Chapter Fourteen: Ice Cream Social

"Here you go."

"Thank you."

The girls and I sat around the table and munched on our ice cream cones. All of us had ordered vanilla except for Kyou, who had ordered a vanilla-strawberry swirl.

"How many do you think we've made so far?" Yukine asked. "It seems like we've made a lot."

"Starfish?" I asked, to which she nodded. "I haven't counted them, but I'd have to say at least two hundred." I jerked a thumb over at my silver-haired friend. "Tomoyo here's been a regular assembly line, so I lost track of how many she's made."

"Tomoya, stop…" Tomoyo said, blushing.

"Sorry, sorry." I felt a stickiness at the corner of my mouth so I reached for a napkin. "At the rate we're going we should-"

"Let me get that for you," Kotomi said as she reached for my face with a napkin.

"No, I'll take care of it," Fujibayashi insisted as she wet a napkin with her tongue.

"Good grief you two, how old do you think I am?" I wiped my mouth with my own napkin. "Thanks, but I'm a big boy now."

"Oh-" they squeaked in unison, and the expression on their faces made me feel a little guilty. Just a little, though.

"Hey Tomoya…" Kyou said. "You seem…different."

I paused mid-lick. "How so?"

She leaned forward in her chair and appeared to study my face. "I dunno. You just seem…older. More mature?" She snorted. "As if!"

"Now that you mention it, he does seem more mature, Onee-chan," Fujibayashi said. "He's been getting to school on time, turning his work in on time…" She also appeared to study me. "But more than that…the way he talks to people…it's not like the other boys at school."

"Is that a compliment?" I asked. "It sounds like one, but…"

"Huh?" Fujibayashi turned beet-red. "Oh, yes! Yes, it is! You seem so much more grown up, Okazaki-kun."

"Hmmmmmmmm?" Kyou leaned back in her seat with a sly look on her face. "Tomoya, are you getting ahead of us?"

"I'm not trying to…I mean, if I am, that is…"

"It's okay, Okazaki-senpai," Yukine said soothingly. "I liked how you were before, but now you seem like a…a 'better' you. You look happier than I can remember ever seeing you, too; I like it."

I could feel my face start to heat up. "Could…could we embarrass someone else for a while? I'm feeling kinda singled out, here."

"Tomoya-kun…"

I looked over to see Kotomi with a sad expression and ice cream running down the side of her cone. Apparently she'd forgotten that she even had it. "You okay?" I asked.

She blinked slowly as she shifted in her seat. "Are…Are you leaving us behind?"

Puzzled, I shook my head. "I don't understand; 'leaving you behind'?"

She nodded sadly. "Are you leaving us behind to go far away and do great things and forget about me?"

"What? No!" I reached out toward her with a napkin. "Look, you're getting your ice cream all over yourself." As I cleaned her hands I glanced up a few times to see her either watching my hands or looking at my face; her sad expression never wavered. "No, it's just…I've had a chance to think about other people instead of sitting around and feeling sorry for myself. I'm glad Misae sent all of you to me; it's given me a chance to do good stuff, like helping you with the festival," I said while glancing over at Tomoyo. "I got to help, and see the result of my helping. It felt really good." I redirected my gaze back to Kotomi. "But as far as leaving?" I scratched my cheek as I thought about it. "Maybe. Look, I don't know what the future's going to be like, Kotomi-chan. I mean, you talk about me going and doing great things? How about you with all your sciencey-type knowledge? Are you seriously going to stay here when there are so many labs out there that could use your abilities?"

Kotomi said nothing but looked to the floor.

"If anything, you're going to be leaving me behind." I smiled at her even though she wasn't looking at me. "And that's how it should be. You're smart, so you go do smart stuff; I'm not, so I'll do…well, other stuff."

"Tomoya-kun…" I could see tears dripping from her eyes to fall to the floor.

"It's okay," I said, trying to reassure her with a hand on her shoulder. "No matter how far apart we are, we'll always be childhood friends, won't we?"

"NO!" she cried, causing the rest of us to flinch. "I do not want to be 'childhood friends'!"

"Kotomi-chan…?" I patted her a couple of times. "What do you mean?"

She looked back up at me, and her eyes looked wild and frightened and hollow, all at the same time. "If you leave…I will have nothing left!" With that, she shot up from her seat and ran for the door. The twins and Yukine quickly followed after her, leaving Tomoyo and me behind to watch them leave with what had to be somewhat stupefied expressions.

It was probably a full minute before Tomoyo spoke: "Tomoya? What did she mean by having 'nothing left'?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure, but I think it's because she lost her parents when she was little and I was the only friend she had. I guess I'm an anchor of sorts for her, since I'm the only one left from her childhood." I let my mind go back in time. "I was such a coward…"

"What do you mean?"

I rubbed the back of my neck before lightly smacking it a few times. "For her birthday – I think it would have been her eighth – I had promised to bring a bunch of friends over for her birthday. Nobody would come with me though, and I was too embarrassed to show my face after that, so..."

"You pulled a no-show?"

I nodded a couple of times before letting my head hang.

"Damn, Okazaki…so she was alone from then until you met up with her again, right?"

I nodded again, too ashamed to speak.

"That's a long time," Tomoyo mused. "I'm glad she's so forgiving; I don't know if I would be."

"Me too." I sat back up and smacked my cheeks a couple of times. "So, what do I do now? I can't promise her that I'll never move away."

I felt a light pressure on my back and looked to find that Tomoyo had rested her hand on it. "Just…be there for her. As much as you can. You two are tight; I can tell." She removed her hand from me and leaned back in her chair. "She doesn't hate you, in case you were wondering."

I smiled with a light chuckle. "I didn't think so, but thanks for telling me."

"C'mon," she said as she got to her feet. "Let's go find her so you two can work things out."