Title: Anchored
Author: A Paper Moon
Pairing: Narumi Ayumu/Yuizaki Hiyono
Fandom: Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna
Theme: #7—superstar
Rating: PG (minor language, suggestive themes… kind of)
Disclaimer: All characters of Spiral are the property of Kyou Shirodaira; I allege no possession of said characters. I only request to take them to over-rowdy soccer games and force them to play at gunpoint. Inspired Alexander Rybak's song, "Funny Little World."
Summary: He may have been the one with the ego, but she was the one who felt she'd float away.
Again, another song :) Enjoy!
(Edit as of 26|08|10) Note!: Alright, because I started to get whiners and death threaths, I'll keep the original "Chapter 23" up here. Just expect a new one to be posted, if not tonight, then by Saturday. I might just post a link or something for the one I wanted to write or I might just throw it one the end. You know what? This isn't going to be 30 Kisses. Actually, it's going to end up being like 35 Kisses or something :D
-.-.-
Suddenly I'm famous,
And people know my name.
I've got a thousand girls just waiting,
And therefore it's a shame,
That my heart has been captured,
By your funny, little smile.
Finally, I'm happy,
If only for a little while.
-.-.-
She always thought that if it wasn't for her, her best friend would have been halfway across the Atlantic, his enlarged ego catching wind, sending him sailing into the sky.
He had this silly way of attracting every female's attention, even if he didn't mean to. They could be walking down the street to fetch some instant caffeine for the struggling detective and, suddenly, a swarm of young school girls would pop out from behind some random building, hearts in their eyes and megaphones pressed to their mouths as they squealed and screamed and declared their undying love.
Those situations always ended the same way: Hiyono would drag Ayumu away from the girls or the girls from her friend and then they would go home, her head pounding and in desperate need of aspirin.
The thing that ticked her off the most, above the shrill screams and the sprints from the car to their shared apartment, definitely worse than the slinking around trying to be unnoticed, was the nonchalant way he treated the entire process.
It ticked her off to see how flippant he was. Did he not see how much it was hurting her? How much it pained her to see so many girls running after him? He almost laughed whenever he heard the echo predicting their arrival and that's what got her.
School girls be damned, he had her! Why did he need all the attention?
She could visibly see the diameter of his head expand with each case he solved and in the beginning, if she was being truthful, it was nice to see his confidence boosted. He was always such a downer; it was nice to see that he was beginning to see himself in a brighter light where he wasn't constantly being overshadowed by Kiyotaka and the curse of the Blade Children.
The entire fiasco with the Blade Children had become nothing but a dark and fading nightmare and Ayumu had moved onto to Major Crimes Division of the Tokyo Police Department. It wasn't long before his knack for putting bad guys in their place has made him a household name.
It was the last straw for when a young junior from the high school that she and Ayumu had graduated from five years earlier, came knocking at their door at eleven o' clock at night, her eyes watery and her cheeks red from embarrassment.
"What?" Hiyono had answered the door and, to her surprise, the young girl came running into their apartment. Moments later, a few of her friends were yelling from down the sidewalk and, for a split second, Hiyono hoped they were there to get her. It was when she heard a distinct, "That's not fair, Misaki!" that it hit her: They weren't there to peel their obnoxious friend from her best friend. No, they were there to beat their friend to the punch and get their hands on Ayumu.
Ayumu's voice wafted in from the kitchen as he asked, "Oi! Who's there?"
"Ayumu-kun!" the girl squealed.
"Ayumu-kun?" What the hell?
Seconds passed and three other girls were at the doorstep, their hands clutched dramatically to their chests as the panted, the cold December air coming in cloudy puffs from their mouths.
"Ayumu-kun?" they called.
One, the picture of beauty with dark hair, bright eyes, and roughed cheeks, pleaded, "Please, let us see Ayumu-kun. Misaki? Come out!"
Hiyono was speechless and pinned to her spot as Ayumu rounded the corner to the hallway and was assaulted by not only "Misaki" but also by her three friends.
Muscles tensed, Hiyono stared silently at the scene and, when Ayumu laughed and jokingly told them to get off, she threw their doorstop down, holding the door in place, and stomped off in their direction.
She gripped the sleeve of Misaki and hurled her off of the auburn-haired detective, her voice on the boarder of sounding like a growling mama grizzly as she demanded, "Get out."
"What?"
"Play time is over," she reiterated. Misaki was up and against the wall and two of her friends followed. The fourth, the dark-haired girl, was still plastered to Ayumu, her cheek rubbing furiously against his chest like some lost kitten.
Ayumu, from the corner of his eye, swore he saw flames growing in Hiyono's glare and pushed at the junior with a bit more force.
"You," Hiyono started, "get off my friend."
She didn't move.
"Aria, you should do as she says," the blonde girl muttered, her voice a tad fearful.
She kept her spot on Ayumu's lap.
"Get out," Hiyono repeated and, when Aria didn't move, she forcefully grabbed her arm and lifted her off the ground. Ayumu wouldn't admit it, but it was kind of funny to see Hiyono pick up a girl taller than her and shove her out the door into the falling snow without an ounce of visible effort.
"Geez, take a hint?" she asked rhetorically.
The girls scrambled down the steps and in the streets, their voices laughing and crying in both relief and shock. Aria was giggling, the blonde practically lamented at the encounter and Misaki and the other girl were hugging each other in joy of still being alive. However, Hiyono closed the door too fast and missed them all stop and turn around, their eyes set on the bay window of the detective and the writer's apartment.
Ayumu was smirking until Hiyono turned around, her eyes ablaze. Suddenly, he was up and on his feet, his socks sliding around on the hardwood floor.
"Narumi-san…" she warned.
"Ah, it's okay," he replied.
She was advancing quickly and he was walking backwards at quite a pace.
He spoke up, "O-Oi, it's okay. They were just girls who were probably dared to it."
"That doesn't change anything."
"What are you talking about?"
Hiyono had stopped, her slight frame in the doorway to their living room and he was perched against the back of their green, clearly aging couch.
She sighed, her anger dissipating and her gaze dropped to the floor beneath her feet. Quietly, she explained, "Doesn't it bother you?"
He stared quizzically. "Does what bother me?"
"Those stupid girls! They're so young and naïve and just want you because you're good-looking!"
"I'm good-looking?"
"Not the point!" she snapped, her face hot.
"Then what, my dear girl, is?"
She was silent, and he quickly thought of provoking her, if only to get an answer. When he saw the blush on her face, he thought twice and decided to wait for her to spit it out on her own time. He crossed his arms atop his chest and waited, his gaze a bit pensive.
Finally she did. "They don't get it."
"Get what?"
"They don't understand like I do."
He rose from his spot on the back of the couch and slowly approached her. He brought a hand to her chin and raised her face, her eyes still refusing to meet his.
"What should they understand?"
"Well," she began, her voice hesitant, "they haven't been here from the beginning. They just think you're some hotshot. They don't know that you hate curry with a passion, refuse to drink out of someone else's glass, and don't like to go to bed without watching that stupid program on the cooking channel. All of it Narumi-san.; they don't know you. They just know your ego and your nice smile."
"Oh?" He grinned warmly but she missed it. "And you do?"
She bit her lip before shooting back, her voice a bit higher, "Of course! I've been with Narumi-san since the beginning; for all of it! From the Blade Children to Kiyotaka to your police academy entrance exams."
"Ah…"
There was a bit of an awkward silence before Ayumu prompted, "Is there anything else you want to share?"
"Not really," she mumbled.
"You sure?"
"Well…"
When she didn't go on, he leaned in closely and in a near-whispered, told her, "Hey, you don't have to worry. I don't have eyes for anyone but you."
Jolted back from her thoughts, her face warmed a bright pink and she pushed away his hand.
"W-What are you babbling about?"
Unbeknownst to the duo, a group of girls were plastered to the front window, their eyes huge and their hearts pounding as the auburn-haired man walked the young woman to the wall and pinned her with his stare.
"Ah…" they sighed in anxiety.
"I hope he tells her," Misaki adoringly whispered and Aria nodded enthusiastically.
"Me too."
Back inside the room, Hiyono felt her eyes widen as Ayumu advanced on her. It was completely out of his character and she chalked it up to his growing ego.
"N-Narumi-san…"
"Hmm?"
"What are you…?"
"Don't you see? They don't mean anything to me."
Hiyono was confused and the dark, lustful look in his stared had her mind a haze. She was quickly going over the events in the last fifteen minutes trying to figure out how she had ended up in this particular situation. Unfortunately, she was in too much of a daze to form any coherent thoughts.
Ayumu blinked and the clouds behind his chocolate-eyes disappeared, sheer kindness left in their wake. He smiled, a good, genuine smile, and took a step back.
"Silly girl, it's just a game to them. With you, it's serious."
She felt her knees go weak, not only from the exhaustion from the day's stress but also from the words he spoke. With you, it's serious. What could he have meant?
And just when she felt so lost that no one could ever find her, Ayumu swooped down and placed a chaste and innocent kiss on her mouth before gracefully brushing past her and down the hall, the enigma he left behind confounding her all the more. She felt her knees give out and she slid slowly to the hardwood floor below. She was sure this was some way he got his sick kicks yet, the look in his eyes was so somber she felt dumb to think it was anything but.
She heard a cooing noise and spotted the four teens peering through the window. Frustration flowed through her veins and she shot up, her face a deep crimson as she shouted, "Get lost!"
As the girls scampered away, one shouted something that would keep Hiyono tossing and turning through the night: "He loves you!"
Ayumu love her? She gripped at her head, her headache returning with a vengeance.
"I'm so confused!"
From around the corner, she heard a soft chuckle followed by a low whisper of, "I hope you get it soon."
-.-.-
And I don't know for sure,
Where this is going.
Still I hope for more and more.
Because who would know that you,
Would treat me like a boy,
And I'd treat you like a girl,
In this funny, little world.
Funny Little World|Alexander Rybak
And that's the end of that one. :) Hope you enjoyed. There might be a possible continuation but I'll probably wait until I finish all thirty before I work on that one. Drop a review if you could, pretty please. :)