Edited. Many thanks to Surely Blue for this Beta.
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In the famous capital of Japan.
Tokyo.
Around 5:00 PM.
In a hotel, that did not look common, more like a palace surrounded by a royal aura, there was an event, a gathering. Many of the people were dressed formally. Even to the extent that some dressed like they were out of a fabulous fairytale. No one wore a commoner's dress because, yes, it was a gathering of the elites. A gathering of those who were rich and successful. At a certain table, out of the many ladden with red cloth, there was a 3 year-old boy. He was sitting in the front, not being able to see. His small height indicated that enough. Beside him, most likely, family. Just a man and a woman, probably his parents.
The boy was bored and had gotten down from his seat.
"Seijuro? Where are you going?" The man with a serious tone and formal suit asked.
"I... I want to explore in this castle, Papa," said the innocent, redheaded boy, with obviously curious eyes.
"No. Stay in your seat until the party is over," the man commanded.
"B-but..." the little boy uttered, eyebrow forming a curve of sadness, eyes looking down as he tried to hold his breath.
"Yes, Papa..." the little boy said with a disappointed tone and he went back to his seat.
An hour passed, the little boy did not fall asleep though. He just curiously watched the crowds as they socialized with one another. The same applied to his parents as he watched them from afar.
He felt that he was alone.
Uneasiness built up inside him.
Feeling afraid of the many people, whom he viewed as giants, the little boy got down from his seat. With the direction of where his parents were as his goal, he went through the crowd of giants.
Feeling more scared and tense, he ran.
*blggh!
The sound of falling was heard.
Several looked in his direction.
Laughter immersed him. A few uttered tones of concern.
Akashi Seijuro laid flat on the ground. He lifted up his head to see the many cold looking eyes upon him.
A server, more of a waiter, kneeled down. He offered his right hand to the boy as the left was in the air, balancing a tray of 3 wine glasses.
"Now, come up little boy," the server said with a smile.
Akashi silently flushed as he reached for the hand. He accepted it and felt the warmness of concern. He attempted to get up, but now sat down on the same ground. The laughter increased and the little boy heard it as his innocent eyes locked with the looks of disgusted ones.
He felt scared, too scared. He could feel his eyes getting warm and his body trembled.
"Don't mind them. Now where would your parents be?"
The man smiled and turned his eyes to search for them.
"Uu. Uhhn. Uhnwaa ! Uwaaaaahh!" Akashi started to cry.
"Ah. Stop crying boy," the waiter patted the little one's head and lifted his little body, one hand now under the boy's armpit, as he tried to pull him up.
"What did I say about staying in your seat?"
A cold man approached them and stood close by. Scared, Akashi tensed. His body trembled unconsciously and he tried to move backward. He failed and fell down again instead, causing the waiter to be pulled down too. The 3 wine glasses flew into the air when he lost his balance. One glass fell on Akashi's right shoulder. Two of them fell on his father's shoulder, staining his dress shirt and his pants. Loud laughter came a few seconds after. Akashi was stunned and could not utter a word of apology as his father was looking at him with anger, coldness, disappointment, and disgust all at the same time. The waiter on the other side was apologizing nonstop. His father didn't care for the waiter. He pulled Akashi up and out of the venue.
Nearing the hotel's entrance, a site that was fully out of view from the venue, Akashi's father let him go and faced him.
"Didn't you listen to what I said earlier?!" his father shouted, making him tremble and sob more. His father looked at him, his own son, with a coldness you could see in his eyes. His father lifted up his own hand, closing in on his son.
Akashi was really terrified at that moment. Sobbing hard, he decided to just run with his small feet.
"Ah that's... Wait! Akashi Seijuro-sama!" said one of the guards at the gate as Akashi ran pass.
"Let him be."
That voice stopped the guards from chasing the child.
"Ahh... Akashi Keitarou-sama!" One guard turned around at the voice and recognized said person.
"Pardon, Akashi-sama, but your son is-" The guard tried reasoning, concern for the child in his eyes.
"I said let him be."
The guard stared blankly at the coldness in his voice.
"Apologies for not hearing it Akashi Keitarou-sama," the guard said before bowing. All of the other guards bowed too and went back to their positions.
Akashi Keitarou turned to the direction of the hotel.
"Hey! Keitarou! Where is our son?"
He stopped when his wife showed up in front of him.
"He ran off."
Passing by his wife, he continued walking on.
"What? Hey!" The twitching of an eyebrow was noticeable in his wife's beautiful face. She ran, chasing after her fast paced walking husband.
"Just let him be and don't argue," her husband said while walking. Probably going back to the party.
His cold eyes stared at her warm ones.
"Geez. You are not going to change, are you?" his said wife said. Looking back at the gate one more time, she then turned to follow her husband.
"At least change your clothes before going back!" she said.
And, they vanished from the gate's sight.
…
"Uhn... Uhn..." Akashi tried to stop crying as he placed his hands over his eyes. He was walking in the street, in a blind direction. He was about a hundred meters away from the venue and lost. He could see the giants staring at him. More likely, they were smelling him. Smelling the wine soaked in the right shoulder of his shirt. Scared, he ran from the giants.
It is about 6:15, the sun is about to set but Akashi is getting even further away from the venue...
There.
He stopped when he saw a vacant place, a place where there were no giants. He entered and desperately sat on the too high-for-him swing. Yes, it was a playground, but his eyes were asking why there were no children at said playground. It was even his first time going to or seeing a public playground. He just looked down at the ground, trying to swing even though his feet did not touch the ground. And then he fell. Yet, there was nothing to worry about. Underneath and around the swing was sand, from the beach. He sat up and lightly cleaned the sand off his shirt using his small hands. He cried quietly, refraining from any attempts to shout again.
"Hewe. Use this towel," a person who showed up in front of him said.
"Uhnwaaaaaaahhh!"
Akashi was shocked and, from a silence until it was much louder, continued to cry.
"Ah. Hey... Don't cwy..." the person said, wiping away Akashi's tears and the rest of the sand.
The person was not a giant though. It was a dwarf, like him, just smaller.
Akashi stopped crying and faced the dwarf in front of him. Sitting in a traditional Japanese way in the beach sands, the other noticed this and imitated him.
"Why awe you cwying?" the other asked.
Akashi let a drop of tears fall when he remembered what happened recently.
"Don't cwy," the dwarf said as he wiped Akashi's tears with his own, small hand.
"..."
Akashi held back his tears to speak
"I... I got scolded... People laughing... Cold eyes... Lonely... uwaaahh !"
"S-stop cwying... Uwaahh..."
"...What? Why are you crying too?" Akashi asked as he leaned closer and wiped away the tears of the other.
"...Because you awe cwying.."
"...I...l'm not. Stop crying because I stopped now..."
"...I... Stopped too... Uwaa..."
Akashi stared at what seemed to be an idiot dwarf - crying because he was crying? He sat down again properly and decided to speak.
"...I... can't be a child... I... need to achieve more... need to be perfect. I don't want Papa to be a laughingstock... They... people laughing because I was childish at an event like that and gave shame to Papa... Now Papa is cold to me... I want Papa to proudly brag about me as his son..." Akashi said, deciding to confess and share what he thought.
"Uhh... So... That's what a wich kid pwoblem is... You awe a wich kid, huh?" the dwarf said, staring at him with eyes that looked amazed.
Akashi didn't respond.
"You don't need to be pewfect though... You just need to achieve all of youw goal... Yeah, you just need to win all the challenges you will face and it will be okayyy," the dwarf said, looking at the ground, to him, the ground again, and back to his eyes.
"...Win all?" Akashi stared and asked.
"Uhm... You just need to show youw effowt to them... Do youw best to win to achieve youw goal. Stay focused and what... what's that again? ... Wait... That's it! Don't be afwaid to lose! Even if you lose, it's not gonna be the end of the wowld and keep twying and twying again...!"
Thinking, Akashi stared at the dwarf... What he just said was sinking into his mind and being absorbed.
Despite their age, they were talking like serious adults. Though, it was hard to notice in the air as the two were innocently saying what they heard and felt from their own surroundings.
"That's what my sistew said! And, I wemembew that she also said 'Though it's a good attitude, it's hawd to get a lovew because you'll weach the point that you will choose lovew ow youw goal ow you can choose both but it's much hawdew'..."
"Uhh... really? But I want to have a lover. I don't wanna live alone," Akashi said as he looked downward with a sad face
"Then-then I'm gonna be youw lovew... I'm gonna stay by youw side so you awe not gonna feel lonely!" the dwarf said cheerfully.
"Really?" Akashi looked up with a slightly flushed face, lips which formed a smile, and eyes that glittered.
"Uhm!" the dwarf nodded and smiled.
"Then, you will be my wife." Akashi smiled.
"Yea- Ehh? But I'm a boy?!" the dwarf said, showing an innocent and confused face.
"Well, yes. Do you know, in other country, you can be married even if you are both boy."
"Ohh? That so? Then I'll be youw wife!" the amazed dwarf said.
"Then let's swear." Akashi stood up from the ground and he put his hand into the air, sticking out his pinky finger.
"Sweaw?" the confused dwarf said.
"Let's swear that we are going to be officially married in the future."
"Yeah." the dwarf smiled and stood up too. They did the pinky swear, smiles on both their faces, when a woman approached them.
"Seijuro... ?" the woman said and Akashi turned to look at her.
"…Mama"
"Seijuwo?" the dwarf interrupted.
"It's not Seijuwo. It's Seijuro. Akashi Seijuro."
"...Sei... Seijuwo..."
"It's Seijuro."
"Seijuwo."
"Seijuro."
"Seijuw-"
"It's Seijuro. Seijuro. Seijuro. Akashi Seijuro." Akashi said, pout showing on his face.
"Uhn... what... Ehhh... T-then Akashi-kun?" the dwarf asked.
"Yes? That's my name. By the way, what is your name?" Akashi asked, frown clearing from his face.
"It's Fuwihata. Fuwihata Kouki."
"Oh. It's Fuwihata?"
"No! It's not Fuwihata! It's Fuwihata!" the dwarf said, trying to correct Akashi.
"… What?... Well, whatever... Then Kouki?" said Akashi after being confused for a minute.
"Yes." the dwarf smiled.
"Sei-kun. We are going home," the woman said and Akashi looked at her.
"Kouki, you forgot to introduce yourself. Mama, this is my wife, Kouki," Akashi said as he looked to Furihata then to his mother as he introduced the two.
"Ah. Sowwy. I'm Fuwihata Kouki. Nice meeting you, Mama," Furihata stated with a bow.
"Eh... what?! ... But he is a boy? Isn't he?" his mother asked, somewhat shocked and confused.
"Even so. He is my wife," Akashi said reassuringly.
"Uh huh... It is time to go Sei-kun. Bye bye Kou-kun," His mother said, tagging along with and treating the issue as just a child's joke.
"Goodbye Kouki. We will meet again."
"Uhn. Bye bye Seijuwo. See you ag-"
Akashi's P. O. V.
"...It's that dream again..." Akashi uttered, as he got up from sleeping on the couch.
After that goodbye, we didn't actually get to see each other anymore. I live in Kyoto and he is in Tokyo. I sometimes visit Tokyo, but all I visit is the playground. And, of course, he was not going to be there - we both aged.
But, recently, I began dreaming about our first meeting.
That is because I met someone with almost the same name. It's just, it's not Fuwihata Kouki, but Furihata Kouki. He even has the same face and the same hair color.
But, I didn't actually talk to him personally... about this, so I don't have the right to assume that he is my wife.