Night to dawn (A TsukkiYama AU)

Chapter 1

"Show respect to your seniors! Think positively, your negativity will affect your impression!"
"With that attitude, you'll never get far in life! Learn some respect!"

"It's a shame your physical growth didn't do anything to your manners."

Kei Tsukishima had been hearing these things his whole life. Foolish people they were who said these words, he thought when he was younger, didn't their parents teach them not to poke their nose in other people's business? His thinking was much more mature than other children of his age. Throughout his preschool, nursery, elementary, and middle school, he isolated himself. He trusted no one and looked down on everybody, be they younger than him or older, shorter than him or taller.

Even his parents were fed up with him. They had countlessly told him to respect those older than him and treat his juniors with care. No matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't understand their youngest son.

The only person who understood and liked him was his older brother. He was Tsukishima's idol, a person to be respected and followed, someone who could make him feel better in any situation.

Someone he could trust...

However, when his brother was about 16 (he was two years older than Tsukishima) and Tsukishima was 14, he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). ALS is a disease in which the nerves in your main limbs begin to weaken, and it moves up your body. It is progressive, so it gets worse over time. At first, it could be just one limb, for example, your left leg, and then it could spread to your upper body, slowly deriving you of walking, any use of our limbs, speech, eyesight, and then, finally, of living.

When Tsukishima's parents found out about this, they were horrified. Their boy was only 16, his mother kept wailing hysterically, he still had to finish education, get married, have kids. He had a lifetime ahead of him, she said, and it would go to waste because he wouldn't even be able to live through it. The doctors told her that he would most likely die within three years, to which she bawled and screamed even louder. Her husband kept patting her head and saying "It's okay, honey, calm down!"

And what was Tsukishima doing between all this? After being explained to what ALS was, he had gone silent. Nobody had noticed it since his mother was making such a fuss, but he had turned deadly white and was staring at the floor. Inside him, his whole world was crashing down. His brother was going to die? He was going to lose the one person who looked up to and loved most in life? What was happening? Why was he here? Who was he? He didn't know anymore. Without his brother, he was nothing. Just a bitter mess...

Over time,  his brother got so worse that they transported him to the hospital. Every day, his parents and then his brother visited him and checked up on his health. Despite everything, he always smiled. Tsukishima noticed this, and one day he asked his brother "How do you stay smiling despite the fact that you're going to die?"

His brother looked at him with a surprised expression. Then his face softened, and he laughed. He said, "Well, I guess I just want to smile and laugh with everyone I love while I can." Tsukishima stared at his brother and then a faint smile began to play on his lips. He said "I'll do the same then!", before giving his brother a big smile.

And so two years and 7 months passed, and the ALS got worse and worse until speaking became hard. Tsukishima heard his brother's last words when he had gone to visit his brother while their parents were at work. His brother looked at him and stuttered "H-hey, Tsukishi--ma?"

"Yes, brother?"
"When I d-die..."

"Don't say that!" he said, panicking. Tsukishima could feel that his brother was going to say something sentimental. "Don't finish that sentence!"

"L-listen to me!" his brother said fiercely in response. "A-after I'm gone... f-find someone wh-who will s-stay with you w-w-when you're at your h-hardest times."

"You know I'm not that good at finding people..."
"Y-you have t-to."

"I'm not sure if I can..."
"W-will you grant the wish of a d-dying man, Tsukishima?"

He stayed quiet. After a few minutes, he said "I'll try... but I'm not giving you a guarantee."

His brother gave him the biggest smile he could muster, which, at this point, wasn't very big at all. He stammered "T-thank you..." After that, not another word escaped from his mouth until his death, which was only a few months later. But of course, they weren't to know.

Many people came to Tsukishima's brother's funeral. Distant relatives, he neither knew nor cared about, all his brother's friends and girlfriends and people he used to hang out with, the neighbours, almost everyone in their street. His teachers, people from his after-school clubs. Everyone was crying. Tsukishima just stared blankly at the open coffin. He knew this moment had to come sooner or later, so why was he so devastated, he asked himself. Why was he staring at the face of his decayed, lifeless brother?  Why...

Why did he feel so empty?

...

He leapt up in a cold sweat. Shaking and taking deep breaths, he looked at his hands, then rubbed his eyes and looked in front of him. His eyes took in the end of his bed, the white walls, the faint sunlight streaming through the window. He looked down and saw his white blanket printed with little green dinosaurs gifted to him by an aunt from a foreign country. Then he realised that he'd been dreaming, once again, of his brother's dead face, his funeral. 

He sighed and almost slapped himself before thinking that it was better to save his strength. He looked at the bedside table on his left and picked up his glasses, then his phone to check the time. He startled when he saw that it was already 7:15 AM, because his first day of high school started at 7:45, and it would take fifteen minutes on the bus to get there. He got up and rapidly brushed his teeth, changed into his uniform and made himself some toast. Grabbing his schoolbag that he had prepared the night before, he rushed outside. 

Then he dropped his schoolbag and quickly turned and looked at his wall. There lay a green-haired, skinny boy. His skin was a wheatish-white color and his face was almost filled with freckles. He was wearing the same uniform as Tsukishima was, and his schoolbag was hoisted behind his back like some sort of lever to keep his back straight. 

Kei Tsukishima stared at the boy sleeping against his wall, without knowing that this stranger would become his most beloved person, and would change his life forever.

He didn't know it, but... he had met the person whom his brother had wanted him to meet.