Dressing issues

Here's the original opening to Chapter 43, "Dandelion Wishes."

Readers familiar with the final chapter will recognize a lot of the same lines, but I decided at almost the last moment to take out a lot of this text and shift it around to other places in the chapter (or just dump it altogether and allude to the same issues in other ways).

After going through the kimono preparation scene in Chapter 37 ("Agonies and Thrills"), I figured that readers would probably get bored reading essentially the same thing with this yukata preparation scene. Also, there was originally going to be a brief interlude during the festival - where Chie and Yousuke would slip away to the aforementioned dark space under the stage - and inadvertently hear Yukiko and Souji in conversation about their relationship. But I thought that that would take away from the overall sweetness of the chapter that I was trying to convey, and I couldn't find the exact right place to make the moment happen. That (ditched) scene is one of the reasons why I thought it important to go into detail about Chie was or was not wearing beneath her yukata.

It would have taken less time for the legendary weaver princess Orihime to fashion an entire wardrobe full of gold-spun yukata than it was just to get Kuma dressed into hers. Part of the problem was that the girl was so naturally fidgety – even as a boy, and as a bear, Kuma had always had trouble standing still – but the other part was that Chie was not very adept at dressing anyone besides herself in the garment. They had almost gotten Kuma all perfectly wound and belted, when Chie realized that she had wrapped the yukata the wrong way, and they had needed to begin all over again.

Luckily, Chie had thought to call Yukiko earlier in the day, knowing that she was going to need help, and the ryokan manager had arrived shortly after Chie had begun the second attempt at Kuma's yukata. Yukiko managed to speed through the dressing like a pro, wrapping, tucking, and tying with an expert's flair, and even managing to carry light conversation while she worked.

“This is a very pretty yukata, Kumada-chan,” Yukiko said with a smile as she finished wrapping the outer belt.

“Thank you, kuma,” the girl replied with a sparkling smile of her own. “Chie-chan said I would look good in blue, so that's what I chose, kuma.” And she lifted the long draping sleeves in presentation.

Yukiko chuckled. “Chie-chan does like to make her opinions known,” she muttered.

Chie looked at her friend, pursing her lips sheepishly. No doubt Yukiko was referring to Chie's compliments, when they were younger, about how good Yukiko looked in the color red, and how Yukiko had quickly taken to adding the color to every part of her wardrobe, from hairbands to dresses to sweaters to earrings. Thankfully, Yukiko no longer held any of that against Chie (if she ever had...Chie had meant the compliment sincerely – Yukiko really did look good in red), forming her own opinions about what looked good on her, and in what way. Of course, Chie noticed that Yukiko still held a fondness for the color red, though if that was from Chie's influence or not, she didn't know.

“But it is a very good color on you,” Yukiko admitted, tilting her head in appraisal.

And it was: the pale blue flower print brought out the shimmer of Kuma's eyes, and the full pinkness of her lips. Highlighted among the blue flowers were little curling gold and silver enhancements, which shone whenever the material moved through the light. And the wide belt – the same kind of white-fading-to-blue color – completed the picture perfectly; Kuma looked like a charmingly real young woman.

Kuma smiled then, and shifted her hair from her shoulders with one hand. She had wanted to leave her hair loose and flowing, though the flaxen tresses were accentuated by a red flower barrette pinned close to one ear, which reminded Chie of the flower that boy-Kuma used to wear with his suit.

“I wanted to be extra pretty today,” the girl explained, “just like Yuki-chan and Chie-chan.” Her eyes sparkled with new interest. “Oh! Will Naoto-chan and Rise-chan be wearing yukata, too?”

Yukiko chuckled. “I don't know if even Kanji-kun could convince Naoto-chan to wear a yukata....”

“What about Rise-chan?” Kuma asked again. “Do you think she'll have a yukata, kuma?”

“I'm sure one of her outfits will be,” Chie replied with a snickering smile.

Yukiko chuckled again, then turned, waving her hand up and down at Chie. “Hey, slowpoke, you've got to get ready, too!”

Chie wrapped her yukata closed with a sheepish smile; she had been helping Kuma dress with her own garment just draped over her shoulders, with only a clingy half-shirt and panties underneath. She picked up the sash that Kanji's mother had given her a few months ago, grateful to have a new piece of clothing worthy of showing it off.

“Did Kanji-kun make these?” Yukiko asked, stepping back while Chie wound the first belt around her waist.

Chie shook her head. “Actually, Ai-chan helped us find 'em.”

The two of them – Chie and Kuma – had only just found the new yukata the Saturday prior, on a trip into Okina based on a suggestion from Ebihara Ai, of all people. When Ai had heard from Yousuke that their young friend was looking for a yukata for the festival but had so far had no luck, she had told Chie about a little clothing shop outside the main shopping center, where the proprietors resold irregular and canceled clothing orders at a discount. When Chie had taken Kuma there two days ago, the girl had immediately fallen in love with the blue yukata...and Chie had even found a pretty new yukata for herself. (They had even gotten an extra discount on the clothes for mentioning Ai's name, an extra perk which was much appreciated by Chie's pocketbook.)

Yukiko blinked at the mention of Ai's name, then recovered her smile. “Do you speak with her very often? Ai-chan, I mean.”

Chie shrugged gently, the movement restricted a little by the cut of the yukata's shoulders. “Once in a while. Yousuke's been working with her on festival stuff, so she's kinda been around this past week.”

Yukiko nodded. She seemed to be watching Chie fix the wrap of her sash, but her dark eyes had a faraway look to them that gave the impression of deep, distracted thought. After a long moment, Yukiko pressed her lips together, then asked, “Does she ever...mention Kou-chan...?”

Chie paused, her hands in the middle of smoothing over her belt. She'd told no one about Ai's feelings for Kou, certainly not Yukiko, for fear that her friend might get some weird idea into her head about how Ai was a better fit than Yukiko for anyone, which just plain wasn't true.

“N-Not really,” Chie replied, shaking her head gently. “Mostly, she just talks about...clothes,” she said, which was basically true...save for one very interesting if somewhat off-color discussion about alternate sexual positions. (“If he's a gentleman,” Ai had muttered to her in the otherwise-empty Junes elevator on the same day that she had suggested the shop in Okina, “he won't take it all the time...but you should at least offer the ass.” Then she had glanced down at Chie's posterior with a smirk, adding, “Because it is a very nice ass.”)

Yukiko tilted her head again, this time in an approximation of a shrug. “I was just curious if he was going to be there tonight.”

“Sensei will be there,” Kuma offered helpfully, although the smile that Yukiko gave the girl seemed more conciliatory than actually pleased, which made both Kuma and Chie pause.

“Oh, I know,” Yukiko said softly, patting at the tucked-up fan of her hair. “But, we didn't get much of a chance to talk the last time he was in town. Kou-chan, that is.”

Chie knotted off the tie of her belt and looked at Yukiko with a small, supportive smile. “Do you need me to run interference, or interception?”

Her friend blinked again, then giggled. “Neither,” she told Chie. “If he's there, we'll talk. And if he's not...well, we won't.” She gave a brief sigh, then smiled in a more lively manner, the same pretty smile that Chie had come to love so well. “All right, then!” she said, clapping her hands. “Are we ready?”

Kuma nodded enthusiastically, grabbing her little clutch purse with her Orihime doll dangling from the zipper pull. “Yes, kuma!”

Chie agreed, lifting her own purse from the counter and pulling out her keys. “Yep!” She stepped down onto the concrete step, offering Kuma the more formal geta sandals that she'd wear with the yukata, then poked her toes into her own sandals. Yukiko stepped down last, moving smoothly and expertly in the stride-confining clothes; she could have been wearing just a normal skirt for all the difference her yukata affected her movements.

Chie locked up her apartment and followed Yukiko and Kuma down the steps of her building, holding the handrail to keep her gait steady in the cloppy wooden sandals; the rolling of her balance was not something she was particularly used to. She reflected for a moment that the lives of her ancestors would have been a lot easier if they'd invented sneakers earlier than the Twentieth Century.

They walked to Tatsuhime, Chie and Kuma on either side of Yukiko. Even though it wasn't far to the old town center shopping district, they were still impressed by the volume of the noise coming from the jinja entrance...until they saw the size of the crowd waiting to enter.

“Geez!” Chie exclaimed in disbelief. “Would you look at all those people?!”

There must have been at least four hundred men, women and children standing in little clusters around the torii gate, all chatting and laughing together. Some of them familiar faces from around town, but many were not, dressed in urban fare and traditional clothes alike.

“They must be here to see Rise-chan,” Yukiko said as an aside. She smiled cordially to some people she recognized, but then her eyes lit up with more excitement. “Ah! Dojima-san!” she called with a wave of her hand.

...and then the prose would essentially pick up from where the ladies meet with Dojima and Souji.

I think that the chapter works better as finally written - it's not as slow as the intro here, and I do manage to touch on the Kou bits in another fashion, without Yukiko seeming so wishy-washy about them. I do miss the little exchange with Ai, but maybe I'll save that one for a sequel. :D

Do you love me most?

Here's a chunk of text that I pulled from Chapter 43 ("Dandelion Wishes"). It's an example of prose that I enjoyed writing, but it didn't push the story forward any more creatively than the conversation that takes place at the end of the chapter.

She looked back to the stage, trying to picture him there with his sister, moving in the same easy way that he did when he played his bass guitar in his apartment. Would he stand close to Hitomi and share her microphone for a chorus? Would he stay in the back, bouncing his foot to the beat the way he used to do in Mayonaka, while his fingers plucked at the strings? Would he notice her in the crowd if he was up there, or would he get lost in the sound and the energy and excitement, as the musicians who were playing onstage now seemed to do?

As much as she liked to think that she could handle him having something else in his life that he loved more than her, there was a part of her – an admittedly selfish and frightened part – that was glad he wasn't up on that stage tonight. She wanted to keep him close, close to her and to the life they had in Inaba together. If he gave himself up to his music, how much of him would be left for her?

...But then she thought about how she had wanted to keep Yukiko close to her, too, and how unfair that had been. Yousuke, like Yukiko, had his own life to live. She liked to think that she was the most important part of that life, but even if she wasn't, wasn't the most important part of her love for him that she wanted him to be happy?

She turned back to look at Yousuke, and this time he caught her gaze and grinned to her, beckoning her over with a wave of his hand even as he kept talking. She giggled to herself and pushed her way through the amassing crowd – past Dojima chatting with Taniguchi-sama about the right kind of flowers for a young performer; past Souji, Kuma and Yukiko trying to get some skewers of takoyaki from the Kiyomoris' stand; and past Kanji and Tatsumi-sama at their table, trading dolls and money and clothes and more money nearly hand over fist – and squeezed over to the edge of the sound table.

It creates a nice image of Yousuke onstage - and the insecurities that Chie has about him leading that kind of life - but I felt that the issue was unnecessary to bring up at this time, and it slowed down the flow. I also didn't want to open up a whole new bunch of insecurities for Chie, especially when the next chapter (Chapter 44 - "Rude Awakening") gives her a different set of problems.

The original second Rendezvous (Long!)

Here's most of the original Chapter 16. There are some similarities to the final version of "Rendezvous, Take 2" but many of the little details were taken out.

Chie had woken up shortly before six o'clock, but even that early, Kuma was nowhere to be found. She had told him the night before that he would be welcome to come and go as he pleased, so long as he was careful, and discreet. (That in itself might have been a mistake, but she was determined not to coddle him...and she didn't at all savor the idea of having to keep watch over him every minute of the day.) Her deck door had been open that morning, so she figured that he must have left before sunrise, perhaps taking her advice to heart and trying his best to remain as unnoticed as possible. Just as well – she had wanted to stay on her weekly routine, and that included a Saturday day-off run.

She usually favored a route around town, but that meant that she would pass by Junes. She couldn't be certain if Yousuke was working, but she wanted to avoid him for the time being. There were apologies to be made, and she knew now that she would have to be the one to make them; but with Kuma's appearance, she hadn't been able last night to get things straight in her head. So she took her backup route, along the banks of the Samegawa River.

There were a few others about this morning, whom she recognized: Nagase Daisuke, of course, with a handful of more dedicated students from the high school team; Matsunaga Ayane; and Ichijou Kou, of all people.

Kou came running up beside her, pacing her. “Ohayo gozaimasu, Satonaka-san.” He must have been near the end of his route, because his dark hair was already sticking to his forehead in sweaty clumps, and his shirt was wet beneath his arms and in V-shaped lines down his chest and back. Still, he was smiling and seemed to be in good spirits.

Chie nodded and smiled back at him. “Ohayo gozaimasu,” she replied. “Nice day, huh?” she said, for lack of anything more interesting to say. She hadn't spent much time around Kou since high school, even given her closeness with Yukiko, who was very shortly to be his wife.

He nodded. “I'm determined to enjoy these mornings while they last.”

“While you're still single?” She ventured with a grin.

He laughed. “I meant before the rainy season starts.” He squinted at her. “This isn't your normal route, though. Don't you usually run through town?”

Chie slowed her pace. “How did you know that?”

Kou laughed again. “Don't worry – I'm not stalking you. I usually see you on the shop stretch in the morning, if I stay up at the inn.”

She smirked knowingly. “Oh, really? You stay up there that often, that you know my regular route?”

He faltered for a short second, his face turning red, and decidedly not from the exercise. “Ah. I think I'm not gonna answer that one.”

Chie chuckled; Yukiko was right about one thing: Kou was certainly capable of keeping the details of his private life to himself. She turned back to focusing on her speed and breathing. She figured that he would sprint away from her, or lag behind, but instead he kept pace with her.

“I hope you don't think I'm taking Yukiko-chan away from you,” he said abruptly.

Chie stopped, struck dumb by this unforeseen sentiment. “What? Ichijou-san, I don't-”

He stopped, too, to stand beside her. His voice dropped to a near-whisper. “I know that you're close to her in a way that I could never be. And that's okay. I think it's important for Yukiko-chan to have her own life, aside from me. But I hope that you won't begrudge me trying to make a life with her, too.”

She offered him a slow smile, suddenly understanding the true meaning behind this entreaty. “I have been a little jealous of the two of you, lately. But Yukiko-chan's still my best friend. I just want her to be happy.”

Kou smiled back at her. “I'm glad to hear that. I think she's been missing you.” He cocked his head. “I know what it's like to have a friend who's like another part of you. Sometimes you can't explain to other people just why they're so important to you....”

As if on cue, Daisuke and his small team of athletes ran past them, cutting a path around the two of them into the grass of the riverbank.

“Come on, lazy asses!” Daisuke shouted at the students. “How do you expect to beat Gekkoukan if you can't even keep up with me!” He paused briefly, to nod and grin at both Kou and Chie. Then he was off again, his shouts ringing out over the normally peaceful riverbank: “Umawashi, don't you roll your eyes at me! I'll make you run an extra five kilometers!”

Kou grinned at Daisuke's back and muttered:

“They just are.”

Chie followed Kou's gaze, and as she watched Daisuke and his student team run along the riverbank, she found herself thinking first of her friendship with Yukiko, yes...but then she thought of her friendship with Yousuke, too. Like Kou had said, both Yukiko and Yousuke were like parts of her own self, lost at birth and then found again as a girl. They were as much a part of her as her own legs or her own hands.

She looked at Kou again. “Ichijou-san...?”

He turned to her, his grin still in place. “Yeah?”

She bowed, legs and hands together. “Domo arigatou gozaimashite.”

He chuckled. “What are you thanking me for?”

She stood up straight again and offered a small smile. “For reminding me how important my friends are.”

Kou gave her a quizzical look but didn't press her further. Instead, he returned her bow. “Yukiko-chan and I are having sukiyaki this evening. We'd be delighted if you would join us.”

Chie nodded. “Sure, okay. Thank you.” She laughed. “But I should warn you: I can decimate a sukiyaki bowl!”


Early Evening.

Chie ran one hand over both her blousey shirt and her pencil skirt, in an effort to straighten any wrinkles or inconsistencies, as she stepped up into the Amagi Inn, where she had arranged to meet with Kou and Yukiko. Briefly, she inspected the box of delicate pastries that she had picked up as a gift and smiled at her choice. She didn't know Kou's tastes, but Yukiko had a particular weakness for sweet bean jelly. More than once during their friendship, Chie had been able to ply Yukiko's favor with confections like these. And while she had no ulterior motive in her choice this time, she was looking forward to the familiar sparkle of appreciation in Yukiko's dark eyes.

She was reminded suddenly of Kuma's big, bright eyes. Kuma had pleaded with her that afternoon; the poor thing had wanted so terribly to come with her to see Yukiko. But Chie wasn't certain that tonight was the right time to introduce Kou to Kuma...and she didn't know how even Yukiko would react to his sudden presence. He had whined about not being invited, and Chie had managed to placate him only after suggesting that they plan a very special get-together with Yukiko and the rest of their friends for the near future, when Kuma could be the center of attention. He had approved of this idea immensely, and so when she had left him, he had been wrapped in thought about how he could make the best entrance to his own party.

As much as Chie was happy to see Kuma again, she wasn't sure how much more of him that she could take all by herself. She wondered how Yousuke had managed it back when they were in high school....

She stepped into the lobby, and she almost fumbled over her own slippered feet when she saw him.

Yousuke was standing at the front desk, speaking in low tones to Sakai-san, the older woman who was head of staff at the inn. He was dressed in the casual remnants of what looked to be his work suit (tapered trousers and a button-down white shirt complemented by a red tie), his left hand holding a medium-sized wrapped box and his right busy writing in some sort of guest book. He looked up and then followed Sakai-san's gaze, which had gone to Chie when she had entered.

“Yousuke?” Chie had only been thinking about him, and now here he was.

Yousuke looked over at her with some surprise, his smile faltering, but only just. “Uh, hey.”

There was a long moment of awkward silence, while he turned to face her fully and she pursed her lips and stood there feeling like an idiot. He took a step away from the desk and toward her, and she gingerly moved her feet in his direction, too. They still said nothing, though, which made her both uncomfortable and fidgety.

Finally, he glanced at the gift in her hands. “I guess I wasn't the only one invited to dinner. What's in the box?”

Chie looked down. “Sweet bean jelly pastries from Saito,” she muttered. She nodded at the box in his hands. “What about you?”

He shrugged. “Matcha. There's a place in Tokyo that has some nice varieties.”

She clicked her tongue. “Thanks for making my gift look lame.”

“Hey, I didn't know you were gonna be here,” he murmured with noticeable derision. He turned his head and looked away from her, and she could hear the frustrated breath come from his nose.

While her initial reaction was to turn her back on him, too, she realized just as quickly that that wouldn't do any good. She had been invited to dinner as a goodwill gesture from Kou; picking a fight with Yousuke would tarnish that nice thought. So she stepped toward him again, reaching out one hand to him. At the same moment, he turned back to her, walking straight into her hand with his chest. They both faltered for a long moment, unsure of what to do next. Finally, they spoke, almost in unison:

“I'm sorry,” he muttered.

“I'm sorry,” she said. She turned away again, biting at her bottom lip, and fought the urge to chuckle at the absurdity of their situation. “What do you have to be sorry about?” She asked, still looking away from him.

From the corner of her eye, she saw him shift and shuffle his feet, and he said:

“I dunno. I shouldn't have stormed off like that yesterday. It was stupid.”

She shook her head. “No. I should be the one to apologize. I wasn't being fair.” Now she did look up at him, and she gave him a tentative smile. “You were right. I was...overreacting. What you do with your life is your business. I wouldn't want you judging me, either.”

Yousuke sighed, averting his eyes from hers. “It's not that. What you said...” He closed his eyes. “It's embarrassing.”

Chie glanced around; there were enough people milling about in their own dialogues that they were probably mostly ignored, but she didn't want to have this conversation so much out in the open. She touched his arm and, when he looked at her, she bent her head in the direction of the garden doors.

“Let's go outside,” she suggested in a low voice, leading him toward the external walkway. There were fewer people out here – just one couple, really, admiring the flora and rock garden – so she sat down on one half of a kartini bench along the wooden walking area. She offered him the space next to her, which he took.

She laid the box of pastries to her side opposite him and then put her hands in her lap. She wanted to lay her hand against his leg, or reach for his hand, but she didn't know how he would react to that. So she just knit her fingers together tightly, for fear that they might reach over to him of their own accord.

“Listen,” she murmured, “I don't think that... well, what I mean is....” She turned away, feeling suddenly insufficient to the task of apologizing. She hated the thought of risking another blow-up between the two of them, but she also felt the need to clear the air. She sighed, shoulders drooping, and glanced around the inner garden, until her eyes came to rest on the tall tree in the center, where so many wishes and fears and hopes had been said in the past.

Chie faced him again, dropping her voice to a hush. “Yukiko-chan is my best friend. We've been through so much together.” She paused, forming the words slowly: “I love her.” She did reach out, now, laying her hand lightly on top of one of his. He opened his mouth to speak, but she shook her head and shushed him. “I don't feel for her the same kinds of things I'd feel for a guy, but...I think if I could feel them for any girl, it would be Yukiko-chan.” She offered him a gentle smile. “It's okay for guys to feel that way, too. I mean, you and Seta were best friends....”

Yousuke sat back, blinking at her. “Um. That's...not what I was talking about. I was talking about Rise-chan.”

She straightened in her seat. “Oh. Uh, sorry.”

He leaned over his knees, putting his head in the palm of one hand. “Ugh. I can't even....” He sighed and dropped his hand away, then turned to face her again. “Listen, what happened with Rise-chan....” He shook his head, as if trying to shake the memories from his brain.

“You don't have to tell me,” she muttered, surprised at this sudden magnanimity. There was a part of her that was curious, and another part that wanted some justification from him...but mostly she just didn't want to see him hurt himself by telling the story.

He shook his head again, but the emotion was different this time. “No, I'd rather you hear it from me than somebody else.” He clasped his hands together and stared at them for a long minute. When she thought that maybe he wasn't going to say anything, it tumbled from his lips:

“She was in the city for some publicity thing, and she came by the school. I think maybe I'd told her once that the band I was in played shows on campus or something. You know, trying to impress the idol.” He chuckled, but it was humorless. He let go a long, low breath. “Everybody was so starstruck by her, and – I dunno. Maybe I was jealous, or part of me wanted her to myself, or...I thought she came just to see me.”
He paused, closing his eyes for a long second. When he opened them again, he snickered. “People do really stupid things when they're drunk.”

She smiled, despite herself. She knew how much damage Rise could do when she had too much to drink. He tended to have a little better self-control, but maybe not around the pretty young idol, and most certainly not if he was in a situation where he was trying to impress.

Yousuke sighed. “It was just...bad...you know? I mean, I was... I didn't know how to do anything.” He turned to look at her now, his eyes cloudy. “I was afraid she'd said something to you. About how much it sucked, or how totally clueless I was.” He looked away again, back to his hands, still clasped in front of him. “I was afraid you wouldn't want to be with me if you knew about that night.”

Chie watched him for a minute that felt like an hour. She blinked back tears, feeling foolish and reactionary and relieved. Then she reached up, curled her hand into a fist, and punched him, hard, in the arm. “Idiot!”

“Ow!” He turned to her quickly. “I'm sitting here pouring my heart out to you, and you punch me?!”

“Would you rather I kick your ass?” She asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“No....” He rubbed absently at his bicep.

She giggled, softly. “We are a real pair, you know that?” She sighed. “When Rise-chan told me that you'd been...together...well, I was scared that you wouldn't want to be with me because I'd never be as good as her.”

Yousuke stared at her blankly, and then he broke into a grin. “And you call me an idiot?”

They both laughed then, startling the young couple in the garden and causing a few curious heads to turn in their direction from the lobby. One of those was Yukiko, who came out to them with a smile:

“So here's where you two are.”

Both Chie and Yousuke stood up, Yousuke offering her a low bow and his gift of teas. Chie followed suit, passing over the box of pastries with both hands.

“You guys didn't have to go to this trouble,” Yukiko said, bowing back as she accepted the gifts. As she stood straight, she gave them an apologetic smile. “Kanji-kun just called; the store has a rush order to fill tonight and he won't be able to join us. I hope that's okay.”

Chie followed Yukiko back into the inn proper, as Yousuke swung his hand to indicate she should go first. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

Yukiko glanced back at them as she moved toward the stairs. “Well, without him, it might feel a little like a group date or something, just the four of us. I hope you don't mind.”

Chie spared an amused look with Yousuke, who grinned back at her. “Nope. Don't mind at all.”


Late Evening.

Chie bowed to Kou and Yukiko for a final time, then said goodnight. She slipped into her heels, wobbling a little as she did so.

“Whoa,” Yousuke muttered, grabbing her arm to hold her steady. “You okay?”

She turned to smile at him. “Yeah, I'm fine.” Her face felt flushed and there was a pleasant warming sensation that ran through her, but she knew that it had very little to do with anything that she'd drunk that night. She started to walk down the path from the inn, when he asked:

“Would you like a ride?”

“On your bike?” She smirked, reacting more to the double-entendre than to the offer itself.

He nodded, either oblivious to her subtle come-on (which was doubtful) or simply willing to surrender command of the situation to her. “If you think you can handle it.”

Chie snickered; he definitely was playing along with her. “Yeah, okay. That sounds like fun.” She followed him over to the familiar emerald Vespa and climbed on behind him, tugging awkwardly at the bottom of her skirt. She was thankful for the dark of the evening; anyone who saw her would have gotten a clear view straight up between her legs as she straddled the seat.

Yousuke turned his head back to her. “We'll go slow,” he told her. “But remember – hold on.”

She scooted forward, pressing up close to him. She put her arms around his chest, locking her hands around her wrists. “I've got you.”

They pulled away down the road that ran parallel to the walking path, slowly, just like he had said, with the motor thrumming beneath them, startling the crickets as they wound their way toward the main roads of town. She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath of the heavy night air, smelling the tantalizing mix of the engine and summer lilacs and the crisp cotton of his shirt beneath her cheek. She tightened her grip around him with both her arms and her legs, feeling the muscles in his torso and thighs relax and contract as he shifted his weight to make the turn at the corner of her street.

The cycle eased to a gentle stop, and as the motor purred itself to silence, she opened her eyes and felt a pang of remorse. These rides never lasted as long as she would have liked them to.

As he started to get up, she let her hands linger against him, drifting down to his waist. She hooked her fingers through the belt loops on his trousers, pulling him back into place. “Hey,” she said softly, nosing the loose hair at the nape of his neck. “You want to come up?”

He turned halfway around in his seat and looked back at her with a slow smile. “Sure. If you want me to.”

“Yeah,” she said as she climbed off of the bike, swinging her leg high over the back. She settled onto her heels again, feeling slightly swoony.

Yousuke followed her up the steps to the main door. “You sure you're okay?” He asked, steadying her with a hand on her waist.

“Never better,” she told him, making a shushing gesture with her finger as she led him up to her apartment. She unlocked her door and ushered him inside, glancing right and left to make sure that there was no one about to notice her bringing him home. As she closed the door behind them, he chuckled:

“Hey, your kotatsu's here.”

She nodded, tossing her keys onto the kitchenette countertop. “Yeah, they delivered it on Tuesday.” She lifted one foot and started to take off the shoe, when he stopped her.

“Wait,” he said, going down to one knee beside her. He lowered her foot, then began to work on unbuckling the strap that held her shoe in place. He slipped off the first shoe, and then turned his attention to the other.

Chie looked down at him, watching his slow, deliberate movements and feeling her pulse quicken at his touch. That familiar warm arousal spread through her, and she smiled. She stepped out of her second shoe onto the cool concrete, shifting from one foot to the other because it felt nice to be out of her heels, but also because he seemed to take such an acute interest in watching her legs.

As if to confirm her suspicions, Yousuke hummed appreciatively and ran his hand along one of her calves. “I love your legs,” he muttered. He circled his fingers around to the front of her leg and brushed his fingertips very lightly across her knee. Then he bent forward and kissed the skin just below the hem of her skirt, at first just a gentle brush of his lips against her thigh, but then becoming something more intimate as he raised his hands beneath her skirt, pushing the bottom up almost to her panties.

She stumbled a little, and a sound that was half-moan and half-sigh escaped from her throat. She ran her hand through his hair, hooking her fingers behind his neck to hold him close. She felt him nuzzle at the place between her legs, his warm breath sending excited little chills up her spine. He sighed back at her, the throaty hum of his voice causing her to inhale sharply and twist her fingers in his hair, pulling his head away.

He looked up at her with a lopsided smile. “I thought you'd like that,” he murmured.

She let go of his hair and instead wrapped the fingers of one hand around the length of his tie, pulling him to his feet. “You're just teasing,” she told him.

He snickered. “Well, now you know what it feels like.”

She reeled him in by his tie, until their faces were almost touching. She cocked her head to the side. “Is that all you've got to say?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Say? Yes. Do?” He moved one hand beneath her skirt, stroking his fingers over the lace trim of her panties. “No.” He cocked his head to the opposite side as her, almost-kissing the side of her mouth.

Of course, Chie runs into Daisuke in much the same way in the final version of Chapter 16, but Kou is nowhere in sight. Instead, I gave the reconciliation rendezvous moment to Rise, which I thought was a better character moment for her...even if she doesn't physically show up at all. I did miss a little bit of the characterization for Kou that was lost here (since he's essentially absent throughout the story so far), but I felt that it was diverting too much of the action and interaction away from Chie and those closest to her.

Yousuke's story is the same, of course; much of what happens in the ryokan garden is word-for-word the same as the final version that takes place at the azumaya. But I decided that I wanted to save the garden for a nicer moment between the two lovers (which eventually happens in Chapter 22, "Private Moment (Love Laid Bare)"...whose title was too long for me to have in its entirety on the Fanfiction.Net chapter title listing, which was a little miffing).

Readers will also notice that Kuma has already appeared by this time (as he did in the original ending of Chapter 15). The more I considered the direction the story was taking, I wanted to make the "rendezvous" part of the chapter title even more fitting: Chie is meeting again with Yousuke, but she's also meeting with Kuma again. It's just an example of the little parallels that I like to put into a story. I think that the finished version works much better, at least in that sense.

Now perhaps you'll understand how I can have over 300 pages of edited-out text in a story that is still over 600 pages long.

Aftermath

Here's an extended moment from the just-posted Chapter 37 of "1 More Chance!" (link will take you to the Fanfiction.Net version.)

If you have not yet read the chapter, I would suggest you do so, now, before reading further.

This time, Chie chuckled, too. “Let's just get you fixed up,” she muttered, and reached out with one hand to open the dojo doors, the same as Kanji did. The light of morning hit her bright and warm in the face, but it wasn't nearly so welcome as the voices of her friends.

“Geez, Yousuke-kun!”

“Hana-chan! Chie-chan, is he all right?”

“Hanamura-san, what happened?”

“Did you win, kuma?”

Kanji shifted Yousuke's weight on his shoulder as they walked gingerly over the pavement toward his van. “Does it look like he won?” He nodded gratefully at Naoto as she opened the sliding door, then helped Yousuke hop up into one of the back seats.

Yukiko turned to Chie. “What happened? We couldn't see or hear anything.”

Rise put her hands on her hips, shooting Kanji a glare. “Yeah, and somebody didn't keep us updated like he said he would. Did you even have your phone turned on?!”

“I had a lot to deal with,” Kanji muttered, as the verbal chaos started again.

“Kanji-chan, plans are meant to be followed. Each member of a team must do his or her part.”

“Yeah, we totally did our part! Did you hear us up there?”

“Who won, kuma? Was it Yousuke?”

Chie sighed, looking down at her stained sleeves and torso. “Ugh, I'm a mess.”

Yukiko took her by the shoulders. “Never mind that! Are you okay? I mean, did you guys... Did everything turn out all right?”

Chie blinked at her, then smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, it did.”

“Wha-! Th-That's it?” Rise said. “Come on, Chie-senpai! How about details? Did Yousuke-kun pull out any killer moves?”

“What did your father say?”

“Who won, kuma?!”

“Guys!” Yousuke shouted from where he was sitting in the van, with one arm wrapped around his torso. “Can we talk about this later? I'm in a lot of pain here!”

Naoto bowed briskly. “Ah! Hanamura-san, please, forgive us.” She exchanged keys with Kanji, as she headed over to her own car. “We will follow you to hospital-”

“No hospitals,” Kanji told her as he pulled himself up into the driver's seat. “Kumada!” he said, jerking his head toward the van. “Come on; we're taking you home.”

“Chie-chan's home?” Kuma asked, tentatively following Kanji's order as she climbed up into the van.

Yousuke shook his head. “Your home,” he said. “Just for a quick heal,” he added, as he caught Naoto's quick look.

Kuma clapped her hands as realization struck. “Home! Kuma likes having guests!” She blinked her wide blue eyes. “Can we stop for topsicles? There's no food in Mayonaka, kuma....”

“Mmh. Maybe some other time,” Yousuke muttered, reaching over to the door so he could swing it closed.

But Chie put out her hand, stopping the door on its roller. “Oh, no, you don't,” she said. “You're not going anywhere without me.” With a little difficulty, she pulled herself into the van and closed the door. She sat down next to Yousuke, fixing him with a firm but affectionate look. “Never again,” she murmured to him.

“That sounds good to me,” he whispered, easing his arm around her with a smile that was half-wince. He nodded up at Kanji with a snicker. “To Mayonaka, untenshu-san! And don't spare the horses.”

“Home, home!” Kuma clapped her hands from her place in the front passenger seat.

“Hey, buckle up,” Kanji told her.

“I'm buckled, kuma.”

“It's gotta go around your waist...!”

And as Kanji and Kuma argued about nothing at all, Chie laid her head very gently against Yousuke's shoulder and smiled to herself. She was content in this simple togetherness at the moment, because she knew now that there would be as many more as they wanted in the days to come.

I do miss the little character moments here, but I felt that it just dragged the scene on too long. There was originally going to be a scene where the quartet first enter the TV world, as well, but I found that even more superfluous...which is why the scene shifts immediately to them already being in Mayonaka after the temporal break, and Chie just takes a minute to reflect on them arriving.

The hits have just started to come in for this chapter, and it's doing all right (already have 3 positive/semi-positive reviews, too), but I'll have to wait another week or so to see how it fares across the board.

I'm really enjoying this story, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to leave these characters once I'm done with them. I do have an idea that could be a sequel, but it hasn't quite been fleshed out, yet. Plus, I haven't written the big ending to this story, yet, so any potential further-down-the-road stories might change based on how the story eventually ends up.

"Untenshu," by the way, is simply Japanese for "Chauffeur." This is kind of like Yousuke being a smartass and calling Kanji "Jeeves."

A little lost Kanji time

Here's a scene that was going to go in a pre-Amagi Inn chapter (Chapter 23, probably). In the end, I decided that I would just skip right to the sweet stuff and not make poor Chie and Yousuke wait any longer to be together. There's a scene that follows this one that I may still use...but I doubt this one will see the light of day in the story proper. Thus, this update.

Rainy afternoons at Yasogami High School meant that the practice field was closed (members of the sports teams were encouraged to study their playbooks or watch replay videos in one of the classrooms), but the clubs that practiced indoors were still in session. The drama and music clubs were already in full swing for the afternoon, and there were several exam study groups organizing in the library. But even with the plethora of activities, there were still plenty of students wandering the halls. Some of them were just taking a break before classroom cleaning, of course, but many of them were simply loitering.

Chie passed a trio of boys – their gakuran unbuttoned in that sloppy, unaffected style that somehow Souji had pulled off so well – and fixed them with an authoritative stare. “Don't you gentlemen have something better to do?” She put her fists on her hips. “Or should I give you something to do?” She smiled suddenly, a wicked upturn of her lips. “I'm sure Kashiwagi-sama would love to have some help this afternoon....”

The boys cringed almost as one, giving Chie an inner chuckle. “We're just leaving, sensei,” one of them muttered, shoving his friends along.

They shuffled down the hall as a group, murmuring something about hanging out at Junes or the shopping district, and Chie was glad that the Superintendent had appealed for some funding to support a basic kata class. She wanted to see these kids do something with their lives. They probably wouldn't solve any murder mysteries in a club or a class, but they might learn a thing or two, and maybe even make some good friends.

As if summoned from a card, Kanji suddenly appeared at her side, applauding gently.

“Not bad, senpai. I woulda given 'em a what-for, but....” He shrugged and smiled.

Chie smiled back at him.

He was a semi-regular presence at the high school on Monday and Thursday afternoons; his sewing classes had become quite popular, especially with the girls. She looked him over in his work clothes – his loose-fitting shirt and hakama pants showing off rolling muscle and masculine lines – and chuckled; it was obvious to see why. She was reminded of Yousuke's sister's schoolgirl infatuation with Kanji, and looking at him now, she could see the attraction. He was a near-perfect model of a man: tall, strong, gruff yet sensitive, even kind of handsome in his way. She had even wondered at one time what he would be like as a lover.... Thunderous, she would have guessed, just like his Persona.

Stop it, she thought, giving herself a hard mental slap across the face. She blinked and smiled at Kanji, but inside she was roiling.

She and Yousuke had mutually decided to put their carnal explorations on hiatus until their stay at the Amagi Inn – which was tomorrow night, thank goodness; she wasn't certain how much longer she could go without him, without going crazy. She had thought that their dancing around the issue of shared intimacy had been difficult before...but now knowing that it was so close, and they had to wait, it was almost unbearable. Of course, every time she had thought about how hard it was to stay away from him (at least in that special way), she reminded herself that Yukiko had it worse. In an effort to make her wedding night more spectacular, Yukiko was trying to stay celibate for the next several months; all Chie had had to do was go one lousy week. It had helped that she had gotten her period during this time, since they wouldn't have been able to be together anyway (despite Yousuke's not-so-helpful proposal that they “just do it in the shower” on those occasions), but now that it was over, she was hornier than ever.

Without even thinking about what she was doing or where she was going, she followed Kanji to the sewing club's classroom.

“So,” she said, clasping her hands in front of her. “Are you still okay to watch over Kumada-chan tomorrow night?”

Kanji nodded. “Yeah. Rise-chan says they can have a style party or somethin', whatever that means, I dunno. But I'll make sure she gets to eat and stuff. Don't worry.” He gave her a sidelong grin.

“Thanks,” Chie replied with a smile. “I don't know why she's got this fear of staying alone in my apartment overnight. I mean, she's there by herself all day....”

He shrugged. “Night time's different. I used to be scared of the dark, too.” He stopped walking and looked at her solemnly. “You know, when I was a kid.”

“Mm.” She hummed, nodding. She found it hard to imagine Kanji being afraid of anything, even as a young boy; he was usually one of the first of them to charge headlong into anything, heedless of the danger. Of course, there were still some things that made him uncomfortable....

They stopped in front of the door to the classroom assigned to his sewing class and he glanced inside. It was almost entirely full of girls, and when they noticed him standing outside the door, an impressive majority of them stood up and rushed over to him, and Kanji noticeably winced.

“Good afternoon, sensei!”

“Oh, sensei! Can you look at this scarf I made?”

“Sensei, I think I need some extra help....”

Kanji smiled and waved a hand. “Okay, okay. I'll be in in a minute.” As they headed back to their seats (most of them looking a little starry-eyed at their teacher), he turned back to Chie with a slight grimace, muttering, “We do this for the kids, right?”

Chie grinned and stifled a laugh. “I'm sure you can handle it. Sensei.” And she gave a prim little bow to him. When she stood back up, she waved. “Ja mata ne.”

“Ja,” he replied, and walked into the classroom. “Listen up, guys. I got somethin' new for everybody to try today....”

Chie chuckled as he closed the door behind him, and she marveled at just how comfortable Kanji was in his relatively new position as pillar of the community. Who would have thought that the ne'er-do-well from their high school days would turn into one of the most respected young faces in town? She sometimes thought that her traditional, town elder parents would have been more satisfied if she had been dating Kanji, rather than a big-city interloper whose family's business once threatened to collapse Inaba's economic district....

Obviously, the little throwaway line at the end there became a much larger plot point (through which I am currently navigating), but I really enjoyed this glimpse into Kanji's character. He evolved past this point somewhat - he's kind of one-dimensional here - but I still liked the interaction he has with Chie.

Read the whole of "1 More Chance!" either at Fanfiction.Net or at my website (in the KINK section).

Getting to know you (not so well)

The following are two ways that the first conversation between Chie and Yousuke might have gone. I wrote both of them, then decided that neither flowed properly for the story's ultimate purposes (which changed about ten times between conception and execution).

This first conversation lets go the secret of the Junes TV significantly earlier. But I didn't have anywhere for the conversation to really go after this exchange, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the Team would probably use the TV much sooner, to try and find Kuma. So I scrapped it entirely, with the exception of the idea of Yousuke having the TV put into storage...and the reason why he's got a Vespa instead of a Yamaha, as Naoto deduces. ^_^

“So, how have you been?” He asked in a low voice, leaning his chin against one fist.

Chie smiled and gave a little shrug of her shoulders. “Well enough, I guess. You know, work's work. Life's life.” She picked up a maki roll and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. She looked back at him. “Have you started up at Junes yet?”

Yousuke shook his head. “Monday. My dad gave me a reprieve while I get moved back in.”

“You went back home?” Chie loved her family, and the home where she had grown up, but she couldn't imagine living there again full-time. Her life had simply changed too drastically to be putting up with other people's schedules and expectations of behavior.

Yousuke snickered. “I figure I'll mooch off my folks for a couple of months 'til I get my shit together. Besides, I've been in a dorm for four years. It's nice to have a real home again.” He nudged her with one hand. “You should come by. We can hang out.”

Chie scoffed. “In your bedroom? I don't think so.”

He rolled his eyes at her. “Fine, someplace else, then.” He narrowed his eyes. “You know, I've still got that big screen TV from Junes....”

Rise leaned toward them. Chie hadn't noticed earlier, but she had probably been eavesdropping. “Kuma's TV?” She asked excitedly.

Yousuke nodded back at her. “Yeah. I had my dad put it into storage while I was at school.” He chuckled. “Cost me a fortune to buy that thing.”

Naoto smirked. “So that's why you never got your motorcycle?” She guessed, although it didn't sound like much of a question. In typical Shirogane fashion, she never asked a question to which she didn't already know the answer.

- - - - -

Now, this second conversation was also written for that first gathering at the Amagi Inn, too. And while I liked the way that Yousuke is so immediately flirty with Chie, in some ways it doesn't quite fit. He does get to use the last line later, though, when their affair is starting to come into full bloom, because I just liked the way that it sounded coming from his mouth. Kanji also gets a nice little moment of observation; perhaps this was me starting to form in my head any influence that Naoto had on him between endgame and 2017.

You'll also notice that I'm still using the more childlike honorifics for all of them here, too. Yukiko's use of them in particular struck me as wrong, the more that I wrote her. (There's really only two people with whom she would use "-kun": Kanji, who's sort of like a brother to her; and Souji, for whom she still holds nostalgic feelings of romance.) In the final draft, Yukiko takes to calling Yousuke "Hana-chan," much like Konishi Saki did: again, gravitating toward a less intimate but still familiar relationship.

As the other side of the table chatted about wedding details and the like, Yousuke leaned toward her, close enough so that he could whisper:

“You look good.”

Chie turned to him fully, feeling a faint flush come to her face. She laughed, trying to be nonchalant, although it came out sounding nervous and girlish. “Wh-where did that come from?” She held his unwavering gaze for a moment longer, then turned back to the spread of food, under the pretense of searching for an elusive piece of salmon. She had never quite known how to take comments like that, especially from someone of the opposite sex.

He shrugged. “You're a police officer. You go out there every day and fight the good fight. I was afraid you'd be....”

“Worn out?” She guessed.

“Cynical,” he corrected. He gave her a once-over, though it felt more appreciative than scrutinizing. Then he grinned. “But you're the same old Satonaka. Still as cute and bubbly as ever.” He reached past her and grabbed a slice of oshinko, which he popped into his mouth and crunched on happily.

“Thanks,” Chie murmured. She smiled tentatively, feeling a little bit on-display after his comment. She sat up straighter and gave a self-conscious tug on the hem of her skirt, an action that made his eyes drop to her legs for a moment.

Yousuke took the opportunity to leer. “I see you've still got those killer legs.” He leaned closer to her, narrowing his eyes and lowering his voice even further. “Do they still go up to that perfect little ass?”

Chie's eyes widened. She never could tell when Yousuke was being serious and when he was having a chuckle at her expense. “Uh....”

“Be nice, Yousuke-kun,” Yukiko told him from the other side of the table. “She still embarrasses easily.”

Chie dropped her chopsticks onto the table. “Wh-! Yukiko!” Now she really was flushed; her vision had nearly turned red, too.

Yukiko went on, unmindful of Chie's rapid deterioration. “You should have seen her face when Kou-kun told her that he had a crush on her in high school. I thought she was going to melt into the floor.”

Chie chuckled, though more in an effort to deflect attention away from her than because she found this line of conversation amusing. In fact, the night Kou had told her about his teenage infatuation, she had gone home and sat in her apartment, alone and forlorn, wondering just why in hell he hadn't said anything about it to her when they were still in high school. “Since when,” she said, fighting the embarrassment she felt, “did this turn into a gang up on Chie party?”

She stood up and took a mock fighting stance, bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet, and began to laugh. “Come on! I can take you all on! Hya-taa!” She swung her leg in a high, wide arc, missing the top of Yousuke's head (on purpose) by a few inches.

He played along, falling backward into a supine position beneath her kick. Then he jumped up, with a speed she found impressive after five years of being out-of-practice, spacing his feet and crossing his arms in front of his face in a blocking maneuver. “Ready when you are!”

The others were still seated around the table, their levels of attention varying between amused and annoyed.

Rise applauded, but Naoto sighed at their antics. “If the two of you really are going to spar, please take it outside. I'm certain Yukiko-san doesn't need a fight occurring in her family inn.”

Kanji snorted. “Or since we're here, you could just get a room.”

Both Chie and Yousuke dropped their guards and looked at him.

“What's that supposed to mean?” Chie asked, hands on her hips now.

And at the same time, Yousuke crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Dude, it's so not like that.”

- - - - -

And now, back to real work.

Just a little bit gay

Another fic-dump from "1 More Chance!" I liked this scene, but it just made Chapter 22 go on way too long. Plus, I couldn't think of the right way to move from the joviality of this scene to the more serious weight of the scene in the car.

His father leaned out over one arm. “Chie-chan, the first summer he worked grocery stock, I think he must have eaten almost ten kilograms of strawberries before we figured out why we never seemed to have enough of them on the shelves.”

Chie giggled vociferously, while Yousuke merely shrugged and continued to eat his cake.

“I don't remember that,” Kimiyo said from the other side of the table.

Misato shook her head. “You were probably too young. That was before we even moved here.” She looked up with a grin. “I remember when onii-chan was working in the clothing section, and he put the mannequins in those terrible positions...!”

Both Hitomi and Yousuke burst out laughing then, although their father shook his head in disapproval:

“I was not amused by that.”

“I know,” Yousuke said through his fading chuckles. “You docked me a week's pay for that stunt.” He leaned over to Chie and mock-whispered, too loudly for everyone else not to hear, “But it was worth it, to see the look on my dad's face.”

His mother clicked her tongue, but she was smiling, too. “I'm certain you're not surprised to learn what a terror Yousuke-chan was growing up.”

Chie shook her head. “Not really,” she admitted with a giggle.

Yousuke shrugged again, running one finger along his plate and scooping up the last remainders of the icing. “I had to do something to get noticed around here,” he said as he sucked on his finger.

His mother nodded. “Ryuhei worked so much, and you were the only boy in a house full of women.”

Hitomi snickered. “Yeah, is it any wonder that my brother's just a little bit gay?” And she squinted through the space between thumb and forefinger.

“Oh, whatever,” Yousuke retorted, turning slightly red over his cheeks and nose.

Beside him, Kimiyo laid her head against his arm. “Nii-chan's always been very sensitive,” she said in a kind of sing-song voice. “I think it's good.”

Yousuke leaned his head down to hers. “Thank you, imouto.”

Hitomi snorted. “I think it's gay.”

Yousuke pointed a finger at her. “See, comments like that are the reason why you're my least favorite sister.”

Hitomi started out as my favorite of Yousuke's sisters (due in no small part to her original influence as the rock star of the family)...but as I wrote the sisters with more characterization and detail, Kimiyo turned into my favorite. I think because Hitomi and Yousuke are so similar in outlook, and Kimiyo adds a little bit of "big brother-ness" to Yousuke's character, moreso than the twins do.

There's a little bit of sisterly interaction still to come around Inaba's summer festival (a nice little parallel to Yousuke and Chie's relationship, too), but I think that the sisters have pretty much finished playing any kind of large role in the story in Part II. (Part III is primarily about Chie's family coming into play, notably her grandfather.)

P4: Something Simple

Here's a Persona 4 piece that I did when I was still trying to decide how to write a story about them. Ultimately, it turned out that the characters were not where I wanted them to be (in life or in personality), so I scrapped it. The origin of the idea was to try and follow the progression of thought for someone creating. For Kanji, it was sewing; for Yukiko it may have been cooking; Yousuke, writing music; Chie, practicing a kata... that sort of thing. The problem was that the two characters I started with (Kanji and Rise) just didn't feel right. They sounded, as we say in the fan fiction realm, "OOC," or "out of character."

And, to be honest, they weren't the characters I wanted to write about, deep down.

But there are still little parts to this piece that I enjoy. You can judge for yourself.

It started with something simple: an idea. Then came stencil paper, tailoring chalk, fabric, and shears. Next, the right needles and thread, matched for stitch size and color. Then the proper diligence, to see the project through. And finally cotton stuffing, to bring a little life to it.

Kanji Tatsumi sat back in his chair and regarded his clever handiwork with no small sense of pride. Only a few years ago, he had considered his talent for sewing and design something for which he should be ashamed, about which he should keep quiet. It did not exactly fit everyone's image of a streetwise punk, to be sitting in his mother's textiles shop making stuffed dolls for the children in town. But time and experience had tempered the wild youth within him, and he now took great satisfaction in being able to create toys so unique.

Of course, the fledgling business endeavor had not been the only thing to ease his temperament.

“Aww, what a cute little guy!”

Kanji turned at the sound of the female voice. He smiled, wagging the stuffed animal in the air. “You talkin' about me, or the bear?”

The newcomer smirked at him. “The bear, you silly,” she said. She waved her hand out at him, swiping playfully at his head. “I'd never call you a 'little guy,'” she told him, hooking her arms around his neck and swinging into his lap with the inborn grace of a dancer.

He snickered. “You're happy,” he observed.

Rise Kujikawa grinned at him, showing her perfect, idol-worthy smile. “Work day's over! I wanna go someplace.”

Kanji shrugged. “Where d'you wanna go?”

She returned the gesture. “I dunno. Okina, maybe?” Her eyes lit up. “Oo! I heard from Ai-chan that Croco-Fur got some new fashions in this week!”

“Okina?” He scoffed. “That's over an hour by train! It's already almost six.”

She shrugged her shoulders back at him, then leaned toward him and whispered, like a conspirator. “We could get a room. Stay the night.”

He chuckled. “And they called me a bad influence!” He settled back in his chair, bouncing her a bit with his knees. “”How about we just go out, here? Aiya's always good.”

Rise made a face. “That's boring! I wanna go someplace different.”

He shrugged.

Stoll and Lel

Another Stoll and Lelie piece, this one trying to capture some of the awkwardness between the two older stowaways.

Lelie pulled at the strings of the makeshift instrument, creating a gentle, rhythmic reverberation in the hollowed shell. She smiled and plucked again, experimenting with force and tempo. Then she hummed, matching the tonality of her voice to that of the ululating strings. Her mentor had taught her how to play many instruments, and how to sing many songs, but there was only one – an ancient one – that she remembered at this moment:

“Sing I must, whether will or no.
Such pain over him, whose friend am I.
Grace and poetry avail me not
Nor beauty, virtue, wit.
Brought low, betrayed am I,
As if no charms at all.”

“Lel?”

Lelie looked up, startled by the intrusion. She was accustomed to being alone; outside of her lessons, few within the compound associated themselves with the Cressidene.

She smiled when she saw the young man standing at her door. “Oh, Stoll. Hello.” She set her instrument on the table and stood up.

He smiled back at her from the doorway. “I heard you singing. It was pretty.”

She chuckled, feeling self-conscious. Stoll had always been sweet to her, but as one of the fledgling Comitatenses, he was definitely lacking in the finer graces. But the bio-engineered soldiers were trained merely to be proficient fighters, not to have the more subtle skills of the social classes. “Thank you,” she said, bowing her head.

He took a step inside, then another. Very shortly, he had crossed to the table, where he laid one hand. “You don't have to stop,” he muttered. “I like listening to you sing.”

Lelie hid a smile behind her hand, playing demure the way she had been taught to do. She moved around the table to him. “That's very sweet of you to say.”

He offered her a slightly lopsided smile. “I wish I could do things like that.”

“Sing?” She asked, and he gave a little nod of his head. She chuckled again and took him by the hand, leading him over to her cot. “It's easy,” she told him, and reached over to the instrument on the table. This she handed to him, placing it in the crook of one of his arms. “I'll show you.”

She sat down beside him and reached across to his other hand. She laid his fingers over the strings in much the same way that she had done, except that he looked significantly more awkward.

She giggled. “Just pluck at the strings,” she said, and she showed him how.

Stoll pushed the instrument back at her. “I don't want to play. I just want to listen to you.”

Lelie made a cooing noise. “Oh, it's really not that difficult. Just give it a try.”

He shook his head. “No, I- I can't.” He raised his hands, as if in surrender. “I can't do this sort of thing. I'm not built for it.”

She smiled again, more softly now. “Stoll, don't be ridiculous. You can do whatever you want to do.”

His eyes darted up to hers, and then suddenly, he leaned forward and kissed her. His arms closed around her, and he pressed against her, his grip tight on her arms. He pushed her down toward the flat of her cot, his strength and weight overpowering her.

Lelie felt an alarmed noise escape from her throat, though muffled by his kiss. She shoved both palms against his chest, succeeding in pushing him away enough to shimmy out from beneath him. “Stoll-!” She sat back from him, clutching at her tunic. “Wh-What are you doing?”

He glanced away, mouth agape, and then stood up quickly. “I'm sorry,” he muttered. “I'm sorry, I don't know-” He backed away toward the door and bit at his bottom lip. “I'm sorry!” He said again, and bolted from her room.

1 More Chance!

Here's one that is actually a dump. I wrote this originally to take place after the protagonists spend their first night together, but I decided that it took them in a direction I didn't want to go, and too quickly. So, it got set aside.

Junes was oddly quiet, a fact for which Chie was actually grateful. She and Yousuke walked through the store together, sometimes stopping to look at this or that trinket or amenity, during which time he would step close to her and peer over her shoulder in a surreptitious embrace, or she would unobtrusively hold his hand. She was careful not to be too obvious, taking delight in even these simple acts of affection. There were still boundaries that neither of them had quite dared to cross, yet.

Their first night spent together – last night – had been without sex, mostly because neither one of them had been prepared with any protection. Yousuke had told her that he hadn't wanted her to think he was assuming they would get busy, and Chie had told him that she hadn't wanted him to think that she was easy. So instead they had stayed up late watching random television, that really just served the purpose of background noise while they kissed and cuddled and humped and ground. Eventually, they had fallen to sleep (Yousuke in just his shorts and Chie in a tee-shirt and panties) on her hastily-made futon, her back pressed to his front in a spooning position. And when she had woken up that morning, she had felt nothing less than sheer joy to know that he was beside her.

She had had precious little in her kitchen that was suitable for breakfast (Yousuke pointed this out as more evidence that she wasn't really living in her apartment so much as just sleeping and showering there, an observation that rankled her), so they had decided to get dressed and find something to forage in town. The obvious place to start was Junes, because he knew its ins and outs like the back of his hand...and because he always kept a set of extra clothes in his desk.

Chie followed him up a flight of stairs and then down a blank hallway to the Junes management offices, passing by empty cubicles and closed doors. It felt very much like any other office, except that it was noticeably quiet.

“It's like a tomb in here,” she muttered.

Yousuke shrugged as he unlocked one of the office doors. “It's Sunday. Tsubaru-san's here today, but he never gets in this early.” He opened the door and ushered her inside. “Come on in.”

She looked around the large office space, silently impressed by the state-of-the-art technology on each of the four shared desks. At the police station, they had to share computers between officers (detectives like Dojima had their own), and there were more or less communal printers and copy machines. But here, each station had its own computer (sometimes more than one), its own printer, some sort of photo scanner-thing, as well as the more common items like phones and drafting areas.

“Wow,” she said softly.

He reached into one of the desk drawers and pulled out a clean red-and-white tee-shirt. “What's that?”

She trailed her fingers along the top of one of the other desks. “There's a lot of expensive stuff in here.”

“If we don't promote, people don't buy,” he said, his voice muffled while he slipped out of his old shirt and into the new one. He shook his head free of the collar, and she was reminded of the way he used to do that same move after a fight. He had had a singular way of moving back then, a kind of preoccupied, don't-bother-me stance, tapping his foot to the music in his ears even while facing down Shadowy monsters.

She chuckled at the memory of those bygone days.

He tossed the old shirt into the drawer and closed it with his foot, then looked up at her. “What's so funny?”

She shrugged. “For a minute, I felt like we were back in Mayonaka.” At his puzzled look, she explained: “You used to shake your head like that, whenever you'd take your headphones off.” She noticed with no little interest that he wasn't at this moment wearing his headphones. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't been wearing them since the last time they had gone into Okina.

He smirked when she asked him about it. “I still use 'em, but....” He shrugged, noncommittal. “I've got other things to think about lately.”

Stowaways

Lelie curled her fingers around the edge of the cargo hold door and gently swung it open.

“What do you see?” Tyc whispered from behind her.

Lelie craned her head around and shushed him. As she turned back to the hold, she held her breath.

It was a wide, open room, about as big as the old galley at the Institute. Metal hold containers lined all four walls, and with the exception of a few emergency lights along the stairs and floor, the hold was completely dark, a thankful allowance given their predicament.

She crept out of the container and, with one finger pressed to her lips to remind them to be quiet, she beckoned her companions forward.

Short, compact Tyc came out first, peering around from behind those over-sized goggles that helped pilots focus in Darkspace. The eyewear was usually connected to a navigation computer, projecting a heads-up display of vehicle location and statistics to the wearer, but without a precious computer (or ship, for that matter), the goggles were essentially just a trapping. Tyc still wore them, though. Bred as a long-haul pilot, he would have felt naked without them.

Lithe Imien was next, her fingers stretched out before her, the subtle electro-receptors along her skin glowing faintly in the dim light. She stepped lightly, her bare feet noiseless against the metal floor. She cocked her head to the side. “I can feel the engine – it's about two levels below us. I'll need a map for anything more.” She turned to Lelie and blinked, uselessly. The cipher had been blind since birth: all the better to open her peripheral senses to the programming of being a sensitive.

Stoll was last from the container, cracking his neck as he stood to his full height. Bio-engineered to be a soldier, he was both tallest and broadest among them. Even at the end of adolescence, he was all sinewy muscle, without hint of the age or paunch of the guards at the Institute. He was also the most capable in a fight, should things come to that.

“Just find me a gun,” he muttered to Imien.

Lelie shook her head. “No. No guns.” She took a step toward Stoll. “You promised.”

Stoll leaned toward her, dropping his voice further. “Lel, I can't protect us without something to use as a weapon.”

“No guns,” Lelie repeated, emphatic. She raised both of her smooth, slender hands in a warding-off gesture. She straightened. She was not as tall as he was, but she had presence; all concubines did. “I want to be a Substantive as much as you do,” she murmured. “But the only thing guns will get us is killed.” She looked beneath the dark hair in front of his eyes. “I didn't risk everything to get out of the Institute just to be shot on a nameless cargo freighter, did you?”

Stoll glanced away, unable or unwilling to hold her gaze. He might have been able to snap her neck with a single quick motion, but there were still some ways that she was stronger than him, and they both knew it.

Welcome!

Welcome to the BonusParts fiction dump!

This is just a place that I've set up where I can plop all of the unfinished or otherwise "dumped" fics that I've worked on. Most of them will just be the straight text from my archives, and lots of times I don't have the original ideas thought through, so there may not even be an explanation as to characters or locations or even plot.

...But it will offer a glance into the mind of a want-to-be writer.