Hidden in a Field

- Author : Sashiko (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1518849/)
- Pairing(s) : Konzen/Goku
- Rating : G
- Summary or description : Small little fluff piece. Konzen hurt Goku's feelings, once again, and Goku runs away. Goku gets lost and finds a field filled with flowers, and one in particular catches his eye.

He had been running for several minutes now; blindly running without a direction, as fast as he could, without looking back even once. It was well past dark, sometime in the middle of the night, and a warm, light rain fell softly from the sky. Not that he'd really notice the rain falling on his face through the constant tears streaming down his cheeks.

He had no idea where he was by now, but that didn't even slow his sporadic running.

His small hands were balled into fists as he ran, occasionally reaching up to his face to wipe the tears from his eyes so he could see. It was starting to get annoying, no matter how much he tried to stop crying, the tears wouldn't stop falling and his heart wouldn't stop aching.

He could tell he was nowhere near anything he recognized anymore when he came upon a field of wild petunias. The field was small, no more than thirty yards wide, with what looked like a old path surrounding it. He stopped running completely and stood there, at the edge of the field, staring down at these flowers. Even if it was in the middle of the night with no moon, he could still make out the flowers thanks to the dim light from the oil lamp that hung from a post a few feet away, struggling to stay light as it danced around inside its pale paper lantern. They came in quite a rainbow of colors, pink, yellow, blue, white, and purple. After using the back of his wrist as a tissue, he walked into the field.

He walked for a few feet into the field before falling to his knees, the wet earth softening the drop. Delicately making sure there were no flowers in his way, he then flopped down onto his back, his knees bent up and his arms around his head. He had the crook of his elbow covering his eyes now as he willed himself to stop crying. Ken nii-chan had told him that he wasn't supposed to cry this much because he was a boy. Through many long minutes of telling himself to stop and haggard breathing, he managed to still his sobbing to mere sniffles and the occasional shutter. He rubbed his eyes, resulting in more annoyance when the cold metal of the chains that dangled from his wrists shocked his cheek.

He let his hands fall to the wet dirt next to him and he opened his eyes. The rain was slow and light, and the air was still warm and thick. Even when it rains here, it's still pleasant weather. He hadn't gotten used to this yet. The air smelled so sweet from the flowers all around him, and if he were in a better mood, he'd really enjoy where he was right now. He hoped that he'd be able to find this place again, maybe even show it to Nataku.

He rolled his head to his left to look at the flowers that now rose higher than his head. Even at night, in the rain, they looked like they were still able to stand up strong. The raindrops collected on top of the wide petals until they would become too heavy and would dip down, letting the small beads of rain roll down to the ground. Only then to pop back up, ready to collect more rain. His eyes focused on one flower in particular; a single light purple petunia amongst a group of dark purple and green. It was shorter than the others, and the flower hadn't quite bloomed all the way yet. The other flowers towered over it, blocking the light from it, and he figured that was why it was so light and small. He reached out his hand, which was still shaking, and lightly bent the other flowers out of its way. Now the single petunia could see the sky, and the small raindrops fell onto it, rolling down towards the center and pooling into the deep tunnel that lead to the stamen. The flower looked as if it were drinking the water, eager to finally accept what nature had to offer. He rather liked that shade of purple. It was soft yet intense, warm and yet cold at the same time. It reminded him of…

Stupid Konzen. He felt tears well up at the corners of his eyes again. He shook his head and tried to force himself to not think about that man, or his pretty eyes, or that hair that always made him feel warm and safe… and oddly hungry.

He rolled his head to look back up to the black sky. He had no idea how late it was when he ran out of the room. He should've been asleep hours ago, and after all of that running and crying, he was exhausted. The warm rain drops falling one by one onto his skin only helped his fatigue along. It wasn't long before his eye lids felt too heavy to keep open any longer. Just before his mind drifted off into unconsciousness, he thought he could hear the sound of fast footsteps getting closer and closer followed by a voice he knew.

"Goku!" The voice sounded so far away.

"Mm, that's right. That's my name." He mumbled as he slipped under the veil of sleep.

He was woken up to thin fingers brushing hair out of his face. He opened his eyes and looked up to see an overpowering light. There crouched Konzen, soaking wet, somewhat out of breath, and looking down at him. His clothes were hanging heavily from his body from the rain, and his long hair was limp and clinging to his skin as slow beads of water dripped down from the tips.

"Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you?" Konzen asked as he brushed away another strand of brown hair.

It was still dark, the rain was still falling, and he was still out there, amongst the petunias. He looked up at the blonde man, all but forgetting for a moment why he had run out to this field in the first place. Whenever he was angry or sad, all of that would simply melt away the moment he looked into that beautiful light that, to him, felt like he was staring into the sun itself. It took him a few blinks of his eyes to remember why he was out there. His lips curled and his eyes narrowed, he huffed and looked away towards the single, small flower.

"You're going to get sick out here in the rain. And then you'll have to taste Tenpou's medicine. Believe me, you don't want to do that." Konzen said roughly. His voice was harsh and raspy as if he had been yelling for the past few hours.

"I left cuz I didn't want to see you anymore" he said through gritted teeth.

"Well too bad, I'm supposed to keep my eye on you, or that old hag will have my head."

"M'just in your way, anyways. Just say you couldn't find me." He struggled to keep himself from crying again. He didn't want to leave this place he had only just recently come to stay at. He had just made friends with Ken Nii-chan and Ten-chan. He was supposed to see Nataku again soon. He even got a name yesterday.

"…Goku."

Goku's eyes turned to look back up at Konzen. The man's face had relaxed and he had a faint smile appearing on his lips.

"I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, all right? I was just-" Konzen was cut off mid-sentence.

"Busy. Ya, I know that. You're always busy," Goku's bottom lip quivered just barely as he spoke.

"That's because I have work to do."

"But all I wanted to do was show you that shell! Ten-chan gave it to me and said that it was a good luck charm cuz it looked like a heart or something like that, and that if I keep it, you n' me n' Ten-chan n' Ken Nii-chan will always be friends." He got up onto his feet so that he could look Konzen on equal ground. His hands clenched into small fists that were placed in front of him. The chains around his wrists made rattling sounds as his hands slightly bobbed up and down as he spoke. "But you wouldn't look at it n' told me to leave you alone! So I did. So why'd you come n' find me?"

"Because you ran outside, in the middle of the night, in the rain. An idiot like you would get lost or sick or in trouble way too easily. That would be far more troublesome."

"Well sorry if I'm always bothering you!" Goku crossed his arms over his chest and huffed, turning his head to look away again in a childish manner.

"Well, it's true. You are." When Konzen heard Goku make another small huffing sound, he couldn't help but smile. "But it's far more annoying if you aren't there."

Goku remained unflinching, content on pouting for all eternity.

"So you're just going to stay out here, in the mud and the rain, all night?"

"That's right!"

Konzen stood up and turned his back on Goku. "Well then, sleep well out here." He began to walk towards the edge of field, Goku gawking at his back in complete shock that he was just going to leave him out there. He then stopped walking and dug his hand into his pocket. He pulled his fist back out and turned around. "Oh ya," Konzen held a small, pinkish, heart-shaped shell between his index finger and his thumb. "When you dropped this, it broke. So I had Tenpou fix it. You can still see a small crack in it, but it's back together now."

Goku stared dumb founded at the shell. He couldn't believe that Konzen would actually go out of his way to fix his shell. "Wh-… Why'd ya fix it?"

"Do you want me to break it again?" Konzen's hips jetted to the side as if the movement accentuated the question.

"No!" Goku rushed up to Konzen and snatched the shell out of his fingers. He cradled it between his smaller hands, eyeing the hairline crack that ran down the middle of the shell. The soft light from the lantern reflected off of the shell's surface, and Goku marveled at the swirl of color that curled around the shell. In the brightness of day, the shell was a flat coral pink, but now in candlelight, the pink looked marbleized and nearly translucent. He palmed the shell and held it to his chest as he looked up at Konzen. "Thanks," he said meekly.

"Yeah." Konzen said simply as he turned around and started walking away again.

"Ah! You're really going to leave me here?" Goku whined.

"You said you wanted to stay. But I have no desire to sit outside in the rain all night when I have perfectly dry bed waiting for me." Konzen said over his shoulder as he continued to walk, though at a slow pace.

Pursing his lips in frustration, Goku huffed in defeat and chased after Konzen. "Fine fine, wait for me!" When he caught up to the man, he was rewarded with long fingers nestling themselves into his hair. Every last ounce of anger he had had still in him was drained out of him then. His eyes slid shut as he let the comforting feeling of that hand gently reassuring him last as long as he could.

"You're filthy. You're going to take a bath first." Konzen instructed as they walked down the path that led back towards the Merciful Goddess' palace. Goku simply nodded in agreement.

-

"Why are you muddy again? Where did you go this time?" Konzen looked down at Goku who had mud all over his pants and smudges all over his shirt.

"Back to that field!"

"Where you were last night? Why?" Konzen raised his eyebrow in mild disinterest.

Instead of answering, Goku ran past Konzen and towards Konzen's desk. He grabbed the vase with the pink flowers in it still that he had given Konzen shortly after he came to live here. He grabbed the flowers and tossed them out the window.

"Hey!" Konzen shouted, which surprised himself more than anything else. He wasn't supposed to care about those flowers, after all.

Still ignoring what Konzen was saying, he then pulled his hand from around his back and placed a single violet-colored petunia in the vase. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the heart-shaped shell and placed it on the desk, leaning it against the vase so that it stood upright.

Konzen walked around the desk and eyed the new decoration on his desk. "You're giving it to me?"

Goku nodded his head fervently and smiled so wide that it took over his face. "Cuz I'll always be with Konzen anyways, I don't need the charm!"

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