Takeru opens his eyes and sees the crying boy. He's not crying out loud today, but his head is bent low, and everything about him just screams that he's miserable. It's in the way he sits; the way his clothes are all scruffy and crumpled; the way he doesn't move at all.
It's quiet, far too quiet. Much as Takeru hates it when the boy cries, this is almost worse. He's waiting for something, but nothing seems to be happening, and he can't relax, because what if whatever he's waiting for happens at the moment he looks away and he misses it?
He's not sure how long he waits there, watching the boy sit with his head in his hands. It seems like forever, or even longer.
And then the boy moves. He shifts in his seat, letting one hand drop to hang limply across his knee, and sighs.
"Takeru," he says, in a hoarse voice which cracks as though it's right on the edge of crying again. "Please, come back."
The words hit Takeru like a punch in the stomach. He knows that voice, he's sure of it. But how, when the boy never does anything except cry?
Takeru wakes suddenly, his eyes opening wide into the darkness of the shelter they found. It's night still, and the girl is sleeping. Poyomon is too, and Takeru sits up, breathing heavily and shaking slightly from the dream. Why is everything so different? Even the crying boy dream has changed now. He feels all wobbly and uncertain, as though everything is wrong, and it's going more wrong, and it's all because he doesn't know something important.
He can feel the frustration building up inside him, and part of him wants to scream and shout; to throw things and make a noise and demand that someone tells him what's going on. But the only people are Poyomon and the girl, and anyway, even as he thinks it, he can feel all his anger start to fizz away into that slow, empty feeling which he's pretty sure is sadness. No matter how hard he tries, all he can think about is the crying boy from his dream.
After a while, Poyomon wakes up and hops over, nudging his leg. Takeru looks down and tries to smile. When he realises he can't, he reaches out and picks up his friend, letting him sit on his hands. They sit in silence, until Takeru realises that it's starting to get light again, and gets to his feet. Will the world outside have changed again? He's a little scared to look, and it's only when Poyomon hops down and bounds over to the entrance of the strange shelter they found that he follows his small companion. He hears the girl stirring behind him as he walks out of the mouth of the cave.
For a moment, he can't move. The desert of the evening before is gone, and in its place is an amusement park by a lake. He stares open-mouthed, only half hearing Poyomon crying out to him. His thoughts all fade away as he gazes at the scene before him, not sure what to think, and then come rushing back in a flood of panic, because this place is not a good place. This place feels like loneliness and sadness and everything which is wrong.
He starts running, not even stopping to think about where he's going to. His feet find their way all on their own; past empty rides and benches; past buildings and flower beds; all the way to a jetty out over the lake, where swan-shaped boats are tied along the shoreline. He walks along the jetty in a daze, and drops to his knees as something pushes its way into his thoughts - he's been here before, and he was all alone, waiting for…for…
"Takeru!" the girl cries, panting as she runs up to him with Poyomon in her hands. "Takeru, are you okay?"
He turns to look at her, feeling the tears spill over and roll down his cheeks.
"Onii-chan," he says. "I waited for Onii-chan, but I don't know who that is."
"Takeru, I…"
"Who is he?" Takeru asks. "Why didn't he come back?"
"Poyo! Poyo poyo poyo!"
Poyomon bounds over and presses against Takeru's leg, then starts hopping up and down again. "Poyo poyo!" He turns to the girl and poyos some more.
Takeru kneels down to pick his small friend up, and hugs him tightly. Poyomon is here. He's not alone, after all, because he's sure his companion was here last time, only-
"Poyo?"
Takeru sighs, and sits down on the jetty with Poyomon. The girl seems a little unsure, but sits opposite him, with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Takeru, I… I don't know how much sense this will make right now, but… I know why Ya- why your Onii-chan didn't come back," she says.
Poyomon nods, looking up at him as she speaks. Takeru's eyes go wide, and he leans forward. Already his memory of standing on the jetty is starting to fade again, pushed to the back of his mind at the thought of getting an answer.
"You know who Onii-chan is?" Takeru asks.
The girl looks away. "I know that he wanted to come back, but he couldn't. In the end, you had to go and find him, Takeru."
Takeru frowns. "What do you mean?" he asks. "That doesn't make any sense. We haven't found anyone yet and anyway, we're looking for the boy. He's not called Onii-chan."
She sighs, and looks down. When she lifts her head again, her eyes fix on Poyomon instead of him. Takeru finds himself holding his small companion tighter.
What if Poyomon left? The thought appears out of nowhere - a sudden fear that Poyomon will go away, and leave him here in this strange place. Worse is the prickle in the back of his mind - the ghost of a feeling that it's already happened before.
"Takeru, what do you remember about this place?" the girl asks. "How does it make you feel?"
He looks away.
"I don't think it's an accident that we're here," the girl says. "I think you've been to all of these places before."
Takeru shakes his head. "But I haven't!" he cries. "I've always been at the cottage with Poyomon. Always."
"But you remember being here," she says, looking straight at him with the most serious expression he has ever seen. "I know you do. Please, Takeru. This is important."
Takeru wants to say that he doesn't, because he thinks that if he tells the girl he hasn't, then she'll stop asking so many questions like the man does. Instead, he finds himself nodding. The image of a swan-shaped boat disappearing out of sight flickers in his mind, and he shudders at the sudden loneliness it brings; the fear that he will be left all by himself.
The girl sighs. "Maybe we should leave," she says. "We do still need to find the boy. Why don't you pick a direction, Takeru?"
Without really thinking, Takeru looks at Poyomon, who hops out of his hands and back along the jetty, calling out "Poyo, poyo!" Somehow Takeru knows where his companion is headed even before the little blob leaps onto one of the boats.
He doesn't move for a minute, or even hear the girl as she walks up. When she lays a hand on his shoulder he jumps - turning and stepping back, and almost falling off the jetty. The girl grabs his hand at the last second and hauls him forward again. He staggers a little, but regains his balance without toppling onto her.
"Sorry," she says. "I didn't mean to startle you."
Takeru looks up. This close, he can see that the girl is actually a little bit taller than him. He's not sure why, but for some reason that surprises him. It's strange, too, because he's always been smaller than his friends, hasn't he? Still, it doesn't feel wrong, exactly. He frowns. Maybe it's just because things have been different since he left the cottage. He's starting to feel that everything is all mixed up.
"Are you okay, Takeru?"
He's not sure what to say, so instead of answering properly he just shrugs and follows Poyomon to the boat. It's a little awkward to climb into the seat, and when he does, he realises that the pedals are too far away to easily reach with his feet. Then he stops, and looks at them again. As soon as he tries to think about what they're for, the knowledge seems to flit out of his mind, and they're just odd rectangles on a bent piece of metal again. What do they do? He stares at them, wondering why and how he can be so sure he knew what they were just a minute ago, and yet be staring at them now without a clue.
The girl climbs into the boat beside him, and gives him a strange look. She smiles, but it's one of the smiles which doesn't reach higher than her mouth, and Takeru is pretty sure they don't count as real. Her face falls slightly as she looks down at the rectangles.
"It's gonna be a little tricky to pedal this thing," she says. "I forgot that I'm youn…that we're both a little short for these. Maybe if we sit right at the front of the seats?"
Takeru stares blankly at her. He's only half aware of what she's saying, because as he sits there on the hard plastic, his legs dangling off the edge of the seat, he can't help but feel this is wrong somehow. That it shouldn't be the girl sitting next to him. The vague shape of another friend hovers in the back of his mind - someone taller, smiling down at him - along with a strange, light feeling in his chest which he doesn't have a word for, even though he knows that he really should know that word. It's important. It's a part of him. That light feeling - the brief, fleeting surety that somehow everything will turn out okay. It's his. It's-
Pain splits his head and he cries out, flinching as the blinding headache cuts off his thoughts. The boat rocks beneath him and he clutches blindly for something to hold onto - he can't fall into the water, he just can't.
"Takeru!" the girl cries, at the same time as his companion starts poyoing loudly.
The pain eases, and eventually he opens his eyes. The girl is looking worried again, and Poyomon has perched on her lap, leaning forwards with an almost identical expression on his small face. Takeru reaches out the little blob, and cuddles Poyomon closely to him as the headache fades away. His head is throbbing and he just wants to curl up in his nest of a bed at the cottage and go back to normal.
Except he can't. He's in a swan boat, and the cottage is… well, it's a long way away by now, and he's stuck here with the girl. And they're… they have to do something. Find someone. They're looking for…a boy. Takeru breathes heavily as the throbbing in his head stops, but fleetingly, darting in and out of his mind between the last few spikes of pain, there's a thought in his head. A vague impression of someone else - someone important - who hovers just out of focus in his mind. Tall and reassuring, and so familiar that Takeru is momentarily sure he knows who it is - and then the feeling's gone, and all he's left with is the knowledge that he has to find someone. That he's going to find someone.
As they slowly pedal off across the water, Takeru holds Poyomon tightly, and tries to cling to the last scraps of that feeling. After all. When they find the boy, maybe this other person will be there too.
A.N.: And I return!
I don't normally use the Japanese honorifics in my fics, mostly because it's easier not to screw them up that way. Still. I've gone with "Onii-chan" because I need there to be a disconnect in the story. "Brother" is too specific a word when compared to the Japanese term, which can be used for people who have a sort of older-brother relationship with a person, as well as literal brothers. At this point, Takeru isn't even really sure what "Onii-chan" means (he's pretty much thinking along the lines of it being someone's name), but even if he was, he still wouldn't necessarily make the connection. If I use the word "brother", that makes no sense at all. So, "Onii-chan" it is.
Hope you like the chapter, and let me know what you think!