KHR Rarepair Week 2020 (June 21 Start)

[warmskies]

1. Storm Day
Flameswap AU
Chikusa/Mukuro
"take a knife, cut the world in two"

2. Sky Day
Old Gods / Scars
Chikusa/Chrome
"warm ghosts, cold air"

3. Sun Day
Isekai AU
Chikusa/Everyone
"everyone gets hungry"

4. Lightning Day
Bookshop AU / Curses
Chikusa/Gokudera
"the falling is a process"

5. Rain Day
Platonic Cuddling
Chikusa/Ken
"not asking to be spotless (just asking for you)"

6. Cloud Day
Ten Years Later
Chikusa/Yamamoto
"glad to exist"

7. Mist Day
Historical AU
Chikusa/Hibari
"love (and corner men) are elusive"

8. Earth Day
Accidentally Saving the Day
Chikusa/Ryohei
"what it feels like to know a heart"

Comments

[warmskies]

As best as he possibly can, 69 fights against that in his own ways. On this day, it's nothing special, just more of the usual. He's never been one for conversation with any of the other children, frankly, not when any of them could die in the blink of an eye, so he lets 14 do his aggravated pacing and ignores the blond when he wipes at his eyes as though that can stop the tears that constantly threaten to spill. Instead, he sits against the wall opposite of the door with one knee drawn upwards and the other sprawled out before him. All he can do is go over what he knows in his head, try to remember the layout of the lab from all the times he's been guided through it to different labs and rooms. It would be easier if he had some way to draw it, but he makes do. What else does he have available to him?

Lost in his own head, 69 himself doesn't realize when something in the lab has changed. All he realizes is that Subject 14 has changed, frozen in place as he looks towards the door with clear intent. That... is different. Even the approach of one of the scientists, or their guards in their pitch black suits- they never warrant such a reaction. 14 just tenses up in those cases, narrows his eyes towards the door warily. There's wariness here, too, but... more like confusion, now. Curiosity.

Things changing means there's always a chance for- something. An escape, knowledge, an item of some sort. 69 keeps that in mind as he pushes himself up onto his feet. The sound of his clothes and his feet against the ground has 14 jolt, looking back at him like he forgot his existence; he likely did. Yet he adjusts well enough because, before 69 can take more than a step forward, 14 is hustling towards the door and gesturing for him. "C'mon!" he says in a hushed voice.

Obviously that's what he was planning on doing, but 69 doesn't take it too seriously. 14 is always just talking, for no other reason these days it seems than to merely fill up the silence. Since that's the opposite of what the Estraneo want for them, 69 is more than happy to accept it. He's also more than happy to settle besides 14 at the door, lips thin as he presses his ear up against the door.

Normally, the Estraneo lab compounds are.... silent. If there is noise, it is of the quiet sort, something that is more of a soft drone as plans and experiments are discussed, orders are given. It means the screams of their experiments, of their children, often stand out in stark contrast exactly because of such silence. Yet there is no quiet droning here, but also no screaming. Instead, even right outside of the door, 69 can hear the sound of panicked yelling, frantic footsteps, the sound of plastic and metal banging and clicking against one another- guns, maybe? Tasers, sedatives? 69 cannot say for certain, but he knows the sounds of preparation when he hears them.

Pressing his cheek so hard against the door hurts, and doesn't help him hear anymore, so 69 sinks to the floor instead, and he's unsurprised to find 14 already there with his nostrils flaring as though scent will help anything at all. Still, he is the obedient sort- a communal sort, the kind of person who needs other people, 69 thinks. It explains why he has clung to 49 so often in the past. Right now, 69 is grateful for it, because it means that 14 moves aside to give 69 room.

Something is missing. Someone is missing. The adults want to, need to find them. Not even a crack in the wall can be missed. Most of the words are more complicated, or hard to hear, or too distant... But that is the basis of it all, he thinks. That is the reason for the panic.

69 has barely had time to pull that summary together before footsteps can be heard going right to their room with obvious intent, and the two of them scramble up onto their feet away from it. They barely make it in time. When the door swings open, 69 thinks it almost takes off his nose and misses by a mere couple of centimeters. He doesn't have much time to care about if a door almost hit him, however. His more pressing concern is the gun already held out even closer to his face than normal, and 69 has no choice but to move backwards along with 14 until they've both been pressed into an empty corner.

For a few heartstopping seconds, 69 thinks this is it. That, whatever has happened, they are being blamed, or they have ceased to have a use to the Estraneo's eyes, and they will be the last of this batch of children to perish under the hands of cruel adults. Just the idea of it fills him with rage, a spark that burns through him and almost makes him do something foolish. He wonders if 14 feels the same, if the two of them could act as one, bite through the man's wrist and pry the gun from his hand. What comes after that, he wouldn't be sure, but they can't die here, he refuses to die here-