A/N: Final Chapter~! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
Naota opened the door to his house and walked inside quietly. His dad and grandpa were still up in arms about earlier when the two women hustled into the house. They quieted when Naota entered.
"Heeey, Naota, why so down?" Kamon commented from the side room next to the kitchen.
"Hm?" He looked to his father. "Down? No, I'm fine."
"Want some bread?" Kamon waved a hardened croissant at him. "It's only a day old."
Naota stared and, from his back view, one could see only Kamon's arm and a hardened croissant wave in the air. Naota's gaze focused on it before he took it, put it in his mouth, put his hands in his pockets and walked upstairs.
"I tell ya that boy's gonna have the stomach of a steel drum!" Naota's grandfather reported to no one in particular.
"What are you trying to say?"
"That bread's gonna empty him out."
"It's only eight days old, dad. Give him a break." Kamon waved off his father and his lie as if they were nothing.
Naota walked upstairs quietly and then turned to his left, opening his door. He closed the door quietly behind him.
"WHAT IS THIS!?!?"
Haruko was weeping in front of the computer screen—her face was twisted in horror and stuck in a Tiki-statue look. Ekojin grabbed Naota by the neck of his shirt with her right hand and pointed behind herself with her left.
"I expected drama! What is THIS?!" she demanded.
"A family vacation slideshow."
"I heard there was kissing! I heard there was beach time fun! THESE ARE LIEEEEEES!"
Naota just shrugged nonchalantly in her grip. "I guess so."
Uselessly, Ekojin dropped her pointing arm and let Naota go.
"I'm going home. Haruko, you're on my shit list."
"Okaaaay, see you Tuesday for the picnic~"
Haruko waved lazily to her compatriot who closed the door behind herself. The sound of skates against the concrete came seconds later from the outside. Haruko had a disappointed and distrusting look on her face as Naota shut everything down and turned off the computer.
"What was that?" she asked finally when the monitor went black and everything was silent.
"What was what?"
"That, Naota. I know what I saw."
Naota looked over his shoulder and stood up straight.
"Think of it as one crazy dream, Haruko. Nothing happened."
With that, he laid down on his bottom bunk and closed his eyes. Seconds later, the lights went out and the top bunk squeaked with movement. Things were suddenly quiet.
It was hard to say what I dreamt that night at all really. Some things come to mind, but… I know they had something to do with seeing Mamimi again. No one but Ninamori and I knew that was her after all. We went to go see her when she fly back in to Japan. She, Ninamori and I went out for fun. It was weird that Ninamori even participated—especially when we went to the beach. Then we ran into Ninamori's cousin…
She was a nice girl, hard to believe she came from the same place as Ninamori… I hung with her a lot when with the others. Hard to say, but I was starting to like her, I think.
I didn't know, but Mamimi caught me stealing a kiss, but it was on a dare. Ninamori's face was priceless.
That was it.
No summer romances. Ninamori's cousin and Mamimi left together on a plane to Europe, and we haven't heard much since summer from those two.
Just catching up.
Now… I don't know.
Maybe playing catch up with some old memories isn't that bad.
Naota opened his eyes slowly and found that the room was somewhat shrouded in lazy darkness. He sat up and looked out the window. The sun hid behind some clouds. He looked at the clock, and it was still early morning. Scratching his stomach, Naota walked out of his room and down the stairs into the kitchen. He paused and motioned to pick up the wall phone.
Someone knocked. He stopped, and he went to open the door.
"Ninamori?"
She had her hands on her hips. "Well?"
"Well…?"
"Is the emergency over?"
Stunned for a moment by the question, he came back to Earth and nodded. Ninamori sighed.
"Good." She looked him over. "You look ridiculous."
His eyes went up to look for stray hair, but he couldn't see his extreme bed head. Ninamori shook her head.
"You're too bizarre. In any case, I'm leaving."
"Busy today?"
She looked over her shoulder. "My cousin's coming over."
Naota perked up. Ninamori shook her head.
"Not her."
He gave a relaxed smile, a kind of "oh" smile. She nodded, raised her hand and went back to the car. He raised his hand and closed the door again. He heard movement and saw Haruko sitting on the steps. They stared at each other in silence before Naota smiled.
Haruko blinked then watched him go into the kitchen before she followed. He walked to the wall phone and picked it up, dialing a number. After answering some minor questions, he was put thru.
"Hello, Ekojin?"
Some things…you can't force. Like trying to make intelligent adults or trying to enforce a restraining order on some crazy maid. But…when you can, if you can, relive the memories you can… There's no point in looking too far back.
The next weekend Haruko, Ekojin, Ninamori, Kanti and Kamon hung out by the river. Haruko, Ekojin, Kanti and Kamon played a gun war game, shooting each other in the high weeds. Ninamori and Naota just sipped their sodas.
But sometimes…
A hand fell on Naota's shoulder. He looked up, a familiar smile.
It's okay to look back.
Mamimi sat next to them and told them all about her trip.
End.
Kinda of cheesy, I know, but I couldn't end this any other way. I hope you do like it in any case. Wrote this within the same hour of writing the last chapter. FLCL is one of my favorite animes because it's one that can end like this and still be okay. I was going to end this several ways, but this is one that I'm satisfied with. Who knows? You might even like it too once you really, really take it in.
- TC
