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Shu didn’t know how long they’d been on the train, but he was really hoping their stop was soon because he was really starting to feel stiff with Mika’s head on his shoulder. How typical of him. He had gone off and fallen asleep without even bothering to think about how Shu might feel. Sitting on a train with no one to talk to was bad enough, but not even being able to move was even worse. No matter how inconsiderate Shu felt Mika had been, he couldn’t bear to move and risk waking Mika up. Then Shu would be the one being inconsiderate. He couldn’t have that.
It was still a while before Mika woke up, lazily stretching as he sat up straight. Shu immediately relaxed; he couldn’t even remember the last time he had been so close to someone. If he remembered correctly, the last time was also Mika, if not Nazuna. Either way, Shu still couldn’t quite figure out if he liked it.
(He probably didn’t—if it made him feel so stiff, he couldn’t like it.)
“Oh! Sorry, Oshi-san. I didn’t really notice or anythin’.” Mika smiled, all teeth. His voice was scratchy, rough with sleep still weighing him down.
“Be more careful, Kagehira,” Shu said. He readjusted Mademoiselle on his lap. She was dressed warm enough for the weather, but Shu planned out making a new coat for her while on this little vacation. After all, Shu didn’t really have any motive to be visiting Mika’s parents. He was just along for the ride. “Imagine if you had been by yourself. You could have slept right through your stop.”
“Well, that’s why yer here! So I don’t get in trouble like that!” Mika glanced out the window. “There’s nothin’ really out here except trees and stuff. ‘S like that at home, too. My home, not ours.”
Ours?
“We got trees and some old stuff and stores,” Mika continued. “Like ours! Er, like my family’s. Not ours—er, ours ours—ah…” Mika trailed off, scratching his head. “I think Oshi-san will like it a lot.”
“What makes you say that?”
Mika shrugged. “It’s got old-lookin’ stuff. It ain’t all fancy or nothin’, but you like that kinda old stuff. My mama makes the best accessories in town! She can probably make some for Mado-nee, even!” Mika turned back toward Shu to pat Mademoiselle’s head, careful not to knock her hat off.
“Thank you, Mika-chan!” Mademoiselle cheerfully piped in. “I appreciate it, so give her a big thank you from me!”
“I will, Mado-nee! But can’t ya just do it yerself?”
“She can’t. She’s shy,” Shu said. And it wasn’t really true, since Mademoiselle was never shy. That was the whole point; she would talk when Shu couldn’t. But he didn’t think that Mika’s parents would appreciate their child living with a man who talks through a doll when he gets anxious, so it might even be best to put her away before they reach Mika’s house.
“Oh… That’s okay, Mado-nee! Everyone gets a little shy sometimes, so it’s okay,” Mika said.
Mika swung his legs for a bit, and Shu almost scolded him. But he didn’t want to be too harsh. Mika was probably nervous after all, and he couldn’t push his doll to the point of breaking.
(He had already done that before, anyway. Once was more than enough.)
And Shu was nervous, too. He could make one wrong move, and his precious puppet would be pulled away from him, taken, kidnapped, stolen. He couldn’t have that.
“...Do ya think they’ll be happy to see me?” Mika asked, pausing his leg swinging. He slid down in his seat a bit, bunching his shirt up around his shoulders and exposing just a sliver of his stomach.
“Why wouldn’t they be? They’re your parents.” Shu tugged down Mika’s shirt. “Don’t wrinkle your clothes, Kagehira.”
“Sorry.” He sat up straight, but it didn’t last long. He slid down again. “I dunno. I was just thinkin’ that it mighta been gettin’ kinda nice without me around. Do ya ever think that about me, Oshi-san? That it’s better without me around sometimes?”
Shu chose not to answer. Sometimes it was a blessing without Mika around, but ultimately…
“Ya don’t hafta answer that. But I don’t really think they like it ‘cause sometimes I’m no good at helpin’ out with the shop. I’m good at stackin’, but I can’t make nothin’ that looks all fancy. It’s terrible, Oshi-san.” Mika huffed. “An’ all the shop customers look at me like I’m some kinda freak show ‘cause there ain’t no one ‘round these parts who looks anythin’ like me! ‘Cause of my stupid eyes, yanno? So I don’t go lookin’ at ‘em all that much—the customers—so they go thinkin’ I’m rude! I ain’t rude. Just… Just shy sometimes!”
“Don’t be foolish, Kagehira. You’re blowing everything out of proportion.” Shu found himself adjusting Mika’s shirt again. It really would be wonderful if he would stop attempting to wrinkle every single thing he wears. “You work hard, so I’m sure your parents love you.”
And if anyone is looking at Mika’s eyes, it couldn’t be with disgust.
“But what if they don’t like me no more? ‘Cause I’m a fancy idol now.” Mika crossed his arms, but uncrossed them almost immediately. “Well, they probably like that. I send them lots of my money, yanno, so they can be livin’ a little fancier. I hope the food ain’t fancy, though. My mama cooks the best, so if we got stuff all fancy now, it just ain’t the same!”
Mika was cut off by an announcement over the intercom. It’d only be about fifteen more minutes before they reached Mika’s hometown.
“Oshi-san, I gotta introduce ya to all my friends! They’ll love ya lots, I think. We can go to this place where they serve good food and fancy food, and…”
As the town came into view, Shu couldn’t focus on Mika’s rambling. He could only focus on the beating of his own heart, of grasping Mademoiselle so hard she would break if he wasn’t careful. And he shouldn’t be nervous. It was Mika’s problem, anyway.
But these days, Mika’s problems seemed to become Shu’s problems, too.
-—-
Shu was, in short, overwhelmed.
Even if the town was much smaller than the city he lived in, everything seemed to all be crammed along a few roads. There were stands lining the sidewalks selling homemade goods and snacks, and somehow, Mika knew every single one of them . He wouldn’t stop to talk (thank God), but he’d give a wave and a “heya!” before continuing along the road.
And it was weird that they could just walk in the road like that. There were hardly any cars at all, so many people just walked right on the dirt road. Shu could hardly believe anything he was seeing. He didn’t know towns like this even existed in real life. He thought they were something out of storybooks, or something used to scare young children into getting good jobs. Because surely no one could be here out of their own free will.
“We’re gonna take a back road, okay, Oshi-san?” Mika asked, talking directly to Shu for the first time since they hopped off the train. “It’s kinda crowded, right?”
Shu couldn’t do much but nod. Being in such a tight-knit crowd debilitated him even more than just a normal crowd, and he had put Mademoiselle away in order not to get her dirty. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists, and he must have looked absolutely unsightly if Mika was offering to take a back road for him.
It’s not for me. It must just be faster, that’s all.
There were significantly less people in the back alleys. Behind all the buildings, there were only a few people taking out the trash or having a smoke. Some were high above, leaning out their windows and giving a short wave as they passed.
“If it ain’t Kagehira-kun!” someone called.
Mika stopped in his tracks, jumping up and down when he spotted the scrappy-looking girl tapping a cigarette on her windowsill.
“Tocchi! Heya, Tocchi!” he waved his hands wildly, and Shu took a step back. The girl could surely see him because the second floor wasn’t too high up.
They talked for a few minutes, shifting from topic to topic so fast that Shu couldn’t keep up. He was more concerned about the fact that Mika had forgotten his jacket. Mika was rocking back and forth on his heels, so he must have felt it. Winter hadn’t hit this town; it was cold, but not yet snowing, so it didn’t truly feel like winter. But it was cold enough that Shu made a note to scold Mika later for it.
“See ya, Tocchi!” Mika said after what felt like a million years.
“Don’t be no stranger! Who’s the city boy?”
Mika nudged Shu’s arm.
“Itsuki Shu,” he mumbled. He just really wanted to get out of there.
“Izumi?”
“Itsuki!” he said, a bit louder.
The girl howled in laughter, saying something like “just playin’!”, but it didn’t change the fact that Shu started walking even faster in whatever direction Mika had started them off in, and he started to devise a million ways to get out of speaking to someone so horrid again.
“Sorry, Tocchi gets a little carried away sometimes,” Mika said. He had a skip in his step as he walked this time. “She’s really called Toki, but when I was a kid I went an’ messed it all up. ‘Cause I ain’t so smart, yanno? So—”
“How long, exactly, until we reach your home?” Shu had his suitcase in a white-knuckled grip. He wasn’t concerned about Mika’s friends anymore, because Mademoiselle must be suffocating in his stuffy suitcase.
“It’s this buildin’! We gotta go ‘round the front, though.” Mika grabbed Shu’s sleeve, tugging him towards an alleyway in between his house and the building next to it.
-—-
This was going to be a long trip.
Shu was left standing awkwardly by the door as Mika was suffocated by hugs from his parents for a good minute or so. In the middle of the shop . And it wasn’t like there were any customers at the moment, but if any walked in, they would probably feel as out-of-place as Shu felt. Or maybe they wouldn’t, since everyone in this town was crazy anyway.
They had only just finished hugging Mika when Shu got crushed, too. Just Mika’s mother was strong enough to make Shu feel like every bone in his body was going to crack, and it didn’t help that he just kept stiffening up. His own family wasn’t nearly as affectionate as Mika’s, so being trapped in a hug like that was… uncomfortable, at best.
“So yer the boy that’s takin’ care of our Mika?”
God, they talk like him, too.
“U-Um—” Shu could hardly get a word out.
“We can’t thank ya enough! It’s a load off our shoulders knowin’ he’s safe with ya.” Mrs. Kagehira hugged him tighter, and Shu didn’t even know that was possible. She was a short woman, a bit on the plumper side, and yet her hugs were suffocating. Mika’s father was laughing, giving him a pat on the head so rough, Shu thought he might need to get examined for a concussion. “You ain’t got no idea how happy we was when we heard y’all would take him in!”
Shu made eye contact with Mika over his mother’s shoulder, hoping the look in his eyes would give him enough of a hint.
“Mama, Oshi-san’s delicate so ya can’t crush him!” Mika said, and thankfully it got his mother to release Shu. It took all Shu had to refrain from brushing himself off. “He gets kinda shy too, so ya can’t go makin’ fun of him or nothin’.”
“I’m not—”
Mr. Kagehira let out another hearty laugh and gave Shu another good pat. “Ya gotta learn ta roll with it all, son! Ya ain’t gonna get nowhere bein’ a pansy! Maybe later I’ll teach ya how ta get yer hands dirty.”
“No thank you.” Shu shuffled away from the door and Mika’s parents in favor of standing behind Mika. He’d much rather have a human buffer. “I would like to keep my hands as clean as they came, please.”
“Mika was sayin’ ya like dolls, right?” Mrs. Kagehira was suddenly behind the counter, digging through drawers. She seemed extremely disorganized, but if their shop was still in business there must be a method to her madness.
“I collect them, yes,” Shu answered. He glanced at Mr. Kagehira. He seemed like a man’s man—like Kiryu—but he didn’t seem any less excited over Shu’s mere existence.
Mrs. Kagehira popped up from behind the counter. She held a small, beautiful dress in her hands. It had lace on the edges and the tiniest, most intricate beading on the corset. Shu had never seen anything like it.
“I got a little excited when I heard ya’d be comin’ down with Mika, so I whipped up a little somethin’!” She placed the dress in Shu’s hands, and Shu was almost afraid to hold it. It was so incredible. He wondered where Mika had misplaced this talent. “I didn’t know if it’d fit any o’ yer dolls, so please forgive me.”
“It’s gorgeous. Thank you,” Shu said. He could hardly take his eyes off of the dress. Where would he even put it when going home? He hoped it would fit Mademoiselle. “Truly, thank you.”
“Aw, it’s nothin’.” The bell rang, and Mika’s mother rushed around the counter again. Shu didn’t even know how a human could be like a whirlwind until seeing her. “Now, why don’t y’all go on upstairs and get yerselves settled? Mika, be a good boy and show him ‘round the place. I’ll make dinner tonight, so don’t go worryin’ about that.”
“Sure thing, Mama!”
Mika led Shu through the back room of the store, filled with boxes of supplies and knick knacks, and up the stairs. Shu couldn’t help but wonder how they managed to find everything they needed when nothing seemed labelled. He wasn’t even sure what the point of the store was . It was just filled with homemade trinkets and odds and ends. Souvenirs? But who would want a souvenir from such a small town? A craft store? But some things for sale had already been crafted…
“This is where we live! It’s right above the shop, so if someone tries breakin’ in, they’ve got a big storm comin’!”
The place wasn’t messy . It was just… packed. There was something displayed on every square inch available. They all looked handcrafted, some more obvious than others. Fabric dolls with uneven eyes, lopsided clay bowls, and scratched wood carvings were on taller shelves, where they were harder to see, harder to touch. But some of the truly beautiful things—elegant vases, delicate doll dresses, braided and beaded cords that somewhat resembled dream catchers—were at eye level, at touching distance, even.
Shu only half-listened as Mika blabbered on about his home. It might have been rude, sure, but Shu couldn’t take his eyes off of everything. He kept finding something new every time he looked at the same shelf twice. It was like a game: How many tries until everything looks familiar?
“This here is my room!”
It was just like the rest of the house. There were stuffed animals upon stuffed animals, and his bed (which, unsurprisingly, looked like it hadn’t been made since before Mika left) was filled with dozens of blankets and pillows. It seemed like Mika was attempting to use posters and pictures as wallpaper, and Shu couldn’t find a bare spot on the wall. The floor, however, was spotless. Which didn’t come as a surprise; Mika at least kept his floor tidy back at home, too.
As Shu looked around, he almost felt like he could find a pattern to how the stuffed animals were arranged. At first, he thought it was by how each color looked put next to each other, and then, he thought it might have been by species. But as he looked closer—not by choice ; Mademoiselle just needed a place to sit—he noticed that they were grouped by ailment. The ones on what used to be a desk were all missing limbs, while the ones placed amongst Mika’s books (... He reads? ) had limbs attached to them that were completely different. The ones on Mika’s bed all had something amiss with their eyes, and the few scattered everywhere else were completely normal.
Shu sat at the very edge of Mika’s bed, careful not to topple over the mountain of stuffed animals. He set Mademoiselle against a pillow, since she probably needed the rest anyway, and watched as Mika fluttered from wall to wall, taking down seemingly random pictures.
“I wanna put new ones up, but Oshi-san’s gotta look at these first!” Mika appeared to be talking to absolutely no one in particular. Maybe the stuffed animals? Shu couldn’t really tell.
A stack of pictures was dropped in Shu’s lap as Mika hauled his bag up onto his bed. He started shuffling through its contents, and Shu had half a mind to scold him for not being more organized. But at the same time, it was Mika , so Shu didn’t really know what he expected.
The first picture was blurry, a large crowd that Shu couldn’t recognize at all. The next was a scene of stuffed animals that appeared to be putting on a live, complete with tiny glow sticks. The pictures, as a whole, didn’t quite make sense or look like they had any meaning, but there must be something behind them if Mika felt like he had to put them on his wall. Mika wasn’t even in most of the photos. He was in a few, standing near his friends or something big, but Shu still couldn’t quite figure out why Mika decided they were required for him to look at.
“I put all new ones up!” Mika said. He stood proudly by his door, the wall space next to it decorated with newer looking photos. “That one’s from when it was yer birthday, Oshi-san! And that one’s me and you durin’ Tanabata, and then there’s one of me and Naru-chan. That’s from that one time where I was stackin’ candies on top of Mado-nee’s head and ya got all mad at me, and the one next to that is really blurry ‘cause I think I was runnin’ from ya. And that one’s from when ya fell asleep while workin’ on somethin’, and it was the first time ya weren’t lookin’ so angry, so I took a picture.”
“ What ?”
“Nothin’! The past is in the past, right?” Mika quickly moved on to the next picture. “There’s one of me and you and Nazuna-nii, too. And me and you and Mado-nee! I’m gonna keep these pictures up forever and ever.”
Were those moments really that important to Mika? He could understand keeping pictures from their live shows, but the rest of them? A picture of Shu sleeping ? Shu didn’t really understand Mika nearly as much as he originally thought, but if he was part of these special memories… Well, he was glad.
Mika jumped onto a spot on the bed beside Shu, nearly knocking over Mademoiselle in the process.
“Careful, Kagehira!” Shu reached over Mika and set Mademoiselle on his other side. He knew he couldn’t trust Mika to be gentle around her.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m careful. I won’t fall or nothin’,” Mika said. He pointed at the stack of photos Shu was, for some reason, still holding. “Those ones coulda been my forever and ever pictures, but then Valkyrie happened! Valkyrie’s more important than those silly things.”
Mika took the stack from Shu and set them aside. And by “set them aside,” Mika really just tossed them into a drawer. Shu made a mental note to give Mika a photo album sometime soon. It couldn’t be good for all of those photos to be thrown around like that. Especially if they were Mika’s precious memories; Shu didn’t quite understand them, but he wanted to make sure they were preserved. Mika deserved to have nothing but good memories to look back on.
“Are you okay, Oshi-san?” Mika asked. He shifted around, choosing to sit on his knees instead. “Is it okay that I brought ya here?”
“It’s fine.” Really, it was. Shu appreciated being brought into a space so personal. Back at their home, Shu made sure Mika kept his room somewhat clean. Seeing what Mika was used to was like a treat. “My family just isn’t as… affectionate as yours.”
Mika hummed. “Yeah, Oshi-san’s family is kinda cold. But it’s okay, right? Ya get to see what it’s like for me every day! Er, what it used to be like, I guess.”
Shu wondered if Mika ever got homesick. If he did, he never talked about it, but he must sometimes. It’s only natural, after all. Maybe this trip would allow Shu to change things a little back at home to try and prevent some homesickness. He wouldn’t start cluttering up the whole house, of course, but he could allow himself to be a bit more lenient on what Mika does with his room. He probably shouldn’t interfere too much anyway. Last time he was so controlling, he…
He didn’t want to think about it.
-—-
Dinner went well, surprisingly. Shu thought it would be a lot rowdier, really. Everything else about the Kagehiras was so much that he expected dinner to be completely over the top. But it was fine, normal, enjoyable, even. Shu wasn’t particularly fond of eating (honestly, he’d like to have a word with whoever decided humans needed to eat—it was so disruptive ), but the food set in front of him consisted of things he quite liked.
Unlike Shu’s own family, Mika’s liked to sit around the table even after they were done eating. Just to talk, mostly. To catch up. Shu didn’t have much to say. He was still a bit nervous around Mika’s parents, after all. He spoke when he was asked a question, and laughed when something was funny. Which wasn’t very often, but he was perfectly sociable, really .
Mika’s parents seemed to like talking to Shu anyway. They asked him about all sorts of things: his family, his sewing, Valkyrie, school. The way they talked with him felt like they’d known him for years instead of the mere couple of hours. It was a strange feeling, but not unwelcome.
It was dark by the time the conversation finally lulled. The quiet hardly lasted a full minute before Mika’s mother was fussing over the two of them, wondering if the trip was too much or if they’d been getting a proper amount of sleep and they needed to sleep soon if they expected to grow well. And honestly, Shu had pulled so many all-nighters that he didn’t think he was going to grow anymore. But they were sent off to bed anyway, and Shu couldn’t remember the last time someone who wasn’t Mika told him to get some rest. It must run in the family.
“Um, Oshi-san, yer gonna sleep in my bed, okay?” Mika said while digging through his drawers. “We only got one, so I’ll go sleep—”
“Nonsense.” Shu started unbuttoning his shirt. He didn’t mind changing in front of Mika—they were housemates , let alone unitmates!—but somehow it felt a little awkward while standing in Mika’s room. Perhaps it was because of all the stuffed animals staring at him. That had to be it. “If anyone’s sleeping elsewhere, then it will be me. I’m the one intruding, anyway.”
“No way!” Shu could hear the pout in Mika’s voice. “That’s totally messed up logic! I’m intrudin’ on yer house every single day, and I don’t have to sleep on the floor or nothin’ weird!”
“Then we share the bed.” He spoke before he could think, his heart racing at the thought. Which was strange, totally odd, completely different, but he supposed everything about Mika’s house was. He and Mika may do a lot together, but they’ve never once shared a bed, so it must be normal to be nervous. Right? “Surely it won’t be a problem.”
“N-No problem!”
They changed in silence after that, and Shu quietly wondered if he had said the wrong thing. Was it too forward of him to suggest something like that? Would Mika think poorly of him from then on? Well, no, he couldn’t; it was Mika. Maybe Mika was just as nervous as Shu, who still couldn’t quite get his heart rate under control. How irritating! He was usually completely in control of his emotions, yet it felt like he was going haywire.
Mika swept almost all of the stuffed animals from his bed onto the floor in order to make room for the two of them. The bed immediately looked a bit bigger, and Shu felt so relieved that he wouldn’t be sleeping close to Mika—
Was it relief? It was a sinking feeling, somehow, but maybe it was best to categorize it as relief and save more dwelling for later.
—that he let out a sigh, opting to lie near the wall. It’d be easier to press against in case Mika was an… intrusive sleeper, like the train ride led him to believe.
“I think Mama likes ya lots,” Mika said suddenly, finally breaking the silence. “I mean, who wouldn’t like ya? But she likes ya more than my other friends already.”
“Is that so?” It was hard to tell. That hug from earlier could have very well been an assassination attempt.
Mika nodded, a bit too eager. “Yeah! She was callin’ me the other day ‘cause she was all worried about accidentally makin’ somethin’ ya didn’t like to eat. Usually she just tells people to be grateful they got somethin’ on their plate!” He laughed a little, shifting a bit. If Mika was looking at him, Shu didn’t know. He kept his eyes trained on the ceiling. “But this time she cared a whole lot.”
A short “hm” was Shu’s only response. It was nice to hear and all, but expressing that was hard , and it was easier to just act aloof and mildly disinterested when too many emotions were coming into play.
(Like the warmth spreading through him or the desire to know exactly what Mika said to his mother to make her care for him so much. Even if Shu was the more talented one out of the two of them, sometimes he acted like Mika had no talent at all. Hardly a trait a mother would want to hear, but then again, Mika never found any fault in anything Shu did. Maybe it all blurred away in that straw-filled head. That stupid, dense, and quite cute straw-filled head.)
-—-
Shu woke as stiffly as he fell asleep.
It didn’t help that Mika really was a close sleeper. Each time Shu tried to scoot away, Mika would just get closer until Shu was shoved right up against the wall. At some point in the night, Shu had chalked it up to Mika’s empty head registering Shu as a stuffed animal rather than a person. Or maybe he was just cold. One of those must have been the reason. There weren’t any underlying feelings. That would have been absolutely absurd .
Mika was so close that Shu could feel the boy’s breath on his cheek. He didn’t really know how light of a sleeper Mika was, so he didn’t dare try to get up. Even if Shu did get up, he wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to interact with Mika’s parents. Not alone. What if he said something wrong? Or did something weird? He wouldn’t have Mika or Mademoiselle to explain it away, and surely a disaster would ensue.
Shu sighed, shifting just slightly to get a quick glance at Mika. If the two were any closer to each other, their noses would be touching. He’d… never been quite so close to Mika’s face before. Even when inspecting his make-up, evening out shakily applied eyeliner and blending foundation, Shu kept a little bit of distance between them. It gave him a weird feeling.
He looked back up to the ceiling.
-—-
The morning started out just a bit rough.
Shu had accidentally fallen back asleep after waking the first time, which was probably the most obvious tell that the day was going to be strange. He woke to Mika noisily clambering about his room, immediately making more noise by rapidly firing apologies for being so noisy. Shu just waved off each one, not bothering to scold him. It was probably better that Shu had woken up anyway; that was the longest he’d slept in a long time, and who knows how much longer he would have gone.
Even if it was unlikely that Mademoiselle would go out for the day, Shu still dressed her in an outfit that matched his own. After all, she deserved respect. And if she did suddenly have to go out, then she’d be fully prepared. For now, Shu left her in Mika’s room, carefully set amongst some stuffed animals.
“Mama and Papa are probably workin’ already,” Mika said. The way he moved about the kitchen was exactly how his mother moved. Like a hummingbird, sort of: faster than probably necessary and fluttering from place to place so fast that if Shu blinked then he’d miss it. Mika wasn’t like this at home at all; the cooking was usually left to Shu.
With various ingredients all laid out in front of him, Mika’s mismatched gaze fell upon the stove. “Oh.” His shoulders slumped. “Mama already left somethin’ for us to eat.” Mika straightened up as if his sadness had never happened. “That’s okay! I’ll cook for ya someday, Oshi-san.”
“You have the opportunity to every day, Kagehira.”
“But it’s different .”
“How so?”
Mika was quiet for a while, deep in thought. Shu was about to tell him not to overthink it—it was a rhetorical question, really—when Mika finally came up with a response.
“I don’t really know how to explain it,” he said, a bit defeated, “so just trust me.”
Shu did, somehow, wholeheartedly.
-—-
It really wasn’t every day that Shu was surrounded by a close-knit group of talkative people that all seemed to want to know about him , so it was only natural that he felt so incredibly uncomfortable while talking with Mika’s friends.
They were all girls, first of all. Which wasn’t really a problem, but talking to a group of teenage girls was foreign territory for Shu; he was fine with one-on-one, but a whole group ? A completely different story. They all talked so fast, too, bouncing from Mika to Shu to one half talking to Mika and the other half talking to Shu and then they switched and—
Shu was nearly out of breath just thinking about it. He really shouldn’t have left Mademoiselle behind.
Mika, however, was having no problems at all. It was weird seeing him so outgoing. At home, Mika would start staring at the ground if he spotted someone walking towards them in the distance. Which, honestly, was what Shu always felt like doing, but he at least had the maturity to stare straight ahead.
Here, however, Mika was almost as confident as he looked on stage. Which was a beautiful sight to see.
They had been standing apart to begin with, but Shu hardly noticed he was moving closer to Mika until their arms were brushing with each movement. But it was fine. Mika was safe. Mika felt like home. It wasn’t like the feeling Mademoiselle gave Shu—he couldn’t quite place where the differences were—but at least it wouldn’t be too hard to keep talking with Mika so close.
“Oh! Oshi-san sews a lot!” Mika said suddenly. He nudged Shu’s arm. “Right?’
“That’s super cool! I ain’t never learned somethin’ fancy like that!” One girl, the only one Shu could recognize, the girl from yesterday (Toshi? Toki? Tocchi!), bounced up and down on her toes. “Are ya super good? Ya gonna be a fashion designer, Izumi?”
“ Itsuki ,” Shu corrected, and he might have been a bit harsher if they weren’t all staring at him so expectantly. “That’s… something I’ve considered, seeing as the fashion industry is so disgustingly uniform lately. Because even if each piece is unique, there’s only so much one could do with a concept. There is no designer that thinks the same way as I do, though, so anything and everything I design is actually unique.” Shu’s own talent was the one thing he was always good at talking about, and there was no way he’d let a chance like that pass him by.
One of the other girls blinked, a bit confused. “Mika-chan, ya can’t be tellin’ us this kinda guy is yer type, right?”
The group of them giggled, and color rushed to Shu’s cheeks. He and Mika…? No, that wasn’t—what exactly is Mika telling everyone?!
“No, no, no!” Mika covered his face with his hands. “That ain’t it! Oshi-san and I ain’t… Ya got it all wrong!”
“Really?” Tocchi raised an eyebrow. “Well, that don’t match up with what you were tellin’ me—”
“We hafta go right now!” Mika grabbed Shu’s wrist suddenly, tugging him away from the group. “Sorry, guys, I’ll catch up with y’all later, but right now we really, really, really gotta go!”
They were practically running down the sidewalk, through alleys and back roads until Shu was sure the girls wouldn’t even be able to find them with a GPS set to their exact location, assuming they even had GPS in such a place. Mika was leaning against the wall, panting, and Shu was still utterly confused about… well, everything that had occurred since he woke up this morning..
And it was only noon.
-—-
“Sorry, that was super weird.” Mika laughed, a little awkwardly. He was leading Shu around the town again at a much slower, much more comfortable pace. “I promise I wasn’t sayin’ nothin’ bad! They just—”
“It’s fine, Kagehira.” Really, Shu just wanted to forget about the whole experience. “Forget about it.”
“Okay!”
Mika’s hometown was really quite nice, if Shu looked at it a certain way. He didn’t typically like places that looked a bit sloppy, but this place did it in a way that felt… cozy, maybe? It felt genuine. No matter who was in town, it would probably always looked the same: street vendors setting up and tearing down whenever, each building painted a color that offended its neighbors, children running up and down streets without a care in the world. It wouldn’t be hard to draw inspiration from a town like that.
“There ain’t many fancy places ‘round here,” Mika said. “I mean, we had a chain store a while ago, but it was kinda annoyin’, so nobody went in. It probably shut down. But it’s okay, ‘cause—”
“You forgot your jacket,” Shu interrupted. “Take mine.”
“Eh?! I can’t go takin’ Oshi-san’s jacket! Yer gonna get sick!”
Shu was shrugging it off before he could take anything back. He didn’t really know what came over him, what caused him to offer Mika a coat instead of lecturing him for forgetting. For now, blaming it on too much sleep seemed like a good idea.
“Maybe, but it’s more troublesome when you’re sick.” He held out the coat. “Take it before I change my mind.”
Mika made some sort of noise, somewhere between gratitude and protest in a way only he knew how to do, before he hastily put it on.
Immediately, Shu knew he had made a mistake. Because those weird feelings from that morning started to resurface, and then some pesky intrusive thoughts were trying to tell him how nice Mika looked wearing Shu’s clothes, and there was just so much going on inside his head that Shu just wanted to snatch it back and burn the damn thing.
“Y-Ya know I don’t like it when people stare!” Mika crossed his arms, avoiding Shu’s gaze. Shu didn’t even realize he’d been staring for too long. “...Does it look bad?”
“No, it looks—” Shu swallowed. “It looks fine.”
Mika smiled, a small sort of smile that sent those strange flutter through Shu all over again. “Thanks, Oshi-san!”
Shu gave a curt nod, which only made Mika smile even wider , but then Mika turned and kept walking. And Shu was so overwhelmed with gratitude to whatever force pushed Mika to do that because Shu was starting to feel weirder and weirder with each passing moment in this stupid town, and he didn’t think he could handle looking at Mika’s radiant smile any longer.
He briefly wondered why all of their songs were so… serious. Maybe they should do something happier for once. Maybe Shu should find somewhere to show Mika’s smile off to the world—
Or he could keep it all to himself. They could continue with Valkyrie’s typical themes, and only Shu would be able to see that smile backstage after successful lives and at home surrounded by stuffed animals and walking around quaint little towns without a care in the world.
They had eventually wandered right back to where they’d started: in front of the Kagehiras’ shop. They stepped inside, and Shu was glad there were no bone-crushing hugs to be had that time around. Few customers looked around the shop, a few of them deeply invested in some gossip with Mika’s mother. Mika leaned against the counter, meaning to say something but politely waiting his turn, and Shu decided that it would be a better time than ever to actually take a look around the shop.
...But even after examining a few shelves’ worth of things, Shu still couldn’t figure it out. A good portion of the small items near the front had the town’s name plastered all over them in delicate brush strokes, hand-embroidered lettering, slightly shaky carving. But as he traversed deeper through the shop, it seemed like they sold everything used to make the souvenirs as well: fabrics, laces, slabs of wood, neat rocks, threads and cords. He was mulling it all over while standing in front of a bucket of beads, picking them up and letting them slip through his fingers and clatter back amongst the rest. They were truly nice beads. Shu was starting to think up projects that could specifically include beading so he could use these beads, which was quite a dangerous endeavor, as Shu’s ideas were overloaded already, and thinking up any more would—
Shu flinched as a hand clapped his shoulder.
“Oi, no loiterin’!” Mika’s father gave one of his rumbling laughs. “Did I scare ya? Yer a man, boy! Ya can’t go gettin’ all scared at the drop o’ a hat!”
“I wasn’t scared,” Shu said, glad he had found his voice somewhere during last night’s dinner. “I was just startled.”
Mr. Kagehira stared at him blankly. “Ain’t it the same thing?”
“No, it’s—” Shu sighed. Spending so much time around fools helped Shu understand that some things just weren’t worth getting into. “Yes. Yes, it means the same thing.”
“Ya gotta find yer courage! Kids these days don’t do no tests o’ courage no more?”
Shu shook his head. Well, he’d been told to participate in such things a number of times, but he had refused each time. He thought they were a waste of time. After all, true courage came in a time of crisis, of raw emotion, not during some silly test. But he didn’t feel like explaining that to Mika’s father, of all people, so a simple no should suffice.
“Y’all city folk and yer fancy schools…” Mr. Kagehira shook his head, too. “Anyway, ya wanna help me out with somethin’? Mika tells me yer a real hard worker.”
“I…” Shu trailed off, picking up another handful of beads. He didn’t really want to, because it would probably be a waste of time, but it would be rude to say no. He let them fall once again. “I’ll help.”
And so that was how Shu found himself in the back room of the shop once again, only this time he was surrounded by open boxes he had to sort through. Mr. Kagehira had explained that he’d been going through the rest of the crates, but he wasn’t good at fabric, so it was Shu’s job to organize “that sort of thing.” He only had to do it until Mrs. Kagehira was free enough to take over.
Well, at least it was something he was good at. Half of the fabrics that had been put together didn’t have anything in common with each other, not to mention that everything had been mixed in with dozens of different trims. He felt his faith in Mrs. Kagehira start to slip more and more. She was so skilled, yet her disorganization was so major that it almost negated all of that skill.
But Shu couldn’t do much more than tsk at it and help her reorganize. He took another look at the bin and knew it would be a waste of time—it probably started out somewhat organized, however organized a Kagehira can get. But maybe he could make it look really nice, and they’d call it fancy and keep order for once. He had to be sure to make a note to check on it next time—
Next time? Since when did Shu start assuming there would be a next time?
—so he could make sure everything was still in order.
He was really starting to get ahead of himself. He hadn’t even taken anything out of the box yet.
The work was only slightly mind-numbing. Shu was sure he’d done worse before, but at least he could zone out while organizing. He seemed to be prone to that, especially lately. Hopefully it wasn’t due to spending nearly every waking moment with an airhead. At least Mika was an enjoyable airhead. Well, maybe more than just enjoyable. He was entertaining, too, even if Shu pretended to be annoyed at his clumsiness. Sometimes it was the just the manner he went about trying to fix his mistakes that made Shu want to laugh. Once he repaired a hole but made another, and he looked around wildly to make sure no one else was looking. Shu noticed. Shu always noticed. But Mika never noticed that, and he hurriedly tried to fix the second hole. Which, naturally, somehow produced yet another hole. The process went on for quite some time before he glanced around the handicrafts room again and snuck—
Shu used the term lightly. Mika wasn’t good at sneaking or keeping secrets, especially not from him.
—over to the table Shu was working at. He dumped the garment onto one of the chairs and ran back to his own area, choosing to fiddle with something else instead.
It was… It was charming, actually. Most things about Mika were. Even his messy hair that Shu fussed over so many times before lives—thinking about it now, Shu could even find that charming. His eyes have always been charming. His little half smiles were charming, but his wide, laughing smiles were even more charming.
But, Shu reminded himself, his posture was terrible. Shu desperately needed to find a way to fix it in Mika’s normal life. On stage, it was fine, but day to day, it was atrocious. Definitely not charming.
But… But Mika’s personality as a whole made up for all that lost charm. He was truly magical, even when his mood was absolutely foul as he was threatening to punch someone. He always wanted to punch the right people, though, so it couldn’t be that bad.
“Uhh, Oshi-san?”
Mika’s voice startled him. Blood rushed to his cheeks as he blinked and came back to reality. Mika was kneeling on the floor near Shu, head tilted.
“I dunno if ya noticed, or of it’s part of yer system or somethin’, but I don’t think blue is a red. Purple ain’t pink either.” He pointed to Shu’s stacks of fabric. They’d quickly grown haphazard, but maybe it’d been a while. Shu wasn’t sure how long he’d been lost in thought. “Are ya okay?”
Shu snatched away the offending pieces of fabric, setting them on his lap. “I’m… I was just thinking.”
“About what?” Mika reached into the box himself, beginning to fold whatever he pulled out. “About how it’s super unfair that ya gotta work when yer supposed to relax? I mean, ya don’t hafta do nothin’ if ya don’t wanna.”
“No, no, I don’t mind it.” Perhaps he’d stop losing himself with Mika around. But right now, his thoughts are all scrambled because of the boy, and he can’t tell if it’s really a good thing or not. Well, losing control of his thoughts was never a good thing, but the feeling that came with thinking about Mika was almost indescribable. He hadn’t felt that way since…
“Ya sure?” Mika asked. He kept pulling out fabrics and folding them. He placed them all into one stack right next to him. “I dunno how yer system works, so I’ll just help ya fold the ones that got all wonky. But then I gotta organize the stuff I was sent back here for.”
Shu finally looked away from Mika long enough to re-sort the forgotten pieces of fabric on his lap. Now he was getting into dangerous territory, and it was frustrating that he couldn’t pinpoint the reason he was being assaulted with all of those pesky feelings. Sometimes, Shu thought, it would just be best to have an off switch for things like feelings. They just… got in the way, and they hurt people, and they caused everything bad that had ever happened in Shu’s life.
“Is there somethin’ on my face?” Mika asked.
“What?”
“Ya keep starin’.”
“I’m not staring.”
“Ya kinda are.”
“I’m not.”
Mika crossed his arms. “Then what’s it called when ya keep lookin’ at me like that?”
“Staring is for fools.” That’s right. Staring was for fools who cannot confront their feelings—not like Shu would ever admit to something like that. Because he wasn’t a fool. “The fabric you’re holding is gorgeous, that’s all.”
“Really?” Mika held the fabric up in front of his face. “Well, it’s okay if ya take it.”
Ugh, why did Mika have to be so inconsiderate like that? For one, it wasn’t technically his fabric to give away, and secondly, he should really think before doing something that’ll make Shu’s pulse quicken. That was annoying. The way he was examining the fabric was… cute. Just plain cute , and Shu really needed to figure out how to control himself before he did something stupid.
“I couldn’t. It’s your mother’s, isn’t it?” And Shu knew the answer. Of course it was his mother’s. Mika couldn’t even find a way around it, considering how he hardly ever sews his own creations. Not with such a delicate fabric.
“I mean… If no one knew it was here, then no one’s gonna know if it’s gone.” Mika smiled as he held out the fabric. “Just take it! I promise it’ll be okay.”
When he took the fabric, their fingers touched, and Shu couldn’t help but wonder if Mika noticed it as much as he did.
-—-
It’d been a few days of much of the same thing.
Shu sorted through the fabric somewhat quickly. Quicker than he usually cleaned his own craft room, anyway. It took the rest of the first day, and part of the next. But then he had discovered a massive box filled with notions, and he couldn’t leave it like that with a clear conscience. Mika helped the whole time, of course. And Shu had just started to get his mind under control when Mika had to go and mess it up one morning.
Shu knew he was in for a… time when he woke up feeling rather warm. But the last thing he expected to see when he opened his eyes was a mop of black hair, way closer than usual. He felt Mika’s breath on his neck and Mika’s arms on his torso and Mika’s hair tickling his nose, and it was almost too much. Almost. Shu didn’t know what the circumstances would have to be for him to get irritated and push Mika away, but he felt that they were a long way off. And he felt strangely comfortable, even if he typically didn’t like people touching him.
And that was what scared him. Because he didn’t like people touching him, but he liked it when Mika did it. He wanted it more than it happened, but he was always too proud to ask. Truly irritating, especially when he knew his feelings were more than likely one-sided. That thought only fueled Shu’s fear—that Mika didn’t feel anything Shu felt, that this random burst of affection was merely Mika clinging to the nearest thing and not Mika clinging to Shu specifically.
He hated everything about that uncertainty, and he decided he needed to talk to Mika about it that night. It was their last night there, anyway, and Mika was most likely going to sleep through the train ride again. If things went horribly wrong, then he’d at least have the span of the train ride to think of how to fix everything.
Shu’s planning was interrupted when Mika woke up. He always woke up with a sigh, Shu had observed. The sigh came, and Mika hugged Shu a little tighter before he realized what he was doing.
He shouted a little bit, moving away so fast that Shu had to grab him to keep him from falling off the bed. “Oshi-san! ‘M so sorry! I didn’t mean ta—”
“It’s fine, Kagehira.” Shu let go, even though he didn’t really want to. He felt strange, having nearly planned out a whole conversation that hadn’t even happened yet.
“Really? Yer not mad?”
“Why would I be mad? No harm done.” And that was probably the closest Shu would get to admitting that he liked it.
And yet, that night, Shu couldn’t find the courage to start the conversation he had so meticulously planned out. Even as they were laying in bed, almost as close as they were that morning, his mental script went completely blank. He closed his eyes, admitting defeat. Which was quite a shame, since there probably would be no other time to confess. He was sure Mika was asleep anyway. He fell asleep quickly, but Shu wasn’t surprised by that. He’d seen that skill many times before.
"Oshi-san, are you awake?"
Shu opened his eyes again. It must just be safer to assume that Mika's awake until he definitely isn't.
"What is it?" Shu asked, turning on his side.
The way they were laying, Shu could only see Mika's blue eye. A brilliant, sparkling blue. A bit cold, yet its complement was so warm that any chill melted away.
"I miss home." A frown tugged at Mika's lips. He glanced over at Shu for a second before looking back up.
"You are home, Kagehira. Isn't that why we came? You wanted to see your parents, and your parents wanted—"
"No," Mika said, accidentally raising his voice. He brought it back to a whisper quickly. "I mean... This ain't really my home lately, 'cause I got you. I've lived here almost my whole life, but livin' with ya's been so much fun that I don't know what it's gonna be like when I gotta leave."
Shu wanted to protest. That no, Mika didn't have to leave. If he'd like, Shu could keep him forever. He'd move wherever Mika needed to go or wherever he wanted to go or really, he'd move anywhere with Mika.
But he couldn't say those things. He couldn't force Mika to feel tied down by Shu's feelings. It was better to keep quiet, to allow Mika free will. The thought of Mika taking control was honestly quite terrifying, but it felt right. Shu didn't need to patrol his every move. Mika was his own person. If he failed, then Shu would be there to help him, and if he succeeded, then Shu would be there to support him. In anything. In everything.
"You always have a home with me, Mika. Know that." Shu ached to reach out and touch Mika's face, his hair, his arm, anything. He didn't know what was stopping him. Fear, maybe. "You're loyal, and you don't make terrible messes. Even when I scold you, it's only to make you better. Sometimes, I feel like you can't get any better without surpassing me. Whenever I correct you, you take it to heart and fix it. You're smarter than you think."
Shu needed to stop talking now before he said something he'd regret.
"You used my name." Mika turned to face Shu, a massive grin spread across his face. "I never heard my name from ya before!"
Damn.
"You won't hear it again, so I hope you remember it!" Now it was Shu's turn to look at the ceiling; it was easier to talk to Mika when they weren't looking at each other.
"I will. Forever and ever and ever!"
"Everyone forgets eventually, so—"
"So yer just gonna hafta remind me when I forget!"
"No!" Shu pinched the bridge of his nose. "I had more to say, and now I'm not even going to bother. Goodnight, Kagehira."
"'Night, Oshi-san! Love ya!"
…
"What?" Shu said, at exactly the same time as Mika.
"I-I didn't mean it, I—"
"I wouldn't mind if you—"
"—it was an accident 'cause I say it all the time to—"
"—said that to me—"
"—Naru-chan and my parents and stuff and—" Mika cut himself off, shooting up. "Wait! What did ya say?!"
Shu figured he should sit up as well. At this rate, they would never get to sleep.
"Do I need to repeat myself?" Shu took a breath. He really felt like his heart was going to burst at any second. What a terrible feeling. "I said that I wouldn't mind if you said things like that to me."
Mika fiddled with the hem of the blanket. "Like... Like 'I love ya, Oshi-san'?"
What a wonderful feeling.
Shu looked over at Mika, really studied him in the faint moonlight filtering in from the window. Mika looked back down at the blanket when Shu met his eyes—still beautiful, by the way. Mika's hair fell into his face, and Shu didn't resist the urge to touch it this time, to brush it away.
"If you're going to say it, then say it with confidence. Like you're proud of it. You don't have to be afraid around me," Shu said. Mika especially didn't have to be afraid if it was just the two of them like this. Laying in bed together, wearing comfortable pajamas, talking like time didn't exist. "Try again."
Mika gripped the blanket tightly before throwing it off of himself completely. He sat on his knees, completely facing Shu, and took Shu's face in his hands, turning it towards him, looking deep into his eyes. And Shu saw a fire in Mika's eyes that he'd never seen before and felt a spark in his touch that he'd never felt before and heard a tone in his voice that he'd never heard before.
He was like a completely different person, no longer Shu's puppet, no longer worrying whether what he was doing was right or not. It was captivating.
"Oshi-san, I love ya!"
Shu could do nothing but glance between Mika's lips and his eyes. He didn't know which he'd rather focus on.
"I've loved ya for a little while now, so ya better listen to me all the way through! Yer always takin' good care of me and watchin' out for me even when it doesn't seem like ya are! Ya talk a lot, but ya can't take it so much when it's thrown back at ya, so I'm gonna defend ya until the very end! Even if Tenshouin disbands Valkyrie or somethin', I'll stick by yer side. 'Cause I love ya!
“I know I made it all weird the other day ‘cause I told my friends about my feelings before I told ya. So sorry, I think. But I love ya so much that I couldn’t just tell no one, but it’s scary tellin’ you, so… so…” Mika dropped his hands. “That’s all I got.”
Before Shu could even think, he was closing the distance between him and Mika. Mika’s lips were so soft against Shu’s own. And it was over all too soon—Shu’s head was still spinning as he leaned back, and the only things that seemed able to ground him were orbs of gold and blue.
“Sh-Shu, I...” Mika stopped himself. “I mean! Oshi-san, I—”
“Did you not like it?”
“No, I loved it!” Mika grabbed Shu’s hands suddenly. “It was real good! Better than all the times I imagined it. That’s what I was gonna say.”
Shu couldn’t help but laugh. “All the times you imagined it? Has kissing me been a common fantasy for you?”
“No! I mean, yeah, but… but…” Mika stammered through his response. “I mean, for a little while now but not like the whole time I knew ya or anythin’.” There was hardly a pause before Mika kept talking. “Okay, ya got me! Maybe a couple days after I met ya I started thinkin’ about it. Not often!” Another pause. “Alright, probably once a week or somethin’. Oshi-san’s too good at getting the truth outta me.”
“I haven’t said anything .”
“It’s just the way ya look at me, then,” Mika said. “It makes me wanna tell the truth all the time and be a good kid.”
“I see.” Shu didn’t really understand, but he nodded like he did anyway. “It’s getting late, Kagehira. We should both be getting to sleep.”
Mika made a small noise in protest, but he flopped back down on the bed anyway. “I dunno why I gotta. I’m just gonna sleep on the train anyway.”
“The train ride isn’t long enough for proper rest, though. What happened to wanting to be good?”
Defeated, Mika didn’t try to argue any further. He pulled the blankets close around him, but when Shu laid back down, he started squirming again. They soon found themselves in a very similar position as that morning, but this time, Shu wasn’t afraid.
-—-
The next morning was only slightly chaotic. Shu had all of his things in order, and he calmly dressed Mademoiselle in her traveling clothes as Mika fluttered to and fro about his room, trying to remember what he brought and what was meant to stay. Shu really did feel bad for Mademoiselle. She was kept inside almost the whole trip, so she must be aching to get some fresh air. She always did like the outdoors. Not the dirty stuff, though. More like sitting at a table dressed in elegant, light clothing, sipping tea from her little teacup that matched Shu’s own.
A heavy sigh from Mika drew Shu’s attention.
“I dunno how I fit everythin’ in the first time, but somehow I did it again.” Mika pat the top of his suitcase, and it looked a little bit like the zipper might split completely in half.
Mademoiselle decided to speak up, after a week of nothing. “Mika-chan, I hope you at least tried to fold your clothes properly. Maybe that’s why nothing fits!”
Mika’s eyes grew wide. “Do I gotta do it again?”
“No!” Mademoiselle laughed. “We should get going.”
Shu felt a lot more prepared to say goodbye to Mika’s parents than he felt when greeting them for the first time. Not that he wanted to say goodbye, because it was rather nice spending time with them, but because this time he set Mademoiselle aside and mentally braced himself for the hug he was bound to receive. Mika’s mother hugged her son first, while Mr. Kagehira ruffled Shu’s hair.
“Yer a good kid,” he said, “even if yer a bit of a pansy.”
Shu didn’t have time to respond before Mika’s parents switched places, and Shu was pulled into another hug that nearly squeezed all of Shu’s breath right out of him. This time, he returned the hug (although not nearly as tight.) After what felt like ages, Mrs. Kagehira let Shu go, but not without tugging him down to kiss his forehead.
“Thanks so much fer bein’ so good ta Mika,” she said. She smiled and pat Shu’s cheek. “Ya really don’t know how much ya mean ta us.”
Shu didn’t really know how to say what he wanted to, and he almost reached for Mademoiselle before Mrs. Kagehira’s scatterbrain saved him. She made a soft “oh!” before scurrying into the kitchen. She returned with a pan wrapped in cloth.
“I almost forgot! I got nervous last night, ‘cause I was hopin’ the weather’d be good fer yer trip.” She handed the pan to Mika, but spoke to Shu. “I made a little somethin’ last night for y’all ta take home. Just pop it in the oven fer a few. I don’t want ya ta worry about cookin’ somethin’ when ya get home!”
“Thank you so much,” Shu said, finally finding some words. “For everything.”
Shu’s statement prompted another set of goodbye hugs, though a little more teary-eyed on Mrs. Kagehira’s end. It took only a little longer than Shu planned to get out the door before he and Mika set off.
They were pretty quiet on the walk to the train station. It wasn’t uncomfortable; it felt nice just to walk with Mika and not have to think about much of anything. At some point during the walk, Mika had taken Shu’s hand, but Shu didn’t even feel as panicked as he thought he would. No one really stared or said anything, and Shu felt almost sad when Mika let go.
Mika finally broke his silence on the train as he stretched and rested his head on Shu’s shoulder. The contact wasn’t unwelcome this time, and Shu even settled his arm around Mika.
“I’m ready to go home,” Mika said.
“Me, too.”
And as the train started moving, and as Mika started snoring, it felt like everything was just how it was supposed to be.