Author's Notes: \(^w^)/ I write slow. Drop, Flop, and Throw.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

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For Ami, just one thought was eating away at her mind. It wasn't some frivolous relationship-centric question many people her age were still figuring out, she believed she was past that stage. Rather, her question was surrounding the thought that before she had come to Ohashi High, parting with people never hurt. Sure, she'd remember people's names, laugh or flash a smile during chance encounters, but when all was done and past, not once did she look back at those she left behind. Her belief had always been that once a person was gone, they were best forgotten. Yet something had changed. Before, it hadn't ever pained her to see someone go, so...why is it now when she sees the back of his jacket, as footsteps became more faint, and the distance between them ever widening...

Why was it so painful to let him walk away, when it was so straightforward with everyone else?

Yet, despite everything urging her to act, why couldn't Ami bring herself to stand? When Ami wanted something she wouldn't hesitate to take it, so why then couldn't she move her limbs, raise her voice, anything at all? And most of all, why was she letting him walk towards…Towards?

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"Oi, Kawashima, you coming?" Ryuuji said, back turned away as he held his umbrella waiting for her.

Silence was Ami's only response as she looked at him, confused and uncertain as to this turn of events.

"..I'm going to leave you here if you aren't coming."

She didn't want to be left alone.

With that thought, she scrambled quickly to follow Ryuuji, moving to catch up with him lest he made good on his words. Making sure her belongings were safe inside her bag, Ami was quick to match his pace, tucking her bag under her arms. Ducking her head under the umbrella's rim, she walked slightly ahead of him, still covered by the wide umbrella, but just far enough so that Ryuuji couldn't see her face. Or more importantly, the redding hue that was spreading across it. Turning her gaze in the opposite direction, for a short while, there were no words exchanged. While Ami would like to say that just walking along in silence was perfectly comfortable with her, it wasn't. She began fidgeting with the bag-strap on her shoulders, this was one of the few opportunities she had and not doing anything wouldn't cut it.

"Ne..Takasu-kun, where are we walking to exactly? I haven't told you where I lived..not unless you want to know, Ami-Chan's ok with that so long as it's Ta-ka-su-kun~".

"..Sure" Came Ryuuji's monotone reply. Her shoulders stiffened slightly in irritation, she was hoping for a little more of a response than that. Frowning, Ami turned her head around looking backwards at him, purple eyes meeting brown. He was just giving her suspicious looks like she was going to do something horrible. Not that she could blame him, but still.

"..Really? The Ami-Chan basically invites you to walk her to her house and this is how excited you are?...Urgh." Her eyes twitched, now she was really getting annoyed.

"I don't recall being invited to anything…anyways I was actually just going to walk you to the store to pick up an umbrella so you could make your own way home." Ryuuji responded. "And it's not like you actually want me to walk you home. Anyways, Taiga is over right now, If you were to come with me, well, you know how you would squabble with Taiga."

"Like it's my fault that little...is so damn irritating all the time." Ami said vexed by the mention of that girl's name. Seriously, how often was she with him?

"Why do you even.." Ryuuji began but was cut off by Ami beginning to rant about various things like Taiga wiping her hands on her expensive designer clothing to a thousand other offenses against humanity Taiga supposedly committed.

"Anddd..I think that proves my point" Ryuuji hurriedly interjected, cutting Ami's words short before she could go off on another tangent again. Good grief, He was best off keeping the two separate whenever possible, nothing but headaches could arise otherwise...It was rare to see Kawashima to lose her cool to this degree, so it was surprising to see her go off like this. Really, when he thought about it, he hadn't seen her open up much since she beat up that overly obsessed fan. Which wasn't a bad thing necessarily, Though he wished it weren't just to express her disdain of Taiga.

There was a momentary pause in the conversation, as Ami took her time to cool her mood somewhat. Aisaka still annoyed her, but ranting at Ryuuji wouldn't change anything. She wasn't even that angry at Taiga anyways. She should just push the topic away from unpleasant rude mood-souring short-ass..wait. Ok so Ami was more than annoyed, but her earlier point still stands, new topic.

"So..I would have thought you would've just left me behind, you looked really focused on getting back to Aisaka-san." Ami said, referring to earlier, changing gears to drive the conversation elsewhere. Guessing from Ryuuji's expression, he seemed glad to change topics, but less so from her actual words.

"..I'm not that bad, don't have so little faith in me."

"Oh? So you wouldn't leave Ami-chan behind? Heh, so you're not that useless at least~"

"Oi, what's that supposed to mean! It's just, I'm not the type of person to leave their friends behind. It's not like I didn't know you forgot your umbrella. You came in earlier with your head wet during class..Don't you recall Taiga..uh" Ryuuji nervously paused, unwilling to finish the rest of his sentence..but ultimately decided to continue "She was running around you before class, saying you looked like a, a wet Chihuahua that got dragged through the streets... Anyways, At first I thought that you were going to share an umbrella with your other friends, but it looks like that wasn't the case." Ryuuji tried to give an apologetic smile, but Ami wasn't paying attention anymore, her thoughts were currently elsewhere.

Had she really been that absent minded to have not noticed the light shower that had begun falling as she walked to class? Normally, she would have been both embarrassed at her outwards appearance being tainted by looking less than perfect, and from being as unaware to her surroundings as to not even notice Taiga being an little mosquito again. But neither of these were on her mind, really, what she was thinking about was his first sentence.

He called her a friend…Well, She guessed that was what they were now. Anyhow, a small smile still appeared on her face, for even if it was less than what she really wanted, it wasn't that bad. After all, she was here with Ryuuji now.

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Ami clutched her jacket closer as a new salvo of rain started coming down from the sky. The rain had gotten worse in the short time they had been walking together, pulling the two into closer proximity under the safety of Ryuuji's umbrella. But Ami hadn't grabbing him by the arm or anything of the like, instead they were pretty much just shoving their shoulders stiffly up against each other. Still, as uncomfortable her muscles were, it was amusing to see Takasu tensed up from being so close to her, and shifting her bag to her other shoulder to remove physical barriers made it worse. Her lips curved upwards, she was so mean. Not to mention that being so close to him now, even through his heavy jacket, Ryuuji was really warm.

"Ne, Kawashima. So have you been eating better like I asked before? Your complexion looks alot better now" Ryuuji said (to her embarrassment), having pointed out her reddening face and mistaken it as better eating habits.

"So how do you like pork with ginger? Did you search up recipes online for it, or did you try something else?" Ryuuji continued, looking at her expectantly. Ami swallowed, she didn't really want to recount yesterday's glorious failure of an attempt to cook..

"Uh...hehe about that.. Ami-Chan didn't actually eat it.."

"..What did, could, you even do with a pork cutlet besides eat it anyway?"

Cue long awkward pause, characterized by failed attempts at disappearing as Ryuuji was right next to her. Damn, Guess she couldn't escape from this one.

"Um, drop it, then throw it and accidentally set my kitchen on fire?" Ami sheepishly replied, shoulders raised slightly as she averted her gaze.

"..." was Ryuuji's response, an incredulous look on his face as he wasn't sure whether to believe her or not. But on a double take of her face, he saw that she wasn't lying.

"I'm sorry alright! Ami-chan never cooks, I just eat convenience store food mostly. Ami-Chan never had the time or need to learn how…" Was Ami's defense, which felt rather weak when she actually said the words aloud.

Ryuuji rubbed his nose and exhaled. Such perfectly good food wasted, he can't let that happen again. "Alright. I'll show you how to cook, just, don't ever do whatever it is that you did again."

She was going to refuse Ryuuji's offer of guidance but stopped herself. This, maybe it was the opportunity she was waiting for. Even if it embarrassingly enough, was entirely unintentional and detrimental to her own self image to admit she couldn't cook to save her life. She just nodded in acceptance to his words, which was the closest to openly accepting defeat as she'd get.

"I don't think you can use Ami-Chan's kitchen though, at least, not for a while. I kind of got banned from using it by my Aunt" Well, that was A half lie. While yes, her aunt had told her to not touch anything in the kitchen beyond the microwave from that point on, her aunt was rarely around, and in practice wouldn't really be able to stop her. It was just her bad fortune that she had been more busy putting out fires and the like that she hadn't known that her aunt had come home early from work. Her motivations were elsewhere.

Ryuuji looked conflicted, unsure as to whether stopping conflict between Taiga and Ami or saving the precious labor of countless farmers produce...ok his mind was made up. "Well, that's..alright I guess. You can come over to use mine, just don't agitate Taiga whenever you see her around."

"Fine~" Ami replied, both pleased that her deception had worked, and displeased that she might have to share the same space as Aisaka. She'd take what she could get though. "Is tomorrow ok with you Takasu-kun? I'm not sure how long the pork will stay fresh in the fridge."

Ryuuji considered her words and remembering the packaging labels, agreed. "Alright just come over with the meat after school. I'll figure something out about Taiga."

Good, then everything was all set for tomorrow, all that was left was to handle the here and now.

Her mood had really done a one-eighty turnabout for the better, but she guessed that just came with being around Ryuuji. Out of the corner of her eyes, in her peripherals the clouds were slowly breaking, the rain was about to cease soon. Looks like it's time to go.

"Hey, Takasu-kun, did you really mean that? Earlier, about me being your friend" Kawashima said, moving her head a little closer to Ryuuji's ear.

Ryuuji pulled back a little to her dismay, but he nodded affirmatively to her words, though unsure as to what to expect from this sudden line of questioning.

"Good, then I can do this" Ami latched onto his arm with her own, bringing the two's pace to a halt as both Ryuuji's feet and breath stopped. Ryuuji's expression was frozen as Ami began speaking in an almost wisplike voice that was still heard through the fading rain falling around them that losing as much intensity as her voice.

"Because friends don't push each other away right." Ami slowly breathed out, drawing herself closer "I-can-be-more-than-just-a-friend, Takasu-kun." She sounded out each word slowly, reveling in the syllables of each one.

"I-I..What do you mean by-" Ryuuji fumbled with his words while simultaneously attempting to pull away from Ami's grasp, but his efforts were interrupted by Kawashima abruptly letting go of his arm and pushing him off. This sudden act ended up unbalancing Ryuuji, sending him crashing into a nearby phone pole, which oddly enough was already tilted. Without looking back Ami began walking off, now unbothered by the clouds above as the rain had finally ceased moments earlier, unbeknownst to the distracted (possibly unconscious) Ryuuji. And she tried not to be bothered by the lack of verbal response coming from him.

"But that would probably never happen, huh Takasu-kun." You're too busy playing your game of house. "Anyways, it looks like we can part here. Thanks for sharing your umbrella with me. Ja-Ne~"

And with these words, Ami parted with Ryuuji. Today wasn't the greatest, but she'd have another chance if she had anything to say about it. And hopefully she didn't kill him before that could happen.

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Guide to Formatting:

No such thing as formatting for me, it'll jump around so you'll have to use context clues, sorry~

I also changed the dividers to a more clean line, dividers are time skips (Usually).

[] "Normal Dialogue"

[] Thoughts or Emphasis or Internal character stuff

[] Emphasis or EMPHASIS

[] A '~' after speech is a drawn out word [] A '-' after speech is an uncompleted or cut off word

[] A 'word-word-word' is speech being spoken as individual words with full stop periods after each.

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