Photographs
This is the second chapter/short story that I shall be writing for this one. They all fairly connected and if anyone has suggestions how to improve the flow, feel free to contact me. But keep in mind, I prefer short chapters and have the attention span of a hyperactive three year old, lol.
The weather was so nice that Nabiki opted to have her lunch outdoors and spread a blanket beneath a tree in the schoolyard was having fun feeding small morsels of her food to ants when she heard a voice that caused her to glance up and a form blocked out the sunlight. "Nabiki Tendo?"
"Hi Kuno-Baby, what can I do for you?" she asked him.
"I was wondering where Akane Tendo is?" he replied.
"She's gone on a training trip with Ranma" Nabiki said and almost enjoyed his look of dismay at this.
"Okay please convey that she is in my thoughts on her safe return" he said and turned to go.
"Why aren't you eating lunch?" she asked him on impulse.
He paused and turned back to her, even at the moments she knew only contempt for Kuno; Nabiki had to admit he had the most gorgeous eyes. "I forgot my bento box and don't care for cafeteria fare, ergo I shall not be eating until I return home" he replied.
"So why don't you join me and share my lunch with me? Kasumi always packs too much for me to eat" Nabiki suggested, patting the blanket beside her.
"You wish me to join you?" Kuno replied, seeming surprised at her suggestion.
"Come on, we're old friends. No one's going to think anything weird about it" she told him.
"Very well, I accept" he said, placing his bokken beside the blanket and sitting down beside her.
"Help yourself" she said holding out her bento box and she wondered at the smile he suddenly displayed. "What is it?" she asked in amusement.
"I see Kasumi makes the same rice ball pandas that your mother used to make" he said, taking one and biting into it with gusto. "I haven't had one of these in years."
"I remember my mother used to make extras for me to feed you at school when we were little" Nabiki said, smiling at the memory.
"Your mother was a wonderful person" he agreed.
On impulse, Nabiki pulled out the old photo album she had brought. "Remember this day?" she asked him pointing to a photograph. "I have this album with me as I want to commission an oil painting of my mother for my father's birthday" she explained at his look of inquiry.
"Yes our wedding day" he said with a laugh. "We had just turned seven and your mother sewed us wedding kimonos and your father married us beside your koi pond while your sisters and mother were bridesmaids" he said smiling oddly tenderly at this.
"Yes and my sister had made the bouquets out of wild flowers and poison ivy they picked, that we all held before my mother realized what was in them" Nabiki laughed. "You were such a cute kid" she commented.
"I like myself better with hair" he said, brushing it back. You were pretty cute too" he said. "I do miss those days" he mused.
"I was wondering the other day; what happened to us? We used to be so close" she ventured.
He frowned and started plucking grass, she recognized this as a nervous gesture he used to do as a child too. "There are things you don't know about my homelife that you were kept ignorant of by your own parents. I can tell you them if you wish to know, but it might change your perception of your own idyllic childhood. Ask yourself if you really want that knowledge before I continue" he said, after a long pause.
"Tell me" she said sharply, watching as his long slim fingers idly twirled some kind of wild iris flower that Nabiki couldn't identify.
"Very well, my mother was a drinker who was normally drunk by noon and secretly addicted to cocaine, or so I found out later. Did you never notice how she always talked too loud and stumbled when she came to pick me up from kindergarten...that is when she remembered to pick me up? I always wondered why the other mothers glared at her. I think it was your own mother that made a deal with my father that I would go to your place after school until he could retrieve me. I'm sure she did it out of kindness of course, based on how you used to cling to me" he explained.
Nabiki frowned at this, feeling pure sympathy for him...and guilt for some reason "Where was your father during all this?" she asked him with a frown.
"He went away on a lot of business trips and didn't believe that children should be raised by nannies. So I have been looking after my sister since I was little myself. I think that Kodachi had it worse than me, because mother loved to play dress up with her but would spank her for almost no reason. However, she had no use for little boys, so I was pretty much left alone" he said with a shrug.
"That sounds horrible" Nabiki said, surprised when she suddenly had the urge to hug him and wondered how he could narrate all these terrible things as if reading a recipe outloud.
"It wasn't all bad, I had the greatest time in my life when I was at your place. I used to be so jealous of you for your family life" he said, giving her another almost-sad smile.
""You know you're still invited over whenever you want?" she ventured.
"No it wouldn't be the same, you can never return to the past. Besides, everything changed when your mother died. Your father tried to make me feel just as welcome, but it was never the same. He was grieving and didn't need another child hanging around" he pointed out. "Especially when my own mother died of a drug overdose in front of Kodachi and she needed me at home."
"I never knew, I'm sorry" Nabiki said daring to put her hand on his arm in sympathy.
"Don't be; it wasn't your fault" he said drawing his arm away from her touch. "I'm glad you had a great childhood. As for me, I like to think mine made me stronger. Especially when my father left us for good when I turned fourteen. I had to be strong, I was the man of the house as my father said and responsible for my sister" he explained.
"That's when you pretty much stopped coming to visit" Nabiki observed.
"Your father didn't like how I was acting around Akane and 'encouraged' me not to visit so often" he explained. "Besides you had started to change; you were no longer my best friend. You were acting cold and hostile towards me and I didn't need more negativity in my life" he finished.
"You know I still care about you" she admitted.
"And I will always care about you, even if I don't much care for the person you have become, but I shall welcome you as a sister-in-law when I marry Akane" he said and then pointed to a certain picture of her mother smiling and posing in front of cherry blossoms. "This is the one you should have made into a portrait. I've never really realized until now, how much Akane's growing into your mother's image...and she has her kindness as well. I guess that's why I like her so much" he mused and stood up and draped his bokken over his shoulder. "I thank you for lunch but I have to go prepare for a kendo meeting after school, I shall see you in class, Nabiki Tendo" he said and left with a bow.
Nabiki's head was spinning at how little she had actually known her so-called best friend and felt bad at the petty jealousy that had leant to the final demise of their close friendship. She picked up the iris he had been playing with; it was still warm from his fingertips. She suddenly remembered how often he almost demanded hugs and how she and her sisters would happily attack him in a tackling hug pile and her eyes blurred slightly with tears at imagining having nowhere else to get something so simple that she herself had taken for granted would always be offered.
THE END OF THIS ONE :)