Time Waits

By Fenrisknight

Time.

It was written on the blackboard by someone before the beginning lecture.

Time.

He had been staring at it the entire day. The word, taunting him endlessly. Time. It shouldn't have mattered, shouldn't have gotten under his skin like that. He shouldn't have let it get under his skin like that.

"Chiaki, take this note to the office would you? And this time sheet to the secretary. You can leave your bag here, I'll be in my office,"

He shrugged, there was no use complaining. Two sheets of paper and a small envelope. With a shifting motion his bag slumped off his shoulder and landed with a thump next to the workbench, and then there was a clatter. It wasn't anything, just the time-device in its little cloth string bag. It shifted under his gaze, settling from where it was tied to a shoulder strap.

For a moment, he almost reached out, a sense of something not happened that made him hesitate. To take it with him, such a precious thing, to pocket it or slip it into the bag itself. But he shrugged again, no harm had come so far, so why should it manage to fall out now?

He turned once more to the door and was confronted again by the word, tucked in a corner of the blackboard.

Time.

He wasn't even conscious of his movement. Wasn't even aware of is feet touching tile, taking him to the front of the classroom, or of his fingers holding the slim piece of chalk. It wasn't until the dust sprang free from the board and caused him to sneeze that he snapped from his trance, aware once more.

Time, waits for no one.

Where had that thought come from?

It did not matter, he decided. Fists crossed as he considered it. It was a true statement, something that seemingly rang like a bell in his mind, and that was that.

Except, time did wait for him. He controlled it. Manipulated it, rearranged events, for a moment, he almost pulled up the sweatband on his wrist. But in his minds' eye, he could already see the stencil imprint of the '03' fixed there. There was no need to look, three jumps still. Three jumps anywhere in time, he only had to imagine.

Time waited for him, time would always wait.

Again, he glanced at the cloth pouch tied securely to his backpack, and for the umpteenth time, briefly considered draining the rest of the charges in the device. Originally, he had taken four of the two dozen, thinking only to exhaust himself a little enough to arrive at this time if he miscalculated. But he'd arrived here unerringly…and…stayed.

He'd stayed. Even though the painting wasn't here. He'd stayed because…

"Chiaki? Oh good you haven't left yet! Take this note to Mr. Fujiyoro and slip it under his door as well would you?" Mr. Iotashi's voice rang overloud in the stillness. And he slid another piece of paper across the desk at Chiaki.

His thoughts shattered, Chiaki absently touched the smooth paper, added it to his pile. Unfocused, he slipped out the door, gaze sliding just once again over his forlorn pack, no more.

Was it a brush of fate in that moment?

A stir of the wind perhaps, or the almost silent fall of a cherry blossom on the breeze. But the thought whispered in his mind once more, response to his dare.

Time waits for no one.

-~-

A/N: This was written over an hour for a challenge between myself and my roommate, Shadow of Hope. I've been writing and thinking a lot about fate these days, maybe not in the way of predetermination, but perhaps if there is an outside agency, listening to our thoughts and either having it's fun little game at our expense, or creating the situations which test the mettle of our character.

Perhaps, in this moment, Chiaki has dared something onwards, and thus begins the story.

I have one more chapter in mind after this, not sure if it will ever get published, but perhaps.