Morning sunlight streamed through the windows. Kanata blinked. My head hurts like hell.
He blearily opened his eyes and immediately felt a shock course through his seventeen-year-old body.
Miyu was sleeping soundly beside him. What the--!
He quickly looked down at himself and breathed a sigh of relief. He was clothed. He had seen way too many movies where guys get drunk, and then wake up with an unconscious, half-dressed girl next to him.
He started to shake her awake. "Miyu! Wake up!"
"Mmmf…" she muttered, clamping a pillow to her head.
"Miyu! Wake up, this is important!"
She looked at him drowsily. "What?"
"What are you doing in my bed?"
"Don't be stupid, I'm not in your bed."
Kanata looked around and realized that he was, in fact, in Miyu's room. "Oooh… Crap."
"Oh my god, Kanata. What are you doing in my room?"
"I don't know."
"Did you drug me or something?" she demanded as she sat up. "And why are there stains all over our clothes?"
"I didn't drug you!" he said indignantly. He looked again at his clothes. Sure enough, there were bright orange stains on them. He sniffed it. "Smells like pumpkin."
"What the hell is pumpkin doing on our clothes?" Miyu rubbed her temples. "I have such a huge headache…"
Kanata examined the bedspread. "Judging from the way the blanket is spread over both of us, I don't think I passed out. I think… I think I voluntarily slept here."
They looked at each other, then looked away, blushing.
This is so embarrassing! Miyu thought. "What, um, happened to us last night?"
Kanata blushed even harder. He knew Miyu didn't mean anything by it, but her choice of wording was funny, in a perverse sort of way. "Let's walk through the house. Maybe we'll remember."
"Geez, the house is a mess!" Miyu exclaimed as they walked to the kitchen. Glasses were scattered on the table, plastic wrappers were strewn across the floor, and bottles stood on the counter. A huge empty punch bowl sat on the table. "What the heck happened here?"
"I'll tell you what happened here," Kanata said grimly, holding up an empty gin bottle.
"Oh, god." Miyu murmured as her memories came flooding back.
-flashback-
Thank goodness it's Friday, Miyu thought unhappily. It had been a bad day. The most horrible day of my natural life.
That morning, she argued with her mom about moving to America. When she got to school, she fought with Aya about not wanting to do another play, screamed at Christine for being so paranoid, snapped at virtually everyone in Class 2-1, earning her many nasty looks, and finally got detention for accidentally spilling blue paint on Miss Mizuno's hair.
Miyu trudged towards the grocery. On top of everything, I have to do the grocery shopping!
As she was getting a basket, she saw a brown-haired boy picking out pumpkins. "Kanata?"
She made her way towards him. "Kanata, what are you doing here?"
Kanata was busy scrutinizing a pumpkin, and didn't look up as he said, "It's my turn to do the shopping, remember?"
Miyu slapped her forehead. "Oh, yeah! Gosh, was I stupid or what?"
"Or what?"
She glared at him. "I had a really tough day. It slipped out of my mind."
"I had a tough day, too, but you don't see me mindlessly wandering around in groceries."
"You had a tough day? How did that happen?"
"Well," he turned to face her, "Santa's mad at me, my fan club stole my indoor shoes so I had to go barefoot all day, I got a zero for not turning in my Social Studies essay, and a soccer ball hit me in the--" He broke off, flushing.
"Hit you where?" she asked in confusion, then realized, "Oooh… That's got to hurt."
"Hurt like hell," he said gruffly.
Miyu suggested, "Hey, why don't we do something to take our mind off our troubles?"
"I'm in no mood to do anything."
"Grouch." She pouted. "You're no fun at all."
At the temple, Miyu and Kanata started putting the groceries in the cupboards.
"Hey," Miyu said, "I think I have a way of forgetting our troubles."
"What?" Kanata asked.
She held up a couple of bottles of gin. "Thank Uncle Housho for these," she said, grinning naughtily.
"Nice." Kanata smiled for the first time that day. "I can't believe this. My dad is a monk, yet he has alcohol lying around in the house."
"Don't complain." She opened the bottle and took a swig. "Awful." she muttered, making a face.
"I know how to make it taste better." He grabbed a punch bowl and several packets of powdered pineapple juice. He emptied the gin into the bowl, then the juice, and he stirred. "Miyu, cut up a couple of apples and pumpkins. They help with the bitterness of the gin," he explained in answer to her puzzled look.
"I'll put on some sounds," she volunteered when she was finished.
Half an hour later, music was blasting through the house, peanuts, crackers and other food were laid out, and the gin was ready and ice-cold.
"To crappy days and rabid fans," Kanata said, raising his full glass.
"And to inconsiderate moms, crazy friends and terror teachers." Their glasses chinked and they guzzled down the alcohol.
The drink was bitter, but Miyu savored it as she emptied her glass. She popped an apple cube into her mouth. "Yummy."
"More, Miyu?"
"Yes, please."
They had about five glasses before they started feeling woozy. "Shouldn't we stop?" Miyu said lightly. "We're going to get drunk."
"So?" Kanata said indifferently, downing another glass. "Come on, Miyu, don't back out now. We're going to drink every last drop of gin, and we are going to like it."
She laughed and looked at the punch bowl, which was still three-quarters full. "If you say so, Kanata-kun."
"Alcohol is the solution. The solution to all of life's problems."
When the punch bowl was half-empty, they were slurring their words and couldn't walk a straight line.
"You're the only one who knows me, love it when you hold me, never find a love like this," crooned Miyu to the music. "Sing with me, Kanata-kun!"
"Well, this life tried to keep us apart. You keep callin' me back to your heart," he warbled tonelessly.
"You're so tone deaf!" she yelled, laughing.
"So are you."
Two-thirds of the gin was gone now, and Miyu and Kanata were more than just a little tipsy.
"You know what I like about you, Miyu?" Kanata slurred. "You're nice and sweet and really cute."
"I'm touched," she said in a mock-sad voice. "You're really nice when you're drunk."
"I can be really nice when I want to."
"And what I like about you, Kanata," she said, "is your looks."
He burst out laughing. "What?"
"Your looks! C'mon, don't deny it. You're handsome!"
"Stop it, Miyu, you're crazy…"
"I'm serious!" she insisted, gesticulating wildly. "Your soft amber hair, your intense chocolate-brown eyes… You're hot!"
"How would you know my hair is soft?" he laughed.
She turned faintly red (was it the gin?) as she admitted, "I, ah, touched it."
"When?"
"A long time ago, when Luu-kun and Wanya were still here. You were sleeping and I passed by your room, and I couldn't resist."
"What else do you do to me when I'm asleep?"
"Nothing!" She grabbed a pumpkin cube and threw it at his face. "Green-minded pervert."
"Did you ever meet a pervert who wasn't green-minded?" he demanded. "Besides, I'm not the one sneaking into bedrooms when people are sleeping."
She threw another pumpkin cube at him. "It was a one-time thing!"
"If you say so." He retaliated, and soon they were hurling pumpkin at each other. Never mind if their clothes were splattered with food.
"Truce!" Miyu yelled, shielding her head.
"Spoilsport," Kanata teased her. He threw one last pumpkin at her and gulped down another glass of gin. He poured another one for Miyu.
"The gin's almost gone," she said, disappointed.
"And we're still standing! This has got to be a world record."
"Yeah? For what?"
"For drinking the most gin without throwing up!"
"Gross!" she yelled. "Oooh," she exclaimed as 'Love Like This' began to blare over the speakers, "I love this song! Get up, let's dance." She got unsteadily to her feet, started falling to the left, but steadied herself by leaning on the table.
"Dance? We can't even stand!"
"C'mon, Kanata!" she said drunkenly. "Don't be a spoilsport!"
He got up and grabbed her around the waist. "Okay, let's dance!"
Giggling, she wrapped her arms around his neck and started dancing. Their steps were out of time with the beat, but they didn't care.
Kanata stepped on Miyu's foot several times, but she didn't seem to mind. Suddenly, he was struck by their closeness. He stroked Miyu's hair and murmured, "Your hair's soft, too."
She gave another drunken giggle and said, "You're officially drunk. Oops--"
She slipped on an empty peanut wrapper and fell flat on her back, Kanata toppling smack on top of her.
They locked eyes.
This is weird, Miyu thought, not moving. Weird, but nice. I'm not uncomfortable at all. Her heart pounded fiercely in her chest.
Gazing into her perfect green eyes, Kanata thought, Damn, why do I feel this way? My heart feels like it's going to explode.
Then his eyes fell upon her slightly parted lips. He swallowed hard as her perfect lips moved and whispered, "Kanata…"
Suddenly, they were kissing passionately, Miyu running her hands through his hair and Kanata doing the same thing. There was a certain electricity between them that they couldn't explain.
"Kanata," Miyu said, pulling away after a while. "Is this because of the gin or is it really us?"
"I don't really care at the moment," he murmured, faintly annoyed. "You broke our kiss for that?"
"Oh, right, sorry. Carry on."
They kept kissing for almost ten minutes. It was bliss: Totally focused on their kiss, the feel of her lips on his, Kanata quite forgot his bad day, forgot the fact that they were lying on a cold, hard floor — until Miyu broke their kiss again. He groaned and moved closer until their lips met again.
"Wait, Kanata…" she said, pulling away for the third time.
"What now?" he moaned. "What do you have to ask that is more important than this?"
"I just wanted to know… what does this mean?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, finally getting off her.
She sat up. "Our kissing — what does it mean?"
"Good god, Miyu, I never knew being drunk can make you even stupider than usual," he smirked.
"Kanata!" she yelled, hitting his arm. "I'm serious!"
"This," he kissed her tenderly, "means 'I love you'."
Miyu was breathless, whether because of gin or the kiss, she could not tell. She returned the kiss.
"I guess that means 'I love you, too'," Kanata breathed, placing his mouth on hers, and soon they were at it again.
When Miyu pulled away again, it was all Kanata could do to stop himself from kissing her senseless. Instead, he said in an aggravated voice, "Miyu! What is it now!"
Her eyes were drooping. "Kanata… I would really like to continue this… but I am so sleepy."
"Spoilsport," he said, but he scooped her up and carried her in his arms.
"You're so strong," she exclaimed with a giggle, "even when you drank your way through four bottles of gin."
He put her down gently on her bed. "There. Now you go to sleep."
But as he was straightening up, Miyu grabbed his wrist. "Kanata-kun… Stay with me."
"What?" he asked, blushing.
"Sleep beside me."
"W-why?"
"I just want to be with you."
The simple sentence had a profound effect on Kanata. So he lay down beside her, covered their bodies with the blanket, and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight."
"'night," she mumbled with her back to him.
He wrapped his arms around her and whispered, "Don't forget about this in the morning."
"Never," she whispered back.
-end of flashback-
Kanata and Miyu stood in shock. It was a long while before Miyu said, "Kanata-kun…"
He was still reeling from the memory of what happened, but Kanata saw the question in Miyu's eyes, the uncertainty.
He wanted a minute to think and clear his head. Fog was swirling through his brain, confusing him…
"Kanata-kun," Miyu said again, and her voice cracked. She struggled to regain her composure. "Is — are we —"
He stared at her. Miyu… He felt overwhelming emotion rush into his entire body.
"It wasn't the gin," Kanata said suddenly as he grabbed her and kissed her so energetically that he lifted her off her feet.
An unspoken message passed between them. Something so powerful that words were unnecessary, just the emotions alone were enough.
This means I love you.
Aiee! This is the first time I wrote about Kanata and Miyu making out. Haha. I love it. I love them! I love Miyu! I love Kanata!