Being the lazy person that I am, I'm posting this two days after I finished it, but kudos to my beta reader Jo-chan, for not being lazy XD. Sorry for making you guys wait for five days :p
Musings: Every time I write chapters I tend to be able to produce two chapters that are about 2,500 words long, so I write about 5,000 words each time I'm in my writing mood. When that happens, I guess my updates are pretty close to each other. But I do have long gaps between updates...about a month each time. I officially title myself weird.
Enjoy and give me reviews!
Disclaimer: I don't own Shugo Chara. 'Precious Secrets And Beautiful Liars' by TheLingeringWolf=most of the story's inspiration. 'Got to be perfect Not' by bleachlover1999=Rima's original disguise. The story is also influenced by Durarara
N o t e x p e c t e d
Kukai POV
As always, the Fujisaki mansion stood gloriously, as if untouched by modern civilization. One would think that only boring, unsociable people emerge out of that household.
I grinned, finding that my unconscious, judgmental self making incorrect assumptions, funny.
"Hey, Nagihiko! What's the point of bringing us here?" I asked as the mansion came into view.
He grunted in response.
"Nagihiko," dragged out Rima, "Answer Kukai's question."
"Just make yourself at home," he sighed, "I have to go to dance practice... You know where my room is, right Kukai?"
"I haven't been here in awhile."
"Sorry, I've been busy."
"Don't worry, there was never much to do here anyway."
Yaya and Rima's heads turned to look at us oddly. Seemingly unconsciously, Yaya reached for her lollipop.
We kept walking and we soon reached the front gate of the mansion. Nagihiko pressed the intercom button and waited. I turned around, looking for the tree that I suspected a security camera was placed. Nagihiko glanced at me and spared me a tight smile, like he knew what I was doing.
Beep.
"Hello Nagihiko," an old voice crooned, "who are your friends?"
That confirmed it, there was a security camera... somewhere.
"Hi Baaya! It's just Kukai and a few classmates that I know well. They'll be waiting in my room during my dance practice."
With his words, the gate cracked open.
"Very well," the voice crackled then faded. I whistled a low note as the gate slowly inched open, hoping to increase the effects of of the mansion's grandiose. Rima slapped my arm.
"Stop whistling," she hissed, "It's annoying."
The grand atmosphere of the mansion didn't seem to faze her, but Yaya was another story. Her eyes grew wide and she tried to look everywhere at once.
Rima slapped her too. This time, it was for looking like a fool.
As soon as we made it past the expansive garden in front of the traditional Japanese home, Nagihiko quickly yet gracefully, slid open the front door. He stepped in motioning us to follow. Rima went first, then Yaya. I was the last to step in and Nagihiko, who was standing besides the door, gracefully slid the screen door shut again.
Wordlessly, he left us. He sent me a look that seemed to say that he was leaving everything to me.
"Is it okay if I just have fun?" I called after him. He didn't reply and headed deep into the house's hallway. Finally, when he turned, he disappeared.
"Okay then, follow me," I told Rima and Yaya. They silently followed, but before we reached our destination, which was, by the way, Nagihiko's room, we heard the sound of traditional Japanese music floating quietly throughout the house.
"What's that?" questioned Yaya.
I simply whistled along to the tune, refusing to answer.
Nagihiko had started dance practice in record time.
Yaya pouted as we reached Nagihiko's room. Rima was the first to peer in.
"It's normal," she observed.
"What did Rima expect?" Yaya inquired.
She shut the door, trapping the three of us outside.
"Geez, girls are troublesome," I commented.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say Kukai," said Rima listlessly, shooting me a glance, "You want to have fun, right?"
"So?"
"Let's go watch Nagihiko dance."
Panic rose in me and I was starting to slowly tremble on the inside. Alarms were blaring in me.
"No," I quickly spit out.
"Aw, why not?" Yaya whined. They seemed to have planned to ask me that together.
"Just...no," I lamely said.
Rima looked at me in annoyance. She grabbed Yaya's arm and started dragging her, retracing our steps. I followed, still feeling uneasy.
I didn't know exactly where Nagihiko was so I figured I could at least let them look. The only risk present was that we might get lost.
Tap, tap.
The sound of their light and anticipating footsteps echoed the hallways. The graceful-sounding Japanese music was no longer audible. We circled the house for a long time, before Rima and Yaya settled on entering a particularly decorated hallway that was more majestic-looking than the other halls.
There were no doors in this hallway, just cherry-blossom painted walls and huge vases full of wisteria, plum blossoms and pink moss.
Rima paused at a tall wisteria-filled vase.
"You know," she started, "Wisteria is the English name from these," motioning to the purple flowers.
"Fuji," Yaya whispered, understanding.
"Saki means blossom in English, right?" I added, glad to be of service.
Rima nodded.
"Fujisaki," she paused, "it's means Wisteria Blossom."
"Eh, I never really bothered with meanings, you're talking as if English was your first language," I said.
She brushed both me and my comment away and continued walking, soon, the left side of the wall was replaced by a paper screen door. The paper was thick, it wasn't possible see what was on the other side except for a light shadow, but the yellowed aged texture of the paper curtains was visible.
"As I thought, this is the practice room."
I looked at Rima, seeing what she meant. The sound of music was indeed there, although low, and the shadows of a dancing figure was barely visible through the paper.
I should have stopped Rima, but in the end, Yaya was the one who held Rima back.
"Yaya doesn't think Rima and Yaya should disturb them after all."
Rima looked at her for a moment before walking back the way we came from, a small, subtle gesture showing she agreed.
"Aw," she said as the two of us trailed behind her, "I wanted to see him dance, if anything, he might be as pretty as a Wisteria while dancing."
I, however, was relieved. Nagihiko's secret could wait.
Normal POV
Rima wasn't really disappointed, she was just poking fun.
Laugh at yourself now or you'll never get another chance to.
And she did, out loud, the other two were staring at her oddly.
She covered her eyes as she felt tears threatening to fall.
\
"Please take me away from here."
"Okay."
"Really?"
"Of course! But only for a month though, Daddy is away on a business trip, so no one will bother us and sadly, my brother hardly comes home. Use that time to figure everything out, okay?"
'Thanks, Utau."
\
"Haa.."
"Rima? Is something the matter?"
"It's nothing Yaya," Rima said as she made her uneven, slow way towards Nagihiko's bedroom.
Once inside, she tiredly collapsed on his desk's chair as Kukai sat on his bed and Yaya was on the ground.
Rima POV
I haven't seen her in forever.
I slowly fell asleep.
\
"I'm suffering from a disease called regret."
Watery eyes.
"You have nothing to regret."
"Yes I do."
"You fought the people off with all your might, it was something that you couldn't control, stop fretting, it's stupid."
Sipping coffee.
"But.."
"You have a whole life ahead of you, accept what happened and live with it. So maybe everyone's opinions of you changed, that isn't supposed to stop you."
"My parents started fighting."
"It'll be over soon."
"I'm moving."
Closed eyes.
"Your month is almost over anyway, maybe it's for the best. It's been a year."
"That night...my second year. If I hadn't stayed back in school..."
Patting on the back.
"Think of it this way, nobody will know you in your new school, it's a new start. I'll help you, when are you moving?"
"In a month."
"I see, one more month here, then you'll be gone. I wish we were the same age, then I could have stayed with you this year instead of moving onto high school."
"Education is more important."
"Yeah, yeah, I understand. How's self defense class with my older brother?"
"Okay. He's weird."
"Hey! I love my brother!"
Laughter.
\
"She's sleeping?" a gentle voice asked.
"Not anymore," I replied, eyes still closed.
"Well, you were, for two hours," another voice informed me.
"Yaya got bored of playing cards with Kukai! Kukai always wins!"
I inched my eyes open to find myself using my arms as a pillow on Nagihiko's desk.
"Sorry," I sincerely told the three people in the room, "I didn't mean to fall asleep."
"It's okay, Rima's been through a long day," Yaya replied and Nagihiko nodded in agreement.
I smiled, thankful that Yaya was there. If it had been just Kukai and Nagihiko, as much as I was used to their presences, it would have been awkward, seeing that they were two boys.
"Well," Kukai said, getting up from his spot on the bed, "I have somewhere I need to be."
"Bye!" Yaya and I exclaimed in unison.
"See ya," said Nagihiko as Kukai swiftly slipped out the door.
"Bye bye!"
\
"Sorry about everything."
I looked at him like I was looking at him for the first time, the fine lines of worry etched onto his face. His tired eyes showed regret and his words were sincere. I had a feeling he was letting me see his raw state.
"Don't worry, Nagihiko," I said as he eyed my bandages, "I handled it just fine."
He looked as if he didn't believe me, thick eyebrows furrowing.
"It was my fault."
"I'm aware," I deadpanned.
"Yaya's sorry too!" Yaya interjected sadly.
"Guys, don't worry about it," I was beginning to get annoyed. They acted as if I had just nearly died.
"But, but, Yaya was useless!"
"I survived. Schoolgirl bullying is stupid anyway. That wasn't even much of a 'price'."
Nagihiko's facial features softened.
"Yeah. I should have known you'll be alright. I'm still sorry though, you didn't need any of this," he spoke delicately.
"Is this the only time I'm ever going to hear you being sincere?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Nagihiko joked, feigning innocence.
"Yeah! Isn't Nagi always sincere?" Yaya asked, genuinely thinking so.
"You guys..."
Hence, a very long chase where I tried to catch two people.
\
"Hey, Nagihiko?"
We were exhausted; there was so much space in Nagihiko's room to run. The three of us sat on the carpeted ground, heaving and grinning.
"Yeah?" replied Nagihiko in between breaths.
"Yaya called you 'Nagi' earlier, right?"
"Oh. Yeah, I guess she did," he shrugged as if he was used to it. He probably was, I heard Kukai call him that before.
"Does Nagi like it?" Yaya exclaimed, wondering.
"Like...?" Nagihiko trailed off uncertainly.
"As a nickname!" Yaya declared.
I nodded.
"That's a perfect nickname," I agreed teasingly.
Nagihiko grinned and turned towards me.
"Does that mean you'll stop calling me 'purple-head'?"
"Nope!" I said just to tease him. He pouted.
"Lollipop?" Yaya offered us. She head out two, small, bear shaped lollipops, one peached flavored, one blueberry.
"Thanks!" I smiled as I grabbed the peach one from Yaya's hand. Nagihiko followed the suit by taking the blueberry one.
"It's good," he said.
"Do you eat only the big ones?" I asked Yaya as she continued to suck on her huge, swirly, multicolored lollipop.
"No, Yaya eats all types of lollipops! But Yaya wanted to finish eating this one, Yaya tried eating this six times but Yaya failed finishing it five times!" Yaya replied, upbeat.
"Wow..."
I greedily sucked on the lollipop, "Mmh."
I was glad my hair was up in a ponytail, sweat was trickling down my back. I was never a fast runner. Yaya was. Oddly, she had managed to eat the lollipop while running. Nagihiko, needless to say, ran around effortlessly.
A sweet smile graced my lips as I watched Yaya deal out cards for a game of Goldfish.
It was such a simple, childish game, yet it fit Yaya so well.
"It's a new start."
"Yeah," I whispered so only I could hear, "It is."
Please review!
More musings: I wonder if fan fiction is my stress-reliver. I hope it is, I need to test it out more. :p
More musing and mutterings: When I write I have no idea what's going to happen in the chapter, I have a general idea, like who I want to appear and how quick I want the events to be. In this chapter's case, I knew I wanted a fast-paced chapter after my previous slow one, so I had a lot of dialouge. I didn't know that this chapter would end up so lighthearted or that I would devel into the meaning of Nagihiko's name..it just sorta happened. Same with the bullying that happened a few chpters before. I knew Rima was going to get bullied, but I didn't know how. Before I knew it, pins had appeared on Rima's chair and she used the coffee cup to throw it away. I didn't plan on using the coffee cup after mentioning it as her breakfast, once again, it just happened. I surprise myself a lot. (Lazy people skimming through this: this is me babbling, you don't have to read it. It'll bore you.)
:D
~KiMi