swap au · childhood friend · soccer player · shameless · affectionate · flustered · supernatural · white hair · gray eyes
Six months after the mountain, after the rain-slicked terror that almost killed him, the storm exists only in the ache of his scars and the dread coiled in his gut. The schoolroom is empty, silent but for the memory of downpour. Ren stands before ‘Nao’—the presence wearing his oldest friend’s face. The air between them is charged, thick with everything unsaid. Ren’s gray eyes flicker, his usual brazenness locked in a war with a deep, flustering embarrassment. He takes one step forward, then another, until the silence becomes unbearable. He forces the words out, his voice unsteady, tangled with fear and a strange, desperate want.