Time. They were running out of it.
People were born with a timer on their right forearm. The timer counted millennia, centuries, decades, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. And that timer, slowly ticked towards zero.
It was possible to give time though. Just by grabbing another right forearm and twisting anti clockwise, their time would be taken away and your time would increase.
The rich gambled their time. Most of them often had centuries on their timer because all they did was win.
The poor had to run each day in search for a job that would give just another day on their timer.
Kuroko wasn't exactly poor. He was simply an average boy who wasn't so lucky. He only had three years, seven months, two weeks, five days, twenty one hours, eleven minutes, and nine seconds left. The cause of his death would be unknown, but the blue haired boy figured the future plans to place him in some sort of accident.
Was he scared? Sort of. But for some reason, seeing the timer and knowing exactly when he was going to die made it seem less fearful.
Was he upset? Of course. Kuroko was only nineteen and life was telling him he would die at the age of twenty two. But it was something he simply accepted. With time, he grew numb to it.
With time, he stopped staring at it each second of the day.
With time, his timer slowly ticked away.
Kuroko woke up one day and glanced at his forearm.
Eight months, three weeks, five days, twenty one hours, fifty minutes, and seven seconds.
The blue haired boy sighed as he got ready for work. He wore a long sleeved shirt just to cover his timer and then headed out to the office he worked at.
His boss, Akashi Seijuro, was rich, strict, and incredibly handsome but Kuroko knew better than to meddle with him.
In fact, it was the redhead who decided to meddle with the blue haired boy. Kuroko was called to Akashi's office at some point during the day and all the redhead wanted was to talk.
The blue haired boy was confused but he sat down and talked to his boss about anything. It was a normal conversation which made both of them happy. Most of the time, people started the conversation with,
"How much time do you have?"
People wanted friends with lots of time. If you didn't have time, you weren't worth time.
Akashi and Kuroko however, kept their timers hidden and spent their time together as if they didn't even have timers.
Their daily meetings continued every day. Akashi would call the blue haired boy to his office and they would sit down and talk.
Then the redhead asked Kuroko out to dinner. The blue haired boy smiled brightly and accepted the date.
They both felt the spark between each other but they were also scared. They were scared of checking each other's timers and realizing one of them would die very soon.
Nonetheless, they went out together. One date turned into three and then forty two. They spent all their time together.
When Akashi regained his memories, the first thing he did was lightly stroke his hand up and down the blue haired boy's back. They were still bare from the night before and realization dawned on the redhead.
He hastily checked Kuroko's timer.
Four days, nine hours, thirty six minutes, and fifty two seconds.
Akashi moved very slowly to not wake up the blue haired boy and he lightly grabbed his forearm. The redhead turned his arm clockwise and watched as the blue haired boy gained some time.
For a rich child, the redhead didn't have a lot of time to begin with either. In fact he had less. Only three days.
After a day, Kuroko's memories returned and they both showed each other their timers. The redhead didn't tell the blue haired boy about the time he gave him since he knew Kuroko would just get upset and yell at him to take it back.
They got their tattoos and then went on a final date together.
Once Akashi's timer showed nothing but minutes, they both lay down on their bed and held each other's hand tightly.
They shared embarrassing stories with each other and couldn't stop laughing at some of the things they had done when they were younger. They smiled as the redhead's timer showed nothing but seconds.
10
The blue haired boy lightly kissed the redhead on the lips.
9
Akashi brushed the blue hair falling over Kuroko's eyes away from his face.
8
"I'll see you soon, right?" The blue haired boy asked.
7
Akashi nodded and pulled Kuroko close. "Technically you'll see me tomorrow since your timer only says one day."
6
They absorbed the silence like sponges.
5
Kuroko's grip tightened in the redhead's shirt.
4
The redhead let out a deep breath and whispered,
3
"It'll be alright, Tetsuya."
2
"Trust me, my little duckling."
1
"We have all the time we need."
Author's Note: And so today's prompt was "time". This is based on the movie In Time. Truthfully, I didn't really like the movie, but the concept was pretty damn cool. I hope you like this one.
Tomorrow's prompt is tension.
See you in the next life!