The Ugly Truth

110 days remaining

....

There was only darkness surrounding him. Aito tried to navigate his way through it. He didn't know where he was but he just kept walking forward.

After some walking, in the the distance he saw a light and under that light he saw a figure. Upon walking closer, he saw it was his mother. Stunned, he stood rooted in his place for a moment before sprinting into her arms. Both hugged each other tightly. Tears were uncontrollably cascading down Aito's pale face. "I miss you so much mama!"

"I miss you too, my sweet boy."

They sat for quite some time listening to what each other had to say. All the while Aito clutched onto his mother's hand. It was cold, so very cold. He knew this wasn't real and it deeply hurt him.

He wished it was...

Sadly, his mother couldn't stay long, leaving him broken.

He had his head buried in his knees. He had stopped crying a long time ago now he was just thinking about his horrible fate. In that moment, he wished and even prayed if he could die sooner. He didn't have anyone anyway. No sooner did he think that when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. His head jolted up and what he saw surprised him.

"It's sad that you didn't even think about me, Aito...." Shun was crouched beside him. His head was cocked to the right to get a better view of the boy's face. There was a smile on his face but his eyes held pain. "Do I not mean anything to you?....."

Aito stumbled upon words. "I didn't mean to...I'm sorry..."

"All that time we spent together..." taking Aito's hand in his, he intertwined their fingers together, "...did it ever mean anything?" He said bringing his hand up to his lips. Aito flushed a deep red, "It did! It really did! I just--"

"Your hand is really cold you know."

It was then Aito noticed. He paled at the revelation.

"It's like a hand of a corpse." Shun said sadly. "I'm late, aren't I?" He chuckled regretfully. At this Aito quickly wrapped his arms around Shun, crying into his shoulder. "I'm sorry! Please don't leave me, Shun! I don't want to be alone anymore!" Shun reciprocated by wrapping his arms around the crying boy's delicate frame.

It was then Aito realized something. He had tried to always deny it because truth always hurts.

He had lied to himself.

Over and over the years.

He made himself believe that he was being less of a burden for everybody by distancing himself but it was all a lie. It was a facade he immersed himself into so that he could readily accept his fate.

It's not that he didn't want others to hurt when he died. It was never about that.

He was simply scared of leaving the people he loved. The fact that Aito knew when he would die made it worse. He didn't want any attachments to anyone because it would making dying more difficult. But now....he had Shun and it made him feel terrible that he had go. He didn't want to leave Shun. He wanted to stay by his side more and more for the years to come.

He clutched onto Shun tighter. He felt warmth encompassing him. Shun kept running his hand up and down Aito's back, soothing him. "Don't leave me, Shun!" He cried out.

"I'm not going anywhere but what about you?" Aito pulled back to see Shun's eyes brimmed with tears. "I won't go anywhere. I'll stay beside you forever." The moment these words slipped from his lips an invisible force roughly pulled him backwards. It pulled him far away from Shun.

"Why didn't you ever tell me? Why didn't you tell me about your curse? We could have found a solution together!" He heard him cry from the distance.

"No- please..."

"YOU LIED, AITO!! You lied..." Shun cried. Slowly even his sobs faded out and Aito grew even colder.

"Don't leave me..." he sobbed out in a futile attempt.

___________________

Aito woke up with a start. His sweat pooled around him. He felt drained mentally and physically. He's had many unpleasant dreams over the years(a reason why he never slept peacefully) but out of all of them this was the most unpleasant.