Chapter Text
The pair sat together on the train, Akira having claimed the window seat, excited to leave nose prints everywhere as they crossed over field, forest, and sea. Ryo had settled for the aisle seat, originally looking to trip teenage jerks who wouldn’t give their seats up to the elderly. Now he sat back, headphones on, legs crossed, flipping to page 122 of Watership Down – an early birthday present from Akira.
Akira, who thought something seemed off, now that he returned from the refreshments car.
“Hey, Ryo…” Akira nudged the boy beside him on the train, prompting him to push back his headphones and frown. “Where were we meeting Miki again?”
“Shibuya.” He cleared his throat, and went to put the headphones back on, and resumed reading his book.
Akira swallowed, a shiver of panic making his heart clench briefly. There was something childish about this gnawing unease, the front before the storm of fear. Biting at his lip, he sat up straighter, looking around at the tickets clipped over other passengers’ seats.
Green, green, pink, blue…but no yellow for Shibuya. He stood up, much to Ryo and the others’ disdain. The entire aisle was void of yellow ticket slips – except theirs.
“Ryo.” Akira prodded his friend as he flopped back in his seat. “Ryo! Look at the tickets!” His voice was a hot whisper, but still it caught the attention of nearby passengers.
“God, Akira. I thought you WANTED me to read this–” He yanked down his headphones at the wide eyed stare. “Wh…the tickets–?”
It was like he was struck with a branding iron the way he nearly jumped out of his seat.
He had never been more aware than now, that they were going 80 mph. This was definitely the slower of the trains, but 80 mph for thirty minutes was still a good forty miles. Forty miles if they chucked themselves out the windows that moment and got a cab, which would probably be a good ¥7500 to get to where they would WANT to be–all this math ran like frantic lemmings through his head, before he turned to Akira.
Akira, who, in his ever-articulate manner of speaking, voiced Ryo’s thoughts.
“Did we…pass…” Their eyes widened simultaneously as they stared at each other, lips moving together, “Oh FUCK!”
It was a mad scramble, of cramming belongings into their bags, stuffing trash into plastic convenience store sacks, yanking on jackets and tying up shoelaces. Fumbling at pants pockets to make sure wallets were still there.
“Hey, hey, uh, excuse me, ma’am, what’s the next stop?” Akira hopped up onto his seat, craning his neck over the headrest at the middle aged woman sitting behind him. Ryo stood out in the aisle, taking the uncanny stance of someone about to duel, piercing blue eyes not dulled a bit by maroon tinted aviators. He stared out over the seats, a look of absolute concentration clouding his face.
“Fuji.” The lady seemed a bit perturbed about this scruffy, dark eyed young man staring at her like that.
“Ryo, uh…” Akira gulped, looking out the window, then back to his friend. There were a lot less buildings now. They had definitely passed out of the city, suburbs fading into farmland and forests.
“Fuji.” Ryo echoed, eyes set on the door to the next car, the rattling of the floorboards and the shuddering of the cabin unable to shake his balance. He turned dark eyes to Akira. “Looks like we’ll be sight-seeing instead of shopping.” A sly grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“…Miki’s going to kill me…” Akira flopped back down into his seat, letting out a drawn out, gurgling whine. “She’s going to absolutely murder me for this.”
Ryo laughed, and took their ticket down from the clip before taking the seat beside his friend.
“She can’t murder you from a hundred miles away, Akira.” He murmured, and gave a furtive look around the aisle before slipping his hand into the boy’s, giving it a gentle squeeze. His heart skipped a beat as it was squeezed back.
They had to very careful in public.
Tender brown eyes gazed at Ryo – the same eyes, the same docile look the boy had grown up learning to fall in love with – and he leaned in instinctively.
It was lightning fast, but just as electric as their lips touched – and Ryo jerked away, feigning shock.
“Hey! Watch it, just because the train’s shaky–” He couldn’t help but wet his lips as he flashed Akira a smirk.
His friend hastily played along.
“Sorry…! Maybe if you’d stop trying to lean over me to look out the window…” Akira faked a snarl, but it was obvious he was also teasing.
“Maybe if you’d let me sit in your lap…” Ryo’s lips now were at the boy’s ear, eyes narrowed as he saw him bristle, cheeks flushing, “The train hitting all these bumps would feel a lot better.”
Ryo had won their little flirt, terribly satisfied with Akira hiding his red face behind calloused hands, head bowed.
After all these years, he really never did change, did he?
The blonde sat back and pulled out his book, glancing out the window at lush fields of wildflowers and sloping hills with dusty dirt roads.
Maybe they had to miss a few stops in life to really see what the world had to offer them.