Makoto Tachibana // D4 // done

My fingers run threw its soft fur, a smile which was gentle warm and welcoming spreads across my face and the cats body begins to vibrate with the start of a purr. Everyday for the last few years I have meet this exact cat in this exact spot and by now we have become sort of like family. Each day I would bring him a small treat and hug him close and in return a smile would break across my face which make any ice in my eyes- which was not likely- melt and becomes as warm as a warm drink on a cold day.

Many people often told me that I was like an angel from heaven above. That there was no way on this earth that I could have a bad side, a rude one. They claimed that I was a gentle soul, that there was no darkness to fight my light. But of course they are wrong because everyone has some darkness in them, some people just hide it much better than others.

You see my light is clouded by death. When I was young I would visit this fishing harbour by the edge of the sea. I meet an elderly man there and he was like a grandfather to me. He looked over me and treated me in ways that you would not treat a stranger. He would take me out into the sea where he taught me how to fish, where he taught me all about different sea animals and their life and everything and I guess that was where my love of water really started you know? Well that and meeting Haru. 

But It was also because of this man that I feared the sea.

One night he was out with a bunch of other fishermen, their boats dancing along the surface of the salty liquid until the clouds became angry and grey. They were swept out away from shore where the skies screamed and the clouds struck with light. Winds howled and the screams of the fishermen could be hard from the shore. 

Only a few returned the next day and when I waited on the harbour, when I waited for him he never came. Haru held my hand as I cried my light becoming haunted with the beginning of darkness as I lost someone that I held dear to my heart. 

From that day I never swam in the ocean again, my fear of begin dragging into the depth of the unpredictable mass of water too much for eve me to handle. But that didn't not mean I hated water because water loved. It was the ocean that I feared. 

Only one person knew about my fear and that was Haru, my closet friend. Haru was a boy who was slightly different from others. His crazy obsession water scared a few people but to me it was beautiful because when he was in the water he looked as happiest as he could be. He was best when he was in water.

When we were younger we joined this swim club, we introduced ourselves and I could hardly speak, shy that all eyes were on me, but then Haru entered the water and all eyes were on him and I could not hide back my smile as he swam so elegantly threw the water like he had been swimming all his life. 

Thats where we meet Nagisa and the three of us became good friends. Nagisa was a rather spontaneous guy, he was bubbly and friendly his contrast to Haru is something that is obvious. Put them side by side and one will smile and bounce on his heels but the other would look at the ground slightly, his eyes and mind not focused on us but something far far away. 

I guess all three of us was just a weird group. The big softy, the obsessed and the bubbly. But then you add one more, the cool guy look but total Dork known as Rei. And that makes four. And the four of us make a team, make a family.

All of us swim together at school in a club which was founded by Nagisa. I was the president our manager was a girl was was the sister of a childhood fried, Gou. She was a good girl, one who was reliable with an odd fixation on muscles, but one could get over that when you were caught in her enthusiasm. 

All of us loved swimming, I swam Backstroke, Haru free, Nagisa breaststroke and Rei butterfly. 

There was one main reason why we all swam in a team and that was because we could swim together. 

I place the cat back down on the ground, my big hands running over its fur for the last time before I climbed to my feet, my dark brown eyes gazing warmly down at the little creature. My smile grows and I run my hand through my dark short hair before climbing the steps which would lead me to Haru's house. 

My long shadow follows me as I reach the top and knock on his door. But of course there is no answer, there never was. I let myself in and make a beeline to the bathroom where I know I will fond the boy. I open the door and there he is, sitting in the bath, water lolling around him, a ghost of a smile on his lips. 

I smile and take a step forward, my hand extending between us, my golden skin pale in the dim room. "In the bath again, Haru?" I say tilting my head to the side slightly. "If you don't hurry we are going to be late for school."


   Makoto Tachibana