Shining Light

Chapter 6

“So?”
“Honey…”
“How are you even paying for this place when all you do is sulk all day? When did you last leave your room?”
“I went to the bathroom first thing this morning.”
“That doesn’t count.”
“I passed from the kitchen to get there.”
“Gege!”
Akira rolled back over to face the wall, trying to pull the blanket with him only for Honey to grab it just in time.

“It’s not any good for you to be spending all your time in here.”
“I still have some money from Icarus. I’ll get a job soon.”
“I don’t care about you getting a job.”

Akira glanced over his shoulder. Honey was folding the blanket haphazardly and standing in the doorway. She lifted it to her nose a second before quickly pulling away. Akira chewed his lip. He wasn’t used to being so involved with the cleaning. Sure, he’d cleaned plenty, it was the least he could do, but usually he would be reminded about things like the futons by the commanding voice of…

He curled tighter in on himself.

“Gege.”

The blanket made a soft plap as it hit the floor and Honey sat down beside him, gently rubbing his arm.

“Don’t you want to see Kagome-san?”

Akira pulled in tighter, trying to keep her from seeing his face.

“I don’t need a roommate anymore; I already have you.”
“Yeah, but I’m your sister, not your boyfriend.”

Akira grabbed her shoulders, the movement so swift that he almost head-butted her.
“What did you-”
“Gege, you stink. We need to go to the baths,” she said, trying to pull away, but Akira’s grip tightened to hold her in place.
“How did you?”
“You can go to the bath, and I’ll clean your room actually.” She kept looking at his futon even though he was right in front of her.

“Honey.”
“Hm? What?” Her voice was starting to sound choked as she continued to hold her breath.
“How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That Shou-chan and I… That we were…”

Honey wiggled her way free of his grasp, gasping for air as she pulled away.
“Gege-”
“Honey.”

She finally looked back at him; face suddenly blank before the light finally caught her eyes.
“When I was- when I was Sakura. When we were living together. It was obvious.”

Akira fell back on his ankles, gaze landing on a random spot on the floorboards. A single dark mark, stained into the wood.

It was obvious.

SHOU-CHAN HADN’T LET HIM KISS HIM AT HOME AND IT HAD BEEN OBVIOUS.

All the kisses he could have got if only Shou-chan knew that it was obvious and there was no point hiding-

How come it was obvious to her and no one else? All he’d endured and the one person they’d really tried to hide it from was the one person who found out.

The world continued to play a sick joke on Kozuka Akira.

Right. It did, didn’t it?

“Honey,” Akira mumbled, unable to stop himself from biting his lip. “Shou-chan is dead.”

He couldn’t bring himself to meet her eye.

“There was no one to save him when he fell. I wasn’t there, so.
“I had wanted to see him after we moved in, but I looked him up and found out.”

Honey said nothing. He continued to stare at that spot on the floor. Ever since he’d found out, he just hadn’t known what to do with himself. Eventually, he’d have to get a job to support Honey but he just didn’t have the energy now. He couldn’t even get out of bed, never mind write. Then again, who knew if anyone would publish him after all that happened. He’d probably be better off as a thug, but then he still had to look after Honey.

Those thoughts had been spinning in his brain and coming up empty until he hated himself for doing nothing.

“Gege.” Honey got to her feet, her shoes just in his vision. “You’re stupid.”
“Huh?” Akira snapped up, a pain suddenly striking his chest as she frowned at him.
“We’re dead too, and we’re fine.”
“Ah, but we were dead on the other side, Shou-chan is-”
“Plenty of people who were dead on this side are fine now though.”
“Huh?”

They were?

“Gege, I told you; you need to get out more. Yuki-san from next door was dead here too and he’s fine.”

How?

“If you’d actually talked to people you’d know these things. Everyone who came back to life talks about it all the time.”

Which means…

“Honey, I got to go!”
“Hold it!” Before he could make it into the corridor, Honey grabbed the back of his shirt, almost pulling him flat on his back with the force. “Bath first.”
“Right.”