We'll Stay Together Forever

Together

Takemitchy wasn't one to really ever be up on time. He usually snoozed his alarm three times in a row then rushed to dress so he could walk with Hina to school. However, his mother had recently moved back into the house, her time abroad having come to an end a few months ago. Now there was someone else in the house and it was strange for Takemitchy, so used to living in an empty home.

Through no fault of his mother, of course. His mom had worked so hard since the death of his father when Takemitchy was in elementary. Her work often sent her to China or South Korea, even America a few times. She loved him and worked hard. However, things changed a few months after he turned sixteen when his mother experienced an on the job injury in Canada. She got a huge payout and now she could be home again and do some online work to fill her time.

Takemitchy was happy for her, even if his happiness was tempered more these days.

These days. So much had happened for him recently, he started remembering things he never experienced before, a him that was so very different from himself and it was debilitating. These were memories that included talking with Chifuyu and Mikey about time traveling. And as crazy as it seemed, those memories felt very real.

Real enough that he confronted his best friend Chifuyu and he learned everything. All the fighting, all the confusion and schemes, and the reason so many people respected him. For a while Takemitchy felt like a fraud, but with time it began to just feel like it was a part of him, because it was.

But through this year there was something that he wanted more than anything else, a yearning he felt in his gut.

He wanted to see Mikey again.

Mikey had disappeared and Takemitchy was starting to really worry for him since he started remembering things his future self had known. He remembered being distraught over Mikey dying in his arms. That had to have been in the future right? Because Mikey was alive right now, and he had been when the future him had been fighting.

Takemitchy didn't know what the hell to do. He was lost and sad, so much so that it had his mother worried. She would check up on him constantly, even let him stay home from school when he was really unwell. It was the guilt, he was sure. Mikey was out there somewhere and he was hurting. Future him didn't know that, but he had figured that they'd have to stay together...

"Takemichi, are you up?" His mother's soft voice came from his closed bedroom door.

"Yeah, I'm up," He whispered as he ran his hands through his bedridden hair. 'And my names, Takemitchy.' He thought petulantly and rolled from bed to get dressed for school. It was an everyday routine now and he could do it without much thought, out the house on time today too. Today... August 20th. It was a special day.

"Takemichi-kun!" Came the greeting shout from a girl across the road. She was dressed in her uniform, pressed and wrinkle free, not a strand of peach hair out of place as she waved.

"Good morning, Hina-chan," Takemitchy smiled as he crossed and reached for her smaller hand, "You didn't need to wait, I could have caught up to you."

Hina shook her head, "Don't worry about that." Her smile was still in place as they began their walk to school, chatting about their mornings and pausing part of the way there to wait for Chifuyu.