Leon here with another installment of Distance, and I want to thank all my readers who are enjoying this story; especially my reviewers. First of all I want to say that I've actually been rather surprised at the, mostly, warm reception that Ayano has received, and I say this because most people, myself included, on a whole seem to not like original characters. On that note I would like to add that this chapter is a Takeru/Ayano one, and that is just to add more confliction on how this story is going to end. There have been those who have expressed me wanting to end this story as a Takari regardless of what precedes it, and there are others who prefer the ending that comes with Takeru and Ayano being together. Chapters like this, at least in my opinion which I respect, work to make the eventual outcome harder for both sides.
Disclaimer: Don't own digimon.
Takeru found it weird to be going to a house to meet Ayano's family since pretty much everyone he knew, with the exception of Ayano herself of course, lived in an apartment. When he made it to the address that she had written on the piece of paper that Takeru was holding he had to do a double take since the description that she had given didn't really match what he saw. The 'house' was better described as a small mansion, and suddenly he felt extremely underdressed since he was dressed casually wearing only: jeans, a generic looking shirt, a jacket, and one of his trusty hats; this week's model being a flat cap that he had bought the other day. He was intimidated as he looked around at how grandiose, yet oddly refined her home looked, and as he made his way to the front gate of her property he had the slightest inclination that maybe wearing a hat to meet the parents of the girl he wanted to date would rub them the wrong way.
He walked up to the front gate, and as he was still deciding whether or not to pocket his hat, he pressed the buzzer to the intercom so that the gates would be unlocked for him; needless to say, he was surprised at he heard. There was a response on the intercom, but instead of hearing someone sophisticated speak to him as he would have expected; it sounded like two little girls were arguing. Takeru stood dumbfounded as he didn't really know what to do, and he found himself not liking the way he straightened up when he finally heard someone clearly address him over the intercom. There was a slight thought in the back of his mind that this type of life wasn't meant for him; that thought was quickly squashed.
"Hey are you nee-chan's boyfriend?"
He was about to answer the somewhat awkwardly asked question, but stopped when he heard a familiar voice chastise the little girl who had spoken. Takeru stifled a laugh finding it more than a bit funny hearing Ayano scold her, at least what he assumed anyways, little sister. Honestly it somewhat reminded him of Sora the way that Ayano sounded so very mom-like in that instant.
"Sorry about that Takeru-kun, I'll let you in."
The sound of a click later, Takeru found himself walking through the now open gate, and as he made his way to her front door, he found himself not liking the way that Ayano had addressed him. Granted Ayano was a stickler for manners, to the point where Takeru was sometimes annoyed by it, but the way she had said his name was much too formal for his taste. As he was about to knock on her front door, Takeru smiled when he saw Ayano open it. However, looking over her shoulder he could see two little girls, twins no less, trying to get a good view of him; he figured that their presence was why she had added the –kun.
"Hey."
To his delight it took just one word from him to get her to brightly smile, and as Ayano let him in Takeru took notice at how she was dressed. Honestly he was unsurprised that she was wearing a kimono with a floral design, but he felt both oddly underdressed and very intrigued when he saw how she had styled her hair. He had expected her to go for a more complex look, but what Ayano had done seemed to go for a surprisingly inelegant one instead. Her long hair seemed mostly normal with the exception of two long braids casually bordering each side of her face; what it lacked in grace it made up for in charm and Takeru admired it until he took a look at her figure. In a way that embarrassed even him, he thought it was shameless that all he wanted to do at the moment was see how Ayano looked without her kimono on. He wondered, when did he become such a pervert?
He went in for a kiss, but Takeru was surprised when Ayano stopped him and backed away. He glanced at her to see what was up with her since she was being a little distant with him, and she gave him a look that he thought meant something along the lines of 'not now'. Hearing giggling he looked over her shoulder, and saw the two little girls laughing at his misfortune. Truth be told, he didn't like Ayano's little sisters all that much from what he had seen of them, but he smiled making sure to put a good impression on all of his, hopefully, future girlfriend's family.
Takeru watched as Ayano backed away from him a little more, and he was amused at what happened next. She grabbed her two younger sisters and pushed them forward in Takeru's direction. He heard her whisper to them to introduce themselves, and then she started fussing with their hair and kimonos. He thought it was cute in an extremely overbearing sort of way, and he chuckled at the way the two girls seemed highly annoyed by their sister.
"Good evening, it is a pleasure to meet you," the girls paused as the one to Takeru's left spoke first, "I'm Ayako," there was a second pause and it seemed to signal that it was the other girl's turn, "and I'm Ayame," yet another pause, a breath, and both girl's again, "we hope that you enjoy yourself."
Personally, Takeru thought that the introduction sounded much too rehearsed because of the way that the two girls had spoken at the same time, but he found the respect they were showing to be even stranger due to their earlier snickering. They had their hands clasped in their laps with their eyes looking downwards as both of them bowed long and deep in a formal manner. Following their lead, Takeru removed his hat and put his hands at his side as he returned the bow.
With introductions aside Takeru decided that it was best if he just held onto his hat instead of putting it back on, and when he glanced back at Ayano she seemed to be pleased with her younger sisters. He watched as she shooed them away, and after taking off his shoes he put on some extra slippers that seemed to be set out for him. They stood awkwardly for a moment since Takeru didn't really know what to do on account of his feeling extremely out of place, but he felt better when Ayano smiled at him and led the way for them as they began to walk around her home to dawdle away at the time.
After a bit of walking around all the corridors that Ayano had in her 'house' one thing stuck out to Takeru; the art. The walls were covered with paintings and framed drawings to the point where it covered nearly every inch of every wall, but they stopped when they reached one wall in particular that had only a single painting hung up; and a small marble table in front of it. Takeru was going to say something, but thought better of it when he saw what was on the table: a place for incense, a plate of freshly made food, a name carved into the marble, and a photograph of a teenage boy.
Ayano went down on her knees in front of the marble table, and lit some incense before doing a small prayer. She didn't expect Takeru to follow her example since he had no idea what she was doing, but she was glad that he was being respectful and quiet. She felt bad since she was barely considering the fact that she might have put him in an uncomfortable position, and as she stood back up and Takeru she made sure to stand closer to him than necessary; somehow she knew that Takeru understood what she had just done.
"Do you like it?"
Takeru looked up at the painting knowing that that was what she was referring to, and he honestly wasn't lying knowing that he was going to say that he liked it. It wasn't that large of a painting, but he thought that it was fitting that it was alone on an otherwise empty wall. It was a painting of outer space; or rather a mound of dirt with a wilting flower growing on it as it was floating through outer space. Everything was so barren and so dark, but that single speck of color that was the flower in the mound seemed to define something that was very dear to him that ran the risk of sounding very cliché; hope.
"It's beautiful."
He looked down at Ayano, and he felt a twinge of bittersweet happiness when he saw her equally bittersweet smile. She was happy, but at the same time he could tell that she wasn't, and Takeru grabbed her hand since he wanted to let her know that he was there for her. She blushed and looked away from him, and Takeru was satisfied knowing he had succeeded.
"I think so too," Takeru noticed that she paused seeming like she wasn't sure if she wanted to finish what she was saying or not. He squeezed her hand, and felt something flutter inside him like it hadn't since Hikari when Ayano squeezed back, "it was the last thing Denjiro painted before he died."
As something inside Takeru stirred, he couldn't help but feel partially guilty that he had forgotten about Ayano's dead brother. Now that he was thinking about it, he remembered when it actually happened during their first year of high school. Ayano had been in the same class as Daisuke, Hikari, and himself, and it was barely now that he recalled how his almost girlfriend had taken a few weeks of school off following Denjiro's death.
He had no idea how he would take it if Yamato died, but Takeru knew that part of him would have died along with his brother. The two of them had talked about Denjiro a few times before, half of those times with Ayano almost crying, and the part that always rang through Takeru's mind was Ayano's soft comments that Denjiro had died too violently. She said it so softly it was to a point where it seemed that maybe she didn't even believe her own words; that or she hoped that her own words weren't true.
Takeru gave Ayano a tug on her hand, and that was to let her know that maybe it would be best if they wandered off to a different part of the house. She seemed to silently agree with him, and began to walk with Takeru, still holding his hand, as she led him to show him something else. Even though he didn't actually say it, Takeru was starting to wonder what Ayano's other brother was going to think of him.
After a few more minutes of seemingly aimless walking the two of them ended up in what Takeru would have assumed was Ayano's living room due to the couches and the larger than necessary television. They sat down, neither of them actually wanting to watch anything, and they started to settle in and get comfortable with each other. However, said comfort was broken when Takeru felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.
Reaching into said pocket, Takeru pulled out his cell phone, and then he started grinning when he saw the text message. It was from Hikari, naturally of course, and the message was one wishing him luck with Ayano's family, and the end of the message even included one of those emoticons that look like its screaming. His smile was still huge and he was about to text back, but then stopped when he felt Ayano shuffle beside him.
"Tell Hikari-chan I said hello."
Hearing that the tone of Ayano's voice seemed to imply that she didn't actually want to say hello to Hikari, Takeru thought better of what he was doing and put away his phone. His evening with Ayano was starting to get pretty intimate in the emotions section, but now, with a single text message from Hikari, it seemed like everything was all for naught. However, he didn't blame his best friend since it's not like she sent him something with the intent of getting Ayano mad, but Takeru felt like punching himself in the face knowing that everything was his fault instead.
"How did you know it was Hikari?"
He knew he made another mistake when he saw how Ayano stiffened beside him, and he wished that she didn't take things with Hikari as personally as she did. He knew that it was hard and somewhat unfair of him to ask Ayano to be okay with his relationship with Hikari due to the many times he declared he was in love with her, but it was also unfair of Ayano to expect him to completely drop his best friend. His life had been full of Hikari, and even though he was now fitting a new girl into the mix, he knew that there was no way he could ever drop his old friend.
"Hikari?"
He sighed. This was not something that he wanted to talk, or argue, about with Ayano. They had had enough discussions about Hikari, most of them including Ayano bad mouthing her, and frankly Takeru was starting to get sick of it. There was no reason for them to talk about Hikari; she was a thing of the past. At least he thought so anyways.
"We made up."
Ayano looked away from him, and she couldn't help but feel insecurity bubbling up at the thought of Takeru and Hikari making up. Takeru had expressed love for her, not platonic but full scale love for Hikari, and Ayano knew she would never be fully okay with Takeru and her being friends. She wouldn't ask Takeru to ditch Hikari, but she made sure that he knew that his relationship to Hikari would hurt her at times. It was up to Takeru what he wanted to do.
"How come the only time you ever smile like that is when she's involved?"
Takeru opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it not really knowing what to say. He didn't even know that he was smiling, and yet it was true that he was. He stayed quiet hating the way that such an intimate time had now become a time of pointless arguing. He hated how Ayano ever so slightly moved away from him on the couch, but what he hated more was what she said next.
"If you're not serious about me, then I think it's better if you left before dinner."
He looked over at Ayano, and it bothered him that she was refusing to look at him back. What she had said was a challenge to him, and Takeru knew that he was going to do whatever he could to prevail in this challenge. For him, there was no other recourse.
"I'm not leaving."
He watched Ayano bite her lower lip as if she was thinking about what to do. She still didn't look at him, and she still didn't move any closer to him, but Takeru began to eye her as she straightened out her kimono. For a couple seconds all he could think about was how Ayano would look if said kimono was no longer on her body. Takeru shook off such thoughts before they interfered with what was going on.
"Do you still love her?"
It was obvious who Ayano was referring to, but honestly the question caught Takeru off guard. It was something that he hadn't thought about in a long time, it was something he had forced himself not to think about, and now that it was asked point blank he didn't know what to say.
"As a friend."
To say that Ayano seemed frustrated with his answer was an understatement, but her reaction actually surprised Takeru since he never expected something like that to come from her. She stared him down with eyes that were hurt and angry, and the look in said eyes made Takeru's insides turn in pain at the realization that he could cause such a look in a person that he cared about. He almost shivered when he heard her voice.
"Don't feed me that shit Takeru."
Takeru's eyes met Ayano's, and he knew what he had to do. His stupidity was causing pretty much everyone he knew, including himself, pain, and there was still a naïve side inside of him that still believed that love could fix this pain; that love still existed.
"I don't love her Aya."
It was an answer that both of them were surprised to hear, and yet it was an answer that both of them accepted. As soon as it came out of his mouth the tension between what they had been talking about seemed to disappear, and they began to once again get comfortable on the couch as they had been doing before Hikari came up in conversation. Honestly neither of them knew whether or not what Takeru had said was a lie, but as Ayano was leaning on him, as they let it sink in how much they cared about the other, they were willing to be naïve if it meant believing said lie. Maybe that's what love really is.
Well I would gladly like to know what you guys thought about the chapter that I just wrote. I hope it works to add the confliction that I wanted to bring into this story, and I suppose I should ask if there are any ways that any of you guys want to see me go? Be vocal if there's something you want to see happen in the story.
