Revelations
Disclaimer: Don't own the SaGa Frontier characters or anything else from the game.
"Yo, Blue!"
Blue turned towards the voice behind him, scanning the faces in the crowd for the person who called him. The mall was quite busy at this time of day, and there was quite a lot of people out today, but it didn't take him long to spot a familiar face among the large crowd. The fact that the person was waving his arms around like a mad man helped quite a bit. Moving to the side so as to not block the others from passing, Blue waited for the caller to squeeze himself through everyone to reach him.
This was Kyle Thatcher, a classmate of Blue's and also one of the editors for the Darmen High School newsletter. Did you know that there is an unwritten law among the students of the Magic Kingdom that the person you hang out with the most is automatically assumed to be your best friend? And since Kyle is usually seen hanging out with Blue, that meant that Kyle was Blue's best friend, even though Blue had made it clear several times that he didn't need to have a 'best friend' and that he was doing fine without one. This was quite true, in several ways. But Blue did have a feeling resembling that of respect for him, since Kyle was the only person among the few who could get Blue to actually say anything to him.
Their first few encounters were relatively pleasant, with Blue being as blunt as ever, and Kyle being as annoyingly sociable as ever, but that all changed when Blue started writing for the school newsletter. Being an editor, Kyle was often assigned to edit the articles submitted by guest writers. Although a lot of people guest-write for the newsletter, only a number of their articles are selected to be edited and posted. Blue's articles were almost always chosen, and that meant that Kyle almost always had to meet with him to get his opinions on the changes made. The more time they worked together in the newsletter, the more Blue seemed to open up to him. It took some time, and effort, but Blue finally did open up to him, if only a little. But since this is Blue we're talking about here, then a little is considered to be quite an achievement.
Kyle stood around a hundred and forty centimeters tall, and was quite aware of his lack in height. Especially when he was around Blue, who was over twenty centimeters taller than him. However, Kyle did have a special way to stand out of the crowd. His light green hair with the red highlights stood out visibly among the normal black, brown and blonde colors, and they were natural too. No dye, no food coloring. A lot like Rouge's silver hair. You don't see colors like that everyday. His light green eyes, which matched his hair color, were open and friendly, unlike Blue's clear-blue ones that were most of the time guarded, with little to no traces of emotion in them.
Fingering the strap of the mini-backpack he always carried around, Blue sighed impatiently. How long does it take to squeeze through a crowd like that?
Kyle finally did manage to reach his blonde friend, and gave him a pat on the shoulder, "Thanks for waiting. Sorry I took so long. So, where're you heading?"
Watching Kyle tap his shoulder, Blue smirked slightly. Only Kyle would ever tap him on his shoulder without any sense of fear. One might think that that was a slight exaggeration, and the 'sense of fear' thing was slightly overdoing it, but Blue was infamous for delivering scathing replies to any unlucky bloke who so much as touched him. He was very sensitive about people touching him, especially when they weren't even related to him, for reasons he kept to himself. And he got especially agitated whenever he felt that his private space was being invaded in any way. Not even Rouge or his mother knew why he felt this way, and he was happy with that. It was his secret, and his secret alone.
Answering Kyle's question, Blue nodded to a shop situated further down.
Kyle didn't notice the small smirk that crossed his face. Following the nod, he ohs, "Your Mom's shop, eh? Why?"
"To get the decorations for the party," Blue's reply was short and straight to the point. That's just the way he is. There was no difference whether you were family or friend, his reply would have been the same. Then he asked, "Wanna come? You might just get to taste her pineapple tarts, if you're lucky."
It was asked out of sheer politeness, because it would have seemed rude to just walk away without inviting him along. Yes, he did like Kyle as a friend, but most of the time he preferred to be alone, so that he could walk in peace without having to crack his head in a vain effort to make small talk. Not that he ever really tries.
"Cool. I'll go. Maybe Dawn's there too."
Of course. Dawn. Kyle's dream girl. He claimed that he had fallen for the 'angel', as he had so poetically put it, the minute he laid eyes on her, and it didn't matter that she was three years older than him. Personally, Blue didn't really believe him, but kept that opinion to himself. What the poor guy didn't know was that Dawn wasn't the least bit interested in dating anyone. Blue had told him so several times already, in an effort to steer him away from making a complete fool of himself, but Kyle refused to believe him.
Blue didn't really treat Dawn the way Kyle did, though. He didn't spend half his time swooning about her 'golden hair spun from the sun itself', or her 'beautiful green eyes that are the very color of fertile grass'. He had more important, and more interesting, things to do, like watching paint dry.
Dawn wasn't too bad, in his opinion. She acted like just about every other girl her age. She liked pop music, talked on the phone non-stop, and went shopping at least once a week. But she was also quite different in the sense that she didn't squirm when she had to collect millipedes for a science project, she played mean basketball, and was an all-around tomboy when it came to hanging out with the guys.
Ever since he and Rouge turned ten, Dawn had stopped working as their babysitter, and started working as a part-time salesgirl in his mom's gift shop. And it did wonders for her business, since it meant that a lot of teenagers, mostly boys, would be visiting her there, and Dawn always managed to talk them into buying something before leaving. Yep, hiring Dawn was the best thing his mother had done for her business. And Blue didn't mind, either. He liked Dawn ever since he met her.
He thought of Dawn as an older sister, not as an old friend. He would never admit it to anyone alive though, since it would be too… emotional for him. He had gained a reputation among most of the students (and some of the adults) as someone who was cold, and occasionally, he was even called unemotional, and he wanted to keep it that way. This kind of personality kept people at a distance, which lessened the chances of having to make conversation.
"Hey, Blue. BLUE!! We're here."
Kyle waved a hand in front of Blue's face, trying to get his attention, and succeeded. Blue blinked in surprise. He was standing in front of his mother's shop, Liang's Gifts & Stuph (LGS for short), and he didn't even remember walking here… Ah well, that's what you get for zoning out in the middle of walking. Pushing the glass double-doors open, the boys walked in.
Liang's gift shop was quite large, considering the cheap price she was able to get for it. Or maybe it just seemed large because it was purposely decorated to look that way. Either way, there was always enough room to put everything neatly, no matter how many things Liang ordered. On the right side of the double-doors, in line with the glass wall facing the mini-fountain outside, was a rack filled with cards for all occasions. Thank-you cards, anniversary cards, birthday cards, Fathers' Day, Mothers' Day, Teachers' Day, and every other kind of day that existed in and out of the Magic Kingdom.
The center of the store was lined with three racks. The one on the left held posters and magazines of celebrities e.g. singers, actors etc. There were also playing cards of some sort that also had something to do with celebrities. The center rack was for video game character cards, stickers, posters, magazines and anything else that had to do with the video gaming world. The last rack, which was on the right, held cards, posters and stickers of different animes and mangas. There were also dubbed tapes of the animes Fushigi Yuugi, Card Captor Sakura, Flame of Recca, Weiss Kreuz, Angel Sanctuary, Twin Signal, Sailor Moon, You're Under Arrest!, Ninku and Ghostsweeper. These tapes could be rented for the maximum time of two weeks, and was the most popular item in the store.
Two racks line the walls on the left and right of the room respectively, in line with the walls. All kinds of knickknacks were placed in these racks, such as pendants, address books, journals, diaries, and anything else that might prove useful to a teenager. The upper part of the store was covered with anime and video game posters, and at the back of the store hung quite a selection of the larger posters. These posters were rarer than others, and have been laminated so as to not get dirty. It was also more expensive than the normal posters.
On the left side of the doors, beside the rack that held the knickknacks, was the counter. Dawn, who was behind it, was currently busy talking with a customer, who was incidentally a good-looking college student, so Blue quietly made his way to the rack beside her. Kyle followed Blue to the rack, keeping half an eye on Dawn. Wouldn't want that college guy making any moves on her. No way. Not while he's around.
"What did you have in mind?" he asked as he watched Blue proceed to look through the streamers.
"I don't really know. Rouge and I didn't discuss what to get. Something not too gaudy, I guess." Blue frowned severely at a package of pink and yellow streamers, as if it were the very violation of color coordination, and tossed the package aside, giving it a snort of disgust as well.
"Oh." Kyle sweatdropped. How was he going to help now? Kyle Thatcher was all for gaudiness. His entire wardrobe practically screamed flamboyant! In fact, right now he was wearing bright blue pants that spread out around the ankles, and a red floral shirt that clashed horribly with the gold-colored jacket he was wearing. Almost everyone he passed gave him the 'this-guy-belongs-in-the-straight-jacket' look. And that was good, for Kyle anyway, since he puts a lot of effort to make his outfits as colorful as possible. Hey, if you wanna stand out, what better way to do it than through fashion?
"Hey, are you gonna help me or not?" Blue demanded, still shifting through the packages.
Scratching the back of his head with his right hand, Kyle asked, "Um, Blue. Do you really think I should be helping you to choose for non-gaudy streamers? I mean, look at me!" Kyle stretched his arms out and displayed the outfit for his friend to see.
Looking up, Blue saw the outfit, and realized what Kyle was trying to say. He deadpanned, "I… see. That is… really colorful." And gaudy. "Definitely not my style."
How true. While Kyle was flamboyant at its best (or worst), Blue was the very essence of practicality. Right now, he was wearing a pair of faded-black jeans, held up by a leather white belt, and a navy blue dress shirt, the cuffs and collar unbuttoned. Practical, simple, and comfortable. Just the way he liked it.
Blue eyed his colorful friend critically, not being the least bit subtle about it, then offered a brief shrug, "Guess I'll just look for it by myself."
"What're you guys looking for?"
They turned towards the feminine voice and saw Dawn studying them curiously. She was wearing a grey tank-top, and a black skirt that reached her knees. Her belt was quite thin with a gold buckle. Her wheat-blond hair was tied into a french braid, with a few strands of curly hair escaping from its position.
All of a sudden, Blue noticed that Kyle had quieted down a bit, and was subtly moving out of her line of sight. Shaking his head at Kyle's sudden shyness, Blue said, "I'm looking for streamers for the party."
"Well, they're right over there," she gestured to the mountain of packages that Blue had looked over.
"Duh… I can see that." A pause, then he continued, "Actually… I was hoping to find some that weren't too gaudy." Come on, pink and yellow?! You'd have to be Kyle to appreciate those kinds of combinations.
Dawn looked vaguely surprised, and laughed, "Too gaudy for your tastes, ne? Well, I don't know, kid. I mean, gaudy colors and streamers go together like, um…"
As Dawn struggled to think of a good enough comparison, Kyle suggested, peaking out from Blue's back, "Me and you?"
Dawn just stared at him, then a little smirk pulled into view, "You could say that… On friendly terms, that is."
"Yeah, whatever," Blue folded his arms impatiently. He didn't have time to be playing puppy-love with Kyle. He was here on an important mission, which is to buy some streamers that weren't so bloody colorful to decorate his house for his up-coming birthday party.
"I don't care if they match as well as you and Lovesick here, " he jabbed a thumb in Kyle's direction, who incidentally had stars in his eyes at the very thought of him and Dawn being so compatible, "Or potato chips and ice cream or anything else you want to use as your analogy. I just want to find a pack of streamers in one color -one color, mind you- and get back home to get ready the invitations."
Dawn rested her chin in her right palm, and gave a knowing 'ah', followed by, "Straight-forward as always, I see. Hold on for a minute, and I'll get you your one-color streamer." She made her way to the storeroom, which was through the back door, and came out two minutes later with several packages in hand. Blue knew that she took two minutes because he had timed her the minute she went in.
"Here you are!" She shoved the packages into his hands and stepped back, "Choose a color."
Among the colors she had given him was metallic green-blue, metallic silver, metallic blue, metallic red, gold, and a couple of other colors that Blue couldn't even begin to recognize, all metallic. Taking the gold and metallic silver, he gave the rest back to Dawn.
She looked at him questioningly, and asked, "Why didn't you choose this?" She held up one of the colors Blue didn't recognize. It was something in between purple and red, but he couldn't be too sure. But one thing was painfully obvious, and that was the color was absolutely horrible.
"…Too expensive." That was the best excuse he could give. Dawn did not look convinced (she was sure that he was going to rant about it being completely horrible and an utter eyesore to humanity), but she walked back to the counter, without saying anything else, and punched in the prices.
"650 Credits," she announced.
"What? No discount?" Blue lifted a blonde eyebrow in mock surprise.
Dawn just snorted, "That's with the discount, genius."
Shaking his head, Kyle commented, "Expensive, don't you think? I mean, for a few strands of paper…"
She shrugged, "Hey, it's the best you're gonna get, at least around here, anyway."
Not commenting, Blue paid the designated price, then said, "Domo, for the discount." Never one for goodbyes, he just nodded to her, then exited the shop.
Waving over his shoulder, Kyle followed him out, saying, "Jya, Dawn-san!"
Dawn wiggled her fingers at him in return, brightening Kyle's day all the more, and left to put the rest of the packages back in the storeroom.
