A/N -
Any reviews from last week have warmed my frozen heart. I cant say anything more about it without it delving into a full blown paragraph of incoherent screaming, so I'll shelve that real quick to never be seen again.
On a another note, I basically tossed angst, headcanons, hurt/comfort, more angst, and possibly-crappy characterization in a blender and made a fuckin smoothie, have fun and tell me how it tastes (I have no clue if this is ooc or not I'm crying) Also Artist!Hyuse is my headcanon that I love undeniably but have never really gotten a chance to talk about, I refuse to leave it out of this fic.
Please leave a comment telling me how I did because heck, I'm really not sure if this is REALLY bad or half-way to relatively decent.
There's another A/N at the end, but it's relatively off-topic and probably better to read once you're done, so I'll talk there.
-0-
I would rather be literally anywhere but here right now.
"… Jin." My voice came out steadier than I thought it would.
(—I'm not ready for this I'm not ready for this I thought I was I'm so sorry—)
"Did they lock you in here too?" He weakly laughed. "Rindou-san tricked me into walking in here, ha… I wasn't paying attention all that much."
"You didn't notice? That… Seems out of character. For you, I mean."
"Hm, maybe…" I could hear the smile, somehow. He had always managed to put on a smile even when he couldn't bear to keep it sincere.
Just another thing to add to the list of 'things Miwa probably doesn't like about Jin'.
He paused, before I heard something rustle as if he had shifted slightly. "So how's life been for you lately?"
"Fine," The response was terser than I intended it to be. "I had the past two Rank wars matches, you probably saw them anyhow."
"I wonder." His words were accompanied by a clipped laugh. "... How was the festival?"
"A lot of people were there. Everyone had fun too, Shiori even got to see her old squad. You should've come."
He hummed. "Sorry, I got distracted by something else. Once I had finally noticed the time, it was far too late to head out."
I couldn't stop the remark before it slipped through my lips. "Again, seems out of character for you. Jin."
"My head has been up in the clouds a lot lately." He excused, somewhat carelessly. "Did you know Mikami-san was originally going to ask me to help her with the commentary today? I thought I'd zone out anyways though, so I ended up skipping out."
"… Is t-that it…?" My voice wavered that time.
But it was easier for the both of us to just pretend we didn't notice anything, so that's what he did.
(—That's all its been for the past few weeks. Just pretend there's nothing wrong, pretend nothing's happened, pretend I wasn't a complete and utter fool at that time—)
"Accepting for the next time they ask, is still a possibility though," Jin slumped down to sit on one of the meeting room chairs. "Maybe I can finally get my act back together by then."
"… Yeah." I paused, undeniably frustrated, but also somehow resigned. "… That's all. Just gotta… Get your act together. That's all you need…"
I was slowly turning, turning—turning… Until I could finally face his direction. Until I could finally… See his expression.
He was slumped down in the chair, hands folded together between his bent knees.
… And he wasn't even looking in my direction.
(—Is that so different from what I've been doing? After all, I haven't even bothered trying to talk to him, haven't even tried thinking about him. Is that why I'm lost for words right now?—)
"Yeah." Jin took a deep breath. "… Just need to get my act together."
(—Maybe I'll never be ready. Maybe that's why Yuma and Rindou-san thought it'd be best to force me into this right now.)
I couldn't help but slam my closed fist against the meeting table, the loud 'thud' jarring us both out of the false-nonchalant air.
(… I can't help but selfishly disagree with that plan.)
-0-
Jin didn't flinch, but he was undeniably tense when Mori didn't move her hand from its spot.
Still clenched into a fist, still flat against the edge of the table and still in front of Jin.
He still didn't look up though.
"Is that really all it is?" Mori's voice was flat. It didn't shake as it did before, but there was an undertone that gave away how shaky she was. "An act. That's how much all of this matters to you."
"Four-eyes—"
"Answer me, Jin!" Jin was suddenly very glad that the meeting rooms are, for the most part, relatively soundproof. "Did you even give a shit when you told me to 'be careful'? Or were you just obligated to at least warn me before letting me run off to my death?!"
She raised her hand, before slamming it down once again. "You've looked into the future many times before, I know that! I—I know that you're smart, that's one of the reasons why I respected you so much, despite how goddamn frustrating your attitude is! You knew—"
Her voice cracked. It was painful, and the sound reminded Jin of more painful memories from years ago when he had lost nearly everything he had ever cared about.
("… Mo… gami-san...?")
"—You knew I wouldn't run away from what you foretold!" She raised her fist for the last time—but that's all it was. The last time, as she faltered from swinging it down again.
Her shaking hand returned to her side instead.
"You knew I wouldn't take it seriously—that I wouldn't listen, so why'd you let me go?!"
Jin's eyes widened in shock as a shuddering sob echoed in the dark room. But he didn't dare lift his head up.
"Did I really—Do I really mean that little to you?!"
Jin's arms lashed out, both hands gripping Mori's shoulders tightly.
Because if he didn't say anything now, this would never get better between them. Even if there's was no way out of the room, she would flinch away, and break and shatter while her resolve falls to the floor in a million pieces and Jin may never find another way to fix this break between them—
"Four—Mikumo, please." And Jin's voice was breaking too, because how dare she say he didn't care, he could never bring himself to stop caring and that's the reason he nearly broke when Mogami left so long ago— "You can't say that—You don't—"
"Why can't I say it?!" Mikumo snaps, and at that point, so does Jin. "Why can't I say it when that's all that I can see?! Because you haven't even looked at me! Even now, you can't even bring yourself to look in my fucking direction!"
Jin wanted to refute that so badly, but he knew he couldn't. Because he was still stubbornly keeping his eyes trained on the ground, where he couldn't see a damn thing.
(I don't want to look again, I just want these peaceful days to go on forever, I don't want to look and see all of the horrible tragedy that might come to pass, I don't want to face it—)
"I don't want to look at you, it's true." He admitted thinly. "But why would you accuse me of not caring? It's not that—"
"It's because you never came!"
Mori didn't want to yell it, but the words came out anyway.
(She didn't want to hear the truth behind what happened. She was scared she wouldn't like it.)
And the teen took a deep, shuddering breath in, and all Jin could feel under his fingertips was her shoulders shaking with the effort.
"… You never came." It was so jarring from the loud, thunderous yells that came from her before. Now she sounded like the kid she was, broken and sad and lonely and confused. "When I was bleeding in that alleyway, when Miwa and I were waiting for either help or death to arrive…"
An exhale that turned into a half-sob on it's way out. Jin never wanted to hear that broken sound again.
(It was incredibly easy to forget one's age in Border, where everyone there were simply allies on the battlefield. It was easy to forget that some of them were still young, and still relying on their elders for guidance.)
(Jin might've been like that once. But he was forced to grow up far too soon, and he would never wish that upon anyone else he was acquainted with.)
"You… Y-you, the only person that knew without a doubt that all of t-that would happen… Why didn't you come for me? Why didn't you come for us?!"
Jin needed to stop that thought process because he could see exactly where she was going with this. And for as much as the truth was ugly, what she was currently imagining was worse.
"It's because I wasn't the one you needed."
(The truth is always harsh. It's not always what you want to hear, but it's something you need to hear to even begin healing. Otherwise… You're just playing pretend.)
"I wasn't the one you needed. I wasn't the one Miwa needed either." And it hurt Jin to admit that. Because it was all anymore ever wanted, to be the one someone needed. "What Miwa needed was a friend, a teammate. He needed Yoneya."
And revealing the careful house of cards he had created so everything would turn out to be the acceptable outcome he always aimed for… Well, Jin had never done that before. He always kept the cards close to his chest, revealing only small glimpses to even some of his most trusted friends.
"That's why I let Yoneya, Izumi and Midorikawa go over there without a fight. That's why I advised HQ to give the Fujin to Miwa. So that they'd be over there at that time. That's why I let Izumi get captured for that short time, so Tachikawa could be there to help you guys too. That's why I held back that Neighbour even though Yuma could've probably taken on both of them, so that he could finish off the one enemy he had and go over there. I made sure as many people were over there that there could possibly be. That's why I did everything I could to make sure you guys would get what you needed to survive, don't you get it?"
Mori sobbed again.
She'd never cried this much in front of anyone else, even when she was stuck picking up the broken pieces of her life in the wake of Rinji's absence.
Though she was filled with far too much anger at the time to even entertain the idea of breaking down like this.
"So I… I can't accept you saying that I never cared. That I still don't care. I just can't accept that."
The burning in Jin's eyes is starting to get difficult to push back and ignore. He distracted himself by closing them softly, the inky blackness quickly overtaking his vision.
"I don't want to look at you… Because I don't want to use my side effect for now." He chuckled, but it was hollow and empty as Mori sunk to the floor. He followed soon after, slipping off of the chair to kneel down on the ground with her. "It's almost a habit by now, using my side effect to find out what topics to avoid, what to do so I can keep things going my way. So I can either avoid infuriating someone, or rile them up just cause."
His eyes stayed shut, even as he brought Mori closer to rest his arms around her comfortingly.
"But I guess I was being a coward this time… I didn't want to look at you." The thought had tormented painfully him for the past week, like a nail being driven into the side of his head. "I didn't want to admit that you didn't need me, and I didn't want to confront the issue. so I avoided you, and I avoided looking into your future… I'm sorry."
He kept silent after that. After all, it was everything he could say at this point, all he could do was face the truth for what it was. And here was to hoping Mori could too.
After what felt like several minutes of quiet, the younger teen finally nodded shakily.
"…I-I'm sorry too—I… I just… Kept thinking that you would…" She hiccuped, though the noise was muffled by her sleeve, she was obviously trying to gain some self-control. "…I didn't want to know if you really d-did hate me. I was scared."
"It's fine." Jin nodded. "I should've told you. Sooner, I mean."
"It's not always your responsibility to take care of our messes, Jin-san." She laughed wearily. "We should've just talked this out earlier… And I shouldn't have started yelling at you."
"I should've explained why I was avoiding you," Jin admitted weakly. "I guess I really am a good for nothing senpai without my side effect, huh?"
"Damn right you are." Mori wiped her tears on her sleeve, pulling off her glasses quickly. Jin took them from her helpfully as she brought up both hands to her face. "… I can't call Yuma like this, I both look and sound like I've been crying."
"Maybe we can wait for a little," Jin suggested, before shuffling a little away from her and reaching into his pocket. "… I got something for you while you were… Still in a coma. It was supposed to be an apology gift—"
"Bribery, you mean," Mori joked weakly.
"—Whatever you want to call it." Jin laughed quietly. "Here you go."
It was a small glasses case. Sleek, black, with a small blue stripe down the middle, but slightly off centre.
Mori popped open the case and promptly snorted, although the sound was slightly watery. Though she still sounded slightly teary, she was getting better.
"Prescribed sunglasses?" Mori lifted the tinted frames from the box, bringing them up to her eyes to look through. "Really?"
Jin's chuckles echoed in the room as Mori inspected the glasses.
The prescriptions were perfect, but Mori knew better than to ask Jin how he knew them.
"… Should I call Yuma now?" Jin asked, cautious in breaking the silence.
Mori glanced up just to double-check his expression, but her eyes shot back down to the ground in an instant as a small smile began to form.
At least Jin had gone back to normal. He wasn't spacing out and glancing away from her anymore.
"… Sure." Mori reached into her pocket and offered Jin her phone. He took it from her gratefully, and she resumed inspecting the sunglasses as he dialled Yuma's number.
The frames were black, and the lenses were tinted a dark blue.
'They look… Cool.'
"Hello?" Jin smiled lightly, the atmosphere around them clouded with relief.
"Jin? … You have Mori's phone, so…?"
"Yup, we're better now."
He paused before a hint of mock-indignation entered his voice. "Though you didn't need to lock us in a room to get it done. Over excessive much?"
"If you were paying attention, you'd know what we were planning before we even thought of it." Yuma chuckled over the line. "Goes to show how much you were out of it."
"Ha, ha." Jin laughed with playful sarcasm. "Now open up the door for us, we've gotta get back before it gets too late. You even invited Kasumi-san over to the office, aren't you gonna let us go home now?"
"Damn, he really is back to normal," Yuma's voice faded slightly as if he had pulled away from the phone to speak to someone else. "Alright Rindou, you can open the door now."
A faint click echoed from the entrance, and Mori chuckled quietly. Her voice was hoarse, and Yuma immediately heard it over the sound of Jin getting to his feet.
"Jin, can you hand the phone to Mori for a sec?" Jin glanced down at the phone, before muttering an affirmative and handing over the phone.
As soon as the receiver was in her grasp, he stepped away and towards the door as if to give them some privacy. Mori nodded gratefully, just before lifting the device to her ear.
"Yuma…?" She coughed. "What do you need?"
There was a short pause as if Yuma were just taking in Mori's voice, registering the sound, before answering.
"… You sound like you were crying." Yuma commented. "Or yelling. Do I need to murder Jin when he gets back?"
"That'd be counterproductive, you guys just forced us to make up." Mori laughed. On the other end, Yuma grinned lightly at the sound of the giggles. "Besides, it was mostly my fault. I was going around blaming everyone else for something that was my fault."
"That's probably not the whole story, but whatever. I'll accept that." Yuma's smile stretched wider. "… I'm glad you're feeling better, Mori."
"Thanks, Yuma… Now, what was that Jin said about you guys inviting my mom over?"
"Haha, we can't get anything past you." There was a quiet rustle of fabric. "Kasumi-san offered to come over and help us make dinner for today since we needed to get her approval for the plan first. She said she's making your favourite food."
"You guys got my mom's approval before you even got my own?" Mori laughed again. "Betrayed by my own family, my own best friend. The humanity."
"Well, if we asked you, you would've never agreed!" Mori silently agreed with the statement, but only lowered the phone.
"I'll see you later, Yuma." Although she gave out an exasperated sigh, a small smile painted her features.
Before he could get a word out, Mori ended the call.
-0-
Dinner was great. Mom and Jin teased me a bit for my lack of social skills (although the latter is certainly one to talk), and nearly everyone let out a loud sigh of relief while watching Jin and I walk through the door side-by-side, and not glaring daggers at each other.
Karasuma, in particular, pat me on the head for successfully making up. Chika apologized frantically for leaving the two of us in the locked room, and Shiori gave a small apology with a sheepish chuckle.
Yuma only laughed. I gave him a noogie for that, but it didn't bother him much. In fact, I think it only made him laugh harder.
By the time the pseudo-party was over, mom was given a guest room, and most of us were staying over at the office. I was sharing a room with Yuma since neither of us sleep very much if at all, but he was out on the room at the moment.
With a heavy 'thud' as my body came in contact with the comforter, I heaved a sigh as I thought my day came to an end. My vision of the world slowly disappeared at the edges as my eyelids slid shut, and I prepared to embrace the world of sleep.
My eyes stayed shut for a total of twenty seconds before my phone emitted a loud ringing noise.
I picked up the offending object off the bedside table with a groan.
-0-
[This number is not saved in your contacts list. Mark as spam?]
[Unknown Number] : Hello~ Congrats on your win, Mikumo-chan~!
[Unknown Number] : Y'know, I still haven't repaid you for that orange soda! Maybe meet me tomorrow and we can spar for a bit?
Four-eyed weirdo : …inukai? How the fuck did you get my number
Four-eyed weirdo : PS how do you sound so menacing, not only through text, but also with a seemingly friendly invite like that. It's scary
[Unknown Number] : I asked Kunichika-chan for your number since I figured she'd have it.
Four-eyed weirdo : PSS you didn't seem like the type that would text in perfect punctuation. Frankly, it's terrifying. You get scarier every time you interact with me
[Unknown Number] : … Mikumo-chan, I think you need to rethink your priorities.
[Unknown Number] : Though I'll take it as a compliment…
Four-eyed weirdo : …I get the feeling that if I delete your number, you'll just end up texting me again.
[Unknown Number] : Maybe~ You never know.
Four-eyed weirdo : Though I also wouldn't be surprised if you went away politely if I asked you too
Four-eyed weirdo : Stop being such a goddamn unpredictable character
[Unknown Number] : Why are you describing me as If I'm a particularly annoying video game NPC. Lol.
Four-eyed weirdo : the 'lol' coupled with the perfect grammar is honestly scary. God.
[Unknown Number] : Anyway, is that a yes to the initial question? Ninomiya-san's been very grumpy lately… And as much as I like to hang out with Tsuji-chan, he's too polite to tell me if he wants some time alone, so I'll give him some time to breathe.
[Unknown Number] : Hello? Leaving me hanging?
Four-eyed weirdo : Ninomiya again. That guy. Who is he.
[Unknown Number] : Hm?
Four-eyed weirdo : I've heard about that guy way too many times lately to be ignored. who tf is he.
[Unknown Number] : Ninomiya's my captain. We're the B-rank number 1.
Four-eyed weirdo : uH-
Four-eyed weirdo : ….You're kidding me, right?
[Unknown Number] : You're not really keeping track of your B-rank competition, are you? Haha.
[Unknown Number] : After all, we're your next opponents.
Four-eyed weirdo :
Four-eyed weirdo : I
Four-eyed weirdo : I think I'll need take you up on that initial offer. When did you wanna meet?
[Unknown Number] : So polite! Also, tomorrow afternoon is good if it's fine with you.
Four-eyed weirdo : who's the polite one here?
[You have saved this number as 'Cloud buddy']
-0-
Quick A/N That I can literally not put anywhere else- 'Cloud buddy' is a pun off of their names, since 'Sumiharu' apparently has some sort of character for 'cloud' in it, along with 'Mikumo' which has 'kumo', which is also 'cloud'. Again, sorry for the interruption, I just wanted to explain it quickly.
-0-
Mori huffed, sitting up properly and setting down her glasses on the bedside table to replace the phone's place. She shifted and turned until her back was against the backboard of the bed.
-0-
Four-eyed weirdo : Alright i saved your number
Four-eyed weirdo : So that I don't get freaked out if you try texting me again
Cloud buddy : Ooh, what'd you put my name under?
Cloud buddy : I kinda hope it's not something insulting, like "annoying" or something of the sort.
Cloud buddy : I kind of get that I didn't make the best first impression, and I... Apologize?
Four-eyed weirdo : Don't worry about it, i get it
Four-eyed weirdo : sides, its just a weird and obscure pun. Anyways, whats this about you being our next opponents?
Cloud buddy : Oh, you really don't keep up with the news. They posted the next Rank wars matches this evening once they finished all of the matches for the day!
Four-eyed weirdo : Oh… My friends locked me in a room, and then we partied long enough to exhaust all of my social energy so I was too tired to even bother checking
Cloud buddy : wH
Cloud buddy : what
Four-eyed weirdo : ….N…nothing…. Continue….
Four-eyed weirdo : Also hHA, your perfect grammar dropped
Cloud buddy : … I'll just pretend that I never read that!
Cloud buddy : Anyways, the matchings for next… Saturday? Go as Kageura squad vs. Ninomiya squad vs. Azuma squad vs. Tamakoma-2 squad!
Four-eyed weirdo : you type so goddamn quickly
Cloud buddy : I was looking out for my squad name, but imagine my surprise when we're not only with you guys but Kageura as well! Big shocker.
Four-eyed weirdo : you know Kageura too?
Cloud buddy : … Alright, just a quick head's up-
Cloud buddy : -Everyone in Border knows EVERYONE IN BORDER. Mikado's a pretty tight-knit town as it is, with half the population bailing as soon as the Neighbours came around. It's a WONDER you've never met any of us just going about your old, completely normal day-to-day life.
Four-eyed weirdo : i was pretty much a loner for my entire life so i didn't get out of the house much
Cloud buddy : Ah. Sorry.
Four-eyed weirdo : and that only got worse after Rinji left… so yeah.
Cloud buddy : Rinji?
Cloud buddy : Oh right, Rinji Amatori. Speaking of which, is that guy related to Amatori "cannon" -chan, by any chance?
Four-eyed weirdo : When you type the honorific like that it just looks plain weird
Cloud buddy : Are you ever going to stop commenting on my texting habits?
Four-eyed weirdo : never ever, bitch
Four-eyed weirdo : and yes, they are related. Why'd you show up to his "funeral" if you don't even know him?
Cloud buddy : He was under suspicion for something
Four-eyed weirdo : …you dropped the punctuation again. I've only seen your texts for a few minutes, and i already know how bad that is.
Cloud buddy : … Ah, whoops.
Four-eyed weirdo : what the fuck did Rinji DO?
Four-eyed weirdo : …If youre allowed to tell me, please and thank you.
Cloud buddy : … It's mostly kept under wraps since it was a bit of an issue, but I'll tell you in case you know something about it and can offer some help
Cloud buddy : Besides, I don't really like the idea of keeping information hidden from anyone ALREADY involved... I would've told Ema-kun too if Ninomiya hadn't forbidden THAT little bit in particular
Cloud buddy : The guy was under suspicion of being involved in a… "trading" of sorts with our team's former sniper
Cloud buddy : They think she took some Triggers and traded them with him and a few other people, before all going beyond the gates and into the Neighbourhood
Four-eyed weirdo :
Cloud buddy : ...Do you know anything about that?
Four-eyed weirdo : ...I might
Cloud buddy : Any chance you could possibly share
Four-eyed weirdo : can I tell you tomorrow? It's kind of a mess, and I don't want to forget anything or have something end up mistranslated through text
Cloud buddy : Sure sure, no problem. The case has gone cold for a few months anyway, so I can wait for a few days if that's what you need.
Cloud buddy : This whole thing is kind of a sensitive subject, even for me. Ninomiya doesn't like talking about it other than for discussing investigation, while Tsuji-chan and Hiyami-chan usually just stay away from the topic…
Cloud buddy : Besides, I'm not the one handling the investigations anyways. Captain insisted on taking that burden, and he rarely lets us near it unless he's made decent enough progress to share.
Four-eyed weirdo : …Thanks, Inukai
Four-eyed weirdo : -senpai
Four-eyed weirdo : ….I can't believe you infected me with your "typing out honorifics" disease
Cloud buddy : Wait, I get to be called "-senpai"?! I'm flattered!
Four-eyed weirdo : Well I mean, you ARE 3 years older than me
Cloud buddy : Geh, you make me sounds old!
Four-eyed weirdo : please I am begging you don't type out the sound effects in perfect grammar, it's incredibly weird to read
Four-eyed weirdo : also HOW is 18 considered OLD to you
Cloud buddy : In Border, where nearly all the agents are from 13 to 25 —Fuyushima-san being the exception— 18 really does feel old.
Four-eyed weirdo : …
Four-eyed weirdo : Valid point.
Cloud buddy : See?
Cloud buddy : Change of topic, which one do you like more, dogs or cats?
-0-
Mori blinked blearily, before typing out a hesitant 'cats?' out into the text box.
If she knew just how many dog video compilations that answer would bring, she might just retract her statement.
…
On second thought, It might not have mattered either way what she answered with.
(… On the other hand, at least the dogs were pretty cute.)
-0-
...
...
...
Unexpectedly, Mori woke up first.
Especially unexpected, considering she was up fairly late into the night while being texted by Inukai. And just— Mori not being a morning person, but whatever.
"Oh, good morning." Yuma waved, currently shovelling eggs and bacon into his mouth as he waved to the new arrivals. "Welcome."
"Morning," Rindou greeted soon after, lifting his cup of coffee to his mouth.
"... Morning?" Karasuma looked slightly confused but ended up sitting on the couch without a word.
Shiori on the other hand, wasn't so silent about her befuddlement. "Yuma, where'd you get the breakfast? I know Rindou-san didn't make it for you..."
Rindou frowned in mock-sadness in the background, sullen at the reminder of his less-than-stellar cooking.
"Mori woke up earlier." Yuma hummed, picking up his cup of orange juice and swirling around the beverage. "She's showering right now, but she'll eat when she comes out.
"The rest is in the kitchen," Rindou offered helpfully. "Also, could one of you guys get everyone else? I've got... A bit of an announcement to make."
Yuma shot Rindou an undecipherable glance over his cup. "If you're just going to share it with everyone else, why didn't you just wait to tell us now?"
Rindou whistled innocently. Yuma hid his slight grin behind his cup before setting it down nonchalantly.
Karasuma sighed, before lifting himself off of the couch and stepping towards the door. "I'll wake up Reiji-senpai and Jin-senpai. Shiori-san, can you get the girls?"
"Fine, fine~ You guys better save some breakfast for me though, or else there'll be hell to pay."
Yuma sweat dropped as Shiori shut the door behind them.
The atmosphere was relatively silent after that, but Yuma wanted to get a few questions in before the rest of the building walked in.
"Rindou-san," He began quickly, setting his now-empty plate down. "... Why did you decide to tell everyone in the end?"
"... Well, I do need to tell HQ, you know." He laughed, tilting the coffee maker over to pour another cup. "I just needed to tell them once it's too late to change it back."
Yuma huffed in amusement, just before the door slammed open. "You're evil."
"Why so early?" Konami groused, stomping into the room with a surprising amount of enthusiasm despite her apparent drowsiness. "It's only..." A quick glance at the clock. "Eight o' clock. You woke me up at eight AM."
Rindou and Yuma surveyed the door as the remaining house residents walked in one by one before the former spoke up carefully. "We need to go to HQ today."
"Eh, why?" Shiori asked, before disappearing into the kitchen for a mere moment, but coming out with two plates of eggs and bacon. She offered the second plate to Kasumi, who nodded gratefully. "We don't have a rank wars match today, that was yesterday. What do we need to go for today?"
"Does everybody need to go?" Mori asked grumpily, sagging on the couch beside Yuma with dripping wet hair.
Konami glanced over at her blandly from across the room, before slowly stomping over and stealing the towel from around her shoulders. When Mori spun around in surprise and slight questioning, Konami sat her down before running the towel through her wet hair with a low grumble.
Kasumi shot the baffled Mori an amused glance, but turned away in the end.
"And should I leave now?" Kasumi asked politely. "If it's something classified, I'm afraid it may be easier if I headed back home..."
"We wouldn't kick you out as soon as you wake up," Karasuma reassured quickly. "Reiji-senpai already offered you a ride home, there's no reason for you to leave early."
"Besides, It's not much of a big deal in terms of security, as long as you don't have… Context." Rindou paused, before shrugging nervously. "... Besides, I might ask you to adopt someone, so it might be better if you're actually present for it—"
"... What?"
There was dead silence.
Mori cracked an eye open as Konami's hands stilled, the towel still covering half of the former's face.
Rindou gulped, a slightly nervous laugh spilling from his mouth. "... I might ask you to adopt someone...?"
"What."
"Yeah, I second that!" Konami cried out suddenly, broken out of her short trance. "What the heck is this about?!"
"Ow, ow, Konami-senpai—" Mori frowned as Konami lifted up the towel again, before pulling a brush out from god-knows-where. "—Y'know, you didn't need to dry or brush my hair—"
The teen shooter was summarily ignored.
Everyone spun around to glare questioningly at Jin, who's easy-going smile was once again present. "Don't look at me, I only found out about it yesterday." He paused, before shrugging. "I didn't want to be a part of this discussion either, but I figured it'd look like I was running away if I tried avoiding it."
"It would," Kizaki confirmed blankly.
"Haha, that's what I thought."
"Who did you want her to... 'Adopt'?" Karasuma asked carefully before lifting both hands to gesture in quotations. "And why?"
Rindou was silent, sharing an uneasy glance with Yuma through his glasses.
The latter only grinned smugly, before shrugging. "It was your idea, Rindou-san! Besides, if you think this is bad... Just wait 'till you need to tell Kido."
Mori muffled a snicker at the betrayed expression on Rindou's face.
The man sighed heavily... Before eventually deciding that it'd be best to drop the bomb bluntly.
"It's like ripping off a band-aid," Mori chortled. "Just go for it, Rindou-san."
"... Fine then." The man set down his cup of coffee with a sigh, before leaning heavily on the counter in front of him.
"... I'm signing up Hyuse, the Neighbour, to go to school with Mikumo and Kuga."
There were ten, solid seconds of silence.
Ten seconds, where Mori prayed for Rindou's safety, as Yuma smugly prepared himself to watch the inevitable shit-fest this was going to be, for Jin to cover his ears with a slowly forming smirk, and for everyone else to slowly process the words that just came out of Rindou's mouth.
Honestly, there was no other way for this to end.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
-0-
Betrayal was a terrible thing.
Hyuse reflected on it every second of the day, every day since he was stranded here.
(It was suffocating.)
'Was this how Enedora would've felt?' Hyuse kept thinking. After all, he didn't know the outcome of the invasion. Enedora's fate was anyone's guess at this point.
They did say they would leave the man behind, but they also chose to omit that Hyuse would be left behind as well if the mission was a failure.
It wouldn't surprise Hyuse if anything they said was now revealed to be a lie.
What's the point in being shocked when there's nothing left for him?
(That's a lie, he knows it is. He still needs to get back to his Master, he knows it, but he just can't. There's no escape—)
Hyuse has found that imagining the worst case scenario is the best thing to do. Not that he's a pessimist, but there's no point in getting one's hopes up.
Until there is a change to this monotonous lifestyle, he sees no foreseeable escape.
Until then, he will keep treating his fate as it seems. A prison with no escape.
There has been one, a single outlier in this new life that he would have never foreseen during that moment that Meeden soldier had ripped his Trigger from him and thrown him in this (surprisingly well-kept) basement.
One outlier.
One person… That, by all means, seemed like nothing but an annoyance at first.
'… What.'
"Prisoner-san! Prisoner-san, I've brought you food!"
A child.
A child. They sent him a child.
(How easy would it be to just be done with it right now, a quick hit to the back of his head just as the boy opens the door, the escape is open he can escape he can get out he can go save his master from their own godforsaken county that wants to sacrifice him to the system that keeps their planet alive—)
But he doesn't.
Part of Hyuse cannot let go of Aftokrator, while the other part of him is suffering from the sting of betrayal that remained once Hairein left Hyuse on the battlefield.
That Meeden soldier told him it'd happen. He hinted that Hyuse would be left behind, and it no longer matters how he knew. At the time, he figured that it was a lie, that he was just trying to get him to slip up, that there must be some kind of mistake... But the evidence was there.
It was there, in front of him, in the form of the sunny skies that were left in the wake of the invasion.
The part of him that longed to return to Aftokrator hung back and waited. Waited and waited and waited, and waited for the perfect time to escape from this dastardly planet because Hyuse refused to be left behind and forgotten like trash.
And the other part of him—the part that figured there was just no point to any of it, that just wanted to disappear off the face of the planet—was left behind.
Left to try and make sense of this new life he was handed.
"Sorry, no one else is around." The child murmured, leaning against the animal that always accompanied him as the three of them sat on the floor of the basement. There were papers strewn all around them, along with a few pencils from the child's previous attempts at distracting himself.
Hyuse did not join in, simply looking on blankly. Because seriously, did the Meeden child really think he cared about the variety in jailers that would bring him food? Whether they decided to stick around to watch him or amuse themselves afterwards like the child himself, hardly concerned him.
"I know they'll come around soon… But they're all really sad." The child paused, before drooping sadly. "… I know they'll… come around soon… As soon as Mori wakes up, they'll all be back…"
Hyuse has no idea who this 'Mori' person is, but he assumes that it's someone that got hurt during the invasion.
(It's none of his concern. It never was.)
The child(—Yotaro, he said his name was, Yotaro—) came around many times after that. Always bringing food, bringing something to play with, and new topics to talk about.
And for all that Hyuse was being difficult—bland expression present every moment of the day, every goddamn day—Yotaro actually managed to wrangle a few details out of the unresponsive Neighbour.
"So you like Taiyaki, huh? Well, as your senpai, I'll make sure to bring you lots, and lots of Taiyaki! You can count on me!"
The fish pastry wasn't bad, he supposed. It was enjoyable to eat at times.
And somehow, the small Meeden child had found out about Hyuse's minor skill in the subject of visual arts.
"Whoa, did you draw those!?"
Hyuse turned around—mechanically, slowly, tiredly— before shrugging slowly as he glanced back down at the papers in front of him.
"You're the one that brought the papers, what do you think?" Hyuse excused, tossing the top paper aside as Yotaro stepped into the room.
The child—instead of walking in normally, like expected—ran into the room with his arms flailing. "Ahhh! Hyu—Kouhai, you can't just toss those around like that!"
"… Why not?" Hyuse's voice was flat, monotone, and above all tired. So tired of the world that had given up on him, tired of the planet that had abandoned him, the planet—the nation that he had given up his life for, so, so tired of just living like this— "… I drew it. I can do whatever I like with it. I could burn it and toss it away for all you should care."
Right.
Because that was exactly what Aftokrator had done with him. His existence was molded for the specific use of his nation, for them to use as they see fit, so it was expected of them to eventually ball it up and toss it in the trash once he was no longer useful.
That's all he was, wasn't it—?
"No, you shouldn't say that!"
…
Hyuse, for the first time in the week that he had been kept in this dreary, lonely basement, tilted his head. In confusion. In curiosity.
Wondering.
"… What's not it…?"
"You're wrong! Even if you don't want it, I like it a lot! Because I know you put effort into it, and it's something you made, so I'm gonna keep it!"
Hyuse's eyes widened, as Yotaro swooped right in from underneath his nose, and swiped the paper from him.
It was a simple pencil drawing. A simple sketch of a bird, drawn from the Neighbour's lost memories from so long ago, from a grassy field with trees around the coastline of the clearing—
"Ah, Hyuse. I thought you'd be here. You're always here when the teachers can't find you, aren't you?"
Hyuse grumbled, small makeshift eraser swiping across the parchment furiously as Hyuse squinted at the landscape in the distance.
He couldn't quite get the look of that single tree right, and it was frustrating.
"Hyuse, come now. Viza-san would be very disappointed to see you skipping."
"I'm not skipping—" Hyuse protested in a low grumble, temper already reaching its end. "The sun is only good around this time of day. Master, you know better than anyone that I wouldn't just skip sword practice."
Hyuse's temper would eventually simmer down by the time that he grew older, but in the past? He was definitely one to get riled up easily.
A little too easy.
"Ah, don't worry. I see what you mean." The Neighbour stepped up behind Hyuse, peeking over his shoulder to take a look at the sketch.
"… Quite a masterpiece."
"It's not that good." Hyuse protested lightly, although his chest was warming with content and pride at the praise. "I'll probably end up losing it in a few hours, it's mostly just for practice."
The older Neighbour was quiet for a few more moments.
Before the paper was snatched up from Hyuse's grip, the parchment lifting up and out of Hyuse's vision as he flinched minutely.
"H-Hey! Don't just grab it like that—"
"I like it."
Hyuse paused, scrambling to his feet and hurriedly brushing off any sign of sort of grass from the relatively expensive clothing. "Wha—What are you…?!"
"I like it," The older Neighbour repeated, before folding up the parchment and tucking it away nonchalantly. "I'm keeping it."
"But why…?" Hyuse muttered, automatically falling into step beside his master as the Neighbour began to walk away. "It's not that good, you can get a better artwork if you ask a paid artist."
"Even if it's not drawn on the highest quality parchment, or sketched with the finest pencils in the entire Neighbourhood…" The adult chuckled. "Even if you don't, I like it quite a bit. So that's why...—"
"—I'll make sure I never lose it, ok?" Yotaro promised with a smile, holding up the sketch as if it were a prized trophy. "Because even if you don't want it, I like it! So I'm gonna keep it!"
And Hyuse, at that exact moment, could feel the resolve within him crumble, yet fortify at the exact same time.
The resolve to return home, deep within him.
How is it possible to be so enraptured, yet at the same time, so revolted at the very thought of something that used to be home?
-0-
Days pass, as the uncomfortable, conflicting feeling once again settles in the back of his mind.
Days pass, as Yotaro collects his drawings. On the odd day, Yotaro will bring a tablet with photos that he goes around outside to take, asking Hyuse to draw and copy the shoddily photographed landscape.
Hyuse complies, just quiet and bland enough to convey that he's only doing it because there's nothing else to do. Yotaro might have noticed, he might not have.
(He's just a child after all.)
Yotaro collects and collects and collects, and eventually, Hyuse can hear the loud complaining of the Meeden child through the door, begging for a quick stop to a nearby crafts store.
Hyuse rolls his eyes at the time. But when the child returns back with a photo book to hold the stray scraps of paper collected form Hyuse's hands, there's an undeniable warmth curling in his chest.
He ignores it.
Yotaro smiles and asks Hyuse to slide all of his drawings into the book, in order.
Once again, Hyuse complies. But it feels less and less like he's being forced to do it every time that Yotaro asks him for something.
Nearly two weeks later, Hyuse finds himself waiting patiently for the tri-daily visits from the young boy. Hyuse had drawn a small tree that Yotaro had shown a photo of, and was sitting on the edge of his bed as he knowingly waited.
Unfortunately, the visitor was one that was less than welcome.
Hyuse blinks lethargically, light filtering in through the now-open door.
"Food."
The tray, holding a bowl of noodles this time, along with a set of chopsticks—Hyuse would never admit that he didn't like those things.
Once Yotaro noticed him having troubles with them, he had made one attempt to help the Neighbour with his troubles. With that ending in failure, the young boy had made the decision to instead bring a spoon and fork down instead.
The mere sight of the offending utensils was enough to make his eye twitch.
Though, the difference in the person had Hyuse at a slight loss as to what to do.
The teenager was around Hyuse's height, with dark, scruffy hair.
He seemed to notice that he wasn't welcome, and nodded politely as he set down the tray on a small table.
"Sorry Yotaro couldn't come by," He apologized, though the unfamiliarity of his voice had Hyuse's eyes narrowing unconsciously. "He was out for today since Rindou-san needed something."
Hyuse didn't recognize the name. He didn't care much for it either.
The teenager sighed after a long, tense silence, running his hand through his hair as he turned back towards the door.
"... I'll have Yotaro keep bringing the food down." He conceded, and a small, still-defiant part of him was satisfied that at least he wouldn't need to see this... ingrate's face on the daily—
The door shut with a small click.
And Hyuse was left alone in the darkness, once again.
Once again, the conflicted feelings returned with the never-ending chant of mustescapemustreturntomastermustgetawayfromthisgoddamnplanet—
And once again... Hyuse was left wondering why he should even bother trying.
-0-
Yotaro returned a few hours later, accompanied by Raijinmaru and a photo book in hand.
Just like normal. This was now normal.
"Hyuse, have you ever wanted to go home?"
The Neighbour freezes, but only for a moment. He has years of a soldier's teachings ingrained in his mind, years of being repeatedly told not to give his feelings away to the enemy.
(But is Yotaro really the enemy?)
"Why do you ask?" He instead returns neutrally, thankful that the child is too unobservant to notice Hyuse's deflection for what it was.
"I was just wondering..." Yotaro sticks his tongue out as he swipes his pencil across the page, for once joining in as he usually does when he can get Hyuse to draw something for him. "... I really want Mori to wake up and I miss her, but no one tells me anything about it. I just wanted to know if you're missing something too."
('Mori'. Hyuse distantly recalled the name from what feels like so long ago, although he can't remember the exact circumstances that he heard the name under. Someone had probably mentioned them before at some point.)
Though Yotaro speaks the name with apparent fondness as wells as crushing worry, and so Hyuse finds himself committing the name to memory. If albeit unwillingly.
"Have you asked properly?" Hyuse finds himself asking, although he believed that he held no commitment to the topic of conversation.
"I try," Yotaro admits sadly. "Jin isn't really around, Konami's not really listening, and Torimaru is just really droopy. Reiji-san usually takes care of me while I'm here, but he's also doing something else most of the time."
Strangely, Hyuse finds himself more reluctant to remember those names than the first one. There's a clear difference in which Yotaro speaks of them...
He comes to the conclusion that this 'Mori' person has suffered some kind of injury during the invasion, thus marking the difference in tone. Which is strange, because then wouldn't Yotaro be more likely to avoid any Neighbours—like Hyuse—if that were the case?
Unless Yotaro was in the dark as to Hyuse's origins, which he somehow found himself doubting.
"Is there anyone else around." Hyuse winces as he finds his tone flatter than he meant it to be. It ends up sounding more like a statement than a question, but the other pays no mind.
(He doesn't know why he winced. There was clearly no reason for it.)
"There's Chika-chan and Yuma…" Yotaro frowned, leaning heavily against Raijinmaru. "And Mori's mom. I haven't met her yet, 'cause they haven't let me go back to the doctor's since the first time."
Hyuse pauses, before absentmindedly correcting, "—Hospital."
"I really wanna talk to Yuma about it, since they said he's the one that found her, but I wanna see Yosuke too. And Shun, and Kohei. And even Shuji-san, even though he's a buttface."
Hyuse doesn't know what Yotaro means by 'found her', since Hairein had pretty much cut connection with him once he was being stalled by the Meeden soldier, and he has no other way of knowing what was going on at the time. Hyuse knows now why the connection was cut, although he pushes the ramification from his mind as he slowly processes—
"… Buttface?" Hyuse incredulously echoes.
Yotaro pouts defensively. "He glares at everyone! A lot! And I remember Mori telling me about him trying to take away Yuma's Trigger once— But I don't know that much about that."
Hyuse tucks away that piece of information for later. For as much as he rejects the idea of even attempting to go back to Aftokrator, he can't deny the underlying want to just return back to his home, to his Master.
(He ignores the guilt slowly dragging its cold, dark claws against his mind. There's no reason to feel guilt, the Meeden organization was basically asking Hyuse to find out information that they didn't want him to know, sending a child of all people to 'guard' him.)
Yotaro groaned, falling forwards with a frustrated expression. Hyuse absentmindedly stuck his arm to break his 'fall'.
-0-
Soon, things are starting to look up for Yotaro. He comes tearing down the stairs with a smile on his face one day, yelling something about 'Mori waking up' and with a patience Hyuse didn't know he possessed, he nods along quietly with the young boy's elated cheers.
And nearly half a week later, the Neighbour finds himself dragged upstairs for the first time.
He sees new faces, and a single (uncomfortably) familiar one as well.
Hyuse caught sight of the brown-haired Meeden soldier from the invasion briefly passing through what he assumed was the kitchen, but didn't get a good glance before he was pulled away.
Among the people he can't recall, there's a strawberry-blonde girl and an older man with a square pair of glasses. The Meeden soldier joins them a few minutes later, quietly sneaking in without a word and so unnervingly different from the mocking, teasing soldier he'd fought just a few weeks ago that he can't bring himself to comment.
He sits beside the only person he feels even remotely comfortable near, Yotaro—which is strange, because Hyuse isn't supposed to feel comfortable around an enemy—And watches in mild irritation as the screen in the room flicks on.
He watches.
Patiently watching the events unfolding on the screen, secretly enjoying the expressions of complete bafflement and shock on everyone's faces (And in the commentators' voices), because Hyuse had never gotten a chance to watch people enjoy battle so earnestly while there was also no suffering involved.
(Aftokrator is just war. War, war, war. And while some people take genuine enjoyment in battles like that, it's dampened by the cold atmosphere surrounding the nations they've trampled. The cold, bitter loss in the air is secretly sickening to him.)
Watching something like this was almost exciting, in a way. But nevertheless, he flattens his expressions and forces himself not to give anything away as he watches Yotaro happily cheer on the insanity that was Tamakoma-2.
Tamakoma...-2.
… He watched. And he forced himself not to say a word as he watched the bright, white-hair dance across the screen with swirling blades and a confidence that one would only find on in a war zone, or dark eyebrows pinch in annoyance—but also poorly-hidden exhilaration— behind square-ish white frames.
He watched a small figure nearly drowning in the large cloak tossed around the Trion body's shoulders, hopping from hiding spot to hiding spot as she fired cannon-shot after cannon-shot.
And he noticed with a keenness that he only gained through years of war and battle, that the short sniper could not shoot anyone to kill, for all the Trion she had.
(Hyuse stomped down and spat on any pity he may have on the matter. Because he had never seen such kindness in Aftokrator, where nameless, unimportant orphans were picked up off the street to get Trion-enhancing horns implanted into their very mind, the roots digging in and settling around their brain to the point where it twisted their very personality—)
Sometimes Hyuse thought about Enedora. About betrayal, and the sting that would never go away as he both longed for—and despised his home country.
And sometimes, he wondered if the horns in his head had affected his personality, his outlook on everything around him, just like it had done with Enedora.
(… Sometimes, Hyuse wondered if he was really himself anymore. Maybe his homeland had taken that from him as well.)
-0-
A/N -
Ok, so it was brought to my attention by my lovely beta reader while they were proofreading this...
Is this fic overly shippy? Please give me an honest answer on that one, I'm having a serious crisis.
They were like : Oh wow, you're really throwing out something for the Jin/Mori shippers at the beginning here, aren't you
Me : What.
Beta : Actually, I wonder if anyone thinks this is a Mori/Everyone thing... There's Jin, Yuma, Inukai, Kikuchihara, and everyone else...
Me. WHAT.
Beta : Wow, that's actually kind of funny, huh.
... And that's how it went.
Honestly, I was only considering shipping Mori with ONE other character, but I dunno if there'll be more opportunities to give them interactions in the future or not... Or if it'll even work out for the plot and stuff, so I've been keeping it platonic for now...
If I could get some opinions on this, it'd be great? Even if I do consider shipping at ALL, it's not going to be the primary focus, which is one reason why I'm not really doing it. I feel like it would mess up the whole dynamic of the fic, as well as interfere with some of the plot...? Whatever, thanks for watching me ramble, SEE YOU GUYS NEXT WEEK!