Flowers For An Old Friend; DabiHawks (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 20; He's Gone

First off, do y'all like the chapters where I go back in time to focus on these two as children?

I just don't want to keep writing a lot of these chapters if no one likes to read them.

***

Nine Years Ago

*Keigo's POV*

I was going to the park, as always. Today's the day, I'm going to tell Touya about my feelings. If I couldn't do it yesterday, I'm gonna do it today.

I also wanted to make sure he was okay, he hadn't showed up at all yesterday, and he was burning himself the other day. His father is horrible, and I don't want him to be hurt more.

I showed up earlier than normal, but still checked around the park for him. I ignored the pain from my clothing rubbing on the burns from the other day, instead focusing on the trees surrounding me. Touya liked to venture further into the forest if he was upset or just wanted to explore.

I started to walk into the forest, immediately on high alert. I don't know why, but this forest always made me antsy. I just didn't know my way around it as much as Touya did. 

***

I can remember the last time we were here. It was a few weeks ago, some kids had come to the park. It wasn't normal for people to be there, but I didn't see it as a huge deal.

I had gotten to the park and saw these kids playing around with people who I was guessing were their parents standing just a bit away from them. Touya was reading by the tree and so I had went to sit by him.

That day was a pretty awful day for him. He was still healing from a horrible burn, so he was almost completely covered in bandages. When I had gotten there, he scooted over slightly to let me sit down. Instead, I had leaned against the tree and watched as two of the kids ran around.

They were probably only six or maybe seven at the most. One of them, a boy, had these tiny horns sprouting from his temples along with a small tail that would swing as he ran to chase his friend. The girl he was chasing didn't have any sort of flashy quirk, but she would randomly crawl up onto the swing set without wrapping her arms around the pole.

"They've been doing that the entire time." I heard Touya say as he continued to read. I hummed before sitting down and leaning beside him, reading above his shoulder. I don't know what it was about, but it seemed interesting.

After a few minutes, I felt something brush against my wing. I ignored it, readjusting my wings slightly so I was more comfortable. I felt it again, but this time whatever it was grabbed onto my wing. After a quick glance, I saw that it was the boy. He was very aggressively petting my wing while his friend stood beside him looking worried.

"What are you doing?" I asked the boy as he continued to mess with my wing. He looked up at me with a smile as the girl started to hide behind him. She wasn't staring at me, instead staring at Touya.

"Your wings are soft." He said, bouncing on his feet and pointing at my wing. I heard Touya chuckle beside me as the kid spoke.

"Are they now?" He nodded, giggling. The girl wasn't there, instead walking back towards the adults.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't ask, but they look cool. Can you fly?" He asked, squealing when I nodded.

"Excuse me, but you're scaring my daughter." I heard from infront of me. I turned to face the voice seeing the little girl and her mom. The girl was hiding behind the the woman who's eyes were narrowed at Touya. I could feel him stiffen beside me.

"Excuse me, but you're interrupting my reading." He said, not looking up from the book. He sounded chill, but I could feel his heart racing.

"I said you're scaring my daughter. Please leave the park." The girl was pulling on her shirt, looking more scared then earlier.

"Mommy, it's fine." She whispered, but the woman didn't listen.

"I don't think you can tell me what to do." Touya said, holding the book closer to his face. I pushed my wing to his back to try and subtly comfort him.

"Yeah, this isn't your park." The woman shot a glare at me before getting back in Touya's face.

"Why are you wearing those bandages anyway? Some sort of rebelious teenager thing?" Touya immediately stood up intimidatingly, but he was still a little short for his age.

"Come on Kei, let's go." He said, not looking at the woman. I nodded, standing up and glaring at the woman. I heard the boy say "Bye bye," before I followed Touya into the forest.

***

I was caught out of my thoughts when I ended back at the park. I didn't find any trace of him while walking, but I did see something else.

By me and Touya's tree there was a woman. I recognized her, her white hair and grey eyes. It was Touya's mom.

"Hey." I said, trying to hide my anticipation. She looked up at me with sad eyes. She looked, broken. In her lap she was holding a book, Touya's book.

"You're, Touya's mom, yeah?" I asked. I knew the answer, but I didn't know what to say really. She nodded, looking back down at the book. She opened it, looking at the first blank page. There was writing on it, Touya's handwriting.

Without saying a word, she turned the book and showed it to me.

"He wanted you to have it." She said blankly. I didn't grab it immediately, afraid of what the page said.

For Keigo, I can't do this anymore. I'm sorry Birdie.

The words felt empty, echoing through my head. I didn't feel anything. The worry and fear I felt disappeared, but so did everything else. I just felt empty.

"Wait." I started, looking back up to his mom. "Did he?" The words died on my tongue.

"He's gone." She said, staring forward.

It took a few seconds before tears started to fall down my face. There was no emotion behind them. I couldn't feel it, couldn't register it. I fell to the ground beside the woman against the tree.

I felt the woman wrap her arms around me as I cried, and I finally felt all the emotions all at once.

The sobs ripped from my throat without any attempt to stop them from escaping. I grabbed onto her shirt and kept crying. How could she hold herself together so much? Her son was, no he couldn't be.

He's gone?

He left me?

He left me.

***

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