A/N It's my first Natsume Yuujinchou fanfiction...please review! (^_^)
The breeze feels nice. Where is this.
Eyes still closed, he rolled aside and felt grassy surface rubbing against his skin.
"Takashi.."
Natsume felt a hand touching his cheek. It was cold, like stream of water, and it felt nice.
.. so comfortable.
"You must be really lonely, my poor child." a subtle voice whispered, as the hand continue to stroke his cheek gently.
He felt tears coming out of his closed eyes, as he leaned against the cold hand that touched his face. A strange longing took hold of his heart.
Mother...?
"Hey, wake up!"
A harsh voice disturbing the boy's peaceful sleep. He was surprised but didn't able to immediately opened his eyes. he shifted and struggled to regain consciousness.
"Hey, what are you, a youkai? Why are you sleeping in my room?" she asked angrily.
When he finally able to look clearly, he realized that a beautiful girl is standing before him, both hands on her hips, honey colored long hair flowing in the air, and a pair of amber orbs flaring angrily at him.
Wait, that familiar face...
"EEHH?! GRANDMA?!" Natsume shrieked, he shifted behind with a terrified look. The girl angrily balled up her fist and stared at him sharply, with a vein visually throbbing on her forehead.
"Who the heck are you calling grandma? That's so rude! I'm only 16, brat!"
Natsume rubbed his eyes, still cannot process what is going on. He wondered why he's in this unknown place with his late grandmother who looked like a 16 years old girl.
"Am I dreaming?" he asked confusedly. "Why am I here?"
"It's me who should ask you that!" Reiko grumbled with annoyance. "That aside, why are you sleeping in other people's room?!"
"..I dont know.." Natsume rubbed his head. he looked about the tiny room. Clothes scattered here and there , futon and blanket sprawled in a mess, books and other things are everywhere. He suddenly remembered when Nyanko-sensei told him Reiko was a careless human being.
I guess Nyanko-sensei was right after all, He chuckled.
"What are you laughing at?" Reiko asked with an eyebrow raised. Natsume felt cold sweat ran through his body and he let out a nervous laugh. "No, it's nothing, really."
"Are you even a human?"
She sat in front of Natsume, narrowed her eyes, and leaned closer to inspect him.
"So rude. I am a human." Natsume muttered.
"I see. It's just you have a really weak presence..almost like..." she stopped there. "Uh, and hey, why does your face look kinda familiar? Have we met before?"
I wonder if the reason she doesn't realize our resemblance is because she hated to look at a mirror.. He sweatdropped.
"Ah! You kinda look like...me!"
there, she realized.
"I dont understand why this is happening.." Reiko massaged her temple, looking pale. she then heaved out a long sigh. "Wait here."
She suddenly stood up and exited the room, not for long before returning with a plate of watermelon cuts.
"Here." She offered Natsume one big cut of watermelon and grabbed one for herself.
"So.." she paused and spitted out a seed. "What's your name?"
Natsume hesitated a bit before he answered.
"Natsume Takashi."
"Woah,what, you're a Natsume also? my name's Natsume Reiko, isn't that an awful coincidence?" she laughed. Natsume was rather surprised, he never think that Reiko could laughed so comfortably in front of other human.
"Weird. Not to mention that we're strangely look alike...could it be you are 'me' that is living in other universe?" she asked excitedly.
"That could be it." Natsume smiled. "I dont remember how did I get here in first place, though.."
Reiko laughed. "I wonder why you don't feel strange at all, being a stranger you are."
They ate their watermelon in silence before the room shook violently, and a gigantic horse shaped youkai entered the room with force.
"WHOA!" they both screamed.
"Natsume Reiko.."
It's Misuzu! But he wont recognize me here...
Then Natsume realized that Reiko was glaring at him in shock.
"You could see that thing over there?!" Reiko glared at Natsume in disbelieve.
"Natsume Reiko, please return my name..."the youkai interrupt, he was asking with desperate voice that Natsume actually pitied him for it.
"What? Not a chance! We had a deal, didn't we? I'm going to hold your name and until I call out for your help, please stay at your dwelling." She commanded with such arrogance. Reiko stared at the youkai intensely with darkening eyes, and it quietly fled away, acknowledging the huge difference between their strength.
"Why are you stealing those youkai's name?" Natsume carefully asked.
"Because I'm stronger than them. And just for the fun out of it. " Reiko smirked evilly.
She clearly doesn't have any idea of how much of a trouble those names would be for me years later..
"So...for how long have you started seeing those strange things?" she asked, before taking a seat.
"Since forever, I guess."
Reiko chuckled a bit, her eyes turned gentler. "Same here." She shifted a bit, looking anxious for a moment.
"Do you..get lonely because of it? Do you get lonely because of that ability to 'see'?" For a moment Reiko seemed like she's snapping out of emotional trance state and quickly apologized.
"Ah, no, sorry for asking weird thing.."
"Yes, I was lonely back then." Natsume stared at her restless expression gently.
"I did get lonely a lot of times." he said, "But I'm okay now."
Reiko stayed quiet. She hugged herself tight as if cold wind are blowing pass her body.
"I used to be really lonely also. Always, and always alone. With no one that understands me, I'm always fighting alone, because people always avoid me. They point out their fingers at me and say that I'm a liar, just because they can't see what I see." She said with trembling voice.
"But I'm okay. That doesn't bother me anymore. I dont need other people,friends,or family, because I'm strong. I could always make fun of those youkai to get out of boredom." She grinned widely, and then flinched when Natsume's gentle hand patted her head. She stared at Natsume's faintly smiling face, letting him touched strands of her hair gently.
So comfortable.
Hey, I'm glad we met. Reiko didn't say that out loud , instead, she smiled warmly. "Ne, where do you really live? You're not really an other-universe being, are you?"
"I certainly don't belong here," he explained, "But the place I live in, it's a place close to here. A place where warm hearted people live."
"That's good." Reiko smiled genuinely. Natsume nodded, and smiled also. "Yeah."
...
Natsume! Natsume!
He heard a voice calling for him. Natsume stood up and looked around.
It's nyanko sensei's voice!
"Do you hear that?" He asked Reiko, who looked confused at his sudden action.
"Hear what?"
Natsume looked about the room. Somehow It began to blur, or maybe it was his vision that blurred. He looked at his grandmother, Reiko's face was faintly blurring also. Then he came at sudden realization. "I have to go,"
"Wait! Where will you go? Will we meet again?" Reiko grabbed his arm, she had this really lonely expression, that made Natsume wish he could stay a little bit longer.
"Goodbye Obaa-san.. and, thank you..."
He gave Reiko one last smile before everything blacked out.
"Oi, baka Natsume!"
Natsume woke up with Nyanko sensei's big round face an inch apart from his face. He stood up and confusedly looked about the place to find that he was on his usual sleeping spot at a hill near their house.
"What are you doing sleeping in a place like this? What if a strange youkai devour you while I'm gone?" Nyanko-sensei looked really annoyed. Natsume just sighed, and quietly gather his demon cat on both of his hands and held him close.
"Sensei...I just had a really strange dream."
The cat gave him an understanding look. It seemed like he got a little peek of Natsume's dream also.
"Nah, it was just a silly dream, don't think too much about it." He said. "Let's go home, I heard Touko will cook fried shrimp for dinner."
Natsume stared at his cat and faintly smiled. "Sensei, I'm really glad we met."
"What are you talking about! Let's go home quick, before they finished it all without us!"
"They wont!" Natsume laughed.
Nyanko-sensei jumped off Natsume's arm. "You're always a naive brat. Let's go!" He quickly dashed to their home following the delicious scent of Touko-san's cooking.
"Hai, Sensei!"
-end-