title: Stay With Me

summary: I'd give everything I have away just to hear you promise you'll stay.

character(s): Yato, Hiyori, probably mentions of other characters -yatori.

a/n: I was thoroughly intrigued by the day 2 prompt and extremely disappointed that I missed it, which is why I'm glad today's prompt is a freebee. So I pushed shuffle on my iTunes library and started writing, each song lyric sets a new scenario so don't be confused! I had originally wanted to do 5-10 different ones but my lack of time didn't allow it, so please make do with just two! (Rhyming at its finest) Yes, I've placed this also in AU because I like working in AU for some reason, furthermore I hope you enjoy. (You're also very welcome to ask for the song list.)

i. I'm caught inside the memories, the promises, our yesterdays and I belong to you/ I'll never be same, not after loving you.

She said she'd never leave him, she promised.

And now she stands there with determination in her eyes and all the bravado he never knew she had. She's wearing a small smile on her lips, looking right at him, and it aches somewhere deep in his heart, he thinks.

"You can't-"

The sentence dies in his throat as he stares at her, and it dawns on him that those words, the ones he wants to tell her so badly, are ones that could make or break him. She could laugh, call him and idiot and promise to never leave his side, to listen for once in her life. Or she could shake her head, giving him one of those sad smiles she usually does when the answer has to be 'no'.

He steps forward, eyes desperate, ready to tell her anything she wants to hear.

She just has to say she'll stay, that she'll keep that childhood promise.

"Hiyorin, your college is very far," he faintly hears Kofuku's voice in the background, "can't you just go to college here?"

He's expecting that same old answer he's been hearing for over three months now 'It's a good school', instead he hears a soft sigh, followed right by a chuckle. But he knows her, like that back of his hand, actually, that laugh of hers doesn't mean she's happy, it's almost like the question frustrates her.

And instead of the answer she usually gives him, she politely says, "I suppose I need a fresh start."

His head snaps up and he can't understand her words, doesn't know why she'd want something like that. A fresh start? That's something he knows people seek out when something wasn't good in their life before, it's something you do when you need to move on and be new.

Move on.

He doesn't like it, doesn't want to hear such a thing come out of her mouth. So he scoffs, digging his hands in his pockets and turning on his heel, he hears Yukine's voice calling out to him but he'd rather deal with the idiot's wrath later.

When she's gone, when he can be as mad as he wants.

When he can allow his former self slip past and come out again, because why would he want to be a "good" person if all those efforts were for her?

Stupid.

"Yato."

He freezes, eyes wide as he stares to the people rushing in front of him, that soft voice, his favorite sound.

"Hiyori."

"College is-"

"Important, I know."

"I'm sorry."

"You lied."

He turns his head and regards her with soft eyes, she's looking up at him her eyes wide and her mouth slightly parted, the words seemed to have died in her throat as well. It wasn't his intention to make her feel like she owed him every single part of her because of that promise. He just wanted to know why she didn't keep her promise, why she just decided to get up and leave him.

After all, she was the first person who ever noticed him, the first person who took the time to get to know him and she was the very first person who smiled down at him like he meant something.

His head bows down at her silence, eyes set firmly on his boots and he wonders how he got to be this dependant of her. Why was it that he was the only one who felt the need to stick by her side always, just like she had promised they would.

Was he the only one who took them seriously?

He doesn't hear her over the chattering people going about their business, but he feels it when her arms circle his waist and her head is buried in the crock of his neck. His arms refuse to wrap around her, far too shocked with her actions to move.

His face heats up the way it always does when she's too close, before he hears her inhale and a small smile lifts on his lips, remembering her words from last summer;

"My favorite smell? Well that'd be your smell, Yato."

When the shock is replaced by his usual emotions his hands come up slowly, hesitantly, and wrap around her smaller form. He hears her whisper incoherent things but he's far more concerned with keeping her right here in his arms.

"Yato."

He watches as she pulls her head away from him, a small smile on her lips but now he can see the faint traces of tears on her face, "I'm not going to forget you."

Her words knock the breath right out of him and he almost doesn't think he heard her right, "What?"

"College is important and it may be far," she starts softly, bringing her head back towards him, "but I won't forget you, I can't possibly forget you now."

His eyes soften at her words and he brings her closer than before, breathing in her warm smell, "Neither will I."

"And someday I'll be back," she whispers into his ear, "and when I'm back I'll find you and then we can stay together forever."

"Hiyori-"

"Please?"

He nods his head into her hair, "Anything, just please say you'll be back, please remember us, everything, me. Remember me."

"I told you didn't I?"

He lifts his head away to look into her eyes, trying to detect if she's lying or not, but he finds nothing but sincerity. Just like before.

"I will never forget you, Yato."

ii. Something always brings me back to you/you're everything I think I need here on the ground.

She wasn't sure what it was.

Many times she'd stay up and think over the answer, time and time again but she's never reached an exact answer, nothing.

Why did she stay with someone like him?

Her friends had always told her that he was no good, a boy with a lowly past life. He was a gang member, they said, he was supposed to be nothing but trouble, someone who wasn't worth anyone's time. Someone whose existence revolves around making others feel his wrath. A pointless boy with a pointless life.

But despite all those words and warning she had said hello, she had expect a cold answer, something to prove everyone was right.

However, he looked down at her with gentle eyes and responded with a "Yo."

It had been shocking, something that she'd never thought she'd see in his eyes and looking back now she thinks nothing of it because he always look at her that way now. Everything he does is much gentler than the first time she met him.

His words are always kind, they're always meant to make her happy because that's what he promised to do, make her happy.

But he's still mysterious, he still has a side of him she's only heard of, never seen. She's asked about it, not to him, but to people who he's supposed to be close to, everyone always responds with things she doesn't want to hear, things she's already heard before.

"Doesn't matter, he's different with you around and that's good."

His eyes were always full of warmth but she's heard the nasty rumors, when she's not around, when it's just him and whoever made him angry those eyes hold nothing but resentment, depravity. Eyes that freeze you right down to your core and make you want to run and never return.

They're all rumors, she reminds herself, she's never seen them so does that make all those words false?

She walks down the school's steps and wonders why she's even thinking of things like this? Why can't she just walk up to him and demand all the answers she seeks, why can't she just look at him in the eye and ask him to tell her about everything she's heard.

His cold eyes and cold words, his hostile demeanor towards other people.

"Hiyori."

She turns around slowly and watches as he makes his way to her slowly, carefully, and as he does so she takes in his disheveled appearance.

Everything from the dirt stains on his white undershirt to the way it seems his gakuran jacket is missing buttons. His hair is far messier than she knows it to be and she can see a faint blood stain on the corner of his mouth.

"Yato."

"Why are you stepping back?"

She freezes, unsure of what to say because she's not even sure she knows the answer to that. Why is she trying to step back, is her heart trying to hide, run away from the man she so claims to want to be with forever?

"I d-" she pauses, her head falling forward, "don't know."

"Are you scared of me?"

His voice is different, she notes, it's eerie somehow, it doesn't suit her image of him.

"N-No," she answers hesitantly, "I'm not."

"I'm not stupid."

"You're not," she replies, "I know."

"Do you?"

"Yeah."

"Then come here."

She doesn't hesitate but she walks slower than she usually would've of and stands before him. She feels him move before arms wrap around her body and pull her forward until she collides with his chest, she hears his heart beating in his chest and she smiles faintly; it's faster than it should be.

"Those rumors, the ones you keep hearing," he pauses, waiting for her 'go ahead'.

"What about them?"

"They're all true," he speaks low, "every single one of them."

She clutches the shirt he's wearing tightly, preparing to hear something bad, preparing herself to be hurt in some way because it seems that her friends were right about him; all he can ever do is hurt, never mend.

"But I'm trying," he speaks lowly, "really hard, I am."

Her eyes widen, her grip on his shirt tightening, "Yato."

"I'm trying not to fight, I'm trying to not scare you away," he speaks softly, his head resting on her shoulder, lips right by her ear, "if you're scared Hiyori don't ever run away from me."

She releases his shirt before wrapping her small arms around his torso, "I won't, I promise."

"Always stay, like you said," he whispers into her ear, "always."

"Like I promised," she nods her head, "I'll always be right here, Yato."

"Good," he breathes, "good."

ES: This was fun, would've been even more so if I had time to do more than just. Who knows, maybe I'll add more as I go along with different settings since these two were kind of set in "school-life".