At the rainbow’s end Chapter 31

mood: disappointed

music: Ketsumeishi - Sakura
Title: At the rainbow’s end
Author: [info]ikujinashi & [info]tsukimiso
Genre: Drama
Rating: R
Disclaimer: At profile
Main characters: Picture (Updated)
Warnings: Brotherly love.
Summary: So the love of your life (otherwise known as your littlebrother) is now an ocean away, you’re getting married to a girl youbarely know, and your father has become your drill instructor on theways of the business world. Welcome to the life of Nishikido Ryo - andno, he doesn’t have a clue what to do either.
Japanese in this chapter: Ne - Hey, right.

At the rainbow’s end Chapter 31
Ryo smiled and nodded, taking a seat in the chair she’d indicated.So far he’d found out that she wasn’t some great pig of a woman whowould already have eaten at least once by the time he got there, andshe knew his name. Both good things, though he’d kind of known thesecond one anyway.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” he commented, making no effort to hidethe fact that he was taking in her looks - that was the first thingafter all, and seeing a person in the flesh is usually no comparison toseeing a picture of them. “Have you been waiting long?”
“About twenty minutes,” Erika immediately answered, not feeling veryashamed of admitting that she had been waiting because, well, she had.And that Ryo was looking at her, probably judging her by her looks andcomparing her to whatever girls he had, that was something that wentwithout saying but that was okay. She was confident in her looks afterall, at least today. She had spent a bit more time to make sure shelooked good and thus she, well, looked good.
“But only five minutes more than I expected I’d have to wait so it’sokay,” she continued then as she let her chin rest in the palm of herhand, still smiling. Once he had replied to that she would probably goon to more casual things, more… normal things and skip all theintroduction-stuff, they knew each other’s name and that waspractically all they needed to know for now wasn’t it? If they weregonna get married they’d have quite a lot of time to find outeverything about each other anyway.
Ryo almost laughed a little at her bluntness, giving a quick nod asan apology - he had been late after all, even if it was a littleunladylike of her to say it outright.
“Sorry,” he apologised, deciding that he was going to be truthful withher - after all if they were going to spend the rest of their livestogether then she’d find out most stuff sooner or later anyway. Heplanned on making the most effort he could to get close to her afterall. “To tell you the truth, my brother moved to Korea yesterday,” heexplained, deciding to keep it short. It was easier to keep it lightand casual that way, and besides, it’s best not to talk about yourselftoo much on a date. “He called while I was on my way over.”
At that her eyebrows rised and she couldn’t help but frown a bit inconfusion. Hadn’t her father told her that Ryo was the only son ofNishikido Tadashi? Yes he had, she hadn’t mistaken something like that- she had been sure to remember things about him that her dad told herabout him after all, and now Ryo said he had a brother who moved toKorea yesterday?
“Brother?,” she thus asked and looked at him questioningly. “I was toldyou’re an only child just like me… You mean you’re not?” It wasn’t abad thing, of course not, but it was a bit surprising that was all -such a big thing as a brother after all. She would be pretty upset ifshe had a sister and people just -forgot- to include her when theytalked about the Sawajiri family. It was just a ‘little’ mean, almostas if the second child (or maybe in Ryo’s case; the first) didn’t count.
Ryo shook his head slightly, his smile turning a little embarassed -he’d thought that she might have been told so, and now he had toexplain. It wasn’t exactly the most fun thing ever but it was the truthand she’d asked for it so he’d willingly give it to her.
“Most people are told that,” he explained, turning his attentionmomentarily to the coin he still held in his right hand, turning itover between his fingers. “I guess my brother is what you could callthe black sheep of the family? My parents aren’t exactly proud of him.”Shaking his head slightly, he looked up, smile back in place. “Butthat’s enough about that. Tell me about you? I haven’t heard much morethan your name and your age after all.”
She liked that, she decided. The way Ryo had smiled just now hadbeen really, really cute and she liked that. If it happened a lot ornot she didn’t know of course but she hoped it happened a lot… becauseit was really, really cute. And the smile he smiled at her now… Sheliked smiles and he was very good with it - maybe he had beenpracticting in front of the mirror though and once he relaxed it wouldbe ruined - she didn’t know but she really hoped it wasn’t like that,it would be a shame after all.
Erika nodded to show that she was listening before laying her arm on the table and sit a bit more straight.
“A question first though,” she said and before Ryo had had the time tosay anything she continued; “can I call you Ryo? I don’t mind sayinganything else if you’d rather want that though. But feel free to callme Erika, okay? Not ‘Sawajiri-san’…?” She had never been much for thewhole polite-thing, which was apparently something she just ‘had toaccept’ according to her dad. Though, if she could help it she totallywouldn’t have to. When it came to business and such of course, it wentwithout saying that one would have to be polite about that but when itcame to this? To her future husband? Just no.
Ah, well, that was a good sign. If she’d been attempting to keep herdistance then surely she would have insisted upon formalities, but itseemed that she was willing to go this far at least, and Ryo was happyto hear it. Of course he would have asked her to call him Ryo at somepoint anyway, but it was better that she suggested it than he did - sofar so good, he thought to himself.
“Sure,” he replied, nodding slightly. “We can’t exactly go aroundcalling each other ‘Sawajiri-san’ and ‘Nishikido-kun’ forever anyway.”
“Exactly,” she agreed then and nodded as she leaned back. Okay sothey didn’t know each other and he asked her to tell about herself,only question was what she should tell? Herself she didn’t really thinkshe was all that interesting, sure she was apparently funny orsomething according to her friends but she didn’t like having to sitand babble about herself just like ‘that’, it made her look as if shewas all about her and no one else when, in fact, she cared quite a lotmore about people around her. She just didn’t say that all the time.
“Well,” Erika eventually said then and looked at Ryo - not locking eyeswith him but only watched him as he sat in front of her, how he wassitting and what he -really- looked like. “I attend to a girls onlyschool? Not super-good grades but I manage and…,” she fell silent for awhile as she remembered what her father had told her this morning. Hehad told her to be cute, to be smiling and act like a ‘girl for achange’ which she apparently didn’t do when he was around. She didn’treally know what her dad thought of as girly but apparently her normalbehaviour wasn’t that. Though, really… she was going to stay with Ryofor the rest of her life and… if she acted cute now wouldn’t he noticeit anyway?
“I like dogs,” she continued then with a shrug. “Aaand… I love sleepingin!” As she said that she couldn’t help but smile a bit wider. “Alittle bit too much, says my teacher.”
It was no difficult thing to remain looking interested as Erikaexplained about herself - Ryo genuinely wanted to know after all. Shedidn’t seem like other girls. She was more… how to put this. It didn’tseem as though she were trying so hard to hold his attention, and indoing so managed much better than girls who went out of their way to.And she wasn’t all giggly or anything, or at least she hadn’t been sofar. Another plus point was that she liked dogs… He really didn’t minddogs or anything, wasn’t particularly bothered, but he -hated- cats andquietly thanked any and all deities who might be listening that shewasn’t a cat person.
“I’m like that,” Ryo replied, chuckling quietly. “Difficult to wake up.Good thing I have loud parents to be honest… Do you own a dog or justlike them?”
“You are?! That’s awesome, I’m gonna tell dad that and let him knowI’m not the -only- one, because my friends are all morning people whogo to bed at around midnight and wake up smiling seven hours later andI just can’t do that, he always says it’s just me but I always told himhe’s wrong, I’m glad I was right,” she replied first, not reallynoticing herself how she was almost rambling - she liked talkingthough. She wasn’t one to usually talk too much and she didn’t usuallystart conversations either but if she had something funny to talkabout? Then she definitely could be a part of one and this was fun,getting to know the guy who apparently was the man of her dreams - orjust a really good kid like her dad had said.
“I don’t have a dog though, dad’s allergic… But I want one someday. Abig one that wouldn’t disappear under the couch or the table… A big onelike… a golden retriever or a labrador or something… Let me guess, youdon’t like dogs?”
Ryo shook his head immediately, leaning his elbow on the table. “Idon’t mind them,” he replied honestly - though he wasn’t sure he’d wanta golden retriever or a labrador. Weren’t they supposed to be reallybouncy and disobedient and shed all over everything? He wasn’taltogether happy with the idea of living in a house where everythingwas buried under a layer of dog hair.
“Actually I’m kind of relieved to hear you say that,” he added, lookinga little embarassed but not in an uncomfortable kind of way. “Since Iwas young I’ve always hated cats. I hoped you weren’t the kind of girlwho takes in every stray kitten in off the street so we end up withabout sixteen…” It was all he could do not to shudder at that thought.Evil, evil creatures the lot of them.
Erika immediately smiled, of course realising (or assuming) that Ryowas scared of cats. That was what it sounded like at least and thus itprobably was right.
“I like cats,” she said then though - smiling slightly as she actuallyconsidered saying that she would like one but then decided against theidea. “I don’t really want one though, they’re cute and all but they’reso small and… really not all that friendly, not those I’ve met atleast… Dogs are better.” At least she thought so and Ryo obviouslyagreed so they were definitely getting a dog at some point… That waskind of cool to think about actually.
“Ne Ryo,” she said then before he had had a chance to say something.“Are you hungry? Because if you are we could stay here a little whilelonger so you could eat but I’m not really, not yet, and I’d like to goto this store that’s around here…” Of course Erika realised too that itwas very possible that Ryo would say he wasn’t hungry even if he was,but if he did so and then got superhungry he kind of had no one toblame but himself because she had said just now that it was okay tostay a little while longer after all.
It was, then, a good thing for Ryo that he wasn’t hungry yet sincehe would have gone along with what she wanted to do whether he had beenor not - she was the girl after all and he didn’t mind what happened solong as it wasn’t -that- boring. She had proven interesting so farthough, maybe this store that she wanted to go to would be the kind ofthing he could not be utterly bored by? Or it could be really girlyjust to throw him off entirely - one couldn’t really tell after justhaving met someone like that.
“I’m fine,” he replied, adding a silent ‘but I could use a nap’ in hismind simply because he -could- and he was really glad she wasn’t asexhausting as some girls just by talking… because he could get prettyirritable when he hadn’t had enough sleep and now would not be a goodtime to be showing off that particular facet of his personality.
Somehow that had been a right answer and Erika smiled before shefinally got up and grabber her bag. Even if Ryo had said that he wantedto stay and eat some, of course she would have allowed it and she wouldhave smiled just as much then but this was a better answer after all,this way she didn’t have to sit and wait around for him to finish. Sothe two of them quickly left the café in order to get to where shewanted to go. It didn’t take too long and when they reached the storeErika turned to look at Ryo’s face, maybe he was a bit surprised thatshe didn’t want to go to store filled with cute clothes. It didn’t taketoo long for her to show him what he wanted though; a relatively bigbag and she wanted his opinion on whether to buy the white-black one orthe brown-beige one. Maybe it seemed like a silly issue but the bag hadto match with the jacket after all and preferably with the boots she’dwear too (she planned to use this in winter after all) and while shethought both of them looked good it was always kind of nice to havesomeone else’s opinion too. Especially a guy’s, they were a bit funnywhen it came to things like that after all.
It hadn’t taken too long in that store though, Ryo was surprisinglyeasy to get along with, she found. He was nice and very careful to notseem too pushy, too much as if he was deciding. About four hours hadpassed and up until now and during all that time the two of them hadmanaged to buy a bag for Erika, had a crepe each even though itdefinitely was the king of calories and she had been about to ignorethat she wanted one. Hadn’t it been for Ryo suggesting it she mostlikely wouldn’t have said anything either. That and they had eventuallyended up visiting one of those stores filled with pretty clothes andhad, well there made fun of probably half of the pink shirts and whiteskirts that were there. Of course there had been a few articles thatErika had found interesting but buying clothes was something shewouldn’t do with a guy on the first date. Somehow it hadn’t taken toolong before quite a lot of time had passed and it had been when theyjust had been walking around, looking at the display windows and saidthings about most of the things they found interesting that Erikasuddenly had realised she was hungry and of course Ryo hadn’t said no.So it was because of that reason that the two of them now were sittingin a small Italian restaurant, waiting for their food to be served tothem. Usually Erika wasn’t much for small places but from the outsidethis had looked really cosy and the inside hadn’t been disappointing.Currently there were just four customers there, including the two ofthem. So it was small but even so very, very cosy and the kind of placeyou wanted to spend with your boyfriend. Okay so Erika didn’t reallylook at Ryo as her boyfriend just yet, simply because they didn’t knoweach other that well and right now she could only see him as a friendand nothing else. But that was a good start at least, he was a nice guyand funny to hang out with.
Ryo quietly thanked his lucky stars for this girl. It wasn’t thatshe was the most amazing wonderful creature on the planet or anything,or that he’d already fallen for her or anything (that would just bestupidity itself right there), just that… She was cute, interesting,funny and smart without making him feel like a complete idiot bycomparison. He couldn’t have hoped to have a better girl picked forhim. Hell, if he’d known, he’d probably have picked her himself. Thatwas based on up to now anyway, surely not even a girl could hold up afront for this long? And he knew that it was extremely difficult tofake having substance. Many a girl had tried and failed.
“So,” he began after a lull in conversation had had them fall silentfor a few moments. “Do you do this a lot?” Okay, that sounds bad. Hesmiled a little and shook his head. “Well, not -this- but… going out,shopping and things?”
Erika had just been about to ask if by ‘this’ he meant going ondates with guys she’d never met before, but as Ryo explained furtherwhat he meant, she nodded slightly.
“A bit,” she replied and drank some of the water before her; she didn’tthink she went out shopping a lot, herself. Her father of coursethought she went shopping way too much and wasted way too much moneyand so on, but then again he was a 40-something year old man, of coursehe wouldn’t understand. “It happens from time to time when I go backfrom school. Often together with Yui… She’s a childhood friend of mine.Been friends since we were about five years old so we hang out quite alot. Do you?”
She knew, Erika knew very well that there were a lot of people thatconsidered guys who went out shopping and actually looking for clothesand such - guys who made an effort to find things they’d look good in -a lot of people thought of them as weird and it wasn’t really rare thatpeople would randomly call them gay or give them other names. Sure, alot of people who did that -were- gay and -were- transexual and so on,but not everyone was and thus she wasn’t really one to judge thatquickly. If Ryo was one who did shopping a lot it could be quiteinteresting actually, that would mean he really had an interest in howhe looked and it showed that he wanted to look good… It was only normalwasn’t it? It wasn’t something she’d dislike anyway and that was apositive thing, definitely was. So far she didn’t dislike anythingabout Ryo but then again they had just been hanging out for a couple ofhours - it was quite different from spending days and weeks and monthstogether, living together… but at least it was a good thing that shedidn’t dislike him. At least not yet?
Now if he were the type to do this a lot, Ryo probably would haveadmitted it, despite what people liked to say about the kind of guy whodid. It was only to Erika after all, and he’d gotten by up to now bybeing this cool kind of entity that could do pretty much what he likedand still have it be acceptable - of course, excepting the obvious.He’d lived that life for a good few years now and thus wasn’t botheredabout small things such as liking to shop or whatever ruining hisreputation since really, who cares that much?
But since he wasn’t, he shook his head slightly. “I tag along if myfriends are going, and if I pass somewhere that looks good I might goin, but I don’t go out just to go shopping. Well, what I mean is thatI’ve never -decided- to go out just to go shopping…” There had been afew days that had ended up that way, though.
“Ah, I see…,” she nodded in reply and didn’t get much of a chance tosay much else before the waitress came with their food. As the platesgot put down and she apologized for having kept them waiting, Erikalooked at Ryo - wondering silently how he ate. She didn’t know why butfor some reason that was something that really got to her - if peoplecouldn’t eat properly; chew with their mouth closed and so on then theywould definitely have a problem. Quite a big one too because eating wasan important thing after all and it happened often, morning, lunch,dinner and maybe even more if they decided to have random cups of teaor just sit go out and… so on.
“Ah, this looks good…,” she said then as the waitress had left themalone and looked down at the pasta on her place. “You like pasta?,”Erika looked up at Ryo again, “I mean, obviously you do since youagreed to eat here but… Is it your favorite or something?”
“I don’t love it,” Ryo replied, looking down at his food for amoment. It didn’t look bad, but there were other things that he wouldhave much preferred to be eating… Like a burger or something.Cheeseburger. Not the kind from McDonald’s though because those tastedlike cardboard.
“But,” he continued with a small smile, “it seems like I should getused to it as soon as possible. Apparently when you’re eating withworkmates this is the best thing to have. Dad calls it the safe optionbecause there are so many kinds of pasta it’s difficult to go wrong…whereas if you were meeting a new partner over lunch and decided to goto a fish restaurant, what would you do if they didn’t like fish?”Because really, if someone wanting to win his approval took -him- to afish restaurant, Ryo would be pretty annoyed. Though he realised thatthis probably wasn’t very interesting for her and thus wouldn’t say anymore on the subject. “Sorry, after hearing it so many times it’s kindof burned into my brain already.”
Erika smiled and shook her head as he apologized. That was kind ofcute, how he had managed to remember something like that only becausehis dad had told him to. Of course, had he known what Tadashi andFumina were like she probably wouldn’t think it was all that cuteanymore, but now she didn’t know and thus she couldn’t think anydifferently.
“You’ll probably do well when you’re going to take over after him,” shesaid instead and nodded as she grabbed the fork to her left and thankedfor the food. Personally she loved pasta and most other Italian dishestoo, at least those she had had so far. She wasn’t very picky with foodat all, though snails were something she would never eat even if shegot paid for it.
“Soo…,” she looked up once she had swallowed, “let me guess… you’requite popular in school aren’t you?” This was something she had wantedto ask ever since she had seen the photo of him, actually. Though, eventhough she was quite ’straight forward’ according to her friends, evenErika could see that it wasn’t something you should ask as soon as youlaid eyes on a person. Now they had gotten to know each other somewhatat least so it should be somewhat okay and ’somewhat’ was enough forher.
Having been in the middle of a mouthful, Ryo didn’t reply for a fewmoments - grateful that chewing and swallowing gave him an opportunityto think about how to answer this question. He could be truthful aboutit, but wouldn’t that seem like he was being egotistical? But if helied then it would seem as though he were trying to garner pity - andit would probably be found out soon enough anyway. Little things likethat… it wasn’t worth the effort to lie about them. If he was going tobother, it would be about something that really needed it.
“Does it show?,” he asked finally, giving her a grin. There - not showy and not stupid either.
For a couple of seconds, Erika just looked at him but then couldn’thelp but smile slightly as she nodded in reply. Well, it didn’t reallyshow -that- much but he was goodlooking and looked confident enough tomaybe be popular. Either popular or feared anyway and considering heknew how to behave it was only natural that she went with the firstoption.
“Mhmm,” she hummed though and smiled a bit wider as a somewhat stupidquestion crossed her mind. This was probably when she should just keepquiet and not ask but for some reason she just… really wanted to know.It would be funny to hear what he would answer. “So, what number am I?Thirty…. four? Twenty eight?”
Of course Ryo had no idea what on this earth or any other Erika wastalking about - the numbers thirty four and twenty eight heldabsolutely no significance to him and he had no idea why either of themwould refer to her as either of them. Was this some weird girl thing?
“Huh?,” he asked, not altogether too intelligently - but by this pointthere was no way to make him look like the super smart type even if hewanted to. After all he’d even gone so far as to, during the course oftoday, divulge the manner by which he maintained his excellent gradesat school. After that there’s just no helping you.
“Girlfriend?,” she clarified and couldn’t help but smile slightly atRyo’s surprised face. She had actually thought that maybe he would beable to understand what she was getting at, considering they had beentalking about popularity but then again he -was- a guy, of course hewouldn’t get it… Not an insult, just a fact.
“I mean sure this is a bit different but we’re still… boy- andgirlfriend right?” And yes, she was actually serious with thosenumbers. Ryo was popular, Ryo was a guy and he was rich - of course hehad had many girlfriends and probably even more one night stands,though she wouldn’t ask about that. She didn’t really want to know thatnumber.
It took everything Ryo had not to go ‘eeh?!’ out loud at thatexplanation. Had she seriously just asked him… She’d totally just comeout and said that! Girls were totally not supposed to do that! Okay,Erika being kind of different was cool and all but she needed to stopbreaking the rules and confusing him now, it was approaching unfair.After all there’s a certain amount of tact that anyone would expectfrom any girl, y’know?
“You- You think I’ve had thirty four girlfriends?!,” Ryo exclaimed,only just remembering to keep his voice down since they were in a placewhere other people could listen in. He shook his head decidedly. “Noway. Being popular doesn’t make me some kind of manwhore y’know…” Eeeokay that had been a bad word to use. He wasn’t even sure where he’dgotten it but it definitely didn’t sound good.
He hadn’t? Now that was really good! To hear that definitely madeErika happy but as Ryo said that last thing she couldn’t help butwonder if she might have said something -really- bad? Was it reallythat bad, she was just wondering! And wasn’t it sort of a complimentanyway… that so many girls would want to be together with him? Butmaybe that… was a bit different?
“Ah…,” she thus said and looked down at her food while poking at itwith the fork, she wanted to eat some to just keep herself distractedbut right now… She felt a bit bad. “Sorry… then.”
Ryo was more than a little surprised as Erika seemed to look so downout of nowhere - he hadn’t meant to sound as though he were angry oranything, it was just a little… surprising that she’d come out and saidsomething like that, especially when it wasn’t even close to true.Sure, he’d had a good few girlfriends in his time, but at age eighteen,thirty four is pushing it to the limit no matter who you are.
“No no it’s alright,” he assured her quickly, smiling a bit to showthat he wasn’t actually annoyed or whatever. “Just surprised me a bit.”
As she heard that, Erika couldn’t help but smile slightly and nod toshow that she listened. That was good, it was really good that it was‘alright’ and probably it wasn’t anything he just said either.Probably, getting a question like that was surprising and while shewould just have laughed it off and denied it she knew that not everyoneworked the same she did. Though, that didn’t keep her from feeling badand as she knew she was going to spend the rest of her life togetherwith Ryo… they had to get along well. They had to get along and theyneeded to be able to talk and trust each other and so on - somethingthat probably couldn’t start too soon.
“I’ll… be honest with you,” she thus said and looked up at Ryo, notreally afraid to look at the one she was talking to even when it cameto admit wrongs and the like. “I’m… seeing someone… Right now. It’snothing serious though and I’m not… planning on staying with himreally, just…,” an embarrassed smile took place on her lips and shetipped her head somewhat to the side. “Didn’t want to break up with himbefore I had met you in case…,” how was she to say this? ‘In case youwere a jerk’? “You know..?”
Now Ryo definitely understood that - if he’d had a girlfriendbefore, he would have broken up with her in advance since he reallydidn’t like the idea of cheating on someone, but he could understandwhy other people wouldn’t want to. But he knew he wasn’t enough of ajerk to warrant that from anyone, and if she were just the type of girlto do that anyway then he was pretty sure he wouldn’t care whether shedid or not.
Thus Ryo did little more than nod, humming slightly to show that heunderstood. “Have you been with him long?,” he asked, genuinely curiousas to this guy. It would be good to know what Erika looked for in aboyfriend after all; not so that he could purposely emulate it but justso that he knew if he had it or not.
“Not too long…,” she answered, feeling very relieved to hear thatRyo took it well. Okay so she really didn’t think that he would make ascene out of it but one never knew, maybe he was one of those thatneeded and thought that he deserved all attention and… Well, heobviously wasn’t so that was a good thing.
“A couple of months… he’s not that awesome really, but… he’s fun tohang out with from time to time.” That was probably really mean to sayand she knew so but it wasn’t as if she really thought that Ken was themost awesome person in the world, simply because he wasn’t. Had heknown about that Erika would have to meet with another guy, no matterif it had been her father who said so or not, he would have created ascene and demanded to hang out with her this Sunday. Though, he wasgood in the kind of way that he at least was faithful.
“Dad would kill me if he knew I had friends like that though. He’s not…a criminal or anythign but he’s not really one of the good guys…,” andto be honest she kind of liked that. Not that he was the kind of guy toend up in fights and so on, that only made her worried but even so,even though he was a ‘bad’ guy he wouldn’t manage without a girlfriend- which meant that once Erika broke up with him he’d find a new one,but that was okay. He needed someone that took care of him… She kind ofliked that, taking care of someone.
“Aah,” Ryo replied with a small nod. She liked bad guys then? Maybeshe’d be disappointed with him in that way - at least he didn’t thinkof himself as a bad guy. He didn’t get into fights on purpose prettymuch ever, but if someone punched him he wasn’t just going to let themdo that - who would? The term ‘bad’ was pretty subjective anyway, whatone person thought was bad didn’t apply to everyone.
“What’s he like then? He must be a pretty amazing guy to have you ashis girlfriend.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen; this is the king of charm,right here.
Even though it was quite a cheesy line if you thought of it, Erikacouldn’t help but feel just a little bit embarrassed as Ryo said that.It wasn’t as if people said that too often, people rather preferred tosay that she was stupid for hanging out with him and that she could getbetter and so on - she probably could. But Ryo didn’t say anything likethat but only that she was something you had to be awesome to get…
She didn’t blush though, but even so a shy smile took place on her lipsfor a few seconds before she decided to answer the question he’d asked.
“He…,” she started and tried to find the right words, not at allthinking of that maybe it was weird that Ryo - who was her boyfriendnow even if she didn’t really feel anything for him yet, at least notlike ‘that’ - that he would ask about what her -other- boyfriend to whoshe had some feelings at least… was like, maybe it was weird but thatshe didn’t notice right now.
“He’s the kind of guy that… pretends to be all tough and that he’sbetter off on his own and all but… he’s not really,” Erika shook herhead slightly. “He’s… a bit possessive of things… and people sometimesbut he’s not all that bad once you get to know him.” That soundedalmost as if she was really in love with him, didn’t it? She wasn’t. Atfirst she had just been wanting to be with someone who looked good andwho wasn’t a ‘manwhore’ like Ryo put it, but then she… she liked him,she definitely did, but it would also be a lie if she’d say that henever scared her… Though that was definitely not something she couldtell anyone. Not Yui, definitely not her dad and not Ryo. Definitelynot Ryo.
Ryo nodded, eating a little more - despite not being anything closeto his favourite or whatever, this pasta was kind of nice. He’d have toremember this place. Either way, he was pleased to have gottensomething like a positive reaction to what he’d said earlier - he wouldhave been able to deal with it if she’d told him to shut up or justlaughed at it because while it would be kind of embarassing (it alwayswas), he would at least know that from now on he shouldn’t say thingslike that. Even if he kind of liked doing it. You can’t win them allthough.
“I see,” he commented, pleased to hear that she wasn’t bothered much bypossessiveness - because Ryo couldn’t really pretend that he wasn’t,sometimes. It really depended on the ‘thing’ though. If it wasimportant to him then of course he wouldn’t want to share it. Same withpeople… “I wouldn’t think you’d stay with someone really ‘that bad’anyway.” And that actually wasn’t him being deliberately complimentarybut a simple statement of fact. It was obviously up to her how she tookit though.
“Are you ‘bad’?,” Erika immediately asked at that once she hadswallowed. Of course she realised that it might sound really, reallyweird but she didn’t mean it in that kind of way - she simply wonderedif he was like Ken or if he maybe was one of those really goodlookingguys that did everything for their mom. Obviously Ryo didn’t likeschool even a little bit but that had absolutely nothing to do with howthings were at home and what kind of person he was with his parents andso on. His dad seemed very eager to teach him about the company and soon - just like how her father was eager to inform her about how thingswere going and how things would end up once she and Ryo had gottenmarried. She cared, of course she did, but not as much as Taisukewanted her too but… she couldn’t very well tell him that.
Ryo blinked and raised an eyebrow for a moment. She wanted to knowif he was -bad-? How on earth was he supposed to answer a question likethat?
“I don’t think so?,” he attempted, thinking about it. “I don’t goaround getting into fights or anything… but I’m not really nice toeveryone either and I’m not one of those mama’s boys.” He shruggedlightly. “It depends on what you would say is bad. I’m not a criminalor a bully, but I’m not the kind of bleeding heart to cry for days ifsomething I decide to do steps on a few toes along the way.”
“Aah…,” she nodded in reply and looked down at her food to eat somemore. If she was to be honest she didn’t quite believe him though therewas no way she’d show Ryo that; it could be true after all. But if itwas then suddenly everything about him was so… so damn close to perfectand things like that didn’t happen. Especially not through an arrangedmarriage like this was. That she and Ryo would get along wasn’t weirdand that he would look good wasn’t either but that he would have apersonality that she liked and a behaviour that was completely…Different in a good way? No, it didn’t make sense. That Ryo would tryto come off as perfect however did.
Ryo was slightly surprised at getting no more of an answer than that- she had to be thinking something that she wasn’t saying, though ofcourse he hadn’t known her even close to long enough that he couldfigure out what. So he’d have to find out the old fashioned way - notbecause he was nosy or because he demanded that she kept nothing fromhim (that would be weird), just because he was interested.
“What are you thinking?,” he asked, tipping his head slightly with ahalf-smile that spoke only of being curious - so that she didn’t getthe wrong idea of course.
Had Erika thought that Ryo would say something so soon again, shewould have suggested that it would be about the weather or ask whatthey should do next. Maybe a comment on the food or maybe even that hewould start talking about himself… This however, get a question likethat had not been something she had expected at all. Wasn’t thatsomething you asked people who you were fairly close with? They hadjust met…! But still he asked and that showed that he wanted to know,didn’t it?
As she lifted her eyes and saw how Ryo smiled at her, Erika couldn’thelp but feel somewhat… not special but at least not normal. Maybe hewas always like this, maybe he spoke like that to everyone and smiledlike that and…
“Not much,” she replied before her thoughts managed to get to her toomuch. It wouldn’t be the best thing in the world to space out ordaydream when on a date after all. “Just thought that I’m pretty lucky,that you’re… normal and not some… weird freak or something, after allit’s not as if I would have been able to do much if you were, you know?”
“Aah,” Ryo muttered, nodding his understanding. It made sense thatshe’d be grateful, he was grateful too - this was a huge step up fromthe highly unflattering image he’d had of girls in general from school.Maybe it was just because all the ones who practically threw themselvesat his feet were all too stupid to find something better to do? Hedidn’t have much respect for them anyway, whereas Sawajiri Erika had sofar proven herself to be a girl who definitely deserved his respect atthe very least.
“I thought the same thing,” he admitted, though looked away for amoment as he said so - this could be construed as being rude after all.“I’ve been thinking since I heard your name that you’d mark the end ofmy luck by being stupid, or ugly or… you get the idea.” As he passedthe not altogether great part of what he was saying, Ryo looked upagain with an expression of genuine gratitude. “But apparently my lucklives to see another day, haha.”
That, right there, had been Ryo telling her that she looked good,hadn’t it? Erika smiled at him as she nodded in reply. They were bothlucky it seemed, they were both good people (at least Erika thought ofherself as a good person and so far Ryo seemed to be one too) and itprobably wouldn’t be very difficult to spend the rest of her lifetogether with him if he really was this… awesome in general too. Ofcourse it would help if she would actually -fall- for him and if hewould fall for her but… well, one couldn’t have everything and besidesit wasn’t as if you could control who you fell in love with and notanyway.
“So… are you looking forward to March?,” she asked then - obviously notgoing to stay silent and hear Ryo answer ‘no’ to this question. “Areyour parents? According to dad, if my mom would have been alive shewould have been taking me out to try dresses and such already… doesyour mom do that? …Well, talk about it that is… Not make you trydresses…” Maybe it was a weird subject to talk about, but according toher it was important too. After all they would become family and inorder to get along well with Ryo’s parents she kind of needed to knowsome about them first, it only made sense.
If he was honest, Ryo wasn’t looking forward to March all that much.On one hand it would be nice to have everything all over with so thatall he had to think about was entering the world of business and all…but on the other hand it would mean one more step towards not beingfree anymore. It wouldn’t be long now until the time came that gettingto do whatever he wanted would become a rarity, and it was a prettyscary thing knowing so… Up until now he’d done little of what -had- tobe done after all.
“I think my mom’s looking forward to it, if only so she’ll finally havea girl to buy things for - she’s wanted a daughter since forever, soI’d watch out for that,” he warned amiably. “I don’t talk with her awhole lot though.”
“Oh really,” Erika replied and looked up at Ryo, not being able tokeep herself from smiling. It was typically guyish wasn’t it? That theydidn’t talk much to their mothers and such, especially not when theywere teenagers. Most teenagers probably didn’t even talk to theirparents. Yui apparently talked to her mom but nothing to her dad andhad her mother been alive, Erika most likely would have been the same.Though, as she only had Taisuke and no one else it happened that shetalked to him more than most girls talked to their fathers. That didn’tsay much though, she wouldn’t consider them very close.
“From what your dad has said about you, my dad seems to already likeyou alot and I guess the same goes for yours about me, right? Otherwisethey wouldn’t have agreed on this after all, but I haven’t heardanything about your mom except for her name and that she’s apparentlysome kind of journalist and very beautiful… So, what’s she like?”Unromantic? Probably, but you couldn’t really blame her for beinginterested in the woman who would become her mother-in-law and thefirst mother she had ever had, could you?
Now she was asking Ryo to describe his mother? Seriously, was there-anything- this girl felt was possibly just a little bit not the rightthing to say on a first date? He wouldn’t begrudge her the informationthough, after all she didn’t -have- a mother (anymore) and thus it mustseem like some kind of special thing… when in fact a lot of the time itturned out to be the complete opposite to that.
“Yeah, she does stuff for… some magazine…” Ryo thought he couldprobably be forgiven for not knowing its name - it was a girls’magazine after all. “I’ve never met anyone who knows how to get theirway so well, actually. She talks like she can read your mind sometimes,and then the next minute she’s this perfect mother who cooks and smilesand does all mothery stuff… She’s weird.”
Erika nodded as she listened, her image of Fumina definitelybecoming a positive one. Maybe she would be different when they met butthe way Ryo talked about her, she definitely sounded like one of thosecool moms, one of those that you could introduce to your friendswithout being afraid she would be embarrassing or something like that.
“She sounds cool,” she said then and smiled slightly as she leanedslightly forward to eat a bit more of the food. At the same time acustomer entered the store and it wasn’t that Erika paid much attentionbut as she heard, probably, that person mention something about ‘happybirthday’ to someone else she couldn’t help but immediately look up atRyo another time.
“When’s your birthday?”
“November third,” Ryo recited automatically, never having been oneto keep that information from people despite how he wasn’t a fan ofpeople fussing about it. The associated parties were usually kind offun though, and if there was someone who would not turn down a chanceto be the center of attention for an acceptable reason, it wasNishikido Ryo. …What? At least he was honest about it.
“Yours?”
“April eighth… Ah, yours still haven’t been,” a smile took place onher lips as she realised that and leaned back a bit in her seat. Erikawasn’t very fond of having to buy things for her friends and such,simply because she wasn’t sure of what to get them but when it came toher boyfriend it was a bit easier. After all, you could practicallyjust buy whatever you wanted them to wear - as long as it was theirkind of clothing, jewelry or whatever else you ended up buying. It wasa lot more fun than buying for friends, though it definitely was morefun to plan surprise parties for friends than for boyfriends.
“Do you like to celebrate it?”
“I don’t organise things myself…,” Ryo began, leaving out the ‘ifyou ask me that’s kind of sad’ just in case Erika happened to plan herown birthday parties. By the look of her she probably didn’t have to,but maybe by some weirdness she preferred it… or something. “But if myfriends decide we’re gonna do something then I won’t say no to it,y’know?” And since any excuse was a good enough reason for a party,since everyone loved them and all, it had yet to -not- happen… He wasactually pretty sure he’d be bummed if it didn’t.
“And I like getting presents,” he added thoughtfully. “But who doesn’t like getting presents…”
“Ah, I see,” she answered then and nodded slightly, wonderingsilently to herself what they should talk about now. She liked Ryo, shethought, she definitely liked Ryo but not more than a friend but thiswas the first date - things weren’t supposed to go all super romanticaland so on from the first date. Though, probably it wouldn’t take toolong before they did… of course she wouldn’t think that herself though.She didn’t like to think of herself as easy in that way, that she wouldfall for guys easily.
“Ah that’s right,” Erika suddenly said then and turned to pick up herwhite cellphone from her bag before smiling at Ryo again.”We need toexchange numbers and addresses.”
“Ah,” Ryo muttered - he actually hadn’t thought of that, which wasstrange because he was usually the first to mention it… maybe he wasbeing slow, or maybe she was just especially on the ball or something.Or hell, it was a possibility that she just liked him that damn much.But at this early stage he wasn’t banking on that - they’d been in oneanother’s company for a few hours but not really long enough. Takingout his cellphone from his pocket, he navigated to the bit where youadd a contact.
“Here,” he muttered, holding it out to her. “Put your number in it forme, I hate having to check ten times to make sure I’ve copied someone’snumber right. Usually manage to get it wrong anyway.”
Erika couldn’t help but laugh shortly at that and nodded as she put down her phone on the table and grabbed Ryo’s.
“You do it too,” she said then before looking down at the display ofRyo’s phone. It was a nice one, of course. Looked like one of the latermodels… probably he was like that, someone who needed and wanted to getthe newest cellphone for whatever reason. Herself she wasn’t all thatinto technology and stuff, she wanted good cellphones and a good tv andan iPod and such, of course, but she wasn’t the kind of girl who wouldgo on and whine about it until she got one.
Having spoken to Erika enough by now to know that she wasn’t likeother girls, Ryo wasn’t even close to surprised that her phone wasn’tpink like theirs all seemed to be. In fact it was pretty stylish, thekind of thing he might have liked to have had he not been -so- attachedto the one he had. Not that he’d had it long or anything. It wasn’tthat he insisted on always having new ones or anything even though byhaving -the- latest model he knew he kind of gave that image - justthat this one had caught his eye and he’d decided to have it.
It was just a moment before he’d typed his number into Erika’scellphone without thinking, his thumb automatically pressing thecorrect numbers, and he gave it back. “Cute phone,” he remarked. “Bitweird to see a girl’s phone not be pink or have a million and seventhings hanging off it.”
“That’s disturbing isn’t it?,” went Erika’s reply as she finishedtyping ‘Erika’ in roman letters, before looking up to hand the phoneback to Ryo. “It’s cute, it really is! My friends have it and all and Itried to have it for a while but…” She shook her hand as she took herphone and put it down in her bag again. “When I was talking on thephone with someone it was so disturbing - I can have those two I havenow but more than that… it’s really just annoying…”
Erika smiled at Ryo as she drank some of the water before her, tryingto find a good way to say this. She didn’t -like- Ryo yet, she knew shehad thought that thought like way too many times already but itcouldn’t be ’said’ enough. She didn’t, but he was nice and it was funto be with him. And he was her future husband so she would have to getclose to him at some point… Like, closer than they had been right now.So now would be okay wouldn’t it? Or, after they had finished eatingthat is.
“Ah, say Ryo… can we go to… this place after this?,” she suggested thenand again grabbed her fork. She didn’t really want to say where though,maybe it would tempt Ryo to say no and while Erika didn’t like trickingpeople… she didn’t really like getting a ‘no’ or a obviously forced’sure’ either.
———
Note: I have no idea of when the next chapter will be up. Hopefully itwon’t take long but I don’t know. This month (December) has becomepretty busy for both me and [info]tsukimiso. Hopefully we’ll be able tohave something done in a week or something, but I don’t know. I’mreally sorry. I lack both motivation and the right mood lately, so itmight be longer, I don’t know. I’m sorry about this.

Written by aisoshoko



Sawajiri Erika China: http://sawajiri-erika.cn/2007/12/at-the-rainbows-end-chapter-31.html