Hello. This is COC. This is my first Clannad fanfic, and its title is "2000 seconds". This fanfic will probably be a four-shot, or maybe five-shot, depending on how inspired I am. Each chapter will include references to snow, as well as implications regarding how much Tomoya and Nagisa's relationship has to do with snow.
For a little change, I decided to make Tomoya and Nagisa childhood friends. However, the events in Clannad and Clannad After story are completely respected, and I will include scenes of the series, expanding them to see what the conversation might have turned out to be afterwards.
That said, I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 1: Snowfall
Beep. Beep. Beep.
The sound was annoying, and it pierced his ears. How come he couldn't notice that before? Okazaki Tomoya slowly opened his eyes. At first, he didn't recognize where he was. The white walls and the beeping sound didn't sound familiar. However, as his thoughts cleared, he remembered. He wasn't at home. He was at the hospital.
His eyes, still not completely open, moved slowly towards the bed in front of him. On top of it, there was a girl. His best female friend since childhood. His fellow club member. His girlfriend. The person whom he loved most in the world. Furukawa Nagisa.
Nagisa was asleep. She was connected to the electrocardiogram, which made the beeping sound. It was showing on the screen the line on her heartbeat. Fortunately, she didn't need any help breathing at the moment, though the doctor hadn't known if her condition would worsen or improve. Nagisa's illness was a mystery to all of them. When they were little, Tomoya used to think Nagisa was always ill because of Sanae's bread, which she ate wholeheartedly everyday to make her mother feel proud, although it tasted horrible. As time had passed, he had come to understand that Sanae's bread had nothing to do with it at all.
His watch told him it was ten past eight in the evening. Sanae and Akio were probably in the cafeteria, eating something. He must've fallen asleep when he had come from school to keep her company. The hospital in their town was still being built, so he had had to take the train to the neighboring city, where she was being monitored now. He had been staying in the hospital for two nights already, and he felt tired and sleepy most of the time. A couch in a hospital room was probably not the best place to sleep, but at least he could be near her. Akio and Sanae respected his decision, and entrusted Nagisa to him.
Tomoya had known Nagisa since they were children, and he had protected her from a pair of bullies. Since then, they had been friends. She was one year older that him. When she had gone to a different middle school than him, they had lost contact. However, due to Nagisa having to repeat her third year of high school because of her weak health, they had regained contact. Her rate of attendance had been too low, so she was held back one year. And it didn't seem like it was going to be different this year. Tomoya's hopes of graduating together would probably never come true.
He watched the girl on the bed, noticing the steady movement of her chest, rising and falling. He had lost count of the number of times he'd been watching her like this, wishing for that breathing not to stop.
Now fully awake, Tomoya moved his glance away from his girlfriend. He had already checked she was alright. She probably wouldn't wake up for some time, so he might as well go and look for Sanae and Akio. His stomach seemed to suddenly ask for some attention.
He stood up and started walking to the door, but before leaving, he caught a glimpse of what was going on outside the room. Without being able to believe it, he neared the window, and looked outside. Even though it was still late autumn, Tomoya could clearly see small snowflakes falling onto the Earth. It was the first snowfall of that year.
As he watched those tiny crystals drifting and swirling around, and finally touching the ground and turning it white, his mind slowly started replaying memories. Memories from long, long ago…
--
"But papa…"
"Now, Tomoya, please don't be unreasonable. I need you to understand."
"But I promised." He highlighted the last word. Tomoya was still the age where promises were important and had meaning behind them.
"I know, but it's been snowing for the whole night. It's cold and difficult to go outside. Her parents will probably keep her at home too."
"But I promised Nagisa that, when it snowed, we'd go together to the park and do a snowman, and an igloo, and have a snowball fight, and do snow angels…"
Okazaki Naoyuki sighed. He had to go to work. He couldn't afford not to because of the snow. His salary was barely enough to cover all their expenses, and he knew that he couldn't skip one single day. He had planned on leaving Tomoya alone at home for some time, since he was very responsible and had experience staying on his own. His child however, had other ideas, and was being too stubborn.
"Tomoya, try to understand. I have to go to work. You can't go outside on your own and…"
"But it's a promise." Tomoya explained, as if that justified everything.
Naoyuki sighed once again. His son wouldn't give up on his words. There was no way of convincing him otherwise. If he locked the door, Tomoya would probably break a window and escape to meet his friend. The father gave up.
"Alright, I'll tell you what we'll do. I'll walk you to Nagisa's home and you'll stay with them until I come to pick you up. I probably won't be very late."
"Yes!" Tomoya ran off. His father could tell his footsteps were directed to the entrance door.
"Come here, Tomoya! You have to put on your coat!"
Tomoya ran back to his room. He was very excited. Naoyuki helped his son put on a warm sweater, a fluffy coat, gloves and a scarf, while Tomoya moved around impatiently. It took what seemed like an eternity to Tomoya to get ready. As Naoyuki went to search for his coat, the child, running again, went out to the street.
It was a cloudy Sunday. The sky was completely grey. The streets, usually filed with many sounds, were now completely silent. Nothingness filled the air, giving it an ethereal and untouchable sensation, as if time had stopped. It was such a fragile moment that Tomoya didn't dare to make any sound. He had a feeling that, if he disrupted it, the scene would shatter into millions of tiny fragments.
The usually colorful surroundings were now totally white, unstained and pure. There was no wind, and no snowflakes fell anymore. Everything looked like it had been frozen. The boy looked up at the sky, and observed how his own breath came out, turned into a small white cloud and slowly vanished into the freezing air.
Naoyuki soon exited the house. After locking the door, he grabbed Tomoya's little hand, held in his own and set off, making their way to the Furukawa bakery.
-
"Papa, I'm going to the park to see if Nagisa's there!"
"I don't think she will, Tomoya. It's still quite early, and you're in your winter vacation. She'll probably be sleeping."
"No! She'll surely be waiting! I know!"
"Alright, go and check it out. If she's not there, go directly to the bakery. I'm sure it must already be open."
The little boy ran off, while his father kept on walking towards the Furukawa bakery. Tomoya ran quickly, his short legs getting half-buried in the snow with each of his steps. He soon made it to the park in front of his friend's home.
At first, he didn't see anyone. Tomoya got to the conclusion that he had been wrong. She wasn't waiting. But then he noticed a small figure sitting on one of the swings. A trail of footsteps was visible, and came from the Furukawa bakery.
As soon as he stepped forward once again, he noticed the figure on the swing slowly turn around, and he found himself staring into Nagisa's warm eyes.
With a swift movement, she descended from the swing, and walked towards him, with her feet sinking into the snow in a way similar to his. She was wearing a very long black scarf around her neck, so long that both of its ends reached the ground, and were all full of snow. Her cheeks were flushed, and tiny crystals hung from her eyelashes, telling him that she had been waiting outside for a very long time.
She didn't say a "hello" or "how are you". She just looked at him, and he in return, looked at her. The two children observed each other, seeing who would be the first to say something. Nagisa finally broke the silence.
"Tomoya-kun, you came."
The boy simply nodded.
"You're late."
"No I'm not." Tomoya replied.
"I've been waiting for you. For a long, long time. I'm glad you finally came."
"Sorry, but my dad wouldn't let me come. At the end, I managed to convince him."
"It's alright. What's important is that you didn't break our promise."
"And how did your parents let you come? Weren't you sick the other day?"
The little girl smiled.
"Yes, but I'm okay now. So they told me to enjoy myself while I can. There's little chance of me being ill again because of snow!"
As to prove so, she bent down and made a snowball which she fired with amazing precision at Tomoya. He, in turn, grabbed a handful of snow and threw it without mercy. Soon, the two youngsters were throwing snow at each other at an amazing speed. When they finished their small battle, which ended in a draw, they lay in the snow and moved their legs and arms up and down to create angels. They repeated this process several times, and the park was decorated with five pairs of glistening angels. Their clothes had ended up covered in snow, and they were wet and cold, but they were having so much fun that they didn't care about those seemingly unimportant details.
The streets were busier now. It was now getting closer to midday and there started to be movement around the town. Although there were no cars, because the snow had blocked most of the roads, you could see people walking up and down, enveloped in many layers of clothing and walking very fast to avoid losing any body heat. Mostly adults could be seen. Children were kept at home during days like these, so the two friends had the whole park for themselves.
Then, Nagisa and Tomoya started building a snowman. However, after a tiring half an hour of work, they had only managed to build a miniature snowman, which measured less than half a meter. They had hoped for something a bit bigger. Although Tomoya was a bit disappointed, Nagisa convinced him that it was good enough, and she wrapped her own scarf around the snowman. They used small rocks and pebbles in the park to make its eyes, nose, mouth and pretended buttons.
As soon as Nagisa had placed the last rock in its place, and Tomoya was thinking about building an igloo, a snowflake fell, followed by another one. In no time, those little frozen droplets of water filled the air, falling slowly. It was starting to snow once again.
"Let's go to the bakery." Tomoya suggested. "We'll come out again when the snow stops."
They ran to Nagisa's home, forgetting Nagisa's scarf. Fortunately, when they arrived, Sanae was behind the counter, and took care of them immediately. She stripped the children of their wet clothes, covered them with warm blankets and made them sit in the living room with mugs of warm chocolate. She told Tomoya his father would come to pick him up later. As she attended customers in the bakery, and Akio baked some bread which people in the neighborhood could actually eat, the children drank their hot chocolates and looked at the snow falling through a window.
"Ne, Tomoya-kun."
"What?"
"Do you know at what speed snow falls?"
"No."
"I saw it yesterday on TV. It seems that snowflakes fall at 1 meter per second, but since clouds are very, very high, snow takes 2000 seconds to get to the ground. That's like half an hour."
"Really? That long?"
"Yes, but it depends on the type of snow. This is just for cases when there's no wind, like today."
Tomoya's eyes widened. He could never believe how much information his friend had in store.
"Wow. You sure know a lot, Nagisa!"
She smiled cutely.
"Thank you."
The boy started thinking about the life of those snowflakes.
"But it must be boring to be a snowflake. I mean, you're dropped up there by a cloud, and you know that all that's left for you is to fall to the ground and eventually melt. They must not like their life a lot."
"I agree. They must lead a lonely life, falling by themselves. or drifting apart from other snowflakes, and finally to end up being turned into water. Poor snowflakes."
"We're lucky we're not snowflakes." Decided Tomoya.
"Yes, we truly are."
Read and review, please. Thanks.
COC