He always knew he had acute hearing, and often times he had been told it was a gift he should feel blessed to have. Growing up, he wondered if hearing his parents' every argument was considered a blessing. So many times he had wanted to ask, but after his mother's untimely death he figured that to even bring up her memory would be bad karma in some way or another, at least, that's what his grandmother's 'wise' words dictated: do not speak ill will of the dead. He had also wanted to point out that it wasn't any ill will at all -- he cared for his mother very much, it was towards his father his ill will was directed. But, nevertheless, his own wisdom told him who was in charge of the finances, and ultimately, the estate. Itu was an angry, but not stupid [and certainly not poor] man. He always hated December for this reason. Both of his parents had died in that month, a week apart [though his father's demise came years after his mother's, such was God's humor] and it was sometime during that week every year that he had to sit on a bus for hours to go upstate, visit his family [which was already reason enough to make him want to shoot himself], and worst yet, pretend to be sympathetic towards his father's death. No ill will on the dead, as the family mantra dictated, but hell, the will and the estate had been divided years ago. This year he went alone, and only for his mother's sake. If God had something to sat about it, that was His perogative. After all, Itu was an atheist anyway, so what did it matter to him? It was roughly a week before Christmas, and the subway was proof of that in and of itself. Just the different scents of all of the perfume and cologne was enough to make him feel ill. Muttering darkly to himself about the many reasons why perfume and cologne made less-than-substantial gifts, he was jarred from this train of thought by something that sounded almost like a human bell. Turning his head to the closing set of double doors, he watched as only two people seemed to be in need of a seat. One was, apparently, the 'human bell'. The pair seemed to be members of the poetry club at a high school, although the man appeared to be about Itu's age and the woman only a few years younger. He wanted to rip the red beret from the top of her head, but other than that he had to admit that the red sweater she wore looked nice against her black coat, skirt, tights, and boots, if only a little too much black, even for his tastes. At least, he noted, her gloves, like that hat, were also red. The man sitting next to her was another study in black, although Itu had much less time to take in his appearance [not that he wanted to], because he turned to whisper something in the girl's ear. He received a delicate laugh for his efforts, although it was much more like a familiar song. Itu forced himself behind a section of the newspaper some other passenger had left there before he had even gotten on the subway car. He didn't notice, however, that he was reading a section from the previous day's paper. "Hey, Ken!" Came a loud voice from the other end of the car. The man, a red head, looked towards where the voice had to have come from. "Ah, Sano." He responded, before looking to the girl sitting next to him. "Do you mind, Kaoru?" He asked softly, the epitome of politeness. "Of course not, Kenshin." He watched her grin before he left to converse with his friend. She, meanwhile, pulled out of her large coat pocket what appeared to be a rather beat up copy of one of Anne Rice's many novels. Opening the book, however, caused her laminated bookmark to fall from the pages, sliding to a stop near Itu's feet. Before she could even ask for his assistance, he had the bookmark in hand, staring at it momentarily before handing it to her. "Thanks." Kaoru smiled. He couldn't help but notice that she did that more often than necessary, but unlike most, it flattered her features. He smiled, as well. "You're welcome. Did you draw that? It's very well done." He was not a big fan [actually, he wasn't a fan at all] of fairies, but it was indeed a good drawing and the colors were well chosen. The fact that the creature rather resembled the girl did not take away from its appeal. "Drawing? Me? Oh, no." She laughed again. "I'm far from an artist...but my boyfriend did draw that. I made the tassel, though." She motioned towards the end of the object, where a few pastel beads hung from a lavender cord. "I like it. My regards to both of you." She set the book and the bookmark on her lap. "Thank you." She never stopped smiling the entire time, which didn't shock him, but he was a bit surprised to find her hand thrust in his direction. He shook it. "Itu." "Kaoru. Pleased to meet you." "The pleasure is mine." He picked up his outdated paper again after the exchange and she began reading her book. Supposedly. It's difficult to read when you're too busy casting glances at someone over the edge of your reading material. "You gave this way more thought than it deserved." You say as I tell you about my fear of rejection. I wouldn't know better than to get scared, 'Cause since we met we've had this great connection. "He doesn't lover her," Itu stated calmly, before raising the shot glass to his lips. "Oh, give it a rest, Itu. And could you stop trying to drown yourself in my expensive brandy? You're wasting it." The female bartender sniffed at the wad of bills he placed on the counter of the bar before she went back to her task of drying glasses. "He loves her. She loves him. I know it, you know it, and soon the rest of the world will know it, too." She stated this as if she was commenting on the weather, bland as you please. "Repeat that, please?" He asked, staring at Mitsuko over his empty glass. "Himura told me -- Himura being Kamiya's boyfriend, of course," she explained, to relieve him of his confused expression. "That he's going to propose to her at this weekend's New Year's party." She looked up from her row of glasses, agitated to find he still had that dumbstruck expression lining his features. "One of these days," She cleared her throat. "You'll hopefully learn how to close your mouth." He did. "What I don't understand is," he began, regaining his composure. "How you can go from perfume to engagement rings in less than a week." Mitsuko would have rolled her eyes if she didn't know he was being serious. She settled for laughing, instead. "How do you know he's going to propose, anyway?" Itu questioned, when Mitsuko's laughter subsided. "He's partially in charge of the party or something, and they're hosting it here." He could almost see the dollar signs flashing in her eyes as she finished with, "So he's been in and out of here a lot recently." After a moment, she shrugged, and turned to him again. "How do you know he got her perfume?" Bored with the conversation already, and out of wet glasses, she walked over to the side of the building and flipped the switch to light the neon 'open' sign, despite the fact that the establishment typically didn't open for another twenty minutes. Itu pretended to ignore her blatant rudeness and answered her question with a simple, "I eat lunch with her every afternoon." "You never take lunch breaks." "Her friend owns the cafe and she gets a discount," He supplied, although that far from made sense with her statement. "It's close to the radio station where she works and it's across the street from my building." "...You don't eat lunch." She reminded him. "They make a good tomato soup." This time Mitsuko couldn't resist the urge to roll her eyes, so she did so. "All right. M'hm. I see." She sat on the stool opposite him, her chin in her hands. "So, what makes this girl so special?" "I don't know. I couldn't begin to tell you, actually." He appeared thoughtful for a moment before silently motioning for another brandy. "Here's an easier one for you, then. What's she like?" She asked this as she dragged her feet towards the high shelf where she kept her most expensive bottles of liquor. "Annoying." Mitsuko blinked, looking at him only to find the slightest of fond smiles on his lips. "Are you drunk?" She questioned, putting the bottle back on the shelf without getting him a drink. "Quite sober, actually." With that, his smile faded. "I'll buy it." She sat down again, and the drink was forgotten by the both of them. "So, annoying how, exactly?" She grinned in an almost sickeningly happy way; a happiness achieved only by hearing about other people's imperfections. "She wears more black than necessary, she's always smiling, she's spontaneous..." He counted these traits on his fingers. "She has a one-track mind, yet she's always day-dreaming, she has hopes that only come true in children's stories..." He trailed off, staring into the glass again. Mitsuko silently offered him more alcohol, but he shook his head. "Well, you like black." She said, gently. "I do." "And you never smile." "I know." "You never do anything without thinking it through, first." "True." "You think of everything at once and you dream of nothing." "You can stop anyt--" He found her also counting on her fingers. "She's your only hope, isn't she?" There was silence in the large, nearly empty room for several moments as he thought over what was said. Many emotions flit across his face, but at the end of the shuffle he still seemed to remain the same. "I don't even know her." He replied slowly, taking the defensive, a tactic quite foreign to him. "So why do you care so much?" He stared at her, daring her to continue the topic of discussion. She wisely didn't pursue an answer to her question, although eventually he answered what had been on his tongue all along. "She listens. She cares." Shrugging, uncomfortable and unnerved that he could only sum her up with such basic language, he tried again. "She's...intuitive. I've told her next to nothing and yet she seems to know everything about me, and it doesn't even surprise me at all. She listens even when she talks and she never knows what the right thing to say is..." He smiled to himself until he heard Mitsuko say, "She's everything you're not." A moment passed. "She's an angel." It was then that the first customers started entering the door. This stage of oblivion I find comfortable, And prior to this I never spoke. You say you understand my absence now, and why I never tell jokes. He heard the soft click of her footsteps long before he made out her appearance through the grey haze he was hiding himself in. She watched him stare at her, and, almost as a compromise, he crushed the end of his cigarette against the side of a brick building, the steps of which he was sitting on. When she didn't move out of his line of sight, he stood, although he had to duck to avoid a few low-hanging planters that were greedily soaking up the runoff from the awning he had been sitting under. He merely nodded his hello to her, purposely standoffish. "I didn't know you live here." She replied to his actions, unfazed. She was holding in one hand the handle of a black umbrella with lace accents, and this was shielding her from the slowing rainstorm looming over the city. Upon further inspection, he noticed that the tips of all of the metal support rods all had black ribbon bows tied onto them, now soaking wet and dripping water. Because of this, she was standing in the center of a rather loose ring of water droplets on the pavement. For some reason, he felt this fit her accurately. "I don't." Was all he said as he subtly eyed her appearance. The rain had made the day colder; her black skirt was pleated and longer, although when she began shifting from heel to heel he noticed she had decided against wearing tights. She also skipped out on one of her usual berets for a light blue crocheted hat. He smiled inwardly. How like Kaoru to wear sky blue on a rainy day. To listen to him better, he supposed, she placed her earmuffs around her neck, but what really caught his attention were a pair of small blue paper cranes hanging from her ears. Before he could stop himself, he commented, "Nice earrings." "Thank you. I made them myself." She smiled politely, although he could see questions and pain in her eyes that he did not wish to address. He kept this innocent train of thought going. "Interesting design." "Not really." She said blandly, rather unlike her. "Is origami a hobby of yours?" "A passion." She replied, and he smiled until he noted her seriousness. He was caught off guard, to say the least, but Kaoru had an odd attraction to all things eccentric and weird. He opened his mouth to ask another question, but she beat him to it. He braced himself for the blow. "How come you never come to the Akabeko anymore?" Unique she was, but also predictable. He sighed, expecting the question from the beginning. He answered it with an also all-too-predictable answer. "Work has kept me extremely busy." She nodded, but said nothing more. Wondering at her uncharacteristic silence, he took another stab at conversation, very unlike him. "That's a lovely engagement ring. White gold and sapphire. Elegant." Also very expensive, he was curious as to how her fiance could afford it. Luckily, he had much more respect than to ask that particular question. "Do you have a date in mind, yet?" He smiled at her smile. The ice in both pairs of eyes was melting. "Thank you." He couldn't help but notice the attractive blush staining her cheeks. "But no, there's no date, yet." Looking up from the shine of her jewelry, she met Itu's gaze, finding nothing but an intense sadness there, despite his smile. Blinking, she looked between the ring and his eyes again, and it seemed both an instant and an eternity before he nodded, slowly. She understood, though said nothing of it. "Would you like to take a walk with me, Itu?" She asked, and although he was loathe to do it after everything that had happened, he couldn't help following her. The walk, which consisted of traveling up and down various city blocks for about an hour and a half, came to an end when they came to a subway stop that serviced the line passing by Itu's apartment building.He gave the umbrella handle, which he had been holding for the entire walk for the both of them, back to Kaoru with a nod. She understood, but continued smiling for him, which he was thankful for. He knew this would be the first and only time he would be the one to make her happy after her personal skies seemed to turn grey. Slowly, he reached for her empty hand and kissed the top of it. "Goodbye, Kaoru." His tone was hardly above a murmur. She, in return, curtsied gracefully in front of him. "Goodbye, Itu. Thank you for the lovely afternoon." How could he ever tell her eloquently that perhaps she have saved him on this day, armed with only her smile and her laughter, ringing like a delicate glass bell he was not allowed to touch? He settled for the plain, "It was my pleasure." but only because he knew, walking down the steps to the subway station, that she knew in her heart everything he had wanted to say. Halfway down the wet concrete stairs, he turned to look over his shoulder at her retreating back. "I'll try to get to the Akabeko for lunch sometime soon." He called to her, and she, realizing the familiarity of his voice, turned and nodded, smiling. "I would like that very much." She answered, although they both knew he would never go back there again. They stared at each other until he had disappeared underground, the bitter January chill following him all the way home. "What's another day?" when we're already getting use to gray. "What's another day?" when inspiration grows out from this. "What's another day?" when silence is the next best thing to this "Where are you going to go?" Mitsuko asked, glancing at the large suitcase next to Itu's feet. When he didn't answer immediately, she began filling the last shot glass he would ever drink from in her bar. She was cheap, but not cruel; it was free. He nodded his appreciation before downing all of it in a single gulp, and only after he set down the empty glass did he answer. "I don't know, yet." She nodded, taking the glass from him and putting it in the sink. "Will you write me when you get there?" "Of course." But both of them knew he wouldn't write. "You know..." Mitsuko sat on the stool opposite him, this time with her hands in her lap, staring at him intently. "She died with a smile on her face, I was told by Himura. It was painless." "Hn." "Better now than when the symptoms really began to settle in," She pointed out, and unwillingly, he nodded. Silence followed and held control of the room for minutes until he stood up, pushing the stool under the bar with a clacking finality. She stood up as well, following him to the door to exchange their emotionless farewells. Despite this, Mitsuko still stood with her forehead pressed against the glass, waving to him slowly until he was out of sight for good. Sighing, she flipped the electric sign on yet again, this time a half an hour early. She figured she'd be opening early a lot more often, now. It was the 22nd of February when he finally got to Kaoru's grace to say his last respects. He was happy that all of the other mourners had come and gone long ago; his roses were incredibly vibrant in comparison to the wilting flowers around him. He couldn't pray for her, but leaving so soon seemed out of place, so he settled for sitting against the tombstone and thinking. Somewhere in the tangled mass of thoughts in his head he realized she had died on the fifteenth, the day after her last Valentine's day with a love that wasn't him. He was honestly overjoyed to know that; she and her fiance deserved at least that much. Silence turned to spoken word as day turned to night, and even after that spoken word became more conversation than soliloquy, as he honestly believed Kaoru, or some remnant of her, was with him to keep him company through the freezing night. Darkness turned to light again, and words turned into silent, raw emotions that didn't need explanation or require heavy analyzing. Daylight turned to rain, and exhaustion carried Itu to the valley of fatigue on what he hoped would be a one way ticket, although he knew it was not fated to be that way. Closing his eyes as he tried to fall asleep against the wet stone, he realized he didn't cry for Kaoru; he didn't have to. She was crying for him. Smiling, he fell asleep with her spirit surrounding him. Maybe he would cry for her another day, but not that day. |
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Author's Comments"You know concrete colored buildings all grow stale," You say as I look up, dreaming. I know better than to include the both of us, But I can't sleep when you're gone, and you say, "What's another day?" Lyrics above, in the fanfiction, and inspiration for the title come from Maria Mena's "What's Another Day?". Copyrighted to her. Mitsuko copyrighted to me. Itu copyrighted to Jane-chan.  [Sorry for messing him up. D: ] Kenshin and Kaoru copyrighted to Watsuki-sama. Writing copyrighted to me. Don't steal. ----------- I'm actually somewhat proud of this fanfiction. I don't think I should be, but I am. It was the first time I actually followerd through with an idea. Perhaps it is cliche, what writing of mine is not? But I think it is a worthy read nonetheless. Please read, however unfamiliar you may be. It'll read as a nice piece of regular prose, too, I believe. Written 1/2 on overnight airline flights. Written 1/2 this morning after staying up twenty four straight hours. You have been warned. Constructive criticsm only, please. |
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June 7, 2006
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Comments
So sad, yet so lovely. ^_^
As an Editor, there wasn't much to fix. The style was great, the plot made sense, and the words flowed perfectly.
The only things wrong were a few minor errors.
I guess this is why I procrastinated so much; I knew it'd be flawless already.
Amanda's writing was easy to critique, because she doesn't understand the art of language yet. You, however, are quite fluent.
Favie. : D
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N0 o.N.e L<3v3s m3....f0r I aM i.n Lo\/3 wiTH tHE W0rLd. <x3
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Join the Artemis Fowl fan club! OR ELSE! :iconartemisfowlfc:
Kitty: "Wanna know a secret? I have no idea what I'm doing."
Kye: "Thanks so much for that comforting thought."
Don't you just love siblings?
Thank you muchly. <3
I'm glad I got so much positive feedback for this fic; I'm pretty proud of it.
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[if it looks like i'm laughing, i'm really just asking to leave this alone.]
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