Much Greater Pain
"What's wrong?" The suited man asked, tilting his head to the side, concerned.
"It's nothing..." The younger boy turned his head away from the man, not wanting to talk about it.
The older man sighed as he shifted his hand, messing up the boy's hair. "Hey!" He wined, gently knocking the man's hand away from him. The older man couldn't help but giggle at the boy's cuteness.
"Kaito, you know you can talk to me about anything, right?" The boy nodded as he continued to eat his fair share of the food he had made for the both of them.
"Everyone always make fun of me..." He whimpered like a little puppy, making a pouty face.
"What, they still are? Even after all the things I told them?" The man shook his head, thinking disapprovingly of his other students.
The older man was Kaito's teacher and of many others as well. He would always ask Kaito why they'd bully him, but the young boy would never say why.
They were having lunch together in the man's office, just the two of them, like always.
"You want me to talk to them again?" The man questioned, slightly narrowing his eyes. That's when the man was serious, he was going to do something more than just talking and Kaito knew that.
Another reason why they were close to each other was because they were childhood friends. Only three years apart, but the older man had finished school and college already with ease. Just so they could be together, he had became a teacher.
"It's actually more than that..." He spoke under his breath, murmuring to himself, but the man had manage to hear him loud and clear. The man gave him a sad look. Ever since they were young, Kaito could never get along well with others and was always bullied for some reason.
"What did they do to you?" He placed his silverware back into the tray and put his food aside. Now having full attention on the boy as Kaito began fidgeting.
Instead of passing another word, he stuck out his arm, pulling the sleeve back. His arm revealed a large scar, as if he was being punched and kicked repeatedly.
"What happened...?" The man exchanged his look, anger growing in his voice. "Who did this?!"
"Kiyo..." Kaito pulled the sleeve back down, his voice dry. The man seemed affected by the words, calming down for the boy.
"I'm sorry, I overreacted." He sighed, picking up his tray of food and eating again. "Please at least tell me who had done this to you..." He whispered, trying to stay at calm as possible.
"I- I can't bring myself to tell you..." Kaito was still scared, scared the man would do something unpredictable. But Kaito knew he could never, ever tell the man why exactly everyone was bullying him.
"Fine." The man kept eating, not even looking Kaito's way.
Kaito instantly felt guilty. If he brought so much trouble to the man, maybe it's just better off if he stayed away from him. That would be killing two birds with one stone anyways. If he doesn't have any contact with the older man, they'll stop bullying him and the man will no longer have to worry about him too.
Yeah, it'll definitely be better this way. Starting tomorrow, the boy will not talk to him, not eat with him and do whatever else he can do that doesn't involve Kiyo.
Kaito's heart squeezed at the thought of not being able to speak with him. But he has to, if he wants things to get better, right?
"Good morning Kaito!" Kiyoteru waved excitedly over to Kaito. The boy hung his head low, pretending as if he didn't hear him. "Kaito?"
Kaito immediately wished he hadn't done that, he knew he shouldn't have don't that, he knows how sensitive the man can be.
Normally they would walk to school together, theydid live next door to each other. He left his house earlier to avoid the man, but he probably caught up with him.
He was about to say good morning back to him, not wanting to keep up with this act any longer when a storm of kids went up to the man.
"Hiyama-Sensei!" The girls squealed, blocking him from moving anywhere. Kaito just ignored it -or at least he tried to- and walked into the classroom. He took one more look back at Kiyo and saw him with a blank expression on his face, that had stabbed him in the heart. He felt even more horrible inside, but it's for the better, he kept telling himself.
Kaito never took notice of how popular the teacher was, he never really paid attention. No wonder everyone hates him, all he does is hog Kiyo all for himself...
Kaito sat in the back that day, furthest away from the teacher as possible.
He had to eat lunch by himself, but to his surprise, Kiyo didn't even ask him to eat lunch together. 'Does he enjoy me not being there? Well it's not like he's alone like I am.' He thought, silently eating his food. He had way much more than usual, but that's because he accidentally made another one like he would always do...
In the beginning, he did kind of enjoy the silence, no one hurt him, but it was definitely off and he knew exactly what was the cause. He had realized that he wanted to be with Kiyo. He'd rather feel the pain from his classmates then not being able to stay with his one and only friend.
He couldn't stand not being near him, he always made him feel safe. Back here he felt nothing but bitter coldness. He missed his smile. The man would always make him feel better by making him laugh.
Even if the man grew to realize he hated having Kaito around and shoo him off, he'll stalk him until they become friends again or something.
When everyone was leaving, Kaito made a run for the teacher's lounge, in hope of Kiyoteru being there.
"Kiyo!" Kaito shouted as he stopped for a breather, when he slammed open the door. He looked up, seeing that he was no where to be seen. "I missed him." Kaito told himself, he was upset that he couldn't find Kiyo, but he wasn't going to give up.
He walked out of the school building, scurrying around the school in search of the man. He should have never left him hanging earlier that morning. He should have said good morning back to him.
This whole plan was stupid in the first place! Kaito thought, kicking a rock nearby out of sheer sadness.
"Kiyo, I'm sorry..." He started regretting everything. If he didn't get lost in the woods that one day, they would have never met. If he didn't always cling to him, they wouldn't have became so close to each other. If they never became friends, maybe he would have gotten along with all of his classmates.
If he never had ignored him earlier, they would be together right now, laughing on their way home.
Kaito eyes started to water, blocking his view from seeing clearly. All of a sudden he was being pushed against a tree, someone's hands pushing his own above his head. He could see a fist in the air, ready to make contact with his face.
He closed his eyes tight, ready for the blow. He didn't care what would happen to him anymore. He deserved this for hurting Kiyo anyways.
He waited for what seemed like hours before finally opening up his eyes. In front of him, he saw Kiyo holding up the guy by the collar that was going to punch him and was threatening to punch him back. His clothes were ruffled and I had no idea where his glasses went.
"Kiyo, stop!" Kaito yelled before grabbing onto his hand that was holding up the guy. "Please don't do this!" Kaito couldn't hold back the tears and they began bursting out as he started to hiccup.
The man slowly put the guy down as he scurried away as fast as he can.
Kiyo wore a glare on his face as he slowly turned to face Kaito. Kaito felt like something bad was going to happen, but he couldn't move his feet, all he could do was stare.
The man walked, step by step, inching closer to Kaito. Kaito started backing up as he came closer and closer to him.
"Kiyo...?" He was mad and Kaito couldn't do anything about it. Kaito came to a stop when he bumped into the tree from earlier. He froze as Kiyo placed both of his hands on both sides of Kaito's head, making sure he wouldn't try to escape, not that he could or would.
Kaito has never seen the man like this before, he had no idea what he was going to do next. He stared into the man's eyes that held nothing but darkness.
"Why did you ignore me?" He asked with an icy voice.
His heart was beating really fast, he was having a whole bunch of mixed feelings. Even though Kiyo was like this at the moment, Kaito couldn't help but feel safe, the fact that Kiyo was with him, angry or not. That's all that really mattered to him at the moment.
"I- It's because..." There he goes again, cutting half way into his sentence. Kaito hated himself for that, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get another word out of his mouth.
"It's because of me, isn't it? The bullying, it was because of me..." Kiyo suddenly went back to normal again, color filling his eyes. His breathing becoming warm again. He softened his body and leaned into Kaito's neck. "I'm so sorry to have brought you all this pain and suffering, I didn't know..."
Kaito feeling much better, he was able to calm down. He hugged Kiyo as he was able to talk again, "No, you never have and I should be the one apologizing. I should have said good morning to you and I realized I rather go through that pain then the pain I felt when I'm not with you."
There was nothing but silence. All you could hear was their breathing and the swaying of the leaves above them. They both stayed there for quite a bit, just being close to one another, feeling each other's presence once again.
"Is it bad that all this time I knew why you were being bullied, but I never once thought about leaving you alone so they wouldn't bother you because I wanted you all to myself?" Kaito's eyes shot open as he pushed Kiyo away.
"What did you say?!" Kaito couldn't believe what he was hearing. He was really confused now! A second ago he may have felt like this man was the most amazing person ever, but now he felt like he was the worst person on earth. He didn't know what to think!
"I have no idea what you're talking about..."
He was angry, but he was mostly confused, trying to put all the pieces together. He couldn't believe that the man knew all along and was playing as if he didn't know!
Kaito faced the other way, not wanting to look at this man no longer. He sighed, ignoring the situation as if it had never happened.
"You know that your pretty popular too, your just so cute in the most horrible situations." He stated a-matter-of-factly, giggling at Kaito's expression, who had shot him a glare.
Kaito got up to leave without him, a smirk plastered on his face, once out of the man's view.
"Meany~" Kiyo sang, trying to faze the boy in any way.
"Stop that!" He yelped, making the man think of Kaito as a puppy, all the while as he smiled at his thought.
Kaito was being his usual little grumpy, oblivious, cute self that Kiyo liked very much about the boy. He liked to tease him with no end and nothing was going to stop him from doing that. After all, he did love him.
Kiyoteru stood up, running after the boy as he asked if remembered the times when they were little. Kaito nodded as the man gave him a smile that made the boy blush.
Ever since they were little, Kiyoteru had always loved him. He thought back to the time when everyone told him to stay away from Kaito. He let off a laugh as Kaito gently punched him in the back for scaring him by laughing all of a sudden. Yeah, the man was sure of it, he definitely did love this boy.
A/N: I know I said this wasn't going to be Yaoi, but in my opinion it's more like a one-sided love. :/
Please know this is my first fanfic. Also, sorry for the story being so bland, my vocabulary is really small.
Since this story is a oneshot, I'll just tell you this: Kiyoteru forces Kaito to talk to others and get along with them and that's how they resolve the problem with the bullying in the end.