Title: Amend 287
Rating: T
Fandom(s): The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai
Characters(s): Neku S. & Yoshiya K./Joshua
Genre(s): Hurt/Comfort
Warnings: Neku has a slight pottymouth.
Summary: Oneshot. Postgame. 287 days is a long time. Why Neku was counting, that was another story entirely. [Joshua and Neku.][Drabbleish.]
Word Count: 1874 words.
Author's Notes: I don't know how to write. I am so sorry for that. I truly am. That, and I had no idea how to end this fic. So it ends abruptly. I TRIED SOB.
Disclaimer: Potential JoshNeku if shipping goggles are on. Otherwise, Square owns the rights to Subaseka, etc.
/ commencement. /
The crowd was slightly lighter than usual that day. He was glad, too. Not often were the bustling streets of Shibuya anything close to resembling the word quiet. Perhaps it was due to the spitting rain gracing the city. Or maybe it was just due to the fact that it was a dismal, tedious Monday afternoon. Yes, he thought, maybe it was just that.
Leaning against the stone base of the statue, the boy toting headphones sighed, and lifted his head. Nine months, 14 days… if that was the case, it would have been 285… no, 286 days. 287 days? About 287 days since he had first waited. In the sun, in the snow, in the pouring rain… he went to Hachiko at least four days a week, if not more. Most of the time it was to wait for his friends. Sometimes, however, it was to simply stand there, and reflect on what had happened in those three weeks, no, in that month from hell.
Slouching a bit more, the boy looked around, and wondered if maybe a player had just rushed past him. From time to time, he noticed things that he never would have perceived before. For a split-second, seeing bright yellow graffiti-like symbols clinging to someone's back… the door closing as someone exited a store, with them vanishing as soon as they stepped foot outside… or the clang of an armful of pins against a counter, the grimace of the owner and their friend, along with the innocent question of, "What can I exchange for these…?"
He never understood why he paid attention, as it only caused his stomach to churn. He supposed he took note of it thanks to being aware of their unfortunate, inevitable destiny. Or perhaps it was because his own memories were being forcibly dragged out of the pit wherein he had left them to rot. He had learnt from them, paid heed to them, and grew because of them, of course– but that didn't mean that he wanted to see them again.
His vision blurred around the edges, adjusting to his returning reality. He clutched his chest and shut his eyes, wincing. He wanted to just forget, forget all the pain that he harboured inside, so he could enjoy his living moments more than he was now.
But that nagging feeling wouldn't let him, and it just wouldn't go away—
His eyes shot open. Suddenly, every thing sped up. His heartbeat quickened, his breath shortened, his blood pumped faster than before… and he felt it. Something strong. Familiar. And heading straight toward him.
He looked up, only for his eyes to meet with a body, a few feet away, with a shirt slightly damp from the rain, and hair reflecting the dark clouds above.
His breathed hitched.
"Neku."
Ultramarine eyes dove into the pools of lavender staring right at him.
"J–"
For a moment, he noticed an expression he had never before seen on the boy from his past. It was genuine… genuine something, an emotion that he didn't have a name for—
And it was gone as quickly as it came.
"Joshua—?!"
Neku had to stop himself from instinctively reaching out to the boy, when all of a sudden the initial shock of his appearance was inundated by another wave of unknown emotion.
Joshua's face reformed into the signature smirk that he both dearly missed and yet could only dream of ripping off his accursed face.
"Say, Neku– that proposal of yours wouldn't still be up for grabs, would it?"
He quickly dubbed that new wave of emotion he was experiencing 'anger'.
"What the hell?!" Neku snapped, completely livid. "What the hell are you doing here?!"
A few eyes in the crowd gave the couple furtive glances. Some whispered. Others began to shuffle away.
"Now, now, Neku that's no way to greet an old friend. People will sta—"
"No!" he interrupted, practically screaming. His blunt fingernails dug into the statue that he was leaning against for support. "You can't– how dare you just prance into someone's life like that after all that time, after all that…!" His breath left him in a harried rush.
"Neku, I know it was a long time, I just—"
The boy with the violet eyes was cut off again.
"You know it was a long time, you bastard?! Nine months! Nine months and fourteen days since I made that offer, since I first came to this statue to wait."
He was keeping count. He never knew why he had kept count. Maybe this was why.
By now, most people had cleared out of the midst of the quarrel, and the ones who hadn't were ignoring it and pretending nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Neku, I…" The other boy's voice was small. Uncharacteristically so.
It was infuriating.
"At least 4 times a week I came here to wait, and hell, when I was alone I was probably subconsciously waiting for you to show up, too!"
That stupidly quiet voice of his picked up again.
"Neku, I— forgive me—"
It was absolutely infuriating.
"Forgive you?! Sorry, but I waited for you all that god damn time so I could do just that, and you damn well know it. I'm not going to leave myself exposed anymore. I refuse to be strung along by you. You missed the last train, Joshua."
Now something was stinging his eyes. Dust? Sand?
The boy with the near-silver locks was looking down. It was hard to tell what his face displayed through the wall of hair that protected him. Gently, he spoke.
"I don't expect you to forgive me, and I accept that. I simply wanted you to pardon the wait."
"N-no," came the choked, instinctual response. Neku hadn't even had time to think.
That stupid quiet voice of his.
"Neku."
How dare he sound like that.
"STOP IT!" Torn from his throat, he threw the words at the other as a sort of last defence. He just couldn't take it anymore. He needed him to leave. He had to get away. It felt like his entire mind was breaking in two, completely at a loss regarding how to deal with this situation.
The ginger lost his hold on the statue following his cry of rage. Before he harshly collided with the ground, he was caught and lowered by a warm, strong hand. He would have shaken it off had he not already been using all of his strength just to try and stop his muddled emotions from escaping through his tear ducts, tangling his fingers in his hair as he willed his mind to stay in one piece.
"Neku." The voice of other was colder, austere, demanding. He felt the pressure from the grip on his arm increase, and he dared to look up into violet eyes that seemed ready to boil over.
Joshua spoke.
"I'm not asking you to listen to this, I am telling you. Your entry fee... it was too soon to revoke it, to change the rules. I had to let things simmer down upstairs before I could do anything to return it. Otherwise, everything would have been for naught. Neku, I wanted to come right away. I wanted to come before you even asked me. However, it was neither my right nor in my power to do so. Do you understand me?" After a long and heavy silence, the grip on Neku's arm loosened, and Joshua began the process of picking himself up off the ground.
"I see that I am clearly not wanted here anymore, so I am going to take my leave. Please, at least give what I just said a little bit of thought."
Joshua managed to turn around in a surprisingly graceful fashion, then took his first step forward before he stopped.
Neku, with hands and knees dirty from the ground he sitting upon, was keeping Joshua from moving. He had reached out, and was holding on to the tail of his shirt with all he could muster.
"You… you wanted to come before?" A demure, uncertain phrase was the first thing to leave Neku's lips, his head hanging low as he spoke.
"Of course."
Neku barely heard the whispered response. This time, it wasn't annoying. It just hurt.
Damn it.
"I… didn't know…" Looking up between his bangs, his breathy voice lost itself to the drizzle of the rain.
From where he sat, he could see the other boy's smirk, but it didn't bother him as much as it should have. For once, it was leaning towards being more of a real smile. "Of course you hadn't, and I don't blame you." The smile softened further.
Damn it all.
Cluing into the fact that he was still on the ground while continuing to hold onto the other's shirt, the ginger coughed. Experiencing what could be nothing other than embarrassment, he flung his arm away, slowly picked himself off the ground and brushed off his sodden clothes. Once he was back in an upright position, he leaned against the statue, and placed one hand on the headphones he still wore around his neck. He forced himself to look into the eyes of the powerful being that faced him once again.
What seemed to be an eternity passed between their locked gazes. Neku experienced a whole flurry of emotions all at once. What had caused that outburst? Why am I still standing here? Why haven't I punched him yet? Why would he come now? Why did I listen to him? Why does he care about me? What does he want from me? What am I going to do?
A mere moment ago he was so angry with him that he felt like he could have wrung his neck right then and there. But instead, his body had grabbed a hold of him, and had not let him leave, despite him having already outright rejected the other.
Why?
Joshua almost looked as if he was sparkling with the way the light reflected off the drops speckling his rain-battered self. "Hmm?"
Somewhere, something inside him clicked, and he made up his mind.
Having regained a bit of the fire he had earlier, Neku frowned. "Don't… don't expect me to forgive you any time soon, you bastard."
Nine months and fourteen days of wanting to see your face again.
Joshua's only response was a soft giggle.
Slightly flushed and a bit at a loss for words, the now strangely-calm Neku stood there as his gaze shifted away.
"…Asshole," he spat, missing the positively radiant smile accompanying the Composer's elated response.
"Thank you."
/ termination. /
[/end A/N::] I have always wanted to write a little diddy about what Neku's lost entry fee for for his and Joshua's little shoot-out was. As you can see, It was getting to see Joshua again. L-lol.