Star Tear Disease. A condition born from unrequited love, where the patient begins to cry colorful tears that twinkle like tiny stars. These tears create a haunting, crystalline cacophony when they hit a solid surface, sometimes unnervingly loud. The disease slowly steals away the victim's sight, causing color blindness and, in rare cases, total loss of vision. It isn't fatal, but it cannot be cured.
You couldn’t help but wonder if you’d cry out all the color in your vision before Itsuomi let Emma into his life.
✦ Pairing: Shin Iryuu x Emma Nakazono
✦ Trigger warnings: Blood, Physical Discomfort
✦ Word Count: 340
✦ AO3 link.
She dyed her hair behind your back.
Cherry used to greet the sunshine through those sleek spruce curtains. It was evident, even through your rose-tinted glasses, the expensive gift she left by your cap after graduation. Now, her curls were as dark as the bags under your eyes, no mahogany undertones in sight.
You found it treacherous; a bigger sin than her unrequited love for Itsuomi. Were your hands no longer worthy of polishing her hair?
She was dulling too. Before, when her mallow irises sparkled at the sight of your best friend, and her rosy lips curled upwards at him, you could see a bright flush dusting her pale skin. Even when her joy wasn’t directed toward you, you liked that it took you back to the uncurbed innocence of your rooftop conversations. To the beauty and peace that made you fall for her in the first place.
So when you caught sight of her in the mornings, the ache of her colorless smile and milky white pupils pierced through your lids for the rest of the afternoon, lingering until your vision faded away with dusk. Sometimes, the soreness came with a faint tinkling, like the bells that rattled on the glass door at Itsuomi’s job; a wretched shriek too nauseating to ignore.
She dyed her hair behind your back.
Even when she reassured you that no, you were the only stylist she trusted with her hair, your vision was always sharp and steady. The bruised violet, dried blood, and decayed stars clattering on the floor of your salon were evidence enough, even as your mind desperately, so desperately, urged you to hold onto something beautiful before it disappeared entirely. She was somewhere around the splintered hardwood, but never quite there.
Your tears were no longer yours; they were no longer held within the confines of your body. But they were not in your stars either. Instead, Emma held them in her delicate hands and gave them away to Itsuomi.
