THIS FANFICTION IS CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN AND UPDATED.
THINGS HAVE BEEN CHANGED AND I WOULD RECOMMEND REREADING THIS TITLE IF YOU HAVEN'T IN A WHILE.
THANK YOU FOR READING x
[START]
Define 'Normal'…
Chapter 23:
"It says 'Shout', Budo-san."
"I still think it's cool."
"There's nothing cool about it!"
Other than the 'debating' friends, the train platform was quiet. A smattering of people standing about on the grey asphalt or slumped on the royal blue benches. Not at all comfortable under the sweltering heat, the metal seats soaking up the light and heat.
Conversations were spoken in low voices and most of the seats were taken, but the group of teens didn't much care about that. Harry and Budo stood by and around their colourful bags and suitcases in quiet conversation and gentle camaraderie.
"It is rather… silly." Yuri, murmuring her reply from behind the pages of a bargain bin horror novel, "Purchasing a shirt with a random foreign word on it."
"And yet, as it's Budo, we remain unsurprised…" From her place, perched on her suitcase, Najimi incited Budo into another argument with her.
Najimi had surprised them all (beside Taro) by arriving in a pale blue sundress and a large straw sunhat. The rather dainty and feminine look of their carrot haired friend who they rather… mindlessly, assumed would dress a little tomboyish. She huffed in irritation at their attention and made a point of calling the boys perv's, if a little half-heartedly.
Harry and Budo had been shoulder-to-shoulder in the high heat and humidity (the latter still wearing his now infamous white headband) and were initially trying to speak to one of the newcomers to their little group, Sayori's friend Hiro. Scruffy brown hair and a particularly mild face marred by a tired scowl.
"You don't HAVE to be here." A snarl from Najimi had caused him to clam up. Gravitating towards Sayori and leading to the group's overall lack of volume. Hiro having arrived with a thank you gift before contributing to conversation with quiet
The group left disconcerted, not motivating them to keep trying. After some glares the redhead's way, they let him drift off to the bubbly Sayori, who also couldn't really get him to respond much over one-word responses.
Harry didn't really know how to feel about the small flecks of pain in Sayori's bright blue eyes at her… alleged best friend, and wondered if there was something he could (or even should) do about it?
Despite the heat, Yuri was swathed in a beige turtle neck jumper and dark black skinny jeans. Both hugged the young lady's figure in such a way that Harry and Budo limited how much they looked her way. Somewhat red in the face and missing that she had no qualms raking her eyes up and down one of them…
As he ignored Yuri, Harry wondered a little at Sayori's state of dress. Her three-quarter length denim shorts (looking as if they were just a pair of jeans that she had taken a pair of scissors to) Harry had no issue with, they looked cute and Harry purposefully looked away from them as he didn't want to be seen as a perv. However, her t-shirt really bothered him. A peach pink… thing with no shoulders BUT still having sleeves that fell to her elbows; Harry visibly wondered how it was made and how/why it was held up like that.
Sayori herself was puzzling through Harry's own puzzled looks, wondering why he was looking at her with such an intense expression. However she also wondered why he was seemed so distracted. As he joked, laughed and teased, his eyes would flick about, and he seemed immensely preoccupied with his phone.
This 'mystery' took a backseat in her mind as took as her embarrassment at the attention she was receiving took centre stage. Her cheeks dusted pink as she tried to continue her (pretty one sided) conversation with the very tired Hiro, deciding to bring it up with Harry later. Refusing to let hopeful imagination dictate to her why a boy would be looking at a girl with such interest…
"Is that... normal?" Harry vocalising his thoughts about how… physical Yamada Hanako was with her elder brother. The girl a year younger than all of them, sharing some stark resemblance to the somewhat androgynous Taro with a similar gentle face structure and identical dark hair (in little pig tails) and eyes. To those who had just met her, it was clear they were related, Hanako looking very much like a shorter, more feminine Taro, "I mean, is that normal sibling behaviour?"
"I… don't know." Najimi-san responded to Harry's initial inquiry, sat on her pink and white polka dot suit case, glossy and plastic beneath her buttocks as she looked up from her phone and over at Hanako and Taro cavorting by the platforms edge, "Hanako-chan has always been a bit… clingy. She's a pretty sensitive kid."
Both of Hanako's hands were laced around one of her brothers, hugging it to her as she rose onto her tip toes and smiled at Taro. The girl excitedly yammered on about something that had her brother flushed and trying to get her to stop being so forward,
"I don't have siblings, so I dunno..." Budo muttered, he snickered at the clearly embarrassed Taro as Hanako nuzzled in to her big brother's chest and his onlooking friends smirked at his expense. Budo slamming a hand over his mouth as his stomach weakened when an older woman off to the side made a comment about 'how lovely' the sight was.
Harry could only pity the poor guy, whilst he himself chuckled away.
"Heh, I can't imagine my brother acting anything like that." Harry murmured and shook his head, feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket. His heart clenched a bit and he looked about before remembering that Dumbledore was not nearby, and he just decided to focus on the latest unwanted text. Settling his paranoia as best he could by reminding himself that (regardless of the news) there were contingencies in place should the old man make an appearance...
"Oh, Harry-kun, you have a brother?" Budo looked over at his friend (as he closed the text that he was reading at being addressed) and Harry gave a cheery reply.
"I'm a twin. Identical twin actually." Harry shrugged and didn't really have a reply for his friends but forged on a little, "My family and I… don't get along. But he's not so bad when I think about it, a bit of an idiot though and very full of himself."
There were a few surprised or interested looks from his friends, Harry not knowing what to think of it. Absently, he heard Yuri's slight intake of breath behind him, turning to find her eyes wide and fixed to the ground as she slowly breathed out,
"Two Harry's..." With scarlet cheeks and a slightly dreamy look. He chose to ignore that, flushing red himself.
"I have a younger sister." Hiro murmured, arms folded, and his eyes fixed on none of them. Harry hummed to himself in thought at him and wondered, though he didn't wonder for long as their train screeched into the station and he turned his attention back to his suitcase. Glad he chose to bring the little black thing on wheels rather than lug around his trunk.
"I…erm. I have an older sister." Yuri added as they all began to move towards the vehicle and Yuri slid up alongside him,
"Really, what's she like?"
"Is she pretty like you, Yuri?" Sayori piped up after Harry's intrigued inquiry. The purple haired girl stiffened at the pinkette's bright smile, flushing and falling into shy mumbles and fidgeting. Harry smiled a little sadly at her response and saw a similar look to his own on Sayori's face, Harry leaning down to help Yuri bring her case onto the train and offered the still timidly fidgeting girl a gentle, reassuring smile,
"It's a genuine question I guess, Yuri. You are really pretty after all." Harry declared.
That little addition was a bit mean on his end, his smile broadened at the little 'eep' that ripped from her throat and how her flush flared to a deeper shade of red. He then slipped off with their suitcases and was quick to set them up in appropriate luggage cases, taking time to help Taro, Hanako and Najimi with theirs.
Harry frowned again, noting Hiro sweep past the slightly struggling Sayori with her pink case and he almost swatted him as he moved past to give her a hand,
"Thanks Harry." She said a little less energetically. Harry resisted the urge to just take her case from her when she insisted that she could do it, but he did gather her into a warm hug after noting her little, tired sigh after doing just that. The two of them slipping into the plush red seats of the train compartment beside Budo and they settled in for the trip.
Budo roped them into travel games after fifteen minutes of leg swinging and window watching, Harry whipping out a deck of cards and finding that Hanako and Taro were filthy cheats.
Najimi, in an odd show, offered one of her earbuds to Hiro, the two settling into comfortable conversation over their shared band interest.
Eventually Budo fell asleep, Sayori following afterwards, the pair trapping Harry in place by resting on his shoulder. Leaving Harry to quietly chat away as he played on his phone. Mostly with Yuri who, unsurprisingly, was hiding her face behind a book. Slightly put out but responding with the same air of elegance that Harry recognised as hers alone.
Two hours breezed by as if they were two minutes…
The group were left on a roadside under the rather harsh sunlight that blitzed the dusty empty road. The sounds of the bus trundling away from them and the sound of seagulls cawing above their heads intermingled with the pleasant breeze.
"Huh, maybe should have put on something before we got off." Najimi murmured to herself as they basked in the heat and she peered up at the cloudless sky,
"It is a bit stifling." Harry murmured, pulling his t-shirt away from his sweat slickened neck and chest with a bit of disgust. Just grateful that the others seemed similarly flushed and uncomfortable, "How far to the place, Najimi-san?"
His question had most of them looking towards the girl, who simply pointing to the house in question, visible at the bottom of the rather steep hill.
A dusty, dirt road weaved towards a house painted in multiple bright colours, standing alone at the entryway to a little cove that opened into the sparkling blue ocean. It's myriad of reds, greens, yellows and purples almost an eyesore against the dark grey rocks that towered on either side of it, accompanied by clumps of lush, emerald laden trees.
There wasn't one of them who wasn't immersed with the view.
"Well, I guess we're off!" Hiro announced a bit loudly, flushing a bit but surprised at the eager agreement from his companions,
"Yup! Let's get this summer vacation started!" Budo roared and, humouring him, Harry, Sayori and Taro all gave a resounding,
"Yeah!" in unison and the kids chattered and strolled on towards their destination…
[TO BE CONTINUED]
TO NEW READERS, WELCOME!
TO OLDER READERS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND CONTINUED SUPPORT!
AND TO EVERYONE, THANK YOU FOR READING x