Author's Name:
LittleMaggieDate:
January 15, 2003Note:
Romantic songfic to "Hailie's Song" by Eminem. Book 8 spoilers.Momo's Song
Kiley pressed his forehead down against the window. His breath frosted the window so evenly that it was as if he were trying to look inside Momo's room through a sheet of wax paper.
His stomach turned nervously. He could make out someone inside. Momo was sleeping. Kiley had almost hoped to catch her awake, even though it was pretty early in the morning. He ran his hand through his hair and closed his eyes, waiting with bated breath to see if she would notice him outside.
He practiced in his mind – I was just walking by. Thought I'd see how you were doing. Maybe we'll walk to school together?
Sometimes I sit
Staring out the window
Watching this world pass me by
Sometimes I think
There's nothing to live for
I almost break down and cry
Kiley felt nervous, that feeling of needles poking through him all over his body. There was a shift of colors and shadows in the room. He knew Momo must have woken up.
The window slid open, shhh, and Momo leaned out. " Kiley?" She asked sleepily. " What do you want?"
" Heh." He grinned from ear to ear. " I was just walking by. I thought you might want to, you know, walk to school with me while I was around."
She leaned out fully and looked up and down the street, almost expecting to see some sort of trick. " You don't live around here…!"
Kiley nodded. " I can move into your room if you'd like!"
Momo rolled her eyes and closed the window.
Kiley panicked. She's not mad, is she? He thought feverishly. " Momo?" He asked the window.
He stood there, feeling stupid, for a few minutes. Fear rolled through his entire body, thought after thought. Maybe she was mad. He traced all the things he said to her, trying to find where he strayed too far. Maybe it was that joke about the way she looks when she eats hotdogs? He didn't know if he'd be able to even live if she'd start to ignore him the way Toji avoids her.
That fear - - that was what made him relate to Momo. That and the hate of Sae – he had people like that in his closest family. No matter, he just wanted to see her again. He pressed his nose to the window just as Momo ripped the window open again. The wooden plank at the base of the window skimmed his nose painfully as the window shot up.
" Hi Momo." He said again. Well, that sounded stupid!
Sometimes I think I'm crazy
I'm crazy, oh so crazy,
Why am I here?
Am I just wasting my time?
Momo grinned. " Just had to change into my school clothes."
Kiley looked down at his own outfit. " We could've shared mine."
She punched his arm lightly and then turned to the door of her bedroom. "I'll be right out, I'll just grab myself a sweet roll in the kitchen."
" Okay." He replied, stepping away from the window. Momo closed the window and disappeared. Kiley couldn't help but punt the air silently, like a football player scoring a touchdown. Yes! It was a good feeling to know that they'd have the entire trip to school to chat.
He never even knew what to talk to her about. Usually he resorted to desperate jokes to make her laugh. Kiley didn't know why, but he preferred to see a reaction out of Momo more than just a normal answer to a question. A fully emotional outburst was something pretty wonderful.
His life was pretty simple, he figured. There wasn't much to it, it was other people that added texture. People like Momo that added quality to it all.
But then I see my baby
Suddenly I'm not crazy
It all makes sense when I
Look into her eyes
Momo appeared before him suddenly, nibbling on a roll. " So, why were you in the neighborhood?" She teased him. Momo tilted the bun to him, raising her eyebrows in question. " You want a bite?"
" No thanks." He stammered. " Say! Uh, Momo?"
" Yeah?" She asked. Her eyes were large, brown, but a light honey-glazed sort of brown, the type that you'd expect on a fragile porcelain doll or painted on a dish of bone china. Instead, they were planted squarely in her pretty, dark face. He could feel his insides bunch up when he looked at those eyes.
" Look what I got." Kiley boasted, lifting something out of his pocket. It was wrapped in tissue paper.
" Ooh! Let me see!" She gasped and tore it from his hands, pulling the tissues off.
" Eep. Gently." He flinched at her roughness.
Momo looked at what lay in her hands. It was a little glass figurine of a girl with a basket of peaches. She looked at it closer. The Japanese word for 'peach' was carved into the side of the basket. " Oh, Toji, it's amazing…" She breathed out, turning it over in her hands.
" Did… did you just call me Toji?" He asked nervously.
Sometimes it feels like
The world's on my shoulders
Like everyone's leaning on me
Sometimes it feels like
The world's almost over
But then she comes back to me!
" Oh, I'm so sorry!" She flushed a dark red, which was pretty dark, especially if you could see it against her tan. " I … I can't believe that …"
" It's fine." Kiley laughed. " Don't worry about it, Mom. Oh, I mean, Momo."
She laughed too and then shook her head. " This is a really pretty figurine though. Where'd you find something like it?"
" The neighbor's garbage."
Momo laughed again and tickled him angrily. " Be honest! Come on!"
Kiley shrugged. " I was in a store and I saw it. You know, that antique shop over on Ame Street?"
" Of course." She replied. " But everything there is deathly expensive." Her eyes sparkled joyfully. " It's really nice. You really shouldn't have. I feel guilty now."
" Hmm. It's no problem. If I see something and think, Momo will like this, then I get it." Kiley told her.
" Yeah, but…" She stopped, raising her eyebrows. " … I don't know. We're not really going out yet, are we?" She squeezed her eyes together and forced out a laugh. " It's just… I don't know."
" It's okay. I can wait for as long as you'd like." Kiley told her.
My girl…
People make jokes, because
They don't understand me,
They just don't see my real side
I act like things don't phase me
Inside they drive me crazy
My insecurities could eat me alive
He adjusted the collar of his shirt, trying to think hard about how to say it right, tactfully. Instead, he found himself jabbering out: " You know, it feels like I'm with you… I mean, with you as a boyfriend, not as a friend - - but it's a comfy kind of thought, I mean… It's just that, as long as we're close, I…"
" Shh." She said, grinning. " It's fine, I know."
Kiley pressed his lips together tightly, embarrassed.
" I feel that way too. Sort of together but in a comfy way. Not in an official, stiff way." Momo told him.
He took her hand and squeezed it. " You really are something to me, though. Something really important."
She kissed his cheek. " You're really something, too."
They walked towards the school together, thinking, both lost in their stormy thoughts. At the school gate Kiley turned to her and said: " So I guess I'm your boyfriend-in-training?"
She grinned and nodded. " Sort of."
" What do I have to do to take the training wheels off?" He persisted.
" Help me get over Toji." Momo whispered.
" You… you want to get over him?"
" Yes." She replied.
Sometimes it feels like the world's almost over
Like everyone's leaning on me
Sometimes it feels like the world's on my shoulders
But then she comes back to me…
" So… if you could get over Toji, you'd like to be with me?" He asked again, to be sure.
Momo nodded.
" Oh, Momo." He wrapped his hands around her, squeezing her tightly. "If that's all it takes! I thought you'd want golden apples or the moon out of the sky or something. But that's all you want."
" I think it's still a big demand." She said, unsteadily.
" You're my whole world sometimes." He whispered into her hair. " I'll do anything."
" You're already doing too much." Momo shrugged his arms off. " I can't just… I can't keep accepting all this kindness from you. I feel like I'm using you."
" Momo, as long as you come to me, not anyone else but me, then I'm fine." Kiley assured her. " That's reason enough to help you."
Momo wiped a tear away. " Thank you." She said, finally. " For everything."
" Awww." He laughed, squeezing her tightly. " You're so cute."
She pummeled him in the stomach with her fist, but so lightly that he barely felt it. " Kiley, are you sure you're fine with all this?"
" I'm positive." He replied.
" Totally positive?" She pried.
" I wouldn't back out on you now. I'm practically your only, bestest friend." Kiley told her.
Momo felt the stinging hurt in her stomach. A few weeks ago, she'd have said Kiley was just this tag-along buddy of hers, sort of a pesky kid in a way. Now she realized that he was quickly replacing Toji. " Let's go inside." She told him, softly.
He smiled and walked after her. " I think I'll be following you around for a while."
If I could sing I'd keep singing this song to my (lover)
… To tell her how I feel about her
How proud I am that I got her
Author's Note: -_- Hmmm the lyric parts I had to change were obviously in the (parentheses!) I felt bad that I had to make so many changes but… *oh well!* Hee! I hope you thought this was cute. Sorry there's not going to be more chapters, this is more like an extra addition to Book 8 if anything. So whatever in Book 9 shall be, this comes right before it. 'Kay? *grins*
Go to my site! It's a Kiley Fan Shrine, it is VERY cool. TONS of rare pics of Kiley, including a lot from the latest books – 6, 7, 8, and color images by Miwa HERSELF only in Japan and some sites.
