Author's Note: Okay so this was supposed to be a one shot but another plot bunny came hopping through to further the idea. We shall see how many more come hopping by. Until then, please enjoy this chapter.
Megumi stood in front of the old lady's house. He had been awfully nostalgic after meeting her granddaughter in the cemetery so he came by to take a look at the old place.
His finger traced the symbol for Nakamura roughly carved into the silvered wood plank leaning against the crudely built stone wall. He had helped her build the short wall of natural river rocks they hauled from the riverbed themselves. He couldn't believe it was all still here after three years. The place still looked cared for.
The front door slid open and a woman appeared wearing a kerchief that hid most of her hair except for the long brown ponytail poking out of the back. She stepped out with a broom in her hand to sweep away dirt from the stones embedded in the dirt creating a platform in front of the door. When he got a closer look at her face free of any trace of make up, he believed her to be much younger than he first thought, possibly a teenager.
Then he found himself gazing into two brownish gold eyes that seemed awfully familiar. The skin at the corners of her eyes crinkled as she narrowed them to get a better look at him before putting her hand over her eyes to shield them from the blazing sun.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he apologized, bowing to her. "I didn't mean to - "
"Megumi? Is that you?"
He shot up ramrod straight. He stared at her face as she rushed toward him, broom in hand wearing a pink frilly apron over her jeans and white shirt rolled up to her elbows. The more he gazed at her face with its unique heart shape, the more familiar she became. Her light pink lips stretched into a beaming smile. At last he recognized her.
"Lily?" he asked when she stood in front of him bouncing on her toes excitedly. "What are you doing here?"
"I live here!" she announced with pure joy, throwing her arms up into the air. "Isn't it great?"
"Yeah, it is," he agreed, watching her spin around happily.
Megumi could not stop staring at her in disbelief. Is this really the same woman he met at the graveside of his dear old friend a week ago?
"Did you say you live here? Why? How?" he questioned her noticing the light pink flush on her cheeks from her enthusiastic movements.
"After I talked to you, I called my dad to see if he sold the place. He said no so I came by to check it out. It's a bit dusty and dirty but nothing that can't be fixed with soap and water so I begged him to allow me to move in for a while," she said, leaning on the broomstick. "I thought it might be a good way to reconnect to her, you know."
"Uhm, yeah," he agreed reluctantly.
"Hey! Want to come in for some tea?"
Megumi continued to gawk at her. There was a definitive disconnect in his mind between this woman and the one he met in the cemetery. The one in front of him is so bubbly, so vibrant, so - different. She looked younger than twenty, sixteen at absolute most not mention her being exceedingly friendly and positively effervescent.
"Megumi?" Her smile faltered when he did not answer her but continued staring at her warily.
"Sure. I'd be happy to come in for some tea," he responded, shaking off the stupefication. He followed her into the little house he would guess he knew better than her because of the many hours he spent here.
"It's so weird that you're here. I never thought I would see you again," she said, kicking off her gardening clogs at the door before moving on down the hall.
Megumi knew she would turn right at the end of the hall to go into the kitchen. To the left is the staircase that leads to the second floor where there are the three bedrooms and a bathroom. There is another small bathroom downstairs under the staircase. The living room is behind the shoji screens on his right. It also opens to the kitchen on the other side.
He bent down to untie his boots before kicking them off and placing them neatly beside the step in the entryway. To make sure he remembered the layout correctly, he pushed open the screen to enter the living room. For the most part, she had left it untouched besides cleaning.
The kotatsu sat in the middle of the room. The cushions are new, two of each primary color, red, blue, and yellow. The TV is new too, a flat screen, but positioned in the same corner at the same angle as the one he used to watch kid's shows on while eating the snacks Hiroko made him or while she patched him up after another scuffle.
Megumi walked through the room pushing open the screen that led into the kitchen. The hint of a smile lifted the corners of his mouth when she glanced up at him with wide astonished eyes. Thankfully she had froze, still holding the little white teapot that belonged to her grandmother in her hands. He couldn't believe he remembered the exact floor plan of the narrow but tall house after all these years.
"I would say make yourself at home but it appears you already have," she said a little of the feistiness he experienced when he first met her seeping into her tone.
Ah, there it is. It's definitely her, he thought. The smile dropped from his face as she eyed him distrustfully.
"Don't forget I spent more time here as a kid than you did," he reminded her acerbically.
"Hmph," she huffed, snatching the kerchief off of her head.
That remark seemed to strike a nerve, but he did not regret saying it in the least. He was simply stating a fact.
"I wish I could have spent more time with her, but...there are...reasons... I couldn't."
Her stilted speech made him wonder what those reasons could possibly be. He doubted her parents suffered financially based on her attitude alone. She acted like a spoiled rich girl. Or maybe she developed the diva complex after becoming a model. Also who leaves a spare house just lying around without selling it?
"Which tea do you prefer? Peach or jasmine?" she asked, opening the cabinet behind her. "Oooh, what about lemon ginger? I forgot I bought that one."
"The lemon ginger, please," he requested, watching her rise up on her toes to reach the metal canister on the second shelf.
Lily stands about five six which could be considered short for a model. However, her limbs are long and wiry like a ballerina's giving her figure the preferred aesthetics along with a sort of delicate grace.
"What are you doing here? Just happened to be in the neighborhood?" she asked, placing two green stoneware tea cups on the tray with the teapot.
"Something like that," he replied.
He noticed the cookie jar on the counter that looked like a big fat white cat. Hiroko always had it filled with cookies. Lifting the head, he peeked inside. The unmistakable scent of ginger wafted up to his nose from the round brown cookies.
"Are these..." He paused, picking up a cookie to take a sniff. "Gingersnaps?"
"Sure are. I baked them yesterday," she declared proudly.
He couldn't believe it. These are his favorites!
"You baked them?" he questioned her skeptically, breaking the cookie in half in case something might be hiding inside.
"Yes, I baked them," she confirmed indignantly.
Megumi sniffed the cookie again just to be sure. It smelled good, just like he remembered, making his mouth water.
"Try it," she encouraged him. "I think you'll like it."
The kettle whistled. When she turned her back, he took a bite of the cookie. It was crisp but chewy and bursting with his favorite flavor in the world.
"It's good," he said, truly astounded. They tasted just like Hiroko's. He popped the rest of the cookie into his mouth.
"I used grandmother's recipe. I'm actually a very good baker," Lily stated matter of factly without a trace of conceit in her voice. She took down a small white plate with a rimmed with a dark blue line.
That was his snack plate. The plain and unassuming dish stirred up many poignant memories of the cookies and rice balls and other snacks eaten from it. His eyes followed her every move as she reached into the jar and took out several cookies to place on the plate.
"You should give my cooking a try some time. I'm a really good cook. I make an amazing ginger pork ," she said, setting the plate on the tray. "Grandmother taught me how to make it one summer when I stayed with her."
She picked up the tray to come around the end of the counter where he stood. Her hip brushed his leg when she walked past him in the small space between his body and the wall.
"Are you asking me to come over for dinner?" he asked, following her to the living room.
"Will you?" She avoided looking at him by pouring their tea.
"Maybe."
Lily glanced up, blinking her big wolf eyes at him. She looked like an innocent little girl which immediately dispelled any suspicion he had of her harboring ill intentions. He once did have a strong connection to her grandmother, and she mentioned reconnecting with her by living here. Maybe she wanted to get to know him better because of that.
"I'll even try to duplicate grandmother's homemade pickled ginger. It won't be nearly as good I'm sure, but I'll do my best," she said, kneeling onto the red cushion.
How could he say no to an offer like that? He liked Hiroko's homemade pickled ginger so much he would eat slices of it by itself. Her ginger tea was another favorite. She even grew the ginger herself. It was because of her he developed a love for ginger.
"All right then," he agreed having been given an offer he couldn't refuse. He sat down on the blue cushion across the table from her.
"So seriously," she began, nibbling on a cookie. "What are you doing here?"
"After visiting your grandmother's grave and meeting you, I remembered exactly how much she did for me. She was a really kind person who reached out to me when I needed someone. I'll never forget her for that," he said, picking up his cup.
"I wish I could have known her better. It would have been nice to spend more time with her. A week during summer vacation every few years was not enough," she sighed sadly.
Megumi watched her through the veil of his thick dark lashes as he took a drink of his tea. She gazed out of the window, her eyes glistening with tears. Her small thin fingers toyed with her cup, her nails drumming out a beat on the sides. Looking at her now he would swear her to be his age and not a twenty year old model.
"What?" Lily asked without glancing at him. She could sense him staring at her.
"You look so different," he murmured his face warming to a cherry red color.
"I told you I was at a photo shoot. Of course I looked different," she replied, her voice remaining attitude free for a change. "The set was close to the graveyard, and we were on a break. I took advantage and went to visit grandmother's grave. I had no idea if I would be able to come by later."
Lily turned her head to look straight at him, her eyes meeting his. For the first time she saw his eyes were blue, a dark blue like the deepest parts of the ocean. His hair brought to mind a black sea anemone which made her smile.
"I'm glad I went. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have met you," she said, lifting her cup to her lips. "It was a serendipitous meeting."
"Serendipitous?" he repeated.
"Unexpected...in a good way," she added, flashing him a grin. "Kind of like when you met her."
"Why is that?" He put his cup down on the table, leaning forward.
"I don't believe in providence or fate, but I do believe in happy accidents. I think sometimes people cross each others paths just when they need them the most," she explained, refilling his cup.
"What do you need from me?" Megumi asked, his belly fluttering.
"A friend. And you knew my grandmother so I need you as a path to her," she replied, confirming what he had already assumed. "In a weird way, I feel like I know you because of how much she talked about you. You were like a grandson to her."
"What do you think I need from you?" he inquired, curious to knew where she was going in her mind with all of this.
"Everyone needs friends Megumi. Besides, how many people do you know, friends or otherwise, who can see your shikigami?" She raised her eyebrows and gave him a knowing little smile while holding her chin in her hand.
He rested his chin on top of his laced fingers giving her words careful consideration. Actually, he had forgotten she had seen his Divine Dog that day in the cemetery. She was right. No normal human could see them. But he had already established she wasn't normal.
"I've always been able to see things...things I didn't understand...especially when I came to visit Grandmother," Lily said.
"Is that why you weren't allowed to come visit as often as you wanted to?" Megumi asked, finally connecting a few more dots to get a clearer picture of her.
"Bingo," she returned, clicking her tongue and shooting a finger gun at him with a wink.
His confusion increased. Not only could this woman be kind and cute, she could be weird and playful. There was a whole lot more to her than the bitchy, shallow beauty queen he first met.
"As a stupid innocent little kid, I told my parents all about the fantastic creatures I saw. I wrote about my adventures with my new friends as well. My overactive imagination and creative writing was rewarded with many years of therapy and an endless parade of pills to diminish my hallucinations and pyschotic episodes," she muttered bitterly, picking up her cup to take a noisy slurp.
"They couldn't understand you have an incredible gift," he mused aloud, feeling sorry for her.
"Gift?" she scoffed.
"Your grandmother could see things too?"
"Of course, she could. Where do you think I got it from?"
"Huh. I never knew that about her."
"My parents thought I was absolutely freaking insane. Schizo-affective disorder was the official diagnosis."
"That's awful," Megumi murmured. This revelation explains a lot about her terrible attitude and leeriness of strangers.
"Well, what is that bullshit they say to people to make them feel better about shitty circumstances? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger?" she guessed, trying to remember then gave up and shrugged.
"Something like that," he said. "I agree. It's all bullshit."
There is another piece of common ground, another string tying them together - absolutely shitty childhoods and shittier parents.
"I think they say it to make themselves feel better about doing nothing to help rather than to make us feel better," Megumi said.
She gaped at him with her cup paused in mid air on its way toward her mouth. "You're wise beyond your years. How old are you exactly?"
"I just turned sixteen," he replied, watching her eyes go wide. She always had an understated surprise reaction with only her eyes betraying her.
"You look much older," she said.
"So did you. But now you look my age."
"It's the power of make up," she chuckled. She sat up on her knees, leaning across the table with her eyes fixed on his. "Speaking of make up, your eyelashes are freaking amazing."
Megumi leaned back a little to increase the distance between their noses. He blushed deep red in response to her fascination with his eyes which she still examined intently.
"Your eyes are the most gorgeous shade of blue," she complimented him.
"Thank you," he replied, lowering his long lashes to his cheeks.
"I'm so jealous," she confessed, sitting back on her haunches.
"I should be getting back to school," he declared, standing to his feet.
"School? Tokyo Metropolitan Magic Technical College?" Lily guessed, standing up as well.
It was his turn to have the deer in the headlights expression.
"Yeah. How do you know about it?"
When she opened her mouth to answer, he interrupted her. He held up his hand in stop gesture.
"Wait a minute, let me guess, your grandmother told you."
Her mouth dropped into a lopsided, impish grin.
"You said yourself she was a nosy, old hag. She said she spoke with a guy named..." She paused to think. "Mojo? No, that not it. Jojo?"
"Gojo," he provided to fill in the blank. Her wrong guesses were painful to his ears. The old woman was prying and talkative, downright gossipy.
"That's it!" Lily exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "I don't know how she knew him, but she did. She asked him to take you under his wing so to speak."
"The school is not too far away so I'm not surprised she somehow knew him. Nosy old hag," he mumbled to himself, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
"She really was, wasn't she?" she chuckled in amused agreement rather than scolding him like she did upon their first meeting.
Megumi walked to the door. Sitting down on the step, he pulled on his boots.
"So is tomorrow night a good night for dinner?" she asked as he tied them.
"Barring an emergency, I'll be here," he returned, standing up and turning to face her.
"Well, at least you know I'll understand if you have to go exorcise some demons," she said, sliding her hand into the pockets of her apron. "I sure am glad I ran into you again."
"It was..." He searched his memory banks to recall that big word she used. "Serendipitous."
He liked that word. She gave him a flawless model smile that held a pleasant warmth.
"Definitely."