Work Text:
Both of original characters are mine, is prohibited to use them for commercial purposes.
Another shiny day, another boring daily life he should overcome. Stark would never bother his feet to stride outside; unless his Mom told him so, and she did. He needed to make friends sooner, said her with encouraging smile, which always carved upon her lips. Before the school started couple of months from now on.
Easier said than done, though.
And there he was, standing awkwardly beneath a tree, avoiding the awfully hot sunray; unlike the others who ran freely in the middle of playground. It was not as if he was afraid of getting tanned, in fact he would not. It was more like, the notion of being rejected prevented him from approaching them; a group of lively kids who were all pure Japanese.
All that he remembered was their gazes at him, on the day when his family arrived in Japan. "Who the hell is that foreigner kiddo?" was perhaps their thoughts back then. Well, he wished he knew it sooner, since he felt like wasting his time to ask them whether he could join their party or not … while in the end he was still standing on his own.
Five years old Stark Kruger knelt down, grabbing a random thin branch that just fell right before him and began doodling upon the sandy ground. He found it more interesting, less tiring, and did not make him tanned. How ironic, a tiniest part of his heart whispered.
And that was when a voice, a sweet voice of a little girl, distracted his attempt at doodling.
"Why don't you go playing around with the others?"
As simple as that; as what his Mom frequently asked to him, but this one was completely different. He met no concerned look, or even an encouraging smile afterwards. Instead, what he found was pure curiosity mixed with innocence.
Moreover, she was Japanese.
The latter could likely get grip on himself after the second blink of his eyes. He just shrugged with, the same, innocent look over his visage.
"Because I'm a gaijin?"
That former straight line upon her lips lifted up a bit. "That makes no sense," commented her, as she folded her pleated brown skirt thus sitting on a blank space beside him. "There is nothing weirder than having people makes distance between you … just because you are a foreigner," her flat-toned statement continued airing.
Stark found this somehow amusing, that he snorted a decent smile. "It's not that weird, but natural. Some people dislike difference, you know?"
"But being all the same isn't a good choice either. Look, they are getting bored now," the beige-haired girl bluntly pointed at those exhausted kids.
"S-Shush! Don't point out like that …!" the boy quickly brought her hand down. Both of them looked at each other afterwards, painting slight of red hues over his cheeks.
"Forget about that," his sapphires were averted from her garnets. "How about you? Why don't you join them? You were originally born here, no?" asked him in turn. She blinked once, and thus tilting her head to the right.
"I don't like being around people … they are noisy."
Stark tried holding his laughter. "You approached a wrong person then."
"Are you noisy?" now it was her turn to toss a query.
"Kinda …" the blond boy answered between the chortles. "That was why my Mom believed I would likely make friends faster … but the reality is cruel."
The girl hummed as her response, thus following his previous action of doodling on the ground. There was only a brief silence before Stark broke it down with his sudden introduction.
"By the way, I am Stark. You are?"
Her beige head turned to the side. "Hikaru. But it's written in katakana," she answered, much to his amazement.
"Really? My name is written in katakana too! Like this!" He abandoned his doodle and carved the letters that built his name carefully. It was far to be mentioned as a neat handwriting, but at least he had tried his best.
Hikaru's eyes widened in awe. "As a foreigner, your katakana is pretty written …" she mumbled, nodding her head firmly. "Can you write mine?"
"Hi-Ka-Ru isn't it?" he carved the other letters, but halted in the middle. "Wait, how do you write 'Ka'?"
"Hmm …" Hikaru grabbed her own branch and tried writing her name instead. Stark unconsciously gasped in astonished.
“Ah … that’s how you write ‘Ka’ …” he nodded several times, as if he had finally understood a difficult theory after long time learning. “Hey, hey, where did you learn about these letters? Are you going to kindergarten?”
The girl slowly shook her head as she answered “No. I learnt these at home. Alone.”
“That’s crazy! You’re a genius one, aren’t you?”
“I am not! I cannot even read or write kanji,” Hikaru frowned.
“Cannot read kanji doesn’t mean you’re not genius—“
“—Being able to learn about katakana alone doesn’t mean I’m a genius either,” she cut his sentence immediately. Leaving the boy sucked along with his sheepish chuckle.
“Fine, fine …” said him afterwards, letting the solitude barged in, with those kids’ laughter as a background melody.
Her garnets scanned the boy’s appearance thoroughly; as if she tried to leak something that might have been his inadequacy. “Hey, aren’t you leaving?” a query was spoken up. Much to her anxiety of being left out.
The moment his gaze was shifted towards her, and a confused look replaced the former sheepish chortle, she knew it already, that he would not keep off easily.
“Why shall I leave anyway? It’s still afternoon, right?”
Hikaru shook her head once again, with a thin smile adorned her visage. “Not that leave, duh …” a laughter was snorted; for the first time, ever since she made a contact with another human. Stark was initially clueless, but decided to laugh with her instead.
“Now that you smiled at me, I’ve got one more reason not to take my leave, ahaha …”
With that said alone, making friends seemed to be easier than he thought before. Because the girl’s next sentence just likely proved that his effort had come to its triumph …
“Then, let’s meet again tomorrow. Shall we?”
… And literally became his first step of the new path of his life.
—END—