Plant Life [A KaiLen Fanfic]

Chapter Nineteen

"Would you like some tea?"

"Yes, please..."

Kiyoteru handed me a cup before sitting beside me on the couch. His home was nice and warm, it almost looked like Kaito's but without the plants everywhere. Around the corner I saw Kiyoteru's daughter sitting quietly with a book, most likely trying to listen in on our conversation.

"I can't quite say I know where to start," Kiyoteru began. "I've known Kaito and his family for four years I think. His father was the one that moved Kaito out here after the incident at that Music School. I don't think Kaito really remembered it too well."

"What happened at the school? Did Kaito do something...?" I asked nervously.

Kiyoteru pushed his glasses up and took a breath.

"There was this festival there one night. Kaito ran off somewhere alone and a teacher stopped him. She dragged him into her classroom and there, she sexually assaulted him... Kaito got really scared and used his powers on impulse... he accidentally blew up something in the teachers' body... she was dead in seconds..."

   "Oh god..." I put a hand over my mouth.

  "A little after that incident, Kaito's father came and bought that house for him, saying his son needed to be secluded from people."

Now I understood what Kaito meant about how he could cause explosions on people.

"I heard about the explosions that happened in the city yesterday. Kaito caused it, right?" Kiyoteru took a sip from his tea.

"Yeah... then he asked me..." I choked. "He asked me... to kill him..."

"I'm so sorry, dear... you know he asked me to kill him once?"

   "He did...?"

   "Yeah. A little after his dad died, I came to check on Kaito to see how he was doing. I found him in the house just screaming and breaking all of these ships in bottles he used to make. He was getting all this broken glass in his hands and legs so I was trying to stop him, then he just started crying and begging me to slit his throat... I managed to get him to calm down but he seemed different ever since."

   "Those stitches he had... they weren't from a bite were they?" I said.

   "Kaito had stabbed himself with a glass shard. I had to rush him to the emergency room."

   "Fuck... I feel so fucking blind..." I set my cup down to hold myself as I began to cry again. "Kaito was hurting so much and I didn't even know it! I feel like I made his life so much worse... and I had to go and kill him...!"

   Kiyoteru hugged me tight and I cried against his shoulder.

"Don't blame yourself... I'm just as guilty..." He gave a weak laugh. "I was always so strict on Kaito... he treated me like a friend and I couldn't even call him by his name to his face..."

Kiyoteru pushed his glasses past his eyes to rub away some tears. Around the corner, his daughter had shut her book and ran off out of my view. Then she came back trying to get a jacket on and tying up her hair in pigtails.

   "Let's go! Right now!" She exclaimed.

   "Huh? What are you talking about, Yuki?" Kiyoteru fixed his glasses.

   "Say goodbye to Kaito-Nii! I wanna tell him goodbye!" Yuki looked at me. "Mister, you know where he is right? Let's go say goodbye!"

   I was almost shocked to hear that from a little girl. I watched as she ran to the door, hurriedly getting her shoes on and urging us to get our shoes too. I thought I could feel a warm breeze pulling me, telling me to go someplace—begging me to go. Rubbing a tear from my eye, I got up from the couch and held a hand out to Kiyoteru.

   "I don't mind driving. If that's ok with you?"

————

    Though I'm not exactly a ghost, I felt like one.

    I sat on my own grave, watching the waves far down the beach. My body was already starting to decompose under the sand and dirt, it wouldn't be long before it was a skeleton. I don't remember where my other graves are, it's been a really long time since I visited. When I saw Len had an opportunity to see me again, I had to give him a push:

   'Please come visit. I miss you. I miss you so much. I want to see you again.'

   Even if he couldn't hear my words, I was happy to see him arrive at the beach and with Kiyoteru and Yuki no less. I've never seen Kiyoteru cry or heard him say my first name before and Yuki was the one that suggested they all go visit me; I thought she hated me. When they stood before my grave, I almost cried. They looked nice together...

"It must've been so hard to do it..." Kiyoteru told Len. "I'm really really sorry..."

Len gasped lightly, trying so hard to keep himself together. I wanted to reach out to him and touch him so badly...

"Yuki, did you want to say something?" He asked her.

"Mhmm..." Yuki knelt by my grave a placed a tiny wooden bird on it. "I saw it at the boardwalk yesterday. I wanted to give it to you to thank you for saving me from that fall. Um... I'm sorry I was always so mean to you... I think you are grown up... I'll miss you, Kaito-Nii..."

I forgive her. The bird was so cute. Kiyoteru set a bouquet of hydrangeas on the grave next to the wooden bird.

"I'm sorry I don't know what your favorite flowers were... I figured you had a soft spot for them all. Ahaha... I still remember how scared you were when you first moved into that house. I was always so hard on you and pushing you to grow up when you weren't ready and... fuck... I'm sorry I was so cold to you Kaito..."

My first name... I forgive him, too. Len sat on his knees before me with his head down. He looked pretty with his hair unbound...

   "You made me feel emotions I haven't felt in years... I'm happy I was fortunate enough to be in your life, even if it didn't last for long..." Len put a hand over his mouth and sobbed. "I wish we could still be together..."

   I shed a tear as he started to cry. Kiyoteru got by Len's side and hugged him. Yuki did too. They were like a family...

This was what I wanted. I wanted this to be where Len was happy. Kiyoteru would take good care of him for me and make him happy. Though, there was still Len's family to worry about. What if they find him? I couldn't let him marry a woman he didn't even love...

   'I'll help you, Len...' I spoke despite my words being nothing but a breeze. 'I promise... I love you...'

   As they got up to leave, I saw Len's pretty blue eyes. They went wide and he gasped. We were making eye contact.

   "Where do you think Kaito is now?" Yuki was asking Kiyoteru.

   "Someplace beautiful I bet... let's go, now."

   Kiyoteru held his daughter's hand and they started walking back down the beach. Len trailed behind a bit. Then he stopped and looked back at my grave—looked back at me. Hopeful, I smiled and waved at him.

  Len kept walking, as if nothing happened.