I'm a little stuck on Under the Cherry Tree, so I wrote this.
I hope you like it!
Prologue
Nagisa remembers a girl.
They had sat in a garden together… perhaps their fathers knew each other? She seemed so quiet.
Nagisa also remembers maple leaves. Red, pretty maple leaves.
They had fallen when the wind blew too hard, and Nagisa had brought a leaf home, hoping that it would stay pretty as it is.
He never spoke to the girl, and the leaf withered away a few days later.
xXx
The bustling noise of the market is something Nagisa has to get used too, no matter how annoying it truly is. He looks over the vegetables and fruits on sell with a critical eye, absently wondering why Tachibana had made him come and shop.
Maybe the servant was lazy?
Or maybe it was his fate to meet her.
Of course, it was definitely not love at first sight -Nagisa absently wondered if people actually believed in that-, but it was more like intrigue.
He had seen the girl before.
Her hair was done up in a strange way that his mother would definitely define as "improper" (light hair and rabbit ears, enough said), and her bright eyes were roaming all over the place, like a little animal excited for its first outing.
Nagisa was just going to say hello when this hand reached out of nowhere and-
"Stop there, young man. You stole an apple from my stall. I saw you!"
Oh god. Why did this have to happen to him of all things?
Nagisa resisted the urge to snap at the old crone. This was the 4th time. The 4th time! Was the old woman doing this on purpose?
"Hey, um… I'm pretty sure he didn't steal anything. That 'apple' is on the ground." The strange girl pointed at the round red fruit lying on the dirt ground, and the old woman grumbled.
"Huh. Fine. I swear that you steal things sometimes though."
What was wrong with this person?
"Thanks for helping me."
The girl blinked (by the way, her eyes were pretty, weren't they?) and smiled.
"No problem. My name's Kayano Kaede. Nice to meet you!"
"My name is Shiota Nagisa. Nice to meet you…"
She had such a bouncy and cheerful personality. Interesting.
"Who do you work for? Ah, I'm asking too much, am I?" She looked a bit apologetic, but Nagisa felt that it was acted out.
What a… mysterious girl.
"The Akabanes."
"Oh, me too! They treat the servants harshly, don't they? I was barely accepted just because of my hair. I bet that you think it's weird, like everyone's told me…" Kayano rambled on and on excitedly with her chatter. So she was talkative. Hmm…
"It's cute."
What did he just say?
"Huh?" Kayano seemed to share that same reaction, and she paused with her chatter immediately to stare at Nagisa.
Feeling a little embarrassed, Nagisa repeated the strange statement that popped out of nowhere.
"It's cute. I mean your hair. I don't think it's weird at all."
Kayano tilted her head to stare at him for a while, and finally answered.
"Thanks then!"
(Kayano would tell him later that this was when she actually decided to stop acting, because he seemed nice enough.)
He had always felt that this meeting was special.
Nagisa didn't know why.
It just was.
Please R&R!