Picking Up The Pieces
a/n: This was written for a friend's birthday, by our yearly tradition of writing each other fics. I don't really know where I was going with this - I had the basic idea of what happens in the first section, but then, Rise wanted a say, and Teddie also wanted one, though he never made it. I'm sorry, Teddie. This is actually odd for me, too, since I'm not actually a fan of the sort-of-ship the fic is trying to promote, Kanji/Naoto. Shock. I haven't written a fic where I've not avidly loved the pairing before, so this is partly new territory for me.
At any rate, I hope the person it's aimed for likes it. :)
It wasn't exactly a rare occurrence. In actuality, it happened more often than not, as if in a vain hope that it was all a momentary lapse in their memory and their prince charming, was still, well, their prince charming.
Naoto sighed - if not for the crowd, it would have been heavy and long, yet the reproachful eyes of her peers left her annoyance, and guilt, unvoiced, though the latter quickly faded. Why was it so obligatory for the girls to never give up and hound her constantly? She half frowned at the small pile of gifts in her locker, tokens of loving admiration - there were a few more than usual, as she'd been absent for several days due to a case that required detective skills of a specific sixteen year old; herself.
She didn't move her head as she continued to descend into frowning. She just... couldn't understand how those girls operated. She was one of them. Why couldn't they just accept it? Why did it always get periodically more and more pressing and then letting up for a while? She'd be happy if it stopped. It reminded her of lying, hence the guilt, and the fact she'd tricked them unwittingly. But there had been a time for patience, and that, was wearing thin.
Naoto glanced over her shoulder - the group that had been watching her had gone, and she was alone in the hallway. Slowly, she opened her bag, and pushed all the various home ec goodies and crafts into it. She didn't quite have the heart to dispose of it here: they would find it. She couldn't bear to think if one of them came up to her with a heartbroken face instead of sweets. She had long since established she would get rid of it all at home.
As she finally cleared enough space to get to her shoes, she swapped them out, but not before finding something... odd in one of them that had missed her hasty clearance. Her eyebrows lifted upwards as she withdrew her hand, not fast enough as if it had been taken by a monster, but with enough slowness to show her curiosity and almost confusion - to find a piece of cloth covering her forefinger. She jostled her hand, and the cloth spun on her finger.
No, not just a piece of cloth. Not just into any shape, either. It was a hat; with an unremarkable resemblance to the one she was wearing, not only in the colour, but the shape, too. She blinked again, peering at it closer as it tilted against the tips of two fingers. It really was uncannily similar; it had to be modelled on her own hat.
Naoto blanked for a moment, staring through the hat. She had never got something like this, ever, before. She wasn't really sure what to think. Be flattered? Be surprised someone actually made something like that? What was it doing in her locker in the first place? For some reason, it didn't... feel complete. It felt like there was something missing, but the hat was a perfect, miniature replica. And for some reason, she knew, somehow, that there was a reason and a rhyme to whom it was from, but she couldn't pin the pieces of the puzzle together.
Even without being able to decipher what it meant, eventually, Naoto found herself the only one on the ground floor as the remaining students filed off to club, and, with a strange sense that there was something else to this; the hat didn't receive the same treatment as the confectionary.
Instead it made it into the pocket of her jacket, neatly nestled between some money and keys, her mind toiling over why she felt so compelled to keep it. Even, why it was coming with her to begin with.
She forgot about it until later that evening, when she found in her pocket again, stubbed on the end of a finger. Naoto placed it on the desk on her room, looking at it, wondering why it was still gaining special treatment. Eventually she left it there, and with it occasionally strolling over her thoughts, she went to sleep.
. . . .
Inaba is quiet. It seems oddly quiet, compared to last year. There isn't so much a change in atmosphere, but it feels as though the people here have changed, as well. Except not entirely. I still am called out occasionally for some detective work. But, I must admit, that it's not as much as it has been.
Naoto's fingers paused as she brushed them over the keys, her eyes lingering a moment too long on the cup beside the computer, before they drifted over to the small, blue piece of fabric that was sitting on her desk. Over the week, it had been gradually pushed back from the front of the desk, as work, cases and other such various events had made her lose interest in finding out the reason it was still in existence. But it was there, still, and she hesitated before writing again. A part of her did want to share.
I still get lots of... tokens from the girls. Do you remember how I told you before? It seems they have not, and are not willing to stop. It was worse once this year started, and it creeps up now and again. I usually still have to take a quantity out every few days. A few days ago, I found a cloth-made hat. It's odd. I feel strangely inclined to keep it, like it isn't finished, or maybe that it is different from everything else. I can't figure out who it could be, since there was no note. Most of them leave notes. .... Sorry, Senpai. I should get back to the point.
Her fingers clattered on the keys a few more times, before she signed her name, clicked 'send' before she deleted the part about the hat, and sighed. Still, she wanted a thought, or a soul, to share this with. Souji was the only one that she'd told to any extent the toll it took on her every time it happened. The rest... likely knew of it. But he was the only one that understood her response.
With a speculation of reluctance, she pushed herself up out of her sat, closing the computer down as she did so, grabbing her bag and heading for school.
. . . .
The announcement overhead was lost in the noise as the class started filtering out in dribs and drabs - some rushed off to club, some had places to go, some reluctantly dragged themselves to the library. Others stayed in the class, a few of them propping themselves up on desks (mostly the girls). From what Naoto could gather, it was something relating to the third years, so she dimly processed the information as she gathered up her things routinely, the idle chatter surrounding her falling onto deaf ears. It was only when a sort-of-large and possibly-dangerous bang! and clatter of desks in front of her that she looked up, inwardly flinching as she did so.
The large thing of destruction gave her a keen gaze, before the stare fell into a slight pout. "I thought I had you that time," it complained.
"I'm a detective on the police force," Naoto replied, calmly, before closing her bag with a slight pop. "And it pays to not be surprised easily, Rise-san." She wasn't going to admit she'd flinched inwardly. Not. At. All.
"Shucks," was her response, as Rise leaned back on the desk in front of her, half spinning to look out of the window before spinning back with the same pout still etched on her face. "You had that absent stare again, and I was thinking that this would be the day.... clearly it wasn't, though you were staring into space."
"This isn't going to stop until you catch me out, is it?" Naoto asked, tentatively, a smile tugging at the edge of her face, as she skipped straight to the point that Rise wasn't going to.
"Nope!" Rise said with a grin, parading round Naoto's desk. "The great Risette will catch Naoto-kun out one day," she said, with an affirmative nod to couple it. It gained her a few looks from the other girls, but they'd mostly gotten used to Rise's presence now. For Rise, Naoto figured, the problem would mostly be the freshmen... and any guy in the vicinity, like the few that seemed to lose all power of brain functions when passing her in the corridor.
"Annnyway," Rise said, waving the matter away, "Ready to go to Junes? Kanji's busy so he said he can't come, which sucks. I'm not sure about Chie-senpai, Yukiko-senpai and Yosuke-senpai," she said, touching her chin with a finger.
"There was an announcement for the seniors just now," Naoto said, and Rise sighed. "So if they can, they may be delayed."
"Ugh," Rise sighed. "So, just us then?" she brightened up again. It was hard to keep up with her moods; Naoto chose to answer by simply picking up her bag, which Rise took as a cue to merrily make her way over to the door, shutting it as Naoto came out. It was halfway to the front of the buildings when she suddenly said, "Hey, maybe we should invite Nana-chan? We haven't seen her for a while. She might be home by herself, and I'd hate that if she was."
"Sounds a good plan," Naoto nodded. "We should watch for her through the plains. She comes back that way from school."
"Okay!" Rise said, half punching the air next to her, though reining herself in fractionally, as she would have a fist full of locker if she'd gone all out. She rounded them before picking out her own, taking out her shoes, and slipping them on with a quick tap on the ground.
Naoto drifted over to her own, opening it up and thankfully, just finding a pair of shoes. She lifted them out, slipped them on, and was just about to put the other pair in, when-- she noticed something dark that had fallen forwards due to the shoe removal.
For a moment, she didn't pick it up, though her head told her she should, since Rise would be hovering any second. Her eyes scanned it - it was... almost shaped like something else, again. And the same colour as the blazer that she was wearing--
That was it. It was a blazer. Naoto blinked. The previous item came back to her, which was still sat amongst the bits and pieces on her desk at home. They had to be related. A hat, and... now a blazer? What was it for?
"You done?" Rise's chirpy voice broke into her thoughts, as she stood motionless with her shoes in mid-air.
Hastily, she dropped them in, sliding out the blazer as she did so. "Yeah, let's go," she said, her voice sounding a little too fast.
Even so, with all the attempts at being stealthy, Rise spotted it, a light bulb almost forming over her head as her eyes lit up. "What's that?" she pointed directly the pocket Naoto had just dropped the blazer into. Really, she sometimes under credited Rise's powers of noticing stuff, and underestimated the hope that she wouldn't ask.
"Nothing," she said eventually, her voice uneven.
"Oh, Naoto-kunn," Rise whined, latching onto her arm as Naoto closed the locker, and started to march out the door, Rise and all. "You can tell me. I want to see."
"It's nothing!" Naoto protested, her voice breaking a little, a slight flush on her cheeks at the persistence of the idol currently attached to her arm. She knew she didn't have the answer to the blazer and the hat. As any good detective would know, she had very little evidence to go by. And not enough to find out whom it was from.
. . . .
Another week had passed, and there was nothing new to add to her thoughts surrounding the hat and the blazer. Still, Naoto had kept them, eventually putting them in her real-life blazer for a compelling reason she couldn't yet gather - it just seemed she should do so - and here she was, slightly tired and under rested due to having to work and study at the same time, as April gradually wound itself down into May, chatter about Golden Week donning every person's thoughts except herself. She had a faint inkling she would be staying at home, but, she hadn't had the opportunity to discuss it with any of her friends as of yet.
She attempted to find them at the end of the day, but it seemed Chie and Yukiko and Yosuke had already gone, Rise was absent (probably discussing idol business), and Kanji wasn't around, either. In fact, his lack of existence baffled her as of late - she hadn't seen him for a while, mostly due to club, but even the days without it he was gone. She frowned, but then shrugged it off. She hadn't been precisely accessible, so, it was of no matter, she concluded, taking the trip down the stairwell from the roof, and making the customary trip to her locker, which was, with a quick glance, empty, which she inwardly thanked. She didn't want the guilt trip to follow her all the way home.
As she stepped outside, few students were walking home, though most of them were in groups, due to the light wind that had whipped up. It didn't cause her much bother until she got to the flood plains, where the breeze trailed around her ankles and threatened to blow her hat away, along with anything else she was carrying, and her blazer if it hadn't have been buttoned up. It was probably this, then, that had caused her name being shouted to fall on seemingly def ears, as each shout was lost over the grumbling and wheezing of the relentless wind.
She eventually heard it between gusts, loud and clear.
"Naoto!"
She stopped mid-step, a hand to her hat whilst the other held her bag, as she spun round, to find Kanji about five feet behind her, looking worn and out of breath, as if he had been running.
Naoto blinked. He'd been running after her? She opened her mouth to ask why he had been calling her, but stopped short as he raised a hand to catch his breath, and the seconds passed in silence before he stepped towards her, looking oddly sheepish. She noticed one of his hands was closed around something as he walked, something small. She felt a stab of annoyance at herself, though partly the wind, since he'd obviously been chasing after her pretty much since the school gates.
"Uh," he started, looking hesitant. "I was- I had a plan for this and- well I finished late and- uh. Uhm..." he trailed off, eventually just sticking out a closed hand, and slowly unclenched his fingers around it from the wind, that had now, of all times, slowly begun to let up, yet still with a vicious bite.
Naoto looked. And continued to look as it came into view. And looked some more, before she blinked. It was a plush doll. A doll that was a perfect replica of herself in doll form. There was a stitched line for a mouth - did she frown that often? - and small stitched eyes on the head. There were curly threads of blue at the top, for hair, and it was wearing a white shirt and black trousers, the summer uniform, and even had shoes to match. It was her, right down to the detail of the unbuttoned top button on her shirt and the strands of hair that were pinned down.
Her gaze eventually travelled up to Kanji, her mouth open slightly in surprise and in an attempt to grasp something to say. He was looking at her, waiting for a reaction-- though quickly looked away when he saw she was looking.
They stood like that for several seconds, before it suddenly hit her. The hat. The blazer. She took them out of her pocket, gingerly lifting the doll up. The blazer fit snugly over the shoulders, and the hat covered exactly the amount of hair on the head; and Naoto looked at herself with a hint of slight embarrassment, as everything came together, and she didn't know why, and she didn't know how it could be so amazingly like her.
"Was that--?" she started, the doll now in the hand that had dropped the bag to take hold of it.
"Yeah," he said gruffly, still looking away, sheepish and seemingly embarrassed. "Yeah, it was me."
"You made it?"
A nod.
"Me?" she said.
Another nod, before he spoke. "I uh. Had an idea, and. Yeah. I kinda wanted to um... make you something... for your birthday, I mean."
That caught her attention, and she looked up at him, once again catching him just about to look her way when he suddenly found an interest in the plains again. "My-- birthday?" she blinked.
April 27th, and today was...
Oh.
Naoto laughed to herself, chuckling against the fading wind, Kanji finally looking in her direction. "I completely forgot," she said, smiling and shaking her head; she'd been so busy, and no one had reminded her at all due to her absence. "I can't believe I forgot something that important," she said, almost scoffing at herself, but slightly amused at the same time.
Kanji was still half looking at her as she talked, and she looked up, and realised she was completely missing the point, and felt as nervous and flustered as he was standing in front of her handing her a plush for her birthday.
"Erm," she said, hitting herself mentally at the accursed word. "Thank you. It's--" she floundered for a suitable description, "--perfect." And it was; it looked, as far as a doll could, like her.
Kanji nodded again, still a bit stiff and unmoving, before turning round to face her. "I'm uh... glad you think so."
It was Naoto's turn to nod-- and Kanji's turn to let a small smile creep up on the edge of his face.
. . . .
The evening passed as Naoto finished with everything that needed to be attended to, including the sudden cake from her grandfather, the windswept faces of Chie, Yukiko and Yosuke at her door, and a hurried call from Rise. It was only as the clock ticked the seconds closer to midnight did she finally remind herself her birthday may be a birthday, but work had to be done, too, so, to her desk she had gone.
There was an email waiting for her when she got to the computer, from Souji, dated from this morning, her inbox flashing to get her attention. It took her only a few seconds to click it, and a few more seconds to load.
Happy birthday.
Did you like your present from Kanji? I'm sorry I didn't tell you before.
Naoto sighed, and chuckled to herself. So, he'd known all along. Of course he would. The thought was probably overly used, but, Souji did have a habit of knowing everything. Her eyes trailed over to the completed doll that was now sat, against everything else, looking oddly out of place but also seeming to fit there, too.
It wasn't up until now, that it came altogether, and she saw the magnitude of what he had done. She had seen all the time he had put in, the end result. She'd questioned that he'd done it, but she hadn't concluded up until now, about everything he'd done. He'd asked others about what he should do, left pieces and clues to appeal to her detective side... and put all that effort in.
She smiled, half chiding herself. She really would have to thank Kanji properly the next time she saw him.