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Arata’s on his way to enjoy a nice parfait when he hears familiar singing. A crowd’s formed by the scramble, and they’re gathering to watch Akito-kun practice.
Practice might be an understatement, he’s giving a full on solo performance.
Akito-kun finishes, and Arata pushes forward.
“Not bad, Akito-kun,” Arata says, “mind if I cut in?” He takes the mic, connects his phone to Shinonome’s speaker and picks the first number that pops into his head.
The crowd goes wild and are clamoring for more and more, and Arata’s willing to give it to them. Akito-kun’s fired up too, but thunder cracks above them, and it doesn’t take long for heavy winds and fat raindrops to drop on their heads.
The crowd’s quick to disperse, and Arata turns to Akito-kun.
“Hey, that was fun,” Arata says, “since you let me sing a bit, how about I treat you to dessert?”
“No thanks,” Akito-kun says curtly. “I need to get home.”
“What? Why are you being pissy right now?”
“Shut up, I’m not being pissy.”
“Oh really, you’re not being pissy? Then let me drive you home.”
“You don’t need to–”
“If you get a fucking cold because you decided to walk in this mess, it’ll affect all of us,” Arata says.
Akito-kun glares at him, but follows along. Arata’s a little upset he’ll have to delay his parfait, but he’s not lying about not letting Akito-kun walk home in this weather.
Akito-kun punches his address into the GPS and then crosses his arms and stares out the window, brow furrowed.
Arata can’t help it. He bursts out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Akito-kun asks.
“I just can’t believe it. Are you seriously annoyed the crowd liked me better than you?”
"Shut up!"
"Oh come on, we perform together now, you can't still be getting upset about this. Besides we’re supposed to ‘take a look at Vivid Street,’ remember? What happens off of it doesn’t matter.”
"Just drop it." Akito-kun snaps.
Arata shrugs. Whatever, it’s not his problem if Akito-kun’s ego still can’t handle a little competition. Arata’ll drop him off, and then a parfait and latte are calling his name–
The light changes as they approach the intersection, but a pedestrian sprints out in front of them.
Arata slams the breaks, swerving and being carried further than he wanted by water on the ground.
For a split second he can’t breathe. He almost hit someone, he–
He doesn’t get long to think about it when another car slams into them.
Arata slams forward, hitting his head on the airbag.
“Shit. Akito-kun, are you–” but when he turns to the passenger seat, it’s all too familiar.
Maybe it’s shock, maybe it’s him being slow, but it takes Arata a second to understand what just happened. They had the right of way. The car that’s now speeding away jumped the curb and hit Souma.
There’s a half-second where he considers chasing after the car to get the license plate, but then he sees Souma’s face warped in pain and hates himself for even considering abandoning his partner like that.
“Souma,” he says, sliding next to him and trying to figure out where the bleeding’s from so he can staunch it with his coat. “It’ll be ok, we’ll call an ambulance.”
Akito-kun isn’t moving, and Arata’s head is pounding.
Still he works to unstrap the seat buckle, then staggers over to the other side to try and pull Akito-kun out.
The other driver is yelling at him, and the pedestrian that sprinted in front of them comes over, having flagged down the ambulance.
The paramedics push Arata out of the way to pull Akito-kun out, and another comes over, making sure he’s ok.
Arata waves her off and fumbles for his phone. If the paramedics are here then the next thing to do would be to text Aoyagi.
Tono: @ Nocturne☆ @ViviAn! @Hammie car crash. Was with Akito-kun.
Tono: call his parents
TatsuyaEVER: What? Dude that’s not funny
Tono: Would I joke about this?
The paramedics are helping Akito-kun onto a gurney and—
It’s not fair, why won’t they let him come? Who cares if he’s a kid, someone needs to be in there with Souma! What if he’s scared or confused when he wakes up.
What if… what if he doesn't make it and spends his last seconds alone in a blank hospital room! He has to—
“Sir, please come with us.” The paramedic says once they’ve loaded Akito-kun into the back.
“Oh, yeah, sorry.” He gets up front into the passenger seat and shares his location with the chat so they’ll know when they’re at the hospital.
They get out and Arata wants to follow them with Akito-kun, but the paramedic holds him back.
“Sir come here, we need to check you for a concussion. The exam room is this way.”
“But–”
“We’ll let you see your friend soon, please come with me.”
~
Hatsuaki is downstairs, practicing his piano when Toya rushes past him without a word.
“Toya, what’s wrong?”
“I’m going to the hospital,” he says.
Hatsuaki gets up and grabs Toya’s arm. “What? Why? Are you hurt?”
“No, my partner is, now let me go.”
Their parents would probably disapprove of Hatsuaki letting Toya out to rush off to the hospital and check on Shinonome, since they still insist they hate him.
“Put on your coat,” Hatsuaki says. “I’ll drive you.”
Toya doesn’t say anything, just gets into the passenger seat and continues to check his phone.
Hatsuaki can understand his nerves.
“How can you be so calm?” Janet asks as they head to the hospital.
Hatsuaki doesn’t feel calm. He feels like his whole body is about to ignite. Hikari’s in the hospital after a dance accident. How could this have happened?
Hikari’s smart. She’s a professional, she knows what she’s doing. She takes every precaution, so for her to have ended up in a hospital, something unthinkable must have happened.
And she’s going to be so distraught if she can never dance again. Dancing’s her whole life, the way she lights up on stage, she’s the happiest person in the world.
So no, Hatsuaki isn’t calm. He’s coming apart at the seams.
At the hospital, Toya rushes over to an older boy with brown hair that Hatsuaki doesn’t recognize. His hand is in a splint and he's got a bruise on his face.
“Aoyagi,” the boy says.
“Tono, what happened?” Toya asks.
“I was stupid…. a pedestrian jumped out and I swerved ‘n another car hit us. It was the passenger side, so all I got was a bump on my head and a sprained wrist from gripping the steering wheel too hard. Doctor said I was lucky, not even a concussion.” Tono chuckles. “Lucky. When it shoulda been me.”
“Where’s Akito?” Toya asks.
“Surgery. I dunno, they won’t let me see him,” Tono says.
Toya thanks him, then heads to the receptionist to get information from her.
God the wait is unbearable. How long until they let him see Hikari? She’s getting pins in her leg. PINS! They’re going to hurt a lot, but hopefully it means she’s going to be ok, eventually.
Hatsuaki wants to be there to hold her hand, to carry her everywhere she wants to go, but he’s forced to just sit there and wait until the surgery is done.
It’s several hours before anyone can go in to see Shinonome, and the only ones in are his parents and sister, who arrived shortly after Hatsuaki and Toya.
Eventually, Shinonome’s sister comes back after thirty minutes.
“He’s gonna be ok,” she says and Toya breathes a huge sigh of relief. “He’s got a broken arm and his shoulder got dislocated. Plus he needed stitches from where some glass cut him, but otherwise he’ll be fine.
The weight in Toya’s shoulders leaves him, but Hatsuaki feels a knot of emotions in his stomach. It’s good that Shinonome’s fine.
“Can I see him?” Toya asks, but Shinonome’s sister shakes her head.
“Sorry, he needs rest and visiting hours are almost over. The nurse said you can come tomorrow.”
Toya’s face drops, but he accepts it. Hatsuaki takes him back home, and when they get back, Tsukasa’s in the living room.
“I could tell something was wrong,” Tsukasa says as Toya walks over and melts into his hug. “I came as soon as I heard. He’s gonna be ok, right?”
“Y-yeah,” Toya gasps. “I can’t see him until tomorrow.”
“That’s good. I’m sure he’ll be so happy to see you. What if we work together to make something for him? We’ll bring it by after school.”
Toya nods, and they head to the kitchen, Tsukasa shooting a glare at mother and father to make sure they don’t say a word.
Hatsuaki knows it’s unnecessary. They’d have the decency to keep their mouths shut after an accident like that, even if they did actually dislike Shinonome instead of being deeply in denial that they like everything about him other than his preferred genre of music.
“I’m going up to bed,” Hatsuaki says.
“Do you want to cook with us?” Toya asks.
“No, it’s fine.” Tsukasa will be a better help to him right now.
Right now… Hatsuaki needs to sleep up the thing eating away at him, the same thing he saw in that Tono guy’s eyes the second Shinonome’s sister said “he’s going to be ok.”
An inescapable, gnawing jealousy consuming him from the inside out.
Hikari’s never going to be able to dance again. Hell there might be times when it’s too painful for her to even walk.
The doctor gives them a pamphlet for mobility aids, canes, crutches, the like. Hatsuaki promises to pay for all of it, his mother agrees and offers to help her get a job at another theater.
Even if she can’t dance, Hikari’s still a brilliant director and choreographer. West End is still within reach for her.
Hikari says it’s fine. She’ll handle things on her own.
Hatsuaki makes the mistake of believing her, and three months later he finds her dead in the bathroom with a bottle of pills in her hand.
Hatsuaki goes to wash his face in the bathroom and is stricken by just how much he hates himself right now. Must he be jealous of everyone? His father for never having to be compared to anyone? Toya for having the love of his life be alright? Hikari for having hope and passion for what lay in front of her?
The reflection staring back at him is truly a wretched little man.
~
The Aoyagis leave, the Shinonomes leave, and suddenly Arata realizes he doesn’t have a way to get home.
“Visiting hours are almost over,” the nurse says.
“Yeah, sorry.”
“If you can get someone to pick you up, you can wait in Miyata-kun’s room.”
Arata smiles. The nurses have started to catch on to their late night sleepovers it seems. Arata texts his mom and shows the nurse, then heads over to Souma’s room.
“Hey Ar— what happened?” Souma gasps.
“Car crash,” Arata says, sitting down next to Souma and burying his face in his partner’s shoulder.
“You ok?”
“Yeah ‘m fine. Akito-kun got the worst of it,” Arata says. “I’ll bounce back in a week.”
“And Akito-kun?”
“Broken arm, dislocated shoulder. Pins ‘n stitches but nothing permanent as long as he listens to the doctor and behaves.”
“Good.” Souma breathes a sigh of relief, and Arata’s once again reminded of the million and one ways Souma’s better than him. Not even a hint of envy in his both that Akito made it through when Souma himself didn’t.
“I’m such a piece of shit. It’s my fault,” Arata says. “Pedestrian jumped out and I swerved and ‘cause of the rain another car hit us on his side.”
“It’s not your fault, you did the best you could.”
“Yeah, well we’ll see what the insurance company has to say.”
“Well your mom is the best lawyer in the world, she’ll prove you did everything right to avoid hitting that pedestrian.”
“Coulda done it better.”
“Arata, come on. It’s ok,” Souma says.
“I wish it had been me,” Arata says.
“Partner—”
“Not just ‘cause I deserve it, because I do. Akito-kun was pissed at me because I showed him up. Even though I shoulda known he’d get upset. But also, if it had been me, maybe I wouldn’t have to leave tonight.”
“Don’t,” Souma says, pushing Arata away so they’re staring each other in the eyes. “I don’t want you stuck in here with me.”
“I’m not stuck if I’m with you.”
“Don’t even say that. I’d just hate myself more if you hurt yourself because of me,” Souma says. Tears are starting to well up in his eyes, and Arata somehow manages to feel even worse.
“Sorry, sorry,” Arata says. “I won’t say that— won’t even think like that, ok?”
“Good,” Souma says, “because you’re the best thing in my life, if anything happens to you—”
“I know, I know,” Arata whispers. “It’s the same for me.”
“I love you so much.”
“I love you too.”
The door opens, and the nurse leads Arata’s mom in. Yoka stands back and lets them finish, and then Arata gets up, and planting a kiss on Souma’s arm before leaving.
“Baby,” Yoka says, pulling Arata into a hug, “are you ok?”
“I don’t know,” Arata mutters. He doesn’t think he’ll be able to sleep tonight. He’ll just hear the crunching of metal and Souma and Akito-kun covered in blood in front of him.
“It’s ok. It’s gonna be ok. I’m not mad,” Yoka whispers, patting his hair.
They head down to the hospital parking lot, and the entire ride home, Arata just stares at his reflection in the window. He doesn’t look half as shit as feels. Even if he apologizes to Akito-kun tomorrow, the face in the reflection deserves so much worse than what he got.