Disclaimer: by None of these characters belong to me. All rights are reserved to A-1 pictures and Naoshi Arakawa
AN: I don't have a Beta so all mistakes are my own. Leave a review...if you feel so inclined to do so. Criticism is welcome-as always
The muddy footprint are like scars across the boy's heart. But like all great lovers, he avoids cleaning up the mess. He takes the longer pathway to school just to avoid the emptiness of a familiar road without her. And he neglects his piano- just enough for people to notice. When they do, he smiles. The boy spins lies from his brain faster than his lips can speak them. He is running out of excuses by the time Hiroko finds him.
He sits on a park bench hunched over in defeat. The woman approaches him sympathetically.
"Heya kid." She holds out two ice cream cones and invites herself onto the bench "Pick one."
Kousei gives a half smile relieving her of a cone. He doesn't want to talk-and that's okay because Hiroko does enough talking for the both of them. She's silent for a while. It's so unlike her that kousei lifts his head to stare at her expectantly. He expects a lecture or at the very least a stern reprimanding to stop cutting lessons with Nagi. She doesn't lecture him. In fact, she doesn't even mention the piano. She puts an arm around Kousei and fixes her gaze to the sky.
"I was a few years older than you when my first big love hit."
And Kousei kinda zones out as she talked- he didn't mean to but between the lines of grief and insomnia weeks worth of lackluster sleep was finally catching up to him. Finally Hiroko begins to wind down. She scoots over to deliver a tight well meaning hug and stands up.
"Oh and Kousei, stop by sometime. Nagi misses her lessons."
That night Kousei leaves a mop out by the muddy footprints.
It's far into the next month when she visits him. As night's velvety cloak moves to engulf the sky, Kaori slipped into the next morning, creeping effortlessly into the boy's dreams. She stood on the railway crossing looking as she always did, Kousei noticed the color to her cheeks returning to a rosy pink and her hair filling in vibrantly and billowing out behind her. The figure standing before him was no longer the ghost shadowing his piano but a girl, blithe smile reaching into the farthest bits of heaven. Now they were standing in a glass encasement. Outside them raged a terrible storm. Beneath them, on bare feet, they stood on solid oak.
Kaori stood in what appeared to be a doorway. The girl advanced into his house fiercely without wiping her feet. And now, looking back, Kousei could see the tracks that she bared sustained, imprinted deeply across his heart. It was not a matter of mop and bucket. No sooner than he'd thought that, Kaori began to flicker. Her form shifted and morphed away from him, and closer and through the barrier that kept them safe from the storm. Realization dawned upon the boys face. He rushed forward pounding his fists on the invisible wall as hers slipped though. He was yelling, cursing, fat tears escaping his eyes as she flew further and further away from him. And then, there was silence. The storm faded but he could still hear the echos of the thunder like drums pounding against his temple.
Days pass like minutes, months like hours, and Kousei is still held captive by her. It is only when he takes a baseball bat to the school piano when he is shaken out of his stupor. His inevitable breakdown was a long time coming but looking back, he should of done something sooner.
Of course, hindsight is always 20/20.
He closes his eyes sick at the thought of disappointment when Hiroko inevitably picks him up from the disciplinary office. The last thing Kousei expects is for Nagi to plop down in the seat in front of him. She bears a deep scowl and pokes him in the chest.
"You're supposed to be the role model here."
Her scolding is merciful compared to Hiroko but guilt still worms its way into his stomach. He opens his mouth to argue and then abruptly closes it. What can he say? He is a mess.
In the end, he moves in with Hiroko and Koharu. The woman decided that it was better that she keep a closer watch on him. He will forever be grateful to them. Hiroko is more of a mother than Saki ever was. He doesn't miss his freedom no, not really. And it isn't half bad either Kousei thinks one day after school. Besides, there was an extra bonus: ice cream on Fridays. And he thinks, licking his cone on night, that he is okay. But he is not happy.
The boy listens in every week on Nagi's lessons. He hides in a broom closet as an endless sea of scales fills his ears. Hiroko knows he's there but doesn't press it. This is something that Kousei will have to deal with in his own time.
It takes ten months for him to reveal himself. As Nagi pulls him over to the piano, Hiroko senses something like a ghost of a smile on Kousei lips. Closer, she tells herself. Closer, but not finished. His soul searching is far from finished. She instructs him to walk Nagi home every day. The boy has always been led by strong women. Saki and Kaori paved the way. Hiroko thinks Nagi can do the same, but it will take time.
Hiroko understands the importance of scars and as she helps Kousei move back into his own house she notices the footprints by the door. She scuffles them with her foot. Her boy lets out a strangled whimper. Hiroko understands. Scars will heal but never fade.
The footprints remain.
But he has Nagi, and as the girl leads him out onto the stage of his next big adventure, Hiroko feels she has nothing to worry.