In the Woods Somewhere (Tsukkiyama)

Of Close Friends and Ill-Kept Secrets

There is a non-graphic mention of abuse in here! It is marked off by these guys ****. Stay safe!

After finally managing to befriend the wonderful moon-like fae, Tadashi was walking on air. He finally had a friend and a real one at that. Tsukki had no social status to gain by tricking Tadashi, and the faerie knew that Tadashi was too smart to be tricked anyway. Which meant Tsukki had a genuine interest in befriending Tadashi. He couldn't be happier.

In the year following the new friendship, life in the village did not change much for Tadashi. Adults still whispered when they thought he wasn't listening, children and teens still hassled him, but their words seemed to hurt less. As long as Tsukki was in Tadashi's corner, he had nothing to worry about. If worst came to worst, after all, Tsukki would protect him.

The prospect of being half-faerie didn't bother Tadashi much anymore either. After all, that would mean he was like Tsukki, if only partly. Anything that was like Tsukki, or that Tsukki liked was incredible, if just by the transitive property. Tsukki was amazing; a pillar of everything Tadashi wished he could be wrapped up neatly into one person.

Aside from his slightly improved confidence, Tadashi learned many exciting things from Tsukki. The fair folk knew healing and medicine better than anyone, and with Tsukki's help, Tadashi learned enough about natural medicine to rival his own father.

Not that Tadashi was the only one to gain from the friendship. Tadashi rather liked to believe that their situation was mutually beneficial and that he helped Tsukki in at least some ways. Mostly in terms of socializing, as Tsukki had admitted to having trouble interacting with other faeries his age. So that was their situation; Tsukki taught Tadashi about nature's magic, and Tadashi taught Tsukki about friendship and the human world. So it became that the two boys were inseparable as long as they were both in the forest. As wonderful as Tsukki was, Tadashi still had to keep him a secret. His father, ever paranoid and hostile, was likely to flay Tadashi alive if his secret friendship was discovered. Tadashi, however, was never known for his ability to keep secrets.

Two years into their friendship, just after Tsukki's tenth birthday, Tadashi made the mistake of mentioning the forest. It was an offhand comment, a casual mention of the quality of the herbs that grew close to the border of the fae realm. But one slip-up was enough, and Tadashi's father was livid.

******

"You've been wandering around that cursed forest again, haven't you!" the man growled, eyes alight with the fear and rage of a wild beast. When Tadashi said nothing, his father grabbed him and shook him, hard. "Haven't you!" He shouted again.

Panic and bile started to well up in Tadashi's throat as he tried to speak, "Y-yes, father. Bu-but I, I-"

A harsh crack rang out in the cottage as Tadashi's face stung and burned. Tears of fear and pain ran freely down Tadashi's grimy cheeks as his father stood before him, clutching his belt menacingly. "You're just like your whore mother, always out in those blasted woods. You're a worthless weakling, just like her. I wish those creatures had taken you instead. Believe me when I tell you I would feel no remorse and will feel no remorse when I have to drive an iron stake through your useless heart." Tadashi had started sobbing, the pain from the blow and his father's harsh words shattering his spirit. But his father continued with his tirade, "You think I don't hear what the village says about you? Oh, how I wish it was true that you were some horrendous faerie child. Maybe it is true, and you are too weak and worthless for even those wretches." Tadashi's father was no longer looking at him, instead staring off into nothing and ranting angrily into empty space.

Tadashi took the chance to scamper up to his room and buried himself in his thin, scratchy blanket. There he sobbed more, body shaking, and curled up into a ball. Still, he tried to stay silent, not wanting to incite more violence from his father.