#3 – Regret

Koshimae? Kintarou tug lightly at Ryoma's sleeve and look up as the other boy turn his head to look at him. Ryoma tilt his head to the side. Hm?
Did we do the right thing? The redhead clutch to Ryoma's jacket and stop walking. Ryoma stop as well and angle his head to get a better view of the other. He frown. Kin-chan. He say and turn around. Kintarou whine when the fabric slip out of his hands. Ryoma meet his eyes and firmly hold it. Did you want to stay? Where everyone treated you like that?
Kintarou shake his head fervently and look down. ..no.. He didn't want to be there. ..I just...doubt...sometimes...
Ryoma wrap his arms around Kintarou and pull him close. The word 'doubt' was a word he didn't want to hear from Kin-chan's mouth, it sounded too big for the redhead's mouth and vocabulary. But he still knew it, and at this age, had experienced a lot of that feeling already. They were just twelve, alone in a big scary place they didn't know, and it wasn't as if said world wanted to cooperate with them. Kin-chan.. His grip around the other tightened and Kintarou buried his face against Ryoma's neck. I love you. I'll never leave you and I don't think we did wrong.
Kintarou mumbled a low okay.. love you too.. into Ryoma's jacket and Ryoma pulled away. Let's find something to eat. He said, and took Kin-chan's hand in his. Kintarou nodded and rubbed his eyes to hinder any tears from falling. ….I still wonder why... though..
Ryoma looked over his shoulder at Kintarou and shook his head. Dunno.. Adults're weird. And not only adults. Everyone was. The Seigaku-team, Shitenhouji, basically anyone could be mentioned as weird. But lately, it had gone beyond just 'weird' and gone to 'fucking crazy', if Ryoma thought about it. 'Weird' was apparently a needed quality for playing tennis, he had noticed. So yes, 'Fucking Crazy' was the term to use on their senpai-tachi and the rest of the tennis-world. Did they have to become so …. while hyped was not at all the right word, Ryoma didn't know any better word to describe it as – about what had happened. Yes, Ryoma himself had gone into an overprotective mode over Kin-chan after the accident, but the others had gone absolutely terrible, and Kin-chan had ended up crying in Ryoma's arms one day when his parents said that they didn't want him to play tennis anymore, and a lot of other things.
Where could they go, though. Some day, Ryoma knew, they'd be found and brought back, and Ryoma'd probably be put in an orphanage and have a mark in his records for kidnapping the monkey-boy right out of the hospital. But if Kin-chan had stayed, he only would have suffered so much more, and Ryoma didn't want that for the older twelve-year-old. I'll protect you.. he muttered as he led Kin-chan down another street with his hand almost getting crushed by the hard grip around it. He didn't care though, because if it made Kin-chan feel better, it was fine.