Chapter 14: Years Went By and I Still Thought About You

Adele sighed as she let her shirt fall back down and she walked over to the door to see who it was. From the look of the tall shadow in front of it, she didn't need to guess to know it was Caden behind it. She slid the door open and smiled faintly at him.

"Hey Chef Masaharu," she lightly began, "Thanks for breakfast dinner. Great as usual." Caden nodded at her compliment and nervously looked at her.

"Hey, uh, may I come in?" he asked her shakily. She slid the door back further and stepped to the side to let him in. He took a seat on the cushion she tossed to him as she slid the door shut. She sat down opposite him and covered her knees with the pleats of the skirt. She stared at him and he straightened his hunched over form quickly.

"So uh, Mako forced you into a skirt," he finally broke the elongated silence between them.

"Yeah," Adele mumbled embarrassedly as she fiddled with it. She tugged it down lower to cover her knees but was unsuccessful. Caden caught his breath as he found himself watching her do so. He could hear his heart thudding loudly against his chest bones and his palms felt slightly sweaty.

"I doubt that's all you came here to talk about?" prompted Adele as she averted her eyes back up to his. Caden shook his head no and swallowed hard. How to say this. Better yet, how to tell his best friend of several years that he suddenly liked her more than the friendship point.

Caden shifted uneasily in his seat and gathered his thoughts together. Adele's eyes bored into him and he finally found enough courage to say what he needed to say.

"Uh Adele?" he began slowly, "You mean...a lot to me. Not just as a friend but...more than that." He paused briefly and watched her face for any change in emotion. "I, I mean," he continued, "Well, you've done a lot for me. And, and I think that I owe you more than what I've been giving you for the past few years."

Adele turned her head and Caden's shoulders sank. He wasn't getting to her at all.

"No Cades," she mumbled, "I'm just the guy's girl. The tomboy. The comrade. The sidekick. I'm used to being kicked around by everyone else that likes you but hates me. You don't need to worry about it okay? I don't need special treatment." Caden was stunned to hear her words. Did his best friend just diss herself?

"Adele," he patiently told her as he reached his hand to touch her, "That's not true. I mean, you're no girly girl but you've become a lot more than those things you listed." Adele rose to her feet and Caden scrambled to his and grabbed her in a large bear hug.

"Come on already!" he insisted as he squeezed her close, "I know you aren't crazy about the skirt Mako chose but I like it! You look cute in it." Adele's face burned as her face became buried in her friend's chest. Did he just say that she looked cute? She pulled away from him slightly and her cheeks became quite rosy.

"Did you just say I looked cute?" she surprisedly asked him. Caden smiled mischievously as he met her eyes.

"Well, I could have said sexy but then again, you probably would have hurt me if I said that," Caden remarked teasingly. Adele flushed a deeper shade of red and Caden placed his hand on her face.

"Um really?" Adele shyly asked him, "You mean it?" Caden held Adele at arms length and nodded.

"Without you killing me for looking at you this way," Caden warned as he began listing the changes, "Yes. Adele, you've grown and changed from the toughie punching the bullies to an amazing girl. Your hair grew longer and prettier. You're no longer flat as a board but curvy in all the right places. And...you are sweet." He stopped for a moment to let his words sink in but soon found Adele planting a soft, gentle kiss on his lips for 5 seconds. It completely caught him off guard but he was happy. His face warmed as she broke off the kiss, leaving a few inches between them.

"Caden Masaharu," she sighed, "I had this stupid crush on you ever since I first saw you before I beat up Aaron. But I always thought that I had the lowest shot in history of ever being more than friends with you." Caden smirked as he pressed his body closer to Adele and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Adele's balance became slightly wobbly because they were so close and she knocked Caden to the floor, falling on top of his sprawled form. Their hips crashed against each other and Adele's face became buried in Caden's chest. Her face grew warm again and Caden bit his lip trying to hold in a moan. He shakily rested his hands by the sides of Adele's hips and smiled.

"Mmmm," he sighed, "Since when did you have hips that didn't lie?"

"Uh around 15 or 16?" she guessed, "Well I started flat and filled out around 12 or 13 then things started cinching inward and others moved more outward." He blushed slightly and closed his eyes. He was slightly guilty for being a sucker for girls with an hourglass shape and healthy curves in the hips and thighs ever since he studied a history of American ideals and pop culture in his sophomore year history course. The teacher hated the 50s and tried his hardest to skim the section and reach the other eras quickly. But that hadn't deterred Caden from reading the passages on 50s culture and the information on the changing styles. There had been a huge section on the rise of the Vargas pin-up style girls dressed in form-fitting bathing suits and their ideal body type during the time. So after that accidental discovery, he was slightly obsessed. Kari had been too short in the torso and very flat in the hips and behind area. He wasn't insistent that his girlfriend have the perfect body but he felt slightly discouraged that she was the absolute antithesis of what he thought was healthy and attractive. She had always been dieting and over-exercising and it irked him big time.

"So I guess you still are obsessed with the 50s body," Adele teased as she sat up and moved off of Caden. He blushed and coughed slightly. It made him remember the time when he was reading a book on the rise of Vargas pin-ups that he borrowed from the local library and Adele walked in to study for their history exam. He flew into an embarrassed frenzy and tried to hide the book but Adele won and had snatched it from his hands. She teased him about it a little but then commented that at least he wasn't looking at the Hollywood ideal of now. Why hadn't he noticed after all these years that the right girl had been there this whole time?

"Hey, uh, I'll leave you to change okay?" Caden reluctantly told her as he stood up to leave. Adele nodded faintly and bid him good night. Caden's head was swirling as he walked back to his room, almost in a daze. He didn't even realize that his bed was missing until he had changed his clothes. Honestly? What kind of a joke was this?

"Can't believe it," he grumbled to himself as he began to head back toward Adele's room to tell her. He stopped short when he saw a group of kuroko exit her door and scurry back to what they were doing. He stuck his head in to see that his bed had been placed next to Adele's. He blinked in surprise and almost walked smack into Adele who had returned from brushing her teeth.

"Did you...?" Caden nervously asked Adele as he gestured to the set-up. Adele shook her head and studied the placement. Then it hit her.

"Mako and Ryunosuke," she spoke up as she walked back in, "They set us up. Figures since this seems like their work." Caden shook his head at the sky and muttered how the two schemers needed to mind their own business.

"Do, uh, you want me to leave?" Caden asked Adele. He didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. She shook her head no as she snuggled under the covers of her bed.

"I doubt that the kuroko will really want to help you after they just did that," Adele remarked amusedly, "And I'm betting you anything that Ryunosuke is making sure that you don't remove your bed from here." He pulled back the covers of his bed and settled in. Adele's eyes had already grown heavy with sleep and Caden could hear her restful breathing. Her hand laid near the right side of his bunk and he wrapped his fingers around her small hand.

"And it worked out in the end," he sighed as he felt the heavy strain of sleep overcome him.