Hello, everyone! We gained another follower! Yay! Welcome to the family! Anyways, I'm going to keep this author's note short so we can just get straight into the story now :3 Love you all and R&R!
"Please, have a seat, Mr. Akasuna," Mr. Sato exclaimed, gesturing to one of the two swivel chairs that faced his desk. The cubicles outside were bare and empty, all the employees gone for the holidays.
Except for Sasori, who did as his boss told and calmly sat down, awaiting the news he was sure was coming. Even though he knew what was going to be said, he was dreading hearing it. Even after endless searching for the past two weeks, he hadn't found a single new place to work that paid him the income necessary to continue living in the penthouse. He was, admittedly, scared out of his mind to even fathom the notion of not having a job. Almost everything in this cursed world had a price, an expensive one, at that, and it was near impossible to live without having at least somewhere to work. When did living comfortably change? When had that all gone to shit?
The redhead would definitely like to know.
Taking a silent, deep breath, he moved his gaze over to his boss, who was quickly typing something onto his laptop, with which he finally finished and locked eyes with him. "I'm glad you could make it in today, Sasori. I am sorry for making you visit the office when the holidays are about to start, but I don't think it could wait another week."
"I understand, sir," Sasori said forlornly, dread eating out his brain.
Just tell him, already, so he could go back to the penthouse and apologize to his brat.
"And with explaining in the call, I'm here to discuss your job," Mr. Sato explained, pulling out a folder from one of the desk's drawers. He placed in on the table, opening it to the first paper. "Sasori Akasuna, you have been an excellent employee from day one. Your skillsets as a recent graduate surpassed senior programmers and earned a high ranking from the beginning. Since then, you have brought HelioTech more money and company commissions it hasn't seen in almost a decade. Your experience up to this point is highly rated and backed with multiple positive recommendations and accomplishments that you, individually, have achieved. I must say, I've been lucky to have you under my wing so far, and-"
"With all due respect, sir," Sasori interrupted. He was getting aggravated that he was being told such empowering words right before he was about to be told the most ego-blowing news of his life. It was counter-productive, in his eyes. He could feel his jaw clenching as he spoke with sharp words. "I enjoy hearing all of this, but I would much rather get to the part of me losing my job."
Mr. Sato blinked at him a couple of times, almost as if he couldn't comprehend what was just spoken. He opened his mouth, then closed it, then repeated the process before finally uttering out, "What?"
"I'm here because you need to tell me I'm losing my job," Sasori continued, anger rising through him from his throat. "I saw the paperwork from Deidara Hayashi. I wasn't supposed to see them, but I did, by accident. It spoke of the partnership and how, once we join with Iwa Stratos, at least 20 of HelioTech's employees would be laid off, including me, so I know why I'm here and I would thoroughly be pleased if we got on with it and not prolong the outcome any longer."
He waited a few seconds after that, but his boss, unfortunately, just continued to stare at him with, what one would call, extreme shock. His eyes were wide and he was almost stock still, which suddenly made Sasori very nervous.
What was going on?
"Mr. Hayashi…" Mr. Sato breathed out, "Mr. Hayashi didn't tell you?"
The redhead knitted his brows together. "Tell me what?"
The older man heaved a deep, audible sigh before closing the folder and folding his arms on the desk to lean against them, staring into the other male's amber gaze. "Mr. Akasuna, you're not losing your job."
The nervousness turned into anxiousness as a cold sweat broke out on the back of Sasori's neck. He felt clammy and dizzy all at once, making it hard to focus.
This wasn't making any sense.
Why wasn't-?
"Mr. Deidara Hayashi called me some two weeks or so ago to tell me of the unfortunate news that 20 of my own, top employees would be laid off due to I.S. already having their own trained, experienced programmers. I was outright furious when I heard. It hadn't been in the original contract and must have been added after I had already signed. We had originally agreed on only 10 employees. Afterwards, I called Mr. Iwa and gave him an ultimatum: either allow all my employees to retain their jobs, or the partnership was off, since I was lied to and deserved that much. It didn't take long for him to make his decision. He rewrote the contract and everyone kept their jobs."
At this point, the redhead was ready to faint.
What the hell…?
When had Deidara tried calling Mr. Sato?
And why hadn't he told him this?!
Why hadn't-?
Shit…that's right.
He hadn't allowed his roommate to explain himself. He had been so angry, so livid, he hadn't wanted to hear anything else the blonde tried to say.
But what he had been trying to tell him was what his own boss had just spoken.
A new kind of dread began consuming him.
This time, it was for a very different reason.
God, he was such a dumbass.
Everything that had happened was his fault.
Deidara had only tried to fix things before they got worse.
And now he was alone in the penthouse.
"Mr. Akasuna, is everything alright?" his boss was able to reach him through his thoughts. He must've looked anxious enough; his hands where clutching the armrests of the chair with such strength, his knuckles were turning white. His heartbeat was going a mile a minute and all his brain could think about was his blonde roommate.
Deidara…
He had to back to Deidara.
Now!
"I do apologize for leaving so quickly, Mr. Sato," he suddenly said, standing up, "but I must depart as I have some obligations to attend to, as well as fix a mess that I have put myself in. Have a splendid evening and happy holidays."
With that, he exited the office space and nearly sprinted over to the elevators. Once the doors closed, he pulled out his phone and dialed the house number.
Come on…pick up, brat.
Please!
When there was no response, he promptly slammed his finger on the END button and loudly cursed.
Fuck, this wasn't good.
This was so not good.
When the elevator doors opened, the redhead burst through and out onto the streets, taking a sharp left and sprinting as fast as he could down the sidewalk.
Walking would've taken 20 minutes, but running would get him there in about 7. The night air was cold and harsh against his lungs, making it feel like he was breathing in shards of ice that quickly made him breathless. But he pushed on, not even caring about his own well-being.
Deidara was his priority.
On the inside, he was punching himself over and over again, cursing at his stupid ego for never allowing the blonde to explain everything.
He just hoped the younger male was alright.
As the penthouse came into view, Sasori became aware of a buzzing against his hip. Sprinting towards the entrance doors, he hurriedly extracted his phone and saw it was Deidara calling him. The smile that formed almost broke his face.
He accepted the call and placed it to his ear. "Deidara, thank God you finally answered! I'm on my way back now and-"
"I-I'm sorry, un," came the extremely hoarse and faint response. The words were so slurred, the redhead barely made them out in the first place. He scrunched his brows together as he listened. "I-I'm s-sorry for everything. I-I d-didn't mean for any-"
"Dei, please stop apologizing, it's okay, I forgive you! I forgive you, so just please don't-!"
"I'm sorry, Sasori," at that, the phone clicked off, leaving Sasori stunned where he stood, which was positioned right outside of the penthouse. He was a statue if only for a few seconds before he was bursting through the front door, not even caring about taking off his shoes as he entered the living room, seeing the state of the kitchen and thanking his lucky stars he had decided to keep his feet covered.
His shoes crunched over fragmented glass, eyes scanning the numerous shards of broken liquor bottles on the wooden floor. All the lights were off in the penthouse and the air smelled faintly of vomit.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, he turned away and gazed at the stairs, dashing over and taking them two at a time until he reached the top, running over to the door that led to Deidara's room and throwing it open, the smell of puke as rancid as an hour old road kill. Trying to suppress the rise of bile in his throat, he noticed a half bottle of alcohol on the floor, the contents spilt onto the plush carpet. The bed was a rumpled mess, the comforter lopsided and splattered with off-white, nearly clear substance.
Did Deidara-?
How long ago had that been?
Hearing what sounded like a glass falling and breaking in the bathroom, he walked over and tried opening the closed door, to no avail. It was locked and he jiggled the knob, slamming his fist against the wood. "Dei, it's me, open up!"
No response.
He slammed harder. "Deidara, open the door!"
He heard scuffling.
"DEI, OPEN THE GODDAMN DOOR!"
He stopped banging long enough to realize that no sound was coming through anymore.
Shit…shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!
Taking a step back, Sasori did the only thing he could think of:
Raising his right leg, he slammed his foot against the wood next to the knob, the door bursting open and nearly falling off its hinges.
He stepped on through and gazed at the room.
Fragments of glass littered the floor, as well as a few droplets of red crimson, which he immediately denoted as blood. His eyes didn't scan the bathroom long before they landed on the tub.
Horror struck him to the bone and his heart about nearly stopped beating.
The water was turned a pink color, faint, but growing in hue. He ran over and didn't think twice about reaching in and grabbing the limp body below. When Deidara's face surfaced, he didn't gasp for air like he should've been. His features stayed peaceful, as if he was sleeping.
As if he was…
Panic filled the redhead's blood as he leaned his ear towards his roommate's mouth, not hearing any breathing coming out. And when he felt for a pulse, there was barely one there.
It was faint and had jumps.
And it would eventually give out if he didn't start breathing soon.
"Oh my God, Dei, what have you done to yourself?!" even though he knew he couldn't hear, Sasori still asked the question. Tears were running down his face as he brought the man of the out of the tub and into the bedroom, where he set him on the carpet.
His eyes scanned the naked body, finally seeing the cuts on the blonde's wrists. They were still bleeding profusely, but they didn't look too deep.
Still, he needed to stop the bleeding.
Stop the bleeding.
Stop it.
Standing up, he went over to one of the drawers and picked out a random under tee, ripping the material into segments. He went back over and immediately tied a suffocating knot around both forearms to stop the flow of blood from traveling any further towards the hands. After that, he covered the cuts with the other shirt fragments, wrapping them in enough layers to soak in the blood.
After that, he got started on CPR, tilting the head back, pumping the chest three times and placing his mouth of the other's, watching the lungs against as they were filled with oxygen. He repeated the process once…twice…three times.
Over and over again.
And the more failures that proceeded, the more panic wrapped around Sasori.
Come on, please breathe! For the love of Kami, BREATHE!
After three more tries, he stopped, eyes wide.
No…no, he couldn't lose him!
He couldn't lose the only person he cared about and loved!
Taking out his phone, he dialed 911.
"911, what's your emergency?" the voice was annoyingly calm.
"I need medical assistance, now! I'm reporting an attempted suicide-"
"Sir, please calm down and explain the situa-"
"I DON'T WANT TO CALM DOWN! MY BOYFRIEND IS DYING RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?!" Sasori yelled into the phone, anger overpowering his fear.
Wait…had he just called Deidara his boyfriend?
They were a couple…right?
"Sir, I understand, but I need-"
"How long will it take an ambulance to get here?"
"…20 minutes, sir, but I-"
He hung before she could finish.
He didn't have 20 minutes.
With how things were looking…he had, at most, 10 minutes to spare.
He couldn't waste any more time.
He went over and dressed the younger male in whatever he could get his hands on. In one swift movement, he had the blonde's weight on his back, expertly maneuvering the other's knees through the crook of his arms. The other's arms were draped over his shoulders, the bandages around his wrists almost already seeped a dark red.
"Shit," the redhead cursed out loud at the sight.
He worked his way down the stairs, crunching over the broken glass before heading out in the hallway, down the elevator, and out into the cold night.
A new batch of snow was falling, the sky a greyish blue as the fat clumps fell against the wet sidewalks and streets, a thin layer of white already coating the ground.
And he ran.
He ran as fast as his legs could carry both him and Deidara.
Adrenaline was pumping through his veins a mile a minute, eyes focused straight ahead as bystanders watched with curious gazes and what the problem could possibly be. His heart was beating frantically against his chest and the only thing running through his mind was:
Deidara.
Keeping him alive.
Deidara.
Being there for him.
Tears that had been running down his face now began to freeze as the cold air met the water, but he continued to cry.
He hated himself for allowing this to happen.
He hated himself for not being there, even though he had told Deidara that he loved him.
If Deidara died…
It would be his entire fault.
No one else was to blame for what had happened.
Ino and Hidan had tried their hardest to reach out and communicate.
He had only tried twice, but by then, it apparently had been too late.
The blonde had made his mind up on what he wanted to do.
The air was beginning to sting his lungs, but he pushed onward, the sight of the hospital giving him hope.
Almost there.
Keep going!
Keep – wait.
…What?
Something was beginning to block his airways and his vision began to blur around the edges.
What the hell was going on?
He shook his head, picking up his speed, if that was possible, ignoring the ongoing feeling that he was light-headed.
Nothing mattered but Deidara.
Nothing will ever matter more besides Deidara.
The neon red glow of the ER sign came into view and it felt like Kami, himself, was in front of Sasori. He smiled as tears continued to flow, ignoring the pain growing in the middle of his chest.
He burst through the automatic sliding doors, causing the employees to gaze him.
"Please!" he wheezed out, tears still flowing. "Please, someone help him! He's dying! He's not breathing! PLEASE!"
That was when the light-headedness overcame his senses and he blacked out.