Bold and Brilliant

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Hot beaming light. He could feel it against his face.
"Okuyasu, you've always held me back!"
And he was gone.
Okuyasu's eyes snapped open and he felt himself jolt up.
The moonlight decorated his face in a blue milky white, as he stared off into the darkness of his room.
Sweat clung to his face and body, every breath releasing a shuddering sigh.
Okuyasu massaged his neck, his insides churning sickly.
The ghostly way his eyes gleamed, and charred flesh wafting through the air set him off finally.
He threw himself off the bed and upturned everything. His meal from early today was now dribbling across the floorboards. He took a knuckle and wiped a line of vomit from his lip to his chin.
He didn't want to stand up, or dare even move.
This whole life at this point...was like a fever dream.
His legs quivered underneath him as Okuyasu began to cough, droplets of spit and remanences of puke flying from his lips. Okuyasu gripped his stomach and felt himself dry heave once more. Those same soulless eyes staring into him bore bullets into his heart.
At that moment, Okuyasu couldn't tell the difference in Keicho's eyes when he was alive and when he finally met his fate. He already died a long time ago.
"You're no longer my little brother..." Okuyasu mouthed to himself, clinging to those final moments. Every word Keicho had said...
What ever happened to sticking together, and sharing that feeling of loneliness and longing?
In the end, was all of this...just for Keicho's benefit? All of this hiding and the thirst for their father's death to fill the gaping hole in Keicho's soul?
God, he was such an idiot. Okuyasu slowly gathered his weight beneath him and slowly stood up, gripping the bedpost for additional support. He could taste bile in his throat, his lips warm and aching for water. He turned his eyes to the window, to face the moon. A hammer rested on the window sill, and chunks of wood littered the floor around it.
Nails still clung to the frame, no longer holding back the outside world. In the end he was reluctant to take down those boards and let the world see his existence. But Keicho wasn't here....he'd never be here to scold and hurt him again.
He did this for him them...even if he didn't and wouldn't pity Keicho. He wanted the Nijimuras to be apart of Morioh once again one way or another.
The door slowly creaked open, and Okuyasu glanced to his bedroom door. A small blubbery form waddled through the door into his room.
His father stared up at him with eyes that seemed to almost be alive against the moon light.
Okuyasu turned to him and squatted down to his level.
"It's late pops," Okuyasu murmured. "Go back to your room."
The creature only continued to waddle to him, plopping down in front of him. Those same green lumps, that same tacky t-shirt, the same tuft of disheveled hair, and those same eyes.
Okuyasu sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Shit, who am I kidding me? You can't understand anything I say..."
His father let out a small moan, looking deeper into his eyes.
Okuyasu slowly rested himself on his behind, watching as his father moved his tiny hands about, blubbering away non understandable sentences. This was all he had left? This shell of a man who once abused him?
This was the only thing he could even hold onto...
"Oku...."
He snapped his attention back to his father. The two could only stare. Those same eyes suddenly changed. As if to smile at him.
"Oku..." his father murmured under a blubbering tone.
He said his name. It was quiet...but it was still there.
He could only stare at his father, Okuyasu having a hard time breathing.
He could still remember...
He saw that picture, he missed his kids and wife, he was still there.
He had to remind himself of this...
"Oku, Oku," he blubbered once again. If felt...comforting.
This feeling was rare and yet new. Okuyasu should have cried, he felt he should have. He should've been weeping and holding his father tight, relived he was still in there.
But he could only stand there, his whole body shaking, and his stomach churning about once again. A shaky hand guided its way to his father's misshapen head, resting atop his repulsive skin. His father made a noise as if he were sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for you and your brother, I'm sorry about your mother. I'm sorry for who I am.
Lifting his hands up, his father stood up, grabbing for Okuyasu. He began to grunt, and Okuyasu leaned forward.
His small deformed hands touched Okuyasu's messy undone hair. Okuyasu freezes under the touch, as his father ruffled his hair, gently patting it. He closed his eyes and let himself relax under his father's touch.
Years. Years of no contact from anyone. He forgot how calming it felt.
His breathing slowed down, as his father waddled up onto his lap, still touching and patting his head.
"Dad..." Okuyasu whispered. That name was so foreign. It was always pops, or little shit underneath this roof.
The name made his mouth run dry.
Okuyasu's dad blubbered to himself, rubbing his son's head in a gentle pattern.
"Oku," he blabbered again.
Okuyasu felt his lips curve into a smile, as he reached up to his head for his father's hand. He gripped his cold slimy hand and gently squeezed it.
He felt like a child again. His mother's company and her gentle reassuring voice. All before his dad changed.
He held his father's hand in grief, in grief of all the years they could have spent together as a normal family.
He could have had a normal life with normal friends, even a girlfriend...
So he grieved. Okuyasu felt himself grieve in their touch, as his father continued to blubber Okuyasu's name to himself.
It changed the family. It changed Keicho...
All of this was their dad's fault. If only...if only he could still be here, with mom...
And no Keicho. He knew he was nothing now to his once older brother. So why, why did he feel himself bribe their childhood? Keicho went too far and killed too many innocent people, just to end the cycle the Nijimura family was seemingly stuck in.
God, his very existence was the reason his brother was dead in the first place...
Okuyasu felt sick as withered away and let go of his father's hand.
He felt sorry. Sorry for the lives lost, all for Keicho.
And he could have stopped him. He could have snapped the bow and arrow in half, and let Keicho kill him. Then maybe just maybe...this town wouldn't sink into dismay like Keicho caused it to.
And he could have stopped that stand from taking the bow and arrow. He could only stand there and let his brother take the hit. He could have been the one to die, he should have. Josuke could have killed Keicho from there.
Josuke...
The name slid gently off his tongue. It tasted of honey and birthday cake. It was a sweet name.
He couldn't tell himself why or how he suddenly slipped into a daze.
That determined look and that will to never quit. And that smile...
That star struck smile Josuke could make. As if to suddenly change everything.
God, he wasn't going to give up. He could see it in the way he talked to Josuke once again a few days after Keicho's death, when he showed up at his front door.
That same glimmering purple pompadour and those glittering eyes. Those ever so smiling eyes...
Friends? Maybe one day...
If Josuke would let him, and could give him true forgiveness.
And Okuyasu knew he had to earn that in the end. But if he could stay by Josuke's side, he would do it. Josuke...was his first... "friend".
God, that word was so foreign and dead to his tongue. Is this what having a friend made you feel? All warm and hot on the inside, your heart pounding at a thousand miles an hour? God...he admired that boy's devotion.
And Okuyasu wanted that same devotion. His devotion to staying strong regardless. Okuyasu slowly got to his feet, and strode across the room, his father not far behind.
Perhaps this was his own start? His own restart on what he could have done if Okuyasu kept running that first day he left the house.
Okuyasu gazed down at Josuke's house in the near distance.
A single light was left on in the window . He wondered to himself if that was Josuke's window. He could find out sooner or later.
Josuke...he wanted him to give him courage. He wanted courage to start up once again. Give him courage to start school again, give him courage to work for his family to get them food, give him courage to be a normal kid again.
To give him courage to be Okuyasu Nijimura.
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Hey germs, I'm so sorry this was a short chapter, I just ran out of ideas in the moment and decided on a small little cute scene with Okuyasu and his father bonding. This is to push the plot a bit faster so I can get started on the bro feels to develop in Okuyasu and for Josuke to fall in love with him.
Because heck 😳
Well I promise my next chapter will be longer, and have the bro's finally be friends.
Til next time,
-Jameson