Characters: Aruto Tsukiyomi

Buono!Buono!: Over the Rainbow

Aruto Tsukiyomi stood behind the glass doors to the balcony of his apartment, watching the rain falling down. Hearing someone knock on his door, he turned away from watching the rain to walk over to the door while saying in a slightly accented English, "I'm coming." Placing a hand on the doorknob, he opened the door to see a mailman standing there with a package and a clipboard. Aruto blinked in surprise and asked, "Is that for me?"

The mailman was pudgy and white, and seemed as though he did not want to be there as he said in an American accent, "Depends, are you Aruto T-su-ki-yomi?" fumbling with the last name.

Aruto nodded, and replied in a Japanese accented English, "Yes, I'm Aruto."

The mailman sighed and handed over the clipboard and a pen and said simply, "Sign your name at the bottom." After Aruto did just that, the mailman added, "There's also not enough stamps on this, so you'll have to fork over some money."

Aruto, still surprised that he even received a package at all, replied, "Of course." And reached into his pocket for his wallet, before pulling out a few dollars and placing it in the mailman's hand.

The mailman nodded and said, "Yup, this'll do." He handed the package over to Aruto and said, "Here ya go, have a nice day."

Aruto nodded gently as he accepted the package and said, "You too, thank you." He closed the door after the mailman left, and moved to sit down on the couch. Placing the package on his lap, he gently opened the box and removed it of its packaging before reeling in surprise at what he found inside.

In awe, he reverted back to Japanese as he said, "A laptop? You can send a laptop in the mail? No wonder he asked for more money..." Placing the PC on the coffee table with the remains of the packaging, he picked up the box again to look for a letter of some kind. There was none.

Confused, he picked up the laptop again, and this time, he opened it up and turned it on, all the while wondering who would send him a laptop.

Could it be Yui-kun? No, last he heard, the man cut ties with Souko after Aruto gave him the Dumpty Key... It would've been too painful for him to even think about Aruto.

Could it be Yui-kun's wife, Mizue-san? No, impossible. That woman hated both Aruto and his wife.

Perhaps Nodoka-chan? No, she's spontaneous, but she also has her own life... He'd be surprised if she even remembered him.

It couldn't be Hana-san... She's too busy trying to put her life back together, no way she would've thought of him enough to send him a laptop.

Maybe it was Yuu-kun or Yukari-chan... No, those two were too caught up in each other to bother with Aruto.

... Maybe Kazuomi sent him a laptop out of spite? No, that's absurd.

A strange mixture of dread and hope filled up inside him as he realized who was left. Waiting patiently for the laptop to load, he breathed, "It couldn't be... Souko?"

When the laptop finally turned on, Aruto smiled upon seeing the name of the account that was on the computer, "Souko." He smiled tenderly, remembering his wife, and just how much he missed her.

If it were up to him, he would've stayed in Japan. Souko's family, however, had already disapproved of him, even after he said he'd give up music for Souko's family business. Easter, however, had always had questionable morals, so Aruto was hesitant, though he was fully prepared to take on the burden for Souko's sake. Kazuomi, however, then entered the picture, and things complicated ten-fold.

Aruto had no better choice but to leave.

Reminding himself of this fact, and promising to himself to no longer dwell on his, he placed a finger on the mouse-pad and clicked on the icon. Instead of immediately loading to the desktop screen, however, a password page popped up. Aruto was briefly stumped, not knowing what the password could be. He wracked his brain for things Souko could have used for a password.

He took another glance at the icon, seeing a picture of a young Souko in middle school. He smiled tenderly before looking over outside, still seeing the rain falling down. Then, it dawned on him.

A young Souko wore a school uniform as she looked outside at the drizzling rain, the sky almost completely obscured with clouds, a contrast to her long, light blonde hair. It was her second year of middle school, and it was currently lunch time. Souko had the desk closest to the windows, and beside her, a mysterious boy with indigo-colored hair was quietly eating his lunch.

Souko sighed and said, "Ah~ I don't like the rain..."

Beside her, the blue-haired boy looked over and asked after swallowing his bite of food, "Why not?"

"It's so gloomy~" Souko said, looking outside with a frown, "And it's the worst when there's thunder or lightning, they can get really scary!"

The mysterious boy raised an eyebrow and said, "But, there's no thunder or lightning right now. And rain is good for the plants."

Souko then replied in resignation, "You don't get it! Everything's just so sad when it rains!" She turned away from the boy, and focused down on her lunch box, poking at her food.

To her surprise, however, the boy spoke up again, "Do you know what I like to do after it rains?"

Souko looked up in surprise at the boy, who had a gentle smile on his face, and asked, "What?"

The boy stood up and moved to stand behind Souko's chair and look out the window, "I like to search the sky for rainbows. When the sky is clear and cloudless just after it rains, and you can spot a rainbow in the sky, it's like the sky is completely full of hope. Everything's rich from the rain, it's beautiful." As if proving his point, the rain had slowly stopped as he spoke, and now bits of sunlight were peeking through the clouds, slowly parting them.

The two watched in silent awe as a rainbow began to take shape in the wet air. Souko watched it, breathlessly saying, "It's so beautiful..." Souko turned around in her seat to look at the boy with blue hair who stood behind her and said with a smile, "You're right, without the dreary rain, there would never be pretty rainbows!"

The boy turned to face Souko as she sat in her chair and said, "Ah, there's more to it than that..."

Souko tilted her head to the side and asked hopefully, making the boy's heart skip an extra beat, "Do you think you can show me?"

The boy smiled softly and replied, "Sure." Reaching out a hand, he said, "I'm Aruto."

Souko reached out her hand to meet with his and replied, "My name is Souko."

Aruto felt a melancholy smile come over his face as he looked outside, and saw that the rain was beginning to stop. Soon, some of the clouds would part, making it a good time to search for rainbows.

Now, however, instead of seeing hope, it seems that he could only ever see the things that he'd lost, and the wishes that didn't come true: Souko, Ikuto, Utau, his family...

Standing up to walk over to the glass doors of his balcony, he spotted rays of sunlight peeking through the clouds. Cautiously opening the doors, he stepped out onto the balcony. Closing his eyes and stretching, he let the hope of the sunlight wash over him. He relaxed himself and looked out over the sky, and spotted a small rainbow high up in a gap in the clouds.

He remembered now some of the things he'd said to Souko after their first meeting.

"You know how kids have scribble pads that they doodle in? The future's kind of like that, you get to turn it into whatever you want, and you can even start all over if you want to."

"Even if we don't know what'll change, won't there always be rainbows hidden in the sky? There's always hope, we just have to look for it."

"Someone once said that there's a whole other world over the rainbow. We can't see it, but, if we can get there, it'll be a place full of love where anyone can shine."

With these memories in mind, Aruto walked back inside to sit on the couch. Picking up the laptop, he typed "over the rainbow" into the computer, and watched as it accepted the password and took him to the desktop page. On it, there was nothing on the desktop or the task-bar except one thing: Skype.

Aruto was couldn't help but be overcome with a feeling of hope, and be glad that he'd finally felt it again after searching for it for so long.

After all, weren't they always looking for the rainbow in the sky?