Blush
Prologue: Our Beginning
"H-Hiroki! You really think my stories, you think there good?" A young Akihiko pondered, his face flush with a blush.
"Yes!" Hiroki replied enthusiastically. In his hands he clutched the notebook Akihiko had wrote in just days before.
"I love reading your stories! There really engaging!" He pressed on, his brown eyes lit up with wonder.
The blonde boy couldn't help but feel his heart swelling with pride as his friend told him how much the story meant to him.
The two boys were at their secret spot on the Usami's property. They had met only a few months ago, but the two boys had become nearly inseparable. The lush grounds and tall trees had become their safe haven. For Akihiko, it was a place to enjoy his feelings, thoughts, and to enjoy the time with his friend away from the pressure everyone placed upon him day after day.
For Hiroki, this spot had always been a wonder to him. The beautiful forest was a wonder for him. A place he could hide away in to relax from the kendo, swimming, calligraphy, and various other lessons that had taken up so much time in his young life. When he had first met Akihiko here, he had been angry, and felt like his only source of fun was going to drop off the face of the earth.
It hadn't.
It had only increased with the boy's majestic presence.
Hiroki sat cross legged on the grass, eyes wide as he looked up at Akihiko who was still standing in shock.
"You'll make a great writer someday! I'll read all your books, every one of them! So" Hiroki's smile started to waver. "Don't stop writing them, ok? I want to read what you write."
Akihiko looked serious and sat down to grasp Hiroki's hands in his. "Ok, I promise to keep writing, so you'll keep reading. Deal?"
"Deal!" Hiroki happily responded, and Aikhiko felt a smile grace his lips.
2 months later:
"Bakahiko!! Come down already, we're going to be late for the festival!"
12 year old Hiroki yelled. He waved his hands up and down in irritation as he had been waiting on Akihiko for the good part of 30 minutes now. The brown haired boy stifled a yawn and shook his head to wake up some more.
No way I can tell him I stayed up way past bedtime reading.
He thought and then his cute face became even more irritated when he remembered he'd been up mostly because he was trying to look up kanji he wasn't familiar with.
Why does Bakahiko have to use so many phrases I don't know! He's so annoying when he does that to me!
"Hiroki." Came a calm voice which scared the crap out of the younger boy.
"Ahh.!! A-Aki- I- I didn't notice you came down." Hiroki screamed out, his heart beating wildly in his chest.
It's like he came up out of nowhere. Like a ghost.
Akihiko just blinked as he stared down at his friend from the bottom step. He lightly stepped down from the staircase. "Well you were yelling for me." He murmured, his voice nearly hiding his amusement.
Hiroki blushed and turned away from his friend.
"W-well, I got distracted!"
"Distracted, by what?" A hand reached out and grabbed the brown haired boy's shoulder. Hiroki wore a green yukata with wooden shoes while Akihiko wore a blue one with wooden shoes that had white straps. The sleeves piled around his arm as he grasped his friend lightly.
"What were you distracted by?" He asked again, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"N-nothing! Let's go, baka!" Hiroki stammered out, and Akihiko couldn't help but flinch.
"Alright."
The Shrine:
The two boys walked promptly up to the area for prayer, happy to have made it before it got too crowded. The festival they were attending was in conjunction with the end of summer. They had tried hard to enjoy their fleeting moments together before school started up again. The wooden building they went into brought a heavy scent to Hiroki's nose, but he smiled happily anyways. He was with his best friend and the day was going very well. Other than a few distractions.
Akihiko followed behind the brown haired boy, his blue eyes intense on his surroundings, but they would always drift to fall on his friend. He was actually a little hard to keep up with today.
Heh, he must be excited. He's been buzzing around all day like a humming bird. Or maybe a cat in heat.
He shook his head to clear the image of Hiroki with cat ears. A small blush made him duck his head from onlookers. He was a bit glad his friend was so hyper today, otherwise the other boy might have noticed.
Hiroki smiled as their turn came up to get their fortunes from the box. That smile quickly vanished when his luck turned out bad.
A shadow came over the paper he held in his hand, and the boy slowly looked up to see Akihiko leaning over him to get a good look.
"You need to hurry and tie it to the tree. No one wants bad luck." Akihiko said, a bit cheerful.
Hiroki's eyes widened before he quickly stuffed the fortune in his pocket.
"I know that!" He said a bit too loudly, but the boys ignored the looks given to them by the crowd.
"So, what did you get?" He asked when he calmed down enough to turn and face his friend.
"Great luck." Akihiko said, his face lit with a glow.
"You!" Hiroki said, his eyes narrowing. He rammed past his friend and ran to the tree. His small hands nearly dropping his fortune as he pulled it out of his pocket to haphazardly tie it to a full branch.
He smiled when he finished trying to get rid of his bad luck.
He sighed as he was happy to get rid of that. It was like a dark cloud had been covering his mind when he saw the dark fortune. He wanted to have good luck. It seemed Akihiko was always doing well, at least in his opinion. Hiroki smoothed his yukata out then turned around to go back to Akihiko. The crowd had gotten thicker as time had passed, but that wasn't what worried him… What worried him was that he couldn't find his friend where he had left him.
"Where'd he go?" He murmured before he ran in the general direction he had come from. By the fortune box were a crowd of older kids. None of which were his friend. Hiroki turned to look over by the prayer area, his eyes scanning the crowd of cheerful people. His face started to fall as he didn't see any sign of the blonde he had come to know well.
"Akihiko." He whispered.
Hiroki ended up sitting on the steps by the shrine's entrance. He couldn't find Akihiko anywhere and his eyes were welling up with tears.
Where'd Akihiko go? It's almost nighttime and I was supposed to be home 10 minutes ago. It'd be bad to leave without him.
The sunny day they had been enjoying had turned dark, and Hiroki couldn't help but think it had something particular to do with his bad luck fortune. He sighed, not ready to leave but after hours of looking on the grounds he wasn't willing to stay. He slowly got up from the steps and looked around one last time with his eyes.
The crowds had thinned, but there was still no sign of his friend. Brown eyes started to blur as tears filled his eyes. He closed them, silently willing the tears to stop. Boys like him weren't supposed to cry. He sunk down again to his knees on the step and worked hard to hold in a sob. What if his friend had been kidnapped? What if he'd gotten angry and stormed off. What if he'd-
Hiroki's eyes snapped open when a hand brushed against his eyes, a thumb wiping away his tears that continued to fall.
"Um, are you ok?" Asked a slightly deep voice for a boy of his age. Dark hair framed a face with glasses covering up equally dark eyes. For a long moment Hiroki could only stare up at the slightly taller boy.
"Wha-! I, um, I can't find my friend and it's getting dark. I-I just-" Hiroki stammered out quickly. His face darkening in the fading light with the level of embarrassment he felt for being seen by a stranger like this.
Dark brows furrowed as the boy pulled his hand away. Unlike Hiroki he didn't wear a yukata but instead he had on a dark purple t-shirt with blue jeans halfway covering his white sneakers.
"So you didn't come here alone but your alone now?" He asked with concern.
"My parents are nearby; we could ask them to call your friend's house to tell them what happened. And then maybe we could all search for your friend?" He asked, smiling warmly at the flustered boy.
Hiroki could only nod, his eyes still a bit blurry.
"Um, who are you?" He finally asked.
"I'm Takahashi Takahiro. My family and I live near here."
Hiroki blinked before he opened his mouth to reply. "Hiroki. I'm Kamijou Hiroki. Um, it's nice to meet you, Takahiro."
The be speckled boy smiled at him and grasped his hand in his own. He nearly dragged the slightly unwilling boy to a middle aged couple who were holding on to a young toddler with green eyes.
"Mom, Dad, can we use your cell phone to call his friend's family? He can't find him." Takahiro asked, his hand clutched Hiroki's. The woman smiled down at the boys and reached into her pink bag to grab her pink phone.
Hiroki was hesitant to grab it so Takahiro did and handed it to the saddened boy.
Why does this have to be pink!
Hiroki thought before swallowing his pride and opening the phone. He dreaded dialing the number of the Usami residence. Akihiko's parent's were going to kill him. He'd never be allowed to hang out with his friend again, well, that was the best case scenario. If something bad had happened, he might never see his friend again.
He punched in the numbers and winced as a cheery noise sounded with each press.
The ringing of the phone made his mouth go dry.
"Moshi moshi, Usami residence." Said a deep, elderly voice.
"Umm, I- I. It's Hiroki. I can't find Akihiko. We got separated at the shrine." Hiroki blurted out. For a moment the line was silent and the young boy felt his chest constrict as he waited for the inevitable.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot to inform you. I picked up the young sir. The family is currently on their way to London to meet with a friend. I picked him up and it must have slipped my mind to tell you. I was in such a hurry." The butler said, his tone uncaring. He was only saying it to keep any pressure off himself. He had ignored the young sir's pleas to tell his friend what had happened.
"Hello? Kamijou-kun?" He asked when nothing came from the boy.
"Well, now you know. Goodnight." He finished off quickly. The line went dead and Hiroki was standing there in shock. His small hands shook with an odd mix of emotions. There was relief that his friend was ok, but also anger and fury that Akihiko had not even stopped to tell him goodbye.
The cold tone of the butler made the boy feel sick and he had to clutch the phone in his hand to keep it from falling from his ear. He felt his tears stream down his face. His expression darkening while his mind was a whirlwind of emotions.
Why'd Akihiko abandon me? Are we even still friends?
The Takahashi family looked on at the crying boy with a mix of pity from the parents and fear mingled with concern from the oldest boy.
He reached his hand out to rest on the boy's shoulder.
Hiroki saw the hand come towards him, but before it could reach his form Hiroki let go of the phone. The pink item clattered to the ground. Its noise echoed Hiroki's footsteps as he turned on his heel and blindly ran through the crowded streets.
Takahiro wasted little time in picking up his mother's phone and running at full speed after the boy who looked so crushed. The dark haired boy weaved through the people moving about their daily business. He didn't want to leave the boy all alone. Not when he looked so sad.
He took a risk by following Hiroki through an intersection that had stopped letting people go past. He made it past safely but he heard his parent's screaming at him as he ran.
I'm so grounded after this.
He kept running. His feet hit the pavement hard, but his shoes were thick enough that it wouldn't hurt.
Hiroki wasn't so lucky. As he ran he could feel his feet start to blister. He had been in the wooden sandals all day and the small height they gave also made the act of running that much harder. He still couldn't bring himself to care, not even after he nearly tripped over his shoe. The brown eyed boy kept running for at least 20 minutes, his legs giving out in the worst place possible.
The white lines of the street rose up to meet him as he fell face first into the busy street. The bright headlights of a bus were the last thing he saw before he felt something painfully collide with his body.
The Runway:
Akihiko looked out of his window seat of the large passenger plane he and his family had just boarded. He felt a large amount of guilt for not staying at the shrine to finish the day with Hiroki. When the butler came to him saying that his parents were leaving this evening for London, Akihiko could scarcely believe it. The blonde boy had looked up pleadingly at his butler who quickly grasped his arm and pulled the boy toward the entrance of the shrine. The blonde tried to drag his heels into the earth, but the butler pulled him right again so he wouldn't be able to stop their movement.
"Wait! I need to talk to Hiroki!" He said his voice a bit higher than normal. His blue eyes widened when he could see the black car off in the distance. They were coming up on it way faster than he wanted.
"I need to tell Hiroki!" He tried again, angry that the old man wasn't listening.
The boy felt himself stop for less than a second before the car door was opened and he was nudged into the car.
"But!"
"I'll tell the boy that this came up, young sir." The butler said quickly, his hands already working on putting the boy's seatbelt on.
"Are you sure? You have to do that!" Akihiko said, his eyes wide as the door closed in his face and the driver pulled from the curb.
The 12 year old blonde sighed as he rubbed his face in his hands. He felt bad for leaving his friend. But, it should have been alright, right?
He pulled his hands from his face and rested them in his lap. He glared over at his older brother who sat in the seat beside him. Black hair combed back with expensive gel sat on the top of the head of the boy who repulsed him. He'd never really gotten along with his brother. Things between the two of them were at best quite rocky.
The boy folded his hands over his chest. His mood was ruined from the bad day he had had. Blue eyes turned toward the window once more as the pilot started to announce that they were to be taking off in mere moments.
Five weeks in London. I wonder what I can do to make Hiroki forgive me?
The Intersection:
Blood lay splattered on the pavement of a busy street. The bus had tried it's best to skid to a stop in time to stop the accident. A pair of glasses lay cracked on the sidewalk, whilst the crowd of onlookers looked on in shock. A pink cell phone was cracked in three places, and covered in a light sheen of blood.
Hiroki slowly lifted his head up. Blood made his vision red and his head pounded as he struggled to move his arms. Something was stopping him from getting up from the curb. He tried hard and slowly was able to turn onto his back.. He could hear people panicking in the street. No one was ready to risk hurting the boys to help them.
Brown eyes widened as he saw a mop of black hair obscure his vision even further. Black eyes fluttered open briefly and Hiroki laid face to face with Takahiro on top of him. He felt the hands clenching at his yukata slacken as he dealt with all of the boy's weight.
"Ta-Takahiro." Hiroki whispered, his eyes as wide as they would go.
The blare of sirens lulled him back into darkness as he gave in to oblivion.
Krylancelo note:
I'm mean tonight with my story. I guess this is a nice place to stop for now.
As anyone who is familiar with Junjou Romantica can tell this is an AU fanfiction that is based around Hiroki, Akihiko, and Takahiro. Well for now it is. I actually didn't expect to write such a long amount for the prologue, and it will still have them as children for the next chapter. Don't worry, I do plan on making them older.
Oh, in this Akihiko has never met with Takahiro so no infatuation on his part. At least for now. I'm not quite sure if I'll really do any pairings, since I've never wrote a real pairing fanfic before. And it would be yaoi, (can I even write that?) though I guess right now this could be considered shonen ai if the reader wants. Hiroki is my absolute favorite so he will be in this quite a bit. I'm intrigued by Akihiko at times, and want to explore him in a different light. If anyone has any suggestions or questions I'll try to get back to you on those.
Please review this so I'll know how it is being received.
Useful criticism only though. I haven't been into fanfics for a while but I think I'm getting into them again. Oh Egoist fans, there will be Nowaki at some point in this later on, just maybe not the way your used to.
Thanks for reading the prologue of Blush.
