Disclaimer: ...don't own furi kuri....;.; it's so tragic lol
Authors Notes: ^.^ thank you wonderful pple! I got many reviews and am happy. Now don't let any of the chapters fool you, no matter what happens, my fic is going to be as unpredictable as the show, there's no telling what the pairing is. (Not even i know ^.^;;) but don't try to persuade me! I'm trying not to be biased!
"And Then I Met You"
chapter two
Atimy
"Mamimi..."
I couldn't move, couldn't speak. Shock was a vast understatement for what I was feeling right now. She'd been gone so long, but from appearances she'd barely changed.
She wasn't tall, a lot shorter than I remembered, but that was probably because I had grown. Her hair was longer, about mid back though her eyes were still the same.
She was wearing a tee shirt with dark cuffs at the end of the sleeves, and on the front it had an oval with a picture of a large building. Her shoes were brown sandals and she was wearing jean shorts. That camera was still around her neck.
I shook my head mentally. I didn't know what else to say. She was staring at me with that wide hopeful expression, but as I watched her it softened.
"It's been awhile, Ta-kun."
She smiled in a very genuine Mamimi like way, and it clicked that she was actually here.
"Yeah," I muttered dumbly. I swallowed and looked at her so confused. "Where did you go..?" She tilted her head to the side. "The world," she said simply, and smiled again. "To find what I was missing." Strange answers; a Mamimi trait.
I took a deep breath, releasing it slowly, like some part of me believed that I was really dreaming, and breathing too much would cause me to wake up.
"I learned some things." she added, bringing me back to attention. "And realized others." The way she finished was a dreamy way. In the airy tiered voice that Mamimi possessed. Something I'd taken for granted once.
I dropped the broom and barely noticed its clash to the floor, walking up to Mamimi standing in the doorway, to fins that I was an inch taller. Amazing.
Mamimi looked up slightly. "You're taller Ta-kun." She smiled, closing her eyes like she was savoring the moment, with an expression of pure joy. She tilted her head down and leaned against me with a soft embrace. It sort of shocked me at first but eventually, hesitantly, I put my arms around her too, not really knowing how to respond.
"I missed you Ta-kun." she mumbled into my shirt, rubbing her nose in it. I blushed lightly, but not like before. When we were younger, she always did this. I expected it, but having it gone all these years, I'd figured out something myself.
Mamimi needed affection; love. Like every normal human being. But she and her family had disagreements. She didn't get any appreciation or recognition from them. So she sought it out in others. Like my brother, and me...and of course that dumb cat.
I only figured this out, because I suffered the same way she did. Once she left, everything became sort of empty. And I realized that I missed her. "Me too." I said closing my eyes. She smiled against me; and suddenly went slack.
My eyebrows drew together as I opened my eyes and looked down. She was asleep. I coughed. "Only Mamimi..." I muttered, and let her fall into my arms. I picked her up and carried her into the main part of the bakery where we lived, heading toward the couch.
It wasn't that I was particularly strong to pick her up as much as it was, she was pretty light. I dropped her on the couch carefully and stood back thoughtfully.
She was fast asleep. I shook my head. She must have come a long way to be so tierd. I wondered vaugly if her parents knew she was back.
Acting upon that thought, I headed toward the kitchen. I picked up the very cordless ID reciever we had and searched the letter S. Seigema Mamimi. Dad never cleaned out the old numbers. There was her cell number and her home number.
I thought grimly about the fate of her cell phone as I called her house. I'd never actually called her home number before. It rang a few times before someone picked up.
"Hello?!" They sounded agitated.
"Uh, Hi this is Naota Nandaba, Mamimi's friend, are you her father?" There was a pause and a shuffle on the other end.
"Mamimi? Mamimi doesn't live here anymore, and why would you want to know?! Hey shut up and leave the television alone!" The man was having an argument on the other end.
"Um, well I thought you might like to know that she is over here, and is-"
"Good, maybe she'll stay there. Don't send her home!" And with that he hung up. I held the receiver in my hand staring at it. "What a jack ass." No wonder Mamimi never seemed to go home. I looked over into the other room where she slept. Grandpa wouldn't be happy to find her there, whenever he decided to venture down.
Sighing in decision I went back into the front and locked the store before going back to move Mamimi. She could sleep in my room, and I could sleep on the couch...at least until I told dad and grandpa.
~*~
The next morning went...unexpectedly.
"NAOTA!! What is that girl doing in our house!!!!!"
Not as...smoothly as planned.
"She let the robot eat my cereal!!! Off the sausage! Off the sausage!"
Maybe a little, eccentric.
"Dad, YOU gave Canti the cereal! And you Hate sausage!" "But its Kamon's sausage, and he needs it for that toilet experiment!"
Or, weird.
"Yes, that article on mutated sewer sausage will be gold! Your grandfather agree's, but Mamimi cant help so she can't eat the cereal."
...Okay so it was down right insane.
"She didn't Have the cereal, Grandpa's eating the sausage, and Mamimi hasn't waken up yet!!!!"
Complete, utter lunacy.
I panted from my long winded argument. Geez, after this long you'd think they'd have enough decency to yell while she's even in the room.
Dad suddenly regained his composure. "Well Naota, it seems you have some truth to your argument," He was watching grandpa and Canti eat his sausage and cereal. "How about all." I retorted, staring plainly. He tilted his neck and scratched his head.
"Ah, yes well; What is she doing in your room anyway?! What were you doing in there huh, huh, HUH??!" It was really starting to be pathetic. Dads constant interrogation for a scandal. It was hard to believe that we were related.
I glared dully. "In case you hadn't noticed, I was sleeping on the couch." He looked like he was thinking about this. "She kicked you out?" My face dropped in disbelief. I had to be switched at birth. "Unbelievable." I muttered, and turned abruptly to stomp toward the stairs.
Kamon was still confused. "Does that mean she did? Naota-kun? Naota-kun?!"
I ignored him and continued to walk toward my room. He wouldn't come up to pester me, I was pretty confident of that. He wanted to avoid any conflict with Mamimi herself. As I reached my door I sighed. She's not even conscious and they're already jumping down my throat.
I walked into the room and looked across it to my bed. Just as I'd told them all, Mamimi was still sleeping. Miyu-miyu was sitting on the bed next to her in a round little ball, and purring softly as I closed the door and walked over to the bed side.
I stood above her watching. She looked so different while she slept, not like when she was awake. She looked more normal, and it could make you wonder if the real Mamimi was just an act, and inside she was really just like any of us. Lonely.
I realized suddenly I was watching her sleep. My cheeks grew hot. Why did they do that? It was annoying. I blinked and knelt down by the bed, resting my arms on the mattress and my chin on my arms. Her expression was very soft, but suddenly she twinged. I wondered vaguely what she was dreaming. But that was just before she opened her eyes.
In a split second, fling, she was staring at me. My eyes went wide and I could feel my face burning up to my ears. She didn't move but I squeaked and jumped back, blushing even more at the sound I made. Mamimi blinked several times and then smiled. "Good morning Ta-kun."
The sun spilled silently into the room through the window, reflecting off things and bringing a glow and a certain spark to Mamimi's face. Her eye's were shining, even this early, and when she'd called me Ta-kun, I was suddenly reminded. Really bad deja vu.
"Morning," I replied dumbly, sitting back still wide eyed, with my hands back behind me for support and looking a little stunned. I blinked twice and cleared away the look quickly and jumped to my feet. "Um, you fell asleep on me. I put you up here." That probably sounded dumb.
She didn't say anything, just continued to smile as Miyu-miyu got up and settled in her lap, once again purring. I suddenly noticed that I'd never really heard that cat purr before. I looked over toward the window. "I called your parents but,"
My eyes darted slightly. "They weren't home." I wasn't that good of a liar. I looked back and Mamimi was petting the cat slowly, but she'd stopped smiling. "No. They don't want me home. I already know." I stared at her. She'd never been seriously blunt. I mean, like that. I couldn't remember her speaking in that way.
"Oh," was my ingenious reply. I looked at her directly and swallowed a bit. "Mamimi, you can stay here, my dad," I paused. "They've changed." That was a down right lie, but I didn't want her to have no place to go. She smiled sweetly. "It's okay Naota, I'm going soon. Shigekuni wont have time to be mad."
She called me Naota, that was the second time. I was starting to think, in these past years, she'd changed; a lot. And quite possibly grown up. But then it suddenly struck me. "Go? What do you mean, you, just got here?" I barely spit out the words in an attempt to keep from sounding desperate. But how could she leave?
Mamimi shook her head slowly. "Just out, not too far. I'm not leaving Mabase." she told me. She was being very clear and to the point. It was different. But I sighed in relief. Mamimi got up, and I stepped back slightly. She stood at my eye level and looked at me pensively. She breathed deeply with her mouth still closed.
"I missed you Ta-kun." She said that before. I wondered if she forgot, but somehow I knew she didn't. She was just repeating it, like a mantra, a comfort security. "Yeah," I muttered. "I know." Not the most sentimental answer, but often I don't think before I speak.
And we just stood there for a while, staring. It was strangely comfortable. An odd silence that said something in it's own way, only being broken when that old cat started purring again and rubbing up against Mamimi's leg. I swear that thing liked everyone better than me.
She pet him and smiled. I blinked. "There's some breakfast downstairs. Dad and grandpa probably aren't there anymore, so they wont bother you. Canti's probably in the kitchen." I was half expecting her to jolt at the mention of Canti, or at least to spring back to a more sugar fulled energy level. But she just smiled again and looked happy.
I looked at her with my mouth slightly open, but turned back to the door. "Right." I muttered more to myself, and opened the door to a strangely quiet house. Who knew what this day would bring.
~*~
"Haha, you're wierd sometimes Ta-kun." I never thought I'd hear that, from Mamimi.
After breakfast Mamimi said she wanted to go out. I went with her, and we ended up under the bridge.
I looked at her. I'd just made a coment on how we always came here, and wondered why. That made me weird? "No I'm not." I turned in a false pout, folding my arms over eachother. Mamimi laughed.
Under the bridge. That timeless bridge. It still looked the same as the day I last was here. Which was actually, about a week after Mamimi left. When I contemplated her departure as well as Haruko's, and decided to move on. But I guess it didn't work, cause I'm glad she'd back.
She was staring out at the water now, thinking. I dropped my arms to the side and walked closer to her. She seemed to take a deep breath. "I saw your brother." she said. I stopped. My brother? What did he have to do with anything?
"In America. I saw him." I didn't have anything to say. It was quiet for a moment as a soft brief wind blew past sweeping Mamimi's long hair off her shoulders. I looked to the ground.
"His new girl friend dumped him, but he say's its okay." I looked up in interest. Tasuka didn't tell me that. "'He's playing the field.' That's what he told me." She turned around. Her eyes were slightly shining. "I guess a lot of things partake to baseball, huh chief." I nodded and she gave me a half smile.
She blinked. "Do you know why I came back Ta-kun?" I opened my mouth to answer, but I didn't really know. She smiled. "I missed my home." Somehow I knew what she meant. Not her parents home, but here. It was here, under the bridge and, maybe with me. Since I was the only one she knew. Me and that cat, that disappeared long ago.
"I was lonely...Atimy." I blinked. Atimy? "What does that-" She smiled widely all of a sudden and stopped my question. "I think I'm here to stay." The last question forgotten, I smiled. Mamimi was back...to stay. And that was all that mattered.
@ @ @
Atimy? what's that mean you wonder? ^.^ you'll see. Okay now to all those wonderful people who reviewed me and left their email, I will be an absolutely wonderful author and send you all a free download of the entire FLCL soundtrack Addict.
No really I'm serious, lol. So anyone who reviews and leaves their email address, I'll send the link of the download to (you need realdownload i think) it's free, fast and easy. Oh and if you get it, you've got to listen to # 18. Bran-new lovesong, with the end of this chapter, it's cool.
Oh and thanks so much again to all those who reviewed me, especially benny, Is this really the best FLCL fic you've read? Yay! Well leave me your email so i can send you a link to the download ^.^ lol
~SNOW