Two


He knew what it was like to be hurt; mentally, physically, emotionally. Somehow, he managed to remain emotionally strong. But as a skinny 11 year old, he's physically weak. Isogai could barely hold his head up when he was forced to head down into the market place one morning by his aunt. She gave him some money, not too much to draw attention to it, but enough to know if Isogai stole from her, which he would never do, but it wasn't like his aunt believed him anyways.

She told him to buy something that'll be enough for her family, excluding Isogai. The worst part of it all? She told him he was not allowed to get any goldfish. The poor brunette was never allowed to eat his favourite food because his aunt hated the taste.

Nonetheless, he braced himself for the loud and pushy Sunday crowd. As expected, peopled pushed into him, nearly trampling him in the process. All for cheap produce. Never underestimate the wrath of middle age women who are looking for a bargain. As Isogai walked the market place, some onlookers noticed him, but did nothing. When he turned and caught their eyes, he could see pity forming behind their colourless lenses. It was as if to say "that poor child, here all alone. Where are his parents?" He felt an invisible sting forming across his face.

It wasn't like he wasn't okay being alone because he is. He's perfectly capable surviving alone. He had adapted strategies to survive, especially when his aunt goes into a drunken stupor and had to take her pent up anger out on someone. Heaven forbid if the twins ever got hit. That'll just be the death of Isogai.

Heading to one of the abandon alleyways, he grabbed the wagon he found when he was seven years old and dragged it around behind him, making him look smaller than he already is.

He walked up to one of the produce stands and grabbed whatever he thought looked good in a meal. In his mind, he's thinking of all the meals he could cook with these. Taking them all, he places them on top of the counter, where an old man sat reading a newspaper. Looking into his little coin purse, he counted the amount of money he had. In his mind, he quickly did some basic math and realized that he could get away with spending $1.00 on one of the games without his aunt ever finding out.

"$7," the man said, holding out his hands. Isogai counted the coins, sliding exactly $7 into the man's hand. The man didn't count the coins to make sure – he trusted the young boy – in one swift movement, he hands Isogai the bag. "See you next week, Yumma."

"I'll see you then." The young boy grabbed the bag and walked away, happy at how kind the man is. The man at the vegetable stand, actually the merchants at every stand, loved Isogai. From his charming personality to his adorable looks, it wasn't hard to realize why people really liked him. His big doll like eyes would melt the hearts of all the hard-working men and ladies, thus leading them to charge him less money for the products.

Isogai was just lucky like that.

He placed the bags of fresh produce in the wagon, dragging around the extra weight that seemed a little bit heavier this time around. Maybe he bought too many things. Oh… Auntie is going to kill me. Swallowing, he pushed that thought out of his mind. He looked around for anything else that would satisfied his aunt and the twins.

When that was done, he took out exactly one dollar to play one of the games that set children up for failure, and empties the wallets of their parents. The so called net was too thin to effectively capture anything in it. It'd break the moment it touches water.

But Isogai didn't have a problem with these kinds of games though. His knife work – nurtured by his home duties of cooking, and cleaning, and chasing rabid dogs out of the backyard – had excelled beyond anyone's expectations. Within minutes, he managed to get two bags filled to the brim with goldfish. He hid them underneath a small pile of tomatoes and went on his merry way.

He hummed a bit to himself, looking up at the castle, looming over the impoverished town. He wondered if that boy Hiroto stilled remembered Isogai. He still remembered Hiroto. He still remembered the genuinely kind eyes that looked into his own soul. Just him asking the brunette if he was okay, really made his week. He can still feel that feeling of wanting to go up to the castle and play with him. But something held him back, scaring him so much that he didn't dare wander into the forest.

Shaking his head, Isogai walked home, dragging the wagon behind him, making a mental note to hide it somewhere after dropping off all of the food. If the twins got a hold of it, there will be no way he'll be able to get all of these heavy foods up to his home, sitting on top of a steep hill. Hiroto still lingered in the back of Isogai's mind.

I highly doubt he'll remember me. Because two years is a long time. Because over time, they'll lose memories of each other. Fading along with the hands of time. Crumbling easily and blowing away into the distance like sand.


He was wrong, his aunt went into another one of her drunken rages. His back hurts because of it. His head hits the pillow, late at night. His eyes looking out of his window, wondering if Hiroto is looking at the exact same sky as him.


A/N: This one is a tad shorter than the other one. Oh well.

From now on, it'll be from Isogai's perspective (just in case someone got confused). And it's AU, I forgot to mention that in the first chapter.

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