passenger

I have smuggled you as cargo,
though you are far away unknowing.
I have packed you in my suitcase,
ironed the creases from my own remembering.

Oh my satellite, oh my passenger ...

She frowned deeply into the pot on the stove, standing atop a small stepladder on her tippy-toes.

"Looks funny," she declared.

"How so?" Ryouta's mother swooped in, tucking hair behind her ear and wiping her hands off on a towel tucked into her pants. She peered into the pot over the head of the little girl. "It looks fine to me."

"But there's no noodles." The little girl scrunched her nose up. "How'm I s'posed to eat udon without noodles?"

"Well," Mrs. Kawara began, "this isn't udon, for one."

"It isn't?" The girl shot Mrs. Kawara a scandalized look.

"It isn't. We're having yakisoba," Ryouta took this chance to pipe up from his spot at the table.

"Udon is better." The little girl was very firm on this point. "In fact, it's the best meal for us growing youth!"

"I'll make some for dinner tomorrow, then." Mrs. Kawara laughed a little at her enthusiasm.

"C'mon Ryouta, don't be scared!" the little girl, slightly older, called from the bottom of the steep hill. Her voice barely reached Ryouta from his position at the top, over the din of the other children playing in the area. She waved her arms as if it would add volume to her voice, but she seemed so far away and the sudden increase in the snowfall wasn't helping his nerves at all.

"It's really far down," Ryouta said to himself, fiddling nervously with the tassles at the end of his scarf. He couldn't feel his nose anymore.

"Do it!" she started jumping up and down to encourage him. He swallowed his nerves. If she could do it, then he could, too.

Ryouta rubbed his gloved hands together, ignoring the fact that he felt like a popsicle and, taking a deep breath, shoved off so that his sled careened down the hill.

Her uniform was different than his, for she had been accepted into a different school once they had entered junior high.

"Yours looks better," she decided, nodding to herself. She reached out a hand and tugged on Ryouta's sleeve, pulling him closer to her and nearly yanking him off balance. "Cool stripes."

"Eh?" Ryouta fought to keep the blush from his features. "You think?"

"Yep!" she released his arm, giving him a chance to stop his heart from bursting out of his chest. "Kinda lame we aren't going to the same school, though."

"You should apply again next year," he said.

She beamed at him, thumping a fist against her chest. "I've conquered endless challenges! They'll have to accept me!"

She was always so confident.

"How do I look?" she asked, spinning around and causing her skirt to flare out.

"Your socks are uneven," Ryouta said.

"Huh?" She stopped twirling to stare down at her legs. "Oh, yeah. Good thing I have you around!" Bending down, she quickly adjusted her socks until Ryouta voiced his approval.

Standing back up, she planted her hands on her hips.

"W-what?" He withered a little beneath her intense stare.

"How'd you get so much fashion sense, anyway?" Her head quirked to the side.

Ryouta smiled mischievously at her. "That's my little secret."

She grinned back at him. "I'll figure it out one day. Until then, we'll just say you're my character foil."

"Your what?"

Ryouta found her slumped over her desk, staring fiercely at the blackboard, where a list of school clubs was written.

"Which do I join?" she said, cheeks puffing out as they always did when she was confronted with an odd choice.

"Don't join astronomy," Ryouta advised. "I hear they do weird things."

Her head lolled to the side so she could look up at him. "Like what?"

"I think they started a cult." Despite his warning, her eyes lit up.

"Ooh, sounds neat. I don't think I could do that, though. My family is Buddhist, after all."

"Right," Ryouta nodded.

"What about birdwatching?"

He made a face. "Isn't that a little boring?"

"But I can use my hunter-gatherer skills to climb trees and find birds!" She almost had a sparkle in her eye at the thought. If there was one thing she loved, it was putting to use her physical prowess.

"I ... don't think that's how it works."

She shoved herself upwards, folding her arms. "Well, that doesn't leave much."

"You'd probably like the track team," Ryouta said.

"I run all the way home, though." She stood up from the chair. "I think I'll check out the infirmary. Yuuya said it was a super easy club!"

He tried to stop her because the doctor was creepy as hell, but she was a difficult one to persuade.

Ryouta opened his eyes, expecting his old bedroom, only to be greeted by a white ceiling that definitely wasn't his. One of his hands held a pillow in a white-knuckled death grip that even he wasn't aware he could manage. He uncurled his fingers one by one, blinked twice, and remembered to breathe.

"Kawara?" Sakuya's voice broke him out of his reverie. Ryouta remembered where he was.

"One moment," he said.

"I'll wait."

That was all he needed to hear.

You would think I'd devote the title chapter to actual romancin' but I am
(un)surprising like this.

Passenger: watch?v=g6FrV0uR_Ks

Next up is Safe Travels (Don't Die).