Agony
1032 Words
It isn't until late into the night when Tadashi arrives back home.
He enters his house in a frenzy. Dashing to the bathroom, he unbuttons the first few pins of his shirt.
His collar had turned into a crinkled mess from when Kei grabbed him like he was made of plastic.
Though his clothes were the least of his worries at the moment.
Surely enough, there it was.
A bright red line going from the top of his collar bones to just above the center of his rapidly pounding chest.
Tadashi takes his finger and softly traces the line.
Freckle confusingly looks up at him from her position on his forearm.
"I know. This is utterly outrageous."
Tadashi looks down at her through glassy eyes that felt like bursting into tears at any second.
"Ta-da-shi~"
Hinata sing songs Tadashi's name as he enters their tiny home.
He quickly buttons his shirt back up and rubs at his stingy eyes.
"Let's keep everything that happened tonight between us, yeah?"
He used to think he was crazy, talking to his butterflies as if they could understand what he was saying.
He doesn't remember when, but somewhere along the line, he unconsciously started to believe that maybe they could comprehend his words.
He swears that he's caught Freckle subtly nodding her tiny head numerous times in agreement with things he's said before.
Thus, he's greatly pleased to see Freckle flap her wings as if saying; "Okay."
He puts on his best smile and steps out of the bathroom.
"Where are you?"
Hinata cheerfully squeaks.
"Hallway..."
Tadashi hopes to Goddess that Hinata doesn't hear the density in his voice.
The little orange's footsteps pause, only to launch into a light jogging until he rounds the little hallway corner.
"What's wrong?"
Dammit.
"What do you mean?"
Tadashi chews at his bottom lip while his hands fidget behind his back.
"This."
Hinata looks serious as he gestures towards Tadashis chaotic demeanor.
Despite Tadashi being younger than Hinata, he's somewhat taken over the big brother role in Hinata's life.
He cooked, cleaned, and worked harder than anyone he's ever met.
Tadashi was his hero.
So, to see his favorite person look this troubled made Hinata feel uneasy.
"It was an Asteria Hinata."
Tadashi gives up on trying to keep his tears from flooding.
He sniffs and grips at the sleeves of his shirt for comfort.
Hinata being lost for words just wraps his skinny arms around Tadashi's sides.
"I met him today, the one from my dreams."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
Tadashi is alarmed, he ponders why he's upset.
He doesn't want anyone to get hurt.
He would rather get thrown into a snake pit than be the cause of the hell he saw in his dreams.
"I'll see you tomorrow, flower boy."
Tadashi suddenly gasps, his throat feeling tight.
He can't let whatever happened earlier occur again.
He must not let that man into his life if he wants to prevent the future he's been warned of.
"It hurts."
Hinata lets go of Tadashi and stares into his chocolaty eyes.
"Where are you hurting?"
Tadashi relaxes his stiff muscles and inhales the stuffy air.
Lifting a shaky finger to his chest, he points at his suffering heart.
"Here."
The next day, Tadashi wakes up extra moody.
Today was Friday, meaning he didn't have to go to Kissin' until Monday which lighted Tadashi's glum mood a tad.
He and Hinata, both being too lazy to move into the bedroom just fell asleep right there in the hallway.
Hinata had stayed awake with Tadashi and simply allowed him to spill every single detail of yesterday's strange encounter.
His ridiculously painful position where he fell asleep against the wall left his back feeling sore all over the place which made him sadly whine and pout his lips.
After picking Hinata up bridal style and carrying him back into the bedroom he searches around the house for an extra work uniform.
But to no avail, he finds none.
He silently curses his boss for not supplying his employees with spare dress wear and decides to just put on whatever he can find laying around.
Therefore, resulting in him wearing the still pretty clean slacks from yesterday and a random black t-shirt he found laying on the ground.
Loosely tucking it into his pants and slipping on a pair of shoes he saunters out of the door.
In the past, if you were to tell Tadashi that he would be this upset over a man he met less than twenty-four hours ago, he would think you had misplaced your sanity.
But today, he fully welcomes this sulky attitude into his day.
He deserves to feel at least a little upset over the fact that he will never again speak to the only guy he's ever had the slightest bit of interest in.
Poor Tadashi looks more like a walking corpse than a healthy human being.
With the dark circles under his eyes and his slouchy back. Not to mention the red tear streaks that still haven't completely faded from his face.
He gets numerous stares of curiosity from the people he passes by along the floating bridge.
Including one from Whitaker, who waves a questioning hand at Tadashi who lazily waves back.
His small companions had decided to stay at home today, so Tadashi had no one to talk to about his issues.
All Tadashi's life he's been going with the flow.
Living an average human life among the vast variety of unimaginable creatures walking this planet who probably did extraordinary things on the daily.
His number one goal has solely been to be the good boy his parents taught him to be.
But after so many years of reliving the same events over and over.
It gets boring, predictable, pathetic.
Tadashi aggressively sighs and shoves his hands into his pants pockets.
The warm heat of the spring air tingled his bare arms.
Without his butterflies being attached to his skin, Tadashi felt almost naked.
Once again veering the same sharp corner as yesterday, Tadashi mentally prepares himself for the torment his boss is about to put him through for his awful appearance.
- Writer
