The Letter 03

[[ The Letter ]]
{ three }

The first two months of school was like before. Daily fights between Aki and Asuka, or Aki and Kei. Noah would always try to break them up, while Shubira would try to distract Kei. Then Noah would lecture the three about how they have to get along more. Evenings were spent quietly. Noah would get assurance from Mastuki in the kitchen while the rest would be either reading or playing video games. Aki seemed to always be up in his room studying or on the computer.

Hito tried to follow Kei or Shubira around, but they seemed to have their own jokes. Noah was always reading a psychology book about how to keep the peace in the dorm. And whenever Asuka wasn’t picking a fight with his brother, he was studying how to be a massuse.

Mastuki noticed Hito’s bewilderment on who to hang around. “Noah used to hang with Roen, so he’s very depressed. You’d have your best luck just sitting in the living room and interacting with them there.” He said with a smile one day.

Then another vacation came. It was a short winter vacation for Christmas. Everyone was headed home. Mastuki was headed to see his wife and kid. Kei and Shubira were going to Kei’s aunt’s wedding. And Asuka was going home to see his parents.

Hito kept waiting to see if Aki was making any plans. It turns out he didn’t, because the day everyone left, only Aki and Hito were left in the house.

After the goodbyes, Hito turned to Aki.

Aki looked at him and shrugged. “My parents wouldn’t care if I came back or not. They only care about my brother. What about you? No big meetings with Daddy?”

Hito shook his head and watched as Aki just chuckled and walked back up to his room.

Bored, Hito sat down to watch TV. Like a bad omen, as soon as he turned on the TV the whole power went off. He heard Aki scream upstairs and come downstairs in a hurry with a flashlight.

He waved the light onto Hito, groaned and walked to the den. Hito stood up and followed to see what he was looking for.

“Dammit.” Aki cursed, slamming the breaker box shut. He jumped seeing Hito next to him so suddenly. “Gah! ….Power’s out. Must be a wind storm. We get them about this time of year.” He handed Hito the flash light. “Hold that, I’ll get us some blankets.”

Hito blinked, holding the flashlight and followed as Aki went to a pile of boxes. He started shoving them off and opened the bottom one. Aki pulled out two large blankets and left the room.

Aki led Hito upstairs and to his bedroom. “Open the door.” Hito did so and let Aki go in and plop the blankets onto his bed. Aki then went over and closed the bedroom door, made sure the window was covered well and then sat himself onto Hito’s bed. “Your room’s smaller. Holds more heat.” Hito nodded. “Go put your jacket on…” Hito went and pulled on his red jacket before going over and sitting near Aki on the bed. He was just in a black shirt and his green pants.

Aki took the flash light, showing he was in jeans and a sweatshirt. Aki moved back the blankets and got under. “C’mon. We’ll keep warmer.”

Hito blinked, but just climbed under the blankets with Aki. Aki left the flashlight near their heads and sighed. “Stupid power.”

“Uhm…” came Hito’s voice softly.

“Hm?” Aki looked to the blond. “What is it? Don’t like the dark?”

“…Yeah.” Hito said, his voice very soft and almost inaudible.

“Well the power should come back on soon.” Aki answered. “For now we should just sleep.”

The two fell asleep without saying anything more. Aki woke up a few hours later feeling warm. He noticed Hito was snuggled up close to him. Then he noticed, he’d taken all the blankets from Hito. Carefully, he tried to wrap some around the sleeping blond.

“Hnm…” Hito mumbled snuggling closer as Aki began to move. Aki continued until Hito was nicely covered again. “Aki…?”

“Yeah?”

“Why are you like that?”

“Like what?” Aki asked curious.

“Distant…” Hito shrugged. “When no one’s home you pay attention to me, but otherwise you coop yourself up in your room.”

The brunette shrugged. “You’re too much like Touya and it annoys me…” Hito looked to him, wondering who Touya was. “Oh.. Shubira’s nickname.” Hito nodded a bit. “He’s quiet like you… Helps people then leaves before they can even thank him. You aren’t like that though are you? You see someone needing help and just walk on.”

Hito shrugged, closing his eyes. “No one ever seems to want my help…”

Aki thought a few minutes and shrugged. “Let’s go back to sleep.”