āæ swing my heart | D R A B B L E
āå½”Ā { He feels uneasy.
It's strange, feeling that first thing in the morning, especially when he's gone a good 15 years without this odd sensation of unfamiliarity pricking at his brain. He had never really been good with that sort of thing, anyway.
He doesn't even bother to really think why, deducing it as the leftovers of a dream since forgotten. Nothing strikes him as odd even as he tosses his blankets off and steps foot on the carpet, stretching limbs in order to rid himself of the sleep still clinging like a parasite.
A tired yawn exits his mouth as he wiggles his toes into the carpet, appreciating the soft feeling beneath his feet. It's only after a few moments of doing this that he finally pauses to register what he's doing.
It's odd, but...
Isn't his bedroom floor hardwood?
After a stunned moment or two, Sano's eyes slowly pan up from the ground to the room around him, taking in the extremely not familiar knick-knacks and layout with a jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Those items aren't his, the bedspread not his, the room not his...
So why is he here?!
The confusion and general disorientation hits hard, and then he's up and making his way over to the window, yanking back the curtains in a desperate bid to find out where he is, only to be greeted with something incredibly familiar and yet not.
Kairos. He was in Kairos. There was no way he'd mistake those bustling streets, the light smell of car exhaust, and the sheer size of the buildings themselves. But...that didn't make any sense. He was supposed to be in Paralia, at home, but somehow here he was. It was only a train ride away, but it felt like miles and miles. Stepping back with brows furrowed, the teen stared at the view outside the glass for another few seconds before turning on his heel and heading for the door. Whatever was going on, he couldn't stay here. This wasn't his house, and he had other places to be, like somewhere he could figure out what the hell had happened while he had been sleeping.
Crossing the room in with light but determined steps, Sano reached out and grasped the doorknob with intentions of heading the stairs and out of here, only to freeze as if his hand had abruptly melded with the metal.Ā
And then the scene came, unclear and muffled, like staring at something from underneath the surface of a pool.
"Hey. You're late."
The bedroom almost seems to melt away, soft patterned walls peeling to reveal harsh bolted metal whilst carpet is replaced by the same. There's the slamming of a door behind him, unbetraying of the words spoken into the air already. There's...something in the air, tension, perhaps, but it's covered up well by the aura of confidence and power the yukata-clad teen seemed to radiate as he takes a few more steps toward the room's only other occupant.
"Sorry about that."
Arms fold across his chest, an almost predatory smirk sliding over his features as he makes sure to look the younger boy straight in the eyes as he speaks.
"Seiichiro Sano of Robert's 10 has arrived."
The smile given by the seated blond is softer, less terrifying in appearance but it still somehow manages to send shivers up his spine. Maybe it's simply because of who it's coming from, but...
Everything in that simple smile felt as dangerous as a loaded gun.
"Eeeeek! Oh, Sano, it's just you! You scared me!"
High-pitched, overexaggerated, and familiar. Both heads turn to face the newest addition to their little party, the blond towering over them with muscular scars covered by hawaiian print stretching as far as the eye can see. Foreigner. Comrade.
Carpaccio.
"You didn't bring any girls with you? So lame!! Hey, Robert--"
Words are exchanged, and hollow-sounding laughs are had. It's not until the taller boy turns towards him once that again that Sano speaks, and only after something has been pointed out.
"Oh? You've got five more talents, Sano. You won against five more contestants. You're pretty good!"
The grin only widens as brown eyes settle onto blue, teeth gritting.
"Of the twenty I promised to get rid of, there's only 5 now. You'd better make sure you keep your promise!"
"Oh, yeah, of course I will! Even for a scruffy man, a promise is a promise. I'll keep my word."
Instant relief. Whatever had been weighing down on Sano up to this point seemed to lighten considerably, a small sigh exiting his mouth as he turned his gaze towards the floor.Ā
More questions, and he steps past Carpaccio as he throws them, carefree and genuinely curious.
"--So who's the guy who beat that annoying Taro?"
"Someone called Ueki did."
Stop. Pause. Let shock set in. He's silent for only a few moments before whipping around once again, disbelief painting over his visage as the blond continues to talk.Ā
"In respect for his abilities, we're going to throw him a party, aren't we, Robert? And I decided to recruit some extra hands since that weakling Alessio bit the dust."
It's too much to take in that suddenly. He mentally splutters, struggling to find something to say in response to the influx of information, trying to register that name.
Ueki.Ā
U E K I Ā K O U S U K E.
But he barely has time to before the heavy sounds of footsteps and the munching of food hits the air, and he turns to regard the two newest additions with widened eyes and a dumbfounded look.Ā
He only spares them a few moments before freezing up, the feeling of eyes on his back forcing him to turn his head to look at their owner. The way Robert smiles at him is as dangerous as before, but now there's something else in his face that sets off warning signals, even more than usual. It's as if he knows how unnerved and surprised Sano is, and it seeps into his words.
"Sano, you're going to attend this party."
He didn't want to.
"You don't have a problem with that....right?"
He didn't want to face Ueki here. He wanted to fight him, but not like this. Who knows who he'd bring with him, too? Ai?
...Wanko?
The look in his eyes darkened and he refused to break eye contact with the younger, refusing to show the way his nerves were most definitely frazzled. To show the way the other's sheer presence managed to instill some small form of fear. No matter how much he didn't want to be here, no matter how much he didn't belong, he couldn't leave.
Even if he wanted to leave...Ā
There was no way out.
There's a soft fwump as his knees hit the carpet, eyes wide and grip on the doorknob slipping as he promptly doubled over and exhaled suddenly. It was almost as if he had forgotten to breathe in those moments, gasping as the memory took root and refused to leave, inflicting a deep sense of unbelonging among other things.
What a joke. Here we was, on his knees on some stranger's carpet, trying to make sense of whatever the hell it was that just happened. Although, through all this, there was one question he kept trying to answer. The one that bugged him the most about this newfound memory, besides the frightening blond and the 'contestants' thing.
Who....was Wanko? }
