Ok, before the chapter starts...I'm gonna answer a question, ok? -smile- Fireash asked me when this happens...In truth? I haven't read past the test with that pro guy I mentioned in the dream. -sweat drop- But the scene of Akira on the train, rushing to find Hikaru was burned into my mind for so long, the words echoing with such promise! (I also like the fact that when he sees Hikaru's on the Shonen Jump homepage...Akira looks like he just died! -laughs-)
So yea, this is based after a ton of stuff happens, ...when he's an Insei or maybe a pro, depending on what you want. But it's before him and Akira meet again, that's the whole point of this, isn't it? -cute smile, wink-
But as to when it actually happens? I don't know. Use your imagination and just stick this any old place you want to. I really don't mind, as long as it remains possible...-sigh- possibilities...
Chpt 2
This is chapter two of a three-part story. Hope you enjoy!
Hikaru yawned into his hand, holding his ramen umbrella above his head. He'd slept in again today. He'd felt uneasy after the strange dream he had...so he'd gone walking.
He'd been dreaming of the day Akira Touya confronted him about being Sai on the net. The day Akira Touya said they'd never meet again...His expression saddened at the memory.
But then it changed. His dream had followed Akira as he walked away, instead of staying with the one who's memory it was. Then Hikaru had found out, that that was Akira's memory...
Akira had walked away, and he'd called him back. But at the mention of playing a game of Go with him, Hikaru paused. Akira's expression became a sad one and he turned, walking away again.
Hikaru had heard himself, trying half-heartedly to make Akira turn around, but at that point, his attention had been grabbed by Akira. A tiny sound. That was it...and his head snapped back to Touya's.
Akira had been crying. Tears softly falling from his soft features, to land softly on the ground. It had all been soft...so soft...And Hikaru had felt a hundred times worse than he had when he'd experienced this from his own point of view.
But his dream had changed...he stop walking as he remembered it.
-
The area was dark. 3 people, a chair, and a computer were off to one side. Sai, Akira, and himself. He paused at seeing himself in here. Wait, what the? When was this? What was this? A dream? Akira Touya's dream?
And why was Sai here? Could Akira see him? Apparently.
'They must've been talking before I got here...however I got here...' he shut up and listened.
"Why do you look so sad?" Akira asked. Sai blinked and looked up at him.
'Hikaru still...only wants to play you. He loves playing against his old team members at Haze, he hates playing me because I always go so hard on him, but he really...really...just wants to be close to you...'
Hikaru blinked. They were talking about him? Akira paused and looked at the ground.
'And you'll wait for him to get there, won't you Akira?' Sai brought Akira's attention to him, but not his eyes.
Hikaru blinked again. Akira would wait?
'Because...once again...you aren't waiting for a game...and he's not coming for one. Hikaru is running towards you, who so inspires him. He wants to play you, more than he wants to play anyone else. He wants to be as good as you...so he can stay at your level at least. Hikaru wants...more than anything...'
"To be...like me..." Akira said, and Sai and Hikaru could hear the tears he refused to shed. "To be near me...like me...above and beside me...more than me...less than me...and equal to me...He wants to walk down a path I created when I started playing Go...he doesn't want to follow me...does he?"
Sai shook his head, frowning.
"He wants...to walk..." a tear fell from his eye. "With me..."
Hikaru's expression was sad and understanding. This was indeed Akira's dream...Sai was contacting him somehow...or maybe Akira subconsciously contacted Sai...it didn't matter. Akira was speaking from his heart, with his heart. He was being completely honest with himself and with Sai.
Sai smiled sadly as he faded away and the computer, and Hikaru, moved away from the softly crying pro. Akira's head snapped up and he began running after Hikaru.
"Hikaru! Hikaru wait up! Don't go!" he shouted, hand outstretched. Hikaru felt something at the pleading in his voice. "Don't leave me!" he pleaded, tears running freely down his cheeks.
'He's crying...Please don't cry...' Hikaru blinked as he could hear Akira's thoughts here too.
'Why shouldn't he leave me? I left him. I left him there, on that street corner...When he convinced me that he wasn't Sai...' Akira thought sadly. Hikaru blinked and reached out to Akira, but he couldn't move from where he was floating in the 'sky.'
"Hikaru!" Akira's hand was within reach and he smiled. Everything slowed down, until they were still again, Akira right behind dream-Hikaru.
Just as Akira went to place his hand on Hikaru's shoulder, the ladder of the two started to disappear. Akira gasped and dream-Hikaru turned halfway in his chair to smile at Akira. Hikaru could only stare at this spectacle. Akira began to cry slightly when he found that his hands went straight through his rival.
"What are you waiting for...Touya?" dream-Hikaru's voice echoed, and the question, and his tone, didn't match the smile he wore.
He disappeared completely, the computer gone too. So now all that was left was the chair he'd sat in. Akira draped his arms around the back of the chair as he sunk to the ground, a few tears falling from his eyes, and blackness all around him. Hikaru let out a short yell of frustration.
"I...I don't know..." he managed to whisper as he cried and Hikaru shut up. "I don't know..."
'I built myself around Go...I never had any friends...But I lost to you and it all changed...'
"Huh?" Hikaru floated a smidgen closer to Akira.
"I wasn't built around Go anymore...unconsciously, my world had switched to revolving around you instead..." Akira took a deep, shuddering breath. "Hikaru...Come back..."
Hikaru narrowed his eyes.
'I wanna come back! I will! If I could move...I would!' Hikaru yelled in his mind, clutching the fabric of his shirt over his heart unconsciously.
Akira's grip around the chair was almost like a hug, and he tightened his grip.
"Dammit! I'm waiting for you! I'm waiting! I'm waiting for...I'm waiting for you! I don't care about some stupid match against you!...I wait for...I wait for the time when you'll catch up...When my road and yours combine...When we walk the same path, side by side, and you hold your head up high...I wait for your smile to be directed at me...I wait..."
Hikaru gasped. This seemed to trigger something. The chair disappeared and Akira fell. He caught himself with his arms and didn't miss a beat.
"Hikaru Shindou!"
"Huh?" Hikaru blinked, in one of those 'somebody call me?' kinda ways.
"I wait for the day you come walking up to me...But you're waiting too...You're waiting for me to come back..." He wiped his eyes and cursed himself for crying so much. "You're an idiot...a naive...lucky...dim-witted...happy-go-lucky Hikaru..."
"Yea, Love you too!" Hikaru said angrily.
"And I love it that way..."
"Ok...you've lost me." Hikaru's expression was one of someone who is indeed 'lost.'
Akira opened his eyes as it dawned on him. All the reasons he did what he did. Hikaru could feel an epiphany coming on. He knew Akira was sad about something. And it broke his heart.
"I love the way you're so stupid you didn't know who I was when we met. I love the way you're so naive you would try anything before knowing how dangerous it is..." Akira muttered.
"uh...thanks?"
"The way you're so lucky that you found friends in the Go world, and still managed to become as strong as you are..."
"Did you just compliment me? I thought you hated me!" he seemed happy about this...
"The way you're so dim-witted that your heart is made of gold..." Hikaru sweat-dropped. "I love your personality, your smiles, the gestures and comments you make that have no meaning...Oh god...I'm in over my head..."
'Does he mean...He's in...' Hikaru blushed.
'Hey! Wait! Akira!'
'Me?' Hikaru's blush didn't lighten up in the least.
"Alright Hikaru...I'm waiting...I'll wait...forever...for you..." Akira closed his eyes. "I..."
"Touya...Akira..." Hikaru floated down and cupped Akira's chin. 'Look at me...' Hikaru couldn't see that he was glowing, or his own wings..
He was floating above Akira still, coming down to land. Akira froze slightly when he saw the wings Hikaru didn't know he had. But as soon as his feet touched the floor and he was settled, they disappeared.
Hikaru's hand moved from Akira's chin to his cheek and brushed some of the tears away. The glow lessened but Hikaru hardly noticed the change in light.
"Akira...why are you crying?" he asked, genuinely concerned. Akira's eyes narrowed slightly as his eyebrows furrowed.
He threw himself into Hikaru's arms, wrapping his own around Hikaru's waist, knocking said boy into a sitting position, and barely that. Hikaru blinked at the Go pro and placed a hand on Akira's back lightly.
"Touya?"
"I'm sorry Hikaru..." Akira mumbled as he began to cry anew. Hikaru blinked. "I'm sorry for everything..."
"Don't cry Touya! You're too beautiful to cry..."
Akira's head snapped up, his crying paused. Hikaru inwardly gasped at the comment. Where had that comment come from? It was true though...Akira was very beautiful. As Hikaru thought back, he realized that...he'd always thought Akira was...beautiful.
"What?" Akira managed to whisper, eyes disbelieving.
"Akira Touya..." Hikaru's eyes filled with emotion Akira couldn't decipher. Hikaru could see sadness in Akira's eyes, and it hurt him...
He looked into Akira's eyes and could see Akira walking away from him the last time, crying. He saw whenever Akira walked away, every time. And in his mind, Hikaru could see a little Akira, running, running nowhere...just...running...
"Why are you running away?" he asked sadly.
It was recognition that Hikaru saw in Akira's eyes a moment later. And he heard Akira's thoughts once again.
'Wait...' Akira's mind clicked into memories. 'I've seen this before...' Akira seemed to be forcing himself not to start crying again. 'Every time I'm with him I cause this look...This pained look...to creep into his eyes...I cause it...'
'No!' Hikaru's mind screamed.
"Touya!" Hikaru said in a pleading tone, his eyes pleading too. "Please don't cry anymore! It's...It's not right!"
"How's it not right?" Akira asked, and it was obvious he was hardly keeping himself from crying. "I haven't cried most of my life...I've been inhuman...But you..."
"This isn't like you, Touya...What's wrong?" Hikaru asked, worried. Akira shook his head, laying it against Hikaru's chest and closing his eyes. Hikaru blushed again.
"This is the first time..."
Hikaru heard a sound. But he felt at peace, sitting here with Akira leaning against him...
"This is the first time...I've ever been me..." he clutched Hikaru tighter and Hikaru held him in a comforting way, one hand on Akira's back, one on his head. "I don't wanna lose this..."
"Lose what?" Hikaru asked innocently, he heard his voice...softer than before.
"You..." Hikaru started slightly. "I'm waiting Hikaru...I said I wouldn't...but I will...I'll wait for you forever..." Akira sat up slightly and looked Hikaru in the eyes. Hikaru stopped breathing. "I'll wait because..."
That sound again...still far away. Akira moved closer to him, and his eyes widened slightly. Their lips were 3 inches apart. Hikaru shed one tear from each eye, because in his mind he knew...this was just a dream...Akira's eyes were closed.
"Hikaru! HIKARU!"
"Ah!" Hikaru's eyes shot opened, but he didn't sit up.
"Hikaru, Wake up! It's noon!" his mom yelled at him.
"Alright! I'm up!" Hikaru yelled back, throwing the covers off and ripping the door open.
"Finally!" his mom threw her arms up, then hugged him. "Don't sleep so late, ok? Even if there's nowhere to go, sleeping so late isn't good for you."
"Ok Mom." Hikaru had to wonder if his mom had mood swings. As she walked down the hall, he retreated back into his room to change clothes.
When he was done, Hikaru pulled on a light blue jacket over his usual yellow shirt. He had on shorts for two reasons. One, he liked shorts. Two, it was raining and he didn't want to wear long pants or jeans that would get soaked as he walked. He closed his bedroom door behind him and walked downstairs. After putting on his shoes, he picked up his umbrella with the ramen on it and took the handle to the door in his hand.
"Mom! I'm going out for ramen!" he called. He heard an affirmative and then opened the door and left.
-
After a lunch of ramen, he'd gone walking. The rain was pouring down, but his umbrella kept him quite oblivious to that fact. He blinked when he noticed that no one else was on the street but him.
How long had he been standing there?
Suddenly footsteps caught his attention.
End, be prepared for the final chapter, next! -smile-