Ugh, exams are definitely the worst. They are so stressful they shouldn't be allowed to exist, seriously. Learning that I passed them yesterday put me in a good mood, so here is the next chapter for those who aren't bored of this yet. I hope you will enjoy that...
Also, thanks to everyone who followed and favourited this. Really, thank you from the bottom of my heart :)
Although the morning had been completely ruined, the group still managed to have a shadow of a pleasant beginning of afternoon.
Yukine brushed his increasing discomfort aside so that no one would worry, although he couldn't help but wince and sway sometimes as they all walked. The emotions were starting to be too strong for him to focus on anything else.
"...Right, Yukine-kun?"
He started and plastered the most neutral expression he had in stock on his face to look at her while scrambling furiously in his brain to find what they could have been talking about all that time.
He was really out of it. "Yukine," mumbled Daikoku when he failed to give her an answer, "it's alright if you're not ready to go out yet, you know? Don't rush yourself. We can go out another time."
"N-No no, not at all! It's, um..." His eyes lit up a little as he found a perfect party to blame. "It's heat. It's way too hot today, even for a summer day. I don't do well in such high temperatures. It feels like I'm suffocating sometimes..."
Suffocating.
Yato's eyes suddenly widened and he tugged at the hem of Yukine's shirt to check his name in panic. "H-Hey! What are you doing, you creep?!"
It was still there, a little bit dulled but not broken, save the crack he'd received at the hospital. All words like suffocating and heat were intrinsically linked to the box, and he let out a shaky breath.
The fact that he had started to remember could be an explanation for his curious behaviour of a few days ago. He didn't know if he was thankful that it wasn't the case, or worried that he didn't know what was going on.
"I-I had thought that..." that you had started to remember...
"Yato, let me go," said Yukine too quickly. He stepped back and took a few deep breaths, feeling panic rise in him. "I-If you worry so much, then hurry up and walk so that we can all cool down at the beach. Though dumb as you are, I'm sure you forgot something important. Did you take the swimsuits like I asked you to?"
Yato blinked a few times before gasping, and Daikoku whacked him over the head. "I can't believe it! It was the only thing you had to take and you forgot them?! How much an idiot god can you be, Yato?!"
"Ouch! Let me go, Daikoku! You brute!"
"Oh... Well, we come home then," pouted Kofuku. "If we don't have our swimsuits then we can't go swimming. We won't just stay bored under the sun..."
"Looks like we have no choice," grumbled Daikoku, feeling his heart melting at the sight of his goddess' disappointed face. "We'll stop at the first stop we see and buy some. I'll pay, and Yato can pay me back when we're home."
"What? Why should I pay?! I did nothing wrong!"
"Because you're an idiot!"
"I'm not! When I will get thousands of followers you won't be telling me that, Daikoku!"
Yukine rolled his eyes at their dispute and followed them quietly, staying behind and making sure that he was not in anyone's field of vision just in case he had another fit. It worked until Hiyori and Kofuku stepped back too to stay with him and avoid the boys' fight.
So to the shop they all went. Inside was considerably cooler than the scorching heat outside, so he wasn't mad at all at Yato when he started to act like the hyperactive child he sometimes was and ran off in it, leaving the others to curse him and ask him to slow down before he caused too much trouble. He watched him with a faintly amused smile, wondering if his god had done that on purpose to protect him from the heat.
He picked the first swimsuit he thought that could fit him without really looking at it and collapsed on a kind of stood there. He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and his index wearily.
"Poor child..." whispered an adult voice from afar, tainted with a genuine disgust. He whipped his head towards it, only to find no one there.
He was certain he had heard a voice, though. A female voice...
He blinked and thought about it a few seconds more before shrugging and massaging his temples. It was heat's fault. It was definitely the summer heat that was frying his brain and messing up his head so much.
"Let's play, Hiiro! Father will be so happy when we bring him ears..."
A shiver ran down his spine as he jerked his head in another direction. Still no one, not even someone from the Near Shore was there.
"You mustn't steal! Even if you're a god, stealing is bad!"
He stayed frozen a moment as thousands of other voices assaulted him at the same time. Wailing entreaties, barked orders, tears, and heartbroken last words before the sound of a blade digging in a body all jumbled together. He could too precisely smell the blood emanating from the corpses and made a mad dash to the closest bin to throw up when he felt that he just couldn't hold it back anymore. However it was a thing that he soon regretted to have done when a headache striked him with full force and lowered him to his knees.
He wasn't sure if he was hot or cold. A second he was sweating bullets, and the next he was so cold that all his limbs were numb. The contents of the trash became fuzzy and lost the few colours he could still see, and his head felt like it was so heavy his neck couldn't hold it upright. He felt boneless and breathing quickly became impossible, which he took as a sign that he would soon pass out.
"Not now," he repeated, hoping that his body would listen to this order. "Not now, not now..."
But the trembling wouldn't stop, and a few tears fell in the basket. "Not now..."
Wiping the saliva on his lips and the tearstains on his face with the back of his wrists, he limped back to the stool where he had kept a bottle of water, and almost emptied it in his haste to make the uncomfortable stench of vomit leave his mouth. His stomach was literally killing him.
He dumped the rest of the bottle on his face then carefully rubbedit with a towel. The voices had stopped for now, and he let out a calming breath.
"It's okay now," he mumbled to in the towel's fabric. He pressed it against his face. "It's okay. I-It's okay, it's okay, it's okay..."
He was thankful no one had witnessed his moment of weakness, otherwise, protective as they were, he knew they would have directly came back home.
Soon, Yato reappeared downstairs with the others behind him, proudly waving around the orange capyper-themed swimsuit he had chosen. He could hear Hiyori behind him repeat that he should take something else, because that was simply ugly and that it was not possible to wear something like this.
From what he could see, Daikoku and Kofuku were on Hiyori's side; looking disapprovingly at, as Yato called it, the ultimate swimsuit for capyper fans. Yato pouted at them all. "You're all so mean! Well, fine! Yukine has good taste, so he will decide!"
He held it in front of him as if it was a decisive piece of evidence in a trial. "Say, Yukine. Do you really think it's ugly? My super capyper swimsuit is great, right?! It's not ridiculous, right?!"
"It's not," he yawned, barely seeing said swimsuit through his half-closed eyelids. "If it's something you like, then you should obviously keep it. Whatever makes you happy is worth being kept. Just make sure not to lose it in the future. Daikoku-san won't buy you another."
A silence fell in the room, interrupted now and then by people from the Near Shore and loud announcements blaring from the speakers on the ceiling, and all of them were looking at Yukine with various degrees of worry and puzzlement. Yato crouched in front of him, an intent blue stare a few centimetres away from his face.
"...What?"
"Your eyes... Did you cry? You looked fine earlier..."
"I'm just feeling a little bit tired," he answered simply. "I will surely feel better once we arrive."
He got on his two unsteady feet and Yato looked up at his closed expression. "I'm okay," he recited, hoping that saying it enough would make it happen.
"Maybe we shouldn't go, Yukki," proposed Kofuku in a hesitant voice. "You don't look better at all, and the sun will be beating down at the beach. You will pass out if you come..."
"Maybe you're sick after all Yukine-kun..."
It was strange. He was torn between blushing and smiling, because it was adorable and felt terribly good to have people so concerned for him, and nervously look away because worry felt so unusual and uncomfortable. He didn't know why, but he felt like he had never done anything to deserve such attention.
He made only one step before Yato caught his wrist. "Yukine, talk to us. What's wrong? I won't let you go before you talk to me."
He let out an inaudible sigh. He could perfectly well imagine his master's face full of worries and unanswered questions, and determination furrowing his brows. He was thankful that he didn't have to face Yato to see this expression that didn't belong to his face.
He pushed the increasing worry bubbling up in his chest so he wouldn't grimace or wince to give the best reply he could give his god, hoping he could get him off his back for now. "The only thing wrong now is you touching my clothes with your dirty, sweaty hands, Yato. Let me go and I will be fine, like I said for the hundredth time today."
The god made a wounded theatrical expression while clutching his chest, and after a gasp he felt the latter's fingertips slide down his palm as he let him go. He smiled and advanced without paying him more attention.
But he knew the god was stubborn; he surely wouldn't let it go, but he'd gotten off the hook for now.
And once all the swimsuits bought, not drop the issue he did. He waited that the others had walked more in front of them to lean next to Yukine's ear and murmur. "You can tell me if something is wrong."
"Yato..." He'd been worrying for him non-stop since this morning, really.
"You know... The nightmare you had earlier wasn't natural. Even when you were in physical pain you never yelled like that. Never. I was terrified... I.. I had actually thought Father had come back to hurt you upstairs while I wasn't looking. I thought he had decided to destroy something precious to me again."
"..."
"Father is dangerous... He is smart and has powers that you can't even imagine, so you have to tell me if he or anyone did something to you. You have to, okay? Promise? You can't handle everything alone, no matter how strong you are."
"I know I don't always seem to be reliable and serious, but I will do everything I have to do to help you feel better. Don't bottle everything up, because it's never good to do that."
But you do that. All the time. You never tell me anything... You never tell anyone anything. You keep all these toxic emotions in yourself and let them poison your soul. "I'm not bottling anything up, don't worry. I'm alright. Just that nightmare that messed up my head, but I'm fine..." he said, smothering another yawn behind his hand. "That advice can be applied to you too. Talk to me if you want to. I'm here."
"I know." Yato ruffled his hair. "Thank you. I'm glad that you're here."
"Stop being all sappy and annoying," he mumbled under his breath. Yato laughed heartily, and he felt like everything was normal for a second as he slipped back in his moody teenager's attitude.
A bright and innocent smile spread across Yato's face when the group finally arrived to the beach, and Yukine couldn't help but smile too as his master's happiness shone bright in his heart.
"It has been so long since I last came here!"
The place was terribly noisy and black with people, but apparently that wasn't enough to tamper Yato's enthusiasm down in the slightest. Apparently they were not the first persons to have thought about cooling off here.
Yukine squinted through the crowd until he finally found a free spot on the sand. "Hurry up, otherwise it's going to be taken," he hurried the others.
Ten minutes later, Yato, Daikoku, Hiyori and Kofuku were all playing together under Yukine's attentive gaze. He'd refused his master's offer to come, napping on the sand and not overexerting himself looking like it was a far better thing to do. He gave them bottles of water when they came and offered towels to dry their hands before they took something to eat, shaking his head each time someone asked him if he was sure he didn't want to come.
He was sure. He didn't want to swim or go in the water again, not with the awful yells in his head still ringing and the face of the man who had been drowned that he could see in the water's reflection.
He looked hungrily at every aspect on his god's happy face. The sparkle in his eyes that made the blue of the sea pale and dull in comparison, his hearty laughs that he could only faintly hear yet that warmed his heart like nothing else could. He never realized he loved seeing Yato happy this much.
Yato had never really had a childhood, now that he thought about it. No matter what he said, being scarred for life by his father and dreaming of corpses scattered everywhere and spending nights all alone with his haunting thoughts for sole company could not be called a childhood by any stretch of the imagination.
But he never complained about it, of course. The god revealed snippets of his past only if he didn't have a choice, he always made sure to look after Yukine and did everything he could so that he was always happy.
He didn't like how Yato was suffering in silence all the time and how he couldn't do anything about to alleviate even a fraction of this pain. It was so sad that Yato tried his hardest to make everyone happy while knowing he would never be himself.
He masked any trace of his sadness to smile at his god who was approaching. He handed him his bottle with a smile. "Who won the race?"
"It was Daikoku, that dirty cheater! I was sure I could swim faster than him; it must me Kofuku who cursed me with her aura of binbougami!" Yukine chuckled as he started to listen to his god's rant, yet all trace of happiness disappeared when he saw someone waving at him joyously somewhere behind Yato. "-it has been centuries that... Yukine? Hey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing..." he mumbled, tearing his gaze away from the man with difficulty. "I, um... I think I'm feeling a little bit hot. I'm going to buy ice cream."
"Um, sure... Is everything alright?"
"Hm-mh. There is just someone I have to talk with for a moment. I won't be long, I promise."
"What the hell are you playing at?" he asked once they were far enough from the beach.
"I could ask you the same thing," scoffed Fujisaki, severe annoyance written all over his face. "What do you think you're doing, interfering with Yaboku like that and disrupting him in his mission? Are you trying to destroy his heart entirely by letting him get too attached? His job is to cull the herd, not to go to the beach."
"That disgusting wish was not what Yato was born of," he shot back instantly. "He's finally having something close to happiness for the first time in centuries, so don't you dare bothering him now."
"I can't get why you aren't scared of him, though." wondered out loud Fujisaki. "You've clearly seen what he is capable of. The man you saw him murder could've been anyone you know. Hiyori-chan, Bishamon, Daikoku... Even you. You think killing a kid would be anything new for him?"
"H-How do you know..." he breathed, not sure if he wanted to end his sentence at all.
"What you dreamed about?" he finished for him. "Super simple. What you call a dream was actually one of Yaboku's memories, and I'm the one who put it in your head. You've been feeling unwell since we saw a few days ago right? Well... I might or not have cursed you then and reversed your bond. But it's not my fault; it's yours. You chose to get implicated with Yaboku despite my warnings..."
Yukine's eyes widened. "So the voices... I-It was you?"
These terrifying loud voices that hadn't stopped all day were all his work?
If he had reversed their bond, then... Was this was Yato heard every day?
He knew it, he was shivering again.
"Oh, don't make that face..." he said while rolling his eyes at Yukine's horror-struck expression that he was trying his best to hide. "It's a perfect occasion to get to know your master better, and what kind of an awful person he is. You always complain that you know nothing about him, but when I tell you you're not satisfied? Teenagers can be so annoying, I swear..."
"You should give Yaboku back to me, young boy. The curse isn't at full force yet, so it's not too late to back out. I'm a magician, a god who has the capacity of choosing which ones of Yaboku's memories I can put in your little head when you're sleeping or not... You're aware that I can make you live a real and unending nightmare if your don't surrender, aren't you?"
"Do you even hear yourself talking?! Yato is no one's! Can't you just find something to do with your life so that you have something else to do than bothering Yato?!" A tick of annoyance appeared on Fujisaki's forehead. "You're nothing but a monster, and have no right to call yourself a father after what you did to me!"
Another crack appeared on Yukine's name.
Fujisaki blinked. "Whoa, calm down kid. I did nothing for you to get this angry at me... You should better focus on calming down, yeah? Your face is all red."
"Ugh... E-Enough of this," he wheezed. He closed his eyes and leaned against a streetlamp nearby. "Y-Yelling at you is giving me a killer headache."
"I will say it slowly and one last time so that even you can understand... I'm not scared of Yato and I will never be, no matter what your twisted mind wants to put in my head. Can you hear me well, or are your ears plugged? Undo that damn spell right now, because it won't work. I. Will. Not. Abandon. Yato," he hissed, stressing the negation.
A moment of silence fell. Fujisaki eyed him in disbelief before letting out a laugh that was not in the slightest amused. "I can't believe it. So even after I showed you what an awful person Yaboku was, you won't let him go? This is your last answer?"
Yukine didn't dignify him with a verbal answer, but the determination emanating from his small body and the death glare he was shooting him were more than sufficient to get his message through. The two stared at each other for a moment before Fujisaki slowly shook his head from side to side. "Teenagers, I swear... For a murdered boy, you sure do have a big mouth. Yaboku, seriously... He didn't edicate you properly if he never thaught you that you shouldn't talk back to adults."
"..."
"Very well, then. Yukine, shinki of the god Yato, if your wish is to remain at your god's side despite my warnings, then I can say it..."
Yukine's heart sank at these words.
"Your wish has been heard loud and clear."
