Nanako and Teddie held hands as they walked home from the river. When they got to her house, Teddie paused on the porch. "Did this… mean anything?" he asked awkwardly.
Nanako looked into his eyes and gave him her complete honest feelings, like she always did. "I don't know," she replied.
Teddie nodded and hugged her goodbye. "Goodnight, Nana-chan," he said, heading off towards home. Nanako felt wonderful and awful at the same time. She should have just asked. He would have said yes without the seduction. Kissing Teddie had been amazing, but she didn't have easy answers for him. She had no idea if she was ready to be his girlfriend, if that's even what he was thinking. She sighed, and sent a quick text to Miusagi before stepping into the house.
Tomorrow, 3 pm. Meet at Junes food court.
Great! See you then.
When she opened the door and stepped in, Nanako was surprised to find that the house wasn't empty as usual. Souji was home, and Rise was with him. Great. So much for walking in unnoticed.
"Oh, Nanako-chan!" Rise exclaimed with a smile. The smile faded quickly as she took in Nanako's outfit and her now very messy french twist. "Were you… on a date?" she asked hesitantly.
Nanako shrugged. "Just out with Teddie," she said, as casually as she could manage.
Souji walked up beside her and raised an eyebrow. "You smell like alcohol," he commented.
Nanako shrugged again, while panicking on the inside. "I had a couple sips of wine. That's all," she said. Souji said nothing for a minute, then finally nodded. "You aren't going to tell dad, are you?" she asked, trying to keep the climbing anxiety from her voice.
It was Souji's turn to shrug. "No. He probably wouldn't believe me if I told him, anyway. Was Teddie drinking, too?" he asked with a slight frown.
"Not really. I mean, like one sip. So no." Rise giggled. Nanako glared at her. Souji left to get something out of the kitchen.
"So… drinking wine and making out by the river, right?" Rise asked with a grin. Nanako blushed deeply. "Hey, I'm not judging. Does this mean you and Teddie are…"
Nanako let out a deep breath. "No. I don't know. Maybe. I feel really confused about everything right now."
Rise put her hands on Nanako's shoulders. "Was it fun?" she asked. Nanako nodded. "Then everything will work itself out. No big deal." She pulled Nanako into a hug.
"Thanks, Rise," Nanako said with relief.
"Anytime. Now go put on some pajamas, we're going to stay up, watch movies and eat popcorn!"
"Really? That's what you guys are up to?" Nanako asked.
"Yep! We were just waiting for you to get home!" Rise said with a smile. Nanako went to her room and changed, letting her hair down and brushing out the tangles. Then she took a deep breath and sent a text.
I had a really nice time tonight. Hope you did, too.
The best. 3 Are you going to sleep now?
No. Rise and Souji want me to watch movies with them. So tired, but I guess I'm staying up.
Like a slumber party! How fun! I'll see you tomorrow, Nana-chan!
Goodnight, Teddie. Miss you.
Miss you, too! 3
Nanako smiled, then went back to the living room, sitting between Souji and Rise. Souji smiled down at her. She felt much better with them both beside her. She was glad she didn't have to come home to an empty house tonight, even if she would have preferred to get some sleep.
Naoto Tatsumi decided for the first time in ages to stay home and sleep in on a Monday morning. She took her work seriously, and made a conscious effort to not neglect it unless absolutely necessary. She had been feeling more worn out than usual lately, which was not normal for her either. Warm sunlight was streaming in the bedroom window, but it was not what caused her to stir. It was the sudden chill beside her as she found herself alone in the bed that woke her. She looked up in time to see Kanji, about to leave the room. "Uh, uh," she said, trying to shake the sleep from her voice enough to speak. "We had a deal, Shirogane."
Kanji turned and smiled. Naoto secretly liked calling him by her former last name when she thought she could get away with it. And he knew it well, despite the fact that it was a secret. "I was going to go make you some breakfast," he said.
"No. No breakfast," she replied, reaching her hand towards him in an effort to lure him back to her.
Kanji raised an eyebrow at her. "You were starving yesterday morning, and the day before that," he pointed out.
"And today I'm not," Naoto said simply. "Come back to bed, Kanji. I didn't take the morning off for you to wait on me while I sleep the day away."
"I like taking care of you," he mumbled as he climbed back under the covers.
"I know that," she said softly, " and what I need is for you to kiss me right now." That was all Kanji needed to hear. While it was pretty weird for Naoto to take time off like this, he happened to be a really big fan of spending the morning with her.
"Sure, Naoto," he said with a smile. "Anything you want."
Nanako realized when she woke up Monday morning that it had been a bad decision to partake in Rise and Souji's movie night. Getting up was much more difficult than usual. They kept her up really late, and then she had the strangest dream about a weird man with a really long nose, and a blonde lady, and everything around them was blue… No! she thought, running down the hall and banging on Souji's door. "Big Bro, I have to talk to you right now!" she shouted through the door frantically. The door opened, and a very tired Rise wearing pink silk pajamas with a sleep mask that looked like a panda on her head looked at her curiously.
"He's downstairs making pancakes," she said.
"Thanks," Nanako said, turning and running down the stairs.
"Wait up," Rise whined. "I'm not awake enough yet for yelling and stairs," she mumbled as she followed behind Nanako.
Nanako burst into the kitchen. "Souji!" she shouted, startling him as he flipped a pancake.
"Nanako? What's the matter?" he asked.
"I had a dream and I don't think it was really a dream and there was a long nose man and a blonde and everything was blue!"
Rise, who had caught up just in time to hear, frowned deeply. Souji put his hands on Nanako's shoulders. "Did you… sign a contract?"
"I… Yes. Yes, I did," Nanako answered. "Is that… Is it bad?"
Souji let out a long breath. "Yes and no. Yes because I was hoping it would be me instead. No because I will make sure everything is alright. I won't let anything bad happen to you, Nanako."
"I don't understand. What does it mean?"
"It means that you're the hero of this story," Rise said gently. "But it doesn't mean that we can't help you."
"The Velvet Room will be back if you signed a contract, and I still have a key," Souji said absentmindedly. "I need to go and have a talk with them, see if anything can be done." He looked back at Nanako, who was still wearing her pajamas. "Pancakes first, though. Then you should probably hurry. When I called the school this morning, I promised you would be there for your afternoon classes."
"What?!" Nanako shrieked. "What time is it?"
"It's 11 am. Like I said, you should hurry," Souji answered with a smile. Nanako ate her pancakes with record speed, then tore back up the stairs to get ready for school. Souji looked at Rise with concern in his eyes. "Maybe I shouldn't have let her sleep in."
Rise giggled. "A morning off every once in awhile is a good thing. I wish I had a cool family member to call me in when we were in high school."
Miusagi Mochizuki spent the entire morning skipping rocks by the riverbank. He normally wouldn't have skipped school, especially since he was meeting Nanako right after. But Sana-chan said it was important, so he agreed to meet her. Sanae Komaki had been his best friend since they were little kids, and it was not at all like her to be late. And if she was going to be late, she would not be several hours late. At lunch time he decided that enough was enough, and stopped by her sister's house. It had just been Sana-chan and her older sister for years now. Luckily her sis was pretty understanding and wouldn't get on to them for skipping class once in awhile.
Unfortunately, her sister hadn't seen her since the night before. She had slept in later than when Sanae normally left for school. Miusagi reassured her that it was likely nothing to worry about, that he had undoubtedly misunderstood her, meaning that she was in class right now. Except that he didn't misunderstand. He had read her text over and over all morning.
Skip today? Meet u Samegawa 8 am IMPORTANT.
So naturally, Miusagi had been sitting by the stupid river since 7:45. The handful of texts he had sent were not returned. This worried him.
After grabbing some steak skewers for lunch, he decided to pop his head in at the textile shop. Seemed like a pretty slow day. Kanji was behind the counter sewing a tiny sombrero onto a plush mouse. Miusagi frowned. "I hope that was a commission."
Kanji looked up wearily. "Yeah… hey, aren't you supposed to be at school?"
Miusagi shrugged. "Sana-chan asked me to skip, then completely stood me up." He couldn't help frowning again. "Kinda worried about that, actually."
"Hmm, yeah. That's not like her," Kanji replied. "Why did she want you to skip?"
"I have no idea," Miusagi said. "She just said it was important."
"You talked to her sister yet?" Kanji asked.
"Yeah, at noon. She slept in, hasn't seen Sana-chan since last night."
"Guess all you can do is wait until school gets out then, since I don't see you hurrying your ass over there to catch last period," Kanji commented.
"Hey now," Miusagi said with a grin. "You're really old, but you're not my dad."
Kanji looked up at Miusagi's face and blinked. "Never said I was. And I'm not old!" It sort of looked like his feelings might be hurt. And not about being called old. Miusagi had been calling him "Mister" since the day they met. It was practically a term of endearment at this point. So it must have been the dad comment that got to him.
"Sorry," Miusagi said softly. He knew that Kanji had lost his dad at a young age. It was one of the things they had in common. And he had sort of filled that role in Miusagi's life, even though they had never talked about it.
"It's fine," Kanji said, focusing on the mouse. "What are you doing now? Until Sana-chan gets out of school?"
"Nothing… I'm meeting Nanako-senpai at three. So I guess until then I'm just bugging you."
"Nanako-chan again, huh?"
"Something wrong with that?"
"Nah," Kanji replied. "But if you're here to stay for awhile, you should at least do something productive. Scarf display could use reorganizing."
Miusagi rolled his eyes. "Right. On it."
