Theme #305 – Hold My Hand

Even if he understood why he was doing it, Sena still wished the bus driver didn't give him such a strange look when the two of them got on the bus. Granted, the driver probably wasn't used to many high school students getting on a bus to Nagano at eleven o'clock at night. It also didn't help that Suzuna was frantic, fumbling with coins for the bus fare before dragging him towards the back of the bus, even with all the empty seats in the front.

"Suzuna, are you… sure you want to do this?" He already knew the answer, but it didn't hurt to ask.

She pulled them into a seat – her by window and him by the aisle – and kept a firm grip on his hand as she clasped it between both of hers on top of the bag in her lap. "I'm sure, Sena. I just can't go back there tonight." Even as she said that, a blush colored her cheeks as Suzuna fidgeted in her seat. "…Thank you for coming with me. I'm sorry for getting you involved."

Sena looked over at Suzuna, feeling the bus start to move underneath them as he squeezed her hand in reassurance. "It's no problem. We'll figure everything out later."

They were mostly quiet after that, and it wasn't long before Suzuna fell asleep with her head on his shoulder – she seemed to prefer him to the window anyway – keeping his hand clasped between hers. Sena pulled his phone out of his pocket, careful not to move too much and wake Suzuna up, and started texting.

Suzuna had been hysterical when she called him around ten-thirty, claiming that she could no longer return home and that she was running away to Nagano. It didn't help that he had been in a sleepy daze, caught right when he was about to go to sleep, but Sena was able to make his brain work long enough to convince her that she couldn't go alone.

Or maybe his brain wasn't working all too well, considering he then offered to go with her.

By that time, it was too late, and the quiver in Suzuna's voice as she thanked him, sniffling all the while, was too much for him to try and say otherwise. From there, he told Suzuna to wait for him at the bus stop, hurriedly throwing a couple pairs of clothes and his wallet into a bag, before finally hanging up on her and proceeding to sneak downstairs without waking his parents up.

Sena was able to make it down into the foyer before he paused, hesitating. He could already guess what kind of trouble he and Suzuna would be in the moment their parents discovered the two of them were gone, if Suzuna's parents didn't already know, of course, and he really didn't want to make his own parents worry too much. With that thought in mind, he doubled back to the kitchen to get some paper, leaving a note for his parents telling him where he was going, who he was with, and that he would probably be home soon. Satisfied, Sena was able to get out the front door and into the street, closing the gate quietly behind him, before another nagging worry crossed his mind.

He had football practice in the morning.

Taking his cell phone out of his back pocket, Sena texted Hiruma, and Mamori, for good measure, telling the two of them what was going on and that he'd have to miss practice the next morning. He took off after that, sprinting down the streets into the city, having to stop every now and then at crosswalks. It was at one of these times, while he was waiting for one of the traffic lights to change, that he decided to check his phone. Sena was surprised to find two texts waiting for him, one from both Mamori and Hiruma, the former expressing her anxiety and worry in the greatest and gentlest of ways while the latter dotted his with various curse words in a roundabout attempt to hide his thinly-veiled concern. They wanted him to keep in contact with them, checking in when he met up with Suzuna - though Hiruma was demanding that he keep checking in at regular half-hour intervals - and when they arrived at Nagano.

He realized this meant he'd be keeping them up tonight, and conveyed his concerns to them through texts. Barely a few seconds had passed when they both responded that it didn't matter, with Hiruma saying he'd be up the whole night anyway (Sena shuddered to think of why that was), so he should keep checking in.

Knowing it was useless to disagree, Sena had texted his okay to them and set off again. He encountered very little stoplights this time around, and was able to make it to the bus stop just as the eleven o'clock bus rolled into the station, a teary-eyed Suzuna already waiting for him, standing along the curb.

After sending his messages to both Hiruma and Mamori and setting his phone to ring at eleven-thirty, Sena slipped his phone back into his pocket and settled down into a more comfortable position. There was a faint pressure on his hand, and he vaguely remembered, as he began to drift off, that Suzuna was still holding tightly onto his hand.