Work Text:
Hoshikawa Yori skips towards a building with a lighter in his hand, a flame flickering on and off as he clicks the trigger, twirling his whistle in the air. The fire is bright against the darkness of the night despite its size, illuminating its surroundings in hues of orange and yellow.
His father used to tell him fire was the best way to cleanse what’s dirty–that’s why natural forest fires exist and why he holds the flame to Yori’s body, though Yori thinks it would be more efficient to burn his brain instead of to his arms and back.
But Yori’s learnt from his father, now going to the source of his dad’s disease to cure him. He climbs up the stairs of the building, jumping over two steps at a time.
He smiles once he reaches his destination, seeing girls in short skirts and cat ears surrounded by older men, the stench of alcohol filling his nose, and clicks the lighter on.
****
Mugino Minato and Yori start talking after Minato offers him a hand when two classmates push him to the ground after school.
“It’s okay, I can get up myself,” Yori says, his hands digging into the tarmac to push himself up. “Your hand might get dirty.”
“It’s not like you fell in mud,” Minato says, watching Yori stand and brush his hands off on his overalls.
Yori looks up at him, furrowing his eyebrows and tilting his head for a moment before shrugging it off and skipping away. “Thanks anyways!”
Minato then starts to occasionally trail behind Yori as he skips outside after school, spinning his whistle at his side. “How’d you make the toy?” Minato asks.
“Cardboard and string,” Yori answers, holding it out to him. “You wanna try?”
Minato takes the toy into his hand, flopping it around in the air as he tries to spin it.
“You have to spin it harder if you want it to make noise,” Yori giggles, walking backwards to face Minato. He flicks his wrist in a circle. “Like this.”
“It won’t break?” Minato asks, holding it in his hands.
Yori shakes his head. “Try it.”
Minato holds the piece of string and twists his wrist before picking up speed, the toy starting to whistle. “It’s working,” he says with a smile.
Yori smiles back at him. “Told you so.”
“Why’d you make it?” Minato asks, Yori spinning around to skip ahead of him.
“I like the sound it makes. Reminds me of the bugs outside.”
“You like bugs?”
“They’re cool!” Yori says as he slows to wave his hand through a bush. “I like everything outside.”
Minato offers the whistle back to Yori. “Is that why you always walk around here after school?”
“Being outside is more fun,” Yori answers, taking the toy. “I think it’s because I’m more of an animal than a human.”
Minato frowns. “Why?”
Yori continues skipping in front of him. “‘Cause I have a pig’s brain; isn’t that enough to make me less human?”
Minato catches up with Yori, walking by his side. “Who told you that?”
“My dad,” he answers, smiling as he twirls his whistle in the air. He points to a tree in the distance. “You wanna see who can run there the fastest?”
****
Minato and Yori stand alone in the music room at school, putting away boxes of tambourines for their assigned class duty.
“Is your brain really a pig’s brain?” Minato asks, crouched over the floor to pick up the bits of Yori’s snack that he dropped as he tried to eat them.
Yori comes up to Minato on the ground, snorting to his ear. The ends of his hair curl up and Yori runs his fingers through it. The strands loop around his fingers, smooth to the touch. “I thought I wouldn’t make friends in my new class,” Yori says, lightly pulling a few locks of hair away from Minato’s head, feeling the length between the gaps of his fingers.
“We are friends, but,” Minato starts, stopping once he hears a noise in the hall. He slowly stands up before turning back at Yori. “Don’t talk to me in front of the class.”
Minato walks away and opens the door to leave as Yori spins around to put the bell in his hand away, ringing as he places it over a table. When Yori turns back, Minato is still at the door, looking back at him. “Okay, I won’t talk to you,” he says, walking through a different door at the other side of the room.
“Well, thanks,” Minato says, following Yori out the same door.
Yori takes a longer route back to the classroom, Minato a few steps behind him.
The nape of Yori’s neck tickles as he sweeps the back of the classroom, turning around to see Minato jerk his head to the side from the corner of his eye. Some boys talk to Minato before running around the room with a broom between their legs: Yori remembers them tripping him on his way to school once. When Yori turns away, he can still feel the tickle at the back of his neck.
Minato joins Yori as they stroll outside together after school. “Do you like talking to Kamata-kun and them?” Yori asks, twirling in a circle with his arms out.
Minato looks up at the sky, trailing behind him. “They’re okay.”
“Are they nice to you?”
“I guess so.”
“That’s good.”
Yori then sees Minato at school the next day with his hair slightly shorter than before.
****
“Were you mad at me before?” Yori asks Minato, hopping on one foot as they walk through the streets of their neighbourhood.
Minato shakes his head, hopping with him. His button-up waves in the air behind him as he jumps. “Why would I be mad at you?”
Yori hops further, catching up to him. “‘Cause you were throwing things in class.”
“I wasn’t mad at you,” Minato says, slowing down to let Yori pass him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“Okay,” Yori says with a soft smile. He stops hopping, looking both ways across the road before he takes a turn at an intersection. “I wanna take you somewhere.”
“Where?” Minato asks.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Why?”
Yori looks down at his feet, Minato’s shoe covering one foot while the other lies bare, only a sock protecting his skin from the pavement. After school, Yori found his shoe cubby empty, leaving him to walk home barefoot. “‘Cause we’re friends,” he says with a shrug. “You scared?”
“I didn’t say that.” Yori starts skipping and Minato copies him. “Is it far?”
“We’d have to bike there.
“So, we’re not going today?”
Yori shakes his head. “My dad won’t be home tomorrow, so you can come by whenever and we can go together.”
“What if I don’t show up?” Minato teases.
Yori slows down. “Just tell me first.”
Minato walks to his side. “I’ll go,” he says. “Where do you live?”
“Right here,” Yori says with a smile, stopping in front of his house.
Minato looks up at it before facing him again. “You live further away from school than I thought.”
“Really?”
Minato nods, hiking his backpack higher up his shoulders. “I’ll come tomorrow at noon.”
Yori grins, walking up his driveway to the front door and turning to wave at Minato. “See ya!”
Minato waves back. “See ya.”
Yori doesn’t go inside until he can’t see Minato from his door anymore.
Yori jumps when he hears his dad pull into the driveway and jam his keys into the front door at night. His dad grumbles to himself and shoves his keys into his pocket, jingling as he walks inside. It’s silent for a moment before he calls for Yori to come to the door. “Yes?” Yori answers.
“Whose shoe is this?” he asks, his eyes on Minato’s sneaker in front of the door.
Yori fiddles with his hands, standing in front of his father. “My friend’s.”
“Who’s your friend?”
“...Mugino-kun,” Yori mutters, his eyes falling to his feet. “He lent it to me.”
“Where’d your shoes go?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“They were gone after school.”
His father sighs. “How many times do I have to tell you, son?” he demands, grabbing Yori by the collar of his shirt and throwing him to the ground. Yori bites his tongue to not make any noise as his back hits the floor. “You gotta stop being so weak—if you don’t kill the pig brain, it’ll only continue to grow, right?”
Yori nods from the ground, his eyes stinging with tears, blurring his vision.
“So you have to starve it,” he says with a kick to Yori’s arm. “Or do you not want your mother to come back?”
“I’m sorry,” Yori murmurs softly, his body tensing as his father kicks his back. “I’m sorry.”
His father presses his foot over Yori’s neck. “That’s what I thought.”
Yori thinks he should’ve burnt their house down instead of the bar.
****
“I like the decorations,” Minato says, wandering to the back of the train car Yori took him to. Dust and dirt cover the windows, obscuring the view of the trees outside. Minato reaches towards a plastic fish stuck onto the glass, dragging a finger over its edges.
“I have some paper so we can make more,” Yori says.
He leads Minato to a pair of seats in the middle of the aisle, a layer of brown caked onto the cushions. The two sit facing each other, Yori reaching down to grab a stack of construction paper and scotch tape underneath the seat. “How’d you find this place?” Minato asks, grabbing a blue sheet of paper after Yori holds the stack out to him.
Yori picks out an orange one, placing the rest back on the ground. “I walk around here when my dad’s not home.”
“He must not be home a lot.”
Yori folds his paper into a diamond, taping it together. “Yup.”
Minato’s eyes widen. “How’d you do that?” he asks, his sheet of paper lying in his lap.
Yori leans forward and takes it into his hands. “It’s easy,” he says, pressing creases into it. “Just make sure you don’t fold it flat.” He hands it back to him, almost completely folded.
Minato holds the edges together before looking up at Yori with a grin. “Like this?”
“Uh huh,” Yori says, ripping off some tape and sticking it on. He puts his and Minato’s diamonds into a line, taping them together. “Now we have a planet.”
“That’s what it is?” Minato asks as Yori stands up, heading towards the front of the train car.
“Yeah,” Yori says, grabbing a length of string and walking back. “Once we hang up enough, we can make our own universe.” He holds up the paper planet. “What should we name this one?”
“I don’t know–you think of something.”
Yori gets up on a seat, stretching his arm out in an attempt to loop the string around a handle on the ceiling. “But it’s half yours and half mine.”
Minato’s mouth twists. “Then…Minatoyo?”
“That’s not bad.” Jumping up, Yori tries to throw the string through the handle but misses, fluttering down in front of him.
Minato chuckles, standing up on the seat across Yori while he steps down. “Let me try,” he says, taking the string from his hands and reaching up to the handle. After pulling it around, he glances back at Yori, holding out a piece of tape stuck over his finger and the paper planet in his other hand. Minato takes their planet and holds it up to the string, pushing the tape against it and pressing on it multiple times before letting go. Minato steps off the seat, the two looking up at the beginnings of their universe hanging under the ceiling.
****
Yori’s classmates laugh as he misses the jump over the vaulting box for the second time during gym class. Hori-sensei walks up to him, placing a hand over his shoulder. “Do you want to try again or leave it for another time?” he asks, crouching down and covering Yori from the rest of his class.
Yori presses his lips together. “Another time,” he says, his head tilted down.
Hori nods, patting Yori’s back. “Don’t worry about it. A real man knows when to admit weakness,” he says with a smile, standing up to wave at the next student in line to come forward. “You can try again tomorrow.”
Yori nods, going over to the sideline with the rest of the students waiting. As he’s about to reach the wall, one of his classmates holds their leg out in front of him and Yori trips over it. His cap falls off his head as he tumbles to the floor, the cap snatched up by Kamata before he can grab it. Yori stands up, Kamata holding it above his head, just out of reach. “You can’t touch that,” another one of his classmates calls out. “You’re gonna catch his disease!”
“Ew!” Kamata exclaims, flinging Yori’s cap out of his hand. “I don’t wanna turn into a girl!”
Yori tries to grab his hat again, but Kamata steps on it, digging his shoe into the floor. “We should burn it so it won’t spread,” he suggests, the corners of his lips curling up.
Yori bends down to pick it up, but it’s snatched out of his hands immediately and tossed over his head to one of his classmates. They laugh as they start throwing it to each other, Yori trying to intercept their passes.
One boy is about to chuck it over to one of his friends until Hori grips his wrist from behind him. “Stop it,” he says, taking the cap out of his hands and handing it to Yori. “All of you apologize to Hoshikawa. Now.”
“It’s just a prank, Hori-sensei,” Kamata groans, rolling his eyes. “It’s for fun!”
Hori tilts his head and looks down at Kamata, his eyes narrowing. “Did you hear me or do I need to repeat myself?”
“Sorry,” he grumbles.
“To whom?”
Kamata turns to Yori, scratching the nape of his neck. “Sorry, Hoshikawa.”
“Now, all of you,” Hori demands, looking at every one of the boys in the group around Yori.
“Sorry,” some of them mutter, the rest staying quiet.
“Good,” Hori says, waving a hand to gather the rest of the students together. “Now let’s get back to the classroom, okay?”
“Okay,” the class answers, following Hori out of the gym and into the hallway.
Once they get to the classroom, Yori sits down at his desk, glancing back at Minato’s empty seat behind him.
****
“You don’t have a pig’s brain,” Minato says, sitting at the top of the train car with Yori, watching him snap stray branches in half. “Your dad is wrong.”
“My dad’s kind,” Yori says, walking around Minato towards the other end of the train car. Minato’s eyes follow him. “He promises to cure my disease. When I’m cured, Mom will come back.”
“I don’t think you have a disease,” Minato says, picking up a rock and standing up, walking to the opposite side.
“He is my dad, so there are things I just can’t say to him.”
“There are things I can’t say to Mom either,” Minato says, tossing the rock into the forest.
****
“Why do you think we were born?” Minato asks, leaning back against the metal spiral behind him. The two stand together at the top of a playground, watching the waves of the lake in front of them sway in the breeze through the yellow and pink metal bars surrounding them.
“Because of our parents,” Yori answers, circling Minato. “They made us.”
“You think our parents wanted us to be born?”
“I think yours did.”
Minato shrugs, starting to trail behind Yori. “My dad wouldn’t want me anymore.”
“That doesn’t matter ‘cause he’s dead,” Yori points out, dropping down to the next level.
Minato follows him. “I guess so.”
A gust of wind blows past them, Minato’s bangs falling completely over his eyes. Yori laughs at him, craning his neck up to gently brush his hair off to the sides of his forehead. “I’m glad you were born,” Yori says, turning away to look up at the sky.
Minato also looks up, squinting his eyes to adjust to the brightness. “Me too.”
Yori turns back to him. “When we’re reborn, will we still recognize each other?”
“I think I’d still recognize you even if I didn’t remember myself,” Minato says with a soft chuckle.
Yori raises his eyebrows. “Am I that memorable?”
Minato scoffs, looking down at him and shaking his head. “You have no idea.”
“I think I’d remember you too,” Yori says with a grin, gripping the pink bars and swinging back and forth. “We have to make a plan to make sure we see each other again.”
Minato holds onto Yori’s shoulders, catching him as he falls back and lightly pushing him forwards. “But what if we’re split on two different sides of the universe? Wouldn’t we be far away from each other?”
Yori stops and pulls himself close against the bars. Minato walks up beside him. “Then we have to stay together when the Big Crunch happens,” Yori says. “The universe can’t split us apart if we’re holding onto each other.”
Minato furrows his eyebrows. “You think we’re strong enough?”
“No, but we can still try.”
“Even if our arms fall off?”
Yori jumps up, hanging off the bars above him. “How can we hold each other with no arms?”
Minato looks up at him. “We still have legs.”
“That wouldn’t be comfortable.”
“I guess not.”
Yori climbs to a lower level, going down the slide wrapping around the playground. “Let's bring snacks so we don’t get hungry when it happens.”
“You’re worried about that?”
“We can’t hold on to each other properly if we’re hungry,” he says at the bottom of the slide.
Minato presses his lips together. “That’s true,” he says. “I’ll bring some tomorrow.”
Yori grins, walking up the slide. “I will too!”
****
Yori climbs over the seat behind Minato, falling face forward beside him. The dust from the cushion splatters all over his face, making him groan loudly.
“What are you doing?” Minato asks, taping together a plastic sphere in his hands.
“I’m tired,” Yori says, his voice muffled.
Minato puts the tape under the chair. “Are you going to sleep like that?” he asks, blowing on the nape of Yori’s neck.
Yori’s head twitches up, lightly swatting his right hand at Minato. “Stop it,” Yori laughs, batting at his arms.
“You look like a dead fish,” Minato teases.
Yori swings his legs up to sit over the seat, kicking his feet against the cushions. “Now I’m taller than you,” he boasts with a grin.
Minato clicks his tongue, tilting his head up. “I can’t sit there or else my head would touch the ceiling.”
“Try it,” Yori challenges with a smirk.
Minato shrugs his shoulders, standing over the seat he was on before sitting at the top of it with Yori.
“See?” Yori says, waving his hand in the air above Minato’s head. “Look how much space there is!”
Minato grips the top of the seat. “That’s ‘cause I’m slouching,” he says, pushing his chest out and raising his shoulders.
“I can do that too,” Yori insists, lifting himself up in the air with his hands.
“Wait, be carefu–” Minato says before he reaches out just in time to hold onto Yori as he falls backwards, the two of them toppling over onto the seat cushions behind them. He groans as he gets up off the ground, offering a hand to Yori. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Yori giggles, taking Minato’s hand. “Thanks.”
Minato sits down properly on the seat, scooching to the side to make room for Yori. “Are you still sleepy?” he asks as Yori sits beside him.
“Yeah,” he says, yawning and stretching his arms out. “I slept at 1:00 last night.”
Minato raises an eyebrow. “Because your dad?”
Yori shrugs, leaning against his left arm. “Can you wake me up in five minutes?”
“Sure,” Minato says, picking up some sheets of paper and tape from under the chair. “Is it okay if I make a planet while you sleep?”
“It’s okay,” Yori says, rolling his shoulders back and yawning again. “Is this okay?” he asks, his head hovering over Minato’s shoulder.
Minato gently curls his hand through Yori’s hair, pulling his head against him. “Go to sleep.”
“Thank you,” Yori muttered, his eyes fluttering shut, lulled to sleep by Minato’s fingers brushing against his scalp.
When Yori wakes up, he sees Minato hastily rubbing at his eyes. He has to squint to see him through the darkness. “You were tired too?” Yori asks, blinking away his last remnants of sleep.
Minato sniffles quietly, Yori noticing the lingering tear tracks from the corners of his eyes. “A little,” he says.
“What’d you dream about?” Yori asks, swiping a stray tear away Minato’s face with his thumb.
“The Big Crunch,” Minato says.
Yori sits up straight. “Was I there?”
“Yeah, it was just you and me.”
“Did the universe split us apart?”
Minato nods.
“Did you lose your arms and legs?”
Minato shakes his head. “I only lost you.”
****
Minato’s sneaker still lies near Yori's front door under a pair of his shoes when he comes inside the house. He smiles at it as he pockets his toy whistle, walking past the shoe to go to the kitchen.
Yori opens the fridge, moving his dad’s bottles and cans of alcohol off to the side to find the curry and rice he made last week against the back corner. There’s about a quarter of a portion left, but the only things other than alcohol in the fridge are half of an unpeeled carrot and an empty carton of milk. Their cupboards are also almost empty when he searches through them, a few bags of chips lying inside. As his stomach growls, he takes his leftovers and microwaves them on a plate, wiping the inside of the microwave with a wet paper towel once he’s done.
The potatoes and carrots mush together as he chews, dragging his spoon through the sauce. A few grains of rice get stuck between Yori’s teeth, trying to pick them off with his tongue. His stomach rumbles once his plate is clear, but he rinses it at the sink and places it in the dishwasher before leaving to buy some more snacks at the convenience store to bring to the train car.
He swings his whistle as he skips on the sidewalk, wondering what snacks Minato would like.
****
“You think Hori-sensei will notice?” Minato asks after reading his and Yori’s names written across Yori’s essay. He writes a matching copy on his own paper, starting with Yori’s name.
Yori looks over at him from the back of his seat. “I don’t think so.”
“Would he get mad at us if he does?”
Yori sits back down, bouncing on the seat cushion. “Why would he get mad? We’re writing about the future–isn’t that what we’re supposed to do?”
“I guess,” Minato says. “I don’t know if he could see it, though.”
Yori cocks his head to the side. “Us in the future?”
Minato turns, leaning over to look at Yori, his hands resting on the top of the seat. “Can you see it?”
He smiles up at Minato. “I can.”
Minato’s eyes flit to his hands. “Do we live together?”
“Only if you want,” Yori answers with a shrug.
Minato sits down, placing his bag on his lap. “I do,” he murmurs. “If they let us.”
Yori twirls his pencil in his hand, looking out the window beside him. He traces one of the vines growing outside of the glass with the tip of his finger. “Where would we live?”
“Somewhere away from your dad.”
Yori laughs. “He wouldn’t want us living together.”
Branches rustle against the train as a gust of wind passes through. “You think we could live on one of these planets? After we’re reborn?” Minato asks.
Yori gazes up at the assortment of ornaments above them. “If they grow big enough,” he says, reaching an arm up to cradle one, rotating it in his hand.
“Would you live on one if they do?”
“With you?”
Minato’s hair rubs on the seat cushion as he nods. “And my mom.”
“Would she let us?”
“I think so. She’d like you.”
Yori smiles. “That’d be nice.”
****
Yori lies on the floor of the train car after Minato pushes him and runs away, staring up at their ornaments hung across the ceiling and windows. He exhales deeply before he sits up, brushing the dirt off his pants. He presses a hand against his chest, his heart thumping against his ribcage, the scent of Minato’s hair lingering in the air.
Cicadas chirp in a chorus as Yori crunches on a handful of sweets, sitting at the same spot he and Minato were moments before. The sun burns through the windows, sweat starting to bead at his forehead. He picks at the edges of the bandage Minato put on him, watching a drop of blood bleed through it, before smoothing it down. The stack of walnut seeds the two collected earlier rolls on the ground when Yori accidentally kicks it: he sighs, his legs swaying in the air as he watches them scatter. Eventually, he picks all of them up and places them in the stack they were previously in.
His bike is on the ground when he walks up to it, pulling it up and jumping on. The wind raps against his ears as he heads to his house, watching the field he and Minato ran through slowly get smaller and smaller.
****
“Did Mugino-kun start this?” Hori asks, kneeling in front of Yori on the ground, a dark mix of paint smeared over his face and arms. Minato stands behind them in a similar condition, fidgeting with his hands in front of him. The rest of the class is silent, scattering to sit at their desks.
“I did,” Yori blurts out, gazing up at Minato before turning back to Hori. “He made me fall in gym class.”
Hori furrows his eyebrows, turning to Minato. “Is that true?”
Minato’s eyes fall to Yori sitting up from the ground. Yori nods his head at him, his eyes wide. “Yeah,” he mutters, pressing two fingers to his ear.
Hori purses his lips. “Okay, you two come with me to the nurse’s office.” He faces the rest of the class, “Everyone else, continue your paintings.”
Hori leads Minato and Yori into the hallway, their classmates snickering as they leave. Minato’s gaze flits to Yori before jerking away. “Thank you,” he mumbles.
The corners of Yori’s lips curl up. “It’s okay.”
****
Yori’s father sits in the living room when Yori gets home from school, an empty bottle in his hand while he stares at the television screen. Yori’s eyes widen when he sees him, clenching the straps of his backpack. “Dad…shouldn’t you be at work?” he asks, slipping his shoes off.
When Yori looks up, his dad is already in front of him, slapping the side of his face. “Mind’ya damn business, son,” he slurs. “I didn’t rais’ya tuh’’ speak back tuh’ ya’ father, did I?”
Yori holds his breath as his father speaks right to his face. “I’m sorry,” he says.
“‘M sowwy,” his father mocks in a high pitched voice, slapping him again. “When will’ya be a fuckin’ man?”
Yori’s phone vibrates in his pocket as his father shoves him to the ground. “Ya’ want’me tuh’ burn ya’ again?” he shouts, spit spattering in Yori’s face. Stumbling over to the kitchen, he rummages through the drawers. “That’ll teach’ya a less’n.”
Yori remembers Minato taking his lighter after school once, telling Yori that the police will be able to find him if he has it with him. His father comes back empty-handed, yelling at Yori for losing his lighter. Yori doesn’t say anything as his father beats him, only crying out when his father strikes his already existing bruises.
Once his father passes out on the couch, Yori reads Minato’s text message, his entire body aching. He texts him back, agreeing to come meet him at the train car; Minato replies that he’ll wait for him at the tunnel to the forest. Tip-toeing over to the living room, he waves a hand over his father’s eyes and puts his shoes back on once he doesn’t stir.
When Yori gets there, he flashes a light through the tunnel, finding it empty and turning away. He holds up his phone to his ear as he calls Minato; he picks up on the last ring. “Where are–”
“I’m sorry,” Minato cuts him off. “My mom found me.”
“Your mo–” the dial tone rings in his ear before he can finish.
****
“If you want to see your friend again, you have to tell him this.”
“But–”
Yori’s head jerks to the side as his dad strikes his head. “You listen to me while I’m being nice, okay? I thought you said you don’t want to move to your grandmother’s house?”
Yori’s bottom lip quivers. “I don’t.”
“Exactly, so while you live under my roof, you follow my rules,” he orders. “He’s coming tonight, right?”
Yori nods.
“Then you tell him this, or you’re moving out.”
“Yes.”
His father glares at him. “Yes, who?”
“Yes, father.”
When Minato rings the intercom and bangs on the door, Yori’s dad pulls his arm back before he can answer. “I’m coming up with you.”
Yori opens the door, Minato waiting right against it. “Say–”
“Tell him,” Yori’s dad says, walking up beside him.
Yori glances at him before facing Minato. “I’m cured of my disease now.” His dad rubs a hand over his shoulder. “I worried you, but I’m all fine now.”
Minato blinks at him. “Cured of what?”
Yori smiles. “I’m normal now.”
“You were always normal.”
“There’s a girl you like near grandma’s house, right?” his dad interrupts, making eye contact with Yori, his fingers touching the collar of his shirt.
Yori nods. “Shindo Ayaka-chan.”
His dad leans forward. “Thank you for playing with him.”
“Thank you,” Yori says.
His father grunts in approval, nodding and leading Yori back inside, Minato moving to follow Yori through the gap of the door as he closes it. “Good job, son,” he says, patting his back. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?” His dad holds out a chair for him at the dinner table, heading to the kitchen. “I’ll make something special for us tonight.”
Yori is out of the chair before he finishes his sentence, running out the door. “Sorry, I lied!” he calls out to Minato, about to get onto his bike. His dad drags him inside from behind, Yori flailing his limbs in his grasp. The door shuts before Minato can reach him, pounding on it and shouting Yori’s name.
“Why can’t you do what I tell you?” he yells, pushing Yori against the corner of the dinner table. “I’ll punish you again.”
His dad yanks on his hair, pulling Yori to his feet. “Stop! It hurts!” he cries out.
He slaps Yori across the face. “Shut up!”
****
The water from the shower falls onto Yori in a stream of needles. He only has enough strength to shiver, his limbs crammed against the walls of the bathtub. He’s surrounded by darkness, his eyelids too heavy to lift. He can’t remember when his dad threw him inside and slammed the door behind him–all he knows is that he lay there for the night, the water running over him the entire time.
Yori faintly hears footsteps outside the door, wandering around his house. “Hoshikawa-kun,” Minato calls out. “Hoshikawa-kun?”
Yori opens his mouth to speak, no sound coming out.
Minato inches into the bathroom, calling Yori’s name one more time before sliding the shower open. Yori lies still at the bottom, not able to look up at him. “Hoshikawa-kun!” Minato drops down, wrapping his arms around him. “The Big Crunch is coming.”
Yori groans as Minato’s hands press against a bruise. He tries to carry Yori from outside of the bathtub, Yori a dead weight in his hands. Stepping into the shower, Minato holds Yori from his underarms, dragging him over the edge of the tub. They fall to the ground as Minato lifts Yori’s upper body out, pushing his feet against the shower to pull the rest of him to the floor.
They lie still, Minato’s chest rising and falling as he catches his breath. “Can you talk?” he asks, holding Yori’s head up with his hands.
“How’d…you get here?” Yori croaks.
Minato sits them up against the doorframe of the bathroom, pulling up the hood of his poncho. “The window was unlocked.”
Yori spasms, Minato’s arms wrapping tighter around him. “I’m cold,” he whispers.
Minato hauls Yori onto his back and takes him to his room, helping him change out of his clothes. He grabs a towel from the bathroom, rubbing Yori’s hair with it. “Are you feeling better now?”
“I’m better now, thanks,” Yori says, taking the towel from Minato’s hands. “Just hungry.”
Minato glances out the window. “We have snacks at the hideout.”
****
The two stand at the front of the train car, watching the trees above them rattle against each other, branches breaking off and crashing to the ground as rain pours from the sky. “Where do you think we’ll end up after this takes off?” Yori asks Minato.
“Mugikawa town?” Minato suggests, gazing out the window.
“I hope it’s Minatoyo planet,” Yori says, grinning. “It seems nice.”
Minato laughs, spinning around to head to the two diamonds strung up in the middle of the aisle. “But it’s right here,” he says, holding it up to Yori.
“We’ll live on it once it expands enough,” Yori says, pushing other ornaments out of the way as he comes over to him.
“With my mom?”
“Yup.”
“What about your dad?”
Yori shakes his head. “He’s not allowed.”
They sit across from each other, Yori swinging his legs and Minato leaning back on the cushions. A branch collapses against the top of the train car, scratching against the metal as the wind drags it across. Minato pours some chips into Yori’s hand before popping some into his mouth. “Do you think we’ll be the same after this?” Yori asks. “After we’re reborn?”
The ceiling clatters as the rain pours. “I don’t know.”
“If we are,” Yori starts, swallowing, “could I talk to you at school?”
Minato wipes some crumbs off Yori’s face, flicking them to the floor. “Yeah.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I don’t mind.”
Yori cocks his head to the side. “Could I hold your hand?”
Minato holds his hand out to him with an open palm.
“At school,” Yori says, sliding his hand between the gaps of Minato’s fingers, interlocking them together.
Minato shrugs. “If you want.”
Yori grimaces, his mouth twisting. “Won’t they make fun of us?”
“That doesn’t matter,” Minato says, shaking his head.
“Not anymore?”
“Not anymore.”
Yori squeezes his hand. “You’re cold.”
“You are too.” Yori holds their hands near his mouth, trying to warm them with his breath. Minato laughs, flinching away. “That tickles.”
“It’s so cold,” Yori says. “Our hands are going to freeze.”
Minato rubs them together. “That won’t happen.”
Yori lets go of his hand to sit beside Minato, Minato shifting to the side. He lays his head over Minato’s shoulder, exhaling softly. Minato gradually entwines their fingers together again, resting them on their thighs. “Will you hold onto me if the universe splits us apart?” Yori murmurs, his eyelids drooping.
Minato nudges his shoulder, jolting Yori awake. “I’ll try. Will you?”
Yori yawns, covering his mouth with his hand. “I’ll try too, but I’m not strong enough.”
“Me neither, but I want to stay with you.”
“Me too.” Minato grabs some more snacks from under the seat, opening it and offering some to Yori before he tosses handful into his mouth.
“Do I live on the ground?” Yori asks, holding a drawing of a pigeon over his forehead.
“Sometimes,” Minato answers, a frog drawn on his paper. “Do I live in the water?”
“Kind of–more on the surface.”
“Okay, I got it.”
“One, two,” they say together.
“A pigeon,” Yori guesses.
“A frog,” Minato guesses.
“Correct,” they say, looking at their respective animals.
“Who is the monster?” they chant together, picking out new animal drawings. They both ignore how their decorations shake in the air when something hits the train car, screeching as it tilts to the side.
“Can I take a nap here?” Yori asks, lying his head on Minato’s lap.
Minato frowns. “Are you feeling okay?”
Yori nods. “I’m fine–just sleepy.”
“Sure, then,” he says, snaking his fingers into Yori’s hair.
Yori smiles. “Will you still be here when I wake up?”
“I can’t leave even if I wanted to.”
“But you don’t want to.”
Minato shakes his head. “I don’t.”
When Yori wakes up, he’s nestled up against Minato, his head on his lap. Their clothes stick to their skin, still wet from the rain. The sun shines through the window, but Yori lies back down with a smile. He doesn’t know Minato is awake, stifling a grin as he watches Yori press his head closer to him.
****
Yori can feel dampness gathering on Minato’s palm as they walk together through the halls to their school. Yori loosens his hand once he sees one of their classmates in the distance, but he can’t let go as Minato tightens his grip when she passes by. Her eyes fall to their hands for a moment, but she walks away without saying anything. Yori looks up at Minato, Minato’s lips curling up into a grin as he looks back at him. They swing their hands back and forth as they walk to their classroom, not caring if they might accidentally hit someone on the way to their seats.