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Now that that is done, I will write!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Life and Times of Kikumaru Eiji
Chapter Eight
Don't look up, just let them think
There's no place else you'd rather be
You're always on display
To watch and learn from
Don't you know by now? You can't turn back
Because this road is all you'll ever have.
-Fences, Paramore
The following morning, Fuji's parents were located—far away from Japan. It appeared that Fuji's father was off on his usual and permanent overseas business trip and Fuji's mother had loaded up Fuji's two siblings and had soared on the wings of a jumbo jet to go visit him. The Kikumaru family was tied up on all parts of the story. Isamu and Minoru were instantly curious if Fuji's big sister was their age and Michi and Airi were drawn to the fact that Fuji had a brother. Eiji was simply surprised that Fuji had siblings at all—he certainly gave off the vibes of an only child. The Kikumaru parents were, of course, disgruntled over the fact that a mother would up and leave a child—especially one of Fuji's age. Fuji didn't seem too perturbed by his mother's sudden departure, which agitated Eiji's parents further.
When Fuji's mother realized that her son didn't have his key, she seemed to shrug over the phone and asked the Kikumarus distractedly if they would mind if Fuji stayed for a week or two until they came back and that she would pay for any inconvenience that Fuji caused. With a very angry huff, Eiji's mother answered that, yes, Fuji could stay with them, and no, she would not take payment for allowing Fuji to stay. With some final choleric and bitter words on Eiji's mother's part, the two said good-bye and Fuji was alerted to the fact that he would be staying with them for the next while.
The first thing done in this regard was to add Fuji to the family chore chart. This act was met with great rejoicing and celebration on all the children's part, including Fuji, who seemed to be pleased at his name being added in at the bottom; it was a fact which was discussed as an oddity. No one living in The Den liked chores, but Fuji did his jobs almost jovially. Airi made a point to avoid Fuji for a day to make sure that she didn't accidentally catch whatever sickness it was that he had that made him seem to love the painful tasks he was assigned to complete.
Eiji's bed was quickly made into a bunk-bed by attaching the top portion of the wooden frame. Isamu and Minoru had shared the bunk bed when they were little, but when they had moved into a bigger house and Eiji had been born, Isamu had been given a bigger bed and Minoru and Eiji had taken the two parts of the bunk-bed for their own. However, it was tradition that when a child in house Kikumaru reached ninth grade they received a new bed. As Minoru and Michi had just reached the ninth grade, there were two extra beds laying around, one of them, handily, being the top bunk of Eiji's bed. Sheets were quickly acquired and the bed was covered with an old blanket that Eiji suspected of being a dog blanket at one time.
Despite his wobbly, scratchy, smelly accommodations, Fuji seemed happy to be temporarily part of Eiji's family. Eiji, for his part, couldn't wait for Fuji to see just how annoying his family really was. Fuji, in the short time he had known the Kikumaru family, seemed to have placed them on a pedestal of excellence; a pedestal upon which Eiji knew his family was not worthy of standing. His family was not that amazing. His brothers and sisters were fairly annoying at best, his mother was loud and embarrassing, and his father seemed sad most of the time.
Still, Eiji was excited that Fuji was staying at his house. It was practically a dream come true for him, as he had often envisioned Ken or Jin staying at his house for weeks on end. Now that it was coming home, he was particularly thrilled, though he would never admit it to anyone.
"Eiji?"
"Yes?"
The two were at the courts the next morning, waiting for Dina to show. She had told them that she would be late that morning, as her mother wanted to have breakfast together while she was in town. Dina lived with her father, so the two boys understood her want to see her mother when the time arose for her to do so.
Fuji was standing on the other side of Court 2 from Eiji, tennis ball in hand. Eiji was waiting for the serve on the other side, body tensed in anticipation. Fuji hit the ball lightly over the net, and Eiji ran to intercept it.
"I was thinking, and I think I can sneak into my house." Fuji said while Eiji ran to hit the ball.
"Oh, how?" Eiji answered, whacking the ball into Fuji's left side of the court.
"I think I left my bedroom window open. If you can climb up to the second window, you could go around and unlock the front door." Fuji hit the ball back to Eiji, lightly still.
"You'd still be living with us, even if I do unlock the house, right?" Eiji was slightly apprehensive. He enjoyed having Fuji around.
"Oh, yes." Fuji said distractedly. "I was just thinking that I could get some clothes, rather than borrow yours."
Eiji laughed, and missed the ball, which had been a lob especially for him. The two were practicing Eiji's jumping. Fuji had noticed that Eiji was particularly good at leaping into the air and he had decided to have Eiji work on that skill. Eiji went along with it, knowing full well that Fuji was a lot better at tennis that he was. If Fuji located a talent in Eiji, Eiji was willing to run with it.
"That was pathetic, Kikumaru Eiji," Came a voice from behind Eiji, and he twisted to see Dina standing, hands planted on her hips behind the chain-link fence.
Fuji grinned, then waved Dina in. "Then come on in, Dina. Let's show Eiji how it's done."
Dina's face broke into a sly smile and she pulled the door open. "Yes. Let's."
Eiji and Fuji dropped off their tennis gear before they set out for Fuji's house and their secret mission.
"We'll be back later, mom, possibly with glad tidings." Eiji shouted up the stairs, then the two scampered out the door.
It wasn't a long walk to Fuji's house, but as they walked up the hill, Eiji noticed that the houses got progressively nicer. Soon, short fences popped up around the yards of the houses and these too got progressively taller. They walked away from the tennis courts, and up a hill that Eiji lived at the bottom of. As they got farther from Eiji's house, the sounds of the city disappeared and were replaced with a suburban quiet.
Fuji lead the way, mostly in silence, but Eiji was so busy taking in the new part of his new town that his friend's silence didn't bother him. Fuji took them down a side street and stopped abruptly; it was good that Eiji had the reflexes he did, or else the walk would have culminated in both boys crashing to the ground.
"This is it," Fuji said, and he pulled open a shoulder high gate that reminded Eiji of the kind of fences that he had seen surrounding European houses in the movies. Fuji guided Eiji around his house and to the back window. Sure enough, there was a curtain on the second floor fluttering in the breeze.
"She was right," Fuji muttered, and Eiji leaned closer to hear what Fuji had said.
"Excuse me?" Eiji asked, not catching what he had said.
"Oh, my sister told me I might want to leave my window open, so I did. Seems she was right, about me needing to keep my window open."
"Oh, that's weird."
"Actually, not really." Fuji said, shrugging. "My sister is right about a lot of things."
Eiji rolled his eyes. "Sounds a lot like my sisters, except they only think they're right about everything."
Fuji laughed then gestured to a wicker climbing-ivy post, which was leaning up against his house. "Care to climb?"
Eiji eyed the wicker with suspicion. "Will that hold my weight? I may look skinny, but I'm not that light."
"Oh, don't worry. It's made out of metal; who ever designed it was very clever."
Eiji shrugged, then quickly scaled the item, trying not to squash any of the ivy. The scaffolding of sorts was taller than Eiji realized and lead him all the way up to Fuji's window. He decided that it was a rather handy contraption and wished that his house had one.
Pulling one leg into the window, quickly followed by the other, Eiji gave Fuji the thumbs up. Fuji returned the sign, then darted around the corner of the house, disappearing to wait in front of the grand front door.
Eiji dropped into Fuji's room and took a quick look around. It seemed to be a normal room, if slightly upscale. Everything Fuji owned seemed to be new and unworn. Eiji would never complain of being poor, but with five older siblings, it was likely that at least some of his possessions had been owned by an older sibling at some point. Eiji spared any other looking around for later, for when Fuji was packing. He quickly darted out of the bedroom door, located the stairs, and then from there, pinpointed the glass door from amidst the collection of wide windows on the front of Fuji's house. With a satisfying clunk sound, Eiji turned the deadbolt and ushered Fuji into his own house.
"Welcome, sir." Eiji bowed, then winked.
Fuji laughed and then tromped up the stairs. Eiji followed, climbing the stairs on all fours. Fuji preceded Eiji into his bedroom, where he flipped on his closet light and began pulling what seemed to be his entire wardrobe into a duffle he had snagged from a shelf. While he did so, Eiji took another look around Fuji's room.
"You seem to have a lot of hobbies, neh, Fuji," he commented, fingering one of several cameras stacked neatly next to a pile of what appeared to be classic literature ranging from Don Quixote to Dickens.
"Saa…" Fuji intoned from his closet.
"You appear to be good at them too." Eiji commented again, hardly surprised when his eyes slid from Fuji's collection of cameras to several trophies on shelves above a Mac computer.
"Ah, well, I try my best," Fuji replied, not once for false modesty, but rather honest humility.
"Is there anything you aren't good at?" Eiji wondered to himself. "Photographer, scholar, athlete…"
"Plants." Fuji said, appearing from his closet with a suddenness that startled Eiji out of his pondering.
"Say what?" Eiji shook his head, clearing the rubble that had gathered there.
"Plants. No matter what I do, I always end up killing plants. My sister grows herbs in her window seal and I always end up killing them. I over water, under water, over expose to sunlight, under expose to sunlight. I've even sat on one and didn't notice it until I had ripped the stalk."
Fuji blushed while Eiji laughed. "Well, it's good to know that you're human." Eiji finished.
Fuji smiled. "Saa…"
Fuji left his window open just a crack, to make sure that they would be able to get back into his house if the need arose, and the boys left through the front door, making sure to turn the bottom lock.
Their arrival home was met with a chorus of praise for Fuji's master plan and Eiji's capability to carry it out. Michi chimed in that Fuji looked utterly ridiculous in Eiji's clothing and was grateful that they boys were able to get some decent clothing from his closet, for if Fuji had gone around in ill fitting clothing for another day, she was going to have to move out. Eiji whispered to Fuji that it was a pity they didn't wait another day.
Fuji was rolling around on the top bunk that night, trying to get comfortable with his dog blanket, when a though suddenly struck Eiji.
"Oi, Fuji."
"Hum?" Fuji answered, rolling over once more in an attempt to find a snug part in what Eiji knew to be a hard as a stone-slab mattress—Minoru loved a firm bed, and would have slept on the floor, except for the fact that his former mattress had been harder than wood flooring it stood on.
"I'm wondering about school…" Eiji let the remainder of his sentence trickle off, not wanting Fuji to know that he was scared of the year to come.
"Saa… big year coming up." Fuji agreed.
"First year of Junior high." Eiji nodded.
"At least three of your siblings will be there." Fuji offered, hopeful that it would help his friend.
Eiji snorted. "Like that's a help… Do you know where the school is?"
"Yes. My sister graduated from it last year."
"Would you mind…?" Eiji began.
"…Showing you around?" Fuji finished.
"Nya, you read my mind." Eiji grinned, rolling over to burry his head under his pillow, now able to sleep with his worries temporarily assuaged.
"No problem. We'll go after we see Dina tomorrow." Fuji assured, patting the side of his bunk in a comforting way.
"Ah, thanks."
"Not a problem. Not a problem."
So I didn't really know how to end that one. I want the next chapter to be about them going to the school, but I didn't really want them to show up yet… So you got that lame dialogue instead. :D
And now I am off to write a ten page research paper on stem cell research... Yay. (Can you tell by my punctuation that I am totally excited about this major grade for school? I'll repeat: yay.)
Now, please do what I begged, implored advocated, asked, beseeched, besieged, desired, entreated, nagged, petitioned, pleaded, pressed, urged you to do. REVIEW PLEASE. For your own sake, as much as mine! Criticism welcome!
