monophobia

02. Ryuutarou.

the nightmares start when he's five.

the bells ring. the rain soaks. the autumn air bites his cheeks. he knows he is alive, but he also knows he's dying. (but never quite dead.) but most of all he is alone again, he is alone with the monster on his back that calls for purity.

when he wakes up the digital numbers of the clock read 6:40.

and there is someone else in his bed.

"you don't belong in here." raito tells the other child. he wonders if the nameless child is a boy or a girl, with its girlish features and slightly torn pant-legs. raito also wonders how old his bed partner is, for they look smaller than he is but his father has taught that things are not always as they seem. he can see a stuffed dragon with beautifully stitched blue scales, clutched in the child's arms.

"ryuutarou belongs whenever raito is." the boy answers, a slight pout on his face as if it were obvious. and it's then that raito notices the pair of anguished, obsidian eyes staring at his knees. for a moment raito stops in his tracks, half on the bed and half on the floor.

"no." he counters, once again returned to the petulant five-year-old he should be.

ryuutatou's long limbs uncurl and reach out towards raito, but they never quite touch him. instead, the boy inches close enough for raito to see the small circles under his eyes and raito thinks his father might have been lying when he said that little boys could not be beautiful. but all of raito thoughts cease when ryuutaou presses his lips to raito's cheek before he giggles."ryuutarou belongs to raito-kun. all the flowers of ryuutaro's heart belong to raito-kun."

"ryuu-ryuutaou?"