1.
Kurata Akihiro is a lonely boy.
He likes his little chemistry set, fake though it is, and likes trying to fix anthills and count the ants as they go in and out. He likes building his sandcastles like they are symmetrical and make sense and tries his hardest not to cry when some jerk knocks them down. He likes the cat that takes food from his hand and doesn't even nip.
He does not like people very much. To be fair, they don't like him, not with his big round glasses and the tattered library card.
It's a mutual exhaustible dislike.
Kurata thinks of this time and considers it ignorance. He almost wishes he could go back.
He studies, long and often. He has some of the highest grades in math and science, and mediocre ones in gym. (The best from that is in running, which doesn't say much.) His one human friend has strangely red hair that makes him think of strawberries, and she smiles more at him than she does anyone else. He honestly can't remember when they became friends, but she's so interested in everything that he does (almost to an absurd degree) that he can't really care.
For reasons he doesn't understand, seeing her with others makes him feel ill. Like they shouldn't be near her, like they will hurt her. His mother would call it a protective instinct whenever he complained about it. He doesn't believe her. His family has had a history of horrible digestive issues after all. She's told him so herself. But Akihiro has no way of testing it, none that he can think of. After all, she doesn't seem to mind him talking to other people herself.
The nausea fades whenever she looks at him, and he has an instinctive feeling that she knows why it's there. Akihiro doesn't like his instincts. Following them leads to face punches and trashed glass chemistry kits that he can barely afford to put back together.
They prove him wrong just once. Just once when she punches a boy hard in the face, hard enough to send him tumbling. Hard enough for him to see the most blood he'd ever seen leave a human body in one hit.
(He later learns that he's seen nothing and that he's much too young to understand but at the time he was naturally full of horror.)
When the bullies run, she turns to him and fixes his glasses and hugs him, soft and gentle. He pushes her away without thinking and runs away himself. He flees from her sight because a girl shouldn't be able to do that without remorse or disgust and then look at you like you matter more than anything. A human shouldn't be able to.
It's like blaming yourself. It's like it's Akihiro's fault she broke the boy's nose and almost his brain.
It's not. It's not.
A/N: Why are these prompts always so stubborn? It's always for these ones I swear. Anyway, here's my little look into a possible what-if. Keeping it mostly canon, so, well, I'm sure we can guess what happens here. Anyway, please drop a review below if you feel so inclined!
Challenges: What-if, Digimon Non Flash Bingo 628: Akihiro Kurata, Diversity Writing Challenge: G28. Write a fic that explores love, and Halloween Trick or Treat Bag day 10. Write a relationship that ends in tragedy.