Ficlet Series (Tenipuri)

Little Fish in a Big Pond

Nine-year-old Yanagi Renji pulled his cap down tighter to his head as he walked through the busy streets. Really, he didn't think his hair cut was all that bad... his mother cut it for him, and she had to know what she was doing. She was his mother, after all. But then Sadaharu had commented on the fact that he looked like Touya Akira from that stupid go manga, and that was enough to make him start doubting his mother's seeming omniscience.

Ah, well, that's what baseball caps were for, and if the style didn't grow on him he could always change it. Renji stopped and waited at a street corner for the light to change, when something in the corner of his eye caught his attention.

There was a little boy on an opposite street corner, perpendicular from the path he was heading on now. About his age, Renji deducted, a little shorter, dressed in traditional Japanese clothing and wearing quite the surly face. There was a small pout to his lips though, and despite the scary expression he was making he seemed a bit lost. The boy was constantly scanning his surroundings, as though looking for something of utmost importance, and every now and then would move a step forward as if to go before moving back again.

Renji couldn't in all good conscious leave him there, and changed his path to go towards the boy. He stopped in front of him, and tugged on the cloth of his hanten sleeve.

"Do you need help?"

"No." The boy's tone was gruff, and he pulled his arm away, though Renji now noticed that there was a definite frightened look in the boy's eyes.

"Are you lost?"

The boy's eyebrows narrowed together in irritation, but his pout also deepened, and Renji surmised that it must be true. He looked around, but had no idea where this boy was supposed to be going any way.

"My brother locked me in the bathroom while we were sightseeing," the boy finally mumbled, albeit sounding quite grumpy as he was doing so. "When I came out my family was gone."

"You should go back to where you were. When they find you're missing, they'll go back there to look for you."

"I know that," the boy said, his tone indignant and a little angry. Really, Renji thought, the boy was a bit too serious for his age, and a bit of a spoiled brat as well. "But I left to look for them, and now I don't know how to get back."

"Where were you?"

The boy mumbled the name of a landmark, and Renji was pleased to realize he knew exactly where it was.

"I'll take you back there," he said, and he took the boy's hand in his.

The boy stumbled behind him as they walked through the busy streets, getting caught between the legs of rushing adults and other children. Renji slowed down, but the boy's hand slipped from his, and then he felt fingers wrap themselves in the back of the shirt. The arrangement worked out well, and Renji grew quite used to the boy clinging to him as the made their way to the destination. Too soon they arrived on the site, and as he came to a stop Renji felt the boy collide into his back.

"Here we are."

He felt fingers release his shirt, felt the boy standing up straight behind him, turned and saw a slight flush of embarrassment on his face.

"Thank you," the boy said, and Renji was quick to respond.

"What's your name? I'm Renji."

"Genichirou."

Renji smiled. "Genichirou, I think your parents are over there."

Genichirou turned, and there was a pair of worried parents at the front desk, with a boy who looked exactly like him only older in tow. "Hn."

But Genichirou made no move to go, and Renji tilted his head in confusion. Maybe it wasn't his family?

"I... will I see you again?"

What an odd boy. Renji smiled and took his baseball cap off, placing it on Genichirou's head. It looked cuter on him any way, and Genichirou was pulling it down, on tighter. "Of course. You can give this back to me, the next time you see me."

Genichirou nodded, once, before running off to rejoin his family.

.end.