A Year Later

by Sp4ceCAT

Ok, this is my very first ever written fanfiction. I know it's not very good, but its a practice for me so please I'd really appreciate some critiques or feedback! This story is basically about Koujaku and Noiz a year after the collapse of the Oval Tower. It is also a short continuation of Clear's route in the first game, so Mink wont be in it sadly. Hope you will enjoy C:

I was just having a peaceful little midnight stroll around the corners of my shop. I sat down quietly on the bench right next to a traditional Japanese restaurant, not too far from my salon. Beni was resting on my left shoulder as I quietly hum a tune. Wondering what to do next, I suddenly notice a strange shadow somewhere in a distance around a corner next to a vending machine. I got up slowly, stared at the shadow in curiosity.

"Hello? Is someone there?" I asked as I walked towards it. Beni was still sleeping even though I made some sudden movements. Wouldn't want the aggressive little bird to wake up. I quietly walked towards the vending machine and noticed the blonde haired brat in front of me.
"Oh it's you."He said.
It was that little brat Noiz.
"What the hell are you doing at a time like this?" I asked in an annoyed tone.
"I might as well ask the same about you gramps" he chuckled as he reaches down and grabs his coca cola.
"Shut the fuck up you brat!"

I wanted to punch him the face, but I decided to calm myself down and not do anything just smirked at me in disrespect and walked away. I was getting impatient because of his arrogance and eventually ran up and tackled at him. I have no idea why I did it, but it happened. To be honest I was quite surprised that I would go this far as tackling him in the middle of an empty midnight street.

"UWAHH!"I groaned as I hit the impact of the floor.
"ARGH! Koujaku, what is happening!?" Beni exclaimed in shock.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!"Noiz looked at me in confusion and anger. Just when I wanted to say something, I notice the position we were in was quite awkward and our bodies were fairly close. I suddenly felt a little strange feeling of shyness, and immediately got up.
"You little shit!I'll get you for disrespecting me!" I yelled.
"Heh, what's wrong with you? Why are you blushing?" He laughed.

Oh god, I was blushing? Why am I blushing, this is really strange and I don't understand why. This little brat, he pisses me off so much.
"Is it that when our bodies were close, you started to actually have some excitement?" He continues laughing and teasing me.
"Shut the hell up you brat!" Beni yelled at him as he lands on my head and frowns. Now my blood is really boiling. A peaceful night of spending the time alone ends up with me getting angry. But I continued to calm myself down, no matter how hard it was. I've had enough of this brat's bullshit.
"I don't have the time and energy to deal with a little kid like you." I said calmly yet impatiently. I walked away and head back to my place. He didn't say anything else, but he's probably humiliating me for my action and my embarrassment. Damnit, I'm such an idiot sometimes.
"Beni, are you alright?" I asked in concern.
"Yeah I'm fine. I should be asking you what the matter is" he said as he looked at me with a confused expression. I ignored him, placed him on my shoulder and head back home. As I enter my room, I gently took off and placed my sword and strap off of my kimono and keptit on the table beside my bed. Beni flew off my shoulder and landed on my red silken pillow and immediately fell asleep. I was too tired to strip, so I just plopped myself on my bed and let the dreams begin.

After awakening from a deep sleep, it was already afternoon. I slept a lot, probably due to my energy getting wasted from getting angry. That brat. I'm not going to let him off so easily next time. Aside from that, I'm not very busy today, so I decided to visit Aoba at the Junk Shop Heibon. I always go there whenever I'm feeling dull. Having Aoba around always helps me stay sane and comfortable. I quickly got up, get changed, and went downstairs with an upbeat attitude.
"You seem to be in a better mood today, you sleepy head" Beni flew onto my shoulder and pecks lightly at my cheek.
"I sure am, let's head to the Junk Shop Heibon. Maybe we can help Aoba move some stocks haha!" I said in an excited tone. Beni looked at me like I was a little kid, but lets out a little pleasant sigh. As I walk towards the door, I see a number of women looking through the glass door at me. Oh dear, again? I love flirting with them but sometimes it gets a little out of hand, but as usual, I put on my handsome smile, walk out of my place and greet them with a playful "good afternoon."

After a while of dealing with the swooning fangirls, I finally got to the Junk Shop Heibon. Sometimes being an attractive guy can be really troublesome. I look at Beni as he lets out a tired groan. The ladies have been trying to touch and poke him, commenting how cute he is. I feel sorry for him, since he's so tiny, he could've been easily squashed by those lady hands. I gently stroke his puny little head with my index finger and gave him a pitiful smile.

"Sorry for that Beni."
"Enough of that, let's go in." He said, looking exhausted.
We entered the shop, and there Aoba was sitting at the counter, talking charismatically on the phone to attract customers. I was happily about to interrupt him, but suddenly I noticed someone was with him. It was that weirdo Clear. Even after a year of knowing him, he still hides his face behind that gas mask. God knows what he's trying to deceive behind it. My mood of excitement faded a little bit.
"Koujaku san! Good afternoon!" Clear exclaimed happily. It seems that he was helping Aoba move some stocks and boxes.
"Ah..good afternoon" I replied plainly.
"Hmph. It's that weirdo again." Beni said as he flew off my shoulder and landed on Ren's head.
"How mean, I'm not a weirdo!" Clear pouts at his comment. Even with a gas mask on, you can tell the kind of emotion he is giving by the tone of his voice.
"Ah, Koujaku what are you doing here?" Aoba asked right after he got off the phone. He simply smiled at me, which made my heart beat a little.
"Oh I just wanted to come over and see you, making sure if you need any help heh.." I said nervously, but trying to keep my cool.
"Oh, that's nice of you I guess. But don't worry, Clear came here to help, and it seems that he is almost done."
"I see." I said quietly. It has been a year after the incident of the collapse of the Oval Tower. From that day on, something changed between Aoba and Clear. No one really know about the details between them, it remained a mystery, but it's obvious that they have gotten a lot closer, which makes me quite uncomfortable I admit. I try not to think about it too often, and keep my head straight and pretend that everything is fine. I have known Aoba for a long time now, ever since we were kids. Due to this, I have grown to take a liking to him. Even though he is a guy, there's a hidden feeling in me that probably loves him, not as a brother or a friend, but someone I'd like to spend my life with. But to think about something like this, I know it's not possible to happen if Aoba belongs to someone else, even someone like that weirdo Clear, but I think to myself, if it makes him happy, I'll always be content with his choice. Just as I was about to ask Aoba if he'd like to go to lunch with me, the bell rang and someone entered the shop door. All of us turned around and saw who it is. Not again. That German brat.
"Noiz? What a surprise to see you here." Aoba gives a very confused look.
"Yo. I had nothing to do so I decided to come here to take a look. Not a big deal." He said expressionlessly.
"Noiz san! So good to see you again. Good afternoon!" Clear exclaims with his usual naïve excitement. Noiz ignored him and walks up to me.
"How goes the fantasy of you and me, gramps?" He joked. I clenched my fist and grabbed his collar.
"Shut the fuck up before I crush your skull you little shit!" I growled at him.
"Woah woah woah.. Koujaku please calm down. Noiz, don't make silly jokes right now, you are really childish sometimes." Aoba gives out an irritated sigh and tries to break us up before anything regretful happens. Noiz continues to smirk at me, grabbed my wrist tightly and forced me to let go. Damn, for a teenager he is quite strong, but I let go of him easily since I didn't want to cause any trouble for Aoba. I glare at the brat for a second, but decided to ask Aoba again.
"Aoba I was wondering if- .."
I got cut offed when all of us observed what seems to be unbelievable. I looked at Clear, Beni, and Ren, we were all in shock.
"WHAT THE HELL NOIZ?!" Aoba screamed, blushing uncontrollably. He immediately wiped his lips a number of times with the sleeve of his BrainNuts jacket.
"It's not a big deal. Besides wouldn't you be used to it after the first time we did it?" Noiz grinned and looked at us. He is really getting on my nerves, I can't help it. I'm so enraged by his immature and inappropriate action. Just when I was about to let out all the heat of anger in my body, Haga appeared to us cheerfully.
"Oh what a surprise to see all of you here!"

"Ah..boss I'm so sorry, I didn't think they would all come here." Aoba said as he gives him an embarrassed smile.

"Oh Aoba kun, its no problem! Besides, there won't be much to do for the rest of today, why don't you and your friends go and have lunch? You can take a break for the day." Haga said happily. He's always very friendly and understanding to Aoba, so it was a relief that he was able to work for someone like him.
"Haga san! I finished moving all the stocks and the boxes exactly like you said!" Clear exclaimed again, in his usual childlike excitement.
"Such good thing to have you here, everything looks so neat and tidy! Thank you very much." Haga gave him a friendly smile. He suddenly took out something from his pocket which appears to be some money.
"Here, this is for the hard work you did for us today."
"Uwah? Boss you really didn't have to do that.." Aoba said in uncertainty.
"No please accept it. He deserves something for the work he did today."
Clear politely takes the money and gave him a very jolly "thank you".
When I looked around, I realized that Noiz was gone. I headed towards the door and looked outside and saw him walking away. That little brat. I don't understand him at all. I might as well say that I dislike him, but he somehow attracts a little attention in me. After thinking for a while, I decided to head over to him.
"Hey you brat." I said, trying not to seem too interested.
"Hm? Oh what do you want old man?"
"Shut up with that. Why the hell did you kiss Aoba?" I asked angrily.
"I don't know." He simply answered.
"What the hell do you mean by you don't know? And were you saying that you had done that to him before? You piece of shit!" I started to yell a little bit out of anger.
He glanced at me, then ignores me and continued walking. My blood starts to boil again. I grabbed on his shoulder tightly. Just when I was about to take a swing at him, we both lost our footing and tripped against the concrete wall behind him. There was a loud thud due to the impact of us hitting against it. But aside from that, the next thing we know was something we would never ever thought would happen, nor even dare to imagine. I felt a tight push of my lips against something very soft and moist, with the lower part of my lip being pricked by two little sharp objects. There was a moment of dead awkward silence. I blacked out a little bit emotionally. When I was able to collect my senses again and let my brain recover from what just happened, I stepped back violently, in which I ended up falling to the ground. I was in great shock; I covered my mouth, blushing hard. Noiz stared at my blankly. It seems that he was not able to adjust with what just happened either. After a second, he looked at me emotionless like always.
"Hey. You got something on your face." He points at my nose. Suddenly I felt something warm coming out from my nostril. Holy shit, I'm nose bleeding! I covered my nose, trying to wipe the blood off. I was blushing so hard, and was in sheer embarrassment. The shame that crawls into me crushed me mentally. I just kissed this brat by accident, and now I'm on the floor wiping my bleeding nose like an idiot. Noiz sighed, and took out something from his pocket. It was a clean white handkerchief. He bends down towards me and took my hand off of my nose, and wiped the blood. This is too much. First the kiss for Aoba, then the accidental kiss of me and this brat, and now him wiping blood from my nose with his handkerchief?! I don't believe this day can get any weirder. I got embarrassed and proud, and pushed him aside.
"Don't fucking do that you brat.." I looked away from his expressionless eyes, hiding the rush of blood in my face. I can't even look at him, I am such a shame.
"jeez you old geezer, it's just handkerchief."

He got up and stared at me for a moment. For some reason it made me nervous. I hate to admit but with him staring at me as I'm down here, it's like I lost all my power as an adult.
"Koujaku? Are you alright?" I heard Aoba's voice coming closer to me. He ran up to us and held me.
"Oh my god, your nose is bleeding! What happened? Don't tell me you two had another lame fight again.." He looked at Noiz and me with the face of a troubled mother.
"Well,It's nothing really." Noiz said as he looked away from us. Just as Aoba takes out a piece of tissue from his bag to clean my face, Noiz vanished in the blink of an eye. After he was done, Aoba took me back to his house where we enjoyed a delicious meal provided by his grandma Tae san and Clear.

After lunch, I stayed at their house until night fall. Aoba went out for a walk while I stayed inside and helped Tae san and Clear prepare for supper. It was quite interesting, I'm not much of a cook, so they both taught me a thing or two in the kitchen. It made me feel like a little kid again, being taught to do things that you're not used to doing, and a little bit of warmth was filled in my heart. As we set up the table, there was a strange sound coming from upstairs. I told Tae san and Clear I will go take a look. I went upstairs and looked around Aoba's room. There was nothing. Just when I was about to leave the room, something bumped in front of me. I nearly fell from being startled by the mysterious figure, but realized that I have seen this figure before. No. I have seen it even today. It was a person I knew. I looked at him in surprise.
"What the fuck are you doing here?!"
"Take a chill pill old man, I just came here to see if anyone's home."
It was that brat Noiz again. What is up with him, he keeps appearing everywhere I am. Instead of causing a commotion, I ignored him, but when I was about to leave the room, he grabbed onto my shoulder violently and pulled me. I got a little frightened and pulled him along with me and we ended up falling on the floor. I hit my head pretty hard, so I started groaning painfully. When I opened my eyes and looked up, the brat was sitting right on me.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" I started to strangle him, not too tightly, I wouldn't want to suffocate him, but I was getting really confused and irritated. He grabs my wrist to avoid my strangling.
"I-I just.. have been thinking about w-what happened these d-days." He groaned as he struggled from my tight grip around his neck.

"What do you mean?" For some reason I calmed down a little bit, and slowly let go of his throat. He took a minute to breathe, then looked me straight in the eyes. After a minute of silence, he sighed and looked away.

"Like I said, I've been thinking about the things that happened between you and me."

"What do you mean by saying that? Stop talking nonsense and tell me what you want!" I raised my voice and glared at him.

"I feel different towards you after we kissed this afternoon." He muttered. As I stare at him in confusion, I could see that he was blushing. Even under the dark, I could see him, and the moonlight gazed at us. He looked beautiful. I got embarrassed from thinking that, and sat up quickly. He was still sitting on me, I felt a little shy due to us being physically close. For over a year of knowing each other, we would fight nonstop and compare each other, competing for our dignity and pride, but for some reason, I felt like I need to try to understand him for once.
"..Just tell me what you want. I don't understand you at all." I said calmly.

He was silent for a minute, then he started to observe the room, then looked at me again.

"I guess it's time that I should try to be close to someone."
"Well aren't you close to anyone? At all?" I asked. I was feeling a little bit of pity for him. It's obvious he has been alone for a long time. I was the same.

He didn't answer me, but pushed me gently to the ground to make me lie down. I was getting nervous, and started to blush.

"W-What are you doing?"
"Just let me." He whispered softly.

I'm getting more and more confused. I have no idea what he wants to do, but I tried not to overreact since it doesn't seem to be something violent or harmful. He stares at me, and starts to move his hand on my chest. I shivered a little bit. I was blushing very hard, and as I stared into his pale green eyes, he leaned closer to my face and kissed me gently. My mind went blank. I don't understand any of this. I wanted to push him off of me and hurry downstairs and pretend that nothing happened, but for some reason, my mind and body resist to fight against him. It's as if I was hypnotized or a spell has been cast upon me. But I didn't mind it at all. I started to feel relaxed, and continued to kiss him slowly. My arms suddenly wraps around him gently, he stopped kissing me for a second and stared at me. I guess he was surprised by the embrace I had just given him. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. I was stuck in the moment. He leans in and kisses me again. This time, we were getting a little more intimate. He swirls his tongue slowly into my mouth as I taste his lips. I hate to admit, but it felt incredible and sent a nice chill down my spine. I hugged him tightly as he ruffles his hand into my hair. He bites my lower lip, which made a quiet moan escape from my mouth. He started to laugh, and comment that it was cute. I got a little annoyed and embarrassed and growled at him. He continued to kiss me, and then he leaned his face towards my ear and whispers seductively to "take it off." I looked at him nervously, but without hesitation I –

"NOIZ? KOUJAKU?!" Aoba shouted as he entered his room. His eyes were wide, and his mouth looked like it was dropping on the floor. I looked at Noiz, he looked at me, then we both looked at Aoba. Once again, there was a dead awkward silence.

"Aoba san! What's happening?" Suddenly Clear showed up behind him and looked at us in surprise.
"Eh? Koujaku san, what have you been doing upstairs with Noiz san? Tae san and I have been waiting for you to come down and eat with us."

"Clear.. please go downstairs right now. We will all be there in a minute." Aoba said quietly. Clear was confused but obeyed him and went downstairs to wait for us. Noiz and I got up immediately; we didn't dare to look at each other. Aoba was just standing there, staring us blankly. After a minute, I finally got the courage to speak up.

"Aoba I'm so sorry, it's really not what you think." I tried to explain, but I couldn't speak very well since I was nervous. He continued staring at us blankly, which made me very anxious. Finally he sighed and looked at both of us in concern.

"Is this what was going on? The two of you?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that, you two really have feelings for each other." He walked towards us and pat our shoulders.
"But please.. just not in my room." He gave us a sickened look. Without saying another word, he head out of his room. I look at Noiz, he had his usual emotionless expression, but I touched his hand.
"Are you alright?" I asked softly. He looks at me and nodded.
"Come on down and eat with us already, the food is getting cold!" Aoba shouted. Noiz and I started moving and went downstairs to the dining room. Tae san was lecturing us about how troublesome it is if the people who are having dinner are not ready, the food will get cold and it will not be a proper family time.

After supper, Clear and Aoba went upstairs to his room to spend some time together. Tae san also entered and stayed in her room to take some rest, since she has been quite exhausted these days. I was sitting at the stairs, when I heard sound coming from the hall. I got up and saw that Noiz just left the house. Again, I was wondering if I should go up to him or not. I got up slowly from the stairs, and walked out of the house. He was walking down the street not too far from the house, so I ran up and caught up to him.
"Hey, going so early?" I said.
"Oh. Yeah, I don't have anything better to do there." He replied coldly.

I looked at him; the moonlight gazed upon his face again. He looked really beautiful. I can't help but admire the sight. I gently placed my hand on his face and stroked his cheek. He blushed and gave me an embarrassed frown.
"Don't do that you perv.."
"Heh, you look cute like this." I teased. We stood there for some time that night. Even though we weren't interacting much, it felt nice to have our presence close to each other. I've known this brat for a year now, but finally I have started to understand that he's not such a brat after all. Things won't be the same again after what happened in Aoba's room, but I was hopeful that we might eventually get closer and get to know each other better.