#7 Theme 14: Every Day at the Bus Stop - Tommy Heavenly6; Tora/Hiroto [Part 2]
Title: Invisible Sky [Part 2]
Author: beyondtheremix
Theme: 014 Every Day at the Bus Stop (Tommy February6)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Tora/Hiroto, Shou/his mom (loooooooool), Shou/Aki, Saga/Nao/Saga
Band[s]: Alice Nine, SID
Disclaimer: Aki is not Hiroto’s brother, AU, high school fic
Warnings: mentioned drug/alcohol use, neglect
Comments: For some reason it's so long it had to be split in two.
Invisible Sky [Part 2]
Previous Part
When morning came Tora realized he was five hours later than intended. Hurrying through his daily routines he arrived at the bus stop to an empty street. His mind immediately shot into overdrive imagining all the deep, dark ditches Hiroto’s dead, mangled and mutilated body could possibly be in. Deciding the store dumpster was his best bet, Tora walked forward, gravely fearing for the worst.
Turning the corner, he was met with Nao’s obnoxiously infectious laughter. His entire body seemed to unfurl with relief then when he spotted the familiar green of Hiroto’s jacket at the entrance of the playground; it was situated in front of an apartment complex and a handful of neighboring houses behind the store. It alarmed Tora to feel how attached he was to the boy, already picking the color of his jacket out in crowds.
Nao and Saga were currently bent over the large, sink-like water fountain at the playground’s front earnestly scrubbing away at Hiroto’s head with an unnecessary amount of pink shampoo. There was a pause in their actions when Saga caught sight of and waved Tora over, in which Hiroto took the opportunity to shake his head vigorously, showering the two troublemakers in foam.
“What the hell are you two doing?” To which Nao, already beginning to crack up at the evaporating suds on the sidewalk, burst into loud guffaws.
“Found a puppy!” Saga grinned, patting Hiroto’s soaked head. Tora raised an eyebrow at how incredibly accomplished and slightly superior Saga sounded. Reaching around him, he cupped Hiroto’s chin and turned his face to get a better look into his eyes; perhaps a glimpse at what the other felt about his presently wet situation. He was surprised to see they were bright with genuine mirth, his lips twitching and parted with held in laughter. The pair’s antics had obviously struck a chord in the usually distant boy.
Tora was about to smile at the realization when he felt a bucketful of water being dumped down his back. He was ready to turn around and pounce on the two lugging buckets of water at each other when wet hands came up to frame his face, keeping it in place. Then cool lips were being pressed to his in a chaste but lingering kiss and Tora couldn’t comprehend how he got so wet to begin with. He stood there dumbfounded, hand slipping from Hiroto’s chin as the other gently pulled away, hands still on his cheeks.
“Beautiful.”
And then Hiroto was relinquishing his hold, ducking his head back under the facet and allowing Nao and Saga to finish washing his hair. “I actually spilled my coke on him walking back here with Saga,” Nao giggled into Tora’s deaf ears.
The rest of the day was a blur. Tora’s world had lost its harsh edge even though the large, white clouds were once again in the air hiding the rest of the sky and throwing everything into its glaring, white light. He remembered playing outside a while, Shou had appeared to get an eyeful of Hiroto, Nao had materialized lunch out of nowhere, and then he was at home getting ready for bed in a mostly empty house. His mother was called into the ER around ten and Tora knew that meant she wouldn’t be home until morning. His father was passed out from a hard day’s work at the law firm, skipping dinner to try and get as much sleep as he could before his next case could give him a heart attack.
Closing his eyes Tora immersed himself in the warmth of a holiday well spent in the company of friends.
---
He was jolted awake by the loud crack of thunder followed rapidly by smaller eruptions. Rain beat down on the roof of his house and Tora’s first thought was Hiroto. Tugging jeans on over his boxers, a sweater and boots, Tora tucked a towel under his shirt, grabbed an umbrella and left as quickly and quietly as possible, locking the door behind him.
The fifteen minutes it took Tora to awkwardly run as fast as he could to the bus stop seemed an eternity. He was unable to make anything out through the nighttime downpour and blindly made his way across the street to where Hiroto usually sat.
The heavy rain had ripped the remaining leaves off the jutting tree, carrying them down the street, offering little protection. Hiroto was huddled in on himself, Tora’s jacket draped over his head, his legs pulled up into the confines of his own jacket. Tora saw him twitch, shutting his eyes to block out the storm, as light painted veins across the barely visible sky, leaving behind resounds roars and faint impressions on his eyelids.
“Hold this.” Tora handed the umbrella off to Hiroto, before pulling the soaked jackets and Hiroto’s wet t-shirt off of him. He did his best to ignore the pitiful, questioning look the other gave him - half-naked, wet and shaking - as he pulled the still dry, now warm towel out from under his shirt. He tried to wipe as much of the rain off Hiroto’s shoulders and chest as he could, quickly running the towel through his hair before pulling off his own sweater and helping Hiroto into it. Turning the damp towel into a makeshift bag, Tora gathered the other wet garments and drew Hiroto closer.
“Follow me alright? It’ll be okay.” Tora pulled the other boy into a quick hug. The lightning and thunder seemed to frighten him beyond belief; Hiroto looked like he needed comforting and Tora desperately wanted to get him out of the pelting rain. Thinking fast, he decided Shou’s house was his best bet. It was closer to the bus stop than Tora’s house. Nao and Saga’s family lived near Tora and the convenience store had long since closed for the night.
They were literally the only people on the street. The splatter of a million raindrops filled their ears like a multitude of angry voices and the 3 AM sky rendered their vision black. It wasn’t until the sleek vehicle pulled up a few feet ahead of to the two boys, both stumbling under their one umbrella, that they realized there was someone else on the road.
The bike’s owner let his engine stall while the two warily approached the dim rear lights they could make out in the rain. Flipping back the visor of his helmet, Tora was greeted by the shine of multiple piercings and familiar eyes. The man seemed to do a double take, about to yell over the rain to offer them a ride when he laid eyes on the smaller of the two.
“Hiroto?!” He was clinging to Tora’s arm, flinching at each boom of thunder, and even though he had the hood of Tora’s sweater pulled up, his wide, reflective eyes and jutting lips were unmistakable. Taken off guard by the stranger’s recognition, Tora didn’t know what to do when Hiroto allowed himself to be pulled into a wet hug beneath the crowded umbrella.
They separated breathlessly and Tora had to scream to be heard above the intensifying rain.
“Who are you?!”
“I’m his brother!” Convinced by the affirmative look Hiroto gave him, Tora voiced out his plans.
“There’s a house near here! My friend Shou! It’ll be better if we walk there!” he gestured at himself and Hiroto, still relatively dry beneath the umbrella. Nodding his understanding, Hiroto’s brother pulled the keys from his bike, shutting it off before he began walking it up the road with them.
---
They rang the doorbell twice and waited.
Aki had introduced himself to Tora while they stood there. He twisted the water from his jacket, shook out his pants, and emptied his shoes as best he could, all the while filling Tora in on what had happened and why Hiroto was so deathly afraid of the thunder.
Their house had quite literally gone up in smoke when a bolt of lightning split the roof into flaming halves. Hiroto and Aki had just pulled into their driveway from a late night movie when it happened. Chunks of fiery wood came raining down on the windshield of the car as Hiroto tried not to panic and call for help. Aki had backed them up farther from the house, telling Hiroto to stay calm, stay in the car and phone the fire department while he raced into the crumbling remains of their house to find their mom; she started taking sleeping pills at night after their father left and even slept through the night Aki noisily brought home his girlfriend, both boisterously drunk and knocking things over.
His explanation was cut off by the opening of the door. Shou’s mother stood at a distance looking through the small crack the door’s chain allowed. When she saw Tora, the puppy eyed boy at his side, and Aki completely drenched, she swung the door completely.
“Is everything okay Tora? It’s the middle of the night! And what have you done to this poor, sweet boy?” A snort sounded from her left shoulder. Shou had draped himself over his mother’s back to welcome them. He was wearing jeans and had obviously been awake the whole night gaming in his room.
“That’s the boy I told you about mom, the one near Nao’s store.” She immediately brightened and oh’ed at them, ushering everyone in from the rain and closing the door.
“I trust Shou can lead you all from here. I’ll go make you boys something warm to drink.” She turned and pecked her son on the cheek. “Be a good boy and lend them some clothes. I’ll do the laundry tomorrow.” All attention turned to Shou who merely gave them an alarmingly dazzling smile before hopping onto the staircase. “This way ladies. My dad is out of town on business, so you can use their bathroom too.”
It took all of an hour before everyone was seated dry and comfy on Shou’s large bed, nursing warm cups of cocoa. Shou’s mother had gone back to bed after seeing everyone settled, saying she had to go to work early and that Shou would fill her in later. He had since turned off his TV and game consoles, opening the conversation with an oh so subtle, “Sooooooooo. Who are you?” He was pointing a somewhat accusing finger at Aki, seated protectively close to Hiroto.
“I’m Aki, Hiroto’s older brother.”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And why, might I ask, would you leave your poor, little, defenseless, baby brother out on the street?” By Shou’s calculations it had been all of four days since Tora had made his bus stop discovery.
“I didn’t leave him on the street,” Aki grumbled. Before anyone could ask who did, Aki blurted, “Our dad did. I’ll explain it all, just… don’t interrupt okay? I’ll take any questions at the end.” He rolled his eyes at Shou’s half-open mouth. Tora sat up at that, eager to hear the answer to their unsolved mystery. Exhausted, Hiroto had fallen asleep in Shou’s bed before Aki even started in on the details; it was his first bed in days and the soft comforter was just too much to resist.
It turned out Aki and Hiroto’s dad was somewhat of an enigma, able to draw people in with his aura and charm, but at the same time he was addicted to the needle, a slave to the bottle. He was one of the reasons why the two had taken up instruments, but he was also one of the reasons why their mother cried at night, why Aki took to hanging out with shady guys twice his age, why Hiroto was always late for class. At some point music became their only way to cope; headphones on, strumming the guitar was the only way to drown out the constant screaming.
Sometimes Tora believed he was playing musical instruments in the air and at other times he felt like Hiroto was simply drawing pictures in the sky.
“In the end he went too far. I came home to red and blue lights and our mom bawling her eyes out. They were handcuffing him and shoving him into a car because she came home and found Hiroto passed out on the floor, dad drunk as hell in the kitchen. He slipped something into Pon’s milk that night. All I know was they had him in the hospital for a week, pumping his stomach and monitoring his heart rate. I ended up bringing him home because our mom started having these really bad panic attacks.”
Aki paused to run his hands through Hiroto’s hair. “I don’t know if he remembers though. After our dad got out of jail he had Hiroto wrapped around his finger again. That was partly my fault actually. I was never home long enough to be much off a big brother and mom was pretty bad to begin with. I guess Hiroto thought what dad was offering, no school and a life of music, was better. He ran off with him a couple days ago. From what I’ve gathered trying to follow dad’s trail, he kind of drove around aimlessly, got tired of dealing with Hiroto, missing out on his lays, and probably dropped him off where you found him.”
“He’s only thirteen,” Aki whispered.
His eyes pleaded with them for help because Aki really wasn’t any older than the two seated before him; he wasn’t a dad, he was barely even legal, but he was trying his best to hold what little there was left to care about together. He was far from perfect; he ran away from his problems and tried to smother himself beneath the frivolous aspects of life so that he couldn’t see the big picture. Hiroto was one of the few things he took seriously.
Shou reached over, all playfulness gone from him, and pulled the boy he’d just met hours ago into the warmest hug he could muster. “You did good Aki, really. All by yourself you’ve done more than good.” And Aki was breaking down in his arms because he hadn’t slept well in the days since his mother called him. He’d been feeding his bike on fucking favors, having to steal and stoop far too low to finance his search. Aki had almost given up that very night, given up on himself, his life, his family, driving recklessly into the pouring rain after his last failure in one of the countless cities he’d searched in. The world was so fucking big and he just wanted to find his brother.
“Come on, let’s just sleep it off okay? You’ll be okay. Tora, can you turn off the light?” Shou had curled onto his side, hugging Aki who was trying to calm himself next to Hiroto’s turned back.
“Yeah, hold on a sec.” Tora stacked their empty cups, pocketing Shou’s cell before he flicked off the light and stepped into dim hallway. He sent his mom a text telling her he had decided to sleep over at Shou’s, but that no one had been at home to tell. His dad had already been asleep when Tora got home so it was believable enough.
Reentering the room he padded to the right side of the bed where Hiroto lay facing the window. Sliding under the covers Tora allowed himself to pull Hiroto’s pliant body into his arms, smiling when the other moved instinctively closer. The four burrowed closer together, fighting back reality for one last night.
---
Goodbye seemed to be the hardest thing for any of them to say.
Aki let them linger in town for as long as he could, passing the day with acquaintances he’d somehow spilled his guts to the night before. With the addition of Nao and Saga, come morning everyone felt like longtime friends. It became apparent how shy Hiroto was when Aki wasn’t around. He had quite a mouth on him for such a young age and Tora could vaguely see something similar in the way Aki flirted uncontrollably with Shou and the wide-eyed kiss he had received earlier.
“We’ll see you guys sooner or later.” The people here were healthy. They really cared and Aki wanted Hiroto to live in that sort of environment, a place devoid of the stagnant hate his own neighborhood breathed and thrived off of.
“Just make sure you two take care of yourselves.”
Aki smiled, climbing onto his bike. “I will.”
Nao bustled forward then with a large duffel bag full of food. “For the ride home,” he grinned.
“It was fun while it lasted Puppy,” Saga laughed, pulling Hiroto in for one last hug.
Shou and Aki were busy exchanging numbers when Tora pulled Hiroto into his own embrace. They held each other tightly, unsure if they would ever see each other again, only knowing the other’s presence had been a source of stable assurance.
“I’ll miss you the most Pon. I’ll miss the weird ways you ignore me, watching the sunrise and sunsets with you, seeing the music only you can hear.” Tora placed a kiss on his forehead, nudging Hiroto towards Aki’s bike before he could respond, and waving with the rest of his friends as the two took off.
The past few days had changed something in Tora. The white clouds above were somehow alluring now, cotton fluffs promising friendly get-togethers and shared treats inside a cozy room; their glare had turned into a brilliant glow. He wasn’t trapped in a vase anymore, he was flying.
---
Hiroto thought he heard Tora whisper “beautiful” as he climbed onto the bike carrying him further and further away. A smile, the first genuine smile in weeks, broke across his face.
A/N:
That was so long D:
If you somehow read it all THANK YOU.
Aki’s such a sweetie isn’t he? I found poor homeless!Pon a couple days ago and decided to write this. It sometimes makes no sense and becomes inconsistent, but I liked writing it XD I didn’t know what to do about the ending though…
Comment are amazing<3
Archive
Author: beyondtheremix
Theme: 014 Every Day at the Bus Stop (Tommy February6)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Tora/Hiroto, Shou/his mom (loooooooool), Shou/Aki, Saga/Nao/Saga
Band[s]: Alice Nine, SID
Disclaimer: Aki is not Hiroto’s brother, AU, high school fic
Warnings: mentioned drug/alcohol use, neglect
Comments: For some reason it's so long it had to be split in two.
Invisible Sky [Part 2]
Previous Part
When morning came Tora realized he was five hours later than intended. Hurrying through his daily routines he arrived at the bus stop to an empty street. His mind immediately shot into overdrive imagining all the deep, dark ditches Hiroto’s dead, mangled and mutilated body could possibly be in. Deciding the store dumpster was his best bet, Tora walked forward, gravely fearing for the worst.
Turning the corner, he was met with Nao’s obnoxiously infectious laughter. His entire body seemed to unfurl with relief then when he spotted the familiar green of Hiroto’s jacket at the entrance of the playground; it was situated in front of an apartment complex and a handful of neighboring houses behind the store. It alarmed Tora to feel how attached he was to the boy, already picking the color of his jacket out in crowds.
Nao and Saga were currently bent over the large, sink-like water fountain at the playground’s front earnestly scrubbing away at Hiroto’s head with an unnecessary amount of pink shampoo. There was a pause in their actions when Saga caught sight of and waved Tora over, in which Hiroto took the opportunity to shake his head vigorously, showering the two troublemakers in foam.
“What the hell are you two doing?” To which Nao, already beginning to crack up at the evaporating suds on the sidewalk, burst into loud guffaws.
“Found a puppy!” Saga grinned, patting Hiroto’s soaked head. Tora raised an eyebrow at how incredibly accomplished and slightly superior Saga sounded. Reaching around him, he cupped Hiroto’s chin and turned his face to get a better look into his eyes; perhaps a glimpse at what the other felt about his presently wet situation. He was surprised to see they were bright with genuine mirth, his lips twitching and parted with held in laughter. The pair’s antics had obviously struck a chord in the usually distant boy.
Tora was about to smile at the realization when he felt a bucketful of water being dumped down his back. He was ready to turn around and pounce on the two lugging buckets of water at each other when wet hands came up to frame his face, keeping it in place. Then cool lips were being pressed to his in a chaste but lingering kiss and Tora couldn’t comprehend how he got so wet to begin with. He stood there dumbfounded, hand slipping from Hiroto’s chin as the other gently pulled away, hands still on his cheeks.
“Beautiful.”
And then Hiroto was relinquishing his hold, ducking his head back under the facet and allowing Nao and Saga to finish washing his hair. “I actually spilled my coke on him walking back here with Saga,” Nao giggled into Tora’s deaf ears.
The rest of the day was a blur. Tora’s world had lost its harsh edge even though the large, white clouds were once again in the air hiding the rest of the sky and throwing everything into its glaring, white light. He remembered playing outside a while, Shou had appeared to get an eyeful of Hiroto, Nao had materialized lunch out of nowhere, and then he was at home getting ready for bed in a mostly empty house. His mother was called into the ER around ten and Tora knew that meant she wouldn’t be home until morning. His father was passed out from a hard day’s work at the law firm, skipping dinner to try and get as much sleep as he could before his next case could give him a heart attack.
Closing his eyes Tora immersed himself in the warmth of a holiday well spent in the company of friends.
---
He was jolted awake by the loud crack of thunder followed rapidly by smaller eruptions. Rain beat down on the roof of his house and Tora’s first thought was Hiroto. Tugging jeans on over his boxers, a sweater and boots, Tora tucked a towel under his shirt, grabbed an umbrella and left as quickly and quietly as possible, locking the door behind him.
The fifteen minutes it took Tora to awkwardly run as fast as he could to the bus stop seemed an eternity. He was unable to make anything out through the nighttime downpour and blindly made his way across the street to where Hiroto usually sat.
The heavy rain had ripped the remaining leaves off the jutting tree, carrying them down the street, offering little protection. Hiroto was huddled in on himself, Tora’s jacket draped over his head, his legs pulled up into the confines of his own jacket. Tora saw him twitch, shutting his eyes to block out the storm, as light painted veins across the barely visible sky, leaving behind resounds roars and faint impressions on his eyelids.
“Hold this.” Tora handed the umbrella off to Hiroto, before pulling the soaked jackets and Hiroto’s wet t-shirt off of him. He did his best to ignore the pitiful, questioning look the other gave him - half-naked, wet and shaking - as he pulled the still dry, now warm towel out from under his shirt. He tried to wipe as much of the rain off Hiroto’s shoulders and chest as he could, quickly running the towel through his hair before pulling off his own sweater and helping Hiroto into it. Turning the damp towel into a makeshift bag, Tora gathered the other wet garments and drew Hiroto closer.
“Follow me alright? It’ll be okay.” Tora pulled the other boy into a quick hug. The lightning and thunder seemed to frighten him beyond belief; Hiroto looked like he needed comforting and Tora desperately wanted to get him out of the pelting rain. Thinking fast, he decided Shou’s house was his best bet. It was closer to the bus stop than Tora’s house. Nao and Saga’s family lived near Tora and the convenience store had long since closed for the night.
They were literally the only people on the street. The splatter of a million raindrops filled their ears like a multitude of angry voices and the 3 AM sky rendered their vision black. It wasn’t until the sleek vehicle pulled up a few feet ahead of to the two boys, both stumbling under their one umbrella, that they realized there was someone else on the road.
The bike’s owner let his engine stall while the two warily approached the dim rear lights they could make out in the rain. Flipping back the visor of his helmet, Tora was greeted by the shine of multiple piercings and familiar eyes. The man seemed to do a double take, about to yell over the rain to offer them a ride when he laid eyes on the smaller of the two.
“Hiroto?!” He was clinging to Tora’s arm, flinching at each boom of thunder, and even though he had the hood of Tora’s sweater pulled up, his wide, reflective eyes and jutting lips were unmistakable. Taken off guard by the stranger’s recognition, Tora didn’t know what to do when Hiroto allowed himself to be pulled into a wet hug beneath the crowded umbrella.
They separated breathlessly and Tora had to scream to be heard above the intensifying rain.
“Who are you?!”
“I’m his brother!” Convinced by the affirmative look Hiroto gave him, Tora voiced out his plans.
“There’s a house near here! My friend Shou! It’ll be better if we walk there!” he gestured at himself and Hiroto, still relatively dry beneath the umbrella. Nodding his understanding, Hiroto’s brother pulled the keys from his bike, shutting it off before he began walking it up the road with them.
---
They rang the doorbell twice and waited.
Aki had introduced himself to Tora while they stood there. He twisted the water from his jacket, shook out his pants, and emptied his shoes as best he could, all the while filling Tora in on what had happened and why Hiroto was so deathly afraid of the thunder.
Their house had quite literally gone up in smoke when a bolt of lightning split the roof into flaming halves. Hiroto and Aki had just pulled into their driveway from a late night movie when it happened. Chunks of fiery wood came raining down on the windshield of the car as Hiroto tried not to panic and call for help. Aki had backed them up farther from the house, telling Hiroto to stay calm, stay in the car and phone the fire department while he raced into the crumbling remains of their house to find their mom; she started taking sleeping pills at night after their father left and even slept through the night Aki noisily brought home his girlfriend, both boisterously drunk and knocking things over.
His explanation was cut off by the opening of the door. Shou’s mother stood at a distance looking through the small crack the door’s chain allowed. When she saw Tora, the puppy eyed boy at his side, and Aki completely drenched, she swung the door completely.
“Is everything okay Tora? It’s the middle of the night! And what have you done to this poor, sweet boy?” A snort sounded from her left shoulder. Shou had draped himself over his mother’s back to welcome them. He was wearing jeans and had obviously been awake the whole night gaming in his room.
“That’s the boy I told you about mom, the one near Nao’s store.” She immediately brightened and oh’ed at them, ushering everyone in from the rain and closing the door.
“I trust Shou can lead you all from here. I’ll go make you boys something warm to drink.” She turned and pecked her son on the cheek. “Be a good boy and lend them some clothes. I’ll do the laundry tomorrow.” All attention turned to Shou who merely gave them an alarmingly dazzling smile before hopping onto the staircase. “This way ladies. My dad is out of town on business, so you can use their bathroom too.”
It took all of an hour before everyone was seated dry and comfy on Shou’s large bed, nursing warm cups of cocoa. Shou’s mother had gone back to bed after seeing everyone settled, saying she had to go to work early and that Shou would fill her in later. He had since turned off his TV and game consoles, opening the conversation with an oh so subtle, “Sooooooooo. Who are you?” He was pointing a somewhat accusing finger at Aki, seated protectively close to Hiroto.
“I’m Aki, Hiroto’s older brother.”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And why, might I ask, would you leave your poor, little, defenseless, baby brother out on the street?” By Shou’s calculations it had been all of four days since Tora had made his bus stop discovery.
“I didn’t leave him on the street,” Aki grumbled. Before anyone could ask who did, Aki blurted, “Our dad did. I’ll explain it all, just… don’t interrupt okay? I’ll take any questions at the end.” He rolled his eyes at Shou’s half-open mouth. Tora sat up at that, eager to hear the answer to their unsolved mystery. Exhausted, Hiroto had fallen asleep in Shou’s bed before Aki even started in on the details; it was his first bed in days and the soft comforter was just too much to resist.
It turned out Aki and Hiroto’s dad was somewhat of an enigma, able to draw people in with his aura and charm, but at the same time he was addicted to the needle, a slave to the bottle. He was one of the reasons why the two had taken up instruments, but he was also one of the reasons why their mother cried at night, why Aki took to hanging out with shady guys twice his age, why Hiroto was always late for class. At some point music became their only way to cope; headphones on, strumming the guitar was the only way to drown out the constant screaming.
Sometimes Tora believed he was playing musical instruments in the air and at other times he felt like Hiroto was simply drawing pictures in the sky.
“In the end he went too far. I came home to red and blue lights and our mom bawling her eyes out. They were handcuffing him and shoving him into a car because she came home and found Hiroto passed out on the floor, dad drunk as hell in the kitchen. He slipped something into Pon’s milk that night. All I know was they had him in the hospital for a week, pumping his stomach and monitoring his heart rate. I ended up bringing him home because our mom started having these really bad panic attacks.”
Aki paused to run his hands through Hiroto’s hair. “I don’t know if he remembers though. After our dad got out of jail he had Hiroto wrapped around his finger again. That was partly my fault actually. I was never home long enough to be much off a big brother and mom was pretty bad to begin with. I guess Hiroto thought what dad was offering, no school and a life of music, was better. He ran off with him a couple days ago. From what I’ve gathered trying to follow dad’s trail, he kind of drove around aimlessly, got tired of dealing with Hiroto, missing out on his lays, and probably dropped him off where you found him.”
“He’s only thirteen,” Aki whispered.
His eyes pleaded with them for help because Aki really wasn’t any older than the two seated before him; he wasn’t a dad, he was barely even legal, but he was trying his best to hold what little there was left to care about together. He was far from perfect; he ran away from his problems and tried to smother himself beneath the frivolous aspects of life so that he couldn’t see the big picture. Hiroto was one of the few things he took seriously.
Shou reached over, all playfulness gone from him, and pulled the boy he’d just met hours ago into the warmest hug he could muster. “You did good Aki, really. All by yourself you’ve done more than good.” And Aki was breaking down in his arms because he hadn’t slept well in the days since his mother called him. He’d been feeding his bike on fucking favors, having to steal and stoop far too low to finance his search. Aki had almost given up that very night, given up on himself, his life, his family, driving recklessly into the pouring rain after his last failure in one of the countless cities he’d searched in. The world was so fucking big and he just wanted to find his brother.
“Come on, let’s just sleep it off okay? You’ll be okay. Tora, can you turn off the light?” Shou had curled onto his side, hugging Aki who was trying to calm himself next to Hiroto’s turned back.
“Yeah, hold on a sec.” Tora stacked their empty cups, pocketing Shou’s cell before he flicked off the light and stepped into dim hallway. He sent his mom a text telling her he had decided to sleep over at Shou’s, but that no one had been at home to tell. His dad had already been asleep when Tora got home so it was believable enough.
Reentering the room he padded to the right side of the bed where Hiroto lay facing the window. Sliding under the covers Tora allowed himself to pull Hiroto’s pliant body into his arms, smiling when the other moved instinctively closer. The four burrowed closer together, fighting back reality for one last night.
---
Goodbye seemed to be the hardest thing for any of them to say.
Aki let them linger in town for as long as he could, passing the day with acquaintances he’d somehow spilled his guts to the night before. With the addition of Nao and Saga, come morning everyone felt like longtime friends. It became apparent how shy Hiroto was when Aki wasn’t around. He had quite a mouth on him for such a young age and Tora could vaguely see something similar in the way Aki flirted uncontrollably with Shou and the wide-eyed kiss he had received earlier.
“We’ll see you guys sooner or later.” The people here were healthy. They really cared and Aki wanted Hiroto to live in that sort of environment, a place devoid of the stagnant hate his own neighborhood breathed and thrived off of.
“Just make sure you two take care of yourselves.”
Aki smiled, climbing onto his bike. “I will.”
Nao bustled forward then with a large duffel bag full of food. “For the ride home,” he grinned.
“It was fun while it lasted Puppy,” Saga laughed, pulling Hiroto in for one last hug.
Shou and Aki were busy exchanging numbers when Tora pulled Hiroto into his own embrace. They held each other tightly, unsure if they would ever see each other again, only knowing the other’s presence had been a source of stable assurance.
“I’ll miss you the most Pon. I’ll miss the weird ways you ignore me, watching the sunrise and sunsets with you, seeing the music only you can hear.” Tora placed a kiss on his forehead, nudging Hiroto towards Aki’s bike before he could respond, and waving with the rest of his friends as the two took off.
The past few days had changed something in Tora. The white clouds above were somehow alluring now, cotton fluffs promising friendly get-togethers and shared treats inside a cozy room; their glare had turned into a brilliant glow. He wasn’t trapped in a vase anymore, he was flying.
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Hiroto thought he heard Tora whisper “beautiful” as he climbed onto the bike carrying him further and further away. A smile, the first genuine smile in weeks, broke across his face.
A/N:
That was so long D:
If you somehow read it all THANK YOU.
Aki’s such a sweetie isn’t he? I found poor homeless!Pon a couple days ago and decided to write this. It sometimes makes no sense and becomes inconsistent, but I liked writing it XD I didn’t know what to do about the ending though…
Comment are amazing<3
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