Title: Forevermore
Word/Page Count: 6/313
Author's Notes: I can't believe I made it this far: It's the last chapter! And (mostly for luvracci, who wants an encore- you need to resend me that message, I deleted it) I'm making a sequel, based on Hozumi, who appears in the last couple of lines. So, look out- I'm not done yet!
Summary: The aftermath, mostly. And Eiji learns to act uncharacteristically. LAST CHAPTER!
Free Plugs: Luvracci (heh, I mention her so many times), Sandileina (- is the Queen of Rikkaidai), GsandM (Queen of Rikkaidai crackfics), This Corner of the Room by Senzafine (it's one of those amazing, one of a kind fics. Read it, really.)
He tilted up her hand, standing behind her like a bodyguard. Then, on an impulse, kissed her, quickly and silently. Her hand's grip on the racket quickly loosened as it fell on the ground with clatter, and she herself broke down, sobbing and tears running hard and fast down her face.
"What's wrong?" asked Marui.
"I didn't want my first kiss to be this way," she said between sobs. It was only then she realized it was one of the few truthful things that she had said that day.
All the others had been to a certain red head.
---
Hikari's POV
My mom asked why I had been crying when I came home. How do moms know this stuff? Do they have some sort of radar that makes them realize when their daughters are confused beyond belief and have been crying for the last good part of an hour?
So I told her everything. It took almost an hour, starting from the very beginning to the umbrella incident to the kiss.
The kiss took the cake in dramaticness, though.
She sat, her hands folded in her lap. "So, you don't love him, do you?" she said quietly.
"No, I don't!" I answered hotly. "I love…" And then it came, crashing down hard and fast.
"I love Eiji."
The shell I kept so clean and free of cracks for so long broke into a thousand, million pieces of glass.
---
3rd Person POV
Something was weird the next day, according to Eiji. And it wasn't the fact that his Kaa-san had made Western food and now his stomach wouldn't shut up. It was something much, much weirder.
Hikari kept her eyes downward the whole day, not even telling off Eiji when he called her "Hika-chi" again. Whenever someone spoke to her, her voice was quick and quiet. So, Eiji decided to visit her. She had a sliding door in the back of the house that lead to the kitchen, which was only a short walk to the living room. I'll visit it after practice, he thought, grinning.
Hikari was turning over the whole house when he got to the living room.
The first thing he noticed was the lack of manga magazine that had infected the room like tinsel before. Every issue of Nakayoshi, Ribon, and LaLa from the last five years were gone- all of them.
"Where'd all the magazines go?" Eiji asked. Hikari jumped about a meter into the air before answering, "Kaa-chan burned them."
"She burned them?"
"Yeah, and we almost got evicted for it, too." Eiji burst out laughing.
"What's so funny? Oh, go make yourself useful. I had a CD on loop- Hiroki Aiba- can you put in the next one?"
"The English one?"
"Yeah, Kaa-chan got it on a business trip and I still need to listen to it."
"A-ru A-me-ri-ka-nu Re-je-ke-tsu?"
"Yeah, that one."
A song started- some kind of strange, electronic sound, with words barely filtering through. Then came a chorus of guitars and voice and drums. "What's he saying?" Eiji thought out loud. "I don't know, English is my worst subject!" Hikari answered fiercely.
She was lying, Eiji knew. English was her second best subject, right after Japanese History, and even in her worst she still had 89.
"Hikari, why are you lying?" Eiji asked quietly.
She screamed, her voice piercing through the soft, cheerful melodies. Then, of all things, she burst out crying.
Tears fall, down your face So bottle up old love,
The
taste, is something new
Something that I know
Moving on is,
easiest when I am around you.
And
throw it out to sea,
Watch it away as you cry
Now a year has
past
The seasons go
"Hika?" Eiji stared at her. She sobbed, the knees of her jeans wet.
Please just don't play with me
My paper heart
will bleed
This wait for destiny wont do
Be with me please I
beseech you
Simple things, that make you run a-way
Catch you if
I can
"I-I'm sorry, Eiji."
"Hika, what are you sorry for?"
Summertime, the nights are so
long
The leaves fall down, and so do I into the arms of a
friend
Winter nights
My bedside is cold, for I am gone
And
spring blossoms you...
To me
"Marui Bunta from Rikkaidai. I-I kissed him."
The pieces of glass that used to be her shell were ground into fine dust as Eiji hugged her.
---
The change happened quickly, yet inevitably, if there was such a thing.
Hikari smiled. Hikari talked. Hikari would go around and make her eyes sparkle every time that anyone looked at her. It took people a while to figure out that she hadn't changed- she had just become the person that she used to be. But the one thing that hadn't been there before was the blushing. She blushed all the time, even when she was only with one other person. And when the Gaggle (remember them?) figured out that she only blushed when she was around a certain person, the gossip finally erupted into a silent hell.
"There's no way she can have a crush on him. No. Way. It just doesn't work like that. I mean, Satou Hikari of all people… Come on, really. It just doesn't work that way."
"I so agree."
"I mean, look at how short she is!" At this, everyone nodded.
"Hey, you know what? Their moms are supposed to be friends. She's probably going to pretend to like him so that their parents are happy."
"Right, that makes perfect sense!"
"Perfect sense."
"Perfect sense."
"Perfect sense."
They exchanged grins.
---
The next day, there was an unidentifiable object in Hikari's bento.
"What… is that?"
"I'm not sure. I think it's a spider."
"Nya, it has too many legs to be a spider."
Hikari grabbed it by a leg and threw it in the trash.
---
Her lunch was brown the next day.
"Is that soy sauce?"
"I think so."
"I thought you liked soy sauce."
"Yes, but I don't like a flood of it."
Hikari didn't eat lunch that day.
---
"…Okay, now this is just ridiculous."
Hikari threw away her lunch. The green goop coming out of the sides was warning enough.
--
"Satou-san!" Hikari turned. The name sounded so foreign now- the only people who still called her Satou-san were the Gaggle.
"Ah, Motoko-san. What is it?"
"Uhm… I was wondering… You come over to my house next Saturday after class?" Fuji's ears perked up. He went over and whispered something in Eiji's ear.
"Why?"
"Because-"
"Oi, What are you doing to Hika?" Eiji stood next to Hikari, Hikari's own jaw stiffening. Then, almost as an afterthought, he slung an arm around her. Hika winced, her face turning redder by the second.
The Gaggle opened their mouths, looking more like fish than ducks, and walked slowly away.
Hikari lifted Eiji's arm up and over her shoulder. "That was incredibly corny."
"I know."
Hikari stared for a moment, then walked over, hiding a smile.
---
"FujiwhatdidyoudotoEiji?"
"…"
"I'm not talking to Fuji, am I?"
"ANIKI, PHONE FOR YOU!"
"Ah, Satou-kun."
"What did you do to Fuji? He went all corny-romance-movie on me."
"I told him to act uncharacteristically."
"…"
"Satou-kun?"
"Fuji, you are a genius."
"Thank you. I'm very honored that you say that."
---
Stories can interweave unknowingly.
"I'll be over in a second."
Simple words can change lives.
"Be quick, nya!"
Sometimes, the changes one person makes can set off a chain of events longer than they might know.
"Hey, Hozumi-chan, can you make it over here?"
But the only thing we might know is this:
"Hika, who's this?"
There's only one way we want the years to melt by-
"His name's Fuji Syuusuke. I don't think you know him."
Like milk candies,
"No. I don't."
All on a long chain.