Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lacking attention for a moment, Akito caught himself staring out of the huge window of the little coffee shop. The road looked as rough as always. No way anyone would get through the small village without a mild concussion. However, you needn’t use a car to get anywhere. The village was nothing than a huddle of small shops and just as small houses with their residents.

Not that he had anything against that. It kept the surrounding quiet and nice. No trains or speeding cars to disrupt the silence. On nice days, when the sun was shining, and a nice wind was blowing, this place seemed to be straight out of a fairy tale like a parallel universe.

“’Kito you dumbass, stop slacking off and get to work! The tables aren’t gonna clean themselves, y’know!” The piercing voice of his older sister chimed through the store.

Automatically annoyed, like a switch flicked he yelled back: “Well, if you’d finally hired someone, I wouldn’t have had to work here besides going to school.”

“I don’t care! Hurry up, Mizuki’s getting here any second and you know how she will bicker at me if she finds one speck of dust on her decorations!”

Mumbling silent curses, the ginger got back to work, swiping tables and removing the dust of some vases with flowers, from the local gardener, differing in shape and color. A shop owned by an older man, supported by some girls, probably Akito’s age.

One of them went to his school. The only thing he can remember about her is her almost Ena-like loud voice, shouting through the hallways and yelling at various students for disrespecting the dress code.

Despite the very few students attending the small school, Akito didn’t bother remembering anything about the people at his school, neither his classmates nor his teachers. In his opinion, it was not worth it. He had tried to be nice to make some friends, but as soon as they heard about his background, anyone backed out quickly. At that small school, there was no place for trouble-makers. Now he was just surrounded by some people, who searched protection in his so intimidating appearance. But there is a good side about it. He got free lunch leftovers out of it sometimes.

Akito didn’t even have a reputation that bad. Given you had known him personally. From an outsider (villager) perspective, it did seem like he was a nuisance. His father, a failed artist who went bankrupt and then just disappeared from the public life, his sister, a (kind of) social media famous artist and Akito himself, a street performer in a huge city who got dragged out of the business and is now forced to be working in some aesthetic coffee shop and singing with an acoustic guitar. Goodness, he missed standing on a stage, flashing lights all over him, the heat of himself and chills running up and down his entire body. Even though he despised these crammed places, nothing could compare to the worn-out live houses of the buzzing city. This closed atmosphere of his new hometown felt almost suffocatingly empty and too silent for his ears, which are used to loud noises.

A little bell rang as the glass door opened.

“Ohhh, Lil’ Bro! Longing for the exemplary-employee award. Good jooob!” God, why did the only thing being dragged along into his new life, have to be this creature. The way they stretched their words, made Akito frown. Figuring by the little box of chocolates in their hand, they were here to visit a certain brunette.

“Yea right. Ena’s somewhere in the storage room.” He nodded in the vague direction, before bending down to the small coffee tables to wipe crumbs and coffee stains off the light wood.

“You’re a sweeeeeetie, thanks!” A snort followed the frown building up on Akito’s face. A little bit more demanding they added: “And don’t forget to water the flowers in the front later. I don’t want them dying like the last time.” Almost skipping their way through the store. Light pink hair bouncing, Mizuki made it to the room where their fiancée was probably sorting coffee and other ingredients onto shelves.

Water the flowers.. he mentally noted, as he took a swift look out of the window where over the weekend new flowers had magically appeared! Lilac roses delicately arranged besides some other plants and arrangements, decorating the shop from the outside. Definitely the work of his sibling-in-law. Scoffing, he couldn’t help but let a small smile onto his face.

Picking out the tapestry in earthy tones, tittle lace table settings, scented candles and some photography of flowers and trees, Akito knew that they tried really hard. They even went as far as to arrange the furniture in their own space, not only to the likes of Ena and themselves, but also making it fit into Akito’s taste. It felt like they wanted to make sure that this little shop but also the little apartment upstairs, is as comfortable as possible. In attempt to keep the pieces of their crumbling family together.

And they did not fail at that, Akito admitted. Of course, he could put up that frown whenever that nonbinary beast of sparkling came around, but he would never ignore that fuzzy feeling that broadened in his stomach every time he was called ‘Lil Bro’ or something along the lines of this nickname.

After an especially long day at school consisting of many whispers and hostile stares, walking into the shop always felt so warm and welcoming. Akito was only able the compare it to the live houses back in the city, soothing him with their warmth after leaving the cold, white apartment he, Ena and their father had lived in. A small space full of tension and anger, all bottled up to be left disordered under piles of art utensils and unfolded clothing.

When thinking positively about it, he would say that Mizuki was the missing part in their relationship as siblings, glueing them together. Something they both had waited for, bringing everything back to order, despite them having been a mess as well.

If he were to see it negatively, then Akito would believe that Mizuki was as a substitute of his own mother for him. A mother who would not bother to look in the direction of her family and just turn away for the comfort, their absence brought. He had not heard a single thing from her, ever since had been a child. Its not like he wanted to anywa-

Forcing him out of the rant of his thoughts, a car made its way into his vision. Shiny, expensive and bumping up and down on the stones of the small alley, the car came to a stop in front the house beside them.

Alongside grabbing the already filled up watering can, he walked outside to finally water the flowers, just like Mizuki had asked him earlier.

Curiously, he dared to repeatedly stare the ridiculously huge car. After some time two people were stepping out of the car. An older man around the age of his own father and a boy his age. Both looked fairly fancy in their mostly black outfits. The boy was dressed more casually, but he wasn’t able to not radiate the cold and stiff feeling. Just the way his bi colored blue hair fell so neatly around his chin framing a thin face with stinging metal grey eyes, he had the look of someting artificial.

Akito knew that he would be judgmentally stared at, if dared to greet them. So that’s exactly what he did. Forcing a little smile onto his before stiffened lips, he turned towards them. “Are you guys moving in there?” He nodded to the entrance, hoping his voice was kind enough to not let the new neighbors form a bad image of him.

The boy turned his head to the man who just gave Akito a little nod. After that, they simply started unpacking the car, loaded with an unholy number of suitcases and boxes.

If Akito had looked up from the flowers a little more often, he could’ve caught the boy looking the gingers direction more than just one time.

-

Later the shop’s staff aka Ena and his sibling-in-law Mizuki sat together over some pancakes in a corner of the shop. It could’ve been a family dinner but would rather be considered a fight over the sweetest bites of pancake between the siblings right now.

Chomping down on an especially fluffy corner Ena mentioned. “Oh yeah ‘Kito, have you met the people next door already? They just arrived.”

He nodded while stuffing his face with the dessert again. “Jus’ short tho-”

“Finish chewing before you speak, you filthy.” Ena’s face was scrunched up in disgust.

“Yes ma’am.” With a roll of his eyes he continued to exaggerate munching on his piece of pancake.

“And and? Is there like a pretty girly? No- No! Don’t hit me Ena, I wouldn’t dare to replace you!”

Eyes squinted and satisfied with the reaction, Ena devoted herself to the food again.

“No, not a pretty girl. More like a pretty boy. Like totally fancy car, clothes and suitcases and all that shit. And probably his old man.”

Mizuki smirked in Akito’s direction “I see, I see. A pretty boy.”

“Wha- What the hell are you implying?! No way! They would probably judge the hell out of me just for breathing their expensive air.” Akito’s fork being swayed around in agitation, Mizuki backed away just a little bit, not hiding the little giggle escaping their throat.

“Now, now don’t judge a book by its cover, Lil’ Bro”

“Yeah whatever.” He scoffed while picking up the emptied plates and carrying them to the sink. “I’ll wash the dishes.” He ignored the feeling in his stomach when Mizuki the boy next door.

To be honest, he didn’t want to wash the dishes, not with how much syrup Ena was putting on her pancakes. That was enough to drown the poor sweet things. Sometimes, he thought he could hear them screaming. However, putting up with sticky plates was more bearable than the teasing of his sister and her annoying fiancée. From the looks of it, Akito wouldn’t see that boy anytime soon. He may have been pretty, that for sure, but way out of his league and probably aware of it.

He noticed he’d been staring down the bubble covered plates for some time. Oh goodness, what was up with him? He doesn’t even want to be with boys, right? That boy was probably a pain in the ass anyways.

Chapter Text

When the next morning came, the inhabitants of the small coffee shop sat silently at the counter for breakfast. They had established this tradition in the first weeks of moving in, since no one was awake enough to actually set the table in the flat upstairs and they were just standing around the fridge like zombies. Now, instead of eating directly from the fridge, they were all sat next to the coffee machines, munching on their breakfast.

Akito heard the ding off the microwave cut through the silence as his croissant was done. With the plate in hand, he settled down beside the two. Ena had her bangs clipped back and Mizuki’s wavy hair fell over their shoulders, both looking deranged and very tired. He doubted that he looked any better as he tore a piece of the fresh, steaming croissant apart. If there was one thing he did not want to do today, it would be going to school. The only consolation was that he didn’t have chemistry today. He despised chemistry.

Akito finished up by scraping the last crumbs of his plate and set it in the sink for anyone to wash. They began shuffling around getting ready for the day and after just twenty minutes all of them looked not refreshed, but presentable.

“Akito! Would you be so kind and open the store? And get the paper as well?” Mizuki chimed from behind the counter, while they put some cinnamon rolls from the day before on a tablet with a ‘discounted!!’ sign.

Sighing, Akito went up to the front door unlocking it for the customers and stepping outside to turn around the ‘Open’ sign. The air was fresh, and a shiver ran down his back as he picked up the news paper from the mailbox on the porch.

As he turned back to the store, he caught a glimpse of blue hair in the window of the neighboring house. Just a second later, the white curtains were pulled shut with a swift swing. Maybe the boy from yesterday was going to his school? This thought left Akito glance over his crumpled clothing and just for a second he thought, he felt a twinge of shame in his gut. What. Whatever, he didn’t care what people thought of him anyways.

Akito shook his head quickly and trotted towards the door. He realized that he should probably grab a sweater from upstairs, as the damp coldness of the morning made him shiver again.

With more force than necessary, Akito slammed the paper down on the counter next to Mizuki. They just looked up and smiled sweetly. “Aren’t you a dear...” Ena grumbled as he went up the stairs again.

His room was an absolute mess and he had to rummage through a pile of clothing before finding an acceptable sweater to wear in this weather. He decided on a nice, fluffy and orange sweater that Ena bought him some time ago.

A short glance on his watch told him that he was on time but should still start going, otherwise he’d be too caught up in some other activity and actually be late.

So he rushed down the stairs, only to be greeted with a familiar sight. Familiar, not in the way that he really saw him a lot in person, more like in thought and that only with some disdain towards himself. The pale boy with the split-dyed hair pushed the door to the shop open and stepped inside with an unsure glance around the small cubicles.

Akito wished he could deny that he didn’t freeze on the steps, but the way his new neighbor stood there, cheeks slightly flushed and hands tinged violet from the cold, yet incredibly well-put together for a morning, had apparently some effect on Akito.

A snort put him out of that state and this made the boy quickly look around with amplified insecurity, when he noticed Akito just standing there, staring. Ena hadn’t managed to hold herself back and looked smugly in his direction. Akito cleared his throat and took some more steps towards the door, wanting to escape this tension.

Within a pink flash, Mizuki had Ena in a chokehold, arms tightly around their girlfriend’s shoulders and declared cheerfully, “Ena, sweetie! I just spilled so much dough in the kitchen! There’s no way I’ll be able to clean that mess up on my own. Akito! Go serve our dear customer, please.” And with a very much and absolutely not subtle wink from Mizuki, both disappeared through the door to the kitchen.

He quickly set down his schoolbag and stumbled behind the counter. “Your order, please?” he felt his stomach rummaging and had the urge to clear his throat again. Maybe the croissant this morning hadn’t been as fresh as he thought they were.

“I’d like two coffees.” The boy had stared atthe two vanishing to the kitchen. Hopefully he hadn’t noticed Mizukis painfully obvious signals. That hope was wasted though. It would require an enormous amount of oblivious for that.

“Sure thing. Any milk in those or just black?” 

“One just black, the other one with milk and sugar.”

Akito nodded, “Coming right up.” He started up the coffee machine and got some milk from the fridge. Since the blue-haired wanted two different coffee orders, he could assume they were for two persons. Was he buying them for his father? If he were to go to Akito’s school, he’d be late, for sure.

The machine started to rumble and thinking the coffee would finally be done he set a cup down. Nope, the machine started to clean, and a nice, water filled the cup. God, this could take a while.

Hoping his smile wasn’t too noticeably pained he turned his gaze up towards the boy again. “I’m sorry, just a bit. Do you want anything else?”

The boy seemed to consider for a moment, his eyes just looking Akito straight in the face. He had really pretty grey eyes. They suited his pale face and his blue hair. Even the weather looked as if it was made to compliment his eye color, though the weather wasn’t nearly as nice.

“Yes, could I actually get one of those cinnamon rolls?” He laid down his wallet on the counter after getting the money to check his phone.

“For sure. They’re very good. Mizuki, you know the pink person,” he gestured vaguely in direction of the kitchen, “made them. Mine are better though.” He tucked the roll in a paper bag and pushed it over the counter.

Akito could swear he could see just the hint of a smile on the boys’ lips, as he grabbed the paper bag. He felt his face blush just a bit. God, is it hot in here. Then again, just a trace of furrowed brows, as if you could watch the taller boys thought process. “Are those your parents…?”

Scratch that, no watching that thought process. “What- No!”, he stuttered as he fumbled to get a new cup for the coffee. “That’s my sister and her partner.” The boy looked slightly embarrassed and nodded quickly, “Right, sorry for assuming.”

As he was filling the cups with the coffee, he remembered his earlier assumption. “So, you’re buying breakfast for your old man, or…?”

“Yes, for my father.” He nodded. Akito had finally finished up the order and handed him the two cups.

“Watch out, they’re still hot.”

“Thank you so much. Keep the change.” With packed arms, the boy turned to leave, and Akito watched him exit the shop and walk over to his door, where his father was already standing and waiting. Creepy.

“Ena, I have to leave now! Oh shit- I’m late.” Just moments after the boy had left, he stormed out of the door and passed the blue-haired standing on his doorstep, jogging down the street.

Chapter Text

Akito had returned home from an extremely long school day and entered the coffee shop to find Mizuki standing behind the counter, face settled onto their hands and fixated on their phone.

“I’m back. Is Ena not here?”, he asked while setting his bag down next to the fridge.

An absent reply came back. “Nah, she’s out, running errands and buying flowers or something… On another note, you served some customers this morning, right?”, with an almost exaggerated effort, they pushed themselves away from the counter and fumbled for something from one of the boxes laying around behind it. When they reappeared, they waved a small wallet in front of his face made of black leather and basic. Akito had a pretty similar one. “Someone forgot it just this morning.”

“There weren’t that many people in the store that early. Two younger boys in the booths, I believe.”, Akito recalled, thinking of the two boys, one with curly light blue hair, the other with straight teal colored. Their hair colors had reminded him of his neighbor with his pretty two-toned hair. And the way the two of them were sitting together, really close, made him imagine how it would be sitting next to that boy from next door like that. Goodness...

“Yeah, no. It was left on the counter. Did anyone else come in?” They went back to staring at the screen in front of them, the wallet now abandoned between them.
“Did you maybe think of checking if there’s any identification?”, Akito sighed and snatched the wallet and opening it to look for anything.

“Isn’t that illegal or something?”

“The hell if I know.” He shrugged and pulled out a random card, to find a familiar face staring back at him. Of course, no one else other than his neighbor was staring exactly at the camera on his bus ticket. Why would someone with such a fancy car have a bus ticket, was a miracle to Akito. Scanning the plastic card in his hand for some more time, he caught a name written in the corner. Aoyagi Toya.

The two words laid themselves out in his brain and it just fit. The name fit his neighbour, no Toya, perfectly.

“Lil Bro? You there?”

“Uuh yeah. It’s Toya’s.”, he fumbled the card back into the wallet and added when noticing Mizuki’s confusion, “That’s that rich boy’s name.”

“I see.. Yeah, you did serve him this morning.”, they returned to typing away on their phone not bothering to get the wallet back. Therefore, Akito just stood there for a few more seconds before they lifted their gaze again and grinned smugly. “You go bring it over, I have a date with your sister today.” Mizuki had always delivered this announcement for a date like others would use a ‘your mom’ insult. He just put the wallet in his pocket as nonchalant as possible and sighed.

“I swear you’re just dating her so you can say that.”

“Can you blame me?”
°°°

A few minutes later, Akito was standing in front of the seemingly, insanely tall door and ringed the bell to the house. There still hadn’t been a name on the bell. Makes sense since they only moved in there a few days ago.

The seconds after ringing of the doorbell dragged like someone had stopped time and Akito could feel the way his hands got cold and sweaty.

A few seconds longer and he could’ve sworn, he would’ve started shaking like in the winter months. However, as the door finally opened a crack, a wave of hotness washed over him instead.

In front of him was Toya Aoyagi (how he loved that name) standing in the small opening the door had revealed. He looked slightly confused, eyebrows furrowed just slightly.

“Hi, sorry for the intrusion.. uhm”

The blue-haired boy quickly looked over his shoulder and then turned back to Akito once again.

“Oh, I hope I’m not interrupting something important?”

“Oh no, don’t worry. What’s up?”

“Nothing really” he started searching his pockets. Nope wrong pocket. After way too many seconds for his own taste, he pulled out the wallet and held it in his direction.

“This morning when I made your coffee, you forgot your wallet in the coffee shop- I hope it’s no problem that I looked at your ID.”

The boy blinked and then shook his head with a relieved smile. “No problem at all, thank you so much.”

“Yeah, that’s about it. I’m Akito by the way. Come by at the coffee shop at any time you like.”

Toya smiled and nodded again “I will, thank you.”

Akito raised his hand in a short wave and then hurried over as he knew the two lesbians had probably already started making dinner. And he did not want to be subject of Ena’s rage when he didn’t show on time.

On the way to the coffee shop, he ran into the girl delivering the flowers. She exclaimed in the familiar Ena-like voice and stumbled a little bit backwards, almost into a tinier, blonde accompanying her.

“Watch out where you’re going!”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” He stopped and reached for the door before furrowing his eyebrows. “You’re that one from school, aren’t you?”

The girl with the dark hair looked way more offended than Akito’s words had intended. “Whats that supposed to mean?!” The blonde looked a little confused and looked up to the girl. “An, you know him?”

An nodded and put down the pots carrying beautiful pink flowers. The tag on one of them said ‘Pink Camellias’.

“Yeah, he transferred here some time ago. And he apparently behaves just as bad in school as he does at home.”

He rolled his eyes and picked up the pots she had set down. “Yeah, thanks for the flowers. Mizuki will love them.”

That was actually genuine. The love Mizuki had for the flowers was immense and anything they loved, Ena loved too just because it brought them joy. So corny. But none the less he still thought it was cute and made him happy too.. in some way.

“Yeah, I know” An sighed. “Always sounds so excited ordering them. Last time, I was invited to come drink coffee as well.” Her lips curled slightly upwards and she patted Akito on his shoulder. “I’ll probably come by sometime.”

“Please do, good for the business.” He carried the pots inside.

“Alright Kohane, let’s go, Dad is waiting already.”

So the smaller girl was called Kohane, he noted mentally. He felt like he had acquired very important knowledge (two names) in this vast territory (very small village).

Ans as he had expected Ena and Mizuki had already prepared some food. Once again pancakes. There were some advantages living without your parents, he supposed.

Chapter Text

A piercing ray of sunshine shone through the thin layers of drapes as Akito was startled awake by hitting his head on something hard. His back hurt since he had been sitting scrunched up in the bench for.. quite some time. What time was it anyway? He had just wanted to look over some new music he had been working on over the last few days, but right now it didn’t seem like the evening when he decided to do that.

“Finally awake, sleepyhead. Did you get your beauty sleep?”

“Ena.. what are you…?” He wanted to ask what she was doing in his room and noticed in a wave of early day enlightenment that his room did not have a bench and this wasn’t actually his room at all.

Ena was setting down menus and some new tablecloths in the cafe. “Move your ass before the first customers come. Having my brother sleep in the café doesn’t shed a good light on me.”

“Yeah right.., sorry. Just fell asleep.” With a groan and yawn he got up and snatched the scattered papers with a swift motion from the tabletop.

Ena watched him and her eyebrows scrunched in almost unnoticeable concern. “Don’t stay awake too long working on that shit. Your product doesn’t come out good if you’re exhausted.”

Her words sounded harsh and definitely stung but Akito knew she was simply worried. Perhaps her words stung, not because they were harsh or coming from his own sister, but because he knew she was right. After all, she had been there when he gave up on music back when he was living in the city.

He had wanted to make progress fast, had bitten off more than he could chew and ultimately failed. Too many all-nighters and long training sessions had gotten the best of him and Akito made himself look like a fool in front of a formidable number of people. At first, people had been drawn in by him. They thought he was promising and supported him and with their expectations growing, the expectations of himself grew as well and he just wasn’t able to keep up.

People lost interest and he was forgotten and at some point, even hated by the attending viewers of the live stages.

Ena had been there to pick him back up and suggested him moving in together with Mizuki. First, he didn’t agree, of course, but later when keeping in mind, he would be living alone with their father and had just decided to throw away live music, and he felt like the decision wasn’t that hard anymore. He ran away from the people hating him, from his passion he had failed in, his father and in the end landed here.
So generally, Ena’s concern was not without reason, but right now he wasn’t planning on returning to those circumstances.

“Yeah, I know, won’t happen again. Also, rude? This isn’t shit” He raised his eyebrow and went up the stairs to his room, waving his loose notebook papers.
Ena just huffed in response, but Akito could swear her previous worry had lightened a bit.

Because of the weekend and the nice weather, the cafe was filled well. Overflowing would be the wrong word, but there were quite a few customers, so Ena had called him downstairs at some point to help. Outside of their neighbor’s house was a car that drove away. The An girl and Kohane were chatting loudly with Mizuki just outside the door and Ena was quietly cursing at the coffee machine.
Akito served the customers with a well-placed smile as always, but today he had to admit it did carry a bit more sincerity than usual.

Of course, as all good things neither the day nor the good weather lasted and as the sky began to darken, clouds had crept in front of the sun, and it had started pouring like crazy. Mizuki was out and about cleaning the tables and Ena was supporting them in spirit from the sidelines (bench).

“Akito, would you be so good and go get the new flowers. An gave them to us as a gift but I think she mentioned they don’t do too well with too much water.”

Akito had started to feel more tired after being on his feet for a long time, but he nodded. “Tell your girlfriend to do it next time.” He added while stepping towards the door, what Ena only countered with a vague, yet insulting hand gesture.

Outside, he pulled the hood of his zip-up sweater over his hair and looked around to find the flowers. In the pots, he found the white blossoms, very unassuming and not looking too special. Perhaps no one wanted to purchase them, so the florist gave them to Mizuki who cherished every flower given to them.

It hadn’t been raining for long and yet a small puddle had formed in the soil around the stems of the flower.

With his foot, he held open the door to the cafe, as he carried the pots inside. In the corner of his vision, he could see something blue moving, so naturally, he set down the pots and hurried to see what his neighbor was up to.

As he approached; Akito could clearly see that Toya was sitting on the doorstep to his house, not looking like he was planning on knocking or ringing the doorbell anytime soon. His arms were crossed in his lap and his gaze fixed on nothing particular in the distance.

Unsure of what to do, Akito stood there for some time only moving when he realized that if someone were to see him like that, it would come across slightly stupid.

So after some moments of contemplation and a huge disregard of not knowing what to say, he headed over to the entrance of the house.

“Hey, dude. You forgot your keys?”

Toya looked up and shook his head. “No..” His form shook slightly.

Only then Akito realized that his eyes were reddened, his face wet because of the rain. Since the rain was still falling down with vigor, you couldn’t make out any tear tracks. He probably had been crying.

“Oh.. why.. uhm, what’s wrong?” He crouched down to meet Toya on the same level.

“It’s nothing, really... it’s okay.” He contorted his face in a painful smile, which caused Akito to grimace in a similarly pained way.

“Okay, I don’t know who you’re fooling but it ain’t me. You can’t expect me to believe that you are sitting on your doorstep with keys, crying, while it’s pissing from above and that everything is okay.”

“Everything just gone so wrong today. First, I couldn’t get registered and then I messed up so badly.” A small sniffle escaped the boy and he buried his face in his arms. Akito just looked up to the sky, mildly confused, as if it could make sense of this and sat down next to him. In a wave of courage, he laid one arm across Toya’s shoulder and patted it.

He couldn’t deny that it made his heart beat a little faster and filled his face with warmth, despite of the cold raindrops beating down his cheeks.

“Now.. calm down a bit. Why couldn’t you? And messed up what exactly?”

Toya reached down towards his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He then opened it and showed it to Akito. He hadn’t pulled out his wallet, but Akito’s. His own face looked back grimly from the ID, displayed in the clear window of the wallet. It looked exactly like the one Toya had forgotten in the café.

“Obviously not my ID. So, I had problems getting into the competition at all. And I messed up during it. I didn’t place high enough to proceed to the next round.” He handed over the wallet to Akito and sighed heavily.

A pang of guilt went through Akito, as he realized that he had made a really stupid mistake. He wanted to apologize uncountable times to the boy in front of him, looking like a wet puppy. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

“Don’t worry about it. Without you, I wouldn’t have had any at all. So, it would’ve made no difference.”

Akito’s face scrunched up in thought. “A competition? Like a music one?” Toya nodded. Akito sighed as well. He knew what it was like to fail in those. “I’m so sorry that happened, but you’re probably going to have a lot of other chances to show what you’re capable of. Don’t beat yourself up about it too much.”

If Akito were in his shoes, he probably would. Hopefully Toya would take his words to heart. Right now, looking at the figure of the boy, it didn’t seem like he would anytime soon. Maybe Akito was just saying what he wished someone, would’ve said to him when he had failed so many times.

“Father is going to be so mad..” His shoulders still shook and only then did Akito remembered that it had been pouring for the past minutes and Toya was only wearing a thin dress shirt, so he pulled off his sweater a laid it across Toya’s shoulders.

It probably didn’t do much, since both of them were completely drenched from head to toe by now, it’s the thought that matters (or something). But he hoped, it could at least provide some protection from the harsh downpour for the miserable-looking boy.

“You don’t need to-“, he said, while still pulling the jacket closer around his shoulders.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I’m not cold anyways.” At least that much was true. He was basically burning up, most likely not because of a fever. He couldn’t help but smile lightly, as he watched the blue haired tighten his grip on the jacket, almost snuggling into it. Akito pulled the hood over his hair, now sticking in strands to his forehead and gave him a quick pet on the head.

“Your father is going to be mad? Y’know, you can come over for some time, if you want to. Mizuki and Ena won’t mind. They’re too gay to notice anything around them anyways.” He smiled awkwardly. “Plus, you need to warm up. And what’s better than a fresh hot coffee.”

Toya hesitated for a second, looking up at the closed door. His father would still get mad nonetheless, but what harm could it do to delay this, so he nodded.

Akito had already stood up and held out his hand to Toya. “Let’s get you inside.” He just knew neither Mizuki nor Ena would be holding back their comments and prepared himself mentally.