Elites Can't Beat the Best | h.harem

a mother's pain

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Mrs. Hinata sat on the bench outside of her shop, a warm cup of cocoa in her hand as she gazed at the dimming lights of the buildings around her.

She's thinking. Her raging thoughts didn't match her calm demeanor at all, but her blood-shot eyes surely did.

She wasn't sure what to believe. Shouyou seemed so adamant that he was only selling himself to pass the time, but she knew better. With the amounts of money Shouyou received and the sudden relief from their debt, it's obvious what he was doing.

He had sold himself to pay it all off.

Had she failed as a mother?

Even as a child, Shouyou was so independent. He hated relying on others. When his father had passed away when he was five, Shouyou had scrambled to find something to keep him distracted. That's when he discovered the world of dance.

When he lost his first dancing competition, he had began building walls around himself.

"I'm fine!" He had laugh as he watched his classmate recieve the trophy.

She had caught him crying in the confides of his room so many times. He always tried to brush it off.

"I just got something in my eye!"

"I fell!"

The only time Shouyou had ever cried in front of her was the day he was so overwhelmed with emotions that he had bumped into her in the hallway.

He tried to apologize, but he had ended up just bursting in tears.

It was only a couple months ago, and he looked so broken. It was scary, seeing him look like that. Something had happened, but he wouldn't say anything. He just held her and cried, covered in bruises and sorrow.

To this day, she has no clue what happened to him.

The other time she had seen him cry was today. He looked panicked at the thought of her knowing about what he had going on.

Shouyou was always trying to keep her and Natsu as stress-free and happy as possible. In the process, he had forced himself into the mold of his deceased father as the protector of their family.

Therapy was to expensive, but she had wished so many times that she could afford it for him. The only thing she could do was try to talk to him and be there for him to lean on when he needed it.

Something's going on. Those people are to powerful. Why were they chasing after Shouyou, who was born into a family of poverty? Wouldn't they want someone as rich and powerful as them?

She sighed and took a sip of her cocoa. The door to the shop jingled, and Natsu came out with a concerned expression on her face.

"Mama, where's Shou-Shou? He said he'd read to me tonight before he went back to school..?"

She crawled up on the bench and into her mother's lap. Those loving arms wrapped around her small body, and she received a soft kiss to her forehead.

"I'm sorry, Natsu. Shouyou won't be here for a while. Why don't I read to you tonight?"

"I wanted Shou-Shou to, though..."

Natsu's words had triggered something inside poor Mrs. Hinata. She felt a strange rush of tears overflow in her eyes, and, soon, she was breaking down in Natsu's short ginger hair.

Natsu wasn't sure what was going on, but seeing her mother cry so hard made her tear up, too, and she snuggled closer to her mother's touch.

Mrs. Hinata felt as if Shouyou was trying to send her a signal of sorts, one that she couldn't understand, and now Shouyou's gone because of that. Because she did't understand her own son.

Did he want this? Or was all of this a planned heist of sorts that Shouyou just went along with for their sake?

She didn't know. She doesn't know anything. If only she had worked a bit harder at getting to know Shouyou better, maybe then she would understand things a bit better.

She could only hope for Shouyou to come back to her. The debt could be handled, but losing her son was something she just wouldn't be able to bear.

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