𝗥𝘂𝘀𝗵 | 𝘏𝘢𝘪𝘬𝘺𝘶𝘶 𝘖𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘴

➪ 𝙺𝚎𝚗𝚖𝚊 𝙺𝚘𝚣𝚞𝚖𝚎 | 𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚎

☁︎ 𝙵𝚕𝚞𝚏𝚏
☘︎ 𝙰𝚗𝚐𝚜𝚝
𝙽𝚘 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚌𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚜

Y'all, it literally hurts how much I love this man, like, someone needs to call for help because I feel like I'm dying.

〰〰 🏐 〰〰

     Sometimes, things are gone in an instant. Sometimes, it's over before you even fully process the beginning. 
As you were fallen to your knees against the sidewalk, people around you asking if you were okay and calling paramedics and help, you just cried, the tears washing away the dirt and soot that had gotten on your face. You didn't realize it, but each time a tear dripped onto your thighs, a shock of pain emanated from the burns on your legs.
"I just lost everything..."

     You woke up in bed with a start, sitting up quickly while panting, gasping, and crying. You had that same dream again, for the third time this month. You expected it though. After all, it was the fifth anniversary of when your life changed forever. After you managed to calm yourself down you wiped your eyes and got out of bed, heading toward the bathroom in your small apartment. 
     "Just wash it away, the dreams will stop soon..." You whispered to yourself, climbing into the shower. Once you had finished, you changed into one of your nicer outfits and headed out of your home. "I need some flowers, I gotta stop by my parents." 
     Heading towards a shop, you bought a bouquet and headed toward where your parents were. Walking through the cemetery, you looked around for their graves, spotting them a few meters away.
     "Hey mom, hey dad. Five years since we've seen each other huh?" You said, kneeling in front of their tombstones, placing half the flowers on each grave. "I hope you two are doing okay, I am. I turn twenty-one today, kind of upsetting we won't be able to drink together like normal, but I'll be okay." 

     After an hour of talking with your parents, you stood up and decided to go to work. You worked at a company called Bouncing Ball Corp., and to be honest, the job was okay. It wasn't super exciting, but it paid enough for you to live and be happy enough to not quit. Once you arrived, you hurried over to your desk and quickly logged in. You were already late since you wanted to visit your parents, you might as well hurry up and get working without any delay.
     "(Name)." You heard a voice, flinching slightly as you turned around to your CEO, Kenma Kozume. "This is the fourth time you've been late in the last two weeks. Why?" 
     "I uh, I slept in. I'm sorry sir, I've just had some bad dreams recently. I'll try to not be late again."
     "Okay." He mumbled, turning around to go back to his office on the other side of the floor. You didn't know why, but every time he talked to you, you got a bit nervous. Maybe you were concerned he would fire you, or maybe you were worried about messing up in front of him.
     Taking a deep breath, you cracked your knuckles and got to work, starting to tap away and work. You took care of the financial department, even if you were only twenty-one.

    Kenma had been a bit curious about you recently. He promoted you to head of financials because the old head was a piece of garbage who scared his employees into working and because you had showed the most promise in your craft. Watching you show up late a lot more often though had concerned him since looking at your old records, you were a fairly punctual person. It was your business though, so he didn't want to push and prod at it.
     When he decided to get up and walk around after an hour of sitting at his desk, he headed over to your area. Why? Because you were fairly nice and didn't try to talk to him as much as other people. It was nice.
     As he approached your desk, he saw your typing away ever so quickly, hyperfocused on your job. "(Name), are you working well?" Jeez, his tone sounded a lot more mean than he meant. He always felt a little disappointed every time you jumped at his words.
     "Y-Yeah, I'm almost done with this month's financial reports, so expect that on your desk in an hour." He heard you say, not taking a break to stop typing.
     "Um, if it isn't too much to ask..."
     Finally, he saw you turn around.
     "Would you mind if you could possibly go out with me tonight? I have nothing to do and my friends are busy."
     He didn't make eye contact, afraid he'd see you annoyed or scared. Instead, he didn't have a single clue that you would do anything to avoid being alone tonight. 
     "I'll go out with you tonight. Where?"
     "Ah, I'm - wait." He processed your acceptance for a second before letting a small smile appear on his face. "I was thinking we could just hang out. Meet me here at nine."
     You nodded and turned around to continue working, glad you got out of a sad and lonesome birthday.
     After he got back to his office, he quickly went over to his computer and looked up your social media. He wanted to find out what you enjoyed so it wouldn't be super awkward tonight if you had nothing to do. He didn't see too much, but he did find out you liked the occasional game and you liked reading. Before he clicked off Google, he saw your last name on a link. It didn't look like social media, so what was it? 
     Clicking on the site, he saw it was an article. He didn't know you had an article written about you. What exactly was it?
     Just a few moments later, he figured it out. It was about a fire from five years ago. Reading on it, he saw it was exactly five years ago today. He learned that you had been the only survivor out of your family and that it apparently started with birthday candles. That was all he learned, but by the end of it, he was shocked. Did no one else know about this incident? Had you never told anyone?

〰〰 🏐 〰〰

     Now that you had changed out of your work outfit and into a nice casual outfit, you walked back to your office building. You didn't really know what it was about, but maybe he wanted to discuss some work stuff with you. It could be like those employee-boss meetings you heard about. Walking to the door, you heard a voice call out for you. Turning around, you saw Kenma in a car, waving at you. 
     "(Name), over here." He said, watching you do that silly little quick jog people did to cross the street fast enough to not annoy drivers. "Sorry for the change of plans, but I thought we'd go grab some dinner and maybe talk about finances and just hang out."
     You nodded and got into the passenger seat, already nervous you had screwed up for not noticing him sooner. 'Did I embarrass myself? Does he think I'm stupid? What if he thinks I'm unobservant? Should I say sorry for not seeing him sooner?'
     While your thoughts were running wild, he was chuckling to himself quietly about how silly you were. He could already see that you were overthinking stuff. He was quite observant, so it wasn't super surprising. During the drive, you didn't talk too much, but you did say a few things that made the other feel all fluffy and nice randomly.

     Finally, you both stopped at some sort of park. It wasn't much of a park, but a big community area with a field and stuff. It was really relaxing and you hadn't even stepped out of the car.
     "So what's planned for this place, Sir?" You asked, stepping out of the car with Kenma. "It's lovely."
     "I was thinking we could just walk around and talk. It's late so it'll be quiet and relaxing." He smiled ever so softly, you hardly noticed. "Plus, I don't really have many ideas to take someone to hang out with."
     You giggled and started walking towards the sidewalk path leading through the park. "Well, let's get to walking and talking then."
     Once he had caught up with you, he started a casual conversation, which was pleasant and calming. It was until the talk about birthdays came up. Did he figure it out?
     "I learned about that incident you had a few years ago. If I had known it was your birthday sooner, I would've let you have the day off. I'm truly sorry about that."
     Quickly, you interjected. "No, having the day off would be the last thing I would want! I need something to distract me from whatever takes over my mind during these times. I visit my parents each year too, so they must be satisfied."
     He blinked and nodded, gesturing to a park bench. "You want to talk about it? I'm not the best listener, but I'll try and help you."
     You blinked, thinking for a moment before shaking your head. "I think that walking would be better. All that happened though was that we were getting candles ready, and I can't remember who but we dropped a lighter on some of that tissue paper and then it flamed up, then next thing I know I'm pulled out of the house and crowded by concerned neighbors as I watched my entire childhood burn."
     He listened, seeing the emotions across your face. "I know you've probably heard this a lot, but I'm sorry for what you went through. No one deserves to feel or experience that stuff."
     You smiled and shook your head, looking at the sky. "It's okay, I think I've accepted the fact that it happened. Life can't just keep going lucky forever. Bad stuff happens and we all need to learn that tragedy isn't optional."
     That was the moment when Kenma Kozume became enchanted by you. Your look in the ethereal glow of the moon and dim lamp lights, your way of speaking so smoothly and accepting, all of it.
     "Hey, how about we go to my place and game for a bit? It could help you distract yourself."

〰〰 🏐 〰〰

I'm sorry for all the oneshots not ending in relationships! I just like making the stories that develop slowly and stuff!
A

lso, sorry it's so short, I wrote this because my family's lakehouse was recently burned down completely in a fire. I just needed something to help me process and comfort me. I hope you all are doing okay and that no one reading this has gone through it. It's terrible.