Rainy Days by Darkfire_blade
Title: Rainy Days
Author: Darkfire_blade aka Hellsfirescythe
Prompt: 002 Beginnings
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Nakamura Hiro
Summary: An imagination doesn't start growing on its own. There's always somebody there to help it get a running start.
Notes: I've been wondering a little more about Hiro's comic-obsession and after reading the latest Heroes online-comic, his grandfather intrigued me a bit. I hope I'm able to do the relationship good, or at least try to fill out a little of what I thought that things might have been like for them.
Also, information on the mythical creatures described in the story can be found here
It was a rainy day, seeming not any more special than all the other rainy days. Most would say that rainy days were good for nothing but sulking, sitting, and being cooped inside; but if one asked a certain Nakamura Hiro for his opinion on those grey and wet days, his response would be quite different.
At seven years old, while staying with his mother's family in the countryside, young Hiro would race home, sopping wet from head to toe and mud coating the bottoms of his shoes. While being scolded and nagged by his mother as she tugged on a new set of dry and warm clothing, Hiro always just smiled sheepishly before rushing out of the room and into the sitting room.
It was on rainy days that the sitting room was grandfather's domain, where grandfather sat and read books while sipping gratefully from the tea grandmother was always making. While Hiro sat next to his grandfather, no one dared bother him, cause that meant disturbing the elder man's peace, and according to mother, grandfather really liked that. Thought, Hiro thought differently.
Grandfather was just like him.
Every time it was raining and Hiro returned late from his free time outside soaked from the exposure, grandfather made sure to ask the boy about anything he had seen. A kappa? Amefurikozou? Amikiri? To which Hiro would always respond to truthfully. Most days, it was just glimpses of a bowl-shaped thing poking just above the river water's surface, some days the faintest outline of a lamp through the rain in his peripheral vision, other days, Hiro would recount with a shiver that he had heard something that sounded like the rattling of azuki beans being washed.
Prospective creature sightings and recounting those tales weren't the only things that made rainy days special. What truly completed each dreary looking day was one story from the old man.
Stories that ranged from the ever comical adventures of old amikiri to the bone-chilling tales of the treacherous harionago. They were tales that ensnared the young Nakamura's blooming imagination and entertained his thoughts during his visits.
It was on a rainy day that grandfather, while stuck in bed, had given Hiro his first own copy of an American comic book. It had been years since they had knelt together on a tatami mat to exchange sights and tales, grandfather's voice was growing weaker, but the older man's voice still managed to convey the same enthusiasm it had carried in those rainy days when Hiro was still young enough to get away with curling up at grandfather's side for hours, listening to folktales.
Grandfather accepted Hiro's new-found passion of comic books, he followed it with patiently and listened intently while Hiro described the newest issue of the next 'Action Comic' that he had recieved, or the synopsis of a new magazine that Hiro's transfer friend had loaned him over the weekend. Their roles were switched now, but it was still the same rainy day ritual.
When grandfather was admitted into the hospital, his body beginning to succumb in its long fight against the blight in his body that was cancer, Hiro's family usually visited every weekend. It was only on rainy days that the young teen managed to sneak in his small comic collection. While his parents and grandmother all left to purchase some bento from the nearby convenience store, Hiro would spread his comics across grandfather's blankets and let the man choose which one he wanted Hiro to translate, every now and then, another young man would accompany Hiro and grudgingly take over the role as translator. The two males listened closely, engrossed in the story enhanced by the other's smoother and more acurate translations and explinations.
Grandfather died on a rainy day. He died quietly, in his sleep, unable to keep up any longer with the cancer in his body.
It would have been a lie to say that after that, rainy days remained the same after that, they now held a whole different meaning to Hiro. That was until Ando came around and kicked the other, muttering something about a stupid idiot and something about the old man hating it when Hiro moped.
So rainy days went back to mostly back to normal.
But this time, Hiro would always give a moment to think back to those many years ago when grandfather was the one to begin the sparking of Hiro's imagination and dreams. He only hoped now that grandfather was watching as his dreams were fulfilled and as he was ready to save the world, just as Superman did in all the stories they shared together on those grey rain-filled days.
Author: Darkfire_blade aka Hellsfirescythe
Prompt: 002 Beginnings
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Nakamura Hiro
Summary: An imagination doesn't start growing on its own. There's always somebody there to help it get a running start.
Notes: I've been wondering a little more about Hiro's comic-obsession and after reading the latest Heroes online-comic, his grandfather intrigued me a bit. I hope I'm able to do the relationship good, or at least try to fill out a little of what I thought that things might have been like for them.
Also, information on the mythical creatures described in the story can be found here
It was a rainy day, seeming not any more special than all the other rainy days. Most would say that rainy days were good for nothing but sulking, sitting, and being cooped inside; but if one asked a certain Nakamura Hiro for his opinion on those grey and wet days, his response would be quite different.
At seven years old, while staying with his mother's family in the countryside, young Hiro would race home, sopping wet from head to toe and mud coating the bottoms of his shoes. While being scolded and nagged by his mother as she tugged on a new set of dry and warm clothing, Hiro always just smiled sheepishly before rushing out of the room and into the sitting room.
It was on rainy days that the sitting room was grandfather's domain, where grandfather sat and read books while sipping gratefully from the tea grandmother was always making. While Hiro sat next to his grandfather, no one dared bother him, cause that meant disturbing the elder man's peace, and according to mother, grandfather really liked that. Thought, Hiro thought differently.
Grandfather was just like him.
Every time it was raining and Hiro returned late from his free time outside soaked from the exposure, grandfather made sure to ask the boy about anything he had seen. A kappa? Amefurikozou? Amikiri? To which Hiro would always respond to truthfully. Most days, it was just glimpses of a bowl-shaped thing poking just above the river water's surface, some days the faintest outline of a lamp through the rain in his peripheral vision, other days, Hiro would recount with a shiver that he had heard something that sounded like the rattling of azuki beans being washed.
Prospective creature sightings and recounting those tales weren't the only things that made rainy days special. What truly completed each dreary looking day was one story from the old man.
Stories that ranged from the ever comical adventures of old amikiri to the bone-chilling tales of the treacherous harionago. They were tales that ensnared the young Nakamura's blooming imagination and entertained his thoughts during his visits.
It was on a rainy day that grandfather, while stuck in bed, had given Hiro his first own copy of an American comic book. It had been years since they had knelt together on a tatami mat to exchange sights and tales, grandfather's voice was growing weaker, but the older man's voice still managed to convey the same enthusiasm it had carried in those rainy days when Hiro was still young enough to get away with curling up at grandfather's side for hours, listening to folktales.
Grandfather accepted Hiro's new-found passion of comic books, he followed it with patiently and listened intently while Hiro described the newest issue of the next 'Action Comic' that he had recieved, or the synopsis of a new magazine that Hiro's transfer friend had loaned him over the weekend. Their roles were switched now, but it was still the same rainy day ritual.
When grandfather was admitted into the hospital, his body beginning to succumb in its long fight against the blight in his body that was cancer, Hiro's family usually visited every weekend. It was only on rainy days that the young teen managed to sneak in his small comic collection. While his parents and grandmother all left to purchase some bento from the nearby convenience store, Hiro would spread his comics across grandfather's blankets and let the man choose which one he wanted Hiro to translate, every now and then, another young man would accompany Hiro and grudgingly take over the role as translator. The two males listened closely, engrossed in the story enhanced by the other's smoother and more acurate translations and explinations.
Grandfather died on a rainy day. He died quietly, in his sleep, unable to keep up any longer with the cancer in his body.
It would have been a lie to say that after that, rainy days remained the same after that, they now held a whole different meaning to Hiro. That was until Ando came around and kicked the other, muttering something about a stupid idiot and something about the old man hating it when Hiro moped.
So rainy days went back to mostly back to normal.
But this time, Hiro would always give a moment to think back to those many years ago when grandfather was the one to begin the sparking of Hiro's imagination and dreams. He only hoped now that grandfather was watching as his dreams were fulfilled and as he was ready to save the world, just as Superman did in all the stories they shared together on those grey rain-filled days.