Disclaimer: See previous chapter (Chapter 7 [part 3]).
Emerald Musician: Interlude #1
It was a theme: after being locked in Hope's Peak, the students had unconsciously gathered into pairs or groups, with others being left solitary. Asahina and Oogami were an example of this; they could be seen together almost everywhere they went, attached at the hip. Most of the groups weren't very puzzling—they made sense, in a way.
All of them, except the pair of Celestia Ludenburg and Asahi Suzume. The black haired girls had radically different personalities, which common sense would dictate clashing more often than not. But they didn't; they got along rather well, with Celes showing none of the disdain she treated the rest of them with, and Asahi seeming far more comfortable around her.
Asahi Suzume was peculiar.
Which was why, when Naegi bumped into her—literally—he impulsively asked her if she would like to hang out for a while.
She looked up at him with wide, emerald eyes, shock clear. "E-eh…?" she stumbled over the word, hunching in on herself.
"I mean, if you would rather not, that's fine—" Naegi continued hurriedly, waving his hands. A hand grabbing onto one of his sweater's sleeves caught his attention, stopping him mid-sentence. It was Asahi, eyes averted and head down, cheeks dusted with pink.
"I…I'd l-like to s-spend t-time w-w-with you, Naegi-san…" she glanced up at him shyly from behind thick lashes. "I-if t-that's all r-right…"
Naegi smiled down at her awkwardly, trying to reassure her as he nodded. Of course, he didn't really know that much about comforting girls aside from his little sister Komaru. But it's the effort that counts, right?
They hung out for a while, with Asahi seeming to slowly relax in his presence. When they eventually parted ways, Asahi stopped him.
"A…ano…Naegi-san…"
"Yeah?"
"I…I had f-fun." Asahi flushed, chewing her lip. "T-thank you. I-I'd l-like it i-if we c-c-could do th-this again," Naegi smiled at her before he remembered something.
"Oh!" he said lightly, as if in realization before rifling through his pockets.
"E-eh? W-what's the m-matter, Naegi-san…?"
He smiled in triumph as he pulled something out of his pocket and presented it to her. "I got something from that machine in the gift store earlier; I thought you'd like it."
It was a bright yellow headband with two bows glued on at either side. She took it, treating it like it was a treasure of the greatest degree. She looked up at him with bright emerald eyes before smiling brightly at him.
"T-thank you!" her pleasure was almost infectious, and he couldn't help grinning back at her.
And if he kept an eye out her after that…well.
(He would die before admitting it, but seeing her wearing that headband the next day with her hair down and her wild curls framing her face, he actually thought she looked…cute. In a totally platonic way, of course.)
(It didn't change the fact that he still wanted to see her smile like that again.)
/End.\
And so ends the fluffy interlude of interaction between Naegi and Asahi. With a side dose of views on Celes and Asahi's pseudo/real-friendship. Sorry, I just really like the idea of Naegi being a SortOf!Older Brother to Asahi. Did I under/overdo it?
This chapter was kind of modeled after the character interaction in the game itself; all you really get is that you hang out with that person (usually by the game telling you that you hung out with the person, sometimes not even specifying what you did) and then you slowly find more about that person the more you hang out with them and get to give them gifts.
Besides, with all of the dark stuff of last chapter, I figured some fluffiness was in order. This is, of course, being posted along with the final part of chapter 7, so please check that out if you haven't yet.
Also, I wanted to ask: what do you want going on with the Potter family? Do you want other siblings, alive!James and Lily, that kind of thing? I'm setting up a poll on my profile, so go check that out if you want…
R&R, please!
~Happy Camper27