Disclaimer - I didn't own it before, don't own it now.
A/N - Fwee! Another chapter! Yeehaw. . Anyway, yeah. . . not much to say here. We learn a little more about both of the characters in this chappie. Yay! Um. . . this is getting stupid, so let's go to the Author's response corner!
Broken-Wings-of-Rain - bows respectively Domo arigatou gozaimasu! I greatly appreciate your wonderful compliments! ::gives you two cookies::
Sycogerl164 - throws confetti and flower petals around story There. Now it's sort-of prettyful . I'm glad you liked it! ::gives you a party hat::
Kittengrl139 - Wow. That reminds me of my friend. . . I think it's Matt. That's our word to describe him. Wow. Anyway. . . yesh! You are correct! She has no special powers. I don't like giving my OCs special power things. . . I don't know why. Maybe it makes them more. . . real? o.O I dunno. ::gives you a plushie::
Nefus de Twilight - Are you kidding me?! Your story is WAAAAY better! I just love Eris. Go Eris! ::holds up a "GO ELF!" poster and puts on an "Eris RAWKS!" t-shirt:: Yeah! So update! Because I did. ::gives you a tray full of cookies::
I also found a new friend on called Author Alert. Me loves it! ::begins randomly putting authors into author alert:: Wheee! ::gets 39 e-mails in 10 seconds:: o.O
I'm rambling. Onto the ficage!
Recap: All kinds of thoughts rushed through my mind–he was eaten by wild animals, someone found him and dragged him off, he fell off a nearby cliff . . . I always thought of the worst. I guess it was to prepare myself. Hoping none of my thoughts were correct, I kept wandering around in circles, just calling out. . . no real words, just calling, desiring strongly that he would get the idea and come back to me.
Onegai
Chapter 2 - Beauty of a Broken Flower
By a tree, next to a patch of wild flowers, I saw him–smiling and running his fingers through the flowers' beautiful petals. I was shocked. I hadn't had much social interaction, but I had never seen a guy with flowers before, not on his own free will. Usually, a guy only had flowers with him if he was going to give them to his girlfriend or mother or such. . . but him, he sat willingly and smelled the beautiful aroma emanating from the small patch. Come to think of it, the scent wafting through my nose made me feel very carefree, like it was some sort of drug. I liked the feeling. Closing my eyes, I felt the breeze float over my body. A feeling of hovering was encasing me, as if my feet weren't on the ground. Oh, how good it felt! I loved it!
After about a minute or so of this, I reopened my eyes for the second time that morning to see the boy smiling at me. It wasn't a smile of amusement; it was a smile of understanding. Sort-of like he was trying to say that he knew how I felt. Why? Why was he looking at me that way? I didn't know. I don't know what he was thinking about. It made me uncomfortable to see him look at me that way, though. I fidgeted a little before slumping into a heap of flesh and bone on the grass, next to a patch of clover. I rested my head on a tree and looked into this young man's deep eyes. I gazed directly into them for so long my own lost their focus. Everything became blurry and soon I was in a dazed and confused state. But my eyes still stared. I wondered if he could read my face, the feeling of being confused and scared at the same time. I don't know. But I heard something and came back to Earth.
He was trying to tell me something. His lips moved quickly--it sounded like he slurred all his words together and was talking 100 words a minute. He was speaking a different language that I recognized as Japanese. I picked out a few words that I recognized from times past--arigatou and gomenasai. I lifted an eyebrow inquisitively, and I guess he got the idea. To be sure, I smiled lightly and said "I don't understand you. . ." He returned my grin and began a small chuckle before looking up at the sky. I watched his hair brush back against his face and fall lank behind his ears. He was so beautiful--and I usually don't use that word to describe men. I watched, and I could feel his contagious smile tugging at the corners of my lips. I let go of the control on my muscles and chuckled a bit. Immediately after doing this, he brought his head down slowly and looked at me with that silly grin still plastered on his face. "Try speaking slower and clearer this time." I said slowly and clearly, as if trying to give him an example of how to talk, laughing afterwards because I believed he didn't understand a word I was saying.
He laughed again, a small laugh. It sounded like angels singing, echoing throughout my ears. I couldn't help but give soft eyes and a small smile back at him. He laughed some more, then looked at me. I still gave him my soft eyes and small smile. The little wench, he looked at me and said "What are you thinking of?"
My eyes widened and my little grin was gone, and a look of shock replaced it. Then a look of anger. Then confusion. He watched as my faces changed, obviously reading them as he turned and looked at the flowers again. I scowled at him, then bursted out with "You mean to tell me you could speak English this WHOLE time?!" I yelled this in complete fury, mad more at myself than him, but I yelled at him to make myself look innocent. I guess I was just venting from anger held up inside from times past. Suddenly, realizing he was still staring at the flowers, seemingly amused with my outburst, I turned away and began to cry. I pulled my knees up to my chest, placing my crossed arms on top, and buried my face in the chassis. I don't know what he did then, but all of a sudden I felt a gentle hand on my upper back and a soft voice in my ear. It sounded so sweet.
"I understand, dear one. I really do understand." I still had my face buried beneath my arms, a few sniffles and sobs coming in between breaths. I could feel his body heat close to my right ear, and he began to whisper little words into it. Nothing I could understand, just little words that seemed to sooth me. I stopped sobbing and just sat there listening. This was the first time that anyone had ever tried to comfort me. Sure, they would be nice to me and give me things, but that was out of pity. This. . . this was out of understanding. I began crying again, but pulled my head up a little, as his voice abruptly stopped making waves and he sat back on his knees, waiting for me to look at him. Tears fell openly down my cheeks as I looked at him. Taking his soft hand, he gently wiped one away, letting it fall to the ground beside him. He opened his arms, as if waiting for a hug, and I just fell into his chest. I couldn't help it. I continued to cry softly, burying my head in his crimson-stained clothes. They were tattered and torn, deeply in need of repair, but I really didn't seem to notice then. I could hear his heart beating as he wrapped his arms around me and leaned his head against my own. We sat like that for what seemed like an eternity.
He lifted his head off mine and removed his arms, reaching into his pocket. By this time I had stopped crying and was just leaning into him. He took one of my hands. I picked my head off his shoulder and held my hands out in front of me as he placed something in them. "I found this yesterday, next to you. I don't know if it's important to you, since it seemed to be placed just as if it had fallen out of your pocket." I looked into my hands and there was Shuichi. I brought the rock up to my face and looked at it, as if inspecting it for damage. I was satisfied with the results as I placed my hands on my lap, Shuichi still clutched between them.
"Thank you." Thanking him was hard. He had already done so much for me in less than a day. I was thanking him for everything–not just for Shuichi. I don't know if he understood that or not. His reply was simple.
"Any time." He said gently, before placing his hand on my cheek and smiling. I smiled back, but it was hard. My eyes burned like being stabbed by one thousand knives and my head ached greatly. My face was hot, red, and puffed out so I looked like a monkey. He didn't seem to mind. I was then knocked back to reality with a 'thud', remembering why we had met in the first place.
"Oh my god, you're hurt!" I thought out loud, rushing to his side as if to study the wounds. He gently pushed me away with a smile. I didn't know why.
"I'm really fine, thank you."
Damn him and his strong attitude. He was hurt and needed help. I put Shuichi back in my pocket and grimaced at him. He looked at me with a face that said 'thanks for caring', but I scowled and looked away. He needed help. I didn't care what he thought. He needed somebody's help.
After sitting for a while like that, as if to prove a point(and after he was dead silent for the whole time), I turned around to see him facing the other way. The field of flowers seemed to have grown. It was just a small little patch before, but now it was a blossoming meadow in the middle of the old forest. Petals of random wild flowers playfully danced in the breeze as the trees laughed with them. It was so beautiful. I tried to crawl over to his side as quietly as possible, but he caught me half way there. He didn't turn around, but he said "Isn't it lovely?"
His hair shifted slightly, I not knowing whether it was from the breeze or because he had begun to smile. Whichever case, I finished my crawl to him and sat down on his left. I leaned my head against his strong shoulder and found it irresistibly soft. "Yeah, it is." I tried to snuggle into his shoulder, but he wouldn't let me. He fidgeted around every time I tried to get close to him. I wondered why, but eventually I just let my head rest on his shoulder. I really didn't want to make him uncomfortable, it's just that it was the first time I had ever really been alone with a guy. With anybody except my father, for that matter. Nobody seemed to care about me.
"It's getting late." he said softly, and I picked up my head to see the sun almost set on the horizon. Smiling, I grabbed his forearm and started tugging at him. He raised an eyebrow at me questioningly, but I just smiled and got up off my butt.
"C'mon!" I urged him to go, quickly, before it was too late. He got up to his feet with a little bit of my help, and I began dragging him to a special place I had been to. Running, it took less than a minute to reach. I began giggling as we were running there, counting the markers the rangers had left from the road down to when we would get there. Slowly, the trees began to thin out as we reached a great field. I grinned largely with excitement as I turned around and saw him out of breath. "We're almost there, c'mon!" I ran out through the field with him pursuing me with restored energy. Where he got it, I don't know, but I looked at him and said "Race ya!" and sprinted out at full speed, with him not far behind. "I'm gonna win!"
"Oh no you're not!" I heard as if a whisper from behind me, but it was because he was right next to me. He spoke softly, I guess because he was so close and he didn't want to startle me. I squinted my eyes to give a competitive look, and I put all my remaining energy into the 25 yard sprint. We were almost there. Just as I was about to reach the destination, I saw a red blur come past my right side and jump on the spit of rock victoriously. I grimaced. "I win!" he shouted, laughing and giggling. I tried to keep a frown on my face, but it was hard because I was laughing with him inside.
"Just barely." I said, glowering at him. He just kept laughing and before I knew it, I was laughing too. I climbed, bumbling, up onto the boulder next to him. He looked at me with this huge grin on his face, one that just made me grin back.
"So. . . why have we come here?" He asked tenderly. I pointed to the horizon, over the lake I had brought us to, waves crashing on the gravel rock beach. The sun was just about to set behind it, making a variety of different reds, oranges, blues, greens, and purples.
"That's why." I said softly, before bringing my knees up to my chest and leaning back on my hands. We both sat there until the light was nearly extinguished and nothing left of the sun remained. The moon was out, nearly full that night, and I heard a grumbling noise.
I didn't know if he could see me, but I lifted an eyebrow and grinned. "Eat much?"
He laughed heartily. "I guess I haven't eaten anything at all today. But, what could I have eaten?" I laughed with him and pulled myself up to my feet before offering to help him up. He refused and got up on his own, dusting himself off. I laughed. 'Dusting himself off? His clothes are already ruined!' I thought to myself, chortling. I grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him back to the road, about a 10 minute walk. The streetlights set a little illumination on the sides of the road so we wouldn't have to worry about tripping. I turned around to see him looking at me curiously, and I returned his look with a menacing smile, to scare him a little. "Now where are we going?" he said, in a shaken voice.
"Somewhere. Trust me." I said, still holding onto his arm. He turned me around as he pulled it away. I looked into his eyes and the evil grin turned to one of compassion. When he saw that, I suppose it made him more comfortable and we walked side by side along the road towards the town.
A/N - Aw! How cute! And how full of fluffiness! Fwee! Yeah. Anyway, this chapter is too short! I was going to put so much more into this chapter and I ran out of space. Well, not really, but I didn't want to make it too long. It's already over 2500 words! O.O Wow. If you've actually read this far, you get a complimentary Shuichi! ::hands out rocks to all readers of this:: Yay! Next chapter should be up sometime soon. Enjoy and PUH-LEASE review! Even if you've reviewed the first chapter .
Also, if you want to know why I named the chapter what I did, e-mail me. I have this urge to explain the meaning to someone .
