A/N: Warnings for this chapter: surprisingly, considering the prompt, none. On a bit of a roll – but don't worry. It won't last forever.
Enjoy. :D
Drowning in the Dark
11. Abusive
'There's a nicer stream near your school,' Kousei commented. His cheeks and hands were stinging, but aside from that he'd made it to the other in one piece. 'Why choose a place like this?'
'Nobody comes here,' the other replied, turning around…though he didn't show surprise in his facial expression or form. And he should have been, because Kousei had not said anything about coming. Though he'd made so much noise on the way, the presence itself probably hadn't counted as much of a surprise.
Nobody comes here… That explained why the trees and shrubs were overgrown. But the very presence of the two of them contradicted that statement.
'You came here.'
'Mmm…' was the only reply he received.
'Was it…because you wanted to be alone?' He found that hard to believe; that was something that could have easily been achieved at the apartment.
'Nothing like that.' The boy, still seated, turned so the pair of them could see each other on the backdrop of the wild creek. 'I just like this place.'
'I…see.' In all honesty, Kousei didn't see at all. 'That box I picked up earlier…I brought a few things back from it.' He pulled them out of his pockets: the picture-frame with the old woman, and the refurnished glass orb.
There was a small sound of surprise as Kousei passed the two. The hand that accepted the orb shook a little more, but there was nothing on his facial expression that gave him away.
A totally different sort of poker face than Kouji… Kousei thought. But that brief image was soon swept away by a curtain of hair as the other examined the two things. Scratched fingers ran along the splits in the glass and frame after it had fallen – or been thrown. Neither of them had any way of knowing which it was after all.
The glass orb was a different matter. It told a long and detailed story in its transformation: in the way it had been remade and sealed so only by breaking the current image could it be replaced by another one…or the old.
Was that how every situation was, Kousei wondered? He'd given up rights of being that boy's father and now he couldn't be until the barrier actually broke? And how was it supposed to break? He couldn't throw it on the ground like the glass orb and watch its glass shatter or the things inside to become unstuck and chaos.
Or maybe it was that that sort of chaos couldn't be fixed with simple glue.
But relationships weren't all or nothing, and that was the real reason he had come, and come without a word to anyone else.
'Let's go for some lunch.'
The boy turned to him, blinked, then set the two things in his hands down and stood up.
'Don't…you want to bring those along?' Kousei asked.
'Nobody comes here,' the other replied. 'They'll be fine.'