In My Life- Now all mopey… boo-hoo!
I'd like to announce the last chapter whole-heartedly sucked. All I succeeded in doing was raping foreshadowing, but other than that…
Hopefully, this one's much better. Makoto all the way!
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Makoto started to rub a towel through his sopping mop of hair as he reached forward to shut off the kitchen sink. Shooting a glare to Cliff, he let a little murmur past his lips.
"Bastard."
Cliff took up a nervous, long smile as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Actually, Ann told me to do it."
There was no mercy. Makoto kept his glare fixed on Cliff, looking down on his gentle brown eyes. The two stayed frozen, and Cliff was no longer able too manage even the weakest smile when Makoto leaned closer in. Cliff backed up against the kitchen sink, finding no where to go but down.
"Isn't that cute?" Makoto muttered, leaning down to meet up with Cliff. His fist flew up, Cliff locking up with tense muscles with Makoto's fist drawn up right under his nose. Cliff pulled through, once again cracking out a flimsy smile.
"Ummm… I guess this is a good time to tell you that Ann asked me to drop an invitation to her birthday party while I was here," he said with a nervous laugh. "It's on the seventeenth."
Makoto nodded.
"Yeah, I don't do birthday parties," he replied flatly. He finally backed off of Cliff, letting the boy stand up straight. Cliff shoved his hands in the pockets of his tattered over shirt, following the nasty farmer boy to the living room.
"I've got dirt on you!" Cliff called out from behind, Makoto ignoring him. "You're not the badass that you make yourself out to be!" Makoto huffed as he sat down at his piano bench, pulling open the lid to the keyboard. "You play the piano while you sit around and lament about a love you won't even let yourself have, you… sappy bastard!!"
Makoto gave him one quick, cold gaze, but turned to the piano and started into his etudes, leaving Cliff with his arms crossed and feet planted. With a glance cast to the side, Makoto kept playing.
"What's with this Ann business, anyway?" he asked as he took a quick peek at the sheet music. He didn't notice the little smile that turned Cliff's face.
"She's been great to me," he replied. "We have these long, long, long conversations, and we agree on a lot of things. I help out around the Inn, I watch her work… I sigh like a love-struck little boy when I think of her, I—"
"Yeah. That's nice," Makoto cut in.
Cliff cocked his head, his eyebrow nonchalantly twitching as he said.
"You keep saying that." With that, he let out a smile. "I know I can't stay in one place for too long, but if I had the money, I'd stay here for her!" He turned back to Makoto, knowing better than to interrupt his practicing. "But what about you? You've got three years in this place, and then you can live here after that!"
The music cut right off in a wreck as Makoto quickly pulled the cover back down.
"What makes you think they'd let me stay?" he asked suddenly, gazing straight into nothing.
"What makes you think they wouldn't?" Cliff asked. "They should like you in time."
Makoto muttered something in reply before speaking up.
"But I'm not taking her chances. Besides..." He paused for a moment as he fished for something else to say. "She likes the Doctor anyway."
There was nothing to say in reply; the only thing Cliff could do was stand around and wonder as his smile dissipated.
"But… umm…" Makoto slowly murmured. "You should tell Ann." He paused, looking up at Cliff with lost eyes. "I guess… umm… it wouldn't be too hard to find a job here."
With that, Cliff managed another smile, this time with an accompanying laugh.
"And if anything, I could sit around with a cup and my weeping guitar!" he chuckled out with the snap of his fingers.
Makoto stood up and opened the top of the bench up, digging around through a pile of piano technique books as Cliff watched on. Finally, Makoto pulled out a small, white envelop with Cliff's name on it, pushing it at the recipient.
"What's this?" Cliff asked, taking it.
Makoto sat back down at his piano bench, opening up the lid again.
"Money. For taking care of the farm," he replied curtly, starting up another etude. "That'll flit for you for a bit." He kept playing as Cliff bent down and grabbed his bag. A bit more playing, and as Cliff was about to head out the door Makoto spoke. "Drop by in the fall. It's gonna be hell."
Cliff thanked Makoto for the pay, turning to say goodbye before leaving. As soon as Cliff was gone, Makoto got up and headed to make himself dinner, the last decent thing he would be able to eat for a while.
"Cliff pegged me down. Damnit, it's true! But I still stand by hiding it all away. I can manage that.
I'm now off to take a walk along the beach."
-From Makoto's Journal
The sun had started a colorfully noticeable dip westward, and not even the salty breezes did nothing to alleviate the brick-oven heat down by the beach. Makoto leaned back a bit, maneuvering his feet under and through the sand. There wasn't much to be done between the first tomato and corn harvest and the pineapple harvest, for which deep down he begged would go well.
It didn't seem too farfetched that it might have even been possible to hard boil on the sidewalk an egg in the eye-melting humidity.
The ferry bellowed, just as seagulls cawed and people called their goodbyes. Makoto took a glance over to the dock but kept his focus there for a moment, squinting. Barley and May were still waving as the ferry trudged its way out to sea. With a shrug, he turned back to staring ahead at nothing as the heat sweltered more, dancing on his skin.
"G'day there," a voice cut through the sizzling ambiance. Makoto turned his head up to see Kai standing above him. The ferry was long gone, Barley and May long since left. "What brings you here, Makoto?"
Makoto shrugged.
"Just relaxing. Not much to do."
Nodding in agreement, Kai let out a grin.
"Yeah… summer here's like that. I'm working the rest of the year." He grabbed at his shirt and yanked it off over his head before tossing it aside. "You know that Won bastard's got himself a good rep in this town."
With a groan, Makoto said:
"I think that's all he was after in the first place."
Kai kicked off his sandals, brushing them aside with a sweep of his foot.
"Yeah man," he commented. He headed off for the ocean, turning back to Makoto with a skip of his feet. "Wanna swim?" he asked.
Makoto shrugged again, quickly drawing himself to his feet. As Kai splashed into the water, Makoto pulled off his own shirt while attempting to yank his sneakers off his with feet. Finally, he darted off to the waves, tossing himself into the foaming crests.
Once his mop topped head surfaced, he felt the waves to be rather refreshing. Kai let out a laugh, serving his head over to the docks, unexpectedly jumping back. Makoto arched an eyebrow, treading as he watched Kai.
"Makoto…" Kai hissed. "There's a… there's a corpse under that dock!" He feigned a frantic tread backwards, only to receive a helping of salt water to clean out his eyes.
Makoto spent some spare swimming, mostly to seek sanctuary from the heat. His Russian side was objected to thermometer popping days, but the sea provided relief.
Popuri would often show up to the beach as well, and Makoto silently thanked the forces of nature for that. The pink haired one would run right into the Seaside Lounge, whether to see Kai or that she just enjoyed corn-on-the-cob and sno-cones, Makoto didn't give a single thought.
Of course, there was the thought that he had to show up to Ann's birthday party the next day with a gift of some sort.
"Tomorrow's Ann's birthday, and the party. I spent a lot of time working on Ann's gift. It's gotta be perfect! I'm still not done, but I hope she likes it! Then, I hope I can tell her how I feel. My head's filled with so many things to say, but I can't figure out how to say it! Well, must continue working on her gift."
-From Cliff's Journal
Cliff set his journal and pen aside in the grass, reaching to his other side to pick up his guitar. After a quick tuning, he immediately launched into his playing.
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And Makoto thought that he'd have to find some sort of token, until Saibara exploited his status, or downright raped it, as town slave. Makoto found himself at the beach just before noon the next day, digging a rather large bottle rocket into the sand.
The conversation went like this:
"I need you to test fireworks for the festival."
"Eh?"
"I'd ask my grandson to do it, but he's a good for nothing bastard.. And while you're also a bastard., I believe in morals. We must, as a community, band together to punish our resident bastard."
Testing fireworks was best left to pyrotechnicians, or even better left to pyromaniacs. As soon as the ember from the match made contact with the fuse, it flared up and alerted Makoto with a hiss before giving him time to dash away.
Sand. Someone had rotated the no longer horizontal horizon.
"Looks like the fuse is faulty," he heard Saibara grumble from above him. The shadow cast its way into his eyes, and relief came as the sun was blocked out.
"Alright Ogawa, get up. We're testing another!" He gave Makoto a swift kick in the side before stepping over him.
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About seventy thousand and umpteen tests later, Makoto stumbled his way into the Inn and dragged himself into the first chair he set eyes on at the counter. For a moment, he took no notice that nobody was around. He looked around, and thought that the party had ended.
"The party's over," Doug announced, stating the obvious for Makoto. "Everyone went home, and Ann and Cliff are upstairs." He made his way behind the counter, took out a dish rag from his back pocket and a glass from the shelf, and began polishing the glass a new, smooth layer. "You're just in time to do the dishes," he grumbled.
Right at that moment, Ann came barreling down the stairs, dragging a Cliff mostly scared of losing his footing. She led right to the door, calling out to her father over her shoulder.
"Cliff and I are going to the beach, dad!" she announced, taking a quick stop. "I'll be sure to get back before the boozers come by!"
For a moment, Doug rested the glass on the counter. A slow smile leaked onto his face, finally turning up to a chuckle.
"Forget about the boozers!" he told her. Ann gave a huge grin to her father, and then turned to lead a waving and broadly smiling Cliff out the door.
Doug watched them leave, folding his arms over his chest with a look of approval on his face.
"I never thought it'd happen," he half-said to Makoto. Makoto sort of nodded as Doug let out another laugh. "Looks like I won't have to sell her to be a concubine after all."
Makoto knew he wasn't hesitant about auctioning his seventeen-year-old daughter off to the first bidder. He picked up a cork coaster from a small basket on the counter, flipping it between his palms while Doug continued with his glass.
"So, what made you miss Ann's party?" Doug asked with a bit of a gruff.
"Saibara had me testing fireworks all day," Makoto replied, still flipping the coaster around.
Doug set down the glass in front of Makoto, and took out a pitcher of ice water. "The Fireworks fest, eh?" he said casually, filling up Makoto's glass. "Are you taking anyone?"
Makoto arched an eyebrow.
"Taking anyone?"
"Another dating festival," Doug informed him. Makoto nodded a bit.
"My expertise," he muttered with a sigh. "Well, I do have someone in mind, but I'll probably just go alone."
Doug shrugged a bit.
"You could do that too. But you should ask this person. Hell, even Cliff got over himself!" Makoto gripped his glass to take a sip of water, bring it back down to say:
"If I was drunk."
With an admonishing stare, Doug replied.
"You're on your own there, Makoto. Water's all you're getting for a while."
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Oooooohhh… the inner turmoil! I'm finding it hard to regain grip on this story after the sheep bit. I feel no reason to be too funny right now either, although I think I could've worked a lot more humor into the tomato festival. Meh, can't bat a thousand every time.
Thanks to Anime26Angel for reviewing. Therefore, she gets a Makoto plushie.
I have one left, so the first one to review gets it! XD Everyone else gets sheep. On another note, I'm probably gonna take a little time off this to regroup. But, I've got another fic planned... a song fic that I hope will knock your socks AND shoes off! If that's possible...