The insane musings of the authoress: Back with the second chapter of "Glass Roses"! Do enjoy, and don't forget to review!
Special thanks to: My fourteen lovely reviewers! *blows kisses*
Disclaimer: CCS is not mine. "Glass Roses", however, is.
Glass Roses
Chapter two ~ What Happens When: Tomoyo is Late For Work
"Nakuru, do you have any type of preference when it comes to the flavour of cakes?" Hiiragizawa Eriol asked vaguely of his companion as he flicked over a page of his newspaper.
"Eriol, that is one of the strangest questions you have ever asked, but I'll say chocolate. Why on Earth do you want to know?" Nakuru said as she petted Eriol's cat, Spinel, currently a black ball of fluff on her lap.
"Oh, I just figured I might go for a walk to Chase Bakery again today," he said as he folded up his newspaper and got up out of his seat in the lounge of Hiiragizawa Mansion. Nakuru rolled her eyes by way of response.
"But we haven't yet managed to finish the cake you brought back yesterday! I didn't even think that you liked cake!" She said, gesturing in such a wild manner that Spinel meowed indignantly and leapt off her lap.
"Look, if there's some other reason why you're going to the bakery that's got nothing to do with cake, can't you go without bringing home unwanted cake?"
Eriol blushed.
"What would make you think that it was about something other than cake? Can't a guy go out for some cake without people assuming things? Are you implying something here, Nakuru?" He asked in quick succession, each word running into the other in his embarrassment.
"Of course I'm not, Eriol!" Nakuru said cheerfully as he got up and moved towards the front door.
"But, in case you do end up choosing cake, don't forget to go for chocolate!" she called after him, her face spread with a teasing smile. The only reply she got was the slamming of the door as Eriol left the house.
"I wonder who the girl at Chase Bakery is?" Nakuru asked the empty room as she coaxed Spinel back towards her.
"I can't believe I got up so late!" Tomoyo moaned to herself as she pulled her shoes on hurriedly, checking the time on her watch. She was already thirty minutes late for work, and she doubted that she would be there within the next thirty minutes. She hoped fervently that Ms Chase wouldn't sack her for screwing up on only her second day and ran downstairs, dragging a brush through her long, damp hair as she went.
Hiiragizawa Eriol entered Chase Bakery and was disappointed to see only Ms Chase behind the counter, with no sign of the beautiful girl he met yesterday.
"Oh, hello, Ms Chase… I don't suppose Daidouji-san is here?"
The older brunette woman smiled.
"Disappointed?" she asked.
Eriol blushed in reply.
"Sorry, Hiiragizawa-san," she said with a shrug.
"That's okay," he said with a small smile as he turned and walked out the door. Ms Chase grinned to herself. Tomoyo was going to kick herself when she realised she missed him.
Tomoyo burst through the doors of Chase Bakery some thirty minutes later, a cup of coffee and a doughnut in one hand, apologies tumbling from her mouth and tripping over each other in their haste. Ms Chase held her hand up to stop her babbling.
"You're going to fire me, aren't you, Ms Chase?" Tomoyo said miserably. Ms Chase resisted the temptation to burst out laughing and tell Tomoyo not to be ridiculous, as an idea struck her.
"I won't fire you so long as you do something for me," Ms Chase said, trying to look serious.
"Yes! Of course I will! Anything!" she said gladly.
"Well, I still have to find a delivery person, so could you deliver a cake for me?"
Tomoyo nodded eagerly as Ms Chase looked through the display for a suitable cake. Then she scribbled down an address.
"It's not too far, so you should be okay to walk. There are some directions on there, but it's really close."
"Is that your breakfast?" Ms Chase asked randomly, spying the coffee and doughnut that Tomoyo proceeded to stuff into her mouth. Tomoyo nodded, unable to speak.
"I know it's not the most healthy thing, but I didn't have time," she said sheepishly after a huge swallow.
"I stopped at that place across the street, and this was all they had."
"Okay, away you go. And don't hurry back! Take all the time you need!" Ms Chase said with a smile at Tomoyo's confused expression as she left.
Nakuru heard the front door open and close and by the sound of it, Eriol was back, and not too happy.
"What happened?" Nakuru asked as Eriol stomped into the lounge, clearly sulking.
"She wasn't there," he replied.
"Oh, there's a she, huh? Who is she? What's her name? What's she like?" Nakuru asked.
He hadn't actually been intending to let slip the part about Tomoyo, but he supposed that Nakuru would find out about her sooner or later.
"Daidouji Tomoyo- she's just moved here and she works at Chase Bakery."
"I knew there was some reason for your new passion for cake!" Nakuru said with a giggle. Eriol simply blushed in response.
"So, you met her…"
"Yesterday," Eriol supplied.
"And she wasn't there today," Nakuru finished.
"Unfortunately not."
"And when you talked to her, what did she say?" Nakuru asked, trying to psyche out Tomoyo.
Eriol laughed at the memory.
"She was different from the other girls. She was sarcastic, and cold when I asked her a question with a personal answer."
"So she didn't fall at your feet," Nakuru said slowly and thoughtfully when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," Eriol said as he got up out of his chair and walked slowly up the hall to the door. He opened the door and was surprised to see Daidouji Tomoyo holding a cake box and looking expectant.
~
Tomoyo looked at the hastily-scribbled address and directions in her left hand while trying to balance the box containing a cake in her right. So she had to turn right here…
A huge house loomed up the moment she turned, and she gasped. Surely this wasn't the right house? She checked the address a few times and was surprised that she was right. She walked slowly to the gates and was amazed to find that they were open and that she was able to walk right up the path to the door and ring the bell.
It was odd that a grand house like this should be so unguarded, she thought, but she stood and fixed her hair and clothes to try and make herself more presentable.
~
Seeing a flushed and windswept Daidouji Tomoyo smiling and holding a cake box on his doorstep was not exactly what he expected. Her violet eyes widened when she saw him- clearly she had been expecting him about as much as he had been expecting her.
"Daidouji-san!" he said happily, if with a surprised tone.
"Oh, Hiiragizawa-san! I didn't expect to see you here!" she said, her hand lifting to catch a stray strand of hair floating as the wind played with it.
"Would you like to come in?" Eriol asked.
'Ms Chase knew EXACTLY who lives here! She sent me here on purpose! Well, she DID say that I could take my time… I might as well go in, and make use of the break.'
"Sure, Hiiragizawa-san," Tomoyo said, and stepped over the threshold into the entrance hall of the Hiiragizawa mansion.
"Eriol, who's at the door?" Nakuru called as she got up from her seat, Suppi cradled in her arms.
"Oh!" she said in surprise when she saw the visitor, a smile lighting up her face.
"You must be…"
Eriol was standing behind Tomoyo, making frantic motions to Nakuru to tell her to shut up. Nakuru grinned wickedly and continued:
"… Daidouji Tomoyo! Eriol told me so much about you!"
"Really?"
Eriol made strangling motions, causing Nakuru to simply smile even more widely.
"Oh yeah, he told me all about you," Nakuru said, nodding earnestly.
"Well, if he talked about me that much then he must be very easily interested," Tomoyo said. Eriol's face could be described as on fire, so Nakuru was finally satisfied.
"Wait a minute, I don't think I told you who I am. My name is Akizuki Nakuru and I'm Eriol's cousin," she shifted Suppi around in her arms and held out her hand.
Tomoyo shook it and the three walked after Nakuru into the kitchen, Suppi having been dropped and left to scamper away.
"She's cute," Nakuru muttered to Eriol after he pulled out Tomoyo's chair for her.
Eriol said nothing, but asked Tomoyo what she would like to drink.
"Oh, just a coffee, black, please, if you don't mind," she said with a warm smile as she straightened her long skirt over her lap.
Nakuru told Eriol to sit down and not to worry, that she would make the coffee.
"Go talk to her!" she hissed as she flicked a switch to boil some water.
She watched Eriol go and sit down across the table from Tomoyo right at the other end of the large kitchen. She glanced up every now and then, seeing them talking each time, seeing one of them laughing at the other occasionally.
'Good,' she thought, 'Eriol's been too lonely for too long. Maybe she's the right girl…'
"So you moved here last year?" Tomoyo asked him.
"Yes, Nakuru and I moved here together. The house belongs to a relative of ours, actually, but we live here."
"So you live with your cousin… Forgive me for being nosy, but that's rather an odd arrangement…" Tomoyo trailed off, her violet eyes carefully watching his face across the table above her hands, the elbows of which were resting on the table. Perhaps her question was too personal?
"I have very few family members left, Daidouji-san. My parents and Nakuru's parents (my aunt and uncle) were all on holiday together in Thailand. Nakuru and I were very young at the time, so we were left at home with our grandmother. Our parents never came back."
Tomoyo now had one hand over her mouth, and her sympathetic eyes steadily held Eriol's pain-filled ones.
"I'm so, so sorry, Hiiragizawa-san," she said quietly.
Judging by Tomoyo's shocked look and Eriol's sad expression, she assumed that the raven-haired girl had just heard about their parents. She tried to smile even though her eyes began to fill with tears, blurring her vision. Eriol was so young that he barely even remembered his parents and his aunt and uncle. Nakuru remembered them all too well, it seemed.
Eriol forced a smile.
"It's okay, Daidouji-san. It was a long time ago, so long that I barely even remember them. Nakuru and I lived with our grandmother, and she still lives in a house not too far away. Nakuru and I moved out together because we mean so much to each other, living without the other… Would be hard."
This time Nakuru smiled genuinely through her tears, hearing Eriol talk about her that way.
"And when I asked you why you moved out, it seems as though that had a pretty painful reason behind it," he continued, his azure gaze holding hers so steadily it was almost a challenge.
"Well, like I said, I had my reasons. I don't want to talk about it right now- I'll tell you. Someday."
Eriol was satisfied by that. It was obvious that, behind a beautiful and kind exterior, hid a lonely, sad little girl who had been hurt.
Nakuru had, in that time, pulled herself together and managed to pour three cups of coffee and put some of the cake Tomoyo had brought on to a plate.
"Akizuki-san," Tomoyo said worriedly as the chocolate-haired woman sat down at the table, "your eyes are very red."
Nakuru smiled sadly,
"I'm okay. Maybe I'll tell you about it. Someday."
To be continued…
A.N. Just some filler for you there in a chapter that I fear was perhaps a little too sad. I just wanted to clear up why two cousins were living together, which IS an odd arrangement. We still don't know why Tomoyo moved away from home, and, believe me, it's not why you think…
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Until next chapter!
Shattered Midnight Dreams