21

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Song Suggestions:
Arise - Flyleaf
Technicolor Beat - Oh Wonder
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a/n: Hey y'all! Finally updating. Check out the new cover, and make sure to vote and comment :)
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Akaashi

The bitter cold sliced through his pajamas, and the tears that wicked down his cheeks burned and steamed as he stumbled through the unfamiliar streets. He had been running for what felt like an eternity, and he had only found one street eerie of houses. He had to get farther away from that torture house and Terushima's corpse. Worry that he would rise like a zombie to hunt him and devour him whole nagged at his thoughts. His breaths came in raged, uneven spurts of frost bitten air and spewed out in front of him as visible vapor.

He would not die here.

The wind picked up, blowing snow around his feet and body as if to challenge his determination by hindering him at every turn. His toes singed and buzzed as the feeling in them slowly disappeared. He tore at the air with his fingers as he ran, choking on animalistic sobs and icy air. The adrenaline gushing through his blood kept him moving at a surprisingly fast pace and sweating even though he was shivering. Behind him, he realized, was a trail of steaming blood on the snow due his cracked and blistering heels. His nose bled as well, due to him running so quickly and going from a warm, sheltered home for weeks to what felt like negative temperatures. Climate changes and seasonal allergies always got the worst of him, but right now he wasn't even sure that his nose bleeding was a bad sign. An impossible pain that lingered at first had succumbed to the cold like the feeling in his hands and toes. He hardly felt alive.

His long hair whipped around in the unforgiving wind, as it heaved gusts of air. He was constantly spitting it out of his mouth and he cursed Terushima for not giving him scissors to cut it, as it had reached the length of how it'd been when he and Kuroo began dating, but still shorter than in high school. It seemed, in this small blizzard at least, that the world was really working against him. He stumbled into a small wood, the trees blocking the moon light. Hopelessness rose in his throat, and he stumbled to lean against a tree and proceed to dry heave. Pure panic coursed through him as the darkness around him crept closer. He could be caught, and the thought that Terushima could have survived crippled him. He would freeze in this god forsaken fucking neighborhood, and be found as a statue against the tree, a despairing expression frozen on his face. He leaned fully against the tree, his head tilted back as he tried to catch a glimpse of the stars, hoping they'd comfort him as he took his final breaths in the bed of snow. He skidded down the tree, the rough bark drawing blood from his back as his shirt lifted up. He couldn't feel it.

He laughed a moment, finding sick humor the prospect of being out of his misery if only for a moment, but seconds later his disgust for himself peaked. How awful of him to think such things. Kuroo would've smacked him silly. Well, maybe not physically hit him, but surely he'd beat him up and down with a barrage of insults and ironic threats. He could hear him now, ranting about how stupid and inconsiderate and—and stupid!—he was.

*Always so good with words*, Akaashi thought, his laugh echoed in the night, sounding hysterical due to his sobbing. *You would think a song writer would be better than that.*

Akaashi let his head drop back against the tree.

Here, he began to give up. Now his meager clothes were wet with blood and snow causing him to shiver uncontrollably. His teeth chattered, like skeletons in the wind. He knew pretty soon he would stop shivering all together, and then die. It was still much better than dying at Terushima's hand. He giggled somewhat, the tears frozen on his cheeks cracked. This is where he would die. The possibility didn't quite affect him as much as he used to think it would. He thought on his death bed there would be fear, but his previous fear evaporated into the air as soon as the realization that he would die dawned on him.

He could see the moon now, just through the branches. The creamy off-white soothed him, for it wasn't harsh on his eyes and reflected off the snow creating a beautiful sheen over everything. Hell, he wouldn't mind dying at all. Unfortunately, something moved to cover up the moon.

"*Freezing to death is becoming of you, Keiji, dear."*

Akaashi snorted, his lips cracking a bit. "Pain-in-the-ass-Tetsurou. Move your fat head."

He jerked back, a hand covering his chest. "*I am offended, Keiji.*"

"You are also a liar. I look like retched death right now. That's okay though."

"*Keiji, you look like a beautiful ice queen after battle, all covered in blood and sweat and tears crystallized on your skin. Quite poetic.*"

Akaashi glanced forward, eyeing Kuroo's feet, and the way they didn't sink into the snow. "You're not real."

"*I am not, but it seems pretty real right?*" Kuroo chuckled, sitting down weightlessly atop of the snow. He crossed his legs. "*Freezing to death alone is a little sad. It shouldn't hurt though, frostbite hasn't set in or anything. You might feel nothing soon and then pass out.*"

"And you're to keep me company until then?"

"*You tell me,*" Kuroo said, his eyes looking up to the sky. Akaashi noticed how he wasn't completely solid, a translucent being.

"Ah," Akaashi hummed. "A hallucination."

"*Bullseye!*" Kuroo exclaimed, laughing happily as he fell back in the snow. His arms and legs were splayed out wide. "*It would be lovely if I could make a snow angel for my snow angel.*"

Akaashi rolled his eyes. "Gah, you're still a loser."

"*Ouch, that actually kinda stung.*" Kuroo's hand clutched over his heart again. He sat up, and suddenly appeared right next to Akaashi, startling him a bit. "*So, you're gonna die soon?*"

"You tell me."

Kuroo frowned, worry lines that he loved so much forming between his brows. He struggled to lift his hand to smooth them out, but his hand went through him. "You really aren't real." He said, not with disappointment or concern. Just flat and monotonous, and then, "Why are you wearing your old school uniform?" as if it had just occurred to him.

"*I'm no replacement for Pain-In-The-Ass-Kuroo-San in your life right now. I think I'm just how you see Kuroo in your heart.*"

"It's weird as hell that you're talking in third person. Although, that's not quite it, is it." Again, a statement. Akaashi felt tears rising again. "I'm never going to touch you again am I?"

Kuroo smiled apologetically, his voice a whisper. "You tell me."

Akaashi sobbed a bit, pressing his eyes shut. He was too weak to release the heartbroken wail caught in his throat, but perhaps if he thought really hard he could pretend he was holding Kuroo's hand again. Just this last time.

When he opened them, the apparition of Kuroo was gone. Lips quivering, he made a decision. He stretched his legs out, trying to push himself up. He had to use the tree to ease himself up, the bark causing more warming blood to pour. He couldn't die; He longed for the warmth of Tetsu, his love. He would die trying if it need be, but he would try to get to him anyways.

He could make it home if he tried. He could kiss Kuroo again if he just pushed for a little while longer. He could collapse like a lame little boy into Kuroo's arms where he felt safe when he got there. Not some fake, death hallucination Kuroo. Not before, not after.

He could hear a cars, somewhere. If he could just get out and wave his hands they'll help him. They'd have to right? The moon light broke free of the clouds and illuminated the road like fate. He stepped out, the car lights close. He could make it.

He would live, even if Lucifer himself had his claws around his ankle, dragging him down.

He would fucking make it. He was too stubborn not to.

Stepped out over the snow covered asphalt, his toes looked a bit purple, or blue. He couldn't tell, since the snow and light casted a blue hue over everything. Lifting his eyes, he noticed the lights a bit too late. Lights and snowflakes whitened his entire world for a moment, a gorgeous exposition of what awaited him soon. He couldn't tell what was what, and when the loud crunching beneath his back occurred he wondered whether it was snow or glass, as it burned a bit but he couldn't exactly feel much other than the frigid cold or his breathlessness.

Rolling against the windshield and rebounding off, he landed on the ground hard, knocking the air out of him for what seemed like the millionth time that day. He groaned, a small hiccup of a sob escaping his lips as he shifted from his side staring into the blinding headlights onto his back. Everything screamed at him in pain.

"*That's one way to do it,*" He heard Kuroo's voice in his head chuckling.

The honking turned into buzzing, the stars were absorbed by the night, and his world turned black.

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