(PLAY AS RUI! I was listening to the Shizuku Hug alternate vocal and my Ruikasa brain told me to make it Ruikasa so here we go. The song gives me such a warm feeling and I wanted to try and encapsulate it into words.)

Rui had always had an aching feeling of emptiness in his heart. It was soft, but as the days went by, it started hurting even more. Ever since middle school, he had never been able to genuinely laugh. He found things funny, yes, but they could never get a laugh out of him. All alone he was, in this cold, cruel world that seemed to want him to suffer.

He could barely remember how his heart raced as Tsukasa pulled him along one night, his cold palm against Tsukasa's warm ones. He could barely hear the words Tsukasa had said through the loud beat of his heart. "It's okay," Tsukasa had said, giving him a small, quick, yet fond hug.

Now that was happening again. Except, the roles had reversed. With a big smile, Rui pulled Tsukasa as they ran across the large grassy park of the park they were in. It wasn't so grassy now, since it had recently snowed quite heavily, but neither of them could care. The loneliness hadn't disappeared in Rui's heart, but it was easier to manage now. He had someone. That someone had given him the strength to change.

"Rui-!" Tsukasa mumbled, his breath billowing from the sheer cold of the outside air. "Can't you slow down-!"