📚Countdown

Kibi and Ridley attend a special performance

Characters: Kibi/Ridley, Lune

Warnings: None

Wordcount: 1,341

Vibe: Optimistic

Original AN:

auuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu its 2am and i have work tomorrow oh no

anyways ya. happy early new years fic this is a scene i’ve had in my head for a while

song referenced is this . does this make this a songfic oh god oh fuck

unrevised as always sssssssss ok goodnight

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It was new years eve.

It wasn’t a particularly busy day for Ridley or Kibi, but Ridley in particular had been in bed all day. They had told Kibi they were spacey, but…
Kibi figured they’d truly been dissociating through time the whole day, as whenever they elected to speak, their voice sounded disjointed.

Ridley promised they’d stop. But they slipped every now and then – it was unavoidable. Still, Kibi felt awful that they couldn’t help much.

As the sun started it’s early descent, Kibi went to check on Ridley once more – only to find them scrolling through their phone.

“Ridley? Are you… back?”

Ridley didn’t turn to face Kibi, only grumbled and shifted deeper into their nest of covers.

“How long was I out.” their voice was deadpan, as it normally was, but there was a specific air of tiredness this time around.

“…Just the day. It’s 10:32 pm right now.” Kibi said before pausing and wheeling over to Ridley’s side of the bed. “I was hoping we could make it in time for the performance downtown. Lune told me she saved us some seats…”

Their voice was soft and understanding, but Ridley just put their phone down and closed their eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell her to fuck off,”

“Ridley!” Kibi said with a slight jolt back and frustrated expression.

Ridley paused before rubbing their temples, though their movements seemed erratic and sudden.

“I’m sorry.” they said, voice warping unnaturally.

Kibi’s look of frustration turned to concern as they realized Ridley was falling in and out of the time stream again. They just sighed and reached over to rub Ridley’s shoulder, which caused their jittery movements to slow down.

“Is there any reason it’s so bad today?” Kibi asked, scooting in a bit closer.

“It’s…” Ridley paused to push some hair out of their face. “It gets weird when I’m reminded time passes differently for other people.”

“Ahh.” Kibi replied. They moved their hand to hold Ridley’s, and the two sat holding hands in silence for a bit. Ridley wasn’t sure how much time was really passing, but the moment was warm while it lasted. Eventually, Kibi broke the silence.
“Hey, I’m gonna head out with Mimi if that’s alright. I promise I won’t be home too late after midnight. Take care of yourself?”

There was a muffled ‘mhmmmm’ from Ridley, so Kibi went and took their leave.

As Kibi went on their way through the snow to the downtown performance, Ridley continued to lie in bed. They resumed browsing their phone, and let out a frustrated huff when one of the first things that popped up as they refreshed their feed was a live video of Lune’s concert downtown. Though, it looked admittedly plain, at least for Lune standards. Her outfit was also rather plain – just a grey hoodie unzipped with a black tank top underneath, rounded out with some black skinny jeans.
‘God, she must be cold’, Ridley thought as they watched some of the life feed.

The more Ridley watched, the more they felt bad. Bad that they had ditched Kibi. Bad that they were so harsh to Lune. Bad they couldn’t be normal. A sudden determination filled Ridley – if fate were to be cruel to them, they’d be cruel back by defying it.

Even with their sudden determination, getting out of bed and getting dressed was still hard. Everything in Ridley screamed at them to stop, that it wasn’t worth it – but Ridley pushed forwards. They still felt incredibly out of touch with their surroundings and the fabric of reality itself, so they stumbled a bit, but ridley eventually got themselves out the door.
They had no idea how far Kibi had gotten, so, despite the promises to minimize meddling with time, Ridley paused everything.

The dark, quiet winter night was even quieter when nothing around Ridley was moving. The ice nipped differently, and Ridley spent the entire walk looking downwards as to not catch the vision of any passerby frozen in time. They only looked up upon seeing Kibi and Mimi – both of whom were only a few blocks away from the downtown stage. With a sharp inhale and soft clap of the hands, time resumed once again.

At first, Kibi didn’t notice Ridley had suddenly appeared behind them – but Mimi quickly detected their scent after a few seconds and turned around suddenly with a bark. Concerned, Kibi turned around as well, only to jump in their seat.

“…Hi.” was all that Ridley could muster.

“RIDLEY?! You promised not to… whatever. I’m… glad you could make it.” Kibi said, they face slowly forming into a smile.

Ridley slowly stepped up to their partner and grabbed their hand, and the two walked towards the crowded stage together.

The open plaza surrounding the stage was packed, but Ridley and Kibi were guided by security to seats in the front row, that Lune reserved, just like she promised. Speaking of Lune – as she finished singing her current song, she gave a subtle nod as she noticed Ridley and Kibi in the crowd.

“FOUR MINUTES LEFT!! LET’S SEE HOW HIGH WE CAN GO!!”

The crowd roared, and music started playing. Ridley could give her one thing – Lune was an expert at hyping the audience. The crowd started following her shouts of ‘hey!’, before she growled into the mic and started her song.

“Party hard! Lose control! Burn out! Enjoy it all ’til the next life!”

Kibi was swaying along to the music, and while Ridley was still struggling to hang on, the warmth of Kibi’s hand on theirs helped them ground themselves a bit. They found the, louder and more brash public image Lune was taking to be interesting. Ridley knew that Lune was on the verge of retiring, so they were surprised to see her use the time she had left to let her true personality show.

“Everybody dance! Everybody sing! Party holic, party holic, all the way until the end!”

Kibi worried about Ridley. They had a lot of things they needed to unpack, and of course, they couldn’t be the one to force it all to come out. But Kibi knew Ridley loved them dearly – and Kibi loved Ridley, too. So as long as they lived, Kibi would do their best to make a world better for everyone – Ridley, Lune, and all the others.

The song’s last chorus wound down, and the music kept going as Lune began to shout out a countdown.

“TEN!”

Ridley didn’t like hearing time being counted.

“NINE!”

They gripped onto Kibi’s hand extra tight.

“EIGHT!”

Kibi squeezed their hand back and looked to them with a smile.

“SEVEN!”

Their glasses and gentle eyes were lit up by the stage lights.

“SIX!”

It was hard not to grow flustered looking at them – as Ridley often became.

“FIVE!”

Their heart was pounding as the drums blared and Kibi came closer.

“FOUR!”

Kibi picked up Ridley’s other hand in theirs and held it up.

“THREE!”

“I love you a lot,” Kibi whispered close enough to hear over the crowd.

“TWO!”

“I do too.”

“ONE!!”

Ridley leaned in to kiss Kibi, just as-

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!!”

The two didn’t let the booming of fireworks break their kiss, and after a few seconds, Ridley had to lean back to check if time had stopped – which luckily, it hadn’t. The two then promptly held each other in an embrace as the crowd roared around them. In this moment, everything… felt like it was going to be ok.

Lune sang one last song – an arrangement of her previous one, but with an almost ballad-like tone to it. Though her powerful vocals still shined through, the crowd was able to calm down and feel the vibe.
At the end of the night, Lune signed off and went backstage to surely collapse into an exhausted heap.

Ridley and Kibi walked back home together, and quickly fell asleep by each other’s side.

Here’s to next year.