The Little Details

Yakumo exits the bathroom drying her hair from her just finished shower. Her thoughts still on her run in with Harima the night before. She tries to makes her way to her room the when the scent of freshly cooked food catches her attention. She quickly deviates to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Yakumo!" Sarah says smiling sitting at the kitchen table dressed in her school uniform with a spread of food in front of her. "Looks good doesn't it!" Sarah said followed by a small sip of tea. Yakumo stood there slightly confused. "Oh good morning, did you make breakfast?"

"Me, no Harima did," She said with the same bright smile. "At first I thought that you did, but nope, you were still in the shower."

A small smile crept over Yakumo's face, which Sarah duly noted. "I take it you and him had a little heart-to-heart when I wasn't looking." Sarah said with a suspicious gleam in her eyes. Yakumo blushed lightly looking down at the neatly displayed food that had already been served.

"No, not really." Yakumo said hesitantly not completely sure of how much Harima would have wanted to be shared. "I think he's just showing his appreciation for us having him."

"Well you know I don't mind. Plus it's a bonus if he makes us breakfast like this every morning." Sarah added. "Not only that but I think that having more people around is good for you." Sarah finished getting up and taking her dishes to the sink. Yakumo's eyes followed her with a slight look of guilt. "She's been really good friend since Tenma left, I'm sure its been rough having to deal with me being a little distant." She thought to her self as Sarah walked past her.

"Well I'm going to finish getting ready for school. Be sure to eat, it was really good." She said closing the bathroom door. Yakumo took a seat at the table with the side that her serving. "I hope he really stays this time." She thought to herself taking a small bite of the perfectly steamed rice and turning on the TV.

After her breakfast she went to Harima's door. After a few moments she hesitantly knocked. "Come in," his deep voice answered. She slowly opened the door and found him sitting at the short table in the middle of the room facing the door drawing. He looked up to her. He wasn't wearing his sunglasses, which slightly caught her off guard. "Good morning," She made out looking away from him and finding his sunglasses folded on the dresser in front of the mirror.

"Good morning," He answered back looking back down to resume his work. "Oh am I interrupting you." She said in an apologetic tone. "Not at all." He said sitting back up stretching. "What's up?" She moved toward table and sat down in front of him. Her face was lightly flushed. "I, uh, I wanted to thank you for breakfast."

"That was nothing I was up sorta early and hungry so I thought I should make enough for the two of you too." He said placing his elbow on the table and propping his head up with his hand. He reached over and began to pet Iori who was asleep right beside him. "Plus I kinda thought I owed you for last night, I really needed it." He picked up his pen and started to toy with it. Yakumo looked down at the pages that had some rough sketches on them. "You started to draw again?" She smiled at the sight with a hint of excitement.

Harima looked down at the sketches and handed them to her. "Yeah I got some inspiration early this morning and so now I'm just trying to figure it out the character designs and how I want the plot to flow." As he spoke Yakumo flipped through the pages and didn't recognize any of them. She remembered that Harima usually based his characters on people in his life but all of them were original concepts. "These look really good, Harima." He grinned trying to contain his excitement from the compliment. "You really think so?" Harima asked quickly. "I tried to switch up my style a little bit, I was afraid I had lost a bit of my touch."

Yakumo looked at him reassuringly and said, "No they look great," Harima turned away from her to hide his tremendous amount of joy that came from her approval but quickly shot back around. "Oh yeah," he remember. "I wanted to ask, if you weren't busy after school today if you would be willing to help me like you used to."

"Yeah of course, I don't mind."

"Thank you! I really appreciate it." He said with a smirk of appreciation. Yakumo looked up at the clock that hung across from his bed and noticed. "I have to go make lunch," she said standing up and walking toward the doorway. She got half way when she turned back around and smiled at Harima who went back to drawing. "I'm really glad you haven't given up on your manga."

"I was about to until last night." He said looking back one last time to see a smiling Yakumo exit the room.

The sun was bright and the sky was cloudless as Yakumo and Sarah made their way to school. The warmth of the sun contrasted the coolness of the wind, which caused Sarah to shiver. "So, what happened between you and Harima last night?" She said trying to distract herself from the wind that she so deeply dreaded.

"I told you, nothing." Yakumo said turning her head to her. Sarah examined Yakumo's semi-confused face to detect any sort of dishonesty, which she knew was there. "Hmmm, I don't completely believe that." She said with persistent curiosity.

"What makes you think that anything did happen?" Yakumo ask.

"Well I heard the two of you go outside late last night and this morning Harima cooks us breakfast and he's drawing in Tenma's room." Sarah listed as they reached a stoplight. They both stop as cars begin to pass. "I don't know, I thought that maybe you made him feel guilty for not earning his keep or something." Sarah continued, "But that's not like you so what was it really?"

The light changed and they continued onward to school, Yakumo was suddenly quiet, still unsure of what to say. "Well…we just talked about how we both miss Tenma and that was just about it."

Sarah's expression suddenly changed. Since her leaving Yakumo didn't talk much about her except only when she would receive letters from her. Even though she seemed happy to get them, Sarah would notice that there was still that deep loneliness that hung over her.

"Oh, ok." Sarah said with a smile trying to accept that response hoping to avoid reminding her more of Tenma being away. As she did they arrived at the school. And made their way to their new class 2-C. Yakumo sat at her desk and got out her notebook. Through out the day she found herself thinking of Harima. Little things like: what he was doing, what his new manga was about, and if he would write about Tenma.

After school Yakumo told Sarah that she wasn't going to go to tea club and headed out. "Hey Yakumo!" A voice called out to her. She turned around to see Mikoto and Eri catching up behind her. "We were going to go to the café and thought you'd like to come with." Mikoto explained.

"Sorry, I already told Harima that I would help him after school." Yakumo said bundling up at the sudden cold breeze.

"Whiskers? What did he get himself into now?" Eri asked with a tone that was difficult to tell whether she was concerned or if she was being rhetorical.

"Nothing, he just asked if I could help him with his manga."

"Wow he's still doing that?" Mikoto asked with genuine surprise.

"Yeah, I figured that after Tenma left he would have reverted back to the scum he used to be." Eri followed.

"He's staying with me and Sarah for a while." Yakumo said to try to avoid having to respond to Eri rude remark. As Yakumo finished her statement Eri's expression dropped to one of disgust but the indubitable essence on envy flashed through her eyes as she quickly whipped her body away from the other two and proceeded to walk away. "Whatever," she said as the gentle wind angularly carried her brilliant blonde hair. "We just thought it would be nice for you to join us."

"Eri, hold up!" Mikoto called out as the distance between the two of them began to grow. "Sorry Yakumo, I guess she still has her unresolved issues." Mikoto said with a short eye roll and a small grin. "But I am glad that Harima's doing ok." Her grin quickly faded. "I just wish that he would have come back to school, its not the same since him and Tenma left."

Yakumo was unsure of how to respond. Since Tenma was gone she tried not to think about it and occupied herself with homework or household chores. Noticing that Yakumo suddenly looked somber Mikoto immediately changed the subject. "Well me and Eri are always here so text or call us if you want to hang out sometime, ok?" She reminded with sincerity as she took her leave and ran after Eri who was already off the school grounds.

Yakumo walked home melancholically. "I'm home." She said opening the door and taking off her shoes. "Hey I'm in my room. Come in whenever you're ready." Harima immediately replied unable to contain his excitement. She made her way to her room and changed out of her uniform and went to Harima's room and joined him at the small table.

"So what should I do?" She asked adjusting her position and grabbing a pen.

"You can start shading these couple of pages." He passed her the pages and pushed the small container of ink closer to her. She took them and immediately went to work.

Twenty minutes went by in total silence with the exception of Iori who was trying to get attention sporadically. Every once and a while Harima would glance up from his drawings to see Yakumo dutifully preforming her tasks with her typical stoic expression. Unsure of what to say he nervously breaks the silence. "So…how was school?"

Yakumo looked at him confused by him taking a sudden interest. "It was ok, nothing really happened."

"Yeah, I hated school, but it was tolerable at times." As he spoke each word, he would put more emphasis on one particular panel, which seemed to bother him as though it just wasn't right.

She knew exactly what he was referring to and used her better judgment to avoid continuing on with the direction that the conversation was taking. "I saw Mikoto and Eri today."

"Yeah, how are they doing?" Harima asked still focusing on that one panel.

"They seemed glad to hear that you're ok."

"I'm sure they were just being polite." Harima pulled back to analyze his work but made an expression like he still wasn't pleased with it.

"Mikoto said that it's not really the same without you."

"Nah, she's definitely just being nice. It was fine before. I'm sure its fine now that I'm not there to cause any trouble."

"I…don't think you caused any trouble." She said with her volume dropping slightly.

"All I did while I was there was embarrass myself and buttheads with Hanai and Rich Girl." Harima's determined focus on this one panel began to take its toll on him as he let out an annoyed sigh.

"Um, Harima." She said trying to deviate his attention away for a moment. "How come you decided to not go back to school?"

Harima looked up and paused thinking of how to phrase his response. "Well, I was kinda just using it to get close to your sister," he continued on with his panel paying attention to every minute detail on the page. "So now that she's gone there's no real point for me to keep going." He concluded nonchalantly pulling away from his page with a huge smile finally pleased with the image.

Yakumo paused form inking by the sad words that Harima had just said but that sadness didn't seem to be of any significance nor did it show in his expressions. She raised her head and saw a slight wince in his face. It faded as quickly as it appeared. It was at the moment she noticed that he still wasn't wearing his sunglasses and momentarily thought why that might be. He felt Yakumo's stare and looked into her eyes seeing something familiar.

"Hey, I'm hungry." Harima said breaking Yakumo's trance. "Sarah told me that she would be staying late at school to help Akira with something." He explained. "Do you want to go out to eat?"

"Ye…yeah sure." She stuttered momentarily by the abruptness of his suggestion. As they both got up. She looked across the table and saw the panel that he gave so much attention to. It was of her dawning her beautiful smile with a slight blush. Every line of detail in her face and hair was shown. The image of her stole the attention of the background that Harima would typically put his focus on. They both walked out of the room and made their way to the door. "So what do you have a taste for?" He asked putting on his leather jacket.

"I'm honestly ok with anything." She said blushing.

"I'm in the mood for some curry, you want to try that new place on 7th street?" He asked with in a relaxed tone.

"Yeah, that's fine with me" she answered comfortably.

"Is that how he really sees me?" she thought to herself with a hidden smile as she buttoned her coat and closing the door behind them.