A/N: Hello AB section! I told myself I'd update HC this week and I'm keeping that promise. Thanks for the new follow and review! ZainR, I probably DM'd you a reply back in November but still - love the guess and the theory! Iwasawa's music is very magical after all, who knows what it could do? Also, yeah, Yuri sure is a little harsh and testy. Much like Snow was, plus maybe a bit... dare I say, defensive? (Snow was lucky, she didn't have to hang around Charming for weeks with him always making jabs!)
I'm still stuck on Ch 41, and am therefore hiding 10 chapters deep in my Ever After AU, but HC is my love and I won't give up on it. Things are busy but that can't stop me for long. Too many evil plans. :)
Enjoy!
[Chapter 38]: You Can Call Me
The week of mid-to-late May didn't start out on a promising note. It was the little things, really, but Ayato would admit that most of them were his fault. Mizuzaka had lulled itself into a sunny spring heat and he was simply too stubborn to wear anything other than black. Including his hat, and he was sure that if he mentioned this to his mother she would certainly make a joke about him being a "hothead." And then she would probably use that and his superheated room (he still hadn't bothered to turn the air conditioning back on) to diagnose his vivid nightmares as of late.
In reality, he would blame that stupid fairytale book – and Yuri, too, for reminding him of the shadows. Because thanks to Rumpelstiltskin and all his "darkness," for the first time in months or even a year, he was having dreams about Kimito Naoi.
"You should be ashamed! This garbage is beneath you!"
"—bet I know who taught you to lie like that—"
"—think you're real smart, don't you—"
"—have nothing and no one if you keep acting like a selfish lowlife brat—"
"—don't keep me waiting, Ayato!"
More often than not, he'd sprung awake in the middle of the night covered in a sticky sweat and struggling to catch his breath. There was one where his father had gotten ahold of Kurimu Hejjiguchi, grabbed her by the arm and hurt her even worse than he'd ever hurt Ayato's mother. He hadn't seen her body but there had been a grave, and he'd panicked when he woke up and his racing mind hadn't been able to disprove the girl's death. But no, nobody had ever laid a hand on his old friend. He could rest easy with that. Still, he hated subconscious Kimito for the haunt.
There was another when Kimito warped into a large, hulking shadow and threw himself upon Yuri. Swirling around her. Suffocating her. Like darkness snuffing out light. He hadn't been able to do a single thing but stand there and look on in judgment as she was slowly swallowed up into the earth. For a moment, a flicker, there had been a black emptiness in her eyes. And then the shadows lurched out at him hungrily and he broke into consciousness with a ragged gasp. His arm had flung instinctively to the right side of the bed in a mindless, disoriented search. A nice final touch to an awful night.
And then there was the one on Wednesday, which was little more than the old man chasing him down with ferocity in his eyes. With dream logic, he procured a large halberd from behind his back and swung a blow at his scalp. Ayato had shot up in bed with a scream as his hand flew to his hair, which was still there and tousled with sleep. Then he'd groaned in realization, collapsed back onto his mattress, and cursed Yuri Nakamura between panted breaths.
(He'd woken up on Sunday night with a similar reaction, but that dream was one he'd rather not go into detail about.)
So suffice it to say he was completely on edge by Thursday, coupled with the stress of not hearing anything on his mother's end since Saturday. Having all that on his mind, he was stunned into accepting when Fujimaki and Ooyama invited him to hang out that evening after work. It did make sense, though, as they were all in the same town. Hinata, Yui, Kanade, and Otonashi certainly lived by that logic.
It became very obvious after fifteen minutes that Ooyama was trying to scope him out as Yuri's prospective suitor ("I thought you said you'd explained the situation to him!"Ayato had scolded Fujimaki over takeout. And Fujimaki replied with a hopeless sigh, "I did… he thought it was romantic."), but the dog therapy did help quite a bit.
Also, Ooyama was a startlingly good opponent at video games when it came to shooting. He supposed after a somewhat embarrassing loss that he should have remembered the guy's marksmanship from the final battle in their Afterlife days.
"So do you think we're going to run into Noda this weekend?" Ooyama asked aside to Fujimaki, his current player two for a zombie game, right before he terminated a rotting corpse in the distance with a headshot. "I mean, Yurippe's the one who's going to enact the charm. And if it affects luck, shouldn't it bring the one she bet on?"
Ayato, who'd been content to return to his box of takeout and play spectator, almost dropped his chopsticks as he half-choked on fried rice. Mitsuo looked wildly concerned beside him.
"Learn to swallow, champ," Fujimaki said, stabbing at the buttons and ignoring the weary look Ayato sent his way. Then he laughed. "Nah… I think Yui already tried that. She bet on Iwasawa and she ran into you. Wishful thinking."
"It wasn't that bad of a theory," Ayato muttered into his rice.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure it helps the odds," Fujimaki reasoned, breaking into a grin, "but Yui's just really unlucky – kind of like this guy here. Ha!" He punctuated his statement with a shot, and green goo splattered the screen.
Ooyama didn't take his eyes off the TV, though he looked sort of thoughtful while he led his player through a tunnel.
"But it could still be Noda, right?" he said, furrowing his eyebrows in concentration. "Remember what Angel—I mean Kanade—said! She had a feeling we were going to run into someone with purple hair."
Fujimaki snorted with laughter. "She may have had special powers once, but she's not clairvoyant."
"But when Kanade bet on you and enacted the charm, she actually got you," Ayato pointed out to him, frowning a little.
At this, Fujimaki grew very solemn-faced.
"It's because of fate, Naoi," he said, closing his eyes and feigning deep pensiveness. "Don't tell Otonashi, but I think I was married to her in another life."
Ooyama looked hugely offended by this, possibly for Otonashi's sake. "How could you even know that?" he demanded in a high-pitched voice, visibly flustered. "Iwasawa's song only brings back memories of the afterlife and the life that sent you to it!"
His composure breaking, Fujimaki grinned and shoved him a little with his shoulder. "C'mon, I'm just a big flirt! Don't take me seriously."
"Oh." Ooyama considered this for a moment, then passively shrugged it off and went back to playing.
There was no need to remind Ayato. But he had been reminded, subsequently, of his mother and her radio silence. And that had briefly sent Ayato into a foul mood, but then Mitsuo seemed to notice and rested his head and paws on his lap, which did improve things.
That was something he didn't remember much of in the Afterlife… animals. He'd seen fish and bugs and worms, but not much else. Something with life couldn't be born into that world.
This one was better for it, he decided, and absently stroked Mitsuo's fur.
"Anyway, I like Noda and all," Ooyama said after a while, drawing their focus back out of the game, "but didn't you say Yurippe bet on him last time?"
"Sure did."
"That's a little weird, isn't it? Since she didn't even seem to notice him that much, back during the Afterlife." He squinted at the TV in a detached way, as if he was looking back over memories and analyzing them inside his head. "But now, all of a sudden, he's her go-to guy?"
Ayato couldn't help himself; he imitated Yuri in a petulant whine: "He was the fifth member of Battlefront!"
"Chaa was the fourth," said Ooyama matter-of-factly. Then he looked over at Ayato with a not so subtle smile. "It just… really makes you wonder."
"Wonder what?" Ayato scoffed, frowning up from his now-empty takeout box.
"Dude," said Fujimaki. "She's clearly trying to make you jealous."
"What?" Another scoff as he got up to throw away his trash in the kitchen. The Yuri he remembered had been very familiar with his jealous side, and he'd never known her to be a fan of it. "No she's not. She just thinks her favorite bullheaded devotee will use his big old axe to keep me at bay. But I really couldn't care less about it."
When he came back into the room, Ooyama flicked his gaze away from the TV to flash him a small smile. "Then why did you react to my dinner order the way you did?"
Ayato flushed slightly (for that he was glad they went back to focusing on the game again). "I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about."
"The look on your face when he got nattō. The quiet snort?" Fujimaki chuckled knowingly at the screen. "Yurippe hates the stuff – everyone knows that. Which obviously includes her loving ex-husband."
Returning to his seat, Ayato growled under his breath. Which only made Fujimaki laugh more.
"I'm actually starting to hope the little angel is clairvoyant after all," he said, his tone decidedly cheeky. "With that purple-haired prophecy of hers. So we can see just how little you care."
Ayato destroyed him in the next game after that. Completely unrelated note.
He finally got a call from his mother that night, not long before bed, a call which gave him ambivalent feelings. It was good to hear her voice, though, and she was hasty to reassure him of her situation in Akuma while Kimito was staying late in the workshop.
"It's fine, Ayato," she informed him. "It's just that your father got upset with me. He can be very insecure sometimes. He accused me of seeing someone else and started getting too nosy with my things, so I had to find a better hiding spot for the phone." She laughed heartily at herself; he didn't join in. "Either my mind is going already, or it was too good a hiding spot, because I forgot and couldn't find it for days!"
Despite everything, he'd sighed in relief to hear this. She'd learned well from the ceramic coffee mug incident years ago… Still, a secret cell phone was another matter entirely. After the dreams he had, he'd hate to think what kind of punishment Kimito dished out if he discovered something like that.
And ever-so-thoughtfully, that night and the next, his subconscious offered him a couple of previews.
He found a way to handle those sleepless nights in time for the weekend. It was ridiculous in theory, but he hadn't wanted to be a tired mess like Yuri tomorrow. So rather than opt for a sedative, he took a mirror – and hypnotized himself into unconsciousness. It actually worked. He cracked up on Saturday morning when he saw the mirror on his bed, shaking his head and silently thanking Hinata for his part in the idiotic but brilliant idea.
But as he began the day, cleaning up around the house and taking out the bag of Key coffee that Kanade had left behind, he started to wonder about what this Saturday had in store for the Battlefront.
Kanade did have a strange intuition about her, stemming from more than just an unsettling Angel vibe that lingered in this life. With Yuri enacting the charm, there was the real possibility that it could be Noda.
Chaa? Takamatsu? Irie? Please. Not with his luck. And especially Irie – not at all according to Yui's luck as of late.
Not that he cared a great deal if the big purple-haired buffoon came flying at them across a meadow and swept his beloved Yurippe into a fiery reunited kiss while music swelled. But weren't they supposed to be rooting for a run-in with Iwasawa?
…Was her hair considered a variation of purple?
It was just that their population of undiscovered members was slowly dwindling. And as the population to pick from grew smaller, the probability of finding each remaining person increased. The chance of running into certain people…
Well. He didn't feel like doing the math. It would just be a shame if the fearless leader disappointed her dear underling like that.
Ayato made himself tea, settled down on the couch with a book, and listened to the news and weather in the background while he waited for the others to arrive. He didn't wait more than an hour before a familiar and appalling barrage of knocking sounded at the front door. Rolling his eyes, he got up to answer it.
"That doesn't look like the book I gave you!" Yui sang, swatting in disapproval at the book in his hand as she pranced past Hinata into the hallway.
"Hello to you too," Ayato said over his shoulder at her.
Kanade waved and delicately hummed a greeting while she guzzled from a water bottle. She had an interesting quality of consuming things as neatly as she did fast, so nothing spilled on her baggy lavender shirt.
Wasn't she warm in that? Shiina must've been giving her tips on inappropriate seasonal apparel. Ayato frowned skeptically at the ninja's navy scarf as she followed the others inside.
"Are we always the first ones here?" Otonashi mused, eyeing the shoe pile as he closed the door behind him. He followed him into the TV room, scratching at his head. "I mean, yeah, Fujimaki and Ooyama don't live on the same side of town, but we're coming all the way from Shibuya."
"They might be picking up Matsushita the Fifth from the station again," said Ayato. As if on cue, his cell phone started ringing. Ooyama. He answered the call and put it on speakerphone to prove a point.
"Hi Naoi, we'll be over soon! We're going to pick up Matsushita first." He nodded smugly to Otonashi, who gave a light chuckle of acknowledgement. "But I wanted to ask something – how long do you think we'll be out? I don't want to leave Mitsuo by himself for too long…"
There was a slight scuffle, and then Fujimaki's gravelly voice in the background. "What are you saying? Ask if he can come over!"
"I'm trying to be polite – fine! Naoi, can I please bring Mitsuo?"
"Tell him Mitsuo misses him."
"He misses you!"
From somewhere close by, Ayato heard a betrayed cry that sounded like Shiina – and then a rush of air and light feet. He sighed heavily, feeling put-upon but not entirely reluctant.
"He saw me two days ago," he reminded them. Then Shiina showed up seemingly out of nowhere, staring fiercely at him, so he continued, "But yes. He can come."
Ooyama cheered and said goodbye. He heard Mitsuo chirp two barks of approval before he hung up.
"Mitsuo saw you two days ago?" Hinata asked curiously, appearing behind Shiina from the hall entrance to the kitchen. "Wait, you hung out with Ooyama and Fujimaki on Thursday?"
"They invited me," Ayato said coolly, narrowing his eyes. He didn't particularly care for the puzzlement in Hinata's tone. "Is it so weird to think of me having a social life outside of Battlefront meetings?"
Hinata just shrugged his defense. "Hey, I mean, if you lived in Shibuya I'd come bug you all the time."
"Yeah," said Otonashi, laying a hand on his shoulder. "We'd—"
"Shibuya's pretty great, after all," Hinata interrupted. He glanced briefly at Shiina before arching his neck and calling loudly into the TV room, "Everyone should live there!"
"Don't start with that out there!" came Yui's indignant tone. "I'm busy!"
Hinata looked pleased with himself for a moment, then led the rest of the group into the TV room. There, Yui was sitting on the couch and inspecting a very patient, vaguely amused Kanade.
"Your hair has gotten so shiny lately," Yui sighed in jealousy. "So thick! How did you do it?"
Kanade smiled, apparently not at all fazed by her friend pawing at her hair. "Must be something in the water."
"You have to let me braid it!" Yui insisted, already grasping at strands and getting to work.
"Girls," Hinata said with a quiet scoff, while Shiina twisted thoughtfully at her own long locks. "They can braid hair and get all lovey-dovey. But I tell Otonashi his scrubs look good on him one time and…"
Otonashi laughed just as the doorbell rang. "So, you want me to compliment your hair?"
"It'd be nice," Hinata grumped, crossing his arms.
"But your hair looks terrible," Ayato informed him as he slipped into the hall. "Did you even shower?"
The pleasing sound of offended mutterings kept a grin on his face until he reached the foyer. Shaking his head, he reached for the door and swung it open to greet his next guest. He wondered (in a moment of autopilot mindlessness) if the guys had already gotten here so fast. So he was more caught off-guard than he should've been when the person standing on his doorstep was none other than this week's determined little charm-caster.
"Nakamura!"
He blinked, trying to repress a warmth in his cheeks. She was staring at him with a resoluteness that gave him an uncomfortable déjà vu of a certain dream he'd rather not mention. If she started repeating it's not true love and backing him into the house…
Clearing his throat, he managed a composed smirk.
"You're right on time this week," he noted, and added promptly, "as to be expected of an NPC."
Yuri rolled her eyes heavily at the comment, which he'd concede was rather forced. She shifted her purse strap on her shoulder to more comfortably cross her arms in annoyance. "Well, since punctuality is so important to you, I figured I'd come straight here instead of going to Ryou's first."
Ayato leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms right back at her.
"Is that so?" he said, giving her a long look. "Or maybe you just couldn't wait to see your boyfriend."
"What?!" She looked startled by the accusation at first, and her eyes widened as a dust of rosy anger flickered in her cheeks. Then the spark dulled, and she calmed some as it was replaced with a look of comprehension. "Stupid. He's not my boyfriend."
Ignoring his scoffs, she nudged past him and sashayed down the hall while he closed the front door behind them. Then she glanced over her shoulder with a bright smile.
"But he's very protective. I'm sure you know how zealous he can be. Probably armed already." She paused outside the door and giggled at the thought. "I guess we'll just have to find out when we find him today."
"Find him?" Yui shouted from the TV room in outrage. "Commander! What are you saying?"
Yuri winced, caught. Snickering triumphantly, Ayato patted her shoulder in mock condolence as he passed her by. Served her right.
Ever the multitasker, Yui was able to continue braiding Kanade's hair while she lectured Yuri for a few minutes on operation priorities and keeping her mind clear in order to avoid any possibilities of the charm leading them astray. Shiina nicely reminded her that it could still be Irie – only for Yui to launch into a tirade about how she'd thought about it and Kanade's claim had absolutely no basis in reality. Meanwhile, Kanade began to look nervous since Yui still had access to her scalp.
And then Hinata and Yuri had fallen into a debate over the possible purple-ness of Iwasawa's hair, which got Yui looking a mix of skeptical and hopeful while Otonashi just rolled his eyes. The latter managed to escape into the hall and let Matsushita the Fifth, Ooyama, and Fujimaki in, and Ayato was grateful to him for this… until all three of them joined in on the conversation.
"ENOUGH! Knock it off, all of you!" Yuri yelled six minutes into the discussion, once people had begun to raise their voices about the composition of magenta. Otonashi, Hinata, and Ooyama got especially quiet, the latter two looking traumatized for some reason. "There's only one way to find out. Shiina?"
Shiina procured the charm bottle and handed it off to Yuri, who swiftly strutted out of the room. The front door had only just clicked shut when Otonashi's phone buzzed from his place by the window.
Exasperated, Ayato threw Hinata a baleful glare. "Okay, what was that one about?"
"You were staring at her ass."
"I WAS NOT!"
Fujimaki, Matsushita, and Yui mumbled to each other skeptically.
He scowled back at them, and informed them crisply that magenta was closer on the color wheel to purple than red. The entire room went into an uproar; he picked his book up off the coffee table and leaned against the kitchen doorframe to read.
After a minute or two, Yuri returned inside and silenced the chaos once more, tossing Shiina the empty bottle. Everyone flooded her with expectant stares.
"So what's the next move, Yurippe?" Matsushita asked.
"Please be amphitheater, please be amphitheater!" Yui squeaked, hugging Mitsuo to her chest.
Yuri plopped down on the couch next to Kanade, who was currently humming to herself and toying with her silver braid (and now looked eerily like a certain snow queen). She squinted slightly, rubbing her chin.
"I think…" Leaning forward, she tented her fingers over her knee. Deeply focused on following a thought. "I think I want to go to Ryou's…"
A phone buzzed, startling her out of her concentration. Yui jumped as well, sending Mitsuo running. Ayato had seen her, in a just-as-focused state, drawing hopeful Ryou-GlDeMo connections behind her eyes.
Yuri picked up her phone and glanced down at the name on the screen.
"That's creepy," she said, and answered it. "Hello? Hey Ryou. …Yeah, I am. I'm at Naoi's with everyone. Actually we were just…"
Her features smoothed into confusion and mild interest.
"She is?"
Yui uttered a strangled peeping sound.
Shushing her, Yuri held the phone closer to her ear. "So she's at your place right now?"
Yui made a peculiar close-mouthed teakettle noise, rattling Hinata's arm. She fell against Shiina's shoulder and muffled more squeaks into her hair.
"Sure, that'd be great!" Yuri said brightly, still looking pleasantly surprised. "So she doesn't mind if I bring the others? …Okay, we'll be along soon! See you in a bit!"
She ended the call with a cheerful smile still playing across her lips. At this point, everyone was staring hard at her (even, comically, the dog in Shiina's arms). Yui's pupils were ginormous and had constellations glowing in them as she held her clenched fists over her mouth.
Amazingly, Yuri didn't seem to notice any of this as she turned to the group.
"That was Ryou, of course!" she said conversationally, leaning back against the cushions. "Her twin sister Kyou came to town to surprise her and she wanted to know if I could drop by!" Shaking her head, she laughed in joyful nostalgia. "Man, it's been so long! I was really hoping we'd get a chance to run into each other again and…"
Her eyes widened in horror as she realized what she just said.
"…and, and catch up…" she finished, mortified, before grabbing a pillow in her lap and slamming her face into it. "GODDAMMIT!"
Everyone else broke into a sweat and simultaneous massive groans of dismay.
"Nyaaaaaagh!"
"YURIPPE!"
"The purple hair!"
"Are you kidding me?!"
"—can't believe you wasted the powder!"
"I knew I should've been the one!"
"This is so stupid!"
Ayato sank against the wall, clutching his sides as his quiet snickering bubbled into uncontrollable laughter that made him weak at the knees. Yuri seemed to hear him above the chaos (featuring Mitsuo's frantic barking) and hurled her pillow at his head. He dodged it, laughing harder. She threw another one in rage – he caught it and stuck his tongue out at her.
Mature? No. Satisfying? Incredibly.
"Shut up, shut up!" Yuri yelled, clutching at her hair in frustration. "This doesn't have to mean anything! Maybe Kyou wants to go out! Maybe to a restaurant. Maybe she wants to see the park? She brought Botan!"
"Good point, all very nice saves," said Fujimaki, and snorted as he straightened his collar. "Might as well meet her anyway. Since you spent the charm on her, I suppose I can use mine—"
Yuri kicked him in the face.
"She's got a boyfriend, so don't be an ass!" she warned, and buried her face into her palm with a sigh. "Look. I dropped the ball, okay? Cut me some slack, let's just see where she takes us."
"Maybe to their friend Nagisa who could take us to Iwasawa!" Yui sang.
"Maybe to an udon place where TK or Noda's a server," Matsushita offered, sounding hopeful.
"Maybe they're related to Irie," Shiina said quietly.
Yuri massaged her temples, while Otonashi nicely patted her on the shoulder for moral support.
"That's the spirit," she muttered doubtfully. And then, to Ayato's surprise, she snatched his cap right off his head and set it on her own. She ignored his offended jaw-drop in favor of setting her hands on her hips in the most self-assured stance she could muster.
"Operation: START."
A/N: HAHAHA. Gotta love Yuri's semblance of hope. Bless her heart. So what do you think? Could there be a Battlefront reunion still in their future? Or am I just a shameless crossover-lover who wants Kyou to meet Naoi? Oh whoops, I've said too much.
Until next time!
Preview:
"Oh my gosh, I'm so embarrassed!"
"Hands off her stuff!"
"Doesn't your sister teach kindergarten?"
"Name one time you've ever kicked my ass."
"Obviously you've never had a brother."
"That's not the way she remembers it!"
"It would be so fun."
"…Am I dreaming or something?"
[Chapter 39]: Laugh About It Later.
