The eighteen year old walked along the leaf patterned walkway back to her apartment, swinging her bag of books. The sun created yellow, red and orange streaks as it set into the deepening sky. Elisabeth sighed and closed her eyes a moment as she turned a corner, running smack dab into a young man. Surprised, she fell backwards, dropping her books on the ground. The bag split open and the books scattered onto the pavement. Elisabeth landed on her bottom and bit her lip to keep in a vile remark.
"Are you all right?" The young man knelt next to her, picking up some of her books.
Elisabeth rubbed her sore rear and nodded, "Yeah. Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
"No," The young man smiled, "It's my fault. I wasn't paying attention either."
"Can we just say that it's both our faults?"
"Sure." His gentle voice smiled again.
Elisabeth picked up the rest of her books from her spot on the ground, then looked at the ripped bag, "I knew that bag was cheap..." She looked up at the young man and smiled back, "Remind me never to go into an American shop in Japan, even here they suck."
He laughed, and held out his hand, "You speak Japanese pretty well for an American."
"I'm special," Elisabeth took his hand and he helped her up, "My name is Elisabeth... um, Elisabeth Messer."
"Hiwatori Satoshi." He smiled slightly, "So, you are all American."
"Perhaps."
Satoshi handed Elisabeth her books, "Do you live around here?"
"Mmhm," She rearranged the books to a more comfortable position, "Just down that way, I'm living in the Jonen District."
"Really? Me too. Need any help?" Satoshi gestured to her full arms.
Elisabeth grinned over her load, "Nope. I am used to this, I had to do it when I was studying."
"Were you the one who's light was on all night sometimes?"
"Oh, yeah, that's me." She smiled sheepishly.
Satoshi smiled as they started walking again, "You must be devoted to your work."
"I'm learning all I can about all the legends and myths!" She voiced eagerly, "I've wanted to do this for a long time, since I was about 8."
Satoshi blinked at her, "That long?"
"Yeah." Elisabeth sighed happily, "It's so nice to actually be able to do this. I have never felt so, free."
"I can help you," Satoshi turned to her with a hopeful look on his face, "I should have plenty of time in-between my studies, and I might be able to get some books from the library."
Elisabeth smiled back, "That would be great."
He smiled, and turned to a house, "This ones yours, right?"
"Yes," She walked up to the door, "Want to come in? I'm sure I can find something for us to munch on."
"If it's all right." Satoshi came beside her and watched her fiddle with her keys, "Want me to do that?"
Elisabeth smiled gratefully at him as he took the keys and opened her door, "Thank you."
"No problem," The door swung in and they both walked inside.
A wood floored hallway with cream walls branched off into rooms ahead of the two young adults, a stairway curled around the corner to the upstairs where a silver cat came prancing down. Elisabeth put the books down on the entryway table and knelt to pet the cat. Satoshi looked around into another room. White curtains blew gently in the breeze over a mahogany couch and love seat. The walls were dark knotted wood, giving the room a dark yet homey feel. A small desk held up a laptop on its wooden surface, while a swivel chair sat snugly under it. A round coffee table squatted bowlegged in the middle of the floor on a deep red rug and polished cherry wood floors crept from under the furniture. A few scattered papers and books were sprawled out on the coffee table with a cup full of pens in the middle. A fan light hung from the ceiling and cupped the light bulbs in flowers. And a touch lamp with wolves on it sat on the desk, overhanging the laptop. A tv sat in the corner of the room, on a small stand with a VCR; next to those was a stand holding as many tapes as it could, a couple were on the floor in front of it. Another doorway lead off to a darker room. Satoshi vaguely wondered what was in that room.
"Please excuse the mess in there, I didn't get a chance to clean up this morning," Elisabeth smiled and picked up her cat, "And I wasn't expecting company."
"That's okay." Satoshi smiled back.
Elisabeth put the cat over her shoulders, where it sat comfortably and nuzzled her face, "Go make yourself at home, I'll be right in to clean up. I'm going to take care of these books first and get some food."
"All right." Satoshi watched the brown haired young woman pick up the books and balance the cat.
She flashed a smile at him and walked carefully up the stairs, "Don't worry, my furniture doesn't bite."
Satoshi smiled at the teasing and walked into her living room. He sat on the couch carefully and looked over at the papers Elisabeth had been writing. A word caught his eyes, InuYasha. He had heard of that before, leaning forward Satoshi began to read what the young writer had written.
I have been wondering about this for a while, I thought that I could ask Rumiko herself but apparently she is gone for a trip. I'll bet that was just something that they made up so that I would go away. Luckily I still found something. I was looking in the older books in the public library and found an amazing book! I recognized the Kanji for InuYasha, I'm so proud! makes kitty face Anyway, I picked it up and voila! I was right! It was all about the half demon InuYasha, and it even had Sesshoumaru in it! I checked it out and got a few strange looks, but hey, at least I got it. What I found out in the book was even more interesting, it said- "Here you go." Satoshi jumped as Elisabeth came into the room with a tray.
He leaned back quickly. Elisabeth put the tray on a small side table next to the couch and neatened up the coffee table.
"This is some of my research that I've already collected." Elisabeth smiled sheepishly, "As you can see I am not that good at keeping things going." She pointed at the date on the corner of the paper Satoshi had been reading; June 15 2006. "That was a couple of months ago."
A couple of months, Satoshi marveled, that was half a year ago! " Wow." He watched her as she picked up the papers and moved them to the drawer under the laptop.
Elisabeth walked back over and put the tray on the table, paused, then poured some tea for the gray eyed boy. "I'll be back in a second," She placed the tea in front of Satoshi, "I have to organize the books. Help yourself to the cookies."
"Thank you." He took the cup she handed him, then watched her leave.
Elisabeth traveled up the stairs quickly, she didn't want to be a bad hostess, and the impression she was making was that of an absent minded eighty year old. She walked into the room to the left of the stairs and put the books on a desk. Papers cluttered the space on the worn desk and a drawer hung open with papers hanging out. A few pens hid behind books so that they could stay on the desk, a few more littered the floor. Two large bookcases were on either side of the room, books were either on the shelves or on the floor; a swivel chair sat scatty-whompus near the left bookcase, a book on its cushioned seat. Elisabeth put her hands on her hips and looked around. Tonight and tomorrow will have to be cleaning days... she thought with a sigh.
She turned to go out the door and stepped on a pen that was on a paper. Falling she squeaked, her hand caught the swivel chair, and it fell over with her; they both landed with a smash. Satoshi heard the loud thud and got up, running up the stairs and to Elisabeth's work room, where he surveyed the scene. The young researcher was on the floor with a swivel chair on top of her; in her hand was a pen and paper. Elisabeth was glaring at the two inanimate objects.
"Are you all right?" He walked over the mess to her.
Startled Elisabeth looked up, "Oh," Shit! "Um, yeah, I think so." She shoved the swivel chair off her, "I really need to clean this room, I meant to today. It's a bit of a mess." She laughed slightly.
"I dont think 'a bit' fits it." Satoshi knelt next to Elisabeth, and pointed at the pen and paper, "Are these the culprits to your fall?"
"Yeah..." She looked at them, "They have been after me from the start."
Satoshi laughed and helped Elisabeth up, "I don't think that I have ever come across a scenario where a pen and paper outwitted a human."
"You would be surprised at what can outwit this human." Elisabeth grumbled, "I'm sorry you had to see this mess. I was hoping no one would, except me, myself and I of course."
Satoshi looked around then back at the brunette, who was looking around shamefully, "Don't worry, my room gets worse than this when I am studying for a final." Elisabeth looked at the teen, "If you want, I'll help you pick this up, it will go twice as fast if we work together." He smiled.
"Really, no, I couldn't-"
Satoshi picked up a pew papers, "Where do you want these?"
Elisabeth sighed and looked at them, "They need to be in alphabetical order, according to their title on the top," She pointed at the top right hand corner, "See?"
"All right." He started picking up the other papers and organizing them.
Elisabeth watched him thankfully, but she didn't want to show it. She could've done it on her own, it would've been harder, yes, but it felt strange having the help of this young man. She sighed and turned to the books, organizing them. The strangest thing about Satoshi, she thought, was his gray eyes. In Japan the most common color was, of course, brown, many many shades of brown, but brown the same. Satoshi had light gray eyes, almost silver, rimmed in a dark gray. It was the first thing she noticed about him. He had really pretty eyes. Then she noticed his voice, it had a gentle, medium deep sound, and he almost sang while he spoke. She smiled. He had a nice voice; it wasn't really deep, but it wasn't very high either. Almost like a purr of a panther, a tame panther. Satoshi was rather tall for a Japanese person, most of the men were about the same height as herself, but he was taller by almost half a foot, if not more. He had dark brown hair, this Elisabeth had expected, but when it was hit by the right light, his hair seemed at least six shades lighter. Elisabeth glanced at him as she put the books on the shelf in order by the title and height of the book. He was looking at the papers on her desk, and putting them in a few neat piles. Elisabeth turned back to her work, and a thought came to her, I hope I didn't leave any diary pages on there... She sighed to herself, Oh dear.
The pair worked steadily on the room. At one point Elisabeth ran down to get the tea, heat it back up, and bring it up to where they were. It was around nine o'clock when they finally finished. Elisabeth looked around her workroom. The books were in order, and on the bookcases; she hadn't know that they all could fit. Her papers were in the organizer that her mom had given her a while ago, and the most current project was on the top off her desk. All the pens and pencils were in the drawer on top of the chair, and her pictures that she had doodled were actually on the wall.
Elisabeth grinned at Satoshi, who was munching on a cookie, "This could very well be the cleanest this room has ever been."
Satoshi looked around, "It looks nice."
"Thanks to you. I don't think I would've had enough patience for cleaning it this thoroughly on my own." Great, now I must sound like an impatient, dirty person. She sighed.
Satoshi sighed loudly, "Now if only my room would do this on its own."
Startled she looked at him, then laughed. He laughed also. Elisabeth looked at her watch and yelped, "Shoot! I'm missing a meeting!" She looked around and grabbed her bag, "Now I don't know where anything is..."
"Here," Satoshi handed her the papers she needed and a few pens, "Thought you might need them, seeing the date is set to today." He smiled.
Elisabeth smiled back, "Thanks." She turned, "Oh, the tea-"
"I'll take care of it, I'm sure I can find my way into your kitchen." Satoshi offered.
She paused for a second, "All right. Bye! Lock the doors when you leave!"
Satoshi picked up the tea tray and heard the front door close, he quickly looked out the window to see how Elisabeth was going to get to her meeting and saw her roller blading off. He chuckled to himself at the sight of the eighteen year old, in a business suit, on roller blades. Starting to walk down the stairs, Satoshi thought about how quickly she left him in her house. Not that she had any reason to fear him, but he hoped that she didn't do this for every stray person she met. He walked into another room and saw the kitchen sink. Satoshi looked around and stared, Elisabeth's house had to be the cleanest one he had seen for a research/collage student who had a job. Where did she find the time for it? He wondered as he rinsed and washed the tea set. Satoshi sighed, "Great, I just hope none of my friends are home to see me leave Miss Elisabeth's house, with my luck, they'll all be home." He took his jacket off the coat rack and put his shoes on. "And they'll all see me leave." He checked all the locks and left the young woman's house.