[Fic] Dodge (Aphorism, Katou and Hinata)
Title: Dodge.
Fandom: Aphorism.
Trope Bingo Square: Presumed dead.
Summary: Katou learns the price of not dodging when he should. Spoilers for chapters ... onwards.
Notes: I sort of love Katou and Hinata’s friendship. It’s explored a little bit on the backs of the actual volumes, although ‘friendship’ basically translates to Hinata taking advantage of Katou at every opportunity ^_^.
Word count: 864
Katou doesn’t dodge. He wonders later if it’s deliberate, if some subconscious part of him has decided that this will be the last time he’s going to try and tap into reserves he has never had to face a violent, unpredictable enemy that will never stop terrifying him. Katou thinks, he thinks perhaps he could have hidden himself away like he often does. Katou’s seal is pathetic and cowardly, and so it suits a pathetic and cowardly escape to a t.
He doesn’t dodge, just closes his eyes and wonders if maybe he could have.
Ha. Not that it matters. Nothing ever does, here. The bubbles of light don’t kill on impact, and none of them are spared.
The plants that sprout from each of the areas he has been hit (and there are so many places, because he doesn’t dodge and he’s not sure why) are annoying at first, but then they start to take root. Katou feels them spread beneath his skin, latching around bone and slowly working through muscle.
He wakes up in the sickbay, his skin bruised and tight and every part of his body singing out in agony. There is never a moment of relief, just an endless pain. Each brush of air against the leaves, each twitch sends another shot of agony splintering down through the roots.
His friends visit, one-one, but never more than once. They’re not there to help him through this, after all.
They come to say goodbye.
None of them say as much, but in those brief moments when Katou is able to force his eyes open, he can tell that they already assume he is dead. It’s like ... it’s like he’s living through his own funeral, and everyone he’s known is making their courtesy pass of his casket. Their kind, thoughtful farewells are said to a ghost that once was, and not to the seizing wreck that Katou still is, captured in a world of heat that flames constantly.
Sleep is fleeting, a sanctuary that borders the line between freedom and death. He allows himself to sink into to it, to be claimed, and it feels so nice and numb and he can almost just let himself float away-
He gasps in a desperate breath, and his eyes fly open.
Wide, startled eyes stare back down at him.
“I thought you were dead,” Hinata says slowly, still uncertain. Katou blinks away some of the shadows, trying to get his eyes to focus on the tiny plant stemming out through Hinata’s hair. A humourless smile briefly flutters across Hinata’s lips, and Katou clenches his teeth and tries, tries to refocus. “I was just coming to apol-“ Hinata breaks off, unable to finish. His gaze slides away from Katou’s and it’s hard to breath, Katou can’t seem to suck in enough air to properly inflate his lungs.
Katou’s scared, he’s scared so scared and it hurts-
He should have dodged.
“H-Hinata-“
Please don’t leave me here alone, he wants to beg. They’re not really friends, because friendship can’t properly capture what this place does to relationships. But Hinata is one of the few people here who Katou will let own a piece of him. Katou says it is because he owes Hinata, but his original debt has been paid a hundred times over by now. It’s this new debt - the way in which Katou earns some sort of redemption each time Hinata forces him to help someone else - that Katou knows he’ll never be able to repay.
He doesn’t know why Hinata is here now, not when Katou has nothing to offer him in return.
Please don’t leave me here alone, he wants to beg. He doesn’t have enough air left for that, and so all that he manages is a whimper as another wave of pain crashes through him. He curls his knees up to his chest, burying his head down and letting his hair shield his tears. He waits for it to stop but it just doesn’t, and so the shudders keep rippling through him until he’s nothing but a ceaseless wall of motion.
It feels as though his flesh is being stripped from his bones. It feels as though he is being set on fire.
And Hinata is speaking, pleading, promising something as he runs shaky fingers through Katou’s hair. Katou only catches every third word, yet they sound too much like a eulogy.
“There-“
Katou struggles to hear the next words, but they are snatched away, too far away.
“-still tim-“
Please don’t leave.
“-go.”
No!
Katou’s left hand desperately lashes out, his fingers wrapping around Hinata’s wrist. There is no strength left in them, and Hinata easily slides away. There is pity in Hinata’s eyes, and just a touch of derision. But there is something else, something that is unsettlingly new.
“I’ll be back,” Hinata swears quietly, and a hysterical laugh breaks across Katou’s lips in chunks.
No-one has ever come back.
The keel of pain strains through Katou’s teeth on a high pitched whistle, and there are splotches of red and black and black and red, and he’s spinning and falling and he can’t breathe because the roots are wrapping around his lungs-
They never, ever come back.
Hinata leaves in a flurry of motion and hooded eyes.
Why didn’t he dodge?
Fandom: Aphorism.
Trope Bingo Square: Presumed dead.
Summary: Katou learns the price of not dodging when he should. Spoilers for chapters ... onwards.
Notes: I sort of love Katou and Hinata’s friendship. It’s explored a little bit on the backs of the actual volumes, although ‘friendship’ basically translates to Hinata taking advantage of Katou at every opportunity ^_^.
Word count: 864
Katou doesn’t dodge. He wonders later if it’s deliberate, if some subconscious part of him has decided that this will be the last time he’s going to try and tap into reserves he has never had to face a violent, unpredictable enemy that will never stop terrifying him. Katou thinks, he thinks perhaps he could have hidden himself away like he often does. Katou’s seal is pathetic and cowardly, and so it suits a pathetic and cowardly escape to a t.
He doesn’t dodge, just closes his eyes and wonders if maybe he could have.
Ha. Not that it matters. Nothing ever does, here. The bubbles of light don’t kill on impact, and none of them are spared.
The plants that sprout from each of the areas he has been hit (and there are so many places, because he doesn’t dodge and he’s not sure why) are annoying at first, but then they start to take root. Katou feels them spread beneath his skin, latching around bone and slowly working through muscle.
He wakes up in the sickbay, his skin bruised and tight and every part of his body singing out in agony. There is never a moment of relief, just an endless pain. Each brush of air against the leaves, each twitch sends another shot of agony splintering down through the roots.
His friends visit, one-one, but never more than once. They’re not there to help him through this, after all.
They come to say goodbye.
None of them say as much, but in those brief moments when Katou is able to force his eyes open, he can tell that they already assume he is dead. It’s like ... it’s like he’s living through his own funeral, and everyone he’s known is making their courtesy pass of his casket. Their kind, thoughtful farewells are said to a ghost that once was, and not to the seizing wreck that Katou still is, captured in a world of heat that flames constantly.
Sleep is fleeting, a sanctuary that borders the line between freedom and death. He allows himself to sink into to it, to be claimed, and it feels so nice and numb and he can almost just let himself float away-
He gasps in a desperate breath, and his eyes fly open.
Wide, startled eyes stare back down at him.
“I thought you were dead,” Hinata says slowly, still uncertain. Katou blinks away some of the shadows, trying to get his eyes to focus on the tiny plant stemming out through Hinata’s hair. A humourless smile briefly flutters across Hinata’s lips, and Katou clenches his teeth and tries, tries to refocus. “I was just coming to apol-“ Hinata breaks off, unable to finish. His gaze slides away from Katou’s and it’s hard to breath, Katou can’t seem to suck in enough air to properly inflate his lungs.
Katou’s scared, he’s scared so scared and it hurts-
He should have dodged.
“H-Hinata-“
Please don’t leave me here alone, he wants to beg. They’re not really friends, because friendship can’t properly capture what this place does to relationships. But Hinata is one of the few people here who Katou will let own a piece of him. Katou says it is because he owes Hinata, but his original debt has been paid a hundred times over by now. It’s this new debt - the way in which Katou earns some sort of redemption each time Hinata forces him to help someone else - that Katou knows he’ll never be able to repay.
He doesn’t know why Hinata is here now, not when Katou has nothing to offer him in return.
Please don’t leave me here alone, he wants to beg. He doesn’t have enough air left for that, and so all that he manages is a whimper as another wave of pain crashes through him. He curls his knees up to his chest, burying his head down and letting his hair shield his tears. He waits for it to stop but it just doesn’t, and so the shudders keep rippling through him until he’s nothing but a ceaseless wall of motion.
It feels as though his flesh is being stripped from his bones. It feels as though he is being set on fire.
And Hinata is speaking, pleading, promising something as he runs shaky fingers through Katou’s hair. Katou only catches every third word, yet they sound too much like a eulogy.
“There-“
Katou struggles to hear the next words, but they are snatched away, too far away.
“-still tim-“
Please don’t leave.
“-go.”
No!
Katou’s left hand desperately lashes out, his fingers wrapping around Hinata’s wrist. There is no strength left in them, and Hinata easily slides away. There is pity in Hinata’s eyes, and just a touch of derision. But there is something else, something that is unsettlingly new.
“I’ll be back,” Hinata swears quietly, and a hysterical laugh breaks across Katou’s lips in chunks.
No-one has ever come back.
The keel of pain strains through Katou’s teeth on a high pitched whistle, and there are splotches of red and black and black and red, and he’s spinning and falling and he can’t breathe because the roots are wrapping around his lungs-
They never, ever come back.
Hinata leaves in a flurry of motion and hooded eyes.
Why didn’t he dodge?