Mending Loneliness

By Bashfulglowfly

Chapter Three – Saturday 2:33 p.m.

Nobuyuki Takaki reached for the paper that had floated beneath the telescope supports. He cursed the paper, he cursed his height and he cursed the fact that everything was made for people who were of average height. Which was about 4 inches shorter than he was.

"Want me to get that?"

The voice startled Nobuyuki so much that he straightened far too soon and slammed his head against the telescope supports. He cursed aloud violently.

He managed to crawl out from underneath. One hand clutching both the stray paper and his head. He turned towards the sound of the strange voice and saw a young girl standing, staring at him with eyes and mouth wide open.

"Do…do I even want to know the meaning of ANY of what you just said?" she asked.

"No." he said bluntly. He started to toss the paper onto the table but, not wanting to chase it again, slapped it down instead, placing a stapler on top to make sure it didn't get away again. He went over to the girl and loomed over her. "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

Normally that was an effective tactic but this girl was fearless…or stupid. She stood her ground and tilted her head back as far as it would go so she could look up at him. "I'm Usagi. And the door was open, so I just came in."

Nobuyuki looked at the door. "It's closed."

"Well, yeah! I closed it when I saw that it was causing you to chase papers." Her large blue eyes were utter innocence.

"Well, you aren't supposed to be here." Came his dark reply.

"Yet here I am." Usagi ducked around him and bounced up to the telescope. "What are you looking at?"

"Don't touch anything!" came Nobuyuki's startled yelp.

"I won't." And as if to calm him down, she clasped her hands behind her back. "How do you look through this?"

Nobuyuki approached her. "You look through here." He pointed to the eyepiece. He almost growled when he saw that she had to stand on tiptoes to look through it. Life just wasn't fair.

"Oh! It's Jupiter!" came the delighted exclamation.

He was startled. He didn't expect her to recognize it right off the bat. Many people her age and older wouldn't. "You know Jupiter."

She turned away from the telescope, eyes twinkling. "I know Jupiter quite well."

Okay, she's weird. He thought.

She jumped up on the table, hands resting at her sides, feet swinging. "You're looming again. Why don't you sit down?" He did so, eyeing her warily. She giggled. "I don't bite."

Nobuyuki couldn't look away from her. There was just something about her that made him want to be near her. Not something sexual. No…she made him…she made him…feel good about himself.

"Do you hear the stars?"

Her question startled out of his musing. "What?"

"Do you hear the stars?" she asked again.

"Uh…no."

"Would you like to?"

"Stars don't talk."

"Oh, I think that they'd disagree with you. I think you would disagree with you."

"How can I disagree with myself?"

Usagi slid off the table and stood before him and smiled. "Because you are not the Real You, Nephrite." And touched him between the eyes.

"Takaki-san? Takaki-san? Are you alright?"

Nobuyuki blinked and saw his co-worker. The blond girl was gone. "The girl. The blond girl. Where did she go?"

"What blond girl?"

Nobuyuki rubbed his forehead. He was certain that he hadn't been hallucinating.

"You've been working awfully hard on this latest project. Perhaps you fell asleep and were dreaming."

Nobuyuki sighed. "Perhaps you are right, Meioh-san."