Chapter Text
It really was a beautiful night. The weather was nice, one of those perfect spring evenings where you can almost really feel like summer is coming. Though he'd been out of school for a few years, it still felt good, summer still felt like a time of freedom.
Kouta could use some freedom.
He'd had his window open to appreciate the warm breeze, that was how Kouta had heard the whistle coming from what must have been a mile away. Or something like it, considering he wasn't sure these trains traveled distance the way normal trains did. Obviously, because there weren't tracks in the middle of the street in front of their apartment complex, but that was where the train pulled up.
His sister was already in bed, but Kouta still scrawled her a quick note to let her know he'd gone out, so she wouldn't worry if they didn't get back before she woke up for work. Then he grabbed the bag he kept his Driver in (just in case), and dashed outside to meet Right.
This train was different from the other ones, the bright ones they'd ridden on when Kouta had first met his new friend. This one was dark red, and bigger, like an old freight train instead of one of the passenger trains that came and went at the station. This train didn't have a gate, either, so he didn't need the orange and white pass Mai had returned to him after Right and the others had left, but he still carried it with him everywhere.
Right called this train jiichan, and Kouta never thought to question it.
Right threw his arms around Kouta as soon as he stepped into the street, and Kouta felt a massive part of his strain over the past few days melt away, as quick as anything. Right had that effect on him.
“You always know.” He muttered, half to himself, and Right pulled back with a wide grin, holding Kouta at arm's length.
“Know?”
“When to come get me.”
Right laughed, squeezing Kouta's arms and then shifting one hand to grasp Kouta's carefully, threading their fingers together and tugging him over to the open and waiting door of the train. “Friends come when friends need them.” He said with a bit of a serious tone that, while not entirely unfamiliar, coming from Right without an enemy to be facing down, it still felt a bit out of place.
Right was so happy all the time. Kouta wondered if he'd ever been that happy. Maybe before his parents died. Or maybe even after- when Yuuya had first approached him about starting a dance team, or after that even, when despite conflict between the teams, it always ended with a simple fist fight and then a communion of bandaging and no hard feelings. It was almost friendly, the conflicts back then. Once Gaim and Raid Wild had even teamed up to defend their neighboring stages, and Hase had taught Kouta how to wrap his knuckles with tape beforehand, to make sure only the other guys' skin broke.
Yuuya. Hase. This was happening more and more lately, Kouta would get lost in thoughts that he couldn't find his way out of, depressing hurts that seemed to get heavier every day.
“Kouta?” Right jogged his arm a bit, squeezing his hand tight, drawing him out of his dark thoughts. “Are you okay? You want me to have jiichan turn around?”
Kouta turned his head, and realized that the train had pulled away from the apartment sometime while he'd been lost in thought.
“Oh. No, it's okay.” Kouta muscled up a weary smile for Right.
“Cool.” Right's smile in return was so full of life and light that it made up for Kouta's lackluster expression. “We won't be long. Come on,” Right didn't let go of Kouta's hand, he just tugged and headed down the train, and Kouta followed in his wake.
Between two cars of the massive diesel train, there was a ladder. The train must not be moving very fast, because Kouta didn't feel terribly concerned about falling off as Right finally let go of his hand and swung out onto the access ladder. “Come on!” He called as he climbed, and Kouta felt a slightly more natural grin start to tug at the corners of his mouth.
As Kouta reached the top of the ladder, he looked across the top of the train. Right stood confidently, feet planted, hands on his hips, his eyes closed and his head tilted back. The slow travel of the train still provided enough wind to make Right's hair blow back off his face, and the moon was bright and nearly full, illuminating his blissful expression.
Kouta rolled out onto the roof after Right. It took him a moment longer to adjust to the way this felt different from standing inside the train, but soon he was striding as confidently and comfortably across the open roof as Right did. He felt like the train trusted him, and so he had to trust the train, too.
“Do you do this a lot?” Kouta asked. He had to raise his voice a little to be heard over the sounds of the train moving along the tracks.
Right opened his eyes and looked down to meet Kouta's gaze, then reached for his hand again, once more casually threading their fingers together. Right's hand felt warm, and as that warmth spread up Kouta's arm, he felt a little more of his tension fade away into the background.
Right moved along the length of the car a bit before stopping right around the middle and dropping immediately to sit down, his legs kicking up a bit to counterbalance as he rocked backwards, then flopping down to stretch out in a wide V.
“Sit.” Right tugged insistently on his arm, and Kouta sort of knew naturally how exactly Right wanted him to sit. He was a little more graceful as he lowered himself first into a crouch and then settling back between Right's legs, leaning his back against Right's chest.
Right's arm stretched around him, still holding onto his hand.
As they settled in, the train traveled slowly around and through Zawame, giving them an incredible view of the city all lit up. It was getting late, so there weren't a lot of people around, and most of them didn't seem to see the train, even if it lay the tracks and their accompanying white line right down in front of them. Still, even those adults would stop at the white line and wait for the train to pass, and if Kouta leaned forward and watched them fade into the distance, a lot of them shook their heads, as if they weren't quite sure why they'd stopped moving in the first place. That made Kouta smile, a natural smile that for once felt comfortable on his face.
“Hey, Kouta.” Right's voice was soft, Kouta thought he could feel it more than really hear it, in the vibration of Right's chest against his back, in the touch of his warm breath against Kouta's neck as he rested his chin on Kouta's shoulder. “I'll always come when you need me. Even if you don't know it. Okay?”
Kouta nodded once. “Okay. But, hey, Right?”
“Yeah?”
“If you need me... I can't find you all the time, but if you need me, you can come get me, too. Okay?”
Right laughed a little, but it wasn't a mean or dismissive laugh at all. “Of course, Kouta. That's what friends do.”