"Alright, guys, I'll see you later," Shuya said. Shinji and Yutaka waved and headed off, Shinji talking wildly about something weird and Yutaka inserting things that were, apparently, amusing to them as they went. Shuya shook his head and started walking home.

Before he got there, though, he saw Noriko Nakagawa.

She was sitting on a park bench, eating an ice cream cone. She looked content to be alone, sitting and watching everyone, but Shuya couldn't help but think it looked a bit lonely to be alone like that.

So, he sat next to her.

"Hey," he said, and she glanced over. She brightened when she saw him, so he guessed he'd at least done something right.

"Hello," she said. "How are you?"

"Good," Shuya said. "Just finished hanging out with Mim and Yutaka, so exhausted, but pretty good."

She laughed. Her laugh was cute, he noticed – really bright and clear, and completely shameless. He liked it. He liked a girl who could laugh like that. He nodded to her ice cream, which was starting to drip over the edge of the cone and down to her fingers.

"Watch your ice cream," he said, and she made a surprised 'o' with her mouth and focused completely on keeping her hands clean. He laughed a little, and once she was done, she looked up at him.

"What?" she said.

"Nothing," he said, shaking his head with a grin on his face. "You're just-" what was the right word? "Cute."

She flushed, and pulled a napkin out of her purse to wipe off her hands completely.

"Thank you," she said. She ran the napkin over her hands again, and Shuya stood and plucked it from her hand. She looked up at him quizzically.

"I'll throw it away," he said, jogging over to the nearest garbage can and throwing it away. He headed back, his hands in his pockets. "Do you want to do something? Movie, maybe? Amusement park?"

"Maybe tomorrow, the amusement park?" Noriko said. "I have to get home, actually. My parents are going out, and I need to watch my younger brother."

"Then… can I walk you home?"

"That would be nice," she said, smiling brightly and standing. She smoothed out her skirt – she was wearing a dress, a nice pastel-colored thing that went to her knees. It looked good on her. Especially when she smiled, and her entire face lit up. As they walked, she talked. "What have you been doing this summer?"

"Hanging out with the guys," Shuya said, shrugging a few times. "Basketball with Shinji, movies with Nobu, just sort of… hanging out with Sugimura. You?"

"Oh, I've been pretty busy," she said. "I watch my younger brother a lot, and I've spent some time with some girls, too, but mostly I'm on my own. I like that. It's easy to get in the mood to write."

Shuya nodded a few times. "I can get that. Like when I'm playing guitar, it's easier when there's nobody around."

They smiled at each other for a few moments, and then glanced away, both of them a little embarrassed. Shuya didn't make a habit of getting embarrassed because of girls; he was generally fairly oblivious or fairly confident, but something about Noriko was taking that and throwing it to the side. He kind of liked it. How different she made him feel.

When they stopped at her door, she turned to face him.

"This was nice," she said, and he nodded.

"Yeah," he said. Before he could think twice about it, he leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "See you later?"

Her face was fiery red. "I look forward to it."


This was written for a user on Tumblr who wanted a Shuriko! Also, it's been a while since I've written a nice character. It's a nice change, but a difficult one. But, yeah. I'm incapable of not including Shinji Mimura at least a little bit, apparently.