Disclaimer: If I owned this, it wouldn't be called FANfiction, ne?
A/N: This is a challenge fic written for LJ's 30kisses community (30kisses Theme #1 - look over here). I didn't expect it to be this long but this is my first fic to be published (yeah, I'm a newbie) so...please bear with any faults and errors you may find down there. I hope you like it.
Strangely, all it would take was the push of a button.
Yet she couldn't do it.
Flash
A SatoshiRisa One-shot
by nightgirl965 or cinqvingtetun
Risa's POV
Risa let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Again.
She fingered her cellphone nestled in her pocket.
How could she turn back now? She had it all planned for a long time. Risa had worked excessively hard up to this moment. Therefore, she couldn't screw up no matter what. Or else, the point of the whole thing would be lost.
The girl went over the sequence once more in her head, like she did everyday for the past week and a half. The plan was so absurdly complicated for such a simple feat, Risa had to write it out. The reason for this trickiness? The possible outcomes of the "mission" (if she accomplished it) were Risa's biggest problem. Would the price she had to pay turn out to be a huge one? she often wondered.
If only the person Risa chose as a fall guy had been someone other than him, little or no "planning" would have been needed. Winging it would be applicable then. Not in his case, though, the brunette thought amusedly.
Strangely, all it would take was the push of a button.
Yet she couldn't do it.
To make the long story short, Hiwatari Satoshi clearly was not the naïve type. To fall for anyone's (let alone Risa's) schemes was unimaginable. In the unlikely event that he did, the blue-haired youngster didn't look like a person who would take too kindly to that sort of thing.
Sure, he changed, Risa told herself, but old habits die hard. Since that fateful day Dark and Krad parted eternally from their tamers, Satoshi's multi-faceted persona showed less of the Hiwatari they knew, and more of…well, himself. The great "Hiwatari Façade" receded. He gradually changed in a lot of ways, becoming a bit friendlier to their classmates, for example. But, of course, he was different in Daisuke and the twins' company. Especially Risa's.
The three became part of a group of the few people who truly knew Satoshi. Naturally, this was because the four teens knew the truth about Dark and Krad and the Haradas kept the guys' secret in an unsaid promise. Daisuke, Riku and Risa gained a little bit of insight into Hiwatari's life because of their friendship and tried to strengthen this bond. Risa, however, always reached out to him the most. Eventually, she became the closest to the laconic genius.
Even so, Satoshi would sometimes show a bit of his old side to Risa. It definitely annoyed her. One minute, they would be talking pleasantly about some random thing, but the next minute, he would revert to the previous cold and indifferent Satoshi.
Flashback (Author's POV)
Like that day the both of them were hanging out in the Haradas' backyard. Risa took out her cellphone to snap a few pictures of the garden with the cellphone's camera. Then she turned the phone around to photograph herself.
Interested, Satoshi began a question with "Harada-san-" which earned a groan and an "It's Risa, remember?" from his brown-haired companion. Satoshi grinned and tried his best not to roll his eyes.
"OK…Risa…"
"Hai. Mmm, what is it Satoshi-kun?" she said brightly, turning to face him properly.
Satoshi could feel his face get warmer. He unconsciously firmed his grip on the arm of the bench they were sitting on. God, that honorific always got him…
But, like the countless other times he was almost caught showing emotion when he was not supposed to, his "mask" came on again.
"Risa, I find it interesting that females of today have this fascination with taking photographs of themselves, especially with their cellphones…-"
"So you're going to ask me why exactly do we do that?" She cut him off.
"Well, yes..."
"Oh my God! What's happened to you Satoshi?" Risa's eyes widened and she took hold of his shoulders. "You're a super genius! You're supposed to know everything about everything. But now, you turn to me for answers? I'm supposed to be the one asking questions! Not the other way around!" No, really…she thought.
Hiwatari was frozen in his seat. If they were characters in a manga, his speech balloon would have contained the famous ellipsis, also known as dot dot dot.
Suddenly, Risa broke into a big smile. "Hey, I'm kidding!"
She let go of the bespectacled young man, giggling, and slapped his arm lightly.
Satoshi directed his gaze downward and lifted his right hand to rub the back of his neck, slightly embarrassed. Aw, there he goes ruffling his hair again! Kawaii…But I wonder why he always does that when we're together? Hmm…
"I…I do have an idea…but I assumed that since you were a girl, you would be the best possible source of answers to my question." he said a bit shyly. Urgh. Pull yourself together, Hiwatari, he mentally scolded himself.
"Yes, yes. Of course," Harada nodded. "That's a good question. Hmm…yeah…why do we girls do that? I don't know the answer myself." She stroked her chin thoughtfully as she said this.
Satoshi then stated his opinion on the trivial subject. He mentioned every idea that popped into Risa's head and more. Risa had to agree with his reasons, of course. After all, he was the Hiwatari Satoshi.
Later, Risa fished out her cellphone from her pocket once more to look at her saved pictures.
"Ne…Satoshi-kun…"
"Hmm?"
"Take a look at this," she shoved her phone into his hand.
The Hikari male scrolled through the thumbnails in the folder. "I see that you named this folder 'Classmates', which can only mean that it contains pictures of our class." He handed the phone back.
Why does he have to state things which are painfully obvious like this? thought a now annoyed Risa. "Er…yes…of course…"
He kept looking at her questioningly as if he was waiting for further explanations.
"I mean, if you take a look at each image, you'll see that I've captured every one of us. Except you." Miss Risa was walking on eggshells now.
"So,"
"So?? So you're not here! Photos are all about memories! C'mon Satoshi, can't I have a picture of you?" The brunette tried to be cheerful and directed her camera towards him with a smile.
He grunted in irritation as he raised his hand so his palm would be the only thing Risa could capture.
"What for?" Hiwatari said in a cold monodrone.
End of Flashback
'What for…'
Initially, Risa was crushed by what he said. But she was not one to mope around and dampen everybody else's spirits. So instead of holding a grudge against Satoshi (which in itself was impossible), she decided to get what she wanted by getting her own back. Well, sort of.
Takeshi's POV
It was one of the rare times Harada-imouto had requested the aid of ace reporter Saehara Takeshi. This time, however, it was not his reporting skills she needed but his prowess in another field…
"Make sure you catch everything," she turned to him and pointed a finger at him. "And I mean everything Saehara-kun. Got that?"
"OK, OK, I got it already. Sheesh…"
But Risa's serious face turned into a smiling one. "Arigatou, Takeshi! You don't know how much this means to me."
Of course I don't. Well, actually…maybe I do, thought Takeshi amusedly.
"Are you sure you don't already have a copy?" the Harada twin asked suspiciously.
"Of course not. If I did, I would have just sold it to you!" Saehara flashed her a mischievous smirk, which was his way of smiling.
"Hm, good point. You're right." Satisfied, she turned her back on him.
Aaaah! Saehara, you devious liar! The black haired reporter gave himself a pat on the back for coming up with that one.
Actually, I think I might have one Harada-san. But I'm here to watch the show.
Harada-imouto had given him this assignment a few days ago. She gave him perfectly acceptable reasons for why she wanted to go through with it, but if Takeshi knew, Risa just wanted to move things along with her precious Hiwatari. He sighed. Sometimes, he was jealous of Hiwatari, to be honest. That lucky guy…
According to Risa's plan, Daisuke left the art room at the set time. Bidding someone else in the art room goodbye, he rushed off, not forgetting to give Takeshi a wave, and Risa a "See you later" as he passed by them.
Ten minutes, the ace reporter remembered. He held onto the tool of his trade tighter. If he wanted to see anything interesting, he had to follow the brunette's plan. It was time to get serious.
So the two of them continued to linger outside the art room to wait. One of their female classmates approached Risa to borrow notes. The girls' chitchat was a perfect cover-up. The chances that he would suspect Risa and Takeshi were up to something lessened.
Just as Saehara saw a head of blue hair begin to exit the room, the girl borrowing Risa's notes thanked her. Saehara-kun looked at Risa and nodded. She nodded back.
"Bye bye Risa-chan! Thanks again!" Their classmate left.
She passed Satoshi and glanced at him. Satoshi, on the other hand, did not seem to notice her or Risa and Takeshi. His bag in his hand, he walked down the corridor.
"Hiwatari-kun!" Risa called. It looked as if he hadn't heard. Hiwatari continued walking away.
"Ne, Hiwatari-kun!" the girl repeated. Still no response. He was getting farther and farther.
Risa sweatdropped. Inwardly, the reporter snickered.
To his surprise, Harada-san took hold of his arm and pulled him forward to walk along with her.
"Ouch!" the guy shouted-whispered. Geez, why's she holding on to me so tightly?!
"Shush! Quiet!" She shot him a death glare and gave the deserving reporter an extra slap on the arm.
Ow!
They stopped a few paces behind their target.
"Satoshi-kun, look over here!" Risa cried.
Finally, he stopped.
Ace reporter Saehara Takeshi saw Harada-imouto's hand move towards her pocket. He lifted up his camera to his eye himself.
Hiwatari looked behind his shoulder.
The black-haired teen and the girl beside him simultaneously clicked on their cameras.
Risa lowered her hand holding her cellphone. One shot was enough.
But Saehara's job wasn't finished yet. His camera's flash blinked rapidly as he pressed the button with amazing speed.
He saw Hiwatari Satoshi change expression. The flash was starting to blind the genius too, so he lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the glare and to serve as a barrier between his face and the camera.
But the photographer had already seen comprehension dawn on his subject's face.
The blue-haired fourteen year old turned to Harada Risa.
Risa fidgeted.
Then she ran for it, her pursuer in her wake.
Takeshi wandered around the school grounds, searching fruitlessly. Now, I'm officially blip! Where have those two love struck bakas gone?! I can't believe they escaped this reporter! Where's the scoop I expected? Nowhere! All because I can't find two people who run so darn fast! He sighed to himself.
Just then, he heard some voices not too far away.
"Please…come on…! Give it to me, already!"
"I already said I won't!"
"Why won't you?"
"Because I also said earlier that I don't want to!"
"Why?!"
"You're gonna delete it!"
"I am only going to if you won't discard it right now, in front of my eyes."
"Why would I do that? You're so cute here! Kawaii…!" Finally! It was them.
"You know that's not true Risa. Now stop fooling around." Hiwatari's face had the smallest tinge of pink.
"I'm not fooling around. It's you who's fooling around. I already said I won't delete this. Neither am I going to surrender my phone to you. Besides, you really look cute here!"
They were face to face and Risa was quirming and kept circling her cellphone around so Satoshi would have a hard time grabbing it.
Risa stuck her tongue out at Hiwatari.
"Risa, why are you doing this?"
"I don't have a candid picture of you. You wouldn't give me a photo of yourself and you wouldn't let me take one of you as well."
"I reiterate: Why? What for?"
"Memories, Satoshi-kun. So let me keep this!"
He sighed. The guy with glasses stopped his attempts to take the cellphone.
"Er…OK…I'll discard this…" said Harada-san.
"You will?" replied Hiwatari skeptically.
"Sure. I promise. But…"
"There's a catch." It wasn't a question.
"Uhuh. It's gonna cost you."
"I can't believe you're going to charge money just to delete it…"
"No, I don't want money! Hmm…you've just got to…give me something…"
"What exactly?"
"I don't know…"
But Satoshi caught Risa off guard by giving her a quick embrace.
Urgh! I missed it! Gotta adjust this flash first, though…thought their sole spectator.
"There," said Hiwatari-kun. "Are you happy now?"
"I…"
"Please delete it now."
"No! No! No! I'm going back on what I said. I'll be the one who's going to give you something in exchange for keeping this pic."
"Risa…" Ooh, he's getting annoyed now, Harada-imouto.
"What?!"
"You promised!"
"Sorry. I said that too early. C'mon Satoshi-kun! I'll pay you! Just allow me to keep this!"
"Are you joking? No amount of money will change my mind. I'm not that kind of person. Now, please! Discard it! Now!" He started to try and snatch the phone again.
"Nothing's going to sway you?"
"Nothing."
"Then this will go to waste then. But I don't mind."
Risa stood on tiptoe...
The sight rooted Saehara to the spot.
Epilogue (The next day) (Satoshi's POV)
"Takeshi! Takeshi! You have them with you?" called Risa, waving her arm.
Saehara got up from his desk to approach Risa, who sat in the back row, two chairs away from Satoshi.
It was almost their last class and he still hadn't talked to her yet. He could'nt face her. Not since she…
The teen felt his face heating up again.
To occupy himself, he took out a book to read. It would be interesting to hear this conversation, he thought, glancing quickly at Risa and Saehara.
"Sure! And have I got everything!" exclaimed the reporter. He pumped his fist in the air.
"You have? Let me see…" said Risa excitedly.
"Take a look…" He scrolled through the shots.
Satoshi could see Risa's face turn pink. She's looking at those stolen shots of me…
"See this too, Harada-imouto."
"Nani?"
The goofy reporter seemed to have moved to another set of images.
Risa-chan gasped.
"See?" Takeshi smirked. He moved onto the next picture. "I," he pressed the Next button. "Got," he pressed it again. "Every." Next. "Thing."
She sat there, stunned.
"Like you said, Risa!"
Silence.
"AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH! SAEHARA!" The guy was now being pummeled with Risa's schoolbag.
Whoa. She didn't get upset by what she saw, thought Satoshi sarcastically. That must have been something really shock-- something clicked. Oh no.
He must have gotten pictures of Risa…he touched the cheek she kissed yesterday.
His Risa was beating Saehara harder than ever.
Oh well, there was still a lot time to kill him later. Or what would be left of him, anyway.
The End.
EDIT:
A/N: So? Was it OK? Please review and tell me what you think.