When It Rains, It Pours
Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Chapter Seven: The "It" Moment
The ding of the tiny bell, resting on top of the café's front door, ripped her from her trance. Across from her, she saw that her companion was still having his one-sided conversation. She was sure she would feel guilty for not paying attention if she wasn't so numbed from the dullness of whatever it was he was talking about. She nodded along, knowing she at least owed him that, and smiled at times she hoped was appropriate.
He didn't seem to mind, though. If anything, he didn't seem to even notice her sitting across from him. She figured - like usual- he was nervous, but decided that there had to be a better way to spend her break from work than to be babbled at for an hour. She glanced at her watch, noticing that her chatty lunch mate had already wasted a half-hour of her break.
Tsubaki was just in a middle of explaining the foundation of some martial art type when Kaname kindly excused herself to use the restroom.
"Oh, of course," he said, waving her away while laughing awkwardly, "Morihei Ueshiba can wait a few minutes."
Walking past the bathrooms and towards the cashier, the head of Kyouko turned and faced her.
"Are you coming back from break so soon, Kaname?" she asked. "You still have time, you know."
"I know," Kaname said, fiddling with a stray thread from her apron. "But I'm afraid to go back to that booth."
Kaname watched as her friend cranked her neck to see the back of Tsubaki's head. "Is Tsubaki giving you a hard time?"
"No, he's just-"
Before Kaname could answer further, the tiny bell on the door rang as an elderly couple made their way into the restaurant as quickly as they could.
"Yikes," the man said, coming in after holding the door for his wife. "It's really coming down outside."
"The worse storm I've seen in my entire life," the woman said as she adjusted her hat with shaky, manicured hands. "I'm surprised we didn't drown on her way in here from the car."
Kaname walked away from the register and towards the door to close it behind the couple. She glanced outside quickly to survey the weather, but her eyes instant fell upon the figure sitting on a bench across the street.
Instantly she felt anger swell in her, as she clenched her tiny fists together and ripped herself away from the door. She hurried to the back of the café, grabbing her jacket and a spare umbrella, and marched out towards the front of the restaurant.
"Kaname, where are you going?" Kyouko asked after sitting the new costumers to their table. "It's pouring outside, and you still have Tsubaki waiting for you!"
She ignored her coworker and hurried outside, opening her umbrella in a clumsy rush. She briefly looked up and down the street before she ran across to the man sitting on the bench.
"Sousuke, what are you doing out here?"
Pretending not to have heard, he pulled his hood over his head, closed his eyes, and pushed his hands deeper into the pockets of his jacket.
"Don't ignore me, I'm talking to you."
He opened his eyes quickly before raising an eyebrow to her. "Permission to speak?"
"Granted!" She nearly hissed, "Now, what are you doing here?"
Sousuke looked up at Kaname, through his soaked hair and the drops of rain, he realized he had no idea how to even start his apology. He knew he didn't want to seem dense, but being blunt would only dilute what he needed to say. Suddenly he thought back to basic interrogation tactics, and remembered the age old trick of reverse physiology.
"Better yet," Sousuke said motioning to the bench with a hand. "What are you doing here, Chidori?"
"I asked you first."
"I asked you second."
"Damn it Sousuke, you know how I hate it when you play games like this!"
He shrugged and went back to his silence, which probably annoyed her more than his evasiveness. He watched as she took a deep breath, obviously hoping to calm herself, before letting it out slowly.
"I'm not taking back what I said before," she said slowly. "So if you're here to charm me, it wont work."
"Why do you always have to think I'm up to something?"
Kaname was taken aback; it wasn't like Sousuke to flat out say anything. Unless, of course, it was how to dismantle a nuclear warhead or escape from a flaming cargo plane, those he had no problem with.
"Well, I mean," Kaname mumbled as she twirled her hair nervously. "You always are up to something. And usually it's something that's going to blow up and cause mass hysteria."
"Alright fine," he said. "But why can't a guy just sit on a bench and relax without there being anything weird about it?"
"In a middle of a downpour?"
"It was hot out before."
"It's April, Sousuke, how hot can it get?"
"In Egypt, Chidori, April onwards temperatures are usually around 100 to 120 degrees Fahrenheit."
"We aren't in Egypt."
"Whatever," he turned away from her again, "You never understand me anyway."
"Maybe that's our problem."
An uncomfortable silence washed over them, only broken when a car would pass. Kaname alternated what hand held the umbrella, and looked down to see Sousuke looking up at her.
"Chidori," he asked. "Aren't you cold?"
"Aren't you wet?" she replied.
They sat in silence again before Sousuke once again decided to break it, "I wanted to talk to you, but I felt odd walking into the restaurant considering you told me never to step foot in there again."
Kaname turned to him, "Why did you want to come and talk to me, Sousuke?"
"Because you were obviously emotionally distressed, so I believed the best form of action would be to figure out the cause and –"
"You figured out what the notebook meant, didn't you?"
Sousuke's mouth instantly shut and his eyes quickly looked away.
"Sousuke," Kaname shook her head as she spoke. "In life, there are things called "It" moments. An accident happens, you get sick, your dog dies…there's a life before "It" and a life after "It". What happened in class…what you read…the way we acted about it…that was an "It" moment. Whatever happens now, we can't go back to where we were before. "
"Chidori…"
"Now that you know how I feel…it's too different now."
"I know…but perhaps there was a reason for that. It could be that the way we were before was not sufficient enough, or strong enough." He paused, trying to put his emotions into words. "I am not going to deny that what I read and understand now isn't a turning point, but what if this change in our relationship wasn't for the worst, or even anything at all?"
"What are you asking?" Kaname's grip on her umbrella tightened. Her eyes locked onto Sousuke's as he stood from the bench. "To ignore what I feel and act like nothing happened? You want us to just move on? I can't just pretend something isn't there when it is, Sousuke. I spend every day lying to my friends and family about being a human fountain of do-it-yourself-weapons-of-mass-destruction. I can't ignore this particular big pink elephant, too."
"Negative, Chidori."
"Then what do you plan to do, Mr. Problem Solver?"
"I want to do the opposite," he replied, the edges of his mouth curved downwards sternly. Drops of rain quickly flowed down his face, pooling into the corner of his mouth. "I want to remember, and to learn from it. I want us to be a different than we were two days ago, I want to be after the "It" moment. I want to try this new way, instead of fumbling in vain to go back to how we were. As hard as people try, they'll never be able to go back to how things were, and often time is just wasted by trying. And you and I both know that time…is not something we have to spare. "
Kaname shook her head, "Sousuke…"
"I want to do something else…I..." he paused; his gray-blue eyes met her gaze. "I want to work with the now, not the then."
She fell silent, and Sousuke mustered up enough courage to put his hands on her shoulders, "Please Chidori…let's try this."
"I'm not sure…what you're asking to do…it's a bit of a big step. What if it doesn't work…if you get reassigned and we're separated again? I couldn't handle it before when you left, but if we're…"
A flash of lighting burst through the sky and was quickly followed by a roar of thunder. The rain was falling harder.
"Is what you wrote in that notebook the truth?"
The skies answered his question before she could with another deafening crash of thunder.
"What was that?" Kaname yelled over the rumble. "I can't hear you over the thunder!"
"Is what you wrote the truth?!"
The thunder continued, growing louder.
"THE TOOTH?!"
"NO! TRUTH!" he yelled louder, over the storm. "T-R-U-T-H!"
"SHUT UP, SOUSUKE, I CAN FRIGGIN' SPELL!"
"IS IT?"
"YES, I MEANT IT ALL!" she paused before asking, "WHAT ABOUT YOU?"
"WHAT? TWO?"
"NO! YOU!"
"I CARE ABOUT YOU VERY MUCH!"
"HOW MUCH IS VERY MUCH?"
"MORE THAN I CAN DESCRIBE IN A SETENCE BEING SCREAMED OVER A THUNDER STORM WHILE STANDING ACROSS THE STREET FROM YOUR PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT!"
"WHO'S A PLACE OF ENJOYMENT!?"
"NO! I SAID EMPLOYMENT!"
"WH-" Kaname's yells were stopped by Sousuke pulling her towards him and crushing his lips to hers. He kissed her roughly, whether it was from his irritation of their miscommunication or him actually showing her his feeling was unclear to her, but frankly she didn't care. His lips molded to her in a warm, almost familiar feeling. Kaname had kissed only a few boys in her life, but this one felt bizarrely right.
Kaname's umbrella dropped from her hands, falling onto the sidewalk and rolling towards the abandoned bench. Sousuke hand gripped tightly around the back of her neck and the other wrapped securely around her waist with confidence. Kaname noted how his lips were slightly chapped – apparently even militarily nutcases could get chapped lips. She smiled into the kiss, realizing, liking how human such an inhuman idiot like Sousuke could be. Feeling her smile, Sousuke quickly broke away from the kiss, staring down at her beaming face with a puzzled expression.
Still trapped in his embraced, she looked up at him, with a strange daze expression. Sousuke didn't know whether or not to let her go just yet, for he knew that the moment she was free a deadly blow from the harisen was guaranteed.
They stood in silence, until Sousuke cleared his throat nervously.
"Uh… Chidori?"
"Yes, Sousuke?"
"Was that a…uh… "It" moment?"
She nodded.
"Was that a…um… negative "It" moment?"
She shook her head.
"Permission to repeat?"
After a momentary pause, Kaname lifted herself on her toes; he could feel her hot breath on his lips.
"Affirmative, solider."
Done.
And by that I mean more than my hiatus, this story is officially done. Hope you enjoyed this
I actually had the draft sitting on my laptop for months and but I just kept putting off updating this thing for…well…a few months. Life gets in the way…but now I'm officially going to college so I have no excuse.
I'm sorry for doing that, I'm terrible to you guys and I'm so sorry. And you all still read and reviewed and put me on your alerts…what blind faith you all had in me. It's so beautiful that I may just cry all over my keyboard!
I love you, but you should still review because you love me too.