A chance encounter
It had been a month since her parents' funeral, the rain finally let up and for the first time since the incident Natsuki had been feeling like today would be a good day to spend it outside and out and about. Standing and getting dressed in her usual black baggy cargos, dark blue spaghetti strapped tank top and her converse, Natsuki put her hair in her usual half ponytail, loose hair framing her face. She even decided to put eyeliner on today and her special choker with her blue guitar pick today and left the newly bought apartment. Taking the first step was the hardest, but once she was out of the building Natsuki felt as if she could breathe and continued walking about. The sun felt surprisingly good on her normally pale skin, then, an idea hit her and began heading towards the closest convenient market, she was going to buy some drinks and snacks for later.
It didn't take long for the raven haired girl to find a convenient market; in the parking lot was a minivan, a sedan and a Cherokee truck that looked like one of the older models. She only shrugged as she entered the store and grinned, seeing the candy aisle,
"Hello miss" she looked over the cash register to see two women, one was probably in her thirties while the other looked to be not much older than Natsuki, and she nodded to them,
"Hello," then headed back to her original purpose of being her. Once she entered the candy aisle she saw there was a woman with long red hair wearing a pair of jeans with a long sleeved dark red shirt, Natsuki looked at the different types of candy they had, seeing nothing that she liked she turned to stare at the same shelf as the redhead. It didn't take long for the raven haired girl to find what she wanted, a cookies 'n' crème king sized, she reached for it just as the red head, they bumped hands, Natsuki turned to apologize,
"I'm sorry about that, you can have it if you want" she spoke, the redhead turned to her, but when she saw Natsuki's face she froze, her face paled and she looked like she was going to be sick,
"Are you okay-"
"-Riko" both women turned to the voice and saw a tall man, about the same age as the redhead with spiky blonde hair, he wore a simple pair of jeans and a black t, when he saw both women he froze as well, after about a minute the redhead unfroze herself,
"I'm really sorry about that, I hope I didn't freak you out too much. See, you remind me of a daughter of some good friends of ours" Natsuki processed what she said and smiled sweetly at the older woman before her,
"It's okay, I'm not too weirded out, some friends of my mom's used to say I looked a lot like her when she was my age, it's fine though so I'm pretty used to it, even if I'm being mixed up by a different girl entirely" Natsuki smiled fondly, Riko smiled and turned to her friend,
"Tasuku, come on, we should leave now," the woman said-ordered-to the man before them. Tasuku, nodded and turned around walking straight out of the market, followed by a straggling Riko. For the first time in a long time, Natsuki giggled at them and began picking out her own snacks then headed home, unaware of the soft blue eyed gaze watching her as her form kept getting smaller by each passing step.