az: I felt like writing fluff...

Frozen Time

Written by Izzu alias honou-no-izumi

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"Eh... was it supposed to be like that?"

Ainosuke glanced sideways to find two of his classmates huddled together over something. He rose to his seat as he looked to find that his classmates were playing sudoku.

"I said you've got it wrong! Look here... you've got two similar numbers in this column—"

"Enough bugging me... I know what I'm doing—"

"Kazuo's right."

The two boys glanced towards Ainosuke as he explained to them.

"You know... in order to complete this puzzle, you don't just need to put in the number one to nine once in each 3x3 boxes, you also needed to make sure that the number only appeared once in each rows and columns. So over here," Ainosuke pointed at the row that contained two similar numbers, "—it should be a different number. So if I change the numbers here and there... see? The numbers were all balanced from all sides!"

The two boys exclaimed in wonder.

"Whoa—Tanaka-kun! You're a genius! I had never fully understood this puzzle before... yet you can solve it easily—"

Ainosuke shook his head. "Ah, no... it's because my bro—" he paused suddenly before continuing, yet when he spoke again his voice was much softer. "I mean... my brother used to love playing this game. He really loved maths so much."

"Eh... Tanaka's brother must have been a great guy! I'd like to meet him someday!"

"You can't—" Ainosuke said suddenly, to their surprise.

"You can't... because he died, few months ago," he said softly as his friends nodded apologetically. Despite that, Ainosuke perked up again, trying to appear unaffected as he said, "But you know? It's not like games like this can only be played by those who were good in maths or geniuses. You just needed to pay close attention to it and figure out the best way to solve it. It's a brain teaser after all!"

The two boys nodded at him enthusiastically before the teacher entered the class and Ainosuke returned to his seat. Though, because of that, throughout the lesson... Ainosuke could not help but be distracted. It was true that his brother loved maths... and sudoku was amongst the puzzle games that he likes to spend hours of his time with. Sometimes he used to wonder what was so fun in that, but he always saw his brother's big smile whenever he tried to solve one of those puzzles. Especially whenever he accidentally distracted his brother to make him write in the wrong sequence of numbers by mistake.

Ainosuke hastily wiped away the tears that started to form as the bell rang. He immediately gathered his things as he quickly headed out of the class to go home...

xxx

Ainosuke laughed at himself. Why did he have to suddenly start thinking about the past? It was not as if things would return to what they used to be if he continued to dwell on it. It would not erase the fact that his brother had been the one behind the kidnapping and murder cases that had happened lately.

He bit his lips. He knew that. He know that it was useless to think that his brother could return to what he used to be... but still—was it wrong for him to have a bit of hope?

Ainosuke rubbed his eyes several times again as he walked faster, not noticing the person in front of him as he slammed towards the person and fell. The other person also fell along with his bicycle.

"I'm sorry... I hadn't been looking—" Ainosuke looked up to see his brother staring back at him. It seemed that Yumehito was taking this guise of a good police officer seriously and was now patrolling around the neighbourhood.

"Oh. It's you."

xxx

Yumehito looked at him coldly before getting up and setting his bicycle upright again. He glanced back towards Ainosuke to find him staring back at him, not looking as if he was going to get up from his sitting position on the ground. He raised his eyebrow at him.

"You know... Ainosuke, even if you started to pout and stare at me like that—it's not as if that would make me do anything—"

Without warning, Ainosuke started to shed tears openly as he stared at his brother dumbfounded.

"Hey, what the—don't you suddenly make me looking like a bad person over here...," Yume started to say as he knelt closer towards his brother.

As sudden as the crying had started, so did Ainosuke's action after that. Yume barely blinked as his brother had latched himself against him, while continuing to drench his uniform with his tears. He almost crossed his eyes, wondering what to do as several people passed by. However, seeing that there was nothing much that he could do without drawing suspicion over himself, he patted Ainosuke's head gently.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong?" Yume asked as he ran his hand over Ainosuke's head, while trying not to smile. Really, Ainosuke was still such a child...

He pushed his brother away as he helped him up, yet Ainosuke still stared at him blankly with teary eyes. Even his cheeks were flushed as Yume frowned and placed his hand over Ainosuke's forehead.

"You're feverish... why did you not take care of yourself properly?" Yume hissed to himself as he glanced at his bicycle and Ainosuke back and forth to figure out what to do.

In the end—considering that Ainosuke was barely awake—Yume had carried his brother on his back as he towed his bike towards the place where Ainosuke had stayed. Luckily, there was a passer-by helping him out to take his bike with him as he concentrated on carrying Ainosuke back home. When they finally arrived at the house, Yoshida gave him a strange look as he shrugged him off. The older man hurriedly left to keep Miruku occupied as Yume took Ainosuke to his room.

Inside, he placed Ainosuke on the bed as he helped him change his clothes. Poor boy had fallen asleep on the way home because of his fever. He sighed as he looked around the small kitchen to make something warm for his brother. Not long after, Yoshida entered as Yume turned his attention towards him.

"Miruku-san should be keeping herself in her room for now, are you going to stay here long?"

Yume shrugged.

"Don't worry, I don't plan to stay long. Just this sudden unexpected incident—if Ainosuke wake up later, make up some story of how he ended up home. He probably won't remember anything about what happened earlier anyway,"

The man nodded as he passed him some medicine. "So I'm guessing that Ainosuke had a fever?"

Yume nodded before thanking the man for the medicine.

"The kid just happened to stumble onto me before he started to get clingy. Ainosuke somehow always have that kind of luck."

Yoshida smiled as he excused himself, just as Yume had finished making his porridge. He placed the bowl and a glass of water at the small table nearby before gently waking his brother up. Still groggy, Ainosuke thought nothing of his presence as he took his medicine and finished his porridge without hassle.

Ainosuke yawned as Yume figured that it was time to leave before his brother gripped his arm tightly. Ainosuke looked up towards him as he pouted almost cutely again.

"Stay with me a bit longer, please?"

Yume stared helplessly at him before sighing. There's nothing else that he could do... eh? , he thought before nodding his head and continued wrapping his arm around Ainosuke; as his brother snuggled close beside him. It took quite a while before Ainosuke fell asleep, since the fever had given him a bit of nightmare after that and any slight movement he made jolted the kid awake. Yume sighed to himself as for a moment, it seemed as if he was back into his old life with Ainosuke; being the good brother that he was. He chuckled.

Such fond memories...

Then again, it shouldn't be so bad to pretend that they were back into those old times again. He couldn't lie to himself as well to say that he hadn't missed his brother for even a moment. It should be alright to forget everything for a while and savour this moment a bit longer. He placed a kiss on Ainosuke's forehead as the latter smiled.

"I love you, Aniki."

Yume smiled, for some reason he could not deny to himself how that phrase warmed his heart all the time.

"I love you too..."