Chapter 2: That's what friends are for

Weekend arrived quicker than Ishida hoped for because it meant that there's no much time before Monday and Nishimiya come.

Also Nagatsuka should arrive soon.

Ah! The ring bell. He's here.

"It's for me, Mom!" Ishida exclaimed as he walked down the stairs.

His sister and her family were out for the day so he was alone with his mother. He opened the door and saw his best friend waiting behind it.

"Hey there Nagatsuka, come on in." Ishida greeted and invited his best pal, "I have the games read-"

"No. Not today Yasho. We have more important stuff to do. Put on your clothes we're going out today." Nagatsuka pointed his finger at him before getting inside.

He greeted Ishida's mother then went up to the young man's room with Ishida on his toe.

Before Ishida could mutter something, his friend was already looking for some clothes for him to wear inside his closet and threw a pair of pants and a T-shirt.

"Wait, wh-"

"I'll wait for you downstairs!"

And just like that, Ishida was left alone in his room, confused as ever.

Nagatsuka dragged his friend to the bridge they all knew too well. Ishida smiled as he looked at the spot where he made the promise to Nishimiya. But then he noticed that Nagatsuka was scrutinizing every thing about the place then sighed.

"Nope."

"What do you mean? Isn't this where we decided to meet with everyone?"

"Yes. But it's not a good place. Let's find another." The small adult said before turning his back and walking away.

"What?"

They went pretty much any place connected to Nishimiya Nagatsuka could remember: her sign language school, her old elementary school (though with the flinch from Ishida's face, Nagatsuka immediately understood it wasn't a good place.) then the hospital and even the park but each time the young adult said that it wasn't good.

"Nagatsuka! Please explain to me what are we doing?" Ishida begged.

"...Fine but first answer me this: Do you know any other place where you share a good memory with Nishimiya?" he asked.

"W-Well there's the bridge, right?"

"Yes but no! We need something else. Maybe somewhere where she gave you something?"

Ishida started digging through his memories… Somewhere where she gave him something good… other than the usual bridge… "Right! I know the place!"

"Perfect!"

"It's where she gave me those… Uh… You know the three items we thought were candies or something."

"Show me the place!" Nagatsuka exclaimed excitedly before starting walking as if he was the one leading the way.

"N-Nagatsuka… It's that way."

They arrived at the place near the river where Nishimiya gave him the present and where she told him something that to this day he's still sure that he misunderstood. Ishida smiled at the memory despite that, he really couldn't wait to see her again…

Nagatsuka for his part was analysing the place with a smirk.

"Yes… Good. We can even hide there." he muttered.

"Did you say something?"

"This place is good! We found it." Nagatsuka smiled and raised his thumb to his friend.

"G-Great… But good for what?" Ishida asked.

"For your confession of course."

Ishida paused for a good half a minute before flushing tomato red and exploded into a stuttering mess.

"Gu-Con-How-Wh-Wha-?!"

"Yuzuru-chan told us, obviously." Nagatsuka answered before Ishida could ask, "And I decided that my best pal Yasho should have an amazing time when confessing. Am I not the bestest of friends?" he smirked.

Ishida was still red and stuttering as he covered his face with his hands in embarrassment, he took a deep breath to calm himself then looked at his friend and smiled brightly.

"Yes you are, man! Thank you for helping me."

"No problem Yasho! That's what are friends for." Nagatsuka winked with a smirk, "You can buy the popcorn at the movies later."

"Hahaha, sure. So what are we going to watch?"

"Something to inspire you for your big moment. But before, one last thing." Nagatsuka said before walking to his friend and handing him a dozen of flyers.

Ishida raised an eyebrow as he took the papers.

"Choose one of those, they are all good ones. According to the reviews." the small man added.

"Okay..?" Ishida answered before taking a look at the flyers, then turned red and almost choked on air.

These were flyers for love hotels.

"Ihida."

"Almost."

"Ijida."

"Not there yet."

"Irida."

"Ah, nope."

"What are you two doing since ten minutes ago?"

In an apartment in Tokyo, three young women were preparing themselves for a trip to their hometown. Ueno was packing her stuff when she heard Sahara and Nishimiya doing strange things in the other room.

"Sorry if we bothered you." the short haired girl apologized, "Shou-chan wants to say 'Ishida' in the right way to surprise him." she smiled and signed for the deaf girl to nod along her words.

"Uh… I see." Ueno sighed.

'I want to make him very surprised!' Nishimiya signed.

"I guess he would be pretty surprised alright…"

"But I don't know how to teach her to make the sound 'sh'... Can you help me?" Sahara smiled again to her friend.

"Eeeeh?! Why would I do that? We have stuff to pack! Just do that." She exclaimed.

She then saw the distressed expression on the deaf girl's face and sighed before signing the best she could to her to pack her stuff. Nishimiya nodded and stood up then went to her room to fold more clothes.

"... If she keeps her teeth shut and the tongue in mid-air inside her mouth… She should be able to do the sound or at least something very similar…" Ueno muttered slowly, but loud enough for Sahara to hear her.

"Oh! I see! Thank you Ueno-san!" Sahara smiled brightly and quickly went to Nishimiya's room to tell her.

Ueno went back into packing her clothes, her face red as she muttered to herself that it wasn't for Nishimiya to be happy but rather that she wanted to see Ishida get all flustered...

"Ishida!"

"That's correct!"

"Ishida!"

"Yes!"

Oh boy, maybe it was a mistake after all.

Baka's notes: Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

I'm sorry it's very short and took so long to release ! The thing is that I... 'lost' all my ideas for this fic? I mean, I had some but after a second review, they were not good. I still have some good one for the next chapters but after that, nothing.

Well I still hope you enjoyed this short chapter and will enjoy my other works! See you soon