Author's Note: Yes, I realize that one-shots have become a hobby of mine. I might as well become notorious for them, heck, maybe even make a whole collection of them. Make a beautiful little booklet to show my nursey school teacher. (: Ahaha .. sorry, I'm just being silly. Well, at least these little skits help motivate my mind for my actual stories. d:
Many apologies in advanced to helga3 for taking her "lunches at the bench" idea. X( While I was writing this, I realized that it took the same settings and stuff as yours. I didn't mean to seem like I stole your idea, I promise you. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me .. You are an amazingly talented writer and I respect you lots and lots and lots! (:
Shoot .. In the process of writing this, I realized that Risa's approach to Satoshi is much like the one in my other Risa x Sat one-shot, Ocean Eyes. Ahaha .. Oh dear. So much for originality.
Anyone looking forward to the continuation of "I'm Glad Hiwatari-kun is With Me"? ME TOO! Tyahaha. x) Wow, it's only now that I realize how OLD that is. 2003? My goodness. : And I've been a Risa x Satoshi fan since then .. Long time gone. I remember back in the day when it would be SO HARD just to hear anyone think about the couple without a disgusted look on their face. Haha .. People have come around. Anyways, I remember that I already wrote half of the chapter to that! It was almost twenty pages I think .. but gaaah I don't know where I put it!
(Okay, okay, I'm ranting again.)
Well, anyways, another little diddly on Sat x Risa, not surprising. Just read on to figure out what happens. D: Enough said.
Disclaimer: I do not own D.N.Angel or it's characters.
Boxed Lunch
By Jackie Doming
Satoshi sat under the shade of the sakura tree. The leaves had just reached their peak in the springtime, blossoms fresh and sweet in scent. The aroma filled the air with a warm and gentle ambiance, an invisible mist of romance surrounding the boy. It was calming, in a sense that the world around him was so restful and serene.
One solitary, cherry petal landed softy on Satoshi's lap. The leaf sat comfortably in the spine of the book that rested upon him. It was open down the centre, a thick novel, not surprisingly holding more than a few hundred pages. The papers were wrinkled and tattered, speaking truth of the many years that it had experienced in the living world.
As he sat alone on the park bench, a few whispers of a humming melody escaped Satoshi's mouth. The resonance was sincere and kind, a rare and unusual harmony coming from the least expected of characters. Never had anyone witnessed the young prodigy behave in such a manner.
His father expected him to act calm, professional, extremely ordinary yet exceptionally outstanding all at the same time. Satoshi was an unspoken genius and tried, in his best efforts, to keep this information undisclosed. This could be the source of an explanation for his unobtrusive appearance. He never wanted those who knew him to know this true self and potential. If they found out what he was capable of, who knows what types of advantages they could take over him.
In fact, Satoshi only ever wanted to be an average teenager. The kind that you could find goofing around with their friends, completely focused playing video games, eating out after school, experiencing a typical life. But no, this behaviour wasn't acceptable. He wasn't allowed to be normal, and he was anything but.
From time to time, he would find a quiet, tranquil place where he could vent put his humanness. There were those few occasions where he would put his mind to rest, filling his thoughts with complete nothingness and enjoying what was around him. He would notice how pleasant was the April breeze, how fragrant the dewy grass smelled, and he was even starting to become fond of the twittering song of the birds, no matter how irritating they became. The environment was one that you could only imagine in a fairy tale, and he was in the midst of it. If only life could be filled with such serene moments.
Satoshi didn't even recall how he found this secret haven in the first place. He stumbled upon the lonesome bench as he ventured through the brush of the park, trying to escape the boisterous habits of Japan. He was tired of it. He had to get away from the blinding lights, the screaming children and the polluted stench of gasoline.
The scent was a little more mild, now, that he was surrounded by greenery on all sides. They filtered the malevolent reality that was the world.
And to reach the flower, you must first live as the bee .. Satoshi thought that dialect of the book was absurd at first, but as he took his time to decipher the true meaning, he began to comprehend the metaphor. To reach something of true beauty, something pure and unmoving, you must work hard living in the reality of all things. You have to sacrifice your time to devote yourself to responsibilities that, later on, help you sort out what is genuine from the tainted. Simply, you must experience the worst of the worst before you can truly appreciate the goodness of something that is better.
Kushkushkush.
Satoshi's ear perked. He quickly sensed the rustling in the bush behind him, and his eyes were swift to dart to the corner of his icy, blue eyes. How could somebody find such a place? It was hidden from all other forms of humanity, but soon after he discovered it, it would be taken away from him, much like all the few other presents that he received in life.
As a few leaves drifted to the ground with the excess movement in the bush, and creature emerged. Much more detail said, a female creature with a head of thick, luxurious chestnut brown locks, caramel eyes and a maroon private school uniform. She was holding a pallid box in her hands and looked slightly distressed, yet sheepish. There was a goofy smile forming on her face as she realized that she was not the only one there, Satoshi turning around to give her a perplexed look.
"Oh, Hiwatari-kun! I didn't realize that you knew about this place!" The innocent, girly tone belonged to none other than Harada Risa, sister to Harada Riku. They were often mistaken for each other by looks, but when you came to knew their personalities, people would wonder why certain saw them as the same one completely. "Is it alright if I stay here with you? I'd go back, but all the park benches are full."
Risa was much like any other teenager girl her age, completed focused on the three essentials: her looks, her clothes and boys. To see her happy, ecstatic, surprised or depressed, you knew that those emotions would only connect to matters such as those.
Satoshi thought she was often predictable the whole time that he had known her and found few things remarkable about her. She wasn't quite as 'extraordinary' as he was, and with that, they automatically had little in common. They could never shared the same mind or thoughts. Basically, she was living on a different world, and he was light years ahead of her.
Despite his beliefs of the girl, Satoshi didn't act as though he minded the intrusion. Solitude welcomed company with open arms, no matter what the situation. As his eyes drifted back to the print of the book, his monotonous voiced answered back. "It doesn't bother me, I don't mind the company."
Although he was already turned away, Risa still smiled at him thankfully. As she sauntered away from her previous spot, she made herself cozy beside Satoshi on the bench. It was made out of a light wood, covered in a slightly toned varnish, and the railings on the side were elegant curves of dark metal. The length of the bench fit two people perfectly.
She glanced down at the novel that sat between Satoshi's lap. "Is that for school? I don't recall sensei assigning that to us."
His eyes continued scanning the pages from left to right, unceasingly reading the lyrics of the book. He indifferently, almost half-heartedly, replied, his focus obviously elsewhere. "I've decided to read this on my own time." Satoshi did this often. He found that reading was a reliable source of company, always giving you something to do. It almost replaced that void where friends were suppose to be, but just not quite.
"You really do that, Hiwatari-kun?" Risa looked a bit perplexed, as if leisure reading was unheard of to her. On her time, anything that related to schoolwork was her 'last priority' list. Even if it wasn't for school, she still felt a drop in her stomach as she was reminded of the torture of textbooks, burning an image in her mind that she couldn't shake. "Why would you be reading books on such a beautiful day like this? You really can't fun if all your attention is on one little thing like that!"
Satoshi breathed a sigh through his lungs. "And what might you be doing in this 'beautiful' spring day?" He didn't have the intention to come off as standoffish, but he never really knew how to express himself in any other way.
"Eating lunch, what else?" That cheerful chirp remained embedded in Risa's vocal box. She was full of bubbly joy for the majority of the time, and Satoshi was somewhat envious her openness to act herself so easily. Never in a long time would Satoshi's voice sound the least bit lively. This proved to Satoshi that a girl like Risa was still very innocent at heart. If only he could be in her shoes. "Where's your lunch, Hiwatari-kun? Did you forget?"
He shook his head briskly, glancing towards her boxed lunch. He hadn't eaten all day, never being able to prove himself when it came to the cuisine. It was one of his sole imperfections that stuck out like a sore thumb. He constantly had to resort to cold sandwiches and canned juices with the little string of preparation time he had. Even on the weekends, he never put in the effort to create more than one simple scramble egg and a cupful of cold coffee, knowing that anything he would try to make would end up in the trash bin a few minutes later.
All the above selections stung his taste buds, so he easily decided to skip breakfast and lunch that day. With great pleasure. "I didn't bring one."
"Honestly?" Risa gave him a sympathetic look. He didn't want her sympathy, nor her pity. He was doing quite well on his own. But, Satoshi knew, Risa was extremely strong-minded. She always set her stakes high and her determination drove her to extreme limits. This might've been more than a simple task for her. "You have to take some of mine then! Come on, I don't mind sharing."
Satoshi quickly grew reluctant, and for some strange reason, oddly embarrassed. He inched away from her, putting his hand up to refuse her offer. Her intentions were kind, but he wasn't a person that collected offers like pennies off of the curb. He was, indeed, no scrub that begged for leftovers. "I'm not hungry, thanks."
The next thing that happened was something that Satoshi cursed his damned timing for. A thunderous rumbling resonated from the pit of his abdomen, belching like a lost pig. He placed his arm over his empty stomach in efforts to muffle the groaning, but it did no assistance. Risa had already heard the most of it, and looked a bit awkward yet thankful, all in the same. "Hey, don't think I didn't hear that! You are hungry, aren't you?"
Satoshi looked at her straight-faced, still trying to hold in the bottomless pit that he so desperately wanted to fill. He tried his best to appear that he didn't want any of that delicious, mouth-watering food, precisely wrapped to perfection in an elegant white cube. His nasals were congested with the scent of the delights, debating that it was either sushi, rice-cakes, fried fish or all of the above in the box of wonders.
Risa noticed the longing look on his face and tried to stifle a giggle. How hard he tried to act against his own will. Proving to act tough and without any needs, much like any other guy. There were those little morsels of actions and traits from Satoshi that, if pieced together, made him a little more human. He wasn't as robotic as many others perceived him as. Risa knew.
She began to unwrap the box and revealed the contents to the respects of Satoshi's predictions. Four rice cakes lay neatly together on a sheet of leaf and a dozen slabs of seaweed covered dynamite rolls sitting beside them. Four filets of fish stared at up at them, googly eyed, all the delicacies almost crying out to be eaten at the blink of a second.
As she reached for the chopsticks in the corner of the bock, she looked up at the cat-faced Satoshi with a smile. "You know, you don't have to be shy. I wasn't going to be able to finish this on my own."
She shoved a pair of chopsticks in his face, and timidly, he took them in his hands. For those few moments, Satoshi lost all his knowledge of knowing how to consume food, and in a blink of an instance, all instincts rushed back to him like a violent stampeded of adrenaline.
And as simple as that, the dynamite rolls, fried fish and rice cakes disappeared from sight.
Satoshi and Risa dropped their soiled chopsticks into the empty box, little bits of tacky rice sticking onto odd places inside of the cardboard. An air of complete and utter gratification swelled up on both of their face.
As Risa turned to face Satoshi, a bright smile adorned the features of her face, a slight giggle in her intonation. "Ow, my stomach's bursting! The mochi was sooo good!"
And then it came, hitting him like a slap across the face. Something unheard of, something that came to him once in a lifetime and was more priceless than any metal or jewel or any kind. It was laughter. Not only from Risa, but the king of solemnity, Satoshi himself.
It was a moment in time when all things that were real became surreal. There he was, sharing a genuine, innocent, dare say perfect moment, where Satoshi was acting completely human, down to the fresh and bone. He was human, after all, but he had never come across such a rare instance as this where he actually heard the sound of his own laughter bubbling from the jaw of his mouth.
It was like unsung melody that he had been dying to write all of his life. It was completely bizzare, but at the same time, beautiful and wonderful, all on it's own
Risa's smile widened to it's full heights as Satoshi's sweet chuckles went through from ear to ear. She knew then, that she had experienced something memorable, passing through her mind for the rest of her entire lifetime. She considered herself lucky to be where she was, right at that moment, with the child prodigy that was more human that anyone could ever be.
As the giggles died down and silent rested in its place, the sun began to shift in the sky and droop steadily towards the other end of the horizon. Risa glanced down at her wristwatch and raised her eyebrows in surprise, only to realize how much time has passed since their little rendezvous. "Oh, wow, it's already 5? I have to get home now before my sister kills me, I'm suppose to cook tonight."
"Alright." Satoshi's voice seemed somewhat changed, a hidden kindness buried deep within his throat. "Thank you for the lunch."
"Anytime!" Risa replied brightly while placing her hand over his, laying on the joint of knee. He looked down upon it questioningly, an odd sensation fill his cheeks. "This was really nice, Hiwatari-kun. I really hope that we can eat lunch together again sometime."
And with that, Risa quickly bounced to her feet and made a small motion with her hand as a wave of goodbye. Hurriedly, she scurried behind the bench and lost herself behind the bushes once again.
Satoshi sat there by himself in complete silence, feeling oddly satisfied. Although he was by himself once again, he didn't have that lonely numbing tugging at his mind. If only he knew the reasoning to this, for not only was his stomach complete filled to the rim, but filled was the torn emptiness in his heart.
Author's Note: So, how'd you like it? I feel that it was a little less corny than a lot of my previous one-shots, more of a friendly interaction with a twist ending. (; I hope you liked it .. at least, a little more than I did. :( These two barely speak in this fic .. But at the same time, a lot of things go on, in a sense. Very short but baring some sort of strong meaning, I hope you get it? I noticed that it's difficult to write Satoshi's dialogue sometimes. :S He's a man of few words, and the way he talks .. Gaaah you frustrate me, Satoshi, you sexy beast. Hardy har har x)
Well, anyways, I think I'm going to work on one of my Sat x Risa stories now. x) Tralala .. anyways, to all your beautiful readers out there, review review review ! (it's very much appreciated (: )