Chapter Text
January 2020- The Mountain
He had been trekking through the trees for what felt like hours, in reality it was probably closer to forty-five minutes. However the rain had started shortly after he left his house and had gotten heavier and heavier as he approached the mountain until it was a full on down pour that his rain coat was barely keeping out.
He should have worn better shoes, his sneakers absolutely could not handle this mud.
“Stupid, fucking ritual” he muttered to himself as he continued to climb. “Why do we have to do this in January in the middle of the night? I’ll be lucky if I make it out of here without catching something.”
He hit an especially rocky patch and the beam of his flashlight bobbed as he navigated it, creating a strobe effect amongst the trees. The flashing light made the forest look more sinister and he shuddered remembering how dangerous the mountain could be, that was why he was there after all.
Just then his light caught on the edge of something in his periphery.
He did a sharp double take so he could get a proper look at an oddly human looking tree, with soft feminine curves. “Whoa sexy!” and then his foot slipped on the mud and he landed hard on the ground before he could even register what had happened. Pain bloomed from his head, and he wasn’t able to move without more coursing through his body. Just moving his head made him feel sick and realization dawned on him that he was not going to be getting up from this forest floor by himself.
So this was how he died, because of a stupid sexy tree. If by some miracle he got out of this he vowed to never get distracted by boobs again.
He let out a shuddering breath, it made something deep in his chest ache, which would have been concerning if he wasn’t already convinced that he wouldn’t need his lungs in a moment. He was a little surprised by how calm he felt over the whole thing. Sure, he was scared, but mostly his mind wandered to those that would miss him.
“I’m sorry daddy, I guess I failed to carry out the Indo family duty, oh, and mama, oh god, I really don’t want her to suffer again.”
An almost sob wracked his body, he tried to suppress it because it hurt too much. He wasn’t really sure who he was talking too, but it felt right to say it out loud.
“Yoshiki” an image of his best friend came to mind, he was at his desk head phones in, trying to block out the world. Sunlight streamed in behind him. In that moment Hikaru had known his friend was everything to him, and now he would be left alone. That hurt the most, he always hated seeing Yoshiki sad, he had spent so much of his short life just trying to find new ways to make him smile, and now he wouldn’t be around to fix that. That was what finally broke him and hot tears fell mingling with the cold rain, and than everything faded to black.
He came too, slightly, to the feeling of something warm and heavy settling across his lap. Cold fingers fluttered around his face, pressing against his neck. It was surprisingly pleasant despite how wet and cold everything else was. His head was killing him, and, oh yeah, he was supposed to be dead. Surely the afterlife would be drier than this. A familiar voice came into focus, it was quiet saying his name in a desperate sort of way.
“Yoshiki?” It came out as barely a whisper, but he must have heard him because the warm weight seemed to collapse on top of him.
“Oh thank god you’re still alive.” The relief in his voice was palpable and Hikaru managed to crack an eye open to see Yoshiki hunched over him, fingers still on his pulse point, soaked with rain.
He was struggling to believe this was happening, although the pain in his head, and now leg, was helping to ground him a little.
“Am I hallucinating or something?”
Yoshiki fixed him with a confused look, partially concealed behind his hood, and overgrown bangs. Hikaru had a very strong urge to reach up and push the hair out of his face, but he had a feeling that wouldn’t help the situation much.
“No you’re not hallucinating, but we do need to get you out of here, you’re freezing. Are you injured?”
Hikaru felt Yoshiki move off of him, which was disappointing, and he wanted to say something about huddling for warmth but couldn’t quite bring himself to make that joke. If it even was one at this point. Instead he said,
“I think I hit my head and my leg might have something wrong with it too.”
“Ok, ok” There was a flash of light in Hikaru’s periphery before Yoshiki spoke again. “Shit! Of course there’s no fucking service up here… You’re gonna have to try and walk ok.”
He took a deep breath and nodded before he started trying to move. Every muscle was stiff and his head was screaming at him, but he did make it to a sitting position with Yoshiki’s help. His hands a warm grounding sensation on Hikaru’s back. He was now able to see Yoshiki more clearly, he looked worried sick, and scared, that wouldn’t do. Hikaru tried to come up with something funny he could say to make Yoshiki smile, but there really wasn’t anything funny about the situation.
“I think you might have to help me up the rest of the way.”
Yoshiki nodded, a look of determination taking over his face, and he wrapped his arms around him, gently pulling him to a standing position. They both nearly collapsed when Hikaru tried to put weight on his left leg, but Yoshiki pulled him in tighter, re-balancing them both. The contact sent sparks through Hikaru that he refused to think too deeply about. Finally, with Yoshiki supporting most of Hikaru’s weight, they were able to slowly start moving down the mountain.
Hikaru was still feeling a little delirious, he probably had a concussion, or maybe it was because of how close Yoshiki was, which made even less sense. He was firmly not thinking about the feeling of his friends hand around his waist when he was suddenly struck by the memory of why he was on the damn mountain in the first place. He stopped and tried to pivot, which was difficult because of how tightly Yoshiki was holding him.
“what the are you doing?” Yoshiki said as he steered Hikaru back on course, he seemed to only be a little out of breath which Hikaru was very impressed by.
“The ritual, I didn’t finish it, and Hichi-san is still up there.”
“What the fuck are you talking about man… look whatever the hell you needed to do on this mountain we can take care of after you have gone to the hospital, maybe on a day when it isn’t raining.”
We? Hikaru liked the sound of we, he really like it.
They made the rest of the trek in relative silence and he must have blacked out again because next thing he knew he was laying on a mat in his own house and people were rushing around. He didn’t really care though because Yoshiki was sitting next to him, his delicate fingers wrapped around Hikaru’s wrist.
When he woke up the next time he was in the hospital. They said he had a concussion, which made sense, a broken ankle, which definitely sucked, and that he was very lucky he was found when he was, which he already knew. In the end he was released with some medication and a cast which they said would come off in a few weeks. Then everything would be able to go back to normal… right?
Six Months Later…
It was hotter than hell outside, the sweat tickled as it rolled down his spine and the air felt thick in his lungs. He and Yoshiki were sitting outside the village corner store, a Papico in each boys hands. It wasn’t his first choice in frozen treat but he would take anything to cool off at this point.
“Man I can’t believe coach Hara made us run in this heat.” Yoshiki’s voice rose above the drone of cicadas.
“Yeah it sucked, although I am happy my ankle is finally back to normal.” He stuck his left leg out and rolled his foot around in order to demonstrate said ankles normalness.
Yoshiki stared at the limb in question before raising his eyes to the mountain on the horizon.
“You know you still haven’t explained what the hell you were doing on that mountain that night.”
Hikaru sighed and raised his eye’s to the mountain as well. He had honestly been trying not to think about it these past few months, he certainly wasn’t going to start now.
“Eh, it was nothing, I’ll tell you eventually, I promise.”
Yoshiki chuckled at that, and shook his head causing his bangs to fall further into his face. Hikaru fought the urge to reach over and push them away. He’d been having more and more thoughts about how much he hated those bangs, hated how they covered Yoshiki’s face. It was just another thing that he had decided he would deal with at another time. He cast around for something else to talk about.
“You know I’ve been wondering, how where you able to find me when all the old men couldn’t?”
Yoshiki looked at him a bit before answering.
“Honestly I’m not sure, but… ok this is going to sound kinda dumb, but there was this tree that kinda looked like a lady and when I saw it I immediately had a feeling that if you had seen it you would have gotten distracted and maybe fallen… so I just looked in that area and there you were.”
Hikaru had to look away as heat crept up his face.
“Well I guess it was real lucky I was in the area…”
He could feel Yoshiki’s eyes still on him.
“That was exactly what happened wasn’t it?”
Hikaru cringed and nodded. Next thing he knew Yoshiki was laughing, loudly, Hikaru even thought he heard a little snort come out. All his embarrassment disappeared as he watched. Yoshiki laughing like this was a rare occurrence, he wasn’t going to miss a second of it. A cloud moved, revealing the sun, and Yoshiki was illuminated in a golden light. He was beautiful like this… Hikaru’s thoughts came to a screeching halt, what the hell was he thinking?
One year ago…
The two of them were over at Hikaru’s place that night. Yoshiki had shown up somewhat suddenly, which meant his parents were fighting again so Hikaru suggested they play some smash in hopes of taking his mind off it. It was working, Yoshiki was absolutely wrecking him, as per usual, although he would never admit it. He was a little startled when Yoshiki spoke, breaking his concentration.
“What do you think you’ll do do when we finish high school?”
It was a perfectly normal question, and it’s not like Hikaru had never thought about it, he just never seemed to have a good answer. Without taking his eyes off the screen he shrugged,
“Dunno, I guess I’ll just take over grandpa’s mushroom farm… what about you?”
He risked a sideways glance at Yoshiki just to catch him also giving a non-committal shrug. Figures, he could always start a conversation but it was usually Hikaru’s job to continue them.
“Your a smart guy you could easily go to college in Tokyo or somethin’”
Yoshiki shrugged again, “yeah, I guess…”
Hikaru paused the game, these conversations always bummed him out a bit. He hated the way Yoshiki got down on himself, and he hated even more the fact that Yoshiki was going to leave him one day. Rather than actually say any of this to Yoshiki he laughed and said,
“Oh let me guess you don’t want to leave me?” He put on a dramatic voice “oh Hikaru I can’t bear to be away from you!”
Yoshiki rolled his eyes and dead panned back,
“Shut up and die already”
This made Hikaru laugh even harder, feeling extra gratified when a ghost of a smile lit up Yoshiki’s face.
The conversation was done but Hikaru couldn’t quite let it go, later as they were taking a walk he decided to try and bring it up again.
“When you live in Tokyo I’m gonna be over all the time, even when you get a hot girlfriend you won’t be able to bring her over because I will be there.”
He smiled big in Yoshiki’s direction, Yoshiki scoffed,
“Like I would have a girlfriend”
This annoyed Hikaru more than anything, Yoshiki could easily get a girlfriend. He was smart, and kind, and very good looking, even with that emo ass expression on his face. He swung around to look at Yoshiki head on.
“Come on man why do you always get so pissy when we talk about this stuff, you could get a girlfriend no problem.”
Yoshiki just looked back at him with an unreadable expression and kept walking.