Title: To live
Prompt: Prompt 10—there's no place like home
Summary: He never expected to want to stay, to want to live.
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"Break?" Shelly calls, waking him up. She shouldn't let him nap so, not on her lap at least and not when he should be doing so many other things.
"Break!" Her voice is louder now, more insistent, and he can't understand why. She's almost never called him like this.
"Break!"
Shelly, no this is Sharon. This is Sharon and Reim and Break opens his eyes to see them running to him.
Somehow, even at the end of the world, even in this state, they've managed to find him.
He can never escape them and he is a fool to try.
"How?" His voice is already leaving, breaking as he gets up. His body, his body creaks and rattles and even as he reaches for them, he can feel the tremors running up and down his spine.
This is it. This is it, each step, each shake cries. This is all you've got.
This is your last chance, your last goodbye. He grabs them with whatever strength he has left, with all the power that drives him.
He has never been afraid of this. For all those years he lived, all those things he has done, Break has never worried about death.
It's just a last penance he has to give to a girl he let down. To a family he ruined. A final sentence he has carried for years.
No, he has never been afraid of this last punishment.
Staring at their frightened eyes now, hearing their tearful voices, for the first time he wonders if this really has to be the case. Does he really have to die? Is there no other way?
"I don't want to die," he shouts, he cries, a dying scream escaping his body. A desperate hope and plea.
His own desire surprises him and he can feel them stiffen in his arms. They cling back, their hands digging into his skin.
As if they could anchor him to reality.
But there's no extension for him
"How cruel of you." No, he never wanted to feel this. To want this. He never wanted to but he can't stop these emotions as they flow over him. "Just when I thought I could exit stage left by myself."
If only he had more time. If only.
He hugs them harder, trying to convey in these last seconds everything that has filled him for a lifetime. A lifetime of love, a lifetime of joy, a lifetime of happiness he had no right to have.
A lifetime he hopes they have, all of them.
Live, he wants to command them. Live and be happy. Live and see what I cannot.
His voice refuses to work, his body already strained beyond helping. No, there is no extension and he has his judgement to face.
Goodbye, he thinks, he sighs. His body relaxes involuntarily, his grip loosening. He can hear Sharon's cries as she tries to grab onto him. Reim begs him to hold on, just a little longer.
Goodbye, he breathes.
Goodbye.