Warnings: angst, possible OOCness & cultural inaccuracy, all the same jazz.
Akashi dials Tetsuya's number once again and listens to the dial tone.
It's scary, really, to realise that Tetsuya might actually be dead; it's been over two weeks since the call with Tetsuya's father and Tetsuya hasn't picked up even one of Akashi's calls.
The number you have dialled cannot be reached… Akashi ends the call with an impatient groan.
When his mother calls him for dinner only moments later, he reluctantly leaves his room and gets seated at the table, ready to endure a whole dinner with his parents.
Family dinner. What a joyous occasion it is in the Akashi household.
At least the parents seem to genuinely enjoy themselves every time. The son, however, sits there as stiff as a statue, staring at his food with no expression. Eventually his mother glances at him and frowns when she notices the untouched meal.
"What's wrong, Seijuurou? Aren't you hungry?"
The redhead shakes his head slowly. He hasn't had much of an appetite ever since he came back to this house. But he needs to eat, otherwise he'll never have the strength to escape and get to Tetsuya again.
Carefully, he picks up the chopsticks and thanks for the food. The food is good, of course, since it's made by a professional, but even so, he's much rather be having dinner anywhere but here with his parents' eyes on him, watching his every movement like hawks.
So annoying.
And why do they need to watch him that closely anyway? It's not like he's going to choke himself on a carrot or something.
"Tetsuya never stared at me when I ate with him." His tone is as calm as ever, not giving any of his irritation away, and his expression doesn't reveal anything either. Nevertheless his words seem to strike his parents like a whip. They exchange a glance before his father turns to him.
"I really wish you wouldn't mention that boy again," the man says in a stiff voice. Akashi freezes. Oh wow, now he can't even talk about the things he wants?
That's it.
He's done with these people.
These two who call themselves his parents and yet they have failed to understand why their son feels so unhappy that he has attempted to take his own life three times. These people who now just keep on talking, completely failing to notice that Seijuurou has stopped eating, put his chopsticks on the table and is now just sitting there in silence.
Fuck them and their pretentious dinner.
"I'm so sorry to interrupt but could you shut up?"
That look of surprise and disbelief on their faces is immensely satisfying. Akashi smiles sweetly, throwing them off even more, and the only thing he can think of is why he hasn't done this earlier.
"I don't think you have even once asked me what I want to do with my life, whether it's my wish to take over the family company or if there's something else I'd like to do. And frankly, it is not. If you ever wondered why I've tried to kill myself three times, here's your answer: I'm not really alive. I'm just a puppet and you're the ones who decide everything that happens to me. However, I've had enough of it."
His mother – no, the woman who gave birth to him stares at him in shock. People like her don't deserve to be parents. She's trash, just like her husband.
"I'm not going to stay here and let you break my mind. I have the right to leave this family if I choose to, and I do." Akashi stands up abruptly, his chair toppling over to the floor with a loud bang. "I'm leaving now. You, for all I care, can go fuck yourselves."
They gasp, still frozen in place by the shock of Seijuurou's unexpected outburst as well as his choice of words; he's never been one to swear.
"And if you oppose me, I'll kill you." Akashi knows his parents have always found his heterochromatic eyes unnerving; now, he has a chance to use that to his advantage, to immobilise them. They don't need to stay paralysed for long. All he needs is enough time to get out of the house.
Just five minutes.
Then he'll never have to come here again. Because this time, he'll stay free.
Akashi checks his pocket; the phone is safe there. As he swiftly makes his way into the entrance, he hears his parents' voices from the dining room. Damn. He takes his shoes, slips them on, grabs a coat and runs out.
The stairs feel unstable underneath his feet but he keeps running, counting the steps as he goes. 100, 101, 102… upon reaching the ground floor, he half-stumbles to the main door, pushing it open and finally, finally he's outside.
It's snowing, the flakes slowly dancing in the air before they fall into the ground and meld into the whiteness there.
Akashi takes a deep breath and keeps running.
"So you're going to Osaka for university?"
Kuroko nods, slowly sipping on a vanilla milkshake, his favourite. Kagami seems a bit disappointed. "Then we can't hang out that often. Well, I guess we'll just have to call and stuff."
Kuroko nods again, not meeting Kagami's eyes. He should be happy about having a friend to talk with, someone who seems keen on keeping in touch with him, but all he feels is emptiness. There's a void inside him, and even though he knows how he could fill it, at least partially, he can't.
He's scared of contacting Akashi again. Why, he's not even quite sure. But somehow ever since he was hospitalised, he's thought that he can't call Akashi again. And in truth, he kind of knows why.
He's guilty. He promised to Akashi he wouldn't give up, that he'd wait until they could meet again, and he really was going to hold onto his word. And having Akashi know he failed… oh, he just couldn't bear it.
Suddenly Kuroko's phone starts ringing. He startles, pulling the device out of his pocket. The caller id says Akashi-kun.
Kuroko's heart jumps to his throat.
"Is everything alright?" Kagami asks, noticing the bluenette's frozen to place. Kuroko can't move or speak and his hold on the phone keeps getting tighter and tighter the longer it rings.
It's been so long since he's last heard of Akashi. Ever since he was released from the hospital, he's kept his phone switched off more often than not, but now it's on and Akashi's calling him.
He has to answer.
"Hello." His voice doesn't betray the slightest emotion, for which he is very grateful.
"Tetsuya?"
Kuroko has to struggle a bit to hear but even so, it's definitely Akashi's voice calling his name. His heart leaps in his chest. "Yes, it's me."
"Finally! I've been trying to get a hold of you for so long and I was afraid… well, no matter. I'm truly glad to hear you're fine." Kuroko can't see Akashi but the amount of relief in the redhead's voice makes him blush. To hell with his one-sided love, having someone this concerned about him is more than enough.
"…yes, I'm sorry to have worried you."
"It's fine, I just… well, the truth is I ran away from home again." Akashi lowers his voice and keeps talking. At the other end of the line Kuroko's heart fills with panic. He can't hear anymore, did Akashi hang up? He removes the phone from his ear and looks at the screen; the call is still on.
"Hello? Akashi-kun, I can't hear…"
("Eh? Is everything alright, Tetsuya?")
"Hello? Are you still there?"
("Tetsuya?")
He can't hear anything. And even though he's pretty sure he heard Akashi say that he ran away from home again, he has no idea where the redhead currently is – somewhere in Tokyo, presumably, but it's a big city and running around blindly would only be a waste of time. He gets up nevertheless and runs into the street without so much as a word to Kagami.
"Are you here somewhere? In Tokyo? I'll come get you, wherever you are, I promise." He's nearly shouting now, the fear pumping adrenaline into his body as he keeps running. Even when he slips and falls, he gets right back up without even caring about the fabric of his pants starting to dye red at the right knee.
It really doesn't matter; what is a bloodied knee compared to being able to see Akashi again?
A/N: what the actual fuck is this chapter I don't even ._.
I'm so sorry for the extremely late update OTL I've been so busy that I've barely had time for anything but work and sleep plus I had a bit of a writer's block again so yeah, couldn't get any writing done. This is also really short so um. I'm sorry to disappoint.
Takatsu: for real I really appreciate it when people take the time to write long, meaningful reviews like this. Ahh I just want to thank you for reading and obviously for liking and yeah just have lots of my awkward attempts to convey how happy I got when I read your comments. :'D oohh and it was interesting to hear that you felt a song fit this story, considering this was originally inspired by a song (and now it's totally spiralling out of control, welp D: )
And wow, almost 200 follows? I don't know what to say aahh (/o/) /insert random key smashing here