RUBY

“Stop mourning for him.” Taiga advised Shintaro.

“I’m worried about him,” Shintaro corrected him. 

“As far as I know he became someone else, and by that, I mean something else.”

Shintaro’s face grew pale.

Taiga didn’t want to be the one to tell the hard truth to Shintaro. He bit his lip as Shintaro’s thick brows turned into a frown that shouldn’t belong to his juvenile face.

“Yeah, because of his new boyfriend, I know.” Shintaro rolled his eyes at the word boyfriend. That dinner gave him a hell of a memory.

“It’s not what I mean, Shin. I mean that Jesse became something else. And I… I– I think you lost him f-for good,” Taiga tried to explain awkwardly and a silence filled the living room.

They were playing Mario Kart like when they were younger, because in the end, no matter how old they were, Shintaro and Taiga were still teenagers in their hearts. But day after day, Taiga could see it: Shintaro was losing a little bit of this fierce youthfulness he used to have.

“Something like you?” Shintaro, who never judged him for being different, asked in his most childish tone and it made Taiga want to hold him tight in his arms.

“Yeah.” Taiga hesitated for a few seconds, wondering if he should give him more details. But he could read in Shintaro’s eyes that he was deeply troubled by what it meant already.

It meant that not only Jesse’s love was stolen from him, but it also meant that that guy also stole Jesse’s humanity. And it made him angry. 

Taiga watched all sorts of emotions process in Shintaro’s dark eyes and he felt like he had to be patient with him. Taiga was one of those people after all and maybe Shintaro would resent him eventually…

To him, Shintaro was still so damn innocent. 

Untouched. Pristine. And precious, just like a Ruby.

Taiga wanted to keep him like that. Forever.

He wanted to preserve the little humanity left in him, even if it meant that Shintaro had to go through the worst, most painful emotions.

Shintaro’s eyes became glassier and Taiga wanted him to forget this world for a second. He wondered why Shintaro grew up so fast in a world that felt like eternity. He was still a kid a few days ago. Taiga had always been an old soul and always watched Shintaro live fully through joys and pains. 

But little Shintaro became so tall, so big, so mature. He now had his own feelings and his own hobbies which weren’t influenced by his big brother Taiga. He now knew things that Taiga himself didn’t know. And, Shintaro ended up discovering that his big brother Taiga could be his grandfather, wasn’t human, and that the gap between them was deeper and larger than Shintaro thought.

He had sulked at first but he got over it quicker than he thought.

At least, Shintaro had told Taiga, he would have Taiga forever with him.

****

But now, Shintaro felt that he was the only one left behind.

If Jesse became what Taiga was, then both of them would stay on this planet forever while Shintaro would grow old and disappear.

Shintaro didn’t want to disappear and most of all, now that Jesse had been snatched, he was afraid to see Taiga get snatched from him too.

Even if he promised he’d be there forever, he didn’t know when Taiga would cut ties the way Jesse did with him.

****

That night, Shintaro asked Taiga to stay with him.

Taiga nodded.

He asked him to sleep in his bed like they used to when they were young.

Taiga smiled as he nodded again.

Taiga said nothing when Shintaro held him tight as soon as they got into the bed.

He wouldn’t let him go.