Title: At World's End

Fandom: [K], Project K

Characters: Fushimi Saruhiko/Yata Misaki. Mentions of Munakata Reishi, Awashima Seri, Kushina Anna, and Kamamoto Rikio.

Disclaimer: [K] does not belong to me, nor do I make any profit out of this work.

Warnings: unbeta-ed, grammar errors ahoy, possible OOC-ness, major character deaths (yep, it's plural). And I have no idea what this is myself, to be honest. Reference to the chain-reaction theory of Damocles Fall in the novels, it might be inaccurate because I haven't read the novels myself.

A/N: I'm stuck in a writer's block, so I have no idea what I'm writing myself. Sorry about that.

Summary: They aren't Kings. Their existences are made to be forgotten.

A Project [K] Fanfiction

At World's End

This is how Saruhiko's world ends:

It starts with what Munakata simply calls as chaos. Saruhiko couldn't have put it better, because everyone is fighting everyone nowadays; male and female, young and old, kids and adults alike. The battlefield extends to everywhere, no one is sure who is which clansmen, or if they belong to a clan at all. No one knows which clan is winning, no one is sure if it's ever going to end. The air reeks of blood and diseases and deaths, rings with children's wail and people's grief.

It isn't a war anymore; it is simply chaos.

Then the Green King's Damocles Fall happens.

Saruhiko knows enough about the Sword of Damocles (he's a genius, and he's read more than his fair share of those difficult books about Sword of Damocles and Weissman Levels and the Dresden Slate) and he's been monitoring the locations of each Kings for days, that he can predict the exact time and how the chain reaction is going to happen. They only have less than five minutes to kill the Gold King before his Sword of Damocles fall, and that is an impossible task.

Half of Japan will be annihilated in less than five minutes.

Munakata Reishi doesn't even bother to assemble his SCEPTER 4; he simply sets out with a grim look on is face, a determination to kill the Gold King no matter what it takes. The responsibility of assembling falls to Awashima Seri, who takes it in stride, marching the blue clansmen out of the Headquarters with orders to evacuate civilians. Saruhiko doesn't think it's going to be of much use, though, because they only have less than fucking five minutes before the world ends. He tells Awashima that, and she gives him this look (which reminds him so much of Kusanagi-san, it's completely unfair) that makes him feel like a rebellious nine-year-old caught in the middle of the night with one hand down the cookie jar.

Then her eyes soften, and she tells him to go. It baffles him for a second, because where the fuck is he supposed to go, but Awashima is running herself, following the path where Munakata has gone, and Saruhiko is struck with a sudden epiphany, holy shit, the Vice-Commander is still human, despite her ruthless actions and her fucking weird taste.

The assemble isn't so much of an assemble as it is a release order for the blue clan members to go find their loved ones and to try to save them. It is Awashima's last act as the vice-commander, because of course, of course she's just going to follow the Blue King to the very moment of death. It's where her devotion lies, from the beginning that stretches into forever.

Saruhiko takes a moment to admire that, and then he turns and begins running.

"Where the fuck are you?!" is Misaki's first demand on his ear when his call gets through, and Saruhiko chokes on a laugh. "Goddammit, Saru, this isn't funny! That was—the explosion just now, what the hell—!"

"Green King's Damocles Fall," he murmurs into the phone, and his ears are ringing, ringing, ringing as people around him scatter in absolute panic and fear. He thinks he sees Domyouji out of the corner of his eyes, with chidren pooling around his legs, tugging and crying. That would be a hilarious sight. "They're going to kill the Gold King, but we only have less than five minutes before his Damocles Fall happens too."

He hears Misaki's breath catch. Then there's tensed silence, one that deafens Saruhiko's ear more than the high-pitched shrieks of people around him. It's utter chaos—everything is out of control, and Saruhiko knows this is the end.

"Where are you," he finally asks, but it's more of a statement because he thinks he knows the answer.

The tensed silence changes into a resigned sigh.

"I'm at the bar."

So that's where Saruhiko goes, to the bar with a HOMRA curving neatly above the wooden door, with a knob that feels more familiar than anything he's touched today. There's a tinkling sound above his head when he opens the door and steps into the dimly lit bar, where every color is a shade darker, where the smell of wood and alcohol burns the back of his throat, where he can still see memories floating around it makes him sick.

The bar is empty. It has mostly been empty since Kusanagi-san's death.

He pauses at the doorway and sees Kamamoto and Anna, huddling on the couch where Totsuka-san liked to sleep. The little girl is trembling hard, her face ashen and shadowed with grief, and Kamamoto has his arms around her, rocking her, murmuring soothing words that aren't words, making noises that have no form. They don't look up, but Saruhiko doesn't mind, because they aren't a part of his world anymore—haven't been for a long time, anyway.

They aren't Kings. They are mere people whose existences are so tiny that the Kings would never understand their struggles and problems. They aren't the one history is going to focus on, when everything is over. They are the ones made to be forgotten, the ones whose fates are to end before the Kings are gone.

But it's Misaki who vaults over the bar counter and strides forward to him, it's Misaki who pulls at his SCEPTER 4 uniform lapels harshly, it's Misaki who kisses his lips hard, all bites before Saruhiko opens his mouth and surrenders under his touch, overwhelmed with heat and the finality of the situation and the distant fear nagging on his throat.

He has no fucking idea how Misaki has dragged them both down to their knees, breathless and tensed, gripping each other desperately like they're about to drown.

It's Misaki who smiles and cries at the same time, and says, fuck, of all things, he says, "welcome home, dumbass."

Saruhiko has a moment to look up into Misaki's bright, bright eyes, and lets himself think, this is where he belongs, this is the only thing he's always had, this is how everything should have been.

And then somewhere, there's an explosion and everything is burning, and Saruhiko pulls Misaki into his arms even as everything turns into blinding light before darkness takes over completely.

-o0o-