Chapter 2: Sadness

Time skip: 1 month

It had only been just over a month since Kate was brought back, but yet the atmosphere in the house had lifted and had become more peaceful than it ever was before. Much to Haru's satisfaction, Yuki continued to be himself again- always smiling. He woke up earlier, and went to bed later. The positive influence of what had happened lately had really supplied him with some much-needed energy, it seemed. The teen even found himself acting kinder towards the fellow alien, accepting his mistakes and finding out more about him. In return, Haru gave answers and spent hours on end just spending time with him.

"Ok, Haru, I just need you take Yuki out somewhere so I can set up the decorations," Grandma Kate spoke quietly to the blond, hand cupped beside her mouth. The younger of the two could barely contain himself, and his answers came out in short high pitched bursts. Today was Yuki's birthday, and they both wanted it to be his best ever!

He spent just a moment pondering before snapping his fingers.

"Hey, we can go out fishing again! That'd give you some time!" Kate smiled and nodded.

"Yes, that'd be perfect!"

"Um, what are you two talkin' about?"

Both of the accomplices instantly jumped away from each other, two deer in the headlights. The alien piped up first.

"Oh, that the flowers are blooming really well this month!" He added a little laugh to the end of the sentence to make it believable. Surprisingly, the red head took the bait. Rolling his eyes, he smiled.

"It seems all you talk about is flowers, nowadays," looking up, he found a pair of violet eyes staring right back at him. Both of the boys fell silent. It was happening again. Haru getting all quiet whenever the other teen would look at him. What was going on?

Slowly, a grin formed on their faces. The silence was killing them. Soon enough, they burst out laughing.

"You're silly!" The blond giggled and pointed at the boy. Yuki blushed lightly and awkwardly brought his hand to the back of his own neck. To the human's relief, Haru skipped over to the window and looked out.

"It's a nice day today," he paused to look over his shoulder. "How about we go fishing? It's been a while!" His eyes flickered in Kate's direction, as if to say "It's going to work".

He was right, it had been a while. Removing his hand from his neck, he crossed his arms.

"Hm, you're right. Sure, that sounds fine to me!"

With that, the two were off, and the grandma proceeded to make the preparations.

Everything was going fine with fishing until Haru decided to act as childish as always. The line had just snapped from the strength of one of the sea bass, and Yuki was putting in a new one along with a hook. As he reached for a lure, the blond grabbed it quickly and stuck the tail end in his mouth, leaving it dangling from his lips.

" H-Haru! Give that back now! You're gonna hurt yourself," standing up, he reached out to grab it. However, the other boy had different plans.

"No!" He yelled as he danced around the dock, avoiding Yuki's constant attempts to grab it. Every failed attempt made his face more red with frustration.

"I said give it back!"

"Hmph," Haru stopped and gave him a playful look.

"You'll have to act like me to get it back!" Teasingly, he brought his hands up to his cheeks and mimicked the gills of a fish before continuing to move around.

"What?" The one being teased couldn't help but vocalize his confusion. What did he by mean act like him? Quitting the chase for a few moments, he tried to think of a possible answer.

Fish. What do fish do with lures? They use their mouths to attach onto it as if it were the real thing.

Yuki's face was dusted with red again, but for a different reason upon the realization. He'd have to grab the other end of it with his own lips to get Haru to give it back. That would involve his face being incredibly close to the other's.

Not good, not good.

It took a few minutes of mental spazzing and twitching for him to finally face Haru again, who was now calmly sitting at the edge of the dock. Taking a deep breath, he quietly walked over and sat down next to him, his legs hanging off the side. Tapping his shoulder, the red head nearly lost it when the other looked over. Imagining those violet eyes any closer to his own made him nervous. It was just pure anticipation now.

"Ok, Haru. I know what you want me to do, but no tricks, all right?"

Still with the lure securely fastened between his lips, he tilted his head innocently. He pondered what tricks Yuki was talking about, but nodded anyway.

Leaning over, the teen began to blush profusely. As soon as he got a grip of the other end of the lure, his gray eyes immediately squeezed shut. The alien found his embarrassment pretty funny, thus resulting in the hooked device to be released from his mouth after he began to smile.

The elderly woman continued decorating, soon realizing she needed to get to a higher area to hang a banner. Getting a stepladder out, she carefully opened it and set it on the ground. She tested its steadiness before stepping up on it. As she began to pin it up, she didn't notice how much her body was leaning toward the wall and away from the ladder. At one point, her foot moved forward in an attempt to move closer, but of course she couldn't walk on air.

This threw the ladder off balance, and it proceeded to tip over. A gasp was heard as Kate fell, and then a thump as her head and body met the floor.

Since Yuki didn't have a very firm grip on it from the shaking, it slipped out from him as well and fell down to the wooden boards with a small clank. The noise startled the awkward teen, causing his eyes to fly open. He was even more startled to find Haru's face still extremely close to his. Jumping away as he always did when his friend was mischievous, he looked away and frowned.

"I said no tricks!"

Haru objected, him being the one confused this time.

"Yuki, I didn't do anything! Honest!"

Still frowning, he slowly lifted his head again and glanced at the blond. Slowly, he grabbed the lure and stood back up. Taking a hold of the line, he finished up the job and sighed.

"Look, let's just fish ok?" Just as he got in position to cast, thunder rumbled across the sky. A small droplet of rain plopped down on Haru's nose, making him sneeze. Yuki cursed quietly to himself.

"I guess we won't actually be fishing today." More rain pelted down as the two ran down the pathway and back to the main road. Haru wanted to stay out in all of the falling water even longer, but the red head wouldn't let him.

They were soaked to the skin by the time they got back to the house. Their normally white shirts were now totally see-through and drenched. Both of them even ringed out their hair at the doorstep. Knocking on the door, Yuki thought it strange that he wasn't answered almost immediately.

"Hm. Maybe she can't hear us." Making sure the blond followed him, they both went around to the side of the house to one of the windows. Wiping some of the water off of the glass, he cupped his hands around his eyes and peered in closely.

"No, Yuki!" Shoving his way between the other teen, the alien made sure that Yuki could not see the surprise waiting inside.

"You can't see inside yet!"

For the second time that day, the red head became infuriated with Haru. It seemed even all this time of peace couldn't keep the familiar annoyance from coming back.

"Haru!" Grabbing him by his shoulders, he forcibly moved the boy to the side. The one being moved gasped. His friend had never been that rough with him before.

Taking a peek again, he concentrated harder on what was inside. Streamers were hanging around the room, and a big cake sat upon the table quietly. A smile started to creep up his cheeks until he noticed that a banner was half-hanging half-falling from where it was hung. Finding this odd, he focused harder on this area until he noticed something else.

Kate was lying on the floor beneath the banner. He couldn't tell if her eyes were open or not, but it didn't matter. His grandmother wasn't known for spontaneously taking naps on the carpet.

This time, Yuki was the one gasping in shock.

"Grandma…!" Turning away from the window, he frantically looked around for something to break the window with. Haru was also the one confused, now.

Spotting a shovel in the garden, he wasted no time in getting a hold of it and breaking the window open. The glass shattered and spread itself all around the two. The red head would've cautioned his friend about watching out for it, but he blindly dove through the opening and into the house instead. Hitting the carpet, he rolled once and shook his head before getting back up to his feet.

Haru was just making his way through the new entrance carefully when he heard a loud screech come from Yuki's direction.

"O-Oh God! No… Grandma!" He also heard him ramble on words of complete shock and disbelief. Finally getting inside, he wandered over to where he was.

"No Haru don't look!" A clammy hand clamped onto the blond's face, covering his innocent eyes.

"J-Just go to my r-room please!" Noticing he was stuttering more than usual, he decided to do what he said. Something bad must've happened and he didn't want to add extra stress to the teenager by disobeying him. Through the door, he heard his friend dialing a phone and talking very quickly. Haru realized that this was certainly not the surprise he was planning for him to find.

Yuki was completely and utterly flustered beyond repair at this point.

Multiple people soon entered the house, kicking the front door open. Many voices flooded the once quiet house, Yuki's being one of them. He was getting into hysterics, and that was just before it was announced that Kate had indeed passed away.

The body was taken out by a stretcher, her wrinkled yet once youthful face now hidden underneath a sheet. Both boys had fallen silent as the last of the people left. It was a few moments before the human of the two joined the other inside the room. As Haru said his friend's name as he usually did, the red head cut him off.

"She's gone, Haru. Forever." The last word was choked out, his throat beginning to constrict from grief. He sat himself down next to Haru on the bed, not yet ready to actual make eye contact. Sniffling, he tried to speak again.

"K-Kate isn't coming back. She's dead. D-Do you understand?" His body was shaking, tears now bubbling to the surface.

"Yuki…I do understand." Pausing, he thought of something that the grandma had mentioned to him before. Something she said was important to remember.

"Don't be sad! Everyone dies someday! We just have to make sure they bloom beautifully before they do!"

Suddenly, the saddened grandson turned and intimidating closed in on Haru.

"I knew you wouldn't get it, as always! This is my fault! If we had stayed instead of going out none of this would've ever happened!" It was hard to express his anger when his speech was spotted with hiccups and shaking breaths. Before he knew it, his will to keep himself steady totally failed, resulting in his body falling limp and into his friend's arms.

The alien jumped a little before putting his arms around the unstable boy. Haru could feel his chest heave with each sniffle and sob Yuki let out. All that could be helped right now was to help him feel comfortable. The crying was inevitable.

Rubbing his hand up and down the boy's back in comfort, he felt an unpleasant heaviness tug at his heart. It seemed to weigh it down into a pool of gloom and uncertainty as his mind whirled just as Yuki's probably was at that very moment. At the same time, it felt as if all those pieces of glass from earlier had now pierced right through it. This new feeling was something that the alien did not like at all.

Sadness.