A narrow body cradled Takuya in their arms, shaking him. His school jacket flapped and he felt so cold. He didn't like the cold. He could hear wherever he was shaking. He wasn't scared, he realized. He felt quite a few things, peace, worry (but for who?), and longing; but fear held no place in the list. The air was thick with failure.
"Takuya….Takuya...please ..wake up! Wake up your jerk! You can't just-" He feels a shaking hand comb the hair out of his face and settle against the apple of his cheek. His shirt is torn and he's bleeding.
"Damn it! Wake up Damn it!"
"Takuya you better wake up young man! You're going to be late for your first day of the school year and you promised to walk Shinya to school this morning!"
Takuya starts awake. Sweat sticking his bangs to his forehead like super glue. His eyes flash over to the alarm clock next to his bed and he lets out a loud "LATE!" before hopping out of the bed. He grabs his binder and slips it on over his head. Like always, it gets stuck. He spends a solid two minutes hopping around blindly before yelling for his mom.
"Mom I need your help!" He calls out, his boisterous voice muffled by the fabric.
"Takuya… You have to give yourself time in the morning." She chides, setting something down before she moves to help him. In three tugs they have his binder on, he moves to his chair where he had left his clothes the night before but finds nothing. He panics for a second before his mother clears her throat and nods her head towards his bed.
"You were too preoccupied to lay your new uniform out." She smiles at him, though he can tell she's frustrated, she isn't mad. It had taken quite a while to take the measurements for him but it was worth it to see her son look comfortable in his uniform.
"Keep your jacket buttoned up, it's still cold out and remember: you can't wear your goggles in school. You and Shinya have a good day!"
He leans over and gives her a quick kiss on her pleasantly round cheek, then slips the goggles around his neck. Takuya runs out of the door only to come back forty seconds later. He slips on his olive colored gloves with his teeth. He knew it must be stressful having two overactive, scatter-brained sons.
He's ushering Shinya out like he's a puppy that can't follow verbal commands very well. So, like ke any big brother in a hurry with his brother in tow, he issues a race between the two of them.
His goggles clack together but he pays them no mind, he only runs faster. As they run past the suburbs, Shinya lagging behind by a short distance, he hears barking. His head whips in the direction of the sudden noise, he's on alert. He still remembered the time Shinya got bit by a dog when he was little. When his eyes locate where the noise is coming from, his brain turns to static. A boy with long, dark blue hair in a ponytail was struggling to control a dog noticeably stronger than him. An itch began in the back of his mind and he couldn't take his eyes off of the other.
"Down! Don't chase after-!" The large dog ignores his owner, panting happily as it knocked its owner off his feet and proceeded to drag him along.
The boy yelped half formed curses, trying to ground himself.
"Big brother!" Shinya huffs, he must've noticed something wasn't right.
"Yeah?" He asks, finally shaking himself out of his stupor. The static is still there, but it's dull. Like T.V. Static in the dead of night.
"We're going to miss my school completely if we go this way any longer!" He points out. He's obviously out of breath; but he continues on, his backback slapping against his back and the blur of his older brother only spurring him on.
Takuya himself doesn't slow down, he speeds up after looking at his watch. "You're gonna be late, hurry up Shinya!"
"Isn't this your fault?!" Shinya snaps. Takuya doesn't reply, he'd stick his tongue out if he wasn't worried he'd bite it clean off by accident.
The short bit of the remaining run is quiet, save for the sounds of their breathing, shoes beating the ground in a harsh rhythm as the city sounds fill in the gaps.
He's sliding into his seat just as the bell rings.
The teacher introduces herself as Akagi, their home room teacher. She's very attractive and many of the boys are whispering to each other, blushes staining their faces. She had light blue hair and brown eyes. Wait? Brown hair and eyes? She wore blue eye makeup and her lips were perfectly lined. Her dress shirt had the first two buttons undone. She winks at a few boys but then again Takuya could be seeing things wrong. There's a beauty mark under her right eye that seems more like a pinhole the longer Takuya looks. A pinhole for a tiny monster to crawl inside and control his teacher's body.
She quickly takes attendance then she goes on to explain the school rules everyone had already read before they were allowed to enroll. Takuya found it a complete waste of time but he's happy for the time to space out before actual lessons. "Your slippers are going to be color coded from now on. Green for the boys and purple for the girls." He already has a bad feeling about this. She was in the middle of explaining the rules of free times when the boy with the dog walks in. His hair's a mess and his uniforms dirty. A few twigs stick up from the tangle of his uniform. He looks like a gag monster.
Akagi sensei turns her attention on him, frown causing a small crease in her forehead. "Minamoto kun?"
"I'm sorry...My dog dragged me through the better part of downtown. I won't let it happen again." He bows his head, hoping to not anger her further.
"Take a seat behind Kanbara kun. That will be your seat, since today is the first day of school I'll let you off with a warning." She looks at him and nods.
"Thank you." He nods back, sliding into the seat behind Takuya.
Takuya fidgets for the next twenty minutes, wanting to look behind him to look at the guy- Minamoto- again.
Akagi Sensei begins to start their first class of the day, Japanese Language. While her back is turned to the class he stops resisting the urge to look behind him.
"Hey, hey what's your name?" He whispers, only being loud enough for the other to hear. He doesn't give a response for some time. "Did you hear me?"
"I heard you, and she said my name when I first came in." He isn't rude but at the same time, he isn't a shining example of politeness. He's just cold. Like he doesn't want to be close to anyone.
"No not your family name, your given name!"
"Why should I tell you?"
"Because I feel like I know you from somew-"
"Kanbara kun, is there something interesting about Minamoto kun that the class should be aware of? It is distracting you, you might as well let the whole class know."
"Um…." He freezes, voice nearly cracking. "I saw him this morning and I just wanted to ask if he was okay." He thanks everything he can think of that he was born the type to think best on their feet.
"I'm glad to see you're concerned about your classmates, but please pay attention to the lesson. If Minamoto kun has to, he is excused to go visit the nurse's office."
"I'm fine, thank you sensei."
When Akagi sensei turns back to the board, he feels the boy behind him glaring holes into the back of his head.
It was only his first day and he had a bad feeling about this.
The rest of his morning was fairly uneventful, he was so bored he didn't hear the bell ringing for lunch time until he saw other kids filing out of the room. He reached for his book bag before realizing he had no lunch. He decided to go to the bathroom to stretch in private and cough a little bit before returning to the empty classroom. Now he probably looked like a loser sitting by himself in an empty classroom during lunch. He opens the sliding door, right off the bat noticing something on his desk. It was a small lunch box. He walked over to it and read the note on it "Takuya". He laughs to himself. "I can't believe I missed that?" He thinks little of it, having found things he had been looking before turn up where it should've been obvious to see.
He opens the box and grins. "Thanks Mom!"
It wasn't much but it was his favorite. Hamburger. Funny though...He didn't remember his mother buying hamburger recently. Nonetheless he ate the lunch before him with vigor.
Afternoon classes passed on the same as morning classes. He wished he had gym today, but he was in the group from his grade that went tomorrow. He spent the majority of class time trying not to fall asleep by doodling fruit. They looked like apples and pomegranates.
After school he runs to Shinya's elementary school to walk him home. They walk home this time, Shinya telling him all about his day. How some girl Akiko had gotten sent to the principle's for punching her classmate in the face. Shinya informs him that the boy had called her a pig, so he didn't feel bad for the boy.
He then tells Takuya about how he met a boy named Daisuke who played the same video games as he did. They had, apparently, been fast friends. He smiles, ruffling his little brother's hair. He remembers a time when he had been annoyed with Shinya's brattiness. His mother said it had just been hormones making him moody.
Shinya continues to talk animatedly the rest of the way home until their mother told him to wash up for dinner.
"Hey mom? Thanks for the lunch today!" He calls from the bathroom with Shinya, they took turns washing their faces, their hands, and behind their ears.
"Lunch?" He can hear the frown in his mother's voice. "You left your lunch here this morning." He feels his stomach drop and the static in his head returns. Something wasn't right. This was too familiar.
He's unable to eat dinner that night, the static in his head making it too hard to focus on anything.