2. Around the World in Reo Way

Song: Collide- St. Francis Hotel

R E O

"Let's roam the world one day," Hikaru spoke from the monkey bar where he was dangling upside down while Reo sat atop it.

"You want to leave home?"

"Of course not. But I want to see how big the world is and meet different people and eat all kinds of food," Hikaru grinned before adding after he joined Reo on top of the monkey bars, "won't that be fun? It'll be like a little mission."

Reo couldn't help but grin back and ask, "where'd we go first?"

Hikaru thought for a second before his eyes lit up with an answer, "let's throw darts on the map. I learnt to play darts from papa."

"It's a plan then," Reo holds out his fist and Hikaru bumps his against Reo's.

"It's a plan."

-twelve-year-old Reo Sawamura and Hikaru Sawamura making life plans while messing around in the playground.

----

There are many things Reo would live without and 'wishful thinking' is a close second to 'regrets.'

Reo leaves no place for regret to build its house and no air for wishful thinking to thrive.

If he wanted something, people better know that he'd do whatever it takes to get it done.

A life with regrets and full of broken dreams and hopes is something he could wish for not even his dirtiest enemies.

Even though he never had any castle built in the air or any dream nipped at its bud, he did have regrets and quite many of them.

Some he couldn't help and some that he had to swallow like a bitter pill.

But it was regret anyway and he'd rather eat slug than live a life with them.

That's where the 'wishful thinking,' bit came.

If I just run from it and never look back, maybe it won't be my past anymore.

What an idiot he was.

What dilemmas he built to escape from the fact that he was already living the life he wouldn't wish for his enemies.

And instead of realizing his shortcomings and all the wrongs he did, he ran.

He ran until he lost himself and he ran until he had nowhere to run anymore.

He ran but he never realized he was running in circles until he stopped where he began and stood before someone he had left behind when he decided to flee.

Himself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Daniel K. Inouye Airport. Local time is fifteen minutes past the hour two in the noon and the temperature is 27 degrees Celsius.

"For your safety and comfort, please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until..."

He had run to hide from his demons but he was done running away. He was done letting down people who mattered for reasons that once shattered them. He was done regretting and hoping for it to all go back to the way it was before. Before the dark reality of the stronger preying on the weaker crept upon them.

Because it never will.

Past can never be erased and time travel only exists in sci-fi.

It's the present that decides what you learned from the past and intends to do with it for the future.

And he intended to run towards himself, to find himself than run from his demons.

Screw swimming, his demons were waterproof spiders, clinging to him like a lifeline. Drowning them was out of the question when they'd always drowned him and thrived from it.

It's either living with them and keep drowning or taking them off one by one until they're no longer there.

And he'd be damned if he let those rent-less cretins live off him any longer.

He had already seen the worst life can offer and now he only intends to see the best it has to offer.

And he will make it happen.

"Reo!" He hears his sister before he notices her and honestly, how could he not when she was waving her arms in the air as if he had a problem with his eyesight even though her husband had a perfectly decipherable sign-board with Reo's name on it.

But he pointed none of it out and just went ahead to squeeze the air out of his oldest best friend, "I missed you so much, dammit."

"Brat, you were gone so long you even forgot my name. It's Gina not dammit," he heard the smile behind it and knew she was happy to finally have her family back. "And I missed you more."

Reo looks at his brother-in-law and with a disdainful voice says, "How do you even handle this much lameness for years? I'd get tired of tickling myself to laugh every time she makes a joke."

Minato, Reo's brother-in-law, gives a large laugh and Reo never saw the hit that came for him until it did.

Or rather the pinch.

"Gina! Ow!" He rubs at his nipple but couldn't hold back the grin that just wouldn't stay away.

He was happy to see her happy.

All smiles and rosy cheeks and sparkly eyes.

So much different than the corpse of a girl she was just years ago, dull eyes, sunken cheeks, no smile on that wide mouth made only for smiles.

And then Hikaru was there hugging Reo tight and whispering, "this is for the best friend you left behind, you asshole, not me. I'm still angry at you so don't expect me to smile at you and accept you as Gina did. You don't deserve it."

Tears pricked his eyes and he hugged his best friend back and hard as he was being hugged taking in the familiar smell of home.

Hikaru always smelled like home because he was always the one doing the cooking. Light and happiness and innocence.

And he had left these amazing people to be a person not only he loathed but his family never would guess he could be even in their worst nightmares.

And so he decided, he was done living half a life he was living, full of anger, self-hatred and vendetta.

He was going to live for these beautiful people that never ceased to amaze him.

"Don't worry. You have plenty of time to work on that forgiveness since I'm back for good," Reo says making everyone go still before they were all moving and talking at the same time.

Hikaru stepped back to hold him at arm's length while Gina tried to slither between the space Hikaru created and grab his face in both her hands. Minato's dreamy gaze snapped towards him from his wife and sharpened.

"What bullshit are you-"

"You're joking-"

"You left the Marines?"

"Yes, I submitted the application. No, I'm not joking or bullshitting you," He grins at all of them before looking at Hikaru, the person who never left.

"And I intend to fulfill that plan we made when we were young and thought we could do anything."

His eyes widened while Gina just hugged Reo tight and Minato, kept looking at him as if he suddenly sprouted two horns on his shoulder, "What's with all the bombshells, Sawamura?"

He just shrugged and corralled them all into a group hug, heart full with content and body thrumming with excitement.

He was finally home.