I'm Not Afraid of the Dark (Yuto x Reader)

As you arrive home, you open your door to a rather frazzled mother.

"Oh My God (y/n)! You had me worried sick! Where have you been! I thought something had happened to you. After your dad, you're all I have left..." There are tears in her eyes, and you feel a faint pang of guilt. You knew how much your mum cared for your father, and how hard losing him had hit her. If she lost her child too, well, she might not cope.

"I'm sorry. Something came up and it was kind of urgent."

"What came up? (y/n), what were you doing?"

You can hear Shun's words replaying in your head. You weren't meant to know about them, let alone share that information. You could trust your mum, but this seemed bigger than you.

As you didn't necessarily want to full on lie, you decided on a half-truth.

"Yuzu started to feel faint, and so I walked her home to make sure that she was safe." OK, not really even half-truth. You really hope this doesn't come back to bite you later on. Your mum lost some concern, but started to question you on whether Yuzu was OK or not instead. Reassuring her that everything was fine, you escape up to the safety of your room.

You take a quick shower and change into clothes for bed. You aren't exactly feeling hungry, so you complete your homework and study from the day and slide into bed. The silence allows you to reflect on the day.

You start with the simpler things. Sora was hiding something. He was always staring off into space, and though he laughed all the time around others, you had never even seen him smile when he was on his own. When he thought no one would see. There wasn't really anything you could do though. How could you ask him straight out about something he seemed so dedicated to hiding? You would have to ask Yuya and Yuzu about whether they had noticed anything strange about the blue-haired boy lately.

School exams were just an obstacle, and not a problem, so they didn't really require any thought.

Then there were the two mysterious males you had encountered in the alley. Shun was stubborn and secretive. He wasn't really very concerned in your feelings, though he couldn't be that bad if he had told you to forget about them for your own safety. But how could you forget something like that? There was definitely something bigger going on. They didn't look like criminals or anything. They were barely older than you were. Shun must only be about 16, and Yuto, well, Yuto looked your age. 14. That was too young to be out on the streets all alone, no matter whether they could care for themselves or not. Where were their friends? Where were their families?

But Yuto – you don't know what to make of him. You couldn't see him properly in the darkness of the alley, but you had to admit from what you did see that there was something about him that you liked. He seemed like the type of person who was protective of their friends, and it sort of reminded you a bit of yourself.

You sigh. You just can't stop thinking about the feeling you got when he smiled at you. Gosh, even just thinking about it brought the nervous excitement back. You didn't care what Shun might say, you have to know whether that boy is better or not. You have to find a way to help them in whatever mess they are stuck up in if you can. You just have to see him again.

You feel all the energy drain out of your body as you drift off into sleep, your only thoughts about Yuto, and how far you would go just to be with this strange yet wonderful boy again.

*time skip to next morning*

You wake up the next morning feeling refreshed. It had been a long time since you had slept that well.

You have only one exam at school too which is for mathematics. It shouldn't be too hard. Not to be overconfident, but you were good with numbers and are sure that you will do really well.