1 One day

It was still. On this gray morning, only the sorry excuse of a sunny side egg greeted me with warmth and gleaming yolk.

I sat down before the screen and the movie started to play. It didn’t matter which movie or genre played on the screen. The feeling of having the whole cinema for me and my breakfast alone was reason enough. I sank down into the seat and yanked my long legs over the seat before me. There was nobody to complain anyway. I was the king and could do as I wished.

The movie started and I ate my breakfast with relish. Of course, I also had some snacks— biscuits, fruits and honey water. Don’t lump me together with those health nuts, that stuff really kicks in, way better than your usual coke.

On-screen the dark setting made it hard to discern the actors. Only heavy breathing could be heard and the noises of naked skin flapping against each other. I took a sip of my water in anticipation— it has been a long time since I’ve found such a gem! Just as I wanted to let my pants down, a scene inappropriate for children flashed in, full of splendor.

Cough, cough—

F*ck, it was a gay movie!

***

Half of the honeyed water in his mouth dribbled on his shirt as the youth coughed heavily. He hoped for some steamy relief, but got a fist slammed into his stomach instead.

After that blunder, an annoyed someone searched for another film. Sadly, the other filmstrips hadn’t survived the corrosion of time and he walked out of the projection room back to his seat.

Just as his hand reached for some refreshments, he heard the rustling sound of something moving; The hand froze mid air still far away from the plate of food. His pupils constricted and his line of sight shifted to the direction of the sound. A golden colored streak tailed the motion of his eyes in the dimly lit hall.

There was nobody.

Of course there is nobody, he wanted to voice. His lips gaped open, but closed without mouthing a sound after he gave it a second thought.

The space between his eyebrows formed several wrinkles as his mood plummeted even lower than it already was. If his mouth could be described as an indifferent straight line before, it now crooked into a bitter smile full of mockery and frustration.

It seemed, however, that he was already used to this situation. As if the outburst of emotions earlier was just an illusion, the expression on the youth’s face returned into its impassive state.

The hand, that stopped momentarily, continued to grab some snacks. But his grasp only caught empty air. His head turned sharply to the plate of snacks, he had laboriously gathered. It only had some crumbs left.

Still edible biscuits and fruits were not easy to come by in this wrecked world after the Armageddon, okay?

And now they suddenly disappeared?

What a joke…

The youth gnashed his teeth so much that nobody would believe the reason was a plate of hard biscuits and bland wild fruits.

But he knew the perpetrator. To be exactly, only one suspect could have been it.

The youth gathered a big mass of air in his chest before he began to roar from the depths of his lungs.

“SIIIIN!”

Just like that he dashed off to follow the trail of feathers, Sin carelessly had left behind. The power in the youth’s legs shot out like thunder. It didn’t take long before the youth caught up with Sin, who still had biscuit crumbs in the face.

A twisted smile adorned the pissed face of the youth, and when the eyes of him and Sin met, invisible sparkes clashed in the air. Both scrutinized the other party with hostility.

One glared with rage at the other side. His golden eyes expressed a clear message— How dare you eat my snacks, you slut.

While the other haughtily gestured with narrowed eyes— Hmph, so what?— from a stack of boxes.

Just as the youth pounced toward Sin, the latter made his escape through the open window, or to be exact, the hole with the broken frame.

Veins popped up on the youth’s fist as he could only watch Sin’s figur slowly vanishing in the distance.

The “fight” ended with a complete victory for the rooster and defeat for the human.

***

With a sour taste in the mouth, a figure resembling a lone wolf lazily strolled down the street. 

Not only was his breakfast eaten by the damn bird, that bastard had opened the cage and left it wide open. As a result, all the other chickens ran wild and made a mess out of the place. Now he had to gather materials to fix the cage and restock food, or he won’t get a wink of sleep in the night.

In comparison to the quirky clash of paper tiger and pseudo dragon, the tranquil morning silence gave the whole city a sense of twisted strangeness. 

The stores still had displayed their items in the most eye-catching way, and sales posters with huge fonts filled the empty spaces of the windows. Almost to the point of overwhelming annoyance. Nothing seemed amiss. It was as if the city just overslept, and ready to awake any moment. 

But under closer inspection, even the blind could see the thick layer of dust gathered in every store. Together with a variety of dead insects and a whole network of spiderwebs, the whole city got enveloped in a bleak curtain of seclusion.

Everything seemed abandoned out of nowhere, without a hint of the root cause. That was exactly the incongruity that threw a youth into the bottomless pit of despair.

Nonetheless, he somewhat got used to this phenomena. No, he had to. 

The youth walked steadfast and unperturbed through the vacant streets of the once busy metropole.

The luxury clothing brands were swiftly ignored. His gaze wandered from store to store, but most of the things in the display didn’t catch his eye. To be precise, they couldn’t. The principle was easy, there were only two categories: useful or worthless.

The things he needed, he’d take. The things that were impractical, he’d ignore. Either way, if he changed his mind later, he could always go back to take it or simply get it from his next destination. 

Most of the things in this shopping alley were purely entertainment and luxury goods without value in the current world situation. Therefore, the youth scoured the area in a rather fast manner. Only at the electronic market did the sounds of steps subside, overshadowed by the autumn breeze.

His eyes widened. In the face of his long yearned desire, he stood there paralyzed for a good half a day. 

One window, just one window separated him and his unfulfilled dream.

It was a beauty.

The mellow lines accentuated the breathtaking shape; the iridescence was unmistakably still the same as eight years ago.

A pair of golden eyes glued to the beauty and the sound of steps reverberated again.

With every step closer to the target, my breathing accelerated more and more. I think my breath froze the moment I held my desire in my hands.

He had his dream and he had the skills. There was only one thing missing. Thus, the young man sprinted back with his treasure in embrace to his newly built den in the cinema.

It was the only place in that abandoned city that could still accommodate people for an extended time without tiring out the body.

Not letting his dream waiting any longer, he didn’t fumble long with the preparation and plugged it straight in. The eager hands started to move. His fingers pushed again and again on the soft and untouched nubs.

One, two, three times, but it was fruitless. He tried to shove it in and out again to get a reaction. Of course, he was extraordinarily careful when he inserted it in the second time.

However, the less reaction there was the rougher he got while plugging. After fumbling around for twenty minutes, he had to face reality.

He was rejected.

He was rejected by fate.

He was rejected by the heavens.

And now he was even rejected by a lump of plastic garbage.

Yes, the limited edition of the newest game console from eight years ago he had painstakingly searched for and finally found after traveling alone through half of America, refused to start.

tiaf

Stay tuned for daily updates for the (roughly) next two weeks (before my brain is thoroughly grilled)! Also, comments motivate me, so write a lot or I drow myself into BL manga. (๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)~♥