Chapter Text
The white noise of nature was a pleasant soundtrack compared to the echoed halls of his house.
Akira liked the riverbank.
The riverbank wasn't the most conventional place for children to play, but it was fun! He pretended that the cool stream of water moving through his feet was thrashing waves and he was a swashbuckling adventurer traversing through the Amazon river.
It would have been fun to play with others, but since his parents were always busy, everyone else's parents couldn't know his parents. So he never got to go to anyone's house or hang out with kids after school.
It was fine though! He had the river and he had rocks.
The rocky shore acted as safety and land with shinier-than-normal rocks being bountiful pieces of treasure.
Once he went to the riverbank and there was an old woman there. She wore a blue dress with a comb in her hair.
It wasn't that surprising in all honesty.
People come and go to the riverbank all the time.
He continued to play in the water as normal, collecting rocks on the coast, humming happily by himself.
As he was about to leave with his bounty of five incredible rocks, the old woman offered him a small pebble. At the time, she said nothing, merely offering it to him with an open hand, a ghost of a smile on her ashen face.
Akira considered the rock. It wasn't a good rock, but it was a gift.
Akira doesn't remember much of the conversation, but he remembers the gesture. The small moment of connection and brevity from. What? Akira was having a great time by himself with his rocks but it felt like a relief at the time, from what, he still didn’t know.
When his parents cleaned his room and the rock was unceremoniously tossed away, he remembers crying a lot.
He doesn't like the riverbank much anymore.
The riverbank's steady stream suddenly felt like rapids, the rocks beneath his feet felt like class, and the quiet chitter of cicada's felt became tin in his ears.
Akira decided to spend more time in the center after that.
The streets were never loud but they were always occupied. The steady scurry of people mimicked the chatter of the cicadas and the winding streets became the gentle river he mapped.
There were a few downsides however.
The eyes.
He was small. Akira knew this technically.
But not that small! In his class, he was only the second shortest person.
Despite this, there were still always a few people turning to look at him whenever he went anywhere on central street.
He hated the looks, but liked spending time with his older sister.
Originally, he was looking at the strong pieces of armor at the shop next door, but when he made eye contact with the shop owner he quickly dashed away before crossing into the brunette girl.
She dropped her food in front of him and Akira could remember the tears already threatening to bleed out of his eyes.
Rise-senpai had frantically tried to tell him it was okay, but as he wiped his tears away, he could feel snot coming out of his nose, which only made him feel worse.
"Oh you sweet boy," said an old voice. Akira whimpered as he was embraced by a woman who smelled of soy and steam. She held him as his sobs calmed down and as he pulled away she gave him a smile.
It was old, wrinkly, and the kindest gesture anyone had given Akira in a long time. From there on, Akira had made an effort to visit the shop.
Rise-senpai became older sister and the old woman became Granny. During her break, Rise-senpai and him would sing together for fun. He would even sing small jingles to attract people to the store.
He loved being there. Granny would even prepare small dishes for him to take home, and during Rise-senpai's breaks, she and him would share lunch together.
However, two weeks ago, Rise-senpai left. She said she had to sing somewhere else. He had cried then too. He missed her. Granny was nice, but he missed his big sister.
Granny was also busier than his sister was, so again, he was left alone.
For these reasons, Akira found himself less and less at the central shopping district.
Akira walked across the road, an umbrella over his head going to his latest sanctuary.
While he didn't like the riverbank, he found new solace at the Samegawa Flood Plain. Sometimes families would be there for picnic's and he could play with other kids.
Even though Akira knew that it would be unlikely to find anyone on a rainy day like this, he felt drawn to the spot for whatever reason today.
His rainboots hit a puddle, splashing on his shorts. Akira grimaced at the wetness. He would have to wash these shorts now. While he was supposed to do laundry anyway, it still sucked!
He stood still for a moment, mourning the loss of more of his free time before continuing his path, before stopping again for an entirely difficult reason.
There was a boy.
There was a boy with honey-hair at the picnic table alone.
Inaba was a small town. Everyone knew everyone, and if you didn't know someone, someone you knew, knew them. With its winding hilly streets and its small homely stores, there were barely any tourists either.
There were barely any other kids in Inaba, so Akira should have known who he was. But he didn't.
The boy was wearing a red hoodie and a pair of jeans, long enough to dangle off the heel of his shoes which were swinging casually under the table.
Akira furrowed his eyebrows nodding to himself, making an executive decision. He started to walk over to him.
The other boy wasn't doing much. Just sitting there. Seemingly staring into space, occasionally knocking the table. Akira moved up the steps, the boy seemingly not noticing another presence, and noticed that the boy had a small notebook in front of him and was clutching a barely there pencil.
Akira felt weird just watching the boy but didn’t know why. People watching (not stalking, thank you Granny), was kinda his thing.
Akira moved around the boy and closed his umbrella. He could see the other boy shoot his head up.
His eyes were maroon red.
"Agh!" he yelped, somewhere in the back of his mind, he had the strange thought that the specific shade of red was two degrees darker than the boy's hoodie.
Stumbling into the seat across from the boy, Akira managed to knock his leg into the table.
"That hurt!" he clutched his knee bringing his foot to rest on the seat beneath him.
"You're being dramatic."
Akira turned to look up at the other boy.
Grey locked with red.
The boy had a slight twist in the corner of his mouth and was looking at Akira with an expression that he couldn’t place. His eyebrows furrowed at Akira, a few freckles scattered delicately on his scrunched nose. Sometimes the wind would knock some hair past his maroon eyes, curtaining them slightly, shadowing parts of it–
Akira focus!
His leg did hurt!
"Am not," Akira shot back.
"Are too!" he sniped back, dropping the pencil and paper in his pocket, crossing his arms. “You barely nudged the table.”
“I fell down, not you!”
“And I saw that you didn’t fall that badly!”
“But it hurts!” To prove his point, Akira poked his leg where it hit the table, letting out another brief yelp at the sting.
One red eye widened slightly, the other partially obscured by a stray lock of hair.
“Fine.” The other boy uncrossed his arms, but shoved them into his pockets, leaning into the hood of his hoodie. The crease in his forehead deepened despite his mouth settling into a stern line. “I guess it does hurt.”
Akira nodded, feeling that the boy was not done.
“But still! You were being dramatic,” he said bluntly. “It was your fault anyway for tripping on air.”
“I didn’t trip on air!” Akira protested. The boy raised an eyebrow. “I was startled by-”
He stopped himself. It was impolite to say he was caught off guard by the deep red of the other boy's eyes.
"Whatever," Akira murmured, turning away to look at the side, watching the mist hiding away Inaba.
Both quieted, the sound of water hitting their tin roof shelter being the only sound echoing in his ears.
"You’re weird,” the boy said, breaking the silence. Akira turned back to look at him. “Just don’t go around poking your leg either. You might end up forming a bruise.”
Akira took the olive branch for what it was, mildly confused why it was extended in the first place, and thanked him, sharing a small grin with the boy.
A small lift appeared in the corner of the boy's mouth in response, a ghost of a smile.
For a brief moment, Akira was caught off guard again.
Who knew he could make an expression other than annoyance?
The boy had a pleasant smile, albeit it was small and guarded somewhat. Akira thought back to Granny and couldn't help but compare the small tug of the honey-haired boy's lips to her.
Akira barely burned the boy's expression in his mind, before the other boy's expression twisted back into a scowl, like he had just remembered something.
His scowl made his eyes shine more and his nose wrinkle again. His body twisted around and scanned the flood plain, before his maroon eyes rested on Akira again. For a second, Akira thought of a bird with their feathers puffed around them.
Although he was being scowled at, Akira couldn't help but feel warm, savoring the brief moment of connection between the two of them. A small, secret smile shared between two boys about nothing truly important.
And yet, Akira felt like it was something that needed to be treasured.
Akira didn’t have many friends. Adults never trusted him to play with kids his age because his parents were never around and there was never another adult to confirm that he was a good kid.
School existed but he was always quiet and people didn’t really care much about his interests anyway.
He liked hanging out with Granny, but with Rise-senpai gone, she was busier than ever.
In a town as small as Inaba, where everyone knew everyone, Akira knew no one.
Akira wanted to know this boy.
“I’m Akira,” Akira said, because that was a good way to start. “What is your name?”
"Where are you parents?" the other boy demanded, at the same time he asked.
Akira fixated on the other boy’s face, expression less startleted, but no less on edge. While his hands were in his pockets, there was a tension in his shoulders that wasn’t there before.
"Dad is at work and Mom is away on a trip." Akira shrugged, feeling his lips pull into a thin line. "For work too."
The other boy gave a jerky head nod in acquiesce.
“What’s your name?” Akira asked again, politely.
The boy gave him a look he didn’t know how to decipher, but desperately wanted to know, before looking down at the table and nodding to himself.
“Akechi.”