A/N: Finally it's done! :)
My fic for the first round of Yugioh fanfiction contest, this is (very very light) dragonshipping.
About this story, well I want to thank Hanna, for being very inspiring and awesome friend. Without the pic she put up on dA this maybe would have never come true. And about Angel hill, well I think it was just too cute in Finnish (Enkelikumpu) to not use, besides I needed a name for a hill I'm going to mention like millions of time. :)
I'm really not that satisfied with this, but on the other hand I still kinda like this.
Whole thing is in Yami's POV. Enjoy!
Fly a Kite With Me
I stuck my hands in my pocket and . The sun high in the sky burned my neck. It was summer. No school for two months, I should be jumping in joy, shouldn't I? The truth was summers here were extremely boring for 14-year-old boy. Nothing to do.
I strolled around the empty streets of my hometown. It had emptied as soon as the vacation had begun and would continue be as empty until the fall came. I lived in a winter town. During the winter the place was filled with tourists, but during summer, nothing. Everyone, including all my friends had left. There was only me, grandpa, and few others.
What would I do the whole summer?
I had already been locked inside my room, playing games for two weeks, and truth to be told I wanted company. There was nothing wrong with my grandpa, Salomon Mutou, but he wasn't exactly the kind of company I craved for.
I stopped my walk when I reached the town's center. It was empty, if we didn't count few pigeons that were stationed in the shadows of the trees. And there was an old message board. I doubt anyone ever left messages there nowadays. All the notes on it we're old and ripped. Still, since I had nothing better to do I headed for the message board, to read the old notes.
To my amazement there was one message that was not so old-looking, and when I checked the date I noticed how it had been left there only yesterday. I read it. It was simple message written with slightly childish, round writing. It said: 'Looking for friends' and under it were some details: 'Meet me tomorrow at three, in the Angel Hill'.
I ripped the paper off and stared at it thoughtfully. 'Looking for friends'. Who would leave such a note? No one I knew at least. I felt very curious. I glanced at my watch. It was half tree, so in half an hour…
I stuffed the paper inside my pocket and headed for the Angel hill.
The hill was located just outside the town. It was called the Angel hill, because during winters kids came there to make snow angels. It was a beautiful sight. But now, when it was summer there was no snow, and no snow angels. Now in the summer, the hill was covered with long green grass, dotted with white flowers.
The moment I started climbing up the hill I noticed a sitting figure drawn against the blue sky. The boy, who was 'looking for friends'? I walked next to him. He seemed to be about the same age as I was, his hair was blonde and his eyes brown. He was dressed in simple white t-shirt and green shorts. He turned to look at me with curious eyes when I reached him.
"Hi," he said. "Wanna fly kite with me?"
I noticed a white kite lying beside him. Then I looked around me. There was no wind. How could we fly a kite? I told him that. He blinked in confusion and then got up.
"Oh, okay," he said.
He sounded kinda disappointed and I felt for turning down his offer, tho we couldn't possibly have gotten the kite to fly in this kind of weather.
"I'm Yami," I introduced myself, lacking anything better to say and smiled at the boy uncertainly. "Wanna play football instead?"
The boy's face lit up with a grin.
"You bet I do!" he said. "I'm Jounouchi Katsuya, but you can call me Jou."
I looked at the boy next to me, and suddenly I thought I had company for the rest of the summer.
"Let's go!" I said.
Jou nodded and we ran down the hill, towards the town's football field, and Jou's white kite was left and forgotten on the Angel Hill.
I spend probably one of the best summer days with Jou that day. The boy was very nice. A bit of goofy and loud, and everything, every mistake, he settled with laughter. And every time he laughed I noticed how I laughed with him too.
I wondered why on Earth Jou had left the note on the message board. I couldn't believe this boy would ever be lonely, he was just so lovable.
Jou didn't talk about himself, not a word. And I didn't ask, not now at least, this day was for having fun, not asking questions. Tho, one question I did ask, when the day was starting to turn into a night and it was my time to go. We stood on the Angel Hill again and I asked:
"Will I meet you tomorrow?"
He nodded and grinned, picking his white kite from the ground.
"I'll be here."
And when I knew he would be there tomorrow I left to home with content heart and a smile on my face.
Jou was there again, tomorrow, with his white kite lying next to him on the grassy hill. I walked to him, and again he asked me if I wanted to fly kite with him. Again I told him that there was not enough wind. So instead he took me to the woods and showed a tree house he had build with his sister once so long time ago.
"You have a sister?" I asked.
"Yeah, her name is Shizuka," he said it with pride in his voice, I guessed, he really cared about her.
"Why aren't you with her?"
Jou gave me a funny look.
"I can't," he answered and his expression was pained. "She can't see me, she can't talk to me."
I put my arm around his shoulders, and asked, concerned:
"Why?"
But Jou refused to answer, so I let the matter be. If he didn't want to talk to me, it was not my business to question. But still I couldn't help but wonder what was it all about.
I spent two weeks with Jou. Two amazing weeks. I grew closer to the boy every day. I had no idea where he lived, or what was wrong with him and her sister. But since he wasn't interested to tell me yet, I let it be.
At the beginning of every day I found Jou on the Angel hill, sitting with his white kite, and every time he asked me if I wanted to fly a kite with him. I wanted, I really did, but there was no wind.
One day, it was the end of June, when I walked to the hill noticed how it was windy today, and when Jou asked me:
"Do you want to fly kite with me?"
I smiled and answered:
"I'd love to."
And there was a smile on Jou's lips as he got up and started readying the kite. I had never flown a kite before but Jou showed me how. With teamwork we got the kite to get up on the sky, where it was drawn against the blue sky, like a bird. I enjoyed it.
But most I enjoyed the look on Jou's face when he skillfully flied the kite, made it do tricks in the sky. He had a smile on his face the whole time. He looked content like he had found peace, finally.
When the darkness started to creep over the land, and the wind had died, I asked Jou:
"Will you be here tomorrow?"
Jou didn't answer. He held the kite in his hands, and stared at it thoughtfully. When he finally spoke, he ignored my question and instead said:
"You should take this, Yami."
"What?" I asked.
He handed me the white kite and smiled.
"It's yours now."
I didn't know what to say. I muttered an oppose, but Jou wouldn't hear it. He insisted me keeping the kite, and finally I had to give up.
"Thanks, Jou," I said. "I'll take good care of it."
"I know you will. You have been a great friend. Thank you."
And with that Jou turned around and started to walk down the hill.
I left home, but I couldn't help to shake the feeling that something was terribly, terribly wrong.
Jou wasn't there the next day. I sat on the Angel hill the whole day, a white kite on my lap, and the gentle summer breeze in my hair. When the sun started to set, I finally gave up and went back home. What had happened to Jou? I couldn't help but wonder.
He wasn't there the next day, or the next.
I asked grandpa if he knew a person called Jounouchi Katsuya. He pondered it for a long and his answer surpassed my exceptions.
"Jounouchi, no, but one Katsuya lives near. Her name is Shizuka."
My heart jumped in my chest. Jou's sister! I asked grandpa for her address, and after checking that Jou wasn't on the Angel hill, headed for her house.
Nervously I knocked on the door. It didn't take long for it to be opened by an old woman. She smiled at me. Her hair was long and grayish but her eyes were still vivid green, as she was ever young. I thought she was Shizuka's grandmother.
"How can I help you?" she asked.
"I'm looking… wondering… "Suddenly I felt very shy. "I'm Yami Mutou."
"Yami? Do come in."
The women let me in to her house. I followed her in. Something in the kitchen she led me shook my whole being. There on the wall hung a black and white photo of a girl and a boy. The boy was easy to recognize, that goofy grin, it was Jou. The girl next to him had long hair and a sweet smile.
The woman noticed my stare.
"Oh that's an old one," she said and chuckled. "That's me and my brother Jou."
I stared at her, how could this be possible? This was Jou's Shizuka? His sister, he had few times mentioned, always with bitterness that she couldn't see him. Now I knew why. It was because Jou was dead, wasn't it?
Shizuka noticed my face, and asked her soft voice full of concern:
"What is wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
I almost felt like laughing, I guess it was because what Shizuka said was true.
"Can you tell me more about Jou?"
Shizuka's brow wrinkled.
"Why do you want to know?"
And I told her. I told her everything, and to my surprise there were tears in old woman's eyes when I had finished. She sighed heavily.
"So that was it. Sit, Yami. I tell you about my brother."
I did what I was told to. From the walls Jou's eyes stared right at me. I turned my head to face Shizuka as the woman started telling a story:
"My brother, yes, he has been dead for 57 years now. He died at the age of 14. I was 12 at the time I think. He was a good brother and an awesome friend. And one thing he always dreamed about was flying, so one summer he made a kite, white one, and went up to the Angel hill to fly it. He went there every day. I went there couple of times with him, but then I fell ill, and couldn't come anymore. All his friends were out of the town, because it was summer. So Jou left a note on the town's old message board. That night he didn't come home. And not the next day. We sent polices after him, but no one ever saw him. He was gone. The body was never found, so we buried an empty coffin…"
Shizuka fell silent. I stared at my feet. It all matched. The note, the blue kite and the Angel hill. Shizuka sighed again.
"I always thought he was alive. I always thought he had flied away with his kite. Because that he wanted to do. He was a dreamer, my brother and a kite-flyer."
I remembered the look on Jou's face when he had watched the kite soar in the sky. He had been content, happy. This he had born to do, and apparently it got him killed too.
Shizuka smiled to me.
"But now, I know, thank you Yami. And thanks for letting my bother get free."
"What do you mean?"
Shizuka glanced at one of the pictures.
"Maybe, just maybe," she mused. "He wanted to fly a kite once more with someone before he went away."
"Where?" I asked. There were tears in my eyes. "Do you know where did he go?"
"Hmm… Well, one thing is sure. He'll be in a place, where the winds will always be perfect for kite flying."
Just like the Angel hill, I thought as I tried the tears to my sleeve. I got up, thanked Shizuka and left the house. It felt... weird. It all felt weird.
Shizuka was a nice woman and I saw her few times after that. Gradually my visits became fewer. I don't know why. Maybe it was because I felt bad every time I saw pictures of Jou. Next to him in every picture was Shizuka at least 50 years younger than she was now, smiling, arms wrapped around his neck. Happy.
I also visited his grave couple times. But the cold gray stone couldn't replace my friend. Sometimes I brought a candle with me, but the warmth I had felt with him was gone and so was the summer.
The autumn winds reached my town and one day I took the kite he had given me and went to Angel hill, that grassy hill where wind was perfect for kite-flying.
And when the wind caught his kite and made it soar higher than anyone else's I remembered him as he had liked to be remembered.
My friend, a kite flyer.