Author's notes:
Much like the earlier part, this installment went through several rewrites.
Judging from the replies I received for 3/10, though, it looks like the only
C&C I might see for this one is from the Synopsis List Reviewers. Ah, well.
I would like some C&C on it, regardless.
On with the show.
=====
Chapter Four:
"Good morning."
Keiichi breathed deeply, taking in the smell of his freshly
brewed coffee. He leaned forward on the dining table and held the cup
in his hands, letting the heat bite into his fingertips.
"I said, good morning."
He gave a start and looked up. Skuld was standing by the door,
holding her own cup. "Oh," he replied weakly, "good morning."
Skuld sniffed. "Not much sleep?"
"No. You?"
"Like a log," she replied curtly, even as she stared into her
own coffee. "The date's later," she said, as if either of them needed
any reminding.
"I know."
Both of them fell quiet after that. Keiichi continued his forced
concentration on his drink, letting it drive away the morning chill.
He pressed his cup with his fingers until they stung from the heat.
"Morning, all!" Megumi said, stepping into the dining room. She
glanced from Keiichi to Skuld and rolled her eyes. "C'mon, guys, your
coffee's not THAT interesting, is it?"
Keiichi felt himself flush and he pushed his cup away. "I --" he
began.
"-- Don't know what you're talking about," Skuld finished,
abruptly downing off the last of hers.
"Geez! If it's bothering both of you this much then don't go!"
Megumi said, tearing open a packet of instant ramen flavoring.
"What could possibly --" Skuld started.
"-- Be bothering me? Nothing's bothering me," Keiichi finished.
"Right," Megumi said, pouring in some hot water into her cup.
She chuckled to herself and shook her head. "I just wish both of you
would believe what you say. No, wait, that's the trouble, isn't it?"
She tore off the foil top and blew on the noodles to cool them. "You
believe what you say too much."
"Wish," Skuld quietly repeated.
"Wish," Keiichi sighed.
Keiichi and Skuld were silent throughout the trip to Nekomi
Tech, neither willing to begin the conversation both had already
carried out countless times in their minds.
Date?
It's just a date, right?
What's the big deal?
Just a date.
After all, we're just friends.
Just friends.
After parking the bike, they walked down the college main
street, in continued silence and with a marked distance between both
of them. The onlookers began whispering amongst themselves, and wild
rumors began spreading about their imminent breakup (which was odd,
considering the rumors about them began only yesterday). Heads shook
at the sad state of affairs between the two.
By lunchtime, however, any feelings of sympathy were replaced by
plans to console one or the other, in the hope of catching them on the
rebound. Interestingly enough, there were an equal number of
sympathizers for either member of the 'broken couple'.
Keiichi and Skuld sat and ate beside, but not with, each other.
That small but distinct gap between them was still there, and it
almost seemed as if no sound could cross the invisible divide.
Aoshima rubbed his chin. Perfect. After going to all the trouble
to instigate the rumors in the first place, and engineering that scene
yesterday, it was only natural that his plans were going this well.
Granted, he had to adlib yesterday (he hadn't counted on Sayoko moving
in so quickly -- it didn't seem her style), but everything went well
regardless. All it needed now was the follow-through.
He licked his lips and smiled, eyeing Skuld from head to toe.
The follow-through seemed more and more pleasurable every time he
thought about it.
The sun was bright and the air had just the right coolness. Her
makeup was perfect; her dress impeccable. The plan -- the date -- was
going perfectly.
And yet something was wrong.
Sayoko stared at herself in the mirror. Everything was going
right, and she could always count on Toshiyuki to take care of the
girl. Toshi always takes care of the girls. With this one date, she'd
be campus queen, and the way Toshi would go through Skuld would make
sure he was king.
But something wasn't right.
What was it? Are you going soft? she asked herself. How was this
time different from all the others? It was nothing personal; nothing
ever was. This was all just a means to an end.
"Right?" she told herself. "Just a means to an end."
"We'll be using my car, so you can leave your bike, sempai,"
Aoshima said, motioning to the red car parked in front of the main
building.
"Omigod! It's a Lancer Evolution VI!" Keiichi exclaimed. "I
don't believe it! This is incredible!"
"I don't see why," Skuld said. "Steel alloy gasoline engine.
Twenty-five, thirty percent efficiency, tops, from the looks of it."
"Oh, listen to you!" Keiichi said. "Can't you tell great
mechanical craftsmanship when you see it?"
"Of course," Skuld replied. "I'll tell you when I see it."
"Could we get this thing going already?" Sayoko snapped.
"Why, cousin, you're usually more charming than this," Aoshima
said. "Well, at any rate, here," he said, handing Keiichi the keys.
"Sempai, since you're the Auto Club's best driver, I thought you
should drive."
Keiichi drew back from the keys for a moment, perhaps wondering
what the catch was. Seeing none, he took them and mumbled back thanks
before scrambling into the driver's seat.
Skuld and Aoshima took the back seat, while Sayoko sighed and
sat in the passenger seat. Toshiyuki was right, she thought. At this
point in the date she should be pitching carefully constructed praise
and come-ons at Keiichi already. Keiichi wasn't anything special -- he
was just like all those other guys.
She looked up at him and saw his eyes, alight like a child's as
he drove on, apparently torn between pushing the engine and being
suitably reverent of what was admittedly a magnificent machine.
She lowered the sun guard with the pretense of retouching her
makeup, but actually she wanted a view of what was going on in the
back. She looked through the vanity mirror to see Aoshima using his
subtle tricks to seduce Skuld -- putting his arm around her, touching
her knees lightly every now and then -- but Skuld wasn't buying any;
she was far too busy arguing with Keiichi.
"Listen to that! So much kinetic energy wasted, released as
useless sound and heat!"
"That's part of the fun, okay?"
"What fun is this? Do you realize that as we're taking this fun
little trip to a restaurant we could have walked to we're burning up
the sixty-five-million-year-old remains of a dinosaur's left leg?"
"We might as well put it to good use, don't you think? I mean,
old T-Rex won't have a use for it anymore, would he?"
"Tell him that when Ragnarok comes!"
Sayoko watched with amusement as Aoshima struggled to find
somewhere to tear Skuld's attention away from the discussion, with
little success. She sat back and smiled. It was a date, after all; she
might as well have fun while they were at it.
This wasn't going as well as Aoshima had thought it would; the
car, which was supposed to distract Keiichi, only served to fuel
whatever argument he had with Skuld; ironically, Aoshima thought, both
factors were in his plan. He never really thought they would overlap.
Or that Skuld was that knowledgeable about machines; then again, he
should have anticipated it -- she was in the Auto Club, after all.
Sayoko wasn't much help; in fact, he'd caught her giggling to
herself every now and then, as if she was completely unconcerned that
the campus queen crown was slipping from her -- their -- grasps. What
was wrong with her? Why wasn't she even trying to wrest Keiichi away?
She seemed content to just watch them argue, and argue they did.
They'd argued throughout the trip, throughout the meal at that fancy
restaurant, throughout the movie, throughout the drive back -- and not
just about the car. They argued about everything -- the food, the
movie, the weather, some wish someone was supposed to make...
And now Aoshima and Sayoko were forced to watch them argue all
the way back to their dinky little sidecar motorcycle.
As they left, Sayoko said, "I had fun."
"Fun?" Aoshima said, incredulous. "I didn't arrange for that
double date for us to have 'fun'! We were supposed to take care of
business, remember?"
"I know," Sayoko replied, "but still... I had fun."
"Damn it!" Aoshima slammed a hand down on the car hood. "If
you'd done your part like you were supposed to..."
"...Everything would have gone according to plan?" Sayoko said.
"How do you know that?" She sighed and looked up at the sky, a few
bright stars shining through the bright haze of the city lights.
"Besides, I wouldn't have wanted to win that way, anyway. If you did
manage to seduce Skuld, then you'd be king, and after word spread out
about how easy a conquest she was she'd be no contender for queen.
Which means I'd win by default." She smirked. "And you know how much I
hate hand-me-downs."
He opened his mouth to reply, but she went on. "I'll win him
over, Toshi, but I won't do it with your help."
He snorted. "Since when did you get scruples about how you win
someone?"
"Since now." She began to walk away. "Did you see how they kept
arguing, on and on?" She smiled and brushed back her hair with her
fingers. "It must be nice to have someone like that. Someone to
disagree with so passionately. "
"What about us? We argue a lot."
"You know what I mean, Toshi."
Aoshima folded his arms. "No, I must say I don't."
"Then I pity you, Toshi, I really do." She shrugged and walked
off. "See you tomorrow."
"What kind of a date was that?"
"You tell me!" Keiichi shouted over the roar of the motorcycle
engine. "I couldn't even hear the movie over your yapping!"
"My yapping?" Skuld snapped. "If you hadn't gone on and on about
that stupid gas-guzzler maybe we could've enjoyed our meal a little
more!"
"Is it my fault you don't appreciate a good machine when you see
one!"
"Good machine? The only thing that clunker was good for is the
city dump!"
"Oh, fine be that way!"
"Fine! I will!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
They rode on in silence for a few moments, then Keiichi stopped
the bike. They took off their helmets and stared at each other, both
waiting for the other to speak.
After a long moment of awkward, open-mouthed silence, they
spoke.
"Look-- No-- Why don't you-- Wait, let me--!" they both began to
say.
They both paused, holding their breath.
Suddenly, Keiichi burst out laughing. He laughed out loud, and
as he did he felt all the tension, all the unease slip away. All the
doubt, all the worries of the last couple of days left him as he
laughed, as he laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes. He wiped
them away and saw Skuld, looking at him, laughing with him, and he
smiled at her. "Some date, huh?"
"Yeah," Skuld replied, "that was some date. I felt sorry for
Toshiyuki back there. He didn't seem equipped to deal with two wildly
arguing lunatics like that."
"Sayoko seemed okay, though."
"Yeah. She doesn't seem to be as bad as I thought."
"I know. Toshiyuki gives me the chills, though."
"Why, aren't you used to men treating you like a sex object?"
Keiichi teased.
"Oh, shut up," Skuld said, lightly bopping Keiichi on the head.
"Say, do you have a wish yet?"
Keiichi gave Skuld an amused look and snickered. "No. Why did
you decide to ask me now?"
"Oh, nothing," Skuld replied, "it's just that I have a wish of
my own."
"You do?" Keiichi said, raising his eyebrows. "What wish?"
"Three guesses."
Keiichi scratched his chin and gave a look of mock-rumination.
"Hmm. That's a tough one. Lemme see now... Ice cream."
"No fair!"
"What can I say? I'm just too good for my own good."
"Haha."
"Okay, okay, I'm just teasing. Ice cream, huh? Put on your
helmet, because your wish is my command, my goddess! To the nearest
Haagen-Dazs!"
"Haagen-Dazs? Isn't that a bit pricey?" Skuld asked, slipping on
her helmet.
"It's okay, we can use the money we saved on dinner."
"Oh, that's right, Toshiyuki paid for dinner, didn't he?"
"Yeah. We were too busy arguing that we hardly noticed."
"Well, at least he was good for something."
"Yup. Well, let's go, then?" Keiichi said, straightening his
goggles and starting the bike.
"Sure. I want green tea ice cream this time."
"Yuck! That's like cold Play-Doh!"
"For your information, I like green tea ice cream," Skuld said
indignantly. "And how would you know how Play-Doh tastes like?"
"Oh, shut up," Keiichi muttered as he accelerated, making the
engine roar.
"Aha! You saw the 'non-toxic' label on it and just wolfed it
down, didn't you?"
"I did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
They fell silent for a moment, and then they looked at each
other and grinned.
"Say, Keiichi?" Skuld asked softly.
"What is it?"
"Why did you start laughing, back there?"
"What? Oh, that," Keiichi said. "It because I realized what I
was supposed to know. And I did know, for sure, just like Megumi said.
I knew."
"So... what is it?"
Keiichi smirked. "Not going to tell you."
"Ooh! No fair! Tell me!"
"Nope!"
"Tell me!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Oh, come on!"
"No way!"
"Ooh, you're so mean!"
to be continued...
=====
w.o.m.
=====
Theory of Diminishing Fanfic Returns:
Actually, as a universal rule, the longer a series runs, the
less C&C it gets. This does not reflect on quality or popularity,
it merely means that it's now taken for granted. Ask any author
of long-running series, and a majority will tell you that their
C&C has dropped off since beginning their project.
In other words, it's business as usual.
-Rod M.