1Disclaimers: Hana Yori Dango is the property of Kamio Yoko, etc. Borrowing for entertainment purposes.

Ordinary

November 8 / Lost to the crush of anonymity

2257 110805

It was like drowning in a sea of faces. Of course, she was used to being jostled around by waves of people, but still it was different today. The faces around her were as varied as the countless lights that lit up Times Square. The holiday season had come and with the usual flock of tourists came the late Christmas shoppers. It was no surprise that they had to wait a while for their turn with one of the cashiers.

Makino Tsukushi stared at the droopy eyes of the stuffed toy she was holding. Scratching the long flapping ears, she relished the soft feel of the velvety fur against her fingers.

"But he really is so cute," she murmured. "I must name him. Maybe I'll call him New York. But people will think I want to take a bath every time I say his name. Maybe I should just call him Bath, then."

"Bath?" Beside her, Domyoji Tsukasa snorted. "So you've given that toy a gender, and now you want to give it a name."

"Well, it's certainly not going to say its gender for me," she said airily. "It's not my fault you're scared of real dogs."

"I'm not! Besides, if I give you a real puppy, you'd be too poor to feed it."

"Hey!"

"I should have gotten the biggest one, though," Domyoji said, frowning.

"Oh, but this is fine." Makino hugged the stuffed toy to herself. "It's almost as big as my pillow, as it is."

"Yeah, but the biggest one's almost as big as me."

She blushed prettily. "Ah..." she stammered. "B-but I can pretend this is you, too."

"...Don't say that in a brightly lit public place," he complained with a groan and hid his red face. "I can't do anything to you."

Of course, that didn't help her at all. "Really, too big that other stuffed toy," she prattled to cover her nervousness. "This one's more portable. I can bring it with me when I go out of town. I can take it to bed with me, too. Besides, how am I suppose to bring that huge dog home? And it wouldn't even fit through our apartment door. Really, Domyoji, I love this one already."

"Fine," he sighed.

A few minutes later, they were stuck in front of the several-story toy store, waiting for the chance to cross the street, she with one arm clutching her plastic bag against her side and he with one arm clutching her against his side. The temperature had dropped considerably, since they had gone inside the toy store. The icy wind was getting stronger, too, and they said it might snow tonight...

She looked around avidly, of course, because today she could relax without the tension of being alone in this huge city of the world, without the heaviness of loss and heartache weighing down her every step. He looked at her because he had seen these streets before, with its blazing lights and towering buildings, its constant hum of melded conversations and intermittent honking of irate drivers, its signs and advertisements splashed everywhere, and it's enormous screens that showed various materials----world news, pop stars, beer commercials, etc. He filled his eyes with more important sights.

"Domyoji." She turned to him as she spoke, meeting his gaze. "Remember that baseball game in Japan? When we had our uniform date?"

"Nope."

"It's when your moth—"

"Idiot. Of course, I remember."

She ignored that. "I can now easily imagine how she saw our faces on TV. All these screens..."

"Actually, I think we're just unlucky like that. Always getting interrupted and crap. I made sure that won't happen today, so don't worry."

Again, she flushed, but mentally reasoned it was due to the cold. "You know what? I felt so anonymous that day, too. Anonymous, ordinary, and unseen. Who knew my face was being flashed around the world several times an hour?"

"Ordinary and unseen. Like today?"

"Uhuh. It feels nice."

He seemed puzzled. "But you've never experienced the other way around, anyway."

"You—!" Vindictively, she punched his side.

"You violent woman," he muttered nursing his belly. "At least don't hit other people."

"Oh, it's Domyoji Tsukasa being all considerate to other people. Amazing!"

"Bah, if I get arrested beating up people, our night together'd be interrupted. You wouldn't like that, would you?"

"Of course, not." She slipped her hand in his and crossed the street as the pedestrian green light came on.

They walked in silence for a while.

"The stock report," Domyoji suddenly said.

"Eh?" He was looking off somewhere over her head, at the marquee on a building that flashed numbers in red. "What was that?"

"Hmmm..." He was frowning. "Good enough, I guess, considering the bear market."

Makino goggled at him. "Wow. I've never been able to figure that out and you seem to really know your stuff. Wow."

"Why so many 'wow?'"

"Well, you are you, you know..."

"...You damned—"

"But really, I'm so glad you're learning all these new things. Uwah, I feel oddly proud."

"Of course, it's easy for me. I've had eisei education."

"It's eisai. Eisa!" She shook her head, laughing ruefully. "Still the same Domyoji."

"Bah."

"That makes me happy, too." And she curled up against him as another blast of wind came.

"Come home with me tonight?" he murmured to her as he held her close.

"Nah," Makino answered in the same hushed tone. "I don't want to impose."

"In that case, I'll impose on you."

"Baka, you can't. I'm sharing a hotel room with school mates. And we'd be off early tomorrow. Besides... we shouldn't talk about parting just yet."

He gazed at her wordlessly for a few moments. "Aa. So what do you want to do now?"

"I don't really know."

"It's your idea to have a common people date in Manhattan."

"I don't live here, so I have no idea what they do."

"Well, I'm certainly not common. You know."

"Oh, do I?" She blew him a raspberry.

"You wanna watch Broadway? I know common people do that."

She made a face. "Nah. Let's just walk around. I want to see the Golden Boy and that big Christmas tree."

"Food first. I'm hungry," he decided and Makino's stomach seconded loudly.

"Me, too," she said, thought he probably heard her stomach agree already. "Where are we eating? Remember, common people food!"

Domyoji smiled. "I know just the place."

He led her to a little Japanese food mart nestled between a high-class restaurant and a jam-packed night club and bought commercially prepared sushi and canned drinks, which they ate sitting on tall wooden stools. Contentedly stuffed and a little bit warmer, they came out an hour later.

Alone and together, they swam back to the sea of faces.

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