Fandom: Karigurashi no Arietti / The Secret World of Arrietty
Title: Cut from the same cloth.
Pairing: Shou + Arrietty
Rating: G
Description: It's been years since they've met, but Shou hasn't given up on meeting Arrietty again.

Disclaimer: Arrietty belongs to Mary Norton and Studio Ghibli.

Cut from the same cloth.
By Miyamoto Yui

Prologue – The perimeter.

"Your office remains unchanged, Sir."

"Thank you." Her young boss nods his head discreetly though calmly disappointed as he flips another paper on the clipboard he's reading. It's another proposal for land ownership.

He knows his secretary is holding back the urge to roll her eyes at this peculiarity after hearing her whisper outside of the door one day that she wonders why she has to check his desk for any missing items every day. And she had to report to him at the same exact time every day, wherever he was in the office. It was an extra bonus on her paycheck every month, an unusual fine print on her contract.

Today, she'd stepped inside a meeting and sits down to take notes for his later reference.

"This isn't good enough." The subtle sharp tone makes the others in the room roast in their seats.
Raising her head slightly, she stops writing and blinks at him, pushing up her glasses. Unfazed, he continues to skim, then finally flips the stack back into place.

Until today, he's never shown any kind of emotion except determination, if that could be labeled a 'feeling'. She knows because she's been with him for seven years, since the first day he stepped into the vice president's office.

Silently, the young man glimpses briefly into everyone's faces, especially the lawyers. He knows exactly what they're all thinking: While others bought properties around the #1 living space in Tokyo for business, he's accumulating them for a different goal. What's his motivation if money isn't an object?

There's a crazed look in his eyes, the one that tells he's been searching for treasure.

"You must get that land at all costs."
The shocked group is dismissed and the twenty-five-year-old takes a long drawn out breath as they exit the room. He's been buying the land little by little for the moment he could measure the area with a child's ruler. Using his hands and memory, he's projected and estimated all these years. He knew her height, how far it would take for her to travel in a day (whether walking, running or sailing by teapot).

Each day expands the perimeter of her going further away.

Gossiping in the elevators, they thought he'd finally gone mad, and with the company president being so conscientious over insignificant details, it was no wonder why he's stayed single. Was a safety pin or a cube of sugar missing? Why was this even on the list of secretarial duties? What did it matter anyway?

But to him, that little information equaled the dream of his soul. It etched the lines to stay healthy, to fulfill their promise to one another…

He didn't care that they were from different worlds, as long as she existed.

The secretary remains standing by the door behind as he places the clipboard on the oblong table to walk towards the intense afternoon light, the direction that faces his house.

She clears her throat. "Sir, if I'm not being presumptuous, I think you should take a day off."
He shakes his head. "Thank you for your concern, Ms. Kuroki, but I can't."
With a polite bow, she leaves the room and he lets out a deep sigh.

Under the fractured angle of the shimmering particles through the glass windows, he looks out and into the city below. "Was it worth it to stay alive for that one hope?"
Lost in thought, his bangs fall forward, blocking his image: A white shirt, pristine as the start of the day, pressed pants that always feel uncomfortable, restraining. The leather shoes that crinkle with heels making a soft tapping sound on the ground, reflecting his voice whenever he spoke: smooth, unperturbed, composed.

That was the very thing that troubled his secretary though. He seemed to conduct all his business accordingly, never raising his voice, clothes perfectly arranged…a child who'd never gotten dirty or played outside. That was understandable having said he was sickly, but being a capable adult, it made this gentle side more delicate, additionally breakable.

However the mask remains intact, or as far as she is within the room limits. She thinks as she walks towards her desk, "Why was today an exception?"

Catching a small flicker coming from his right side, he leans towards a pot of preserved leaves next to the windows, replicas of the ones she hid behind in his bedroom. He pushes his cheek against the flimsy, woven surfaces, wanting to feel her breath on his skin again.

"Shou…"
Fully tasting her voice in his mind, he closes his eyes for a moment.
"I hope you…have a happy life."

Still leaning onto the everlasting green leaves, Shou stares beyond the shopping arcades, the train station, the park that leads towards his house. He chose this building for that particular purpose.

"I know you're still out there. Somewhere."

After a few minutes, he leaves the meeting room with the clipboard under his arm and enters his office. He pulls out two long pieces of paper and spreads them out onto the rectangular fine-grained oak desk. Overlapping his homemade maps with the present one of Kichijouji, Shou hungrily analyzes both from a bird's eye view, marking the distance and possible routes she may have taken that day.

"Arrietty."

Tsuzuku… / To be continued…

Author's note: To tell the truth, the year Arrietty came out, I wrote many pages…actually, chapters for this fic. And then, my comp crashed so I couldn't retrieve it. Still, this fic lived on in my head. Again, I tried and wrote them onto pieces of paper, but I've lost that draft too.

There were certain scenes that I've forgotten from both of those drafts, but the feeling remained for many, many years. And maybe those weren't meant to be uploaded while this one was. I am glad though.

I hope this time I can do it justice. I want fluff this time! ;_; I have never forgotten the ending I wanted.

Ack…I should be doing Chiisana for Hikaru no Go, but I wanted something to balance out the angst. ^^;;;

Love,

Yui

12/24/2019 5:27:48 PM – Los Angeles
12/25/2019 10:27:48 AM – Tokyo