Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they belong to Sunrise. You sun guys better make a sequel duh!
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The first ray of sunlight touched gracefully the green of trees as it kept on increasing, until this little pinch was gaining more and more volume. It finally was winning over night's darkness...Someone could say that it was like a child, running through the streets of the city, giving color and life with its touch.
It was there now, outside of a small building complex very close to the road. The backyard didn't have much green, just short cut grass that was surrounding the area, with a similar path leading to the parking lots for its tenants. Someone could see all the cars, that looked the same, and among them a blue Ducati.
It didn't take long for the sun to knock on the old windows. Brown eyes felt the warmth upon them, as they were slowly opening, investigating first the sight out of the window and then inside the room.
"Na-Natsuki..." the now awake man mumbled.
He turned his head to the right, then left and repeated the same for 2 more times looking in the bedroom, but he couldn't find the particular girl. Takeda knew exactly what that meant.
"One of those days again" he thought to himself while he had already got up from bed and was now reaching the chair for his clothes.
When they moved there, Natsuki was still adjusting to the new environment, but the memory loss was working on the favor to relieve the home-sick feeling by leaving Fuuka behind .At the beginning it was difficult, but as soon as she got a job and found new friends it was all gone. There would be these rare occasions though, when she didn't get any sleep at night. At the morning, when Takeda was awake she would be gone. Despite that, he didn't worry much, because he knew that these impulses of hers would subside more by the time, until they completely disappear. The karate/former scientist guy was mistaken though because in the last year they seemed to appear even more than before, haunting Natsuki at nights.
Drin Drin...
"Hello? Mai here, who is it?" a surprised and sleepy voice answered. She wasn't used to people calling her so early in the morning, so this would be at least not something insignificant.
"Hey Mai, it's me Takeda" . The voice from the other line replied. "Natsuki just left the house without waking me up. I guess she will ride her bike again, but i don't know where she is heading to. I figured there are chances she drops by your house...If..If...that happens, please call me...I'm very worried about her the past days..."
The girl on the other end of the line could feel he was upset but trying to hide it. Natsuki was her best friend and if she didn't want anyone to bother her, she couldn't give her out, even if it was to her own boyfriend.
"Uhm o-ok...I will Take-san" she said hesitantly, looking outside of her window. She didn't like lying. Everyone knew the orange haired girl was very honest and couldn't stand fake acts, but she didn't have any other choice here.
"Thanks a lot Mai-san, I really appreciate it..." The young man said hanging up his cell phone.
' Pfff...Natsuki...what are you doing again? ' Mai thought to herself. ' I don't understand all these impulses of yours. First, you say Takeda is the only person that has been so supportive of you right from the beginning, and then BAM when he wants you two to be engaged, you start running away. What a scaredy wolfie you truly are my friend...' The last sentence came out loud from her, as she mentally sighed one more time.
'Anyway what time is it really?' The still sleepy girl wondered, as she gazed at the wall clock. It was only 6:55 in the morning. ' Aghhh... I only got 4 hours of sleep...! I- I can't...I can't looook... for Nat now... i'm really tired...' She yawned as her legs led her in the bed on their own. In a few minutes she was asleep.
The -not so energetic now- girl was rightfully tired though. Mai's shift ended at 2 am and got home around 2:30. Her job was very demanding. She worked as a police officer in the city's station. There were 3 different shifts in the station that were like this:
1rst: 10am -6pm
2nd: 6pm - 2am
3rd: 6pm - 2am
Mai's schedule this week was the second one. She, and her partner at work Nao ,were on the same shift every week. On the station, pairs of officers consisting of two people were always on the same job and working hours together. In her work she was social but professional as well. From there she got to know Chie, a short haired brunette girl with brown eyes. She was seemingly a very serious and professional police woman, but had a lot of humor outside of work. Her partner was a shy but confident girl with beautiful blue eyes and brown hair. Chie liked teasing her, after she noticed how easily Aoi would blush around her shocking jokes.
Now...how she got to meet Mikoto was another story, and very funny in a weird way too. The spiky-haired short girl was working at an ice cream van, her granddad left her before he die, in the streets. She used to sell the deliciousness of the cold sweet to children and grownups as well. She was buying the ice cream from a factory, so it was expensive and she barely was making any revenues. One day, when Mai and Nao were on their shift at the park, the feisty girl saw a cat-like girl in a colorful van sitting still. She approached her with investigating look, because it seemed as if she was frozen looking at the sealing of the vehicle.
"Uhm, Miss? Are you ok?". No response. "Miss are you ok?" She kept on asking with no sign of movement. Mai waved her hand right and left, in front of the girl's face, with no result.
" Tsk tsk, just let her, she probably is some kind of retard who can't even move". An ironic voice of a redhead police officer said. "If she could move she would of by now. See i can get free ice cream without even payiii...GAAAHHHHH...!"
When Mikoto saw Nao laying hands on her *precious* was fully awake now and gave a big bite at the shocked redhead's arm!
"DON'T LAY YOUR CLAWS ON MY PRECIOUS!" ,shouted! She seemed very angry, but...after that burst she started crying, leaving the bitten partner now wondering if that was a real person , or some kind of a hybrid.
"I CAN'T EVEN AFFORD to buy this anymore AND you want to steal it FROM ME?The factory keeps on rising the price MORE AND MORE, and i can't even make ice cream on my own, so I...I will be homeless soon..." Mikoto now started spacing out again, heading towards a corner of the van, facing the wall.
"Miss, I can cook just about anything, so maybe I could give you some recipes on how to make ice-cream on your own if you want." Mai said trying to help the cat-like girl. She remembered when she used to be homeless as well, and that kind of situation was a very important issue for her.
"Can you do that?" A sad voice responded. "This van is my last hope for making money" She added.
"Sure I could! Just give me your number, and when I have the time I will call you, because now we're on a shift."
"Yeah whatever, let's get going, BYE BYE Neko..." The redhead added as they were now disappearing in the park.
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At the end of the road outside the town, in a lonely cliff, emerald eyes were sitting on , looking at the sea. That place was being visited a lot lately by Natsuki. For some reason she felt so warm looking at the colors this place's sky gave in the early morning. For a few minutes a very deep crimson-red color was there. A color that made Natsuki's heart ache, but somehow filled her soul's void at the same time.
'Deep red, like my bleeding heart...' She thought looking at it, still not understanding the meaning of her morning get away...
