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Going to school, spending time with his best friends, going back home, playing video games.
Josuke’s life had gone back to normal. Even after all that hell he had been through when facing Kira Yoshikage, and all the time he spent in the hospital, recovering from the many wounds acquired during the battle, his life in Morioh went on, as if all of that had been just part of his imagination.
But, at night, the nightmares kept coming.
Part of him knew it was stupid to keep worrying about things that were already in the past, but, even if he repeated to himself that it was over, that Kira was dead and everything was fine now, when he closed his eyes the worst things imaginable took his mind all over again.
It was the pain in his body, pierced and bleeding.
It was the people he knew, disappearing before his eyes.
It was Kira Yoshikage laughing at him.
When he realized it, Josuke was already awake, the body drenched in sweat, his heart pounding painfully against his chest, unable to close his eyes again until morning, when his life would finally go back to normal.
“Hey…” Okuyasu’s voice called his attention. “Don’t wanna sound rude, but you look like shit, bro.”
Josuke looked at him and forced a laugh.
“Ha, yeah… I spent the night playing video games,” he said. “When I realized, was already morning. If my mother hears about this, she’s going to kill me.”
“Hm…” Okuyasu looked at him for an instant, then opened a cheerful smile. “Hey, can I go play too?”
Josuke ended up agreeing. When school ended, they went together to Josuke’s house, where they spent hours playing games together, until the moment Josuke’s mother almost kicked them away from the television, sending them to bed. The boys obeyed, not wanting to provoke the wrath of that woman.
Inside Josuke’s room, they placed a futon for Okuyasu on the floor beside the bed, and both lied down. Silence filled the room, but Josuke was still awake. To be honest, he was scared of closing his eyes… He hadn’t thought about it before, but what if he woke up in panic in the middle of the night, and Okuyasu saw him in that state? That, certainly, was something he didn’t want.
He stayed there, lying on his back, staring at the ceiling for a long while, until he started to feel nervous. He imagined that, at that point, his friend should already be sleeping, so he sat on the bed, breathing deeply.
However, as soon as he looked at his friend, he was surprised to see he also had his eyes open. They looked at each other for a few seconds, then looked away almost at the same time, as if both had witnessed something they shouldn’t.
“You… can’t sleep either?” asked Josuke.
“No,” admitted Okuyasu. “If I try, I see that white light again. I keep thinkin’ that, someday, I’ll dream with it and won’t come back, y’know? It’s kinda…”
“Scary?” suggested Josuke.
“Yeah.”
They stayed silent for a brief while.
“You dream with these things too?” asked Okuyasu.
Josuke agreed with a nod.
“Sometimes I see my friends dying, sometimes it’s me who’s dying. Other times, what I see doesn’t even make that much sense, but already makes me wake up, and I can’t sleep again.”
“I get it…”
Silence fell upon them again.
“Hey…” said Okuyasu in a low voice. “It’s okay if I…”
He stopped talking, and Josuke looked at him with some curiosity.
“What?”
Okuyasu hesitated for a moment.
“Can I stay in the bed with you?”
Caught by surprise by that suggestion, Josuke widened his eyes. Okuyasu might have interpreted his reaction wrong, since he lowered his gaze, forcing an awkward laugh.
“Sorry, man…” he said. “I think I’m kinda sleepy, and—”
“It’s okay.”
Okuyasu raised his eyes again, and Josuke moved over the mattress, giving him some space. Without saying anything else, Okuyasu lied beside him, their backs turned to each other.
“It’s so cramped…” complained Josuke with a small laugh.
“Yeah,” agreed Okuyasu. “And kinda embarrassing too… You think it’s better that I go back to the futon?”
“Nah, don’t worry. We can just pretend it never happened tomorrow.”
“That’s true…” Okuyasu chuckled, then, after some pondering, added in a low voice: “Thanks, bro.”
“It’s okay, dude,” Josuke made a brief pause. “I feel better like this too.”
He felt Okuyasu turning to face him, and did the same.
“Really?” asked his friend.
“Yeah.”
Okuyasu smiled at him, and it crossed Josuke’s mind that he was really lucky to still have his best friend by his side. Without thinking too much, he hugged Okuyasu, burying his face on his shoulder.
“I’m glad you’re alive…” he said.
After a second of hesitation, he felt Okuyasu move closer, embracing him back.
“Yeah…” he said. “Me too.”
They didn’t say anything after that, falling asleep a little later, still holding each other close.
As soon as Josuke woke up, he realized he was still nested in his friend’s arms, and, despite that feeling being far from bad, he was also embarrassed by the idea of Okuyasu waking up as well and things becoming awkward. He tried to move away carefully, but as soon as he shifted a little, Okuyasu looked at him, as if he had been awake for a while as well. They quickly moved away from each other, and, in the process, Okuyasu fell from the bed.
As expected, things were awkward.
“Hey…” said Josuke, looking at him from over the bed. “You okay?”
“I’m fine!” answered Okuyasu.
Before things could get any worse, Josuke’s mother entered the room, concerned about that loud noise. After that, things went back to normal: they had breakfast and changed to their uniforms, soon leaving for school. As soon as they were alone on the street, though, the silence reigned again.
The truth was Josuke couldn’t keep what had happened the prior night out of his mind. Being so close to Okuyasu didn’t feel bad… On the contrary: for the first time in a long time, he felt calm enough to sleep the whole night without any nightmares. And, besides that, there was also the fact that Okuyasu’s warmth and proximity felt good… Better than most things he had ever experienced.
He hadn’t thought about that before, but… Maybe he wanted more of that.
“Hey…” he said, not looking in his friend’s direction. “Do you remember what I said about forgetting what happened?”
“Yeah…” said Okuyasu. “Why?”
“So, thinking better…”
Josuke didn’t find the right words, then, instead of talking, he took a deep breath and brought his hand to Okuyasu’s, holding it. Okuyasu lowered his eyes to their hands, and Josuke felt his face warming up.
“Is this bad?” he asked.
“Dude… I was kinda thinkin’ about doing the same thing.”
“Oh…”
They stayed in silence, but this time, it was a good silence, which seemed to give butterflies in Josuke’s stomach.
“So…” he said, with an awkward smile. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know,” answered Okuyasu, thinking about that. “We start having lunch together?”
“We already do that.”
“We go to each other’s houses?”
“We do that too…”
“Hm…” Okuyasu looked down, lowering his voice. “Then, we kiss…?”
That suggestion floated between them for a few seconds.
“Well… We didn’t do that yet,” answered Josuke.
They stopped walking, looking at each other for a while, neither having the courage to take the first step. With a silent agreement, they approached their faces, until their lips touched. It lasted but a second, since both soon jolted away, as if struck by electricity.
“Damn…” said Josuke, feeling his neck and face burning. “This is so embarrassing!”
“No shit, dude…” answered Okuyasu.
But still, it was a pleasant feeling. They both laughed, running their way to school for no reason, without ever letting go of each other’s hand.