It is twelve-year-old Baikou's opinion that she should come tossing pebbles onto Hitsuga's windowsill early in the morning more often.
Hitsuga's response is a sleepy murmur where he lays curled on the dock beside her, his head pillowed on the small cushion his best friend has taken to carrying with her on the offchance something may happen to set him off on one of his panic attacks and he may need to lay down for a moment.
It is twelve-year-old Hitsuga's opinion most people wait until the sun is up to come to the beach.
"But that's the POINT." she insists. Last night's sunset was beautiful, and the following night had yielded a cloudless and vast sky. She can only imagine the accompanying sunrise will be just as beautiful. "And its not something I want to waste by watching it by myself. There's plenty for -you- to look at too."
"Mnnh..." is the non-committal reply, which earns him a poke in the side. Hitsuga had all NIGHT to sleep... stare
Hitsuga had only slept for a couple of hours. At best. And if Grandmother finds that he's gone out without permission--
"You're not in trouble again, are you?" Baikou interrupts. At this he falls silent. .....what has Hitsuga done now...? she ventures, though the projection is not accusing so much as it is inquisitive, and tinged with worry.
He has....been disrespecting the family, he explains, his thoughts seeming uncertain. Eitatsu does not approve of Hitsuga spending his days with Baikou when his mother could use his help around the house.
Baikou thought that Hitsuga had said his mother was glad to get him out of the house for the day so she can work in peace. Baikou's own mother usually is...
He gives a helpless sort of sigh, sitting up enough to peer over the edge of the dock at the still-dark waters lapping below them. He believes it has much to do with the fact his father is visiting. Grandmother really does not seem to like Keiga at all. Or anything that enables him to spend time alone with Hitsuga's mother.
"Then that's not YOUR fault..." Baikou mutters, drawing coltish legs to her chest beneath her robes as she looks skyward, seeming antsy for the dark blue of the sky to begin to light up with color, and hopefully do similar for Hitsuga's mood. When Baikou has children someday, SHE'S not going to confuse them that way. She will only hold them responsible for wrongs they've actually done. Hitsuga agrees, yes?
He does not answer, blue eyes transfixed on the water.
Hitsuuuuugaaaa? the prodding of the projection is in counterpoint to the gentle pokes from her finger in his side, making him flinch.
Hitsuga thinks....that it must be very nice to be a fish.
"What?" Baikou inquires, quirking a brow incredulously.
If he were a fish, he goes on, he would never have to stay anywhere he didn't want to. If one pocket of water grew too warm for his liking, he would have an entire vast blue world to find water that WAS comfortable. And all of the other fish would be too busy to notice he was not as strong as they were. Fish have better things to do than bully each other, Baikou knows?
Ah, but if Hitsuga were a fish, he would eventually get tangled in a net, and end up in someone's stew. And, she adds with a laugh, Baikou is not sure she would forgive him for leaving her alone up on the land.
Sometimes he wonders if THAT would be such a bad thing either...
The smile slips from her face, becoming square-jawed determination. Hitsuga is NOT allowed to think such things, she tells him firmly. There is far more good in him than Eitatsu would have him believe. ....and why does he even listen to his Grandmother ANYWAY? gonk HER mother says Hitsuga's grandmother, while a well-traveled and intelligent woman, makes far too many enemies with her tongue.
"Every time Eitatsu opens her mouth, all of her guts fall out." Baikou says matter-of-factly, startling him enough to blink up at her as if she's just called the wrath of the gods down on them both. There hangs a moment of utter silence between them....and then, suddenly, startlingly, he begins to laugh.
Seeming to realize what she's just said, Baikou's frown deepens for a moment. Hitsuga is NOT to tell anyone she said that. She would be in so much trouble...!!
....and then Baikou, too, laughs. They laugh until tears stand out at the corners of their eyes, and their stomachs hurt. To any onlookers, they might have appeared insane -- two children, just shy of stepping across the threshold of adulthood, doubled over with braying laughter on the edge of a dock in the not-quite-dawn.
Ah, look! Look! The sun! Baikou points out suddenly, tugging at Hitsuga's sleeve until he sits up, wiping at his eyes to blink out over the water at the stirrings of red and orange on the horizon. A hush descends, save for a small hum of awe and wonder between their minds as the sun slowly crests, painting the sea with fire.
Has Hitsuga ever seen anything like this before...?
Hitsuga has seen sunrises before, but....he believes this one is different.
The burning orb makes its slow ascent into the sky, chasing the remnants of nighttime away into a fresh, bright morning, leaving the children to bask in its newness.
Baikou chews her lip a moment before she speaks. "Promise me you will always be you. And that you won't let anybody -- not even Eitatsu -- change you." she says, her voice little more than a whisper. And Baikou will always be Baikou. And no matter what life hands them, they will always have at least that much to come back to.
The dark-haired boy peers at his friend curiously through a forest of bangs. Hitsuga is not sure that he ever could be anything but Hitsuga. But regardless, he promises.
She smiles at him, the morning light catching light brown eyes and making them glow, seeming satisfied with this...
.....and then he awakened, blinking groggily into the deep grays and blacks of the past-midnight darkness. The tang of salty air and the sigh of the surf had receded into the muted scent of clean linens and the gentle pull of his wife's breathing beside him.
His chest stirred with pangs of nostalgia, remembering that day well. It was not often that his dreams dwelled on pleasant memories....or even bittersweet ones. He remembered that promise. He remembered, also, it becoming one of the many he felt he'd broken on his mental list of wrongs he'd done to others.
....but now, as he listed onto his side to face Baikou, he wondered...
They hadn't changed much at all, had they...? he wondered in a hazy open projection that was not loud enough to wake her. Watching her for a long moment, fingertips straying out to carefully trace the outline of her cheek, Hitsuga at last drew away and sat up.
Perhaps it was only a fleeting desire, brought on by both his discussion with Dame Tenkyuu earlier, and the dream both, but he felt he wanted to go again. To the shore. To watch another sunrise.
But as that, and getting back to sleep both did not appear to be an option of his at present....
Rising carefully from the nest of covers so that he didn't disturb her, Hitsuga quietly dressed himself and slipped out of the bedroom to cross the hallway to his workroom.
If it was, indeed, a fleeting desire to face the sea again brought on by his own memories, he felt that it was just as well that Tenkyuu's memories may benefit from it...
Reply
