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Chapter Fourteen – Fish's Fortune

Finishing her prayer, Arisa stood up from the shrine she had been praying before. Fixing her long skirt, she turned and began walking towards the exit.

'Higarashi Shrine is so beautiful.' She thought absentmindedly to herself as she walked along the paved pathway. She had been coming to offer her prayers of thanks for the resent success of Tohru's café-bookstore. Her younger friend was so happy at the moment; it made her own heart fill with joy at seeing the young woman smile so freely.

She could still remember the day that the news of Kyoko's death arrived. Poor Tohru had already lost her dad, losing her mum could have pushed her over the edge. But she was such a tough kid, for looking so delicate and small. She still found reasons to smile and laugh, to be happy, and for that Arisa admired her. It had been as they were standing at Kyoko's grave that Arisa and Saki had sworn to always look out for Tohru, it was the least they could do for Kyoko.

Smiling to herself she was slightly distracted from her own thoughts as someone on the path ahead of her suddenly stood up, obviously having finished their own prayers. It only took her a moment before a slight blush bloomed across her own cheeks as she recognised the man as Koreno *.

"Arisa?" Surprise coloured Koreno's voice as his eyes landed on the blond woman.

"Koreno! I forgot you came here." Arisa laughed nervously.

'Gosh, he's so handsome.' She thought, giggling to herself.

"It's good to see you again." He gave her a smile that made butterflies erupt in her stomach.

"Yeah, it's great to see you again as well." She gave him a large smile as they stood before one another. There was a moment of silence in which Arisa didn't know what to say as he stood looking at her.

"So, what were you doing here?" She asked, mentally kicking herself as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

'What kind of question is that? This is a temple, he was obviously praying, what else would he be doing? You idiot!'

"I was just sending up a prayer or two for people I would like to have help. The usual sort of things." He gave another of his charming smiles and she momentarily lost her train of thought.

"I was just doing the same thing." She gave him what she hoped was a pretty smile; his smile didn't fade at all.

"Would you like to sit down for a while, if you have the time?" He offered, gesturing to the small seat sitting under the shade of a large tree.

"Yes! That'd be great." She blushed slightly at the obvious enthusiasm in her voice.

They moved over to the seat and sat down, Arisa being careful to look over at him only occasionally so she didn't seem silly.

'Yet with the way I'm acting I wouldn't be surprised if he thought I was a bit odd already.'

"So, Arisa, how did you become friends with Saki?" Koreno asked after yet another moment of silence.

"Oh, well that's mostly thanks to Tohru. See, Saki got transferred into our class in Middle School and she was so different, most of the other kids were too stupid to try and befriend her, they just whispered behind her back." Arisa rolled her eyes as she remembered back to the day Saki Hanajima had been introduced to the class. The stupid kids all around her had been whispering and pointing, spreading rumours about why she had changed to their school – none of which were probably true and all of which were cruel.

"Everyone, did it; except for Tohru. She just smiled and told me she'd like to be this new girls friend. Personally, I didn't really care at the time if Tohru wanted to be her friend or not, it just meant that there would be someone else around us all the time. It took a while, but eventually Tohru worked her magic on Saki like she did with me and before we knew it, we were all the best of friends. And it's been like that since then, the three of us – together." Arisa smiled fondly at the thoughts of her two closest friends.

"So you and Tohru were friends since you were young?" Koreno asked curiously.

A darker look entered Arisa's normally bright blue eyes as a small frown graced her face. When she took a moment to reply, Koreno hurriedly began apologising.

"Sorry, I don't mean to intrude or anything, I was just curious. You don't have to say anything if you'd rather not."

"No, it's not that. It's just that, well, before Tohru I was mixed up in some pretty crapy stuff." Glancing at him, she decided to take a leap of faith.

'He stuck around Saki despite her weirdness; maybe he'll stick around even though I used to do some pretty stupid stuff. No one besides Tohru and Saki ever had, but he might be different… Besides, if he doesn't, I can put him on the list of people I think are absolute pricks.' She thought dryly to herself.

"See, I had a rubbish home life, who didn't?" She joked weakly. "Anyway, it's the generic story, I fell in with the wrong crowd, skipped school, hardly ever went home. Before I knew it, I was part of a gang." She shrugged helplessly.

"Wait, you were a Yankee?" She winced slightly at his comment, but nodded nonetheless.

"Oh, well, ok… go on." He made a continue gesture with his hand and she did so.

"Anyway, it was on one of the few days that I actually bothered to turn up at school and there was this little kid who had dropped her stuff all over the floor. All the other kids were picking on her and calling her names, as kids do. But she just sat there with this silly smile on her face and happily apologised, as if they weren't being mean at all. So, I stuck up for her, I had no idea why at the time. It made her take notice of me and suddenly she was around all the time. I found myself turning up to school just to see her, to make sure that she was ok. It was like I had someone to protect, for once in my life, and I just found myself unable to let her down."

"It also didn't hurt that her mum was the legendary Red Butterfly. She used to be a Yankee just like I was, she was my idle. I was horrified the first time I met her, she was this doting mum who was all silly smiles and sincere words – just like her daughter. It was under their influence that I decided that I wanted something more from my life than running with a gang. I went and told them I wanted out," she laughed in a slightly bitter manner.

"They didn't like that and they beat the crap out of me. But Kyoko came and saved me, she didn't care if they hurt her as well, she just wanted me to be safe. After that, Tohru and Kyoko came two of the most important people in my life. But, anyway, that's my dark past for you." She gave Koreno small shrug and looked away, not wanting to see the disgust and dislike that would surely be painting his face at the moment.

The longer the silence dragged out between them, the most her heart sank until she was feeling quite sick. She was beginning to contemplate the idea of just getting up and leaving herself, to save him the trouble, when he spoke up quietly, startling her.

"Well, we've all got to start somewhere. Even if it is joining a gang and becoming a Yankee, the important part is that you changed, you made a life for yourself and didn't allow your past to stop you from doing what you wanted to do."

She looked over at him in shock, eyes big and round as she attempted to believe what he was saying, believe that he really meant what he was saying.

"You've moved on from that, that's the main thing."

'He's perfect.' She silently thought, as an old feeling of tears was help in check.

"So does this mean that you'll be beating the crap out of Yuki for making cow eyes at Torhu?" Koreno teased her gently.

A surprised laugh bubbled up and escaped before she could think about it.

"No, Yuki seems like a good guy, as long as he treats her right I won't have to resort to any kind of violence." She laughed back at him, the feeling of relief at his acceptance and even making a joke about the whole thing – she'd never felt so light and free.

"Well, I'm sure he's relived to know that."

"Oh, he doesn't know that. I'm keeping him on his toes in a silent threat about it." She gave him a mischievous grin, which made him laugh.

The two talked for a bit longer before an alarm sounded and Koreno apologised as he pulled out his phone. Checking it, he sighed and told her he had to get back to work. Privately she liked to entertain the thought that he sounded disappointed that he had to leave her.

"It was nice to see you again, I hope to catch up with you again soon." He said as he stood up and began moving towards the exit of the temple.

'He's leaving, do it now or you might never have a chance to do it again!' She gathered her courage together and quickly ran after him, calling out his name.

"Koreno, wait a moment." Stopping before him, she tried to fight down a blush as she blurted out the words before she could think too much more about it.

"I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner with me sometime this week?"

'Oh gosh!'

The grin that spread over Koreno's face was almost like the sun rising.

"I thought you'd never ask."