DON'T GET IT TWISTED. [RYO ASUKA X READER]

Forget me not.

The blazing sun littered the sky with hues of orange, hues of crimson, hues of violet. Rippling heat travelled through the summer's air, your childish laughters filling the breeze. Your smiles travelled downstream like the ducks with their sweet baby ducklings.

"Akira! Akira! Over here! Look!" You exclaimed in the happiest little voice of innocence. The young brunette ran to your side, his dark orbs narrowing.

"What? I can't see it!" He giggled, jumping up and down on the soggy marshland, mud splashing carelessly up his little legs. You danced in circles with him underneath the golden shadow, making daisy chains and pushing one another into the jade-coloured river. The water so icy, burning and stinging your little fingers. Curious red tips grappled and grasped at small tadpoles in the rock pool, buried deep underneath the dirt. You had mud-caked shoes, dirty wellies, but nevertheless, you ran over never ending hills together. You found daffodils and blew them out to the count of twelve, making a wish as the small spurs travelled nigh into the blended rainbow.

And there in the murky corner, stood a little boy. He was too afraid to feel the childhood sting of the icy water. Too disgusted to become dirty. It was too impure. Too stubborn to touch the tadpoles, feel the frog's strong leap as it left his fair hands. Too scared to interrupt what they had. The little blonde would only ever watch. Only ever observe. Watch the summer's day travel by in isolation, until the moonlit shadows casted onto him. Alone.

"Come play Ryo! Come play!" You'd always invite, but he always gave you a feeble shake of his head. "I don't want to. It's too scary."

"You're a coward!"

But cowards are supposed to become strong, to remove that stereotype.

He'd watch your e/c eyes gaze into Akira's. He'd listen to your sweet voice echo between the hills of the secret place that he found. It was our special place. Not anyone else's. He still remembers, to this day, exactly what you used to do.

"Aren't the stars a pretty sight. They're such mysterious constellations. It's like staring into a dark sea, with lots of little fish. Can you see it?"

But you'd always be over there, playing with Akira. Having fun with Akira. Loving Akira. You never treated him the same. He was merely the isolated boy who never seemed to join in. The coward. The frightened shadow. The boy afraid of his OWN shadow.

You didn't show your love early enough. Now it was repeating itself in this punishing time loop.

You felt sick, as the distant sunny memories danced around your mind.