[drabble] Mask
Title: Mask
Author: Luna (dreamweavernyx )
Pairing: Kyomoto Taiga x Yasui Kentaro
Genre: Angst/Friendship
Notes: Request for ceeri .
~
Taiga had always held the image of calm and serenity.
School stress? No problem. He may not have been the best, but he got by with a smile and never a word of complaint.
Work stress? He never showed his annoyance to anybody in the jimusho, instead being the mediator, often finding himself helping the little members of Snow Prince Choir resolve fights over whose Pokemon were better or who owned more action figures.
Anderson once said that along with Taiga’s growth spurt, his maturity levels seemed to have shot up as well.
And it was true. With his happy smile, he rarely wailed and complained about strict dance routines like others did, instead he just practiced hard by himself until he was satisfied.
Noeru claimed that Taiga had an impregnable defense against stress, that all of it just ping-ed away from him, leaving him completely unscathed.
However, this theory was not by believed by anybody above the age of 14, and Takada reasoned that Taiga was probably very good at hiding any effect stress had on him.
It was, therefore, a great surprise to Yasui when the stress finally cracked through his mask one day.
Yara was being exceptionally irritable that day for some reason, and Taiga had accidentally made a huge mistake in the dance steps while practicing as one of Yara’s backdancers.
Taiga accepted the reprimand quietly, like how he always did, but Yasui’s sharp eyes saw something snap in the younger boy’s eyes.
When he pushed open the door at lunch break fifteen minutes later, he was surprised to see Taiga huddled up in a corner, head buried in his knees.
“Are you okay?” Yasui asked, walking over to Taiga and kneeling beside him.
A sniffle was heard, and Taiga’s shoulders shook a little as he replied.
“I’m fine.”
Yasui sighed, and patted Taiga’s shoulder gently.
“You sure?”
Taiga mumbled something incoherently, which Yasui took to mean a yes.
“Well,” said Yasui, “alright, but just remember that if you have any problems, you can always come to me and I’ll help you, ne?”
He needs some time to be alone, he figured, and rose to locate his bag and bento. Just as he was about to, he felt a tiny tug on his sleeve, and he looked down to see Taiga’s pale face and swollen eyes looking up at him.
From this angle, he could see the eye bags clearly against his white skin, and the tear tracks still shining down his cheeks.
“Oh, Taiga-kun,” murmured Yasui, kneeling back down again. Taiga looked almost exactly like a kicked puppy, lost and afraid.
He enveloped Taiga in a gentle hug, and patted the younger boy’s back slowly.
“You’re not all right,” he said quietly. “Just let it all out. It’s not good to keep your emotions and stress all locked inside.”
Taiga sniffed again, before burying his head awkwardly in the older boy’s shoulder and crying some more.
“I don’t know,” he muttered at last into Yasui’s shoulder, “I don’t know any more. I know I promised to be strong, but I can’t now. Am I truly that much of a failure?”
Yasui winced.
“Yara-san probably didn’t mean what he said just now, he was just in a bad mood-”
“It wasn’t just Yara-san,” mumbled Taiga. “I hear it being whispered everywhere. They don’t say it to my face, but I can hear them anyway. They all say I have no talent, that’s why everybody else is getting more attention than me, that probably the only reason I was even accepted in the first place was because of my father.”
Frowning, Yasui mentally made a note to hunt down those juniors and get Anderson to terrorize them with his noogies of doom.
“Taiga-kun,” he said firmly, “don’t believe them. They’re just trying to make you unfocused so they can get more limelight. You have a great voice, you dance very well, and you’re also great at acting. Don’t let them pull you down.”
Taiga said nothing for a while, just silently clinging to Yasui like a drowning child to the shore.
“You’re just trying to make me feel better, aren’t you?” he asked after a while.
Yasui embraced Taiga close, trying to comfort the distraught teenager,
“No,” he said quietly, “I really mean it. Don’t let them get to you, and if they do, don’t keep it all inside you. Me and the others, we’ll always be there for you.”
Taiga lifted his head, and looked ay Yasui with puffy eyes.
“You really mean that?”
Yasui laughed a little.
“Of course, silly. That’s what friends are for, ne?”
The corners of Taiga’s mouth pulled up in a tiny smile.
“…Yeah.”
Rising to his feet, Yasui dragged Taiga up.
“Come on, let’s go for lunch.”
Hand in hand, they left the dressing room.