Chapter 16
"Kyoko took a deep breath and looked in the mirror. After picking from the three outfits she had brought, she finally settled on one.
She chose a wistful navy chiffon dress that rested at the middle of her thigh and the sleeveless peter pan collar gave it a nice girly feel.
She stepped out into the small living room and Keisuke's awed expression made her blush.
"We match" she said tugging at the collar of his navy shirt.
He laughed and took her hand.
"Let's get going"
As they drove away, Kyoko looked at the beautiful place longingly. She hoped that they would visit the house again.
While cruising along the motorway they talked and joked with each other.
"Tell me Keisuke, what exactly is your brothers' deal?"
"Deal?" he asked confusedly.
"You know, like what kind of girls does he like? I've never heard anything about him having a girlfriend."
"He used to go out on dates, until he got his license and his FC. There was one girl though, her name was Kaori. I think she was a little older than him, something like that. Anyway, she was in an arranged marriage, but she was in love with Ryosuke. I think she loved her fiancé too, but not enough. Her father would not call off the marriage; she killed herself. My brother was very vague about the whole thing; that is how he is though."
"Oh my gosh that's so awful. I don't think I'd want to date after something like that either."
Kyoko could now see why Ryosuke only associated with his crew and Keisuke. He probably shares a lot of guilt in Kaori's death, being distracted was his way of coping.
"Yeah, but lately he's been very different; he's been a little more light in his presence."
"What do you mean?"
"It's hard to explain. I can tell he's been a lot happier recently. Maybe because I'm his brother I notice these things."
"That is true. You and he seem very close."
He laughed a little.
"Yeah sometimes. I've never asked you, but do you have any brothers or sisters?"
Kyoko didn't say anything for a long minute.
"I did…he was my twin brother. He died in a car accident along with his friend. His friend was seventeen and Kazo was fourteen."
Keisuke had gone quiet; probably wishing he didn't say anything.
"Kyoko I'm so sorry I—"
"You don't need to be. It's been almost six years since Kazo passed away. I do miss him; he was like my best friend. After he was gone I stopped caring about my school work, my parents eventually quit caring about what I did because every time they saw me, they saw Kazo. That's also why I stopped working at my mother's sweets shop, Kazo was an even better cook than me and she kept expecting me to be just like him."
"Is that why you started working at the car shop?"
"Yeah cars were the one thing that made me different from Kazo. He just didn't have a knack for them like I did. Once I got that job at the shop, he had been gone for two years. I realized he wouldn't want me to be messing up the way I was; he would never have allowed it. I told you I wanted to be a nurse before. After they started showing the accident photos I couldn't deal with it. When things got better so did my relationship with my parents, they started treating me more like an individual.
"Well I wish I could have met him" Keisuke said.
'He would have liked you' she thought happily.
Once they got off the highway their drive continued up Mt. Akagi. Keisuke took a turn up a small road and continued higher up the mountain.
The small road was covered in shadow from the arch of trees above; in fact, there were very few sources of light.
Kyoko began noticing a glowing light peak from over the small hill they were driving over. Then she saw it.
The glowing light had come from a small building at the end of the hill. The entire place was covered in more than a thousand yellow twinkling lights.
Keisuke pulled into a parking space in front and looked at the place with her in the same dreamy amazement.
"Keisuke what is this place?"
"This is where we are eating"
She followed him threw the traditional sliding door and removed their shoes.
"Takahashi, I'm glad you were able to make it." greeted the host.
"Thank you; I'd like the usual table."
The host led them toward the back of the restaurant and this let Kyoko see even more of the beautiful décor. The roof was flat and made entirely of clear glass. Although it was covered in ivy the twinkly lights weaved throughout giving a warm glow inside the restaurant.
They sat down on their knees at the table and a waiter immediately came to take their order.
"Should we start with something to drink? A pot of hot tea perhaps?"
"That sounds good" she said.
"I'll have the same and to start our orders, I think we will get the usual."
He looked at Kyoko for approval and she nodded.
"It will be out shortly sir"
The waiter bowed to them and left them.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say this is one of the most beautiful places I've been."
'It's even more wonderful because you're here' she thought.
The waiter brought out the hot pot and started boiling the soup for shabu shabu. Another waitress came with a large tray of raw meat, raw seafood, vegetables, and noodles.
"This is one of my favorite meals. I would order the same thing on my birthday every year until I was fifteen."
He smiled happily as he tossed things into the boiling pot of soup.
Kyoko's heart started beating at an irregular pace. His smile and easy going personality made him so wonderful. The fact that he was only this way with few and that she was one of them, made her feel like the blossom that gets picked from the tree of hundreds. She had always thought of herself as average, but Keisuke made her feel different.
"I guess that's why the host knows you, you came here a lot."
"Yeah, but I haven't been here in years. My parents, Ryosuke, and I would come here a lot. During my rebellious years with the Kanto motorcycle gang, the relationship with my parents faded."
"What about now?" she asked genuinely concerned.
"My mother and I are perfectly fine now; however, my dad and I are still on edge. We don't argue anymore since we don't talk much, but he is just a difficult person to talk to in general. He and Ryosuke don't even see eye to eye on a lot of things."
"At least things were fixable between your parents. What about that cousin you told me about, how is she?"
"Tsugumi? She's doing fine. Since it is summer break I don't see her that much. Ryosuke usually tutors her during the school year. I'm just amazed at how grown up she is now. She's sixteen now. I can still remember her being five years old and crying because I used a sling shot to launch her doll into a tree. I still sometimes treat her like a little girl even though she hates it. It's all in good fun of course."
"Goodness, I don't need to guess which brother was the little trouble maker." she joked.
"You'd be surprised. Ryosuke's done a few things in his day. Of course being him, he never got caught."
"Do tell" she replied slyly.
After they had finished their desert, Keisuke thanked the host and wished her well.
Kyoko strapped herself in the passenger side bucket seat of the FD and asked:
"Where to now?"
"Just a little drive" he said casually.
Kyoko bit her lip nervously; she had a feeling she knew exactly where they were going.
They drove silently to the same spot where they had ended their first date.
He said nothing to her and stepped out of the FD. Kyoko followed suit and leaned against the fender.
"I know what you're thinking, but you shouldn't worry about that happening." He told her.
She couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
"I'm not exactly the smartest guy, I'm not like Ryosuke. Most of the time it takes a lot of things to happen for things to finally get it through my skull, I thought about you a lot every since we met; more than you know. I chose to ignore my feelings, but at the same time I couldn't. When you would come and see me or we happened to see each other, believe me I was happy. I know I didn't always show it, but hopefully these past couple weeks you've see who I really am."
Kyoko could feel her heart clenching in anxiety. She watched him go into the FD's glove compartment and pull out a small square box.
He slowly opened it in front of her and then placed the box in her palm.
She had forgotten to breathe as she stared at the charm that lay in the box.
It was an exact miniature of a rotor from a rotary engine, plated in shinning silver and set in the center was a small sparkling diamond.
"I know I told you before that I won't always be able to be around, that's still true. I promise you that I will always try my best to make time and I hope you'll do the same. A rotary engine is unique like our hearts, passionate, driven, a true racer. The rotary engine may have a unique place in the racing world, but you and I have a unique place in this world."
He took her wrist and hooked the charm to her bracelet. She could feel tears start to swell in her eyes. Her eyes remained closed until she felt his palm curve around her cheek.
When she opened her eyes, his were staring right back at her.
"Kyoko, I love you. As long as you'll have me, then I want to be with you."
He kissed her and as he did she could feel all the repressed emotion through his lips.
"I love you Keisuke" she said as she fervently kissed him back.
In a flash, Kyoko recalled every memory she had of Keisuke, when they met, their race, that rainy night, and waking up in the hospital to him.
He slowly drew his lips away, but neither of them let go of each other; they were both breathless.
Before she could stop herself, Kyoko spoke her mind.
"I don't want this night to end."
"It doesn't have to" he whispered.
Kyoko could feel a rush of blood gather in her cheeks.
"Well…I…I" she stuttered.
"I mean it doesn't have to be 'that' if you don't want it to be…"
She kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Whatever happens, happens, but I do have one request."
He gave her a confused look.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Take me down the mountain at full throttle"
A huge smile grew on his lips.
"Let's go" he said confidently.
For the second time, Kyoko was riding passenger as Keisuke drove full throttle down Akagi. Each motion was perfectly synchronized as if they were one. You couldn't even feel the resistance when he would down shift. He was even better in his FD, it was like they were listening to each other.
She looked at Keisuke who was in full concentration and then she looked down at the rotor charm. As she held the charm between her fingers she smiled.
'We will always have each other, wherever our hearts take us.'
Author: This is the end to my first story. I really appreciate those of you who read and reviewed. The reviews and views really motivate me to write. I started to write another extension of this story involving more characters from the story sort of a 'stage 2' of Fate's Charms. If you guys are maybe interested in that let me know because I actually have a lot of free time for the next week so I'd love to upload it soon.
Rei Chun, yeah I totally agree I should have wrote a better race scene. My boyfriend actually read it and his reaction was hilarious. "Your boyfriend drifts and you just started drifting and you wrote this? Common babe" haha I was drying. My next story should be even better with more drama and action c:
Happy reading everyone.