title: in the cold light of day
prompt: cigarette ashes on motel floors.
pairing: usagi/yusuke.
spotify: happier, bastille & marshmello.
notes: i kind of diverted from the prompt a bit, just to give myself a little more wiggle room, since i haven't written fanfiction in what feels like years. i've been wrapped up in the world of tumblr rp, so if things start to get a little aimless & prose-y, i apologize. this isn't particularly long, or have much detail or backstory, but i'm attempting to start off slow as i get back into the habit of writing fanfiction again.
"Those things are bad for you, you know."
Cigarette smoke filters through the room, followed by a snort that echoes in the silence of the empty classroom they had taken upon themselves to occupy.
"Ya don't say?" he murmurs, just before taking another drag of the cigarette sitting between calloused fingertips.
It's a routine of theirs. An hour or two hidden away from the world in a dusty, empty classroom, long since deemed unusable by the school's faculty, where they sit in comfortable silence until he pulls out a cigarette and she decides to remind him just how disgusting a habit it is.
She wonders if he's ever going to get tired of hearing her repeat those words. He has yet to tell her off, and she assumes he cares enough to endure the reminder.
"For fuck's sake, Buns, if you can't stand the smoke say something."
She blinks, watching as he puts the cigarette butt out by smashing its burning tip atop one of the dust – covered desk tops. "What?"
"The look on your face was getting on my nerves," is all the answer she gets, but she can't seem to fight the sliver of a smile that tugs at the corner of her lips.
"I only bug you about it, because I don't want you dying on me." Pushing herself to her feet, she makes her way closer to him and plops down beside him.
"Like I haven't encountered things far more deadly than a friggin' cigarette." he grinds out, arms folding across his chest. "Like you haven't encountered things more deadly than a friggin' cigarette."
"That doesn't count." she huffs, lips pursing and blue eyes narrowing. "That's completely different, and you know it."
"Not really. We're gonna die, one way or another."
There it was, that underlying fear that lived within her.
He was absolutely right, in that sense. They were going to die, one way or another, and she was horribly, terribly afraid of him dying on her. And she was more than certain he was terrified of her dying on him, but they never addressed it.
They were just kids.
Just kids when they were pulled into their respective destinies.
Usagi might have perhaps found it poetic once upon a time; best friends, childhood friends, growing up and finding out they were part of this larger, grander story where their lives were no longer their own.
Instead, it was just a constant state of her being afraid for him, and he for her.
"You don't get to die, sorry." She murmurs, soft but holding all the weight in the world as her hand slips into his, fingers lacing themselves through his. "You promised."
Another snort, but he gives her hand a gentle squeeze and she is appeased for the time being.
"That promise is more trouble than its worth."
"Doesn't matter, you made it, now you have to keep it."
"You're more trouble than you're worth." He sighs, but she's smiling that smile at him, and she knows by the look on his face that there is no true weight in his words.
"Yeah, but you love me anyway."
He says nothing, but the faint flush gracing his cheeks is all the confirmation she needs to lean over and press a soft kiss to the corner of his lips.
"You're so annoying."
Just like that, they're back to bickering, but she is comforted, and when they make their way back into the world, she feels just a little better.
A little more at ease.
Even more so when he refuses to stop holding her hand.
end.