Runaway

Prologue/Teaser

It was a sunny day when it happened. Blue, clear skies, one of the warmest days of the year the weatherman had said, with enough cool breezes to stay comfortable. Tai had never thought that such horrible things should happen on days like those. Days like those were meant to be for the good memories, not things like that. What had his English teacher called it? When they'd been analysing those poems? Oh yes, pathetic fallacy, that's what should have occurred. It should have been a dark day for that sort of thing to happen – ominous clouds, at least – but, instead; the shock of his life had taken place on a sunny day, one he'd thought to be as normal as any other. Tai still couldn't believe it – was still hoping someone would wake him up and tell him he was dreaming and pull him out of it. It just wasn't right. Matt would never –

But that's what the policeman had said, hadn't he? When he'd pulled Matt out of the café he'd been working at, where Tai had first met him, because Matt had asked that he not make a scene. So he'd taken him to the car and said those dreadful words instead.

Tai didn't think even the policeman had been expecting it. The man had walked in for a cup of coffee, and Sally's coffeehouse had a very good reputation for quick service and good quality. It seemed that he and Sally knew each other and so they'd chatted as she served and he waited in the line. He'd been working nights he said and now he was on patrol. Another day of it and he'd be allowed some vacation time. Then Matt had turned around from his last order to serve him and they'd both just looked at each other, only there hadn't seemed like anything was wrong then – at least by Matt's face because he just looked like he was patient and waiting for the man to say what he wanted. But then the man had said his name, when he shouldn't have known, and there'd been a tone in his voice. Tai had never really been good with differentiating tones of voice and he tended to take the things people said at face value, unless he was quite close to the other person. But he'd known straight away that there was something wrong about that tone.

'Yamato…Ishida?' the man had questioned, intense stare still locked on the blond behind the serving counter. Matt had really looked at the man then, taking in his uniform, eyes wide with so many emotions that Tai couldn't possibly pin them down. He just knew that none of them were good. A nod and then,

'Is this…about that? Th-then please, c-can we n-not do it…in here? Where e-everyone can h-hear?' Matt's voice had dropped to something too close to a terrified whisper for Tai to be entirely happy with that man talking to him. And he'd never heard the normally clam, confident boy to stutter like that. As far as Tai knew, Matt didn't do stuttering. So when the policeman had led his friend out of the café, Matt's quick, whispered apology to Sally floating behind him, Tai had followed, insistent in his demand to know what was going on. But they'd ignored him and when they'd got to the car, the man had opened the door as a clear indication for Matt to get in. But first he'd held him still with a large hand on one of his shoulders and looked extremely sombre at his next words. Those words. Spoken in a calm, grave tone.

'Yamato Ishida, you are under arrest for the suspicion of the murder of your father, Hiroaki Ishida.'

Tai hadn't heard the rest of it, too busy staring at his friend – who in turn had turned his gaze down at the ground below his feet and avoiding meeting anyone's eyes – in shock. As the feeling of hurt and betrayal had crept into his heart, Tai tugged a sheet of denial over them. No, they were wrong. Matt would never do such a thing. Never. Even as the blond's avoidance of his gaze whispered that the accusation held truth to the back of his mind, while his heart steadfastly denied those words in relation to his friend. He'd seen how the blond was, gentle and caring to a fault. Until provoked and wasn't it true that his temper was a sight to behold, that voice in his head whispered to him – they'd been in fights often enough, he and Matt, to know that the other boy had a violent side to him. But look at the way he was around TK – it was clear that the elder blond loved his younger sibling – so kind and caring that it was clear he would do anything that pertained to his brother's happiness. The voice murmured, would he resort to murder if he thought it would benefit the boy? But he knew Matt and he wasn't the sort that would do something like that. Did he really? How much exactly did he know about his supposed blond-haired friend? He'd never talked about his past, what their life had been like before they'd moved and all those other things that required details. Never talked about his parents, except to say that there was only one, who was away a lot for work purposes. So much so that it looked like that person didn't exist. Had Matt ever even mentioned a name? He stood on the sidewalk, feeling helpless and lost, unable to understand the situation at hand or correct it.

He'd been vaguely aware that the policeman had been reading Yamato his rights, while the blond boy had climbed into the back seat of the car. There was a bullet proof screen separating the front and back of the car and, in Tai's opinion, it made Matt look like he'd done something wrong. Like he was guilty and dangerous, and it made Tai angry. Surely it was a false picture. Surely.

It was then Matt had looked up, as the man went to close the back door of the car. His face, lined with desperation, turned to Tai, voice pleading. 'Please, TK – he'll be finishing school soon – can you pick him up? Can you take care of him for a while? Tell him I'll back as soon as I can – I won't leave him alone. Tell him that he can use what's in the box.' The car was starting and Matt was speaking through the tinted glass, voice raised in panic. 'Please? He's just a kid. Tell him – .' And they were driving away, Tai standing dumbly in the smoke from the exhaust pipe. Belatedly, he shouted,

'Don't worry about him. And my dad – he's a lawyer – I'll get him to the station. He'll fix this!' With that, he turned to the direction of his house, thanking God he didn't live too far away from either school, and ran as fast as his athletic legs would go. 'I don't know what's going on, Matt, but I'm going to get to the bottom of it and make it right again.'

A/N: I'd just like to say that I do actually like Mr Ishida in the anime - but I needed him to be a plot-device, you know? Anyway, I hope you like this and please review. This is one of the first fanfics I'm putting up and constructive criticism would be very much appreciated.