"I heard the stress of the newcomers got too much for him."
"I bet Mobichi regrets being friends with a dog now."
"The guy looks like he's barely able to stand."
"Stand? He looks like he's got a noose already on his neck. Mad Dog Oga is going to kill him."
"That or Mobichi gets enough courage to jump."
The hospital received two new patients that day. The school also needed two new windows.
But it couldn't be helped. Hearing those two bastards talking about him and Furuichi like that made his blood boil. But the worst was that there was truth in their words.
Furuichi was falling apart in front of his very eyes. Though the idiot tried to appear ok, Oga saw that he was barely eating anything and the dark bags under his eyes were now pissing him off. Furuichi said it was all because of his lack of sleep. He had told him the sleeping pills took a while to start but Oga called bullshit.
The past few days he had wracked his brain to figure out how he could help Furuichi. He didn't know how to handle emotional shit. He was raised to fight away his problems.
And it's not like he had a sibling who he could ask advice for. Because Misaki was exactly the same. When he came home angry from school, she would look at him, then beckon him to follow her.
A high school fight was the place she would take him, and he would beat out all his frustrations.
Frustrations of idiots challenging him. The rumors of him being scary and a monster that swirled around him, when in reality he was just defending himself. Misaki had told him that it was normal to be alone for a couple years. One day he would meet people who understood his strength.
Either way he had to be strong and defeat anyone who challenged him. So that was his mindset. Be alone until he met someone as strong as him. But the way things were going, he was never going to meet someone who could be his friend. He had prepared himself to be alone for the next impending years.
So when a skinny silver haired kid tried to walk with him home, he rejected him. But when the idiot followed him, he couldn't help but let him. No one had ever approached him from class, especially wanting to walk home together.
Such a normal friendly activity. He had been embarrassed to admit to himself he had never done it before.
The idea of befriending the kid was a nice thought, but he knew once the kid saw his daily life, he would be running back to normalcy. So he brought him to his sister's hangout and wouldn't it be his luck that the kid wasn't fleeing home.
The kid even stayed throughout the party that Misaki took them. And then for reasons he will never understand, Furuichi actually became his friend.
There were some bumps in their friendship. When Miki left he thought for sure Furuichi would follow. That he would realize friendships weren't supposed to be constantly seeing the other being challenged to fights.
And then there was the incident right before the end of middle school. He had fucked up bad that time. He had promised that Furuichi would never be in that position again. But again he fucked up and Furuichi paid the price. And now, he was sure he was going to lose him. The mental image of Furuichi sitting in the alley would not leave his mind.
After finding Furuichi in the alleyway, he had dragged him to his house. Arm slung over his shoulders he hauled his friend to his home. He ignored the calls from Misaki and the text from the others and slammed his door closed.
Pushing the other onto his bed, he threw a blanket over his still shaking body. The two males stared at one another, one eyes still clouded with confusion and the other's angry.
Oga was angry that he didn't know what to do. So he placed Beel on the floor and put on the TV for the child. Though the demon seemed to refuse at first to watch the TV, to stare at Furuichi in worry, the sounds of Rice boy soon captured him.
Now as alone as he could get with him, Oga stood in front of the silver haired male and tried to snap him from his daze. Slapping the other on the cheek, he was happy to see that it was giving him results. Furuichi blinked a few times and Oga watched as clarity began to seep in.
In a tired hoarse voice, Furuichi mumbled. "Oga?"
Staring down at his friend, Oga wanted to apologize and more than anything wanted to know what was going through his head.
But instead he said. "Go to sleep, Furuichi." Pressing his palm to the other's forehead he pushed him with unsettling ease to the bed
Physical and emotional exhaustion, being in the cold and lack of sleep caused Furuichi to fall asleep the moment he hit the pillow. The quickness of it, unnerved Oga, and looking down at how worn down he was, guilt overcame him.
Sitting by the side of the bed he watched Rice boy adventures with Beel. His eyes were on the TV, but his hearing and thoughts were solely to Furuichi.
During a commercial break, Beel moved closer to him and glanced nervously to him, then Furuichi.
The demon mumbled something and casted a worried look to the body in the bed. Oga contemplated on what he just confessed but replied confidently.
"Nah, Beel, you're wrong. You haven't known Furuichi as long as I have." But then again things had never gone to this extreme, and he was actually nervous about his friend. He wanted to help but didn't know how.
A few hours passed while Oga and Beel tried to be quiet to not disturb Furuichi's sleep. Oga was still trying to decide how to confront the problem when a gasp and the sound of frantic movements were heard. Turning to his bed he saw Furuichi taking in his surroundings with frantic eyes and it worried him that he had yet to realize he was in his room.
Before he could approach him, Furuichi was already up on his feet.
"Sit back down, idiot." He called out as he walked to him.
"I need to go home." Was the panicked reply. He paused as he stood up and Oga was already walking to his side in case the idiot fell over.
Gripping his arm, Oga pushed him back on the bed. "No."
"I– I need to leave! I need– I… Oga my mom is probably worried and– shit I promised Honoka– I promised I would take her to the libr– oh shit I need to go– my family…"
Furuichi was beginning to panic and that was the last thing he wanted. He wanted Furuichi to stay here with him, but he didn't want Furuichi panicking the entire time. Just looking at him now, showed him pale as snow, and gripping his pants in stress. He let go of Furuichi and though the other didn't want him to, he walked him home. There was no way in hell he was going alone.
Several times he had to grab Furuichi by the arm as he stumbled and almost kissed the pavement. Every time Furuichi would shake off his rescuer and continued going at the same pace, not listening to the insults and yells from Oga. When they finally made it to the house, Furuichi hurried inside, Oga trailing behind him.
But the moment Furuichi was inside, the door slammed on the other's face. Pissed at the action, he acted as always before thinking. But the sound of Honoka's voice had his fist frozen before it could slam the door.
He turned away and the walk back home was silent between him and Beel. The two both agreed silently that tonight they would go to sleep early. The uneasiness that hovered over them didn't go away unless they were in slumber.
And after that, Furuichi didn't leave home or return his texts. His absence was recognized at school and rumors were flying when someone caught a sight of the silver haired teen. The two guys he punched out the windows weren't going to be the last. People couldn't keep their mouths shut and he and Beel were angry majority of the time.
Their early slumber became continuous and tonight was no different. Sending a text to Furuichi, which wasn't going to get a reply, he and Beel got ready for bed.
Tumbling into the bed he laid Beel next to him and tried to fall asleep. Tried to escape this fucked up reality.
Opening his eyes, he was angry to see nothing. Literally nothing. Grumbling curses, he walked forward into the emptiness. He was fine at first, just walking forward. But soon the eeriness of having all of his senses nulled was beginning to get to him. He was also hating the fact that he was alone.
He tried running out of the darkness but no matter how hard he ran, he was not going anywhere. Looking away for a moment, he was startled to see a light. Turning towards it, he sprinted towards it. Halfway way there, he was happy to see that Furuichi was walking on a lit path.
"Hey, Furuichi, where the hell are you going?" He called out to the other. When Furuichi continued to walk without any sign of acknowledgement to him, he ran faster and yelled again. "Hey! I'm calling you, dumbass!"
When he finally reached Furuichi, who had yet to turn around, he was happy to see that the darkness was away from him. Gripping the other by the arm, he pulled him off the path. He turned Furuichi towards him, ready to give him a lecture on how it was rude to ignore your elders.
The lecture died on his lips when his stared at his friend's face.
Bruises of all colors covered his face while his bottom lip was split. Blood was dripping from a cut on his hairline, causing the silver hair to be stained with red. But it was his eyes. They were fearful. Eyes filled with unfiltered fear, stared at him.
Oga's hand lifted but stilled when Furuichi flinched away. He felt his stomach drop. Furuichi was afraid of him.
Slowly he gripped Furuichi and lowered him to the ground. He tried to see if there was any potential fatal wounds. When his hands checked over his neck, he was startled when they grasped tightly onto the body part. Fearful eyes gazed into his shocked ones. Looking away, he instead stared at his hands that still refused to let go of the other's neck.
Frowning he tried to pull his fingers away, but instead they clenched down. A strangled breath escaped Furuichi and Oga thought it was one of the ugliest sounds he had ever heard.
"Stop!" He growled at himself. He wretched himself back but his hands held tightly to the body beneath him. He felt his fingers crush the other's windpipe. Strangled gasps filled the air, while nails attacked his hands until they bled.
"Fuck! Stop! Stop!" Looking down he caught Furuichi's stare and again he watched the life leave Furuichi's eyes. "STOP!" He screamed till he was hoarse. His eyes only on Furuichi, he failed to notice the darkness growing around him.
Glazed lifeless eyes stared endlessly into his.
He had promised him. He promised that he wouldn't let this ever happen again. That he would be strong enough. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was him.
He shouldn't be protecting Furuichi,
Furuichi shouldn't be near him.
Furuichi was worlds above him. He was too good to be standing at the side of a monster. Staring down at the corpse in his arms, he realized too late that the lightness was losing its battle to the darkness. Paralyzed he could only watch as the darkness swallowed him and Furuichi. He screamed in pure darkness.
A movement to his right, had him bolting upwards in bed, scream cut off before it could wake anyone in his home. Covered in a cold sweat, he looked towards the movement to see Beel tossing and turning.
Sighing as he rubbed his face in annoyance, he laid himself back down but refused to fall asleep. He did not want to fall back into that disturbing dream. Just thinking about it made his stomach uneasy.
It was always Furuichi who was able to shake his stable ground.
Laying there he couldn't help but remember what the two students said before he punched them out of the window.
"Mad dog Oga deserves to be alone."
He couldn't help but agree with them.