Title: Eight Years & Two Lives
Dedicated to: Anna. This is most definitely not your official gift. Think of this as a party bag of SumireKoko-ness.
Summary: They met when she was eight, became best friends when she was eleven and silently fell in love when she was sixteen. -- SxK
Info: Romance with a range of other genres. Title will be changed eventually. SumireKoko.
Disclaimed By: Romantically Loveless

Part I of III
'...reminded her of the time when he was nine and shorter than him, pulling pranks during class.'

"Permy!" a rambunctious boy yelled.

"..."

"Cat got your tongue?"

"..."

"What's wrong? Talk to me!"

She gave him a look that spoke 'If you're going to read my mind as usual, then there's no point for me to speak.'

"I'm, erm, sorry?" he replied in an unsure and nervous tone; holding a weary smile on his face.

'Whatever. What do you want from me anyway?' Looking at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Nothing in particular, really; just to say good morning."

'Well good morning then. Good bye now,' Sumire thought bitterly.

"If you want, I can stop reading your mind and talk to you normally!"

'How would you do that? You weirdo.'

"I could always nullify it, by being next to all the other people whenever I'm with you so I don't-"

'Hell. No.'

"What's wrong, Permy? Did someone pour a bucket of water on you?" Koko nervously joked.

"Screw off."

"Alright, Perms. If that's what you want."

He left her sitting in her seat and returned to his chattering classmates. She sat with tense shoulders and toes crinkling in frustration. She always had a habit of doing that. Even though Koko was at a distance, he stole glances toward the eleven year-old best friend of his wondering what on earth happened to make her so upset with him.

/

Ahh, now that he was with Mikan she could finally think. Wait. But think about what? There was nothing to think about.

...and the inner Sumire scoffs.

Well, he was younger than her, shorter than her and her best friend since forever. Besides, she would get a good-looking rich guy by the time she's sixteen. Yes, yes she would. And that was the plan.

But why did Koko come in the same topic as guys courting her? Pfft. She must be getting a bit crazy. He would never ever be more than her best friend. He was younger. Which meant he wasn't mature and...and as good as guys like Natsume Hyuuga, the boy who came in the class with a blond bunny boy.

Mhmm, they were two fine specimen.

Stop brain, stop.

Why was an eleven year-old girl like her thinking about guys? Was she already getting into that boy-crazy phase Narumi was talking about?

Oh Jesus, no.

/

He wondered if best friends always care for each other like this. He knew best friends talk, play games and shared secrets, but was smiling for them part of it too? Well, it must be since he's been doing it for her since he was six. Was there something else he missed? Mom always said girls liked compliments. Maybe it was that?

Looking to see if she was still toe-crinkling (he knew she always did that when she was stressed whether it was voluntary or not) still, he stared at the expression on her face.

The sides of her cheeks were sucked in and her chin was resting on her hand. The curls in her hair gently framed her face while her eyes looked out the window as the the sun shined through. She looked...

...good?

It's not like he ever noticed that his best friend was pretty before, but he's never really taken it all in at once.

/

It took her some time to realize how harsh she was to Koko when he was just trying to be nice while she was going through what Narumi called, 'the time where caterpillars evolve into butterflies' complete with hand fluttering gestures.

Throwing her pride aside, Sumire stood up to see where her best friend went.

/

Koko knew that Sumire was feeling better. Not just because he was glancing at her for a while, but that his best friend senses were tingling. But he knew her, she was the type that had pride, and apologizing wasn't so simple. So he made it easier for her.

Abruptly standing up from his seat and telling his fox-eyed friend that they'd put a frog down Jinno's pants later, he marched right in front of his best friend in a proximity that left the tips of their shoes touching and warms breaths being felt by one another.

He had shocked her, the wide-eyed look she gave him told him that. But what he had said next made her speechless, and him hoping that they were okay again.

"You smell pretty."

.

.

.

.

.

A/N: This originally was just a drabble idea of Sumire being jealous of Anna, but it just ended up being something else altogether. And the "You smell pretty" was supposed to be another one-shot, but oh well.

Part one of three for the Prequel of Good Night & Goodbye.