So, the subs for episode 37 came out, and well...that tree scene inspired me all over again. I maybe have a problem.
Enjoy!
The Tree Incident
The first order of business, he decides, is to get the balloon out of the tree. Avoiding popping it is going to be difficult enough without having to help Wakiya down at the same time, so getting the balloon out of the way is a perfect starting point.
"Hey, Wakiya?" Rantaro says, prying away at Wakiya's tightly fisted fingers still wrapped around the balloon's string.
There's no response from the other boy, who remains rigid and trembling; at least he's stopped shouting and squirming, so they shouldn't fall out of the tree (key word: shouldn't).
"Earth to Wakiya!" Rantaro snaps his fingers in front of Wakiya's widened eyes, and gets a blink and a glance in return. "Let go of the balloon."
"W-why should I?"
"Because, I'm going to take it back to the girl, and then come get you." Rantaro makes another attempt at loosening Wakiya's hold, to no avail. In fact, Wakiya seems to tighten his grip further, and even pulls away. "Wakiya."
"I can get down myself!" Wakiya protests, puffing himself up. It's kind of funny, because his eyes are still wild with fear and his shoulders are still too stiff to be in any way relaxed. The move falls spectacularly short.
A frown works itself onto Rantaro's face. "That's not what you said a few minutes ago!"
"I panicked!"
"You're still panicking!"
Aaaand they're shouting again – great. Rantaro growls and gives an almighty tug on the balloon's string before Wakiya can argue back. The move jostles both of them, and Wakiya yelps as he lets go of their prize in favor of gripping the tree branches with two hands.
"Ya did that on purpose!" he accuses, and he's very obviously trying not to look down.
"Well, it worked," Rantaro responds, busy wrapping the string around his wrist for safer keeping. He slides his jacket off, too, and carefully encases the balloon in it to hopefully keep it from popping on the trip down – he already feels bad enough that it was their fault it got stuck up here in the first place.
He can almost feel Wakiya glaring at him, though, and when he looks up from his task, his eyes meet with vicious blue ones.
"I said I'll come back for you!" Rantaro says, shimmying into a better position and feeling for a foothold among too-thin branches. "Stop giving me dirty looks!"
"I don't need yer help!" Wakiya insists yet again.
Rantaro looks down at his feet, and tucks the wrapped up balloon under his arm as he begins his descent in earnest. "I'll meet you down there, then," he says offhandedly, because he knows Wakiya will most certainly not be following him.
Sure enough, Wakiya appears to have frozen in place with those words, and Rantaro can't help but grin just a little to himself as he gets down below into the tree proper. He would feel bad about this situation, but Wakiya definitely climbed the tree of his own volition, so there's no real need for guilt. Still, he makes sure to wipe the smile off of his face, because Wakiya's fear shouldn't be a laughing matter….
His jacket seems to be doing the trick protecting the balloon from stray twigs and branches, and the tree is only a little more difficult to get down than it was to get up. All the training has been good for something after all, it seems. Only having one arm makes it awkward, though, and he slips a few times.
By the time he makes it to the bottom, he's sure he has at least one bruise on his knee and maybe two scrapes on his elbow. He has to jump the last bit, too, and he stumbles a little on the landing before righting himself. Dusting off and pushing loose hairs back into place with his free hand, he meanders over to where the little girl and her mom are still waiting.
"Here you go!" With a flourish, Rantaro unveils the unharmed balloon, tossing his jacket over one shoulder for the moment.
"Thank you!" the girl says again, reaching for it.
Rantaro crouches down to be at eye level with her as he unwraps the string from his wrist. He motions for the girl to hold out her own, and when she does, he ties the balloon loosely but securely in place. "So it won't get knocked out of your hand so easily again," he explains.
The little girl giggles and smiles, and this time her mom thanks him. He grins back, shoots them a thumbs up as he stands, and says it's the least he could do.
"Hey! Are ya comin' ta get me or what?!"
Rantaro sighs.
Just one last thing to deal with.
"Does your friend need help?" the mother asks, sounding a little concerned.
"Thanks, but I've got him." Rantaro tugs his jacket back into its proper place over both of his shoulders and then squares them as he puts his hands on his hips. From down here, Wakiya looks like a very irate speck.
"Stop dawdlin'!" Wakiya shouts, apparently getting impatient.
Rantaro's eyes want to roll, but he stops them just in time. Instead, he marches up to the base of the tree and latches back on. Behind him, he vaguely hears the little girl drag her reluctant mother off in pursuit of home as he starts to climb.
"I thought you were gonna come down by yourself," Rantaro points out as he hauls himself upwards for the second time that day.
"I would'a, but I wanted ya t'feel useful!" The voice sounds annoyed, but there's a definite trembling undertone that doesn't go unnoticed.
"Sure, sure." Rantaro is anything but convinced, and he wonders if Wakiya knows just how blatant that lie comes across.
"Quit complainin' and get up here already!" Wakiya gripes.
He's close enough that he can see Wakiya's ankles, but he resists the urge to pull on them as he passes. "Yeesh, you're so impatient," he says as he pokes his head out of the canopy at last. He wriggles up until the rest of him is free and perched roundabouts where he was earlier.
Wakiya still has a white knuckled grip on the same exact branches, and he wisely hasn't moved since Rantaro left. He looks like a baby bird too scared to try flying for the first time, stuck in its nest and hoping just maybe it can stay there forever.
"What are ya waitin' for?" comes the demand from the only one of them truly stuck in the tree.
Rantaro frowns. "I'm thinking," he says, "that I can't exactly carry you down…you're going to have to climb on your own."
"I can't!"
"You can! You crossed the bridge, didn't you?"
The initial look on his face says he wants to protest, but then Wakiya's mouth clamps shut and his brows furrow in what just might be determination. He's quiet when he gives a firm nod, and Rantaro decides to take that as a sign to get the show on the road.
"I'll go first," Rantaro lays out his plan carefully, making sure he holds Wakiya's gaze the whole time, "and you follow me – if you use the same path as me, then you know you won't fall."
Wakiya nods again, although the branches are starting to creak under the pressure his hands are steadily applying.
"And if I fall, you'll know not to go that way."
All of the color leaves Wakiya's face and Rantaro feels his own face fall along with it.
"Sorry, sorry!" He raises his hands and they hover awkwardly in front of his crestfallen companion. "That was a bad joke. Uh. Let's get going?"
Unsurprisingly, Wakiya doesn't move a muscle.
So, Rantaro gets to work on prying his hands off of the branches, much in the same way he did with the balloon string earlier.
"I can do that much," Wakiya says in a mumbling scoff, and he lets go with just one hand to swat at both of Rantaro's. The other joins it, slowly and shakily.
"Alright, let's go," Rantaro says, and shifts around until he can get at the same footholds he used in his descent earlier. "First step's the hardest," he prompts when Wakiya freezes up yet again.
Wakiya makes a small noise, like a startled animal, and then finally starts to move. His hands are still kind of shaking and his foot gives at least three false starts before finally settling on the branch that Rantaro indicates – but he moves.
For his part, Rantaro stays closer than he intended, afraid that if he gets too far ahead, Wakiya really will fall and he'll catch all the blame.
It's even slower going than when he went down with just one arm the first time, but he isn't about to complain, because he knows that'll be detrimental. At the same time, he's afraid to give too much encouragement for fear of making Wakiya feel patronized. So Rantaro mostly stays quiet, only speaking up to offer direction.
"We're halfway down," he supplies, because he's made sure Wakiya isn't paying attention to that.
Wakiya audibly gulps. "Only?" His voice sounds a little small, surrounded by all the foliage and bogged down by nerves, but it's a relief to hear it anyway, because a too-quiet Wakiya is unnerving to Rantaro.
"…It's a tall tree."
There's a snort from above him and Wakiya sounds more like himself again when he says, "An' yer a slow climber."
"Well I'm not gonna leave you too far behind!" Rantaro shouts at him on reflex, mostly, and takes a few bigger steps down through the branches.
"Hey! What're y –" Wakiya breaks off when he looks down to yell at Rantaro properly and catches sight of the still-too-far-away-ground, "ah, crap!"
From where Rantaro's watching, he can still plainly see Wakiya twist his head away and wrap his arms as far around the tree trunk as they can go. He sighs. Then, he climbs back up until he's next to the other boy again.
"Come on, Wakiya. We're almost there! You don't wanna be stuck up here forever, do you?"
"'Course not!"
"Then come on!"
Tugging on Wakiya's arm (again) is probably not a good idea, all things considered, but Rantaro does it anyway as a means to an end. Wakiya, of course, does not appreciate this and shouts at him – no words, just one loud, short shout – and yanks it out of his reach and also off of the tree.
"Great start," Rantaro says, and it's not entirely insincere, "now come on!" With that, he starts climbing again.
"Idiot," Wakiya spits, venom in his voice. But he follows. "Stupid, dumb, ridiculous, foolish –"
And so it goes, Rantaro climbing with a smirk and Wakiya imitating his footholds and grips almost automatically as he trails after him mumbling insults all the while. It's a pretty smooth routine that works better than any other kind of coaxing…up until they reach the end of their trip, where jumping is required.
"I gotta what?"
"Jump. You know, let go of the tree, and just drop down," Rantaro explains, trying to be sensitive and polite about it.
Wakiya remains stubbornly silent.
"You've come this far!" Rantaro reminds him, going for the encouragement angle again. "Remember the bridge?"
"Stop bringin' that up!"
A growl crawls up Rantaro's throat again before he can put a lid on it. "Why are you so difficult when I'm just trying to help?"
"Yer terrible at helpin'! S'not my fault!" Wakiya complains, because of course he does. To Rantaro's amazement, he willingly lets go of the tree with one hand to lean away and point. His finger comes right between Rantaro's eyes, and they cross a little. "This's all yer fault, anyway!"
It's Rantaro's turn to let go of the tree, and he pushes Wakiya's invasive hand out of his face. "You climbed up here yourself! I didn't – "
There's no warning that anything is amiss until Wakiya gasps, then flails, and then they're both suddenly and forcefully reacquainted with the ground. They lay in a heap like that for a while, groaning in pain before Rantaro shoves Wakiya off and away from him.
For a long moment, the two of them just sit and stare at each other. Rantaro isn't quite glaring, though, and neither is Wakiya. Mostly, if he had to guess, he'd say Wakiya just looks happy that they aren't dead.
Somehow that thought is enough to put a smile on Rantaro's face, and he laughs as he tries to rub it away. He realizes that he lost his lollipop at some point, and digs in his pocket for another.
"What's so funny?"
And Wakiya really does seem offended, so Rantaro claps him roughly on the shoulder. "Good job, Wakiya. You got both of us down in the end."
He can't seem to stop laughing, and it's a relief when Wakiya joins him.
This isn't even the first one of these I've started with Wakiya as the other character, but it's the first one I've finished. Somehow they all turn out way too long when he's involved, whoops,
I'm not sure if I'm happy with this one, but I've got a bad headache and I'm tired of tweaking, so.
Thanks for reading!