#7 Theme 14: Every Day at the Bus Stop - Tommy Heavenly6; Tora/Hiroto [Part 1]
Title: Invisible Sky [Part 1]
Author: beyondtheremix
Theme: 014 Every Day at the Bus Stop (Tommy February6)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Tora/Hiroto, Shou/his mom (loooooooool), Shou/Aki, Saga/Nao/Saga
Band[s]: Alice Nine, SID
Disclaimer: Aki is not Hiroto’s brother, AU, high school fic
Warnings: mentioned drug/alcohol use, neglect
Comments: For some reason it had to be split in two.
Invisible Sky [Part 1]
He woke up to a windowful of white; clouds without a single shadow promising a steely autumn and cold winter snow. If he didn’t know better Tora would say his house was trapped in a vase - chilled porcelain rippled like milk, clean and freshly poured - pressed to his cheek, unmarred and imprisoning what was rotting from within.
He showered quickly, washing off what he hoped would be the last of the summer night heat, before buttoning up the short sleeved cotton of his uniform, zipping his pants, shoving a beanie on his head and grabbing his bag. A breakfast of juice and bread with silent chairs followed. His parents had gone before the sun, packed tight in business suits and scrubs, running on protein-energy drinks and fiber bars.
Wiping the counter clean of crumbs, Tora paused at the kitchen doorway to let their elderly cat nudge her forehead against his fingers. It was ritualistic the way he watched her tail swish around his feet, pulled the key in and out of the door, ducked under the awning branches of a potted plant, and began the lengthy trek to the bus stop.
The reflection of a hidden sun in a sky that was one huge cloud, drenched his world into starkly contrasting shades that hurt Tora’s eyes. Holding a hand up so he could glare up at the weather, his skin seemed to blend in with the clouds, sky bleeding with the color of his hands. It annoyed Tora to have to wake up to such a bright morning; everything always looked bleak thrown into the unattractive lighting.
Diligent feet had finally carried him to his destination. As the day before and all the yesterdays before that, Tora was the first one at the bus stop. He didn’t mind so much, it was always better to be early than late and sometimes he got to see Nao helping his parents open their convenience store from across the street. It was usually an animated affair with Nao falling over or knocking something down when he flipped their large “Open/Closed” sign over. This was generally followed by one last battle for one last bag of sweets before he was shoved lovingly out the front entrance. It made Tora smile to see Nao brush dirt off the seat of his pants every morning before bounding across the street prize in hand.
Today though, Nao was hurriedly arranging drinks into the fridge. Tora could see him glancing through the glass windows every now and then to make sure Tora and the bus hadn’t unwittingly left him behind. He chuckled quietly at the sight; Nao had his heavy bag already strapped to his back, childish key chains jingling and glittering with each movement, as he shoved cans and bottles away. He was ready to sprint for it if he had to and Tora could have sworn he saw a couple cans of juice disappear into the bag along with a bag of chips and roll of candies.
Letting his attention wander away from his none too frugal childhood friend, Tora idly traced the lengthy window panes with his eyes. The angular lines bent predictably into concrete and continued on to the few painted lines of the store’s small parking lot, alternating from black to white until Tora came upon the peeling rubber curves of scruffy shoes. Their laces were exuberantly tied up into knots as if the shoes’ owner was afraid they would come undone and fall from his feet.
That was when Tora realized there was a boy sitting next to the parking lot.
He was leaning against a brick wall separating someone’s terraced yard and the sectioned pavement. Grass grew high and overflowed in weeded vines from the elevated ground, a leaved tree hanging high overhead shaded the boy with leaning branches once heavy with fruit. It had already begun to thin, littering the ground with curled leaves and forming wet clumps in a nearby drainage ditch.
Tora stood transfixed, body half turned in Nao’s direction, watching as the boy swung his arms through the air. They twisted and turned, flowing with a nonexistent wind, fingers threading and moving in intricate patterns as if he were directing an invisible orchestra, both silent and nonexistent. It must have been the light reflecting off the care worn buttons of his oversized jacket because Tora thought he could see the air shimmer around the boy’s hands.
He hadn’t been there last night when Tora exited the bus, trudging home from cram school. His final year and college entrance exams were certainly stressful and coupled with his parents’ nagging pressure had put a great deal of strain on his body, but Tora was quite certain he was always aware of his surroundings. Call him paranoid, but he had managed to attract quite a few shifty characters looking for a fight simply because Tora tended to slouch and had a large build.
Glancing at his watch he saw there was half an hour before the earliest time the bus had ever arrived. Figuring there wasn’t any harm in a little conversation and frowning at the idea that he actually wanted to make small talk, Tora shouldered his bag and walked across the street. The kid looked innocent enough, most likely younger than himself with clear eyes and a soft face and not likely - or so Tora hoped - to be in possession of any dangerous weapons.
He was about three feet in front of the other before Tora realized the boy hadn’t even noticed or refused to acknowledge his presence. His hands never ceased their dancing, a faraway look glazing his eyes. Tora took the opportunity to seat himself cross-legged right in his line of vision. He gave the other a once over, taking in relatively short, tousled hair the color of burnt umber; some of it was flattened at his neck in the collar of a faded, olive green jacket, loose and baggy. A canvas bag sat close to drawn up knees clothed in dirty denim and fraying at the hems. On closer inspection, Tora could see “ヒロト” stitched in an uneven line across the bag’s front. Hiroto?
Waving his own hands in front of Hiroto’s face, other than causing him to blink blankly, proved equally unsuccessful in rousing his attention. Inwardly shrugging, Tora shifted to sit on Hiroto’s right, leaning on the wall and staring up at the swaying branches almost black against their stark background.
“You shouldn’t be sitting out here all alone like this you know…” Tora trailed off. He became momentarily lost in an unwinding string of thoughts, picturing the worst scenarios possible involving a cute kid on the street. Sure he wasn’t that young, probably, but Tora was pretty sure the world was an insanely sick, sick place and that persons of a smaller stature were at a dreadful disadvantage when it came to personal security and self-defense. His eyes marginally widened at the thought.
By now Tora was far gone in a reasonably unreasonable train of thoughts chocked full of intricate kidnapping schemes and plots involving Hiroto’s abduction. At least he thought “Hiroto” was his name; it could actually be a brand name for all Tora’s deficient knowledge of fashion knew.
Sending him a sidelong glance, Tora could still see “Hiroto” still moving his hands to an unheard beat. Slowly reaching for his own bag so as not to make any sudden, perhaps alarming movements - although Hiroto had been thoroughly ignoring him for the past fifteen minutes - Tora pulled out the light jacket he had thrown in there earlier. Balling up its front, he smoothed the fabric of the jacket’s back over the large lump he had created. Edging closer he swiftly tied it around Hiroto’s slim waist, knotting the sleeves behind his back before tugging Hiroto’s shirt out to cover the now noticeable bulge at his belly, almost receiving a finger up the nose in the process. Giving it a few experimental fluffs, Tora pulled the beanie off his head and placed it on Hiroto’s, allowing its loose material to mostly cover his eyes and shadow the rest of his face.
“There,” he smiled, “now you look like a potbellied bum.”
Satisfied, Tora sat down again humming his own tune in time to Hiroto’s conducting. He made rhetorical comments about the not too cold, not too hot weather every now and then before the bus came. Honestly, he didn’t mind the silent company, less talking on his part, but there was also a certain freedom surrounding the boy that Tora longed for.
Clapping his hand kindly onto Hiroto’s shoulder, he stood up with a friendly smile.
“The music you hear… it must be so awesome it blocks the entire world out ne?” before heading towards the bus’s hissing doors. “Stay safe,” he called. Nao came rushing breathlessly onto the bus seconds later, large bag heaving him forward with its smacking momentum.
Tora thought he could see Hiroto’s eyes following the bus’s departure.
---
At school he told Shou about the boy at the bus stop. They had been in the same class for years and Shou always nodded and listened attentively to what he had something to say, but Shou’s family was ridiculously artistic and Tora sometimes found himself feeling awkwardly out of place when he was the focus of Shou’s fantastically dazed stare. Kind of like now with Shou sitting across from him, desk about-faced so they could talk during their lunch break.
“Oooh, what if he’s on an adventure?” Shou mused. “My mom would like that. She thinks wild children are precious.” He grinned toothily at his own comment, leisurely sipping his drink and staring dreamily out the window.
Refusing to give in to the urge to laugh at Shou’s forever out-to-lunch expression, Tora bit into the sandwich he’d assembled the night before and looked forward to returning home later that evening.
---
Tora stepped out of the bus to an orange sky fading into dark hues of red. The clouds had passed for the time being and the sun was getting ready to set. He could already see the faint mirage of the moon above them, biding its time.
Hiroto was still there at the corner of the brick wall, only feet from the convenient store parking lot. His hands were rested on his makeshift belly this time, eyes watching the sunset ahead.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” Tora was making himself comfortable on the cement next to Hiroto again. “I used to sit here and watch the sunset too.” It was how he met Nao in the first place, gazing at the colored sky before a colorful drink was dropping into his lap. You look like you could use some help enjoying that sky.
Tora, unconsciously smiling at his lap, was surprised out of his reverie when a 6-pack of cookie sandwiches tumbled into view. He looked up to see Nao and Saga both grinning goofily as they plopped down on the sidewalk. Smacking his friend with the cookies Tora couldn’t help but laugh at the loud additions to their viewing party.
“Why do you always have these?” He was met with a thin-lipped pout and the crinkling of plastic as Nao grabbed the cookies and opened them.
“Why don’t you just shut up and eat them? Who’s you friend?” This was preceded by a roll of his eyes and Saga’s exaggerated moan as he spread himself down the length of the sidewalk for a sun setting nap. Nao gave another pointed look at the stranger seated motionless beside Tora.
“Hiroto.” Tora grabbed the bag and offered it to said boy, unsurprisingly ignored, before helping himself to one of the large cookies in the pack.
“Oh.” The four boys were lulled into silence by Saga’s gentle snores and the rushing sounds of faraway cars. The bus was really the only vehicle that ever passed through this road, but there was an adequate amount of pedestrians on the streets and people in the neighborhood to keep Nao and his family financially afloat.
The city noises were slowly dissipating as their owners temporarily retreated indoors for dinner. Lights blinked on, twinkling in and out, blurry globes of color that tangled and overlapped into nothing. It was getting dark when Nao slapped Saga’s stomach awake and they departed with a hearty “see you tomorrow.”
Tora sighed and forced himself to get up as well. He stood there for a second, bag in hand, ready to go. Dropping the remaining half on the large cookies into Hiroto’s lap he gave a much softer “see you tomorrow,” followed by a “be safe buddy,” and then he was leaving too.
Tora thought he heard a whispered “bye” as he turned around and walked home.
---
The next morning Tora arrived at the bus stop hours earlier than usual. He even got up early to prepare and eat a proper breakfast with his parents for the first time in years. They talked and enjoyed the almost unhurried hour they had together and for once, Tora sincerely felt like his parents cared about what he wanted.
At the bus stop he found Hiroto sleeping beneath the tree. Tomorrow was a school holiday and Tora wondered, as he crossed the street, if Hiroto would mind him hanging around all day, not that he’d probably say anything either way.
Hiroto’s previous potbelly was now cushioning his head on the floor, but it lessened Tora’s anxieties to see the beanie still in place and the cookies all gone. There wasn’t much to say to the sleeping form next to him so Tora sat again, losing himself in thought and the nature around him again. When Hiroto finally woke up, it was like he hadn’t been sleeping at all. He just sat right up, ignoring Tora, and once again began his silent conducting. Sometimes Tora believed he was playing musical instruments in the air and at other times he felt like Hiroto was simply drawing pictures in the sky.
When the bus came Tora stood up again. This time he pulling out a plastic grocery bag bearing two drinks, curry bread, pudding and a spoon, things his mom had brought home the night before. This time, when he looked into Hiroto’s eyes, they registered the familiar form before him.
“I’m Tora.” An unwavering stare. “Be safe.” And then Tora was whisking off to school.
From the bus window he thought he could see Hiroto mouthing the word “Tora” as they pulled away.
Next Part
A/N:
Sadly there is a second part XD
How painfully annoying and long.
Thanks for reading<3
Archive
Author: beyondtheremix
Theme: 014 Every Day at the Bus Stop (Tommy February6)
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Tora/Hiroto, Shou/his mom (loooooooool), Shou/Aki, Saga/Nao/Saga
Band[s]: Alice Nine, SID
Disclaimer: Aki is not Hiroto’s brother, AU, high school fic
Warnings: mentioned drug/alcohol use, neglect
Comments: For some reason it had to be split in two.
Invisible Sky [Part 1]
He woke up to a windowful of white; clouds without a single shadow promising a steely autumn and cold winter snow. If he didn’t know better Tora would say his house was trapped in a vase - chilled porcelain rippled like milk, clean and freshly poured - pressed to his cheek, unmarred and imprisoning what was rotting from within.
He showered quickly, washing off what he hoped would be the last of the summer night heat, before buttoning up the short sleeved cotton of his uniform, zipping his pants, shoving a beanie on his head and grabbing his bag. A breakfast of juice and bread with silent chairs followed. His parents had gone before the sun, packed tight in business suits and scrubs, running on protein-energy drinks and fiber bars.
Wiping the counter clean of crumbs, Tora paused at the kitchen doorway to let their elderly cat nudge her forehead against his fingers. It was ritualistic the way he watched her tail swish around his feet, pulled the key in and out of the door, ducked under the awning branches of a potted plant, and began the lengthy trek to the bus stop.
The reflection of a hidden sun in a sky that was one huge cloud, drenched his world into starkly contrasting shades that hurt Tora’s eyes. Holding a hand up so he could glare up at the weather, his skin seemed to blend in with the clouds, sky bleeding with the color of his hands. It annoyed Tora to have to wake up to such a bright morning; everything always looked bleak thrown into the unattractive lighting.
Diligent feet had finally carried him to his destination. As the day before and all the yesterdays before that, Tora was the first one at the bus stop. He didn’t mind so much, it was always better to be early than late and sometimes he got to see Nao helping his parents open their convenience store from across the street. It was usually an animated affair with Nao falling over or knocking something down when he flipped their large “Open/Closed” sign over. This was generally followed by one last battle for one last bag of sweets before he was shoved lovingly out the front entrance. It made Tora smile to see Nao brush dirt off the seat of his pants every morning before bounding across the street prize in hand.
Today though, Nao was hurriedly arranging drinks into the fridge. Tora could see him glancing through the glass windows every now and then to make sure Tora and the bus hadn’t unwittingly left him behind. He chuckled quietly at the sight; Nao had his heavy bag already strapped to his back, childish key chains jingling and glittering with each movement, as he shoved cans and bottles away. He was ready to sprint for it if he had to and Tora could have sworn he saw a couple cans of juice disappear into the bag along with a bag of chips and roll of candies.
Letting his attention wander away from his none too frugal childhood friend, Tora idly traced the lengthy window panes with his eyes. The angular lines bent predictably into concrete and continued on to the few painted lines of the store’s small parking lot, alternating from black to white until Tora came upon the peeling rubber curves of scruffy shoes. Their laces were exuberantly tied up into knots as if the shoes’ owner was afraid they would come undone and fall from his feet.
That was when Tora realized there was a boy sitting next to the parking lot.
He was leaning against a brick wall separating someone’s terraced yard and the sectioned pavement. Grass grew high and overflowed in weeded vines from the elevated ground, a leaved tree hanging high overhead shaded the boy with leaning branches once heavy with fruit. It had already begun to thin, littering the ground with curled leaves and forming wet clumps in a nearby drainage ditch.
Tora stood transfixed, body half turned in Nao’s direction, watching as the boy swung his arms through the air. They twisted and turned, flowing with a nonexistent wind, fingers threading and moving in intricate patterns as if he were directing an invisible orchestra, both silent and nonexistent. It must have been the light reflecting off the care worn buttons of his oversized jacket because Tora thought he could see the air shimmer around the boy’s hands.
He hadn’t been there last night when Tora exited the bus, trudging home from cram school. His final year and college entrance exams were certainly stressful and coupled with his parents’ nagging pressure had put a great deal of strain on his body, but Tora was quite certain he was always aware of his surroundings. Call him paranoid, but he had managed to attract quite a few shifty characters looking for a fight simply because Tora tended to slouch and had a large build.
Glancing at his watch he saw there was half an hour before the earliest time the bus had ever arrived. Figuring there wasn’t any harm in a little conversation and frowning at the idea that he actually wanted to make small talk, Tora shouldered his bag and walked across the street. The kid looked innocent enough, most likely younger than himself with clear eyes and a soft face and not likely - or so Tora hoped - to be in possession of any dangerous weapons.
He was about three feet in front of the other before Tora realized the boy hadn’t even noticed or refused to acknowledge his presence. His hands never ceased their dancing, a faraway look glazing his eyes. Tora took the opportunity to seat himself cross-legged right in his line of vision. He gave the other a once over, taking in relatively short, tousled hair the color of burnt umber; some of it was flattened at his neck in the collar of a faded, olive green jacket, loose and baggy. A canvas bag sat close to drawn up knees clothed in dirty denim and fraying at the hems. On closer inspection, Tora could see “ヒロト” stitched in an uneven line across the bag’s front. Hiroto?
Waving his own hands in front of Hiroto’s face, other than causing him to blink blankly, proved equally unsuccessful in rousing his attention. Inwardly shrugging, Tora shifted to sit on Hiroto’s right, leaning on the wall and staring up at the swaying branches almost black against their stark background.
“You shouldn’t be sitting out here all alone like this you know…” Tora trailed off. He became momentarily lost in an unwinding string of thoughts, picturing the worst scenarios possible involving a cute kid on the street. Sure he wasn’t that young, probably, but Tora was pretty sure the world was an insanely sick, sick place and that persons of a smaller stature were at a dreadful disadvantage when it came to personal security and self-defense. His eyes marginally widened at the thought.
By now Tora was far gone in a reasonably unreasonable train of thoughts chocked full of intricate kidnapping schemes and plots involving Hiroto’s abduction. At least he thought “Hiroto” was his name; it could actually be a brand name for all Tora’s deficient knowledge of fashion knew.
Sending him a sidelong glance, Tora could still see “Hiroto” still moving his hands to an unheard beat. Slowly reaching for his own bag so as not to make any sudden, perhaps alarming movements - although Hiroto had been thoroughly ignoring him for the past fifteen minutes - Tora pulled out the light jacket he had thrown in there earlier. Balling up its front, he smoothed the fabric of the jacket’s back over the large lump he had created. Edging closer he swiftly tied it around Hiroto’s slim waist, knotting the sleeves behind his back before tugging Hiroto’s shirt out to cover the now noticeable bulge at his belly, almost receiving a finger up the nose in the process. Giving it a few experimental fluffs, Tora pulled the beanie off his head and placed it on Hiroto’s, allowing its loose material to mostly cover his eyes and shadow the rest of his face.
“There,” he smiled, “now you look like a potbellied bum.”
Satisfied, Tora sat down again humming his own tune in time to Hiroto’s conducting. He made rhetorical comments about the not too cold, not too hot weather every now and then before the bus came. Honestly, he didn’t mind the silent company, less talking on his part, but there was also a certain freedom surrounding the boy that Tora longed for.
Clapping his hand kindly onto Hiroto’s shoulder, he stood up with a friendly smile.
“The music you hear… it must be so awesome it blocks the entire world out ne?” before heading towards the bus’s hissing doors. “Stay safe,” he called. Nao came rushing breathlessly onto the bus seconds later, large bag heaving him forward with its smacking momentum.
Tora thought he could see Hiroto’s eyes following the bus’s departure.
---
At school he told Shou about the boy at the bus stop. They had been in the same class for years and Shou always nodded and listened attentively to what he had something to say, but Shou’s family was ridiculously artistic and Tora sometimes found himself feeling awkwardly out of place when he was the focus of Shou’s fantastically dazed stare. Kind of like now with Shou sitting across from him, desk about-faced so they could talk during their lunch break.
“Oooh, what if he’s on an adventure?” Shou mused. “My mom would like that. She thinks wild children are precious.” He grinned toothily at his own comment, leisurely sipping his drink and staring dreamily out the window.
Refusing to give in to the urge to laugh at Shou’s forever out-to-lunch expression, Tora bit into the sandwich he’d assembled the night before and looked forward to returning home later that evening.
---
Tora stepped out of the bus to an orange sky fading into dark hues of red. The clouds had passed for the time being and the sun was getting ready to set. He could already see the faint mirage of the moon above them, biding its time.
Hiroto was still there at the corner of the brick wall, only feet from the convenient store parking lot. His hands were rested on his makeshift belly this time, eyes watching the sunset ahead.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” Tora was making himself comfortable on the cement next to Hiroto again. “I used to sit here and watch the sunset too.” It was how he met Nao in the first place, gazing at the colored sky before a colorful drink was dropping into his lap. You look like you could use some help enjoying that sky.
Tora, unconsciously smiling at his lap, was surprised out of his reverie when a 6-pack of cookie sandwiches tumbled into view. He looked up to see Nao and Saga both grinning goofily as they plopped down on the sidewalk. Smacking his friend with the cookies Tora couldn’t help but laugh at the loud additions to their viewing party.
“Why do you always have these?” He was met with a thin-lipped pout and the crinkling of plastic as Nao grabbed the cookies and opened them.
“Why don’t you just shut up and eat them? Who’s you friend?” This was preceded by a roll of his eyes and Saga’s exaggerated moan as he spread himself down the length of the sidewalk for a sun setting nap. Nao gave another pointed look at the stranger seated motionless beside Tora.
“Hiroto.” Tora grabbed the bag and offered it to said boy, unsurprisingly ignored, before helping himself to one of the large cookies in the pack.
“Oh.” The four boys were lulled into silence by Saga’s gentle snores and the rushing sounds of faraway cars. The bus was really the only vehicle that ever passed through this road, but there was an adequate amount of pedestrians on the streets and people in the neighborhood to keep Nao and his family financially afloat.
The city noises were slowly dissipating as their owners temporarily retreated indoors for dinner. Lights blinked on, twinkling in and out, blurry globes of color that tangled and overlapped into nothing. It was getting dark when Nao slapped Saga’s stomach awake and they departed with a hearty “see you tomorrow.”
Tora sighed and forced himself to get up as well. He stood there for a second, bag in hand, ready to go. Dropping the remaining half on the large cookies into Hiroto’s lap he gave a much softer “see you tomorrow,” followed by a “be safe buddy,” and then he was leaving too.
Tora thought he heard a whispered “bye” as he turned around and walked home.
---
The next morning Tora arrived at the bus stop hours earlier than usual. He even got up early to prepare and eat a proper breakfast with his parents for the first time in years. They talked and enjoyed the almost unhurried hour they had together and for once, Tora sincerely felt like his parents cared about what he wanted.
At the bus stop he found Hiroto sleeping beneath the tree. Tomorrow was a school holiday and Tora wondered, as he crossed the street, if Hiroto would mind him hanging around all day, not that he’d probably say anything either way.
Hiroto’s previous potbelly was now cushioning his head on the floor, but it lessened Tora’s anxieties to see the beanie still in place and the cookies all gone. There wasn’t much to say to the sleeping form next to him so Tora sat again, losing himself in thought and the nature around him again. When Hiroto finally woke up, it was like he hadn’t been sleeping at all. He just sat right up, ignoring Tora, and once again began his silent conducting. Sometimes Tora believed he was playing musical instruments in the air and at other times he felt like Hiroto was simply drawing pictures in the sky.
When the bus came Tora stood up again. This time he pulling out a plastic grocery bag bearing two drinks, curry bread, pudding and a spoon, things his mom had brought home the night before. This time, when he looked into Hiroto’s eyes, they registered the familiar form before him.
“I’m Tora.” An unwavering stare. “Be safe.” And then Tora was whisking off to school.
From the bus window he thought he could see Hiroto mouthing the word “Tora” as they pulled away.
Next Part
A/N:
Sadly there is a second part XD
How painfully annoying and long.
Thanks for reading<3
Archive