Everchanging

A New Semester

!!TW!! Very Slight discussion of bullying/fighting/SA

The air was still nipping but Kaigaku ignored it to blow rings of smoky air into the sky, his hands shoved deep into his pockets as he idled outside of the school. He hadn't really realized it but being suspended right as Christmas break started had definitely had to have been planned by his principal, since it was supposed to be the first day back for students and Kaigaku had, essentially, served no time on punishment.

"I'm freezing my balls off, man." Zenitsu shivered beside him, sitting on the step as they waited for their friends to arrive back so they could all hang out in the, still mostly empty, school before the first bell rang.

"That's crude."

"Like you're one to talk, Kai." The older cousin shrugged, humming to himself as he milled in a circle. It had only been two days since Genya's birthday party and Kaigaku finally brought up what had been bothering him.

"Did you notice–"

"Notice what?" Zenitsu was always too quick to interrupt but Kaigaku just continued as if the other hadn't spoken.

"Genya had some bruises and injuries." Kaigaku had seen them but no one had mentioned them, it was the boy's first birthday party, no one wanted to dampen the mood. But, Kaigaku couldn't help but give into the protective curiosity that bugged him, poking at his own bruises.

"Ah, yeah. I figured it was from that whole shitshow with Gyutaro." Zenitsu shrugged, resting his rosy cheek in his gloved palm as the other shook his head.

"Gyutaro never hit Genya." If he had, Kaigaku would have had to serve a stint in juvie. As much as his anger wouldn't sit by while the boy was being spoken ill of, Kaigaku didn't want to imagine what it would do if he had to actually watch the bruises be placed on Genya's body.

Kaigaku was scared of what he would do. If he saw that.

"We could always just ask him. It's obviously not that huge of a deal if Mr. Shinazugawa isn't burning the town down." Zenitsu breathed out, watching as Kaigaku sat down on the wooden edge of the garden. Something in Zenitsu's expression softened, and Kaigaku wouldn't look at him. "You can rest now, Kai. You don't always have to be there to protect Genya."

"I haven't protected him. Not once." Kaigaku huffed, tensing up when the blond boy sighed.

"Maybe you should ask Genya about that. Whether you protected him or not?" Turquoise eyes glared at Zenitsu as Kaigaku balked.

"Like talk to him? Sorry man, but I'm not one for mushy heart-to-hearts." He could still remember how the conversation at the psych ward went, how earth-ending it felt. He could remember the feeling of suffocating as Genya held him together, still covered in lewd injuries and silenced by so much pain. But he helped Kaigaku, after everything. He still helped Kaigaku.

"Y'know...you two are a lot more alike than you think, Kaigaku." Zenitsu's words were quiet in the morning traffic not that far from the school, and something in his eyes looked almost afraid of what his own words meant. "It scares me sometimes."

"Kaigaku, we're so close. We just have to run a little bit more and then you can see Auntie Sakura again! Kaigaku, what's wrong?! Come on!"

Kaigaku could still see the frustration and fear in his little cousin's face, seeing how his gaze looked pained when he looked at Genya. He could also remember being on the receiving end of that stare more times than he would like to remember.

But it was different, it had to be. Genya lost so much, more than anyone could ever fathom. But he had never let it change him into someone who took, like Kaigaku had. Genya had been surrounded by death, almost like a plague that bled into every person in the boy's life. But it didn't sharpen him, didn't make him into something that cuts and hurts.