Iris
Salty-Okay, I'm gonna try to keep up this pace! BURNINGGGGGGGGGGG! (Yeah, I tried to make a tenipuri family chapter and it didn't work out so yeah...back to Iris.)
Raf Kowalski- I definitely can write new chapters! WHOOT HOOT! (Inside joke...) And I was probably going to pair Fuji with someone by the end of the story but...
StarlightTango- Yeah, I didn't even read the chapter so that was probably why...Read from now on I will!
Chapter 20. Love...?
Still Katsumi Pov-
The movie, in short, was not good. It was brilliant!
"I liked the part where Sarah"-That was James's wife-"got staked. I didn't think James would have the guts to do it," Raki-chan announced as we left the movie theater. The starless indigo of the night which had only begun to descend over the sky when we had all arrived had now swallowed it whole.
The only thing that gave us light now were the glowing neon signs of the shops (there were not many) and scantilly placed lights. It was a little spoooooky! Just the way I liked it after a horror movie.
"The first one was better," Fuji-kun remarked to my disgust.
"No way! In the first one they were just trying to escape but in this one they learn the meaning of true love and friendship! Also, the funding and cameras were a lot bet-"
"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! WHOOO!" The conversations and thoughts of nearly every one in a half mile radius must have been inturrupted all at once, because of a certain Kikumaru Eiji. That particular red head was running around a lamp post, arm swung around it, making his own little circle on the pavement. At one point I swore I saw three of him! "KIKUMARU ZONE!"
"Oh god, he's making me dizzy." Raki-chan fell back onto the pavement, sitting rather than hitting her head. She clutched onto a small, leafy tree for support. I followed suit, feeling closer to Raki-chan than I probably ever had before.
"Is it me," I inquired to the standing Fuji-kun. "Or is there three of him?"
"Se"-He swung around once-"al"-"St"-"ep."
"Translated," said Fuji. "It's Seal Step. He's moving so fast that he can replicate himself. He did it at a game or two, didn't you see?"
I would've remembered that... "DAMN YORI! He's my boss," I said to the confused Fuji-kun and Raki-chan (as if there were others...) "I swear to Justin Timberlake, he's, like, a dictator."
"Because 'like' should always proceed 'a dicator.'" I laugh, and so does Raki-chan and Fuji-kun, but what about Eiji-kun? He just continued to spin, and spin, and spin.
"Are you glad to be out of the movie theater?" Raki-chan voices out my idea.
"NOPE!" Though he did not say this angrilly, we didn't return to the subject. Aware that Eiji-kun would not stop spinning any time soon, the remaining three of us sat on the bench. Actually, it was the one I sat on upon my arrival.
It seemed cool for some reason.
"So," I said. "Anything happening in tennis?" I look to Raki-chan and Fuji-kun who are sitting on both sides of me.
"The Nationals are nearly over," says Fuji-kun. "We have a few more teams to beat."
"Us too," says Raki-chan, who is the vice-captain of the girl's tennis team. "We didn't do so well in the Regionals but we're trying to do better. We might win but the last teams seem...difficult. Still, we're not hopeless."
"You sound quite pessimistic," Fuji commented while looking over my head. While they continued to chatter, I looked at Kikumaru, who was somehow playing ring-around-the-rosie with four of his clones. Why NASA hadn't taken him yet, I had no idea.
"Syusuke!" From a sleek silver car came the call of Y-san, Fuji-kun's sister, whose arm was waving for him to join her. Her closed eyes opened a bit to look at Raki-chan, Eiji-kun and myself. "Hello Murasaki-san, Saitou-san and Kikumaru-san!" She smiled at us brightly.
Eiji-kun's clones were gone now and he waved at Y-san merrilly.
"Oh, Murasaki-san," Y-san suddenly remembered something. "You're father called. He can't make it so he asked me to come and get you." Raki-chan nodded solemnly, stood and said goodbye to me and Eiji-kun before calling shot gun and high tailing it to the front seat. Fuji-kun shook his head before following suit and sitting in the back seat. Y-san's eyes remained on me.
"Hello." I waved timidly. She nodded.
"Do not let what you saw at the fair affect you, Saitou-san," she shifted the gear, breaking our eye contact. She smiled up at me much like her younger brother and said, "By the way, my name is Yumiko."
Then she left. Holy crap, she truly was a psychic. I never really doubted it but OMG.
"What'd she mean by that?" asked Eiji-kun as he dizzilly plopped himself down on the bench. Feeling totally embarrassed about being jealous, I shook my head.
"Nothing." I couldn't take my eyes off of the space where Yumiko-san's car had just been at the side walk.
"Whatcha looking at?" he pondered.
"The road. I don't know why."
Silence followed. I somehow sensed that it was my fault so I attempted to think of something to say, then I remembered.
"Eiji-kun," I turned to him. Like so many times before, his face ended up oddly close to mine. I didn't even blush. "When's your birthday?"
"November 28." He both sounded and liked slightly surprised. "Why do you ask?" I noted that he backed away slightly, cheeks slightly flushed, to stare at the light overhead.
"I realized that I'm a horrible friend because I don't know anything about my friends." More than anything, I was shocked that I'd told him. This seemed to register on my face.
"You're really not, nya," he said with a smile that very nearly reassured me.
"Prove it." I frowned, staring at the palms of my hands then his face. I ended up sounding angry for whatever reason.
"Well, just because you can't name things now doesn't mean that you don't know anything at all. Maybe you just forgot?" His enthusiasm and bright, cat-like smile made something dark and angry grow within my soul (emo...)
"That feels worse." A deep throaty sigh came from somewhere in Kikumaru's vague direction. I wouldn't have known because I had laid my forehead on my arms-back in the fetal position-and could only see the darkness provided by the back of my eyelids. Why did I do that?
"It's getting cold," said Eiji-kun. The sound of his calloused hands rubbing together rung through the silence, almost echoing. Looking up I found the street deserted.
"That's weird...Shouldn't there be more cars? It's only eight-thirty, isn't it." A glance at Eiji-kun's watch assured that it was definitely not eight-thirty. It was nearly eleven.
"Did the movie last longer than it said?" Eiji-kun had also seen his watch.
"It might sound silly," I paused to stare at the sky...the lights made it seem jet black. "but it seems like it might snow."
"'Cause it's soooooo cold!" he whined, his arms creating friction upon eachother. "How are you not cold?" Eiji-kun glanced at me.
I looked down at myself. A knee length skirt and a red spagetti strap blouse would certainly chill me on most days. Perhaps it was adrenaline from the movie? "Hope I'm not sick," I lamented, feeling my mouth become a grimace. Certainly, I would not want Eiji-kun-or anybody else for that matter-to see me sick! What if I tried to kiss them like Kazuma did? Or got insane strength or strip, like Kazuma! (He thought he was a chick at a bar and that's all I wish to divulge...)
A glance at Eiji-kun revealed him to be scrutinizing me, as though looking for any symptoms of illness. The cold gave him a faint redness in his cheeks. Randomly, I appraised his deep indigo eyes in my mind.
"We don't want a repeat of last time," he grinned and chuckled weakly.
"Yeah, wait, what?" Had Kazuma told him something? Oh Angels, what did I do?
"When I...took care of you the last time you...got sick," he said quietly, the baseball cap he was wearing shading his eyes but showing a definite rosy complection. Eiji-kun was turned away from me, the way an ashamed child might when his mother learned that they did something naughty. He took care of me? HE TOOK CARE OF ME?
"What-" My voice came out high and strained so attempted cough and calm myself down. "What did I do?" Instead of calm, it came out as a threat. This didn't so much as startle Eiji-kun. He glanced at me, the light letting me view only one of his eyes. It may have been the light that made his blush darker.
"You..." he inhaled sharply and chanted what may have been nervous "Nyas" several times under his breath. He closed the one eye which I could see, and inhaled sharply. This DEFINITELY did not help my ever growing consciousness. Then, all of a sudden, he laughed. A very sudden and boisterous laugh. Not nervous at all. "Isn't is SO weird?"
I felt weird by being left out of whatever was going on within that odd red haired scalp of his.
"What? What's weird?" Actually, I didn't feel weird. Annoyed was closer to the feeling.
He looked at me, ecstatic face fully revealed in the light.
"That we weren't friends before this! We didn't even talk, but now we're really good friends!" I thought about it. I laughed. "And, it's weird!"
The truth of it, however, quickly sobers my spirits. "But what happened when you took care of me while I was sick?"Just then, Eiji-kun was saved by the bell. I mean, literally, because my ring tone was a church bell.
Flipping it open revealed the number to be that of my apartment building, likely Mrs. Tsuyukawa.
"Hello"-I paused to mouth how Eiji-kun was not getting off that quickly, who was celebrating with a fist pump-"Tsuyukawa-san?"
"Hello? Saitou-san, I'm sorry. I might be late-Takahashi-san needs babysitting again." I rolled my eyes. Takahashi-san was an often busy father of three boys who were the nuisance of the entire building. I never learned their names but learned to never put packages outside my door for fear that they would either open, urinate on, or throw my packases into the parking lot from the second floor.
I bit my lip. "How late?"
"Maybe to one AM at the earliest..." Her voice was not apologetic in the least.
"Um...let me check with a friend..." I turned to Eiji-kun. "Where's your ride?" After later analysis, I realized that this was rude of me to say.
"Don't have one. I wanted to say goodbye to you before you left, then walk home after."
"You live close," It wasn't a question. I put aside what to make of him attempting to bid me farewell this late into the night.
"Yup, nya," he nodded enthusiastically.
"Would you mind if I stayed over until the morning? I'll leave as quickly as possible," Though this seemed polite at the time, Eiji-kun shook his head vigorously.
Believing that he was objecting, I was about to tell Tsuyukawa-san so before he said, "You can stay as long as you'd like!"
"Oh, Tsuyukawa-san? I've got it covered. Thank you for the ride!"
~I~R~I~S~
It was possible that Kikumaru Eiji had the largest collection of toothpaste which I had ever, ever seen. Consealed in a two slight drawers beneath his bathroom sink were piles upon piles of toothpaste, organized by flavor, each filled to the brim. The oddest one there was a tie between dill pickle flavored and lime cheesecake.
"They're gross," I said, forgetting my manners. "Oh...Sorry..." Eiji-kun frowned thoughtfully, folding his arms in front of him and staring at my reflection in the mirror.
"Mm...You'll have to use the dill pickle one tomorrow then," he laughed at my utterly horrified face. A glance at said face in the mirror reminds me that I still have to ask Eiji-kun about what happened when he took care of me.
"Okay," I hammered my fist upon my open palm. "Time's a wasting'!" Without hesitating, as I definitely would have when I met Eiji-kun (oh my! I called him Kikumaru-san then!), I dragged him to his bed by his collar and tossed him on top of his blue sheets. I attributed by sudden physical bluntness to the fact that I waited outside, in the night, for over two hours.
"W-what are you-" I sat at his side and hushed him.
"What happened when I was sick," My eyes bore into his own-or at least I attempted to make them do so. "Tell the truth."
He sighed a deep, soul crushing sigh. For a moment, he looked everywhere but my eyes. Then Eiji-kun fixed his gaze, a sorry, pleading sight. "Do you remember when you had that dream? How Justin Timberlake came to your house?"
It dawned on me. Not at that moment but my body knew what had happened before my mind did. "Yeah...but what does that-" Several of the moments came back to me at once. Wearing just my underwear and a tanktop, then Justin telling me to change. Making him get me ramen and water. He propped me up on a wall to give me water, had trouble with putting me down...and he caught me at some point...and in return I..."Ah."
That singular syllable sounded dumb and rather dull as it came out. Which was odd because I felt SO much more about that. A burning in my face and something like electricity and puke combined within my stomach. In return for Justin Timberlake catching me, I ki-kissed him and told him that I loved him...But did I really think that what happened was a dream? Was it real?
A glance at Eiji-kun's face said yes. His cheeks were inflamed, nearly matching his hair, his deep blue eyes focused upon a poster in his room. The bandaid on his cheek was peeling. Then he laid down, hands behind his head, face looking away from me. This action forced me off the bed, but I was too stunned to register it.
MY KISSING VIRGINITY WAS TAKEN AWAY.
"You were my first kiss..." Eiji-kun's voice was quiet, but flustered and unaccusing. Eh... Eh... EHHH? I was somebody's-well, not somebody, Eiji-kun's-first kiss...and he was mine... Huh. I couldn't even couldn't even remember my first kiss. I COULDN'T EVEN REMEMBER MY FIRST FREAKING KISS! "Nya."
At somepoint I apparently sat because I was on the floor, my head resting againt Eiji-kun's bright yellow bedside post. Eiji-kun, in the meantime, was not moving but had somehow managed the fetal position.
Then, rather than angry or shocked, I felt sorry for him. I was the one who took his first kiss rather than someone who he truly loved. Me, who had only been his friend for less than a semester. Surely, he should have been upset with me. Actually, he'd had a couple of months to talk to me about that, and many oppurtunities.
The school beach trip...the tennis games I managed to stay for...the end of the summer festival...the movie...so why hadn't he? Maybe he was...too nice. Maybe I totally forgot that Kikumaru Eiji was my friend, that we weren't the best of friends and that I'd only had one friend before him and Fuji-kun and Raki-chan. I was complicating things, wasn't I?
Saitou Katsumi, me, was an ordinary girl who made friends. She, or I, used to have a crush on one and was semi-dating one beyond the knowledge of everyone else. It was just an ordinary middle school story!
Suddenly, I felt at peace, like I'd seen the light or something. A Hallelujah burst into something like warmth in my chest, transforming the room into a singular, beautiful light!
"Nya!" That single self-administered nya was enough to break the silence and make Eiji-kun roll over and look at me. For a second I could only stare at him, taking in his features. His usually side spiked hair was sagging on one side but regular on the other. Eiji-kun's eyes face was paler than I was used to and made his eyes seem darker, even creepy. The paleness was probably because he'd been asleep, maybe napping.
"Did-" Eiji-kun looked shocked, even amazed. Then sunshine burst out of the pearly gates. A bird started to call out it's harmonious glow. Or that's at least what it looked like he saw, I supposed. "You just said Nya!"
"Yes, yes I did!" Then I grinned, like I'd not grinned in some months because everything seemed clear and crisp and clean and neat and beautiful. Hell, even Eiji-kun was a freaking Adonis! "I've seen the light!"
"Hoi...hoi..." His arm lifted half and inch then slapped his thigh and slid down. Eyes half closed and unable to even be excited, I supposed that he must have been very tired. Perhaps that was because he had to sit through a horror movie (though he obviously disliked him) and had spun around that lamp post so many times that it could have made an exotic dancer dizzy... that seemed about right.
For some odd reason, I smiled and calmly said, "Go to bed, Eiji," which was odd because I'd not meant to. Without argument my order was soon fulfilled. Within seconds, his dark circled eyes closed and soon even his skin began to be less pale. Why was it pale?
...
'HOLY CRAP! IT'S ONLY 39 DEGREES! HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THAT? OMG!' But then the deep scarlett jacket of Kikumaru Eiji's sister, Misako, became obvious. What had he said earlier? It get's really cold at night so here's a jacket? Something like that...
I glanced at him, almost daringly. (Why was it daring?) He only wore a bright white t-shirt and a pair of boxers-looking plaid shorts. He wasn't wearing his blanket. In fact, it was trapped below him. Should I have woken him up and made him put it on? The dark circles convinced me otherwise. Could I have even managed to pull the blanket without disturbing him? More than that, was I strong enough?
This time my stick thin arms-still ridiculously small beneath the fur trimmed coat-convinced me otherwise. As if a blanket was laying somewhere around the incredibly neat room, I ventured a thorough stare around. Sports magazines and video game consoles around the television...a CD for some girl J-pop band called something candy related...a rainbow of papers and sticky notes on the desk...another sports magazine and a nearly empty water bottle on the nightstand...AHA! A closet! But...what if his underwear was in there? Or dirty magazines or something?
In a lot of shonen harem manga that I'd read, the guy ALWAYS had dirty magazines somewhere. The girl usually burned them out of some sort of ridiculous jealousy thing. Would I do that if I found dirty magazines in my boyfriend/potential boyfriend/very, very oblivous crush's room? I didn't wish to find out.
So, I decided to test my strenghth with the blanket, which was tucked in very, very neatly into his bed, beneath...him...Crap.
Like most people on television about to do something difficult, I rubbed my hands together (although I didn't see a point) and took a deep, deep breath. Then I began to tilt Kikumaru, slowly and gently, which is very difficult with an adolescent young man. I began with the head and shoulders, pulling the baby blue blanket out slowly...then the back...and afterward I got frustrated and pushed his entire body on the wall which his bed was leaning up against. After that it was MUCH easier to pull the blankets out, push him back down and tuck him in.
Absently, I pushed a stray strand of red hair from his eye. It wasn't as dark...speaking of tiredness, how did I not wake him up?
'Holy cow!' I thought. 'It's three AM?' How had I stayed up without realizing it? Was I that emotionally indulged with myself that I had spent several hours brooding over my nonpotent relationship with a boy who was just a friend and nothing more? Was I so narcissistic that I'd totally ignored a movie and my friends to nearly cry in a bathroom about said relationship?
The answer was yes, by the way.
And...when I thought about it...was it creepy that I had just fixed Eiji-kun's hair? No...no...maybe? Why had I-Oh.
Maybe I wasn't over him...
No...
Maybe the reason that I had done that was because I'd never been over him and that there was a reason I'd thought so. Maybe my feelings were different than I'd believed. Like, say, it wasn't friendship that I'd felt.
Could it have been, say, perhaps, maybe...love? Of a motherly type, of course.
~I~R~I~S~
Salty- Very uneventful and yet eventful, wouldn't you say? I don't know how I'm going to fit it in but I promise more events and maybe some TENNIS ACTION?