p"You didn't come to the party!" Tadashi bursts out, almost accusingly. Where did that come from? He shuts his mouth, embarrassed. He wasn't some kid anymore, acting as if his friend forgot to give him a present for his birthday. Maybe he could've acted cool back. A simple "yeah" would have sufficed, but sadly enough, his mouth had a different idea./p
p"Sorry," is the reply, completely emotionless./p
pTadashi blinks. Is this really Tsukki? The features are undeniable, but the personality was...off." It must be the nighttime", he thinks, blatantly ignoring the fact that the sun had only set halfway. After all, Tsukki wasn't ever a night person, but then again, he wasn't really a morning person either?! Before he confuses himself even further, he settles on blaming the time of day./p
p"It's okay!" He finally says, smiling./p
pThere is no answering smile from the blond, only cool appraisal. The smile fades. Had he been too late to say something back? Was something on his face? Either way, the stare is unnerving him. It's familiar, in the way that it was used on the kids that used to bully him at school, but never on Tadashi./p
p"Well, I gotta go," Kei drawls, putting his hands behind his head and stretching. He looks once at the horizon, takes in Tadashi and his house, and puts his hands back down to slip his headphones on./p
p"See you," Tadashi calls, waving his hand slightly, but Kei has already turned around, music still blaring away./p
pAfter the shadow rounds the corner and disappears, he lets his hand drop to his side while the other shut the door behind him. He sighs as he treads up the stairs, and for a brief moment, he feels relief that is quickly crushed by guilt. On one hand, he's relieved to have gotten away from that strange intense scrutiny that was totally uncalled for. He wonders if he did something wrong, and he shakes his head./p
p"He's your friend, there's nothing wrong with that!" The sympathetic side of him argues./p
p"Yeah, but he just came here like he owns the place! Plus, he made me feel like I committed some kind of crime with that look!" The other side says furiously./p
pExhausted by his inner conflicts, Tadashi visibly wilts on his bed and gives in to sleep./p
p-br / The next morning, he is woken by heavy knocks on the door. His first response is to let the person in since it's the polite thing to do, but instead, he rolls over and feigns sleep in case someone comes in. No one does; he cracks open an eyelid and looks at the doorway. That's weird. The door shakes when something touches it, and there's always a visible shadow coming from underneath if someone was standing there, but none of these were happening./p
pHe checks his bedside alarm clock. 7:30. His parents usually go to work at this time, but- he lifts his head up- it's a Saturday. He eases himself back down, head nestling in the crater in the middle of his pillow. The knocks must've been a figment of his imagination, and he closes his eyes when the sound is heard again./p
pFrowning slightly, he pulls the pillow over his right ear and rolls to his side to block out the noise. He still hears it, a rapid succession of three hits with a two second pause in between. Opening both eyes, he realizes that he's been clutching his bed sheet to his head, not the pillow. He stumbles out of bed to bend down to check under the doorway. No one. Then what?br / His thoughts refuse to click into place as he groggily stands there in the middle of his room, in a wrinkly t-shirt and an equally wrinkly pair of underwear. The window, that's right. He pulls up the blinds as quietly as he can and looks down, right as a rock nearly hits his face. His face, if not for the screen, that is./p
pHe reflexively jumps back while letting out a surprised squeak. After calming down, he peers down at the yard to see Kei pull back his arm to toss another rock. "Oh, it's just Tsukki. That got me worried there for a second." Tadashi yawns. Hold up. Kei. Rock. Yard. Morning. Window. The screen bounces with the force of the rock the moment he starts to think / "Man, if this were an anime, it would totally be that cliché romantic window scene." He pulls himself up short. That wasn't what he meant to think. He unlatches the window and waves, either to greet Kei or to signal him to stop attacking the screen./p
p"What do you want?" He mouths, and realizes that Kei's eyesight is still less than perfect even with glasses, and two, he's pretty bad at reading lips. Tadashi makes a snap decision to go outside instead of wasting time playing a form of charades. He turns the doorknob as quietly as he can and creeps down the stairs, stepping lightly on the last few that were outrageously creaky, and unlocks the back door./p
p"You. Me. Skateboarding. Now." Kei says without preamble, clipping the words./p
p"Good morning to you too, Tsukki. And...what? I just woke up." Tadashi says lamely, scratching at his bedhead./p
pThat stare again. "And?" Comes the curt reply./p
pTadashi shrugs; he doesn't know what to say to this./p
p-br / "Come on! You were better than this!" Kei says, exasperated, as he watches Tadashi fall not once, but twice off the skateboard, while awkwardly laughing as he gets up./p
p"Not my fault I couldn't practice," Tadashi says, rubbing the back of his head. "You've gotten better, more than I could ever achieve, though."/p
pKei just sneers. Of course he has. Wasn't he the one who practiced every day until his friend came back to show him how much he improved? The friend who is still better than him in some ways but didn't know it. That frustrates him. Kei did consider quitting because it just wasn't fun for him anymore, but he didn't. Akiteru did encourage him, after all./p
p"Say, where's your brother?" Tadashi asks, as he brushes off some grass from his knees./p
p"He doesn't live here anymore," Kei snaps./p
p"College, right? It must be lonely, huh, Tsukki?"/p
pKei looks away and lets out a noncommittal grunt. He wills Tadashi to shut up already, so different from when he wanted the shy boy from years ago to open up and talk more./p
p"I guess." The blond says, barely audible./p