Azure: 19

Penne: 17

Navy: 18

Iliad (Ily): 6

Azure was awake and at it again when Penne returned with a bag packed. But the bags under his eyes were smaller now, more like purses than the huge empty things that had layed there before.

"Go take a shower," Penne said softly, helping Azure to his feet and placing a bundle of clothing into his hands. "And change into that. Come back here when you're done."

He teetered out of the office, and Penne sighed. She could get him to leave. But what could she do about security? They were always watching him like a hawk. They never let him out of their sight. The only thing she could think to do was cause a distraction, but she didn't know how to do that either. And it wasn't like he could just walk out the front door...could he? The security detail was tight. They were fast, smart, and very, very big, and Penne couldn't imagine any situation in which Azure made a run for it and got very far. But what if...

He didn't have to go far?

He just had to get next door. No one would follow him there, especially if Azure went in there screaming that a bunch of scary men were chasing him. Perhaps they would ask questions, perhaps not, but Azure could be well on his way through the 54 floors before anyone could be interogated properly. And if he was smart, he would run to the roof and leap back over and hide somewhere in their building. But then again, Azure wasn't smart at all, and this whole plan would probably fall through. But she needed to give him something, anything. Even the smallest sliver of hope was enough to feed his shattered soul. So when Azure came back with his beard trimmed, his hair wet and floppy, and wearing the new outfit she had picked out for him, she started telling him about her plan, feeling that he was in a more rational mood than he had been just an hour before.

And before she could get to any of the important parts, like how he would evade the guards once inside the other building, or how he should leap over the roofs like they had when they were 15, he grabbed the packed bag out of her hand, grabbed a white envelope of hundreds that for some reason had been stashed in his desk, and started running.

"SCHIST, AZURE!" she screamed, but there was nothing she could do about it now, only staring at his receding figure and chuckling sadly to herself. She didn't even get to say goodbye. Ravioli didn't even know he was gone.

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What type of mess had she gotten them into?

Azure found it remarkably easy to slip outside. There was too much noise outside the building to be sure if anyone on the security detail was following him, but it would be futile to stop and check when freedom was hanging just overhead. All he had to do was reach out and snatch it. And so sprinting the short distance between the two buildings, shouts and protests coming from behind him, he let out the first genuine laugh since before his father had died. If only he had done this sooner, perhaps he wouldn't hate himself as much. Perhaps his friends wouldn't have had to watch him suffer. Perhaps he would accept being a failure just to feel this free-

And then suddenly there was a person right in front of him, and Azure ran headlong into them, his knees and palms skidding against pavement as they rolled over each other finding themselves intertwined and with no hopes of getting up before Azure's security could reach them. As Azure was looking back with dread at the people who wanted to drag him back to Hell, the other person was screaming, "ILY! ILY! GET OFF, HE'S IN THE STREET, PLEASE PLEASE, HE CAN'T GET OUT, ILY!!!"

Looking towards where he was desperately reaching, Azure saw an orange fluff ball in a cat carrier, clawing at the mesh fabric encircling it as cars swerved around it, and something about that name became oddly familiar...

"ILY!!!" the boy was still screaming, kicking and shoving at Azure to get him off, his leg trapped under Azure's torso, while Azure just sat there, too shocked to do anything. "GET OFF ME, PSYCHO!!" the boy said, giving one final heave and wincing as the pavement grated against the side of his shin, leaping to his feet and sprinting into the street, grabbing his cat and returning to the sidewalk before starting to kick Azure over and over again, two or three tears streaking down his face. "DON'T...TOUCH...MY...CAT," he said in between kicks, and Azure was about to apologize before two giant hands roughly picked him up below the shoulders, dragging him back towards the building. Struggling did him no good, and as he was dragged kicking and yelling back to Hell, the boy with the navy hair and silver eyes simply watched him go.

It was him.

Navy.

The name that had always made him smile.

The boy that he had seen when he had sneaked into enemy territory.

The boy that was, perhaps, not so different from him.

The boy who was watching him get dragged away, as though it were the most normal thing in the world.

"NAVY!" Azure screamed, thrashing and kicking, protesting and jerking and crying out. "NAVY!"

This was it. He was going to die like this. He was going to work himself to the bone, hate himself forever, and die alone because he had hurt everyone he loved. He would live out the rest of his life as a failure and die completely and utterly alone.

He had resigned himself to it.

But then he felt a rush of warmth spread throughout his body, starting at his ankle as a hand desperately clamped on there, spreading slowly throughout his body until it reached the spot where the security man's hands were clamped under his armpits. And all the man could do was scream.