Chapter Text
Today, both E-noru's mom and dad were busy. They weren't actually going anywhere, as far as he knew, but they were busy. So, they left the responsibility of caring for him with his uncle.. E-ki, right? E-noru wasn't super familiar with him, and was a little worried he wouldn't remember his name correctly.. (Well, that didn't mean he didn't see E-ki frequently. He visited the house a lot. However, he would always be so loud that it scared E-noru off. Sometimes, instead, E-ki would take him out the house and to random places, but E-noru didn't really feel too familiar with him regardless.)
So, here he was. Sitting outside the door, clutching a small plushie tight in his hands because it made him feel better about whatever was happening now, while E-ki stood in front of him with the same expression as usual.
“E-noru! It's good to see you!” He's so noisy. E-ki's ten years older than him, but he's not an adult yet either, so he wonders if all older kids are loud like that (as he doesn't know anyone else around that age). He really hopes he doesn't grow up to become a noisy big kid. Thankfully, he doesn't talk much anyways, so there's not a significant chance of that, right?
…speaking (not really) of talking, he's been sitting there quietly this whole time. E-ki doesn't seem to pay any mind to it, though, and continues talking. “Now.. I'm doing something reeaally fun and cool at school with my friends, and it would probably, maybe cause a little bit of issues if I just didn't show up at all– but it wouldn't cause issues if I just brought you with me!”
.. That's new. Isn't the school E-ki goes to for kids his age? E-noru doesn't really know, but if that's true, would he even be allowed in?
He wasn't in the mood to talk, but could spit out a few words— “..but, the.. I–” and was cut off by the sound of something.. breaking? It came from inside the house, and both boys standing at the doorstep tensed up. However, E-ki didn't comment on it. Instead, in somewhat of a hurried tone, he began to speak as he walked away. “Come on! I don't want to be really late!”
E-noru, not wanting to be left behind, had no choice but to quickly follow him.
The walk to E-ki's school wasn't very long. It was, thankfully, pretty close—not only that, but the room he was going to was close to the entrance they went through, meaning sneaking him in wasn't an issue.
The real issue came when they actually entered the room.
E-ki immediately spoke up, at a volume that made E-noru wince. “I’m here!! And I brought a guest with me!” He, very lightly, pushed E-noru forward just a tiny bit.
Quickly, he could hear other voices—some of the four other people in the room speaking up.
“A child? Where did he come from?” A calm boy's voice, that seemed to come from the boy with blue hair further back in the room.
“Ah, E-ki, I didn't know you had a brother.” A calm girl’s voice, that appeared to come from the girl with green hair closer to the front of the room. That's a silly assumption to make. E-noru doesn't have siblings.
E-ki did quickly speak up to correct the mistake, though. “I don't! This is.. my nephew, E-noru!”
Of course, with the more information he provided, the more noisy the room became. A conversation ensued, involving those two calm individuals, along with a louder (though not as loud as E-ki) girl with red hair. All so, so loud. They were discussing him and trying to talk to him and E-noru didn't like it. Why were these strangers all trying to bother him now? He didn't want to talk to them!
He felt sick to his stomach. He didn't wanna be here anymore.. why did E-ki have to drag him all the way out here?! It wasn't fun and he wanted to go home..
In a sudden, impulsive decision, E-noru ran off into a (not very good) hiding place—stuffing himself in the corner of the room, behind a shelf. He curled up to the best of his abilities in the little space, and really hoped the noise would go away soon.. and, it did! He didn't open his eyes to see what was happening, but it had finally calmed down just a little bit.
He didn't like this. He didn't like the strangers and he didn't like being dragged to some random place. Maybe E-ki would take him home soon. Maybe he could just leave—he’s good at walking and knows the way home (kind of), by now..
His thoughts were cut off by the sound of a voice which he didn't hear amongst the earlier noise trying to get his attention.
“Hello..?” It was quieter. Not something seriously irritating like some of the other voices. “Are you okay?”
E-noru hesitantly opened his eyes, and saw an unfamiliar face crouched down in front of the corner he was sitting in. This was a different person than the other strangers in the room, and he at least seemed less likely to make him feel even more upset.
..of course, E-noru wasn't okay at all, so he quickly shook his head.
The boy paused for a moment, seeming to be thinking about something, then held out his hand. “Do you want to go get water from the water fountains? I can take you there.”
That means he can leave the room! That's a really good opportunity, so he nodded his head and took the boy’s hand. They both stood up, and he was led out the room, keeping his head down to avoid seeing whatever expression everyone else might have on their faces. (When he thought about it too hard, he'd feel overwhelmingly embarrassed..)
The water fountains were close by. E-noru wasn't actually that thirsty, so he just.. stood there. Staring at the random boy that took him out of the room, who wasn't drinking any water either. The hallways were quiet, with only the two of them out there.
Eventually, the boy spoke up again. “Your name is.. E-noru, right?”
E-noru nodded. The boy continued to talk. Since his tone of voice was quiet, it wasn't too irritating to listen. “My name is B-ka.” He paused, before sitting down on the floor so he was closer to E-noru. “I'm.. sorry about my friends.. they didn't mean to scare you.”
E-noru turned to directly face B-ka as he continued to speak. “Do you know what exactly they did that scared you..? I can– I can try to talk to them about it.”
He thought for a moment. He tried to say something, but couldn't really get the words out his mouth. He stared at B-ka for another moment, looking a little sad, before thinking of something else and pointing at his ears. Despite the supposed vagueness of his gesture and his anticipation that B-ka wouldn't get it, the boy nodded his head.
This was a very nice stranger. He liked this one, especially in comparison to the others. But at the same time, those other people were this boy's friends.. perhaps he was better at handling how noisy they were? Now E-noru was curious.
He moved a little closer to B-ka, staring at him. He tried to speak up again, but still, he couldn't really say much. Trying the same strategy as earlier, he pointed at B-ka's ear instead.
The boy tilted his head a little. “Is.. there something you want to say?” Ah, he's not understanding this time! E-noru felt anxious.
Still trying to convey what he wanted to ask, E-noru pointed in the general direction of the door to that classroom. B-ka looked more confused for a moment, before abruptly standing up. “Could you, um.. wait here, please?” And after saying that, he quickly walked off.
Where was he going? He wasn't even supposed to be in this school, he couldn't just be left unattended!!
..but he actually wasn't gone very long, and came back with a piece of paper and a pencil. He handed the two items to E-noru, who stared at them blankly. “If you can write down what you want to say, it might be a little easier than trying to communicate with gestures.. um.. if you can't, I can try to help you..”
E-noru knows how to write. Of course he can! He's a smart kid, and not talking to strangers didn't make him a not smart kid. But he needed to prove that to this boy, clearly.. so he took the pencil, and quickly wrote down his question, before holding up the paper.
In messy handwriting, it was written, “dont you think they’re noisy too”, with a few pieces of punctuation forgotten about as he hurried to communicate his thoughts. B-ka stared at the paper for a second, before nodding. “Sometimes, they can be.. but I promise they're not always that loud. I- I think they were just excited to see someone new.”
Someone new? As in himself? But who gets excited over meeting random people? E-noru was a little bit confused.
B-ka kept speaking. “And when they are noisy, sometimes it's instead when we're all having a lot of fun.. so I don't notice it immediately.” He laughed a little. “And if you ever come back, then I hope you'll be able to have fun too.”
E-noru quickly wrote another question down.
“do you like them a lot? also what are theirnames”
B-ka smiled a little at the innocent question. “The others are A-no, C-na, and D-suke. A-no's the girl with the shorter red hair, C-na has the green hair in the longer ponytail, and D-suke has the blue hair in the shorter ponytail.” Wow, two whole ponytails. E-noru, a little intrigued, wondered if his hair was long enough to put his hair in one too.
“And.. I do like them a lot. All- all four of them.” B-ka stared at the floor. E-noru stared at the floor with him, wondering what was so significant about it. The carpet was a pretty color, though. “They're all so passionate, and really nice.. they're my best friends.” B-ka seemed.. what was the word— tense? As if something was making him feel bad.
E-noru saw B-ka continue to tense up, one hand gripping the other arm's sleeve tightly for a moment before he exhaled and let go. He wondered what that might mean, but didn't know how to ask about it.
He thought about a few other things— wondering how they met, how someone like his uncle got along so well with someone like this, so on and so forth.. but the main question his mind seemed to focus on was how it felt to have so many friends. E-noru didn't really have friends, and stayed by himself at school (School was the worst place to make friends, after all! The people there aren't nice.), and since it seemed like this group of friends formed through school, he was quite curious about how that felt.
He wrote down one more question.
“is having friends fun?”
B-ka stared at the paper for more than the last two questions. He then looked back at E-noru, then at the paper again, and it looked like something had clicked into place in his head. “..Yes, it- it is.” He was quiet for another moment. “If you want, I can be your friend. And so can the others.”
Would that mean the stranger boy wouldn't be a stranger anymore? Hm..
That did sound nice, though. Perhaps they could be really good friends? He remembered overhearing other kids making promises to their friends to stay friends for a really long time. Maybe he could be friends with this person for a really long time, too? He seemed nice enough to not leave him behind.
E-noru nodded, and B-ka smiled. “Well, that means we're officially friends now..! And.. the first thing I want to do as, um, your friend, is to properly introduce you to my other friends.. this time, they won't be too loud, though. I– I promise.”
Well, if he promised..
They both got up off the floor, and approached the room they had left earlier. B-ka quickly told him to wait outside the room as he entered for a moment, and he could see but not hear a quick conversation through the not-fully-closed door, before he exited again to take E-noru in there too. (Still a little anxious, E-noru did try to hide behind B-ka.)
The first person he heard speak was E-ki, in that same, typical tone of voice. “What the— B-ka, you can get along with my nephew better than I can..?! Did you cast a spell on him or something?!” Though the words he said seemed to convey surprise, E-ki sounded amused more than anything.
(Also, if B-ka could cast spells, he'd better teach him how.)
The second person he heard speak was a not so calm girl, though she wasn't loud—since the other girl in the room was calm and had the green hair B-ka said belonged to C-na, E-noru could guess the one speaking was.. A-no, right? “Wow, B-ka, you're really good at this! Do you have a little sibling at home or something?”
B-ka shook his head. “N- no, I live– I'm an only child!” (Oh, wow, so is E-noru. That's so cool.)
E-noru eventually peeked out from behind B-ka, and while looking around, he saw the four people in the room all looking at him with a sort of curious-looking expression he couldn't fully identify. He waved at them, albeit nervously, but still ended up making them smile.
After a little while, the five older kids all gathered together to talk about.. something about a film, and scary stories that E-noru didn't like hearing about. While they all focused on their discussions, E-noru wandered around the room.. and against one wall, it seems the five had left all their stuff.
They weren't paying attention, were they? So, no one would notice if he..
One item after another, E-noru moved all of their stuff right outside the room. He then sat away from where all the items originally were, slowly waiting until their conversations ended and they began to prepare to go home, while stifling his own anticipatory laughter..
And it worked! Eventually, when they went to look for things like their backpacks, they were met with nothing! E-noru tried really, really hard not to laugh as they investigated the sudden, missing stuff.. but he still giggled a little.
E-ki and B-ka seemed to be the only people who heard his giggling, both turning to look at him. They then looked at each other.. and they both smiled? That's interesting.
B-ka approached him, and crouched down again. “E-noru.. did you move everyone's stuff?”
Unable to fully hide his laughter, he giggled a little more, before running over and grabbing the piece of paper and pencil again and quickly scribbling something down—
“no, a monster must've moved it all outside the room!”
They were investigating scary stories, right? And the idea of a monster stealing his stuff was pretty scary.
B-ka began to smile when he looked at the paper, seeming to be holding back his own laughter. “A.. A monster..? O- okay..” He got up, and went outside the classroom, likely immediately noticing where everything was moved to.
B-ka then went back inside, and signaled for the other four to come and get their stuff from outside the room. Everyone was relieved and nothing bad happened, but surely, everyone would still be wondering what mysterious thing could've done such a thing.. because E-noru was just that good at not getting caught, for sure.
Everyone eventually left, and E-ki walked up to him, smiling as well. “You are such a little troublemaker once you're not scared, aren't you.. we need to go home now, okay?” He walked off, and E-noru quickly followed.
It was a quick walk home, just as it was a quick walk to that school. After everything, E-noru was exhausted, and decided he wanted to take a nap.. so that's what he did.
E-ki made sure he made it to his room, shutting the door behind him, before walking in the direction of the room of his sister— E-noru's mother. Fragments of broken glass were scattered on the floor near the doorway, and E-ki felt.. relieved, that E-noru never noticed what happened.
...
Things went well today, so when she was available, E-ki would talk to her about taking E-noru out to visit his friends more.