Written for Usagi and Mamoru: A Love Like No Other. Link can be found on my bio page.
13. Future (452 words)
Hope.
It wasn't something he'd often felt during his life to this point. He'd learned early on that it was better to accept the situation and move on rather than wishing and hoping for things to be different. You were less likely to be disappointed that way. You were less likely to be hurt by people if you didn't hope for things from them.
After the car accident when he was a child he had felt hopeful. Though he had woken up in a hard hospital bed, unable to remember anything, he had hoped for his parents to walk in and make everything alright again. Instead a stern doctor had entered the room and told him that his parents had died, though perhaps his words hadn't been quite so harsh.
When he was discharged from hospital he was stuck into an orphanage. It was there that he learnt to stop hoping for things to get better. There was no point hoping for a better life. The only way he was going to have one was if he worked hard. And so that's what he did. He ignored the other kids in the orphanage and they ignored him. He focused solely on his studies so he could work his way out of the hell hole in which he lived.
He nodded in greeting to his best friend as he walked past in an apron heading towards a broken video game. One of the very few times that he had hoped for something during his time at the orphanage was when he met Andrew in junior high. He couldn't understand why but when he had met the blond, friendly boy he had wanted so much for the boy to like him. Andrew had been his first friend and had been the one to get him to open up. Andrew had been the one to instil even a little bit of hope into him again. He had been the one to get him to think about and maybe even hope for the future, further than just getting out of the orphanage.
And then there was her. She made him want to hope and wish and dream about the future. She made him want to do all those things that normal people do only to end up with nothing. He snuck a quick glance at her where she sat in a booth, gulping down a milkshake and gesticulating wildly while chattering happily with her red-headed friend. She didn't have a care in the world.
Someone looking close enough would say he was almost smiling as he returned his gaze to the newspaper in front of him. Perhaps there was something to look forward to after all.