Chapter 1: Getting home
Chapter Text
🥀🥀🥀
Suzu didn’t know what to do. Everything she’s done for the past couple of weeks she had just played by ear.
Never knowing what would come next.
Maybe this time she’s more in over her head than she thought.
She’s now bruised and bleeding, taking two abused boys she met on the internet home with her.
Suzu doesn’t know what she’s going to tell her dad.
She doesn’t even know what’s going to happen to Kei and Tomo when they all get off this train.
And she still has a history test on Monday.
Suzu only comes back to the world when Tomo stretched against her, he himself, also coming back to the world, only he was taking a nap.
“Are we there yet…?” Tomo asked, rubbing his eyes
Suzu smiled sadly at the boy “not yet, just a bit longer”
Tomo nods before once again curling up against Suzu and going back to sleep.
On her other side, Kei watches out the window as the trees fly past.
“What are you going to do now?” He asks
“Huh?” Suzu startles at the sudden question “what do you mean?”
“As Bell…” Kei elaborated “now that you’ve been revealed…what are you going to do now?”
Suzu pauses
What was she going to do now? In all the chaos, she hadn’t considered the consequences. There’s no way she could go back to who she used to be. In the real world and U.
It just wouldn’t be possible.
“I’m not sure” she says, quietly brushing through Tomo’s hair “but don’t worry, everything will be fine”
She hates lying to them. But in reality, she isn’t sure of anything right now.
And Kei seems to be slowly realizing that. Suzu can only thank exhaustion for the fact that he hasn’t fully caught on.
Speaking of exhaustion-
“You should rest, Kei” Suzu suggests “I’ll wake you before we arrive at the station”
“I’m okay” Kei mumbles, he curls up, but stays awake regardless.
And if Suzu was being honest, she wishes she could take a long nap with Tomo right now.
Her phone had died an hour into the train ride back, so it’s been sitting in her pocket like a dead paper weight.
So, she dedicates the next hour to trying to get the boys and herself cleaned and patched up, to the best of her abilities.
Tomo was easy enough, only a whine and complaint or two. But trying to patch up Kei was as close to impossible as it could get. She felt like she was trying to give a cat a bath, or in this case, a dragon.
“Just hold still” Suzu reasoned “it’ll be over before you know it”
“I said I’m fine!” Kei snaps back, accidentally batting the cleansing wipe out of her hand with a loud smack.
Some of the other people on the train gave them weird and disgusted looks. As most had been since they boarded.
But Suzu couldn’t be bothered by it at this point.
“I’m sorry” Kei whispers, looking away from Suzu “I didn’t mean to-“
“It’s alright” Suzu assures, though by the look on Kei’s face, her assurance doesn’t mean much. “It’s been a long night, we’ll all feel better after some food and sleep”
Kei merely nods, pulling his knees up to his chest and curling in on himself.
The train returns to silence for a moment.
Then it’s filled with the quiet hum of Suzu’s voice. And her humming seems to do the trick because Kei turns his head back to her, a small smile slowly making its way on his lips.
She continues her quiet hum, stop after stop, until they’re eventually the only three left on the train and arriving at her home station.
“Tomo” Suzu whispers, gently waking the boy “we’re here”
Tomo blinks his eyes twice before they fall again as he slowly fights to stay awake.
“I’ve got him” Kei mutters
“Are you sure?” Suzu asks, turning to him.
Kei nods, pulling his brother into a piggy back ride. “He’s lighter than he looks”
Suzu didn’t have the heart to mention that he didn’t look heavy at all. Under weight if anything.
But figured that could be a concern for another day.
The train doors open and the three of them finally abandon the seats they have kept warm for the past couple of hours.
As the train pulled away, Suzu could see her dad on the other side of the tracks, and a moment of clarity washes over all of them.
“Dinner?” He asks, wearing a similar tired smile to Suzu’s.
In that moment, Suzu appreciated her dad’s brevity of words more than ever before. “Sounds good" she agrees with a smile
Introductions go about as well as they could between the two-exceptionally-quiet-boys.
Dinner ends up being vastly different. Turns out all Tomo needed was some Udon to get out of his shell. Though still very quiet, a child’s mind is a curious thing with many questions.
“What else can you can play?”
Right now they were on the topic of instruments. After Tomo spotted the old music room, Suzu quickly learned that the boy liked music.
“Keyboard mostly, but I do know some chords on the ukulele” Suzu says, slightly bashful
“Kei used to play piano” Tomo shares, turning to his brother who now also looked bashful.
“Really?” Suzu asks, a smile breaking out “we could play together if you want?”
Kei simply shrugs, “if we’re even here for that long” he mutters under his breath.
The dinner table returns to a quiet hush, minus the clinking of dishes and slight rainfall outside.
Suzu bites her lip before speaking “I have some clothes that might fit Tomo” she hesitantly shares
Her dad once again comes to her aid “and I have some smaller stuff that might work for you as well, Kei”
“…thank you sir” Kei says with a nod, clearly uncomfortable with how out of place he’s quickly starting to feel.
“You guys can sleep in my room tonight” Suzu says, cleaning up her bowl and chopsticks.
“Thank you, Bell” Tomo says
Suzu awkwardly laughs “you can call me Suzu, if you want” She spares a glance at her dad, but his face doesn’t reveal anything useful to gauge his reaction. They still hadn’t talked about her being Bell, or anything for that matter.
“Bell’s fine” Tomo says instead, clearly stuck on the name.
“Alright then” Suzu smiles “come with me”
The two head upstairs to Suzu’s room.
Suzu digs through her closet in hopes of finding something for Tomo to sleep in.
She manages to come out with a pale blue t-shirt and sweatpants “the pants might be a bit big, but if you pull the drawstrings than they should work for tonight-“ She pauses when she realizes Tomo’s no longer paying attention to her, but a picture on her desk
“Is that you?” He asks
Suzu makes her way over to see the photo. It was one of her and her mom when she was little. She smiles sadly at the old photo “yea, that’s me”
“Is that your mom?” Tomo asks, pointing “will we get to see her?”
Suzu didn’t realize how weird it felt for someone to ask that. Everyone knows about her mom. Some people even walk around the topic like their life depends on it.
“Yeah, but she passed away when I was little”
Tomo gazes at the photo “you look like her” he says confidently
“I-I do?” Suzu dumbly asks, not expecting such a response.
“Mhm” Tomo calmly nods “Since mom died, I’ve had a lot of people say I look like her”
“Really?”
“It’s his eyes” Kei says from the doorway, startling Suzu. “He and mom had the same eyes”
Suzu nods in understanding, turning back to look between Kei and Tomo.
Kei’s eyes roam around the room, his eyes landing center of the mirror on the wall before darting back to his brother.
There’s no doubt who Kei looks most like out of their parents.
They all know it, but refuse to acknowledge it.
Suzu frowns.
She could never imagine her dad doing anything so vile.
She still can’t grasp why the boys father would even do such a thing at all.
She has to fix this.
“Suzu, could you help me grab some extra pillows?” Her dad asks, this time startling Kei as he appeared behind him in the doorway. Her dad’s always been light on his feet, it’s no wonder he could always sneak up on people.
“Yeah, sure” Suzu agrees, “feel free to get comfortable” she tells the boys before running out to her dad and making their way downstairs
They both grab a couple of pillows ranging in size and fluff.
“Do you think we’ll need another blanket?” Suzu asks, looking in one of the closets, but stops when she doesn’t get a response. “Dad?” She questions, turning around to find her dad sitting on the couch in the living room.
“Come have a seat Suzu” He says, patting the couch cushion.
Suzu slowly walks over, carefully-yet-unnecessarily watching her steps.
“What is it?” Suzu asks, though she would be lying if she didn’t admit to already having a few guesses.
“We need to figure out a plan, Suzu” his tight smile grows in an attempt of comfort, but his sad, tense eyes give him away. “Legally they can’t stay here for long, one way or another, the police or their dad is gonna get involved”
“But we can’t send them back!” Suzu cries “Who knows what might happen to them!”
“I’m not saying that” her dad says, placing his heavy hand on her shoulder. It helps to ground her.“what I’m saying is that we need to figure out how to help them and keep any of us from going to jail for say, kidnapping”
“We could adopt them!” Suzu excitedly suggests, her eye’s brightening.
“That’s the goal yes, but you’re skipping a couple important steps here” her dad explains “first, we need to report this to the police”
“No! No police!” Suzu begs “Dad please! You can’t!”
“I don’t want to, but to properly adopt them, we have to” her dad reasons
“But-but what if they send them back to him?!” Suzu asks, a sense of fear clouding her in the thought of loosing them.
“I’ll fight it, Suzu, I promise to do all I can, but to do that, we need the police”
Suzu lets her head fall as she stares at her socked feet in a sense of defeat. They’ve worked too hard to leave this up to people who could very well send the boys back to that hell hole. “Three days” she says, whipping her head back up to look at her dad “just give me and Hiro three days to think of something, please!”
Her dad sighs as he rubs his head in thought. “Three days, no more, you got that?” He finally asks
“Yes! Yes! Three days! I promise!” Suzu smiles, clutching her dad into a hug.
“Three days until what?” Tomo asks from the stairs, now wearing Suzu’s old clothes
“Tomo!” Kei calls from behind, running down the stairs to his brother.
“Don’t worry about it Tomo, everything’s going to be alright” Suzu promises, except this time, she actually has hope to not break this one.
She catches Kei’s eye, and gives him a solid nod
“C’mon, let’s go to bed” Kei says to Tomo, giving Suzu a small nod back in return.
Tomo frowns, but yawns regardless in defeat
“Goodnight, Bell” Tomo says, slowly making his way up the stairs and to the room as the others remain downstairs.
“Three days?” Kei asks, suspiciously
“Don’t worry! I have a plan, I’m going to make sure you never have to step foot in that man’s house ever again” Suzu says, determination running through her bones.
“What’s the plan?” Kei asks, her determination rubbing off on him.
Suzu opens her mouth but is quickly cut off by her dad. “Planning can wait until tomorrow, or did you already forget about your cross country adventure?”
In response, a yawn also betrays Suzu.
“Your dad’s right” Kei says with a pout.
“We’ll get started first thing in the morning” Suzu declared
The rest of the night was encased with silent sleep.
🥀🥀 🥀
Chapter Text
🥀🥀🥀
“Bell?” A voice whispered in the darkness, tickling her ear. “Suzu?” Light slowly appeared and Suzu woke with a start.
“Gah!” She screamed shooting up from her spot on the couch, tangled in her blankets. Finally she spots the dark haired figure.“Kei?!” She whispered a shout, looking around in the darkness“What are you doing up? It’s like 2 in the morning!”
“…4:30..actually…I couldn’t sleep” he says guiltily, rubbing his neck “and…I was hoping…that we could…” he voice turns into a mumbling whisper that Suzu can’t decipher.
“Huh?” She asks, her mind still only half awake as she turns on a lamp.
“I was hoping we could work on that plan” he finally says, self consciously crossing his arms. Suzu just sighs and pats the spot next to her. “I was thinking that I could get a job where your dad works, and make some cash so Tomo and I can find a place of our own”
“What?” Suzu gasps in shock “Kei, you’re 14, they’re never going to let you raise Tomo and live on your own”
“And who’s they?” Kei asks willfully, his expression turning into something dark and scary…yet protective…very dragon like.
“I-I don’t know- the government? The police?” Suzu tries to reason. After how difficult the police were when trying to find Kei and Tomo, Suzu quickly realized they weren’t going to be on their side in this.
“Well what do you suggest?” Kei huffs “I’m not letting Tomo go back there!”
“I never said that!” Suzu cries “I just want what’s best for both of you”
Kei goes to shout back but both teens are quick to be quiet when they hear a squeak from the old floor boards on the stairs.
Tomo stands at the very top of the stairs, half awake with messy hair.
“I want to help too” he whispers
Both teens sigh and make a spot for Tomo on the couch.
The patter of feet follows as he makes his way to his new acclaimed spot.
“I promised you both that everything was going to be okay” Suzu says “and it will be, but we have to work together on this, Kei, we can’t be divided and arguing on this right now, we only have three days at most and we can’t waste it”
“Fine” Kei reluctantly agrees, biting at his chapped lip. “but if all else fails, we go with my plan”
“Deal” Suzu agrees with a nod.
The rest of the night is spent scanning the internet for solutions. Though there were plenty of moments where everyone would go quiet when things about Bell’s reveal pop up. Quickly clicking away to the next page or closing the tab.
Another problem that’s getting put on the back burner at the moment.
The same with whatever is going on with Suzu and Shinobu.
She hasn’t really talked to him since yesterday before she ran out. Merely a text telling him that she and the boys were safe. “I’m glad” being his response and the last text on her phone.
Speaking of her phone-
“Let me text Hiro, she’s a lot better at this than I am” Suzu yawns, glancing up at the time on her phone, the time now being 6 am.
“Hiro?” Tomo asks, leaning against Kei, practically half asleep.
“Mhm, she’s the one who helped me find you two” Suzu says “a lot of my friends helped actually….im sure you’ll meet them soon”
By this point all three of them began to doze after Suzu hit send.
All three of them subcoming to a dreamless sleep.
🥀🥀🥀
Suzu’s dad got up around 7:30 to find all three curled up together still fast asleep, Suzu’s laptop practically falling out of her lap as she drooled on Kei’s shoulder, and Kei let his head fall on top of hers.
Meanwhile Tomo was spread out across Kei’s lap, almost on Suzu as well, with a blanket tight around his shoulders.
Her dad’s chuckle quickly turns into a sad sigh “Oh sweetheart, you would’ve loved them” he whispered to his heart, thinking of his wife as he snapped a photo on his phone.
The house rests in silence other than the slight noise from Suzu’s dad in the kitchen.
He had gotten used to the silence since his wife passed. Suzu never sang anymore, didn’t bring friends over. It was like living in a silent movie.
That is until Hiro bursts through the front door.
“Suzu!” She shouts, tripping in an attempt to take off her shoes. “I just saw your text and I came as soon as I heard! Not to worry! Your producer is on the case-!”
The girl stumbles to a stop upon seeing the three teens fast asleep on the couch. Suzu’s dad puts a finger to his smile and a quiet shush.
“Sorry-“ Hiro whispers “don’t mind me!” The girl reajustes her glasses.
“How do you feel about breakfast?” He asks, cracking an egg into the pan.
🥀🥀🥀
The sun shines in through the open shades and hits Suzu right in the eye, successfully finally waking her up.
Suzu rubs her eyes as she stretches, catching sight of the girl on the couch across from her.
“Huh…? Hiro?” She asks around a yawn
“Rise and shine sleeping beauty!” Hiro laughs, typing away at her laptop “We’ve got a lotta work to do!”
“Bell, Your dad made breakfast” Tomo quietly announces from the kitchen “He says he wants you to come eat something”
“Tomo?” Suzu questions, finally realizing that she’s the only one left on the couch.
“He woke up first, started to help your dad out in the kitchen with the black haired kid” Hiro explains carelessly, her eyes still locked in on her laptop.
“Kei?” Suzu wonders, lethargicly making her way to the kitchen.
Suzu didn’t really know what to expect when she walked in. She hoped that it’d feel like a family, warm and safe. And that she could get the false sense that everything was going to be fine.
Instead a tense and awkward atmosphere greeted her. Kei would uneasily fumble around her dad and Tomo was practically stuck to Kei’s side which made the act of setting up breakfast a struggle in itself.
Still, Suzu couldn’t help the small huff of a laugh that left her lips.
All three heads turned her way.
“Suzu, come join us” her dad says
“Morning Bell” Tomo greets, his hands full of silverware. Holding onto them with a tight grip.
“Morning” Suzu smiles as he slowly makes his way over to the table.
“You were still sleeping…figured we’d help out” Kei mutters tensely
“Thank you, Kei” Suzu says before placing a gentle kiss on his head.
Kei’s face flushes and quickly turns the color of Bell’s hair.
“I want one” Tomo gasps quietly, and Suzu quickly places a kiss on the boy’s nose.
“Euhg” Hiro jokingly gags from the table where she already set up her laptop.
“What? You want one too?” Suzu teases, crossing her arms and making her way over to her friend, laughing as Hiro jokingly struggles away from her.
“Watch the glasses would you?” Hiro laughs, batting Suzu away.
Suzu finally pulls out a chair and sits at the table. Giving up on teasing Hiro.
With the warm light coming in and breakfast in front of her, Suzu forgot about their giant dilemma for a moment. Simply enjoying the morning for what it was.
The boys were eating, safe and sound. Her dad was home. Her best friend was here.
Life was finally going her way.
Until a flash from outside caught her eye.
“What was that?” Kei asks, apparently having seen the flashing too.
“Let me check” Suzu says, heading over to the kitchen windows.
Flash! Click!
Suzu rapidly blinks, her eyes slowly adjusting just enough to make out a camera.
“Suzu!” She can hear her dad call before someone’s pulling her away.
“Hey! Get outta here!” Hiro screams, running to bang on the window pane.
“Let’s go upstairs” Kei mutters, still holing onto Suzu’s hand.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Suzu asks as they head up stairs. “What was that?”
“Just some damn paparazzi” Kei seethes, they finally make it to Suzu’s room.
“P-Paparazzi?” Suzu questions, sitting on her bed as Kei looks out the window.
Why would paparazzi be here?
“They’re swarming the place” Kei tsks “even out front” glaring down at them.
“What?!” Suzu cries, rushing over to the window herself. She was still in her pajamas! Was this going on tv?!
Her mind felt like it was going a mile a minute. “I’m gonna be sick” she mumbles, watching as more people with even more cameras show up.
“Bell!” Tomo calls, bursting into the room with Hiro’s laptop. On it was a photo of her, in her pajamas, eating breakfast with everyone. It would’ve been a nice photo if it wasn’t taken without her knowing and for the internet to see.
The entire internet…
“No No No!” She screams, taking the laptop from the boy. “ ‘Bell’s secret life?!` “ she quickly reads the post.
What was she going to do?! She couldn’t call the police! That would risk them finding out about the boys!
Suzu grips her hair as she stares the laptop down.
“Bell?” Tomo asks looking up at Bell, a scared look in his eyes.
Suzu wanted to cry. Her whole life is a mess right now. Her eyes burned with the unshed tears.
What if she just ruined the boys chance at a normal life?
Would she even get a normal life?
“Bell, is everything okay?”
Suzu choked as she nodded her head. She couldn’t talk. Nothing was okay. Everything was terrible and Suzu couldn’t-
“Suzu”
She knew that voice.
It belonged to the same boy who kept her from joining her mother in that river.
“Shinobu!” She cried, turning to face the boy in the doorway.
She felt like he was always there when she was at her lowest. “What are you doing here?!”
“Your dad let me in, I saw the pictures online and I got worried” he explained.
Kei was giving him a dirty glare. “And what now? Tell them to go away?” He jeered “it won’t work”
Kei was right. These people weren’t leaving anytime soon just because they asked. Suzu could still hear her dad yelling at them downstairs.
Shinobu frowns, turning to the window with them.
Suzu prays that no one looks up. They’re too preoccupied with her dad right now, but all it would take was one person.
One person looks up.
Then the flashing would start again.
She looks back to Shinobu, his frown slowly turning to a grin before her eyes. “I have an idea” he says causally.
🥀🥀🥀
“What the hell!” The cameraman shouts. Other curses and screams rapidly followed.
Turns out all you need to do is grab a hose, which Suzu’s dad was more than happy to help with.
All the fancy camera equipment now at risk.
Suzu and the boys laughed from the windows while Hiro did her evil cackle as she videoed the incident.
“And don’t come back!” Hiro yelled, flipping them off.
Shinobu and her dad came in pretty wet as well, but nothing a towel couldn’t fix.
“And that’s how you deal with things!” Her dad laughs, patting Shinobu on the back. “Hey Suzu, what do you say to starting a garden again?”
“Sure, dad” Suzu laughs, still watching the last of the paparazzi run off.
“We should grow roses” Tomo suggests, a smile touching his lips.
Suzu can’t help but nod in agreement. Her mom always liked roses, especially pink ones.
“All right, as soon as we figure this all out, a garden with roses is first on our list” her dad promised, gently ruffling Tomo’s hair.
Kei bites his lip, but doesn’t say anything.
Suzu ruffles his hair instead. The boy jumps before whipping around to give her a pout.
He still has a lot more growing to do. But pretty soon, he’ll be taller than her.
One day.
🥀🥀🥀