Left Side

Chapter 9

[TRIGGER WARNING: mentions of sexual abuse]

Shoto carefully ignited a small flame on his finger and raised it to the wick of the two candles, lighting them. Once they were lit, he lifted the birthday cake off of the counter, leaving the kitchen.

Kaji and Kōri were sat at the dining table, family members and family friends all around. The redhead bounced slightly in his seat as he watched his father enter the room, a cake in hand. Kimiko was stood in the corner of the room taking a video of her two boys.

Setting down the cake in front of them, Kōri clapped his hands together excitedly while Kaji stared at it with greedy eyes. Everyone was singing happy birthday to them and cheering when Kaji blew out his candle.

When he glanced over to Kōri, he hadn't yet blown out his candle.
"Do you want me to help you?" His brother asked sweetly and Kōri nodded, a small smile rounding his cheeks. The boy took his hand and sucked in a breath, the other following him and doing the same.
He went to blow it out with Kōri but ended up holding his breath at the last millisecond so the white-haired boy essentially did it by himself.

All of the adults cheered, clapping their hands together. While Kōri flinched from the loud noise, his smile remained on his face. He didn't often smile so everyone liked to enjoy these moments.

Their father crouched beside them in their chairs, pulling them into his side and whispering "Happy 8th birthday, my boys,"
He pressed two gentle kisses to their temple before standing up and taking the knife.

He cut his son a slice placing it onto his party plate.
"Hikari! Patience!" Kiyoka scolded, scooping up her 4 year old as he tried to climb up onto a chair to get to the cake.
Kaji glanced around the room, noticing Izume sat on the floor watching silently. He crawled out of his chair and set the cake down in front of her.

She blinked, confused.
"Do you want cake?" He asked he and she shook her head.
"I feel a little bit full," She mentioned, smiling at the boy.
He returned her smile "Me too. Let's share,"
"Oh, okay," Nodding, she broke off a piece and ate it. Kaji didn't want her to feel like she was missing out, so he pretended to not be hungry too.

*****

Kaji watched as the smoke from the freshly blown out candle drifted upwards into the air. Over the past 2 weeks of being there, he'd learnt that a Harbour tradition was to hand out a cupcake with a single candle on it on birthdays. He thought it was a nice gesture, but he didn't feel like celebrating his birthday this year.

Grumbling, he set the candle aside and started peeling away at the cupcake wrapper. It was a decent cupcake, nothing special. He sighed as he took a bite, laying back on his bed, an arm underneath his head as he stared up at the ceiling.

His head shot up when he hard multiple footsteps enter the room. Usually at this time, everyone was out in the yard or at therapy, so he wasn't expecting anyone to be in here. He watched as Yuuma got pushed into the room before the group of three 17 year old boys left.

Yumma spotted Kaji and quickly wiped his eyes before making his way over and cheering "Yayyyy! Happy birthday, Kaji!"
Kaji frowned, eyebrows tugging downwards when he noticed the boy's puffy eyes "Are you ok?"
He nodded with an "Mhm!" sound.

"...What did they want?" he asked quietly.
"Nothing, how's the cupcake?" His attempts at changing subject didn't go unnoticed. The redheads eyes found Yuuma's wrists which were painted in several dark bruises.

"Hey." He muttered, grabbing a hold of Yuuma's arm when he tried to rip it away "Tell me what they did to you and i'll fix it,"
"There's nothing you can fix- Anyway, it happens to everyone- i-" He got cut off when Kaji brushed a gentle finger over the injury.
"No, it doesn't. Show me the rest." He quietly ordered. His voice was gentle so Yuuma wouldn't feel forced to.