*Hey there, I'm Faber and this is my first fanfic. It's a one-shot but I hope you like it!*
Yuuki Kaai, a playful fourth grader, made her way to school humming a merry tune. She was about halfway there when she passed a familiar park, but something was different. There, sitting on the swing was a strange boy, maybe two years older than Yuuki. Out of curiosity she walked into the park. The boy had his head down, a navy blue hat adorned his head and tufts of bright blond hair peeked out of the bottom.
A foreigner? The young girl thought to herself as she took a few steps forward.
"Hello?" her little voice permeated the chill autumn air. No response. "How are you?" she spoke a little louder. Still no response. "Are you alone?" Yuuki was now mere inches away from his feet.
He stirred and slowly lifted his head. A chill went down her spine when she saw his face. Covering his left eye was a tattered bandage. His clothes were patched and dirty. He wore a brown best and trousers, a white shirt, and an old blue scarf that vaguely matched his hat.
He stared straight at Yuuki with his icy blue eye.
"What is it?" he said in an accent the girl didn't know.
"Huh?" Yuuki was taken aback by his sudden answer, she straightened up. "I was wondering if you were alone" she said in an innocent voice only a child could muster.
"Yeah, I am" he muttered, he looked back down to his feet, "What of it?"
"Hmm? What of it?" Yuuki closed her eyes as she mulled the question over in her head. "Nothing I guess" She smiled with her answer.
Yuuki took a seat next to him on the neighboring swing. "Where's your mom?" Yuuki questioned as she began to swing her legs back and forth.
"Gone" he answered bluntly.
"What about your daddy?"
"Gone"
"Gone where? Are they coming to pick you up later?" Yuuki stopped swinging.
"They're gone, as in dead" he said, irritation crept into his solemn words.
"Dead!? How!? What happened?" Yuuki barraged the stranger with question after question.
"I don't know!" he answered when Yuuki stopped to take a breath.
"How do you not know?" Yuuki continued.
"How do you ask so many questions!?" the boy said in a sarcastic tone.
"Huh?" Yuuki tilted her head. "What do you mean?"
The boy broke out in a roar of laughter, hugging his sides and almost falling out of the swing in the process.
"HUH!? What's so funny?!" Yuuki shouted.
"Oh? Nothing, nothing at all" he caught his breath, "It's just that you're so funny. I haven't laughed like this in ages." He wiped a stray tear from his eye and spread a huge grin onto his face. He seemed to shine to the young Yuuki.
Yuuki's face copied his and she began to giggle herself.
"So kid, what's your name?" he glanced over to her with his lone eye.
"Kaai, Yuuki Kaai" she replied.
"Yuuki, huh, that's a pretty name. It fits you"
Yuuki blushed and looked down. "U-Uh T- Thank you" She pat her face to ward off her embarrassment. "What's your name?" Yuuki redirected the question back to the boy.
"Oliver" He answered.
"Oliver? That's a strange name."
"You think so?" Oliver gazed up to the sky. "I don't think so, its kind common where I come from?"
"Where's that?"
"London"
"Are you serious?!" the young girl's eyes sparkled with wonderment. "Are you really from London? As in like England! What's it like there! What do you eat?"
Oliver jumped at Yuuki's sudden enthusiasm and sat speechless as she continued to fangirl. After a few moments he put a finger to her lips. She stared up to him embarrassed.
"If you'll be quiet then I'll tell you silly." Yuuki nodded and Oliver continued. "Umm well it's very cold in the winters, and there's a tower being built, a big one that may reach the clouds. Big Ben is what their calling the bell, but I don't know about the rest of the building." He said with a laugh at the end "I hear there's going to be like having a huge clock where everyone can tell time even if you can't afford a pocket watch."
"Are you serious? A giant clock!"
"Yep right on the shore, I believe."
"That's amazing!" Yuuki got into Oliver's face.
"You think so?" Yuuki nodded ferociously.
"YES!" she screamed.
"Well it should be done soon, heck it may have been done for a while. I haven't been home in a real long time."
"Why is that?" Yuuki took a step back.
"I truthfully don't know, I can't remember."
"You forgot?"
"Yeah"
"Well that's too bad" Yuuki teetered on the back of her heels.
"You think so?" Oliver repositioned himself on the swing.
"Yeah, of course, memories are important things you know,"
"Oh really? How so?"
"Well if you can't remember things then you really can't be you. Your memories and experiences make you, well you. See?"
"Interesting, that's a lot of thinking for a kid." Oliver stood from his seat on the swing. "I think memories are important as well, but –"he took a deep breath and adjusted his hat. "There are some things that are better off forgotten."
Yuuki looked at him puzzled. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that sometimes people would love to forget, but they can't."
Yuuki scratched her head at his words. "What kind of things?"
Oliver gave a sigh as he walked over to the nearby sand box."Just things okay." he began to fiddle with the faux sand with his fingers. "You're too young to understand now. You'll see when you get older." Oliver looked back up to Yuuki with a look of melancholy on his face.
Yuuki nodded in understanding, a small smile formed on her lips as well as on Oliver's. "Oh I've been meaning to ask, but what is with the-"Yuuki was cut off when she heard Kiyoteru sensei's voice.
"Yuuki chan? What are you doing here? School is about to start." Kiyoteru put a leg down from his bike pedal.
"It is?" Yuuki looked up to the park clock. It was already past eight. Realizing her tardiness, Yuuki grabbed her bag from the swing set and ran to her teacher. Kiyoteru sensei gently smiled at the young girl as she frantically began to make her way down the sidewalk. After running a few feet, Yuuki ran back to the park to say goodbye to Oliver. To her surprise he had vanished
"Hey Yuuki chan! What's wrong? Did you forget something in the sand?" he shouted from the entrance.
Yuuki shook her head, and ran back to her teacher. She couldn't get the boy out of her head. She thought long and hard on where the transient could've gone but she came up with no conclusions. She looked to her teacher.
"Hey, Kiyoteru sensei?"
"Can a person just disappear?"
He looked back at the girl puzzled. "Disappear?"
"Y'know like those magicians, They're there one minute and gone the next"
"Hmm, maybe Yuuki. Some people just have a knack for those finds of things. Did you go to a fair or something over the weekend?"
She shook her head violently. "NO NO NO NO! In the playground, Oliver was there, but then he wasn't there."
Kiyoteru sensei stopped walking "So Yuuki, you're saying that this boy, 'Oliver was it, just vanished into thin air?" Yuuki nodded. "Then maybe he was a ghost." He said with a chuckle.
"A ghost!?"
"Ah, I'm just kidding Yuuki! There's no such thing."
"huh?"
Kiyoteru sensei gave a laugh this time. "Don't worry about it Yuuki. He probably was an imaginary friend." Yuuki nodded, but continued to speculate. She knew he was real, he had to be. He just had to.
-The End-