands would feel like caressing his face—

    Alright, he really needs to stop thinking. His mind is becoming a war zone...

    Despite loving the feeling of Takemichi