[FFML] [fanfic][Yotsuba&!] Pretty Neighbor 2nd Visit: Chapter 9: Fuuka & Feelings

[Mythril Moth]

This chapter...the WAFF returns. At long last.

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FUUKA & FEELINGS

by Mythril Moth

based on Yotsuba&! by Azuma Kiyohiko

subsequently based on the "Pretty Neighbor" Yotsuba& doujinshi series

no permission asked or given

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Jumbo picked up each of the girls in turn and hefted them over the property 
wall, then jumped it himself. They rushed to the door, Fuuka in the lead, 
and swarmed the Koiwai house.

"Yotsuba-chan!" they all cried, splitting up and searching the house.

A frantic moment later, Fuuka yelled, "Found her!"


They all followed her voice to the master bedroom, where Yotsuba had fallen 
asleep in a half-unpacked box of Fuuka's clothes.

"Aww," Ena cooed.

"She's totally adopted you, Neesan," Miura said, grinning.

Jumbo heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank GOD she's alright."

Fuuka took a moment to move the sleeping child onto the futon, placing one 
of her own T-shirts under her head as a pillow and covering her with another 
as a blanket. Smiling, she followed the others out of the room.

"Oneechan?" Ena said.

"Hmm?"

"You know you're still Yotsuba-chan's Mommy, right? Even though..." She 
trailed off.

Fuuka sighed. "If Torako-san knows Yotsuba-chan is her daughter, then she 
probably also knows I've been headed towards being 'Mommy' for some time 
now."

"She didn't tell us outright that Yotsuba-chan is her kid," Miura pointed 
out. "And she seemed to really respect you, Neesan."

"I noticed that too," Jumbo nodded.

Fuuka shrugged. "Even if that were not the case...Yotsuba-chan's mine. 
Nobody's hurting her. Nobody."

//Oh my, oh my!//

Everyone froze.

//Such fierce determination from the lioness...to protect the tiger cub...//

"There," Jumbo pointed. There was a two-way radio standing on the living 
room table.

//But you needn't worry, sweet little sister. I have no intention of killing 
Yotsuba-chan just to spite you. After all, if I kill her, I lose a perfectly 
good minion. I'm afraid Torako being my servant is far more satisfying to me 
than watching you die slowly from grief over the death of that child.//

"You...miserable...BITCH..."

//Oh, I'm not miserable, not at all. A bitch? Mmm...yes...perhaps.//

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Fuuka roared.

//Oh my, oh my...do you really think I'm ready for this to end so soon? My 
dear sister...my dear, sweet, stupid little whore of a sister...we are 
nowhere near the end of this little game. No, Fuuka. I intend to show you 
the meaning of fear. I intend to make you dread every waking moment. I 
intend to fill your dreams with the very terror of me. You will know no 
peace. You will constantly be watching over your shoulder, wondering, 'Is 
she there? Is she planning something? Is someone precious to me going to be 
hurt or killed?' And I will savor your terror. Every moment you live in 
dread will be a moment I live in rapture.

//No, Fuuka, this will not end until I decide it will end. And I will be 
your personal nightmare until you are an old, gray, broken-down, sagging 
hag. Well, sagging more than you do already.

//But right now, I'm afraid I have more important things to do than carry on 
with these theatrics, and I'm afraid your incoherent screams of rage will 
only bore me to tears. Goodbye, Fuuka. Until we speak again...//

Asagi's cruel, mocking laughter floated out of the radio until Jumbo picked 
it up and crushed it.

Ena and Miura looked at each other, then at Fuuka.

Fuuka stood stock-still, veins throbbing, cheek muscles twitching, for 
almost a full minute. Then, she simply sighed, slumped her shoulders, and 
trudged into the room where Yotsuba slept.

The remaining three glanced at one another, faces pale.

"What...just how much..." Ena swallowed. "How did she get so..."

"I know, where the fuck did all this James Bond villain shit come from?" 
Miura wondered. "This is completely freaking insane."

"And, unfortunately, deadly serious," Jumbo intoned.


They sighed.

The front door opened, and Koiwai slouched in, unsteady on his feet.

"I miss anything?" he asked in a somewhat slurred voice.

"We'll tell you later, when you're not smashed," Miura said. "Go sleep it 
off next to your family."

"Roger that," Koiwai agreed, shambling off to the bedroom.

"Telling him about all this..." Jumbo mused, "...is gonna suck."

"Yeah."

====================================

The next morning, while Miura and Ena played with Yotsuba, Fuuka and Jumbo 
told Koiwai about the horrible threats Asagi had made.

Koiwai stared at them. "O-oi...this is a joke, right? She's...just messing 
with you, right? I mean, what can she..."

"She, apparently, has slaves," Jumbo said. "At least one, probably more."

"Slaves? What do you mean, slaves?" Koiwai asked.

"Yotsuba's birth mother, for one," Fuuka said quietly.

"....WHAT?!" Koiwai exclaimed.

"We found out who Yotsuba's birth mother is yesterday," Jumbo said, "and 
she's under Asagi's control."

"...again, WHAT?"

So they told him about Torako, about the tale of her kidnapped child, and 
about the humiliation Asagi had literally inked into her very skin.

Koiwai paled. "You have got to be kidding me," he gasped. "That's..."

"It's insane, but we all saw it," Jumbo said.

"And what, she told you 'By the way, the little girl Asagi took from me is 
your Yotsuba?' And you believed her?"

Fuuka shook her head. "Miura-chan figured that out. She noticed 
something..." She blushed. "Something only Miura-chan would notice."

Koiwai blinked. "Something only Miura would...?"

Coughing, Jumbo explained, "Torako-san has green pubic hair."

Koiwai's eyes widened.

"And there's pretty much only one person we know with natural green hair," 
Fuuka said, sighing.

"...*SHIT*," Koiwai breathed.

"You said it."

"But...that could've been some trick, right?" Koiwai asked. "I mean, if 
Asagi is THIS manipulative, couldn't that have all been an act, and Torako, 
I dunno, dyed it?"

Fuuka shook her head. "I don't think so. It didn't feel like that. I believe 
we have in fact met Yotsuba's actual mother."

"Asagi damn sure wanted us to know it, though," Jumbo said. "Making her 
strip like that...wasn't just to show us the extent of her evil."

"Probably," Fuuka agreed.

Koiwai sagged, shocked. "So...what do we do?"

Nobody spoke for a long moment.

"We live," Fuuka said. "We live the way we always do. We play, we laugh, we 
do stuff, we make love, we do everything we would do if none of this stupid 
shit had ever happened. Because if we run around covering our heads 
wondering where and when Asagi will strike next, then she's already won." 
Fuuka scowled. "I will be damned if I give that bitch the satisfaction of 
watching me squirm."

"Well said," Jumbo agreed.

Koiwai nodded. "Yeah, forget that stupid bitch. If she does shit to us, 
we'll deal with it. Until she actually does something, we'll just ignore 
her."

"So, I guess it's time we finish clearing out next door?" Jumbo asked.

"Yeah, it's time," Fuuka agreed.

====================================

"So, are we just about all done here?" Koiwai asked, looking up at the empty 
Ayase house.

"I almost forgot!" Fuuka exclaimed, eyes wide. "How could I forget the most 
important thing...?"

"Oneechan?" Ena asked.

"Around back, the utility shed," Fuuka said, heading around to the back of 
the house. "Kotashi, grab an empty box, we're gonna need it."

"Uh...Oneechan? There's nothing back there. I mean, we never use it for 
anything."

Fuuka smiled. "I know."

"So, uh...?"

Fuuka opened the creaky door of the little wooden shed. It was a relic, 
empty and forlorn except for a few dead leaves and tattered spiderwebs.

"Okay and we're in here why?" Koiwai asked, a medium-sized box tucked under 
one arm.

Fuuka walked over to a bench that stood out from the back wall, and slipped 
a finger behind the slightly loose corner of the thin, cheap wood panelling 
that covered the front of it.

The panelling came loose; Fuuka moved to the other end of the bench and 
loosened the opposite corner, then stepped back and allowed the panelling to 
fall to the floor, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

"Whoa!" Ena said, wide-eyed. "There was something like THAT here?!"

"That" was a very old iron safe with a combination lock.

"I found it when I was a little girl, before Ena-chan was even born," Fuuka 
said. "It was empty, so I knew nobody else knew it was here. I mean, if 
Mother and Father knew about it, they'd be using it, right? And Asagi would 
never be caught dead in a place this filthy.

"So I figured out how to reset the combination on it, and then I started 
putting my precious things in here. Of course, back then, they were silly 
little girl things, but...as I got older, I started putting real 
treasures--irreplacable things--in there, and..." She looked up at the two 
of them, a Miura-esque grin on her face, "I started putting away money."

Koiwai's eyebrows went up. "Smart girl," he said.

"So anyway, I always made sure nobody but me ever knew this was here, and I 
change the combination every couple years just to be safe," Fuuka said. "And 
now, it's time to empty it out," she said, a slightly sad tone in her voice. 
She crouched in front of the safe and began turning the large, numbered 
dial.

Koiwai knelt down and looked over her shoulder as she did so. "4...2...8..." 
He smirked. "You do know that game went out of fashion when *I* was *Ena's* 
age, right?"

"Oh, shut up," Fuuka said, laughing.

Ena blinked at them in total confusion. "Eh? What? I don't get it..."

"Like I said," Koiwai chuckled. "It's an old game we used to mostly play 
with license plates. You take the numbers on something and you make words 
out of them. Or in this case, take a word and make numbers out of it."

"There's a few ways you can do it," Fuuka added, "But you usually use the 
first kana in the number as part of the word."

Ena's brow furrowed. "Yon...ni...hachi..."

"Tsu," Fuuka corrected. "English for the two."

"Yon...tsu...hachi," Ena said, thinking. "Yo...tsu...ha...Yotsuba!" She 
exclaimed, face bright. "That's pretty cool, Oneechan!"

"I changed it to that about a week after Kotashi and Yotsuba-chan moved in," 
Fuuka said. She blushed prettily. "I...kinda had a feeling."

Koiwai stared down at her, surprised, face beet red.

Ena giggled.

"Anyway," Fuuka said, swinging open the safe, "Ja-jaaaaaan!"

There were a number of small boxes stacked on one side, some plastic-wrapped 
bundles in the middle, a newer box with a taped-shut lid on the very top, 
and on the right, six PET bottles, four full of coins and two mostly full of 
bills.

"Whoa," Ena breathed.

"It's not really all that much, but at least it should help pad out the 
savings a bit--you DO have a savings account, don't you, Kotashi?"

"I did until a few days ago," he said airily.

"A few days a--oh," Fuuka said quietly, looking down at her finger.

"Eh, money's money," Koiwai said unconcernedly. "Some things are worth a 
whole lot more."

Fuuka blushed, a funny smile on her face.

"Aww, cute," Ena squeed.

"Anyway, let's pack this stuff out," Fuuka said, grabbing the box from 
Koiwai and starting to load it. As she upset the pile on the left, the 
topmost box fell off and the tape came loose, spilling some of the contents. 
"Ah, crap," she groaned.

"I've got it," Koiwai said, bending down and picking up the stuff that fell 
out. As he did so, one thing he picked up made him pause, blinking. 
"Uhhh...Fuuka..."

"Hmm?"

He held up a broken door lock.

Fuuka turned very, very red. "Uh...yeah." She looked at the two of them, and 
furiously exclaimed, "It's from the FIRST time it happened, NOT the assrape 
time it happened!"

"You kept the broken lock...from that day...?" Koiwai asked, blinking.

Fuuka looked down, sheepish. "I know, it's silly," she said. "I 
can't...really explain it..."

"Was that...the day you first fell in love with Kotashi-niichan?" Ena asked.

"God no," Fuuka said, laughing. "That'd be the--" she coughed. "Nevermind."

"No, not nevermind," Koiwai said, smirking and leaning against the wall. "I 
wanna hear this."

"You get to hear about the door lock or the day I first thought I might be 
in love with you," Fuuka said. "One or the other, not both."

"Both, or we all stay in this shed until you talk," Koiwai said, grinning.

"Both, or I--" Ena whispered something in Fuuka's ear.

Fuuka squeaked. "ENA-CHAN!!"

Ena just leered at her, Miura-style.

"Okay okay...mou..." Fuuka straightened up, sighing. "The bathroom lock." 
She looked up at the ceiling. "It's...how can I really describe it..." After 
thinking for a moment, she slowly said, "It was my first intimate moment 
with a man," she decided.

Koiwai spluttered. "Oi oi, how the hell was anything about that 'intimate'?" 
he demanded. "You were stuck in the window and I pulled you out and nothing 
else happened!"

"Well, that's true," Fuuka replied. "But I was in a situation where I was 
completely helpless, embarassed, and humiliated. All I could do was trust a 
man I had barely just met to rescue me. At that moment, I was completely 
vulnerable to you." She blushed. "I can't help but think of that moment as 
being intimate."

Ena nodded slowly. "I think...I can see that," she said.

Koiwai raised an eyebrow. "Girls have a completely unique take on reality, 
huh?"

Fuuka giggled. "Sometimes, I guess..."

"Actually, I think that's just Oneechan," Ena said. "I'm not sure I'd have 
felt the same way in that situation."

Koiwai shrugged. "Well, whatever. And the other thing? The day you..."

Fuuka shook her head slightly, laughing. "That day it rained so hard. 
Remember?"

Koiwai tilted his head, a puzzled frown on his face. "It's rained hard a lot 
of days since I moved here, Fuuka-chan."

"The *first* day it rained," Fuuka clarified.

Koiwai blinked. "THAT day? What the hell--? Why THAT day?"

"What happened that day?" Ena asked.

"Well, it was about to rain really hard, and I saw that Kotashi's laundry 
was still outside. I told Yotsuba-chan she should tell him to bring in the 
laundry, but she said he couldn't because he was busy working. And it was 
too big a job for Yotsuba-chan, so I decided to help.

"So I was bringing in the laundry with Yotsuba-chan, and I was enjoying 
doing something so simple with her, even if I was handling a complete 
stranger's unmentionables..." She blushed. "And we were just talking, and 
folding laundry, and I was starting to learn a little more about her and 
Kotashi.

"And then he came out to take a break, and I saw the way he and Yotsuba 
interacted, and it was..." She paused. "Well, crazy, to be honest. 
But...warm. Seeing them made me feel nice, even if what I was seeing was 
really silly."

"Especially when I did the Pants Man bit, right?" Koiwai said.

"Yeah, ESPECIALLY that," Fuuka laughed.

"Pants Man?" Ena asked.

"You had to be there. It can't be explained."

"Aww."

"So anyway, I just...brought in laundry with Yotsuba-chan, and watched 
Kotashi be silly with her, and talked to both of them for a while and 
learned a little more about them, and watched Yotsuba-chan splash around in 
the rain without a care..." She smiled, a warm feeling filling her at the 
memory. "It just felt...really nice. And I remember thinking, I wish every 
day, I could feel this nice, that would be wonderful."

"That was...a really nice day," Koiwai said, smiling fondly.

"So that night, I went to bed, and before I fell asleep, the very last 
thought I had..." Fuuka blushed.

"The very last thought you had was?" Ena prompted.

"I want to be together with Yotsuba-chan and Koiwai-san again, just like 
today."

"Awww," Ena awwed, "I like that. That's sweet."

Koiwai picked at his chin. "I'm sorry, and please don't be mad at me, 
but...I still don't get it."

"Of course not, Kotashi, you're a man. Men don't understand that kind of 
feeling."

"Eh?"

"When a man thinks of the first time feeling of love, it's always some 
stupid nonsense like the princess in a tower, or first-time sex, or 
whatever. It's always some big huge event. But the truth..." Fuuka trailed 
off. "It's moments. Just...moments. Sometimes a single moment, sometimes a 
whole lot of them. Sitting there that day, watching Yotsuba-chan 
play...folding laundry with her, watching Kotashi put his underpants over 
his head and act crazy...I looked back on those moments and said, I want to 
be part of this. I want to have this day again, only I wouldn't be the next 
door neighbor. I wouldn't be an outsider. I'd be part of the family. The 
wife, the mother." She looked up at Koiwai. "THAT'S what falling in love 
really is. It's wanting to be part of those happy moments."

Koiwai had an oddly thoughtful expression on his face. "Actually...that 
makes complete sense, now that I think about it like that." He shook his 
head. "I honestly couldn't tell you when or where I first knew I was in love 
with you. I probably didn't realize it myself. But when I think back..." He 
looked up at the ceiling. "There were so many times when something would 
come up, or we'd be planning to do something, or whatever, and I just 
assumed you'd be part of it. Because the notion of you NOT being there 
didn't make sense."


Ena smiled. "That's so cute! You were totally in love with her and you 
didn't even know it!"

"Well, I did figure it out eventually," Koiwai said with a grin. Shaking his 
head, he went back to his original task of repacking the items that had 
fallen out of the box. As he did so, he blinked. "This..."

"What?" Fuuka asked.

Koiwai plucked a worn-down eraser out of the box, and held it up so Fuuka 
could see it. He was beet-red.

Fuuka also turned red. "Uh...yeah. Of course that'd be in there."

Ena looked back and forth from one to the other, blinking. "Eh? Eh?"

"The first time we made love," Koiwai said simply.

Ena tilted her head. "I don't get it," she said. "It's...an eraser. What--?"

"I was alone at home, doing homework, and my eraser was completely worn 
out," Fuuka said. "I could've gone into yours or Asagi's room and borrowed 
one, but I didn't want to do that, and I didn't feel like going to the store 
just to buy an eraser.

"And then it occurred to me that Kotashi would have an eraser or two lying 
around, since he uses them a lot. So I called him and asked if I could 
borrow one, and if he could bring it over.

"Well, when I met him at the door, he held it out, and I reached out to take 
it...and then my foot decided to slide right out of my slipper, and I wound 
up falling right into him and knocking him down."

"Oops," Ena giggled.

"And it was a shock. Suddenly, unexpectedly, I was lying right on top of 
him. And I looked into his surprised face..." Fuuka blushed. "And I kissed 
him."

Koiwai smiled, eyes closed.

"And then?" Ena asked.

Fuuka gave her a flat look. "And then stuff happened I'm not going to tell 
you about," she said. "Honestly, I'm going to tell my little sister about 
the first time I was with a man? What the hell is that? No!"

Ena pouted. "Awww..."

"Come on, let's get this stuff packed up and take it home."

====================================

Ena lay stretched out on her bed, exhausted. The last few days had just been 
so...stressful and tiring. And yet, she couldn't quite fall asleep.

On the next bed over, Yotsuba was already curled up snug, sound asleep, a 
content smile on her peaceful face.

Ena smiled at her. *You're the one thing nobody can take away from us. We'll 
make sure of that. All of us.*

Sounds began to strain through the thin walls, growing louder and more 
fierce. Ena's left eye twitched. "Seriously?"

Looking around frantically, she espied a box of tissues. Pulling one out, 
she tore it in half, wadded it into balls, and stuffed them in Yotsuba's 
ears.

She then lay back in her own bed, shaking her head in utter disbelief, and 
soon fell asleep to the sounds of her sister and new big brother making 
love.


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Mythril Moth
www.mythrilmoth.net