Blue Part Three
By Chash
Blatantly ignoring The Elements of Style, I continue using Japanese when Japanese is spoken (and I ever underlined that part…). Translations appear at the end. Also, Kamura-san's English is supposed to be faulty. She's pretty good, but not perfect.
"Niichan! Okaeri nasai!"
Naozumi laughed as a large group of laughing children descended on them. "Tadaima!"
"Oniisan wa dare desu ka?" a little girl asked Ken. He blushed. He was also forgetting his Japanese. Great.
"Ken desu."
"Irasshai, Ken-niisan!"
"Arigatou…" Ken replied nervously. "Nao, I forgot Japanese…" he whispered.
"Hard to get used to, isn't it? Don't worry, Kamura-san speaks Japanese."
"Good," Ken laughed. "We haven't even been filming that long, but I don't want to get out of practice. It's so much easier to talk in English here than to talk in Japanese over there."
"Come on, let's go inside. We can find the trumpet and maybe avoid seeing Kamura-san if we hurry!"
"Avoid her? Aww, but Nao, I wanted to see your baby pictures!"
"No."
"I bet you were cute!"
"I like to think I still am," Naozumi replied airily and walked by Ken, who stuttered for a little while.
"Hidoiii," he finally settled on, running to catch up. "That was mean."
"Why?" Naozumi laughed at Ken's glare.
"There was no correct answer."
"The correct answer was that I'm cute. Since you didn't say that, I can only assume you think I'm ugly."
"You're mean and I'm not talking to you anymore," Ken pouted. Really he was just as glad for an excuse to stop the conversation. Stupid Naozumi.
"Naozumi?"
"Aa! Kamura-san!" Naozumi turned and smiled at the woman. "Hi!"
"Hello. Who is your friend?" her English was more heavily accented than Ken's or Naozumi's, but still understandable.
"This is Nigahara Ken. We were just picking up my trumpet."
"Good. You are at wedding, Nigahara-san?"
"Aa… yes. Will you be there, Kamura-san?"
"Yes. Sana-san is kind enough to ask all of us," she smiled. Ken goggled and Naozumi snickered behind his hand.
"All of you?"
"Yes. She say we are family."
Ken was not really listening at this point. He was seeing visions of all the kids in little tuxedos running around the wedding breathing fire.
"We're going to go find the trumpet, all right?" Naozumi waved and pulled Ken off. "Keep in mind, Ken," Naozumi told him reassuringly, "this is a wedding which will feature the bride with a burrucha, a Kero-chan pin, and a trumpet as part of her wedding apparel."
"I'm just seeing a lot of chibi in tuxedos," he replied, deciding against bringing up the fire breathing for now.
Naozumi considered this for a moment. "That was always how I saw Sana-chan's wedding, actually."
Ken laughed. "You didn't add anything blue to that picture."
"Well," he said quietly, "I didn't think I'd go with the dress very well."
Ken sobered. 'Shit shit shit shit.' "You did hear," he said, feeling calmer than he was. "Aah… sorry," he rubbed the back of his neck. "I just want you to be happy, Nao."
"It's all right. I guess I'll figure something out."
Ken reached out and touched Naozumi's hair softly. "This would almost work. Is she colour blind?"
"Not as far as I know. I doubt it's a very popular tradition among the colour blind."
"You might have a point there. Let's get the trumpet and get going."
"All right."
"You'll think of something, you know."
"Will you help?"
"Of course I'll help. We'll think of the craziest thing we can, paint it blue, and put it on her head."
Naozumi laughed. "Maybe a penguin."
"Good call."
"Aa, Naozumi-kun, Kenni-chan! Did you have a fun day?" asked Sana as they came in. Ken opened his mouth to reply, but she beat him easily. "What do you think of the dress? Rei-kun isn't sure, he thinks it should be more modest, but I don't think it's too low cut at all and Hayama-kun's busy getting fitted so I can't ask him and Mama says that the groom shouldn't see the bride before the wedding anyway, but I saw that on The Simpsons and I thought it was just on the wedding day because shouldn't the groom get a chance beforehand? I mean what if he doesn't like it? It's a bit late to change after the wedding. Did you get the things I asked, Naozumi-kun? Are they pretty? I know you did a great job! Thanks!"
Ken wondered if Sana needed air like conventional human beings. Probably not. From what he could tell, Sana was in no way a conventional human being.
"Aa," Naozumi smiled, looking only slightly shell shocked. "We haven't got anything blue yet, though."
"Ooh, ooh! What did you get that's old and new and borrowed?"
Naozumi showed her the objects and she gave him a hug which looked as if it might kill him. Ken wondered idly if Hayama would kill Naozumi. He finally decided that he wouldn't. On the one hand, Hayama Akito seemed like he would be the naturally jealous type, but it seemed to Ken that Sana would have beaten it out of him because she was Sana. She was the type who would hug someone very suddenly and Hayama probably had to get used to it or forbid it and Kurata Sana did not seem the type to give up things like that.
His thoughts were stopped when Sana latched onto him.
"Thank you for helping out Naozumi-kun!"
"It's okay…" Sana also did not seem to realize that humans needed air. Naozumi snickered, although he was blushing. Ken made a face at him.
"You have two days to find something blue. Thanks for helping. I have to go change out of this and yell at people until they listen to me bye now!"
"Now that I've met her," Ken observed, "I'm surprised she bothered to put punctuation in her letter at all."
"She used to never use it. Of course, that was because she wasn't very good at English."
"Of course. Listen," he said after a long pause, "you want to get dinner tonight? We can think about the blue thing."
"All right," Naozumi agreed without hesitation. He even seemed rather excited. Ken wondered if he'd noticed the hesitation at all. Probably not.
"There's no need to worry, how many times do I have to tell you? Sana-san will like whatever you get her. She liked the other things. She'll like this."
"It's the last. It seems the most important."
"It isn't. It's just hard to think of. Lots of things are blue. The sky, the sea, the rain, tears, flowers, my pen, your eyes, that sign," Ken inclined his head to a store. Naozumi nodded.
"Most of those can't go on a wedding dress."
"I guess not."
"I'll see you tonight, then?" asked Naozumi. Ken nodded. "I'm going to go home."
"All right. I'll see you tonight."
Ken stood still for a long while and finally resolved himself. Before tonight he would have the perfect blue thing and Naozumi would smile again, a real smile. He would. One of these days.
[Edit: In my finite wisdom, I left off those translations I promised the first time around. Here ya go.]
Niichan! Okaeri nasai! – Big brother! Welcome home!
Tadaima – I'm back
Oniisan wa dare desu ka? – Who is older brother? (note: I'm pretty sure oniisan is used sometimes when you don't know someone's name or occupation, but please don't kill me if it isn't)
Ken desu – I'm Ken
Ken-niisan, irasshai! – Welcome, Ken-brother! (or, according to my pocket dictionary, "Walk up, Ken-brother!)
Arigatou – thanks
Hidoii (Ken added an extra 'i' because he was holding it) – how awful! or mean!