Acacia

Chapter VII: 夢で会えたら

"I…I can't paint anymore."

His eyes widened as he looked over, "What? What do you mean?"

The blond curled up further, avoiding all eye-contact. "Well, not right at this moment, but soon, I don't think I'll be able to paint anymore. My eyes…I'm…what am I going to tell Satoshi, Dark?"

"I…"

Shaking his head, the other boy hastily stood up with an apologetic expression, "Sorry, I didn't mean to push any of this onto you. I should probably go now."

Without thinking, he leaned back, grasped the other's arm and blurted out, "just tell him the way you told me. If it's something this big, I think he'd appreciate the directness."

Letting out a sigh, he rolled onto his back and stared listlessly at the ceiling. His mind was reeling and he couldn't stop thinking back on the events that happened earlier. He hadn't been expecting anything like that at all. It was all so sudden and he didn't even know where to begin dealing with something so big.

It scared him.

Shivering slightly, he rolled back onto his stomach and hugged his pillow tightly. The more he thought about it the more confused he got. A part of him was angry at Krad for keeping it from him and a part of him was angry at himself for not being able to do anything. Squeezing his eyes shut, he wished everything would just go away and fix itself up.

"Hello? Yes, it's me. I'm afraid something's come up and I can't make it in tonight. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Yes. Yes, sir. Thank you for being so understanding. Yes, I'll see you tomorrow then. Goodbye."

Hanging up his phone, he looked up and frowned. Now he had the next few hours to himself to think and to sort everything out in his head. But where would be a good place to do all that? Without a plan in mind, he simply let his feet dictate his destination.

After dinner, instead of doing his homework like he was supposed to, Daisuke decided that going back to school to do the finishing touches on the backdrop was a better idea. His brother had gone and holed himself up in his room again which could only mean that something had gone wrong with his self-proclaimed 'flawless plan'. And having been rejected on his offer to lend a shoulder to cry on, he figured that the next best thing to do was to keep himself busy.

Much to his surprise, he found that he wasn't the only person with the idea of hiding in the art room. "Hikari-kun? What are you doing here?"

The blue haired boy gave a start and turned around, "Niwa? I could ask you the same thing."

"I came to finish the backdrop since there's really nothing else I can do right now. My brother's been in his room sulking all day now, so I decided to get away. What about you? I thought you had work tonight."

"Oh, I called in sick today, and I was taking a walk and ended up here for some reason. I guess it was to think…your painting has a very calming effect on people, did you know that? You've done a really good job on this, even Krad said so. He said that you have a lot of talent, and that you just need more practice."

"I don't think I'll ever be as good as him though, your brother's paintings are absolutely amazing."

"T-thanks…"

He blinked at the response, "Hikari-kun?"

Taking a seat, Satoshi stared at the painting for a moment before asking "Do you think I could watch you paint for a little while…?"

Emiko frowned as she looked up the stairway. Her son hadn't left his room since he got home. He'd even missed dinner which had only once before. Deciding that enough was enough, she made her way up to get to the bottom of it once and for all.

Knocking on the door, she called to her son only to receive a muffled reply in return. Irked, she opened the door and stepped inside anyways. There was her son, lying in bed, staring at his phone. "Are you just going to lie there all night or are you going to give him a call?"

"Hn."

"You know you missed dinner, right?"

"I know mom, just leave me alone. I need time to think."

She crossed her arms and raised a brow, "did something happen with Krad again?"

At this, her son sat up and stared at her sceptically, "what makes you say that?"

"Oh please, I'm your mother. Don't underestimate me that much. If you must know, I've known for quite awhile now. So what happened?"

Not in the mood to argue, Dark let out a sigh and stared at his feet, "I'm not even sure. One minute we were fine, the next, he's breaking it off, the next, we're talking and I find out that I'm probably in over my head. I don't even know what to do now…if I was to see him, I wouldn't even know what to say to him. I want to help him but I can't. Why'd everything have to be so messed up?"

Emiko sat down at the end of the bed and stroked the boy's hair, "nothing in life's ever going to go the way you planned. Krad's probably just as lost as you right now. Why don't you give him a call?"

"And what would I say to him?"

"I don't know, say whatever you want or whatever pops into your head. Dark, comforting someone doesn't always mean saying the right things. Sometimes, just being there's enough. You'll see, that call will mean more to him than you think."

A scoff, "what would you know?"

She rolled her eyes, "You're underestimating me again. Fine, let's make a bet on it. If you're right, I'll never say a word on your dating habits or your love life ever again. But if you're wrong, you'll have to not only come with me and Towa-chan when we go shopping, but you'll have to carry everything we buy home. And that includes grocery shopping."

Dark frowned, "but you guys end up buying enough for a small country every time you leave the house!"

"So is it a bet?"

"…fine."

Standing up, she gave him a wink, "I guess you better make that call then. If you don't, I suppose I could always bring Krad over so that you two can talk things out personally."

"I'll call him! I'll call him soon! No need to threaten me!"

"Threat? I don't know what you're talking about! I was merely offering to do you a favour! Well, I'll be downstairs if you need anything. Your dinner's in the microwave if you get hungry."

"Thanks mom."

"Anytime, darling. Just remember that we'll always be here for you, okay?"

He was sitting in his studio in front of a blank canvas when his phone rang. Blinking, he stared at it for another minute before putting down his brush and picking it up. "Hello?"

"Hello?"

Amber eyes widened in disbelief, "Dark?"

"Yea? Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"What? No, you're fine. I just wasn't really expecting a call from anyone, that's all. And I'm sorry about earlier, I really didn't mean to ramble like that. "

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad you did, it might not have been good news, but I got to see you again. It's been awhile since I've heard your voice or actually talked to you, hasn't it?"

"Yes it has…a little over two months I believe. It was nice seeing you too, though I wish it'd been in under better conditions."

"So did you tell Satoshi?"

"Yes I did."

"And how did he take it?"

"I'm not sure, he left for work right after so…"

"Ah, I see…you know, I don't have anything planned out-on what to say, I mean. Maybe I should hang up, write something out and call you back? Would that seem more legit?"

He laughed and shifted so that his phone was resting between his ear and his shoulder. Picking up his paintbrush again, he looked at his palette for a moment before choosing a colour to dip it into. "It's fine. You're normally pretty good at improvisation, aren't you?"

"Not when it counts apparently. So…what are you up to right now?"

"Right now? I'm painting."

"Oh, should I hang up then?"

"No, don't. I know this might come off the wrong way, but I've missed talking to you. I've missed your company a lot, too…so please, just keep talking-about anything, really."

"About anything…damn, I don't think I've ever been like this except during that one biology test where I didn't study at all. I remember just sitting there and staring at the pages, expecting the answers to write themselves. But of course they didn't, so you know what I ended up doing?"

"No, tell me. What'd you end up doing? Please don't tell me you fainted to get out of a test again."

"Close, but not quite. I drew a dinosaur and tried to convince the teacher that my dream was to become an artist some day, and that I was too busy drawing to study. I'm pretty sure I also told her that she should support me as a budding artist and give me a passing grade."

Raising a brow in amusement, he asked, "a dinosaur? And how did that work for you? Did she buy it?"

"Nope. Not in the least. She told me that she'd never seen a more inaccurate dinosaur in her life, and that I had a better chance at making a proper living by studying and actually graduating. I told her it was abstract and she ended up giving me bonus marks for it…not that I passed anyways."

"That's too bad, I'm sure it was an excellent dinosaur. Was this the same teacher we had last year?"

"Yes, same teacher but different class, I think this was two years ago. She never changes though, that lady's just full of snark, isn't she? Did you know that she's friends with my mother?"

"Is she really? Is that why you accused her of 'being in cahoots' with your mother that one class? I remember you completely flipped out after she made that comment."

"…oh yea! And you know what? I bet she is! Why else would she have called us a 'cute couple', and how else would my mom have figured it all out? That's probably why she took such a long time during that parent-teacher interview night, I knew I heard them giggling! Damn it, I should've figured it out sooner!"

"So your mother knew all along? Wouldn't that mean she didn't say anything to you just so she could continue teasing you? That's seems rather mean. And speaking of mean, did you know that Satoshi made your brother walk all the way to my house in a dress once?"

"Seriously? In a dress? He never mentioned this to me! You have to tell me everything."

Without looking up from his painting, he asked the other, "So what's wrong, Hikari-kun?"

Satoshi looked up with a start, "huh? What do you mean?"

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I know for a fact that you wouldn't just skip work without a good reason."

"And how can you be sure of that?"

He smiled as he dipped his brush into the white, "because there was that one time when you ended up lecturing Saehara about it, do you remember? There was a festival and you said that you could only make it for the end since you had work and he was trying to convince you to skip work to come with us. And then you flat out rejected his proposal."

The blue haired boy blinked and tried to pull up the memory in his mind, "ah, right…I remember. He was being so insistent…I didn't know how else I was supposed to retaliate."

Daisuke chuckled, "he ended up sulking until you arrived that night. That's why I'm sure you're not skipping work for fun. Besides, you mentioned earlier that you came here to think. Did something happen?"

A sigh, "I suppose you could say that. It's more like something that I knew was bound to happen is finally happening. It's strange because I thought I was mentally prepared to handle this, but I'm not. There's nothing I can do to help. We've already been through this once before, so I know that all you can do is steel yourself for everything to come. But…I don't know how I can."

The redhead turned and watched his friend worriedly, "is it that serious? …I'm sure Hikari-kun will find the best way to deal with it, no matter how hard it may be. And please remember that you can always come to me for anything. I'll always be your ally, Hikari-kun. Me, Dark, Saehara, everyone, we're all here for you, so don't ever think you're in it alone, okay? And Krad-san, you can always rely on him, can't you?"

It seemed like a dam just burst as Satoshi opened his mouth and the words came pouring out. "That's the problem. I'm so used to relying on Krad for everything, but now, he's the one person I can't talk to about this since… since this is about him."

He stopped painting, "What do you mean? Hikari-kun…?"

Glancing at his clock, he noticed that not only had it started raining again, but that it was getting late. Daisuke had long since returned and went to bed without so much as poking his head into the room to bid him goodnight, which was unusual. But at the same time, he was too preoccupied with his call to care. "Are you still painting?"

"Yes…but you're saying it in that tone of voice, so I'm going to guess that it's getting late, isn't it? You have class tomorrow, don't you?"

"I do, but you know I hate knowing that I'll be sleeping while you slave away at a canvas."

"But you know that I hate leaving my paintings half done."

"Are you even close to finishing the first coat?"

"Actually, I am, so you can go to sleep, right? By the way, you shouldn't be surprised if Daisuke ends up staying up late to paint one day. He's got a lot of talent."

Dark smiled, "I know. That's not going to stop me from poking fun at him about it though. It'll mean a lot to him to hear you say that though, you've pretty much become his idol. Hey, before I forget, are you free tomorrow?"

"I probably am, what for?"

His heart lurched as the words left his mouth, "I want to talk, face to face….about everything. And if you say no, I'll sneak out right now and run over to your place or something."

There was a moment of silence.

"Really? Even though it's raining right now? Is it really that serious…? I suppose it is, isn't it? Alright, I understand. I'll see you tomorrow at our place then?"

"Yea, I'll see you there. You better go to sleep soon. If I see any eye bags tomorrow, I'll get angry."

"Alright, alright, I promise there won't be any eye bags or dozing off tomorrow. Goodnight, Dark."

"Goodnight."

"Oh, and Dark?"

Violet eyes blinked, "Yes?"

"I'm glad you called. Thanks."

He could feel his heart skip a beat at that, and though he wanted to say something more, he hesitated. "Anytime. Goodnight, Krad."

Hanging up, he let out a deep breath and stared out the window. Tomorrow couldn't come any faster, though he was both excited and anxious about their meeting. Excited that he'd finally be able to talk to the other properly again, but anxious that he'd end up hearing things he didn't want to. But despite all that, one thought brought a smile to his lips.

Krad still called that café 'theirs'.

Nya~

Wow, how long has it been since I last updated? Too long, that's what! Are you all still out there? I bet you thought I'd never update again, didn't you? Speaking of update though, Sugisaki-sensei seriously needs to update DNAngel soon, she left at such a good part too! And the cover of volume 15 makes me happy every time I see it. So I was actually going back to edit a couple of my older fics since ff(dot)net went and screwed up a lot of the formatting. And what I've come to realize is that, my writing style's changed quite a bit since I first started, hasn't it? It makes me feel super old when I think back to when I first started writing all those years ago...back in the day when ff(dot)net allowed ! and ? to be typed without deleting one of them and when you were allowed to type websites and stuff... Anyways, I probably shouldn't make anymore promises on updates since they seem rather unreliable, don't they? But hopefully I'll get another update up soon! This title means 'If we can meet in a dream' more or less. Wish me luck! Enjoy!