"Damn that Shigure..." Kyo fumed as he stormed through the woods. "I need some air..." He continued on his way until he came across a sharp cliff. It seemed like a good place to cool off. He wanted to be collected when Tohru came home. He moved to sit on it's edge when a shadow a couple feet away from him made him jump.
"J-Jesus, you damn rat, you scared the hell out of me..." He laughed nervously, sensing tension in the air. He didn't know why he admitted being scared, but something was off. He didn't like it. The hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention.
"Kyo..." The ghost of a boy trailed off, his eyes still transfixed on the horizon.
"Since when do you call me Kyo, and not 'stupid cat' or something like that?" He waited for an answer that never came before launching his next question. "What are you doing out here?"
"Kyo..." He started again, impossibly still. "I'm...tired, Kyo...I'm really rather tired..."
"D-do you want to head back then and go to sleep? You never were one for being awake..." His attempt at a joke fell flat, but he kept at it. Something in him, some sort of instinct, told him to get Yuki back to the house. "Come on, Tohru will be back soon..."
"I'm really, really tired..." His voice cracked. The words came out so pained Kyo wanted to cringe, to give into his quietest fears. Such was the power of a mouse.
"C-come on, Yuki, let's go back..."
"You take care of Tohru..make sure Shigure doesn't get into trouble...Tell Aya..." He laughed humorlessly for a moment, reveling in some sort of cruel inside joke. "Tell him he better dress me up well..."
Kyo ran a step and grabbed his arm, pulling the slender boy around to face him. "What the fuck are you going on about? No way in hell would you let that pervert Ayame touch you!"
Yuki's tear stained eyes met his own and Kyo backed down for a moment. A shocked moment where saying nothing spoke loud enough to drive him deaf. Yuki's arm slipped out of his grasp like a whisper, and he fell backwards.
The look on his face was that of hope. A grief stricken hope that begged for this pain to be gone.
"No!" Kyo screeched and knelt on the cliffside, not believing his own eyes. "No! No, damn it! Damn it all!" He clenched his fists, tears crawling down from his eyelashes. "You...you idiot! You idiot!" He went on for an eternity. "You...you damn idiot...! I hate you! God! What were you thinking? What about Tohru? What about...Tohru...?"
He sank down to laying on his stomach. His bones had collapsed, refusing to work. "I'm coming down there and I'm going to punch you so hard!"
Please...he begged whatever deity that had stuck around this long. Please...don't be dead...don't be dead...
He found his strength and stood up. He raced down the hill as fast as his weary legs could carry him. He reached the bottom in no time and saw what he had been refusing to believe.
Yuki's glass body lay shattered on the ground. He was painted scarlet and donned in his torn school uniform. He was a beautiful mess.
"No...no..." He fell back down, on the life escaping his muscles. He laughed through his tears. "I never even got the chance to beat you, bastard!"
There they were, two lost souls, collapsed heaps of clothes, lying only yards away from each other. One was gone with the passing breeze, the other left behind. It was a sick artwork.
Kyo laid there past nightfall. Yuki did too.
"Kyo-kun...where are you...? You're not so mad you ran away, right...? It was just a joke...come on, Tohru's really worried, poor girl..." Shigure's voice ran in between the trees but skidded right past the two boys. A little yellow light bobbed over, and there was a yell. "Kyo!"
Before time could blink, Shigure was at his side. "Are you hurt? Why are you lying here?"
The tears began anew. "Hey, don't cry...it's going to be okay now, I'm here..." Shigure's familiar voice lulled him away from his stupor.
"Y-y-yuk-ki's...yuki's..." He cursed himself over how weak he sounded as he forced the words out. "he's...G-Gure..." He wrapped his arms around the older man. Shigure blinked then smiled, rubbing his back.
"It's okay...where's Yuki? Can you tell me?"
Kyo pointed a shaky hand of accusation. The flashlight danced it's way over the corpse.
"Oh my..." The flashlight hit the pine needles mutely. Silence mocked them. Shigure pulled Kyo into a tighter hug. Kyo just started repeating again. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry...I'm sorry..."
They waited again for an answer as the sky dimmed to a red. No such luck. "Come on, let's get you washed up..." Shigure stood, pulling the limp redhead into a standing position. He hiccuped and looked up at him. "Don't worry, I'll come back later..." They avoided the words they could.
And they walked away, but the brave man couldn't help but look back once, swallowing hard. All he could think about, all he would ever be able to think about, is how lifeless that boy's eyes looked.
How all these years his eyes always had that lackluster, even now.
How he didn't even realize the boy was dead at first.
He had died a long time ago.