What No One Knows
By Apapazukamori
Arashi had been furious when she'd found the fake ID lying under the unassuming brown bag. Sorata had tried to laugh it off, adding in the usual light teasing and not so subtle flirting. She'd been so upset with them that she'd refused to even consider the offer to participate. Sorata was honestly sorry she refused; she would have been fun to wheedle secrets out of.
"Sorata-saaaan," Yuzuriha slurred, waving her hand in front of his face, a dark pink blush painting her cheeks. "Your tuuuurn!" She giggled, offering him the squat bottle of amber liquid.
Sorata grinned at her, his head spinning with that happy little buzz just on the edge of full-on intoxication. He hadn't been surprised that Yuzuriha had jumped at the idea of playing the game; she was as interested in having a bit of mindless fun as he was.
For the past few months, even their unshakable morale had plummeted as events had gone from bad to really bad. No one had seen Subaru for quite some time. They'd had almost daily attacks on kekkai and weekly appearances by Sorata's absolute least favorite person in the world, the guy who cheerfully sent Kamui to the hospital covered in blood and tears.
Not to mention that all four of them -- himself, Yuzuriha, Arashi and Kamui -- were systematically failing their classes due to poor attendance and just not caring anymore. Sorata had thought for a while that school was a joke; given his fate, he wouldn't be around to graduate anyhow. But their last progress reports had been abysmal and the other three had been shocked. Even Kamui, who'd been absent more than half the semester, had been surprised at how low his grades were. The Chairman, Imonoyama-san, assured them that it was no big deal; they would not be kicked out of school. Still, combined with everything else, it was sort of depressing.
Nodding his thanks, Sorata took the bottle and tipped it back, letting the alcohol burn down his throat. They'd finished off the whiskey an hour ago and moved on to the bourbon. Sorata liked this one better. "Okay," he declared, setting the bottle on the floor with a satisfying thump. "I think I'm up for something happy." He paused, pretending to think long and hard about his topic of choice. They'd picked up the game from a pair of girls giggling in the back of the classroom during lunch break; said girls had also helped Sorata get a hold of the fake ID.
He and Yuzuriha had conspired to get Kamui and Arashi in on the game, but trying to get 'nee-chan to play after she'd prissily listed how many laws they'd broken was a complete no-go. Sorata didn't take it personally; she was just taking her stress out on them in a different way. Sorata laughed too loud, Yuzuriha overdosed on Pooky, Kamui sulked and Arashi got mad. "Let's hear about a favorite childhood memory."
Yuzuriha clapped, squealing that she'd go first as she took the bottle from Sorata and sipped delicately. Across the carpet, even Kamui appeared interested. Neither of them knew how drunk the violet-eyed boy really was, since he had said perhaps two full sentences since the game started. Their leader hadn't liked the topics and so had opted to take the alcohol rather than tell anything about himself. But now, they seemed to have hit on something Kamui was willing to talk about. He even managed a grin when Yuzuriha stumbled into her story.
"One time, Inuki and I found this huuuuuuuuuge waterfall, out behind our school." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "It was so big, I'll bet it was bigger than this house," she added, nodding with such a serious expression that Sorata started to laugh. She batted at him indignantly. "Mou, Sorata-san, it's my turn! Anyway, it was way way far out in the woods, so nobody believed me that it was really there. But we knew it was.
"One day, I got a few of my friends to come and see it with me. One of the kids almost fell down but Inuki saved him," she announced, beaming and clearly proud of her companion.
Sorata applauded the end of the story, cheering. Yuzuriha had always been concerned about her appearance of honesty. Since Inuki could only be seen by those associated with the end of the world, no one had ever believed her when she'd talked of the spirit dog. That he could do something so heroic, along with everyone validating this waterfall, was obviously why it was so wonderful a memory. "Great job, Yuzu-chan! Inuki the hero!" Off somewhere in the room, probably trying to avoid having his tail stepped on by three drunken fools, Inuki barked in response. Sorata gestured toward Kamui, questioning. "You wanna go next?"
Pausing a moment, Kamui nodded. Yuzuriha scooted closer to Kamui, openly interested as he declined the bourbon. Kamui kept his eyes averted, seeming to sway a little as he started to talk. "When I was little," he began. His voice was more than a little slurred, which Sorata found funny. Trust Kamui to have to be completely wasted before being able to open up to anyone but Subaru.
"Sometimes 'kaasan would send me over to play with Kotori... and... and Fuuma."
His lips turned up in a shy smile, as if reliving the memory in his mind without the burden of his current situation to turn it sad. "We would play all day and I would stay over most of the time. Uncle would set up a futon in Kotori's room… but sometimes…” Kamui flushed, biting his lip, seeming to become smaller as he continued. "I would sneak into Fuuma's room and he'd let me sleep with him. He told me that he would keep me safe from the dark."
The quiet that followed Kamui's memory seemed to hang on the air as Yuzuriha and Sorata processed what had been said. The story was... heartbreakingly cute. Yuzuriha was the first to say something, nearly tackling Kamui onto the floor in her rush to hug him. "That was nice, Kamui-saaaaaaan," she gushed, starting to giggle maniacally. Under the weight of her affection, Kamui didn't seem to know what to do with himself. Maybe he'd expected differently from them, and what he got sent him into confusion.
They were alerted to the fact that their noise had managed to reach disruptive proportions when they heard a quiet cough coming from the staircase. Sorata looked up, an apology on his lips, and paused as he realized that it wasn't Arashi or Aoki-san looking down at them, but Imonoyama-san himself. "Minna-san," he began in his affected but nonetheless shrewd manner. "Perhaps this would be a good time to wrap this up? You have school in the morning... and if I'm not mistaken," he added with a knowing sparkle in his blue eyes. "You all will need some time to recover from tonight?"
They hurried to clean everything up, all offering chagrined apologies even long after Imonoyama-san had gone. Inuki helped his mistress find her way to bed, while Sorata nudged Kamui along toward his room. Perhaps it was the fact that he was the Kamui, but the alcohol hadn't seemed to affect the boy's balance. He just seemed a little dazed as Sorata ushered him into the bedroom and bid him good night.
As he was closing the door, Sorata managed to catch a soft murmur slipping out of the lightless room.
"I've never been afraid of the dark."
What No One Knows DVD-style Commentary | Tokyo Babylon and X