A/N: So after a really long wait, I present to you the longest and last chapter of Animania. Thank you everyone for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing. I'm finally ending my first multi-chapter story and I feel so relieved. One advice, while reading the chapter, I highly suggest that you listen to the cover of Secret base ~Kimi ga Kureta Mono~ by Scandal.
Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own much.
kimi to natsu no owari shourai no yume
(You and the end of summer and the dreams of the future)
ookina kibou wasurenai
(And our big hope, I won't forget them.)
juunengo no hachigatsu mata deaeru no o shinjite
(I believe that we will meet in August 10 years later.)
saikou no omoide o...
(The best memories...)
deai wa futto shita shunkan kaerimichi no kousaten de
(Our meeting was made in a moment at the intersection walking home.)
koe o kakete kureta ne "issho ni kaerou"
(You called out to me, didn't you? "Let's go home together.")
boku wa terekusa sou ni kaban de kao o kakushi nagara
(While I embarrassedly hid my face with my bag,)
hontou wa totemo totemo ureshikatta yo
(In truth, I was very, very happy.)
Everlasting Endings
"He yelled at her? The pipsqueak yelled at her? And wait, Sora actually slapped her? And I missed all of it? Damn!"
"I don't think I've ever seen the pipsqueak get so angry before."
"I don't think I've ever seen Charly look so guilty before."
"And that Sora chick was so hot. I can't believe I've never seen her around town before."
"I'd really appreciate it if you guys stopped calling me pipsqueak when I'm sitting right in front of you and when I'm the one who's providing the food."
The Closed sign hung from the handle of the door of Delia's Café and yet the café was lit up, a few chairs scattered around a table which was covered with the left over's from the Café's menu.
"Have I told you how much I love you, Ash?"
Ash scoffed at the bushy haired teen grinned wolfishly in response as he snagged the last piece of the apple pie.
"Sora slapped her? For real? Hey I was planning to eat that."
"Yes Tys. Sora slapped Charly. Ash got angry for the first time. And you missed it all." Yamato said dryly, his face crunched in disgust as Taichi shoved the huge chunk of pie in his mouth before Tyson could snatch it from him, "Have you ever heard of sharing?" The blonde muttered in annoyance.
"Was that a rhetorical question?" Taichi narrowed his eyes.
"Hey you know what rhetorical means. I'm so proud of you." Kai smirked at him.
"Ha ha, Kai. Did I mention how ugly you look with that purple bruise covering your face? Very ugly. So ugly that the word ugly thinks you're ugly."
"And I still manage to look better than you." Kai shot back.
Ash furrowed his brows in confusion, "Can words think?"
Yamato rolled his eyes and Tyson pulled Kai's cheeks, "I think I did a pretty good job." Said the blue haired teen as he admired his handiwork.
Kai pushed him away, knocking off the trademark red and blue baseball cap off his head, "I'm gonna get you back for this, just you wait Granger."
Tyson snorted, "You can try."
"Hn." Came Kai's standard reply.
"But how can the word ugly think that Kai is ugly?"
The four heads turned towards the raven haired teen who sat with his arms folded across his chest, his head tilted in confusion and his eyes holding an intense emotion as he tried to figure out Taichi's insult.
Ash jumped up in surprise as the four boys sitting around him suddenly erupted in wild laughter. He flushed slightly as he realized his own mistake and smiled sheepishly at the scene in front of him.
"Oh god pipsqueak you're adorable!"
"No, I really do love you Ash."
"I really missed your stupidity."
"You're one to talk about stupidity."
"Why don't you keep your opinions to yourself blondie."
"What the fuck did you just call me?"
And the fighting, laughing, eating and throwing food and a tad bit of hitting continued till all the five boys finally fell asleep right in between the mess they had made. But the question here is how did the boys end up together?
Well, after the incident at the school, Ash wasn't in the best of the moods. He stomped around the school, knocking over tables and dustbins, glaring at anyone who dared to stop him. A very concerned Taichi decided to walk home with to ensure that his friend didn't jump in front of a car or kick a helpless puppy. The chances of the latter happening were very low since the bushy haired teen knew that if Ash was confronted by a helpless puppy he'd probably adopt it. But the chances of the former happening were very high mostly because Ash was walking with his eyes on his feet. The walk to the café was an excruciating one for Taichi as his futile attempts at a conversation were very angrily shot down by Ash. As the café came in sight, Taichi did a happy dance inwardly and was just about to leave when Mrs Ketchum called out to him, asking if he was hungry. And of course, he was hungry.
It was a tough decision for the Captain of the Soccer Team as accepting free food meant having to spend more time listening to the angry mutterings of Ash. But in the end he decided that a rare angry Ash was nothing compared to good free food and hence he ended up spending the evening with Ash. Not alone though. No, after fifteen minutes into lunch, he sent an SOS to Yamato who showed up in a hurry, concerned for his non-friend's well-being only to find him happily stuffing his face. But nevertheless, the musician decided to stay after noticing that his actual friend, Ash was still feeling sour. An hour or so passed and they were joined by Kai who had just dropped by to get some dinner packed but was forced to sit and make small talk with Ash on Yamato's request and again about half an hour later, Tyson showed wanting to thank Ash for blowing up on Charly.
After a full ten minutes of unbelievably awkward silence between the boys, Ash finally let out a small smile and a collective sigh of relief was heard from the other four. After which Taichi went on to demonstrate the slap to Tyson, who had unfortunately missed it and thus the curse of the awkward silence was finally broken and almost everything was back to normal.
-x-
aa hanabi ga yozora kirei ni saite chotto setsunaku
(Ah, the way the fireworks beautifully bloom in the sky is a bit lonely.)
aa kaze ga jikan to tomo ni nagareru
(Ah, the wind flows along with time.)
ureshiku tte tanoshiku tte bouken mo iroiro shita ne
(So happy, having so much fun, we had so many adventures)
futari no himitsu no kichi no naka
(Inside the secret base that belonged to the two of us.)
-x-
It was a fine Saturday morning but the dojo was unusually quiet. No Grandson running from the wrath of his Grandfather's bamboo sword because he overslept. No furniture breaking. No food burning. No sharp objects flying around. No brunette shouting that they were getting late for school. No blue haired teen shouting back that he didn't fucking care about school.
Just silence.
It wasn't the bad kind of silence but the kind that is usually welcomed in a very noisy household. It was the kind of silence that calmed a person's mind. And serenity was something that the current occupant of the dojo desperately needed. She moved her fingertips over the soft, green grass and closed her eyes. Lying down in the lawn in this pleasant weather had been a good idea. She lay flat on her back, her face positioned towards the clear blue sky. It was not often that she got time for herself, not that she minded but today was an exception. Today she was happy to be by herself, lying down on the grass and just be there.
Charly had somehow ended up reminding her of the bitter childhood Hilary had somehow managed to survive. At that time, it had been a challenge to her younger self, kind of like a game. How quickly can you forget his face, how quickly can you forget the pain, how quickly can you block the memories. It had been a game to her and she was proud of the fact that she made a quick recovery. Her shrink had been very impressed by her efforts and constantly remarked that she was a very strong girl.
Her younger self would've definitely agreed with that, but after yesterday, Hilary didn't believe herself to be strong at all. It took one question to break her. A few words from a stranger's mouth and it all came rushing back. She had sheltered herself, living a life where those ghastly events had never occurred and she had a home, a family. She had locked away the truth in some far away land in her mind, hoping to never visit it again. But it hadn't been so far away after all. It had always been there, lingering on the surface waiting for something to trigger it so that the memories could come rushing back to her. And Charly had done it. Unintentionally of course, the brunette understood that and could not bring herself to be blame or be mad at the blonde. Because really it was all her fault as she was the one who let her past consume her in an instant. She was the one who had obviously never been strong enough to recover from an incident like that. She had just been faking it and Charly had just simply exposed her lie.
She opened her eyes for a few moments but closed them again as she felt her vision blur. She blinked a few times, trying to hold back the tears that had been endlessly flowing since yesterday. She kept her eyes shut and decided to drift off for a while because her position on the ground was extremely comfortable and as long as she was asleep, she wouldn't have to think about anything.
The unexpected ringing of the doorbell jolted her awake and she jumped up into a sitting position. As the initial shock of the sound echoing through the home wore off, Hilary got up and dragged her feet across the dojo to the front door, cursing the visitor for ruining her amazingly comfortable nap. She supposed it was Grandpa already done with his morning stroll around the city and put on a small smile as she neared the door. The bell rang again, a little more impatiently which made her smile falter a bit and made her wonder if Tyson had decided to skip working at the junkyard for the day. Her queries were answered as soon as she slid open the door and was met by the one person she did not expect to see at all.
"Taichi." Her smile completely vanished as she stared at him with a look of surprise etched on her face.
"Yo." He smiled slightly.
Her reply was quick and monotonous, "Tyson's not home, he's at the-"
"Junkyard." He finished for her, the small smile never leaving his face, "I know. I just came from there."
She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze and looked down to admire her feet, "Well can I help you with something?"
"Yeah, I actually came here to talk to you."
She looked up at him with utter disbelief, "Me?" She confirmed.
He nodded.
"Uh, okay. Come on in."
A thousand questions raced through her mind as she stepped aside to let him enter. She motioned for him to follow her and led him towards the lawn. She sat down on one side, pulling her knees up to her chin and wrapping her arms around her legs. He sat a few feet away from her, crossing his legs and leaning on his palms for support. He looked up at sky and then at her and grinned slightly, "So how obvious is the fact that I hate you?"
Hilary couldn't help but chuckle a little as she replied dryly, "Gee, I almost couldn't tell."
His grin remained intact as he ran a hand through his wild brown hair, "I'm just here to clear some things up…"
She remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
He took a deep breath and started, "I don't know if my explanation would suffice but I'll try my best." He looked at her, his deep brown eyes shining with sincerity and she gave a slight nod to indicate that she understood.
"Right. So where do I begin." He remained silent for a while as he pondered things over and she waited patiently for him to straighten things out in his mind.
"You could say I come from what they call a broken home."
A broken home.
Hilary looked down at the green grass, his words lingering in her mind. Had her home been broken? She scoffed mentally at that thought. It had never been a home, she corrected herself.
"It sucks you know? When you see your family fall apart right before your eyes and you can't do anything to save it because you're not strong enough or important enough. Most kids at that age were excited about holidays. I dreaded the summers. It only meant spending more time at home, watching my mom and dad shout at each other. And let me tell you, that is not a pretty sight."
She listened patiently and silently, giving him time to get the words out.
"When I was with the guys, it was like I was in a different world altogether. I didn't have to worry about the drinking, the shouting, and the fighting. I didn't have to worry about explaining it all to my three year old sister. I could just forget all about it and enjoy. I think that was a little selfish of me but you see when I was with Kai or Tyson, I didn't have to be the responsible one, I didn't have to look after anybody or think before acting. And I just absolutely enjoyed that. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my little sister. I love her to death and I'll freak out if anything happened to her but I was barely six years old at that time. I just wanted to play all day and have fun and not do the tasks that my mom should've been doing but was way too drunk to care."
"You were jealous." Hilary muttered quietly, not sure if he heard her.
"How petty is that right…" He let out a small, harsh laugh and then they were both silent for a while. Taichi sighed heavily and continued, "Yes, I was jealous. I was very jealous. Tyson used to spend all his time playing with me and Hikari-chan and we could stay at his place as for as long as we wanted and we didn't have to worry about home at all. But then you came along and he started hanging out with you more and well I don't blame him 'casue you're cute and all but I was mad and jealous so I took it out on you."
Hilary blushed slightly at the small compliment.
"I shouldn't have done that, it was really stupid of me but I couldn't help it, y'know? He didn't do anything to help me but he saved you. And I just..." He paused, unable to get the words out.
And she waited.
"I just wanted to get out of home and never go back. That's it. That's all I wanted."
"I'm sorry." She said quietly.
"For what?"
"For your parents and-"
"You don't need to apologise for anything. If anyone should be sorry it should be them. And me of course because I acted so childishly."
"You were a child so it's understandable. But I never knew about your parents and your home…"
"Trust me you don't wanna know."
"But you know what? I'm really glad that you came here and told me all of this. I can see now how much Tyson's friendship means to you and I'm just really, really happy." She smiled at him and it wasn't a forced or polite smile. It was a smile that was meant just for him.
He grinned at her, "I didn't just do this for Tyson, I was hoping that we could be friends too." He got up from his position and walked over to where she was sitting and held out his hand, his grin growing wider. And as she shook his hand, she couldn't help but grin back at him. He flopped down next to her and cleared his throat and in his nicest voice asked her, "So now that we're friends, you don't mind introducing me to Sora do you?"
Hilary laughed and turned to look at him, "Why do I have the feeling that that is the real reason, you came here."
"Well, can't blame a guy for trying."
-x-
kimi to natsu no owari shourai no yume
(You and the end of summer and the dreams of the future)
ookina kibou wasurenai
(And our big hope, I won't forget them.)
juunengo no hachigatsu mata deaeru no o shinjite
(I believe that we will meet in August 10 years later.)
kimi ga saigo made kokoro kara "arigatou"
(I knew that you screamed "Thank You")
sakendeita koto shiteita yo
(From the bottom of your heart till the very end.)
namida o koraete egao de sayonara setsunai yo ne
(A goodbye when you hold back your tears and smile is lonely, isn't it. )
saikou no omoide o...
(The best memories...)
-x-
She was trying to burn herself to death. Well, not literally. She was hoping that she'd burn to death. The sun was shining brightly down at her and she was sitting comfortably in the stinging hot sand, drawing circles with her fingers. She felt a presence next to her so she turned to acknowledge the newcomer, sent a glare his side and returned to her circles. There was a moment of silence between the two.
"I got slapped."
"I got punched."
Charly smiled slightly as she looked up at him, "We deserved it."
Kai returned her small smile, "We kinda did."
"I just feel so ashamed of myself." She mumbled.
Kai stayed silent for a while, pondering over a few things and forming his reply carefully. When he spoke he made sure that he had her full attention, "Well you shouldn't be. I mean what you did was wrong. Very wrong. But good things came out of it."
She looked him in the eye, a little confused as to what he meant by good things and he read her mind and answered the unasked question instantly.
"If you wouldn't have locked us up in that room, I would never have had the courage to face Yamato after what I did. So, yes good things did come out of it."
She grinned and nudged him slightly, "Did you finally swallow your pride and apologised, Kai-chan?"
Kai flushed slightly, "Yes, yes I apologised." He muttered incoherently.
"I guess I should do the same then." She laughed.
"You don't need to apologise to anyone. Hilary doesn't blame you at all."
"She doesn't?" Charly asked, completely surprised by his statement.
"Nope. None of us do really. We're all actually glad you started this mess because at least now everything is sorted out and back to normal. And wait, I got something for you." He fished around in his bag and pulled out a slightly squashed box, handing it over to her, "A free dark chocolate pastry made by Cilan especially for you. That's Ash's way of saying sorry."
Charly opened the box and smiled at the delicious looking pastry inside, "That kid is too humble." She muttered.
"He is. But that's what makes him Ash."
"So no one is mad at me?" Charly asked as she bit into the pastry and had to stifle a moan as the chocolate melted in her mouth.
"Nope." Kai chuckled as he watched her devour the pastry in three quick bites and on an afterthought added, "Though you should stay away from Tyson for a little while. You know, just to be sure."
"I was just going to point that out."
Kai got up and dusted the sand off his clothes, smiling he offered his hand to Charly, "Let's go get something to eat. Knowing Ash, we might not need to pay at all."
Charly looked at his hand and then at his face again, a full-fledged grin broke out on her face as she held back the happy tears that were threatening to fall. Kai looked a little confused with her reaction but she just shook her head, dismissing it and took his hand. He pulled her up and they walked towards his car.
"Mind if Yama joins us?" Kai asked her, phone in one hand.
Charly tightened her grip on his other hand and shrugged, "Nope."
"Hey, Kai."
He looked up from his phone, an eyebrow raised.
She grinned at him, "I got your smile back."
-x-
aa natsuyasumi mo ato sukoshi de owatchau kara
(Ah, summer break will be over in a little while too, so)
aa taiyou to tsuki nakayoku shite
(Ah, the sun and moon get along.)
kanashiku tte sabishiku tte kenka mo iroiro shita ne
(So sad, so lonely, we had so many fights)
futari no himitsu no kichi no naka
(Inside the secret base that belonged to the two of us.)
-x-
The café was busier than usual and Misty was having a hard time keeping up with the orders. She was arranging some freshly made cookies for the display outside when a hand sneaked onto the plate trying to grab a cookie. She instinctively slapped the hand not bothering to look at the face. She heard a small 'ow', so she turned around to face the thief, the words ready in her mouth, "That is for the customers and not…" She trailed off as she watched Ash blow on his now slightly red hand, "You." She finished her sentence quietly and turned back to the cookies. Things had been a little awkward between them since the last few days and she couldn't afford to be distracted when they were working such a busy house. When she looked up again she saw that he was still standing there, just looking at her. This pissed her off a little.
"If you have time to just stand and stare at me, why don't you help out?" She spat out angrily as she picked up the plate with the cookies and walked out of the kitchen. She was sure that she saw him glare at her. But that was soon forgotten as the moment she exited the kitchen, she was swamped with more and more orders which left her with no time to contemplate on her feelings for Ash. Not that she had any. The next few hours were spent smiling at the customers, trying to fork in as many tips as possible. When she finally decided to take a 10 minute break inside the kitchen, she accidently bumped into Delia.
"Oh honey, I was just looking for you. Dawn called in sick, can you go get Ash? He's upstairs. Tell him I'm thinking about finally getting him a car that might do it." She smiled at the teen and left, not bothering to wait for Misty's reply.
Misty groaned as she made her way up the stairs. Sick, my ass! She's probably out stalking Paul, she thought to herself, making a mental note to annoy the young blunette for the details. She knocked on the door and was greeted by a nervous looking Jay who ushered her in hurriedly. A little too quickly. Misty knew exactly what that meant. Ash had been grumpy because of her and he had taken it out on his father. And Jay, being the nice person that he is had tried his best to talk to Ash who, Misty was sure, had just probably yelled at Jay for being so annoying. This was not new to Misty at all. Many a times she had helped Ash cool down after he barged into her room through the window because he had a fight with his Mom because of his Dad. As much as she tried to console him, she always told him that his Mom was right and everybody, no matter how bad their mistake was, deserved a second chance. Ash never liked the fact that she sided with his Mom but she knew that even just talking to her could make him feel better.
Jay smiled at her, "He's in his room."
Misty nodded and smiled back, making her way towards his room. She knocked (or according to Ash, banged) on the door and yelled, "It's me. Open up. Your Mom wants you to come down and help."
"I'm sorry, tell her I don't have the time."
Misty gritted her teeth, she had to hold back her urge to break down the door and punch him in the face. She took a few deep breaths and then in a sickly sweet voice replied, "She said she's thinking of buying you a car."
The reaction was instant. She heard a loud thud which was probably him falling off the bed in excitement and that image made her snort loudly.
And that's when Ash opened the door, he sent a smirk towards the redhead, "That's not very ladylike."
She made a face at him and started walking towards the door, Jay waved at her and she waved back with a smile, which obviously earned her a glare from Ash. She didn't bother to check. He was trailing behind her, trying to look annoyed but couldn't because he was probably thinking about cars and the excitement would occasionally creep up on his face. The redhead was trying her best to not look at him, because she was supposed to be mad at him. And if she looked, she'll laugh and she didn't want that. Well, she did want that, she did want to laugh at him and with him. She wanted to be able to talk to him again. But she knew it would never be the same because of what she had said.
They walked down the stairs quietly and Misty wondered if she had meant what she had said. She thought about the first time she had met Ash. She had been having the worst day of her life courtesy of her sisters and he had still somehow managed to make her laugh. Being with him had made her forget all the nasty things her sisters had done to her. He had told her that her sisters must've been blind because he had never seen such a pretty hair colour before. Of course at that time she had thought he was just flirting with her. But when she started hanging out with him more she realised that Ash was not like that at all. He wasn't afraid to say what he felt, he never kept his thoughts inside, he was kind and dorky and stupid and gullible and stubborn and a little less hot-headed than her. He always kept his word, wasn't ashamed of the fact that he was a cry-baby and usually wasn't annoyed of the fact that people always ended up taking advantage of him. Growing up with her evil sister, Misty couldn't believe the fact that people like him existed. But there he was, walking right behind her, trying his best to look pissed off. As they entered the café territory, Misty stopped suddenly and turned around to face him.
"I meant what I said that day. I'm not your best friend." She searched his face for any emotions but came up with none. She looked down and turned around to leave when a hand grabbed her arm from behind, pulling her back.
"I know. You're so much more."
And before she could react to that, his lips were on her s, his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer. Her eyes fluttered close as she put her arms around his neck, letting her hands run through his black, messy hair. Though the kiss barely lasted a few seconds, Misty was sure it was much, much longer than a few seconds. Ash grinned down at her and she felt the colour rise in her cheeks. His own face was tinted red but he didn't care as he planted a chaste kiss on her forehead.
And that's when she heard it.
The hooting and the clapping. She turned around to find almost the whole café clapping and shouting 'Finally' or 'Congrats' or 'Good for you, Ketchum'. And of course, there was Taichi-kun who was whistling loudly, and Charly who was hooting, Tyson was just laughing, Yamato was grinning and Kai was just smiling. Delia looked to be on the verge of tears as she smiled lovingly at her son. Hilary winked at her and Misty turned around and buried her face in Ash's shoulders.
He just laughed and pulled her closer.
-x-
The En-
No wait, not really.
-x-
The five boys squirmed uncomfortably under the tearful gaze of Mimi Tachikawa.
"Do we really have to do this?"
Mimi let out a small sniff as a few tears threatened to fall and turned her attention fully towards Kai, "Please, Kai-chan?"
A few feet behind Mimi, Charly and Misty were trying to control their laughter as they watched the pretty brunette blackmail the boys.
"Wow, she's really good at this." Hilary muttered.
"Crying on demand is Mimi's number one talent." Sora replied, "If you don't count, talking people to death." She added.
"Ugh, fine, fine! Let's do it." Kai groaned in frustration.
"No, I am not doing this."
Mimi's eyes turned to focus on the annoyed blonde. The threatening tears dried up immediately. She glared daggers at him as he blatantly ignored her. She didn't understand what was wrong with him. Her charm used to work on everyone, even Kai-chan couldn't resist her pout. Everyone but him. And it naturally meant that she hated him.
"Oh Yama, don't be such a sourpuss. Do you really want Mimi-chan to cry?" Taichi grinned at his non-friend.
"Frankly, I don't give a damn if she-"
"Right, so let's just get this over with alright?" Tyson cut him off as he put an arm around the blonde's shoulder, just to make sure that the latter didn't run.
Mimi smiled gratefully at all of them except one. The only one who returned her smile was the raven haired boy standing in the middle, looking as happy as ever. She pulled out the dreaded object from her bag and Kai paled slightly.
Taichi locked his arms with the older teen, "You're not getting away."
Mimi grinned, choosing to ignore their uneasiness, she held up her black camera.
"Say cheese!"
-x-
kimi ga saigo made kokoro kara "arigatou"
(I knew that you screamed "Thank You")
sakendeita koto shiteita yo
(From the bottom of your heart till the very end.)
namida o koraete egao de sayonara setsunai yo ne
(A goodbye when you hold back your tears and smile is lonely, isn't it. )
saikou no omoide o...
(The best memories...)
-x-
The End
-x-