Walking back and forth across the snow-covered pavement, Hiyori stopped mid-step to look back at her footprints. Only to see that snow was quickly filling them up again until it was like she had never been there in the first place.
Hiyori sighed. Ayaka-nee, where are you? It's so cold...
"Asahina! Come back in; you'll freeze out there!" She heard Hibiya call to her against the flurry of winter around her. Looking back, she could she his surprisingly concerned face reflected in the light of a nearby lamppost.
"I'm coming!" Hiyori shuffled through the cold white back to the bus stop she and Hibiya were taking shelter under. It was only a few paces away from the address her sister had told them to wait at and no buses would be coming at this hour (almost 12 am what the heck Ayaka-nee) and it was better than waiting out in the chilling snow, which had waited until night to start falling. Probably because the world hated Hiyori.
She stepped under the rooflike-structure and plopped down onto the seats next to their stuff. "Has she called back yet?" Hibiya asked, looking out into the street and trying to huddle closer into his jacket. Hiyori wished they were close enough that it would be okay for her to hug him.
"No. I've sent her like thirty messages already. Maybe it's not getting through because of all the snow?"
"Could be..."
"B-but don't worry! She'll be here soon enough. You just have to trust me." Hiyori was quick to assure, but truth be told she was beginning to doubt her own words. Was Ayaka too busy with Konoha to pick them up? Would they have to wait for morning? Hiyori was starting to feel scared, really.
"I'm trying to," Hibiya replied solemnly and sat down next to her. "But it's starting to look really bad out there. Maybe your sister was caught up in traffic?"
"Maybe." I hope so. At least it's a better excuse than her forgetting about us. "But hey, no need to be so gloomy. She'll be here sooner or later. I know it."
Do I...? Hiyori snapped the thought away and forced some pep into her voice. "We have to be positive! You had fun today right?" She began to slowly scoot towards him, hoping he wouldn't notice and subsequently scoot away from her. To her surprise, he didn't do either.
"Yeah, I did," Hibiya answered with no hesitation. "Who knew the city could be so, captivating?"
"See?! Didn't I tell you so many times how awesome it would be to go? Told you sooo."
"Hai, hai. You were right for once, I admit. I did enjoy today a lot, what was your favorite part?" Hibiya tilted his head towards her, no longer hiding his amused smile.
"Hmmm. I don't know, we did a lot of things today. Oh, that mochi store we went to! It just so good! I can't believe we don't have one of those back home. That's an injustice I can't overlook at all. I have a new dream now: when I get older I'll open a mochi store just like that one at home! How does 'Asahina's Mochi' sound?"
Hiyori hopped up on the seat and stood up in a hero pose proudly. She winked down at Hibiya and searched for a reaction.
Much to her delight (which was getting more and more common around Hibiya now), he stifled a giggle. "It wasn't that good Asahina. But I guess I wouldn't mind one at home. I'd even help you run it, maybe."
An idea burst through Hiyori's head and shone as stars through her eyes. "Wait really? In that case, we better call it "Amamiya's Mochi", 'cause y'know, if we get married and-"
"H-h-hey Asahina look! I see your sister's car!" Hibiya suddenly exclaimed and pointed into the (almost) blizzard.
"Ayaka-nee?! Where?" Hiyori jumped down and ran out into the street, searching for any flashes of a blue car through the fleets. The snow was little ways past her ankles now, probably having collected as she and Hibiya talked.
Realizing that there was, in fact, no car anywhere around the cold empty street, she trudged back to Hibiya.
"Hibiya-kun! What was that? Ayaka-nee's nowhere around!" She accused and crossed her arms.
"Eh, gomen. I was sure I saw her." Hibiya brushed it off callously, with a hand on his red cheeks (blushing?!) He hid his eyes from view.
Hiyori pouted, her irritation giving way to the warm feeling budding in her chest. He's so cute. "Alright, just keep a better eye okay?"
"Uhn."
Finding that she couldn't remember what she had previously been saying, she sat back down and furthered the conversation. "So what was your favorite part of the trip Hibiya-kun?"
After a moment's thought, Hibiya brought his hand from his face, revealing an extremely visible, deliberate smirk.
"Meeting Momo-san."
Hiyori instantly regretted asking him and brought her face into her hands. "Don't bring that up please.," she cringed.
"Aw come on Asahina; wasn't it your whole plan to meet her? I thought you'd be thrilled. We spent hours trying to find her again after the uh, incident after all." Hibiya leaned his head on his palm and purposely put emphasis on the incident.
"To apologize! I still can't believe we broke her phone. An idol's phone. We're pretty much shamed for life! I can't call myself a fan anymore," she wailed insistently, only adding to Hibiya's snicker.
"It's not so bad Asahina, it might not have even been her you know. So cheer up; despair isn't a good look on you." He dared to put a hand on her head in low-key comfort.
Hiyori peeked out from under her fingers. "But still, even if it wasn't Momo-chan we still ruined that poor girl's phone. Don't you feel even the tiniest bit guilty?"
"Yes, of course, I do. However, even if it was our fault, we didn't mean it right?" Hibiya said soothingly, yet still sounding a bit awkward. "There's nothing we can really do about it now, so there's not really any point in moping about it."
"I.. I guess," Hiyori sat up straighter with a sigh. She pulled out the pair of sunglasses Momo-chan or whoever it may have been had dropped out of her pocket. Eyeing it wistfully, she mused, "I still feel bad, though. Whether it was Momo-chan or not, I hadn't actually expected to meet her and I wished it hadn't gone like that. Guess this day wasn't exactly perfect huh?"
"I wouldn't say that," Hibiya professed. "If anything at least it's an interesting memory. Don't let it bring all the fun we had down."
Hiyori looked at him puzzled with a lopsided grin. "I never knew you could be so inspirational Hibiya-kun. It's really refreshing!"
Her companion's blush returned at her the sight of her smile. "Aha, d-don't mention it. Like seriously, don't."
"Haha, alright," she gleamed brighter as he covered his warm face with his scarf tighter. She did the same as a particularly nasty gust of wind chill blew into the bus stop. She tried to peer into the street, only to find that the flurries were strong enough to obscure her vision, much like the sun.
"Brrrr. Ayaka-nee better have a good explanation for being so late."
"Maybe Konoha-san's check-up is taking more time than she thought?" Hibiya offered while rubbing his hands together.
Ugh. They were having such a nice Konoha-free day 'til now. "Tch. Maybe, don't really care, though."
"Asahina."
"Hmph." She turned away from him abruptly. Maybe you should have gone with them if you love him so much, she thought bitterly. She clamped a hand hard on her mouth when she realized she had said it aloud.
"I don't love him Asahina!" Her friend argued, red cheeks burning through his scarf. His embarrassed words came out muffled as a result. "It's uh, more like um, admiration."
"Yeah, sure, whatever," she responded flippantly.
Hibiya sighed. "Okay, listen. I-I know I've been spending a lot of time around him, and looking up to him-"
"Augh."
"-and I said some mean things but-"
"AUGH."
"Let me finish Hiyori."
She let him finish. "...fine."
"Thank you. As I said, Konoha-san's cool and I do admire him," Hiyori started scowling again, "but, I don't know him at all. He ignores me as much as he ignores you, you know."
Hiyori's expression started to soften and her gaze steadied as she listened. "He's not really my friend, I admit. But... you are. I know you, Asahina Hiyori."
"Hibiya..." She started.
"Just, I really am glad you brought me here with you, is what I mean to say." His aloof mask dropped completely and he smiled genuinely at his friend. "Arigatou."
"...Hi... Hibi... HIBIYA-KUN!" Hiyori sprang over and wrapped her hands around him, no longer caring if they close enough to do so.
"AH! A-Asahina! Off, off!" He squirmed under her grappling hug.
"Nope! You really do care Hibiya-kun!"
"No, I don't- aw fine sure, I do, whatever." He relaxed his wriggling with an exasperated huff.
She pulled away just a bit without breaking the hug and laughed delightedly. "I guess you really are inspirational, surprisingly."
"Yeah, yeah," Hibiya waved it off with a new budding smile on his lips. Hiyori's chest filled with light all over again.
"Hibiya-kun, you really are something else. Daisuki des-"
"Asahina, look over there! ...I think I see your sister's car!"
"Hahaha very funny. I'm not falling for that again Hibiya-kun."
"No seriously; look!"
They both stood up and rushed out of the bus stop, squinting into the snowfall. The snow around them had grown quite high.
Hibiya was right this time: there was a car stopping on the side of the street near them.
Squinting more, however, Hiyori's chest dumped out the warm light and filled up with cold disappointment instead. It wasn't Ayaka. She slumped her shoulders as the people in the car started exiting their vehicle (a van, nothing like Ayaka's little blue car). "That's not her Hibiya-kun. False alarm, let's go wait some more and I'll try calling her again."
They started turning around until they realized that the two people who had come from the car were heading towards them, silent and steady. "Uh, do you know them Asahina?" Hibiya asked nervously.
"No, I've never seen them before. Maybe they're going to wait for the bus?" She tried to rationalize but was also starting to feel uncomfortable with every step the strangers (a man and woman, Hiyori could tell by their enlarging silhouettes) took closer to them.
"They already have a car Asahina, I don't think they're going to the bus stop."
"Hey! You two! Kids!" They heard the woman of the pair boom out to them. They both took a few more steps backward and huddled closer together as the two strangers finally reached them.
"Yes?" Hibiya asked in a hard voice. Hiyori did her best to form a harsh glare. The snow around them had grown quite high.
"Hey there. We were sent by the girl's sister to pick you up. Please come with us, Hiyori-chan and Hibiya-kun," the man smiled down at them and spoke with a nice tone that definitely sounded fake. Hiyori wasn't liking this situation in the slightest.
"Uh, I'm sorry but I think you're mistaken. We aren't going with you. My sister told us not to leave this spot, and I know she's not the type of person who would want me to go with people I've never met." Hiyori tightened her jacket and stroked the phone in her pocket; she wondered how fast she could call the police with these people around.
"So, uh you can be on your way now." Hibiya finished for her anxiously, and they slowly started pulling themselves backward from the two strange people. They both started looking around the street, hoping to see any other adults.
"Ah. Listen, kids. We don't want to make this difficult," the man smiled wider, practically forcing pleasantness through his nose. "We need to bring you to your sister. So please, just come with us and-"
"I said NO! Hibiya-kun run!" Hiyori kicked a big pile of snow right at the people (kidnappers? the two of them weren't sticking around to check) and they both darted away as fast as they could.
The man cursed under his breath. The woman cursed much louder. "Oh, so I guess you two want to do this the hard way eh? So be it!"
Hibiya and Hiyori couldn't feel their legs as their fear controlled them for them. They didn't stop to get their things from the bus stop. They didn't feel the temperature around them dropping as they ran. They didn't care that they were very much running blindly through snow that almost came up to their knees. This couldn't be happening this couldn't be happening WHY WAS THIS HAPPENING.
"Asahina," Hibiya puffed and huffed after they had ran a considerable length yet still not far enough away from the people, "where do we go?"
"I," Hiyori's chest felt as if it was on fire with all the ice she inhaled. She looked back across the street at the people sprinting after them and almost tripped when she saw just how close they're silhouettes were. "-I, I don't know."
Where could they go? The police? She didn't know where the station was and she had been so scared that she had dropped her phone when she had brought it out to call them, and she was much too frightened to risk running back to pick it off of the icy pavement.
Ayaka-nee? She didn't know how to get back to the house from where they were. And wouldn't it be too far to run anyway?
Ayaka-nee. For the first time in her life, Hiyori cursed her older sister. Ayaka-nee where the hell are you? You said you'd always protect me. Why aren't you here to protect me? To protect us?!
"Ah!" She heard Hibiya scream, and when she looked to her side and almost had a heart attack when she saw that he had fallen. His clumsiness just had to come back during this one awful, nightmarish moment. The world really did hate her. Hated them.
By the time Hibiya had pushed himself up, the pair of (definitely kidnapping) strangers had caught up to him, and the woman was restraining him."H-Hiyori..." He managed to choke out as he tried to fight against his captor. "Run! Get out of here! I'm fine, find Tateyama-san!" He was silenced when the woman pinned him into the snowy ground.
Hiyori hadn't heard anything he had said. Becoming terror and desperation themselves, her legs kicked themselves alive and she was suddenly flying towards the woman. "LET HIM GO!"
"Baka..." Hibiya cried out as he helplessly watched the man intercept her charge and pin her hands just as he had been. Hiyori went into a screaming rage, kicking, yelling, and screaming at her captor.
"GO AWAY GET AWAY FROM US STOP STOP STOP DIE-" Her screeches were muffled tragically when the man plastered duct tape over her mouth, handing it over to the woman to do the same with Hibiya. Soon their hands were tied together behind their backs and any hope they had of escape was tied as well. Not that it stopped them from trying.
Forcefully pulling the abducted kids along back to the van, Hiyori and Hibiya never stopped struggling. The hailing snow whipped around them all, freezing each other's tears to their cheeks. The sight of each other crying only fuelled their attempts to fight back.
It hardly made any difference to the adults who had seized them, although Hiyori probably would have been proud to know that she was causing the most difficulty for her kidnapper. You know, if she had been outside of the situation instead of the victim in it.
After several horrible minutes of resisting and hoping to kami-sama that someone, anyone had seen them, heard them scream, the four of them finally made it back to the car. Using their last few moments outside to struggle as if- no because their lives depended on it, they were both brutally shoved into the back of the van.
Hiyori 'mmphed' as she fell onto her back sorely, and looked up to see the van doors close. As the light was completely cut off from them. The cold wind and snow suddenly disappeared from around them, and Hiyori realized how she had taken it for granted. She would give anything to be back in that bus stop waiting with Hibiya in the blistering cold than be in this warmer van tied up with him.
She heard Hibiya whimper beside her and Hiyori tried to scoot next to him, tried to give him any bit of comfort in this living nightmare that she could.
She brushed their bodies together and repeated thousands of apologies back and forth in her head, as many times as it took for Hibiya to hear it himself.
I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry.
Hearing the van's engine come alive, they fought back sobs and huddled further together, their hearts beating straight out of their chests.
This was the end wasn't it.
It's all over, isn't it?
Hiyori closed her eyes to the despair, lest she began to hyperventilate.
Out of nowhere, however, they suddenly heard footsteps outside of the van doors. As if someone was running towards them.
The vehicle pulled to a halt just as it was about to start driving off as if someone was physically pulling it back.
Both of the kidnapped preteens swung their heads towards the van doors. To their tearful (forced) speechlessness, the door creaked a bit before flying off completely. Street lamp light and subzero cold flooded and blew back in the car.
Was this.. was this an actual miracle? Someone had heard them, someone had seen them. It wasn't the end, it wasn't all over! Hiyori thanked every god she had learned of in school and blinked to see who their savior was.
...Ayaka-nee...?
A voice called out from the blurry light. "...are you two okay?"
It wasn't Ayaka-nee. Definitely not.
KONOHA? Hiyori thought in utter disbelief. She glanced at Hibiya and knew he was thinking the same.
The more Hiyori's vision adjusted, the more she could make out Konoha's body against the street lamp light. Was it just her, or did his hair look darker than usual? It looked almost black, but again maybe it was because it was nighttime, and it didn't matter anyway.
They both began to writhe their way towards the door and spoke as best they could against the tape covering their lips. "Hmmph!"
"You are okay! I'm glad."
It was his voice, no doubt about that. Though he did he sound undeniably different. As if he... cared about them?
Hiyori once again didn't mind and almost began crying tears of joy as this strange new person who looked like Konoha started coming inside, definitely to rescue them. That meant Ayaka-nee had come to save them after all, right? She hadn't forgotten about them at all. Hiyori soon felt ashamed for ever doubting her elder sister.
"MmmpPPHH!" Hibiya muffled as loud as he could and nudged Hiyori to look outside of the van.
Hiyori scooted over and peeked behind Konoha. Her eyes became crazed with fear and understanding and both she and Hibiya began frantically gesturing to Konoha against their restraints.
Finally realizing what they meant, Konoha(?) ducked his strangely dark-coloured head behind him.
Upon seeing what was on the other side, he sighed.
"Not again," was the last thing the two kids heard before a second van smashed head-on into the van doors with the speed of a bullet and the weight of an avalanche.
Hiyori didn't feel the impact of the van. She didn't feel what most definitely were her bones shattering, her skull smashing and her heart stop its frenzied beat.
She didn't feel a single thing in regards to pain or death or despair or red, red blood.
Rather, she felt like she did every morning.
Asleep in her bed.
Congratulations HaruTaka fans.
The next installment of Touketsu Daze is going to be Yuukei Yesterday.
Stay tuned and not kidnapped. ;)