The Heat of Summer (MikaYuu)

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪᴠᴇ - ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇᴅ-ᴇʏᴇᴅ ʙᴜʀɢᴇʀ ᴋɪɴɢ ɢᴀɴɢ

(Pretty sure the artist changed their username on Twitter to @OneCoffeeBean)

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"Hey, Guren, is it true that you were like me in high school?" Yuu bent his head backwards to look at his adoptive father. "'Cause that's what that Shinya guy said. Is it true?"

The boy was currently sprawled out on their old green sofa, legs hanging off one end, arms hanging off the other. He'd been asking the same thing for the past five minutes, but Guren kept his back turned, showing no signs of acknowledgement. He was in the kitchen, making himself a PBJ sandwich.

Irritated, Yuu rolled off the couch, hitting the ground with a thud. He pulled himself to his feet and stomped into the kitchen. "Oi, stupid Guren, I asked you a question! Are you actually embarrassed, like he said? Why would you be embarrassed about being like me? I'm awesome! Right, Guren?" 

"Shut up, brat."

Yuu smirked, triumphant over getting a reaction out of him. "If I'm a brat, that means you were also a brat. Unless you weren't like me? In that case, why don't you tell me how you really were, hmm?" 

Guren pinched the butterknife he was using between his thumb and pointer finger, sliding his hand upward to wipe the jelly off. Then he turned around and flicked it in Yuu's face, drawing an indignant "Hey!" from the boy.

"I told you to shut up," Guren said flatly, wrapping the sandwich in a paper towel. "You don't need to know anything about my past."

Yuu frowned, using his sleeve to rub the jelly off his forehead. "But I'm bored." 

"Not my problem." Guren brushed past him into the foyer, holding the PBJ in his mouth as he slipped on a denim jacket. "I have a meeting. Go outside if you're bored—it's summer, for Pete's sake. Go to the pool or something."

"I don't have a pass!" 

Guren pulled open the front door, sparing an impassive glance in Yuu's direction. "Then the park. Bother your friend, what was his name... Mikaela, instead." He sneered at him. "That is, if he's actually your friend." 

With a jeering laugh, the man walked out of the house, leaving his son seething in the entryway. Not only because he'd been mocked, but because he was right. Mika wasn't his friend. He had said it himself. 

Since then, Yuu had been trying not to care, but the memory irked him at night and when he was bored. Those two circumstances together added up to about 80% of his time spent being irked. 

It had already been three days since the swim meet, and neither of them had made any contact with the other whatsoever. After all, Yuu had said the only reason they'd exchanged numbers would be to talk about swim meets or Shinya. He had nothing to offer regarding those matters, but he also had nothing to do, so begrudgingly he decided to take Guren's advice and go outside. 

Yuu grabbed his bat from where it was leaning against the wall. Might as well get some practice in.

Sighing deeply, he kicked open the front door and headed for the path Mika had shown him, the one that led to the baseball field. He mentally praised himself for being able to remember it, holding his head haughtily in the air as he moseyed along.

Five minutes passed. He skipped pleasantly between a couple of raspberry bushes, humming to himself. 

Ten minutes passed. Keeping at bay the impending unease, his gait slowed to a bouncy walk. 

After fifteen minutes had gone by, he came to a full stop and surveyed the woods around him, realizing that the worn-down dirt path was nowhere to be seen. Just trees, thornbushes, and a bunch of jagged leaves that looked suspiciously like poison ivy.