Without Caution. || Itafushi

[Ch. 1] STRANGER IN THE DARK.

STRANGER IN THE DARK.

     With a small --click-- the door unlocked and swung open.

     A few piled up boxes were shoved inside the apartment by the foot of a boy, who walked in just a few seconds later. He trudged blindly into the room, placing the few boxes he held in his arms down onto the kitchen counter.

     The apartment already had boxes lining the floor of the kitchen which, though small compared to the male's previous house, looked perfect to him. It had all he needed so he couldn't complain. That could be said about a lot of things in this new place he had to call his home, however.

     It was rather cramped and far from anything he'd need access to. But the rent was cheap and he was a broke university student. Who would complain about only having to pay two-hundred pounds a month to have a roof over your head and a semi-warm room to sleep in at night?

     The boy looked around the room he was in. A few hours had passed and he had packed most of his belongings away with only a few boxes remaining. He walked over to them, sitting on the wooden floor to brush his hand over the peeling tape and black sharpie that read: "grandad's"

     He peeled the tape back revealing a red scarf that had started to collect dust. It had been draped over the contents of the box for as long as the boy knew. He never knew, saw or asked what was in the box. It was his grandad's.

     It belonged to the man who had brought him up. The one who took him in with no questions asked. He had been the only person who saw the male as him. Not as a parentless, or forgotten child.

     But a boy.

     A boy who had so much potential and energy he didn't know how to deal with him.

     The boy never dared to ask a personal question like why he never had pictures of his son, the boy's father. Or why he kept boxes of personal items in a wardrobe hidden away from the world. He simply felt he didn't deserve to ask such a question after already being such a burden to him.

     Yet now, the scarf had pulled back. The moving of the boxes had roughed up his own belongings so the boy wasn't too surprised when he saw his grandad's was in a similar state. He reached to fix the scarf but stopped. A corner of a wooden frame had been revealed by the moved scarf.

     A sharp ring pulled him out of his mental battle in deciding what to do. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and pulled it up to his ear.

     'Uh, hello?' His voice was growing slightly coarse with the evening and he noted to fix himself up a meal after he put the phone down.

     'Hello, is this Mr. Itadori speaking?'

     'Yeah, who's asking?' Itadori chuckled. He pulled the scarf back over the frame and stood up closing the box.

     'Oh. Sorry, this is the hospital. I'm calling to inform you on behalf of your grandfather.'

     The boy paused for a second, he had started searching through the food he had brought with him, looking for anything edible. 'Has he already been transferred? I was told he'd be brought over tomorrow..'

     'No, no. You're correct, sweetie. I was just wondering if you would be able to come down to the hospital to fill out some of the paperwork.' A series of clicks told Itadori the woman speaking had started to type something. 'He'll be brought down at around 11.00AM tomorrow.'

     'Yeah, sure. I'll be there in ten, twenty minutes.'

     'Alright, love. Be careful on your travels, it's getting a little dark out there.'