Seriously...I love FanFiction. Net WAY more than I could ever love Quizilla. And that's because of FanFiction. Net's awesome publishing system. Even though I hate their recent changes to the reviewing system. But there's something wrong these days - about the email thingy. I'm not getting alerts anymore...
Chapter Nine
"…Are you sure?" Gumi's eyes twinkled as she clapped her hand over her mouth, silently laughing. Yuuma was smiling too.
"Well, since I can tell that he's totally smitten with my daughter, who else?"
Gumi shook her head, still hiding her mouth with her hands. "This will be fun to shape. Thank you, Mr. Nekomura—that is, you prefer to be called Yuuma, right? Yuuma, then. I must say, I'm amused…"
"But just remember," Yuuma said quickly, "it's not a birthday cake…"
"I know. Iroha will get her cast taken off by August, right? I'm guessing, you want to celebrate that?"
"Gumi," Yuuma said, impressed, "you're sharp." Gumi only laughed.
"Being a bakery owner, I can't help but not be sharp…It does get annoying when I often find myself to be meddling in others' businesses, but it's always good to know what your customers are ordering about. You don't want to decorate a cake with 'Happy Birthday' when it's actually an offering to the tombstone, if you know what I mean."
"Yeah. And I also need to talk to Len…"
"Yes, I saw that look of disappointment on his face."
Yuuma was surprised. "He was disappointed?"
Gumi nodded. "Let's just say that he wanted that cake too. For what reason, I don't know, but he had that look on his face."
"Can you hear anything?" Len muttered to Iroha out of the corner of his mouth. Iroha shook her head. "I can't either."
"Can you move a bit?" she whispered. "I need more room, my crutch hurts when it's pressed against my rib bone." Len shifted to the right.
"That's okay, right?"
"Thanks."
Both fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts. Len scooted closer to the edge, and could just hear Gumi saying something about disappointment on someone's face. Intrigued, he pressed a finger to his lips and gestured toward the crack, winking at Iroha. Iroha got the message and limped forward, but her foot slipped on a steep chunk of the hill.
A silent scream escaped her lips, but Len grabbed her arm and pulled her upward.
"Who's got to be careful now?" he teased her in a low voice playfully. A rust-colored blush tinted Iroha's cheeks, and she turned her face away.
"What are they talking about, anyway?" she mumbled.
"Were," Len corrected. "I only heard a part about Gumi talking about disappointment…I don't know where that comes in…"
Iroha used her crutch as a support to get closer to a crack and pressed her ear to it. Inside the bakery, she could hear her father saying, …He was disappointed? in his signature surprised voice.
"Gumi's saying that that guy wanted the cake too," Iroha mumbled. "What cake?"
Lemon and Strawberry Cake. But Len couldn't tell her that…if Gumi made a replica anytime soon, he was going to be the first to buy it.
"I don't know," he answered lamely.
Iroha cocked an eyebrow. "Huh. Ooooooo…kay."
Len didn't want to hear any more of the conversation. "In any case, we should be going by now." He expected Iroha to argue, but she simply nodded as he began his way down the slope, back to Iroha's house.
While that was happening, back at Iroha's house~
"You honestly think a cake shaped like an orange sherbet ice cream cone will make them remember us more?" Rin groaned as Kaito popped the unbaked cake in the oven. They had been making the cake since Len and Iroha had gotten outside, which was a long time ago. The bluehead, hearing her comment, turned around and smiled.
"Well, it's something for their hospitality."
Rin leaned against the counter. "We can just be courteous about it."
"It doesn't matter," Kaito replied as he set the timer. "Anyway, I have some leftover hot dogs. Want to look around for a movie?"
"Now who's being nice?" Rin asked, though the sound of snuggling with Kaito on the couch was very enticing. "It's not my house anymore—it's Iroha's. In any case, we can make shadow puppets out of that leftover wrapping you used for those hot dogs."
Kaito brightened up. "Good idea."
On the walk to Iroha's home~
Len felt very awkward as he walked with Iroha who was limping along with a broken ankle. Kicking a rock around, it was anything but social at the moment. Even though it was a fairly short walk, he was still not used to the quietness of Iroha compared to Rin's constant chatter.
"So…" Len ended up saying at last.
He was surprised twice that night. Instead of brushing off the conversation, Iroha jerked her thumb at the clumps of dark trees across from the street. "So…it's early evening and the sun's setting…and when you look at that for the first time without knowing that they're trees, what do you see? Or think?"
"Huh?" Len was caught by surprise; he didn't know how to respond.
"Come on, use your imagination. Since you were so good at describing, I would expect you to be good at this too."
Len took a glance at the dark fir trees clumped closely together. Their tops looked like brazen, sharp points of spears, lined up and ready to pierce the sky; their trunks were like candleholders, and he began at last, "I think…"
Meanwhile, back at Iroha's home~
"Look, an owl!" Kaito laughed as Rin tried to fold her sheep together to create the illusion of owl wings.
"You fail."
Rin stuck her tongue out at him. "It's not like you can do any better," she retorted, her gaze landing on Kaito's poorly made person, which looked more like a scorched frying pan.
"I don't care." Kaito leaned in, and Rin gasped.
For the kiss was sweet and soft, a simple, light kiss; not the rough, passionate ones that she had longed for. But yet it seemed to fill her heart and set it with wings. Kaito's tongue pleaded entrance to her lips; she teased him for a little, holding them firmly shut, but after a while the tickling became too much to bear, and Rin finally gave in. Smirking, Kaito's tongue roamed every part of her mouth. Rin and Kaito would have stayed like this for a very long time if not for a ringing of the doorbell and the smell of freshly-baked cake.
They jerked apart, faces beet red.
I'm such a pedophile… Kaito scolded himself.
What am I, making out with someone like… Rin turned her eyes away.
The shrill sound of the timer made them jump.
"Shit," Kaito said, laughing awkwardly. "I…I'll go get the cake…and ice it…"
"R–right," Rin stammered. "And I'll go get the door."
"Rin…" Len took his childhood friend in. Her lips were wet and a bit swollen, and a blush was carpeted across her cheeks, making her sky blue eyes only seem more lighter than ever. "What happened?"
Rin's blush darkened.
Iroha, being a girl, realized what they did and smiled to herself. She grabbed a still-confused Len's arm, and marched him by Rin.
"It's confidential privacy, Len. You've got to know when to respect that."
"O–oh," Len said, his face coloring too when he realized what he'd just done.
"AND BEHOLD, THE ORANGE CAAAAAAAKE~!" Kaito yelled, making all of them jump. With a flourish, he pulled the cheesecloth off of a small chocolate cake that was iced with orange frosting and beige for the cone.
"Is there something special happening today?" Iroha asked, blinking.
Kaito grinned. "No, just felt like it…"
"As a little 'memorial'," Rin explained, making air quotes when she said memorial. "So we can be…I dunno, remembered by you."
Iroha smiled. "I most certainly will…"
Len frowned down at his slice of cake. When did she become less tsundere? he wondered. Or is that how she acts when she's hanging around people like Kaito and Rin? Or maybe— His breath caught in his throat. Or maybe it's her real personality?
"Len?" Len blinked. Iroha's golden eyes were staring into his own.
"A–aha, yes!" he said quickly, picking up a fork. His own laugh sounded clumsy to his ears. "I–I'll dig in right away!"
Iroha and Rin gave him weird looks of their own.
"Okay," Rin said hesitantly.
"As you wish…" Iroha mumbled, cutting a piece of her own cake.
Done~! Finished in 20 minutes. XD I do work fast when I want to...
Anyway, hope you liked this chapter. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed~!
I love Matryoshka by 96neko and VipTenchou...
~Unyielding Wish