It's Only A Dream || Hirato & Akari
Blood. The carmine color was everywhere, dyeing his pristine white coat the very same color.
He could hear his breath, short shallow pants and the panicked thunder of his heart. Blood rushed and adrenaline pumped, and his hands were trembling.
His hands never trembled. He was a seasoned doctor, a veteran researcher. His hands were always steady, always ready for what he lived and breathed to do. He had saved countless lives, and often times they were being brought to him on the brink of death.
So why? Why was he overcome with such a sense of fear and desolation? He certainly wasn’t a stranger to such an occurrence, so why did he feel so…hopeless?
Quivering hands pressed against the deep laceration as firmly as he could, yet all his sight showed him was the way the dark crimson blood overflowed from the gaps of his fingers, seeping through the dark fabric of his patient’s suit jacket.
“…Hirato.” He felt a broken whisper leave his lips, and in that very moment, a jarring pain twisted a specific organ that lay within the confines of his chest. It was agony in both a physical and emotional level that it left him numb and terrified.
You can’t die, Akari felt himself think with desperation, but logical analysis told him that the other was too far gone for him to bring him back. He may be good at what he did, but he would never be able to play God. The following shudder of breath from the dying man immediately brought Akari back to his senses, his palms pressing even more firmly now against the wound.
“No,” he heard himself desperately begging, frustration gripping him with its unforgiving claws as he fell into despair. “You can’t die, Hirato. You can’t.” His pleas continued, fervent prayers uttered as he felt the dull throb of the raven’s heartbeat fall slower and slower, until it was barely a flutter to his touch.
With widened eyes, Akari watched as the man’s bloody lips moved, speaking his last words – words that Akari would never hear, words that he was sure would plague him for the entirety of his existence that he would live without him. Looking down at his right hand, for a split second, Akari watched as the red thread that tied them together disintegrated into nothingness just as the raven took his final breath, the light winking out of existence in once-bright violet hues.
“No–!” Eyes flew open as he greedily gulped in lungfuls of air, barely registering the hands that were clutched on either sides of his shoulders through the anguish that seemed to consume him utterly.
It was only after a few moments that it took for the disoriented male to come to his senses, noting that he had fallen asleep on the couch in his office the night before. That, and he was also staring up into eyes of the same amaranthine he had watched the light die out from just moments before.
“…Hirato.” His voice was a dry, quiet whisper as he took time to drink in the sight of the very certainly alive man, closing his eyes for a few short moments to compose himself.
“What are you doing here in my office, Hirato?” Attempting to hide to waver in his voice, Akari turned away from the the hatter. “If you’re here for daily harassment, leave. I’m not in the mood to accommodate your poor sense of amusement.”
The sun glimmered from the horizon, letting the bright sunlight shine through the windows into Hirato’s office, illuminating the dimly-lit room from the weak lamps. It was quarter to seven. What kept the captain alive were several cups of tea along with endurance.
Unlike his fellow SSS-ranked member, Hirato himself was not a dedicated worker, though he does finishes his job rather well. The amount of paperwork he had received over the past couple of days were rather frightening, most of them being budget increases, documents from the main branch, statistics regarding Brieve’s population and crime ratios. As the Captain of the Rouves branch, he bears the responsibility of managing the troublesome work that had been assigned to him.
Around this time of the day, only a few staff remains in the building. The gentleman was sure that the pink-haired doctor would be one of the remaining faculty members. Compared to Hirato himself, Akari was a much more dedicated man to his job, so it is fairly common to see the doctor overworking himself without ever resting late into the night.
Hirato took his spectacles off, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to relieve the pain in his eyes from reading too much. His back collided with the back of the armchair as he sighed softly, fearing that sleep will soon overtake him into Wonderland. The only way he could possibly awake would be getting another pot of tea. Actual tea, mind you.
As soon as he walked out of his office, he heard a distant grunt followed by several noises coming from across the corridor. Hirato quickly hastened his pace, running towards the source before he ended up stopping in front of Akari’s office, where the sounds were coming from. The Circus captain excused himself and entered the doctor’s office, albeit in a much more forcing manner than he used to.
Hirato’s eyes widened at the sight, his sleepiness gone in an instant.
There, on the couch, lies the sleeping doctor, although it didn’t seem to be a pleasant dream as Akari’s pained and anguish expressions, slight yelps and grunts escaping from his mouth says otherwise.
“Akari-san, please wake up immediately.” said the top-hatted man, gripping the other’s shoulders tightly before he shook him gently. It was no use, so Hirato applied a bit more force. The bespectacled man’s violet hues wavered slightly, his breath hitching as he tried to wake the doctor from his nightmare.
And after the second try, Hirato finally succeeded.
Never had the captain felt this way before. He never felt this panicked, even during missions that could possibly be fatal, and yet he felt his heart beating a bit faster than usual. The feeling was almost unfamiliar to him, but his attention was directed towards his co-worker when he finally spoke.
Violet hues met with pink ones. They say that the eyes are the windows to one’s soul and Hirato was able to see the underlying fear that was hidden beneath them. Whatever the nightmare could be, it must’ve had a significant impact on the otherwise unemotional doctor.
Hirato wasn’t sure how to respond to the question Akari had asked so many times in the past. The fear that was hidden beneath those pink hues were worrisome, but of course his colleague would refuse to admit to it. The top-hatted gentleman’s superficial politeness remained, but his usual smile hasn’t. In fact, a genuinely worried expression laid across Hirato’s face.
“Are you alright, Akari-san? I’ve heard noises coming from your office so I’d thought I take a look at you in case anything happens. You seemed to be having a rather bad nightmare so I thought it would be best if I wake you up instead.”
