We Weren't So Far Apart

He found me

With tears falling from his porcelain face, both men looked at each other. The world seemed to stop around them. It felt like they were the only ones there. The taller one spoke with a calm voice and a warm smile.

"It was you this whole time. You were right in front of me..."

The shorter of the two widened his eyes before smiling, and he said, "I guess you found me this time.."

A little boy with raven hair is not any older than 9, helping his dad renovate the old bath house in the woods of the Tōhoku region of Japan.
"DAAAD! IM DONE CLEANING THE LIVING ROOM!" The little boy shouted. The small child shuffled a little, waiting for the older one to come into the room to look over anything the younger one might have missed.
"Good work. John! It looks great!" John's dad said with a warm, tired smile. They've been cleaning since 1:00, so they're bound to be tired.
" Hey, how bout a break ye-," John's dad is cut off by another older man.
"Heyy William, it's bee-," the older man was startled when he was about to step in the house as John had cut him off.
"Take your shoes off!" John yells, "You're gonna track mud in! I just cleaned this room!" As John scolds the other man, his dad William chuckles as he trudged over to a wall, where large trash bags lean. Since they weren't able to throw away any trash as it was raining that morning. William grabs two of the bags and starts walking out.
"Hey Jax, can you help carry the trash out- and john stay here it's cold outside, you don't have a sweater on," William spoke with a stern voice, knowing his son will try to pick up one of the many heavy trashbags.
"But!-" John was cut off by his dad, reassuring him that he helped plenty and that Jax would help instead so he could sleep. John is still a kid, and it wasn't good for him to be awake for so long. With many, many protests, John listened to stay inside.
With nothing to do, John opts with going to the hot spring instead of sleeping. The perks of living in an old bath house they've been cleaning for weeks. Of course, they had help from his dads friends and their kids, Leana and Benjamin, who he's been best friends with for four years.
John turns on the water, waiting for it to heat up. After taking his clothes off, he steps into the shower, gaining goosebumps at the change of temperature.
Some time has gone by, so he get's out and put's on some grey sweats, an oversized blue hoodie, and some fluffy socks to keep his feet warm, he puts on slipers not wanting to get his socks dirty. As John walks out of the bathing room, he hears Jax and his dad come into the house.
"Dad?" John asked.
"Yes, kiddo?" William answered with a calm tone, knowing his kid didn't sleep one bit.
"What do you want to eat? I'm making dinner tonight." John said, walking past Jax and his dad to go the kitchen across from the hallway he came from.
"Uh, Will -" Jax was cut off again by william, who started telling John he could make anything he wanted to. Jax, who was a little worried about John cutting the vegetables and the fact he didn't listen to go to sleep, sleep in which he clearly needed.
Jax wispers to William, "uh- will? Are you sure he can handle everything? I mean, he is a kid."
William answers Jax's concern with reassurance telling him about the time he was at work, and he found a whole cooked meal in his lunchbag. Rather than the a half of a sandwitch, he packed the day before. He also told Jax how he found a small note saying, "You need to eat more nutritious food than just a sandwitch much less half of one.," along with a small drawing of an angry Persian cat *although they always look angry*
Once Jax had heard of the lunchbox story, William started sharing more funny stories about John. laughter could be heard from the living room. John smiled, his big brown honey eyes shining with content that his dad was happy.
As William told many stories about how John shows his emotions through his drawings, they hear small footsteps. John walks into the room, letting them know the food was done. Jax and Will get up to follow John to the dining room to set the table so they can place the pot of Raman right in the middle.
"Thank you for the food!" Jax and Will said in sync. John just flashed them a smile and a nod while fixing up his own bowl of food and setting it on the table.
After the much needed meal and Jax going home. They start on dishes, with William washing and John drying the dishes handed to him. Once they were finished cleaning up, they headed off to sleep.
At around 9: 27, John wakes up to the sound of singing birds and the sun shining, lighting up his room. John gets out of bed after a few minutes and goes to the restroom to brush his teeth. Once john was done, he walked to the kitchen to make his breakfest and saw a note on the fridge.
*Hey, kiddo, I hope you have a good day today. Make sure to eat some food, and if you go out into the forest, be carful okay. Love you, John <3*
"Love you to dad," John said through a warm smile. Once John was done eating and cleaning up his mess, he went out into the forest from the backdoors. John sighs with content at the fresh breez, As he walks through the forest, many of the forest animals walk up to him with curiosity, not minding his presence. John remembers a conversation of his dad's friends, saying that he had a way with animals since he seems to be more calm and friendly, rather than his sassy personality his friends deemed him with.
After about 20 minutes of walking in the forest, John starts to walk back but thinks against it as he heard crying a little far behind him. As he walks following the crying, he heard just a minute earlier, John sees a kid with light blond hair sitting down with his arms hooked around his knees.