Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to anything.
A/N: Hey guys! Part II as promised. Part III is still a work in progress, and therefore it may take just a little longer and it may be just a little shorter (then again I was worried that Part II would be too short, but LOOK AT IT NOW!) Anyways, I do understand that this story is horribly cliche (does it bother anyone else when there's no accent over the "e" in cliche?) but I still wrote it and I am fully prepared to post and accept criticism. After all, real authors do that. And after all, aren't we real authors too? Heehee, but I digress.
Anyhow, here's your Mangaquest and Soulsilver! 3
Rant over! Read on!
-Silvia
Part II: Of Stargazers and Skylarkers
Wednesday, February 12th
Crystal's homeroom
7:13 A.M.
Ordinarily, Crystal Hiradaira would never message someone during class. She was a girl of strict principals, and felt increasingly tainted if she ever went against rules (even if she wasn't caught.) But class hadn't yet started, and she figured that in her case, it was understandable. So quickly she typed out a message.
Hey you alright this morning?
It only took a few seconds to reply. Crystal had told the recipient—her little sister, Lee—time and again to keep her phone on (although silent to not get caught) in case something major happened and Crystal needed to get ahold of her.
A reply came in: Fine, dear. Quit your worrying, I can practically see that concerned frown of yours.
Crystal smiled and tugged absent-mindedly on her star-shaped earrings. She wrote: I'll text you when I'm out of school.
And she closed her phone just as the bell rang.
"Club tomorrow, Hiradaira," said Silver Chitanda as he passed her by on the way to his seat.
"You don't need to remind me," she replied good-naturedly. The two of them were rather decent friends, both in the Sciences Club and both rather quiet. He shrugged at her and took his seat.
Crystal would describe herself as studious, to say the least. Her notebooks were filled with elaborate records, her binders fat with worksheets and old quizzes, her report cards generous. Much of her time was spent studying (and yet people thought that she liked to study. The thing was that if she didn't study, she felt lazy, and she hated feeling lazy, so therefore, she always studied.)
So she spent the day scrawling away, and getting the usual cramp in her hand by lunch. She was on her way to the cafeteria when she passed by the music room and heard music filtering out. She figured band or orchestra was in session, before she realized it was just a single piano and a singer. Curiosity got the better of her, and so she peeked through the slightly-ajar door to see who the source of the beautiful song was. A raven-haired boy sat at the bench, playing away, and circled back to what seemed to be the first verse.
"The strangest of things keep happening,
And I don't understand
Most of the time.
But you come around,
And drag me all over town—
You had me falling from the very first line."
The chords changed slightly for the pre-chorus. Different, but still fitting.
"I'd say that it's fate, but I'd be pushing my luck,
And I guess that you're the only one who can change me.
So I'll stay around until you've had enough.
Yeah, I'll stay around for as long as you'll let me."
He had a great voice, Crystal would admit. Strong, but pleasant. He slid easily into the chorus, and Crystal inched the door open just a little farther.
"Starlight
Doesn't compare to the way that you smile, and the way that you stare,
With your bright eyes,
And I think that I might
Have the wish I wish tonight."
Of course, just as he got into the interlude, Crystal ever-so-smoothly lost her balance and hit the door. The pianist stopped abruptly and twisted around to face her, eyebrows raised. Instantly she recognized him.
"S-sorry," she stumbled out, her brown paper lunch bag crinkling in its position between her and her books.
The boy shrugged. "No problem. You just surprised me, is all." His tone was rather familiar, even though the two had never even met. This caught Crystal a bit off-guard. Therefore, she defended herself in her usual snarky manner.
"Sorry, who are you?" She knew who he was.
"Gold Okami," he answered.
Gold Okami. Jock. A virtuoso, surprisingly, who had played first chair alto saxophone since freshman year. And apparently piano too. Supposedly just as a stereotypical jock should be: arrogant, shallow, stupid, slow, et cetera. Heartthrob of the soccer team. Best friend (weirdly enough) of Silver Chitanda (though the grumpy redhead deliberately denied it.)
A few things were out of place, though, about him (and yes, Crystal, much like her sempai Green, was a very keen observer, and therefore knew lots about different people. Unlike Green, she chose to observe. That way there were no surprises about people.) Although Gold attracted flocks of girls—expectantly from a handsome athlete—nobody really remembered the last time he had had a girlfriend. And the band nerds—a group who usually thought of jocks or popular people without intellect in disdain—thought Gold was the coolest thing since valve oil.
But Crystal wouldn't be deceived by his little act. No, she saw right through to the attention-grabbing airhead lying beneath all that cover-up.
"You're Crystal Hiradaira," he said. It wasn't a question. He seemed to know. "Silver mentioned you. Apparently you're science-y and super serious."
She rolled her eyes at the description and shot over her shoulder, "Sorry for snooping," as she walked away.
Outside the school
4:16 P.M.
As Crystal was trooping home through the city streets—late; she'd stayed after for a study group—she let out a puff of air and watched it, visible like a tiny cloud of fog before her. She didn't know why she was feeling so dismal. After all, what was there to be upset about? She was on top of her studies, maintaining her grades along with extracurricular activities, she was happy with her friends and there was no drama there, and she even had a boyfriend; a nice guy who actually liked her. Something under the surface was bugging her a little, though. That she and Falkner had kept their relationship secret from the rest of the club members to not draw attention. And yet, when the others finally did find out, it had been no big deal. No huge topic. I guess Falkner and I just aren't the dramatic kinds of people, she figured.
As she trailed slowly along, she heard high-pitched shouts from behind her, and before she knew it, her fraternal twin had skidded over and linked arms with her.
"Hiya, cookie," Lyra greeted.
Lyra was absolutely everything that Crystal was not; bubbly, sweet, adorable, carefree, with cinnamon-brown tresses and deep melting-chocolate-coloured eyes.
In place of that, Crystal was severe, serious, studious, focused, with sharp crystalline eyes and navy locks wrestled into the same duel ponytails that Lyra styled herself with (however Lyra's hair swooped delicately upwards while Crystal's incline was sharp and angular.)
However, Crystal would readily call her sister her best friend. She used to think that she was just a shut-in for realizing such a truth, but then she came upon the fact that Lyra was just as dependent, if not more, on her.
"How was your day?" Lyra asked. She had a tendency to ask questions like that; she was a very maternal and worrisome creature.
"Average. Lessons went the same as they always do." Whereas Crystal was the more analytical of the two. "What about yours?"
"Nothing unusual. I mean, if you're in the most unusual of clubs, even unusual is usual." She grinned toothily. Lyra had been forced to tell Crystal that she had joined School Newspaper Club through meeting a senior named Blue—so that Crystal would not panic and cause havoc when she couldn't find Lyra—but never really disclosed many details about the club, as was protocol.
Crystal scoffed lightly. "I think that the Sciences Club is also relatively strange, if not equally.
"I wish I had the same period lunch as you," Lyra exclaimed wistfully, "I'd love to sit with you and your science nerd friends!"
"No, Ly, you really would not."
"Aw come on, they may be nerdy, but they are damn hot. You guys are like the vampire gang from that really bad romance series. What was it called again? Dusk or something? I don't know. But they were supposedly really good-looking, and sort of outcasts, and traveling in their own group, and you wouldn't think that they would be attractive, but they are. Even you fit right in, Onee-chan! You're so pretty!"
"We're twins. You just indirectly complimented yourself."
"That I did, Onee-chan!" Lyra laughed, but then stopped short and gasped dramatically. "Crys, look, there he is!"
And there he was. Silver Chitanda, walking home on his own, looking just as moody and sulky and smudgy as always. Lyra, however had had a crush on Silver since freshman year, and therefore stared.
Crystal prodded her. "Well go talk to him."
Lyra stared at her as if she were from another planet. "Crystal, bubbellah, do you know nothing of the network of the female teenage mind? I can't just go over there and talk to him. That's like, against the laws of human nature."
"So does that mean I have to come with you?"
"Yes, it absolutely does."
Lyra called out his name and he glanced over his shoulder, confusedly, not used to girls randomly shouting out to him, but then he realized it was only the Hiradaira twins and stopped to let them catch up. Lyra bounded over and dove right into conversation, outgoing against the silent and slightly-awkward-in-this-situation Silver. Crystal hung back, giggling to herself. It was evident that Silver liked Lyra in return (his face was beet red and he was stuttering like crazy) but they seemed to be stuck in the age-old situation of I-like-this-person-but-I'm-not-sure-if-they-like-me-back-even-though-we're-both-really-obvious-about-it-I-still-don't-know-because-it's-complicated-and-they-might-like-someone-else-but-I-still-like-them-a-lot-and-so-maybe-I-just-won't-say-anything-and-hope-the-other-person-makes-a-move.
Crystal was about to walk forward and try to help them out a bit, when suddenly, someone lunged out from an alleyway, grabbed her arm, clamped a hand over her mouth before she could let out a scream, and pulled her in.
"Shh," whispered a voice, "I'm plotting…hey wait…" Her captor released her. Crystal whirled around and looked up to meet a pair of wide amber eyes. "Crystal," Gold observed.
"What the hell was that for?" she whispered. "And why am I whispering?"
"Sorry." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly (a habit he'd picked up from his sempai, Red, no doubt.) "That's Lyra, right? Your twin sis? Silver talks about her a lot. I've been trying to get the two of them to be alone."
Crystal raised her eyebrows. "You're matchmaking? You?"
"Yeah. Why?"
She flinched. "Nothing. Just doesn't seem like the style of a jock."
It was his turn to raised his eyebrows, but in a rather amused manner. "Oh really? And what does seem like the style of a jock?"
"Well…you guys just seem to like to bash each others' heads in and then have a good guffawing laugh about it and go to whatever pizza place is cool right now or whatever." Heat rose to her cheeks at her impromptu explanation.
"We're more than that," Gold replied. "Well, at least some of us. I mean, you caught me in action today, no? Even when band isn't in session, I basically haunt that music room like a ghost."
"I guess I was wrong." She was a little more than reluctant to admit that.
Gold patted her on the head, that same aura of familiarity returning, even though he'd just officially met her a few hours earlier. It made Crystal squirm a little. He was certainly strange.
Then his eyes flashed with some sort of giddy panic and he said, "I think I hear Silver. He probably has realized I've been tailing him for a while now." He grinned. "See ya, Crys."
Before she could object to such an absurd and spontaneous nickname, he flew away. She stepped out of the alleyway and rejoined Lyra and Silver, explaining that she'd been taken hostage by Gold, who was matchmaking. Silver groaned something about how he didn't need another matchmaker in his life.
As Crystal continued home, she couldn't stop thinking about what Gold said. He said "see ya" as if that implies that we often see each other, which we don't, or that we'll see each other again, which we probably won't.
And although she didn't want to admit it, she would later realize that that speculation was quite incorrect in the long run.
Thursday, February 13th
School hallway
12:29 P.M.
When Crystal slammed her locker, suddenly her sister was there on the other side.
"Christ, Lyra! You want to give me a heart attack?"
"You know, I didn't mention it before, but that was a rotten prank you played on me and Silver yesterday."
Crystal rolled her eyes. "That was not my game to play. But I probably would have done something similar had I not been interrupted by a delinquent." Hm, she thought as she tested out the word, "delinquent" is a good description enough for Gold Okami.
Lyra huffed, crossing her arms haughtily. "If it's going to happen, it'll happen when it's supposed to happen."
Crystal sighed. "Of course. I'm just trying to help." And she scurried off to her next class.
Of course, the same thing happened and when she closed her locker two periods later, at the end of the day, shouldering her bag, another person was standing there, this time tall and broad where Lyra had been tiny and unassuming.
"Why do people keep freaking me out like that?!" Crystal spluttered.
Gold paid no heed and instead whined, "You tattled on me, Crystal."
She sighed, feeling like she had sighed enough for one day but needing some way to express her exasperation. "I did not tattle; I merely told Silver that it was your doing."
"That is so tattling. You're a tattletale, Crystal Hiradaira."
"Must you be so infuriatingly childish?" she questioned. "And don't you have a band room to haunt right now?"
His lips curved into a grin. "So you remembered what I said. And I do. Have fun at your nerd-science-club-thing." He saluted her and walked off, whistling the tune she'd heard him singing before. Crystal headed towards the opposite way, towards Sciences Club.
School hallway
2:16 P.M.
Lyra kept thinking about how both Crystal and Gold—whom she didn't know too well, but she had shared a class with him previously—were convinced she was destined to be with Silver. It wasn't as if she didn't want Silver to think of her that way. She just wanted to make him like her on her own.
Gradually, she worked up the nerve to go talk to him. Her mind ran circles on whether to walk up to him or not once he was in sight, but as she was hesitating, he turned round and spotted her.
Well, at least I didn't have to make that decision. "Hi Silver!" she greeted him. "Where are you headed?"
"Sciences Club," he answered as she watched some of the last students filtering out from the school. "You?"
"Um…Cooking Club," she told him, even though Cooking Club met on Mondays and she was actually going to the School Newspaper Club.
As Lyra was watching students leave, she noticed a figure enter the school. Peculiar, she thought. The figure turned out to be a tall-and-curvy-but-still-thin-and-cute brunette girl, who wore another school's uniform and had the sort of confidence that always intimidated Lyra.
Silver caught her stare, and as he glanced over, he did a double-take and his face drained of colour.
"Silver?" Lyra asked, but he didn't respond. He just stared at the girl. She turned, did a double take, and stared at him as well. Both mirrored, wide-eyed, and staring.
Then the girl piped up. "It's been a while, Silver." She gave a slight wave. In her other hand, Lyra noticed a visitor's pass, one that looked like it said something about the basketball game. From her varsity jacket, Lyra could deduce she was one of the players from whatever school the girls' basketball team was playing today.
"Yeah," Silver replied finally. "Maybe it should just stay that way." He turned and marched briskly down the hall. Lyra was left there, agape, appalled at his rudeness. The girl appeared grim but unsurprised.
Lyra didn't know what she was supposed to say so she just turned and ran after her friend, calling out to him. She never saw the girl brush away a tear and stroll away towards the gym.
"Silver!" Lyra called and finally caught up with him as they reached the second floor. He was headed to the science room. Lyra caught him by the shoulder, and when he whirled around, but instead of angry he just wore some unreadable expression of panic and sadness. "What—"
"Just drop it okay?!" Silver shouted, interrupting her. "Just drop it!" He raced into the Sciences Club's room and shut the door behind him.
Lyra felt tears already streaming down her face. Stupid stupid girl don't be such a crybaby he had a right to do that, you were prying you stupid stupid stupid…
She leaned back against the wall outside of the science room and slid down until she was scrunched into a little ball and could sob into her knees. I have no idea what's going on and why this hurts so much…
Sciences Club room
4:48 P.M.
On the less eventful days of Sciences Club, the members tended to do their homework whilst in the comforting science lab, and afterwards just research scientific topics that intrigued them. That was sort of the swing of things when there was no actual, physical experiment.
So after the interesting little quips of the day—everyone's initial realization that Platinum was analyzing a cupcake, Silver stumbling in breathlessly, and Green being dragged away by Blue (which happened at 4:45 and which was increasingly strange since the two had no relation as far as anyone knew) Crystal fell into the deep silence that a calm day in the Sciences Club ensued.
Platinum was scrawling away eagerly, Silver was doing some aimless examinations, Marlon was doing homework, and Crystal was sitting with Falkner at a pleasantly close proximity.
For the past hour or so they had pulled up textboxes on their monitors and occasionally typed something in that the other would see, such as an interesting theorem, or, more likely, a simple conversation that a couple might have.
But Crystal and Falkner were an unusual couple. Another young couple's messages might include more abbreviations like "BTW" or "OMG" or "LOL" and might include a more interesting and heart-warming conversation and would definitely include more hearts (this kind: 3)
However, their messages did not. There were no spontaneous declarations of love, nothing sweet or special. Just the talking of two folks who were rather close.
It bothered Crystal a little. It bothered her that she was so serious and couldn't think of something light and happy to say. And it bothered her that Falkner was the same way.
So, she typed into her textbox, So Valentine's Day is coming up. When he didn't seem to notice for a few minutes, Crystal added to her box, And even though it's a pointless holiday, I was thinking that maybe we could see a movie or something. Nothing horribly Valentine's Day related or cliché. Just a thought.
She pretended not to be watching him as his eyes flickered to her screen. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw his fingers moving and watched as his words appeared on the screen: I've been thinking a lot too.
Her heart thrummed, and she swore it was beating out Morse code for uh-oh.
Falkner typed fast. His words appeared rapidly, though Crystal took them in rather slowly.
I've been thinking that we're stuck, in a way. Maybe we didn't get off to the greatest start, being quiet about our relationship. It was Newton who said that an object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest.
As soon as Crystal saw that opening, she jumped in: Yes, but he stated that an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. She couldn't imagine what an "outside force" could be; she was just grappling for a counter.
Falkner wrote: You just haven't seemed happy lately, and I want you to be happy. I want us to be happy. Maybe breaking up would be a force. Maybe it could get us moving to the right place, since we're stuck right now. I like you, Crystal. I like you a lot. I just don't know how much "liking" will pull us through. I think we think too much alike, and maybe we need people who will be more different, and change our perspectives.
He was thinking of it so scientifically. He was analyzing it like it wasn't a human relationship. And it dawned on Crystal that that was what she had been doing as well. Analyzing was all she had ever done.
I hate to admit it Falkner, but a lot of what you're saying makes sense. I just wish it didn't have to be this way.
A wish. She internally scoffed at what she wrote to him. How would a wish help her out now?
To this, he replied: I agree. I wish there were some way for us to change, but we'll never change if we're together. We're like timber, just sitting around. And because we didn't spark, we didn't catch fire. We need a spark, and we can't get that with each other.
It was a losing battle, and Crystal knew it, because his words came crashing down on her. There was absolute silence in the room, other than the noise of the keyboards and pencils scratching at parchment. There was silence, and all Crystal could feel was the heat in her face and the tears clouding her view of Falkner's monitor. He wasn't looking at her. He was staring straight ahead.
Crystal. Do you want to let this go?
She was tired of the silence.
She needed noise.
"Okay," she said aloud, but it came out more like a whimper. She stood and sent her chair rattling as she grabbed her bag and left the room as quickly as possible, ignoring the stares of the others. She couldn't let them see her crying.
I hate this. I hate this so much. I hate that my first relationship just ended in silence. There was no shouting or screaming and I'm the only one crying and even I'm still silent. Stupid, stupid, stupid…
Lyra was probably already home. Silver was back in the science lab. Everything was spinning so out of control, that Crystal had no clear thoughts, no balance in a startling silence, just her heavy footsteps in an empty corridor.
She knew a place where there would always be noise. It was a long shot, but she started down the hallway, breaking into a run and wiping her tears with her sleeve.
Science room
5:12 P.M.
Silver couldn't take such drama. He couldn't take his own and he couldn't understand why Crystal had run and Falkner wasn't answering any questions and the quiet was just too much for him, so he shoved himself up and grumbled, "I'm going home early."
So he did. He stepped out of the door, closed it behind him, turned around, and sighed, trying to regain some composure after the tense silence of the science lab.
He jumped, startled, when he noticed someone sitting, balled up beside the lab door, twintails drooping sadly.
"Holy crap, Lyra," he gasped and crouched down before her. "Have you been out here the whole time?!"
Lyra lifted her head from where it was—buried in her scrunched-up knees—and he saw that her face was blotchy and tear-stained, her eyes red and pouffy. She looked as though she had ceased crying for a while, but when her deep coffee-coloured eyes caught sight of him, they instantly began watering again.
"I'm so sorry, Silver," she bawled. "I didn't mean to be troublesome, but you were just so distressed that I just wanted to wait, and…I don't know…" She took a shaky breath. "Crystal came running out of here a little while ago. I wanted to say something because she was crying, but she looked so spooked that she didn't even see me here."
Silver sighed. "God, Lyra…" He moved to sit against the wall beside her, put an arm around her, and cradled her head on his shoulder. "I suppose you want answers."
"You don't need to tell me anything," she replied.
"No. I will." He took a breath. "That girl who you saw is called Jasmine. Had been friends with me and Gold since the three of us came to this high school. I had this huge crush on her, and last year we started dating. She was just…this incredibly strong person and I just felt so lucky that she liked me. I decided I didn't like calling her 'Jaz' because that just sounded stupid, so I called her 'Minnie'. Like the mouse. And now, no joke, I totally can't even think about Disney."
He laughed a little, and Lyra chanced a sympathetic smile. Then the smile slid from his expression. "Towards the end of sophomore year, she told me she was going to start going to this vocational high school for communicative arts. I said we'd be fine even if she was away, but she didn't think so. She ended things, and she broke my heart. I know that she had her reasons, and I'm fine with it now. We would have never worked out, in the end. I just don't want to be around her. Mostly because I'd rather be around someone else. I don't have to be the one to tell Jasmine that there's this really cool girl that I met in the beginning of junior year, who was just the complete opposite of her—hilarious, jumpy, and happy all the time—and that this girl helped me a lot. Helped me get over Jasmine and realize that Jasmine wasn't my match. That I don't need to spend my time wallowing in self-pity. That there will be someone who understands me and cares about me way more than Jasmine ever would have. And I'll care just as much back."
Silver turned and wrapped his other arm around the small girl before him, embracing her tightly. "I love you, Lyra Hiradaira."
Lyra couldn't keep the smile off her face. She kissed Silver on the cheek and said, "I love you too, Silver."
School hallway
5:01 P.M.
Crystal stopped outside the music room door and listened. She heard nothing from inside. Maybe Gold was already gone. Maybe he just wasn't there to begin with. But he had told her before that even when the band didn't stay after class, he still lingered in the music room, hadn't he?
Then she heard the piano start up, the same song that she had overheard before. For a moment she just stood at the door, listening to Gold's familiar voice sing a new verse, and her worries drifted away.
"I don't remember what to say
When I see your smiling face,
'Cause my heart skips a beat when I hear your voice.
If hope is the thing with feathers,
Then heart is the thing with wings.
You just came and stole mine; you gave me no choice."
Suddenly, though, when the chords changed to the pre-chorus again, Crystal heard another voice join in. Pitchy and female, but not horrible.
"I'd say that it's love, but I have jinxed us enough,
And I guess that you can hear me calling.
So I'll wait around until the hour is up.
Yeah, I'll wait around until you're falling."
The girl seemed very unsure of herself while singing—finding it hard to find the right notes and follow Gold—but she sounded like she knew the words by heart. In the chorus, Gold swung effortlessly into a harmony and let the girl fly free on the melody (which was not the best idea; she was more than a little shaky and seemed startled by this change.) Nonetheless, they sounded really good together.
"Starlight
Doesn't compare to the way that you smile, and the way that you stare,
With your bright eyes,
And I think that I might
Have the wish I wish tonight."
They stopped and began talking about the bridge of the song, but Crystal could no longer catch any of their words.
She shouldered her bag and sniffled and sighed, unsure of why she felt even worse than before. Probably because I'm in no mood for a love song, she convinced herself, and began to walk home alone.
Music room
4:59 P.M.
Gold played contentedly through the chorus, showing off his newly-constructed melody to his companion. When he stopped, he glanced over for her approval. "Not bad for having just got it yesterday, eh? We make a good team. You with your fancy clichéd lines, and me with my badass music skills."
"Cliché?" she questioned.
"The whole part about a heart skipping a beat," Gold explained. "Cliché. Used in lots of songs."
"Oh." Her cheeks flushed with a light dusting of pink. "But that's what it feels like. When you really like someone. They look at you and you can't breathe for a second. They say your name and your heart skips a beat. Isn't that what it's like?"
After a pause, he answered softly, "Yeah. That's what it's really like." But then realization dawned on him. "Hang on…did my brutish little kouhai just say something incredibly girly?!"
"No!" she shouted and punched him in the arm (which hurt a lot more than he let on. That damn girl had fists of iron.) "JUST PLAY THE SECOND VERSE, WILL YA?"
Gold shrugged. "Fine. But you have to join in."
And so he started off on the second verse. He had to look at the sheet before him to know the words—they were, in truth, the words of his companion—but he knew the melody and chords since he had come up with them.
As his kouhai joined in and they went on, he found his mind wander. Wander to the glittering sky on a summer evening. To the reflection of the luminous lights in water. To the view of their magnified majesty through a telescope. To star-shaped earrings he knew he'd seen somewhere, but he couldn't quite place where. And, finally, to Crystal.
Maybe he'd started relating the colour of her eyes to the sky, or the shine of them to stars, but suddenly she was all he was thinking about.
And he was singing a song about love.
He broke off after the chorus and shook himself. There was no way. There was just no way.
He turned back to his companion and began inquiring about the bridge to distract himself. "So did you have any particular ideas about the melody for the bridge? I haven't worked it out yet, but I have the chords."
"I never have ideas about the melody," was the curt reply. "I never figure out those things."
"Right." Gold thought for a moment that he heard noises outside the door—something like snuffling and breathing and footsteps—and considered going out there. What if someone was crying? Saving damsels in distress was his specialty, after all. "Sapph, did you just hear someone outside?"
"I didn't hear anything," she answered. "You wanna go check?"
He considered, but then thought it would only break his focus. "Nah. Probably just a spooky ghost. We've gotta get this done, yeah? For your manga thing?"
"Oh. Right. The manga."
Gold raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Or is this for something else? Or, rather, someone, perhaps?"
Sapphire turned beet red. "Just play your damned piano."
He knew better than to argue. "Yes ma'am."
Hiradaira residence
6:31 P.M.
It was hours after Crystal had left the school, facing the biting cold on her own. She sat in her room doing—you guessed it—some studying, trying to ignore Lyra loudly strumming an acoustic guitar in the next room over, when a sharp cry filled the room and kept sounding out. For a moment, Crystal froze, confused, but then the next she realized what it was and muttered a curse word, shoving herself up to stop the horrible shrieking. She answered her insistently-ringing cell phone. "Hello?"
"Hey Crys!" came the response.
Oh God.
"Who gave you permission to call me 'Crys'? And how did you get my number?" Crystal asked, a bit harsher than she'd meant. But, as one could probably judge from how puzzled she was by her phone ringing, Crystal did not often receive calls.
"I gave myself permission, and I got the number from Silver."
"Silver doesn't have my number."
"Well he got it from Lyra!"
Damn meddlesome sister. Lyra continued to play her guitar—why did it have to be the same four damn chords over and over again?—in the next room, singing along to some song (though with Lyra's tone-deaf voice it sounded more like strained yodeling.)
"Anyways, I need you to come over here!"
Crystal raised her eyebrows and glanced at the analog clock hanging on her wall. "Now?"
"Yes! Now!" Gold shouted back.
She bit her lip. She was tempted—but only because she was curious to see what on Earth he was babbling about, she told herself—to accept, but one thing stood in her way. "I sort of have to be somewhere at, like, eight…"
"Great! I can drive you there afterwards."
Crystal sighed. There really is no getting out of this. "Fine. Text me your address and I'll get my intrusive twin to drop me off in a few minutes."
Okami residence
6:49 P.M.
Crystal checked her phone at least five times, paranoid, making sure she got the house number correct as she rang the bell. She was on the outskirts of city, where skyscrapers sloped downwards into citizen streets of simple homes and businesses. The house itself was family-sized, with apologetically droopy windows and dandelion-yellow paneling. In sunlight, it probably would have looked overall welcoming, but being there at night just made her anxious. She had even made Lyra wait in the street.
The door swung open, and there stood Gold, his bright smile reassuring her like nothing else could. Crystal turned and waved to Lyra, and she swore she could see her sister's knowing grin through the windows as the car pulled away.
"Well, if it ain't Cryssy the serious gal," Gold remarked brightly. "Come on in."
The house, much like its outside, was quaint and certainly broken-into. It was cluttered and messy, and a group of kids playing some elaborate game involving running and shouting trotted by. And yet, somehow it felt warm and light. A grand piano sat off to one side, covered in music and stray papers and old magazines and a textbook. Sitting before it was a sighing bench that sagged so much that Crystal could tell it had probably been around for longer than she had.
Crystal surveyed the disorder and giggled. "No offense, but it's like you live in a shoe. A nice shoe," she added for good measure.
Gold sent her a withering look. "You don't know the half of it. Most of the kids that turn up here are just neighbours. It's like a daycare, weirdly. Helpful thing, though; they're like little elves when you give them a project working together, like cooking. You know, if you like pumpkin muffins that taste like plaster and have uncooked noodles sticking out of them."
"And you're the oldest?" Crystal asked, watching the kids as one of them hid under a blanket and lashed out at the others, while they tried to hit him with pillows and avoid being swiped.
"Unfortunately." He cleared some rubbish off of the grand piano. "As you can see, I grew up really informally, which is why I tend to just call people by their first names." He sent her an apologetic look before leaping over to the stairs and calling, "I just have to grab something. One second." He flung himself up a flight of stairs and disappeared onto the second floor.
A little girl came over and tapped on Crystal's knee to get her attention. "Are you Onii-chan's girlfriend?"
Crystal was too shocked to say anything for the moment, but Gold beat her to it, rushing back down and shooing the girl away. "Crys is not my girlfriend. Go play."
"Strange to think your sister confused me with your girlfriend," Crystal noted.
Gold blinked. "I don't have a girlfriend."
Crystal raised her eyebrows. "You don't? But…"
"But?"
"Okay, well, I was spying…"
"I already know this story can't end well," Gold interjected.
"And I happened to pass the music room and happened to hear you singing with a girl and I just figured…" Crystal let herself trail off, implicating her mistake.
"Oh…oh! Oh, no. Oh, never. Not her, anyone but her," Gold replied with a shudder. "That girl I was singing with, that's Sapphire Birch. You know her? That obnoxious sophomore?"
Crystal nodded. "You two are notorious. Supposedly you two compete on virtually everything and then Red Sakishima swoops in and beats you both—"
"Yes, yes, we know the story," Gold interrupted, a tad embarrassed. "Well, Sapph is actually my neighbour too; I've known her and her kid brother since we were old enough to bash each others' faces in. Point of the story, is that she's secretly girly, the song was hers, but she can't play an instrument nor sing to save her damned life and often forces me to help with such nonsense. 'Kay? So, um, no. Definitely not my girlfriend. I do not want a piece of that magic. I feel bad for the poor bastard who she does like." He pushed open a sliding door and Crystal noticed that he had retrieved something cylinder-shaped from the second floor. "Go on out."
The backyard was grassy and woodsy, and brisk as Crystal stepped out and heard the sliding door snap shut behind her. "Okay," Gold began, "I actually brought you here to show you…this." He waved a hand theatrically, gesturing to the sky.
"Um…you brought me here to show me the sky?"
"Not the sky, the stars," Gold corrected.
Crystal looked up. They were, in fact, beautiful. Slightly away from the city lights, they were crisper and clearer than Crystal could often see them. It was rare that Crystal could get a real good look at the stars, even though she found them to be pretty. The luminous, picturesque orbs studded the violet night sky in a way that stunned her.
Gold set up the cylinder thing—a telescope—on a tripod. Crystal observed him and said, "You seem to be rather enamored with the stars."
Gold sent her a sly glance. "Just another one of my hobbies. But yeah, I am. I asked Sapph to put stars in her song, and—whaddaya know?—she did. But c'mere, look through the telescope."
She did, and found it was aimed right at the moon, which took up virtually the entire circle of vision she was given through the device. "Wah…the moon is so huge!" She bit her lip after she'd said that, picking up on how stupid she must have sounded.
She heard Gold chuckle, and then heard him add, "The full moon's tomorrow night."
"On Valentine's Day?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I'd forgotten what day it was."
Crystal pulled back from the lens. "Valentine's Day is the most pointless of all holidays."
Gold scoffed. "I didn't take you for that kind of girl. The one who hates on the lovey-dovey holidays. Then again, maybe I should have…But humour me for a moment." He stepped away from the telescope and laid down in the grass. Staring at her expectantly.
Crystal groaned and laid down next to him, feeling the grass brush against her coat. She opted to focus on the beautiful sky above, not how close the beautiful boy next to her was.
"See," Gold went on, "I agree. Valentine's Day is just a fake holiday, made for advertisement and to give people an excuse to act totally irrational. But I like to think about it less as all that and more as a state of mind. Think about it; people's hearts swell this time of year because it's Valentine's, and they get more courageous. More daring. There's nothing about the actual day that makes them this way; it's just the idea of Valentine's Day put into their head that gets people so crazy. In a way, it's like constellations. There aren't really shapes in the stars. They didn't form that way on purpose. But since we're down here, with such a good view, we play connect-the-dots with giant balls of fire and gas that are millions of light-years away from us. Look. There's Orion's belt. Just three little specks in the distance. Who would have ever thought that they could be a belt?"
Crystal chuckled. "There's Ursa Major, and Ursa Minor."
"Ah! The girl knows her stars!" Gold exclaimed brightly. He then proceeded to point out a bunch of different constellations, including ones that Crystal hadn't even known existed, much less known where to find them: Cassiopeia, Hydra, Canis Minor, Canis Major, Draco, Eridanus, Auriga, Cepheus, Perseus, Triangulum, and, of course, Pegasus.
Gold is so strange, she thought, sneaking a peek at him through her peripheral vision as he pointed out the stars, forming constellations as easily as a game of connect-the-dots. Nobody would ever really think that someone as popular and, well, obnoxious at him could actually be so dynamic. He's actually a musician and an astronomer as well…
Spontaneously, Crystal stumbled upon a revelation. "You're a scientist too," she marveled.
Gold turned his head to look at her, and she did the same. "What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know." Unable to stare into those amber eyes, which flashed with some emotion she didn't recognize, Crystal turned back to the starry heavens. "It's just that I'm in Sciences Club with Silver. He prefers physics, while I like biology a lot. My twin sister, Lyra, likes to cook, which I always considered as some rough variation of chemistry." She thought back on Platinum's cupcake and restrained a smile. "And my younger sister, Lee, has wanted to be a marine biologist before she even knew what it was. And here you are, a first-rate astronomer."
Gold caught on and laughed. "Crystal Hiradaira, you are surrounded by nerds."
"Nerds are the best kinds of people." She turned back to him.
"Touché," he agreed. And then they just sort of stared at each other for a while. No words needed.
Gold's car
7:52 P.M.
"So…um…you're not even really going to ask where I'm going?" Crystal questioned, slightly amused.
"Oh! Right. Where would that be?"
Crystal rolled her eyes as they continued to drive back into the city. Lights passed them by in a whir that mesmerized her, but it didn't compare to the spectacle she'd witnessed just minutes earlier.
"Um…the city hospital…"
Surprisingly, the only question Gold asked was, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah; I'm visiting," she explained. And he didn't question her further.
He pulled up eventually beside the hospital and for a moment before either of them spoke, there was this strange sort of silence and suddenly Crystal felt like Gold was going to kiss her. But as soon as she thought that, she mentally slapped herself for thinking like that. Why would he even do that? What the hell am I even thinking?
So quickly she stepped out from the car and as she was closing the door, added, "Thank you for driving me," because she was polite, and because she was sincere, "and thank you for showing me the stars."
She ignored how utterly fluttery her heart felt as he smiled. "Any time, Crys."
Friday, February 14th
School hallway
11:47 A.M.
Crystal was on her way to lunch when he kidnapped her.
She'd just returned from her French class, and she was shutting the rickety door of her locker when suddenly, Gold appeared looking just as dashing as usual, and with that same sly, stupid grin as always.
"This is your lunch period, right?" he asked.
"How do you know?"
"Two days ago, right now, you were holding a lunch bag," he explained. "And today, we're going on an adventure."
She stared at him doubtfully. "On Valentine's Day?"
He shrugged. "Why not? It's only a state of mind, after all. Why not do something a little crazy?"
"How about no."
And therefore, Gold lifted her up, right in the middle of the hallway, and through her over his shoulder as easily as if she were a sack of feathers.
And, therefore, she screamed loudly as he trooped down the hallway. Other students stared at them like they were aliens, and Gold waved happily at them, as Crystal continued to screech.
Within minutes, Crystal was unwillingly inserted back into the passenger's seat of Gold's car, and he was driving away from the school, pleased with himself.
Crystal crossed her arms. "You're horrible."
He threw his head back laughing goofily, as if this were all some very amusing situation to him. Which, in fact, it was. "I believe that's up for debate." As they drove through the mostly-vacant city streets aimlessly, the smile slid from Gold's face. "Wait…hold up." He slowed to a stop beside a brunette kid, who looked like an eighth grader. The boy was just walking alone alongside the street. "Black, are you ditching school?" Gold asked him.
The boy blinked. "Yes. Isn't that what you're doing?"
To Crystal, Gold explained, "This kid is my neighbour. Sapphire Birch's kid brother, actually." To Black, Gold clarified, "Not quite. I just happen to be taking an academic leave of absence for educational purpose. I'm not 'ditching'. I'm showing Miss Hiradaira here the world!"
"Hiradaira?" The boy looked appalled. "You're White's sister?"
"White?" Crystal questioned. "You mean Whitlea?!"
Whitlea Hiradaira was Crystal and Lyra's younger sister by about three years. Crystal and Lyra had taken to calling her "Lee" but apparently Black had given her another nickname. She had Crystal's glinting cerulean eyes and Lyra's chocolaty tresses, though in a darker hue. Instead of duel pigtails, she always opted for just one big, fluffy one. Since she was young, Whitlea had been ill, diagnosed with cancer before she could even spell her last name.
"Yeah!" Black replied with a grin. "Oh man, White's told me so much about you. I was just on my way to see her."
"Need a ride?" Gold offered while Crystal cringed and speculated, "On Valentine's Day?"
And so that was how they ended up driving to the hospital again ("My sister is a cancer patient," Crystal had explained quickly to Gold, "that's why you dropped me off there yesterday.")
As Gold was driving, singing along to the radio without a care in the world, Crystal twisted around in her seat to look at Black. "How do you know my sister, anyways?"
"She's in my class at school. She only attends when she can, yeah? I take notes for her when she misses class."
To which Gold interjected, "Believe it or not, but the sibling to Sapphire Birch is actually something of a super-genius," and then returned to his song.
Black nodded. "And so once when I dropped them off to her, she just looked at me and said, 'You pass your classes with that sort of penmanship?'" He snickered. "And I thought she was funny. Yeah, maybe a bit bossy, but I like that she's not at all self-pitying. I started to talk to her whenever I dropped the notes off—I pass the hospital on my way home anyways—and we became friends."
The story seemed to be true, but Crystal still squinted at him. "And she has no problem with this."
"She's never stopped me before," he answered.
"And you like her."
"Very much so."
"In that way?"
"Yes ma'am."
"And she knows this?"
Black shrugged. "I dunno."
Gold sent Black a glance over his shoulder. "Do you like science, Black?"
"Eyes on the road!" Crystal shrieked in alarm.
Black's deep brown eyes lit up. "Yeah. I like psychology a lot."
Gold turned to Crystal. "Study of the mind. Kid's a scientist. There you have it."
"EYES ON THE ROAD!"
As Gold once again faced forwards, changing the radio station and singing along to a new tune (this time in falsetto) Crystal once again faced Black. He seemed slightly fidgety—probably because of Crystal—but there didn't seem to be much wrong with him. Gold had known him since they were young, he was very intelligent, and he liked Whitlea.
Crystal sighed. "I don't like you, Black Birch," she told him. "Not one bit. I think you're nothing but trouble, but…I think that trouble isn't completely bad for my sister. She worries a lot. She, unfortunately, inherited seriousness from me." Gold snickered at this. Crystal elbowed him and went on, "And if you're risking punishment and ditching school just to go see her…then you must really care a lot. So I give you my blessing." Her expression darkened. "But if you break her heart, I will personally break your face."
Black beamed, unfazed by this last part. "Thank you."
Gold's car
12:34 P.M.
After they dropped Black off—
(neither of them were able to see how adorably Whitlea reacted to Black's unexpected visit, which was quite the pity because she completely lit up when she saw him. She didn't even bother to scold him for missing classes. It was really quite the spectacle.)
—Gold asked Crystal where she wanted to go.
"Back to school," she answered curtly. "I'm pretty sure my lunch period is over."
Gold shrugged. "Fine then. To school we go."
Crystal found something very suspicious in the way that he consented without argument. Of course, he had had a plan. Crystal spent the next half hour groaning at her stupidity; Gold just drove loops all over the city, never even nearing the school.
He explained, "I'm taking the long way around." Each time, she rolled her eyes and he beamed in a very gloating manner. She couldn't very well get out of the car; not while it was moving and while they were no where near their school. And she could very well do much about his driving. What she didn't say, however, was that she didn't really want to do anything. She liked the adrenaline rush she got from skipping. She liked that she was sitting in a warm car on a frosty Friday, listening to her newfound friend singing loudly to the radio and occasionally passing the same old coffee shop and suggesting they go in, to which she objected each time.
Eventually, when Crystal wasn't paying attention, the car stopped. She gazed up, confused. Gold was staring straight ahead. They were back at their school.
Perplexed, Crystal stepped out of the car and Gold did the same. They were parked a little ways away so that no one would be able to spot them from inside. Gold left the driver's seat door open.
"You brought us back," she observed. He approached her without looking at her or saying a word. "What are you doing?" But just as she was speaking the final word, Gold wrapped his arms firmly around her and brought her to him, holding her close.
For a moment they stood like that; Crystal with her eyes wide, and Gold staring grimly off at nothing. On such a frigid day, his warmth rushed into her, and she didn't want to pull away.
But he did first. Finally he stared down at her and said, "I'm letting you go."
Before she had a chance to react, he was gone; he got into the car and drove away.
Gold's car
1:15 P.M.
Gold had barely inched down the street when he got a call on his phone. He glanced over and saw the caller identification: Crystal. He went back and forth on whether he should answer it, and opted to let it ring. He just had to keep driving. He was a shark; he had to keep moving.
But as soon as his phone stopped buzzing, she called again.
Gold finally answered on the sixth time she called, sensing that she wasn't going to stop. But before he could even get out a "hello", she screamed, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ABOUT?!"
Gold cursed silently. This is what he had been afraid of. "Look, we only, like, actually met the other day, right? We're not even really that good of friends, right? So it doesn't even matter."
"CLEARLY IT MATTERS TO ME."
She sounds like she's walking, he observed. To where, though?
"Why did you drive away?"
He shoved a hand through his messy hair. He couldn't take this. He pulled over and his car shuddered to a stop. "Because I can't be around you, okay?"
Now she sounds like she's running. Why the hell's she running?
"What does that even mean, Gold?" she asked. He tried to pretend he didn't hear the twinge of hurt in her voice.
"I've only officially known you for three days, and…" Do I tell her? "And I'm already falling for you. And it's weird and it's wrong, because you've got a boyfriend already and I barely even know you, so I shouldn't just be feeling like this, but for the record it's your fault for being so damn adorable all the time." I should stop now.
"Gold."
"Yeah?"
"Turn around."
"Why the hell would I—"
"TURN AROUND, DAMN YOU."
Gold twisted around and glanced out the back window of the car. Instantly, his eyes widened. Crystal was running up the sidewalk towards him. She was following me. He hadn't gotten very far and she'd seen the way he'd gone.
Gold leapt out of the car, and raced out to her. Tears streamed down her face and dripped onto the ground, glinting like falling stars. She punched his chest.
"How could you?" she sobbed. "How could you not even bother to realize that Falkner broke up with me? How could you not realize how annoyingly thought-consuming and—I hate saying this—how actually charming you are? How could you not even consider the possibility that I maybe—just maybe—like you a lot more than you think I do?" She took a shuddering breath. "And it's weird and it's wrong, because I just recently got out of a relationship, and I barely even know you, so I shouldn't be feeling like this, but for the record it's your fault for being so damn beautiful all the time."
He stared at her incredulously. She wiped her eyes and let out a squeak when suddenly Gold's lips came crashing down on hers. For a moment she was shocked, but when he pulled back, she through her arms around his neck, and said, "You're such an idiot."
To which he replied, "Sometimes idiots can be the best kinds of people."
"Oh, shut up."
Coffee shop
2:24 P.M.
They didn't return to school for the rest of the day, but instead drove around in circles singing along to the radio and looking up constellations.
Finally, once school would have been let out, they went to the coffee shop Gold had passed so many times earlier. Surprisingly, four seniors (whom Crystal hadn't even known were friends, though she'd heard something before she was so rudely dragged from school about Green spontaneously confessing to Silver's sister, Blue, for no real apparent reason other than to cause a huge dramatic scene on Valentine's Day) were there. Crystal sent a message to Lyra telling her to come to the coffee shop, and that Crystal had a lot to tell her.
Lyra arrived, beaming like usual, arm-in-arm with Silver. Crystal giggled. For once he looked actually…really happy. Not grumpy or moody. When he and Lyra looked at each other, their eyes both held a soft happiness within them. A blossoming love. It was enchanting, really.
They sat side-by-side at a table with Crystal and Gold, but one of the seniors—Silver's sister, Blue—came over to ruffle Silver's hair. "Ah, Blue-sempai!" Lyra greeted her excitedly.
Blue grinned mischievously, and whispered (loud enough for the rest of the table to hear) to Silver, "Hold on to this one, Silv. She's a keeper." And then she was off, back to her fellow seniors who sat in stools at the counter.
The quartet of juniors relayed the day's events to one another, each having their different stories to tell, but all four laughing all through the afternoon.
A/N: The games that the kids are playing at Gold's shoe-house is called "Gushnum". My dad and my aunts and uncles played it when they were kids. The game is that one person has a blanket over them and becomes "Gushnum" and that person sweeps the blanket, looking for the other players' feet to see where they are. Gushnum tries to swipe at the other players, while they attack Gushnum with pillows, fists, et cetera. When I heard that story, I began calling my one uncle "Uncle Gushnum". Sooo...
Also, the song. I chose the song first and then built the whole stargazing thing around that. BUT the song bears resemblence to a little poem I think you'd like...see, my pal Vy has this AMAZING story, and in it this adorable little poem that is mentioned once, about stars and wishes. The story is called Fate and Flowers and YOU ALL SHOULD READ AND REVIEW IT BECAUSE IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND DESERVES WAY MORE LOVE THAN THIS STORY BECAUSE IT IS FABULOUS AND ADORABLE AND CONTAINS SHIPPING AND BLUE'S ANTICS AND GOLD AS A FREAKING WEREWOLF AND I THINK WE ALL NEED TO SEE THAT AT SOME POINT SO GO READ IT HERE IS THE LINK:
s/9618627/1/Fate-and-Flowers
And that's all for my endnote.
Arigato! ^-^