Warnings: slash, femslash, extreme feelings of hopefulness and helplessness, symptoms of depression, a loooootttt of page breaks.
Things to look forward to: A bit of mystery, Kid!Yuu and Mika, kisses, a light read, happy ending, suspense, background stories.
Notes: This story is basically a major twist on the whole "twins can telepathically communicate to each other," cliché. Obviously Yuu and Mika aren't twins in this fic, no one is twins in this fic. It originally was supposed to go in a whole other direction entirely, but I got this bunch of words instead. If you have a thing for happy endings, stay tuned. It's coming I promise.
I
Break Out
Chapter One: Together
{3-8}
[Age: Three]
They don't understand at first that they weren't normal. In fact, they weren't self-aware at all. Because if you know you can write with your right hand you assume everyone else can too, right? Even left handed people. But that's not always true is it? Because you assume that all people can talk if they have mouths. Until you meet someone who can't.
Mika and Yuu assumed everyone else can do the things they do. Nobody pointed it out either and when they did notice something was a little… off, they drew their conclusions from the wrong place.
"Best friends from birth," Yuu's mother says to the neighbor, "they're just really close, that's all."
"They just get each other," Mika's mother explains to the concerned daycare worker, "they know how to talk and if you want them too all you have to do is ask," She adds, "they just don't talk when they're together."
But that wasn't really true, either. Yuu and Mika talk to each other, they talk to each other a lot. Other people just can't hear them. Because, normally, who other than you can hear your thoughts? For Yuu normally Mika can and likewise, Yuu can hear every thought that goes through Mika's head.
They didn't know this wasn't normal. Especially when superhero cartoons were so popular and aired on Saturday mornings, you can say they weren't exactly discouraged from doing it either. Quite the opposite actually.
"Yuu!" Mika thought, sitting on the soft carpet. A small plastic bowl of cheerios rested on the coffee table, cheerios splattered around the green object. "We're just like superheroes!"
"What'd are you saying, Mika? I'm trying to eat my 'herrios!" Yuu thinks back, eyebrows furrowed and stubby fingers taking handfuls of cheerios, shoving the cereal in his chubby cheeks. Eyes intensely focused on the T.V screen. Where multi-coloured, spandex wearing animations were jumping around and declaring catchphrases every few minutes.
"We're superheroes, Yuu!" Mika thinks again.
"Really?" Yuu thinks and finishes chewing.
"Really!" Mika grins. "We can talk without moving our mouths!"
"Yay!" Yuu shouts, and jumps up, spilling his cheerios all over the carpet.
"Oh no." Mika thinks, his mommy always gets mad whenever he spills his food. Spills and messes were very bad things.
"Mom!" Yuu yells, "I spilled my 'heerios!"
They waited for a second or two but no footsteps were heard, just the noises of the T.V.
"Mom!" Yuu roars, this time, his little arms stiff at his sides, his hands clenched into frustrated fists. "I spilled my 'herrios!"
They wait again, and the T.V makes a particular exposition sound, and it's enough to draw back Mika's and Yuu's attention.
The show is about to end when Yuu's mother finally walks back into the room.
"Yuu!" She scowls and then scolds, "I told you not to make a mess! I just spent the morning cleaning the house."
"I yelled for you!" Yuu whines and pouts, there's a flush rosy hue to his chubby cheeks. "You didn't come." Mika whimpers a bit and it enough for Yuu to hold his hand. Mika hated getting in trouble.
Huffing, his mother starts picking up the cheerios, she gets all of them and dumps them back into the plastic bowl they came from. She sweeps Mika's spilled cheerios into the palm of her hand and back into his bowl, taking both back to the kitchen. There's a clanking noise in the kitchen and the familiar sound of the dishwasher opening, before Yuu's mother makes her way back into the living room to finish her scolding.
"Next time don't yell at me Yuu! Get up and find me." His mother says with a stern look and her hands on her hips standing in front of the T.V. "Your show's over?" She asks, eyeing the T.V with a drip in her lip.
"Yeah," Yuu says dryly, rolling his eyes a bit.
"Good." Is the response he gets. Yuu's mother pushes the square off button under the ridge of the T.V. "It's a nice day, why don't you boys go enjoy it?" She shoos Mika and Yuu to the backyard. "I'll be watching from the kitchen window!"
Mika and Yuu comply with the woman's wishes and find themselves in Yuu's backyard. The wind brushes against Yuu's skin like a ripple across water and summer air fills his nostrils.
The backyard is vast but empty of anything but a patio and a sturdy shed. Mika rushes to the wooden shed, the glass presses under his shoe like plush green carpet, soft.
"Wait!" Yuu calls, a concerned look upon his young face and rushes after. He watches Mika dig out the spare key out from under the placemat in front of the shed door, a very old worn one with the almost incomprehensible wording. A simple 'Welcome' printed out in cursive.
"Whatcha doing Mika?" Yuu asks first and then scowls, "You know we're not 'upposed to go there."
Yuu looks the shed with awe and a tad bit of nerves. The shed itself was quite the impressive structure, to the three-year-old it looked big enough to be a house. When in reality the wooden shed was no larger than an average guest bathroom.
"But the soccer balls are in there, Yuu!" Mika replies, flicking his eyes back to his friend and small childish finger towards the locked door of the shed. As Mika fiddles with the metal lock, it's big and heavy in his puny hand. Yuu's mom shouts out from the window. "What do you boys thinks you're doing?"
Mika drops the lock and swings around in a start and hid the key behind his back.
"Getting a soccer ball, ma!" Yuu yells back, but the only reply he gets is his mother stomping out the door and charging towards them until she's standing in front of them.
"What do you boys think you're doing?" She asks again, this time in a passive aggressive tone.
Mika and Yuu exchange a look. Yuu makes eye contact with his mother and Mika turned his attention to his feet in embarrassment – it had been his idea and Yuu was getting in trouble because of him. "Getting a soccer ball," Yuu answers sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders innocently.
"Well?" She just says, his lips press together in a way that suggests she's not pleased. "Don't make me count to three."
Mika hears him, so he doesn't understand why Yuu's mother doesn't.
"Getting a soccer ball." Yuu thinks louder this time, maybe she just didn't hear him?
"One." She starts, tapping her foot on the grass. Mika and Yuu stare at her confused. "Two." And it takes Yuu's mother until almost three to understand what's going on. "Yuu," She says, sounding a bit exasperated.
"What did I say about using your words, Yuu? I'm not a mind reader." She says shaking her head.
"But Mika –"
"Shh!" Mika shouts at him via the mind. Yuu frowns but changes what he was going to say anyways. " – I mean, we just wanted a soccer ball."
Yuu's mom huffs out a chuckle and offers a little smile. "Sorry boys, I forgot they were in here."
"Stay back," She warns and Yuu knows why. The shed was a dangerous place they weren't supposed to go in. Yuu's mother holds out his hand, palm up and open, she makes eye contact with Mika. "Well?" She says firmly, "Are you going to give me the key?"
Mika blushes and drops the key into her palm. They cling a bit on the way down.
Yuu's Mother finishes Mika's work with a turn of the key and opens the shed doors. She goes in and Yuu can't see her for a moment until she's coming out with a deck box in her hands. She heaves it out the doors and settles it beside the shed door.
"There you go!" She smiles and follows up with, "That was a bit heavier than I thought, but now you guys can just open this instead of having to go in the shed to get it."
"Woah," Mika thinks, "Your mom's awesome!"
"Yeah!" Yuu thinks and grins.
"Go play!" She says as she makes her way back inside after relocking the shed and the key safely tucked in her jean pocket. "If I have to talk you to again, you guys are having timeouts!" Almost as an afterthought, she also adds. "No going in the shed!"
"… Maybe not so awesome." Mika thinks and Yuu agrees. Time outs suck. Royally.
They play with the worn out soccer ball until the sun is high in the sky and they can't feel their feet.
"Yuu," Mika complains, his eyelids dropping. "'m sleepy." He crumbles to the ground, the black patterned ball beside him.
"Me too!" Yuu says and lies down beside Mika. The boys lay there, gathering their breath again. They look at each other and smile. It's silent for a moment. That moment doesn't last long, however, because even as verbal communication stops, thinking doesn't.
"Dog." Mika thinks.
"More birdish," Yuu replies.
Yuu points to the next cloud.
"Bird."
"Dragon." Mika counters and spots the next wisps of cloud coming.
"Ship," Mika says.
"Bird." Yuu insists and the next fluffy cloud floats over.
It's not until that night, when Mika slips into Yuu's bed from the blown up air mattress on the floor, that they talk about their day.
(They always sleep together at sleepovers, even if there's an extra bed, especially when there's an extra bed. Their parents thought they'd be thrilled knowing that they're old enough to sleep in different beds when they've been sharing a bed ever since they can remember.
They weren't.
And it didn't matter what their parents said, they always woke up in the same bed when they were supposed to sleep in different ones. Mika and Yuu both liked being closer, and they didn't know what was wrong with that. Especially when Yuu hears his father's fears and his mother hushed voice, "It's just a phase They'll grow out of it." But – that comes later.)
Right now, they're as close as they can get, with their tiny legs tangled and faces side by side, hands touching, pressed together like a positive and negative magnet.
"Why don't you want to tell ma?" Yuu asks, staring at a piece of Mika's bangs that sticking up at a funky angle and giggles, knowing it's going to be worse in the morning.
"We're superheroes, right?" Mika clarifies, watching Yuu nod. "Then we gotta kept it a secret!"
"Why?" Yuu asks.
"'Cause!" Mika explains, "I don't want the bad guys to find out who you is! Then they gonna hurt you!"
Yuu nods and bites his lip in worry. "They would hurt you too!" Yuu then looks at Mika with a determined look. "We have to keep it secret! You can't get hurt Mika."
"Yeah, just our secret, no one else allowed." Mika agrees, swearing to secrecy.
Yuu pauses for a beat before thinking a comprehendible sentence up and Mika knows this is going to be serious. He struggles to put all the words together but when he does, they make Mika smile.
"Y'know I would never let people hurt you?" Yuu asks, a whisper, because this felt special.
"Yeah! I wouldn't let anyone hurt you either Yuu!" Mika takes a hold of Yuu's one hand.
"And if you were taken by the bad guys, I'd save you!" Yuu blurts out, a flush covers his cheeks.
Mika blushes, stuttering out. "I-I'd save you too!"
"We'd save each other!" Yuu cheers.
"Together." Mika decides.
"Together." Yuu echoes it.
They fall asleep together and woke up like that. Neither knew at the time, but that right there, that was their start of forever.
[Age: Four]
His new sneakers slap against the hardwood floor as he patters to the front door. Heavy footfalls chase Yuu's.
"Wait!" His mother orders, catching up to the wild child. She slips her hands under his armpits, heaving him up to rest on her hip.
She makes an 'oof' sound. "You're getting to be a big boy, you know that?" She teases the boy, tapping her index finger on his nose. "Soon, I'm not going to be able to carry you like this anymore."
Yuu pouts, his eyebrows furrow adorably. "No more piggy rides?"
His mother laughs. "Maybe, you'll get a few more of those if you're a good boy."
"'Kay, mommy I'll be a good boy now. Let's go see Mika." Yuu demands, his eyes brighten.
Yuu hadn't been very excited for school. There were other kids there, Yuu already knew he wouldn't like them. Plus, the teacher looked like a wrinkled shirt, he made sure to tell his mommy this, in the hope she realises how bad it would be to trust his care to a person who resembled an old item of clothing. All he got was a scolding. But then mom told him Mika was going there too and suddenly school didn't seem that bad anymore.
His mother glanced at the clock, her eyes widen. "Okay, time for pictures." She flicks out her phone, making sure to turn off the flash.
"Say cheese!" His mother grins at him and he grins back. There's a snapping sound and his mother makes a relieved noise. "Come on, now. Time to go to the bus stop!" She ushers him to the front door.
As soon as the door was open, Yuu bolts. "Yuu, wait!" His mother yells but Yuu wasn't listening, sprinting down the cracked sidewalk, his bag bumping against his bottom.
"Mika!" Yuu calls, a bright smile on his face. "Where are yooouuu?"
"At the bus stop, silly!" Mika giggles. As Yuu eyes the end of the street, a red octagon shaped stop sign stood on an angled metal pole and two people stand there. Lo and behold, the almighty bus stop.
Swatted up in a warm black windbreaker, the chilly morning air didn't faze Yuu. The fall weather couldn't even touch his skin, his cheeks were rosy though and his nose red.
"Oh, I see you!" Yuu teases. "Can you see me?"
He picks up his pace to a run. The small figure waiting at the end of the street whips his head back, his blonde hair follows.
"Yuu!" Mika shouts and Yuu jumps into Mika's open arms. They embrace each other in a hug, one that lasts for only a second.
"Mika, guess what today is?" Yuu asks his hands on his hips in a mock imitation of his mother.
"What is it?" Mika questions, a hand at his chin with his head angled to the side - Mika plays along.
"First day of school!" Yuu yells excitedly, jumping around in a circle.
Mika stiffens up, though, not looking Yuu in the eyes. "Yeah..."
"Mika, something wrong?" Yuu grabs Mika's hand and stares at him intensely.
"No." Mika answers and shifts his eyes to the side.
Yuu doesn't point out the lie. Squeezing Mika's hand, he looks him in the eye. Yuu speaks, concern interlaced deeply in his tone, "I'm gonna be there all the way through you know that, right?"
Mika's eyes widen and a thin blush on his cheeks, "Yeah." Mika confirms. He stands up a little bit straighter, holding his head a little bit higher, fingers still intertwined.
Mika opens his mouth to speak, eyes sparkling. "I'm going to – "
"Yuu!" Yuu's mother comes barreling down the sidewalk, Mika's mother in tow. "I told you to wait!"
She slows as she gets closer until coming to a dead stop in front of the boys. "You're so impatient Yuu." His mother scolds and Yuu rolls his eyes.
Mika's mother smiles, "Make sure your hat stays over your ears." She pushes down Mika's white beany so that it's coving his ears.
"Yes, mother." Mika chips.
"See Yuu," Yuu's mother says pointing at Mika, "That's how a good boy behaves."
Yuu ignores the jib and holds Mika's hand tighter. Shifting closer to his best friend, Yuu tugs a piece of curly hair.
Mika smiles a hundred-watt smile, and shifts closer to Yuu.
"I'm going to save you, Yuu, if you get hurt don't worry. I'll be there." Mika thinks. The wind breezes by and the end of his coat sways with it.
There's the rumbling of an engine and the long, wide bus that comes with it. As it gets closer, the boy inch towards each other.
When the bus stops in front of them, it's like a lion stopping in front of its prey. The door opens – the lion's jaws snap open – there's dirt on the steps – blood of others – the bus driver's eyes are a dull grey, which looks apathy to the situation – haughty eyes piercing into Yuu's.
Mika's mother kisses his forehead and gives him a hard hug.
Yuu's mother pecks his cheek and ruffles his hair.
"Have a great first day!" Mika's mother shouts to them as they board the bus – being swallowed by the monster.
They hold hands for the whole time, latching on to each other. Yuu spots an open seat and together they sit on the third seat on the left, feeling the lumpy cushion under their bums and the warmth of their hands.
School wasn't really that exciting, Yuu came to find out, he'd been over the butterflies in his stomach since the teacher started talking. Everything was boring after that, there wasn't a T.V here and the toys sucked. Who wanted to play with Barbies? Or house?
Apparently all the other kids, even Mika! Yuu didn't. Yuu wanted to go home and play video games.
If playtime was boring then math and language time sucked.
"C'mon, Yuu!" Mika tugged Yuu's hand, "Let's play."
"Play what?" Yuu huffs out, crossing his arms.
"Family!" Mika shouts out excitedly. "We'll be husbands."
"That sounds girly Mika." Yuu lashes out.
"Oh." Mika's shoulders drop, and his eyes water.
"Are you crying?" Yuu asks in disbelief.
Mika shakes his head as a watery, salty tear runs down his face.
"It's j-just," Mika stutters out, "Toshi said you can't be married to another husband and then I said you totally could and that I would prove it by getting one."
Yuu blinks, reaching out a hand he cups Mika's face and kisses him on the cheek. "There. I'm your husband now."
Mika laughs, smiling. "How does that make us married?"
"Mom says only to kiss the person you love and are going to marry, so…" Yuu answers, his cheeks flushed.
Mika laughs even more and sings an arm around Yuu's shoulder lending against him. He turns and pecks Yuu on the cheek.
"There!" Mika announces like he's talking to the world. "Now I'm your husband."
Yuu laughs this time, "'kay."
"Wanna go watch clouds?" Mika asks, walking shoulder to shoulder with Yuu.
"Yeah! Race You!" Yuu calls, sprinting to the school yard.
"No fair!" Mika yells back, running after Yuu.
. . .
"Mouse."
"Bird."
"Princess."
"Bird."
"Bear."
"Bird."
"Car."
"Bird."
Mika looks over at Yuu, his eyebrows furrowed. "Not everything's a bird, Yuu!"
. . .
The bell rings and the teacher calls, "Lunch time!"
The children, like a horde of cattle, came running. It so loud that the teachers have to remind everyone to use their inside voice.
Yuu and Mika have their hands joined, with lunch boxes in the other, they look around for a table but all seemed occupied. While Mika and Yuu had spent time together everyone else had made friends. Mika spots a table at the back, all seats emptied but one.
Mika drags Yuu other there. This table was circular with a grey top and four seats. Three if you count the boy sitting in one.
"Hello," Mika says, greeting the boy. "Can we sit here?"
The boy looks up and Mika's eyes meet with adorable green ones. "Yeah." The boy smiles.
Yuu and Mika take a seat.
"I like your headband." Yuu compliments, unzipping his lunchbox.
They hear a sniffing noise and that's all the warning they get before the boy starts balling.
Mika whacks Yuu upside the head.
"Ow, ow, ow, Mika was that for?" Yuu glares, narrowing his eyes.
"You made him cry!" Mika explains and points at the boy's tears.
"Did not!" Yuu protest, shaking his head.
"Did too!" Mika argues, "Say sorry!"
"Will not!" Yuu says in reply, and Mika pinches his cheek, "Say you're sorry!"
"No!" Yuu whales, but it becomes muffled because of his lack of working cheek muscles.
"Yes!" Mika insists, pinching his other cheek.
"Ow! No." Yuu says he reaches up and yanks on Mika's hair.
"That hurts!" Mika cries, in an irritated voice.
"Well, so do my cheeks!" Yuu retorts.
"And whose fault is that?" Mika asks.
"Yours!" Yuu shouts.
"You know what – " Mika starts but stops when he interrupted by a giggle.
The boy laughs, now instead of crying. "I'm sorry." The boy says. "I guess the fight is my fault."
"No." Mika denies, still holding Yuu's cheeks. "Yuu hurt your feelings so he has to say sorry."
Yuu pulls on Mika's hair in reply. "Ow."
"No," The boy says, "I was crying 'cause I'm happy."
"Crying because you're happy?" Yuu questioned.
"Yeah." The boy sniffled, still red-faced, "The other people wouldn't play with me because my headband's pink."
"Well, I don't care about what the other people think." Yuu declares, "Your headband's cool."
"Yeah!" Mika agrees.
"I'm Mika, by the way. And this is Yuu!" Mika says pointing to his friend beside him.
"I'm Yoichi!" Opening his lunch box, Yoichi pulls out three cookies in a bag.
Mika and Yuu make little-awed faces.
"Would you like one?" Yoichi asks sweetly.
And that's how Mika and Yuu made their first friend.
. . .
"Yuu?" Mika thinks that night as he stares down at his half eaten slice of pepperoni pizza. A few plain chips lay beside the piece. He's wrapped in his mother arms. He feels full and she smells like home.
A football player scores a touchdown and his father goes wild. Yelling at the broadcasting game on the large flat screen T.V kitty-cornered in their living room. Mika isn't paying attention to such things.
"What do you think of Yoichi?"
In the next house over, Yuu's tongue was sticking out the side of his mouth as he tried his hardest to keep the purple crayon in the lines of the superhero drawn. A crumpled paper with connects the dots pattern was pushed off to the side. Who does homework?
"He shared his cookies," Yuu thinks back, pausing from his colouring, "So he can't be that bad."
. . .
After that, it was like Mika and Yuu had another piece of their jigsaw puzzle. It wasn't just Mika and Yuu anymore, it was Mika, Yuu and Yoichi. 'We' no longer meant Yuu and Mika, 'we' meant Yuu, Mika and Yoichi. None of them minded either.
Skipping down the clean sidewalk of old Redstone road, Yuu's warm hand in Mika's right hand and Yoichi's soft one in Mika's left. The bone chilling air of October sweeps by like smooth water, gentle yet cold.
Mika shivers and tightens his hold on his friends' hands. They squeeze back. Yoichi turns his head and Mika catches his eyes, they smile at each other.
"C'mon guys!" Yuu calls out, picking up his pace. "It's freezing out here!" Running to the closest house, which happens to be Yuu's.
"Wait, Yuu!" Yoichi yells, but follows anyway.
"People are always telling me to wait." Yuu grumbles and rolls his eyes, "I don't want to wait anymore!" Dashing down the street, Yoichi on his heels and Mika following with a toothless smile on his face.
They had tried on multiple occasions to talk to Yoichi without using their mouths, but nothing worked. It was like a barrier was between Yoichi and the two others' thoughts, one that didn't exist between Yuu and Mika. So after their tenth try, they let it go, just because Yoichi wasn't exactly like them, didn't mean they cherish him any less.
[Age: Eight]
Grade two wasn't a special year itself, the first day of school was an important date in life and grade one was where the 'real' work began. Or at least, that's what his parents said. However, for Yuu, it was like all the above blurred together. All that really mattered to Yuu was Yoichi and Mika.
That's how it was supposed to be.
With his door closed, Yuu lay curled in a ball, muttering to himself, his bed sheets on top of him like a shield.
His parents whisper just outside of his door, "He's your son, too." His mother cuffed her hand around her mouth and pokes his father in the shoulder. "Go talk to him."
With a shake of her head his mother left. His father huffs "That woman…" He says under his breath.
Yuu's father knocks on the door.
"Go away!" Yuu muffled yelling reaches his father's ears. His father sighs, gentle opening the door and shutting it after he was in the yellow painted room.
He sits on the end of Yuu's bed. The baseball patterned comforter soft under his touch.
"You know, Yuu." His father starts. "When I was your age –"
Yuu throws back the covers violently, his hair tussled and his eyes sparkle with tears.
"No!" Yuu roars, sliding off the bed, getting to his feet. "You don't know! 'Cause I haven't even told you yet! You didn't even ask!" Yuu yells, his face red from screaming. "And even if you did ask I wouldn't tell you! You're just them anyway!"
Pulling open the door, Yuu charges out of his room and flies down the stairs and barrels out of the house. His father chasing after him.
"Yuichiro!" His father calls, racing after the boy. His footsteps halt at the front door. Afternoon Sunlight glints off the glossy red painted door, it's thrown wide open and Yuu's nowhere in sight.
There's a gust of wind and Yuu's fathers sighs, rubbing the back of his hand against his forehead. Where did he go wrong?
There's a thumping of footsteps and Yuu's mother enters the front room. "What happened?" Her face full of concern, her voice firm. A dish and a green striped rag still held in her strong hands, dripping water on the floor every couple seconds.
"Gone." Yuu's father replies, huffing. He scratches the back of his head and turns away from the door.
"What?" She screeches, she rushes to the door and peeks her head out, there's no sign of her little boy.
"Why didn't you stop him?" She yells at him, glaring. "He's your little boy too!"
Yuu's father regards her with a blank look and walks away. His back turned.
"Wait!" She demands gripping onto his arms. "Where are you going?" The dish and rag held tightly in one hand, her other hand bleeds white hanging onto his shirt sleeve.
He shrugs her off and keeps walking. His steps echo in the empty house, like the sound of bullets, each step kills.
Her eyes burn and water and she can feel the tears start but she won't let them fall. She's slumped, staring at the ground, he keeps walking, keeps killing. And just like a flicker of light, suddenly her eyes burn with something more intense. She raises her head as he reaches for the brass doorknob, raises her shoulders like the pillars of a grand kingdom. Crossing her arms, she flicks up an eyebrow.
"Oh." She sneers, "That's what this is about." She's furious, she tilts her head.
He pauses but doesn't reply.
"It's been eight years." Her eyes say, venom in her voice. "If you really that upset about it, leave. Yuu and I don't need you."
Now, it's her turn to walk away, the dish almost breaks under the stress of her hold.
"You know I can't do that," He replies.
She spins around, staring him straight in the eye. "Why?" Her voice is clipped, and she's so irritated she can't stand still, she rocks back and forth on her heel.
"Because I love you," He answers sincerely.
"And Yuu?" She asks, clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth when he doesn't reply. "So that's how it is." She laughs.
"Good thing I love him then." She rockets into the kitchen and slams the dish into the sink, throws the rag on the table and grasps the phone.
"What are you doing?" He asks, his voice echoes, like everything he does.
"Calling next door, because Yuu's not allowed to leave this household yet." She pokes the square buttons like they're her worse enemy. "However, you're welcome to." She smiles at him.
. . .
The grass crunches under his feet and the sun assault the back of Yuu's neck. The cold nips Yuu's nose and cheeks until they glow a rosy red, it tears at his lungs with every deep breath he takes.
They're wrong – they're all wrong! Yuu wasn't a freak, he wasn't.
His heart pounds against his rib cage, like a starving lion, on the other side of the rusted bars – a wounded gazelle, ready for the taking.
He squeezes his fists and runs faster. The houses, the road, the cars parked in the long, paved driveways, the clouds rested in the silver sky, all of it blurred. None of it mattered.
Making a sharp turn, Yuu leaves his street and barrels into the forest that surrounds. The trees tower, like skyscrapers, the branches appear to touch the sky. There's a distinctive lack of bugs buzzing and the silence is eerie.
There's a root Yuu doesn't see. The toe of his shoes scrapes the top of the bulging thing. It sends him tumbling. He yelps, and instinctively shoots his hands in front of him. Stiff as stones, his hands ram into the dirt covered ground. His knees hit the ground hard and Yuu winces.
Gingerly, Yuu gets up. Picking his hands off the ground, sitting on his grass stained knees, Yuu brushes off the dirt caked onto his hands. Once on his feet, Yuu sweeps off the loose dirt on his pants, there's nothing he can do for the green prints, or that spot of blood soaking through just above his kneecap.
From there on out, Yuu walks and his left knee stings at every step – but Yuu's never been a cry baby, so he deals. He doesn't want to go back home anyway.
It's getting dark, so Yuu picks up his pace and walks faster further into the forest– he'll get to be warm when he gets to his destination.
. . .
There's been a bad feeling rolling around in Mika's stomach ever since he got home. Mika was sad, but he didn't know what he was sad about – there was nothing to be sad about, (well, there was the thing at school today but everyone at school is an idiot other than Yoichi and Yuu) not when his parents were actually here when he came home. But he couldn't help but mope.
Mika felt bad, he should be grateful that his parents were home early, they always had weekends off, but sometimes they didn't come home from work until Mika was already in bed. His parents worked hard, Mika knew that, so he always made sure to do his best in school like they asked and be pleasant when they were around, but today he just couldn't be.
"Mika," His father addressed, his lips dripped in a frown, a hand, one filled with rough patches of skin and calluses holds the T.V remote. "Are you okay?"
The phone rings and the bad feeling in his stomach amplifies.
"Hold on!" His mother yells at the ringing object. "I'll be there soon." Setting the plate in her hand down on the wooden table, she grips the phone and answers. Swiftly, she brings the black object up to her right ear.
"Hello." His mother greets, a hand on her hip and a small smile on her face.
Mika leaps down from the couch and calls out behind him, "Going to the park!" He the races out of the living room to the front door. He shoots out of his house and down the street – the opposite way from the little park on old Redstone road.
Mika and Yuu sit on the wooden floor of the tree house. Bundled up in five thick blankets, cuddling each other. Yuu's head buried in Mika's shoulder. The space is just big enough (and stable enough) for the crate on the opposite wall and for the two of them to be comfortable.
The tree house is up high in the middle of the forest, it's safe and warm– with actual glass windows and a solid door with a lock, and shutters with hinges on the inside, the roof had actually shingles too. Most importantly, it was theirs. A gift from the neighbour's teenage daughter, Mito.
Yuu can remember the day, two months ago, when Mito was packing up and her parents were moving out. Two big trucks were present it the house four doors from his own, three doors down from Mika's house.
"Where are you going?" Yuu had asked, his hands fiddling with the material of his jeans. He doesn't meet Mito's eyes.
"To school." Mito casually replies, her hands stuffed in her floral skirt pockets, her hair dyed a dark blue and a little noise piercing twinkling in the morning light.
"A new school?" Yuu piped up, leaning on the white door fame, its wood chipped in the spot just beside his arm.
"Yeah, very big and very different and very, very far away." She focuses on the window and gets this faraway look in her eyes. The look is gone as fast as it came, and Mito focuses back on him. She smirks at him, slyly like a fox.
"You're about ten right?" She asks, a mischievous air surrounds her. Her jade eyes don't look as innocent as they once did.
"I'm eight." Yuu huffs and rolls his eyes.
She's lets out a laugh, it's high like wind chimes, full of a sense of young, fun, and risk taking. "Close enough."
Mito opens her closest door and crouches, curiously Yuu sits beside her. There's a tiny bronze lock meant for an even smaller bronze key, at the bottom her closest. Reaching up, she unclips the necklace handing from her neck, she drops it into her left hand, its golden chain pools in her palm. Reaching into the tangled strings, she pulls out the key attached. It's a smaller bronze key for the tiny bronze lock.
"This," Mito says like she's declaring it to the world, not to just Yuu. "Is the last time I'm ever going to use this key."
She inserts the key into the lock and turns it. There's a click, barely audible but Mito hears. She pulls on the key and a square of the closest wall comes with it. It opens like a hatch and inside is not what Yuu expected at all.
It's just a hole in the wall, just smaller than a rectangle sand castle bucket. Mito reaches her hand into the hole, patting her hand around.
"Where is it...?" She mumbles to herself.
"Aha!" She smiles, "Found it!" Mito shows Yuu her close fist and slowly opens it. Inside, in the center of her palm was another key, what it was for, Yuu didn't know.
Closing the hatch hastily, Mito yanks the bronze key out and shoves both keys into her pocket.
"C'mon Yuu!" She takes him and they run out of the closet, closing the doors she turns to the window.
"Let's go!"
Even if her parents were moving out, they still owned the property the tree house was on and the house. Mito had said.
Thinking of Mito made Yuu remember something. Something important.
He removes himself from the blankets and Mika's hold. He walks over to the crate, where they keep the old blankets Mito left them and whatever else they wanted in there, like the pairs of mittens and hats they had put there just in case. Reaching his arm in, he passing all those things until his hand touches the very bottom of the crate. He moves his hand around.
"Yuu," Mika thinks, he sounds tried, even in his mind. "What are doing?"
"Looking for something important," Yuu replies generally.
"I can see that, what are you looking for?" Mika asks again, looking dazed. Yuu is a rather warm human being, Mika might catch a cold without him.
"You'll see." Yuu smiles back at him and keeps looking.
His index finger touches the tip of the paper and Yuu grins, "Found it." He says aloud.
Gripping on to the paper, Yuu lifts it out of the crate and walks back over to Mika. He struggles to get under the covers but once he does, he makes sure he's as close to Mika as possible.
He hands the envelope to Mika.
"What is this?" He inquires, fingering the pale paper. Mika, glances at the packet in his hand and then at Yuu.
"It's a deed, like for a house." Yuu replies, smiling at Mika. "It's for when we get older." He holds Mika's hand, it's warm. All of him feels warm, his cheeks that flush and his heart that thumbs and especially the hand connecting him to Mika.
"So we can be together, without anyone telling us differently." Yuu says passionately, squeezing Mika hand.
There was an odd silence for a moment.
"They weren't right, right Mika?" Yuu asks out loud, trying to give more power to his words. He cuddles into Mika's side.
"Who isn't right?" Mika asks out loud just like Yuu did like he doesn't know what Yuu was taking about. Maybe he didn't.
"The people at school." Yuu grumbles, the words come out muffled, because he hides his mouth.
"Of course, they aren't." Mika gently kisses the crown of Yuu's head. "They don't know anything."
"But!" Yuu protests, "Toshi was one of them and he's like, super smart and always gets perfect on math tests!"
Mika looks at Yuu and hugs him closer. "I meant, you moron, they don't know anything about us."