Mori's heart

[idolpro]

All at once a rainbow of bright lights feels as if it is bursting through you. It is an intense experience, but not an unpleasant one. As the colours burn through your skin, and lighting begins to spark through your veins, you feel stronger, you could take on the world right now.

Faintly in the distance, beyond the iridescent light show that overwhelms your vision, you can just about make out some silhouettes, but they’re too blurred, too indistinct and too far to tell anything about them. You can’t see them, but you know they’re welcoming you. You’re wanted here, you’re needed here, and the light is guiding you where you’re meant to go.

Comments

[foolmetwice]

[crouches down to let the rabbit out of his arms, onto the steps]

Hey— you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. But it’s not like you’d be going in alone.

[idolpro]

The bunny hops down a step, torn between wanting to get as much space between it and that door as possible, and not leaving Mars. It stares up at him pleadingly again.

[foolmetwice]

[stooooop looking at him like that!1]

I’ll be back. Wait for me.

[he pats the bunny’s head, before standing up to open the door and step through]

[idolpro]

The bunny quakes in terror as you step through the door onto the rooftop of Aldera junior high. A single notebook sits at the edge of the roof, burned and ruined, next to a pair of red boots.

A younger Mori sits on the railing with his back to you, facing out over the ledge.

[foolmetwice]

[. . .]

[dips his hands into his pockets and steps forward until he’s standing next to Mori, elbow leaning against the railing]

How’s the view up here?

[idolpro]

He hadn't noticed your approach so he's startled when he hears Mars talk.

"What?! What are you doing here??"

[foolmetwice]

I walked up the stairs.

[HE SAYS SO CASUALLY like it's no big deal]

Am I interrupting anything?

[idolpro]

"I'd say intruding is more accurate. You shouldn't be up here."

[foolmetwice]

Yeah, yeah. So I've been told.

[not budging]

Why are you up here, then?

[idolpro]

"Unlike you, this is where I belong."

[foolmetwice]

Yeah? Why's that?

[glancing past the railing, out into the horizon]

I kind of feel like you're hogging the view all to yourself.

[idolpro]

He shrugs. "It's not that great."

[foolmetwice]

No. . .?

[shifts a bit to cross his arms over the railing]

Then I'll ask again: why are you here?

[he asked that once already, so he clarifies]

Something other than "I belong here."

[idolpro]

He shuffles away and snaps, "Why do I have to justify my existence to you?"

[foolmetwice]

You don't.

[he answers quickly, not moving to chase after Mori as he shifts away]

I'm not asking why you exist; I'll accept that you just are, because that's all it takes for me. Just. . . why you're here. On a rooftop. At the top of some extremely difficult to climb steps.

Isolated from everyone else.

[idolpro]

He looks away, irritated, tensing up even more at the word 'isolated'.

"Because it's the only place I can be."

[foolmetwice]

[. . .]

Is that because you're afraid to go anywhere else? Or because you're considered a threat?

[the threat level on the door, the way it was crossed out. . .]

[idolpro]

Oh. At that, he turns to look at him slowly, his gaze empty and icy.

"What do you think?"

[foolmetwice]

[unfazed by that expression, Mars just tilts his chin up a little more]

I can make an educated guess.

[haaa. . .]

. . . who labeled you a threat in the first place? Do you consider yourself a threat?

Because I think it's stupid for you to be up here by yourself if you want to go somewhere else.