"Do you have to go on vacation for 2 weeks? Can't you go for a week or something?"
Komaeda chuckled, it had been around the 6th time that day Hinata had asked the same question. "I'm afraid it's not my choice on how long we go for vacation for, Hinata-kun."
The two boys sat on the swings, kicking around at the dirt as the sun slowly began to set in the distance. Hinata sighed, putting a frown on his face before he jumped off the swing and kicked at the dirt once more.
"I know I know, but who am I supposed to play with for 2 weeks while your gone?"
"What about the other kids at the playground? I'm sure they're a lot more fun to play with compared to me."
"No, it's not the same, I have more fun playing with you than any of the other kids at the park Komaeda."
Komaeda jumped off the swing as well, looking down at ground as he approached Hinata. "Well then, I'll make a promise!"
Komaeda looked up at his friend, his usual carefree smile on his face as he raised up his pinky, confusing Hinata. "As soon as I come home from vacation, I'll come straight to the park, no unpacking, no eating, nothing! I'll come here and we can play until the sun goes down! You just have to wait for me, ok Hinata-kun?"
Hinata looked up at Komaeda, at the smile on his face that he wore every day, at his eyes that always seemed to shine even in its darkest moments. He then found himself smiling as well as he lifted his pinky and linked it with his best friends' awaiting one.
"Ok, it's a promise."
~~~~~~
That was the last conversation that 9-year-old Hinata had had with Komaeda before he'd left to go on his yearly family vacation to Jabberwock Island. As soon as two weeks had gone by, Hinata ran to the playground and waited for his best friend to come and tell him of his time there with his parents while they played on the monkey-bars or slid down the slides together.
Yet Komaeda never came to the park that day.
So Hinata went back the next day, waiting and hoping that he'd see the familiar mop of white hair on pale skin running towards him with the same smile on his face. But just like the day before, that never happened.
By now it had been a month since Komaeda had left, and Hinata was now the only kid in the park left, everyone else having been gone home some time ago. He sat on the swing, looking down at his feet and only occasionally looking up to look around for his friend.
After looking for what seemed like the 10th time in a minute, Hinata sighed and looked up at the sky. It was turning a lovely shade of blue, with only 2 visible stars next to each other. That was his sign to go home for the day.
Hinata frowned and stood up from the swings, looking down at his right pinky. "I guess some promises aren't meant to be kept huh?"
Feeling betrayed and a bit hurt, Hinata began making his way home, until he hear something.
He looked up, looking around his surroundings for where the noise was coming from. It seemed to be getting closer, until he was able to indicate what the sound was.
Is someone... crying?
Finally, Hinata looked behind him, and his eyes almost seemed to water at what he saw.
White fluffy hair.
Very small and slim figure.
Pale almost transparent skin.
It was him. It was Komaeda.
Without a second thought, Hinata sprinted towards him, catching him off-guard and almost seemingly knocking him down in a hug. "Komaeda! Where have you been?! I've been waiting for you for foreve-"
Hinata started, but soon stopped as all he was hearing was a quiet sobbing and whimpering coming from the boy in his arms.
"K-Komaeda...?" Slowly, Hinata pulled himself back from him, and almost gasped at what he saw.
There stood his best friend, a cast on his left wrist, bruises and what looked like deep cuts scattering his entire body, and a bandage wrapped around his head. All of this and his tear-stricken face that showed nothing but sadness and pain, Komaeda was almost unrecognizable if it weren't for signature hair and skin.
"Komaeda, what happened to you?! Are you ok?! How did you get so beat up??!!" Hinata almost instantly shouted, shock quickly converting into concern and worry.
Surprisingly, Komaeda managed to give him a small smile, though it was obviously forced and half-hearted. "H-Hinata-kun, please don't b-be so worried about s-someone like me-"
"No, stop right there. I understand if you don't want to tell me right now, but you're my best friends, and no matter how hard I try I'll always be worry about whatever happens to you, now" Hinata looked at him, keeping a serious look on his face, "what happened to you, Komaeda?"
Komaeda stood there, stunned, before taking a deep breath, and telling Hinata everything. How he and his parents had gone to the San Cristóbal Airport in order to go back home at the end of their vacation, only for the plane to become hijacked by a group of terrorist, who were then killed by a meteor that crashed into the plane that not only took to lives of everyone else on the plane, but of his parents as well, and how he had been in the hospital for 2 weeks while his injuries were being treated.
When he was finally finish, Hinata could only stare at him, wide eyed and his mouth parted a little. A part of him didn't believe what Komaeda had just told him. His parents were dead? He was the only survivor of a hijacking and meteor crashing of all things? All of it just seemed like something that would happen in a movie or cartoon. Even so, Hinata knew that Komaeda couldn't be lying. He wouldn't lie about something so morbid like that, he was too young and kind hearted to come up with a story such as that.
His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a laughter. He looked up at Komaeda. His usually sweet sounding laughter was replaced with a sinister sounding one, and his eyes had a look of despair in them. Hinata almost didn't know who the boy in front of him was.
"It's ok if you don't believe my story Hinata-kun, even I wouldn't believe in a crazy story like that..."
Hinata squinted his eyes at him. He may be saying that, yet the expression on his face was saying something else. His expression was saying that he was... Hurt? Yes, hurt at the fact that his best friend was thinking that he was making up a tragedy that had happened in his life. Hurt that this tragedy had happened to him in the first place. Hurt that he will never see his parents alive ever again.
In a split second, Hinata grabbed Komaeda into a hug, a small gasp coming from the injured boy. "I believe you, Komaeda, friends believe in each other, and if you say that it happened, then I believe that it happened, and no one will convince me otherwise ok?"
Komaeda stood there, frozen, before slowly hugging him back and burying his face into crock of Hinata's neck. Hinata felt his neck get wet with tears, but he didn't care.
The two stood there in silence, until Hinata heard the familiar call of his mother. "Hajime! Come back inside, it's past dinner time!"
Hinata let go of Komaeda and looked at his mother, who stood at the front of the door looking impatient. Hinata looked back at Komaeda, a stern look on his face.
"Komaeda, come with me."
Before the other boy could object, Hinata grabbed him by the wrist (the one that wasn't injured), and pulled him along with him as he ran home.
The stern look on his mom's face quickly dropped when her eyes laid upon Komaeda, and she ushered the both of them inside, asking for an explanation on what happened to him.
And so, Komaeda sat at their dinner table, poking at his food as he talked to Mrs. Hinata about what had happened whist Hinata sat next to him.
It was there that Hinata made a promise of his own, linking both of his pinkies together in a promise.
"Starting today, I promise to protect Komaeda from anything that hurts him, no matter what happens to me."
"I never want to see him hurt ever again."