Just a one-shot about one of my favourite characters, Tsukiyomi Aruto, who I wish we could've seen more of in the series.
I wrote this in only about an hour which isn't very long for me, so I apologise if it isn't the greatest thing in the world. The middle parts are most probably angsty, but I sort of abandoned the angst at the end.
Enjoy ^^
The streets were lonesome at twilight.
People didn't venture out very much at this time. They had either already gotten themselves home and were settling down or they had a few hours ago gone into one of the many bars in the area and wouldn't reappear again for another couple of hours when they would have just enough sense left that wasn't dulled by alcohol to stagger back to their houses.
This was the best time, he felt, to wander round the town, to have a little peace and an hour or two to himself where he wouldn't be disturbed by the locals.
Every now and then someone would nervously edge their way over to him and say "Don't I know you from somewhere?" or "You look very familiar". A few rare occasions someone had hit the nail on the head and would stutter "A-Aren't you-" at which point the man in question would quickly walk away, head low and trying his very best not to be seen as he made his escape.
A few years ago (well, more than a few), he would have rather liked this attention. To be recognised and remembered even in a country so far away from his own would back then have been a joy to him, however the circumstances had now changed drastically. He had to be careful now as he had to have been for the last ten or so years.
Tsukiyomi Aruto heaved a sigh and turned his head up to the sky where the moon was gradually becoming brighter with every passing moment.
Why did things have to turn out this way?
Shaking his midnight blue head, he slowly continued his walk down the old-fashioned cobbled streets of Europe. Where in Europe he couldn't exactly say, he had been travelling for so long he didn't particularly care anymore.
It was a relatively quiet town. It was reasonably large and the people who lived there seemed to be mostly polite, welcoming and generally just well-mannered. Sometimes he wondered if it was because he was a foreigner and they were only trying to make a good impression, however he didn't see any reason to believe that the whole thing was just an act. It was only the rare few who had been... overly friendly to him once he walked into a bar or a shop that made him think think that way.
So far Aruto had had no intention of leaving the place right now unlike most other places he had stayed in. However he knew that fairly soon he would have to make a move. He was still laying low and didn't want to stay in one place for more than too long.
Call him paranoid, but even after almost ten years he still wasn't sure what the current situation at Easter was.
Actually he figured he probably was paranoid. Ten years… Surely things would be safe for him to come home after ten years. Ten long years of not being able to see his family, not being able to talk to his children, not being able to witness as they grew up and his wife... oh how he missed her. He missed that woman so much.
Aruto shook his head more violently this time in a desperate attempt to keep those thoughts out of his head, but he knew it was no use. Frequently he would get them and he knew that when they came they would take over his mind, rushing in and bringing with them a flood of regrets.
At this point he found an empty bench at the side of a road and practically let himself fall down onto it.
Putting a hand to his head, Aruto squeezed his eyes shut.
Why? Why did things have to turn out this way?
Leaving his family behind was the worst thing he had ever done. He truly hated himself for it and he wished more than anything that he could turn back the clock and knock some sense into himself.
He wished he could go back and tell himself what a coward he was, that he was pathetic, that taking over Easter and giving up his music was a small price to pay so long as he could stay with Souko and his children. Why did he give them up for this?
A part of him cursed Souko's parents, blaming them for everything. Just because they were too snobby to allow their daughter to marry someone without a title, because they thought he was just a hopeless, poor little musician with no future. Or at least no future that would involve their company.
Easter. That word made him seethe with a burning anger as well as giving him a rather unnerving sense of dread. If the hadn't cared more about Easter than their own daughters happiness then maybe, no, definitely, things would have been very different.
He remembered being told of his father-in-law's death. He remembered the phone call when a rather deep, droning voice that went by the name of Ichinomiya Kazuomi had reminded him about the deal made between him and Souko's parents.
At the time of the deal, Aruto hadn't cared in the slightest. If he wanted to marry Souko, the one woman he had come to love and cherish more than anything in the world (his music included), then he would. Without giving a damn about the consequences he had taken this deal, accepting it in a heartbeat and quickly whisked his fiancée off to wedlock.
He had assumed that by the time of her father's death that Kazuomi would have been in the Hoshina family's favour. He'd spent years getting on the Hoshina's good side for years and he was very talented at it. He'd had several promotions over that amount of time and if he wasn't the ideal candidate for the next Director then who the hell was?
But obviously the family wanted to stick to their deal, something about 'keeping it in the family'. Bullshit. They didn't want him in their family in the first place if the look of disgust they'd given him at their first meeting was anything to go by. They'd never approved of anything. Not even at their daughter's wedding. They didn't even seem remotely interested at the arrivals of the two newest Tsukiyomis, Ikuto and Utau.
Ikuto's birth was the last time Aruto had talked to any of the Hoshina family besides his wife. If they didn't even want to acknowledge the fact that they had a grandson purely because they didn't exactly like the child's father then he didn't want to acknowledge them.
But anyway, it turned out that his agreement to become the Director had not been forgotten and suddenly he was expected to drop his music and his dreams and begin a career at Easter.
How was that going to happen? He didn't know how to run a company! He didn't know how to handle one as big as Easter! He had no training, no experience, nothing!
Their family wanted to tear him away from his work as a violinist, something he was actually good at, and make him live out the rest of his days in a dull, dreary office surrounded by paperwork and bored, overworked employees who would much rather be anywhere in the world but there.
He had been making his way in the world to becoming a famous, recognised musician. He was already known as a musical genius. Were the family not even satisfied at that? Of course they weren't. Because it didn't involve their damn company. He was expected to take over, to run the place, to be responsible for the company's work and he was even expected to pass it onto his son after he died.
Even if Aruto took the position at Easter he didn't want Ikuto to be chained down to this too. That child had his gift and had developed an interest in his father's music from a very young age. He wanted nothing more than for Ikuto to be free and to do whatever the hell he wanted in the world. At least by that time Souko's parents would be gone and wouldn't interfere with Aruto's desicion.
On his bench in the small town, Aruto put his head in his hands. Why hadn't he taken that job at Easter? He had to be stupid, didn't he? He'd panicked, suddenly feeling the weight of the promise he'd made and, though knowing that he wasn't thinking straight, had made the decision to simply run. Under the cover of darkness, Aruto had picked up his violin, taken one last glance at his sleeping wife, peered into the bedrooms and whispered a soft "goodbye" to each of his children and left the house. Staring back at the building, lit up by the moonlight, he'd made a promise to come back one day before forcing himself to leave them behind and to get away as quickly as he could before Easter even knew what was happening.
He yelled out several curses into the still air. How could he have just abandoned all his responsibilities like that? He was a father! His responsibilities were pretty big!
Cursing once more, he stood up and began walking again. He needed to cool off.
"I'm dirt..." his low voice broke the silence around him. "I'm pathetic... Is my music really more important than my family?"
Stopping in his tracks, the violinist glanced over his shoulder at his violin.
"Music..."
Gingerly Aruto reached for it and removed it from over his shoulder. He placed the case down in the middle of the pathway and opened it to reveal the familiar, sleek instrument inside. He ran his fingertips over the wooden surface and exhaled loudly.
All his life music was really the only way he knew how to express himself. The notes and the melodies he could create spoke louder than words or actions and were capable of expressing how he felt better than he could on his own. He remembered that that was one thing Souko had admired about him.
At times when he was feeling like this he found it rather therapeutic to just pick up his violin, let his emotions take over and form a tune or two to reflect them.
Raising the violin and getting into a playing position, Aruto was a little disappointed that this wasn't his original violin. The one he'd learned to play on and carried with him for most of his life has disappeared soon after he had arrived in Europe. He still wasn't fully sure what had happened, but all he knew was that it was gone, probably stolen, and he had spent a large chunk of his money buying a new one.
The night had taken over, cooling the air and sending a slight chill up the musician's spine as he played his short, sorrowful tunes. After a while they became quicker, more complicated and although no one was around to witness it, he put all his talent and skill into producing a complex piece of music that represented all of his regret, anger, his frustration and his sadness as well as any other powerful emotions he might have experienced.
Ending his latest masterpiece on a long note, he took a deep breath, feeling a considerably more relaxed.
Once he had placed the violin back, safe in its case, Aruto once more looked up to the sky and observed the galaxy above him. It was truly magnificent. The moon was as bright as he'd ever seen it and the stars that twinkled and gleamed made the darkness more... alive, less empty and less cold.
A small smile tugged on his lips as he stargazed in the street. The thought crossed his mind that this was the same brilliant, clear night sky that his wife and his children would have looked up at in the time he'd been gone. That thought was comforting, making him feel as if they were in some way connected even if it was just by a little.
Tsukiyomi Aruto chuckled to himself and looked away. "I must be going insane." He murmured. How crazy was he to feel closer to them over something like that?
With another chuckle, he picked up his violin case, slung it over his right shoulder and carried on through the deserted streets of the small town (wherever that was).
Strolling calmly under the light of the heavens, Aruto couldn't help but smile. Feeling connected to the people he loved was everything to him right now and he fully looked forward to the time when he would be able to return to his own country and when he could reunite with his beloved family and finally say "I'm home".