Needle and Thread - Oumasai

His eye hurts

Shuichi watched in horror as the fire distorted their faces, twisting and turning their genuine happy faces into ones that looked similar to monsters.

The flames continued along the photo strip, more of their smiles disappearing forever into ashes. Shuichi caught glimpse that the final photo, the one that they had kissed in.. was still unharmed. The fire kept spreading downwards quicker than it had originally and Shuichi made a split second decision.

He could not let that photo be destroyed.

Even if the others were.. even despite what his uncle would do to him.. he could not let this be engulfed in flames.

He launched himself forward, tacking his uncle's hand away from the photo strip. When the older man attempted to retaliate, Shuichi pulled his fist back and brought it crashing back down on the side of his uncle's face. The older man stumbled backwards, losing his footing completely due to him not being prepared.

The one remaining photo fell to the floor; Shuichi scrambled down onto his knees to pick it up, but found that it was still smouldering. Without another thought of the consequences, he pressed the top of it against his palm and scraped it across his skin to put out the fire.

The skin blistered quickly, used to being burnt multiple times before. Saihara let out a small whimper of pain, but still tightly held the photo close. After a few more moments, he uncurled his hand to see the damage on the picture. The top was singed, but overall, apart from a darkening in colour, it seemed to be rather unscathed.

He slipped the photo into his pocket and looked towards the stairs. He started to run but a hand grabbed his ankle, making him trip and smash his head down against the wooden floor.

"You're not going anywhere," he man spoke in a low tone.

Shuichi turned his head around, his breath picking up drastically. He watched in terror, no words were able to come out of his mouth, as his uncle dragged himself closer to him, his dark shadow drooping over, and raised a strong fist.

"YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE FAGGOT!"

'BAM!' The fist was brought down heavily into Shuichi's eye.

When he went for another punch, the navy haired boy managed to kick him roughly, scraping his way up the stairs at an unimaginable speed.

He scrambled into his room, finally grabbing at his eye which was stinging profusely. Unfortunately he had no time to fix it, he only grabbed a longer jacket and ran for the window.

~~

"Sh-Shuichi...?"

Kaede peeked out of her window after hearing 5 minutes of loud bangs on her door. The female had an exhausted look on her face and was in her comfortable pajamas as she opened the door.

Once she had finally let the individual in, she mumbled, "W-what are you doing here...? It's almost midnight..."

Saihara opened his mouth to speak, but Akamatsu let out a small shriek, "What happened to you??? W-who gave you that black ey-"

"I-I'm okay, Kaede. Don't worry about it."

"You're not okay! Have you seen yourself?! We need to sort something out!"

Shuichi only swayed where he was standing, not having enough strength to move. It was taking all his effort just to remain standing. She let out a sigh after a long period of silence, "Take off your jacket, wearing something that's been in the rain will only make you feel worse."

Saihara slowly slipped off his jacket and handed it Kaede without thinking. The blonde student gasped and examined his injuries more, staring at the bandages on his arms, the burn marks on his palm, the bruises on his legs.

She focused her attention more on his hand, "I-...um....don't think I have anything for a burn l-like that....should I bring you to the hospital?"

"No! No don't..." Shuichi spoke with the small amount of energy that he could muster up, "Please.. I can't....I need to be here for him.."

Kaede tilted her head in confusion, deciding to brush of the 'him' for now, "But..you're really hur-"

"I want...to rest..please. I d-don't.. mind where.. j-ust anywhere.. please.."

Akamatsu let out a defeated sigh and gave in to the male's wishes. She lead him down the hallway towards the guest room and watched him collapse on the bed. She glanced back at him one last time before closing the door and letting him sleep.

~~

The next morning rolled around. Kaede softly knocked on the guest room door with a plate of pancakes in her hands. Saihara let out a yawn and walked over to let her in; Once he did, Akamatsu extended her hands out to give him the plate, "Here, my dad made them."

"Oh.. that's nice," he mumbled tiredly and took the meal, "Does he know that I'm here?"

The female shook her head and spoke as Shuichi began to eat, "I didn't want him to see the state that you're in..."

The navy-blue haired male didn't respond, too focused on the breakfast that he was devouring. Kaede waited a bit before asking a question, "Why did you come to my house? I mean, I rejected your feelings.. and made you feel awful.... Was there really no other place to go?"

Shuichi nodded and walked over to the bed to sit on it, "I never want to see Rantaro ever again."

Kaede followed him over, "Oh? Well..what about Kai-"

"I'll never forgive him for hurting my soulmate."

Kaede was left with a bunch of thoughts cluttering her mind, but she eventually formed another question, "Who would that be..? Y-your soulmate I mean."

The tall male went quiet at first, recalling yesterday's events. The beach, the kiss, the burnt photos that he nearly lost all of. Shuichi's eyes quickly watered, "I-I-I want to see them....I want to hold them so badly.."

His tears streamed down his cheek, "I m-miss them so much...b-but they c-can't....they c-can't see me like this.."

The girl bit her lip nervously, unsure of how to deal with her crying, injured friend. She decided to repeat her previous question, "What's her name...?"

Saihara lifted his face up to give her a blank, cold stare with tears in the corners of his eyes, "His name is Kokichi."

Kaede's face slightly drained of colour, extremely embarrassed by her mistake. "O-Oh.. well, that's f-fine.."

Shuichi grimaced, beginning to feel the anger dwell in him. "I don't need your opinion on whether it's alright or not."

She waved her hands around defensively, "T-That's not what I meant to say! You know that I'll always support you!" Shuichi exhaled sharply, knowing that it was just an innocent question and that she didn't have any ill intentions.

"It's fine. Thanks for letting me stay over, but I should probably leave now..." Saihara stood up from the bed, his head slightly spinning from standing up too fast.

Kaede nodded, catching his shoulder with her hand, "I didn't mean anything by it! I'm sure K.. he's a great guy! What's his rank?"

The navy blue-haired male flinched at that question. His fingers curled around the sides of the plate he was holding, looking as though he was prepared to break it.

"I. Should. Really. Go. Now."

"B-But.." She picked up on his sudden change in tone, "Did I say something wrong?"

Saihara refused to answer her after that, leaving the plate on the mattress and passing by her to get to the door. He walked past the other rooms and left the house without another word said.

He felt raindrop on his head, but he was fuming with so much anger, he didn't care. Glancing down at his red string from time to time, he knew that there was only one place he wanted to go.

There was only one place where he had to go.