Honest Words

Yakumo woke up groggy the following morning. She slowly shifted her head to see the clock on the wall that read 6:30. "Its too early." She thought to herself as she resumed her previous position try to fall back asleep, but was unable to. With much refusal she got up and headed to the bathroom to shower. As the water poured over her thoughts of Harima's drawing returned. "He didn't mean to draw me, did he?" She quietly spoke out loud. She stood trying to rationalize that it was just an accident and that he didn't mean to draw her. "It's just a coincidence that his drawing happened to look like me." She turned off the water and exited the shower wrapping a towel around. She looked into the mirror and smiled as a rouge thought entered her mind. "But what if it wasn't?"

"Tenma, I love you! I have been since I first met you. My thoughts are always about you. Nothing makes me happier than seeing you smile. Just being by your side for even for a moment is enough to make my day." Harima dreamt, standing in front of a blushing Tenma.

"Sorry, Harima but I'm in Love with Karasuma. We just got engaged and I honestly couldn't be happier." The words shook him awake.

Sarah walked to the kitchen wiping the persistent sleep from her eyes. "Damn it!" She heard as she walked passed Harima's door. For a moment she stood there pondering whether she ask if everything was ok. As she reached for the door she let out a long yawn. "I'll ask him after coffee." She mumbled to herself walking away.

"Good morning." Yakumo greeted seeing the still very dazed Sarah slowly stumbled in.

"Mornin'," She responded barely conscious. "You're up early."

"Yeah, I know." Yakumo said pouring herself a cup of tea. "Would you like some?" she asked showing her the pot.

"I think I'm gonna need some coffee this morning." Sarah mumbled laying her head on the table. Yakumo smiled at the sight as she went to grab a cup for Sarah and then she noticed the letter. "I thought I took this to my room." She quietly spoke preparing the coffee.

Harima left his room with a change of clothes and a foul mood. He walked passed the two in the kitchen without saying a word. "Good morning, Harima." Yakumo greeted with a smile but was returned with the closing of the bathroom door. As her smile withered, Yakumo stood there dumbfounded. "I hope he's ok." She said taking her seat at the table across from Sarah who was finishing her off morning savior.

"He sounded pretty upset when I walked past his room."

"I wonder what it was about." Yakumo said looking down at her tea.

The two left for school still being ignored by the preoccupied Harima. As they arrived they were soon met by Mikoto and Akira.

"Hey you two!" Mikoto said dawning her typical smile. "How's life with Harima?" She quickly followed up.

"He's ok, but seems to be bothered by something this morning." Sarah explained.

"I'm sure he's just sulking about something, he'll get over soon." Akira looking at a clearly worried Yakumo explained with an odd amount of confidence as though she knew something the others didn't.

"Hey where's Eri?" Sarah asked finally realizing her absence.

"She texted me this morning saying that she didn't feel like coming today." Mikoto explained. As she finished the bell began to chime and the four parted to their classrooms.

Harima left the house with his manga in a vanilla envelope. He walked debating whether or not he should really show up to his meeting. "Well, I don't have to be there at any specific time so long as it's before 6. I might as well kill some time." He thought to himself. Soon after he found himself in front of the café where Yakumo worked and he decided to go in. He took a seat at his usual table and after placing his order he allowed himself to begin being dragged back into his despair.

"I hate when I'm reminded of reality". He thought as his order was brought to him. Harima sat there staring at his coffee.

Every time I'm feeling a little good about myself, something always reminds me of her. I wish I could just forget about her. Who am I kidding, no I don't. All I've ever done for the past two years was think of ways of making her mine. Even the whole manga thing was nothing but a way of getting her attention. Why even bother with this? The love of my life is someone else's and there's nothing I can do to change that. It feels like the ground beneath me is slowly disappearing and I'm just falling.

"Whiskers?" Harima heard finally looking up from his now cold beverage. "Rich girl?" Eri stood in front of him wearing a long dress and a navy coat, with her hair in its typical pigtails. "What are you doing her?" He asked as she joined him at the table.

"I didn't feel like going to school so I decided to just wander around town for a bit. What are you doing here? You look like a kid who couldn't get his toy." She said in her demeaning tone.

Harima went back to looking at his drink to avoid provoking more of her uncalled for insults. Eri quickly dropped her belittling front and placed her elbows on the table and propped her head on her hand. "Sorry, seriously, what's wrong?" she asked with all sincerity.

"Have you ever felt like the world is just moving so fast that you feel you can't catch up?" His eyes began to burn as he lowered his head further. "And no matter how hard you try there's always something that holds you back and like at any moment it's going to leave you behind and forget you even existed?"

"Actually, yeah, I have." Eri said trying to read his expression but was unable to. "Like there's always this weight on your shoulders that feels like it'll crush you at any moment."

"Exactly," Harima said shutting his tightly to fight the coming tears. He looked up at her with blood shot eyes, "How did you get through it?"

"I was surrounded by people who care about me. I actually just got through it not too long ago. All I did was put everything into perspective and realized that its just one aspect of my life and that I can't allow myself to dwell on it because like you said, the world will move on and forget you."

"But, how do I take that first step?"

"I don't know. You have to discover that for yourself. Look around at the people in your life and you'll see who's really important to you."

Harima stared into her eyes and analyzed every word of honesty that the blonde spoke. He let out a sigh and took a sip of his coffee. "Can I ask you another thing?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

"What do you think love is?"

Eri's eyes widened as she processed his question. She looked out the window for a moment to think of an answer. "Honestly," she started. "I'm not sure. For a long time I thought it was just a word that everyone threw around too easily, and I still believe that," she paused to see him listening intently to her every word. "But, people don't realize just how much weight love really holds. It terrifies me because when you admit it, you're so vulnerable and it can hurt so much especially if its not expressed back. Yet, people can't exist without it. I can't run from it, I can bury it deep down for a while, but it'll always be there, and it'll always hurts when it resurfaces. I think that it's a confusing feeling that is meant to force you to stop being selfish and just care for someone as much as you can. All you can do is love someone and help them when you can and be there when they need it, you give yourself to someone and expect nothing in return."

Harima sat there staring at her with a genuinely impressed face. "Wow you've really thought about it, huh?"

"Yeah, I have." She said with a minor blush. "There's people who love you, Harima and if you love them you'll move forward and make your way to them. Hopefully you'll fall for someone, maybe even one of them, and then you can return the favor."

Harima smiled thinking about Eri's words. His thoughts were filled with memories of his times with her, Tenma, Mikoto, Akira and Yakumo. They had each been there when he would need it the most, his friends who he never really noticed, where finally recognized and appreciated. He stood up smiling and placed his money on the table. He grabbed his manga and headed straight for the door.

"Wait, where are you going?!" Eri stood and shouted just as he reached the door. He turned and walked to her. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. "Thanks, Eri." He whispered. "You really are a beautiful person." He headed back to the door and left.

"It's about time you noticed." She said with a smirk.