I don't own Nodame Cantabile
"Nodame please hurry up," Tanya said annoyed. She had put on her swimsuit hours ago to show off to Kuroki, who had showed no reaction. She sighed and thumped the door. Nodame had been changing in the room for a good 20 minutes now. Chiaki paced, his expression matching his tone of voice.
"I'll go and see what's wrong," Chiaki grumbled, as the usual vein popped out of his forehead. Tanya was appalled but responded with a smirk.
"Go ahead," She said as she pushed the door open and shoved Chiaki in. "good luck," She whispered. Chiaki blushed when he realized Tanya had no intention of knocking, and also of the thoughts in her mind. The door was slammed behind him. He looked around the hotel room. The bed was still neatly made, but Nodame was nowhere in sight. He heard Nodame's sniffle and he started searching for the monster. He grumbled to himself thinking of what kind of trouble she had gotten herself into in the past half hour. He sighed as he pushed open the closet door, it stopped on a dress and Chiaki bent down to remove it from being caught on the door. He pulled on the dress and heard Nodame yell a very audile "oof" as she was pulled along with the dress. Chiaki hopped back, surprised. Nodame was curled into a ball on the floor; her face had tear-streaked mascara running down from it.
"What happened?" Chiaki said, bending down and sitting on the ground beside her. He ruffled her hair, and she looked up at him.
"My bathing suit doesn't fit," She sniffled, picking up a bikini from the floor. Chiaki rolled his eyes and stopped the thoughts that something was wrong immediately.
"We will stop on the way to the beach and buy you a new one," Chiaki said calmly, he pulled Nodame's head onto his shoulder. The past few months he couldn't stop touching her, a pat on the shoulder, a tender caress on her cheek, anything. Nodame had been her usual self and jumped at the thought of anything relating to himself, touching him was even better, but she behaved herself knowing that overdoing it would cause her little treats to be gone.
"But, Sem- Shinichi, it was the one we bought together though," She cried, Chiaki took the bottom of his shirt and wiped the mascara from her eyes. He suddenly felt like he was comforting a child and he pulled away from her. Nodame stayed in her place.
"So?" He said the usual edge returning to his voice. "We will just buy another one. We only have 2 days here why are you wasting it crying?" Nodame had stopped crying and buried her head in her arms.
"1 day and 1 night," She corrected him. Chiaki straightened at the thought. He thought about how he ended up in this mess.
"I don't know where we are going to go for vacation," Nodame said looking through tour books. "This is are last summer. We have to get work after this. School has already ended. It will be different now that we have graduated." Tanya had jumped up at this thought as Frank, Kuroki, Chiaki and Nodame sat at the table.
"The beach!" She screamed, before any one could answer. Chiaki shuddered at the thought of going near the water. "And don't say your not going because I will pay for the rooms." Nodame and Kuroki immediately agreed while Chiaki hung back. Frank had said that he had already bought a ticket to his home for that week and begged them to postpone it, but Tanya insisted. Chiaki found the excuse that there was a concert the same day, but when half of his orchestra had gotten food poisoning he had no excuse. When they arrived to the beach and the hotel Tanya's family owned he found out her real plan, she had made the room arrangements so that she and Kuroki where sleeping in the same room. When Kuroki had flustered and asked why this was, Tanya shook her head and said innocently,"Do you want to come between become a couple like these two? Nodame might mistake you for Chiaki during the night and rape you. Are you alright with that?" No one could object with that.
Chiaki shuddered again; he saw Nodame had stood up. She grabbed Chiaki's hand. "We'll go shopping while Kuroki and Tanya play on the beach," Nodame said at her great idea. Chiaki sighed and swallowed a big breath.
"WHY WOULD WE BUY A SWIMSUIT IF YOU AREN'T GOING TO USE IT?" He yelled, and stormed out. Nodame followed out and grumbled to the car as they stopped at a store. She got out, her arms crossed with the familiar pout across her face. They all walked into the swimsuit store as Nodame picked one at random and took it to the dressing room. Tanya had to restrain herself from buying a leopard print bikini, she looked down at her plain white takini, and really hoped Kuroki liked it or else there was no reason to wear it. Nodame came out already with the swimsuit under her clothes. Chiaki sighed as she got an impossible angle to get the tag on register while still managing to keep her dress on.
"She'll be wearing it out," Chiaki said in French, as he pulled his wallet. Nodame jumped at the thought that it was automatic to pay for her. She jumped up and tried to kiss him, Chiaki held her away with one hand and gave the money to the man as he looked by warily.
"Chiaki you are so nice, so generous. Just picture us in twenty years and I'm buying another swimsuit and you are paying for it," Nodame said drifting off into her own fantasy world. Chiaki rolled his eyes at the thought of buying her another swimsuit in twenty years. A chuckle rolled off of his lips before he could stop it. By the time they reached the car they were in fits off laughter. Tanya followed slowly behind as she fell into step with Kuroki.
"Do you like my swimsuit?" Tanya said, stretching her arms not looking him in the eyes.
"Yes, it's really nice. But it's not your style is it." Kuroki said scratching his face. Tanya's heart audibly broke.
"Kuroki, you baka!" She cried as she ran to the car. Kuroki followed behind her, he got up to her and yelled.
"I like it! I just don't want you to change for me, I think your great they way you are." Kuroki said, looking anywhere but her eyes. She wrapped him in a hug, and they slipped into the car.
The beach was hard for Chiaki, although his aversion to water had gotten better since their last beach trip, his old fears still showed up. He sat under an umbrella reading a book, while the others ran to the beach. Nodame had picked an interesting, though very predictable, swimsuit. Purigota was written on her skimpy bikini. Chiaki sighed and rolled over onto his stomach, trying to keep his eyes away from Nodame. Their first night together, over a year ago, was messy and awkward. They were both nervous; the beer didn't do anything to help. He remembered the tears in her eyes after they had finished; they had not done it since. He wondered if tonight was going to be a time to make up for the last time. His book was finished in an hour, and he immediately regretted not taking more than one book. Nodame and Tanya splashed in the water, while Kuroki looked at seashells. Nodame suddenly ran over to Chiaki, there was sand covering her hair. She bent down over him and he sat up from his lying position. Her brushed the sand out of her hair, and pushed her hair behind her ears before she had time to respond. She had seemed to forget whatever she was going to say as she stared at him and stared into his eyes.
"What were you going to say?" He said yawning and standing up. Nodame stayed in the same spot staring into the spot he was before. She came back to the present and stood up as well.
"Do you want to in the water with me?" She asked as she started pulling his arm. He protested and sighed. Nodame knew what was wrong and stop pushing. She smiled weakly and waved bye and left him standing numbly in the same spot. Why did she know not to push him, he thought. Chiaki pulled out his bento and began eating. The others came closer, as he knew they would. They were all too preoccupied to think about lunch. He pulled three more out of his bag. They ate in silence. Tanya started making small talk.
"It's good that we came on a Thursday, almost no one's here." She commented. When no one responded she said, "The weather is really nice today. The water is nice, not too cold." She continued having a solo conversation with her self until she realized it was not needed. She said her thanks and both Kuroki and herself went to look for seashells. Nodame stayed behind with Chiaki as she finished her food.
"Thank you for the food. You are a really great cook, Chiaki. You will have to teach me sometime," Nodame said, turning her interest to him. Chiaki scoffed at the thought of Nodame cooking.
"That's a bad idea. I would get mad for no reason again," He laughed.
"You don't get mad for no reason. There's always a reason." She stood up and waved goodbye and went with Kuroki and Tanya. Chiaki walked to the nearest convenience store. They lined the beach. He picked the best looking one and went around, he bought a new book and two magazines. Chiaki walked up, watching the sun, it was high in the sky, and he wished they could go home already. He wanted to vacation somewhere better next year, somewhere he would enjoy. He went to the same place and sat down. How could they do the same thing for so long? They're interest in seashells reminded him of dating. You can search forever and ever; there are so many shells all over the world, all of them beautiful in their own way. Nodame was a shell, washed onto his shore; maybe she wasn't even a shell but a broken piece of glass. That piece of glass might not have the same characteristics of the others but you still want to take that piece of glass home, in case it turned out to be something more. He sighed when he thought of his 10 year old taking the piece of glass home to his parents to find out that it wasn't glass at all, but instead pure diamond. He was engrossed in his novel and the next time he looked up he noticed the sun was setting. He looked at his watch. it was already 6. How had 5 hours gone by? He sighed and packed up his umbrella and mat. The other three came running up to him. He knew they were hungry. Why else would they need him? He sighed, they walked to the car, and Nodame couldn't stop talking about how she had found a shark tooth. The wet bathing suit stuck to her body and Chiaki tried not to look.
"-I swear, I had it. The wave washed it away!" Nodame was telling Chiaki, she tried to grab onto his arm, her chest pressing against it. Chiaki flailed his arm away like it was on fire. She seemed surprised but kept talking.
"I found a whole clam too! It might have had a pearl inside it but I let it go." She said, recovering they stopped at a fast food joint and ate in the car. Kuroki and Tanya could barely keep their eyes off of each other, Chiaki tried to ignore the sexual tension while Nodame was oblivious to it.
"Tanya, did you feel the sharp rocks at the bottom?" Nodame asked, but Tanya didn't hear her. Kuroki was saying something softly and Tanya laughed. Nodame saw this and stayed silent for the rest of the ride. The reached the hotel. Nodame stared off after Kuroki and Tanya. They had left without saying goodbye. Nodame mumbled, "Bye," but they hadn't even heard. Nodame was silent as they walked past. She looked at the carpet as they climbed the stairs. They reached the room.
"Are you alright?" Chiaki asked.
"Of course," She said looking up at him. Chiaki opened the door and they walked into the room, together.
Nodame looked at the clock it was 3 am. Chiaki was out on terrace smoking a cigarette. He sighed, it was good this time, he thought. They had done it for the second time at a hotel on a beach. He felt he needed to write it in a scrapbook, he chuckled to himself. He had enjoyed it and he could see Nodame had too. She picked her dress off of the floor and slipped it on. She walked over to Chiaki and put her arms around him, she had kissed his neck.
"You cried this time," Nodame said and laughed softly. Chiaki jumped when she said that.
"I didn't" he blushed. She kissed his neck again.
"Chiaki, I love you, I'm sorry you didn't have fun at the beach." She whispered. He closed his eyes, but nodded.
"Next year let's go some place other than the beach, the two of us. Tanya and Kuroki made me feel…. Bad." Chiaki said.
"I, I have been asked to take on a private lesson students. It's very high paying, I would be teaching some very promising students. I think I'm going to take it," Nodame said, her tone was serious. Chiaki kissed her hand.
"I meant to tell you before we left, I have signed a five year contract with the Roux-Marlet Orchestra. Teaching that orchestra has been so nice and refreshing, I really want to teach there… for as long as I can." Chiaki said.
"I love you," Nodame said.
"Me too," Chiaki said. They fell asleep that night with a feeling of euphoria. Finally, his future was falling into place. That piece of glass turns out not to be glass or even diamonds, the inside was made of pure gold.