I was having a fun day at the park with my best friend Killer. We always hang out with each other since our parents get along pretty well and visited each other often. Our friendship was pretty much forced on us, but since we clicked really easily, it didn't feel like we were together just because we had to.
"(Y/n)!" Killer shouted happily. "Let's go play on the swings!"
"Ok!" I replied in an equally happy tone.
The two of us ran over to the vacant swings and I sat down on one of them. Killer doesn't sit down on the one next to me, but he gently pushes me on the swing until I get to a certain point. He usually does that before he takes a seat on the swing and does it himself. I would offer to do it as well, but he would refuse it and say that he only does it because it makes him happy. Not sure what pushing me on the swing would make him happy, but I mean if he feels that way, I can't say no.
"When you swing really high, it's like we can touch the sky!" I giggled.
"Agreed." he smiled softly.
"And then we could suffocate our enemies with the clouds!"
"(Y/n)..." Killer deadpanned.
"Joking~!" I laughed before whispering under my breath. "Slightly..."
Killer gave me a wry smile before looking straight ahead again. As the two of us swung on the swings, we continue our friendly banter of nonsense and laughed here and there. I'm glad I have someone who can understand my sense of humor on this island rather than just looking at me with a weird look on their face. It's quite sad really... they're missing out on all my jokes.
We finally stopped swinging on the swings and we were feeling a bit hungry since we were running around in the park earlier so we decided to go to the street where food booths are usually set up and spend the money our parents usually give us before we head out to play. As we get to the street, it was pretty busy than usual. Killer looked at the street humming to himself and his face became contorted and flushed as if he were having a battle with his inner thoughts on what to do. He then relaxes slightly and held his hand out to me, but his he was still facing ahead of him as if he were trying to avoid my gaze. I look at him weirdly, but I still took his hand into mine.
"It's so we don't get separated." he said calmly.
"Oh, pfft, why didn't you just say so?" I laughed nonchalantly.
Killer doesn't reply, but his ears grew red and his grip on my hand tightened slightly. We walk through the street and I bought myself (F/f) while Killer bought himself some aglio e olio, his favorite. The two of us walk to a nearby bench and take a seat as we began to enjoy our hot meal. However, as we were eating, we heard distant yells from where we were. Killer and I give each other a confused look and decided to go check up on it. With our food in hand, we follow the sound and it led to an ally way and there was a red headed boy whose hair looked wild and untamed. There were also three other boys who seemed more our age and it seemed that they were trying to pull something from the red haired boy. I looked over at the object and it was a toy robot. I lightly shake my head at the scene and continued to watch along with Killer out of curiosity.
"Still building these stupid toys?" one of the boys sneered.
"Looks pretty flimsy." said another.
"Let me give it a new look!" said the boy who was pulling on the toy.
"Stop! It's mine!" the red haired boy cried out. "Let go!"
"Tsk! This isn't gonna get us anywhere! Just beat him until he lets go!" the boy who was pulling the toy commanded.
The other two boys closes in on the boy with their fists and were going to hit the boy. Seeing that this was far enough, Killer hands me his food and quickly grabs both boy's fists. The three of them looks at Killer with irritation, while the red haired boy stared at him cautiously.
"Let go of us!" one of the boys shouted.
"No." Killer said calmly. "You guys are going too far."
While Killer was busy subduing the two boys, the one who was holding onto the toy robot lifted his leg to kick Killer. I frowned at his dirty plays and hastily made my way there. Once I got closer to the boy, I hooked my ankle onto his and pulled back, causing the boy to fall on his face and let go of the toy in the process. The boy then lifted his head to see who had tripped him and his face turned into a scowl as he met my gaze.
"You stupid girl!" he growled. "Don't think you're better than me just because you caught me off guard!"
"Pfft-Haha! I literally ran at you! That was a lot of noise!" I said laughing loudly. "If you call that off guard, your hearing must be bad!"
"Shut up!" he shouted in embarrassment.
The boy then stood up and tried to charge at me as I laughed, but I took a step to the side last second and kicked him on the back, sending him face down into the ground again.
"Stop it! I'm holding food!" I frowned. "It's precious."
"How dare you try to attempt to attack (Y/n)..." Killer growled lowly as he sauntered over, cracking his knuckles.
"Hm? You finished the other two already?" I asked as I looked back to see them beaten up pretty badly. "That was quick."
The last boy looked over at his two friends wide eyed and quickly looked back at Killer with fear. As Killer was taking care of him, I walked over to the red haired boy who was staring at Killer in awe. The boy then took notice of my presence and held his toy robot closer to his body. I give him a soft giggle which caused the boy to blush slightly at me as he slightly dropped his guard.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah..." he mumbled. "Thank you..."
"That's a cool looking robot." I said, trying to lift his spirits. "You built it, right?"
"Yeah, I did." he said with a slight smile.
At that moment, the boy's stomach began to growl and he blushed in embarrassment. I give out another laugh before shoving my food towards him to give him a sign that he could have it. The boy stared at me with confusion, but my smile remained.
"Eat it, you're hungry, right?"
"But its your's..." he mumbled.
"You don't have to act so shy around me." I said happily. "Besides, I can just eat when I go home."
The red haired boy hummed to himself unsure, but slowly took the food from my hand and began eating it. Killer finally returns from beating up the last boy and smiles softly to the younger boy eating before us. He even offered his food to the boy as well, which he happily accepted. The three of us leaves the ally way and onto the busy street together.
"By the way, my name is Killer and this is (Y/n). What's your name?" Killer asked.
"Kid." he replied. "Thanks for helping me earlier."
"No problem." Killer said. "Want to hang out with us?"
"Ooo! Play with us!" I said gleefully. "It'll be fun!"
"Can we play pirates?" he asked bashfully. "I usually play it by myself since I have no friends, so it would be fun to have others play that with me."
"Aww." I cooed. "Sure thing!"
Kid seemed to brighten up when we agreed to play pirates with him and he happily dragged us near the shores. There was a wrecked ship on the beach, but it still had the bow intact and it seemed stable because it was really jammed in. After giving it a good look, I then looked up to see a messily done pirate logo on a black flag. I covered my mouth and stifled a laugh as I watched Kid climb up on the beached ship and smile widely.
"Welcome to the Kid Pirates' ship!" he said.
"Kid Pirates?" I snickered. "You're going to name your crew after your name?"
"Of course! That way everyone will remember my name when I conquer the seas and become the King of the Pirates-!"
Kid froze in place as if he just realized what he just said and covered his mouth. I looked at him confused wondering why he looked so troubled after saying his dream. I looked over at Killer and it seemed that he was wondering the same thing. I wore a frown on my face as I looked back at Kid before he uttered a small 'sorry'.
"Why are you sorry?" I asked with a frown still evidently on my face. "You only stated your dream."
Kid looked at me wide eyed before his face became crestfallen as he said, "It's because people laugh at me when I say that and then they leave me because my ambitions are dumb."
"Well, we're just going to have to go beat them up now don't we?" I snickered. "No one mocks our captain's dream."
"Captain...?" he muttered underneath his breath.
"Clearly!" I giggled. "We're pirates right now, and the crew is named after you. Its only right if you're the captain."
Kid blushes at my words and smiled softly to himself as tears threatened to fall. He holds in his tears and invites us on his ship and we began to play. The look on Kid's face as we played was happy and he couldn't stop smiling. Seeing how he was enjoying himself made me feel happy as well. He must have felt really lonely since he was being ostracized by the kids on this island, especially judging from his torn clothes. I'm slightly amazed that he can still hold onto that dream if it causes him to have no friends, but then again it shows how strong he can be for something he holds dear to him.
As the day goes on, the sun was beginning to set and we weren't even aware how long we were playing. We were enjoying ourselves so much that time just slipped by us and it was time for Killer and I to head back home. Kid seemed a bit bummed out that we can't stay longer, but I reassured him that we'll be back tomorrow and play with him again and that seemed to instantly cheer him up. We waved him goodbye as Killer and I walk together to our neighborhood, but I felt like something was off with Killer. He seemed to enjoy himself when we were playing, but he seemed to be in his thoughts because he would usually spark up a conversation as we walked. So I decided to nudge him a bit with my shoulder to catch his attention. He snapped out of his daze and looked towards me while I held a worried expression.
"You okay, Killer?" I questioned. "You seem a bit off... is it because we have a new friend now and you wanted to play longer? You know we'll see him again tomorrow right, silly?"
"Ah, it's not that." he smiled. "Its just that... never mind." Killer's face faltered slightly as he looked ahead again. I furrowed my brows at him seeing that Killer was hiding something from me, but if he didn't want to talk about it, then that was fine. I didn't want to pry it out of him and force him to tell me.
"What do you think of Kid, (Y/n)?" he asked trying to change the subject.
"I think he's pretty cool." I answered honestly. "Don't really see why the other kids exclude him. What about you?"
"I... I think he's alright." he said. "I wonder if he'll actually set sail one day."
"If he does, I want to come with him." I laughed. "I want to see how far he'll go."
"You'd actually join him on becoming a pirate?" he asked a bit shocked.
"Yeah, I don't see why not." I shrugged. "Don't you want to see if he'll succeed?"
"I guess..." he muttered. "I mean, if you do join him, I'll join as well."
"You sound a bit indifferent, you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm probably just tired from all the fun we had earlier." he chuckled.
I laughed along with him as we continued our small conversations and we'd smile, but he seemed to falter every time I talked fondly of Kid. I thought he liked Kid as well since he got along with him well. When we were playing they seemed almost like siblings. Killer was doing anything Kid wanted and he was being patient with him like an older brother would for his little brother. But, since he wasn't invested in talking about Kid, I decided to end the conversation about that and we walked in an awkward silence, something that never happened between us.
As the two of you walked in silence, Killer's mind was laced with sadness. He noticed the interactions between the two of you, something you didn't quite pick up from Kid's actions. You thought Kid was just being shy and adorable, but to Killer, those were things he knew all too well. He knew Kid held some feelings for you since you were being kind to him and acknowledged his dreams. It's not as if he hated Kid, it was more of that he was jealous. The way you spoke of him held some sort of affection whenever you mentioned him, something that he never noticed whenever you spoke of him.
Killer had pieced together that one day the two of you might even confess to each other once your feelings become more prominent, while he would be stuck on a one sided love. So he was having a hard time deciding on what to do in the near future. He was unsure if he should stop loving you in that way and keep it as a friendship since you most likely didn't share what he felt and make it easier for you in the future to not cause drama with his own feelings or try to fight a battle that he most likely had no chance of winning. All these thoughts clouded his mind, but one thing that he knew for sure, was that wherever you chose to go, whatever you wanted to be, he wanted to be right beside you, even if the person you wanted beside you wasn't him.