Can I unbraid your hair?
I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you're far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever.
~ I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing - Aerosmith
Rima woke up the next morning finding herself very warm. Once she actually woke up, she realized why. Nagihiko's arms were wrapped around her waist, and she found about a million blankets on top of her. 'Hmm... I must be a blanket hog, because Fujisaki doesn't have as many blankets on him.' She thought, and stretched to try and move some of the blankets onto Nagihiko. Rima couldn't, however, because Nagihiko tightened his grip around her waist, and started to say something.
"Riri, don't..." 'Oh gosh, he talks in his sleep. And he called me Riri.' Going back to her original position, she moved her head to check the time. 8:49, which was earlier than yesterday.
Rima thought of what had happened yesterday, and of her and Nagihiko's plan. She was positive that it was foolproof yesterday, but she still had the bad end of the deal. She had to stay at Kukai's house for a night. Nothing good could come out of staying at Kukai's house.
She sighed, hoping that Nagihiko would wake up soon, because she couldn't move until he let go of her waist. 'Why would he even have his hands around me anyways?' She thought as she attempted to get his hands off of her, which resulted in him, once again, tightening his grip. Now Rima was stuck in his arms even more, and she got the feeling that if he tightened his grip once more, she was going to find it tricky to breathe, and that wouldn't be ideal.
So she settled for elbowing him.
"Ow! Rima, what was that for?" Nagihiko asked, finally letting Rima out of his grasp.
"You wouldn't let go of me." Rima said, rolling around so she could face him. "Do you still think our plan is going to work?"
"I think it's going to work, but there's always the matter of you being found."
"But we don't want that. And I really think that I have the worst part of the plan. I have to stay at Kukai's house for a night."
"Kukai's not that bad, Rima. And you can just stay with Amu or Yaya once they get back." Nagihiko pointed out.
"Did you tell Kukai why I have to stay at his house for the night?"
"Yeah, I told him that you couldn't stay at your house or mine, and that you were abused. Why?"
"Because I don't need Amu and Yaya finding out about the abuse too; that would be 4 people who know, and when you're abused, you want as few people as possible to know." Rima said, as if it was obvious.
"I suppose that's true. That also means you're stuck with living with Kukai and I." Nagihiko smirked as Rima just laid there, letting it sink in.
"Well, at least I'm not Amu." Rima stated; Amu would be going crazy by now.
After eating and getting dressed, Rima and Nagihiko were walking over to Kukai's house, Rima's not-so new clothing in a book bag that Nagihiko had loaned her.
"So how exactly am I supposed to stay at Kukai's for a night without going absolutely insane?" Rima asked, as she was freaking out on the inside, but was the epitome of calm on the outside.
"Calm down Rima, Kukai already went over this with Rento. Kukai is going to explain everything once you get there." Nagihiko said in an attempt to make her calm down a bit.
"Well, until it's explained to me, I'm not going to calm down!" Rima said, dropping her façade and show that she was flipping out.
"Calm down Rima, we're almost there anyway." Nagihiko assured her, grabbing her hand. Rima blushed a bit, and shook her hand out of his.
"Don't touch my hand. Speaking about that, why did you have your arms around me this morning?" Rima asked, raising an eyebrow. Nagihiko blushed, thinking back.
"I don't know, I don't usually remember what I do when I'm asleep." Nagihiko stated, trying to get off this topic.
"And why did you say, and I quote: 'Riri, don't...' in your sleep?" Rima smirked, knowing that it was going to be harder to avoid this question.
"It had to do with my dream, I suppose. Not that I even remember my dream that well." Nagihiko said, hoping that Rima wouldn't jump to conclusions.
"Oh, so you were dreaming about me?"
"N-no! No I wasn't!" Nagi stuttered out. "Oh look, we're finally at Kukai's house!" Rima rolled her eyes, of course they were; at the time she actually manages to get him ready to confess some stuff!
The two went up to the door, knocked, and a few moments later the door was answered by Kukai.
"Hey Fujisaki, Mashiro!" Kukai said, grinning widely as usual.
"Hello." Rima said quietly at the same time Nagi said hey. They walked into the house, finding it pretty clean.
"Kaidou, Shuusui and Unkai are here. They're leaving tonight though! I think." Kukai said, walking past the living room.
"Oi, Kukai! Who's the girl?" Unkai called out just before they entered the kitchen, making them stop in their tracks.
"This is Rima Mashiro. She's staying here tonight." Kukai introduced the small blonde. "And this is Nagihiko Fujisaki, he's just visiting though."
"Mashiro, come over here!" Rento called out. Rima hesitated, and looked at Nagihiko and Kukai, as if to ask 'Can I?' Kukai and Nagihiko nodded, and Rima walked over nervously.
"You know, you're quite cute. Who braided your hair?" Rento asked, smiling. Rima looked over at Nagihiko and Kukai, both who looked very annoyed.
"Fujisaki did." Rima said, not smiling or looking happy. "Is that all?"
"Yeah." Rento said, and Rima walked back over to Kukai and Nagi.
"Shall we go talk somewhere now?" Nagihiko suggested.
"Just a minute," Kukai said. "Yo! Are you guys staying here tonight?" He asked his brothers.
"Well, depends. Are you dating Mashiro?" Kaidou asked, and the other three nodded, showing that they were wondering also.
"No, I'm not dating Mashiro. She's only staying here for one night." Kukai said.
"Well, I think I'll stay." Unkai said, leaning back on the couch. Shuusui and Kaidou agreed.
"Well, if all of you are staying tonight, where's Mashiro going to sleep?" Kukai asked, knowing that Rima wouldn't want to share with either him or any of his brothers.
"Well, she can share with me!" Rento said grinning, looking a bit like Kukai. Maybe the grin was something that ran in the family?
"Hahahahaha- no. Mashiro will not be sharing a room with you, no matter how much you may want to."
"She's your guest, she can sleep in your room." Kaidou grunted. Kukai looked at Rima, who had a blank look on her face.
"Mashiro, would you be fine with that? I'd sleep on the floor, of course." Kukai didn't want to say anything without Rima's consent, she was the only girl in the house after all.
"It's fine I suppose." Rima said quietly, remaining her usual stoic self.
"Fine, Mashiro will stay in my room, and none of you will even think of trying anything on her while I'm not around." Kukai said before spinning on his heel and bringing Nagihiko and Rima upstairs to his room. "Sorry about them. I don't even know why they decided to sleep here tonight, they all have their own apartments, aside from Rento."
"It's fine." Rima said. "So, you know the whole story about why I'm here, don't you?"
"Yeah, Fujisaki told me yesterday. Really sucks, I must admit. I would've never guessed."
"I had my theories about it." Nagihiko said just as they entered Kukai's rather messy room.
"So, how exactly is this going to work?" Kukai asked, clearing off a spot on the floor.
"Well, it's quite simple I suppose. I spend the night here, and tomorrow, Fujisaki sneaks me back into his room through the window. If his mother gets suspicious that I'm there, I come here for another night." Rima explained, also clearing a spot off of the floor.
"She'll also have to get showers here, that's how my mom found out she was at my house." Nagi added.
"Well, I think that can work. I'll need a bit of notice before she comes over, though." Kukai said, since he didn't really want his brothers creeping out Rima next time.
"Of course," Nagi said. "So, is it safe for me to leave now, or do I have to stay longer? Because I told my mother I was only dropping Rima off at her house."
"You can go if you need to, Fujisaki." Rima said to him, even though she didn't really know Kukai well.
"Okay, thanks honey!" Nagi teased her, grinning.
"Since when have you two been dating?" Kukai asked, smirking a bit. It didn't suit him at all.
"We're not dating, the cross-dresser just likes to act like it." Rima stated, glaring up at Nagihiko.
"Hey, we'd make an amazing couple, Rima!" Nagihiko said pouting. Rima snorted, getting an odd look from Kukai.
"No we wouldn't, not even on another planet."
"Well, whatever honey. I'm leaving now, bye!" Nagihiko waved before leaving Kukai's house and then heading back to his house.
"So..." Kukai said a few minutes after Nagihiko left.
"Do you have any food that I can eat?" Rima asked.
"I think we do, this is a house, after all." Kukai joked, hoping to get a smile out of Rima. "Come on. I'll introduce you to my brothers while we're there, since you don't actually know their names." He stuck his hand out to help her up, and Rima hesitantly took it, and they walked downstairs.
"All right, so the one with purple hair is Rento, he's 20. Unkai is the blond one, and he's 21. Shuusui is the one with the glasses, he doesn't talk much, but he's 23. And Kaidou is the oldest out of us five, he's almost 25." Kukai decided to just explain his brothers to Rima, since he figured that she really didn't want to talk to them.
"Okay, that seems simple enough. And just so you know, Rento and Unkai seem like pedophiles." Rima said, just like with almost everything else, monotonously. Kukai laughed, since Rima did have a point - sort of, anyway.
"Good observation, Mashiro!"
"Kukai, could you please not call me Mashiro?" Kukai raised his eyebrows. "It reminds me too much of my father. You can call me pretty well anything else, though. If you get me food, of course."
Kukai rolled his eyes. "Of course. I can call you anything, as long as I get you food. Let me guess, you can't cook?" Rima looked around, trying to avoid answering the question.
"Actually, I can cook. I just don't like to."
"You know Blondie, you can get a lot farther in life when you like to cook." Kukai said, receiving a glare from Rima.
"I can cook cups of noodles. Do you have any?"
"Probably. If we do, it's in that cupboard up there." Kukai pointed to the cupboard. Rima walked over, opened the door, and looked inside. The cup of noodles was on the top shelf.
"Kukai, you'll need to get it for me."
"Why is that?" Rima mumbled an answer, but Kukai couldn't hear her. "What?"
"I'm too short." Rima muttered. "So can you please just get me a cup of noodles?"
"Sure, Shorty!" Kukai walked over, his long strides covering most of the floor. He reached, and grabbed two containers of noodles and handed them to Rima. "Can you make me one, too?"
"No."
"But you're staying at my house!"
"... Fine. Where's your kettle, or a pot, or something I can boil water in?"
"In that cupboard under the sink." Rima bent down and took the kettle out of the cupboard and washed it out, since it looked like it hadn't been used in a while. She then filled it with water and put it on the stove.
"It'll take about seven minutes to boil," Rima mentioned, looking around the kitchen. "You know, you guys should really clean up a bit more. You know, sweep, mop."
"We do sweep. And mop." Kukai said, looking at the floor. "I think. I always make Rento do it, so I can't be sure."
"Of course, why am I not surprised?" The seven minutes passed quickly, and soon Rima was pouring water into the cups of noodles, and handing one to Kukai. "Where do you keep your chopsticks?"
"In the drawer." She pulled the drawer open, grabbing two pairs of chopsticks, and handed one to Kukai. "Thanks!"
"It's no problem." Rima said before starting to eat.
The day passed quickly, with Rima and Kukai doing a lot of nothing. They just sat in the living room with Kukai's brothers, who were asking Rima lots of questions, most of which Rima ignored.
The most popular one was probably 'How tall are you, Rima?'.
She didn't appreciate that question. But Kukai answered for her every time. With 5'2''. He thinks.
At maybe 10:00 or so, Rima yawned. "Can I go to bed now?" She asked, her eyes drooping.
"Sure! You remember where my room is, right?" Kukai asked her.
"I think so, third door on the left?"
"Nope. I'll show you, okay?" Kukai said, getting up from his spot on the couch. The grabbed Rima's hand, and sort-of dragged her upstairs and into his room. "You sleep on the bed, I'll sleep on the floor."
"But it's your house."
"Fujisaki told me you might do this. But Rima, trust me, with what you've been through, I have no problem sleeping on the floor for one night."
"All right, good night Kukai." Rima yawned again, and toppled over onto the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
"Good night Rima." Kukai said before placing a blanket on top of her, and grabbing a blanket for himself and falling asleep on the floor.
The next morning, Rima woke up with loose of strands from her braid, and she looked onto the floor, and saw a sleeping Kukai. He looked much more... calm in his sleep. Looking around for a clock, she guessed it was about 9 am, roughly. She finally found one, hanging off of the ceiling fan, of all places. She was pretty close to what time it was though.
Getting out of bed she woke Kukai up by shaking his shoulders. "Hey, Kukai, wake up."
"Ugh... what day is it?" He asked, still three-quarters asleep.
"It's time to go back to school." She lied, wanting to see his reaction.
"WHAT?! HOW?!" Kukai yelled, scrambling to get off of the floor while Rima fell back onto the bed, laughing so hard, she was crying.
"Y-your re-reaction! Oh gosh, Kukai!" Rima managed to say, still in fits of laughter while Kukai glared at her.
"Damn you, Shorty! It's nowhere near going back to school!" Kukai said loudly, pretty mad.
"You've gotta admit, that was hilarious!"
"..." Rima looked at him, as serious as she could while still smiling. "Alright, it was pretty funny." Kukai grinned.
"See?" Rima asked. "So Kukai, why's your alarm clock on the ceiling fan?"
"Oh, that... I really hate alarms, so every break I toss my alarm clock on the fan, so I don't have to pay attention to it for awhile. It's rather silly, isn't it?"
"Just a bit," Rima said, smiling.
"You know Blondie, I don't think I've ever seen you smile until today." Kukai pointed out.
"That's because there's no reason to smile unless something is funny. You freaking out is pretty damn funny, Kukai, in case you haven't noticed."
"I guess it could be funny. You know, if it wasn't me who was freaking out."
"Oh trust me, it was hilarious." Rima smiled a bit. Just a bit. "Kukai, I'm hungry."
"You must have a bottomless pit of a stomach, then."
"Nope, just hungry. I want breakfast."
"Sure," Kukai rolled his eyes a bit. "Come on, let's go see what food we have to feed that bottomless pit of yours."
It was about two o'clock in the afternoon, and Rima and Kukai were chillin' like villains in the living room with Rento, Unkai, and Shuusui.
"Hey Riiiimmmmaaa," Rento started, stretching out Rima's name.
"Yes Reeeeentooooo?" She asked, mimicking him.
"Can I unbraid your hair?" He asked, smiling like Tadase would.
"No." Rima stated bluntly, immune to the smile.
"Pleeeasseee?"
"No. And for the next time you ask, that answer is also no."
"Can I unbraid your hair?" He received no response, as expected. "Can I unbraid your hair?" Rima heaved a sigh.
"Will it shut you up?"
"Yes!"
"Then go ahead. You'd probably unbraid it anyways." Rima said, going over to sit on the floor in front of him.
"Yeah, I would've. But I've been told it's more polite to ask first."
In the evening, maybe 7 o'clock, Nagihiko walked over to Kukai's house; this was the beginning of the plan. He knocked on the door, which was answered by a smiling Rento.
"Hey, come on in!" Rento opened the door wider, allowing Nagihiko to enter. He followed Rento into the living room, where Rima was sleeping, rolled in a ball on the couch, her hair all around her. She looked like a little round ball, just like the one Nagihiko had found her in three years ago in the spring.
Nagihiko sat down next to Kukai, who was sitting right next to Rima. "When'd she fall asleep?" Nagi asked.
"About four hours ago, when Rento finished unbraiding her hair." Kukai answered.
"Ah, okay. So it's safe to say it's going to take awhile for her to sleep tonight."
"Definitely safe. And I suggest you buy some food to keep in your room, Rima has a bottomless pit of a stomach, I swear."
"You really shouldn't tease her while she's asleep."
"She's not awake to defend herself." Kukai shrugged. "Just how it works."
"I suppose. So should I wake her up first, or get her stuff from your room?"
"I'd say wake her up first." Kukai suggested. Nagihiko nodded, and walked over to Rima. "Wait!" Kukai called out. Nagihiko looked at him. "Can I wake her up? I wanna get her back for the trick she played on me earlier."
"Uh, okay." Nagihiko went back to where he was sitting as Kukai got up.
"Oi. Rima. Fujisaki just said that he's head over heels in love with you." Rima bolted up, looking around, already with a bright pink blush on her face.
"What?! Since when?!" Rima screamed, and then of course, she noticed Nagihiko sitting there, with a light pink colour on his face, causing Rima to blush even more.
"You better have been lying, Souma, or else you will regret it." Rima glared her usual 'I'm going to murder you' glare.
"I-I'm lying! Even ask Fujisaki!" Kukai stuttered, quite terrified of Rima.
"Kukai's just kidding. He said he wanted to get payback on you. For whatever you did."
"So you went with that, of all things to say for payback, Souma?! You bloody fool." Rima insulted, as Kukai sat down on the couch.
"Well, who knows what Fujisaki would've done to wake you up. Anyway, Rima, how about you go get your stuff and leave with Fujisaki?" Kukai pushed her towards the stairs, receiving one more glare before she actually went upstairs.
"Why'd you say that, of all things, Kukai?" Nagihiko asked, glaring.
"Because, now you know how she might react once you actually confess! She blushed, that sort of means that she likes you, even in the slightest way. You're clearly getting somewhere."
"Yeah, but now she's going to be suspicious of me for ages, and you know, she is going to be living with me, we don't really need it all awkward!" Nagihiko said, trying to keep quiet enough so Rima couldn't hear them.
"But it does give her the chance to like you, doesn't it?"
"Whatever, Souma. Just hope that you didn't make it too awkward." Rima then came down the stairs, her stuff in a small plastic bag.
"Well, are we leaving right now?" Rima asked.
"I'm pretty sure Rento wants to say good-bye first." Kukai said, pointing to Rento, who had just walked downstairs.
"Riiiiimmmmmaaa!" He stretched out her name again.
"Reeeeennntooo!" She mimicked him as he hugged her tiny frame.
"I'm going to miss you!"
"I'll be back tomorrow, most likely Rento. Can you please get off of me?"
"Wooo!" Rento yelled,letting go of Rima, happy that she was coming back tomorrow.
"So can we leave now?" Nagihiko asked, standing by the door, glaring at Rento.
"I think so." Rima said, walking over to him.
"Bye Rima, Fujisaki!" Kukai said, just before Nagihiko opened the door and he and Rima left.
The walk to Nagihiko's was silent, until of course about five minutes before they got there.
"So to get into the house, we're climbing in through the window. Well, you're climbing through the window, I'm going in through the front door."
"And how exactly am I going to climb through the window? I can't even reach the window from outside, in case you haven't noticed."
"It's simple. I boost you up, you climb through the window and then hide under my bed just in case. Then in a few minutes, I'll be in my room after coming in through the front door and telling my mother I'm back."
"Oh yes, oh-so very simple, if you ask me." Rima said sarcastically.
"It is simple!" They soon arrived at the house, and walked to Nagihiko's bedroom window, which he had left open before he left.
"So, how are you boosting me up?" Rima asked.
"I actually thought this through. Climb on my back." Rima hesitated, but did as he said. He then stood up to his full height, giving Rima the perfect amount of height to grab the bottom of the window and pull herself in.
Nagihiko walked around to the front of the house, casually walked in, and told his mother that he was back. He then entered his room, told Rima to come out.
"So, your mom isn't suspicious?" Rima asked, sitting on his bed.
"Not that I know." Rima nodded, knowing that was as good as it could get. "So Rima, can I braid your hair again?" Rima rolled her eyes at this.
"But I don't want to sit the floor. It's uncomfortable." She said frowning.
"Come here." Nagihiko sat on the bed against the headboard. Rima rose an eyebrow. "You can sit on my lap. It's either that, or the floor."
"I'll take the floor." Rima said, grabbing a pillow, placing it on the floor and sitting on it. Nagihiko moved over behind her.
"Two braids or one?" Rima held up two fingers. "Two it is. Do you have another elastic, though?"
"Yeah. Now get braiding."
Phew! That's one looonnng chapter! It's exactly 3,983 words. I hope this makes up for not updating for a few days, but don't expect such long chapters in the future.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Shugo Chara or the song used in the beginning of the chapter.