I woke up and blinked to the sound of someone talking on the phone. I sat up slowly to look around and realized wherever I am looks in no way familiar. I saw pictures around the room I was in and got up to look closer, only to see a few familiar, albeit changed faces.
Older faces.
I stopped in front of several pictures and looked closely at each one of them. Most had Yamagishi and Chifuyu in them. It was obvious they did most of the picture taking because I hid my face in some or was caught at some awkward angle in another.
This can't be real, right? I was just in the hospital, and I didn't look like this before.
As I continued to investigate, I caught a glimpse of my face in a mirror in the room and felt my heart stop. I'm older too, and this realization caused me to start hyperventilating as I tried to piece together what was going on.
I put my hand over my heart in useless attempt to calm myself down, when I saw another picture of me, Chifuyu, and Kazutora.
What?
"My queen, you're awake!"
That nickname.
I turned to be face to face with the adult Yamagishi.
What…?
I felt myself become dizzy and Yamagishi quickly wrapped his arms around me to keep me upright so I didn't fall over. He looked at me, eyes filled with concern.
"Did you have another bad dream?" I mindlessly nodded without looking away from him and he gave me a tight hug before letting go. "I know the nightmares are scary, but I promise we wouldn't let anyone hurt you again."
"We?" I managed to choke out.
Yamagishi gave small smile. "Yeah, me and the guys. As much as I hate to admit it, even Chifuyu and Kazutora would protect you to the end. But you gotta remember, I promised to do that for you first." He finished with a satisfied smirk.
My mind reeled but his always dependable behavior began to calm me, and I felt myself able to smile at him easily. This seemed to make his face grow red, but he didn't turn away. Instead, he came close and hugged me again, only this time placing a sweet kiss on my forehead before pulling away again to make eye contact with me.
"Speaking of the guys, we're going to be out at a meeting. We'll come back to visit you afterward though, ok? I know it sucks being stuck here, but we'll make it up to you."
I could only nod, before I stopped and immediately thought of a question to ask. "The guys?"
As Yamagishi grabbed his keys, he stopped to look at me before saying, "Yeah, me, Takuya, Makoto, and unfortunately Chifuyu and Kazutora, although Kazutora could come by earlier, so don't forget to lock the doors."
The comment made me laugh a little before I ran the names through my head and realized I came up short. "What about Akkun?" This made Yamagishi come to a harsh stop at the door. He seemingly took a deep breath before answering. "He won't be able to come."
Wait…if that's the case….then that means the meeting? Please….please don't let this be true..
Yamagishi left without saying anything further but managed to give me a small wave goodbye before closing the door behind him. I walked around to take in my living situation and it turned out to be a very secluded house.
I only opened a few blinds to look out, but didn't see any people or even any houses around. Just some trees and a lot of quiet space. I decided to look everywhere I could think of inside. I needed to find out why I'm even here.
Takemitchy was a time leaper, but I know I'm not. I looked carefully at any and all the pictures, everything on the fridge and on counters, and ended up finding what looked to be my diary in a drawer in the coffee table.
I flipped through it quickly trying to find something to help me prove this isn't when I think it is.
As I read through it, I repeatedly brought up only a few, the main ones being Chifuyu and Yamagishi. Apparently Chifuyu visited me often and even brought Kazutora when he was released from prison. The way I talked about Chifuyu, it was almost like…
I decided to read a passage more carefully in hopes of understanding my situation more.
"Chifuyu always apologizes for showing up without much notice, but he always brings something amazing for me as a surprise. I tell him it isn't necessary, but I am sure he won't ever listen to me after he gave me a plushie I couldn't help but cuddle the rest of the day. I hope he didn't see me fall asleep with it too. It's such a cute plushie. A black cat and it warmed my heart to have something so adorable from someone so dear to me.
When he and Yamagishi come over, I get the distinct feeling that they don't like each other. When they talked about a friendly arm wrestling competition that suddenly looked like it was gonna be a full on fight, I jumped in the way and scolded both of them for being dumb and treating each other like enemies instead of friends.
Yamagishi gave his usual, 'I'm sorry my queen', and Chifuyu remained silent and simply scratched his neck. Yamagishi ended up having to go out for some sort of job which he always seemed to be busy with, but Chifuyu stayed with me more often than should be possible. We watched a movie a few days ago, a romantic comedy, but I felt my mind fill with sadness on some of the similar things I had experienced when it comes to first loves.
Chifuyu noticed and turned off the movie. Before I could ask why and attempt to lie about how I'm okay, he pulled me into his lap and began apologizing. Not once in all this time has he ever made me think he doesn't care.
Chifuyu has always been like this. He reads me so well. At first I really hated it and I know I wasn't the best person to be around. Being around someone who was so consistently warm and thoughtful, it caused the wounds I had tried so hard to hide to feel like they were still wide open. After years and a lot of his patience, he never gave up on me.
I began to feel myself missing him when he wasn't around and was terrified at first, because I knew I…
The sudden knock on the door made me almost jump out of my skin.
I got up to open the door and was greeted by a cloth being shoved into my face. I began to fall into darkness and the last thing I saw, was the familiar glint of glasses.