Chapter 10

Nakamura disliked Tanabata Festival with an unbridled passion. He hated everything about it; the games that had no purpose, the food that was either too sweet or fried in too much butter, the crowds, the noise, the too-many-bright-colors that were all trying to grab his attention at once (be it decorations or yukatas), and most of all, out of everything that made up Tanabata Festival, he hated the smiles of the festival goers.

He hated it hated it hated it.

Why on earth would anyone make such a big deal over a stupid festival that was based entirely on a myth? Did anyone know for sure whether or not Orihime and Hikoboshi actually existed? The whole legend sounded so stupid to him, what with the fact that Orihime was the daughter of Tentei and worked so-very-hard to weave cloth for her father. Even if she worked hard, she could have still fallen in love with someone while working. It wasn't like you had to actually try to fall in love. And then there was Hikoboshi, who fell in love with the princess immediately after meeting her and then marrying her. First of all, wouldn't it have been difficult to for a cows herder to marry a princess simply due to social ranks? And who in their right mind would let their cows stray all over Heaven? It was stupid.

Everything about Tanabata was stupid.

"Katsuo, please stop sulking and huffing," his mother sighed, turning to look at her son. She was dressed festively in a new yukata just for the event, and Nakamura was, too, although he didn't look thrilled to be in it. He hated wearing yukatas. They were stupid and long and were too similar to dresses for his taste. "Katsuo, Tanabata is a time for fun," his mother stressed, reaching up and placing a delicate hand on his shoulder. "Sulking and huffing and frowning and saying 'stupid' over and over again are not fun. You need to relax… write a wish or two on tanzuka and hang it on the bamboo. Perhaps sing a song? You used to love singing songs during Tanabata when you were little."

Nakamura pulled away, looking mortified at the mental image of himself singing. "No thank you," he mumbled, turning sharply on his heel. "I'll go look at the displays," he mumbled, stalking off. Behind him, he could hear his mother calling to him about trying the goldfish game. Why would he? He could easily buy all the goldfish he wanted with a snap of his fingers. Why expend valuable energy trying to flip out a fish with a paper net?

I want to go home, he sighed to himself, stalking through the crowd of happy people, a dark raincloud that everyone kept far away from. There are so many better things that I could be doing with my time instead of wandering around this place with its gathering of idiots.

There used to be a time where he had actually enjoyed Tanabata. It used to be his favorite holiday. A week before the event, he'd be ecstatic, tearing through the Nakamura mansion brainstorming wishes. He used to have so many that his mother had had to limit the amount of paper he would have on the night of the actual festival to write them all down.

'If you have too many wishes,' his mother had said, kneeling down and looking her young son straight in the eye, 'the gods will become angry at you, because you are greedy. The gods need to help everyone who wrote a wish on Tanabata night.'

And his little self had nodded, looking very serious, and had replied back with an enthusiastic, 'Hai!' and had then trotted up to his room to narrow down his wishes to the five that he really wanted.

Maybe it's because… my wishes never came true, even in the slightest… that I don't like this festival as much as I used to. Having someone to enjoy the festival with would have been a plus, as well. Whether he liked it or not, he didn't have a lot of friends his own age, then and now.

Nakamura paused in front of the goldfish stall, watching as a young child tried to flip out a fish. The paper net grasped firmly in his pudgy little hand, the child went at it with a vengeance, ending with the net breaking after two tries. But the child didn't cry, didn't appear frustrated at all. He simply turned around, looked at his father, watched as said father paid the booth manager again, took the new net and tried again.

And again, and again, and again.

And when he finally landed a goldfish, he was so happy that his smile nearly ran off of his face. At that point, Nakamura promptly turned and walked away.

If I see one more smiling face, I'm going to snap.

He had nearly made it to the outskirts of the festival when his eyes caught two familiar figures, one clad in a blue yukata with an ice cream cone in his hand, leading another figure clad in a pink yukata in his other hand. The one in the pink carried a bag with a goldfish in it, and was looking wide-eyed around the festival as she followed the first, occasionally giving a little tug at his arm to direct his attention to something that had caught her eye.

Fuji-kun… and Ijuuin-chan, Nakamura's mind registered as he retreated to the shadows, watching them quietly. He felt strangely empty, instead of the characteristic jealousness that one is supposed to feel when they see their fiancée with some other guy. They're smiling and laughing. Everyone's smiling laughing. Am I the only one not smiling? Not laughing? Not enjoying myself?

Somehow, the revelation made him want to shrink into a little dust speck and vanish. He didn't belong here, with all of these happy people.

In a way, he had never really belonged here.

***

"Are there fireworks tonight?" Asa asked as she trotted after Fuji. Her goldfish was cradled protectively in her arms as she held onto Fuji's hand, head whipping from side to side as she took in all of the colorful sights. She was happy, having filled herself on sweets that evening and playing various assortments of games with Fuji (somehow, despite their best efforts, they had not been able to locate Miho, or Eiji, or anyone else they knew, for that matter).

Fuji licked his ice cream (unfortunately, it wasn't wasabi flavored, but vanilla was good, too, he supposed) and nodded. "It's supposed to be really pretty. I should have brought my camera." He sighed wistfully, imaging his digital camera sitting peacefully on his desk.

"Wouldn't a camcorder be better at capturing fireworks?"

"I don't own a camcorder," Fuji said sheepishly. "So I make do with my digital camera."

"Ah… is that so?" Asa asked, tilting her head to the side as Fuji polished off the rest of his ice cream and then proceeded to drag her to a cotton candy booth. Something doesn't feel right… I feel like I'm being watched, she thought to herself, chancing a glance over her shoulder.

"Two cotton candies," Fuji said to the booth manager. Taking his two cotton candies, he turned and trotted back to Asa. "Here you go," he said cheerfully, offering the treat to her. "Saa… is something wrong?" he asked curiously, noting the way she was looking oddly over her shoulder.

Asa turned back to Fuji, but not before casting one more uncertain glance over her shoulder. "I'm not exactly sure… it seems like there is someone watching me." Fuji's blue eyes opened and they radiated hate, and Asa hurried to assure him that it probably wasn't a stalker or a pervert or anything of that kind. "If I had telepathic powers, if would almost seem like someone is sad," she said softly, staring into her fluffy cotton candy.

Fuji relaxed, nibbling at his sweet treat (his mother would scold him on the mass amount of sweets he had consumed that night, and haul him off to the dentist's later to check for cavities, he knew) as he digested this information. "Why don't we see who it is?" he offered. "You'd do it anyway, wouldn't you?" he asked, looking thoughtfully at her. Inui had once mentioned that Asa was an extremely empathetic person, and since if was coming from Inui, Fuji believed it.

In all honesty, it did not take them long to locate Nakamura, after which Fuji looked torn between grabbing Asa and forcibly dragging the girl away (preferably to the other end of the festival) or following through with their original plan and cheering him up. "Hello, Nakamura-sempai!" Asa said cheerily, and was rewarded with a sulky glare.

Fuji's frown tightened, deepened, and darkened, and he was itching to go through with his former option, although Asa moved before he could even start to carry through with it.

Nakamura had turned around to leave, only to be forcibly dragged back by Asa, who had grabbed his hand and was now tugging him in the direction of the heart of the festival. "Mou… don't run away!" she pouted, looking pretty sulky herself. "How are you supposed to enjoy the festival if you don't participate?" she asked, putting all of her strength into moving him, succeeding only for the first two inches. "Fuji-kun… help me!" she whined, looking hopefully up at him. "The more the merrier, isn't it?"

Fuji sighed, shaking his head in defeat. In the end, it always seemed that Asa was able to convince him into doing things he previously hadn't wanted to do because they were a waste of his energy. "If you say so," he offered, trotting after the two as Asa weaved her way through the crowds.

"Fuji-kun and I have already spent two hours and we still haven't gone through everything in the festival!" Asa was chattering happily to her upperclassman, maintained an iron grip on his wrist lest he get into his head the idea of breaking free and bolting away (Nakamura would have to admit that the thought had crossed his mind multiple times), frequently checking over her shoulder to make sure that Fuji was still following. Whenever he lagged behind, she would pause, waiting patiently as Fuji caught up, and when he did, she'd start chatting again, picking easy subjects that both boys could converse in and put in their two cents worth. It was in this way that they browsed through the rest of the festival.

Next to one of the stalls that sold food, Atobe leaned against the smooth woodwork. He was standing with Yumiko, Nakamura's mother, and Asa's father, and all four of them were watching the trio as they moved along. "Frankly speaking, Atobe-kun, I'm impressed," Nakamura's mother finally spoke up, breaking the silence that surrounded the four silent watchers. "You and Tezuka-kun are very perceptive. And you, too, Fuji-chan… you are quite perceptive, as well."

Both Yumiko and Atobe bowed to her in acknowledgement on her praise. Asa's father pushed his glasses further up his nose, looking thoughtfully after her daughter. "Maa… she's stranger than I first thought," he said, laughing lightly, earning himself strange looks from the other three. What normal father called his daughter 'strange?' "When you look at her, she just looks like any other average girl at a festival, but she's honestly worrying about those two that she's dragging along after her. I wonder how many times Fuji-kun's tried to get her to confess her worries to him?" He tilted his head curiously to the side, smiling brightly.

Yumiko smiled softly, watching her little brother twitch as Nakamura accidently bumped into him when Asa tried to maneuver all three of them through a particularly narrow space… and failed miserably, backtracking and then proceeding to shove them through said space one by one. Not that the two seemed to mind: Fuji was making some joke as he trotted through, which Asa answered cheerfully and Nakamura mumbled something as he followed, the faintest shadow of a smile on his lips. "Syusuke always said that my card reading skills are frightening," she said brightly, brushing back a lock of her brown hair from her face.

Atobe tilted his head to one side, yawning as he did so. He was tired; going home soon would be nice, he decided. "Nakamura-san… I finished the preparations that you wanted. We can proceed as planned." He huffed, then, crossing his arms over his chest. "Ore-sama does not like to wait, though," he grumbled, looking sulky, which the other three had to admit looked quite adorable on him.

"Good things come to those who wait, Atobe-kun," they scolded mildly, causing him to huff some more, much to their amusement.

There was a blast of sound at that moment, cutting off all further chance for conversation as their attention was turned to the sky. Bright bursts of color filled the sky as the fireworks were turned on. "Is it that time already?" Nakamura's mother murmured, looking up, the fireworks illuminating her face as she did so.

Not more than two stalls away, Asa, Fuji, and Nakamura stared up in wonder at the colorful display of lights. Asa's eyes were shining, not just from the reflected light, and she nearly dropped her poor goldfish (whom she had decided to name Kenta no more than five minutes ago) in her excitement. "It's pretty!" she said happily. Ah! I thought of a wish!

She hurriedly excused herself from her friends, handing Kenta over to a puzzled Fuji and then dashing off. "Don't you want to see the fireworks?" Fuji called after her, and got a wave in response. "Mattaku…" he sighed. "Where is she running off to, now?" he asked, exasperated, but looking bemused at the same time.

A few moments later, Asa reappeared through the crowd, bouncing over to him and Nakamura. "Tadaima!" she announced, face glowing proudly.

Nakamura raised an eyebrow at her. "And just where did you vanish off to, Ijuuin-chan?" he asked.

She smiled brightly at him, looking like a cat that had just caught a bird. "Secret!" she sang out, and had to dodge away as both Nakamura and Fuji lounged at her, intent on getting her to spill her secret. "Mou… you two are so mean," she sulked, sticking out her tongue impudently at them. "Nya!"

She was rewarded with laughter and bright smiles, and smiled softly as she watched her friends, chuckling to herself. And to think that just moments ago they were frowning and glaring at each other, she thought happily, rocking back onto her heels.

See? It's not so hard to get along and smile, is it? Her soft smile turned into a happy grin as she turned back to the fireworks, watching as the rest of the colors gradually faded away into the dark sky.

***

The Monday after Tanabata Festival, Asa was skipping happily down the street after school, headed for home. She didn't have a shift at the sweet shop that day, so she was headed straight for home with the intention of enjoying her afternoon. She was in a happy mood, seeing as her goldfish, Kenta, had taken quite well to his fish bowl, and Seika had not showed any interest in eating him. When Miho had heard about this, she had instantly started grumbling about how Oshitari's Mi-chan would have long devoured the goldfish.

'So what about your goldfish?' Asa had asked, her head tipped to the side as they sat in class.

'She's in a specially fortified tank, surrounded by an anti-cat maze, and kept behind locked doors and windows!' Miho had announced proudly.

Somehow, Asa had a feeling that that was something Miho would have said, so she wasn't all too surprised…

"Ijuuin-chan! Ijuuin-chan!" Calls of her name made her turn around, and she found Nakamura running towards her, waving cheerily. "Thanks for waiting, Ijuuin-chan!"

"Ah… it's alright…" I guess, she added in her mind. What exactly did one say in a situation like this? She had not a clue. "Did you want something?" she asked curiously.

Nakamura laughed softly, albeit a bit nervously. "Ah… when you put it like that… there are actually three things I want."

"Eh? Three?"

"Does that make me seem selfish?" he asked, looking embarrassed. But when she hastily reassured him that he was fine, he grinned at her. "So, would you like to hear the things I want?" he asked hopefully.

"Well… that would be the point, right?" she asked, smiling cheerfully at him. "So… what are the three things that Nakamura-sempai wants?"

Nakamura looked thoughtful. "Let me see how I put this," he murmured, as the two of them started walking. "The first thing I want is to thank you for what happened at Tanabata. I had a really fun time. Thank you, Ijuuin-chan." He smiled, and it struck Asa that he would look really nice if he only smiled a bit more. Actually, he might have a lot of fans, she thought, enough to possibly rival Atobe-kun or any of the others.

"It's alright! I'm glad I was able to help. Everyone deserves to smile at a festival, ne?"

"True, true," Nakaumura agreed. "The second thing I want is the right to call you by your first name."

Asa blinked, coming to a halt. "My… first name?" she echoed, looking surprised.

Nakamura faltered, deflating slightly. "Is that a no, then?"

"N-no! I mean… yes… I mean… uh!" she groaned in frustration. This wasn't working out; her words were jumbling inside of her mouth so that they came out in an incomprehensible mess. "I mean… it's perfectly fine if you call me by my first name. It'll be less formal than 'Ijuuin-chan,' I suppose…" she muttered, staring up at the sky with a finger on her chin as she started walking again.

Nakamura smiled again, looking relieved. "I'm glad, Asa-chan." Asa blinked again, a slight flush appearing on her cheeks before it vanished. "Anyway, the third thing I want… it's a touchier subject then the first two." He suddenly looked very serious. "Asa-chan, even though the omiai stated that we're engaged, it's nothing if neither of us doesn't feel anything for the other right?"

Somehow… I feel like I've heard that before, Asa thought, but nodded for him to continue.

"And… I'll admit, at first I thought this whole thing was a chore and a nuisance. I thought that you were just a girl that would be self-centered and have a penchant for the rare and glamorous things that most girls of higher class seem to like. In short, I thought you were going to be a brat."

Asa twitched. Self-centered? Likes glamorous things? Brat? I can't believe this guy…!

"But, it turned out you weren't a brat or anything like those other girls are. In a way, I'm glad. After I got to know you, you've become someone that I feel will seriously take all of my problems, even though we haven't had very many chances to talk to each other face-to-face."

Well… if you feel like that, I don't think there's much I can do to change it, is there? Asa asked in her mind, although she remained silent. Isn't this an odd place to have a heart-to-heart, though? She glanced around; they were standing on the sidewalk in one of the busiest sectors of Tokyo.

Nakamura persisted with his talk, though, oblivious of the setting. "In the end, I always seem to act like a brat whenever you're looking. It makes me embarrassed, in a sense. You deserve someone who will take your best interests to heart, not someone who needs someone else to look after them. For that, I'm sorry."

Now he's apologizing for something that isn't really a big issue… I think… although he kind of lost me at the deserving part…

"Asa-chan, there are only a few months of the semester left, am I right?"

"Hai…" She watched him closely, noting the way he looked suddenly nervous. I wonder what Nakamura-sempai is so worried about. He seemed fine on all of the other aspects of his talk.

"In these last few months, please allow me to try and open your heart up to me, because I would feel better if my feelings were returned."

"Huh?" Asa uttered stupidly. That was a confession… a rather weak one, granted, but a confession nonetheless. "Mou…" she mumbled, collecting herself and rubbing the back of her head, "when you put it that way… I really don't see how I can refuse," she mumbled.

He smiled happily, holding out his hand. "Shall we?" he asked sweetly. "I'll walk you home."

She took his hand (it seemed to be the right thing to do, since it was right in front of her face) and let him start to lead her down the street. "Ah… thanks…" she offered.

On the other side of the street, Fuji watched with narrowed eyes, two bulging bags of groceries at his side, since he had just finished running several errands for his mother. He was radiating such a hateful aura that the other passersby edged their way carefully around him, fearful of unleashing a dangerous monster upon themselves if they so much as looked at him in the wrong way. Fuji's grip on his bags tightened and his hateful aura tripled in intensity.

It did not help matters that Fate had decided to break one of his shopping bags at that exact moment, sending his purchases tumbling to the ground. A sizeable tick mark made its way to his forehead, gradually growing in size and then gaining some friends until the large tick marks were basically dancing above his head.

"SHIMATTA!" he roared, frightening off anyone who was on the street.

And somewhere in Tokyo, there was the sound of shattered glass...

A/N: I feel like a loser... it took so long to write this and it's not even that good! *sobs*

Actually, I had a lot of ideas and they seemed to work out in my head but as soon as I put them onto paper (or, uh... onto my computer screen...) everything goes wrong. I fail. .'

But...! On the plus side, I did manage to download a lot of my favorite PoT songs, so I suppose I don't fail that much... ^_^

Please review! Thank you so much! I'm going to try to wrap this up in the next four or so chapters. Wish me luck; I'll need it. XP