When the Sun Stops Shining

Chapter Nine: When I Was a Young Boy

***Song above is MCR's 'Welcome to the Black Parade'. I wasn't writing this chapter with this song in mind, but I realised that it seemed to correspond with the chapter pretty well when uploading this on AO3 so I decided to include it.***

"Hey, Tobio." The tall man walked in through the door, wearing a smug grin on his face. "I managed to get some yen for us today. Four-hundred!" He usually went over to a nearby bridge every day and sold volleyball lessons to kids for a hundred yen. Surprisingly enough, the kids didn't seem to be suspicious of a scruffy-looking guy selling cheap volleyball lessons.

Tobio himself was in the kitchen, doing the washing. It was often up to him to do all the housework, although there really wasn't much to do. They lived in a dingy little flat where everything was cramped and there wasn't much of anything. The fridge was often empty, too.

"Although, I had to use the money to pay for a guy to drive me home from the bridge. So, I'm going to need you to go out over to that nearby shop and nab a few things for dinner. They never suspect little kids like you. I need my beer as well." Tobio's dad, Akihiro, was standing in the same room as Kageyama now. Although, everything was squished into one single room. The bathroom was just a tiny little shower in the corner and a hole in the ground, the kitchen was squashed up along one side, there was a tiny little TV in another corner (although it was broken) and there were two futons laid out nearby. There were also the countless beer bottles littering the ground.

"It's Mom's birthday today," Tobio whispered to himself.

"What did you say?" Akihiro suddenly became hostile. Angry, hostile.

"Mom. It's her birthday," he said a little louder. "June 1st."

"Don't you talk about her!" Akihiro pushed the small boy away from the sink. Being weak, he fell to the ground. The sponge in his hand splashed right into his face. There was dirty water dripping down his face as he looked up at his father. His eyes were bloodshot red; his hair was unkempt and messy. It was very obvious that Akihiro was drunk. He'd always been an aggressive drunk. Tobio couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his father sober. Nor could he remember the last time he'd gone to school, let alone made a friend. Tobio was kept in the same old flat, day after day, cleaning up after his father's mistakes.

"It's a year since she died," Tobio said, clearly not heeding the warning that his father had given him. "Exactly three-hundred and sixty-five days. Dad, why haven't you visited her grave?"

"Shut up, you."

"You were never able to remember her birthday, were you? She'd buy herself something nice with her own money, only for you to pawn it off a couple of weeks later. Spend it on some beer, smack her about and leave the house to buy more beer. The only thing that's changed is that she's dead." The boy was eerily calm as he spoke. Although his father was technically the one looking down on him, the way Tobio spoke to him made it seem otherwise.

"I said shut it!" Akihiro kicked the small boy. Tobio didn't show any visible signs of pain at first. He instead tried to play it cool. So, Akihiro kicked him again. The scuffs and scratches on Akihiro's boots hurt Tobio more than he could've imagined. The second kick had him slumped up against a wall, coughing so hard he felt like he'd start coughing up blood any second.

It wasn't unusual for Akihiro to do this to Tobio. If he took too long to finish cleaning up the house, he'd get kicked. If he took too long to get Akihiro a beer from the fridge, he'd get slapped. If he spilt a beer, he'd get whipped with one of Akihiro's belts. If Tobio had been permitted to go to school, it wouldn't have taken long for someone to realise what was going on at home. With all the bruises that the boy sported, any random person should've been able to figure it out.