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[color=transparent]u rock ! |
this user holds no regard for personal safety whatsoever |
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[abbr=claire made this!]©
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It's twenty minutes past three in the morning, and Leo is currently standing in the kitchen, meticulously trying to dissolve a packet of caffeine pills into a can of red bull. It's the community kitchen for that entire level of the dorms, so there's a chance that someone will walk in and try to stop him from actively digging an early grave, but he's going to risk it. There's an essay to be written and a final to pass and a deadline that's creeping closer with every passing second. Death can wait.
Miyu does not wake up in the middle of the night. It never ever, ever happens. Miyu is a strong credit-averaging university student that last-minutes everything and he sleeps like a baby because you will not catch this pure soul ever being sleep deprived ever. That was the first thing his mother taught him, ever since he was eight. Don't pull all-nighters in university, Miyu, or you will be unable to function the next day and you will die.
At least he thinks she did. Probably. Something like that.
Today, miraculously, Miyu wakes up exactly nineteen minutes past three because there's something sparking in his brain that's telling him that something very bad is being done, right about now. And it is up to him to save that poor soul's life. Half-dead, zombie Miyu rises from his bed and treads very slowly out of the room, leaving his blankets in a desolate puddle on the floor, and treks blearily all the way to the communal kitchen where his danger sensors are tingling. Probably someone burning water or something. He flicks on the light.
At that moment Miyu unleashes a deathly warble of dissent that is meant to sound something like, " What are you doing! Stop right there!" and actually comes out like, " AEERUEGHHHEUUGHH," because that is not what you are supposed to do with your Red Bull.
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u rock ! |
this user holds no regard for personal safety whatsoever |
[/table]
[abbr=claire made this!]©
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The moment the lights get flicked on, Leo yells, dropping the packet of pills and watching forlornly as the tiny, caffeine-packed miracles fly across the smooth linoleum. That floor is not clean. He looks up, can of Red Bull still clutched in hand, and furrows his brows at the offending source of the sound. [color=#ff9b43] "Dude! My drugs!" And Leo realizes that there is a possibility of someone hearing that statement out of context and grossly misjudging what they're doing here right now but it's three in he morning and most college students wouldn't wake up if the entire roof caved in so he doesn't bother keeping his voice too low.
He pauses, taking in Miyu's disheveled state, bed-hair sticking up every which way and a look of desolate tiredness in his eyes, and concludes that whoever this is must be in the same boat as him. "You can have some if you promise to stop yelling," he says, setting the Red Bull down on the counter before collapsing to the floor to pick up the pills, [color=#ff9b43]"and if you help me with these." It's only fair, Leo's dead tired and he's pretty sure if he has to stay down here long enough to pick every single pill up, he's going to fall asleep, and then he won't wake up until noon the next day and he'll be late on handing in that final essay and his professor will fail him and he'll get kicked out of university and have to live on the streets and fix passing cars for money.
Or something like that.
Either way he needs to get that essay written and he won't be able to do it without ingesting copious, perhaps slightly dangerous, amounts of caffeine.
Exhausted, half-awake (or quarter-awake, if you were going for utter scientific accuracy) and near death, no one can say that Miyu didn't need a Red Bull, but in this house of God there is never the need for drugs and at the very implication Miyu manages to snap into some semblance of actual lucidity.
" Drugs bad!" he manages to demur. Some semblance, he said. " You can't! It's body. I'm aaaughhhh." He swipes his hands down the sides of his face while stumbling forwards, before pulling his hands away to shove a very accusing finger right at Leo's face until, once manners kick in, he redirects it at his neck, to be a little more polite. " I'm gonna," he articulates, enunciating each syllable carefully and clearly, " take those away from you."
He then points at the pills, in case the delusional stranger hadn't comprehended his dire point. His hand then goes back to Leo, more insistently as the other kid flops on the floor and feels around for the pills, and in that window of opportunity Miyu goes for the Red Bull with the full intention of pouring it mercilessly and righteously down the sink. He can't let him die!!! Not on his watch!
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u rock ! |
this user holds no regard for personal safety whatsoever |
[/table]
[abbr=claire made this!]©
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Leo is still blindly sweeping around for pills, eyes lighting up every time his fingers catch onto one and throwing it haphazardly back into the pocket. He's lying on his stomach, and Miyu's shadow sweeps over him as the other boy goes for the can of Red Bull, still sitting innocently on the counter. Leo's body reacts before his mind does and before he knows it, he's stood up and thrown himself bodily at Miyu, not unlike a football quarterback going for the weird egg-shaped ball that they use for the sport. They're not that far from the ground, luckily, but the only thing going through Leo's mind at the moment is, [color=#ff9b43]"Noooooooooo!" He needs that Red Bull, needs it like a very small rabbit needs a very small burrow. Leo is the rabbit and the Red Bull is his burrow.
Maybe the late nights are starting to get to him.
"Don't touch!" Apart from the fact that it's the last can, Red Bulls cost way too much for a poor university student like Leo. Pouring one down the sink? Unacceptable. That's three dollars fifty right there, he could buy two and a half hash browns with that money, with fried onions and cheese! "I need that to survive," he says, dead serious.
They fit the caricature of crazed and sleep-deprived university students to a T, regardless of Miyu's oath to never ever get less than approximately ten whole hours in him every night. Honestly, if anyone chanced across them at this ungodly hour in the search for some coffee or something (should they also be working on something all night), they would probably take a single glance at the unfolding scene then turn right around.
Miyu doesn't scream. Let's get that settled. He makes an almost piercing garble of unintelligible sound when Leo tackles him, going for the kill - else, the Red Bull. Like a dragon protecting his cluster. A brooding hen threatening to peck your hand off when you reach in to take its weird football-shaped ball.
The late hour itself has Miyu feeling particularly sensitive and impassioned about everything, and when he manages to pull himself off the (frankly, nasty) floor with a slightly terrified wheeze at Leo's naked desperation, his eyes just about water up in sheer emotion. " You can't drink that," he replies, with utmost, stressed seriousness. " You'll die, man! I'm here to save you!"
Just maybe it's getting to them.
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u rock ! |
this user holds no regard for personal safety whatsoever |
[/table]
[abbr=claire made this!]©
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Still on the floor, Leo glances up to check that the can of Red Bull is still sitting on the counter, perfectly safe and wholly untouched by trespassers who probably have good intentions but need to be stopped right now, this instant, immediately. He stands up, flinging his arms out for balance, wobbling a little (just a little) before finding his footing and swinging his right hand over to point at Miyu's face, or rather, somewhere around his neck area, Leo's depth perception isn't all that good at the moment. [color=#ff9b43] "I'm an independent woman who don't need no man!"
Wait, no, that's not right.
Leo falters, before bringing himself up to his full (admittedly not that impressive) height. "Buddy, come on, I need to write this paper and if I don't risk death to drink this Red Bull then I will fall asleep and then I'll fail! And flunk out of uni! And it'll be all. Your. Fault." He enunciates each word by lazily jabbing his finger at the air. "Promise I won't die," he adds as an afterthought. Caffeine won't kill you, they'd all be dead by now if it did.
The clock in the kitchen is ticking meticulously to half-past three and Leo still has three thousand words to write. He glances at Miyu, back at the clock, then down at the Red Bull, and then he lunges for the can, deciding that chugging the drink and then eating the pills would probably achieve the same effect. Right? Right.
Maybe.
Probably not but he'll take his chances, Miyu is unstoppablae.
Why do they like pointing so much. Or trying haphazardly to point in the other's direction, which could really end up in either a poked eye or an accidental karate chop straight to the throat if they were still progressing along the track of being mutually Numb to All Sensation, which is... happening. " This isn't the way!" Miyu gibbers, because that is fake and he knows Leo will die he feels it in his pounding beating earnest heart of hearts, peeling himself off the floor and promptly yelling a half-cobbled, " NOOOO--" by the time Leo has thrown all the caution in the world to the wind and pounces for the can of death.
In Miyu's bleary-eyed frenzy, his brain makes the split-second decision that slapping the can out of Leo's hand is a smart idea. Or, maybe, going for the can at the exact same time. Which is what he does, so now they're both struggling.
" YOU! CAN'T!! DO THIS TO YOURSELF!!" he finds himself fairly screeching. Bless their souls.
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u rock ! |
this user holds no regard for personal safety whatsoever |
[/table]
[abbr=claire made this!]©
[align=center][div style="background=transparent; borderwidth=0px; bordercolor=; width: 250px; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 125%; text-align:justify;"]
Two, probably more than half-asleep boys fighting for an open can of Red Bull in the flickering, barely-there light of the communal kitchen is probably quite the sight. Leo's struggling to keep the can upright so none of the precious three-dollar fifty liquid splashes onto the nasty, nasty floor whilst at the same time twisting to the left to try and gain the upper hand. Really, he's not in the wrong here, it's none of Miyu's business what he does with his life! He's his own person! Albeit maybe half a person right now, probably less considering how unfocused his eyes are, but however much of a person he is right now is his own!
[color=#ff9b43] "YES! I! CAN!" Leo yells back, wide-eyed and frantic, scrabbling for purchase on the slippery metal of the can. Of course, he chooses this moment to step back for more balance, right foot inadvertently landing on one of the fallen pills. It rolls, he slips, and falls backward, letting go of the can (and also screaming rather incoherently) so he doesn't crack his head open on the floor. That would make it substantially dirtier than it is now.
Leo windmills his arms and manages to catch himself on the counter, but suddenly letting go of the can means Miyu's built-up momentum now has nowhere to go. This absolutely does not bode well for either of them. Leo can see what's coming and so preemptively screeches, "AEERRGH!" He lunges in a futile attempt to catch the can, grossly undershooting and ending up on the floor for the second time that night. He definitely needs a shower after this.
Miyu has zero thoughts whatsoever about preserving this caffeinated drink of hell because one, Miyu the living happy slip has no need for artificial means of generating energy, two this drink is the work of hell because he's seen the capabilities of Coke who says that Red Bull doesn't have the same death mixture of Satan, and three, everything but tearing this aforementioned death mixture from this vulnerable soul's hands has entirely fled his mind. Booked it outta dodge. Flew out the window. Went smashing through the door via motorcycle. This sad soul needs salvation. He's half a person, and right now Miyu's also half a person, so together they can get through all adversity and he can teach him sensibly about organisational work practices otherwise a brighter mindset on life, which equates to learning how to give up gracefully and how to skilfully smash out something entirely half-assed without losing the sleep that could give him wrinkles and a shortened lifespan and--
Miyu's about to holler something back, something wholly intelligent and striking like, " NO!!!! YOU!!! CAN'T!" until his entire life goes blurry when he's propelled back because abruptly he's the only one tugging at the can and for a single second all Miyu can think to do is think out farewell messages to his mother, his friends whom he always leeches notes off, Santa, God, a reluctant but mostly fake apology to his professor for not being able to submit his assessment which is indeed mostly fake because no way is Miyu going to feel sorry about not having to do that, and actually it sounds pretty appealing to pass peacefully in the midst of a wild struggle over a can of Red Bull.
He lets go of the Red Bull, just as Leo's piercing caterwaul echoes through his ears.
Miyu lands hard on his tailbone, shrivels forward from the agony, as Leo crumbles beside him and the Red Bull, completing its slow downward motion, bounces off the floor. Then tips to the side and flows out. Gratuitously.
Like a beautiful roly-poly, Miyu curls on the floor and numbly recognises the metaphoric circling, quacking ducks going around his head as oblivion. Just like the finest of cartoon characters.
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