Disclaimer: I wish I owned something other then a fish.
Author Notes: One reviewed asked what I meant when I said Haruko left seven years ago. Ten years have passed since Haruko left. Well, think about it, this is Naota's voice over, like he does in the anime, this is him talking... When hes saying this, he still doesn't have his brain back yet, so this is how he feels. Although it's only been 7 years, it feels like 10 to him.
Chapter 2:
Eyebrows of your dreams
"What's up, Tasuku?" Mamimi greeted her long time love as he approached.
"Did you know that Naota has a girlfriend?" he asked. He didn't say "Hi" and he didn't even notice Mamimi's welcoming smile.
"Sure, Ninamori, right?" she said getting up to kiss him, and he walked right by. Her eyebrows furrowed, what has gotten into him!
"No, they broke up, I guess..." he said in a unsure voice, once again ignoring his girlfriend's advances. "She" was different... but ...why was she so different from normal girls?
"Someone he met at school?" she suggested, with a look of depression on her face. No one loves me...
"No, Dad and Grandpa knew her too, Dad was flirting with her. OH! I remember her name now! HARUKO!" Tasuku exclaimed, overjoyed that he finally remembered something. A chorus of the gods...
"Kamon was flirting with Naota's girlfriend?" Why doesn't he flirt with me? Mamimi thought, with a longing expression on her face. (A/N: Yeah, I know... EWWWWW) "Wait, DID YOU SAY ...Haruko?" she barely got the name "Haruko," through her lips, like it was unholy to even say her name. Not her, anyone but her!
"Yeah. Haruko, nice name. Naota kept denying that they were together... but she's all over him. You know how Naota is, the shy type," Tasuku explained, mentally wishing that it was him Haruko was hanging all over.
"All too well..." Mamimi said, not paying attention to who she was talking to, or what she was talking about. Nice name!
"Huh? All too well? What do you mean?" Tasuku asked, apparently clueless.
"What!" Mamimi's eyes widened. "OOOPPS!" she yelped, afraid that she had revealed her and Naota's secret, they had agreed that it was best if Tasuku didn't know about their little relationship.
"Oops, I did it again..." he sung, "I played with your heart, got lost in the game! Ohhh baby, baby!" Mamimi cocked an eyebrow. (Amarao walks on set, background pauses. He runs up to Mamimi and slaps red, fire eyebrows on her, Amarao walks off caimly...set returns to normal)
"Uhh..." Tasuku stopped singing. "Cool eyebrows!.. I mean, hot, eyebrows." Mamimi touched her new eyebrows softly examining them with her first finger.
"Finally..." she said, pulling out a cigarette from her handbag. "No need for lighters." She smiled, and lit the cigarette with her flamin' eyebrows.
Miyamiya walked in the room through the cat door.
"It's not what it looks like!" Naota screamed. He was still stuck under Haruko.
"It's just the cat... Ta..." Haruko said, with a small smile on her face, and eyebrow raised (Amarao walks on stage, background pauses, slaps red hot chilly pepper eyebrows on Haruko, plot goes on...). I do have a right to know... Don't I?
"It was just the cat..." Naota repeated, then sighed... No one can save me.
"Maybe I was wrong...you are still embarrassed," Haruko teased still laying on-top of the furiously red faced young man.
"I'm not embarrassed!" Naota yelled back at her, now his ego had joined the game. Haruko found her perfect moment and crashed her lips against his. Naota's eyes widened, but they slowly closed. He realized that he had given in to her persuasion and pulled away hastily. He turned his head to the side out of her reach. Ego damaged.
"You kissed me." Haruko lowered her head and whispered in his ear.
"You kissed me," Naota corrected. Yeah! I didn't kiss her! Ego lies, to grow larger.
"You kissed back," she said in a low whisper against his ear, sending shivers down his spine. The brain was in on the action to... control those damn nerves! "Do it again Ta-Kun... please..." Haruko whispered seductively, her warm breath hitting just the right spot on Naota's ear and neck. Curse those nerves to hell!
"Get off me," he ordered with no effort behind his voice, he knew she wasn't going to move. The brain and ego had become partners, keeping the heart stuck in it's frozen state.
"What are you scared of?" She inquired, brushing her noise against his earlobe. She was playing the ego card again. There were too many nerves, too many to control, not even the combined effort of the brain and ego could penetrate their defenses. The nerves had reached the heart, they were working for it, they... were getting rid of it's icy barrier.
"Nothing," he insisted once again with little effort. When the ego lies, even to itself, it expands, it... goes to the... owner's head... There just isn't room, for both the brain and ego in the head... When the ego lies, it begins to believe it's own lies.
"Give me a straight answer damn it!" Haruko spoke fiercely, but still quietly in his ear. Her voice cracked.
Is she going to cry? Naota's heart, it was almost free, but when it gets free, it will have both the brain, and ego against it. "I-I..." He sighed. "That's...That's what I've been asking myself...to tell you the truth," he admitted, and sighed again. The brain and ego were at war, over place, over room, over space, or land.
"You don't...know?" Haruko questioned, breathing at him again. Almost instantly goosebumps appeared on Naota's neck. "Are you mad at me?" She quired childishly, faking a frown.
"Mad at you for what?" His heart answered, sincerely.
"For leaving...for coming back...for leaving... for coming back," she breathed into the collar of his shirt as she spoke, nuzzling against him.
"I don't know." His brain and ego were distracting each other, giving the heart a perfect chance... but, this was a question, that he needed a brain to answer.
"It's a simple question...yes, or no?" Haruko said harshly. She was getting tired of all the cat and mouse chasing she had to do to get a good answer out of him. It wasn't this hard to get him to swing the bat.
"I'm-I..." He sighed. "I can't find the words." His ego had beaten the brain. Naota was experiencing ...'brain freeze'
"You should know your own feelings." She wanted a real response, an easy answer, that's all.
"It's not that simple." The ego was the only thing undamaged, and to answer this question, he didn't need, nor want his ego interfering. Think! His heart had to fight now, his heart had to win.
"Why?" She didn't understand, she wasn't getting his message. What's so difficult?
"I wish we could just go back to the way it was." His heart was in the lead, using the 'Blood Gun 3000'
"We can," she assured him, and tickled his neck with her hair as she shifted her position slightly.
"No, we can't." Ego dodged and went in for a take down, but was stopped, by nerves.
"Why not?" He wasn't making sense to her.
"Because, you can never stay in one place." He sighed again. Ego broke through the nerves. "You'll just leave, again." And then dived toward the target.
What was she to say? He took her words away. Thief...
"Just like before!" Naota's voice rose with aggression backing it. Ego landed a direct hit on the heart. "You'll leave, and maybe it will be forty years before you come back! Or maybe this time, you'll never come back." He paused, keeping the cold, stern look on his face. The heart lie there, in extreme pain, dying.
"Is that what you want?" Haruko said sadly, hurt by his words and his dead stare. "You want me to leave, and never come back?" She sat up.
Naota was alarmed. His ego thought it was over. "NO! I-I never said that! I don't want you to leave!" He shouted sitting up and finally looking her in the eye. But the heart had a secret weapon.
"But you don't want me to stay either," she said, her eyes watering.
"Yes! I mean NO! I-I..." he stammered. She got up, off Naota. His eyes where in agony, and he swiftly grabbed her wrist. Blood cells, red and white rushed to the hearts aid. He stared at the wall, and Haruko stared at the door.
"Let go," Haruko said, pulling away.
"NO! I'm not going to let you leave me again!" he yelled, talking to the wall, determined to keep her in his grasp. The red blood cells, and the nerves attracted his ego.
"Then let me be with you.." she said almost too softly for him to hear. Tears still shining in her eyes, like dazzling pearls.
"You make it sound easy," he muttered. There were too many! His ego was out numbered.
"Look, I've wanted to come back for about a year now... I didn't know how you would react... or what would be going on in your life, maybe a girlfriend... I was scared. I finally worked up the courage to return, so here I am." She paused, awaiting his reply.
Naota continued to listen. She, was scared... The red blood cells continued the assault.
"And now, right now, this instant... I'm living my worst nightmare, a nightmare, that I've experienced... for the past seven years." She stopped again. "As to why I'm here... Atomisk ...is dead... they killed him." Bastards...
Naota didn't need to hear who killed him, he knew... Medical Mecanica. The heart was still in pain, the white blood cells tried to hell it as quickly as possible.
She continued, "They have the power, that I want, I'm their only threat...that's what they think..." She looked toward the ground. "They want to kill me also, so I don't try and steal 'their' power." She sighed. "I've been running away for about three months. It's been so long since I've been here, I don't think they'll be able to trace me. If they did find me, then you could protect me, you're much stronger then I am Ta-kun..."
He raised his eyebrow. (Background pauses, Amarao walks on stage. He slaps pulp eyebrows on Naota. Then he leaves, plot continues.) "I'm not stronger then you, no way." His ego was being beaten badly.
"You are, you could beat them, Ta-kun." She turned to look at him, he was still looking at the wall, griping her wrist tightly. The war wasn't over, not yet...
"What happens if they come... if they come after you, and I do defeat them, then what?" Naota asked, his voice getting louder. His ego squashed most of the red blood cells that came it's way, with it's extreme size."What if, we get 'the power' which you still haven't explained to me what exactly that is. So if we get it, what do we do with it?" The brain, it was melting.
"I never thought about it," she said in a non-convincing voice.
"Your lying again." The heart wasn't healed yet, the ego was getting larger, and the brain was wasting away to nothing...
"I'm not lying," she said rolling her eyes.
"What's power if you can't use it, right?" The brain was thinking again...
She didn't want to answer. Maaaaaaaaayyyyyyyybeeeee... Maybe not. I wish this guy would just give me a break, geez.
"Right, exactly." He sighed. "If we get it, I have no use anymore, correct?" His ego was massive, his heart was broken, the bloods cells had dropped in numbers, his new brain, was operating again...
"No that's not true!" She flung herself on him, and embraced him lovingly.
"You've already left me twice." Is there still hope?
"Three strikes in a ball game," she said, putting them in the hands of her favorite sport.
"Bottom of the ninth, two outs, your team's down by 1, strike 2, it's either hit or miss, no chances left, pressures on you, it's either home run, or go home." There's always hope.
"You say that like I actually have a home to go to..."
"The games not over, there's still a strike left... " he said choosing his words carefully. His heart, at the last possible moment, had gotten up, and while the brain and ego let their guard down, the heart put the Blood Blaster 3000 on full power, and shot a direct hit on the partners... they were banished. Haruko's face lit up.
"You mean..." She smiled " You forgive me"
"I don't, but my heart does... you have to hit another one out of the park, ya know?" He added a demand, "And never EVER, leave me here in this boring, ordinary place again..." He leaned in for the kiss, there breath collided, their nose's brushed against each other, and finally, he kissed, her. His heart had won, but not without consequences... at that very moment, the moment of the kiss, Ninamori stomped away from Naota's house, crying.
Mamimi rested her head on Tasuku's shoulder, and set her bare feet into the refreshing cold water. She looked up at the moon, the light shining from it was blinding.
"What's wrong Tas...?" Mamimi asked turning her head to look at his face, he was in deep thought...It was rare for him to think at all.
"Huh? What? Did you say something?" he quired confused. Mamimi sighed and turned away. What's her problem?
Mamimi took out a marker and cigarette from her handbag. She carefully wrote 'Never Knows Best' on the white tube, then touched the end of the cigarette to the her eyebrows. She looked into the flame on the cigarette for a moment She will not take Tasuku away from me Then she put the cigarette in her mouth.
"Ya know, that kind of stuff will kill you," Tasuku remarked.
"It's not me that it will be killing," Mamimi said, smirking evily.
Tasuku raised an eyebrow. (Amarao walks on stage...you know the routine, slaps smiley face eyebrows on Tasuku, then leaves, everything normal.) She never said that... she never said that... He repeated mentally. But... She did..."It's late, I better be going home now," He kissed her quickly and jolted to his house, where it was safe... NO He thought turning around. "Come to think of it, I think I'm safer- I mean- I would be happier here... With you..." He sat back in his spot on the grass... Maybe I should warn someone...
That's right people! Can you guess who's house will be on fire...? I can.. Can you guess who lit the flame... You can try... Can you guess where Lord Canti's been? I can't... more humor next chappie, k? k!
(NO FLAMES) -Mamimi lights all of the reviews on fire.- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Scary...