Shyt, I never uploaded chapters 12 or 13? O.o"" Well that just goes to show what summer can do to people's minds :D Especially mymind…If you mix in Prince of Tennis, smut, and the trauma of losing my hat, then OMG.
Well, then enjoy this chapter xD The next one will be posted shortly nya!
I do not own Shugo Chara! If I did, I'd forgot to release manga volumes ;D
The Colours of Love: Chapter 12
And Aika is her name-o
Staying up so late was not a good thing for the youngest Souma. The next morning he refused to get out of bed, until Arisa, teamed up with Rento, Unkai and Suusui, dragged him by the sheets and out of his bed.
He landed on the floor with a thump and groaned. "Five more minutes…"
Unkai rolled his eyes, "Come on Kuukai, pancakes!"
"I…have your soccer ball hostage!" Rento shouted by his face. But he slept on.
"Arisa's wearing a maid costume," Suusui stated, crossing his arms, awaiting his reaction. Kuukai cracked an eye open, and looked at Arisa who was red as a volcano who was about to erupt.
The fact that he opened his eyes hung with his immature older brothers for the whole morning, tormenting the two.
They sighed of relief when they finally exited the house, leaving the rowdy siblings behind. Kuukai looked at Arisa and laughed sheepishly, "Sorry…?"
Arisa glared at him and scowled, punching him on the arm, "If I were a normal girl, I'd slap you. If I were a normal guy, I'd beat you up. Luckily for you, I'm far from normal, and you should consider yourself very, very lucky."
They walked calmly to school. Even though Kuukai had slept in, they were still early. Seriously, it was a freakin' miracle.
Arisa arrived and watched Kuukai run off into the direction of his school. She stepped past the massive crowds of students who occupied practically every inch of the school's front area. When Arisa managed to reach the door, she was out of breath.
Pulling the door open with all her might, she stepped in, only to be greeted by yet another crowd of people.
She groaned at shouted as she shoved her way through the can of sardines she dares call her school. Even getting up the stairs was hard. There were people freaking EVERYWHERE.
Once in the classroom, she collapsed into her chair. Arisa could run around the entire school three times, climb trees non-stop for three hours and sprint to and from school multiple times, but when it comes to shoving her way through crowds, she wasn't that great.
After pulling out papers and a pen, she glanced at the clock. Why was she so early for everything today?
As she sat, her head on her desk, she over heard some girls chatting about a new student. According to…whoever they were, she had perfect, flowing blue hair, the colour of a perfect night sky, and eyes like golden treasures one would find at the bottom of the ocean.
Arisa yawned boredly, tired of how many rumours people could spread in a day. But she should keep quiet, knowing these rumor-hyeenas, if she told them to 'STFU' they'd defiantly start a nasty rumour about her.
She glanced to her right. A new desk had been placed there. In its seat was a girl with combed midnight-blue hair. It was slightly wavy at the ends and part of it was held up at the side of her head with a yellow scrunchie.
Her eyes were golden, and stared, concentrated on the paper in front of her.
Arisa strained to remember what the gossiping girls had said, 'perfect night sky hair…golden eyes…oh.'
She straightened herself up, and turned to the girl next to her. Arisa tapped her on the shoulder, and was expecting nothing more than a simple sideways glance and possibly a smile. But what she got was something more…hyper-active.
The girl had bolted upward in her seat and screamed, fumbling with her pencil. Everybody in the room turned to look at the source of the noise. The new girl shrunk lower into her chair, trying to hide herself from the class' wandering eyes.
Arisa, who had jumped back at the sudden noise inched forwards, back to her. She held out her hand and smiled sheepishly, "Hey there. I'm Hoshiwa Arisa, since we sit next to each other; I thought it'd be cool of me to introduce myself."
The other girl smiled shyly and laughed nervously, "I'm Suzuki Aika. Sorry about freaking you out like that."
Arisa laughed boyishly, "Don't worry about it. I'll just make sure not to approach you suddenly next time."
Aika smiled, pushing her bangs from her eyes. Her gold eyes darted down to the paper, where there was a large, dark scribble over the sketch. She had probably made it when she flipped out.
"Eh…if it's not too much to ask, can I borrow your eraser?" She held hers up, a small purple blob only about a few centimetres long, and about an inch wide. Arisa's eyes widened, and rummaged through her bag, "Sure…just let me find it."
Arisa pulled out more papers, when finally; her hand emerged with a green pencil case. She tossed her bag back down onto the ground, and pulled an eraser out of it and handed it to Aika.
She thanked the other girl and got back to work, staying silent as Arisa watched. She eventually got bored, was actually excited once the bell rang.
Nikaidou walked into the room, carrying a mountain of books as usual. And dropping them and collapsing; as usual.
As the class ceremonially burst into laughter, Arisa couldn't help but wonder how much this guy was even being paid… Arisa looked at Aika, who was holding back laughter.
After Nikaidou finished taking role-call, he announced to the class, "Today we have a new student!" The classroom exploded in excited whispers. The aqua haired girl, shrunk into her seat. Nikaidou called her up, "Suzuki Aika-san, please come to the front and introduce yourself."
All of the student's heads turned to the sound of a chair scraping against the floor as the new student walked up. She hair swished behind her as she walked, and she sported a shy smile on her face.
She stood at the front of the classroom with her hands clasped together in front of her shyly.
Nikaidou sat down at his desk, "Go ahead Suzuki-san."
Aika looked nervously at the sea of people staring at her, waiting in anticipation.
She cleared her throat and introduced herself, "Hi…I'm Suzuki Aika, I like to draw, play the piano and listening to music. I'm not very good at sports, but they're fun most of the time…I hope I can become friends with all of you."
The males of the class applauded loudly with wide grins on their face. As Aika made her way down the aisle back to her seat, she received stares and glares from the students. When she sat down, Arisa held up her hand for a high-five. Aika laughed quietly and exchanged the gesture.
As Nikaidou stood up and pulled a math book from his desk, he called out, "Hoshiwa-san, please aid Suzuki-san in organizing her books when you're free." Arisa nodded and smiled at Aika. "You got it sensei." With that said, the math lesson began.
About a quarter way through the speech on equations, multiplication, percentage, fractions, decimals, and variables, Arisa and Aika both groaned in sync.
"I hate school," Arisa groaned.
"I hate math," Aika moaned.
They sat up and stared at each other with amazement, then burst in stifled laughter. After being silenced by Nikaidou, they continued to laugh quietly waiting for the period to pass by faster.
Finally, Arisa's second most favourite part of the day; lunch arrived. She took a bite out of her meal and turned her chair to Aika, and crossed her legs.
"So Aika-san, how do you like it here at Seiyo Academy?" She asked friendlily.
Aika shrugged and thought for a moment, "It's pretty cool I guess."
Arisa smiled, satisfied. Just before she could say anything else she was surrounded by Hikaru, Daisuke and Ryu, blocking Aika out.
"Her Arisa-san! We're going to be playing soccer after school again since the soccer team's practice was cancelled. Ryu's going to be in net, so are you up for it?" Daisuke asked eagerly.
Hikaru smacked his friend upside the head, "Take a chill pill dude, Arisa might be busy with Guardian stuff."
Ryu stuffed his hands in his pockets, and waited for Arisa's response.
Arisa pushed the three of them to the side and explained to them, "Sorry guys, I'm busy again."
"Why?!" Daisuke exclaimed, falling to his knees dramatically.
Arisa rolled her eyes, laughing, "I'm helping Aika-san out after school," she explained as she pointed at the girl sitting next to her. The three boys turned to look at her, staring. Arisa snickered, "Say 'hi', idiots."
Hikaru waved dumbly, Daisuke muttered a quiet, "Hi…" and Ryu's greeting was the calmest (and normalest) of all three.
"Hey," he said. His deep voice rumbled in his chest and caused colour to rise to Aika's cheeks.
"I—uh, right—hi…" she stammered, tripping over, and falling face first into her own words. A small smile crept onto the boy's face, he continued, "I'm Ryu. It's nice to meet you Aika-san."
Her name flowed off his tongue with ease, giving Aika chills. She laughed nervously and replied, "Nice to meet you…Ryu-san."
Suddenly there was a long silence within the group until Arisa broke it by coughing. "Well then, sorry I can't hang out with you guys today, maybe Monday." Daisuke sulked and nodded. He was led away by Hikaru and Ryu. Ryu waved to Aika, and smiled.
When they walked away, Aika turned to Arisa eagerly, "Next time you go and hang out with them, can I come along?" Arisa stared at the other girl strangely and took another bite of her lunch. "Sure," she replied with a full mouth.
Suddenly, Arisa heard a small voice coming from behind Aika, followed by another; deeper and much more sleepier.
"What kind of lady are you, eating with your mouth open! You bring shame to your own gender!" The female voice shouted.
"Hataraka, chill. As long as the girl eats, she won't die and it'll all be cool."
"Well if she is going to eat, she may as well make herself look good! And what kind of lady sits with her legs cross legged while wearing a skirt?" She demanded.
Arisa glared at the charawho emerged from behind Aika, "Yo, it's not like I even want to wear this stupid thing!" Koorei appeared from his egg, "You tell her Arisa!"
The chara, Hataraka had long brown hair with streaks of red, orange and yellow, tied in long, braided pigtails. She wore a black graduation hat with a sun at the end of its string. She also wore a yellow button shirt with a red tie and an orange ribbon tied around her waist.
She also wore a red skirt, but was partly covered with a yellow, red-frilled apron and white stockings underneath. On her feet, she wore simple, black dress shoes.
The second chara, named Ayumu yawned and shrugged, floating back to his egg for more sleep. He had black hair with blue streaks in them. Over his messy bed-head, he wore a long, blue sleeping cap covered in purple moons and a single yellow moon handing off the end. He was dressed in pyjamas of the same pattern as his hat and wore a pair of fuzzy blue slippers on his feet.
Aika grinned like mad for the rest of the day. Even when they had double math homework, she was so chipper; Arisa was exhausted from just feeling her aura for the whole day.
When the last bell rang, Arisa groaned in frustration. Aika stood up. Arisa's head was set on her desk, exhausted from school.
She didn't even bother to listen to what Aika had said when she approached her. All Arisa heard were a babble of her excited voice, considerably higher than her own.
A question; Arisa lazily nodded her head, having no idea what was going on. She heard Aika's footsteps run in the direction of the doorway. Wait—wasn't she supposed to her with her right now? Arisa sat up and quickly gathered her things. She followed Aika out into the hallway and found her standing by Ryu.
Arisa couldn't help herself and rolled her eyes and puffing her cheeks in an annoyed manner. She was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. Arisa whiled around, and stared into Hikaru's eyes.
He shared a look of sympathy with her, and sat on the floor along the wall. Daisuke walked up to them as well. He had been waiting in the field for their arrival. Before he could ask why they were late, Hikaru and Arisa pointed at Ryu and Aika.
Daisuke slouched his shoulders and sat down with the two.
The wait lasted for nearly and hour, until finally, Aika and Ryu walked over to them, "Okay Arisa-chan, time to go!~"
Arisa rolled her eyes, "Don't call me that," and stood up, waving the group good bye.
The two girls walked down the hall, towards the library where the schools keeps the textbooks and materials for certain classes.
As Aika constantly sighed dreamily about Ryu, they passed Saaya. They glared at each other as they walked past each other.
In the library, Aika was quiet, but still ranting in hushed whispers as they walked up to the main librarian's desk. Arisa smiled, but rolled her eyes and hit the girl on her arm signalling for her to stop talking.
Arisa leaned against the counter and smiled at the current helper for the hour. Arisa recognized the girl well; she looked exactly what people would think of her. She wore large glasses and had long lavender hair and spent all of her free time in the library.
"Good afternoon Hoshiwa-san," she greeted.
Arisa couldn't help but laugh, "No need to be so formal Shina-san." Arisa grabbed Aika by the arm and pulled her into sight of the librarian.
"I'm here to collect the books for the new student, Suzuki Aika," Arisa announced. Shina jumped then rolled the chair she was sitting on to a table behind her. She pushed some of her purple locks from her face and picked up a stack of books, bound together with a blue ribbon.
"Suzuki Aika of Star Class 6, right?" she verified.
Aika nodded and took the books. Arisa led her over to a table and sat down. Aika set the books down and pulled on one of the strings, releasing the ribbon.
For almost two hours Arisa explained each subject and writing guidelines for each book. She also pointing out the pros and cons about each class, and most importantly (to Arisa at least) which classes are the best to sleep through.
Finally, after reviewing all of the subjects, they both collapsed face first onto the table, groaning. Though their rest was short lived when the door of the library burst open explosively.
Arisa took what minimal strength was left in her to lift her head to see what was going on. A similar burst of red and grey caused yet another groan to come out of Arisa. Shinyu's back.
The older girl ran over to Arisa, calling her name as she ran. Arisa groaned and put her hat on, lowering the brim in front of her face.
"Arisa-chaaaaan!~" She called, being repeatedly shushed by the librarians. But she ignored them and made her way to her destination.
"Shinyu…hi," Arisa mumbled. She acted like a slob when she was lazy…and hungry, and tired, and exhausted and…many others.
"Arisa-chan, I know we've known each other for like, a week, but I was wondering if you were free tomorrow so that you and Tsukiga-chan can come over to my place for a slumber party!" Shinyu paused at the end of her sentence, to look at Aika. After thinking for a moment, Shinyu started talking again, "And that girl can come too!"
Arisa scowled, but laughed in spite of herself, "That girl has a name you know."
Aika smiled shyly, "Suzuki Aika, pleased to meet you senpai," Aika greeted, bowing slightly in her seat.
A bright smile appeared on Shinyu's face, "Just call me Shinyu-chan! Senpai or not, I've been told I act like a 6 year old, so let's be friends."
Arisa yawned and poked Shinyu on the arm, "Shinyu-chan, do I really have to go…? Slumber parties aren't really my thing…"
Shinyu growled, "I knew this was going to happen…" There was a dramatic pause when Shinyu slammed her palm onto the table, causing heads to turn towards the source of the sound.
"That is why I already asked Kuukai-san if you could go!"
Arisa suddenly chocked on some unknown substance, "What the hell Shinyu?? I could've gotten away with not going!"
A devious smirk appeared on her lightly glossed lips, "You can't escape Arisa-chan~"
Arisa rolled her eyes and gathered her books, "Whatever Shinyu. So where's Kuukai?"
By now, Arisa noticed Shinyu's flaming red hair, swish behind her as she exited the library. Arisa yawned yet again and stood up. She picked up her bag and turned to Aika, "Come on, let's walk together."
Aika though, was carrying the pile of books she needed, or wanted to take home. Her arms quaked from the weight and she was leaning back slightly, almost falling back. Arisa dashed forward and took a bit more than half of the pile after putting her bag's strap over her shoulder.
Aika immediately relaxed and sighed of relief, "Thanks…"
Arisa shrugged, "No problem. How about I walk home with you?"
"But don't you have to get home?" She asked, blowing some hair out of her face.
Arisa shrugged again; it was becoming a habit for whenever she spoke, "Not really. I can tell them I was being a pack mule for the new girl at school," Arisa joked.
A look of horror came onto Aika's face. She suddenly felt extremely guilty, "No, it's alright! I'll manage! You don't have to come!" She told her frantically.
Arisa rolled her eyes, "Chillax Aika, I was just joking. Now let's go, I want to see your house anyway." She led Aika out of the library and walked down the stairs. When they exited the building, they spotted Hikaru, Ryu and Daisuke playing soccer.
They both waved at them, calling their names. They walked over to them, and were greeted with a soccer ball rushing right past their heads.
Aika suddenly screamed and ducked her head. Arisa put the books she was carrying down and patted Aika on the shoulder, "Aika-san, are you okay?"
She nodded shakily and smiled shyly, "I'm good."
Arisa glared at Daisuke, "Yo dunderhead, watch where you kick that ball or you'll have to start sleeping with your eyes open!"
The male, brunette smiled sheepishly and apologized. Hikaru went over to calm Arisa down and prevent a fight that is bound to eventually happen and Ryu made his way over to Aika and helped her up. A ferocious blushed appeared on her face as she tugged her hand out of his.
As Arisa yelled at Daisuke for something that isn't really worth mentioning, Saaya walked by them, taking note of Arisa.
"Hoshiwa-san?" She wondered out loud.
Arisa, who was in the middle of strangling Daisuke, and holding Hikaru off, glanced over at the voice, "Yo, what do you want?"
Saaya signalled her to follow her a bit away from the group. She crouched, and Arisa followed suit. Saaya's bright green eyes darted from the group, standing dumbfounded, back to Arisa. Suddenly she asked, "You know, talk to and hang out with boys?"
Arisa nodded slowly, not really understanding what she wanted to know from her. Saaya gasped dramatically, "So brave!"
Arisa' smiled uneasily and scratched the back to her head.
"So are you going out with all three of them?" Saaya asked in a hushed whisper.
Arisa's uneasy expression instantly turned to a shocked and downright furious one. She gagged, "Gross, no! They're called friends Saaya, you should try it."
She stormed off, back to the group. When they asked what she said, she repeated what Saaya had told her, and they were all silent. Suddenly they broke out laughing leaning onto each other for support, "Dating all three of us? That's rich!"
"Exactly, why would I go out with buffoons like you guys?" Arisa laughed, gripping Hikaru's shoulder. Ryu laughed quietly and glanced at Aika who was standing by the books, attempting to carry more.
After the laugh-fest finished, Arisa bid her good byes to the group and picked up Aika's books and they continued on the way.
As the two girls walked together, they asked each other random questions about each other to get to know each other better. Some of the many topics were their birthday, favourite colour, siblings, old houses, old friends, but the conversation that lasted the longest was the one about their favourite colour…for some reason.
Arisa blew her bangs out of her face and squinted into the sunset, over the hill, "So what's your favourite colour?"
Aika didn't hesitate and answered enthusiastically, "BLUE!" The brunette laughed at her new friend's enthusiasm and decided to join in.
She shouted, "WHY?!" and smiled when Aika laughed. Aika cleared her throat dramatically and shouted, "BECAUSE IT KEEPS ME CALM!!"
Arisa rolled eyes and thought, yeah right, but wanted to keep the conversation going and asked her, "DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK?"
Aika shook her head, nearly dropping her pile of books. Seriously, books aren't that easy to carry.
"NOPE, BUT IF I REALLY THINK IT DOES, THEN SOMETIMES IT WORKS!!"
Arisa laughed loudly, then Aika asked Arisa, "WHAT ABOUT YOU? WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE COLOUR?"
Arisa too, did not hesitate and answered, and screamed, "PURPLE!!!!"
Her yell was so loud it echoed through the empty street and a few of the neighbourhood dogs began howling back. Aika looked at Arisa in amazement. Arisa was smiling smugly. She was always proud of how loud her voice can be.
Recovering from her friend's vocal explosion, she asked, "DON'T YOU HAVE A REASON WHY YOU LIKE IT?"
"WHO CARES?! PURPLE ROCKS!"
Arisa's exclamation caused some random old man to exit his house and stomp onto his porch. He waved his cane angrily in the air and shouted at them, "Hey, keep it down will ya?! I'm trying to wash my soap, and I can't with you crazy kids screaming' colours out here!"
As soon as they noticed his presence, they ran off snickering, being careful not to drop any books as they ran.
When they turned a courner, they slowed down. Arisa glanced at Aika, "You're a pretty fast runner."
She smiled at the compliment and shrugged carelessly, "I'm good at running just not at other sports."
Arisa frowned, "Really? If you're good at running, you'd probably rock at skating, cycling and… soccer!" Aika shifted nervously, "Well I never really skated, I don't know how to ride a bike, and I never played soccer…"
Arisa's chocolate brown eyes widened to the size of UFOs when she heard this, "You've never tried skating?!" Aika shook her head. "You don't know how to ride a bike?!" She shook her head again. "And you have NEVER played soccer??" Aika shrugged, admitting her defeat.
A sigh escaped Arisa's lips, and her frown was suddenly replaced with a bright smile, "Even so, you'll never know until you try!"
Aika shrunk back slightly, fumbling with her books for a moment, "But what if I get hurt?"
Arisa grinned boyishly, and took a few of the books off of Aika's pile, then I'll bring you flowers everyday while you're in the hospital!"
Aika giggled and turned, walking up the worn down driveway of her house. "I have killer allergies so I'll give you a list of the ones that won't kill me."
Arisa stared up at the house in awe. Aika, who had noticed told her, "I know it's not a huge shiny mansion, but I guess my family just wants to lay low or something…"
"Are you crazy?" Arisa asked with a large smile on her face. She stared in astonishment, "You have the coolest house ever! It's so old looking and…mysterious."
Aika laughed, and pulled and key out of her bag while setting her stack of books on one of the patio chairs. She turned the key and gave the door forceful pushes until it opened.
Arisa stepped up her stone steps and entered the house. She took her shoes off out of courtesy.
Aika led her upstairs and stopped Arisa right outside her door.
"Wait here, my room's a mess!" She commanded. Arisa cocked a curious brow at the blue haired girl, "It's no big deal, I'll be in there for like, five seconds anyway."
Aika shook her head stubbornly. She slammed the door shut in Arisa and began rummaging around the room, stuffing clothes into her closet and papers into her desk. Outside the door Arisa pressed her ear against the door, listening to the bangs and crashes going on inside the room.
She rolled her eyes, what does she keep in there? A zoo?
Arisa's imagination was stopped when the door burst open, revealing Aika, with her bag in one hand and a young girl, about eight in the other. The young girl was squirming and shouting at Aika repeatedly.
"Onee-chan let me go!!" She shouted.
"Now, now Keiko-chan, what did I tell you about going into my room without permission?" Aika lectured to the girl, walking across the hall and opening another door, revealing a pink-painted room.
Aika shuffled the girl into the room, and closed it behind her.
Arisa stared, giving the whole, '. . .' expression/vibe. Aika led her into her room, and set the books down onto Aika's (miraculously) cleared desk. Arisa looked around the room, and literally, the only thing she saw was blue. There were blue walls, blue curtains, blue bed sheets, blue lamp, blue radio, and blue clothes spilling out of a…white closet. But besides the closet, (door, floor, ceiling, desk and bed posts) the entire room was freakin' blue.
"Do you suffer major anxiety attacks or something? Because I think the blue will drive you to the point of insanity before ever calming you down," Arisa joked.
Aika laughed dryly, "I guess, but it never hurt to try."
After Aika organized all the books, the two girls walked downstairs, into the kitchen. There, Aika's mom was cooking an ominous bubbling substance over the stove. Arisa tipped her hat in greeting and sat down at the table with Aika.
They both sat in silence, occasionally tapping at the wooden table. Suddenly Arisa burst out, "What am I even doing here?"
Aika laughed and stood up, "I have no idea." Arisa stood up as well, and followed Aika when she walked over to her mom, "This is Arisa-san. She was showing me around school and helping me with my books."
"How do you do Suzuki-san?" Arisa greeted bowing and removing her hat. The older woman laughed and continued stirring the substance in her pot, "You have a keeper Aika-chan."
Arisa shot back upward and poked Aika repeatedly on her arm, "Yo, ask your mom if you can come tonight!"
Aika jumped up, completely forgetting about the sleepover, "Right!" She turned to her mom and cleared her throat, "I was invited to a sleepover at one of my senpai's house tonight, can I go?"
She thought for a moment, then asked, "Is Arisa-san going?" Aika nodded in response.
"Well, if you can walk there with Arisa, then it's fine," she decided. Arisa cheered loudly and ran around the kitchen, waving her arms in the air. Aika's mom laughed again, "I'll see you next time you come over Arisa-san."
"Adios Suzuki-san!"
Arisa took her bag and made her way to the front hall. She put her shoes on and turned the door knob, but when it wouldn't open, she turned it the opposite direction and the door successfully clicked open.
She waved to Aika, "I'll be over at around 7:00 alright?"
Aika had a suddenly look of panic on her face as she paled, "I-I'll start packing right away."
Arisa snickered, "Just think of blue!"
From that point, Arisa sprinted home with the help of Koorei's chara-change and arrived in a matter of minutes. She swing the door open and called into the house, "Hana-saaaaaan!"
Just as she shut the door behind her, her body was suddenly embraced by one only slightly taller than her.
"K-Kuukai, hi. What's up?"
"Where were you?" He asked, sounding greatly relieved to see her.
"I was just helping Aika; this new girl, carry her textbooks home, don't worry."
Even though she felt his shoulders physically drop and relax, he still wouldn't let go of her.
"Kuukai…can you let go of me now?" Arisa asked, colour suddenly rising to her cheeks. Kuukai practically jumped off when he realized what was happening. He quickly apologized and rushed up the stairs.
Arisa shrugged, mentally forcing the blush to leave her face. Grumbling bitterly, she entered the kitchen and greeted Hana with a smile.
"Hana-san?"
The older woman glanced over at Arisa, "What is it?"
Taking a deep breath, she knew she would regret asking, and just going. She would be sure to never let Hiro hear of this.
"I was invited to my friend, Shinyu-san's house tonight for a sleep over and I was wondering if I could go, since she isn't giving me a choice on going."
Hana stared at Arisa in astonishment, "Well, you mom did tell me to give you permission to any party where you might make female friends, so go ahead. But if you're walking there, Kuukai's coming with you okay?"
Arisa nodded, and dashed up the stairs passing by Kuukai. Just before she ran into the room, she grabbed onto Kuukai's sleeve, but slipped on the polished wood flooring. She fell to the ground, but quickly recovered and held onto Kuukai.
"I'm going to Shinyu's for the night, and I need you to walk me over!"
For a second, he just stared, dumbfounded, then eventually agreed. Arisa jumped up in happiness (though she wasn't very sure why) and suddenly hugged him.
After releasing him, she ran into the bedroom, leaving Kuukai, completely red in the face.
Arisa pulled Korii's egg from her bag and shook it until it opened. Korii was sitting in her egg innocently, but had a coy smirk on her lips.
"What can I do for you Arisa-chan?" She asked innocently.
Arisa growled and turned slightly red, "What did I tell you about chara-changing with me, Korii?!"
She shrugged offhandedly as if she was going to make a mere observation of the weather, "But you know you enjoyed that hug."
Arisa's face turned bright red, and instead of screaming to something nobody else would be able to see, she pulled one of her bags and began packing her things.
Koorei floated up to Korii who was sitting ideally in her cup, watching Arisa fuss over what she had said. He sat next to her, "Are you sure she's going to be okay?"
She shrugged again and flipped her bangs back, "Nope."
Arisa, who had never been to a sleepover before thought of it like when she goes camping with her friends, clothes, brush, extra hair ties, toothbrush, her phone, and finally, Lappy-chan.
She zipped up the zipper and called her charas over. Arisa walked down the stairs quickly, temped to slide down the railing, but the framed photographs lining the stairs would threaten to fall off even if she put too much preasure on the railing.
When she reached the bottom, Kuukai was standing by the door ready to leave. As she pulled a thin sweater on, she felt a buzzing in her pant pocket.
She pulled out her cell phone and put it to her ear, "Moshi moshi?~"
Apparently it was Aika (they had shared cell phone numbers on the way to her house). Instead of walking with Arisa, she was going with her mom instead. Arisa just shrugged and hung up, letting her know it was fine. After she threw the phone back into her bag, she turned to Kuukai, "About that time when I randomly hugged you…it was chara-change you got that?"
He blushed lightly and nodded, "Well of course, it's not like you'd hug me through your own will anyway…"
Arisa looked away, blushing slightly as well, "E-exactly."
They left the house in an awkward silence; the worst kind of silence.
When they were about half way to Shinyu's house, a car zoomed by them, and through a puddle, covering Arisa with the filthy liquid.
Though only drops of it landed in her hair, the entire front on her thin sweater was covered with the street sludge and was seeping through her clothes until it clung to her skin.
She looked down at her shirt, disgusted. Then looked at the spot the car had driven off from.
"Stupid, freaking, planet-killing, puddle-splashing, retarded, failure of an ass hole car!!" She cried after it. She took a handful of the soaked hem of her shirt, she twisted it, until most of the water had splashed onto the sidewalk.
She sighed observing the rest of her torso, "Stupid car…"
Kuukai had stuffed his hands in his jacket's pockets, and turned his head, realizing how revealing the soaked shirt made her.
So instead of trying to not look at her for the rest of the walk (which would be about 20 minutes) he removed his jacket quietly and held it out to her, still looking in the opposite direction to hide his blush.
"With your shirt like that…somebody might pull an 'Ikuto' on you, so just to be safe, it'd be better if you wore my jacket.
Arisa took the thick jacket hesitantly, "Won't you be cold?"
He shook his head, "Nah, I'll be fine. If anything were to happen to you, I'd never hear the end of it so…put it on."
Hearing the shuffling of his heavy jacket, he decided that it was safe to look at her again. His jacket was way too big on her, the sleeves hanging about half a foot from her hands and the end of the zipper going all the way down to her knees.
To him, the sight was just really…cute. But when she glared up at him, he forced all thoughts like that out of his head.
"Don't you dare start being weird with me," she told him, pouting slightly. She has been told she looked cute when she wore clothes too big for her, and personally, she doesn't do cute.
He scoffed, "You're the one who's being weird…"
As they walked onto Shinyu's street, the houses got larger and larger.
Kuukai decided to tell Arisa the information he knows to make sure she doesn't drive Shinyu crazy.
"By the way," he began; Arisa glanced up at him with curious eyes, "What's up?"
He exhaled slowly, telling this to other people was never easy, but he trusted Arisa and she was a good person. Of course she'd never misuse this information.
"Nobody really knows about this, but Shinyu-chan lives alone."
Arisa shrugged, "That's not big deal."
He continued, "She lives alone because her family was killed."
Arisa stopped in her tracks staring at the sidewalk with a look of horror on her face. A strange feeling welled up in her stomach and she suddenly felt like she couldn't breath.
She's never really known anyone with immediate family members dead, let alone their entire family altogether.
Kuukai looked worriedly at Arisa. If he knew it was such a sensitive topic to her, then he wouldn't have brought it up in the first place. Guilt churned in his stomach, but when he watched her legs give way under her, he immediately rushed over to her, catching her before she could hit the pavement. A single tear escaped her eye, and her body began to quake.
She never knew the pain of losing somebody close to her, but suddenly, it felt like the feeling of everybody on the planet who had lost someone, was all put together into Arisa. The pain raked through her body. Kuukai began to rock her and stoke her hair soothingly, wishing the best for her.
Eventually, Kuukai heard footsteps, rushing towards them. It was Shinyu, Tsukiga and Aika, apparently he and Arisa were that late.
Surprisingly, Tsukiga was the first one to speak out, "What happened?"
Kuukai nodded, embracing Arisa. Shinyu knelt down next to Arisa and Kuukai and patted Arisa on her shoulder. Her head listed slightly and looked around her, wiping stray tears from her eyes.
"What the hell was that?" A small smile appeared on her face as she sniffled once and stood up, using Kuukai's shoulders as a support.
She wobbled for a bit, but stood up successfully. The three girls approached her, being careful not to shock her too much.
"Arisa, what happened?" Tsukiga asked once again. Kuukai stood up and looked Shinyu in the eyes, "I told her."
Shinyu's eyes opened wide, and at that moment, slapped him across the face.
"Idiot! She didn't need to know about it!" Shinyu screamed.
"Well you wanted to be your friend, wondering where your family is, while the whole time you'll just make up some crazy lie?" He shouted back.
Shinyu stepped back, her eyes shadowing over, "…Fine. But if she can't take it, there's only you to blame." He was silent, and picked up Arisa's bag and handed it to her carefully.
"Have fun." His smile brightened all his features and Arisa couldn't help but stare. The setting sun behind her reflected off his smooth tanned skin, his bright green eyes seeming even livelier than usual.
Without even thinking, he leant down to her height and lightly pressed his lips to her forehead.
After muttering a quick, "Be careful," he dashed off, his face crimson red. Shinyu, Tsukiga and Aika stood staring at the scene in shock. Arisa's eyes glazed over and she just stared into space while her face turned red.
Shinyu's suddenly screaming and shouting knocked her out of whatever she was thinking of. Shinyu took Arisa by the arm excitedly and instructed Aika to get her bag. Arisa's ears were suddenly filled with excited squeals and shrieks from the red-head as she led her into Shinyu's rather…gigantic estate.
The house—mansion was constructed of faded brown bricks and had large windows for each room. The walls were covered in vines of roses. The front steps were made of a smoothed stone, and the front door had a stained glass design of a large H on it.
Arisa suddenly remembered, slumber party, means girl stuff. Girl stuff means Arisa could possibly kill herself.
Even with the sudden display of affection from Kuukai, and Shinyu's incredibly loud voice, somehow, all Arisa could hear in her mind, I'm doomed. So doomed.
As Arisa was forcibly dragged into the mansion, Kuukai walked down the street, shivering ever so slightly, but the temperature of his face keeping the rest of his body warm.
It wasn't until he had ran off, he had realized what he had done.
This is going to be so weird…
