Slipped Away - Oneshot - AoixRuki
Title: Slipped Away
Author: shurikenwielder
Disclaimer: Keep dreaming
Chapter: Oneshot
Rating: PG
Genre: Fantasy
Pairing: AoixRuki
Warnings: Slight language
Description: I imagined you. You aren't real. I can feel you. Are you real? .... Then where did you go?
Slipped Away
Aoi had always been a bit of a loner. He had a few friends to sit with at lunch, but that was it. So young Shiroyama Aoi did what any six year old might do. He made an imaginary friend.
The figure was soon named Ruki, written in katakana he decided because it looked better that way. Ruki had soft blond hair and was always wearing a traditional kimono, like the ones worn to weddings or special events. It was a bright navy blue with different colored cherry blossoms.
But his hair wasn't always blond. It changed day to day depending on his mood. Blond for happy, brown for neutral, red-orange for sad, and black for angry. Anything in between was a mix of emotions.
Aoi had only seen Ruki's hair turn completely black once; when he had been beaten up by the kids at school. He had had a black eye, hair disarrayed and matted from pulling, and blood over his uniform from when they had made his nose bleed from punching him.
Aoi shook his head at the memory. Ruki had suggested he go return the favor and hit them, to which he quickly refused. He'd never seen the other so angry before.
The now fifteen year old Aoi smiled to himself as he turned down the driveway towards his house. He and his parents lived next to a large corn field.
"Ruki?" he called out softly, pushing aside the tall stalks of yellow corn. He walked further into the field until his feet hit the well beaten path towards a small clearing where him and the other always met.
The black haired teen looked up as there was a slight rustle from across the clearing. First a bare, dirt covered foot came through before a pale leg and then along with the rest of the other.
The other's brown hair quickly turned blond as his silver eyes landed on the tall figure.
"Aoi!" he said happily, running up to meet him, being careful to not trip over anything. The now blond looked up at the other with shining eyes, twinkles of happiness reflecting with the setting sun.
"What did you do at school today?" the small blond asked eagerly, patting the spot next to him as he sat down on the ground.
"Well, we played soccer in gym-...." Aoi started explaining what he had done for the entire day. The other always found school or pretty much everything he did fascinating. The teen had questioned it at first, but it soon became one of the few things he looked forward to. If someone was willing to listen to him talk about his life then he would gladly do so. It almost felt like Ruki was the only reason he got out of bed anymore.
The blond sat back on his heels, taking in everything the other said with rapid attention. Every time the teen would pause to think of what he was going to say he would take the time to study the effects of the sun and wind on the midnight locks. The slight highlights of brown and red. The vibrant brown of the other's normally black eyes as the sun shone into them.
His fingers twitched, itching to run them through the long locks, but he knew he couldn't. His hand would simply go right through it. The curse of not being real. Never feeling anything, never smelling anything, never tasting anything.
Except with Aoi. Only with Aoi could he smell the faint scent in the air. Only with Aoi could he feel the heat of the sun on his skin.
Ruki fathomed about touching the other for quite a bit. But he was afraid. What if his hand went through? What would the other say? And...
... what if it didn't?
Would he lose his senses he had just gained from the other? Or would the teen runaway in fright and confusion of him?
As if knowing what the other was thinking, Aoi lifted his hand up, stopping mere inches from the blond's
cheek.
“Can I touch you?”
Ruki was stunned silent. He could feel the heat of the other's hand next to his cheek.
“I-it won't work. It'll go right through me,” he stuttered out.
Aoi sighed and inched his hand closer. “Have you ever tried?”
“N-no, but-”
“Then how do you know?”
Aoi looked at the other worriedly as his once blond hair started to turn red-orange. “Ruki?” he tried carefully as the other's silver eyes began to pool with tears.
"I-I don't want you to not want me anymore. When you find out I'm just another part of your imagination-"
The redhead was abruptly cut off as he felt something against his cheek. He had felt- no was feeling something.
"Aoi?"
The said teen smiled and continued to caress the other's cheek. "You need to have more faith in this imagination then." He laughed and pulled the other into his arms. His fingers ran across the smooth silk fabric of the kimono and entangled his digits in the soft now blond again hair.
The blond hesitantly lifted a shaking hand and placed it against the teen's back.
It didn't fall through.
He carefully pressed his hand tighter against the other. Nine years. Nine years he hadn't been able to touch him. Nine years he hadn't been able to hug or comfort him.
Aoi smiled bitterly to himself. He was so happy he could touch the other, but it still wasn't enough. Maybe for Ruki, but his whole world revolved around the black haired teen because Aoi was simply all Ruki had ever known.
He knew of no deceit because Aoi had never taught him it.
He knew nothing of betrayal because Aoi hadn't imagined him with it.
He knew not of temptation because Aoi hadn't seen such necessary.
They had talked about colleges and futures in school today. Future. The word was enough to take up his entire thoughts.
What would would happen to Ruki? The other had never left this field for a reason. Aoi hadn't wanted him to be exposed to everything of the outside world. It didn't matter of everyone else couldn't see him because the blond still could.
He wanted to Ruki to be real. Some type of proof, just anything. Something material, that he could touch and keep. To keep him from going insane that this all in fact wasn't real at all. Just a figment of his ever growing imagination.
"Aoi-san," he heard the other speak up happily. "I can touch you. After all these years, I can-"
"Ruki..." Aoi cut the other off stunned, pulling back. "Your hair..."
The other quickly grabbed a lock of the strands to see them shifting from bright blond, to white, and then to a pale pink.
"What does it mean?" the teen asked cautiously. The blond's eyes were wide with not quite fear, but shock and disbelief. He grabbed the changing strands and studied them.
"I-it doesn't do that- it can't do that. Only blond, red, brown, and black. Never white. Never pink-"
"Ruki," he cut the other off. He cupped the pale cheeks in his hands. "I only need to know what it means-"
He was cut off as a pair of soft lips placed themselves against his. The other quickly pulled back, scared of what he had just done.
"Ruki..." he trailed off, fingers reaching up to feel his lips.
It looked as if the other was about to say something as his mouth opened when a sudden yell cut him off.
"Aoi!"
There was the sound of footsteps running through the fields before the corn stalks parted revealing his older sister.
"Aoi, what are you doing out here?" she sighed, running her hand through her midnight locks. "It's almost been an hour... -Aoi? Are you listening to me?"
But the teen was too focused on the item strung across the ground. He picked it up and went into the house without another word.
He returned every day to the same spot for hours, just hoping, pleading the other would show up. Nothing even showed that he was once there.
- -
18 years later
Aoi returned from his well payed job at the music company and passed his normal route towards his apartment. He had different plans for today.
One could say he had problems with talking and was mute, but that wasn't the case at all. He simply wanted to talk to no one else but Ruki.
Eighteen years he had gone without saying a word to the other.
Eighteen years he had gone without feeling him.
Eighteen years he had gone without hearing the blond's voice.
His feet finally carried him to his destination. He followed the well beaten path before him and stopped in the clearing.
He kneeled down in the dirt and ran his hand across the ground. This had been the last place he had ever saw him since all those years ago.
He smiled feeling the soil run between his digits. He hadn't forgot. Their first and last kiss from that day. He thought about it everyday.
If the blond had actually been real, not a figment of his imagination, then why had he left? Everything had been going so perfect and then...
Aoi sighed and took out the item he had found from years ago and placed it neatly on the ground. He lifted it and spread it out so that it lay perfectly along the small wooden cross.
"Goodbye Ruki," he croaked out the first words he had said in eighteen years. Two that would also be his last.
He left the field for the last time, letting go of the past, and leaving behind the object.
There, blowing in the gentle breeze was a navy blue kimono.
- -
AN: This idea has been eating away at me for a while, and I was never going to get the next chapter to Panic done if I didn't get this out of my head soon. I left it a little vague to leave it open to interpretation. Anywayz, feel free to tell me what you think (^^")