[fic] when we were young
title: when we were young [AU]
pairing(s): okamori
rating: g
word count: 530~ words
disclaimer: oh how I wish I could own them.
summary: everything is simple because it is.
“You’re moving?” he asked, a little teary eyed. The red ball in his hand, he gripped it a little tighter to his chest as he anticipate the next words to come out from the other boy’s mouth.
Weakly, the other boy nodded, his little foot making a parabola in the sand. “’Kaa-san told me yesterday, Ryuu-chan.”
“B-but… she promised me to let Keito-kun stay over at our house this weekend!” Ryutaro protested while stomping his foot for good measure; his defiant eyes still visible even underneath his long bangs.
Both boys sat down in the sand box, the red ball Ryutaro brought over for them to play with rolled down aimlessly in the sand box.
“Maybe you could hide in my house until you mom and dad left?” Ryutaro asked with hopeful eyes.
Keito looked like he might consider the idea, his face lit up for a second before falls again. “But, I’ll miss my mom and dad.”
“But you’ll have me around!”
“What would Ryuu-chan do if Ryuu-chan is Keito?”
Ryutaro contemplated the question for a while before the big fat tears started to roll down his chubby cheeks. “I don’t want to leave okaa-san and otou-san, and Natsume!” he sniffed before adding, ”…and maybe Shintaro too.”
“Don’t cry!” almost instantly Keito’s little hand found their way over to Ryutaro’s. “We’ll still be friends, ne?”
The sobbing stopped then; Ryutaro quickly wiped the tears away and smiled as widely as he could muster to Keito before nodding fervently.
“Best friends!”
“The best!”
Feeling better, Ryutaro picked up the ball he had brought with earlier and went back to sit beside Keito. He turned the ball a few times before handing it to the older boy.
With a confused expression on his face, Keito asked. “You’re giving it to me?”
Ryutaro nodded.
-----
“Why are you two holding the ball together like that?” asked Keito’s mother when they arrived back to his house, the red ball securely in both of their grasp and they’re not showing any signs of letting it go.
Both of them beamed up at her even though she could tell Ryutaro had been crying earlier.
“It’s our red string!” he exclaimed.
Red string?
“It’s just like the red string my ‘kaa-san and ‘tou-san have. This is mine’s and Keito-kun’s red string, so I will always find him even if he moved faaaaar away,” said Ryutaro in one breathe, his face flushed with excitement.
“And I will find Ryuu-chan wherever even if he moved too,” added Keito with the same expression plastered on his face.
The thought of correcting their idea of the red string crossed her mind, but she stopped herself after looking at the faces of the two boys in front of her; their clothes cling to their body due to sweats and hands grimy from playing in the dirt but both of them look content.
“That’s right, you two are best friends, ne?” she asked as she crouched down and smiled softly to the both of them. Both of them nodded their head quickly.
Just then she realized their little fingers were intertwined underneath the ball they were holding.