For Blue Skies—A Sorato.
-x-
I sat on down with a twisted up frown disguised as a smile
Well, you would have never known
I had it all, but not what I wanted
Because hope for me was a place uncharted.
Headstones and grave markers, she was among friends. Anyone else would find this setting uncomfortable at best, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. But not Sora Takenouchi, no, when she visited Odaiba Cemetery, she was home. How incredibly eerie? And yet, this was something Sora embraced, because being around the deceased calmed her. It inspired her. And it gave her an odd sense of hope, like the people here aren't really gone.
So she sat with her back against the old Oak tree, across from the headstone that read Toshiko "Shay" Takenouchi, beloved Wife, Mother and Sister. Where she sat everyday, from the afternoon till sunset, sketchpad on her lap and a pencil in her hand. Her drawings about life, love and angst taking a life of their own. The soundtrack to her own life pulsing in her ears.
She drew about high school, how the social stigmas bound everyone to a role. About her ex boyfriend and her best friend in a coat closet. About her father's new girlfriend and his ever demanding job that kept him away. About the helplessness she felt, like she was meant for more but just didn't know how to achieve it. About how she knew she was different from her so called friends, but didn't know how. And mostly about how much she missed her mother and how everyone she ever loved left.
Is it me? The picture of a redhead with a desolate frown asked. Tear tracks on her cheeks and a black backdrop to her room; she wondered what she was doing wrong.
A perfect display of the emotions she was feeling today, Sora continued to let the art flow from her fingertips and on to the paper. She just wanted someone to explain to her what it was that made life so unfair. Why was it that she, who didn't want anything bad for anyone, had all these bad things happen to her? Why was it that anyone she got close to ended up leaving her? Anyone she let in, let see the real Sora, the person she was on the inside, didn't like her enough to stick around?
It was evident when it came to her father. Evident enough when it came her boyfriend. Evident enough when it me to her so called "best friend." And it was the most evident when it came to her deceased mother.
When would someone like her enough to stay?
-x-
Another day at the cemetery, another drawing for her sketchbook. This one particularly melancholy, Sora wasn't in the best of moods. She'd just gotten a bad grade on her Calculus test, learned that her best friend Mimi Tachikawa and ex-boyfriend Taichi Kamiya were now "official", showing complete disregard for her feelings. Her father postponed his homecoming. And her car was in the shop so she'd had to walk three miles to get here.
All in all, it had been one shitty day.
This time, the picture was of the same redhead, the same tears, same desolate frown. Her brown eyes staring through an open door, the other side shaded black with anonymity. A single statement hanging in the air, People Always Leave. Her life story, in the matter of three words.
The silence between songs led way to a particularly disconcerting sound of snapping twigs and rustling bushes. No one except Sora ever visited the cemetery. And the fact that someone was approaching fast, caused her heartbeat to speed up.
As she began to turn her neck, a voice stopped her mid movement. "Wow, pretty deep." His voice was deep, smooth and soft. Like velvet to her senses. "But not always."
Sora clutched her sketchbook to her chest. "It's rude to look over a person's shoulder." She snapped.
To her surprise, the person chuckled. "I guess you're right." He admitted.
Regaining a semblance of composure, Sora stood up and turned around. Only to be met with a strong chest and pair of ice blue eyes. "You're Sora, right?" He asked.
And with a gulp she nodded, not failing to notice the proximity of his body to hers. "I've seen you around." He kept his gaze level with hers.
"Like a stalker?" Sora retorted, taking a haphazard step back.
He laughed again. "I don't think going to the same school counts as stalking, do you?"
Then she remembered who he was, the familiarity of his voice and eyes suddenly becoming more than clear. "Yamato Ishida, right?" He was a bassist in a local rock band, her now ex-best friend Mimi used to have a really big crush on him. Weirdly enough, he never actually responded to her advances.
He nodded, "But you can call me Matt." He proposed.
Sora averted her glance from his intense one, her eyes now on the bark of the tree she'd just inhabited. "What are you doing here?" She asked. "Who hangs out in a cemetery anyway?" She asked with a roll of her eyes.
"Oh you mean besides you, right?"
Sora blushed guiltily. "Yeah well, I'm disturbed." She said, sarcasm dripping from her tongue. "What's your excuse?"
"Maybe I just followed you." He said boldly.
Sora's eyes widened. "So you are a stalker." She said coolly.
Matt grinned and shrugged. "Flattered?"
"No, horrified." Sora answered, trying hard to hold back a smile.
Matt Ishida was not only very good looking but he was so aloof that it made him unapproachable. The fact that he took enough interest in her to follow her to a cemetery of all places, did kind of flatter her.
Plus, his music definitely didn't suck.
"Now that you know why I'm here." He began. "Why are you?"
Sora looked to the ground, kicking a rock with the tip of her foot before answering. "I like to draw here." She answered, a little embarrassed. Mimi had always teased her about being such a weirdo.
But he didn't seem to be judging her. "Well from the glimpse I saw earlier, it must be some hell of an inspiration." He was truly impressed. "Because that was…amazing." Matt said honestly.
Sora felt her face get hot. She'd always known that she had talent, but the way he complimented her made her feel special. "Thanks, I guess." She said quietly.
"Can I?" He extended his hand, gesturing toward her sketchbook.
Sora's initial instinct was to turn tail and run, she didn't want to hand over her artwork for him to judge right in front of her. But the way he looked at her and the sincerity in his eyes, made Sora want to show him.
So slowly and cautiously, she gave it to him and inwardly cringed when he opened it.
The time where Matt was flipping through her book felt like years of anticipation. Why did she care so much about what he thought, Sora didn't know. But she did know that she really wanted Matt to like them.
"Pretty dark." He mentioned, his fingers tracing over the intricate lines and shading.
Sora couldn't help but feel raw. Like she'd opened up a vein and let it bleed for him. This was her, uncut and unedited.
Finally, after what felt like ages, Matt closed the black book and handed it back to her. "You draw what you feel, Sora." He said. "It's tragic and tortured and—
"Weird and psychotic and depressed, I know okay!" She interrupted, feeling more vulnerable than she ever had in her life.
He ignored her interruption. "And exactly the kind of things that my music is made of." He continued. "That feeling of being alone, the Kurt Cobain "no one understands me" vibe, I feel it too." He reached over and touched her hair. A vibrant shade of scarlet, like blood in its purest form.
She stared at him, mouth slightly open and eyes wide. "It's real, you know? The kind of stuff that everyone feels but they won't say." He took a couple of steps closer to her, so that there was only inches between them.
Matt saw her clearly now and God he wanted to hold her. She was all porcelain skin and broken eyes, she had the weight of the world on her shoulders and she couldn't do it alone. "You get me." She whispered.
He smiled. "I hope so." He'd watched her long enough, the way she would sit with her friends at the "popular" lunch table and the way she wouldn't completely fit in. "You're an enigma though, Sora Takenouchi, and I just want to get close enough to figure it out." He tucked some loose waves of red behind her ear.
The way his fingers lightly brushed her ear sent tingles down her spine. And for her, it wasn't the fact that he was strikingly handsome that had her fidgeting. It was the fact that he was the first person who didn't think she was freak because she didn't like pep rallies or high school parties. He didn't think she was abnormal because she would rather draw in a cemetery than get drunk in an abandoned parking lot.
And it was probably because, like her, Matt didn't enjoy those things either. "So where do you like to write?" She asked all of a sudden. He'd seen where she was the most at home, she wanted him to let her in the same way.
Matt grinned. "You won't think I'm weird?" He joked.
"I'm graveyard girl, remember?" She kinked an eye brow.
He gave a laugh as the first raindrop among many fell on her cheek. "My best lyrics, they come when I see you draw." He mumbled.
Sora's mouth fell open. "What?" She asked in complete confusion as the rain began to come down a little harder.
Matt shook his head. "We're neighbors, Sora. And I dunno, when you're out on your porch steps drawing so intensely, I dunno it's always inspired me." He said sheepishly.
In that moment, Sora didn't really know what she was doing. She knew she wasn't thinking or being rational. She knew it was on impulse and completely random. But she reached on her toes and pressed her lips to his. A kiss for everything he'd awakened in her, passion for the longing she'd always felt and love for his acceptance.
Matt didn't think at all, her kiss caught him by surprise but only for a moment. Because it was something he'd wanted to do since he met, he wrapped an arm around her waist. The other hand steadied her head, fingers getting caught in her waves of red.
When Sora pulled away, she was laughing. It wasn't fake or forced. It was real and natural. It was everything she'd been wanting for so long and it was almost overwhelming her. "You kiss everyone after knowing them just an hour, or am I just special?" He asked, a cocky grin now plastered on his face.
She lifted her hand and ran it through his wet blonde hair. "Well you aren't special, so why don't you just guess." She joked.
With a hand over his heart, he feigned hurt. "And here you had me believing that what we have is epic." But Matt knew it was, it was the kind of love story told for ages. Like Romeo and Juliet. Like Jack and Rose. Like Noah and Allie. It was undeniable.
And Sora knew it too, she had been waiting for him to show up for a very long time. Her white knight on a horse, sweeping her off her feet. "Epic, huh? Well, we'll just have to see won't we?" She grinned, her arms around his neck.
He kissed her nose, the two of them now wet to the bone. "Is that a proposition?"
"You can bet your axe it is." She winked.
Matt laughed. "The stakes are high then, huh?" He squeezed her hips playfully.
Sora stared up at him, his blonde hair now almost brown. "Yeap, so if you wanna keep that guitar, you'll try extra hard to make this work."
Matt cupped her cold cheek with his equally cold hand. "I'm not going anywhere, Sora." He said, his tone serious rather than playful. "I won't leave." He reiterated.
Sora laid her head against his chest. "Did you know how bad I needed to hear that?" She asked softly.
"The picture gave it away." He said into her hair.
-x-
A/N: Not the best, but it was an idea I had to get down because it just wouldn't leave me alone. It's weird that I'm writing a Sorato, even to me, because I definitely used to dislike them. However, I don't know, they're really growing on me now. This was a concept I thought was perfect for Matt and Sora but I've never written a Sorato before so I have no idea if it came out good or not. This might just be my one and only Sorato, so enjoy it!
Also: This was heavy on the angst, I know, but it's how I roll. I guess Sora was a bit OoC in this (not that I care) but this I how I see her, if you don't like it well…that's nice, knit yourself a sweater. But speaking of OoC, I know I kind of implied that Mimi was a bitch in this (it pretty much killed me) but it was for the sake of the story. Read my other fics, look at my profile, you'll get that it's not how I view Mimi at all. Nor is it how I view Tai.
Title: For Blue Skies by Strays Don't Sleep
Lyrics: Careful by Paramore (from Xtina's "Top Ten Songs of the Moment)
Anyway, read it and review if you'd like!
Love,
Liya.
And Chris, I'm sorry you won't ever read this! :[