Cleansing Snow

By rusted.silhouette

A GP College ficlet

Oishi shook the form on the bed gently. "Eiji?"

"Nya, Oishi?" The sleepy grin on Eiji's face was contagious.

"What are your plans for Christmas?" Eiji sat up and wrapped his arms around Oishi.

"I'm going to visit my family, like I do every year. Aren't you coming with me?" The expectant look in those blue eyes made Oishi look away.

"I don't know." He felt guilty for that sad look, but, steeling himself for the next question, it had to be done.

"What? But my mom loves you! She would love to have you." The pleading evident in his voice was almost too much to bear.

Oishi turned away. "I hate the lies that we tell every year! When can we finally tell you mom the truth? She's always been a mother. Even before my dad kicked me out." Fear was evident in Oishi's voice. It was hard to talk about that time, even though it had been three years.

"Oishi… I'm scared to." The little kid part of Eiji came out in that simple statement. Hatred by those people he loved and idolized scared him.

"She'll always love you, no matter what. You mom loves you more than my mom ever did."

"Let's just go outside and play in the snow." It became obvious he was begging. Anything to get out of talking about coming out to his family.

Anger rose up. It was hard for Oishi to keep it under control, to keep him from doing something he'd regret. It scared him the way he lost control, the way it all went to his anger.

"Stop running away from this! You know what I'm saying is true!"

"You know she still loves you! Why else would she keep paying you tuition?" Eiji fought back as hard as Oishi.

"If she loved me, why did she never say a word against my father when he kicked me out!" It was amazing no one had come to see if they were ok. They must have been shouting, if not screaming.

Both were close to tears as memories of that night floated through their heads. "She was scared, Oishi. I was scared of him too! I was there, remember? Maybe she tried to get him to change his mind but he wouldn't!"

"Eiji! Stop! Just stop." The tears in Oishi's eyes threatened to fall. One single tear escaped, slowly sliding down his cheek.

"Syuurichiro." Eiji's voice became soft and comforting, a stark contrast from the screaming moments before. "It's ok. If you really want to, we'll tell her."

"Thank you." Relief was evident in his voice. "I think she may already know, though."

"But we've been so careful!"

"Do you remember that day in the locker room, when the team confronted us? Even Momo figured us out." Chuckling, he remembered Eiji's face when Momo asked Eiji if they were going out.

"Oh, yeah." Eiji stated laughing, the angry tears turning to happy ones. "Oishi, promise you'll come with me? And stay with me when I talk to my mom?"

"Of course, Eiji." He smiled warmly at his partner, in doubles, and for life.

"Now can we go play in the snow?" His inner child was back, this time with joy and excitement, instead of fear. "I want to make a snowman!"

"Make sure to put on a coat!" He never would, could, stop worrying about Eiji. He loved him too much.

"Hoi, hoi!" As always, it was slightly exasperated, but welcomed, never begrudged. "Come on! All the good snow will be gone by the time you are ready!"

Shaking his head, Oishi grabbed both of their coats and walked out into the snow, holding tightly onto Eiji.

Apologies for any OOC-ness, bad grammar, ect. My betas couldn't find any major mistakes and because my usual beta was on holiday, it's not as polished, but will have to do.

Thanks to F, M and Kibou-chan for beta-ing/giving me a realtively good Eiji to work off of... it's creepy how much she's like him.