A Romantic Comedy by: Serenity-chan
POV :
Thoughts ' '
Speaking " " (Did I really need to say that?)
Chapter One (Or "A Morning To Remember")
:Souzou:
I was practically shaking when Midori appeared at the door, my hands clenched so tightly into fists that I knew my knuckles were white. She looked beautiful in her pale lavender furisode and for a long moment, I was speechless. Sweat was starting to bead on my forehead again and I hoped she didn't notice. She must have - just my luck - because she looked at me oddly for a moment before she slipped her hand into mine.
"Good morning, sweetheart," I said softly, kissing her cheek.
I heard a younger girl giggle quietly, quirked an eyebrow at Midori, and quickly glanced at the doorway. Midori's sister little sister, Setona, gave another giggle and disappeared back down the hall. Midori rolled her violet eyes and gave me an exaggeratedly-pained look, silently apologizing for her little sister. I smiled at her.
"'Morning, Souzou," she said sweetly, giving a furtive glance all around before standing up on her toes and kissing my cheek.
I shifted nervously from one foot to the other.
"Well, are you ready to go?" I asked, hoping for I all I was worth that those weren't purple clouds I saw moving in on the horizon.
"Remind me again where we're going?" she asked, looking at me with more than slight suspicion in her violet eyes.
I froze for a second.
'Damn, I didn't come up with another excuse!'
What was I supposed to do? Casting about frantically for something, the first thing I saw was the sakura tree beside Midori's bedroom window. Well, it was a lame excuse but hopefully it would work. For a while, at least...
"There are some sakura trees that just started blooming," I said, trying not to sound nervous.
Midori looked at the sky, then at me.
"What for?" she asked, looking at me as though I had said something odd. "We've seen sakura trees before and, anyway, it's going to rain!"
I was dead set that this had to work. Giving the sky a furtive glance, I saw that the clouds along the horizon were a menacing purple-black color. Determinedly ignoring it, I started off towards the sakura trees, still holding Midori's hand. I could practically feel her rolling her eyes at me as I muttered something along the lines of 'Maybe it'll blow over...'
"That's not all I've got planned today, you know," I said, smiling at her and trying to look like nothing could possibly go wrong. "For one thing, we're meeting Reichi and Sadako for lunch."
Midori smiled, her suspicions dispelled for the moment.
:Midori:
It was just past eleven-thirty and the weather had been getting worse all day. There was no blue sky visible now, as there had been this morning, just ominous black clouds. The wind had been steadily picking up speed and now it was definitely signaling a thunderstorm. My long sleeves flapped in front of my legs, making it hard to walk. Souzou started to look worried when a few raindrops were swept in on the wind, splashing into our faces. But would he ever admit that he had been wrong about the rain? Of course not!
My aunt once told me that males in general were blockheads, but I hadn't really started to believe her until now.
:Souzou:
Alright, it probably would have been a better idea to take her shopping, but there was no way I was going to admit defeat - not yet anyway. But then again this weather seemed to be out to murder both of us. It was starting to rain, too. Oh, did I say rain? I meant storm... Even that way, it's an understatement. Thunder seemed to explode in the air and lightning split the sky. Midori froze. She was terrified of thunder and lightning.
I stopped and wrapped my arms around Midori, trying to protect her from the wind and the rain. She was shaking badly, pressing herself against me. Inside my head, I was growling every swear word I knew, both at the weather (for scaring Midori) and at myself (for getting us stuck in this mess). Midori was really scared, not to mention we were in a seriously dangerous situation and every bit of it was my fault. Was everything just working against me today?
We weren't too far from the restaraunt where we were meeting Reichi and Sadako. If I could just convince Midori to move (not that I minded having her warm body pressed against mine like that), we could most likely get there without too much trouble. The temperature seemed so much colder because of the rain. It had been warm this morning, so I didn't even have a jacket to give her.
"Midori, come on," I whispered in her ear. "We have to get out of here!"
She whimpered a little, holding me a little tighter.
"I'm too scared to move," she said softly.
I thought for a second, then smiled at her. Gently, as if handling a porcelain doll, I took her in my arms. She tensed for a moment, then relaxed against my chest. Tenderly, I nuzzled against her cheek as I started for the Dakedo. I hoped Reichi and Sadako had been held up just a little. I didn't exactly want my best friend to see me like this.
"You'll be alright," I said gently.
Soon we were under the eave of the restaraunt's roof. Thunder kept crashing and Midori continued to shudder. I set her on her feet and nuzzled into the hollow of her throat. Well, the weather was horrible, so there wasn't anyone around to see... Mmm... Sandalwood... She smelled like sandalwood... I had just started to lose myself in the soothing scent, kissing the curve of her throat when...
"Souzou!" yelled a painfully familiar voice. "What the hell!"
I went dead still, my mouth still brushing Midori's neck. Well this was just my luck again. The one time when I don't want anyone to see me and my best friend and his fiancee find me all over Midori. This was just WONDERFUL... I could hear him starting to laugh and felt my face getting hot. Midori shifted uncomfortably and I lifted my mouth from her throat.
"Did we... interrupt something?" asked Reichi, obviously trying to keep his laughter from becoming uproarious.
"Yes, in fact you did," countered Midori. "And I was really enjoying that too!"
I was more than a little shocked. My sweet, innocent Midori... I never knew she had it in her... Not to mention we weren't exactly supposed to be doing that at all... Casually, I draped one arm around her shoulders, grinning at my best friend's incredulous expression. Midori blushed, obviously surprised at herself.
"Can we just go ahead and get our lunch?" asked Reichi, not looking at anyone as his face turned an interesting crimson color.
I nodded as I helped Midori squeeze the water out of the long sleeves of her kimono. She started wringing out her long braid. I motioned for Reichi and Sadako to go ahead. Midori and I needed to straighten ourselves out a little. Though Midori's sleeves were hopelessly wrinkled and I'm sure I looked like a drowned rat, we couldn't really keep our friends waiting much longer. I took Midori's hand, trying to warm her small hand with my larger one.
"Don't pay any attention to Reichi," I said, trying not to blush again. "You wouldn't believe what I accidentally walked in on them doing once..."
Midori turned bright red, squeezed my hand then let go as we went in and sat down with Reichi, still laughing, and Sadako. I was fairly uneasy about the situation now. We hadn't had anything but rotten luck since this morning and there were still a thousand things that could go wrong. If I had only known that it would be all downhill from there...
Somehow, I think I should have known that ordering beef stew would be a REALLY bad idea. Reichi happened to be very clumsy that day and I don't know how, but somehow a very hot onion went flying across the table. It landed on Midori's hand and when she tried to flick it away, her hand hit the beef stew bowl. Steaming hot beef stew splashed all over everything. Somehow Sadako was the only one of us who managed to avoid the mess.
"Reichi!" I yelled, flicking a carrot off my hand. "Gah! Could this day get any worse?"
Reichi's face turned white. For what was not exactly the first time, I felt a strong desire to strangle my best friend. Or at least belt him a good one in the jaw. Taking a deep breath to try and calm myself, I turned to Midori and helped her to her feet.
"We'll be leaving now," I said grimly. "In case you were wondering, this was a disaster."
"I figured," said Reichi, laughing nervously. "We'll see you later..."
I took Midori's hand and we both left in a hurry. Midori had a horrible brown stain over most of the front of her kimono. A little piece of onion was still clinging to her hair. Even so, she still looked adorable. I pulled the onion out of her hair and flicked it away, smiling at her. Taking a furtive glance around to make sure no one would see, I tilted her face up to mine and gave her a soft kiss. Her lips tasted of beef stew and I licked at them hungrily. Well, I had barely tasted any of my lunch, so what else could I do? She moaned into my hungry kisses, for a moment pushing my worry out of my mind.
As we slowly ended our kiss, I slipped my hand into my pocket. My fingers found the little box and I pulled it out, hiding it behind my back. Gently, I cupped Midori's chin in the palm of my hand, looking down into her beautiful violet eyes. My hand tightened around the little box and I leaned in close, almost brushing her lips with mine.
'Am I really about to ask the woman I love to stay with me forever?' I thought in wonder. 'No question...'
I was about to whisper those words, 'Will you marry me?' when she tilted her head up and pressed her mouth to mine quickly. For the first time, I felt ready to cry in frustration at a kiss. I couldn't believe she had just cut me off while I was trying to propose! And she didn't even know!
Gently, I pulled back from her lips. We both needed to clean up, considering we were both soaked and we smelled like beef stew. I agreed to meet Midori at the Dakedo before the start of the Autumn Festival - alright, so the sakura trees had been a flat-out lie... - so we could have dinner for two. She still didn't know what I had planned for after dinner. I was going to take her back to that garden where we had shared our first kiss. While we watched the fireworks from the festival, I was going to ask her to be my wife.
:Midori:
Alright, so lunch was a total fiasco. If I hadn't overreacted to the hot onion, none of that would have happened. Souzou had really looked upset and I felt like it was all my fault. He was going to take me out for a quiet dinner, I assumed to make up for the disaster. Then we would probably go to the festival.
I felt so stupid. I had ruined my kimono, my obi and our lunch. I made a complete fool of myself and it really hurt. The place on my hand where the onion hit me was almost blistering and it stung terribly. Sometimes I had to wonder why Souzou put up with me...