Long after the lights had been turned off and Ikuto was fast asleep, I was still wide awake. I couldn't believe it. Ikuto was back.
Ever since that first time he had left to find his father years ago, the times he was able to visit home were fewer and fewer. After the wedding he had stayed around awhile, and then had mysteriously disappeared, showing up a couple of months later. It carried on like that for a while, him randomly showing up and then randomly leaving. I didn't think much of it, though secretly I would have appreciated a goodbye.
This last time had been different. He had left just as suddenly as the other times, but after a couple months I had received a letter from him, telling me that he was going to be gone longer than expected, and that we could keep in contact using letters since his phone service didn't carry over to Europe where he was staying.
"Longer than expected" had turned out to be about a year and a half, now that I calculated it out. The last time I had seen him I was still in 8th grade, and 14. He had been 19. Mentally calculating, I figured he would be 21 right now.
Of course I had never lost hope that he would come back, but it was hard, having a person you cared about being so far away for such a long period of time. However, it made what little time we had together precious.
All of the times that he had come home to Japan, he had stayed with me in my room. Of course, my mother and father didn't know, but I reasoned that it was necessary for him to stay here in order for us to spend the most time together.
I shifted in bed so that I could look over the edge at the sleeping boy. He really did look older since I had last seen him a year and a half ago. He seemed to be taking care of himself well, except for those bruises and scrapes…
I wondered again where he could have gotten them. It wasn't entirely uncommon for him to have a couple cuts and such when he would come back after a couple months, but he always told me they were from climbing up to the second floor where my balcony was. Since Yoru wasn't with him anymore and he couldn't character change, he just climbed the wall like a real cat would to get to my window. I smiled again, thinking how odd it was that he was so cat-like.
He stirred in his sleep, and I looked down trying to see if everything was alright. There seemed to be a sheen on his forehead, so I moved towards him to put my hand on his forehead, wanting to check if he had a fever. I wouldn't have been surprised considering how soaked he had been.
As my hand made contact with his forehead, he jerked away reflexively in his sleep, causing me to withdraw my hand sharply. That was strange. I wondered if he was having a dream of some sort, but decided that I could leave checking for a fever until morning. After all, I had all day tomorrow.