It had been a while since Sol had seen the sun. Not in the "I'm grinding on Valorant can't spare my time" type of isolation, more like "I'm quite literally in captivity. In my own mind". If anything, it was ironic. But humour didn't allow him to see the sun again, it couldn't even mask the aching envy in his body. It was one of the only times he was partially glad he didn't own a window.

Frankly, there really wasn't much keeping him from bolting out of his thick metal door and out of the blinding white walls of the building that seemed to be situated in the middle of nowhere. Only that years of no exercise contrasted with his ego in the moment. Plus, it's not like people were keen on letting a person like him roam- if there were even any people out those doors. He was an idiot, but he wasn't clueless.

Those dead-end thoughts ended here, though. It was the day. The day he was finally allowed to roam with the normies, feel the cancer-inducing sun, and experience road rage. Everything he dreamed of—simple pleasures to the common person, a major feast for a starved rat like him.

His chains rattled as they were pulled from his body. He clenched his hands, grasping the freedom as if afraid it would slip through his fingertips. It was only now that Sol had finally realised how gentle the touch of the nurses was, as though they respected him.

Unbeknownst to him, though, respect borne out of fear was not the same as respect borne out of admiration. It started with only a few flinches here and there, but once rot takes root, it festers.

------

Without so much as a word or a glance, Sol's body practically gets shoved out from the heavy doors of the entrance. He had thought the blinding lights of the sterile building would have gotten him used to the eye-burning ball of gas in the sky, but actually facing it, there was no comparison. Instinctively, his eyes forced themselves shut, yet he could still feel the light through his eyelids. It burned.

It burned so bad in such a satisfying way.

It was unlike any other.

The world was vast, the cosmos more so. Yet it was not what he was facing that was bothering him, it was the things inside of him. Who knew how beautiful something so cancer-inducing was?

Even if the sun hadn't illuminated the sky, his face shone like a gemstone. It was truly, truly wonderful! Oh, his face, his feelings, his heart. He was in love with the beauty of the natural world! Outside of the sanitary environment, it was dirty out here. All he ever wanted to do was to live without fear of ruining the sterile atmosphere the hospital worked so hard to maintain. Bugs roamed wherever they felt like without the faintest hint of fear of being squashed under someone's foot. Dandelions blew their seeds in the cool wind, the grass stood with such copious amounts of chlorophyll, he had never thought of how green the world was!

And it was his to cherish. His to wake up to. His to share.

He gripped the tree branches with the same hands that had slipped out of his restraints only moments before. Except this time, he'd never have to wear them again.