Disclaimer: Initial D's not mine.
A/N: I know I said I'd take a break but, after reading BoomChish's post in her forum "Initial D Other Canon Character development" about the fact that no one has thought of writing any Tohru/Nao fanfictions, it has made me want to try and write one considering that they really are the only functional couple in the whole storyline…
If you want, let me know what you think, in any case, thank you for spending some of your time reading this!
The One True Love
Act 1.
In his whole life, Tohru had never felt any cheaper and smaller than the time when, even after losing to Fujiwara's AE86 therefore failing to keep his end of the deal, Nao still managed to, not only not break up with him, but also to allow him to carry on with his racing.
For this reason, and even though he could no longer ask the shop for credit, he decided that he would not go to Nao for the money he needed to repair his Mazda roadster.
'Tohru-san, what are you going to do?' Shinichi asked as the two men stood in the garage where the heavily damaged red roadster was parked.
'I'll get it fixed, of course,' Tohru replied confidently.
'It's going to cost a lot of money…' Shinichi commented frowning.
'I've got to go, or I'll be late and Nao won't be happy,' Tohru said clearly avoiding the subject.
'Ah, alright, ' Shinichi said.
It took Tohru about twenty minutes to get to where his girlfriend of six years worked and, just as he was about to cross the road, he saw her walking out of the building with a guy who looked to be in his early thirties.
Probably a workmate of hers, Tohru thought but then, he saw as Nao cupped the guy's cheek with her hand as he stood way too close to her, at least in Tohru's opinion.
'Hey,' Tohru said as he approached the building's entrance. This made Nao remove her hand off the guy's face, making Tohru feel a bit more than paranoid.
'I'll see you tomorrow,' the guy said as he walked away from them.
'Sure, have a nice evening,' Nao replied in a very friendly tone of voice then, turning round to face Tohru, she smiled and said, 'hi Tohru, did I make you wait for long?'
'Who was that?' Tohru asked ignoring her question and trying not to sound as jealous as he felt.
'That's our marketing manager, Kobayashi-sempai,' she replied making Tohru frustrated since that didn't tell him what he needed to know.
'Are you this friendly to all your work colleagues?' he asked, still fighting to keep a neutral tone.
'No, of course not,' she replied laughing softly, 'it's just that he's going through a very rough time right now and needs someone to talk to…'
Tohru was going to ask something else when he saw Nao's lips curving into a smile.
'Are you jealous?' she asked looking rather amused.
'No, of course not, why should I be?' Tohru replied killing Nao's smile in the process.
'No reason, of course…' she said with just a hint of sadness imprinted in her voice, then, trying to brighten up, she said, 'so, where are we going?'
'Well, since I don't have a car we'll have to go somewhere close, what do you think if we go to the Bell Mall?'
'Excellent idea, we could go to the cinema in the East Annex,' Nao said looking much happier now.
'Great, let's go,' he said, trying to forget about that Kobayashi.
'How are you going to get the car fixed?' Nao asked as they made their way to the shopping centre.
'I'll manage, don't worry,' Tohru replied ignoring the inquisitive look his girlfriend was giving him.
'If you need…'
'Nao, I said I'll manage, okay?' Tohru said a tad too dryly.
'Okay, sorry…I…'
A very uncomfortable silence fell between the two of them and, by the time they got to the huge building complex which housed North Kanto's biggest commercial area, Tohru was beginning to regret being so nasty to her.
'Hey, which movie do you want to see?' he asked as they stared at the selection of films that were being shown at the cinema.
'Er…I don't know, why don't you choose? You know I'm not fussy…'
She always said that, Tohru thought, even if she knew he'd end up picking the movie she liked the most for, after all these years, he knew her tastes well enough to be sure his choice would be the right one.
'It was beautiful,' she commented as they walked out of the cinema after the end of the movie.
'I'm glad you liked it,' Tohru said happy to see her smiling.
'We could go for a walk around the shops,' she proposed.
'Okay,' he replied and that made Nao's smile widen making Tohru feel rather pleased with himself: he knew he wasn't the best looking guy alive but, he knew very well what to do to make Nao happy.
After all, making his girlfriend happy wasn't too hard for she usually settled for very small things: a nice movie, a bit of window shopping, a present for her birthday…
There was only one thing Tohru did that he knew it upset her: street racing.
Tohru's love for racing went all the way back to his junior high days when he used to spent most of his pocket money buying motorsport's magazines and sneaking out of his parents house so he could go to Momiji Lane to watch the cars as they raced each other.
By the time he started dating Nao, in their second year of High school, Tohru was already so much into racing that he barely spoke about anything else.
Things got even more intense the following year when he managed to get his driving license and, even more importantly, his first car: a very old, battered Nissan.
For the next three years, he didn't do much else than to practice hard with it until he knew every single detail of his home course then, after having saved up enough money, he bought himself his baby.
His Mazda Roadster.
He remembered the first time he drove it down the Momiji Lane as well as if it had been just the other day. The feeling of driving a new car was unforgettable. It was then when Tohru began to win race after race and when he joined the Seven Star Leaf street racing team.
It was shortly after that when he started having problems with Nao, mainly about the amount of money he spent on improving his car's performance.
The whole thing was very frustrating for Tohru who, up to then, he'd been used to having Nao listening to his every rant about his driving and his car. She hadn't even complained when he started being so short with money that he couldn't even take her out for a date because he'd already spent all his wages on a new set of tyres or buying some other part for the Mazda.
Things had started to change a couple of years ago when, as they got older, Nao began nagging at him about the fact that he didn't seem to think of their future.
The future.
Tohru just hated when she started talking about that. It wasn't that he hadn't thought of marrying Nao, it's just that, even though they had been together for over six years, to him it was a bit too premature to start talking about it. After all, they were only twenty three and they had plenty of time for them to settle down.
Right now, he only wanted to become a faster and better driver so, one day, he could challenge Fujiwara to a rematch and show him that he too could do fancy stuff.
His defeat to the 86's driver still stung and it had been a major blow on Tohru's pride. Getting so badly beaten on a course he knew as well as the back of his hand was the ultimate humiliation and, the more he thought about it, the more he was dying to get his car fixed so he could start practicing again.
That guy was truly amazing. How in the heck did he manage to do things like that and still look like a clueless idiot was beyond Tohru…
'Tohru? Hey…'
'What?' Tohru said getting back to reality.
'I asked you if you wanted to come with me next weekend,' Nao repeated patiently.
'Eh? Where?' he asked not even pretending he'd been listening to her at all.
'The exhibition,' she explained, 'there's a photography show at the gallery and I'd love to go and check it out…'
'Ah, yeah, sure,' Tohru said.
'Great,' she said smiling happily.
A few minutes later, Tohru was walking Nao back to her parents' house when she said:
'You know, I'm almost happy you don't have the car…'
'Why is that?' he asked frowning.
'Well, walking back home like this, holding hands and all, it reminds me of when you walked me back home from school…'
He chuckled and said:
'Yeah, it's kind of like going back in time, huh?'
'Yes…' she said with her voice loaded with melancholy.
They finally arrived at her home and, kissing her, he bode her goodnight and watched as she entered the house. He then started walking towards Atsorou's place.
Unlike Nao, Tohru wasn't at all happy about not having a car for it meant having to walk everywhere or, what was even worse, take the public transportation. In any case, after over half an hour, he finally made it to his team mate's house, spotting him in his garage as the man worked on his ER34.
'Hey,' Tohru said announcing his presence.
'Tohru,' Atsorou said coming out from under bonnet, 'how are you man?'
'I'm alright,' Tohru replied in a non-committal tone.
'How's your roadster?' Atsorou asked.
'Still crap, I've got to take it to the shop as soon as I get the money,' Tohru replied.
'Yeah, well, the important thing is that you're okay, isn't it?' Atsurou commented.
'I guess so,' Tohru said not sounding very convinced.
'Shall we go, then?' Atsorou asked as he finished off whatever he was doing to his car.
'Sure,' Tohru replied.
The two men drove to the top of Momiji Lane and parked the ER34 next to the rest of the cars belonging to the Seven Star Leaf team's members.
'Tohru-san, I didn't know you'd be here,' Shinichi said his face lightening up making Tohru think that he really needed to tell Shinichi to stop behaving like a fanboy.
'Would I miss any of the gatherings?' Tohru replied smiling at the younger man.
With Atsurou and Tohru's arrival, the team was complete and, following Atsorou's orders, everyone got into their cars and started practicing.
Everyone except Tohru, of course.
'Tohru-san, you can borrow my car if you want,' Shinichi said as he stopped his car next to his idol.
'No, thanks, I'll be alright,' Tohru lied for he really felt frustrated for not being able to have his car there so he could drift his way down the hill.
He watched as a very disappointed Shinichi drove away, took the first of Momiji's corners and disappeared from Tohru's sight.
'Hey, I heard what happened to you,' a guy, in his late twenties by the looks of him, said as he walked towards Tohru.
'Uh-huh…' Tohru limited himself to say.
'How are you going to do with the car, it's going to cost you a lot to get it fixed, isn't it?' the guy said making Tohru wonder why in the heck did people keep telling him what he already knew.
'I could help you out,' the guy said seeing that Tohru wasn't answering to his question.
'How?' Tohru asked sounding suddenly interested.
'Well, I have some friends who could lend you the money you need…' the guy replied.
'Who are you?' Tohru asked eyeing the guy suspiciously.
'My name's Shinya Uesugi,' the guy said.
'Right, and why would you want to help me?' Tohru asked still feeling very uneasy about the whole thing.
'Well, I'm a racer too, you know, and I saw the way you got beaten by that brat. I just hated to think you'd retire from racing because of, you know, lack of funds…'
Tohru considered a few things before saying:
'Okay, so, let's pretend I accept your help, how much interest would I have to pay?'
'The loan would be interest-free and you could return the money whenever you could…'
'Yeah, right,' Tohru said sarcastically, 'just how stupid do I think I am?'
'Hey, take it easy, I never said it'd come free of charge, you'd have to do something for us, of course…'
'What would that be?' Tohru asked.
'Oh, you'd just have to race for us a couple of times,' Uesugi replied then, producing a business card, he said, 'think about it and, if you're interested, give me a call…'
With this, Uesugi walked away from Tohru as he stared at the name and number printed on the card.
To be continued…