• softspoken-kotomi-chan --
“Ahh— nothing like the smell of new books,” Chiaki sighed, lowering the latest novel she’d picked up and cracked open. She had taken a break from her wandering around the city and had popped into the nearest book store. After stepping out of the sun and into the cool interior, she had done a little twirl of joy and immediately headed for the “just in”s — her favorite place to start. Once there, she’d lifted book after book, opening them at their middles and taking deep inhales. This went on until she’d received strange looks from the employees — something she was actually fairly used to. “Okay, okay. That was the last one,” she finally told a particularly snippy looking cashier when she removed her nostrils from the book. “I’ll move along.” Except… she didn’t immediately do so. Instead, she took one more deep whiff and whispered, ‘i’ll be back, baby,’ before shuffling along, knowing it would annoy the old crone even more.
Once she was out of sight, Chiaki got down to real business — book searching. Growing up, she’d always been told that she was like her mother. Forever nose-deep in a book, surrounded by the things. Finding more comfort in text than in real people. Not that she particularly had a problem with that. She quite enjoyed being compared to her mother, and enjoyed her books even more. Her mama was the type of lady she aspired to become, and books… well, they took her to a place where she could just be free. Not that she couldn’t be free in her own reality; that certainly wasn’t the case. But literature allowed her to take over a different persona — one where she could just be, without the worry of being called weird, or nerdy. In short, book hunting was the ultimate past-time for her. So, she had to put on her serious, ‘don’t bother me, peasant’ face. Which, truthfully, wasn’t all that difficult.
After searching through aisles upon aisles of text, Chiaki found a select few novels and cradled them to her chest like the children they were. “I am going to take you all home and love you forever,” she told them, wandering off into another section of the shop. Too focused on her new beloveds, she didn’t notice the small figure sitting by her lonesome, surrounded by books of her own. With the grace of wounded elephant, Chiaki tripped over a small pile and went flying, books falling over themselves in a large mess. “My babies!” She cried out from her crumpled heap, hand dramatically thrown out in their direction as if they could reach out to her as well. “Goddamnit!” She swore as the pain in her legs crept forward. She was going to be bruised later, and she was sure she had a cut somewhere. Which was just her luck.
With no real plans and Takashi being busy, Kotomi had decided to spend the day at one of her favorite bookstores. It had seemed like forever since she had been there, and she was beyond excited to just spend hours upon hours pouring over as many books as she could. She was in desperate need of new reading material anyway. The last time she had gone shopping, Takashi had come along, and the two of them had each bought more books than she had ever bought in one sitting before. And she had already finished hers and his… She needed more. And so, she was here, sitting on the floor in the middle of one of the aisles, several small stacks of books piled around her.
Just like every time she read a book, Kotomi was lost to the world within the first paragraph. This particular story was a suspense and romance novel about a young woman who is searching for her true identity after seeing a picture of herself as a child that didn’t correlate with any of her own memories. Kotomi’s amethyst eyes quickly scanned the pages, taking the words in at an unbelievable pace. She was eager to find out the truth of this woman’s life. What connection did she have with the photograph…?
So completely focused on her books, she didn’t even notice that someone else was coming down the aisle she had claimed. So, her books remained where they were, scattered all over the floor for anyone to trip over. Which they did. And it took Kotomi several seconds after the other person had fallen and cried out in pain and frustration before she registered that something was wrong. Slowly, she lifted her head from her book, blinking in confusion, then turned to look to where a young lady was lying on the floor. She noticed a few books thrown carelessly down the aisle, and two of her small stacks having been knocked over.
She looked back down at her book for a moment, just to dog-ear the page she was on, then closed it and settled it in her lap before turning her attention back to the strange girl. “Why are you lying on the floor…?” she asked in a soft, somewhat distant voice. “That can’t be a comfortable position to read a book in.” Scooting over a bit, she gave the cushion she was sitting on a light pat. “You may sit here with me if you’d like.”
“I would love to hear it,” He repeated. “It would be a pleasure to hear you play, Kotomi-chan. I am happy that you think me worthy enough to hear in the first place.”
Kotomi never really thought it would be an honor for anyone to hear her play. She honestly felt it was much more of an honor for her to get the chance to play for others. She felt privileged to be able to play for Takashi. Eagerly, she went over to the case that held her violin, and gently lifted it out. Propping it up on her shoulder, she shot him one more sheepish smile before pulling the bow across the strings.
“Would you really play for me?” He asked, genuinely surprised at the kind offer. “I would love that.”
Kotomi was practically bouncing in her excitement. “It would make me so happy to be able to play for you,” she replied with a quick nod of her head. “You really want hear it?”
“O-oh… Thank you. That song was—erm. It was for you, Kotomi-chan…”
“For… For me..? It was so beautiful… Thank you… I’ve never had anyone sing a song for me before… I wish I could return the fa-“
“I’m not very good at singing, but I could play you a song on the violin!”
“Blue moon, you saw me standin’ alone,
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own…”
“Blue Moon, you knew just what I was there for,
You heard me saying a prayer for,
Someone I really could care for…”
”And then there suddenly appeared before me,
The only one my arms would ever hold,
I heard somebody whisper, ‘Please adore me,’
And when I looked, the moon had turned to gold…”
“Blue Moon, now I’m no longer alone,
Without a dream in my heart,
Without a love of my own…”
DESTINEE YOU STUPID WHORE
WHY DOES IT SAY I HAVE A REPLY BUT THE URL CAN’T BE FOUND?! PLEASE EXPLAIN. I AM VERY UPSET. THIS IS NOT OKAY.
- - Oh, Kotomi
Takashi slid his arms around her tiny waist and held her close, face burying in her neck. “I love you too, Kotomi. More than I can even explain,” he breathed, eyes fluttering closed. “I just feel so horrible about it. I know University is important. It’s needed to become a man; someone who can support a family. But— I feel like I should be spending more time with you, as well.” He didn’t want to put it all out there, the fact that he’d really been thinking about how short lives actually were sometimes, and how he worried something would happen to her. But still, he didn’t want to just put all of his attention into school work and just let his life pass him by. He wanted to live while he could — with her, for as long as they could. “I just feel like I could be making more time for you. I don’t want us to go weeks without speaking anymore, and just chalk it up to us both being busy. I don’t want our only words to be ‘I love you’ every morning and night. I mean, don’t get me wrong— I love you being the first person I speak to in the morning, and the last I speak with at night. But there is so much more than those three words. I want us to talk. University is also about growing up, making changes. And I want to grow with you. Change with you, for the better. And I feel like I’m doing nothing to actually prove that…”
Takashi’s words surprised her, and for a moment, Kotomi was silent, simply processing what he had said. Had their relationship really just gotten to a point where all they did was say that they loved each other here and there, but then leave it at that…? The thought saddened her a bit. They were both busy. That wasn’t just an excuse. Both of them had school. Kotomi was looking into a part time job… She bit down gently on her bottom lip to hold back a sigh. She had missed Takashi, of course. Every moment spent without him, she missed him. But she hadn’t realized that they had reached this kind of standstill in their relationship, and her heart dropped. There was no denying that she loved Takashi. She’d never been more sure of anything in her entire life. So why…?
She slowly raised her head and placed a small hand on her boyfriend’s cheek, silently encouraging him to look at her. “Takashi…” she said softly. “Takashi, this is a two way street… I have to make an effort to make time for you as well, and I haven’t. So… I sincerely apologize…” Her gaze dropped to the floor for a moment, but she returned it to meet his face again. “I want… I want to grow with you as well… You’ve already helped me become a much better person than I used to be, and I know that there is still so much that I can learn from you. And I want to be able to give back to you as well… I want to make you happy, and encourage you to try new things, and help you find out things about yourself that you never knew before…”
Pushing herself up onto her tiptoes, she pressed a gentle kiss to his other cheek, a small smile gracing her lips and a light blush dusting her cheeks. “You’re not the only one at fault here… I am too… Sometimes we lose ourselves in the chaos of life but… So long as we find our way back to each other again, it’s okay, right?” She sighed softly. “The last thing I want to do is get in the way of your studies. Education is important and I want to watch you succeed and cheer you along as you do so. But we can find a way to make time for each other too… Even if it’s just study sessions together. Then we’ll be able to talk about our day and catch each other up on what’s new in life…”
