For Skunky.
It was summer when it all started.
It too hot to be indoors, where the apartment was starting to become an oven during the days. The windows had been long since painted shut. An accident his brother had never gotten around to fixing. And he really didn't want to put forth the kind of effort in this heat to resolve the issue himself.
Their electric fan had broken near the end of the previous summer, when it was starting to cool down again. So no one had bothered to buy a new one. "Next summer," they'd said.
They hadn't yet gotten around to that either.
And now with his brother gone off God-knows-where and his sister currently in the hospital, who was going to buy one? He had money for the basics at the moment, and not much else. His sister made sure he was able to take care of food and bills while she was away. But for something like a fan he'd need to get at their savings. And he'd have to talk to her about that.
Yes. It had all started with the unbearable heat, driving them outside to seek some sort of relief.
He let Hizumi talk him into ice cream. Just this once, since the thought of something cool in his throat on a day like today was too tempting, even for him. Then they'd meandered aimlessly down the sidewalks, looking for someplace to cool off.
The library, which would have central air conditioning, was closed for repairs. The roof had leaked and ruined some of the computers. Without those up and running, no one could check out books. So they closed it until the roof could be fixed and it was safe to hook up the remaining computers again.
The arcade was already packed, as was the local public pool. They weren't the only ones looking to escape the heat.
They ended up by the river, under the shade of a large tree. Sprawled out on their backs in the grass. The river itself was pretty busy too. But they'd managed to find a spot. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Hizumi hadn't brought anything to drink so they ended up sharing the bottle of water Ayumu had brought. Hizumi had made a joke about indirect kisses. Ayumu had told him to shut up.
Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it did something to your head.
Somewhere along the line, indirect kisses had become real kisses.
It started in summer.
And it ended in winter.
Looking back it hadn't been much, in that, not much had really changed.
They didn't go on dates. They didn't become a couple. No holding hands or mushy romance.
They spent the same amount of time together. Albeit, Hizumi had followed Ayumu around like a lost puppy before that summer. So there wasn't really room for there to be anymore time spent together.
There had been kisses. And the knowledge that there was more there between them after that day by the river.
But that was it. Nothing more to it.
Honestly, Ayumu couldn't say if he felt anything so strong as love for Hizumi. He'd come to accept him as a friend. A companion. Through everything, Hizumi stuck by him. And in some ways he was grateful for that.
But as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months, and months into years nothing changed. Their relationship never went anywhere. It was stagnant. Frozen.
They'd lived together for years. They'd even shared a bed together. But even as it progressed physically, emotionally it never did.
And then one day it was over. They'd both known their time was short. And Hizumi had been getting weaker everyday. But it still came as a shock. To come home from work and find that Hizumi was gone.
So suddenly. But even as he mourned the loss of his friend, he didn't know if he wept for just for a friend or for the loss of something more.
Life began in summer and ended in winter. Just like it always does.
~Owari~