Silver's Effect

Koyuki

The lump in my throat made it hard to breathe as I stared blankly at my knees. 

Tears where slowly making their way down my cheeks as the image of my sisters death seemed to burn itself into my minds eye again.

It had been almost a month since the last time I had envisioned that moment. 

A warm weight appeared around my shoulders, surprising me.

Blinking out of my daze I looked up to see what expression ryoma wore, hoping to figure out if he thought the same as me about my sisters death.

Before I could see his face though he removed his hat and placed it on my head with the bill covering my eyes.

The warm weight seemed to tighten around me before pulling me closer to ryoma.

That's when I realized he was hugging me.

The lump in my throat seemed to grow, making a choking sound come from my throat as a sob erupted from me.

Ryoma's arms tightened around me and I slowly brought my own arms up to wrap around him.

My hands clutched onto the back of his shirt as if it was the only thing keeping me grounded.

Ryoma kept silent as he slowly rubbed soothing circles over my shoulder blade and let me cry.

After a few minutes I started to calm down.

I let my arms slowly fall to the couch and I started to pull back from ryoma, but he locked his arms to keep me in place.

I paused before resting my forehead on his shoulder and waited for him to say whatever he was preparing himself to say.

He leaned his head on mine somewhat so his mouth was close to my ear before he said in the softest voice I had ever heard from him "it's not your fault."

I stiffened in his arms as my eyes widened to the size or saucers.

"Your not at fault for her death" He continued. 

My hands tightened into fists, making my knuckles turn white.

We where both quite for a moment before he loosened his arms around me and let me pull back.

I kept my gaze down so his hat covered my eyes before saying in a thick voice "thank you, but we both know it was my fault. If I hadn't been so careless she would still be here."

Ryoma paused and picked up the tennis ball, he grazed his finger over the brownish mark.

He most likely just realized it was blood, my blood.

"Even if your accident was what started her attack, it wasn't your fault. You tried your best to get to her, even put yourself in danger to get to her and save her. What happened to her was the same that happened to you, an accident. And even though I didn't know her, I can almost guarantee that she wouldn't want you or anyone else blaming you for what happened." 

He fell silent again as he let his words sink in.

A few more tears started to fall before I realized a portion of the weight I always felt on my shoulders was gone.

I didn't really believe what he said, but having someone say it to me after knowing what happened made me feel better.

I felt like, for the first time since Koyumi left me, someone was on my side.

A sad smile made its way to my face as I slowly lifted my head to see ryoma already looking down at me with a similar smile.

Before I could second guess myself I wrapped my arms around his neck in a hug and said "thank you ryoma, I really think she would have liked you. "

I felt ryoma gently place his arms around my middle before he let out a small chuckle.

suddenly a shrill sound ripped through the moment, making us both jump apart as if we where doing something wrong. 

We heard the sound again and ryoma sighed before digging in his pocket to produce his phone.

He gave it an irritated look before accepting the call and placing it to his ear.

Without even greeting the person properly he said with an eye roll "I'm on my way already."

His eyes met mine as he listened for the person on the other end before he said "ok, see you in a few minutes." 

He kept eye contact as he hung up the phone then asked "are you busy tomorrow?"

I tilted my head to the side curiously before shaking my head no.

He smirked before saying "well now you are. Call me in the morning when you wake up."

I blinked before frowning but before I could protest he continued "if not I will be here at nine to pick you up. Wear something you can work out in."

I blinked at him before shaking my head in a defeated manner and sighing.

Ryoma stood up with his cocky grin in place before reaching down and lightly taking his hat off my head to place it on his own.

"I'll see you in the morning." He said before walking to the door.

Then almost as an after thought called over his shoulder "and don't forget to lock your door when I leave."

I rolled my eyes at him as I said "yeah yeah just go home before your parents get mad."