I got this idea after giving a random prompt to my friends. And this fic turned out to be rather strange. O.o Anyway, thsi takes place after Hokuto's death and before the time-skip shown in the last chapter of Tokyo Babylon, 'ANNEX START'.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this.
He woke up.
The room was dark. A squint at the clock told him that it was in the middle of the night. He looked around the silent room and then on the bed he was sitting on. He fingered the bed sheet, suddenly finding the empty bed extremely wide and all too big.
He felt cold.
He moved to the edge of the bed and put his feet on the floor. He didn't flinch at the unexpected coldness of the floor. He walked to the kitchen. With a gloved hand, he reached for a cup by the sink and poured water into it. He lifted the cup to drink and paused. He couldn't feel the texture of it very well. He stared at the cup for a moment and poured the water away. He waited until the water was drained off completely before putting the cup back in the sink.
He padded back to the room. His eyes caught the mirror as the moonlight filtering through the window glistened off it. He stepped in front of the mirror and placed his hand on the cool surface. He stared at his reflection. A pale round face framed by short ebony hair that fell in front of his ears. His emerald eyes blinked back in the mirror. He didn't smile. He didn't for a long time already.
He imagined that it was a face similar to his own staring back at him. A face that could easily be his duplicate with the exact same haircut. He imagined the face having a big goofy grin and emerald eyes that sparkled.
"You should try smiling a bit more! And let the world know of your smile!"
He tried to grin like her but dropped it immediately. Though they have the same face, the smile looked strange on him. Almost hideous.
"Hey, you must remember that though we look exactly the same, we're different people. Individuals. You're you and I'm me. We should never try to be each other, okay?"
He backed off from the mirror, suddenly repulsed by what he had attempted to do. He stared at the mirror again, looking at his – her – face and decided. Metallic silver glinted on the table beside the mirror and he took it with his right hand, slotting his fingers into the two handles.
He held the scissors beside his hair as he stared once again into her face. With his left hand, he took the long hair that fell in front of his hair and took a deep breath.
Snip, snip.
He proceeded with the hair on his other side.
Snip, snip.
The strands of hair fell onto the floor as he put the scissors down. He stared at his reflection. He seemed older, without the childishness. Mature. The sides of his face felt cool without the hair blocking them now. He reached to touch the now short hair. He found that he couldn't feel the hair well with his gloves and decided to take them off.
He tugged on the black leather and pulled his left hand free of it. He held it up, fascinated by the white and smooth skin. It was ironic. It was his own skin and yet it was foreign to him. He traced the inverted pentagram embodied in it before proceeding to pull the other glove off. He dropped the gloves and held both of his hands close to him.
He looked steadily at the reflection. At the reflection of the cropped hair and the uncovered white hands. At his reflection.
"Hey, Nee-san, I'm me now. I'm Subaru. Sumeragi Subaru."
He gazed at his appearance for another moment before stepping away from the mirror. He left the hair and gloves on the floor, abandoned.
At a faraway building, a dark-clad figure stood at the rooftop. Like an eagle stalking his prey, he watched the teenager's every move.
Any comments? This is a short one, I know, but I sort of expected it. Please drop a review if possible!