Grow Up, Not Apart
Chapter One: Collapse
A/N: Thanks for reading - Will be updated hopefully every Friday if that is possible :) I will give you the definitely update-day soon.

(Age: Rima is seven years old and four months, Senri is seven years old and seven months.)

Senri and I... we'd never separated in our lives, not since we met nine years ago at age seven.

We both preferred to stick to telling people we met a modelling job. The truth? So much more bitter and detailed than the simple answer we went by.

I was visiting my sister with my parents, outside a hospital... okay, a mental hospital... when I saw him.

Sitting on the stool, head down, I thought he was waiting for someone.

I never liked visiting Lexa. We were so close as kids that it brought pain seeing her in her current state. Mum knew this. "You don't have to visit Lex," she always said softly.

"I want to," I answered.

And I did. Lex loved me and I love her. I couldn't leave my baby sister because she was so ill. It'd be selfish to leave her.

And that was when I heard the fire alarm.

It went off all the time. A lot of the patients just liked playing around with the alarm for fun. Nothing actually ever happened.

I was so used to the alarm; I tried my best to ignore it. Why wasn't it stopping?

There was a strange, scratchy feeling in my stomach that said, 'something was wrong'.

Then, I heard a loud shout.

"Fire!"

Only a few people paid attention to this, like me, a lot of us knew what went on and how it happened three or four times a week.

I gazed over my shoulder - I don't know why, it was just one of those weird things where you just do it because you feel the need to - and I saw him. Sitting on the stool, ducking his head in shame, as if he had done something wrong. He looked up at me. I, yes, felt embarrassed for having him catch me looking at him. But, as he looked up, I noticed the watery tears in his pastel blue eyes.

I actually thought maybe he could have been an escaped patient, due to his beautiful maroon hair being an absolute mess. (I later learnt his messy hair was just typical-Senri-Shiki and I learnt to love this.)

There were tears in his eyes as I quickly studied his grey hoodie and jeans, which clarified the thought of him being a patient.

I walked over to him. "Are you okay?" I asked softly.

I expected him to nod and say with that teary voice, "yeah, I'm fine."

I knew he had to be seven like me but he looked younger with his tear-stained face and tousled hair.

His answer was "No."

I was hesitant to reply. "Why not?" I asked.

"There's a fire," he told me, finally looking up.

I didn't know what the reason could have been. His eyes of ice somehow melted my heart and there was this searing pain in my stomach, but a nice one that made me want to smile. I hadn't actually smiled properly since second grade, when Lexa had been admitted here. Then I realised the reason. It was him.

"No, it's fine. The fire alarm goes off all the time. There's no fire –"

"There is," he interrupted. "My mother started it."

The only thing I could do to stop panicking was stake one look at the little boy in front of me, with his dark red, wine-coloured hair hanging over his innocent steel-blue eyes, the boy who looked like he collapse if I did anything wrong and I rushed over to him on impulse and gave him a small hug, but I knew it wasn't the second I saw pillars of grey smoke tearing out into the reception area.

I don't know what happened, because I can't remember. We were all evacuated and were alerted that the fire hadn't reached the patients.

"Everyone's fine, Lexa's fine," my mother was smiling and laughing, "Lexa's fine!"

Yes, I was glad Lex was fine. But was it wrong to hope that the boy I had seen before was fine, too? I didn't think I'd ever see him again, though.

A/N: Please review so I can continue! I love all feedback !