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“It looks like Yashiro-san’s mother is here to pick her up.”
Akane barely looked up at Teru who stood leaning against the doorframe to his living room. The tv blared in the background, a cacophony of loud noises and bright shapes, but he didn’t register any of it. His eyes had long since glazed over, tuning out whatever talk show had been left on. His mind was far more preoccupied with more important things after their conversation over dinner. So Akane settled for making a quiet sound of affirmation just to prove that he hadn’t totally spaced out yet.
“I guess she doesn’t want her daughter sleeping over at a boy’s house, huh?” Teru continued, taking a seat on the couch next to Akane then.
To that, he snorted. Little did she know that her daughter had already fallen in love with someone else. Someone who was no longer one of the living.
“So, what are you going to do, Aoi? Do you want to call your parents to come pick you up? Or would you rather spend the night?”
His parents were probably still at work and even if they were home… he didn’t exactly want to bother them. It would be too troublesome and dangerous to walk home alone at such an hour too…
“I’ll stay… if it’s alright with you,” Akane finally settled on saying after weighing his options out in his head.
Teru’s ensuing devilish grin and the playful glint in his eye immediately made him reconsider. “Really!? I was hoping you would say that.”
“On second thought-”
“Nope!” Teru interrupted him, springing back up to his feet again within seconds and pulling Akane up with him by his wrist. “If you’re sleeping over, then there’s some other fun things I’d like to do!”
Akane shuddered, not liking the sound of that at all.
Teru’s definition of “fun” was far different from his own. Their earlier outing, or “date” as Teru had called it, had only proved that much. While Akane might have preferred more quiet and thoughtful activities that tested his logic, Teru preferred more hands-on and engaging activities. And so Akane and Nene had been forced to accompany Teru as he tried to speedrun through every activity that he had missed out on in his 17 years of life.
Keeping Teru from getting them kicked out of all the places they visited or getting himself injured was a fulltime job too and one that had fallen to Akane to handle. He had to practically force him to wear a helmet and kneepads at the roller skating rink, a decision that he greatly appreciated after watching Teru only make it a few inches into the skating area before falling flat on his ass in front of everyone. For most of the duration of their visit to the rink, Akane had to slowly trail along beside Teru just to make sure he wouldn’t embarrass them further. It didn’t work, however, and he ended up getting pulled down to the floor by Teru on “accident” more than once.
His troubles didn’t end at the skating rink either. All throughout the day, he stayed by Teru’s side, through bowling, billiards, darts, trampolining, and more. By the end of the afternoon, his exhaustion had practically seeped into his bones and he had barely made it to Teru’s living room before collapsing onto the floor. Nene, to her credit, had rushed over to help him but she, too, was far too tired to be of much assistance.
Thankfully, dinner and the ensuing peacefulness after it gave them both a much needed respite from Teru’s antics.
But it seemed like all good things had to come to an end and that included his break. Teru had dragged Akane by the wrist up to his room before he could even get two words in or protest at all.
Teru’s room was pretty much exactly what he had expected. The open window let the pale moonlight cast a soft silver glow over the room. The walls were painted a pastel yellow and all of the knick-knacks and souvenirs from their date had been hastily thrown onto his bed. Other than that, it was more or less empty. From what Akane had surmised about Teru’s childhood, it didn’t seem like he used his room for anything other than sleeping.
The veneer of a normal kid’s room was fitting. From the brightly colored walls to the childish keepsakes, everything seemed to be an attempt at smothering the darker side to Teru’s life. The part that only knew anger and cutting things down rather than building them up. Teru was almost like a cupcake filled with pushpins, Akane mused to himself. Once you tore past the colorful wrapper and got past the sweet outer layer… the deeper you dug into it, the more likely you were to find something bleeding.
“So, I’ve always wanted to try this, but I never had the time… or someone to do it with.” Teru crouched down under his desk, pulling a black box and tangle of cords from underneath it. He held it up to the light for Akane to examine.
“A video game console?”
Teru nodded excitedly. “Yep!”
Akane had expected him to move to set it up since it was his idea after all but… Teru stayed perfectly still, holding out the console for him. “What are you looking at me for?”
“It was a gift but like I said, I’ve never gotten to play it before… So I don’t know how to set it up.”
“Are you serious?”
Teru shoved the console into Akane’s hands. “You know it! Come on, you’re good with technology, right?”
“When did I ever say that?”
“...Well, you’re a smart guy, Aoi. I’m sure you’ll figure it out!”
Akane sighed, but got to work trying to set the console up nonetheless. He knew Teru wouldn’t let the subject drop if he refused so it was just better to avoid the hassle altogether. The hardest part wasn’t actually setting up the console but instead was getting all of the power cords and cables that it needed to work untangled.
Once that was out of the way, Teru splayed out all of the games he had in front of the tv and turned it on. “Which one first? I’ll let you choose since I’m so gracious.”
He had to fight with himself to not roll his eyes at the “gracious” part. Putting that aside, he stared down at the small collection of games Teru had. “Hmm. How about this one?” He picked up a game case with vibrant and exciting looking box art. It appeared to be a racing game.
Snatching the game from Akane’s fingertips, Teru quickly took it from its case and inserted the disc into the console. “Good choice! Looks fun.”
The game booted up with no further issues, displaying a cheerful title screen and playing upbeat music along with it. Between the cutesy-ness of the game and Teru’s enthusiasm, it was hard not to feel somewhat at ease. If there was one thing he was certain of, it was that playing video games seemed a lot less draining than being dragged halfway across town for hours.
They were greeted with a go-kart customization screen upon clicking past the start screen. Akane looked through all of the kart options before settling on a setup that seemed the most suitable for the track they’d chosen. Teru, on the other hand, picked his kart based purely on whatever looked the best. His kart was bulky with giant wheels that would be good for staying on the road but bad for everything else.
Akane chose not to comment on that. He doubted Teru would listen much if he did.
When their race started, Akane timed his button press on the accelerator button just right so that he would get a speed boost. While Teru… stayed completely motionless behind the starting line. Akane had just assumed he was a little slow to push the button but when he had finished half of the first lap and looked to see if Teru was still at the starting line, he found that he hadn’t even moved an inch.
At that point, he almost felt bad. “Uh… president? You know you can…”
Akane let go of his own controller, stopping in the middle of the track as the cpu racers passed by him in a blur. He reached over to where Teru was sitting beside him and gently pressed down on the accelerator button with one finger to demonstrate.
“Oh!” Teru’s expression lit up and he pressed down on the accelerator eagerly, sending his car flying down the track at full speed. “Thanks, Aoi!”
Akane finished the race in 5th place. His brief pause had ended up making him unable to catch up, but at least he didn’t finish in dead last like Teru had.
“Another round?” Teru asked, although he had already pushed the play again button before Akane could answer.
“You want to know a trick?”
Teru cocked his head to look at him, setting his controller down lightly in his lap. “Are you sure you want to give me an advantage?”
“Hah. After your performance in the last race, I think I need to.”
Teru playfully elbowed Akane in the arm. “Aah, give me a break. It was my first time playing.”
Akane just laughed in response. So far, the night had been surprisingly fun. “Right, so, if you press the accelerate button at just the right moment when the second starting light comes on, you’ll get a speed boost. The timing can be kinda tricky, but it’s worth trying.”
The next race went significantly better for Teru despite his terrible kart setup. He had gotten lucky in the beginning of the race with a powerup which allowed him to gain a steady lead. While Akane snagged first place, Teru came in second by a very narrow margin.
After racing, they tried a fighting game next where Akane thought he had met his match. He knew his reflexes were not bad by any stretch but compared to Teru’s, they were nothing. Each match where Akane could barely get any hits on Teru no matter what character or strategy he chose only drew out more and more silent curses from him. Until they were no longer silent.
He knew himself not to be a particularly competitive person, but no one liked to lose. And he especially hated losing to Teru of all people.
“You really do swear like a sailor, you know,” Teru said, an adorable and smug little grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.
No, he amended, Not adorable. Not cute at all. In fact, I quite want to smack that dumb smirk off your face right about now. There. That’s better.
“Oh, be quiet.”
“I never said I minded it.”
After another round of the fighting game, Teru laid down with his back against the carpeted floor, tossing his controller to the side.
“Well, that was fun.” He stretched his arms far above his head and suppressed a yawn.
“Aw, come on, you’re really quitting now?”
“You’re just saying that because you lost every round so far, and here I thought you didn’t even want to play in the first place,” Teru said, receiving a light kick in response from Akane. “Fine, fine. One more.”
And so the next round started like all of the others except for one thing… Teru’s reaction time seemed a lot slower. Akane’s character managed to do a lot more damage than he had on any other time before and in the end, he managed to win. He was fairly certain that Teru had just let him win to appease him, but he would take it.
“I think I’m about ready for bed,” Teru said after all was said and done, putting the game console and all of the games neatly back in place.
It was decided that the two of them would sleep in the living room together since the household didn’t have an extra futon. As soon as they stepped foot back into the new quiet and dark living room, Teru’s eyes lit up in the way that never ended well for Akane.
“Wait! I have an idea!” Before Akane had the chance to even ask what his idea was, Teru darted for the ottoman in front of the couch with a speed he hadn’t seen him use in anything other than life or death situations. “The floor is lava!”
Akane blinked at him.
Huh?
He looked down at his feet to find that, no, the floor was still just carpet. “What?”
“Aoi, come on, hurry up!” Teru beckoned him from where he stood on the ottoman, “You’re going to get burnt to a crisp if you don’t move!”
“Excuse me?”
Teru brought one hand to his chest dramatically like he had been shot and the other to his forehead. “Alas, poor Aoi! He went down in a blaze of glory. Oh, how tragic! He will be missed.”
“What are you? 12?”
“Aw, c’mon, Aoi. Are you really just gonna let me win like this?”
…
It was the dumbest way to get someone to play along with his antics and yet…
Akane fell for it. If this was a challenge, he wouldn’t end up losing.
He darted for the couch behind Teru, jumping onto it almost as if the floor was actually on fire. Teru made the leap between the ottoman and couch too, joining him in standing on the plush cushions. He wrapped one arm around Akane’s shoulder like a soldier meeting an old comrade again.
“I’m glad you’re not burning to death anymore.” Teru’s eyes sparkled as he spoke, a childlike excitement shining through them.
Ah, right. Teru probably had never gotten to do any of the fun childhood activities that Akane had taken for granted. Well… he supposed playing along with him just for a little bit couldn’t hurt and it might mean the world to Teru.
“But!” Teru continued, snapping Akane out of his thoughts, “The lava is rising! We gotta move quickly!”
And so the game continued on with the two of them jumping between all of the furniture in the living room to avoid the rising lava. Soon, they were both exhausted with their hair and clothing drenched in sweat from all the running around.
The end of the game came when Teru had tried to jump from a coffee table to a nearby chair. Unfortunately, he didn’t land quite right and the chair slid out from underneath him, sending him tumbling to the floor with a thud. Akane nearly rushed off of the couch where he was standing over to Teru. The game didn’t matter anymore, Teru could have been hurt!
“Woah, are you okay?”
But before he could move to help him, Teru held his hand up for Akane to stay in place.
“Save yourself, Aoi!” he whined dramatically, his voice coming out wheezy and breathless. The fall must have knocked the air from his lungs. “Tell my family I love them!”
“...We’ll honor your memory,” Akane played along, deciding that it wasn’t worth arguing with him. If he could be joking around, then surely he must not have been that hurt.
“Thank you… bleh.” Teru closed his eyes and stuck his tongue out to the side.
“Okay, okay, get up.”
“You know… I honestly don’t even care if the floor is lava anymore,” Teru said in between panting breaths, “...’m so tired. Just take me away…”
“So, can we go to sleep now then?” Akane jumped off of the couch and offered a hand to Teru who was still laying on the floor. “If you haven’t been keeping track of time, it is past midnight and we have to go investigate tomorrow.”
Teru took Akane’s hand gingerly and pulled himself up, quickly dusting himself off. “Ah, I suppose you’re right. I’ll go grab some extra pillows.”
A grand pillowfort was promptly set up in the living room with Teru not allowing Akane to help build it at all lest he “ruin it”. Akane didn’t mind and just sat on the ottoman (as Teru had removed all of the couch cushions to make the walls of the fort), watching Teru work away with a bemused expression on his face. The fort was rather flimsy, only held together by a blanket that had been stretched taut over it, but Teru seemed proud of himself.
He squeezed inside, peeking out at Akane through a small crack between the “roof” and the front wall.
“Can I come in?” Akane asked, trying his hardest not to smile. It was truly a sight to behold.
“What’s the password?”
“Huh?”
“Wrong!” Teru made a buzzer-like noise with his mouth. “‘Huh’ is not the password!”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Nope! Not the password either.”
Akane paused for a moment and regarded Teru coldly, his amusement now fading away. He was tired and just wanted to sleep after a long day. “Uhh. I don’t know. Can I have a hint?”
Teru hummed thoughtfully for a moment as he tried to come up with a suitable hint. “Ah! Okay, here. Your hint is that… it’s shocking.”
“I’m going to kick your fort over.”
“There’s no need for that. At least try to guess again. I was so gracious as to give you a hint after all.”
“Shocking… shocking,” he repeated to himself, pacing around the living room. He had no idea what this stupid password was supposed to be still.
Then an idea popped into his mind. Shocking, huh? If shocking was what he wanted, that’s what he would give him.
“Okay, how’s this for shocking?” Akane started, giving Teru his most innocent smile through the peephole, “I love you.”
For once, Teru seemed to be at a loss for words as his cheeks and the tips of his ears burned red. All he could do was stare at Akane who looked very proud of himself for a few moments.
“Lightning… The password was lightning,” Teru said finally, “...But I’ll give it to you anyway since that was indeed very shocking.”
Teru moved to open the “door” to the fort, having to do it slowly and carefully so as to not make the entire thing collapse on him. Akane carefully crawled inside, making sure not to bump any of the flimsy walls. He had to bend awkwardly and shift around for a while before he found a relatively comfortable position. It was a close fit with the two of them laying shoulder to shoulder but neither of them seemed to mind.
“I was thinking…” Teru said quietly, staring up at the roof of their pillowfort, “about other things we might like to do. On some other day, of course, I know you’re tired now.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.” There was a certain distantness in his voice, like he didn’t believe tomorrow would come. “Maybe we could go to the beach outside of town. Wouldn’t that be fun? I’ve never gone before. I don’t even have a swimsuit. Have you ever been to the beach, Aoi?”
“I have. It’s not all it’s chalked up to be. The sand gets everywhere no matter how much you try to wash it off. And the water is usually very cold even in the summer. But… if you want to go. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if you were there.”
“It’s a date then!”
Akane smiled to himself. Teru’s enthusiasm was contagious. “I guess it is.”
Teru rolled onto his side then, propping his head up with his hand so he could look at Akane better. “And what about you? I’ve been kinda dragging you along so far, so… is there anything you want to do over summer break?”
He hadn’t really planned anything. Mostly, he just hung out with Aoi over his summer breaks, but now that wasn’t really possible… “I don’t know. I suppose I haven’t thought about it.”
“Aw, that’s no fun.”
“Well… I guess there was this one place I always wanted to try going to. I never really had the chance before, or someone to go with…”
“Hmm?”
“It’s a planetarium just outside of town. Not too far from here actually.”
“I never knew you were interested in astronomy,” Teru said.
“I’m not particularly. I don’t really find it all that interesting. Stars live, they die burning out, and sometimes they explode. And sometimes they don’t. Kinda simple… but I guess… It’s just nice to take a step back sometimes. I was planning on asking Ao-chan to go with me, but… I think that was a stupid idea. She probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it.”
Teru’s smile faltered. “Aoi?”
He heard the silent question in his voice. Are you alright? And Akane didn’t know how to answer.
Akane took a deep breath and turned onto his side so that Teru could no longer see his expression. “I don’t understand why I’m here and she’s not. Why did I deserve to be the one to live? Why did she die and not me?”
The word die left a bitter taste in Teru’s mouth. It wasn’t like it was ever a pleasant word to hear, but hearing it from Akane just set his teeth on edge. “It wasn’t your fault. It’s not your fault that things played out the way they did.”
“Do I-... Do I even deserve this happiness? It should be hers. So, why? Why did you only bring me back?”
Teru let a shaky breath out. This was not the way he had envisioned this conversation turning out. “I couldn’t just leave you there.”
“I should have died back there,” Akane said quietly, barely above a whisper, “I would have, without question, if it meant she could have lived. She should be the one having fun on summer vacation here. Not me.”
There was a long silence that followed after that sentence left his lips. Teru knew he had to speak, but he couldn’t. He cursed himself for staying silent; he had been silent with Akane far too many times already. He had so many missed opportunities with him in the past.
“For what it’s worth,” Teru started finally, “I’m really glad you’re alive, Aoi.”
It sounds suspiciously like a confession. Hell, maybe it is one.
When Akane didn’t answer or move at all, Teru decided to wrap his arms around him. It took a bit of awkward shuffling, but he fit snugly in his arms with Akane’s back pressed against Teru’s chest. He pressed his forehead against the nape of the other boy’s neck. They were close before, but now they were so close Akane could feel Teru’s breath on his skin.
“I can’t apologize for bringing you back,” Teru continued, “I did what most other people would have done if they were presented with the same impossible choice. If I apologized for that, I would just be lying to you. And I never want to lie to you again. But… back there, in the gateway between the shores, I lied to you by omission and I betrayed your trust. For that, I am truly sorry.”
More silence and then… “I forgive you… Sorry for bringing the mood down like that so suddenly.”
“It’s alright,” Teru reassured him. His voice was so gentle in a way that made Akane feel almost fragile for the first time in his life. “I can’t know exactly how you feel. Only you do. All I could offer is the tears of an outsider looking in but… I understand what you mean. I’ve been fighting supernaturals my entire life. Even before I was old enough to understand why. Sometimes, I wonder about all the ways I could have died. And the times where I was sure I would.”
“You shouldn’t have to do that. It’s not fair.”
Teru smiled even if he knew he couldn’t see it. “No, maybe not, but it is what it is. So, what does that make us then? Just two kids who probably should be long since dead and buried? Maybe we’re in purgatory right now.”
“If I get to stay here in limbo with you… I guess that might not be so bad.”
“You shouldn’t be so quick to throw away your life, Aoi,” Teru said, his fingertips running through the hair at the nape of Akane’s neck.
“I could say the same to you,” he retorted.
“...Point taken.”
It was probably better to change the subject now. “You know, you have a scar on the back of your neck. How’d that happen?” He traced a line down the thin, white scar with his finger, sending shivers down Akane’s spine. It was barely visible but Teru knew what scars looked like even if they were mostly healed.
“Huh? Oh. That. I didn’t think it was still there.” He laughed breathily. “I was at the playground with Ao-chan when I was around eight I think? I tried climbing on top of the monkey bars in hopes to impress her. Well… turns out that didn’t work out so well for me. I ended up falling and knocking myself out.”
“Oh, ouch.”
“Ao-chan was so worried about me back then… She…”
“We’ll get her back. Don’t worry.”
“Thank you.”
“We should probably get some sleep soon,” Teru said, “We do have a busy day in store for us tomorrow.”
“Ah, right, sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you awake.”
“No need to apologize. I like talking to you.”
Teru let his eyes drift shut, thinking that would be the end of that.
“You know, you’re really, really cold. Your legs are like ice,” Akane said, sounding half asleep already.
“Why do you think I’m so close to you? You’re like my own personal space heater.”
“Call me that again and I will elbow you in the face.”
Despite himself, Akane couldn’t help but laugh and just the sound made Teru feel more at ease. If he could sleep next to Akane, hearing him laugh and holding him in his arms, maybe living wasn’t quite so bad. Maybe he could stomach going back to his normal life with supernaturals if this kept up.
I love you. Teru’s lips parted, but no more words came out. He felt suddenly like repaying the shock that Akane had given him earlier, but the words died in his throat. Not yet. At least not out loud. He drifted asleep with the pleasant thought that someday, somehow, he would finally be able to voice that thought.