Author's Note: Chapter 3 is here! Go me! Remember to review it!
Naota got a worried look on his face as stared back at her, "Um, sure. Okay," he said apprehensively. He helped her get on and then got on in back of her wrapping his arms around her waist, making sure he didn't hurt her because of her injuries. Haruko merely grinned and made an odd laughing noise before she did a complete u-turn and headed down the street in the exact opposite direction than what she should have been going.
"Um, this isn't the way to my house!" Naota yelled over the blowing wind.
"I know it's not! Mwahaha!" she said evilly as she flew down the street at very dangerous speed.
Naota shook his head and held her tighter and she began swerving dangerously across the separating line on the street. He had to endure fifteen more minutes of the reckless driving before she decided to pull over.
"Where... are we?" Naoto said getting off of the scooter and stepping away from Haruko. It was beautiful. They were at a calm stretch of the river. A cool breeze was blowing peacefully through the air as Haruko walked up behind Naota, putting her arms affectionately around his neck.
She closed her eyes as she talked to him, "I like this place. I came here a lot six years ago."
"Haruko, your still you, but you seem... different than you were when we met. You still have that odd flare in you... but your more reserved now. Not as... how can I say this" Naota was stopped short as Haruko began laughing letting him go. She smiled before she walked to the edge of river, sitting down. Naota was confused. She'd never acted like this before. Where was the energetic, perverted, and slightly insane Haruko he had met six years ago? No. That didn't matter. She was here now and she wanted to be with him. They loved each other. That's all that mattered.
"Naota, I really like you," she said, wrapping her arms around her knees and resting her chin on them.
"Heh, yeah. So do I," Naota said blushing as he sat next to her.
"But" Haruko began as Naota looked quickly at her, "I bet you still have a bit of kid left in you." She raised her eyebrows and took a sideways glance at him, waiting for his reaction.
Naota looked her and rolled his eyes, snorting with laughter, "Ha! Sure I do! I still hate that so called mild curry crap!"
Haruko burst into laughter as she remembered the day he was first introduced to it. They laughed for a few minutes, but soon it was silent. The only sound that could be heard was the gurgling of the river. Another few minutes passed before the silence was broken.
"So! Its pretty late, huh? I think we should head back to your house now then!" Haruko blurted, grabbing Naota's wrist and jerking him up off of the ground.
"You shouldn't move like that right now! You're still injured!" Naota said exasperatedly.
"HA! Ta-kun! You should know better than anyone I don't do what I'm told!" she said pulling him to her Vespa.
"You've got a point there." Naota said, chuckling as she laughed evilly, jumping onto the Vespa behind her.
With a screech, the Vespa flew down the road in the direction of his house.
"I swear, Haruko! That was a record! How the hell did you get here so fast?" Naota said patting his wind-blown hair down.
"Hahaha! I sped! That's how! Hahaha!" Haruko laughed as she jumped off of her motorbike. Naota chuckled as he followed her into the house. Throwing off his shoes he went to his room. He found Haruko sitting in his desk chair with her elbow dropped off the back, looking at the magazine he had put in the desk. "Naota, you really didn't want me to leave, did you?" she said turning the chair and looking at him with a solemn expression on her face. Naota just looked at the floor, his face reddening with each passing second. "Ta-kun, it's nothing to be embarrassed about."
"It's just that I...." Naota began, but he didn't have time to finish. Haruko had gotten up from her chair and embraced him in an affectionate hug. Naota stopped mid-sentence and closed his eyes. He was filled with joy. Adrenaline pumped through his veins as they stood in the middle of his room. They spent nearly five minutes in the deep embrace, neither wanting to break it, but eventually Haruko stepped to the side. She looked around his room and spotted her old bass guitar.
"Wow! You still have this old thing?" she said picking it up and plucking a beautiful deep tone.
Naota chuckled as he answered her question. "And how am I not supposed to still have it? If I remember correctly, when you had it you did horrible stuff to it and it never broke. You dragged it along the road while on your Vespa," he began to count off the different things on his fingers, "you whacked me with it, you whacked a bunch of other stuff with it, you shot people with it," at this point Naota shivered as he remember the gun fight he had had with her and his father, "you stabbed stuff with it, you rode it, you chucked it at stuff, and that's not even scratching the surface!"
"Ha ha ha, very funny." She said putting her old bass guitar down and walking to the window, yawning.
Naota yawned too, as he flumped down on his bed, putting his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. Haruko followed suit, jumping onto the bed and snuggling next to Naota. His face turned deep red as he gulped and looked at Haruko who had her eyes closed and was smiling oddly, "Uhh, Haruko? W-What are you doing?"
"Hmm? I'm just trying to sleep. Where else am I supposed to? There's no bunk bed anymore and your dad's isn't there anymore," she said looking up at him with big puppy eyes.
"I...um... uhhh" he said nervously, pulling the blankets up over the two of them, "You're right... I guess."
"Yeah," she said drowsily closing her eyes and falling almost immediately into a deep slumber.
Over the next week, things had settled down at Naota's house. He had gotten used to Haruko being around and had bought her her own bed. Kanchi had once again become their personal errand boy and was running daily trips to and from the stores in the heart of the city. Haruko's wounds were also almost completely healed and she was feeling as energetic as ever. Things were certainly once again becoming strange, too. Lastly, two other robots had made their way through Naota's head and been easily defeated since the arrival of the first gunmetal gray robot.
"Ta-kun! Hey! Where've you been? I haven't heard from you in about a week! Naota? You here?" Mamimi yelled, knocking on the front door jam to Naota's house and stepping inside. She nearly fell over as Haruko peeped her head from around the corner to the kitchen hallway with a toothbrush in her mouth.
"Hmmm? Ya looken fer Ta-kun? 'E went to get sumpthin' at the store. I think he should be here soon, though," she said stepping out of the hallway, absent-mindedly taking the toothbrush out of her mouth and checking the clock on the wall. It was 12:43pm.
Mamimi's jaw dropped as she let the small paper bag in her hand fall to the ground, spilling its contents: packs of newly developed photos. "H-H-Haruko?! You're back!" she exclaimed. Bending over she picked up her photos and placed them back in their small paper bag.
"Mmhmm. I've been back for about a week actually. Hey! Here's little Ta-kun, now!" Haruko said walking over to the door and looking outside and around the corner. Naota was walking down the street with a plastic bag in his hands.
"A... week?! Wooo! That shows how much I miss for stepping out for a week!" Mamimi said, stepping outside to meet up with Naota as he approached the house.
"Mamimi! I haven't seen you for a while," he said upon reaching the door to the house and walking inside, followed closely by the 23 year old.
That night, they gathered at the kitchen table to eat dinner together. Dinner was almost completely silent as they sat chewing their food. After nearly ten minutes of silence disturbed only by the clanking of eating utensils on plates Haruko broke the silence.
"Good lord, can you two be any quieter?" Haruko asked putting down her spork, "This is not the way I remember dinner! Hahaha! Those days were quite fun."
"Ah well. It's getting pretty late," Mamimi began looking at her small watch, I'm gonna head out now,"
"Sure, seeya," Naota said leaning back in his chair.
"Good-bye, Ta-kun," the girl said as she walked out of the room.
After she had left, Haruko looked at Naota from across the table where they were sitting. "Naota, I thought you used to hate being called that."
Naota sat forward, leaning on his elbows, "Yeah I did, but I guess six years of being called that by Mamimi has dulled it down a bit."
"I see," she said looking at the table, "Um, there's something I want to tell you, Naota. Do you remember that I left to find Atomsk?"
Naota clenched his jaw as he stood up very fast, knocking over his chair and banging his palms on the table. He didn't want to hear about Atomsk, the Pirate King. He didn't want to have to deal with the fact that Haruko might still love him. He wanted her to be all his. "I don't care about him. I'm going to my room."
Haruko watched as he trudged out of kitchen. She tried to talk, but no words came from her mouth. Naota apparently didn't like Atomsk. at all, but why would he. After she heard the sounds of him walking up to his room, she leaned back in her chair and looked at the ceiling. "I only wanted to tell him the it wasn't Atomsk I was searching for. It was him, but I just was to blind to see it," she said quietly to herself, as she began sucking on her spork.
