A/N: I am sorry this is soooo sappy. Andou might be OOC DX. I was listening to love-dovey music, and I just finished reading recent chapters of Strobe Edge—so I was filled with "wanting-to-cuddle-Andou" feelings.
Alright, I have actually decided where this story is gonna take place!
Er… Well, different stuff happens in the manga than what's in this story, but whatever! Strobe Edge started getting more interestin', sooo—this takes place at roughly chapter… 33 and onwards! Just 'cuz.
Again, not all events in the manga will be in this story… Probably. I'm kind of spacing out how they happened, so it's basically all…messed up.
I think I may make this story relatively short, hence why everything moves so fast X3
To my surprise, Takumi came to find me at lunch. He didn't seem as cheerful though and the friendly grin he gave me was obviously fake. I didn't ask though—sometimes talking about it just made it worse.
I always just sit with Midori outside, so we all had a nice chat together. And soon the movie we were going to see this weekend came up.
"Takumi, you should come with us!" Midori suddenly chirped. I sighed, slapping a hand on my forehead. Sometimes she just failed to notice other people's moods. "It's this Saturday, it's supposed to be really go—OW!" I had stomped on her foot, in hopes she would get the message.
"That sounds great, I'd love to." Takumi said, flashing an artificial smile. I stood up and grabbed his arm, hauling him away from Midori.
"You don't have to come if you don't want to." I said. He cocked his head to the side.
"I wouldn't have come if I didn't want to."
"There's obviously something bothering you." I said, trying to stare him down. "I just don't want you to force yourself to come."
"I'm fine," he mumbled, pouting. I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Would it help if you talked about it?"
"Maybe on Saturday." Takumi winked and strolled back to Midori.
The rest of the week passed quickly, filled with boring schoolwork and hanging out with Midori and Takumi.
"Ame! Will you help me with this?" My aunt yelled from the kitchen. I hopped off my bed and quickly ran downstairs. If she needed help, it meant it was an emergency.
And sure enough, she was battling with the fire extinguisher, white foam all over the kitchen floor. The dish she had been trying to cook was on the stove, flaming. I pried the fire extinguisher from her hands and quickly doused the flames.
"Thanks," she gasped, collapsing in a kitchen chair.
"I'll make dinn—" I was interrupted by the ring of my cellphone. I tugged it out of my pocket and answered. "Hello?"
"Ame?" Takumi said, his voice oddly quiet. "This is Takumi."
"Yeah, what's wrong?"
"C—can I come over?" He murmured. "I just… don't want to be all by myself…"
"Hang on a second." I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at my aunt. "Can my new friend come over for a bit?" She nodded.
"Yeah, do you want us to pick you up?"
"No, it's alright."
"Okay, well, just go to the supermarket, then keep going for three blocks, turn left, and my house is the first you'll see."
"M'kay. Thanks, Ame."
"Don't mention it." We hung up and I started to cook dinner.
"Are you alright?" My aunt asked.
"Mhmm. I'm just worried about my friend, that's all." I said, pulling out three bowls.
Twenty minutes later, the doorbell rang. I finished dishing out the food in the bowls, and ran to the door.
"Hey," Takumi said. His face looked haggard, his mouth a thin line. And he hadn't bothered to grab a sweatshirt, despite it being freaking cold out. I grabbed his hand and tugged him to the kitchen.
"This is my aunt Hoshi." I said. Once introductions were finished, we all sat down and started eating. Takumi stayed quiet for most of the meal and the kitchen was filled with my aunt's chatter and mine.
"You and Takumi can go hang out, I'll clean up." My aunt said, piling the bowls in the sink.
"Don't set fire to anything!" I called as I pushed Takumi upstairs. I would have hung out in our backyard, but I didn't want to deal with the cold.
"Sorry, my room's kind of small." I said as I pushed open the door. I kicked some sketch books away to clear a path to the bed. I grabbed some blankets from the closet and laid them out on the floor.
"I can sit on the floor…" Takumi said as I sat down.
"No, I don't mind. You can have the bed." I rolled on my back and looked at the ceiling. Takumi laid on my bed, his back to me. "Do you want to talk about it?"
Andou
"Do you want to talk about it?" Ame's little voice said from the floor. To my surprise, I felt myself smile a little bit. I took a deep breath and exhaled. It's not that I didn't want to tell her what was wrong, or that I didn't trust her… but I didn't know how to begin. "Hey." She suddenly said, and I felt a hand on my sleeve.
I rolled over to face Ame. Her long hair had fallen out of its ponytail, creating a halo of brown frizz around her face. I snickered. "What!" She whined.
"Your hair looks like an animal slept in it." I said. She rolled her eyes and scooted closer to the bed.
"Alright, alright. I have an idea. Quit laughing." I did my best to shut up. "I will tell you something that bothers me, or something about me, and then you can say part of what's bothering you, or something about yourself. You'll be able to know where to start more easily, if it's broken up… right?"
"How did you kno—"
"If you didn't want to talk about it, you would've said 'no' right away, instead of staying quiet. I know you better than you think." She smirked and poked out her tongue. I rolled my eyes.
"I'll start! I'm mad my designs aren't good enough." She said.
"They're good!"
"Not enough to actually be used. But I guess I'll just keep trying. Your turn."
"…I collect hats."
"Hats are cool." She rested her chin on her hand, brow wrinkling.
"I never met my parents."
Ame
I looked at Takumi's face, who looked mildly surprised.
"Never?"
"Never. My aunt's the only one I have."
"Mmmm…" Takumi said, resting his arm in front of his face.
Andou
I thought for a moment, still wondering how to begin. "I thought my first love was using me, and it turns out she actually liked me." It seemed like a good place to start. Ame reached up and her small finger brushed the back of my hand.
"My aunt found me in a dumpster when I was a baby." I raised my head and stared at her, wide-eyed.
"'Sall right." She shrugged, even smiling. "I'm really happy with my aunt… although she's not even my aunt, but she claims she's too young to be a mom… Midori… and you. I don't even remember being in a dumpster." She patted my head, as if she were comforting me. "Of course, it'd be really nice to have parents too. But I can't change that."
"…You're making my problem seem much more pathetic." She shook her head.
"Nothing's pathetic if that's how you really feel. A problem with stress or something can be just as damaging as… an injury. ….Then again, there is the possibility of dying but…" She paused in her rant, laughing. …She laughs easily…
Ame
I kept my hand on Takumi's head, fiddling with his soft hair. He's like a kitty.
"The girl I love right now likes someone else." He said.
"I have too much homework." I said. Takumi chuckled.
"You really have a range of issues, huh?"
"Mhmm. Homework is horrible." I gathered three locks of Takumi's hair, starting to braid it. There were a few moments of content silence. I finished braiding Takumi's hair, and started to draw my hand back. But his fingers closed around mine.
"I've already confessed to her, but she doesn't return my feelings. The guy she likes likes her too and I'm running out of time." He said all this in a quiet rush, like it would hurt less if he said it fast.
I didn't bother to say anything, knowing it wouldn't really help. Midori had experienced this same kind of thing a couple years ago, and all I could do was hug her. I sat behind Takumi on my bead, lifting his head on my lap. I grabbed my stress doll off my nightstand and handed him it and a pillow.
"You can squeeze this if you want, or scream into the pillow. Sometimes that helps."
Andou
I squeezed the stress doll, reaching up to grab her hand. For some reason, it seemed to help a little.
It was weird… Ame almost seemed like a girl. But maybe that was because I hadn't ever laid my head on a guy's lap…or held hands.
"Oh yeah!" She suddenly scooted out from under my head and stood. "Wait here." She jogged out of the room.
I sat up and ran a hand through my hair… or tried to. Ame had decided to braid my hair. I laughed and flopped back down.
Her room was painted blue, with many of her tattoo designs painted right on the walls. Some of them just looked like amorphous blobs, which must have been her earlier ones. The floor was covered in sketch books and from what I could see, all of them were tattered.
At least I had two supporters now… Well, a bad one and a good one.
Ame
I carried the massive sundae back up to my room. Hopefully Takumi liked vanilla ice cream… and sweet things in general.
"This will help." I said, handing it to him. "And if you don't like it, I'll be more than happy to eat it."
Takumi let me have half of the sundae, and we chattered about nothing for the next hour. And I hoped that he was feeling a little better, at least while the ice cream was still cold.
