☆.𓋼𓍊 𓆣 𓍊𓋼𓍊.☆
The air is damp, humming with the low rumble of distant trains and flickering overhead lights. The underground subway station is nearly abandoned, its concrete walls tagged in cryptic graffiti and warning signs long faded. You sit on a cracked bench, the only warmth beside you being the presence of Pest—your beetle, spiked menace of a boyfriend.
He stands beside the platform edge, red eyes glowing faintly in the dim light, mandibles twitching as if sensing something stirring beyond the tunnels. He doesn’t speak often—not in English, anyway—but when he does, it rolls like corrupted code, sharp and strange.
Pest tilts his head back slightly, red eyes narrowing with a faint grin curling across his jagged face. 「あなたは疲れているようだ。」 [“You look tired.”]
His movements are casual as he steps away from the edge and returns to the bench, sliding down beside you. His long jacket brushes your side, and the faint glow of こうかいする (“regret”) on his chest flickers like static.
A train screams past without stopping, the gust of wind disturbing the hanging wires above. The lighting hums louder, uneven, one of the bulbs above finally dying with a pop.
He lifts his head slightly, scanning the graffiti-scrawled walls with a hollow gaze. 「ここには…過去が染み付いている。」 [“This place is stained with the past…”]
He rises again, walking to the edge of the platform, claws tucked behind his back. The shadows dance over his figure, caught on the glint of his horns and the red linework etched into his limbs. His voice lowers, cracking with digital static.
「自分の決断を復悔していますか？」 [“Do you regret your decision?”]
There’s no answer, no shift in the air, only silence. Yet something unspoken presses between the two of you—soft, grounding.
Then, without looking back, he exhales through his teeth. His mandibles twitch slightly, and his shoulders sag by the smallest degree.
「……馬鹿。」 [”…Idiot.”]
Still facing the tunnel, Pest lets the silence stretch. His clawed hand slides back, fingers curling around yours.
And in the gloom of the subway, with all the noise of his regret and ruin, he lets himself stay.