Matchablossom

What Hurts More Than Words

Trigger Warnings: mentions of abusive/toxic relationships 

Joe PoV

The sound of my phone going off woke my up from my sleep. This confused slightly as the small light coming from behind my curtains indicated that it must've been early hours of the morning. I rolled around to grab my phone, the light blinding me as I frantically tried to turn the brightness down. 

*One New Message* 

I opened the message to see it was from Kaoru, nothing out of the ordinary as he refused to sleep most nights, especially when he was working on something with Carla. However the message was completely unlike him. 

Blossom: Are you awake?

I replied "yes", confused as to why he was asking. Kaoru and I had been friends for years, ever since we were in our early teen years, but after all the time, Kaoru would never ask if I was awake, unless I forgot to do something or go somewhere. But the time showed 4:38am and as far as I knew there wasn't anything I was missing. 

Blossom: Can I come over? Please

Me: Yeah of course, I'll open the door

I decided to ask questions later as to not make myself overthink, but I couldn't ignore the feeling at back of my mind telling me something bad had happened to him. I didn't trust him to stay with Adam, but I didn't think he'd actually do something bad. I tried to convince myself that I was jumping to conclusions and Cherry could've just locked himself out of his house... again. Not the first time, I swear he has the memory of a goldfish at times. 

But I couldn't convince myself any more when I saw Kaoru stood at my door step, honestly looking a mess. He was not wearing the appropriate clothes for early mornings in the winter, or any season for that matter, thin pajamas that stuck to him from the rain that had started to fall. He looked freezing, and tired. But not just tired. Exhausted. 

"What did he do to you?" I asked before Kaoru could say anything, he just looked at me, his eyes telling me everything I needed to know. "Come in, tell me everything, I'll make tea." I gave him a small smile trying to reassure him, but I couldn't stop the rage growing inside of me. 

Kaoru made his way into my living room, curling up under a blanket I had on my sofa, still not saying anything. Watching him I could see some differences with him, something that weren't there the last time we saw each other. He held himself differently, less confident and less balanced, not to mention that his hair that used to be almost halfway down his back was cut up to his shoulders. It hadn't been like that since we were in high school. 

"Are you going to keep staring at me or actually make me tea?" Kaoru asked from under the pile of fabric. I just nodded and closed the door, heading to the kitchen to make the tea. I had so many questions, yet waited to make the tea first. 

Finally, I sat down next to him, handing him a mug of green tea, which he took happily enough. 

"What happened?" I asked again, this time I actually got an answer, it was the one I expected but I didn't want. 

"Ainosuke and I got into another argument, I don't even know what it was about but-" Kaoru stopped and just stared into his tea, I could tell that he was trying not to cry, so I pulled him into a tight hug, making sure the tea didn't spill and burn any of us. "I've never seen him so mad before.. he grabbed a pair of scissors and cut my hair knowing that would hurt me more than anything he could say to me." 

I gently took the tea from Kaoru's hand, placing it on the coffee table before pulling him into a tighter hug, he struggled slightly but relaxed, burying his face in my chest. 

"Kaoru..." I started but he cut me off before I could say anything else. 

"I know what you're going to say. And yes I've already broken up with him, that's why I came here.." Kaoru explained, not moving to look at me, I figured he was about to cry, so I gently played with his hair, braiding it. 

"I am going to kill that son of a bitch one day-" I mumbled as Kaoru just sighed into my chest not bothering to tell me not to or encourage me. I would do it anyway, no matter what Kaoru said, Ainosuke, deserved it, he deserved every shitty thing to happen to him. 

"I like your hair like this, I won't find it seven months later around my house." I tried to lighten the mood, but apparently I failed as Kaoru didn't respond. Shrugging to myself I just continued to do my best to comfort him, as he started to fall asleep in my arms. He looked adorable sleeping. 

Not the time to think about that, I should start to think about 50 ways to get away with murder. Kaoru should  have that somewhere on his search history. 

"I know what you're thinking about, and no, I deleted my search history so good luck." Kaoru mumbled apparently still awake, I could feel him smirk even though I couldn't see him. 

"I didn't say anything!" I argued, but I was just greeted by the judgmental silence of Kaoru. "Okay maybe I was thinking about it.. but he deserves it."

"Just don't get arrested, okay?" 

"Fine..." I mumbled staring at the ceiling, resuming my thinking.