Note: Sorry for the wait...

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to these characters.

Title: Stockholm Syndrome

2: Day Two

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The hanabira swims past the windshield. Mt Bucho winks past. We're steering through the mountains. We're taking the long route. We were on the train, but the closest stop still left us three hours from the beach, by bus. So we rented a nice car close by to the train station.

She rolls down her window, and puts her elbow on the rim, letting her arm hang out, fingers cupped on the off chance that it hits a stray hanabira(1). Her hair tied into one of those sloppy buns that somehow veers away from the image of a tired homemaker and into one of a tired intellectual, something sexy and mysterious, though i know every inch of her...

Somehow, she is still a mystery. An enigma. My puzzle.

We zoom through the mountains and pass by the countryside just for the hell of it. We smile at the maccha fields and the premature koi flags set up for boys day. The sakura season is just winding down. We're headed for the beach. I can smell the ocean before i see it. She lifts her nose to the air and I glance as the mastecloid muscles in her neck, her swanlike neck, long and thin and glowing. It's frail. She's fragile. It's my fault. And remorse...

Self-hatred taps at my shoulder and blows in my ear... But then, just before I am consumed by my own misgivings, she turns to me and flashes her pearly whites, and I break through that darkness. And just like that our day at the beach begins. She pushes a few loose strands of hair behind her ear and hops out of her seat. If I could just look her in the eyes, I'd be saved...

The sun's head creeps over the horizon and red and orange dance over the surface of the big blue. She screams to greet the sun, and opens her arms wide. "Misterrrr Suuuuuuuuunnn!"(2)The rays lick her skin and she glows. She is luminescent... The light comes from her.

I pull my eyes from her glory and greet the rising sun with a familiar grin... this was definitely necessary. I turn off the car, putting the keys in the pocket of my hoodie and start walking to catch up. A murmer from her stops me in my tracks...

"Ocean."

She says it, coming out as smooth as the breeze washing over us. "Umi, umi, umi, umi..."(3) She repeats it like a mantra as she walks forward slowly, her feet traipsing through the sand, feeling it, appreciating the friction. She stomps through the whitewash, making deep impressions in the soft, wet sand.

Just then, she looks over her shoulder at me.

There is no smile on her lips. The laughter is absent from her eyes, but replaced with something else. Her eyes tell me she needed me here. She needed this.

Her lips part slightly, just in the middle...

For a second, I regretted not coming at night: getting busy in the sand with her was a long-lived fantasy of mine... But I know that would ruin everything this trip was supposed to do for her. I push back the throbbing in my chest, and I smile at her.

Before I know it I'm running full speed, pushing sand behind me. The water is at thigh level for her and I tackle her into the sea.

She laughs, from the gut, and the ring fills me with bright tones of optimism.

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We played like that for hours. We looked around with the goggles I'd brought. I searched for pretty shells while Sunako stalked schools of fish. She chased down a shark about to eat a beautiful lone trout. My heart leapt out of my chest, but she merely punched him, and set him on his way.

Amazing, frightening woman.

We built a five-foot tall sand castles and took pictures in front of it, posing as king and queen of an amphibian oligarchy. I struck a particularly awkward pose that made my ribs jut out like gills and Sunako roared with laughter. I followed suit, but too late. Because as my laughter climaxed, hers died down pathetically into what i knew to be her solemn smile and snicker.

And she was looking past me. But she wasn't seeing the horizon, she was looking beyond it, through it to a world that now only existed in her memory...

The look on her face changed, shimmered into a familiar sneer and nostalgia ran through my bones...

So it was a world that was still alive and thriving in our memories...

The five of us, running through adventure after chaotic adventure in the Nakahara mansion. The Charismatic Four and The Crazy Sunako of Morii High.

"How do you think..." She starts, then inhales the ocean breeze. I held my breath, anxiety paralyzing me. "How do you think Oda is doing?"

Ahhhh, to the start of it all...

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(1) hanabira: flower petals that float on the breeze. (2) I actually wanted her to shout Ohi-sama: hi means sun. Ohi-sama is what little kids call the sun, it's like saying, Mr. Sun. (3) Umi: ocean

Short. But better than nothing, right?

I'll update again soon. They might come in small parts like this for a bit. I've actually found a way to type up to 1000 characters on my cell, so I've been writing on the subway, or whenever I can.

PLEASE tell me what you think!!

Peace and love,

NerdSavvy