I don't own K or its characters.


He lied

"He lied," Eric mumbled. He said more after it, but it was too quiet for Tatara to hear. With his shoulders hunched as they were, he was either remembering or it was really hard to say that much that loud.

So Tatara turns to him with a gentle smile, leaning forward slightly, carefully watching for any movement of Eric's that would say he's uncomfortable. "Who lied?"

Eric's head snapped up, his eyes wide as he met Tatara's friendly gaze, "I—That's…"

Tatara shook his head, watching Eric's hands clench and unclench. "You don't have to say it. He was part of that gang, right? What did he lie about?"

Eric gave the smallest of nods at the first question, but he looked away instead of answering the second. After a long silence, he mumbled, just loud enough Tatara could hear, "He said there weren't any good people in the world. There were only people like the ones in that gang and everyone else was lying about being nice." Tatara didn't have a chance to say anything or even move before Eric turned back around, staring intently at Tatara before smiling shakily. "But you're really nice. And it's not an act. Fujishima is nice and it isn't an act. Chihuahua doesn't act, Dewa, Chitose, Shouhei, Bandou, Anna, Kusanagi-san, Kamamoto, Mikoto-san…None of you pretend to care." He took a shaky breath. "I mean, Dewa doesn't like me, but he doesn't pretend to. So it's fine."

There wasn't anything that Tatara thought of to say that really felt right to him at that moment. Instead, he laughed a little, giving Eric a bright smile. It was silent again until Tatara said, "It's nice, isn't it? Knowing that people really do care."

The look that Eric gave him was all he needed to see. The damaged boy looked happy behind his ever present defense.

He was healing, and the genuine feelings of his fellow clansmen and his King would only help.


Months - a year - later, as he watched Anna walk forward solemnly with a red rose (one that was supposed to be for her) he remembered that day. It only made him cry harder. Totsuka had been a genuinely nice person, one of the first Eric had ever known. And now someone had killed him.

Totsuka-san…You were nice. Fujishima and the others still are. But they aren't the only people in this world. People like them still exist too.


Shiro hadn't been like them, but the Colorless King had been. That night, Eric cried again.


So. Senea and I accidentally wrote basically the same thing when we did this one. Which isn't all that surprising, since we were talking to each other at the time hahaha.

Let me know what you think!