Compass - Banana Fish x Reader

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: Willow

"You're gonna fall, dummy."

I was a great climber. Always had been, from the moment I could walk. At least, that's what I had always been told. Crib railings, stairs, chairs, walls. Trees, however, were one of my favourite things to scale, and the tall willow in the garden was perfect for it.

Usually, I climbed to the top alone, but this time, I had company. I tried my hardest not to laugh as the blond struggled to swing his leg up and over the branch below me, his face almost purple in hue.
"Am not! I'm totally doing it, see?!"

He was, to a degree, but he wasn't good at it. I knew that if I tried to help him along, I'd likely end up on the ground with some broken bones, so I just watched, legs swinging.
"I don't want you to get hurt, Ash. Maybe you should climb down..?" There was no way he would, I knew that. He was far too prideful. At least, when he was with me, he was.
"I'm fine! Look! I'm just as good as you!"

Yeah...no. No you're not.

Rolling my eyes, I was just about to climb down to the lower branch to give him a hand when the inevitable happened. In my eyes, it happened so slowly I could almost see the bark grazing the skin off of his palms as he began to slip. The panicked realisation in his eyes. The distance from where we were to the ground.

Swinging my leg over, I jumped down to the branch he was about to fall from and grabbed him by the hand, but I was smaller than him. I was barely managing to hang on myself.
"Y..You're stupidly heavy!" I grunted, squinting my eyes as the strain grew worse.

"Then let go..! You'll fall too!" He snapped back, sounding more pissed off at my attempted rescue than possibly falling to his death. However, I was just as stubborn as he was.
"No! Just try to pull yourself up..!" I bit back, tugging as hard as I could. "You're the one with bigger muscles..!"

At eleven, I was just a little older than he was, by a few months, but when it came to strength, of course he was going to be better than me. Not only because of his gender, but because he was allowed to go out and about and be a kid. I allowed to leave the grounds without a suitable escourt.

When Ash realised that I wasn't planning on giving up, he heaved a heavy sigh, finally attempting to pull himself up to me. At this point, my knees were scratched to buggery, and I was pretty sure my nails had cut into the flesh of his hand.

"One more pull!" I followed his command, and sure enough, that was enough for him to be able to clamber up beside me. Both a panting mess, I began to giggle, watching Ash's cheeks flare a deep pink. "D..don't laugh at me! You're the one who wanted to climb up here anyway!"

That sent me into harder laughter for a few moments, but I let it ease away, not wanting to bruise his ego any more than I already had.
"I'm sorry! I just like the view from up here..." Turning to look out over the wall of the estate, I sighed, the early Autumn air mussing up my hair even more. "Plus...nobody can touch us up here..."

I could feel Ash staring into the side of my head, and I knew he felt the same way. Sure, we didn't have to deal with Froggy all that much anymore, but it wasn't better. Ash had it worse than I did, I was sure of it, having seen the bruises, and the distant, deathly look in his eyes when he would come home.

I'd take all of your pain if I could...

His hand came down to rest on top of mine, and we sat in silence for a while, staring out at the horizon, where the city stood tall and fierce.
"I'm gonna make a tonne of money, and get you out of here, (Y/N)." He said out of the blue, which caused me to whip my head around and stare at him instead.