"Up there." Pucca pointed to her bedroom window. "I'll go inside and open it for you!" She smiled.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked her. "I feel like I'd be added to the restaurant's menu pretty quickly if your uncles found me in your bedroom..."
"They don't HATE you, you know."
"I'd still a boy in their pride and joy's bedroom."
She smirked. "Fair point. But so long as there's no funny business, they shouldn't have anything to be mad about if they find out!"
"...funny business?"
She laughed at me and walked into the restaurant. It felt almost instantaneous that she was up in her bedroom, standing in front of that now open window. She gestured for me to come up. A command which I had little issue following. In my haste to grab all of Pucca's things, and the food she'd brought from my now freezing cold house, I had failed to grab myself a jacket.
Being back in her room felt different now. Last time, it had been as just a friend. Now I barely knew what we were. More than friends? I had no idea.
Her walls were a peachy color, with accents of dark pink all over the place. All of her photos of family and friends felt like they were staring at me now. Judging me. "Pucca, I'll be totally fine staying at home until my heat gets fixed, you know. I'm not unfamiliar with not having heat."
"I know YOU'D be fine. But I'D worry about you." She said, barely even looking up from unpacking the bag of our combined things we had brought.
"I just don't want to make you feel like you HAVE to let me-"
"You aren't making me do anything, Tobe." She smiled and hopped her way over to me. "I know you'd be fine. I know you don't NEED me. But you're going to have to get used to the fact that someone besides the ninjas and yourself actually does care about you."
"Bold of you to assume I care about myself." I laughed.
She didn't laugh. "Tobe..."
"I was just joking!"
"No, you weren't."
Damn. She's got me there. "It's okay, really."
She sighed and placed her hand gently on my cheek. "You're more than capable of being loved, you know. Trust me." She smiled. "You're going to have to get used to that, too."
She took her hand away from my face and grabbed my hand, pulling it to her lips and kissing it gently. She squeezed it a bit before she let go and went back to the back.
Each thing she pulled out, she took care in to putting back where it belonged. The food she set on a short table that was set up near her tv. She must be a fairly regular binge-watcher. Her television could be seen fairly well from just about any part of the room, with some sort of soft-looking blanket in just about any place a person could sit comfortably.
She began pulling out some of my day-to-day things we'd grabbed. Pucca had basically given me a list of things I should bring. Clothes, pajamas, toothbrush, stuff like that. I sat down on Pucca's bed and buried my head in my hands.
"What's wrong?" Her words were so quiet and genuine. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I feel a lot better. I'm fine, now." She gave me a face that told me that she immediately saw through me. "Okay, maybe it's something." I couldn't help but to smirk a little. Woman could read me like a book.
"Talk to me." She came and sat right beside me, her leg right up against mine.
"I mean. I already feel like an asshole for imposing on you like this." There was that face again. I sighed. "I barely have enough money right now to replace that thing. I've never exactly been a super wealthy dude. I know that my house LOOKS like I put some serious money into it, but I didn't. It barely cost anything. Most of the 'new' furniture was my parent's stuff that I had stored forever. Didn't fit the 'evil' vibe or whatever."
Pucca moved her hand to my thigh.
"I make money doing dumb odd jobs for some of the less than savory people of town every now and again to keep the lights on. I'm really lucky that my parents left me that house in the first place. I'm trying to keep up with it, for my mom, ya know? She loved that house. And I swear it's just falling apart in my hands." I groaned. "I'm going to replace that heater, don't get me wrong. It's just awful timing."
Pucca leaned her head on me. "At least you have a restaurant sort-of-owning girlfriend that can at least keep you fed for the bad months." She smiled, but then immediately went wide-eyed and backed away to look at me, a little bit of panic in her eyes. "I MEAN, a restaurant sort-of owning-"
"Girlfriend?"
Her face turned redder than her sweater. She almost looked worried.
"OH. NO. I didn't mean to sound like I didn't like the idea of girlfriend!" My face must have turned an equally deep shade as hers. "I like girlfriend. Unless you didn't mean girlfriend, which would be fine, really!"
"I also like girlfriend..." She relaxed a little. "I'm sorry, that was really awk-"
"Pucca, I thought you'd figured out how horrendously awkward I already am. You don't have to apologize for not even coming close to one-upping me on the awkward-o-meter." She laughed. "If we're officially adding the title, it makes being in your room feel THAT much more like I'm going to get my ass beat."
"Boyfriend is better than 'some random guy', I suppose." Her fear had begun to melt back into comfort. "Really, though, sorry for freaking like that. Garu was NOT a fan of me even joking that I was his girlfriend. I think he subconsciously trained the phrase out of me." She laughed. "Was he always like that? So..."
"Much of an asshole? Yes and no."
"Your words, not mine."
"He was pretty cool when we were little. Other than the giant face-scar-giving incident, but that was an accident. He used to talk, believe it or not. He talked a LOT."
"I don't even know what he sounds like..."
"I mean, I only know what he sounded like when he was, like, six. His stupid little voice is etched into my damn mind. He was a confident little bastard."
"So, he sounds the same, I bet." She smiled.
"His dad died the same time mine did. You'd think that'd be some kind of bonding experience, but, no. Not even kind of. That's when he got so gung-ho about the whole 'honor' thing."
"You'd think having a parent die in the war is about as honorable a thing that could happen to a family..."
"Well, it is. My dad died fighting. Trying to save someone. Garu's dad. From what we were told as kids at least, Garu's dad had tried to flee that fight and started running back to the village. But, the enemy tried to go after him. My dad tried to stop them. He failed. Both of them died. Except one died an attempted hero, and the other died a deserter."
"Tobe..."
"Oh, I'm fine talking about my parents now. I've had a lot of alone time to process it. Honestly, I don't blame Garu's dad. If I knew him, and I did - he and my dad were pretty close, he just wanted to be home with his kid. Garu resents him now, though. He's spent pretty much his entire life at this point trying to regain the family honor that was lost with his dad."
"I hate to ask, but what about his mom? Was she around?"
"Yeah, for a while. I have no idea what happened to her. She vanished not long after his dad died. I don't know if she died, too, or if she had just up and ran off because her husband had ruined her reputation. My guess is the latter."
"So... What happened with you two after that?"
"I couldn't really tell you. I tried to be there for him, but I was a kid who had just lost his dad, too. He at least had his mom at that point. I had nothing and still tried. He was my best friend, my ONLY friend. I couldn't lose him too, you know? But boy, did I. The silence thing started then. I never got to talk with him again. To him, yeah. But not with him."
Pucca leaned in, still clearly invested in my story. She'd probably never heard anything about any of this. Garu wasn't exactly a conversationalist.
"People never cared about how his dad died. Just that the cute little ninja was trying so hard to be as honorable and good as he could. They loved him. His house never lost power. He never went hungry. I, however, was the awkward kid with the scarred-up face. They didn't look at me for more than a second. Especially once they realized Garu didn't like me. I ate food scraps in a dark house for years."
"How did I never know any of this...?" She whispered.
"Garu doesn't talk about it, obviously. It never occurred to me as a kid that what was happening was actually really messed up. So I never really talked about it either. Even the ninjas don't really know the details."
"Well, the whole 'enemies' thing makes sense, now..."
"Yeah, I was a young teenager. I was bitter. But at this point, I don't hate him anymore. I don't think I ever really did. It was just hard seeing him have the life I so wanted. Friends that were real friends, rather than the weird minion thing me and the ninjas have going on. They're my family, don't get me wrong! But you know what I mean. He had the status. The respect. Not to mention the girl that I always thought was cute just loved him sooooo much..." I teased.
She smiled. "Yeah, well. That cute girl made a big mistake falling for him. Tragic backstory or not, he didn't handle my crazy crush very well. I didn't either, obviously, but you know. I still deal with a lot of weird things he drilled into my head. I still tend to default to looser fitting clothes because he wasn't 'allowed to stare at the female form' or whatever. At least that's what Abyo told me."
I had never really noticed that she did that before, but she was right. I can't remember the last time I saw her in something form-fitting.
"He's also quite literally beat me off him before. Not violently or anything, but I have some boundary issues now. I would've kissed you a LOT sooner if I hadn't been so in-my-head about it."
"How much sooner is a lot sooner?" I smirked, wrapping my hand around her waist.
"The day you brought me food. That was it for me." She blushed and looked at the floor.
"I absolutely adore you, you know that, right? I've never told anybody all of that before. And I didn't even think about it. It just felt right to talk to you. It always has. I somehow feel less embarrassed, and also always embarrassed around you. The bad days are so much less bad since I've had you around. Like... A light in the dark."
"That's both really sweet and REALLY cheesy." Her smile could be seen from space at that moment. "I feel the same way, Tobe. Like I've said, exploding in front of your house is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me!"
"Please don't do it again." We both laughed as I leaned down to kiss her smiling, happy little face.
Not even my depressing backstory and a broken furnace could bring me down when I was with Pucca.
