A/N: And done!
"There was a time when I stopped talking. Just like you. My reasons were a little bit different, but I think the feelings of being ashamed of myself and hating myself are the same." – Yuki Sohma
A Rat in a Shadow
10. Are the same
Eventually, he became used to the mask. And he began to believe in it. It filled something in him.
He was happy to be filled.
But he wasn't free. He still wasn't free.
Akito had probably known that. That was why he let him go.
Being in a different location just meant he had a different cage. That he needed words and lies to guard him instead of the silence. Differences. The same.
But there was still that illusion, and he found he could cling to it more strongly now. Classmates who saw only the surface. Who he didn't let come any nearer. The illusion of a family. The illusion of peers that sometimes slipped and called him friends.
And then she came – who'd made his heart melt so fleetingly long before – and things weren't the same anymore.