[Arashi] Young

[neko_kirin3104]

Title: Young

Group/pairing: Arashi/Yama Pair (Ohno/Sho)

Prompt: 002 Young

Word Count: 853

Rating: PG

Summary: Two boys lost in the streets of Shibuya, warmth from one offsettig the coldness of the other. chibi!yama

Disclaimer: I own nobody

Notes: Inspired by a prompt from je_prompts, this interview translated by sakura_daikon, and mirei_22’s translation of the reports on last year’s Waku Waku Gakkou - Origins lesson on Sho Sakurai.

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“I had this mysterious feeling at that time, like I've met you somewhere else before. ‘Deja vu’, they call it?”—Sho Sakurai, Duet (February 2000)

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Sho could not believe his mom left him just like that. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think she was trying to lose him. What other reasons would there be for leaving a five-year-old boy all alone in Shibuya?

But then, the bus she was on just had to pass right by him, and he immediately knew that he was on his own.

For a while, he preened at how the sharp challenging look he threw at her seemed to have changed her mind about picking him up. But when his little legs began to ache from walking down the crowded sidewalk several minutes later, he realized that his defiance had been a mistake.

He did not care anymore if this was a test. Or that he was a Sakurai and Sakurais never quit. He was just a meager five-year-old, for petesake! You did not leave five-year-olds to fend for themselves on the street!

But even as his eyes began to fill with tears, Sho kept soldiering on. He didn’t exactly know the way back home, but he definitely was going to find it. He’d be damned if he gave up now. After all, he wasn’t a Sakurai for nothing!

Concentrating on drowning his fear with this determined mantra, it took him a while to notice a slightly taller boy fall into step beside him.

At first Sho tried his best to ignore him, even as the boy kept peering at his face every few seconds.  After the tenth time, he couldn’t help turning his head and demanding, “What?!”

“Are you lost?” the boy asked quietly, though not timidly.

“No!” Sho snapped, annoyed at how the boy didn’t seem to be affected at all by the menace in his voice. “Are you dumb?!”

“No,” the boy replied calmly. Turning his gaze ahead, he added, “But, I am lost.”

That raw honesty rattled Sho. Not one to willingly show fragility in front of others, it amused him that someone would actually be so refreshingly simple-minded as to admit to a fault. And although he didn’t really mean to, he began to relax and gradually warm up to the boy.

They kept walking in silence for several minutes, passing shops and people that blurred into a kaleidoscope of colors next to the warm round face of the strange boy that kept by Sho’s side.

There was something about the way the boy walked with calm and steady confidence, like he knew where he was going (though, they both knew that wasn’t true). The way he kept turning to Sho, as though checking if he was still okay, kindled a touch of warmth on each of the younger boy’s cheeks, igniting slightly with each repeated glance.

And the way he smiled whenever their eyes met, as though saying “Daijoubu” in the quietest, most reassuring way, slowly melted Sho’s stubborn resolve to not look helpless.

Before he realized it, he found himself reaching for the boy’s hand. And as their palms touched and their fingers intertwined, warmth from one offsetting the coldness of the other, Sho let himself ease completely into this new-found friendship.

“Are you scared?” the boy asked, not losing the calm cadence of his voice.

“Not anymore,” Sho replied quietly, though not without conviction. He held his new friend’s gaze for a second and even managed a small smile, before turning away from the warm brown eyes threatening to steal his soul.

After a while, they both found a familiar intersection, and Sho almost literally felt their lives branching out in two separate ways. For a moment they just stood there, channeling reassurances to each other through their clasp hands. Then, they parted ways with a smile and a "Ja ne," both of them trying to look as cool and detached as confident boys their age normally should.

Sho sighed and pushed his little hands into his pocket, wanting to keep the warmth his new friend had left on his palm intact. It was then that he realized he hadn’t even asked for the boy’s name. Not that the boy made any effort to ask for his, anyway. The realization threatened to dampen his spirits, and he could feel his face scrunching up into a frown once again.

As he waited to cross the street with the other pedestrians, noting for a moment how they seemed to keep a safe distance away from him, he glanced over his shoulder at the spot where he had last seen his friend.

And he saw him looking right back at him. Not exactly on the same spot, but several steps away. The boy was practically being dragged by an adult woman, probably his mom, and was trying his best to peer over his shoulder at him. Sho smiled and gave the boy a little wave as the lights turned yellow, then red.

He felt a slight flutter in his heart as a vague thought flitted pass his mind, an impression more felt than understood. And it made him smile wider as he started walking amidst the crowd of strangers.

Somehow, he knew they’d meet again someday.

~1992*4##111~