sagittariusly | (no subject)

Too late! Tomoko glanced at him and nodded, though she would be turning her attention back to the one with the biggest picture of an unruly-looking boy... "Ryusei-san, is this...?"

Missing two teeth, hair sticking up on one side, muddy, looks about to cry. The event had been an embarrassment to everyone involved, except, apparently, his parents. How could he have forgotten that was there?

Ryusei took his head out of his hands to answer, "That was a long time ago." Not long enough. "They have it to torment me with. Tomoko-chan, how many cubes?" He picked up a little cube of sugar.

"--they?" she asked, finally moving away from the cabinet. She was smiling when she faced him. "Let me," Tomoko said, extending her hand so she could be the one to put the sugar cubes in her tea - and perhaps in his as well.

"My parents." He deposited the cube he was holding into her hand. Was she amused? He shouldn't be surprised, really—Jirou had actually laughed and still brought it up occasionally, but Tomoko knowing was so much more embarrassing.

"They let me take out all the other embarrassing things from that shelf as long as they got to keep that one. It's...." My parents are weird. "...They like it for some reason. I tried getting rid of it once, but they found it again and put it back." He'd even tried putting something else in front of it, but they moved that back, too. Ryusei had resigned himself to it (Jirou aside), and hadn't thought of it until now. And this was why complacency was dangerous.

The harm was already done. Quick, change the subject! "—So how's Gentarou?" he said in a rush. "Are his grades as bad as usual?"

Tomoko kept smiling as she deposited three sugar cubes in her tea, then added a fourth for good luck. "I... think Ryusei-san's parents like that picture so much because Ryusei-san looks so... lively in it," she said, glancing at the picture again. She wanted to say he looked cute but didn't - he was probably not yet ten when it was taken - and looked about ready to cry that looking at it made one want to reach out and hug him for comfort. "I like that picture," she noted, nodding to herself. "I shall keep it in my memory." She then looked at Ryusei. "How many sugar cubes in yours?"

As for Gentarou... "Well, Kengo-san's trying to help him out more now that he's feeling better, but Gentarou-san..." Tomoko shrugged, an answer in itself.

Anyone keeping that thing in their memory was precisely what Ryusei didn't want. There was something seriously evil with that picture if everyone who saw it liked it so much; he'd ask Tomoko right now what he could do to exorcise it, but...that was silly. He was being silly. The best he could hope for was not bring it up and hope no one else ever did, either.

And hope no other Club member ever found out. Gentarou would never let it go; he had a memory for everything but his studies, apparently. "One, please. —I guess Kengo'll be kept busy this semester. How is he? No more collapses so far?"

She placed a single sugar cube in his tea and glanced at the photo again. Maybe she should take a picture of it with her phone...? With Ryusei's permission, of course.

At the question, Tomoko nodded and sipped from her tea. "Kengo-san's really nicer this time," she replied. "He's also smiling and laughing more often than he did last year... Yuuki-san said he's really human now, instead of something else." She paused. "Ryusei-san, would you like to visit Amanogawa soon? I think everyone would like to see you again - Gentarou-san and Kengo-san especially."

"I don't think I have the time," Ryusei said reluctantly. Jirou had gotten himself into shenanigans with the Art and Tennis Clubs somehow, and was dragging Ryusei along, despite neither of them knowing anything of art or tennis. "Are there still Club activities on Sundays?"

Or they could meet up casually without being a Club, like Tomoko and Ryusei were doing now. But it'd have to be a Sunday that Ryusei could beg off Jirou (to put it lightly, Jirou needed the assistance with his schoolwork), and everyone else had to be free, too. Maybe they could do it for someone's birthday. "I'd like that, though. To see everyone." Gentarou texted him a lot, but it wasn't the same.

"...not as often," she replied quietly, taking her time to sip her tea again. "Without the threat from the Zodiarts, there wasn't any need to meet as much as we did before." Gentarou in particular was often complaining about how boring it had been lately - after all, their goal had shifted from defending Amanogawa to meeting the Presenters, and without the Rabbit Hatch, it wasn't an easy goal to accomplish. Aside from Kengo, there wasn't anything anyone could actively do in order to achieve this dream.

Tomoko couldn't help the disappointment that laced her tone, though, but she tried to smile through it. "Maybe when you're not too busy?" she said, though she had no idea when that would be.

"Definitely." There was time; maybe when they all were in college, they'd have an annual special day. So if anyone couldn't make it, they'd make it the next year, or some such. "It's a promise."

Speaking of promises and meetings... "Should we go? Let's get your...toes before it gets late." He got up to fetch the extra helmet.

"Mm." Tomoko finished her tea and stood - but then she also took out her phone. She walked towards the cabinet where his picture was displayed, and indicating her phone, she shyly looked up at him.

"Ryusei-san, can I...?" Maybe he'd say no, though she wished he wouldn't.

Edited 2012-10-08 06:19 (UTC)

"Hm?" Ryusei came back with the helmet. Oh. Oh, nooooooooooooo.

"T-Tomoko-chan," he managed to choke out through his horror. "What would you want it for?"

She lowered her phone. "I just... I want a photo to remember you by, especially since I don't get to see you often. This is really a nice picture of you and I'll always cherish it."

Tomoko wondered why he seemed so horrified of this picture, though. "...however, if you don't want me to take it I understand."

Tomoko-chan, I am going to need you to exorcise it. That... That wasn't a nice picture at all. And if anyone were to get ahold of Tomoko's phone, or....

"I-I have an idea!" he said, going over. "How about...a current picture of us, together?" That would be more agreeable, right? Better than a picture of a photo, right?

"A picture... of us together?" Tomoko clasped her hands together. While this picture of Ryusei's would be very precious, a picture of them together would be--

"I'd like that," she said softly. "But, where should we...?"

...Maybe Ryusei hadn't quite thought that through. In any case, they wanted to be away from the cabinet.... "Uh, how about...outside? With the bike?"

That was a prettier backdrop than in here, right? Ryusei didn't know, but they needed to get away from that evil picture in case Tomoko decided to quickly snap a picture of it on her way out, after all. (It was what Ryusei would have done if Jirou had had an embarrassing photo of him in his house.) And in his panic, it was getting stuffy in here, and Ryusei needed to go get some air and calm down. "—We're headed out there anyway."

With the bike! Tomoko couldn't help but nod and smile. "Mm! That's a good idea, Ryusei-san." And she would put her phone back into her pocket and take the book from the table to wait for him to make the first move.

Crisis averted. Ryusei turned away to take a secret sigh of relief before leading Tomoko out.

"Over here," he said moments later, wheeling his bike to the curb. "Any preference for backdrop?"

She turned to look around them. "Over... there," Tomoko replied, pointing towards a vacant lot with a dead tree standing in its lonesome at the very edge. "I think that will be very appropriate for our first picture together, don't you?"

"I'll defer to you." He couldn't say that was unexpected. Interesting, though, that he started to get nervous just looking at it. How wide was Tomoko's phone? And...why did she just say 'first,' as if....?

—Back to the moment. "Where should we stand? Should we get closer?" As in, closer to the— "—To the tree, I mean," he added hastily.

Tomoko blinked, unsure of what he meant at first until he clarified it. "...yes," she said. "I think we should stand near the very base of it, as if we're under the tree's shade if it was still alive. Some say that it brings luck, and..." Here Tomoko tucked her chin down, as if embarrassed to say the following out loud, "...and I want you to be lucky for the whole year."

--that you're not with us. She kept the words to herself, though, afraid that she might be too forward with it.

Lucky, huh? Ryusei smiled reflexively. I've already been pretty lucky. Who could tell if Jirou's collapse was lucky or not? Ryusei wasn't going to count up the events of his life into pluses and minuses, but he was glad to have gone to Amanogawa. If anything were to happen from here on, he'd fix it.

"Let's go." He propped the bike up and started for the tree.

Tomoko quietly walked beside him. She wished herself and the other club members luck, too, for the rest of the school year. It wouldn't be long before Gentarou, Yuuki, and Kengo graduated, and then it would be her and JK at the helm of the club. If that day came, well, who's to say if the club would still be as active as before?

Soon they were under the tree. Tomoko stood at a spot directly under a dead branch and took out her phone again. "Here, Ryusei-san."

"—Yeah." Ryusei tentatively stepped to her side. He found his hands were clasped, and unclasped them, but un-unclasped them when he let go and realized he wanted to put his hands in his pockets, which, at this distance, brought his elbow close to brushing Tomoko's side.

It's just a picture. "Is this...?"

...it was a good thing that her hands were full with holding both the book and her phone. Tomoko gripped her book tighter and nodded. "...Mm," she said, trying to fight the nervousness she was feeling. It's just a picture!

She fiddled with her phone a bit, then outstretched her hand and asked, "Ready?"