Slowly, she began to chuckle –and laugh, eventually.
.
.
.
Tomoe found himself smiling, an uncharacteristically wide smile.
For a moment, nothing occupied his mind other than the pleasant feeling of her happiness, and he found himself wishing that this warmth would stay with him forever.
But the moment passed, and she started sipping her deep-pink smoothie through the straw with unbounded delight.
Tomoe just watched her. He studied her –he tried to figure her out, and himself, in the process; and she didn't seem to mind. When she noticed him staring, she just smiled back at him.
If I saw anyone else behaving like this, I'd consider it creepy, he tried to reason with himself, then what the hell am I doing?
He couldn't answer his question, and his blank stare began to crease into a slight frown.
Nanami noticed. 'What are you thinking?' she asked, kindly.
He was at a loss for an answer.
'Your age,' he replied, lamely, and regretted it immediately. A subtle blush crept to his otherwise very pale cheeks.
She blinked, but, to his surprise, didn't seem to be offended.
'I look pretty grown-up in this dress, don't I?' she commented lightly, 'I'm 17. And I feel pretty out of place here, too –is that what you were thinking?'
'No,' answered Tomoe, 'I wasn't thinking about it.' And, as an afterthought, added, 'You do look 17, though.'
Nanami laughed. 'I'm glad!' she said, 'I was really scared that people would start to talk about complicated business stuff, and I'd somehow end up ruining cousin Yukiji just because they thought I was her…'
Only if you didn't look so adorable, Tomoe's mind commented, but he was sound enough not to voice it.
'No one that could mistake you two should be given the authority to ruin someone else's business,' he said, instead.
Nanami didn't know how to interpret that comment, but found his tone funny enough to end up laughing; and he allowed himself a small smile, as well.
.
.
It was a Thursday, and however much Tomoe would have loved to stay later (Mikage and he'd agreed on taking Friday off, as a reward for a job well done… an to catch up on sleep…), he assumed that Nanami would have school the following day. And, upon asking, he'd confirmed it. So he decided to listen to his deeply-engrained code of behavior, which was rather comprehensive when it came to honor, duty, and moral obligations, and call it a night.
Nanami protested, but, once she realized that her companion-for-the-evening was quite serious about it, she acknowledged he was probably right.
That, and she found his concern for her very endearing.
'Hey, you don't need to take me home,' she said, fidgeting, while he regally hailed a taxi, 'I can take care of myself pretty well, I'll have you know…'
He offered her a lopsided smirk.
'I don't doubt it,' answered Tomoe, right when a taxi pulled over to let them in, 'But I'd be a horrible man if I let you go home all by yourself.'
Nanami wanted to protest, but her protesting was postponed by Tomoe's polite holding the door open for her, and his swiftly coming inside some respectful seconds after her.
He let her tell the driver her address, after a moment of tense consideration.
'Don't worry,' Tomoe reassured her, nonchalantly, 'I'm not going to follow you into your house, nor do any of the possibly ridiculous things you're considering.'
With a nervous little laugh, Nanami dismissed his words as nonsense.
But he'd evidently been right about her thoughts, and that had her eyeing him out of the corner of her eye the whole ride (which was not long, thankfully), and making her question where the hell all this was going.
He didn't care to start a conversation. Unbeknownst to him, his thoughts were heading in the same general direction as hers.
.
While Nanami got off, Tomoe paid the driver, who winked at him through the rear-view mirror. In another circumstance, Tomoe would have rolled his eyes at the gesture –but he found himself torn between being startled and flustered.
He was quick to get off as well.
For the small purse that she was carrying, Nanami was having considerable trouble finding her keys.
'You wouldn't believe how easily things get lost in these stupid purses,' she complained, 'That's why I usually just carry my stuff in my pockets…'
He just observed her, serenely.
'Ah! There!' she exclaimed, fishing a set of keys with a very girly charm dangling from them, 'Victory!'
Tomoe snickered under his breath, and nodded.
'Hey,' she said, addressing him with an honest look in her eyes, 'Thanks so much for tonight, Tomoe. It was really fun. And thanks for taking the trouble to bring me home, though you really needn't…'
He shrugged.
'It was no trouble at all.'
For fleeting seconds, they stood there, in the chilly night, avoiding each other's eyes and thinking of an elegant way to say goodnight. Tomoe, at least.
He didn't find an elegant one, but a straightforward one, and that was chosen by something strange that took over him, apparently, because he could have never done such a thing as ask-
'Nanami, what do you think about destiny?'
She blinked up at him, her pretty, bright eyes blinking with curiosity.
'Destiny? She repeated, 'Well, it's not too practical to think about it, but I think I kind of believe in it.'
He smiled, thinly, rather strained.
'Me too.'
Curiosity got the best of her: 'Why do you ask?'
'Nothing…' he trailed off.
'There should be nothing odd about you being at Harusame's tonight. I'm overthinking.'
She chuckled.
'That's silly'
'Silly?' he said, mildly taken aback.
'Very silly. It's not destiny or anything. It was just nice. Talking to you and having that smoothie, it was just nice, very nice.'
Her simple answer charmed him, and he smiled at her, slowly. He was, definitely, overthinking.
'Yeah, I guess it was.'
She beamed.
'Could I have your phone number, Nanami?' he asked, before he could help it. He averted his eyes, thinking that, luckily for him, in the remote event of him being blushing, it'd go unseen in the dim glow of the street-lights.
Shyness was not something he thought he'd see when he eventually looked down, at her, but there it was, plainly, on her face.
'Sure… give me your phone, I'll write it for you.'
When she was finished, and handed him his phone back, he leant down smoothly, and gently pecked her cheek.
'I'll call you,' said Tomoe, with a thin smirk, and ever old-fashioned.
Nanami nodded, dumbly, almost as if she'd not been expecting that.
Well, she probably hadn't, Tomoe, thought –he'd not been expecting that.
But, whatever.
With a small wave, he saw her flash a last smile at him and then open the door to the large, traditional house she lived in. He stayed there, as if rooted, until he saw a small light flicker on in what looked like the top floor, or maybe the attic.
A little, kind smile found its way onto his lips, and, shaking his head at himself, he decided to walk back to his apartment. It was far, yes.
But he had a lot to think about, and tomorrow's day off.
And so, he went home with his heart feeling strangely light, and, maybe, wishing that he could have stayed there a bit longer –if only, a little bit longer.
.
.
.
Author's Note:
Finally! Tomoe makes * kind of* a move!
I'm taking this fic like a character study and a challenge to myself to see how in-character I can get these guys. It's a lot of fun. That's why I stretched the scene and the dialogues so far...
You know, most of my inspiration for this fic comes from the song "Ototoi oide"It's a lovely, warm song. I love it. Everyone should listen to it at least twice a day :)
.
BTW, I'm missing Mizuki already. Him and his humor and witty remarks will be coming back soon!
.
Also, I'm thinking that this fic will have 10 chapters. Though I'm not sure yet, I'll see if I can manage to wrap up the lose ends and side-stories in only 2 more chapters! (uh, now that I say it like this, it sounds kind of impossible... hahaha, we'll see!)
.
I want to kindly thank Hana-Liatris, Myahle, Foxes-Rock, Tei-Tsuki, zillacan and Guest for their support and encouragement. I've got to say this fandom is very kind, and you people and your reviews always encourage me to keep on writing :)