Rainbow Veins

Chapter 4

He found an unoccupied room at the end of the hall and stumbled into it, silently closing the door behind him to prevent attracting attention. He moved a few steps backwards and was now standing in the middle of the dark room. His breath came out in small pants.

Shit. Why did he do that?

He let out a small groan and grabbed his face. They certainly were going to find him and scold him for causing trouble. On his first day here. For the second time already.

His parents are gonna be so mad...

"What are you doing here?"

Koutarou let out a small shriek of shock at the sudden voice and clasped at his mouth with one hand to prevent more noises from coming out, as a night lamp behind was turned on. The silver haired boy slowly turned around and squinted at the sudden source of light, before he could finally make out a person sitting upwards in one of the beds he beforehand assumed empty.

He blinked at them. It was a boy who seemed about his own age, had sleepy eyes and dark, messy hair that curled up at the tips. Even in that small source of light, his skin looked quite pale. All in all he was really, really pretty.

The boy only blinked back at him questioningly and Koutarou realized that he hadn't answered his question yet.

"Uuh" he started awkwardly. "I'm definitely not hiding from getting an injection or something. I'm totally not a coward. Or anything. Haha..."

He lifted his hand and scratched his neck before looking down in embarrassment. The other boy said nothing, but as Koutarou looked up again, he could see him covering his mouth while turning away from him. The next thing he knew was that his heart skipped a beat as a muffled snorting sound, close to something like a very quiet giggle maybe, reached his ears. Koutarou only stared at him until the other one had calmed down again and a smile formed on his lips.

"I'm Bokuto by the way. Bokuto Koutarou!" he finally managed to introduce himself after he had recovered from that short moment of blankness caused by the other one's small laugh.

"Akaashi Keiji" the other one said with a soft voice. Koutarou could feel his whole body heating up upon the small smile which still graced the boy's lips.

"That's a really pretty name" he could hear himself say before he even thought properly about the words.

When the other one only shrugged at the weird compliment, Koutarou dared moving closer and sat on the edge of the boy's bed.

"Why are you here?" he asked, his gaze wandering over the pile of personal belongings spread across the nightstand.

It seemed like he has been spending an awful amount of time in this bed already. There were a lot of books, pens and notebooks. Also a vase with pretty looking flowers in it, but no "Get well soon" cards he somehow expected to be there. It didn't seem like that boy was getting a lot of visitors.

"I'm waiting for a new heart."

Koutarou tore his gaze away from the flowers and looked at the other with wide eyes.

"A heart..?" he repeated disbelievingly. "What's wrong with yours?" he asked when the other one had just nodded.

"It's too weak." The faint smile on the boy's lips finally disappeared completely with those words.

Koutarou could feel his own heart sinking in his chest. Now that he watched him more closely, that boy looked really strained. And so fragile. Someone that beautiful definitely shouldn't be supposed to look like that. Koutarou had the urge to wrap his arms around him and tell him everything was gonna be okay...