The story so far, Kanji and Naoto have agreed to date for a trial period, but not tell the others. Kanji walks Naoto home on New Year's Eve, then spends all night talking together.
Chapter 14
As soon as Kanji made it home he fell into his bed with a grateful moan and didn't wake until the afternoon. His first coherent thought upon waking was, I want to call Naoto. But he stopped himself before he dialed her number, and pocketed his phone. She might still be tired, He thinks. We talked half the night. OMG we talked half the night.
Last night he found himself oddly comfortable just chatting with Naoto. Maybe it was because he was so tired, he forgot to be nervous and polite. Kanji smiled at the thought that they were able to just sit and talk for so long. Even though they had parted this morning he already wanted to hear her voice again. Kanji pushed aside that thought. He wasn't some needy baby, he was a man. Besides Naoto might get sick of him if he spent too much time with her.
With a slight frustrated growl Kanji headed down stairs. Maybe he could think better if he ate something. He pulled out a tupperware out of the fridge and started eating, not bothering to warm up the leftovers. As he ate he thought about what he should do for the afternoon. He had finished all the sewing orders he had for stuffed animals. He didn't have a project he was working on. He didn't want to bother Sempai, he probably was busy with his family or something.
I need to clear my head. He thinks as he sets his empty dishes in the sink and rinses them. I know! I'll go for a bike ride. I wonder how far I can go. That's just the thing I need. With that thought in mind Kanji grabs his coat and shoes.
As Naoto rolls over in her bed she glances at the clock on her bedside table. As her eyes start to close again she suddenly opens her eyes wide and sits up, looking at the clock. 2pm. She never slept past noon. Then again, she also never stayed up all night. Even working a case she always managed to get to bed around 3am, at the latest. And then usually only slept six hours or so before she was back working the case.
Naoto rubs the sleep from her eyes and shakes her head in dismay. She pulls her soft bath robe on and steps out into her sitting room. As she expected there is a lunch try sitting on her coffee table. She examines the contents only to discover that they are cold, and most likely no longer edible. Placing the cover back over the dishes she walks back into her room and lifts the phone receiver to her ear, while dialing a few buttons.
"Kitchen," The voice on the other end says.
"Hello, I'm sorry to say that I didn't wake up in time to eat the lunch you sent up, could you send up someone with some food, and coffee, please."
"Of course Naoto-sama. It would be our pleasure."
"Thank you." Naoto says, as she hangs up the phone.
A few minutes later, freshly washed and dressed, Naoto walks out to her sitting room, only to discover her grandfather sitting in one of the armchairs waiting for her with her late luncheon sitting on the coffee table.
"At last the sleeper awakens." Her grandfather says, setting down his newspaper.
"My apologies for not being awake earlier."
"Don't worry about it, from what I heard you had a very long night."
Naoto swallows the lump in her throat and sits down sipping her coffee. "Yes, I had not realized how late, or early, it had become."
"So what did you and young Tatsumi find to talk about for hours?"
"Um…. We talked about some movies, favorite shows as children, how Japan has changed over the years, family responsibilities and a myriad of other seemingly random topics."
"Did you enjoy your time talking to him?" He asks with a smirk.
Naoto swallows a mouthful of coffee and starts picking at the food on the tray. "Considering I lost all track of time and didn't realize we had stayed up all night, I believe that would be a forgone conclusion."
"I that case," Shragai-san continues. "I gather you will be spending more time with him."
"I haven't really thought about it."
"Do you want to?"
"What are you getting at?" Naoto asks, looking up at her grandfather with a slight blush.
The old man smiles over at Naoto and leans back in his chair. "Let me tell you something about your parents, you know that they met while in college, started dating and fell in love. What you may not know is after a couple of dates they went back to the apartment that your father was renting to chat. Without realizing it they talked all night long. They found out that even though on the surface they appeared to have very little in common, their personalities fit, and they enjoyed each other's company. Anyone can learn to enjoy a certain hobby, or interests, but finding someone who you just fit with, now that is hard to find."
Naoto pokes at her food, slowly eating, and glances over at her grandfather, who is sitting with his fingers interlaced waiting for her to speak. Naoto sets down her chopsticks, licks her lips and sits back onto the couch. "Is that supposed to be a parallel to Kanji-kun and me?"
The old man shrugs. "Could be. You are the only one fit to judge. But I will tell you this, you tend to think too hard sometimes. Sometimes things don't make sense when you look at them and try to analyze them with your head. But they make total sense when you look at them with your heart. You've grown up too fast, my dear. Slow down and enjoy life. There will be plenty of mysteries to solve in your lifetime."
With that said, he nods towards Naoto, then leaves her alone with her thoughts. Did she want to spend more time with Kanji-kun? She certainly enjoyed her time with him last night. It was similar to how she felt when she spent time with Souji-sempai. Though with sempai they always had a clear goal in mind. With Kanji-kun they just talked about their opinions on various random topics. Naoto sighs and shakes her head, not understanding her own emotions.
By the time Kanji returns home the sun is starting to set and sweat is dripping down his chest. He locks his bike up to the side of his home, then enters into the kitchen. He guzzles down two glasses of water, hardly pausing.
"What have you been up to?" His mother asks, as she walks into the kitchen from the living room.
"Just went for a bike ride. Made it all the way to the mountains."
"Oh my, are you hungry, dear?"
"Mostly thirsty." Kanji says downing another glass of water.
Looking over at her son's sweat soaked clothes Tatsumi-san nods. "I can see why. How about you take a shower and I'll fix you a little something to eat."
Kanji sets down his glass with a nod. "That sounds good. Thanks Ma."
"No trouble at all." She says, patting his cheek as he walks past.
Up in his room Kanji empties his pockets onto his nightstand next to his alarm clock. As he sits his phone down he can't help but wonder what Naoto is doing, and if he should call her. He shakes that thought from his head and walks across the hall to the bathroom.
Once he is clean and in warm pajamas Kanji thumps down stairs to find his mother in the kitchen. "You were out all night," She says, mixing the food on the stove, then siting down at the table. "What where you and your friends doing?'
"I walked Naoto home. Then…. Well we got talking and lost track of time." Kanji says, running his hand through his hair.
"That was sweet of you to walk her home. What did you talk about?"
Kanji shrugs, "just stuff…. Nothing really."
Tatsumi-san raises her eyebrows at her son then goes back over to the stove. She dishes out miso soup and rice then brings it back to the table. "So will you been spending more time with Naoto-kun?"
Kanji shrugs as he takes a bite. "Donno. She did offer to help me study and such."
Tatsumi-san nods as she stands. "Well then I'll look forward to seeing her here more often."
Kanji rolls his eyes at his mother and gulps down his food. Tatsumi-san just smiles at her son and goes into the other room to continue to read. Kanji finishes his food, then goes back for seconds, and ends up polishing off both the pot of rice and soup. After he washes the dishes he heads back up to his room.
He pokes around in his sewing basket, trying to think of something to work on. He has plenty of generic bunnies, bears and cats in the shop. All of the custom orders have already been filled. Kanji sighs and tries to think of a new project he can work on. Kanji glances over at the photo on his nightstand of everyone at the Amagi inn after the school festival. Maybe I could make something for Naoto, he thinks. But what would she like? I just gave her the bear at Christmas….. but she deserves everything I can give. I want her to know how much she means to be.
Kanji growls and runs his hand through his hair. He turns off his light and flops down on his futon. "Maybe I'll think of something in the morning." He mumbles.
In the morning Kanji is once again poking around his sewing basket trying to think of something that Naoto would like, when his phone rings. He answers it automatically without looking at who called. "Sup?"
"Hello Kanji-kun." Naoto says through the phone.
Kanji drops the fabric scraps and swallows the lump in his throat. "Hey Naoto-kun. So uh…. What ya up ta?"
"I was wondering, if you've finished the assignments that we were given to do over the holiday?"
"Oh… well…. To be honest I kinda forgot about them."
"I figured as much. Would you like help in completing them?"
"Yeah, sure yeah that'd be great. I could, uh… I always could use the help."
"When would be convenient for me to come over?"
"Well… um… well… anytime really. I'm not doing much of anything today."
"In that case would 1pm be acceptable for you?"
"Yeah, sure, that's great…. See you soon."
Kanji hangs up with a sigh and flops down onto his bed. Why'd that have to be so awkward? He thinks. We talk half the night, but now I can't have a short phone call with her without feeling like I'm gonna choke on my own tongue.
Kanji glances over at his clock. 10:37 am. Almost two and a half hours until Naoto comes over to help me with my homework. Where did I even put it? Kanji thinks.
Kanji then spends the next half hour finding his homework. He takes all his books and papers down stairs to the living room and spreads them out on the low table. Looking around the room, Kanji notices several things out of place as well as the full trash can. He takes out the trash, then proceeds to vacuum the floors, as well as dust the bookshelves. In the process of his cleaning his mother comes in.
"Why thank you Kanji! That is sweet of you to clean up. Is someone coming over?"
"Yeah, uh… Naoto is coming over to help me with some schoolwork."
Tatsumi-san grins. "That was sweet of her to offer to help you. I can see you're going to be a good host. Do you want any snacks while she is here?"
Kanji looks up from his cleaning. "I hadn't thought of that. Maybe I should get some rice crackers, or maybe Pocky. I wonder what kind she likes."
With that thought in mind Kanji heads out. As he walks into the small convenience store he bumps into Rise coming out. "Hey Kanji! What ya getting?"
Kanji shrugs. "Nothin' much."
"Come on, don't give me that."
"Just some snacks to eat while I uh…. Work on a project. "
Rise glares over at Kanji. "A project huh?"
Kanji fidgets and glances around. "Yeah, you know, sewing shit."
"Would this project be for anyone in particular… like say a girl…"
Kanji blushes, pushes past Rise and picks up a hand basket. "I already made Nanako-chan a doll."
"I wasn't talking about Nanako!" Rise protest, fallowing Kanji back into the store. "I meant like a girlfriend type girl."
"Don't you have somewhere to go?" Kanji asked, putting several boxes of Pocky in his basket. "Somebody else to pester maybe?"
Rise looks up and thinks for a moment…. "Humm… nope, not really. Hey I know! We could hang out, I could just chill while you work on your 'project' that you're doing."
"NO!"
"Why so forceful? You said 'no' really fast. "
"You'd distract me. I don't like people hanging around while I'm doing stuff."
"Riiiiiiight….ok then…. See you later." Rise says with a wave as she bounces out the door.
Kanji glances up at Rise's retreating form, relieved that she has left, yet worried. Kanji shakes his head and opens up the drink case and pulls out a few Ramune and Calipco. On his way to the cash register Kanji grabs a bag of shrimp chips. After paying Kanji heads back home. He walks through the side door and as he is setting down his bags on the table his mother calls to him from the shop.
"Kanji dear, a friend of yours is here."
Naoto already! Kanji thinks in a panic. I'm not ready!
He blots into the shop only to find the words die on his lips when he finds his mother chatting with Rise. Kanji glares down at the young pop star.
"Hey Kanji!" Rise says with a wave and a smile. "I was just asking your mom if she knew what your plans are for the afternoon. She said that Naoto-kun is coming over to help you with some homework. You know you could have asked me for help with your homework."
Kanji continues to glare at the smiling girl. "Your scores aren't that much better than mine." He points out. "Naoto is top in our grade."
Rise taps her chin in thought. "That's true. Maybe I could come over and have Naoto-kun help me out too."
"Whatever…" Kanji growls in defeat as he walks back into the house.
"Great!" Rise says bouncing out of the shop. "I'll get my books and be back soon!"
Kanji pulls out his phone to send a text to Naoto warning her that Rise has invited herself along for their study session.
AN: Once again I am sorry it has taken me so long to get this chapter out. I wanted it to fit with the new Persona 4 Golden and was having a hard time finding youtube video of some of the stuff….and I kinda forgot what happens between Jan 1st and middle of Feb…..if anything much.
I also would like to thank all my readers that have stuck with me for so long. As well as the people leaving comments as guests, I can't send you PMs to tell you how much it means to me that people enjoy my writing. Thank you all and please review.