Year: 8

Season: Summer

Ib: Age 16

Garry arrived at the school moments after it was being let out, all the students chatting happily as they left school, knowing that the next day they had off. Except for a few greetings, and even fewer curious glances, they mostly ignored Garry as they walked out the gate, and while Garry initially felt awkward coming to Ib's school like this, he had grown used to it, and had often been referred to as Ib's guardian.

Ever since he walked Ib to school that morning a little less than a year ago, the bullying against Ib had pretty much stopped, especially when news of what had happened came to light. The accusations against the boy, Takashi, were damning, and his family sent Ib a formal apology before moving out of the prefecture, hoping to send him to another school, despite the horrible mark that action had against his record. The other two boys who had helped him too had the same thing happen to them, and when the students heard about what happened, Takashi and his friends stopped being idolized.

Except for a small minority of girls who thought Ib was lying for some reason, trying to get rid of the bullying. That was an interesting morning, Garry was walking Ib to school, something he tried to do as often as possible now, and a group of five girls had stopped them to talk to Ib, not realizing that the tall man next to her was walking with her. Upon learning that, they had immediately backed off, not wanting to anger him.

Since then, he had become known to the school.

Garry sighed, sometimes things happened so much differently than he imagined they would.

He suddenly felt a weight hit him hard, sending him stumbling back a few steps.

"Garry!" Ib cheered, seeing him there waiting for her, "Do you know what today is?"

"Not really." He answered, confused, "Why are you hugging me?"

"It's a special occasion!" She said, letting go, "Every June 16th you get a year older!"

"Oh, my birthday." He answered, "So that's why?"

"Like I said, it's a special occasion."

Garry shook his head, and chuckled a little bit. There was also that other change, ever since he had talked her through what Takashi had done to her, she got a lot more affectionate towards him, regardless of if it was in public or not.

"Fair enough," He finally ceded, "I came since you sent me a text message."

She smiled, "I knew you'd come, you have this Saturday off!" She then rummaged in her backpack and looked around for something, and pulled out a neatly wrapped present, "Happy Birthday!"

He took the gift from her, and looked around at all the students who were discretely watching their interaction, and he coughed, "Thank you, Ib, but maybe we should do this in a less, ah, public area?"

She frowned and looked around finally noticing the students who were watching, glaring at them as they did so. Most of them, upon being caught by her, continued walking away as if nothing had occurred. Ib thinned her lip in thought, before finally saying, "Ok, should we just go to the café that we usually go to?"

"Sure," Garry agreed, pocketing the gift for now, "Where's Rin?"

"I told her to meet us tomorrow," Ib said, trying to hide her sly smile from Garry.

"I see." He mumbled, knowing that Ib had something up her sleeve.

Reaching the café, Garry led them to a couple of seats next to the window, and sat across from her. She folded her hands in her lap, and after getting what she usually did, as did Garry, she looked at him expectantly, "Well, open your gift."

Garry pulled out the small present she had gotten him, and began to gently open it, taking the tape off where Ib had placed it, and doing his best to not rip the paper at all.

"Why do you do that?" She asked.

"I like to preserve the wrapping paper." He answered, "It makes it so you'll be able to reuse it."

Upon opening it all the way, he saw that it was a small box, which he raised an eyebrow at, "If I were a woman and you were a man," He said with a smile, "I'd be a lot more suspicious."

"It's not that small," Ib said, despite that she was smiling too.

He finally opened the box, and pulled out two folded pieces of paper, which he opened and read with his eyes widening, "Huh, two free hotel rooms in Osaka."

Ib nodded, "My dad works in the hotel business, and he was able to get those for you." She laughed, "The paper itself is meaningless, but just tell them who you are, and they'll know."

Garry was reading the paper, "Anytime in the future, assuming they aren't already full."

"Yep!" She grinned, and was giggling.

"So I assume this other ticket is for you, then?" He asked.

She at least had the decency to blush, "Um, you don't have to..."

"I'm kidding," He laughed, "Maybe once you're old enough..." He let that thought hang as he looked away, blushing a small bit himself.

Ib also was blushing at that, "M- Maybe, when I am eighteen, I'll be as tall as you are." She suddenly said, blurting out the first thing that came to her mind in an attempt to get rid of the awkwardness.

He raised an eyebrow at the abrupt change of subject, "I doubt it, I think you're about as tall as you're gonna be for the rest of your life now."

She pouted and crossed her arms, glaring at him, "You mean I'm stuck only being able to look into your armpits if I don't move my head?"

He laughed, "I'd think so."

"Stupid Garry for being so stupidly tall..." She grumbled.

"I think you're fine the way you are," He assured her, looking over to see the tea being served.

Ib accepted the tea, and took a sip before feeling her face flush again, "Um, Garry?"

"Yes?"

"Did you notice anything different about me today?" Her hands gripped tightly to the hem of her skirt as she looked at him.

"Hm?" He took a quick look at her, noticing her sleeveless blouse, her skirt reaching down to her thighs, while her kneesocks fill out the rest of her legs, finishing off her legs with a pair of expensive looking shoes. Upon looking at her face, he noticed she had again put on some makeup, making her red eyes much more prominent, despite how she kept blinking and looking away from him so nervously every time he looked. To finish the look off, she had her purse strap hanging from one shoulder, and the purse by her thigh where she could easily get whatever she wanted out of it.

"Huh." Garry muttered.

"What do you think?"

"Your High School doesn't have a school uniform."

"Garry!" She cried out, nearly falling out of the chair at his declaration.

He laughed, "I'm kidding!"

"Geez!" She groaned, leaning back into her chair, "I try to dress up for you, and all I get is that."

"You are still underage, might I remind you." He said, taking a sip of his tea, "But I will admit, you look very nice."

"Very nice as in..." She leaned forward, her heart beating faster and faster.

He sighed, "You look beautiful."

And if her heart had exploded at that moment, ending her life, Ib would not have cared. However, it didn't, thus she fell back in her seat and trembled, "T- T- Thank you."

"Don't mention it." He said, chuckling at her reaction as he reached for a macaron to nibble on.

They had stayed there, chatting only for a little bit, most of the time, Ib was being far too shy and nervous to be talking to him. Garry had enjoyed the time thoroughly, and the two parted on a good note, promising to meet each other the next day with Rin, and perhaps some of Ib's other friends as well.

"I'm home!" Ib called out, upon entering her door and taking her shoes off. She noted that her mother's shoes were also there.

She walked into the kitchen, where she saw her mother making dinner. Realizing that she might be recruited to do the same, Ib tried to tip-toe pass the woman, but her mother looked back, "There you are! Could you come in here and help me prepare dinner for tonight? Your father's going to be home early, so I want to surprise him!"

Ib groaned, "Do I have to?"

"Yep, once you're done you can do your homework, or whatever you wanted to."

Ib set her purse down on the table and walked over to the counter to see what her mother was doing, before getting what she needed out to help the woman.

Her mother glanced over and tsked, "Ib, you shouldn't go out dressed like that, especially not to school."

"I wanted to impress someone." She said vaguely.

"You could impress a lot of people dressed like that," Her mother noted, jerking her head back to get her brown hair out of the way, "I'm sure all the guys at school were looking at you."

Ib groaned, "You got that right, I had three guys come up and confess to me today, saying I was the love of their life, but I didn't even know who they were!" She clicked her tongue atop her mouth, "And they waited until the day I dressed like this to ask me? Who do they think they are going to fool?"

Ib's mother directed Ib to the sink where she could clean the vegetables, and turned around and started the stove, "So who were you trying to impress?"

"Eh, no one you'd know." Ib replied.

"Is it that one man? Garry was it?"

Ib flushed, "Ah! Um, well..."

Her mother shook her head disapprovingly, "You know Ib, I don't know why, or how you fell in love with a man a decade your senior. I wouldn't like seeing you dress like that for a boy your age, and I definitely don't like seeing you dress like that for a man so much older than you. What if he tried to do the same thing to you that that one boy tried to do to you a year ago?"

Ib's first response was to say 'I'd let him', but she didn't think that would fly with her mother very well, so her second response was to get angry, "Garry would NEVER do that." She nearly yelled.

"How can you be so sure?" Ib's mother asked, looking towards her.

"I've known Garry for a long time," She said, "If he was going to do that to me, there were plenty of chances for him to do it before!"

"But you're older now, Ib," She said, "You've grown into a beautiful young woman, and when you dress so provocatively like that, who knows what a man like that would do to you?"

"A 'man like that' didn't even notice I was dressed like this until I pointed it out to him!" Ib said, stopping what she was doing, and turning towards her mother, fire in her eyes, "You want to know what he said to me? He said I was beautiful, and left it at that. He didn't leer at me, he didn't reach over to try and rape me like that bastard tried to do to me back then!"

Her mother bristled at that word, but could see that Ib was nearly in tears, so she forced herself to finally relent, knowing that arguing with her daughter would get them absolutely nowhere, "Are you so sure?" She asked, "That he's the right man for you?"

Ib calmed herself down, trying to regain control of her breathing, "Yes." She finally said, "Whenever I'm away from him, he's always in my mind, and I can't wait until we get together again. Whenever he says I'm beautiful, my heart feels like it's going to explode from how hard it's beating in my chest. I've known him for almost eight years now, mother, and in that entire time, he has never touched me inappropriately, he almost never hugs me unless if I ask him to or if I start it, and he has never kissed me unless if I forced him to." She glared at her mother.

The woman had stopped cooking herself, and thought through what her daughter had said, before finally letting out a long sigh, "That's love, alright." She said, getting back to work. Ib, seeing that, began to clean the vegetables again.

"Are you fine with him then?" Ib asked.

Her mother sighed, "It's hard to say. For one thing, you're still my little baby, and you're talking about love, and things I don't want to hear from you for as long as possible, and the man you've picked to love with all of your heart is so much older than you, I can't help it but feel that he's too old for you."

Ib frowned.

"But... From what I've heard about this man, and from what Kohta has told me, he seems nice enough. He was the one who took you to the police station to report what that awful boy did to you..." She shook her head, "I have no reason to doubt him."

Ib nodded, feeling pleased with that much, "He's a good man, I promise you."

They worked in an awkward silence for a little bit, when Ib finally finished the vegetables, and set them aside for her mother.

"You can go now," Her mother said after a quick moment of examining the cleaned food.

"Can I ask you one thing?"

Her mother looked towards her, "What is it?"

"Um..." Ib blushed clutching her chest, "Do you think I'll develop more?"

Her mother stopped her work completely, "What?"

"Well..." Ib's blush covered her entire head, "All the guys at school read these magazines when they think the teacher isn't watching, and it has all these women in them with huge breasts, and their bodies look perfect, and when I look at myself, I'm kind of small, and I uh, I wonder if guys are more interested in women like that..."

"Ib, I thought you told me that this man was a gentleman?"

"Garry? He is." She insisted.

"Then he won't care how big your boobs are, or if you body is as slim as those models." She assured her, "Those models have to go through ridiculous things to look like that, things that girls like you should never worry about. You look just fine the way you are."

"You really think Garry doesn't care?"

"I'm positive of it." She said, feeling odd for defending the man who just ten minutes ago she was berating.

Ib smiled, "Thanks mom." And grabbed her purse, "I'm going to go do homework, don't open my door without knocking!"

The woman sighed, and looked towards a drawing that Ib had made when she was in first grade, still hanging on the fridge, "She grew up way too fast... Talking to me about things like that..."

XxXxXxX

Garry got home with no trouble, and locked his door, going to sit on his favorite couch. He thought back to what happened that day, and his mind kept being drawn back to Ib. Despite what he had told her, he did notice right away that she was dressed like that, and it did have an effect on him. It was the first time he ever felt even remotely attracted to the girl, and now his mind kept going over it in his head. He felt a little dirty to be thinking like that about a sixteen year old girl, but on the other hand, she was attempting to make him do just that... Did that make it ok?

He groaned, "Ib, please just wear normal clothes tomorrow, I don't think I can handle going through this every time we meet."

Of course, nothing answered back, and he just sprawled himself out along the couch, feeling pretty sleepy. Before he drifted off into an afternoon nap however, there was a knock on his door. He stood up, and went to open it, expecting Ib or one of her friends.

What he didn't expect to see was a tall man, with black hair, and a face structured all too similarly like his own to be there. The man's face was rugged, and he wore a finely made long-coat, despite the warm summer time day.

"Garry?" He rumbled, his voice was very deep.

"What are you here for?" Garry said, quickly getting defensive, "I don't remember ever telling you I lived here."

"You didn't tell me," The man assured him, "I hired someone to find you."

"Why are you here?"

"Your friends all wondered where you ran off to." He said, allowing himself in, "After your mother died, you ran without telling anybody anything. Everyone was worried about you."

"You're the one who made me run," Garry said bitterly, "When mom died, you changed. You stopped being a caring father, and changed into a hateful old man."

"Old man?" He chuckled, "Is that any way to talk to your own father? At least call me by my name."

"Get. Out." Garry said, laying down the terms there, "I don't want to deal with you now, or ever."

"Who are you to talk to me like that, boy?" He turned towards Garry.

"I can talk to you however I want, Jack." Garry said, spitting the name out like it was venom.

Jack sighed, "Garry, I won't lie, I treated you horribly when your mother died, but I want to make that up to you. I hold no grudge against you for leaving, and I want you to come home."

"If you didn't already realize, I made a new life here. I have a job, acquaintances, friends, I don't need to go back home when everything I need is already here."

"Friends, huh?" The old man grumbled, "The man I hired to track you down said that your friends amounted to a bunch of high school students." He shook his head disapprovingly, "Your real friends are waiting for you at home, Garry, so is the woman you left. She was heartbroken that you left without so much as a good bye."

"She's moved on now, they all have." Garry said, "My friends here may be young, but at least they celebrate holidays with me, invite me to do things with them, and showed me around town. When have any of my friends back home ever done that for me?"

The man shook his head, "I truly pity you," He sighed, "I also hear that you're courting one of the students? You intend to marry her when she's of age?"

"No!" Garry said immediately, "She developed an infatuation for me, and to get her to back off, I told her to wait until she is of age."

"And I hear she is waiting." Jack said, wandering around the room, looking at the pictures hanging, "When she is of age, what do you intend to do?"

"I don't know." Garry said, gritting his teeth.

"Like I said, Garry, I want you to come back with me."

"And like I said, I'm. Not. Going."

Jack sighed, and pulled out a cigar, "If you intend to stay here, I'll allow it, but I want to see this girl, why is she preventing you from leaving? Her looks? her personality? Her age?"

"She isn't the only one making me stay here!" He yelled, "NOW GET OUT!"

Jack lit the cigar and walked to the door, "I'll be very busy for the next six to eight months, but when I'm done, I'll be back, and I want to meet this girl – what was her name? Ib? Yes, that's it. I want to meet her."

Garry gritted his teeth, "Go away..."

"Very well." The man stepped out of the house, and walked away, not even once looking back to see Garry.

Garry slammed his door shut, and walked over to his couch, his hands shaking at the mere thought of the old man knowing where he was. He covered his eyes while chanting, "Damn it, damn it, damn it..." He didn't want to, but in soon he was going to have to confront his father, and he knew within his heart, that he wanted Ib to be there with him, as she had been in he past, so he could get this final burden off his shoulders.

XxXxXxX

Notes:

I kinda very loosely based Garry's family situation off of Tomoya's from Clannad (The second season of which is my favorite anime of all time). In addition, I came up with the name Jack for his father because Garry, to me, isn't a very Japanese sounding name, so I decided to make his dad a foreigner, meaning that Garry is half-Japanese, and half-whatever.

See you all tomorrow.