Jun stumbled on his feet, almost falling flat on his face. However, he felt small hands grab his weak, and flailing arm, and the other, wound around his small waist. Trying not to strain his bruised neck, he slowly turned his head around and used his good eyes to see who it was. All he remembered seeing was a concerned look on his face, and his brown eyes staring at his distorted face. He was unable to mutter out the words ‘let go’ as his mind swirled in many colors and switched off on its own...

“--un...Jun, wake up please...”

He woke up to the sound of someone shaking him and calling his name desperately in his sleep. He only caught a small glimpse of who it was before closing his eyes again because of the pain coming back to his body. The last thing he remembered was being saved by his weak friend after he had gotten into a bad fight against four older boys from his school. He hated it when his friend came to his rescue. It only made him look like the weak one despite being the savior of his friend who was always the one being bullied.

“Please, Jun... I’m sorry I got you into this mess...”

“No you didn’t,” he grumbled through his split lips, “I was just...trying to save you...”

“I didn’t need it! I could fight on my own.”

“No you can’t,” he argued, “I always come to your rescue.”

“Fine,” his friend sighed in defeat, “but allow me to bring you home. I’ll call your parents and tell them you sleeping over.”

Jun grunted in reply and let his friend grab his arm and swing it over his shoulder. His legs were pretty stable but his body felt so weak he could pass out again in his arms. By the time he realized it, he was gently placed on his friend’s futon and his wounds were being dressed carefully by his friend’s hamburger like fingers.

“Thanks, Kazu,” He mumbled, turning painfully to his side so his back was facing his worried friend, “Thanks...”

“Anytime, J,” He heard him mumble under his breath before passing out cold again from the pain taking over his body.

He woke with a start, his body still in pain as he suddenly sat up. His whole body was sweating and he felt uncomfortable with the clothes he had on yesterday, all bloodied up and almost ripped from getting beat up. He lifted his arms up to take his clothes off, but realized he couldn’t move his right arm as it was being held by something soft and moist. Looking down, he saw his friend sleeping but his eyebrows were knit together like he was having a nightmare. He wriggled his friend’s arm free from under his body, and tried smiling when he realized his friend was tightly holding his bandaged hand. He didn’t want to wake him up just because he felt uncomfortable and instead laid back down, and faced his small friend. Using his left arm, he swung it around Nino’s small body, and pulled him closer until his forehead was touching his.

“Thanks, Kazu,” he whispered to his sleeping friend. He didn’t expect an answer any longer and just closed his eyes before going back to sleep again.

The two of them woke up a few hours later at the same time, with the was sun shining down on them from the skylight on the roof. Both of them stretched while yawning, their small hands still intertwined together. Jun felt a little bit better after smelling the warm fragrance of green tea seeping from the small gap under Nino’s door, and his friend who was now sitting up and grinning at him with half of his teeth.

Jun tried to hold back his laughter. His friend has recently been losing his teeth while all of his was complete in his mouth. The more his friend’s eyes went wide and his grin was touching his small ears, Jun opened his mouth and let out a round of laughter as tears came running out of his eyes.

“Hey...” Kazu pouted, “It’s not funny. You’ll lose your teeth too...”

“I know,” he chuckled and used his left hand to weakly punch him on the shoulder, “But it’s funny if it’s Kazu.”

“Well...” Kazu paused, his smile slowly coming back to his face, “As long as J feels better, then I don’t care if you make fun of me.”

After he’s gotten his laughter out of his system, Kazu helped him to his feet and the both of them were slowly making their way downstairs without letting go of each other’s hands. Kazu told him to stay behind him as he peeked over the edge of the wall leading to their kitchen, and he gave a signal a second later to follow him. He did as he was told and they both tip-toed their way to the sink. Kazu’s mom was there, whistling a tune from their favorite show while washing the dishes in the sink. As the two of them were raising their arms in the air, ready to give Kazu’s mom a scare in the morning, instead she turned around and water was being sprayed all over them.

“Mom!” Kazu whined while he covered his exposed face with his right arm.

“You aren’t getting me this time, you brats,” She snickered, refusing to stop showering them with cold water.

Jun liked this part of the morning whenever he stayed with the Ninomiya’s. As soon as they woke up, they always scared his mom in the kitchen who in turn didn’t give them her cooked food for being spoiled brats. Kazu relentlessly whined for the food while ushering Jun to do that same. He was very shy at first, but he got used to the idea every time he stayed over. So eventually, Kazu’s mom gave up and gave them their breakfast. Today was different. She must have already known they were there since they had been doing this for as long as he can remember.

“Alright, I’ll stop,” She finally told them though their clothes were already soaked, “Go take a shower and breakfast will be ready by then.”

“Yes!” The both of them screamed military style in unison as Kazu held his hand tightly and dragged him to the bathroom. As if Kazu’s mom already knew this was going to happen, there were two sets of fresh clothes on top of the dirty clothes basket one for him and Nino. He guessed his was the purple set because Nino liked wearing yellow colored clothes. At first he thought that Kazu liking the color yellow was weird, but he became used to the fact that his friend refused to wear other colors but that. However seeing him in yellow clothes make him look like a human banana.

They finally released each other’s hands deciding that they should take a bath before anything worse happened. It took him a while to take his clothes off because of his wounds, but with Kazu’s help, he found himself soaking along with Kazu who was in the opposite side of him.

“Say Kazu,” He mumbled while soaking his weak body into the milky white water, “I should have been the one saving you. Our positions changed...”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kazu shrugged, “As long as we have each others back, then we’ll be helping each other up.”

“Hmm...” Jun hummed in response. The more he thought about Kazu’s words he felt like him being the savior all the time made it look like Nino was just a person he befriended just because he saved him countless of times. Now that he thought about it, it was also Kazu’s turn to help him even if he didn’t need it.

Jun moved his hands under the water until he finally found his friend’s hand. Grabbing it with all his might, and linked their fingers together again and they stayed like that until Kazu’s mom called for them.

“Are you sure you’re ok, Jun-chan?” Kazu’s mom asked him with obvious concern in her voice.

Other than being such a nice woman to him, Jun felt like Kazu’s mom was his mom too. He was glad for that because his mom was barely home to treat him the way Kazu’s mom treated his short friend.

He nodded his head and continued eating the bacon that was supposed to be the mouth of their smiling breakfast. Though she kept asking him millions of question like a concerned mom, and Jun just nodded or shook his head depending on what the question was. After he and Kazu finished their breakfast, he and his friend headed out to the backyard where he and Kazu always liked to hang out.

As he sat down on the terrace stairs and leaned his body on the railing, he watched his friend run around like crazy, claiming that he found a bunch of bugs to play with the day before. He just sat there, watching his smiling and toothless friend run around the grass as the hot sun shined brightly above them. Jun looked up. He could partially see the roof covering the terrace but otherwise the skies were as clear as his mind. Breathing in the fresh air, he finally stood up from his spot and walked alongside Kazu who was as calm as the silent wind.

Jun tapped him on the shoulder but the latter didn’t turn around. “Kazu...Do you think it will stay like this forever?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like this,” he opened his arms wide to emphasize what he was talking about.

“Well yeah, since it is my house,” Kazu nodded, “But your wounds shouldn’t, I think they’ll go away after a few weeks or something like that.”

Jun chuckled at his friend’s simple-minded answer and in turn received a death glare. He shook his head, telling him through facial expressions that it was nothing. When Kazu finally understood, he went back to balancing on the ledge, almost falling on the flower bed but Jun saved him by grabbing his arm firmly.

“Be careful,” he warned.

“I will, and you’re not my mother so don’t care.”

Jun rolled his eyes. “You’re my friend and I should care.”

“Whatever,” Kazu scoffed, “Go back under the shade and don’t mind me. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Now who’s the mom?” Jun teased, ducking down when Kazu threw a handful of Earth in his direction. Sticking his tongue out, he his heel and did as he was told. Just like before, Jun rested his weak body against the railing and looked up the clear, blue skies.

TBC