I could see myself falling at an alarming speed, the air whooshing from my lungs and making it very difficult for me to breathe. My lips were parted in a scream that couldn't leave my lips, and my eyes were focused on the place where I had tripped. It hadn't been a very stable edge, so why had I tested it when I knew the dangers?
Even though it felt like I had been falling in slow motion, I felt my back hit the ground sooner than I had anticipated. Whatever remaining breath I had in my lungs was gone, leaving me gasping for air and writhing for help. I reached my hands out, searching for the person in front of me.
As my fingers found his strong arm and my eyes found his tinted glasses, I realized that the fall I had taken had not been an actual physical fall, no matter how much it felt it actually had been.
I had fallen, but not from a great height. Not physically.
I'd fallen emotionally.
"Hey, don't... don't look at me like that," the blonde before me grumbled, turning his head away and blowing out cigarette smoke from his thin lips.
My expression must have been priceless at my own realization, because even he gained a very small smirk of amusement while I felt the heat on my cheeks intensify. "I can't help it." I said breathlessly, still struggling to find the air that had, somehow, been knocked from my lungs.
Shizuo scoffed and tossed his smoking stick to the ground, stepping on it lazily to quell the embers. "You look like you've been punched. C'mon, let's go before the flea shows up."
As Shizuo Heiwajima turned to lead the way to Simon's restaurant, I wondered if this was what it felt like to fall in love. Was it really this... shocking?
"Hurry up, or you're paying!" He shouted over his shoulder at me.
I shook myself from my daze and smiled, finally regaining the calm I had had minutes ago, before his smile had taken me off guard. As I ran to catch up, I again pictured myself falling, except this time, I hoped he would be there to catch me.