Disclaimer!
ARISA manga? "Nope, don't own it"
ARISA characters? "Nope, don't own them either."
ARISA fanfic? "Oh, yeah definitely. Thanks for reading!"
Ariah: "Yeah, sorry, it's been a few awful months since I last updated! (Ah-hem! A year...) Um, yeahh... I forgot my password for awhile, and Riku's e-mail was deleted because of stuff, so... yeah. I'm back! Let's get back to business!."
"Yo! Manabe!" I called, sprinting towards his direction. He leaned off the wall and gave me a small nod followed by a 'Sup' before we began walking down the road together. I had to admit, I was pretty relieved we didn't have an actual test in class today. If Manabe wasn't there, I would've probably pissed my pants at the big fat 'F' I would've landed on Arisa's test. Luckily, I didn't, and it was all thanks to this ignorant dirty blonde idiot.
Thinking back on it, he helped me with quite a lot of things didn't he? I mean, we found the 'King' together er- SEARCHED for the 'King' together. Plus he had those two cell phones too (although one was actually Shizuka's...). Then there was that time during the school trip...I owed him a lot, even IF he didn't ask for anything back.
"About that favor..." I began, shoving my hands into the pockets of my hoodie. "...You did a whole lot for me, and I haven't done anything for you yet, so why don't we just-"
"Go out?"
"Yeah?" I paused for a moment, bringing a hand up to my chin in thought. "Yeah sure, why not? We could go out to eat somewhere- my treat!" I placed my hands behind my head and turned to look up at the sky. The clouds were turning into shapes of meat and ramen and I simply could not hold back my anticipation anymore.
"No thanks." Was his reply. His head was turned the other direction and I raised my eyebrow at him.
"Huuuh?" I asked, my hands falling back down to my sides. "Why not?"
With a quick jerk of his head, he turned to look at me. "YOU paying? You've got no job, you've got no life, how could you possibly pay for a meal?" He asked me, the same old ignorant stare planted onto his face. "You might as well go rob a bank, being violent is all you're good at..."
"Who'ya calling VIOLENT?!" I shouted, giving his arm a slight punch. "I said 'treat' not 'pay'!"
"Now you're trying to send me to a hospital?" He sighed, averting his gaze. "Don't you think I've been there enough?"
"If you want I can send you there AGAIN, pronto!" I hissed back, raising my fist ever so slightly towards him. "Besides, I can cook pretty decently... you just haven't seen it yet..."
Manabe gave me a look of disbelief, the corners of his lips curling downwards as he replied with a; "Uh-huhh...".
Ugh, I'm so done with this guy...
I glanced sideways and around us, noticing the change of scenery as we walked past the neighborhood homes. "So hey..." I finally said, hands back into my pockets. "...where are we going anyway?" I turned my head and gave him a quizzical look but he only ignored it and continued looking forward at the road.
"The favor from before..." He began, sticking his own hands into his pants pockets. "...I'm taking you there."
'Could he not be any more clear with his words?' I thought, scowling to myself as we continued forwards. 'Why so secretive all of a sudden?' It wasn't until he had stopped walking that I glanced upwards to see where his secret destination was.
"Wait..." I blurted. "...Isn't this your house?"
Manabe gave me a look which pretty much said; "Duh", and he casually walked inside, leaving me dumbfounded outside the open gates.
"Tsubasa," He called, standing by the open door. "You coming or not?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah," I said back, hurrying to the door. "But if we were coming to your house, you should've just told me to come over...we didn't need to meet at town square or anything..."
He turned his back to me and began to take off his shoes as I walked inside and closed the door behind me. It really DID feel a tad bit nostalgic to be inside his house again. I mean, the first time I was here, was the first time I met Shizuka. Before I could even think about it, a small smile had already formed on my face as I took in all the precious memories.
"Weirdo."
Manabe's voice brought me back to life and I couldn't help but smile even wider. "Are you kidding? We've had some good times here!" I said back, a grin spread on my face. "First time I met Shizuka, and even tried to sneak in too- good times, good times~"
"If you call almost getting stabbed in the face with a pair of scissors as 'good times' then I don't know what to say..." Manabe sighed back, although I could see an almost transparent smirk forming on his lips at the thought of it.
I watched him go up the stairs before taking my own shoes off and following him. "Hey, you sure your parents don't mind that I'm over?" I asked him, practically jogging up the stairs to catch up.
"They're out" He replied, not even bothering to deal with the details. "I had to go out and buy something, which is why I had you meet up with me at the square."
Manabe trailed off into his room, leaving the door open for me to enter, and headed straight for his closet, where he began trying to dig something out.
"Che, you honestly couldn't just tell me; 'Ey, I gotta go out to buy something, meet you at my house at five'?" I said back, lowering my voice in mimic to his. "You really are difficult sometimes...you know that?"
I shrugged my shoulders when I didn't get an immediate reply, and sat down cross-legged on the carpet. Like always, his room was always so neat, it kinda makes me jealous...not saying that my room is messy or anything... (sweat drop)
"This," Manabe finally said, holding out a package towards me. I took the package from his hands and stared down at it. Fireworks? Why would he give me this?
"I had them for awhile now..." He began, as if reading my thoughts. "...Let's light them together."
Raising an eyebrow, I looked up at him, watching him scratch the back of his head in embarrassment with his head turned the other direction.
"Pfft! What's this?" I asked jokingly, tossing the package upwards and then catching it again. "Weren't you the one who said there wasn't a need for big celebrations as long as you and Shizuka's misunderstanding was cleared?"
He seemed a bit taken back by this realization and immediately stuttered before turning around and heading out the door.
"Hey!" I called, my head leaned back onto the edge of his bed. "Manabe!"
Stopping at his open door, Manabe slowly turned around. "What?" He asked, looking a bit more sulky then usual.
"Let's light these tonight!"
Ariah: "Eyyyy- Ohh! How was THIS for a chapter? Yeah... I dunno... Tsubasa seems kinda dense but you shouldn't misunderstand her too much, she thinks Manabe likes Shizuka, and of course, Shizuka likes Manabe...that's how it is. But instead of focusing on making other people happy...maybe she should pay more attention to her own feelings...? Whew! Up next we'll see how Manabe deals with this!~"
