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“Three years, huh.” It was a hard topic to broach. It was something neither of them knew how to begin with. Three years, and not a word that could have been spoken between them.
Sitting there, by the statue of Hachiko that had become a focal point of his friendship with all of them, Neku didn’t know what to say.
“I ain’t know where to start.” He wanted to say, to himself more than aloud, that it was uncharacteristically subdued for Beat. After three years, he couldn’t be sure. So much about him had changed, even with all of the things that had stayed the same. Beat had always been taller than him, broader than him, louder than him. That hadn’t changed. They’d grown up, both of them. Fighting for his existence again, locked in such absurd circumstances with unanswered questions, he hadn’t really had the chance to take note of it. “Why’d you wait til Shiki left to say that? She missed you like crazy. You think she ain’t wanna talk about it?”
She had, he knew. It had been a knife in his gut, seeing Shiki standing there in tears. Of course she’d missed him. He’d missed her too. He’d missed every single one of them, existing in that haze each day. Trying to explain himself was too complicated. Rather than talking about what had happened to him, he’d wanted to focus on anything else. What she had been doing; her fashion line sweeping the city and beyond. How Rhyme’s schooling was going, her college entrance exams. The chance to finally catch up.
It had all ended four days ago. The dust had settled. Shibuya was safe, and as far as Neku knew, the UG was running properly again. Everything was back the way it was meant to be.
“… I guess I just wasn’t sure how to bring it up. Maybe I felt guilty. Anything I could say to Shiki kind of feels like making excuses for being gone.”
“Just gonna up and say that, huh.”
Neku wasn’t sure if he wished Beat would look at him or not. He was staring straight ahead, his jaw squared, watching the waves of the crowd moving past. Shibuya, bustling as always, filled with people living their lives. And now, he was living his life again. Sitting next to Beat on that bench, struggling to face each other.
“Are you mad at me?” The speed at which Beat turned was almost enough to make him jump. His eyes were wide with shock for just a moment, bright blue and shining, and then they narrowed as his brows knit together. Once more, he turned away and said absolutely nothing. Was that uncharacteristic for who he’d become? Beat, deep in thought? “I didn’t take you for the silent treatment type.”
“It ain’t silent treatment. You know I ain’t got time for that shit. Jus’… thinkin’. I don’t get it, yo. Why would…” After a moment that felt too long Beat kicked his legs out and scratched the back of his head, pushing his headphones down around his neck in the process. He was hiding it, or trying. Someone else might not have realized it. But there was anger, real, true, deep anger, simmering under the surface of Beat’s tense expression. They knew each other too well, Neku realized. Beat would never be able to hide it from him, how hurt he was. “The hell would I be mad at you for, Phones? You was dead.”
“… yeah.”
Three years, he’d been dead.
“So what, I’m gonna stand there and be pissed at a corpse? S’not like you up and bailed on us or something, that little bitch shot you. You died, Phones. I saw it. And Priss-kid, he-” Instead of finishing his sentence, Beat just let his breath out in a huff. Joshua was a contentious topic, one they’d avoided even three years prior. Trying to get inside of his head was a fool’s errand, and it was probably better for everyone to give up on that. When Beat spoke again, it was louder than before. “Why the hell ain’t he just bring you back? Right away? After all that shit he put us through, he just tossed your ass aside and left us hanging? He called you partner and all that, acted like you was important to him, but what good did he do? Ain’t said a word to us! Nothin’. Three years and nobody told me a damn thing! I was out every night. Shiki came here every day, she waited for hours! We was lookin’ for you everywhere. Every damn day! She kept sayin’, any day now. It’ll be this week. If he’s playin’ another game, it won’t take no time at all for him to win and be back. … eventually she stopped tellin’ me that. Then she left too, when her line got big. Whenever she was in Shibuya she’d just come right here and wait. It was killin’ her. It was killin’ me, Phones. And then you just show up again outta nowhere and you expect me to-”
“Beat.”
“What, yo?”
“… you’re shouting.”
Shibuya was bustling, as always. Full of people living their lives. For the most part, they minded their own business and moved on to what mattered to them. It was why Neku had stayed there, sitting by Hachiko, talking about something as serious and secretive as the Reaper’s Game in broad daylight.
If Beat got any louder, even in Shibuya people would stare.
“I know you ain’t choose this.” It was so quiet. “Sorry. Guess I got too heated.”
“Don’t apologize. You aren’t wrong. We put you through a lot and it was for no reason.” Neku wished he had something, anything, a cup of coffee, a candy wrapper, anything to keep his hands busy. Instead, he just laced his fingers together and stared down at them. Beat had hunched over himself, his gaze fixed on the ground. Both of his hands were curled into fists, so tight his knuckles were pale. “It wasn’t about you, Beat. I wasn’t trying to brush you guys aside, we just…”
“Had bigger fish to fry. That bigass Noise, all the shit with the kids and the game. Saving Shibuya was more important, I get that. But it hurt, man. I… If I started thinkin’ ‘bout it too much, that shit got to me. I was tryna keep it goin’ for those kids, be a good example. But as soon as I got dumped back in the UG, all I could think about was where you was. If I would run into that little girl, what I was gonna do to her for all that shit she pulled. I felt like shit, Phones. Still do. You was standin’ there like nothin’ was wrong, like no matter what we was gonna get through it. At first that made me happy. I was glad it ain’t felt different, that we was still friends. Like old times, you know? Now I ain’t know how to feel. Like nothin’ was even wrong. Everything was wrong. So I guess… I guess I am mad at you. Ain’t that stupid? I should jus’ be happy you’re back with us, that all this shit’s over and we can leave it behind. We should leave it behind. Why’s it hurt that you did that? It all worked out, right? Why am I mad? I can’t even look at you, man!”
It was stupid, Neku knew. A stupid, shallow gesture. The idea that it could do anything in the face of what Beat was saying to him was almost laughable.
He put his hand on Beat’s, and said nothing. As it stretched out, their silence was becoming agonizing. Neither of them moved for so long.
“She killed you, Neku.”
Ah.
Neku didn’t need to look to know Beat’s expression. His face screwed up, his teeth and fists clenched, head tilted back. Something he’d laughed at before, in a different time, in a different context. Beat always put his all into it, when he was trying not to cry.
“I know.”
He was always so bad at holding back tears.
Until that moment, Neku hadn’t really let it sink in. He had tried not to think about it; what his friends had to have been thinking, how much they must have been suffering. And there had been so much for him to do that he had been able to push it aside. It was horrible. Three years had been a long time; enough time for him to understand Coco. Trapped in the ruins of Shinjuku, Neku had learned what she had been trying to save and how hard she’d fought for it only to fail. He'd heard her, reluctant, humiliated, despairing, as she finally apologized for dragging him into it. By the time they'd returned, she'd acted as if it was long past. But Beat hadn’t seen any of that. He hadn’t been a part of it. Beat had been in the RG, waiting in vain, stuck with the memories and questions with no answers. And then he’d been so selfish that he’d looked at Beat, and…
“Look, I-”
“I was wrong. I was being stupid, and thoughtless. Even though I should have seen how pissed you were and I should have realized you were right, I just brushed it off and told you it was fine. Of course you’re mad at me. I stood there and smiled and told you to forgive her. That we were all friends now. You should be mad at me, I would be too. No, I am too. What was I thinking? I told you it didn’t matter how much she hurt you, that everything you went through wasn’t important. I was an asshole, Beat. I’m sorry.”
“You wanna go somewhere else?”
Totally not addressing what he’d just said. It was almost funny how transparent it had been, but there was a rock in his stomach. Beat’s hand was moving beneath his, though not to pull away. Neku felt stupid that it was reassuring to him, and wondered if Beat felt the same. Sitting there on a bench next to Hachiko, holding hands.
“… did you have somewhere in mind?”
“H-man’s place? Naw. Don’t really wanna be there right now. Not sure what I’d say if I saw him. Place has weird hours these days anyway. Leas’ I think it do. Ain’t been there in a while.” That was something he could have jumped on, but Neku let it go. He was sure Beat must have visited Cat Street while he was gone. Though he wondered what Mr. H may have said, it clearly hadn’t been the answers Beat would have been looking for. “Phones, I don’t wanna talk about this no more. Shinjuku and all that. I know you musta went through it there too, yo, but… I’m tired of all this. I jus’ don’t know what to say to you right now. Why’d you have to go and…”
Beat’s entire demeanor had shifted. Out of the corner of his eye, Neku could see his lower lip jutting out in something almost like a pout. In any other context, it might have been something to laugh at. Neku might have poked at him for it. That wasn’t something he had it in him to do, though. Beat was… not sulking, but clearly working through something.
“Beat. We don’t have to talk about what happened in the UG. We can talk about anything. But, listen… I hurt you, I can’t ignore that. I want to start making it up to you. If that’s selfish of me, then I’m sorry.”
“Why you gotta apologize like that!” The outburst nearly made him jump. Beat’s hand was tightening around his, almost enough to hurt. Then it loosened again, alongside a heavy sigh. “No, wait… S’just… you know, I ain’t used to it. Uh… I mean normally when somebody’s sayin’ sorry it’s me. I ain’t used to not bein’ the one who fucked up. Man, this is worse’n when my old man said sorry.”
“He finally did, huh.”
“Yeah. After the last game. S’funny. We talked about Shiki and her friend, how things was when she came back. It made me feel good knowin’ you and your mom was good, s’why I always asked about her. Dunno why. Jus’ was happy that you got closer to her again. Like things was right for you. Sorry I always dodged the questions about my folks. I didn’t wanna drag it down, ‘cause nothin’ changed at first. Me and Rhyme… by the time we got that sorted out, you was gone again. Priss-kid pulled some weird shit with us and how he reworked the accident. Dunno if he thought he was doin’ me a favor or what. Took me some time to make my peace with it.” Beat sighed, and though it was a little morose, when he continued Neku found himself listening intently. “Me and Rhyme knew we died that day. When we came back, everybody was sayin’ to me how scary it was an’ how brave I was, divin’ in to save her like that. Everybody was so proud of me. My folks kept the newspaper article about it. They framed it an’ everything, but they ain’t talk about it for weeks. Like they was afraid to bring it up. Thought it was so stupid. We just popped back into a world where all that happened was some scrapes and bruises. Where I did what I was tryna do. Pushed her out of the way, safe and sound. We both knew it was fake. Nobody else did.”
“… and your dad apologized to you?”
“Took a while. Not ‘til after, you know. My folks was quiet about it for a while. My classmates was wild though. They all thought I was hot shit. At first I hated it. All that praise and attention, when I knew I was a failure. Had some rough nights. Lotta rough nights. I still got nightmares, bad. I keep seeing it over and over, how I lost her… an’ you, too. One day I talked about it with Shiki, how it pissed me off that everybody was liftin’ me up for something I ain’t do. She changed my mind about it, flipped my whole brain. Told me not to think about it like I failed. Jus’ think about it as gettin’ recognized the only way I could for everything I did in the game to bring her back. I liked that better.” It was a good way to think of it, for sure. Even if it sounded more like- “Told her she was spending too much time with Rhyme, sayin’ shit like that.”
“I bet she loved that,” he said wryly, casting a sideways glance to Beat. He’d calmed down almost completely, strangely enough. Neku found himself feeling calm as well. “She was trying to make you feel better and you turned it on her, huh?”
“Damn right. She got so red, started unloading on me ‘bout how she was trying to be a good friend and how was I gonna brush her off like that when she said sum’n real cool? It was the first time we laughed in a while.” Knowing exactly why, Neku found himself at a loss for words. “Anyway. One day my old man sat me down. It was a few days after… you know. It’s funny. I was sure you was in the UG, coulda swore you just disappeared soon as it happened. But they still found a body. Didn’t know how to feel, standing there with all these people who thought you was gone forever. I think it broke my old man a little. Back to back, y’know? Me and Rhyme put the fear in him with that car accident, and just a few weeks later I was at your funeral. It made him realize how close he came to losin’ us for good, how lucky he was that he had us at home causin’ problems instead of all quiet in an urn. He told me he was sorry for always bein’ a hardass. That the night we went to the hospital… well, not really, but in the world Priss-kid cooked up for us. He told me that night, he couldn’t sleep a wink. He kept thinkin’ about how us fightin’ that night might have ended up being the last thing he ever said to me. Just took him until you died to admit it. My ma was cryin’, they made it a whole thing. Me an’ Rhyme was always good with each other, but I know our family been messy for a while. Still, things got better after that. My folks stopped puttin’ me against Rhyme and started to see what I was good at. It took us some time, we still got our problems. I know I ain’t the son they expected, and nobody’s changin’ that. They got over it. We do okay now. Rhyme’s happier too. She never liked how our folks used her bein’ all smart and shit to try and get to me for how stupid I was.”
“You’re not stupid.”
“Ain’t that smart though, am I? It don’t bother me. Kinda funny how it all shook out. You came back and to everybody else you was never dead, but me and my folks is still good. Even though we only worked things out ‘cause you died. Priss-kid really fixed it all, huh. My folks started askin’ me how you been, soon as you came back. They actin’ like they been worried for a long time. I ain’t so good at bein’ subtle with it, so Rhyme is tryna figure out what they think happened witchu. Right now she figures you was sick. But you gotta know some shit, right? What did he make up for you?”
“You know? A lot, based on all the things I found in my room. There’s an electric keyboard that I know how to play, and my computer has video editing software on it. The weirdest one is that my mom has a bunch of glazed dishes that look… rustic. Some are better than others, so I guess she kept my first tries. I’ve gained some notoriety online for street art too. Anonymous. I didn’t pick a handle or post anything myself, but I have some fans who gave my work nicknames. I think it’s crazy, actually. My computer’s full of progress pictures, so I know they’re my pieces. At first I wondered where he came up with all of them, because I think they’re too accurate to what I actually would have done. Like there was some other world where Coco never showed up, and this is what that Neku got up to. Now I’m that Neku. It’s probably what actually happened, too. I know Joshua must have been watching me for a while before we met in the UG, but I don’t feel like he knew me well enough for all of this. Maybe I should be thankful to that other Neku for having tried out so many different things.”
Adjusting to that had been… interesting. To walk into his own bedroom and discover it was full of things he’d never seen before. A whole life had been constructed for him that Neku was still piecing together from context clues. It wasn’t like he could just call Joshua up and get a summary. All he could say for sure was that suddenly he had found himself in his own little world, one that was bursting with color. His home was so much brighter than it had been when he’d left it. That other him, that other life he hadn’t lived, seemed like he’d been dabbling almost randomly in whatever medium he could think of. Neku was going to have to find which one spoke to him the most.
“What have you been doing since you came back? I know Shiki started Gatto Nero with Eri, Rhyme’s been learning to code when she’s not studying, but you didn’t tell me what you were up to.”
Neku wasn’t going to add “Besides trying to find me” to that. There could be an answer to that question that he really wouldn’t like. The thought that it might have been all Beat had been doing, ignoring his own life for a fruitless search, was a sour taste in his mouth.
“Yeah… it seems like they jus’ found their callings. I ain’t really… nothin’ jumped out, you know? I kept skating, still makes me feel good. Don’t wanna make it my whole thing, though. Jus’ a way to spend my time the way I like. When I wasn’t… you know, out lookin’… I was jus’ doin’ the things that made me happy. Think I was tryna take it easy. Livin’ life, you know? Since I finally got it back. I know I got time to pull it together still, take things at my pace. I figured I’d find something on the way, y’know? But maybe that’ll end up being my calling, having a good time.”
“I get it. I think we’re both overdue for some leisure, after everything. Taking it slow sounds pretty good right now. Ugh… I guess you’ll have to wait for me to catch up on that easy living, though. I can’t just drop everything and relax yet.”
“Oh yeah? Why’s that? You got an expert in the slow life right here witchu, I’ll give you some pointers.” It had him laughing, and Neku wished he could take up that offer right away. Beat could definitely teach him how to set things down and just enjoy life. Enjoy the moment, Mr. H had said. Neku wanted to take that to heart. Still, Joshua’s new life for him had saddled him with some obligations that needed to be addressed.
“Turns out other me got tangled up in… fashion. Shiki knows what must have happened, but she was pretty pissed at first when suddenly a bunch of her designs retroactively changed. She blew up my phone with pictures, asking what the hell happened and if Joshua did it and yelling at me to make him fix it. When I looked at the pictures it all fell into place. It looks like it’s meant to be mine, like the kind of art I used to dream about making. I guess we collaborated in that other timeline. Once we figured that out, she said I needed to ask permission before making edits to her line. Like I did it on purpose or something. Anyway. Gatto Nero really took off, huh? I knew she was skilled, but I looked it up and they’ve got outlets and pop-ups all over the place. And that show coming up.”
“You gettin’ royalties off that shit?” Beat was clearly trying to make light of it, after the seriousness of the topic they’d just managed to leave behind. He was grateful that Beat hadn’t asked him about how he’d spent his three years. That wasn’t what he wanted to talk about. Neku didn’t think he was ready to talk about it.
Those three years had been… very hard on him. He thought he had come out of them okay. There were still some things deep down that Neku wasn’t sure he had processed yet.
“Shiki and I are figuring some things out about it. I’m not strapped for cash, the job Joshua gave me is decent and he beamed the training manual into my head somehow. I would thank him, but he hasn’t exactly made it easy to contact him. We’re not in a rush. I said if she really needed to pay me she should treat it like a commission, lump sum, but she’s looking into things. It’s good for Shiki either way, she’ll be doing collaborations more in the future when she gets even bigger. She might as well learn how to do it now since I’m not gonna put her feet to the fire. Some other artist might be. Her thought process is that as long as she’s continuing to make money off it, I should get a cut. I just can’t stop thinking, is it really my art? It feels weird to take credit for something I didn’t do.”
“I feel that. But if you was here the whole time, you woulda been doin’ it, right? His head’s big enough and I ain’t his biggest fan these days, so I ain’t gonna sing no praises. But even I gotta admit Priss-kid got that shit figured out.”
“You could be right. Or are you just parroting Shiki’s advice to you back at me?”
“Ain’t gotta call me out like that, Phones.” Beat’s hand, still in his, was warm. He hadn’t let go, for some reason. He didn’t seem embarrassed about it, like it was no big deal. Neku was glad for that. He knew they were hidden by Beat’s skateboard, that anyone else who glanced their way would simply see two young men in conversation. No one would pay enough attention to see. Eventually they would have to leave, and when that happened he would let go. For the moment, Neku was content to hold on. “You gonna say any a’this shit to her? You know she ain’t gonna be in town much longer.”
“I will, I promise. We’ll talk before she leaves for her show with Eri. I just wanted to talk to you first, one-on-one.”
“Why’zat?”
“Huh? Because…” It hadn’t just been avoiding Shiki out of awkwardness or guilt. Neku had sat down that day with full intent to talk to Beat specifically. It had been a no-brainer; he couldn’t talk to anyone before he talked to Beat.
Why?
“Man, don’t leave me hangin’.”
“No, it’s…” His ears were warm, and Neku found himself feeling like an idiot. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Beat looking at him expectantly. Was he red in the face, or just too self-conscious?
“Don’t tell me you don’t know neither.”
“Lay off! I just felt like it, all right? It wasn’t out of nowhere, I just… you were with me. Everything that happened in that fake Shibuya, we went through it together. The game with Shiba, you were there with me. We went through it together. How could I sit down and talk it out with Shiki before I talked to you? We went through this. You only got sucked back in because Coco wanted me to help her, and we put you through hell. You were with me for the worst of it, of course I was going to talk to you first.”
“It ain’t nothin’.”
“Bullshit it ain’t. Don’t shrug this off. It was fucked up, Beat.”
“Aight. I won’t lie. Shit was whack, and it got to me. But you’s my partner, Phones. If you go through it, I go through it. We been a team since back then. Jus’ the way it is now. If some crazy shit goes down and you get dragged back into the UG, Imma have that rabbit guy on speed-dial ‘fore you can even say “reaper”. I know you got my back too.” Just for an instant, Beat’s fingers tightened around his, and Neku understood it abruptly in that moment when neither of them spoke. It was funny, almost, that his chest tightened so much just from meeting Beat’s eyes. Every emotion seemed to be swimming there, and he wondered if his own gaze was as transparent. Something in the back of his head, some little voice, was hesitating in that moment as if to ask him if there was something deeper in the way Beat was looking at him. “Don’ leave me again, ya hear? Listen! I ain’t sayin’ I want a next time. If I never see that stupid-ass game again it’ll be too soon. But if there’s a next time and you make me wait another three years, you know Imma make you sorry! We in it together from now on, aight? Always.”
“Okay, I know you didn’t get this from Shiki or Rhyme.”
“Fo’ sho! You should feel lucky. It’s a Beat original, one of a kind. You ain’t gettin’ that from no one else.”
“I do feel lucky. It’s not every day I hear something so genuine from you.”
“The hell’s that mean, Phones? I been genuine this whole time! Pourin’ my heart an’ soul out for you, and you gonna flip it on me like that?”
“Oh yeah? How else am I gonna make you scoop some of that heart and soul back up?”
“I’m bein’ real witchu, Neku!”
“All right, all right! I’ll cool it. Partners, right?”
“Til the day we die, yo.”
“Don’t jinx it, Beat. If you say something like that, we’re gonna get crushed by falling debris tomorrow and we’ll end up right back in the UG. We’re gonna live long, fulfilling lives. Say it with me. Long, fulfilling lives.”
“Fine! We gonna be here twenty years – no, forty years from now, livin’ it up right here. We good, Phones?”
“I think we’re good, but you tell me.”
“Oh, we good. Hey, you wanna grab a bite before I gotta bounce? Train ain’t for a while, we still got some time.”
“Yeah, I could go for that. What are you thinking?” Beat stood before he did, pulling him to his feet by their still-joined hands. That was that, then. They’d be off on their way, get something to eat, and then head home. With his free hand, Beat picked up his board to tuck under his arm. “We did Hachiko Cafe for lunch, I’m not going back there. But we can’t go off too far.”
“Justice sound aight? You ain’t normally up for somethin’ big at this hour.”
“You say that like I’m an old man who can’t handle anything greasy. Ugh, but don’t tell me you’ll go for your usual.” Three years and Beat still had a bottomless hole in the place of a stomach. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Flashing him a bright smile, Beat was shrugging. “Beat, that thing’s enormous. You already had a full lunch.”
“Ay, you know me. I always got room for the Justice burger. Number seven with fries, baby.” As if not thinking about it at all, Beat had already started to walk. Instead of letting himself be pulled along, Neku found himself standing stock still. Frowning as he was stopped after less than three steps, Beat turned to look at him with confusion.
“… you’re not gonna let go of my hand?” Was Beat really so clueless as to just drag him off into the crowd, hand in hand?
“Why should I? You want me to?” Neku could almost see the gears moving in Beat’s head, his frown growing more pronounced by the second. The answer to that question was something he really wasn’t sure of himself. “Aight. You said that like you want me let go, but you be lookin’ at me like you wanna hang on. Pick one, Phones.”
Beat was right. He didn’t think he was ready to let go just yet. What that meant, if it meant anything, Neku was trying to not look too closely at. But the crowd was moving by, dozens of people with dozens of…
“Neku. Shibuya’s changed since you been gone.” For the first time in what felt like ages, Neku had no idea what Beat was getting at. It was normally the other way around. Maybe it was good for him to be the one getting blindsided every once in a while. All he could do was stare down at their joined hands, not wanting to let go but not wanting to look at the people around them. Neku wondered if, to Beat, he appeared uncharacteristically uncertain. “… ain’t nobody gonna pay attention. No one’s gonna give us a funny look, aight. People ain’t care about that shit no more, man. Don’ sweat it.”
“No one cares seeing a couple of guys holding hands in Shibuya anymore, huh.”
“Nobody gives a shit. Everybody’s got their own business to stay in.” It had been far more than three years since he’d felt self-conscious in public. Why did he care what other people thought? He’d spent so much time shutting everything like that out. Was he going to let one little thing bother him so much? Something he had never, ever been concerned with before it had been him standing there with Beat? “I ain’t got time to get worked up about what other people think, anyways. If they judgin’, so what? Ain’t my problem. This about us, nobody else.”
Beat’s ears were red.
Neku understood in an instant that he hadn’t actually been worried about the others around them.
“… Neku. You good?”
Trust his partner.
Neku took a deep breath, letting it out slowly to ground himself again. He did trust Beat. Maybe he trusted Beat more than anyone else, enough to take the briefest glimpse at his own feelings.
“… Yeah. I’m fine.” He was fine. “All right. If you say so.”
Shibuya was bustling, as always. Filled with people living their lives. No one would spare a sideways glance to the two teenage boys who stood by the statue of Hachiko, hand in hand, faces split with nervous yet excited smiles, but that didn’t matter in the slightest. They could join that crowd, get lost in its waves. Take everything in, and enjoy it. Live.
“I do say so. Le’s go, Phones. I got a burger with my name on it.”
“You have a tower with your name on it, more like.”
“Ha! Aight. You gonna meet up with Shiki here tomorrow?”
“I only have two more days before she heads out, so I shouldn’t drag my feet. I’ll text her to meet up tomorrow. Same time, same place. Do… you wanna come?”
“Think I’ll give you guys a chance to talk it out one on one,” Beat said, the faintest dusting of pink on his cheeks. “I mean, we got loads of time. But she don’t. Her life’s busy, yo.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s true. And I probably do owe it to her.” He and Beat had plenty of time. To catch up. To just talk. To… see how things would go from there. To figure out where they wanted things to go. Neku had the growing feeling they were already on the same page. Beat's hand was warm. “… wanna come to my place next week? We could watch a movie or something, give Rhyme some peace and quiet to study. She’s buckling down on it right now, right? I think she’d be more relaxed knowing I was keeping her big brother under control.”
“Just you’n me?”
“Yeah.” Just a little, he squeezed Beat’s hand. “You and me.”
When they walked to the station that night, their laughing voices hidden in the bustling crowds of Shibuya, Beat’s fingers slipped between his own.
After three long years, Neku finally felt alive.