Title: And now
Summary: Dates don't always go well. Especially when Megumi is involved.
Genre: friendship, romance, humour, hurt-comfort, drama (?)
Characters: Megumi, Yahiro, Natori and Marie (two O.C who I hope don't steal the spotlight. I just needed someone to fill in those roles)
Pairing(s): one-sided(?) Megumi x Yahiro, (if you want to see it that way) one-sided Natori (OC) x Megumi.
Rating: T (if you want to see it that way)
Timeline: after the manga
Words: 3,935
Warning: this is old. Like last-year old. I tried to tweak a few sentences here and there to make it less awkward (it didn't work), and the end was written recently, but otherwise, this is crap. So be careful.
Note: Thanks to Alone-but-happy who helped me write the end because I had absolutely no inspiration (like too often lately). Otherwise, no note, but please read the warning and try to enjoy this anyway.
Ding
She pushed her delicate hands against the door and spotted her favourite two-seat table void of any presence, luckily. With a nod of salutation to the owner of this vintage café who was currently serving a middle-aged man, Megumi headed toward her usual spot with doubt already rapidly growing in her mind. Would Yahiro really come...? He was still hung over Akira, so it wouldn't be that surprising if he didn't come at all. She slowly sat and plopped her chin on her palms after shaking furiously her head, earning a few curious glances, however they all went back to their business as regulars were now used to her manners. At least once a week, the petite girl visited, holding a sketchpad and white headphones peaking out of her pockets. She'd be sitting at that one particular spot and either doodling, listening to music or writing songs. Except that today, she was especially well-dressed, in a cream-coloured sundress and small golden earrings, and her relaxed ways and her headphones nowhere in sight.
Stop worrying, you know he will come. He did promise, right? Megumi sermoned herself before staring out of one of the large window of the place, being seated right next to the glass. It was a beautiful day with a beautiful cyan sky with a few pure white clouds scattered around, and it seemed like most people intended to spend the day outside. It was a very nice Sunday and one of the last chance to enjoy summer before fall settled in.
One nervous hand smothered the thin fabric of her dress and she absentmindedly began to etch various objects on her sketch board, the very one her date had offered her.
Her date. The thought caused a thump of her heart and a great anxiety taking over her mind. Yahiro.
Yes, they had once went on a date, but that was before they saw past each other's façades, and furthermore, it was only fake, a plan Megumi had used to protect Akira (and, in the end, his actions caused her to realise she didn't even need to). Later, they had fake-dated to fool her mother, but then, once again, it wasn't out of love or even friendship (for their relationship was something untitled). Finally, once the matter with Hikari's planned depart was settled, she had managed to obtain a date with him, with the help of two tickets to a opera rumoured interesting. Sadly, both had found themselves unable to go due to different problems. Because of Yahiro's hatred for broken promises, he had suggested another rendezvous instead.
Still, he's only coming because of this fact, and not because he actually wants to go out with me. The girl sighed and tapped her pencil against her board. Unrequited love sucks. But it isn't like I can do anything to change this situation.
"Excuse me, Megumi-chan?" A voice from her left surprised her.
She lifted her head toward the interruption and couldn't help but feel a tinge of deception as she found herself staring at a waiter, and not the one person she'd be hoping for. Come on, Megumi! Give him a chance! You did arrive fifteen minutes early. "S-sorry, Natori-kun. I was a bit too much absorbed in my thoughts." She apologised with a small but genuine smile as she showed him her board.
"Nah, it's fine." He flashed perfect white teeth back at her. "Love problems, perhaps?"
She giggled and put her board down but didn't answer and they both left it at that.
She knew that Natori, a year older than her and a tad player (oh, how often had she witnessed him flirting with any girl entering the café?), liked to tease her, as he stated once 'your reactions are hilarious' when she inquired why he was always playing mind tricks on her.
"Will you take the usual?" he inquired, his warm brown eyes looking straight at her. Along her many visits, the two had become friends and he often took care of her orders just to get a few minutes of friendly chat — before Marie, his boss, noticed him lazing off and dragged him to the counter.
"Ah, yes, although not right now. I think I should wait a little before ordering anything."
"Oh? Are you waiting for someone?" He caught her quick nod and added, "I bet it's a guy." Megumi's furious blush informed him easily that he was spot on.
"Y-yeah, but I am a tad too early so..." She cut it there, wishing the young man wouldn't ask too many questions.
"Oh, knew it! So —" He plopped down in the seat facing her then stared at her with a grin, "— Is he the one who caused these rosy cheeks and this daze you seem to be in? Hm?"
No such luck, it seemed. The light brown haired girl glanced at her surroundings to come to the conclusion that the waiter would probably have just enough time to embarrass her fully before his boss would tell him to 'get his ass over here'.
"No, I was thinking about another boy." She wrote the lie before she could even plan it. If Yahiro ever heard about this, he'd surely laugh at her.
Natori lifted an eyebrow and gave her a doubtful look, however choose to keep quiet.
"Really? Is he going to your school? In your Special A class, perhaps?"
"He's going to my school, but he's only in class B." She pushed her board under his face so he could read. "It is none of your business anyway."
He laughed at her small pout and smirked as he thought of other questions he could ask. Meanwhile, she was building in her mind the image of an average high school boy that she could pretend to have taken interest in.
"But does your date know about the fact that you like someone else? It's not a good idea to play the jealousy card, Megumi. You could end up with a completely unexpected result," he fake-sermoned her.
"Don't worry, I know I can count on your thousands experiences of failed relationships to have perfect advices. And by the way, my date and I are only doing this as friends. That's all." She wouldn't admit to the one sitting in front of her that this particular sentence had been chanted to herself all day, just so she wouldn't get her hope up (although she knew perfectly that she'd do so anyways).
"Let me doubt that." He only rolled his eyes at her obvious offended state — by now, he knew the girl tended to puff out her cheeks and humph as soon as she felt insulted. "Then, tell me, what is the difference between your feelings for your date and the feelings for your crush?"
"Not answering. And would you stop with your questions? I think Marie is quite busy..."
He turned around quickly and noticed said woman serving customers one after the other with a stressed look on her face. "You are right, she sure does look like she is going to come over and pull me by the ear any second by now." He swiftly got up and, with a mock reverence, finished with, "I'll be going now, princess. But do not worry, I'll make sure to come back as soon as the dragon glances the other way."
The girl waved him off with a giggle at the nickname he gave to his employer and watched his back as he made his way back to the counter. She couldn't help but smile at Natori's easy-going ways and frequent jokes, and was very glad he was there to distract, even for mere minutes.
She let out a sigh and stared at the old grandfather clock of the place, following the hands spinning slowly around. Her conversation with the brown-eyed waiter had not taken a long time, however it was enough to cheer her a little. On the other hand, she was now reminded of the fact that her date was going to arrive late and, most likely, not even bother to come. 'Great, I'm repeating myself now. See what you did to me, Yahiro? You are making me crazy and you don't even care.'
'Sakura would so laugh at me if she witnessed the state I'm in right now...'
Yahiro drummed his fingers against the tainted window in exasperation and demanded once more to his chauffeur to speed off, but there was a lot of traffic in this time of the day, so the man couldn't do much more.
Why, oh why did Yahiro forget to change — or rather ask a maid to do it — the batteries in his alarm clock? He had lost his pricy watch the day before and he had only realised that the clock that he usually relied upon didn't show the right numbers. The red digits displayed continuously 1:04 when it was actually around 3:00. Which was one hour after the set one for his date with Megumi. And then he was in such a hurry in leaving that he left his cellphone on his bed, forgoing the possibility of calling the girl so he could warn her about his tardiness. He could already imagine her crestfallen expression as she glanced desperately at the time, before giving up on waiting for him and heading back home instead. After all, he had multiple times told her to not trust him, and he knew she was still convinced that only Akira and Sakura (although each for different reasons) were the ones he would voluntary spend time with.
However, things had changed, and it was now not entirely true, as the singer interested him greatly. Wasn't it funny how she kept on wanting to hang out with him, even going to the length of admitting her love to him, when he had done his best to keep her away? In the end, the pink-haired teenager had come to the decision that he'd stay close to Megumi. And if anything bad happened that would cause their peculiar friendship to break, well it wasn't as if he hadn't warned her.
A loud honk was heard a few meters away and Yahiro was jerked out of his thoughts who were, even if he didn't want o admit it, more and more full of Megumi.
"Oi, drive faster, will you?"
Sigh.
It had to be the fiftieth time she had heaved a sigh, Megumi realised. 'I must be quite a pathetic sight, no?' the teenager mused after a old woman gave her a pitying glance.
"Megumi..." An hesitant call of her name was heard next to her.
She shot her head up with a questioning look to meet Natori's worried chocolate eyes. She showed the single question mark on her white board and the waiter sat in front of her, albeit less cheerfully than he'd usually do.
"I'm sorry to say so, but I don't think your date is coming," he stated quietly. The light brown haired girl simply shook her head and he felt the need to finish with, "He's plainly late, Megumi. Didn't you say he'd come at 2 o'clock? It's been more than one hour. Actually, it's been almost two."
"Something must have held him back. He's a very busy person." It was hastily written and it did nothing to lift Natori's worry.
"There's a difference between being held back and not coming at all. Why didn't he call, then?"
The girl made a point to avoid his eyes by erasing slowly the words on her mean of communication.
"I'm not doing this because I feel like kidding. I don't think he's a great person for you if he doesn't show up on time on your first date. And this comes from the one parents always abhor," the waiter joked, albeit a bit sadly.
he reached out to pat his hand in sympathy - she remembered perfectly that time that he swore the girl was the one, but her parents had done everything to separate them, like a new kind of Romeo and Juliet, and the adults had won-, before pulling back to write something.
"If so many people hate you, they must have a reason then?" She added a teasing face as a funny note, then scrawled a few more sentences at the end: "But back on the matter at hand, I do know I can trust Yahiro. He'd rather be the one in pain than cause it, and he knows that not coming would-" She was lacking space and her face showed clearly her frustration. As always, she was as easy to read as a book, noted the older teenager with a small chuckle while the girl erased rapidly a few words to free a small corner of the board. "-Would hurt me greatly."
At least, with that interruption in her explanation, she had had the time to think before completing. She had almost wrote "would destroy even more my self-esteem", however she guessed it would be better to only let Yahiro hear of her uncertainties. She could easily recall her embarrassment once she realised she had told him about how she felt less and less confident in herself, as all of her friends had found their perfect match, except her. The pink-haired teenager had somehow found what to say to comfort her- or maybe that was only because he was him and she relied way too much into his words and his acts. They were walking through town, having met coincidentally just before - she was shopping for various items, he was simply bored and was lazying around. This kind of meeting was ordinary for them, as Megumi liked to stroll around the town on her own and Yahiro preferred to get away from the pressure of his life times to times. Still, every time they crossed each other's path, they parted with the feeling of being a bit closer to the other.
He muttered something akin to "Don't be so stupid" and ruffled roughly my hair.
I opened my mouth to protest, but one glare from him made me shut it and instead pout. Geez.
"You know," he started, "you don't need this kind of love." I glanced at him, curious. "As long as you have those friends of yours, you'll be fine, right?"
I started writing and made to turn my board toward him, but changed my mind and erased quickly my words.
"What were you going to show me?"
I shook my head, blushing.
"Megumi..." His voice threatened me in that same way as usual.
"But... What if they forget about me?"
He bonked me on the head, hard, and scowled at me. "Do you sincerely believe they'd ever forget you? You must be more of an idiot than I thought."
I glared at him, daring to say more, and he did. "Seriously, I doubt this situation so much, I'd bet everything I have against it. With the way your friends are, they just can't forbid friendship over anything else."
I found it strange to hear Yahiro rant this much on a subject I wouldn't have thought he cared much about. On the other hand, I needed this speech, for his words affected me like no one else could. Only him had such control over me, and I wasn't sure if I appreciated this or not. After all, he had made him quite plain that he wasn't interested at all in me as I was in him, and I wasn't even sure if I could consider us friends. He said something under his breath that I wasn't sure if I heard correctly. After all, for Yahiro to murmur this, of all people...
"What did you say?" I asked, hoping I had heard right. "Nothing. Don't go hallucinating on me now, idiot," he grumbled, however when he turned his head away, looking every bit of embarrassed, I knew my hearing was perfect. After all, I pride myself in the music department.
"At least you'll still have me..."
"Megumi!"
A panicked and disheveled teen burst in the otherwise tranquil café, bothering the few patrons who stared at him questioningly before shrugging off the interruption. Megumi and Natori both looked up quickly as he marched down to their table. The girl beamed and bent her head to discover that her latest conversation was still written on her sketch board. She quickly erased every words, knowing her date wouldn't appreciate her talking about him with someone he didn't know a thing about. She straightened, to come upon the strange sight of Natori and Yahiro glaring at each other as thought they were in a contest.
"Megumi?" The Saiga heir all but growled out. "Who is this guy?"
"Natori's a friend of mine; he works here as a waiter." She turned the board toward said waiter. "That's Yahiro, my date." He narrowed his eyes.
"I'd say nice to meet you, however since it isn't, well, you'll have to make do with this."
Natori! Megumi's face clearly displayed shock, but she was easily ignored by the two men.
"Really? Strange, I was thinking the same," Yahiro retaliated.
The Yamamoto girl glanced rapidly between the two of them as they exchanged back and forth barely veiled insults. She knew Natori was very protective of her as he thought of her as his own sister and Yahiro was very late, sparking instant dislike in the former. Though for Yahiro's case, she guessed it simply was very like him to bite back even when he didn't know the reason for the attack.
"Guys—"
"Don't talk, Megumi," cut off both of boys at the same time, barely sparing her a glance as they did so.
She huffed and crossed her arms childishly, annoyed. They ordered her to shut up and didn't even pay any attention to her? Sighing, she quickly jotted down a few words on her white board and started nudging Yahiro's arm. No reaction. She pulled on the waiter's sleeve. No reaction either. She gritted her teeth. If it had to come to that, then...
She opened her mouth and, without giving any time for the two to react, sang.
A few notes later, Yahiro's hands were rudely pressed on her lips as he glared at her.
"Don't. Speak." He gritted out and she glared right back at him.
He was pushed back by Natori who entered their little glaring contest by staring defiantly at the Saiga heir.
At this point, everybody in the café was looking at them, each with different expressions. Some appeared amused and others seemed disturbed, though most looked like they went deaf after Megumi's singing. Marie marched down to them and Natori grimaced; he was to one who was going to take the brunt of it.
Surprise, surprise, she stopped right in front of him and gave him one of those death glares she was (in)famous for.
"Natori."
He gulped; her voice was almost dripping with ice.
"Yes?" he managed to squeak out.
The woman appeared to be attempting to calm herself down as she rubbed her forehead and sighed. "You can take the rest of the day off."
"Eh? Why?" he questioned dumbly.
Glare.
"Yes! Of course, with pleasure, madam!"
The owner of the café nodded, then turned to Megumi, her face softening a little at the girl's nervous look. "Megumi, I'd like that you leave today to relax a bit." The teenager nodded quickly, not reassured yet, therefore Marie added, "Don't worry, I'm not kicking you out. You just brought along back company, it seems, however it is my job to make sure this place stays peaceful. Please come back tomorrow." Another nod from Megumi.
Then, the woman stared at Yahiro carefully, as though she was trying to judge accurately his character. Finally, she appeared to have reached upon a bad conclusion for a frown formed on her features as she spoke to him. "You... I don't know your name, nor your link to Megumi or my idiot of a waiter, however I ask that you get out and don't come back here unless you are ready to act like a normal, civilised person. Understood?"
Yahiro's irritation was very obvious in his face and he clearly was going to bit back something awful if a certain Special A student hadn't elbowed his sides before he could.
"Understood." He gritted out.
The trio left rapidly the building, with Natori stopping a few seconds to take off his black apron. Just as he was going through the door, Marie called out, "By the way, you'll have no pay for today. At all."
He gaped and stopped short, thus receiving the door fast on his nose with a sickening noise.
"Natori!" Megumi hurried to his side, fretful, as he stumbled back, his hands on his nose.
"'B fibe," he muttered incomprehensibly.
"You're making sooo much sense, right now," Yahiro's sarcastic side kicked in.
Natori threw a nasty glare at him, then looked at the girl and attempted a reassuring smile. It didn't quite work, for the rest of his face was contorted in pain and blood was dripping down. "I said, I ab fibe... Arghh."
Megumi was staring at him with wide eyes, wondering what nonsense he was talking about, while Yahiro had a look on that clearly displayed he thought the waiter was insane.
"I said, I feel all right."
Oooh. Comprehension dawned on the two others.
"But, Natori..." Megumi began as she bit her lips, "You're bleeding"
"Ah, it's bothing. Bothing. Bo— Don't worry."
"This isn't nothing! I think you broke your nose!" The girl was on the verge of panic.
Saiga sighed, pissed off. "Look, moron, let's go to the hospital." At Natori's shocked look, he grumbled out, "I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this so that idiotic girl will shut up already."
Aaah, typical Yahiro.
Thus, the peculiar trio went on their way to the hospital with Natori insisting he was 'fine' and Yahiro assuring Megumi he was only doing this because he had nothing else to do.
"Besides," he said, "You still own me a date. Let's dump the moron at the hospital and go somewhere else."
The Yamamoto girl nodded shyly; Natori glared menacingly at Yahiro but refrained from starting another chain of insults in front of Megumi.
In the end, Megumi convinced Yahiro to stay at the hospital with her in the waiting room until Natori was done, which actually took a few hours (waiting to see a doctor was the major part). How did she manage to persuade Saiga? Well, she promised she'd do any favour he'd ask for — without demanding for the impossible, of course.
Luckily, she didn't notice his dangerous smirk as she uttered those words or else she would have been frightened out of her mind.
I wonder what his plans are...?