Complicated Love
Chapter 2
Kanji flops down on his bed and turns up his music. He grabs a random magazine off the stack. He opens the craft magazine to a random page and finds himself looking at the directions on how to make small stuffed animals. He throws it across the room and reaches for one of his music magazines.
Stupid Naoto making life complicated. Kanji thinks. Being all calm, and strong, and irresistible… Kanji stops that train of thought before it got out of hand. What he needs is for his hands to be doing something. Kanji sighs and finds a piece of paper and a pencil. He then spends the rest of the evening and into the night working on the design for the clothes of Naoto's bear.
Kanji wipes the droll from the side of his face as he wakes up. He stretches and tries to work the knots out of his back. He glances at the clock. 6 am. He stands up from where he fell asleep at the desk and flops onto his bed. He tries not to think of the dream he was having, where Naoto was dressed in an apron and baking him a cake. Kanji blushes as he remembers that in the dream Naoto was ONLY wearing the apron. Kanji rolls onto his back and puts a pillow over his face, and attempts again to calm his lust.
I gotta think of something else! Kanji practically screams at himself. I know that pathetic excuse for a man Adachi! Oh how I loved beating the living day lights out of that creep. Everything was his fault! He put us through so much pain and misery for freakin' nothing!
Kanji sits up in bed, practically bouncing, slamming his fist into the palm of his other hand. Kanji sighs…. Now he is so worked up he wants to go beat up something, or someone. This would never do. He's still tired, having slept badly at his desk. Kanji once again flops down on the bed and tries to think of something calming. The river, just flowing across the rocks with the fish swimming under the surface. The sun beating down warming Kanji's back. Kanji drifts back off into dreamland.
Kanji's bare feet are dangling in the cool water of the river. The sun has come out from behind the clouds and is making the river sparkle like a million diamonds. Kanji takes off his jacket and shirt and throws them under a nearby tree. He then proceeds to roll up his pant legs. The cold water runs over his legs, relaxing his muscles and soon making them numb. Standing a few feet from the bank Kanji looks around him at the shimmering water.
As he looks down river he happens to see a figure on the bank, sunbathing. Her ivory skin contrasts her navy blue bikini perfectly. Her straw sun hat has a matching ribbon tied around it. Kanji finds himself drawn closer to her. He can now see her short dark hair framing the petite face of Naoto. As she looks up at Kanji her cheeks start to glow rosy and a smile creeps across her face. She beckons Kanji closer and pats the earth next to her.
Kanji climbs out of the water and sits on the grass, his eyes taking in every inch of Naoto's beautiful body. She reaches over and with one finger starts to outline the muscles of Kanji's bare chest. Where her finger touch a trail of invisible fire fallows, igniting Kanji's already awakened desire. Kanji runs his hand along Naoto's outstretched arm to her shoulder, and up her neck to caress her face. Naoto leans forward, pressing her palm over Kanji's rapidly beating heart. As their lips meet fireworks dance across Kanji's vision. His lips mold themselves to hers, dancing. As Kanji opens his mouth Naoto responds and opens hers enough to let Kanji's tongue inside. Kanji pulls Naoto closer and enfolds her into his warm arms.
Kanji's eyes slowly open to the blank wall of his bedroom. The smile drops from his face and he releases the pillow he was clutching. With a heavy sigh Kanji looks over to the clock. 9 am. He swings his legs over the side of the bed, only to realize that his pants are wet.
"Damn." Kanji curses. "A wet dream isn't how I wanted to start my morning!"
Kanji grabs some clean clothes out of his dresser drawer and steps across the hall for a shower.
Naoto sighs, as she and the other girls sit in Chie's kitchen waiting to see if their cake turns out edible. Yukiko is peeking in the oven yet again, just to make sure they don't burn it.
"I think we did a really good job this time." Yukiko says, closing the oven.
"Yea!" Chie agrees. "The batter tasted fine. And we fallowed the recipe to the letter, no substituting or trying to figure out what they meant."
"Now all we have to do is make sure it doesn't burn." Rise says, with a firm nod.
"It had better turn out, since the party is tonight." Naoto says, letting her chin fall into her hands. "Any idea of what we're doing for frosting?"
The other girls look at Naoto with shocked faces. "Frosting!" They shriek.
"Oh no!" Cries Yukiko. "We forgot all about the frosting. Anyone have a clue on how to make it?"
All the girls shake their heads and Naoto once again reaches across the table for the cookbook. "Cream cheese frosting, butter cream frosting, chocolate frosting…. How many different kinds are there?" Naoto cries.
"We better find a basic one." Chie points out.
Naoto nods and keeps turning pages. "Here we are: Basic Vanilla Frosting. Huh? What's confectioner's sugar?"
Rise pulls the cookbook away from Naoto and looks at the page. "That's weird. I didn't know there are different kinds of sugar."
Chie leans over Rise's shoulder to look at the book. "Do you suppose we could just use normal sugar and it'll turn out ok?"
"I don't think so," Yukiko says. "Otherwise they would have just said sugar."
"But sugar is sugar right?"
Naoto sighs and pulls out her phone. We need help. She thinks. Kanji offered to help us yesterday. Would he know? No harm in asking. Naoto flips open her phone and dials Kanji's number. After several rings Kanji answers the phone.
"Uh…. Hi."
"Hello. Kanji I have a question I was hoping you'd have an answer to."
"Uh. Wh…what kind of question?"
"It involves the cake for Nanako. Since you volunteered to help yesterday I figured you knew something about baking."
"OH! Yeah. Go ahead. Shoot."
"We wanted to know the difference between normal sugar and confectioner's sugar."
"Well… um… how do I explain this…. Confectioner's sugar is all…. Fluffy. They sometimes call it powdered sugar."
"Oh I see. So it will make a difference in frosting if we use normal sugar instead, right?"
"Uh…. Right… normal sugar…would umm… well…. It would make the frosting all…. Runny and slimy like."
"Thank you. You're a big help."
"No problem…. Anytime. You…you can call me anytime."
"Alright thanks again. I'll see you tonight."
"Yeah…uh to...tonight."
Naoto put her phone back into her pocket and looked over to where the other girls were still debating the frosting recipe. "Hey girls! After we pull the cake out of the oven, I think we need to go back to the store again to get confectioner's sugar."
Kanji sat staring at the phone in his hand. Naoto had hung up a while ago, but he couldn't seem to be able to put his phone away. She wanted my advice. He couldn't help but think. She called me, not Senpai, not her grandpa, me! A grin spread across his face as he realized that Naoto valued his advice.
Kanji's eyes drifted over to his sewing machine and the naked bear that he had made for Naoto. I'll finish it tonight if it kills me! Kanji vowed, as he went over to his work table and turned on his sewing machine.
Kanji threw yet another failed attempt at making Naoto's hat into the wastebasket. Every time he tried it came out looking wrong, or the sewing machine would just destroy the small pieces of fabric that he was trying to put together.
A small knock from his door made Kanji turn his head. He mother was leaning up against the frame to his doorway. "Hey son, are you having trouble?"
"Yeah." Kanji admits. "I just can't seam to get this hat to work."
Tasumi-san walks into her son's room and finds the drawing of the hat that Kanji is trying to make. "How small are you trying to make this?" She asks.
Kanji pulls one of the failed attempts out of the wastebasket. "It's supposed to be kinda like this. But I can't seem to get it right."
"Well dear, with as small as you want to make this, I think your best bet is to do it by hand. It will turn out much better that way."
Kanji nods. "Yeah makes sense. Thanks ma."
"No problem, dear." She says, patting her son on the shoulder. "But shouldn't you be leaving. You have a party to get to."
Kanji looks up at the clock. "Oh shit! I wanted to finish this today."
"You could work on it some more after the party."
"I suppose."
"Go on sweetie. Have fun with your friends. It's Christmas. You can always give the bear as a New Years gift."
Kanji nods and grabs his coat and Nanako's bunny on his way out. "See ya ma!" Kanji says, as he heads out into the cold.