Authors Notes: Sorry for the not-so inconsiderable delay folks.
Word of advice: If writing for two franchises (and juggling a life atop that), either have a shit load of free time or prepare to lose sleep. I'm working towards the latter. I'm developing insomnia. Yay!
(wait, is that a good thing? Ah screw it I'm nuts anyway)
Though it might be worth just dropping my Pokémon story. Interest seems to be dying. (if the review count is any indication) And when interest dies the thing itself eventually follows. Means more time on my hands. Time I can put to this fandom, until it gets bored of me. Then off I go, to punish another franchise unjustly. -maniacal laughter- Now what franchise is lacking vast quantities of crappy fan fiction? It's an unwritten law that all franchises must contain a minimum of a thousand crappy fics.
Oh shit have I got a load of work to do! Well good thing I got that insomnia going...-starts chugging coffee-
Very short chapter (again, not like me at all), but there's fair reason for it; look at the author's notes at the bottom when you're done.
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For a handful of seconds, there was only silence, in which the world seemed to come to a standstill. A portrait of time which showed two things which normally would not find themselves permitted to exist, two expressions to be specific. The first was Ryuuji's, whose expression had become harder, and though subtle in its change, drastically altered the visage it sat upon.
Taiga's expression was not so rare, yet had been seen so very few times one would think it so. Her face had lost all composure, and her eyes had turned wide, her every detail betraying only confusion in this single frozen moment.
Soon the world started to move again, and Taiga's face changed from complete confusion, to something far more resembling rage. Far more resembling what was normal of her.
Taiga's eyes darkened, and her voice became sharp with threat. "What?"
Ryuuji would not back down. With new-found anger he pressed on, a strange sense of self-righteousness calculating his words. "I'm done with it! The beatings, the insults, you treating me like a slave!" The anger flared, and like a volcano it burst from him. For one brief instant, he was as vicious as his appearance would suggest. "I'm not wasting any more time on someone who doesn't give a damn about me!"
His words found their mark. Taiga's mouth did open, but whatever words she was to speak died on her tongue. Ryuuji watched as she suddenly averted her gaze, the rage in her eyes seeming to waver for an instant before her eyes were hidden from view. Ryuuji's moment of self-righteous anger was too potent for him to wonder, had he managed to strike the Palmtop Tiger? At present he could only wait, for the inevitable counterstrike. She'd attack, it was just who she was around him, to him. She'd strike him, hard, and expect that to put him back in line.
Those times had passed. She could try whatever method she saw fit, but she was not bending his will.
Now what was she waiting for?
Taiga remained still, almost like a statue for what felt like moments, but was in all likelihood merely seconds. He couldn't see her eyes, nor her face anymore, the girl was just too damn short, but every fraction of time that passed just fed the air weight. Would she just do something already?
Another second, another dose of weight, more density into the atmosphere...
She shattered it all with one word.
"Fine."
Now it was Ryuuji's turn to feel struck. 'Fine'?
Taiga turned away. "What good is an idiot dog who wont obey their master anyway?" She walked. Ryuuji watched her go. He knew her well enough to find the tell-tale signs in her footsteps, the stiff pace, the clenched fists, which even in her stiff pace, shook lightly.
Taiga was angry, and that only served to fuel his own rage.
She was angry. Not sad. Not remorseful.
Angry!
He could only conclude he had been proven right. Taiga really didn't give damn about him.
He soon left.
He left angry.
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Though he knew the route well enough to navigate in his sleep, it took Ryuuji considerably longer to get home that day. This was in part owed to the trip he made to the store, opting in the end to just get use some frozen food as a temporary ice bag (finding multiple uses for one thing was a speciality of his), the time in the store itself, though adding to his travel time, was in itself shorter than he'd regularly be in the place.
Well, shorter than what had become regular.
Even through his anger, the strangeness of walking home alone was vaguely noticeable. Like the light of the sun breaking through the dirtiest of windows. It had been some time since he'd walked alone. It was something that strangely, he found he had not missed.
He eventually found himself before his home, and quietly ascended the stairs. The first time he'd done so alone in quite a while.
It was to be a night alone.
It was...quick. Not having a near-constant source of demands to cater to made things oddly quick. Quick to remove his uniform, to get into something a little less soulless, to do the dozens of tiny little things that would require his attention on a daily basis, and to eventually start dinner.
No objections, no demands, no grumbling. Just pulling out ingredients, preparing, and cooking. For a while that was how things were, save for the brief interruption where Inko-chan woke up, knowing dinner was some to come, leaving Ryuuji to place his cage on the table, in an area that would normally be soon occupied. Ryuuji quickly gave him feed and returned to his ministrations, deep in thought for a time.
The sound of a door sliding open brought him right out. "Good morning!" Ryuuji smiled.
That was Yasuko for you. Ryuuji wasn't watching, but he couldn't shake the certainty that Yausko was glancing around, confused, and in seconds he was proven right.
"Where's Taiga?"
That actually shocked him, oddly. He couldn't place why, yet it did. He found his mouth refusing to open and answer, so another did it for him.
"Not coming!"
Ryuuji turned, approaching the table with some cutlery as Yausko turned to him, her natural glow somehow diminished from its normal state. "Taiga's not coming to dinner?" Still he did not answer, leaning to place his burdens on the table. "Did you two have a fight?"
Ryuuji paused, silent for a moment before he continued with preparing the table. "Something like that." He stood back up, and in moments all was as it was intended to be, the family was at the table and the food was prepared.
Itadakimasu.
Mouthful by mouthful, bite by bite, the mealtime ran its course, Ryuuji's mind at work on a matter separate from the meal, and one he had thus not spared much thought to, though he would have to give explanation eventually. Now how would he go about explaining this to Yasuko? Last time, as temporary as it was, was trivial. Taiga was a new element in the Takasu household at that time. Now time had passed, more than a little of it as well. Some creatures passed by entire lifetimes in the time Taiga had been with them, and now she wasn't here, and that she was never going to be again...
Yet again Ryuuji found that sense of strangeness, even through everything else. He could, and perhaps would have wondered if there had perhaps been a way to avoid this, if he'd wanted to wonder, but even had he wanted to wonder, or actually avoid today's outcome, the simple reality was inescapable.
This was always going to happen anyway. Sooner or later, this was going to be how it ended; one less face at the table every day, one less person Ryuuji had to take care of. One less set of tasks he was charged with.
Ryuuji continued to chew, the silence at the table (which in itself had been forgotten in recent times) giving chance for the various background details of the room to demand attention, eventually one new detail making its presence known from within Ryuuji himself.
Accepting what was always going to be didn't make him feel better.
He shook his head, and opening up the rice cooker he filled his dish and went back to eating. The rest of the meal passed in relative silence, save for the brief moments when Yasuko would give away her unhappiness in not-so-subtle actions, sometimes by looking where Inko-chan's cage was currently located, but Ryuuji knew it wasn't Inko-chan she was looking at.
Inko-chan didn't seem to mind Yasuko's gaze. Instead, with what could be mistaken for a victorious cry, dug into his feed. One upside to all this; it was likely Inko-chan was going to find himself in better health from now on. Inko-chan and Taiga were a pair that never quite got along. Perhaps that was in some way related to the timeless conflict of avian and feline.
Eventually the various clinks of cutlery came to an end, and Yausko, her mood dimmer than what was normal, bid her family goodbye. Inko-chan was rarely a conversationalist (despite having command of a vast number of words, though he couldn't manage his own name), so that meant Ryuuji was alone for the night.
This was always going to happen eventually, yet that didn't make him feel better. It made him feel worse. For a second he wondered why, before simply turning away, making his way to his room. He had some homework to address, might as well go about doing that. A minute after Yasuko had closed the front door he had sat down at his desk, the frozen bag upon his still slightly aching head, picking up his textbook and trying to start work.
'Trying' being the operative word. His thoughts were plagued by what had transpired that day. It shouldn't have been important, it really shouldn't. This was always going to happen, and it had been damn clear from the start that the two were not, and were never going to become friends.
Yet he couldn't help but feel angry.
He took a breath, leaning back, his gaze taking in an upside down version of his home, the mats of the 'ceiling', the wooden 'floor', Inko-chan looking back at him, his confusion at Ryuuji's actions readable only by Ryuuji himself. His eyes continued to wander, the doors to Yausko's room, the side of his door, the dull grey of the door. A bright pink.
He blinked. A pink, Cherry Blossom shape in the door. His memory quickly replayed a certain night for him. All the passion Taiga had expressed, the effort, over an empty envelope! Meanwhile, he nearly gets his head busted open and-"If It'd been Kitamura..." He felt a fresh surge of anger.
If it'd been Kitamura, oh then things would have been different! She'd be tripping over herself in apology, desperately trying to make it up to him, likely involving some act or gift, which she'd expect him to help her with! If it'd been Kitamura, everything would have been different.
He couldn't help but feel bitter about that.
He took another deep breath. This had been one very bad day. He'd had his head nearly cracked open (felt like it anyway), all over something that wasn't even his fault! (even if it turned out to be another reason, no way in hell was it him)
That wasn't the worst of it. It was in this moment that his mind made him aware of another problem.
"There will be punishment!"
He sighed.
Minori would not take kindly to this he did not doubt, so he could likely say that his chances with her, if he ever had any, had just made a one way trip to the sewer. Had Ryuuji been the more judgemental sought, he'd wonder how in the hell her best friend ended up being Taiga. He'd find no logic in it. He wouldn't be able to find two individuals whose personalities were of greater contrast. Yet he could find the simple logic in the reality before him.
He sighed once more. "Wonderful."
"Sarcasm, sarcasm!"
In spite of himself, he couldn't help but smile, and learned forward to try working again, in a better mood. Inko-chan had that way about him, of lightening the mood of those around him. He'd always had. Now if only Ryuuji's beloved pet could manage his own name.
"I-! Iiii-!"
Speaking of which, time for another attempt. "Come on, Inko-chan!"
He turned around, and anyone other than Ryuuji could have mistaken Inko-chan's expression as attempting to force something other than words out of himself.
He turned to Ryuuji. "It'll be alright, wont it?"
Not many really realized it (well considering Inko-chan's range of human interaction consisted of three regulars, wasn't very surprising), but he did have something of a grasp of the world around him, and he would occasionally voice his opinion about it. His thoughts tended to be specific too, whether it be offering commentary on something that was on TV, or offering Yausko advice on how to dress. (he'd yet to give any advice Ryuuji agreed with. Yausko on the other hand...)
Right now, he knew something was wrong.
Ryuuji smiled, sadly. "I hope so."
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End of Chapter
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Author's Notes: Getting serious here, so actually read this. (Yes I know my Author's notes are a pain in the ass to read but just this once)
Sorry for the very short chapter (atop the long delay!), but there really is fair reason for it (for both actually): I didn't want to go too far into the plot without deciding where the story should go. And when I'm unsure about something like this, I'll stall for a while thinking about it. Bad habit of mine. Even geniuses like Shakespeare had their off days, so a crappy writer like myself is permitted as much as I please.
I'll admit, this story was born on a random thought. It was just something that came to me, I slammed it in what seemed the optimal spot in the cannon story, then just decided to go with it. For me, not a bad a method as it sounds. I had a basic plot idea, and I figured that would do. (I'm a natural born bullshitter)
However...
After giving this story some due thought (more than my usual thirty seconds), I have had second thoughts about my original plot plan for this fic, and in hindsight it wasn't one of my better planed ideas, but I still like the concept, so I don't want to do to this story what I do with ideas that prove ultimately unsatisfactory to me. (Scrap 'em) So, I want to put it to a vote: This story can go one of two ways.
Way 1: An altered version of the cannon story, but one which will eventually make its way back to the Cannon story, essentially making this story a re-telling of the pool arc. One that doesn't conflict with the rest of the story. (I hope, I don't think the pool arc is explicitly mentioned again after its done. I can BS a new path to getting the gang to Ami's vacation home. Remember, I'm a natural.)
Way 2: I diverge. I can't pretend to know what that would mean at this point (though I do have some ideas I can explore), I didn't plan for this possibility, but while it will stay in the altered pool arc, at least for now, I'm going to have to go beyond it at some point or another. Obviously I will have to diverge from the cannon material, but just writing this fic means I've already done that. (more than once actually, this ain't my first fic, much to this site's chagrin)
It's up to you, which do you think would make the better story? And which one do you want to read? Personally, the latter would prove to be a more interesting thing to write for me, but it's readers choice.*
(*...I should become a frigging communist)
Drop your votes in reviews (I can't be assed learning how to make and use polls at this point). No need to attach your thoughts on the chapter in the review, just dump your suggestion.
Betting pool!: So far the largest (and only) wager is a turtle. Are we talking one of those little Terrapin Turtles, or have I gotta break into a zoo for one of those really big ones?