The world just seemed so dark… so dark and pointless. Like there was nothing to live for anymore, after all, why would there be? He couldn't sing, he couldn't play and more importantly… he couldn't smile. Nothing made him happy, and he doubted anything ever would again.

When he had first gotten the news that his mother was gone forever, six-year-old Ittoki Otoya only thought it was some sick joke. But it had already been two months since, and he now knew that it was far from a simple prank. His mother's funeral was over and done with, and she was buried in the ground with very few belongings to remember her by. Even the home they had lived in for his whole life was gone. After all, who was to take care of it if she wasn't there? He had not father, no other relatives that he knew of. No future… All he had was some of the money she had left him and an unknown life ahead of him.

This was all quite the burden for the small boy to bear, yet it was all that flashed across his mind as his new teacher introduced him to the class. "Ittoki-kun will be joining us for the rest of the year." She told the rest of her pupils as a hand rested on his shoulder and he stood next to her. The rest of the class clapped as he politely bowed slightly before taking a seat on the carpet that his new classmates were all situated on. After a short lesson that Otoya refused to listen to they were dismissed for free time. Most of the students jumped out of their seats, running across the room to grab toys or crayons and make quick work of them, most accept for two, that is.

Otoya glanced to the side, his face expressionless as his eyes held pain that only someone who had experienced something as traumatic as he had would be able to understand. Diagonally across the carpet from him he saw a boy. This boy's chin rested on his knees as he stared off into space, his messy dark hair falling into his eyes. Much to Otoya's dismay he seemed very uninterested with everything around him.

The boy's green-blue eyes slowly turned to meet Otoya's red ones and they held for a moment.

"What do you want?" the boy asked as his chin raised from his knees and he half scowled him.

Otoya quickly turned back around, his ginger hair slapping slightly against his forehead as he did. "I was just wondering why you were sitting there alone." He awkwardly confessed, his back remaining turned as his shoulders began to slump.

"Why does it matter to you?" the boy told him.

"… Because you look lonely…" Otoya muttered. The other boy scoffed, saying nothing in return, as Otoya looked over his shoulder at him. "Do you have friends?" he asked in an almost shy voice.

"Why would I want to be friends with any of the stupid people in this class?"

"O-ohh…"

"What's wrong with you?" his head shot up, dark hair bouncing slightly as it did. Though his eyes remained in a partial scowl and the unease didn't clearly show in his voice, this was slightly concerning. He wasn't happy like all the others, he didn't have energy which wasn't bad, as that meant he wasn't being annoying, but he seemed more to himself than normal six-year-olds would.

Otoya looked up at him as their eyes met, "it's sad that you don't have friends." He told him, "Everyone needs friends…"

"Yeah well, I only don't have friends because I don't want to." He blushed slightly, breaking their gaze.

"I could be your friend."

"Why would I want to be friends with someone like you?"

Slightly hurt, Otoya glanced the side, "I don't know…" he drifted off. 'Because we're both alone.' A small part in the back of his mind told him.

"I-… I'm Otoya." He quietly introduced himself.

"Yeah I know." The boy looked back at him in obvious annoyance.

"Well… what's your name?"

Scoffing he replied, "Tokiya."

"Toki..ya…" Otoya paused, "Toki~!" his face lit up as a small smile spread across his face and his back straightened, be rocked back and forth on the carpet.

"D-Don't call me that!"

"Why not?" Otoya's movements stopped as the smile broke and his shoulders slumped again, regaining the composure that he had kept for most of the previous conversation.

"Because… i- it's a stupid nickname."

"Ooh..."

An awkward silence fell over them as Otoya's joy decreased by the second and Tokiya continued to stare at him with an annoyed expression. "You should… keep smiling like that." Tokiya told the ginger haired boy as he looked away again and a light blush lined his cheeks. "It suits you better."

Otoya looked up at Tokiya's red face. It suited him…? Was that a compliment? Did Tokiya want him to be happy… the corner of his lips began to turn as they had before and his cheeks followed the other's burning with a light pink tinge.

Tokiya's eyes slowly turned to meet his and that only made his smile widen and the other's scowl sharpen. "Okay."

-~:/\:~-

"Tokiya~!" Otoya cried to his now seventeen-year-old roommate just after he entered their shared room, running towards him and hugging him from behind.

"What." The older boy replied in an irritated voice. He had only just gotten back to the room and this idiot was already glomping him.

"We should go to dinner together!" Otoya told him, either not sensing or ignoring his friend's irritation.

"I'm tired, and not hungry." He attempted to shake off the much less mature teenager.

"But Tokiyaaaaaaaaaaaaa."

"But what, get off of me."

"I want dinnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

"Then go by yourself."

"That's no funnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn"

Tokiya let out a sigh, it was always like this with them, even from the first day they met when he had followed him around all day despite the warnings that he wanted to be alone. To Tokiya, there was no difference between the Otoya he had met when he was six and the one, ten years later, that clung to him now. They were both annoying, and hugged him for no reason. They both were extremely loud and much too energetic for anyone's liking. They both wouldn't stop anything once they'd gotten excited over it. And the both had that…

"Fine, but only if you get off of me and leave me alone once we're back."

"Okay~!" Otoya finally released him, smiling brightly as Tokiya couldn't help but soften his expression before dropping his bag and holding the door open, once again.

… they both had that stupid smile.