I do not own Noragami or Free!
Enjoy!
"C'mon Rei, we gotta hurry!" Nagisa declared, running down the street.
"Why? The books aren't gonna run away if we don't hurry." Rei replied.
"But we need to use as much time as possible to study to make sure I can stay in-" Nagisa abruptly stopped when he ran right into someone's back. Knocking him forward and Nagisa backwards.
"Nagisa! Are you alright?" Rei asked, grabbing his friend's shoulder.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Nagisa replied, "I'm sorry, are you alright?" Nagisa asked the boy. He appeared to be a few years younger than Nagisa with similarly colored blond hair. He turned his head slightly to look at Nagisa, seemingly surprised. His orange eyes instantly recognizable to Nagisa.
"He can see me?" The boy whispered under his breath, just loud enough for Nagisa to hear.
"What do you mean? Of course I can see you." Nagisa replied. Trying to deny what he thought. What he was subconsciously certain of. Because he knew it couldn't be true.
"Who are you talking to Nagisa? What did you fall over anyway?" Rei asked.
Nagisa ignored Rei's questions, focused more on the familiar orange-eyed boy he had run into. The one who seemed surprised Nagisa could see him.
"I'm fine." The boy showed no sign of recognizing Nagisa. Despite his strong resemblance to someone Nagisa had known so well.
"What's your name?" Nagisa asked. He knew what he wanted the boy to say. But he was fairly certain he was not going to say what Nagisa wanted him to.
"Yukine. What's yours?" The boy replied.
"Nagisa."
"Cool."
Nagisa suddenly felt his eyes well up. His mind failing to keep the feelings under control. The feeling that he wanted to keep suppressed.
"What… What are you doing here?" Nagisa breathed out.
Yukine's eyes seemed to widen.
"What do you mean?"
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? You don't belong here! You already left! SO WHY ARE YOU BACK?" Nagisa shouted, causing Rei's face to morph into one of slight fear and shock.
"Why are you crying Nagisa? What are you shouting at?"
"Why are you here… N-" Suddenly a hand was over Nagisa's mouth. Preventing him from finishing the word.
"Where did you go?" Yukine asked, somewhat aggresively.
"Sorry Yukine! Had to go talk to Kazuma-kun about something important." The new man replied.
"You could at least tell me where you're going." Yukine glared at the man.
"As long as I don't die, does it really matter?" The man smirked.
"Yes. It does." Yukine continued his glare.
"Well, we should get going." The man turned to Nagisa, who was still crying and staring at this new blue-eyed man whose eyes suddenly turned serious and terrifying.
"If you ever say that word near my Shiniki, I'll make you live to regret it." The man whispered, just soft enough for Yukine not to hear it.
He then took his hand off of Nagisa's mouth, leaving the teenager silent before wrapping an arm around Yukine's shoulders.
"C'mon, Hiyori's probably worried by now." The man stated, as he and Yukine began walking.
"Yeah, goodbye Nagisa!" Yukine called back to the teen.
"B-Bye." Nagisa whispered.
"Nagisa! Who are you talking to? Why are you crying?" Rei demanded, shaking Nagisa slightly.
"I… I… I… saw… I saw…" Nagisa suddenly couldn't get the words out of his mouth. He couldn't express himself.
"What? What did you see?" Rei demanded.
Nagisa turned to look at his friend. The empty street seemingly draining any of Nagisa's bubbly attitude away.
"Naoki. I saw Naoki." Nagisa whispered. Knowing Rei wouldn't know who he was talking about.
"Who's Naoki?" Rei asked.
"My… my brother." Nagisa replied.
"Really? Where is he?" Rei followed up, looking around for the brother who wasn't there.
"He's… He's not there…" Nagisa paused. "He… He died a few years ago."
Suddenly Rei's eyes filled with surprise. And concern.
"But I saw him. He said his name was something else… And he was with a man, who said I couldn't say his name… But he was my brother… It was Naoki… Rei, it was my brother." Nagisa whispered, sounding insane.
Suddenly Nagisa grabbed Rei's sleeve.
"He was there. He was there and he was alive."
Rei had no idea what to say. He had no idea how to respond.
"But he didn't recognize me… Rei… my little brother didn't know it was me. He… didn't know me…" Nagisa's voice cracking as his tears grew worse and he dug his face into Rei's shoulder.
"I'm sure he did. I'm sure he recognized you. Even if he didn't say it."
"You think so?" Nagisa whispered.
"Yeah. Maybe he was trying to convince you he was someone else. Because he didn't want you to get sad." Rei suggested.
Nagisa didn't respond.
"That means he didn't want you to cry Nagisa. He would want you to keep going. He didn't want you to stop and think about him. He wanted you to keep going." Rei continued.
Nagisa pulled himself out of Rei's grasp and wiped his eyes with his forearm before shakily getting to his feet, needing to lean on Rei for support.
"Okay, let's keep going."
"Yeah." Rei replied, following as Nagisa continued towards Rei's house. Walking at a slow speed. The smile absent from his face.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!