From Blue Sky - Chapter 3/15

[h_itoshi]

Title: From Blue Sky
Status: 3/15
Fandom: Hey! Say! JUMP
Pairing: None. Main characters are Yabu, Hikaru, Yamada and Chinen.
Overall rating: PG-15 for minor character death and depictions of violence
Warnings: AU. I made Chinen 11 years old which is what the plot revolves around.
Wordcount: 3611

Summary: "He's a cute boy, isn't he?" Takaki says, his voice dangerously low as his eyes follow the young boy, probably around ten years old, walking next to his classy mother and seemingly trying to nag her into something. "I think he'd be even cuter lying at my feet with his throat sliced."

Notes: This is inspired by the Mayonaka no Shadow boy PV and a movie which I won't admit to ripping the plot from until someone calls me on it. I love the atmosphere of the PV and wanted to write something similar to it, and I've had this plot lying around for years, so I thought it was finally time. I'm planning on posting twice a week if you want to stick around~

 

Hikaru shivers at the cold of the boy's body against his back, the fabric of his own shirt soaked, and it glues to his skin and itches. He's not quite sure what happened back there, but he knows right from wrong and leaving a child to die is not right.

Yabu's quiet, even quieter than he was before, and Hikaru glances back to see that strange guy following them still.

”Yabu-chan.” Hikaru says carefully. ”Why is he following us?”

Yabu purses his lips and glances back again, before casting Hikaru a vigilant look. ”I'm not sure but I don't trust him. How is he?”

Hikaru shifts a little when he feels the small body on his back start sliding down a little. ”Still cold.”

They're back in town, but it's past midnight and there aren't many people out. They've only encountered a group of teenagers who were definitely more drunk than sober, and Hikaru's happy for that.

”I think he's pretty?” Hikaru tries, glancing back at their follower again, the young brunette with the round face and big eyes.

”Yes, way too pretty to be any good.” Yabu says, and Hikaru just tilts his head, because he's never had problems with pretty before.

”Poor Yabu-chan, you must have been unlucky with your girlfriends.” Hikaru says, smiling compassionately, knowingly, but Yabu just groans.

”I haven't! Just... How can you even think about that now?” Yabu frowns, and Hikaru almost thinks he's blushing a little, but then he freezes and his eyes widen. “Police.”

Hikaru looks ahead, and sees a police car slowly driving along the street crossing theirs, only a couple hundred metres before them.

“Told you they were everywhere.” A voice says just behind Hikaru and he almost jumps, turning to look at their follower, who calmly looks between Yabu and Hikaru with the tiniest hint of a smile on his lips.

“Never said we didn't believe you?” Hikaru tries a smile, but he sees Yabu's resolute face next to him and wonders what will happen now.

There's the sound of sirens in the distance, and their follower cocks an eyebrow, quietly saying “I told you so.”

“Fine. Come on.” Yabu says after another half minute of glaring at their follower, and then turns to head across the street and onto the next crossing one, and Hikaru recognizes the route back to the hotel. He can't help but feel a little worried about the boy, but he can feel him breathe at least.

They reach the hotel without meeting anyone but a half blind old man, but they see another police car and Hikaru notices how they all hurry their steps.

Once they step inside, Yabu reaches over to grab the upper arm of their follower, whose eyes widen and he looks ready to fight, but Yabu just tugs his own jacket up over the boy's shoulders with his left hand.

“Walk with me and help me cover them from view.” Yabu orders, and the follower tugs his arm free with a glare, but does as he's told.

They get past the reception smoothly, as the receptionist seems busy doing something behind the desk and barely looks up.

Once they're in the elevator, Hikaru finally acknowledges his back hurting a lot, and so he lets the boy slip off with a sigh, taking him in his arms instead. “Yabu-chan, it's a shame you're so skinny or you could carry him some.”

Yabu's dark eyes narrow and he glares at Hikaru. “I'm not skinny.”

Their follower makes a face that seems to be concerned disbelief, and it looks so funny Hikaru smiles.

The elevator doors open on their floor, and Yabu walks up to his own door and unlocks it, letting them all inside before closing it behind him.

Yabu shoves their follower aside and opens the bathroom door. “We need to get him warm. Run a bath.”

Hikaru nods, and enters the tiny bathroom where he sets the boy down on the floor to lean against the bathtub and starts the water, turning it up as hot as he dares. He looks at the boy silently, at his small face and tousle of black hair that's pretty long for being eleven years old.

“You'll need to undress him.” Yabu's voice says sternly, and Hikaru jerks, looking up to see Yabu leaning against the doorpost, keeping his eyes fixed on their follower as if to make sure he doesn't move an inch.

“Right, right, make some effort yourself.” Hikaru rolls his eyes as if Yabu's nagging, but gets to work undressing the boy, peeling off cold wet garments until there's only skin left, and lifts him enough to place him in the bathtub that's now half full. The water's really hot, but not enough to burn, and Hikaru figures that works. He sits down on the edge of the bathtub, keeping a hand on the boy's shoulder to make sure he stays above the surface, lets his head rest on Hikaru's thigh.

Yabu glances at him, and seems to assess his work done well enough as he turns to their follower again with anew suspicion.

“Who are you?” He demands, voice harsh, and Hikaru tilts his head because it sounds dangerous. He's not scared though. He knows Yabu's a good person. “Don't give me shit or I'm reporting this to the police right now.”

Their follower raises his hands protectively, his heavy leather jacket making a sound at the movement. “No need to yell. I'm Yamada. And I happen to have an interest in bringing this boy to his father rather than the police.”

“Hi Yamada.” Hikaru smiles, happy to be able to pair a name with his face, and waves his free hand lazily. “I'm Hikaru, this is Yabu-chan.”

Yamada gives him an odd look, but Hikaru's used to those so it doesn't bother him. He turns back to the boy, and he's relieved to find that the pale body's warming up, and his skin that's under the surface of the hot water is tinted pink.

“... Any particular reason you want that?” Yabu continues his hearing, and Hikaru leans forward to be able to see Yamada through the open door.

He makes an unimpressed face that doesn't fail to flatter his features. “I think we both know I can't answer that. Let's just say it's personal.”

Yabu crosses his arms and looks at the boy, looks at the head on Hikaru's thigh for one long second, and Hikaru realizes he's been stroking the boy's hair.

“Is there a particular reason you won't let me take him?” Yamada asks, making Yabu turn back to look at him.

“... Honestly, I just don't like you.” Yabu says, and Hikaru snorts a laugh even though the situation clearly isn't funny.

He gets another odd look from Yamada, but Yabu doesn't even acknowledge him.

“You're not the first one.” Yamada shrugs a shoulder, seeming bored with the conversation.

Yabu looks like he's about to say something, but then Hikaru feels the head on his thigh move a little, followed by a small, quiet whine. All eyes immediately move to the boy, but he stays still after the little sound, doesn't wake up, and Hikaru continues petting his hair.

“So, what are we gonna do?” He asks, looking between Yabu and Yamada expectantly.

Yabu sighs and rubs his forehead in annoyance. “Well, now we've already taken him, so I guess going to the police won't make us popular.”

“Exactly.” Yamada encourages. “So he should be brought to his father. I could bring him.”

“You're not having him.” Yabu almost growls, and Hikaru's a little surprised at how fierce he is.

“Aw, Yabu-chan, you do like us.” Hikaru says softly, tilting his head towards the boy, and Yabu just rolls his eyes.

“Then what do you plan on doing?” Yamada asks, after a long, calculating look at Hikaru and the boy.

“We'll bring him to his dad.” Hikaru suggests. “It'll be great, we can be like a little family.”

Yabu looks disgusted at the idea. “... I guess there aren't many other options than taking him to his dad. But we will be nothing like a family!”

“And do you know where his dad is?” Yamada asks, an eyebrow rising and a tiny smirk playing at the corners of his lips, like he knows he's winning.

“Yes, since you'll help with that.” Yabu says so firmly Yamada looks surprised, but then crosses his arms with a satisfied smirk.

“We just need to get some life into the kid.” Yabu sighs, and he looks genuinely concerned now, biting his lip a little, and it becomes him, makes him look less harsh.

“He's probably exhausted. Maybe he wakes in the morning?” Hikaru suggests, twirling a black strand between his fingers. “It's late anyway.”

“It is.” Yabu agrees. “Someone should sleep with him so that he won't be cold.”

Yamada's face of shock is a little comical, making Hikaru laugh and shrug. “I'll do it. If he can have some dry clothes.”

Yabu leaves the room, and returns with what looks like a blue flannel pyjamas.

“Are those yours?” Hikaru laughs as Yabu sets them down on the toilet seat. “He's not even half as tall as you, he'll disappear!”

“He won't be cold.” Yabu says, and then exits the room. “Fix him up.”

He closes the door behind him, and Hikaru just shrugs, looking down at the boy and smiles a little, happy with the new people he's met. They're not Inoo and Keito, but they're interesting.

 

~*~

 

Yabu closes the bathroom door behind him and gives the guy, Yamada, a long hard look.

He reminds Yabu of a certain kind of guys he used to know, which makes Yabu pretty sure there's a reason he's wearing such a big jacket.

“What?” Yamada asks after a moment, sounding annoyed as he crosses his arms.

“I still don't trust you.” Yabu says calmly, clearly, and heads for his bed to move away some of his belongings.

This business trip surely didn't turn out the way he'd expected it to, and he knows he won't get home to his cat for another few days. But the desperation in the mother's eyes is burnt onto the back of his eyelids and he can't shake it like he could years ago. And it's true, he doesn't trust this pretty boy at all, especially not with the life of a child.

“I don't need you to.” Yamada says, having followed Yabu silently, now standing at the edge of the bed and looking at Yabu thoughtfully.

Yabu hears the water start running down the drain in the bathroom, and he neatly picks away his book and business papers from the duvet, head spinning with thoughts of what happens now and a feeling of surrealism about what occurred tonight. He remembers Hikaru's bloody clothes and goes to his suitcase to get him something to change into.

Yamada stands silently watching him, leaning against the desk attached to the wall, and it gets on Yabu's nerves to have eyes on him like this.

“What are you doing?” He asks, not looking up at the man who's definitely younger than himself.

There's a moment of silence, but when Yamada speaks there's a smirk in his voice. “Watching you. Who are you, some kind of business man?”

“No.” Yabu answers, even less interested in questions from this man than from Hikaru.

“You seem like it. What does this boy have to do with you?” Yamada goes on, just as the bathroom door opens and Hikaru walks out with the boy in his arms, and he really looks like he's drowning in Yabu's pyjamas, head on Hikaru's shoulder.

“It's really big.” Hikaru says as he gently dumps the boy onto the covers in a way that makes Yabu wonder if Hikaru has a child of his own, just like when he played with the boy's hair. He kind of wants to ask, but then frowns, reminding himself that he doesn't care anyway. Hikaru's annoying.

Yabu doesn't reply to the comment, but hands Hikaru the sweatpants and T-shirt he found in his packing. “Here. Wear this.”

“Ohh, for me?” Hikaru's eyes widen as he accepts the clothes, and then glances at Yamada in disbelief, as if he'd confirm they're really for him. “Good thing Yabu-chan has so many clothes.”

His voice is almost a sing-song tone, but he lays the clothes on the bed next to the boy and tugs his own shirt over his head, jacket already discarded somewhere.

Yabu looks away, even though he's not sure why, as Hikaru changes, averts his eyes to Yamada instead, who in turn is watching Hikaru with mild interest.

There really is something off about this Yamada, Yabu thinks. He looks like a kitten among tigers in a way, his soft brown hair and round face making him look barely twenty, but his clothing and posture tells something else about him, that he's confident and most likely dangerous. His looks really bother Yabu, because no matter where he belongs, he looks too innocent to be anything but lethal.

Hikaru's sigh of relief as he sits down on the bed breaks Yabu's train of thoughts, and he looks over as Hikaru manages to manoeuvre himself and the boy under the covers, tugging the boy closer, holding him to his chest.

“Ah it's been a while since I slept in a bed.” Hikaru says contentedly, cuddling closer to the boy, but then his eyes widen and he sits up in concern. “But hey where are you both sleeping?”

Yamada smiles superiorly, and when he meets Yabu's eyes, he knows that Yamada sees just as much as Yabu can see in him, and it's clear they won't sleep, busy keeping watch on each other.

“There's a chair here, and a chair over there.” Yabu says after a few moments, when Hikaru starts to wriggle around and claim that at least one more should fit in the bed.

Yamada pointedly jumps up to sit on the desk instead of the chair, leaning his head against the mirror and watches Yabu sit down in the armchair.

“You sleep Hikaru, we'll have to wake up in a couple of hours.” Yabu says, calmly, and Yamada nods in agreement.

It takes a little while for Hikaru to fall asleep, but he does, holding the boy like a teddy bear, and Yabu's not convinced he won't choke him.

“Your boyfriend's pretty cute.” Yamada comments, voice low but mocking.

“He's not my boyfriend, I only met him yesterday.” Yabu answers, keeping his voice calm but bitingly cold.

“Could have fooled me.” Yamada shrugs. “Guess we have a couple of long hours ahead of us. Got something to drink?”

 

~*~

 

Yamada wakes with a jerk at a touch to his knee, the empty glass rolling out of his hand and onto the desk with a heavy clunk. He's already got a hand on the gun under his jacket when his mind catches up with the situation and he can finally see what touched him.

The boy, Chinen Yuri, stands before him on the floor with a small hand on his knee, the flannel pyjamas so long it's in bulks on his arm.

Yamada relaxes a little, quickly pulls his hand back out and blinks once to see better, and as he glances up, he sees Hikaru still sleeping but Yabu's blinking awake, probably from the sound of Yamada's glass.

“Who are you?” The boy asks, and his voice is a bit shrill even though he sounds curious. That's just his voice, Yamada figures. “Where is this?”

Yamada opens his mouth and then closes it again, not sure what to answer to those questions. Even though it sounds stupid, he wasn't prepared to have to deal with the boy awake. At least not be woken by him. He's got a slim face, lots of messy black hair and big eyes, and looks a bit like any eleven year old boy. Maybe a little shorter.

The hand on Yamada's knee pushes a little, as if urging him to answer.

“Who are you?” The boy asks again, and he frowns a little in frustration at not getting an answer.

Yabu coughs once as he wakes up properly, making the boy turn around to look at him, and Yamada moves his leg away so that the little hand slips off of it. He's not very fond of physical contact, and not very fond of children.

The boy looks at Yabu for a moment, and then turns back to Yamada, pointing at Yabu. “Who's he?”

Yamada wonders why the boy turns to him of all three of them, but this question he can answer. “... Yabu.”

“Doesn't he have a first name?” The boy insists, and Yamada shrugs.

“You'll have to ask him.”

The boy turns to Yabu. “Don't you have a first name?”

Yabu blinks, but sits up straighter in the armchair, rubbing his forehead a little. “I'm Yabu Kota.”

Yamada almost feels something in his brain click into place as he hears the name, but he plays it cool and watches the boy instead. Chinen just looks at Yabu, curiously, but his eyes are demanding, like someone who's used to getting answers when he wants them.

“What's your name?” Yabu asks as he looks at the boy again, and Yamada sees the boy's eyes widen in surprise at himself, clearly reminding him of something his parents have taught him as he bows and answers politely. “Chinen Yuri, pleased to meet you.”

Yamada almost smiles because he looks ridiculous with that huge pyjamas pooling around him, jacket hanging down to his knees, but then Chinen turns to look at Yamada again. “Who are you?”

“He's Yamada.” Yabu answers, and the look he gives Yamada over the boy's head doesn't lack irony.

“Don't you have a first name?” Chinen asks, scrutinizing Yamada like he can see his first name by just looking at him.

Yamada frowns, not exactly comfortable sharing it. “None of your business, is it?”

The boy looks a little surprised, but not very bothered by the hard tone, and he crosses his small arms. “Then I shouldn't have told you mine.”

Yamada looks at the boy for a few moments, before exchanging an incredulous look with Yabu.

“Where are we?” Chinen goes on, and sits down on the bed where he's pushed the covers away when getting up, arms still crossed. “Are you security guys? Where's my mom?”

Yabu looks a little startled, mirroring Yamada's feelings, because they'd all probably thought there would be some time to plan what to tell the kid.

“Who's he?” Chinen asks as he scoots up on the bed and his back hits Hikaru's thigh. “I don't think he's a security guy. They don't usually sleep in my bed.”

Yamada nearly makes an embarrassing sound because of the unknown implications in that statement, but keeps his face neutral.

Yabu stands up and moves around the bed to shake Hikaru's shoulder, but he just gives a loud snore and turns over, mumbling something about “Keito go get your macaroni”, and Chinen looks like he wants to laugh but doesn't know if he should. Yabu rolls his eyes and shakes Hikaru more firmly.

“Hikaru. Wake up.” Yabu snaps, and Hikaru's eyes blink open, expression confused.

He sits up with a groan and Yabu retreats to his armchair, but doesn't sit down, just stands next to it.

“What time is it?” Hikaru yawns, and then glances around and jumps when he sees Chinen sitting by his hip, peering curiously at him with head tilted. “Whow! You're awake!”

Chinen frowns. “How long was I sleeping? Who are you?”

“Oh.” Hikaru blinks at him, and then looks between Yabu and Yamada once. “Hey, I'm Hikaru. We found you yesterday and you were really cold and unconscious so I've been warming you up.”

Hikaru explains, and Chinen's frown deepens.

“That sounds weird. And don't you have a last name?”

“What's the obsession with full names?” Yamada can't help himself, because he's so used to people calling themselves things that aren't their own names, even real names, that it feels too personal to get all full names now.

“My mom says you should always introduce yourself with your full name.” Chinen says, some superiority in his tone that makes Yamada want to grab his collar and punch him in the face.

“Yeah, of course I have one.” Hikaru grins. “It's Yaotome. Yaotome Hikaru. What's your name?”

Chinen introduces himself again, not quite as politely as he's sitting crosslegged on the bed, but Hikaru makes a face at it.

“Too formal. I'll call you Chii.”

Chinen's mouth falls open in surprise, but he doesn't get a chance to say something before Yabu interrupts.

“Chinen-kun, your own clothes are in the bathroom, why don't you go change into those?”

The boy glances at Yabu and then back at Hikaru, but he seems used to be told what to do without explanation, since he slips off the bed and gathers the pyjamas enough to walk before trotting off towards the bathroom.

Yabu waits for the bathroom door to close before he hisses what they're all thinking.

“Great, what the hell do we tell him now?!”

 

~*~

 

 

Chapter 2

Chapter 4

Comments

[sanadas-sanity.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh I've been waiting for Chinen to wake up since the fic started and he's so sassy asking everyone for their full names. I love it.

And Yamada recognizing Yabu from his full name but it not 100% clicking. I'm still heavily interested in what his backstory is plus what Hikaru was doing before Inoo and Keito ditched him.

Also they really should have figured out their plan last night to tell Chinen. Come on guys xD

I seriously can't wait until the next update for this story. Hands down it's my favorite part of the week when I see you've updated it

[h-itoshi.livejournal.com]

Thank you!!
I figured that since I cut half of Chinen's age he could at least keep his sass haha.

I really love your comments so I'm happy you enjoy reading~ <3