It was the 3rd of May when Emiko realized that Kyo's birthday was on the 5th. She truly didn't know what to give him to make him happy. What were friends supposed to give one another on their birthdays anyway? She didn't know what friends did; she had never had one.
She thought about it all through the night, and through the next day. It was sunset when she distractedly sketched sunset and clouds still thinking about Kyo's birthday present.
What was she supposed to do?
"Emi?" She jumped, a bit scared of who was waiting for her.
"Tou-san?" Her father was standing in the doorway, and suddenly, everything else forgotten, she rushed towards him. He worked late on most days and she was happy to see him.
She was caught up in her father's arms, and they lifted her high. She giggled, it was nice to spend time with her Tou-san.
They were back inside and in the kitchen when she remembered that Kyo still needed a present for his birthday. "Tou-san, what should I give Kyo on the 5th?"
Kurowa Shintokan was dumbfounded. His daughter had made a friend while he had been away from home? He would have to talk to Azumi about this. For now, he could give his very confused little girl some advice.
"I think Kyoya would be happy with whatever you choose to give him. Friends don't necessarily give each other things that are great in monetary value, but they give each other things that mean the most to the heart."
Emiko nodded although she did not understand most of what had been said. She had gotten lost after the first sentence, but had gathered that her father thought giving Kyo anything would be fine.
"Thank you, Tou-san." She murmured. Suddenly she was excited, perhaps it would be better to look through her sketchbooks. There would have to be something that Kyo would like in there.
Perhaps it would be better to skip dinner as well. It would get in the way of looking.
In the end she had dinner with her parents, it really wouldn't be fair to them to skip after all, and 'kaa-san would be worried.
After dinner she pulled out her sketchbooks, all of them and flipped through the pages with a sense of urgency. What to give...what to give...
She flipped to the sakura pictures from that March. Would it be alright to give them to him as a joke? No...it would be too mean since it was his birthday present after all.
She continued flipping. There, she carefully ripped the charcoal drawing out of her sketchbook. A skylark. In a way it seemed quite fitting.
She would give this to him.
Kyoya rolled out of bed on the 5th more than a little annoyed. It was his birthday. He turned 4 this very day, and yet he was still going to school. Not to mention, his birthday also coincided on children's day making it as loud and noisy as possible. It was just not a good date.
With his annoyance firmly at the forefront of his mind, he stalked to school by himself, because doubly irritating Okaa-san had to work early today. It was not going to be a good day in the least.
At least there was Emi...his sort of friend. They didn't really do things that other people considered that fun.
She better not be absent.
Emiko woke up that morning, and realized with a start that she was late. Grabbing a piece of toast while she frantically made sure that the skylark sketch was carefully covered with wax paper and tucked into her bag she rushed.
But she was still late. So she and Kaa-san rushed towards the school building, but it wasn't a very fast rush given that she had very short legs.
Still, she got there.
What she didn't quite expect was that Kyo was in such a bad mood.
"You're late." It was practically a hiss.
"I'm sorry!" She ducked her head, it was still difficult to look people in the eye even if it had gotten a little better.
Kyoya stared at the door with growing alarm and more than a little embarrassment. What did it matter to him if Emi was absent? Still the niggling feelings in the back of his brain refused to leave him alone.
Why was she not here yet? She wasn't normally late.
Emi rushed into the classroom looking incredibly out of breath and somewhat confused.
"You're late" he hissed.
"I'm sorry!" The reply he got back was almost a squeak. All of his annoyance nearly went out the window, but he quickly questioned why he wasn't annoyed anymore and promptly got annoyed at the answer that he found.
He stalked back to his seat muttering bad names at himself and the whole world under his breath.
Emiko watched him go with growing concern. Did she do something wrong again? Oh...she hadn't wished Kyo happy birthday yet, and it was clear that he wasn't very happy this morning.
Did everyone else also forget?
She wilted slightly at the thought. Then turned back to her seat. Class was starting, she would make it up to him during playtime.
Kyoya stalked out of the room the moment playtime began because he couldn't stand another minute of class. There were too many loud annoying people in the classroom.
That and he was fairly certain that Emi had forgotten his birthday, which was not very much like her, but could still possibly happen. He was annoyed that he cared at all about how she had forgotten.
"W-wait! Kyo!" He heard but he kept on walking.
"Kyo!" He stopped. She had been chasing him for the past two minutes and it was getting a little annoying. Would she not go away?
"Go away."
"I'm sorry for being late Kyo. I got you a present." He turned around to be greeted by big amber eyes and something wrapped in wax paper being held out to him. She didn't forget after all.
He accepted and was met with one of the happiest smiles that he had ever seen. Emi had Azumi-san's smile.
A few days later the spring term concluded and with that most of the children bid each other goodbye and chattered excitedly about what they were going to do during summer break.
Masu-sensei noticed that Hibari-kun and Emiko-chan were again disengaged from the others. Hibari-kun was openly staring out the window even more than normal without even trying to seem like he was doing something important. And Emiko-chan was staring at a piece of paper in front of her as if it held all the answers.
Both of them weren't engaging with the others again. And that worried Masu-sensei a lot, because these were her charges, and she should care if they had friends or not.
With a sigh, she decided that it would be best to talk to both of their parents about the situation. They were both virtually friendless and their parents should really know about the situation.
Masu-sensei really didn't know half of what went on in their minds.
Kyoya was staring dis-engagedly out the window because he was bored out of his mind. The simple-ness of reading was beyond him. He didn't need a sign with the word cat on with Masu-sensei saying "This is the word cat. C-A-T is cat."
Emi was more concerned about the fact that she wasn't going to see Kyo again until fall term because they didn't make any plans for the summer. Also she had longer art classes in the summer, and Kaa-san had just brought up the fact that she would be taking a fitness class this summer as well. It looked like there would be no free time for her, and she really didn't know how Kyo would take it.
Perhaps he, Akiko-san, and Eiji-san could come over for dinner sometime.
A.N. I'm so sorry it took so long for me to publish something else! Yikes. It's been a long time. I promise that I haven't forgotten this story. It's just life's been wearing me down slowly.
Anyway! I hope you enjoyed chapter 7 of Blooming Flowers, Floating Clouds. And Yay Hibari-san turns 4!
Mukuro will turn 4 soon too!
As always. I welcome your reviews!
-Leaf
