We've Never Been Alone

The park was only a short walk from Reo’s house. Harry had walked by it countless times in the past, yet he had never actually gone inside. There were the normal things laid out, swings and a jungle gym and a slide shaped like an elephant. Mementos of a normal childhood preserved after the near end of the world. Hinata dragged him in, her hand having not released his since the house. She jumped onto one of the rocking animals, the large spring groaning under her weight.

“Come on, Harry!” she shouted, patting the panda next to her lion.

“I will break this damn thing. I guarantee it,” Harry said, scratching the back of his head.

The pout Hinata gave could have launched a thousands ships to war.

“So, this is fun,” Harry said moments later, bobbing gently on his panda.

“You don’t seem like the park type,” Hinata said with a sly little smile. “It’s why this is good for you.”

“Beer is good for me,” Harry said, unable to suppress his own smile.

“You know, I don’t think we’ve ever spent any time alone,” Hinata said, staring up at the slowly setting sun.

“Sure we did. I stayed up with you a lot while you slept,” Harry said.

“I meant out. You and me. Not in the house,” Hinata said.

“Don’t be stupid! We went out to…” Harry paused, looking up, scratching his chin as though he were going through a mental filing cabinet. “Crap. Have we never hung out alone?”

“It was hard as a sick girl,” Hinata said with a slight, sad shrug.

“Reo was always hovering over you like a damn mother hen,” Harry said, a brief and somewhat sad laugh barking out.

“It was safe, but also kind of…suffocating. After D Day I was scared, but…” She shook her head as Harry’s brow furrowed. “I wanted to live. I didn’t have friends before D Day. Mom and dad worried too much. Then Reo. But you…you worried different from them.”

“How so?” Harry asked, leaning to the side as bit and feeling the spring under his panda wail in complaint.

“You never made me feel sick, Harry. I was simply…Hinata,” she said. Harry’s eyes went wide upon hearing her words. During the time he stayed with Reo and Hinata he simply thought they were good friends. He had felt like an intrusive presence at worst, a new friend at best. Yet Hinata was telling him she had changed her entire outlook of the world because of him? He had been so important to her?

“Never thought I was special,” Harry said, leaning back on the spring panda, crossing his arms and letting the last little bit of sun warm his face.

“It’s what made you special, Harry,” Hinata said, leaping off of her lion and offering Harry a hand. She led him to the swings where she stood on one of them. Harry pulled her back as far as he could before letting her go with a mighty push. She laughed like a child as she swung through the air, her tails swishing in the wind.

“Listen, about what you said earlier…” Harry started to say.

“I know you don’t love me like I love you,” Hinata said, her face not changing from the simple joy of the swings. “You still love Lisa. I understand. But I wanted you to know.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said, but Hinata simply laughed.

“Don’t be. Grief takes time, Harry,” Hinata said, leaping from the swing. “But when you’re ready, I’ll be here. And don’t say it’s impossible. Nothing is impossible!” She turned her head to wink at him, and he tilted his head with a smirk.

“What?” Harry asked, sensing she was up to something.

“Wanna have a race, Harry?” Hinata asked.

“Interesting proposal,” Harry said, nodding along. “Where and what route?”

“Back to the house. Rooftops only. You touch the ground, you lose,” Hinata said. Harry could see the fangs poking out in her smile. A demon smile. But for some reason he couldn’t think of it like it belonged to a monster.

“Giving yourself advantage, eh?” Harry asked, pointing to her furry covered hands, claws sticking out and ready for rooftop scrambling.

“Well, if you’re going to whine, Harry…” Hinata said, playfully throwing her arms up in the air. Harry reached out and grabbed her lips, holding them closed.

“Game on,” he said.

They stretched briefly, Harry cracking his back and neck, Hinata showing off how flexible her kitsune body was. When they were ready they stood at the end of the slide, hands on the ground, feet planted.

“Ready, old man?” Hinata asked.

“Suck it, demon,” Harry responded.

They rocketed away from the slide, his enhanced exorcist body and her demon body performing with superhuman skill. They danced over the jungle gym and leapt onto the wall separating the street from the park, immediately springing from the wall across the street, grabbing onto the side of the building before them as they began to climb up it. Hinata’s natural kitsune ability gave her a slight advantage on the climb, but Harry stayed right on her ass. When they finally reached the rooftop they scaled the ledge in two great leaps, and if either of them had been thinking of anything other than each other, they would have noted the similarity to their fight with Fenrir a little under a week earlier. A dog like demon. A rooftop. Harry shouting. It was an inverse, an apology and reward from a usually cruel universe.

“You know why I like you?” a voice from the past said from a place Harry could still feel even as he ran over Tokyo rooftops. “You’re too dumb to be sad for long. No matter what, you find something to hold on to. A human dog hybrid.”

Ridiculous. Harry could remember the words, but the feelings they created seemed a lifetime away. He always found something to hold on to? Lisa had been too optimistic. Even on D Day, when they were cornered by monsters exactly like the one he was racing with, she had believed in him. He had failed her.

Hinata said she learned to live because of him.

Lisa called him a loyal human dog. He had no family. He moved from place to place for years. Even in New York, he refused to let anyone in. He was an exorcist. Only death followed him.

Hinata waited for him. Hell, she was still waiting for him.

He didn’t know how he had stood before Fenrir. He had been sure he was dying. Then he saw the demon heading up towards the roof, and his legs had forced him up. He had started climbing.

Towards his Hinata.

“Harry…” He heard the voice of his beloved Lisa whisper to him.

They plummeted off of the last rooftop, aiming for Reo’s front door. Harry landed with a hard thud on the street while Hinata hit the sidewalk gracefully before lunging and placing her hand on the door. A cheer erupted from her throat as she pumped her fists in the air.

“…live,” Lisa finished before leaving him.

For the first time in a long time, it didn’t feel like the memories of the girl he had grown up with were leaving him alone.

“I win!” Hinata said, doing a little dance on the doorstep. Harry crossed his arms and gave her a proud nod.

“You sure did, kid,” Harry said.