Ch 4: You Promised Me

"Oh, and Gen," Kukiko half turned to see his face, "you promised me my first kiss, and I still hold you to that."

If this girl could surprise him any more, she did. His eyes were now partially more opened than before. She smiled at this, silently laughing at his expression. Never in her life had she seen such shock on her old friend's face and with that, she started walking off again.

She stopped suddenly, thinking to herself. "Umm," she turned and faced them again, "I don't have any place to stay tonight, so can I stay with one of you?"

"Well,, since you two were friends, you should stay with Gen." Yoshimori suggested with a devious smirk in his face.

At this, Gen's face turned a light shade of pink. He was thinking of ways to say that she can't stay with him, but no words would come out. Kukiko herself knew that staying with Gen wasn't a good idea, but all odds were against them, or were they….

"Well, I would suggest you stay at my house, but it's a little late to fix the guest room now, sorry.' Tokine said.

Yes, the odds were against them.

"And I don't think it's a good idea for her to stay at my house, since my grandpa will probably interrogate you being a Kekkaishi and all," Yoshimori added.

Great, I'm stuck with Gen. its not a bad thing, but not seeing each other in years and staying over at his home, was not the best idea in the world. "No, its ok, I'll just sleep here, in a tree or something," I said.

"No, you'll stay with me," Gen told me.

"Umm, ok," I responded, not about to start an argument with him.

He looked at me through the corner of his eye, "We'll leave when we're finished here,"

"Ok," I nodded.

…..

The rest of the night didn't last long, the group quickly eliminated the rest of the ayakashi and in record time too since they had Kukiko there to help. The incident from earlier was completely forgotten and all were getting along fine. They found out a few facts about Kukiko like that she is 15 years old, she now lives in a city near Tokyo, and has two younger siblings, twins actually, named Jun and Genki, who are 6 years old.

Kukiko having siblings was all new to Gen, then again, they separated around the time when the twins were born. This made him think of the old days….

Once they made it home (or to Gen's apartment), Gen brought out spare futon and laid it out a good meter or so away from his. Kukiko very much enjoyed his living quarters; it was small and simple, perfect for a lone teen to live in.

"Are you going to change?" Gen asked, making Kukiko jump in surprise, but Gen either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Oh, right, I should probably do that." She replied, looking down at her current clothing, which consisted of a plain light blue pull over and long, dark blue jeans.

She then stood reaching for her bag (suitcase) and rummaging through the contents. Finally after picking a light, long sleeved night gown, she asked Gen where his bathroom was. He pointed to a sliding door that was right behind her, and she entered finding it incredibly clean for a boy's house. She quickly undressed herself and slipped the gown on over her head and she took her hair down, letting it cascade down past her shoulder blades. After she finished, she realized something, where was she supposed to put her clothes? She could put it in the small hamper in the bathroom, but Gen's stuff was in there and she didn't want to put her clothes with his, her second choice was to put it back in the bag and to wash it later.

She gave up on thinking to she decided to ask, "Hey, Gen, where should I put my clothes?"

"Just put it in the hamper in there," was his uncaring answer.

I didn't mind his tone though; he must be really tired from the day's events. I placed the clothes in the hamper, taking note to do the laundry since he's letting me stay here. When I entered the larger living space, I found Gen already lying on his futon, ready to sleep. I smiled to myself and got a few things out of my bag and then settled at the nearby table, feet folded neatly under me. I started to write:

My first kiss

Travel to a different county

Keep me safe

Always be there for me

Take care of me

Love me always

Always be my best friend….

And much more listed

I was so intent on my list that I didn't notice Gen behind me.

"What are you doing?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin, but calmed down once I saw his face full of concentration on my work.

"Oh, this, it's just a list."

"A list of what?" he asked, eyes full of curiosity.

"A list of the promises you made to me when we were little. " I answered scooting over so he could read it better.

He sat down next to me and picked up the piece of paper reading the words carefully.

"I promised you all these things?"

"Yeah and more, but I don't hold them all against you anymore, I mean, we were little then, barely knowing what we were saying."

"Make me a list of the ones you still hold against me and I'll make sure they happen."

I roll my eyes at him, hearing the slight joking tone in his voice, but agreed anyway.

We sat there in a thoughtful silence until we decided it was time to sleep.

"Goodnight, Gen"

"….."

I was answered with silence, but shrugged it off, thinking he was already sleeping.

—Author's Note—

Sorry it took so long for me to post this, I hope this slightly longer chapter made up for it. I noticed that in my writing, I tend to switch from first person to third person, I apologize for that, I guess I didn't notice while writing, so please remember, I will only use Kukiko's point of view if it's in first person so please bear with me. Thank you so much for reading this chapter!