He walked down the cracking road. Everyone was running, screaming, trying to escape from the shaking and crumbling buildings around them. But he didn't mind. He kept taking slow step, taking his time to look over each building as it crumbled and fell, spewing gray clouds of dirt and powdered concrete into the air. He let out a long sigh, his shoulders sagging. He had liked this place, certainly more so than anywhere else he'd been.

He took another deep breath, closing his eyes. He shook the black tips of his red hair from his face as he turned his head to the sky. The clouds of ash from the crumbling city had the sky covered in darkness. But he could feel every particle, every piece of ash, move. He could feel past them and feel the sun bathing his face. If he kept his eyes closed, he could move every particle back, see the city as it was before the fight.

"Keep standing there and you'll crumble along with the rest of this place."

His eyes snapped open. The words from the gravelly voice stung his ears worse than the ash stung his eyes. "It wouldn't be crumbling if you hadn't come back for me."

"I told you I'd never stop."

All the ash hung in the air, freezing them in the moment before everything was destroyed. He turned his head to look at the blue haired teen, staring right into his deep sea blue eyes. "I know. And I can't stop either." He looked back at the sky and the ash that was frozen in place. The buildings were all paused right as they were about to collapse. He and the tanned male were the only two things left moving. "I had gotten away from it. Let everything be as it was. I got caught up in it."

"What was the point of it?" The blue eyed boy took a step closer to him. "These people are boring. That's why we move on."

"Move on?" He laughed. "When we first met, our love was so strong and pure; we created a world so beautiful. And we ran from each other, let ourselves get caught up in the beautiful thing we made." He could still see the beautiful meadows and forests that they had created clearly in his mind. His eyes focused back on the ash in the sky. He could feel his chest tighten and clenched at his heart. Every creation after that first one ended this same way.

He looked back into those blue eyes he had so often fell in love with. "I don't think we ever moved on. Nothing has changed since you and I first loved. We've been here countless times before. Destroyed what our own love created."

The tanned male walked over to him, resting a hand on his shoulder. He slid his hand down his arm to clasp their hands together. "The combustible chemistry we have... What can we do about it?"

He gulped, looking down at their hands. He wanted to say something positive for the tanned male and see the sparkle in his deep blue eyes. But he couldn't. They'd been here too many times. They only ever left rubble behind in an endless, torturous cycle.

"I don't want to keep seeing what we love get turned to rubble."

He found the strength to look back up into the blue eyes that sparked with his own red ones. "We can't keep running from what's in front of us. We need to face what we've done."

His blue eyes narrowed, brow furrowing. "I'm not ready to let go and let you go."

"I don't want to destroy what I love."

The tanned male's grip tightened on his hand. "Then don't leave me."

"I'm sorry."

He stepped back, holding onto the tanned male's hand as tight as he could. He would certainly miss his touch and the connection they had.

His form started to glow a soft red. All the ash hanging in the sky slowly started to move again, but in the reverse direction. Everything started coming back together. His physical form started to fade, slowly being replaced by more red light. He held onto the tanned male's hand for as long as he could.

A tear formed in his deep blue eyes. There was nothing the tanned male could do to revert the other's decision. "I won't leave you."

The tanned male took a deep breath, holding onto the glowing red hand in his own. His own from started to fade and glow blue. The city moved back into its original place faster. Time kept turning back so that everyone that had been running away were being reset in their homes.

A blue and red light mixed into purple, coating the sky in a beautiful sunset color before dispersing throughout every corner of the universe.

[AN: finally wrote the first story in this collection! I had Pompeii on repeat while I wrote this. I wasn't sure where I was going to end it, but I was in tears by the time I got to it 😭 I hope you like it! I do want to hear what you think! I like to think of this in a symbolic way too because I see Aomine's and Kagami's relationship as such a passionate, cyclical one and I could almost see it ending tragically like this with them destroying everything good around them or destroying themselves]