Disclaimer: Boukenger is not mine
Notes: Spoilers for up to Task 14
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"You're still wearing your bracelet?"
Natsuki glanced at her wrist. The light in the room made the yellow jewel gleam brilliantly. "Well, yeah. Why wouldn't I?"
Souta grinned sheepishly. "I don't mean you shouldn't wear it, I'm just surprised to see it again after what you said about not worrying about your past anymore."
She tugged on a pigtail thoughtfully. She knew why she still wore it, but putting thoughts into words had never been her strong point. "I said I'd stop worrying. I didn't say I didn't care anymore." Without thinking about it, her hand drifted down to her bracelet. "I'd still like to know who I was before Masumi found me." Natsuki paused, and then with her trademark cheerfulness, clapped her hands together. "But not if it means losing the friends I have now. As long as I have the four of you with me I don't think I'd mind if I never found out about my past."
Natsuki stopped there because Souta was... being unusually quiet. He could have given Sakura a run for her money. "Hm? Something wrong, Sou Sou Souta?"
"You can stop worrying about your past, just like that?"
"Why can't it be just like that?" He was starting to confuse her.
Souta smiled at her again, but this time there was a twinge of bittersweetness to it. "There are times I'm jealous of you, Natsuki-chan."
As he stood up to leave, Natsuki racked her brain, trying to figure out what he was talking about... and then she remembered something Masumi had told her awhile back. Turns out he was some big spy before he joined SGS. Ruined a lot of lives just so he could get his thrills. And then he has the nerve to call me a thief, can you believe that!
"Souta, wait!" She grabbed him by the arm. "Whatever you did in your past, you're not capable of it anymore. You're completely different from that Souta. So why can't you let it go?"
"Natsuki-chan, if you had any idea of the things I did back then--"
"Okay, fine." There was no way she was going to let him keep brooding on things he couldn't change. She knew through experience that it didn't help. "Instead, how about I don't worry about your past for you?" She gave him her brightest smile. "It is what Natsuki is best at, after all. And maybe I'll rub off on you after awhile."
This time, the smile was genuine. "I'm not sure if it'll work, but... I'm in your debt."
She smiled back, and almost as an afterthought, gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You can start repaying your debt by taking me out to eat."
Souta nodded in agreement. "What did you have in mind?"
"Someplace tasty, please!"
"You're going to have to be a little more specific, Natsuki-chan."
"I can't help it, I'm too hungry to think." And they chattered on, everything in the past long forgotten.