Hoshigawa Ren and natsuki23, thank you for your comments!

Chapter 25: Land of Chocolate, Beer and Fries

In the morning, Suoh woke up to the feeling he had overslept and was more comfortable than he ought. Where was he and what time was it? He didn't want to go to school. Lazily, he opened eyes sore from crying and sat up, only to find himself in a room he'd never slept in before, on a bed much more impressive than his own futon, with a tartan blanket and a ludicrously Christmassy plush snowman.

He was at Nokoru's place, he remembered. Wow, he really had babbled and cried his heart out yesterday, he realized a bit shamefully. Oh, well. There had been no witness but Nokoru.

The place in his mouth where he'd cut himself had scabbed and didn't hurt anymore. He hoped Nokoru's head didn't, either.

He wasn't sure what to do, afraid life would go back to normal the moment he got up.

This evening, the triplets would see his bruise, guess where it came from and look so smug. Young brats.

But what was worse, his mother would likely skin him alive this time if she learned he'd been nowhere like quick enough to prevent Nokoru from bumping his head for his sake. And somehow she seemed to always know everything. He sighed.

He had been very slow, he admitted that himself. But he had been training for years in order to prevent other people from hurting Nokoru, for goodness' sake. Nokoru wasn't supposed to go and hurt himself of his own accord! You really never could tell what would pop into that blonde head. But try telling that to his mother.

While he was hesitating, there was a knock on the door.

- Come in," he said, hoping he was presentable enough in his creased uniform and mussed hair.

To his relief, it was a smiling Nokoru who came in, carrying a breakfast tray.

- Good morning!" Nokoru said brightly. "How are you feeling?"

- Fine," Suoh answered, his stomach grumbling at the thought of breakfast, and moving to sit on the side of the bed. "Sorry for sleeping late. Should we not be in school?"

Nokoru sat beside him.

- That's all right. Please eat, I already did. There's a snowstorm on campus, so school's closed for the day," Nokoru explained, an angelical expression on his face.

Suoh stared, a piece of toast halfway to his mouth.

- A snowstorm? Is it not always spring on campus?

- Yes, unless the weather controls go haywire," Nokoru answered sweetly.

Suoh chuckled.

- Oh. And what, or rather who, made them go haywire, I wonder?

- Ah, who knows? I gather that Mother was checking on them late yesterday evening, and after that it all went wrong… I have to say Mother doesn't seem overly concerned. She says a school in which you can never miss classes because of a snowstorm is no fun.

- Your mother is a nice woman," Suoh summed up between mouthfuls.

- Yes, she is. I talked with her earlier this morning. She suggested you come and live here, since you're to be my bodyguard sometime anyway. She argues it would be safer for me. But in truth, that's a pretext. In reality, she'd like to have you around because she likes you. You would be most welcome.

Suoh stopped eating. He felt grateful for the offer, but his mind was foggy and he didn't know what would be best. Would his family even let him? How would he train?

- What do you think?" He asked.

- Well, I think that's an idea, but you're nearly tired out, aren't you? What you need is a vacation. I know!

Nokoru jumped on his feet, his face illuminated by what he obviously believed to be a brilliant idea.

- We'll go to Belgium for a year! I bet I can learn lots of important stuff as a future director by studying schools there, anyway. I mean, surely their school system is different from ours. We're extremely advanced in our schooling, so we can very well interrupt that for a while. And that way, you'll have to follow me in order to protect me from dangerous Belgian kidnappers, I mean surely there are kidnappers in every country, and wouldn't Belgian ones be particularly ferocious, with all that chocolate feeding them energy? So your family cannot protest!

Suoh stared.

- Belgium? Why Belgium, for…?" He answered, too stunned to decide what to protest first.

- Why, they have a reputation for making good comic books! It would be fun!

Suoh facepalmed.

- Of course…

- You can get drunk on beer, while I waxe fat on fries!

- There is no way I will get drunk," Suoh started to protest, his mind still in a whirr.

But then he started to laugh, and found he could not stop. The image was too funny, and the whole thing, over the top. Only Nokoru would think of it. And only Nokoru would make it come true, too. Well, apart from the getting drunk and fat part. Nokoru's fangirls would protest very vehemently if he let their idol become fat. And there was no knowing what would happen if he himself got drunk. He'd probably wake up to discover Nokoru had set up a museum to the glorification of women while he was unconscious, complete with free admission for women visitors and a flower bouquet thrown in. All, Suoh realized suddenly, more for the fun of seeing the stern-and-discouraged face he'd make at learning the news than for the sake of the women themselves.

They'd go to the other side of the world, leaving the Takamuras nice and far (1). In spite of Nokoru's pretence, kidnapping risks would be low: next to nobody in Belgium would know about Nokoru being a rich heir. They wouldn't make their destination public, so Japanese kidnappers would have to be very motivated to go look for them somewhere in Europe. The Takamuras would be well aware of that, of course, but they would not dare refuse a half-reasonable request from the Imonoyamas.

And once they got back, why, Suoh would already have been by Nokoru's side for a year, so it would be all natural for him to remain so and stay at his place as a bodyguard. He could probably go on training by himself. He would not become as good as the other Takamuras, but then at seven he had already been better than the average bodyguard, and it wasn't as if he'd have to fight Superman some day. It did hurt to think that the Takamuras might never again like him, that he may be happier far from them. But it seemed that to mend things with them, the only thing Suoh could do was let go of what he believed right to be and do. He was lucky that Nokoru was giving him the option of leaving them with their half-blessing, without waiting for things to get worse, without living through the heartrending, alternating hope and doubts concerning their mutual feelings, without having ultimately, perhaps, to resort to breaking all ties with them.

They'd both rest; they'd forget pressures and worries and have fun, while slowly learning to find their footing in their future jobs of director and bodyguard. He was sure Nokoru would found a kyûdô school or club in Belgium if there wasn't already one, and spend his own leisure getting himself in a thousand detective scrapes. Which Suoh would help him get out of, of course. And there would be scores of tales to tell Akira when they came back (Suoh knew very well that Akira would not leave Utako-san and his mothers for all the chocolate in Belgium).

- Let us do that," He said quietly.

- What? Will you actually get drunk, Suoh?" Nokoru teased.

- Of COURSE not, and you understood me very well.

Nokoru struck a thoughtful pose.

- Hmm, do you reckon the penguin blimp could take us that far?

- KAICHÔ!

Nokoru hugged him.

THE END

(But don't miss the epilogue, and sequel!)

(1) The manga takes place in the good old 1990's, remember… no email! No Skype! No Webcam! No cell phones! No Facebook! No Twitter! No blogs! No whatever new half-dreadful invention I haven't heard of yet! (And please don't realize Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle didn't exist back then, either).