Lost For You
A Furi Kuri Fan Fiction
by: Kite (kcc)

Disclaimers: 
Rights to Furi Kuri belong to Tsurumaki Kazuya 
and Gainax.

Spoiler Warnings:
If you haven't seen the OAV, then don't read this.  
This is my take on what happens after.

Note:
_ word _ = emphasis
< word > = thoughts

*	*	*

Prelude:  
In a Boy's Dream

It was the summer of the year I turned twelve.

My brother, Tasuku was going to America to play baseball.

Take care of her for me.  That's what he said as he handed me a Polaroid and an address scribbled on a torn edge of some newspaper.

I looked at the photograph of the girl and wondered why my brother was asking me to do this -- as though she was some stray kitten that was being passed around.

But seventeen year-old Samejima Mamimi was no stray kitten -- she was my brother's girlfriend and, in a few days, she was going to be my... what?

She was beautiful.  Even through the unforgiving lens of a Polaroid camera, with only half her face in the picture, I knew she was beautiful.  

Then again, my brother only dated the beautiful ones.  

Mamimi was different, though. Her eyes were, at once, melancholic and thoughtful. Clear, innocent, soulful eyes, hiding a mystery begging to be solved.

On his last night in Japan, my brother gave me a thumbs-up and winked.  This is the year you become a man.

He knew I wouldn't understand; didn't expect me to understand.

He didn't care if I did or didn't.

*	*	*

I met her for the first time at the airport.  She stood there, leaning on a pillar -- a slim, unlit cigarette pressed between her pale lips.

Summer vacation began last week, and yet she was wearing her high school uniform.

She neither spoke nor waved goodbye to him.  

She stood there, leaning on the pillar and waited for my brother to board the plane.

"So, what do you want to do now?"

Amidst the thunderous roar of the turbine engines, her voice -- that soft, feather-like whisper reached me.

She took the cigarette out of her mouth and flicked it into a nearby trash can.  She reached out, grasped my hand and laced her fingers through mine.

"Ta-kun, what do you want to do?"

<Ta-kun.>  

A nickname for me?  

But I hadn't even told her my name yet.

"My name is Naota.  I am not my brother."

She regarded me through hooded eyes for a moment.  Then with her free hand, she took hold of the camera that dangled on her chest and took a picture of me.

"I'm bored, Ta-kun.  Let's go do something."

She led me to the bridge.  Her fingers loosened their grip on mine as we got nearer and nearer and by the time we reached the massive structure she wasn't holding my hand anymore.

I watched her run and disappear into the darkness under the bridge.  

I didn't follow her.

"I think I'll go home."  I said, turning around to leave.

"Don't leave me."

I stopped walking when she said that -- not sure of what to say or do.

She walked towards me and enfolded her arms around my smaller body -- crushing my face to her chest.

I could smell her faint perfume, mixed in with the scent of nicotine and tar.  

Her heart beat loudly against my ear -- a regular rhythm, as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening.  

The softness of her pressed against my cheek.

She allowed me to pull back slightly and let her head drop until her lips touched my ear.  She kissed my earlobe.

"Don't leave me."

Her voice, the same soft whisper tickled my ear.  I shivered slightly.  Her hands moved up my spine and caressed my hair.

"I don't want to be alone."

Her lips moved lower, touching the pulse at my neck -- kissing it.

"I'm not even twelve."

I heard her smile -- that sudden expulsion of breath against my neck.

"I'll leave my mark on you."

She nipped at my neck, licked it and then sucked the inflicted area.

"I'm supposed to take care of you.  I don't think this is the proper way."

She stopped, lifted her face until our eyes were level.

"This is the _only_ way."

*	*	*

"I received a letter from my brother today.  Did he write to you, too?"

"Ta-kun, lend me some money.  I want to get us a drink."

I dug into my pockets and tried to sort and pick out the coins and handed them to her.  "I don't like sour stuff."

She dropped the coins into the slot and pressed a button.  I sighed in exasperation as a can of the sour soda rolled out.

"I'm thinking of bleaching my hair.  Will that make me more American, Ta-kun?"

I knew then that my brother had not written to her.

"Mamimi--"

"Here."  She handed me the can.

I looked at the can and saw slivers of her saliva glistening on the edge.

<If I drink from this, it would be like kissing her.>

My brother had been gone for only three weeks and here I am, contemplating "kissing" my brother's girlfriend.

Disgusted, I tossed the can aside -- the drink fizzled as it came into contact with the pavement.  

"I told you I don't like the sour stuff."

Mamimi grinned -- fuzzy interest flickered in her eyes.

<What is she thinking about?>  

Like quicksilver, she covered the ground between us and kissed me.  Kissed me hard.  Her lips mashed against mine -- her tongue rubbed my lower lip, demanding entrance.

I couldn't breathe.  My heart was beating at a thousand times per second.  

<Did she know what I was thinking?>

In the next instant, she pushed me away.

I looked at her -- the question in my eyes.  <Why?>

She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Trust me.  You'll grow to like the sour stuff."  

*	*	*

Author's Notes:
1. Mamimi calls Naota "Ta-kun."  This could be taken as either a nickname for him or his brother (Tasuku) -- my take is that Mamimi deludes herself into thinking that she still has Tasuku in the form of Naota.  (She loves Tasuku.  She says so to Naota in the first episode of the OAV.)

2. Is this going to be a love story?  Yes.  At the heart of FLCL is love, which is the driving force behind each character.  Each one searches for a different kind, but it is still love.

3. This prologue is written in the first person but the rest of the story will be written in the third person.  I did this, consciously, because I wanted to show, in my prologue, what goes on in the mind of a 12-year-old in the midst of his curious circumstances.

4. This is still pre-OAVs.  The next chapter is going to be about what happens after the OAVs.

5. The soda can scene is a recurring scene in the OAVs.  I thought it was very symbolic and representative of Naota, which is why I included a soda scene in this fic.

6. The titles "Lost for You" and "In a Boy's Dream" are lines from "Crash into Me" by Dave Matthews Band.

*   *   *

Part One

It was the summer of the year he turned 13.

He had not seen Mamimi since the day she left six months ago.

Naota strapped his gear on the moped.  He would be gone for most of the summer.  

He was going to look for her.

Six months ago, just before the seasons changed, before the leaves turned red and then brown, something amazing happened to Naota.

He became a man.

His brother was right.  His bastard of a brother who decided to stay permanently in America was right.

Naota looked at the yellow moped in front of him.  After the last encounter at Medical Mechanica, he found the moped in the garage -- a parting gift from Haruko.  A moped similar to the one she rode.

Use this.  Haruko's last words to him, scribbled on a little card tied to the handle of the moped.  

It was six months later and Naota was going to use it to find Mamimi.  

<I've failed you so many times before.  I won't ever again.>  

He could still see her in his mind.  He could still remember the heady smell of her -- that unique fusion of flowers and cigarettes.  He wanted her back.  He wanted to return to the cocoon of her warm, giving body.

"Hey, Nao.  Here's some bread that TV-Boy baked this morning."

Naota took the paper bag of still-warm bread from his father's outstretched hand.  "Thanks."

"Are you sure you have enough money?  Do you have everything you need?"

"Yes."  He stuffed the bag into his knapsack.  "Dad?"

"What is it?"

"Thank you for understanding that I have to do this."  He rubbed his head, relieved that there were no more strange growths protruding from his skull.

Nandaba Kamon laughed.  "Of course I do.  Haven't we seen enough anime that had the lead character go off on some important quest?  THIS is your quest.  Just make sure you're back before school starts."

Naota could barely keep up with his father's rapid-fire remarks.  He smiled gratefully.  "Well, I'm going now.  Say goodbye to grandpa for me."

"Go.  We'll be okay.  There's a summer-long marathon showing of Lupin on television starting tonight. See you in a month!"

He took one last look at his home before leaving.  He had one more stop to make before he would start looking for Mamimi.

*	*	*

"How long will you be gone?"  Nanimori Eri asked.  

She wanted to tell him to stay.

"I don't know.  I guess, until I find her."

<But you have me.>  "Well, take care and try to stay out of trouble."  She tried to sound bored, disinterested, unaffected -- adult.

"I'll drop you a line from time to time."

<I'd love that.>  "You don't have to.  It's okay."  She shrugged her shoulders and looked away.

"Well, I'll be going now."  

She watched him ride off.  When she entered her house, she almost tripped on the suitcase she packed earlier that day.  

<Idiot.  Why couldn't you just tell him you wanted to go with him?>

*	*	*

Naota decided to drive by the beach.  <Haruko left before it got warm enough to go swimming.>  

He smelled the salty sea breeze that still went straight to his sinuses.  <It would have been perfect now if she were around.>

He perched on the fence overlooking the ocean.  Smiled in amusement when he discovered that he could no longer dangle and swing his feet because they now touched the ground.

He experienced a growth spurt about two months ago.  The short pajamas suddenly became too tight and too small.  He couldn't sit up on his bed without banging his head on the bunk above.

<Would Mamimi still recognize me, I wonder.>

He pulled out the rolled up lifestyle magazine from his back pocket.  It was last month's issue and contained several photographs by Samejima Mamimi.

At the bottom of the full-page spread was a brief descriptive profile and a picture of the photographer.

Samejima Mamimi, age 18.  Origins unknown.  Voted Outstanding Young Professional  Photographer of the Year.  

Her hair was tied back in a bun and her once pale cheeks and lips were rosy with health -- a small smile curving her mouth. 

He took out the only picture of her he had -- the yellowed Polaroid his brother had given him before he left one year ago.  It was crumpled from being kept in his pocket too long.  

Take care of her for me.  That was the last decent thing his brother ever did for Mamimi before he left her in Naota's hands and forgot about her. 

Naota placed the two images of her side by side.  <It's still the same girl, with the same beautiful eyes.  It's still her.>

>From the short article written about her, Naota found out that Mamimi would be touring around the country this summer to take some pictures for a book she was publishing.

He knew he had to go to her -- knew he had to see her and tell her.

<I'm in love with you.>  He said it to the wrong person last time.  He wasn't even sure if it was him or the other being inside him, Atomsk, who said it to Haruko.

That last encounter had been reduced to hazy images fragmented in his memory.  He had no memory of what happened to the Medical Mechanica factory.  His only proof that it did happen was TV-Boy.

In the distance, he expected to hear the blast of smoke from the factory that loomed over the town.  It didn't anymore.

The factory still stood there on the hill, but it was inactive.  It no longer clouded the town in smoke.

*	*	*

He reached the next town a few hours later.  The moment he crossed the border between his town and this one, he felt the exhilaration roar in his veins.  He never imagined he would one day find himself outside of his town.

At one point, he had almost forgotten that there was life beyond his hometown.  Haruhara Haruko reminded him that there was -- the child-woman with pink hair and amber eyes had shown him how to live.

Naota went to a nearby convenience store to buy dinner -- instant noodles and soda.  The last time he went on a short road trip with Haruko, he had subsisted on the same food.

He spotted the poster advertising Mamimi's exhibit on the glass panel behind the checkout counter.  There was a picture of her holding a camera in her hands.

"Are you familiar with her works?"

Naota nodded at the boy behind the counter.  "I know her."

"Really?  Do you think you can get me her autograph?  She's so cool!"

Naota laughed nervously.  "Well, I haven't seen her in a while.  I don't even know where to find her."  He could feel his cheeks burning red.

"You just missed her.  She stopped by hours ago to pick up some instant noodles."

He dropped his bag of food -- the styrofoam container of noodles landed on the floor with a dull _thok_.  

"She's here?"  He didn't expect to find her this soon.  He didn't think he was ready to see her.

"Not anymore.  Like I said, she just stopped by for some stuff."

He took out a yen note from his pocket.  "Here.  Thanks."

Naota picked up his stuff from the floor and hurried out of the store -- oblivious to the shouts of the checkout boy about his change.

<So close.>  He looked up and down the empty street -- searching for traces of her; proof that she had ever been there.  

He found none.

"Damn."  He whispered into the void.

*	*	*

Author's Notes:
1. TV-Boy is the first robot to come out of Naota's head.  I debated with myself whether I would refer to him as "Terebi-kun" or TV-Boy (Gainax translation).


  


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