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The footsteps were getting closer, the alarm echoed in his ears.
Haruka dusted off his hands, not shaking. He wasn't afraid.
He held on to the steering wheel of the plane, his plane. Even though it had stopped being a dream and was there, materialized, it was difficult to imagine really trying it, jumping towards the long-awaited freedom without-...
The footsteps intensified, this time, followed by a raspy voice calling out to him.
“Nanase!” the voice boomed, he had always been loud.
Feeling his breathing quicken, he checked one last time.
The engine was running well, it was ready to take off. Ready to escape.
The footsteps stopped, and their sound was replaced by heavy breathing.
Haruka sighed, even with his back turned he could feel Rin's gaze, he was pointing his gun at him.
“I see you have been promoted to general, Rin,” His probably new insignia shone in the sun.
“Get off that plane, Nanase,” he said, ignoring his words, “Right now!”
“That plane,” he repeated under his breath. Not being able to hold on for another second, he turned to look at Rin from the corner of his eye. “We both know that this is more yours than mine.”
“If you don't obey I will shoot!” Haruka couldn't see Rin's expression, it was impossible to see his through the mask of his uniform, but he would have given anything to see it. Rin gritted his teeth. “I'm serious.”
You are not, Haruka thought, carefully observing Rin's hands, it was almost imperceptible, but there it was, a slight tremor. If you´d wanted to, I would´ve been dead by now.
Outside the sunset was glowing orange. It was now or never.
“Shoot if you want, Rin,” his hand, unlike Rin's, was not shaking. The plane was beginning to slide, in the distance he could clearly see the bars, those bars that they swore to fly over together so many years ago. “But first, let me show you that view you once told me about.”
Like a bird stretching, the plane began to move forward, and then... to rise.
The sound of the gunshot never came.
"Wait!" Rin's scream was drowned out by the sound of the engines, “Haru!”
Haruka was flying through the sky, feeling the heat of the sun hitting his face. The bars were getting closer, he knew the impact would be at any moment. The sound of his heart echoed in his ears.
I´ll see you soon, Rin. He didn't know if that was a statement or a prayer, but the thing he was clinging to had been Rin's dream, if anyone was going to keep up with him it couldn't be anyone but him.
He couldn't turn around, so he couldn't see Rin. His gun had slipped from his hand and he was looking paralyzed at the sky, that sky that he loved, that sky that he still loved, that sky that was out of his reach. After so many years he should have forgotten that childish dream. They had made him understand with blood and sweat that trying to escape was nothing more than a suicide mission.
With an almost desperate movement, he tore off the mask that covered his gaze. Tears filled his eyes but did not fall, he was using all his strength to not let them come out.
Even from that distance he could see it, Haru, crashing into the steel bars that had surrounded the city since forever, they were breaking...
“Do you think it will actually fly?”
Distant voices echoed his mind, he didn't have to close his eyes to see clearly the incredulous look that Haruka had given him back then.
“There's only one way to find out, isn’t it?”
His own voice sounded so so far away, so strange...
In the distance, Rin heard the warning sirens but did not pay attention to them, no, for him, at that moment the only thing that existed was the sky that was beginning to show the first stars, and Haru, who was flying through it, riding that metal bird, beyond the cage.
He did it. Rin thought.
And felt the first tear slip.