Unsurprisingly, the first thing that Shuuya wanted to do upon landing in America was find a record store. Noriko, while she did feel the need to find a place for them to stay and perhaps start looking for jobs, felt a rush of excitement as he grasped her hand and ran through the streets of New York City. There was too much to take in; too many different people and too many buildings and all of the different languages of the people around them mixing together into something foreign and beautiful.
Eventually, Shuuya stopped running. Noriko pressed a hand over her heart, breathing hard. He looked around, a look of absolute joy on his face. "It's just as great as I thought it would be," he said. "America. Wow. But let's find that record shop. There's got to be a lot of stuff that I couldn't even think about finding before."
Noriko nodded. She was feeling his elation, but there was still something in the back of her head that told her that they should probably be looking for things like food, shelter, and a way to make money. Shuuya did have a guitar strapped across his back; they'd managed to get their hands on one before leaving for America, but other than that, they had barely anything.
"Then we'll look for other stuff. Things we need," Shuuya said. He gave her a smile, and she gave him a smile back. "I just want to look in the record store, that's all. Take it all in."
"Okay," Noriko said, and they spent a few more seconds catching their breath before they were off again. After more running and turning around and running some more, they found themselves standing before a record store. It looked fairly old, but clean and like it got a lot of customers. Shuuya looked at her one more time, that grin that she loved so much on his face, and then reaffixed his grip on her hand and pushed open the door.
A bell rung as they entered, Shuuya nearly pulling Noriko's arm off in excitement. Noriko stopped short as she took in everything – it was more beautiful than she thought it could be. The walls and floor were warm wood, and there were records everywhere – boxes upon boxes lined the walls, there were shelves, there were spinning racks filled with the most popular ones on display.
Shuuya made a beeline for one. Noriko couldn't quite make out what it was, but she followed him anyway, giving a smile to the employee who came to greet them. Shuuya grabbed the record off of the rack it was on and whirled around.
"It's Springsteen!" he said, eyes alight with joy. The smile stretched his face so wide that she couldn't help but smile back. "We made it. We really did."
Without warning, he put his hands on her face and kissed her. The record pressed into her left cheek, like he couldn't bear to put it down for even a second, and his lips were on hers and she didn't even feel embarrassed. She kissed him back.
After what felt like similarly eternity and no time at all, he pulled away. He still held the record. She tried to control her breathing as she looked at him. It wasn't working. He took another look at the record.
"Once we have some money," he said. "We're getting a record player. And this. And we'll listen to it every night and we'll dance to it and we'll never forget."
Noriko nodded, feeling a lump rise in her throat and tears well up in her eyes. Shuuya put the record back and looked at her, and she could see his eyes shine with tears, too.
"Let's look around a little bit longer," he said. "I want to see what else they have. There's probably so much that I haven't even heard of."
Noriko nodded. "I barely know anything about the kind of music you like," she said. She reached out, grasped his hand, and smiled. "But since we're here, why don't you teach me?"
This was requested by a user on Tumblr, who wanted a Shuuya/Noriko + record store + maybe a kiss! So here we go!
