Chapter Text
Music is a wonderful thing. It can cheer someone up, make someone sad.
For Akito, music keeps him living.
Life wasn’t all that bad—he had friends, a family, he had (barely) passing grades. He was liked and semi-respected among his peers.
So why would he hurt himself?
…
He should really stop doing this.
He raises his forearm above his face to get a better look at it. It’s really nothing this time— just two cuts, one small and shallow— the other deeper, more painful… but nothing too crazy.
A small droplet of blood drips from the cut on his arm and falls onto his cheek. Gross.
It’s late, he has school tomorrow. Akito huffs and reluctantly gets up from his bed and heads to the bathroom. He doesn’t need to be too careful stepping out into the hallway—everyones asleep. But he should probably watch out incase Enas out of her room.
Shes always up at the most ungodly hours.
Akito grips the doorknob to the bathroom that’s conveniently only a few steps away from his room…
“Akito, What the hell are you doing awake!?” Ena whisper yells, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
Great.
Akito looks beside her and sees nonother than Mizuki smiling at him nervously.
Mizuki flashes him her signature grin, but this time it’s an embarrassed version of her signature grin.
“Sup lil’ bro!”
“Dude, what the fuck are you doing here?”
Ena bonks Akito over the head, it’s not hard or aggressive, it’s almost playful.
“Don’t be so rude to Mizuki, she’s a guest.”
Akito, unimpressed, crosses his arms, “Yea, a guest you invited at uh…” he trials off and looks for the clock along the walls, he finds it, it reads; 12:24am. “At 12 in the morning.” He concludes skeptically.
Ena stares at him confused, behind her, Mizuki looks confused, which makes Akito confused—why’s everyone confused!?
Mizuki slowly walks up to him from her spot behind Ena, “lil’ bro… I’ve been here all day? You said hi to me on my way in.”
No, that’s not right. Akito doesn’t remember that.
Now he has a headache.
Akito walks away, “whatever …whatever, I’m going back to my room” he mutters and scurries away.
Ena rolls her eyes and watches him walk away. Then she sees it— two perfectly aligned cuts on Akito’s lower forearm. She would’ve missed it if she wasn’t starring daggers at him.
Ena doesn’t freeze, she doesn’t run up to him demanding to know what’s wrong. She’s starting to get used to this.
She’ll ask Akito about it tomorrow.
…
Tomorrow comes, and Akito isn’t at home. Ena should’ve memorized his schedule by now, but she hasn’t. Akito has been harming himself. He’s been for a while and she knows it. She saw the proof of it last night. She isn’t even sure what to say to him once he gets back.
A pang of guilt creeps its way into her chest, making her heart sting.
She burys her face in her hands, ‘I’m such a terrible sister’
Meanwhile, Akito is practicing with the rest of vbs. An and kohane had to head home early, so practice was to be cut shorter than usual. Which is unfortunate for Akito.
You could call him an overachiever, you could say he has a real passion for performing. Which he does. But the correct way to describe Akito would be obsessed.
He’s obsessed with becoming the best—no—he needs to be the best.
He’ll never be satisfied with his current level of skill.
Or any level for that matter.
“Akito?” A soft hand taps his shoulder. He whips around, startled. It’s Toya. Toya, the best thing that's ever happened to Akito. Toya, who’s now staring at him with concern.
“Akito, I've been calling your name…” Toya worriedly explains.
“Ah, sorry—I must’ve spaced out.” Akito half heartedly apologizes.
“I see, just…” Toya’s eyes dart over akito’s frame, taking in all his details— his tossed hair, tired eyes, and fidgeting hands.
“…just take care of yourself, okay?”
…
Akito doesn't know how to take care of himself.
Well— the knowledge is obviously with him, but the motivation isn’t.
Akito hasn’t brushed his hair in 5 days. It’s tangled, knots here and there. But akito doesn’t care. He doesn’t feel like holding a brush and taking time out of his day to care for himself.
He doesn't deserve it.
Practice is over, it’s been over for awhile, actually. An, Kohane, and Toya parted ways with him a couple hours ago. Akito— being the workaholic he is, stayed behind and kept practicing in Sekai, completely engrossed in the music. He only left after being shooed away by Meiko.
Now, he’s at phoenix wonderland… of all places. He wasn’t sure why he was here. The park would be closing in a matter of minutes (45 to be exact), and he’s not much of a theme park person.
But breathing hurts, and he’d rather be anywhere than alone entrapped inside the four walls of his bedroom. So here he is.
Akito ends up coming across a cotton candy stall, buying a portion and finding a bench to sit at.
He observes his surroundings.
There's a group of girls walking together in sync, laughing together. There’s a family taking photos with a mascot. There’s Rui steadily approaching him—wait.
Why the fuck is Rui walking up to him?
“Shinonome-kun, what a pleasure seeing you here.” Rui greets the ginger, who's yet to take a bite of his cotton candy.
“Kamishiro-senpai. I forgot you worked here.” Akito awkwardly shifts in his seat, unsure of why Rui’s here, interrupting his peace.
“Yep!” Rui plops down next to him.
“So what brings you to Phoenix wonderland?”
Akito Scoots away.
“Y’know you're a little late to our show…it’s over.”
“I’m not here to watch you perform.”
Rui smiles, his stupid cat-like smirk that Akito low-key kinda hates.
He hates a lot of things about this guy.
Well At least he’s not as bad as—
“Rui!” Tsukasa runs up to the two, holding a bag of soda candy.
“I got the last…” he stops and turns towards akito.
“Akito?”
“Tsukasa-kun!” Rui shoots up and captures the blonde in a tight embrace.
Tsukasa lets out a strangled breath “R-Rui!”
“Ah sorry!” Rui lets go, his eyes eyeing the candy Tsukasa’s holding.
Tsukasa smiles and hands it to him.
Rui rips it open like the ravenous beast he is and shoves his face into the bag.
Tsukasa turns his attention back to Akito who's sitting awkwardly on the bench, still holding a brightly colored stick of untouched cotton candy.
It was almost…comical.
“If it isn’t my favorite kuhai! Akito, what are you doing here so late? The park’ll close in about,” Tsukasa stops and checks his watch that Akito's pretty sure wasn't there before, “30 minutes .”
Rui perks up, his head emerging from the bag of soda candies. “Ah we have to get back to the wonder stage!”
Tsukasa nods in agreement. As they begin to walk away, Akito breathes out a sigh of relief.
Finally—
“Akito?”
What—
“Cmon, put a little pep in your step!”
Oh, so they want him to come with.
Akito checks the time on his phone, well I suppose entertaining the weirdos doesn't would too bad.
Akito gets up and follows closely behind the comical duo.
On the way there they pass a trash can, Akito throws out the cotton candy,
…
They arrive at the wonderstage. Akito's not sure why his presence was needed but he watches his seniors gather their belongings and store away props.
Then all the sudden, Tsukasa perks up; “Akito, I invited you to our show earlier today and you didn’t show up.”
“I didn’t know you were performing”
“I told you and Toya last week, Thats a week in advance”
“I was busy with practice,”
“Touya managed to make it”
“Well I was doing extra practice!” Akito said frustratingly.
Tsukasa stayed silent for a moment, a conflicted expression adorning his face. Then he smiled.
“We’ll just have to do it again!”
With that, Rui joins the conversation.
“But Tsukasa-kun, we already packed everything up, plus Emu and Nene aren't here.”
“That's alright! We can improv.”
Akito scoffs “and what makes you think I’ll—“
Rui and Tsukasa stare at Akito with pleading eyes. “Puppy eyes” if you will.
And—why is it working?
Akito groans and leans further into the bench he’s sitting on.
“Fine, but you have to make this super quick! I have to go home.”
“Don’t worry Shinonome, this’ll be the best performance you've ever seen!” said Rui.
It wasn’t.
But doesn’t mean it wasn't fun to watch.
Watching Rui and Tsukasa struggle to play both their roles and Emu/Nene’s and mess up their stage directions was incredibly entertaining.
After Rui and Tsukasa wrapped up whatever they were doing, Tsukasa went backstage, leaving Rui and Akito alone awkwardly sitting next to one another.
Well it was awkward for Akito. He should've just gone home.
“So~ Shinonome-kun, you never told me why you came here.”
“I…”
why was he here?
The park's loud speakers announced that phoenix wonderland is closing, and that all remaining guests gotta gtfo.
Tsukasa emerges from where ever he was, he trots up to the awkward pair and starts to talk.
But Akito can’t hear him, instead, he imagines Ena yelling at him. He’s stayed out wayyyy too late, and she’s gonna rip him a new one. Or, maybe he’ll get lucky and she won’t care this time.
He gets up and leaves, offering the weirdo combo a curt “I gotta go, see you tomorrow”.
…
As soon as Akito opens his front door, he’s met with an incredibly irritated (and irritating) Ena.
“Where were you!?”
“I—“
“Where have you been, bro?!”
“At—“
“Do you know how late it is!? Mom told me to make sure you’d stop staying out late.”
“I know, can I—“
“I—“
“Ena! let me talk, fuck—!”
“…”
Okay well now he feels bad. Ena quietly looks down with a nothing-but guilty expression on her face, and that makes Akito feel even guiltier.
After an incredibly long moment of silence (which was probably only a second), Ena speaks;
“I was worried about you, y’know...I—uhm,” she pauses and her eyes dart to Akitos arm, “I saw it… last night.”
Oh…
Akitos eyes widen and he freezes in place. He opens his mouth to speak, but he’s unable to get a sound out.
She knows.
“You… you’re my baby brother, I don’t want you to be… doing this to yourself.”
Akito stays silent.
“Did you atleast—uhm, clean it up?”
She motions to his arm obviously talking about the cuts.
“Ena, you’re really bad at this” Akito says chucking, trying his best to distract her from the elephant in the room.
No he did not clean up.
“S-shut up! Atleast I’m trying.” She huffs and grabs Akito by the wrist, leading him towards the bathroom, “let’s clean you up.”
…
“There.”
Ena finishes wrapping the small amount of gauze around the Akito’s arm.
“Thanks…”
“Well, it’s pretty late— you should get some rest, you’ve got school tomorrow.” Ena suggests softly as she puts the medical supplies back into the cupboard.
Despite not being tired, Akito takes her advice and heads straight for bed.
He immediately knocks out.
…
The next day, Akito doesn’t interact with anyone until lunch, he’s sitting with Toya. The most amazing person in Akito’s sad, sad life.
“You want a bite?”
Toya holds out a chocolate filled croissant, which looks good. But knowing Toya it’s probably dark chocolate. Eugh.
Akito shakes his head, “No thanks.”
He continues to munch on the oversized pink frosted cat shaped cupcake Ena bought him this morning as a ‘sorry I found out you cut yourself’ gift.
Toya watches as he takes a hearty bite into the cake, and he notices how Akito’s left the cat shaped frosting untouched. Which is weird, cause’ his ginger ass has a killer sweet tooth.
Akito notices that Toya noticed so he explains, “I don’t wanna ruin it yet, it’s so…well-sculpted.”
Toya nods, “ah, that makes sense.”
…
Akito spends the rest of school sleeping in most classes and/or pretending to pay attention in some. There’s a test coming up soon in math. Akito has math with An, he’ll just seek her guidance later. (But knowing her she probably wasn’t paying attention either).
As the final bell rings, a sense of relief washes over Akito. He quickly packs up his bag and heads for the door.
The halls quickly fill up with shuffling students eager to head home.
The moment Akito steps outside, it starts to rain. Great.
He’s umbrella-less. Well, atleast he has a hoodie on. He pulls the hood of his hoodie over his head, it does little to protect him from the harsh rain.
He groans frustratedly. Akito closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, It was nice and sunny this morning, now it’s— it stopped raining?
He opens his eyes and, nope it’s still raining, but now an umbrella is being held over him. Akito side glances, and there he is——Ayoagi Toya. Shielding him from the rain with a navy blue umbrella. Toya hasn’t said anything, he just… smiles at him. A soft blush creeps its way onto Akito cheeks.
“Thanks…” he mumbles.
Touya chuckles (for some reason)
“This sudden rain is quite random,” he turns back to his ginger haired partner, “should I walk you home?”
‘Of course you should walk me home you’re the one with the umbrella!’
Akito pretends to think for a moment, consider his offer, and he concludes that he doesn’t wanna arrive home absolutely soaked.
He nods, “please, let’s go”
…
“Thanks for walking me home.” Akito unlocks his front door with his Miku key covered key on a Miku keychain. Miku.
“It’s no problem, I’m gonna go—“
*THUNDER NOISE(?)*
Okay now it’s thundering or whatever tf it’s called. Toya and Akito jump at the lighting sound. Their eyes meet and they share a knowing look.
Akito pulls Toya inside.