I've decided to try and resurrect this fic. I know I've been an awful, awful person for not updating in so long, but go easy on me! Blame writer's block, it's a pain in the rear cheeks!
Anywho, if anyone is still actually bothering to read this, I just want to apologise in advance for his chapter's lack of interesting content. Think of it like a bridge, because after this the story will pick up once we get over the standard info that needs to be introduced. I'm re inspired and I finally know what I'm going to do with this story (sort of). But yes, yes, for taking so long to write a new chapter, I give you all permission to give me a virtual headbut to the nose.
The rest of the day goes by pleasantly. They talk about unimportant things as Yuu lets Ryo serve a few customers. He's learnt to use the cash register already and the customers that come through the little store take a liking to Ryo's politeness and charisma. Yuu Tendo also spends several hours talking about his son, but Ryo finds himself deeply interested in such a topic. He wants to know what his own father should have been like. Or maybe, he wants to know what he should have been like as a son.
Twilight approaches faster than usual, and with it arrives the event that Ryo has been waiting for all day. The shop bell rings, and in steps Nami, looking a lot tireder than she had before. Yu greets her with a welcoming hello and Ryo can only wave as she approaches the counter to stand in front of him.
Suddenly, all Ryo's efforts to become comfortable in the presence of other people goes out the window.
A smirk crosses her face and she pulls out her purse again. "Can I have a rice ball please?"
"Huh?" replies Ryo, twisting his face in confusion.
"Rice ball shop keep. I would like a rice ball."
"Oh, right. Got it, one rice ball coming up." He turns around and fetches a rice ball from the shelf that holds fresh goods behind him before passing it to her. He takes her money and tries to give her the change, to which she shakes her head and tells him to keep it.
Nami begins to bite greedily on the riceball. "So how's the ankle buddy?" she asks between chews.
"It's getting better. I can limp around a bit, so I'm not totally out of motion."
"Good stuff."
"How was your day dear?" Yu interjects and comes to stand beside Ryo placing his palms flat on the counter.
She dusts off her hands, "It was great actually. I got full marks on my half-year exams."
Yu wastes no time in succumbing her to a chorus of clapping and whooping, even Ryo claps along shyly.
"Thank you, thank you. You're too kind," she says in childishly forced modesty. Nami gives several bows and a dainty curtsy before her stomach growls, echoing through the shop.
Ryo raises an eyebrow. "Another rice ball?"
"Yes please…"
As the metallic moon climbs higher in the sky above them, fewer and fewer customers come through the kiosk so Yu tells Nami and Ryo to go and get better acquainted. The two walk (well, one walks. The other hobbles) out onto the subway and sit down on the seat that lines the exterior of the little red-bricked building.
Nami sits with her hands in her lap and her feet swinging underneath the seat. Ryo wants to talk to her and begin conversation, he just doesn't know where to start.
He blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind anyhow.
So, how was your day?" Instantly, Ryo wants to throw himself off a bridge for asking such a cliche question.
Nami's head bobs as she speaks. "Good, good. Well, as good as university gets. I mean, it's pretty boring most of the time."
"Boring? School work? Who'd have thunk it?" he jokes playfully, and he briefly notices that his anxiety is beginning to drift away.
"Funny. I'm talking about the people! I really wanted to go to an inner city university, but Father said I could only go to the best one on the outskirts. Everyone there is such a snob, you can't even make a joke without someone looking down on you."
Ryu chuckles to himself. "Well when you put it that way…"
"What school do you go to, Ryuusei?"
"School? Oh um, you know the one. In that place…" he mumbles off.
"Huh?"
"I kind of don't go to school."
She leans back against the seat and folds her arms over her chest "You're so lucky... You must feel so free."
"You know what? I guess I sort of do… Hey Nami?"
She looks at him. Her face is directed at him, but her eyes are far away and wondering, proving that she is lost in thought. "Yeah?"
"You can call me Ryo if you like."
"Thanks, but I like Ryuusei better. It's much more you."
"Oh…"
Quickly, she changes the subject. "Say, I've been wanting to ask; how exactly did you manage to get on the roof?"
At this, Ryo grins and stands up, "I'll show you."
Nami hesitates. "Oh but… isn't it a bit dangerous? I don't know if my father would like me doing that."
"Daddy's girl, huh?"
"Well, yes actually."
The Pegasus wielder blinks. Nami's bluntness and lack of shame at accepting the title of 'Daddy's Girl' takes him back a bit. But at the same time, that honesty is somehow refreshing.
"C'mon, it'll be fun." Ryo holds his hand out to Nami. She rolls her eyes around in their sockets, it appears that she is thinking about whether to trust Ryo or not. After a while, she runs to him and he leads her around the back of the kiosk. He shows her which bricks he uses to climb atop, and when she is too weak to pull herself up, he grabs hold of her waist, gently lifting her up. He even lets her use his shoulders to climb, as if he is some sort of human ladder.
With much care taken in order to cause his ankle the least amount of pain, he eventually gets up to join Nami on the roof. He notices that she looks rather awkward as she clings to the railing for dear life.
Ryo comes to sit next to her. "Relax, you'll be okay. Just don't lean forward like I did."
"So that's how you fell off? How could you be so careless?"
"I was uh, I was distracted."
"Father says to never let your mind wonder from the task at hand," she states in a philosophical tone.
"You talk about your father a lot, you know that?"
A warm smile pulls her plush lips up at the corners. "Yeah, I know. He's a great man, despite being a bit too pushy and overbearing sometimes."
Ryo urges her to continue with a nod as he draws his knees up to his chest.
"He's a biologist, and he works constantly to try to give me the best start in life. But, because he's so busy there's never any time to bond with him. I don't really know him all that well, see. I remember when I was a little girl, I'd ask him to come play dolls with me like my friend's dad's in school did with them. He'd tell me to go do my homework until he was done with his own work. He never did finish his work, so we never got to play. And growing up, he never let me go out or anything. No way! I'd have piano lessons, or more homework, or something like that… It sucked."
Ryo forgets to honour her with a reply. He's too busy thinking about what Nami's father must be like. Certainly, his views differ to hers about the man she moulds in his mind with her words.
"You're the one who's lucky, Nami," he says as he stares out afar. From where he sits, he can see the city lights glowing in all their wonder. Those lights had always inspired him and soothed his soul in the past, and tonight was no exception.
"Lucky?" She scoffs. "How so?"
"He must really love you."
She falls silent and Ryo can feel her eyes trace every inch of his profile. Finally, she sighs and says, "I guess he does… What about your family? They must be a lot of fun if they don't even make you go to school."
"I-" Ryuusei's words are cut short as another voice rises up from below them.
"Kids? Where'd you two get off to?"
Nami leans forward to wave at . Ryo grabs her shirt to keep her from falling off.
"Sir, we're up here!"
"Both of you now?! You better get down from there, Nami. What would your father think?"
"But Sir, it's kind of cool up here," she whines.
Mr. Tendo puts his hands on his hips and tutts, "Well, just don't make a habit out of it, alright? But I'm goin' home now, so you got three seconds to get down here."
Nami laughs again and scurries down the side of the kiosk, surprising Ryo with how quickly she'd learnt.
"Hurry, Ryuusei! Sir's counting down, we better not make him mad!"she says in mock terror through a tight-lipped smile.
He can hear talking away to himself below him, "Two and a half… Two and three quarters..."
"Alright! I'm coming," he mumbles and climbs down to join Nami. When he finds himself on solid ground, he limps along side the girl around the kiosk to meet .
Mr. Tendo narrows his eyes, "Just as well…"
They both try to hold back their laughter as they follow him out of the train station and into the carpark. They walk to the furthest end near the main driveway, and finally arrive at a brown, beat up, old station-wagon.
Yu goes to the boot of the station wagon and collects a pair of crutches. He then approaches Ryo and thrusts the crutches towards him.
"Here, son. I keep these in my car incase I ever take a tumblin' and need help getting' 'round. But right now, you look like you need 'em more than me."
Ryo blanks out. Nami shakes his shoulder as she tries to get him to come back to Earth.
"Boy, you just gonna stand there or what? Take 'em."
"Sir, thank you for the offer, but I can't take these. They're yours."
"I'm giving you crutches not the keys to my house! It's okay, really."
He hesitates, looking at the crutches like they're some sort of holy grail, before finally accepting them into his palms. He puts them to use at either side of his body, and the relief he feels in his twisted ankle is incredible.
"There, now was that so hard?"
"Thank you. Thank you so much, Sir. I'll make it up to you, I swear."
Yu smacks his lips and holds his hands up, "No need to make it up to me. You just feel better." Then, he turns his back on the two and gets into his car.
Ryo and Nami wave to him as he backs out of the driveway, almost taking several garbage bins out as he does, and they are soon left alone under a street light casting its golden glow around them like a spotlight.
"Nice guy, isn't he?" Nami says as she begins to walk towards the driveway.
Ryo hopps along after her. "Yeah."
The red-haired girl smiles again. Ryo doesn't see the facial expression as she is in front of him, but he can sense it.
He continues. "So, it's pretty late. Do you need me to walk you to your car?"
"Don't have a car."
"Well, how do you get home?"
"Oh, I use these cool new things to get around. They're called legs."
Ryo stops in his tracks, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide like one of those moving clown statues in the carnival games. "You walk home? At this hour? All by yourself!?"
At this, Nami also stops and spins around to face Ryo. "Why is that such a surprise?"
"It's too dangerous! Anything could happen to you this late at night."
"Wrong, I'm not that weak. And, Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the world."
"But... You're a girl."
She takes a threatening step towards him, "Oh, so just because I'm a girl, I need escorting wherever I go, right? I mustn't be able to defend myself, is that what you're thinking?"
"Well, yeah…" Ryo says, leaning on one of his crutches and scratching his head.
She balls her fists at her sides. "I'll have you know that I'm perfectly capable of defending myself. Would you like me to show you?"
He gasps, "You wouldn't hit a cripple!"
Shortly after Ryo's outburst, Nami relaxes. She breaks out into laughter, her trademark snort echoing into the night. Ryo can't help himself but laugh along with her.
"Okay, okay. You're not totally weak. But, I'd still like to walk you home."
"I should really be the one walking you home," she says eyeing his ankle. "But, okay. I live up this way. Is that too far out of your own way home?"
Damn, he has to lie again.
"No, I live down that way anyway." Well, it's not a complete lie. He practically lives everywhere and anywhere, if you want to look at it like that.
"Alright. C'mon then, walk me home."
They start walking again, disappearing and reappearing as they pass under streetlights like two roaming ghosts on the sidewalk. Nami takes the opportunity to ask him why he was so reluctant to take the crutches from Mr. Tendo.
"It's kind of silly," he starts. "I guess I've just never been given anything without having to earn it before. It just felt weird to me."
She hums in contentment. "Wait, what do you mean you've never been given anything without having to earn it?"
"I mean that my father taught me that you have to work hard for everything, or you don't deserve even the gift of life. But wait, I guess I do have something."
He rummages through his pocket and retrieves Pegasus. The way it glimmers in the soft moonlight makes Nami's eyes sparkle along with it.
"Whoa! You've got a Beyblade?"
"Yeah, this is Pegasus. My grandfather gave it to me, and I haven't let it leave my sight since."
"I've never been able to see one up close before. My father won't let me touch them... Can I- can I hold it?"
He hands Pegasus to her and she cups it in both her palms like she is holding a delicate butterfly. As she marvels at it, she asks, "How do you use it?"
"Anyone can use a Beyblade. But my grandfather says that what makes a great blader, what defines them, is The Blader's Spirit."
"The Blader's Spirit?"
"I'll tell you about it while we walk. We've got to get you home."
"The Blader's Spirit," Nami repeats in awe as she allows Ryo to usher her along the street again. Still, she holds Pegasus in front of her, examining it as Ryo begins to pass on the knowledge that his grandfather told him.
And this is the part where I congratulate those of you who have made it this far without suffocating in boredom.
This was getting too long to continue, so I'm going to have to split most of this into two chapters. I don't now, I have a mini anxiety attack when my chapters are too different in length!
-Jessie ;)