Scattered light

Feather Light And Paper Thin

For you, there'll be no more crying.
For you, the sun will be shining.
And I feel that when I'm with you,
It's alright, I know it's right.

And the songbirds are singing, like they know the score.
And I love you, I love you, I love you, like never before.

-Fleetwood Mac

Chapter Text

There's a certain sense of humor to the world and the way lives unfold, all layering on top of each other and merging at the strangest times. There's an odd sense of irony to it all, staining the corners of our existences with the feeling of artificiality, because how can these things we go through happen to us? We're all just unsuspecting cogs in the machine of reality, spinning the way we're designed with nothing to discern us from the gears chugging along next to us.

How is it that when I was in desperate need of a light in my life I was given the sun? How is it that my world that was lacking so much color was blessed with this tiny vibrant person? And how is it that I am sitting in his living room unable to breathe as his mother's voice chills me to the bone with five simple words?

My fingers slack where they hold the phone, almost dropping it onto the floor. I struggle around my tongue to form words as the static silence on the phone speaker starts to become too much. "I-, uh, I'm sorry ma'am, I don't know what you mean."

"I mean that last time I checked my son could hear just fine," the woman, Hinata's mother, snaps, and I wince. Her voice is like the crack of a whip, sharp and stinging. It's odd, now that I think about it I don't remember Natsu mentioning anything about her when she told me the story in the coffee shop.

I struggle with words, not knowing how to respond to this woman or how to interpret her claims. There's the distinct low rumble of a man's voice on the other end of the line and a rustling as I assume she puts her hand over the receiver, mumbling back something quick and direct. There's another rustling and then she speaks; "I have to go. I need you to give a very clear message to my son. I want him to meet me at the diner; he'll know what that means, on the tenth. Sometime around three should work. Goodbye."

The abrupt hang up isn't quite as jarring as the rest of the experience but I still jump at the sound. Hinata turns to me, cocking his head to the side to silently ask me if everything is okay. I nod, but he doesn't buy it, scooting closer to the end of the couch near where I sit on the recliner, deflated and confused.

"Who was that?" He asks, a tender tone conveyed in the way he moves his hands. His delicate fingers make my heart skip a beat and I'm reminded of why I came here, only to push it down immediately. He doesn't need to hear that now, doesn't need the burden of my feelings weighing on him along with the information I'm about to give him. That I have to give him, no matter how little I want to.

"It was a woman," I explain, deciding to sign so he won't see the way my lips tremble over the words. I want to be strong for him. I want to do what I can to help him through whatever shit storm will most likely come from this. "She said...she said she was your mother." The words feel heavy in my palms.

Confusion crosses his face, then realization, followed shortly by the mixture of fear and hurt I'd been expecting. He swallows, his Adam's apple bobbing and sticking like all of the questions he undeniably has, with no answers to cushion their grind against the walls of his throat. "Did she say what she wanted?" His hands tremble and I want so badly to wrap them in my own and lessen their burden, but this is not the time, and it's definitely not my place.

"She wants you to meet her at the diner at three on the tenth. She said you'd know what that means." I expect more confusion, "the diner" not seeming like a clear enough explanation to me, but he just nods, letting a tiny sigh escape from between his lips as he squeezes his eyes shut. And then he's up, crossing the room and scribbling on the calendar next to the doorway to the kitchen, his ginger eyebrows furrowing as he adds in the meeting time and place.