Last Written On: April 20, 2016

Disclaimer: This fan fiction is non-profit, simply written for a writer's fangirl relief. Any familiar characters and references mentioned in the entirety of this fanfic do not belong to me, except for some plot adjustments to insert my OC in.

Author's Note: Hello rooster fandom! I'd like you guys to know that this is canon from the anime, and updates will be once a month for now. It might stretch to be slower in the future, since life will be a little crazy then for me as far as what I'm seeing of it. Anyway, I hope you like my Mizutani Makoto and her adventures with the grandma clothes, the chicken coop, and the blonde.

Enjoy!

01: "Sitting Next to Yoshida-kun"

Part I: Unexpected and Strange

There's so much I want to talk about.

I want to talk about the girl who never really thought of me as a friend, but who I considered my only friend for a while. Her seriousness of studying, her blunt nature, her obsession for good grades, and her horrendous style dubbed "grandma clothes" made her distinct.

I want to talk about the boy who never stopped chasing after her, who always went through long lengths to please her, who named a rooster coop fence after her, and who called me his friend.

I want to talk about the girl who couldn't pry herself off of the Internet, who suffered unbelievably low grades, who was misunderstood, and who listened to me when I needed help.

I want to talk about the boy who would've seemed ordinary if I never bothered to get a better look at him, the boy who loved baseball, who smiled all the time, whose good-natured personality made me smile too.

I want to talk about the girl who couldn't make any friends because of a missed opportunity, who kept many things to herself, who had a low self-esteem, who had good grades, and who lent me her trust.

I want to talk about the man who would take me out for sweets.

I want to talk about the man who owned that one store.

I want to talk about those three funny boys who would buy spray cans to make graffiti on school property, who flocked to any girl that looked like one, and who pushed me to my concluding thoughts and feelings.

I want to talk about that rooster that was never cooked.

Most of all… I want to talk about the boy whose ego couldn't fit through the front door, who couldn't express his feelings easily, who always felt conflicted inside himself, and who I couldn't stand at first –

– but ended up falling in love with.

Though no, I shouldn't start here. I should start…

"Shizuku, your mom has dropped off someone she adopted."

Seven-year-old Mizutani Shizuku could only stare at the girl before her, whose eye level matched hers and whose expression seemed off. Both girls had the same stoic look, standing straight and unwavering, eyes focused on each other.

"What's her name?" Mizutani finally decided to ask, glancing at her father.

He shuffled through the stack of letters in his hand. "Uh, I think it was… give me a second…" The adopted girl frowned noticeably, irked that the father didn't know her name. Shizuku's father caught sight of this and flinched, rushing to get more papers his wife had dropped off.

Shizuku, sighing, took the papers from her father and scanned them quickly. "Makoto. Is that your name?"

"… Yes ma'am," was the girl's reply. Her sea green eyes that looked like a cat's began gazing at the little figure that waddled before her. It was a young boy that seemed to be roughly two years old, staring up at her with wide, interested eyes.

While Shizuku and her father talked a bit about her, Makoto blinked at the little boy and muttered, "You're cute," leaning down to pat his head. "If only I knew your name."

Hearing this, Shizuku temporarily stopped speaking to her father to say, "His name is Takaya," before continuing where she left off.

"Takaya?" Makoto echoed, stroking Takaya's hair with her thumb. She hummed in thought. "I now have a mother, a father, a sister, and a brother…"

Once those fond words escaped from Makoto's lips, Shizuku and her father turned to face her. They saw her smiling tenderly yet pensively at Takaya, in a trance. "Dad," Shizuku said, "Makoto should be treated like family. We shouldn't make her adoption such a big deal."

"You're right, Shizuku," her father laughed, walking towards Makoto. Her hair was a dark brown like her foster father, though somewhat more vibrant. There shouldn't be a problem with her feeling awkward or anything appearance-wise. At least she didn't look Western-foreign like Shizuku imagined she'd be, though she still looked foreign from her eyes.

The more Shizuku stared at Makoto, the more she realized that Makoto wasn't stoic – Makoto was soft. She was gentle, quiet, and reserved.

"Hey," she spoke aloud, slightly startling Makoto, "we need you to transfer to my school."

Makoto blinked, and nodded, leaving Takaya alone.

The senior high teacher, Miss Saeko, asked Shizuku to give someone the handouts for class.

Makoto, sitting on the seat after the empty one beside Shizuku's, looked up curiously. She was finished with her English assignment and was halfway done with her intermediate algebra assignment, waiting for Shizuku so they could go home.

Mizutani Makoto was a first-year at Syoyo High, and to her left should've been sitting Yoshida Haru, except that he wasn't sitting there. That person had not come to class once after spilling blood on the first day of school. He's earned a reputation, being mentioned as the "phantom first-year."

A month ago, Haru put several upperclassmen in the hospital, and the evidence of the event still lingered on the spot he beat them in, which was outside yet still within the school bounds. Makoto worried for him, but Shizuku dismissed those thoughts long ago before they could start.

Makoto had a dream, in which she'd find someone that she'd be close to. She never spent time with Takashi, her foster father, and there wasn't much needed to be said about her absent foster mother. She spent most of her time with Shizuku, but never were they ever even close enough to establish a "friendship," but enough for "sibling acknowledgement," or "inescapable acquaintance." Makoto adored Takaya, but the sibling love wasn't as mutual as she'd hoped.

Growing up, Makoto was naturally smart. She was naturally pretty, but not insanely unfairly gorgeous, no. She was naturally kind, and quiet. Many people, let it be boys or girls, liked her. However, no one was ever so close to her as to be her friend. That was why Makoto was determined to make friends in Syoyo High, and to find a really, really close friend who she could confide all of her thoughts and feelings to.

As for Shizuku, she had completely different goals that had nothing to do with making friends. Her dream required laser focus on studying. She simply wanted to be like her mother, and work hard – and that required no time for friends.

The two were quite opposite, but didn't align well enough to attract.

"Please," Miss Saeko begged, "I'll give you anything."

"Saeko-sensei," Makoto finally said, standing up, "maybe you shouldn't ask Shizuku-san for such a task."

"B-But everyone's left already!" she cried. "And your father told me that you have a terrible sense of direction, so I can't have you do it!"

"Eh?" Makoto blinked innocently. "I don't."

"You do," Shizuku deadpanned. She stood up from her chair, and crossed her arms, snatching the handouts from Miss Saeko's hands. "I'll give it to him, but I want something in return."

"How about a new study guide?" Miss Saeko suggested with big, wide eyes. From Shizuku's nod, she danced in joy. Makoto smiled, but sweatdropped at the prize Shizuku was willing to get to give handouts to a dangerous person.

That dangerous person was Yoshida Haru, whose suspension was long over, and yet his seat next to Shizuku's remained unoccupied.

Shizuku brushed past the teacher, trudging out the door. Makoto followed suit, not before bowing and apologizing to the teacher for what she thought was "rudeness" on Shizuku's part.

"Hey," Shizuku said, as the two walked out of school to the city, "what have you finished? I want to look at them when we get home."

Makoto tilted her head to think. "Ah, I finished the English assignment, and I also made progress on our chemistry project. The research for that is done."

"I'm glad to be partnered with you on that assignment. I can't trust anyone more than you," Shizuku said, though her face didn't match her words. Despite that, Makoto knew that she meant it, so she was thankful.

"Oh, by the way," Makoto said, "your pigtails are uneven."

Shizuku didn't particularly care about what she looked like, but she didn't retract from Makoto's hands as she adjusted the ties on her long, golden brown hair. The green-eyed sister even fixed her bangs.

Makoto pulled back, satisfied. "There. Though, your hair is so thin. Is it naturally like that?"

"You notice years later."

"Oh, I've noticed for a while now. I just never comment on it."

"Yes, but it is just hair to me. Doesn't matter."

The cat-eyed girl stifled a laugh. "Knowing you."

Before long, the two girls reached the store where Haru supposedly was. A young man, presumably in his mid twenties, leaned on the front counter, smoking a cigarette and reading a magazine. He seemed a bit mysterious and untrustworthy, with sunglasses perched on his sharp, tan nose and piercings that lined his ears, along with a silver necklace and rings to top off his rather careless clothing choice. Makoto raised her eyebrows slightly to this, and tried not to breathe too much.

"Sir," she said, "are there not any 'no smoking' signs around here?"

The man chuckled. "Nope. Though if you're uncomfortable, I can put this away."

"Quite. Sorry." Makoto genuinely bowed her head in apology. The man waved it off with a shake of his head, telling her that it wasn't a big deal. With that said, he put off his cigarette.

Shizuku, not wanting to waste any more time, went right to the point of the deal, and asked the man if he knew where Haru was. "My name is Mizutani – I'm Yoshida-kun's classmate. Is he here?"

The man pushed up his glasses, as he took a good look at her. "Haru? Ah, he's—"

Suddenly, a tall, lean figure swooped in, yelling, "It's not my fault that Marco died!"

Shizuku paled at the abrupt scene, unflinching. Makoto took a step back, startled. Her cat-like green eyes locked at the boy before her, rough and nowhere near gentle. Why, he could look at her and she could feel like glass held in his abrasive hands.

His hair was the color of a crow's feathers, messy and tousled, and his eyes were steely and hardened. Makoto couldn't take her eyes off of them. They had such emotion in them, something she felt like not many people could express. It was something she had a hard time with as well.

"Haru!" the man sternly shouted. "I told you to control yourself!"

Haru scoffed, angrily stomping towards the man and the girls, "But, Mi-chan! He—"

"You can't blame Marco's death on anyone else," 'Mi-chan' interrupted. Makoto felt as if she needed to remember 'Mi-chan's' name, but decided that this was probably a one-time meeting, and discarded the thought. "You just suck."

Makoto calmed her nerves. She noticed a small game machine on one of the walls of the place, with "GAME OVER" in bold red and all caps on the screen. He was only talking about that, she thought, breathing normally.

"Anyway, here," Mi-chan grunted, tilting his head for Haru to acknowledge the two girls staring at him. "You have guests."

"Hah?" Finally, Haru gave one look at the two girls – well, only Shizuku – and to their shock, he bolted towards the nearest window, and leapt out of it. Shizuku followed his figure, and grew unmistakably paler than before. Makoto exchanged glances with Mi-chan, as they all heard the clang of a body meeting metal trashcans.

"Um…" Makoto tightened her mouth.

After an awkward pause, Shizuku broke out of her shock and gave Mi-chan the handouts, neatly put in a large yellow envelope. "Here you go. I was asked to, um, drop this off."

Mi-chan nodded, sighing at what just happened. "Thank you for coming all the way out here. Sorry for the trouble."

"No, no," Makoto insisted, "it wasn't your fault at all… Mi-chan…"

Mi-chan laughed. "It's Mitsuyoshi."

"Ah, well then, Mitsuyoshi-san – we'll be taking our leave now."

There wasn't much more to be said. Shizuku dragged Makoto out of the store, and they headed home. Makoto leaned her head back to read the sign of the store she came out of, and it read, "Misawa Game Batting Center."

The two didn't walk very far out of the store, before Shizuku yelped and disappeared from Makoto's side. "Eh?" Makoto gasped, glancing around. When she looked at her left, she blinked. "Oh."

There her sister was, her body on the grass, pinned down by Haru. Her bag flung to the side, but that hardly mattered. Shizuku panicked, her mouth wide open at the sight before her. Makoto froze in place, mechanically turning her head to look for anyone who'd help. Yoshida-san's harassing her, she thought, unsure if that was just her sight toying with her or what. What do I do?

"Hey," Haru spoke, low and harsh like Makoto expected it to be, "are you a spy working for the school?"

From this, Shizuku and Makoto blanked out. "… Huh?"

Haru's grip on her arm tightened considerably, causing her to wince. "Don't play dumb!" he shouted in suspicion.

"Argh, that hurts!"

"Shizuku-san!" Makoto shrieked, rushing towards Haru. "Wha – What do you think you're doing!?"

Haru bared his teeth at Makoto, reminding her of a dog for one second, before kicking her, causing her to fall onto the grass.

Upon seeing this, Shizuku struggled and irately yelled, "I was just dropping off some handouts! God. Now get off of me."

Makoto was shutting her eyes, rubbing the pain in her rear. Once she fluttered them open, Haru was climbing off of Shizuku, to her relief. He repeated dubiously, "Handouts?"

Shizuku, with a rational mind, scooted two meters away from Haru, never breaking away her suspicious eye contact with the boy who just pinned her down. "Y-Yeah," she stammered.

"… You better not be lying to me."

Shizuku shook her head. Makoto did the same. "No, it's true," she chimed in. "Please, just – don't hurt my sister. She didn't do anything."

That was when Haru switched his attention to the girl beside him. "Sister? You hardly look alike."

"I'm… adopted."

"Oh." Haru sat down more comfortably, groaning, "I thought you two were going to tell me to go to school like that one teacher lady. She was annoying."

"N-No! At least, well – I don't know – I wouldn't do that, but why wouldn't you want to – I – Shizuku-san?"

Shizuku stiffened, caught in her attempt to leave.

"What're your names?" Haru asked.

"Ah, well… I'm Mizutani Makoto, and that's Shizuku-san," Makoto replied, still quite nervous at that stern look the raven-haired boy gave to her.

"Makoto and Shizuku, huh… " All of a sudden, the atmosphere completely changed. Makoto felt the weight being lifted right off her shoulders, and she rubbed her pulsing temple. This side of Haru was not what she expected. She must've still been young to believe that people were purely one thing or another. What black-and-white thinking, she thought with a small internal laugh.

Shizuku was speechless, as Haru rubbed the side of his neck and smiled to the side. "S-So this is like when someone gets sick and a friend gives him handouts?"

Shizuku, already stiffened, became ice. Makoto smiled awkwardly.

… Friends?

"Oh, you can call me Haru! S-Since we're friends! Tomodachi!" he added, crossing his legs together and smiling wide. His oversized grey jacket fell off his right shoulder when he did this, revealing more of his red tank top and slightly-tanned skin. He leaned back and forth like a rocking chair, ignoring the grass stains forming on his white pants.

"Tomodachi?" It felt so foreign on Makoto's tongue when she said it aloud. It meant more than nakama, or ally. It meant friend. He thought of her as a friend, and the whole idea caught her off-guard.

Shizuku took that time to run off, leaving Makoto alone – well, with Haru, but still. "S-She's gone," she sputtered in disbelief.

"So she is!" Haru laughed, rolling on the grass. He pouted playfully, reminding Makoto of a puppy. "Maybe she doesn't like me? Ha, isn't that funny. Though we're still friends, because friends forgive each other, right?"

"I—"

"I like you guys! You're really nice, and not stupid like many other girls and guys I know," he continued, ignoring Makoto for a minute. "And you don't make me go to school!"

"Yoshida-san—"

"Haru!" the boy corrected, sitting up respectfully and nodding to go on.

"Ah – um, Haru… do you have any friends?" Makoto slapped herself the moment she said it, causing Haru to laugh. "Oh, that came out wrong."

"Don't worry Makoto. I have friends!" Haru held up four fingers like a child. Makoto stifled a laugh at this. She had a soft heart for children and their childlike tendencies, and Haru was just like that to her mixed with a puppy and a wolf. Like some… adorable little monster.

When she thought about it, Makoto had long lost sight of Takaya being a childish since he "matured." He's only twelve, Makoto sighed to herself.

"Oh, well," Makoto moved on, "I can be a fifth friend to you! Would you like me to be your—"

Haru didn't hesitate and couldn't wait for her to finish. "Sure! Shizuku too, we all must be friends! Okay? Okay."

"Ahh," she sighed, smiling. "I hope to see you again then, Haru-san."

The aftershock of having a friend came quite late, actually.

Mizutani Makoto had no idea where she was.

None of the houses looked familiar at all. Just where was she going? She didn't know.

Makoto bit her chapped lip, spinning around and wandering aimlessly in attempts to backtrack. "Why does this happen?" Makoto wondered aloud, exhausted. All of this wasted time could've gone to something else, she knew.

Taking responsibility despite her embarrassment, she knocked on someone's door. It opened, revealing a boy on the other side her age, blinking at her. "Ah… Mizutani?"

It took her a few seconds to recognize the face. Then, Makoto remembered that same face on a baseball player swinging a bat in the school's baseball field – that same face on a boy in her class, sitting not too far in front of her, his hair strangely up, and his eyes crinkled from that grin he always wore. "Sasahara-san!" Makoto exclaimed, releasing her breath. "Um, may I please borrow your phone?"

"… Okay, but why?" Sasahara asked slowly, pulling out his phone. "Don't you have your own? Have you lost it or something? Oh, what are you doing here by the way? Did you come all the way out here to ask me that?"

"I – I got lost, because I went – I went somewhere and didn't know how to go back home. I'm too poor to have a phone, and I ended up here." Makoto sighed. "I'm somewhat happy that the person I went to for a call is you. At least I'm familiar with you."

Sasahara's ears reddened slightly, since they've never really talked before and yet she recognized him well. "Ha," he snorted, "you're fine. You can come in, if you want."

"Thank you. Pardon the intrusion!" Makoto gratefully invited herself in.

The interior of Sasahara's house obviously showed the boyishness to it, from the smell to the furniture to the pictures on the wall. "Do you have brothers, Sasahara-san?" Makoto questioned out of curiosity. Glancing at a picture, she saw a mother and a father, with four boys and a cat.

"Yeah, I have three of them," he said, shrugging. "Oh, and you can call me Sasayan, Mizutani. Uh, do you want me to call you something else too, since your name is like Mizutani Shizuku's?"

Makoto was dialing, then stopped. She didn't think about that at all, since she thought that he wouldn't talk to her that much again, much less for him to ever address Shizuku. After all, Shizuku never really talked to anyone, and Makoto herself wasn't that familiar with Sasayan. But still, she smiled at this, finding this as a chance to make friends, and turned to him. "I'm Makoto. Nice to meet you like this, Sasayan."

"Alright. Though, not that I'm against calling you by your given name, but – are you really okay with me calling you that?"

Makoto shook her head and asked, "Why wouldn't I?"

"Oh, okay. It's just that we're not really, you know, close?"

"I know, no worries."

"Just making sure… hmm… Mako-Mako."

Makoto almost dropped Sasayan's phone. "W – hat?"

Sasayan covered his face and chuckled goodheartedly in it to cover his embarrassment. "Just wanted to try it out," he managed to say.

"Ahh, well, I don't mind…"

She called the house phone, and her father picked up. Makoto told him where she was, and assured him that she was fine. Shizuku was in trouble, but what kind of punishment would she get? No more TV privileges? No more phone privileges? No more computer use? That wasn't Shizuku. Maybe her punishments could be more of, no more going to the library, or no more studying and go to a party.

Once she was home, she plopped on the bed beside Shizuku's. "I'm tired."

"You must have been," Shizuku sighed. "And I apologize for leaving you with him. For that, dad said no to the study guide end of the bargain. What a waste of time and effort on my end."

"I'm sure that's torture for you."

"Oh, by the way, dad said you were at a classmate's house. Who was it, and how did you find that person's house?"

"I don't know how I managed to find Sasayan-san's house, but it just happened. I should've asked Haru-san to walk me home…"

Shizuku gave her a look. "I'm glad you didn't. That guy is crazy. Incomprehensible. Disturbing. I hope I never have to get involved with him again."