Pairings: Mainly Ayu Tateishi/Hiroki Tsujiai and maybe an eensy bit of Kaji Tetsushi/Nina Sakura if the plot bunnies have their way.
Summary: AyuxTsujiai: Certain mistakes are meant to be made. So, Nina, thank you for creating something wonderful that otherwise would never have had the chance to exist, even if you really didn't mean to.
A/N: As I've unfortunately never seen the anime for this series, this fic will be completely based in the mangaverse. Do you all remember the time when Nina tried to cast a love spell on Kaji for Ayu with magical candy and it ended up on Tsujiai? For those of you who don't remember, this takes place a few weeks or so after Ayu meets Nina. Nothing has happened between Ayu and Kaji or Nina and Hiroki, and Yuta, Rio, etc. haven't come into the story. Hiroki has just eaten a candy that was meant for Kaji and it makes him fall madly in love with Ayu for a little while, and, well, here's a retelling of the aftereffects of that little incident with a bit of a twist, heh. Read and enjoy!
Disclaimer: The characters, concept, etc. belong to Watari Yoshizumi no matter how much EveryNever tries to convince you otherwise. All she owns is this little piece of fanfiction except for a few lines of dialogue at the beginning that were taken from chapter three of the manga.
Chapter 1: Bewitched
"True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor can it be denied where it does." - Anonymous
Hiroki blinked one meaningful blink - so meaningful, in fact, that a short book would be needed to fully describe it - then proceeded to stare intently at Ayu. Ayu herself swallowed two tennis ball sized lumps that had seemed stubbornly set on making their home in the back of her throat before sighing inwardly. The Grim Reaper himself, after appearing out of a foreboding, black fog of doom, hissed out both teens' names repeatedly in menacing tones, while waving his scythe around like a maniac on a daytime cooking show for not one, not even two, but three whole minutes before deciding that even though he had been sent to retrieve their mortal souls, he was just too impatient and they were just too darn oblivious. He'd come back in an hour or so when he could get enough of their currently occupied attentions to do his job like it should be done. Really, when Mr. Grim is at the top of his game, his handiwork is good enough to die for.
In the meantime, grasping Ayu's hand tightly, the smitten boy scooted even nearer to her, quite possibly defying several spatial laws on how close you can come to a person without suffocating them in the process.
"Your beauty warms my heart! Your words stir my soul! I love everything about you!" He paused for a second, searching for the perfect finale to end his flowery declaration. "I-I'll do anything to make you happy!"
Nina certainly put her all into this little spell, Ayu noted wryly. Those longing gazes of fiery passion that you see soap opera characters and the like sending each other at critical moments in the plot had nothing on Hiroki's facial expression of complete and utter devotion right about now. It was like a human version of Lassie, except, of course, without the doggy ears and the bushy tail. Too bad the earnest witch had to cast her stuff on the wrong guy...
Then again, now that she thought about it, this situation wasn't all that horrible. How many times in a lifetime would a person be likely to see this much loyalty in a man, magicked or not? Not often, Ayu assumed, for she had heard more than her fill of sleepover stories that involved ex-boyfriends being compared to everything from spike pits to dinosaur boogers, so there was certainly no harm in taking advantage of the situation just a bit.
"So… what do you love about me the most?"
A harmless question. An interesting question. A question she'd always wanted to know the answer to. Who wouldn't want to know what others view as their strong points? Really, it was the perfect question, because there couldn't possibly be a wrong answer, only a beautifully opinionated one.
"Um…That's funny," Hiroki cocked his head slightly to the side, frowning in confusion. "I'm not sure!"
Okay, so she stood corrected. Out of the millions of answers to her matchless question, there was one irritating answer. Mr. Tsujiai over there just happened to be lucky enough to find it.
"Everything… I guess! It changes!"
Well, Ayu admitted, it wasn't so bad. Trapped under Hiroki's adoring gaze, she couldn't help but feel special, beautiful, almost... perfect.
"Right now…" he continued. "It's your eyes! I can't stop looking at them!"
My eyes? His eyes were really the amazing ones, she noted as they came nearer, seeming to grow in size. Wait... nearer...
"Oh my..."
This was bad. As in really bad. Just a step down from 'gigantic meteor crashing into Earth' bad. Well, maybe not that bad, but still really, really bad.
She was running out of diversion tactics almost as fast as she was running out of personal space.
"H-H-Hiroki, stop! You don't know what you're doing!" She blushed furiously as he stroked her arm then cupped her cheek, all the while inching closer and closer. "I mean… I guess you know… because you're doing it really well… but i-it's wrong! You can't!"
Ayu's words seemed to stop him, barely an inch between them, and Hiroki opened his eyes to catch her own. Their breaths mingled in the air, pushed out through slightly open mouths: his strong and rhythmic, hers short and rapid. Moments passed slower than a sailboat on a windless, waveless day.
Ironically, this day, or part of the day rather, was anything but windless and waveless.
"What's so wrong about love, Ayu?" he asked her.
His response to her was so straightforward, so simply, honestly, true, that Ayu found herself at a loss. She knew, yes, she knew this was a spell speaking to her, and it had absolutely nothing to do with this guy actually sitting here. That's right, the magic was about to kiss her, not… Wait! It… erm, he was about to kiss her?
"Hiro-"
The rest of her voice was lost in the electrifying contact of skin upon skin. His lips gently caressed her slightly quivering bottom one before peppering the sides of her shocked, open mouth with tenderly soft, butterfly kisses. One hand went to her hair, stroking it, running fingers through it, while the other lay to rest on her shoulder, gripping her tight.
Ayu blinked once, staring wide-eyed at nothing. It just felt so nice, so… warm.
She promptly melted.
Lashes fluttering closed, she gave in to his touch, clutching at the material of his shirt. The motion of his lips was almost like a spell itself, drawing her in, further and further into this bottomless emotion. Her mind a pleasant blank, she sighed softly as his lips brushed against the tip of her nose before he drew back. Whimpering at the sudden loss of contact, she gazed up at him with unfocused eyes.
"Ayu," he whispered.
She nodded, entranced.
"You see?" he gazed warmly at her. "I know you'd agree there was nothing wrong with that."
Wrong with what? Hmm, nothing's wrong with that mouth of his, that's for sure, Ayu giggled softly.
Huh? Mouth? Hiroki's mouth? Ayu's mouth?
The fog shrouding her thinking capabilities was slowing beginning to lift.
Hiroki's mouth plus Ayu's mouth equals…
Not good. Not good. Not good!
"No, no, no, no, no!" Ayu jumped up frantically. "This can't be happening! This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen! My first…" she trailed off, remembering just who her current audience was.
She shook her head slightly, blinking back her tears. There would be time for that later. Right now she had to figure out what to do with Hiroki until the enchantment wore off, for Nina's sake as well as Hiroki's.
How long had it been since the spell started again? She remembered it had passed the two and a half hour mark after they'd finished tennis practice and now it must be at least another half hour after that. Nina said it only should last two to three hours so shouldn't it have ended by now?
A pair of arms wrapping around her from behind soundly interrupted her ponderings. Ayu let out a small squeak of surprise.
"Ah, Hiroki! H-hi!"
"Ayu, I'm sorry," Hiroki said solemnly as he rested his chin on her stiffened shoulder "From the way you're acting, from what you've been saying, I can tell I've done something horribly wrong. I've hurt you in some way, haven't I. Tell me what I did so I can make it up to you in any and every way I can. I could never live with myself knowing I caused you pain."
"Oh! Uh." Think, Ayu! Think! "Um, I was just worried about how late it was getting, it had absolutely, positively, nothing, nothing, nothing to do with you. Yeah! Look at that time! The sun's just about ready to disappear on us and you know how the shady characters and stalkers and stuff come out at night. I wouldn't want to run into one of those weirdos. Well, I guess I could whack them with my school bag, but I'd rather not. It would-"
Hiroki put a finger to her lips. "Say no more, my Ayu. I have decided to make it my personal mission, no, my duty as a man to escort you home safely!"
My Ayu, he says?"Wow, Hiroki, I'm honored, I guess."
This could be good, Ayu mused. If she took him along the long route to her house hopefully the spell would be given enough time to wear off. If not, well, she'd cross that bridge when she came to it.
Spinning her around to face him, Hiroki trapped her once again with a firm, determined stare. "Before we go, will you… say it again?"
"Huh?"
"My name. Will you say my name again, Ayu?"
"Hiroki?"
As his mouth twitched slightly, just the tiniest millimeter of a movement, Hiroki's eyes brightened, giving him the look of a shy child showing awkward excitement at their long-awaited birthday. The mouth was looking like 'Oh, I guess that's kinda cool' while the eyes seemed to be screaming out 'Oh em gee, yay!' It was as if his lips and eyes seemed to have no relation or knowledge of one another, portraying completely opposite messages, yet hinting at the exact same thing. Hiroki himself didn't seem to have any idea of the emotions flashing across his expression, which, Ayu had to admit, was endearing in a scraggly, puppy dog kind of way.
Lifting her hand up, Hiroki grazed his lips across her open palm before entangling the stolen fingers in his own.
"The only thing that could make me happier now would be to know you'd call my name everyday… for the rest of our lives."
Another proposal? With the other one at the tennis courts, that was two in... three hours. This had to be some sort of record.
"A-aren't we getting ahead of ourselves?" she stuttered out, breaking the stern silence. "People usually go out together a few times before taking that... 'big step'. You know, to be sure of their decision."
"Ayu, my sweet," he rubbed his thumb affectionately across her knuckles. "I've never been so sure of anything in my life."
"You might think that way right now, but everyone knows how teenagers can go overboard sometimes when their hormones kick into overdrive. Your feelings could start to disappear after a while, and marriage is a hard thing to get out of."
Great save Ayu! She mentally patted herself on the back for her fast thinking.
"So, that's what you think this is? Some random attraction?" Hiroki's face, his voice; both were strangely empty, no expression, no tone. He dropped her hands. "You think I'm this sex crazed guy who just wants to get you in bed one night and abandon you the next morning? That I just woke up this morning and decided, 'Hey! Today's the day I'm going to fall in love with Ayu! I'll fall for Hiromi tomorrow!' That's how highly you think of me?" The emptiness quickly sparked into a deep fury. "I'm not that shallow Ayu! I thought you knew that!"
How could she know? How could she know anything about Hiroki when she'd only spoken around twenty or so sentences to him? She'd seen him around school sometimes, and played that one tennis match with him, but only during this strange thing going on now was truly the first time they ever really talked. Even so, this was only a small part of who he was, and the rest was artificial love, plain and simply magic.
That anger did seem pretty real though.
Hiroki was seriously mad. He was hurt too, hands shoved roughly into his pockets, the dejected tinge to his posture. Yet, he didn't seem at all ready to walk away from this like any other guy his age would have most likely done in half a second. This was a rare specimen who would most likely confront even the worst of his problems head on, not run away from them. No, he didn't look like he was about to go anywhere at all and Ayu was starting to feel cornered, scared, ready to run herself.
"I didn't mean it like that," she tried desperately.
"Of course you did! How else could you have meant it?" he snapped right back. "You think I just took some drug that messed with my brain and made me fall for you this hard? It doesn't happen that way, Ayu! There were no love potions, or hypnoses, or hormone injections!"
If only you knew, Ayu sighed internally.
Hiroki took a deep breath, letting it out in a soft whistle. Calm again, his lips curled into the most bittersweet smile Ayu had ever seen.
"There's only you," he said.
She couldn't move. She couldn't talk. She couldn't breathe.
Why did he have to say stuff like that? It almost - almost - made her wish that this spell would last, but it couldn't. She cared for Kaji, that's why it couldn't, and because this love wasn't real no matter how much Hiroki seemed to believe it was. She just wouldn't let it continue forever, even though she'd miss it just a little, little bit. Hardly, but just a little.
"C'mon, now. I'll take you home."
"What? But-"
"Forget about it," Hiroki's steely tone left no room for debate as he pressed an insistent hand onto the small of her back, propelling her forward. Then, softening his words, he added, "The most important thing right now is getting you back to your house safe and sound."
Ayu nodded gratefully in return, picking up a brisk pace that soon led the pair into a purely residential district. Quaint little houses lined their path, packed together tighter than a bag of marbles. She was taking the fastest possible route home, right through the center of her neighborhood. Forget what she said about taking the long route to buy some time, the tension in the air was on the verge of causing Ayu a nervous breakdown.
Glancing between them, Ayu suddenly noticed that their hands were once again intertwined, arms swinging methodically back and forth in time with their step.
Noting where her gaze was directed at Hiroki innocently scratched his cheek with his free hand, "Y'know, just to make sure I don't accidentally get lost."
Ayu held back a laugh. That was about the saddest excuse for a lame excuse that she ever heard.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want that."
She couldn't help the one small giggle that escaped her.
Hiroki glanced at Ayu at the corner of his eyes, notching an eyebrow.
"What?"
That single word broke the dam, and Ayu found herself flooded with waves of laughter. Ripping her hand out of his grasp, she covered her mouth with both hands in a poor attempt to cover up the onslaught of giggles. Bent over, cheeks flaring red, she shook silently, able to cover up the sounds but not the force of her little 'episode'.
Chuckling a little himself, Hiroki conceded, "So it was that bad, huh?"
"Sorry… I didn't… that was… rude of me," Ayu jumbled out in small gasps.
"Here let me try again," quickly stealing her hand, Hiroki cleared his throat before beginning. "Ayu, my family has a serious medical condition known as, err, appendagis frozenitis. In other words, my hands get very cold unless they are heated by another source. So, could I borrow your hand for a while?" He paused, then, "Was that one any better?" he asked, teasing.
"A little," Ayu replied, biting back a smirk.
"Or how about, this one?" Peering intently at her open palm, he spoke, "Your hand has quite a unique texture. I know because I'm a professional hand researcher. If you'd let me, I'd like to study your hand. Only for the good of science, of course. Oh, and I got another one! How-"
"Stop it! Stop it! I don't think I'd live through another laugh attack like that again," Ayu quickly interrupted.
"I have to admit, I've never seen a girl laugh that hard, or a guy, or anyone, really."
"I guess with all that's been going it on, it was kind of building up inside me and I just, well-"
"Exploded?" Hiroki offered.
Ayu's cheeks reddened in embarrassment.
"I think it's good to 'explode' every once and a while," Hiroki amended. "If you don't, that stress keeps eating away at your insides like some parasite that won't go away no matter what medication the doctor prescribes for you. Sometimes the best help you can get can be the stuff you give to yourself."
"When you put it that way, I can see your point," Ayu admitted.
After looking at her for second, Hiroki asked, "You're not the type to explode very often are you?"
"Uh, well…" Ayu fumbled. "How'd you guess?"
"You seem a little awkward and self-conscious, like the type that would rather push herself off a cliff than make much of a scene. It would do you good to get some more confidence in yourself, Ayu."
"Confidence isn't something you just buy in a store five pops a pack, two packs a buck. And who said I don't have any confidence?" Ayu asked, indignant.
"Well, do you?"
"I, ah," she stammered, "I have as much as the next girl."
"Which isn't much," Hiroki stated.
"Oh! You!" Ayu fumed. "So what if I don't have any confidence? Neither does any other teenage girl on this stupid planet."
"But you're not just any other teenage girl on this stupid planet, Ayu," Hiroki gave her hand a squeeze. "You're incredible and can do pretty much anything you set your mind to. I'm sure of it. You could have as much confidence in yourself as you wanted to, and for free, no less," he added with the trace of a smile.
"Hiroki…"
He just had to talk like that, didn't he? Now, Ayu couldn't look him in the eye without the warning of a blush creeping up her cheeks. She couldn't look at the ground or away at the passing houses either, because then both of them would know she was avoiding him, and Hiroki, being Hiroki, would most definitely do something to put a stop to that. She settled for staring at their connected hands.
"That was really a sweet thing to say. Thank you," she added softly, so maybe even he wouldn't hear.
But of course he did.
"Anytime, Ayu. The more I get to know you, the more amazing I find you are," he spun her into a deep hug. "Go out with me tomorrow. On a real date this time. I'll show you how serious about this I really am."
Pressed against him, nose buried in his shirty chest, Ayu couldn't help but breathe him in. He smelled of spring; a sharp freshness, a trace of detergent, the faint scent of sweat, and a deep, warm comfort.
It was alright. It was fine, because by morning the spell would be gone. He wouldn't remember this, let alone that she actually said, "Okay."
"Really?" Hiroki gave her a gentle squeeze, before letting her go. "I'm so glad! You won't regret this, Ayu!"
At a loss for words, Ayu look awkwardly off to the side.
"Well, whaddaya know? There's my house." Letting out a small laugh, a relieved Ayu pointed slightly further down the dimly lit block.
"Great! Let's get you home."
Humming a bright tune as he walked a last few feet with her, Hiroki's mood couldn't have possibly gotten any better. His smile was barely there, as always, but there was an extra bounce in his step and sparkle in his eye that hadn't been there before. It wasn't any outright, obvious happiness, and it wasn't something that anyone could notice with just a glance. You have to look for it, look hard, but when you find it, oh, do you find it. It's not something you mistake for anything else. It is what it is: true, deep, honest-to-goodness, heightened joy, the kind of all-consuming joy that you hear about people spending their whole life trying to find.
Ayu was finding it hard to believe she caused that in him. Something that amazing couldn't be her doing.
But it was. It really was.
And it felt… nice.
"Well, here we are," she said finally, fiddling with the latch to her mailbox with her free hand.
"I guess I have to let this go now," Hiroki lifted their pair of hands, using both his and hers to wave at Ayu before gently releasing hers.
"Yeah," Ayu let her empty hand drift to her side. "Good night then."
Bending forward, Hiroki gently brushed his lips against hers. Before she could flit an eyelash, the contact was gone.
"Good night," was his simple reply.
On unsteady footing, Ayu quickly turned to unlatch her gate, muttering under her breath as her fingers kept slipping on the lock. What had he done to her? If she didn't know better, Ayu would have thought he'd taken magic lessons from Nina and cast a spell that turned her insides into Jello, along with her brain.
"Dumb, stupid, stupid lock. So stupid! One day I'm gonna take a blowtorch and melt you so bad that… that it would make the locksmith that made you wish… wish… wish that he never made you! How about that, eh?"
"Ayu?"
After a sharp squeak and an even sharper flinch, the spoken of Ayu turned around to meet the curious stare of Hiroki Tsujiai who was standing right where she'd left him.
"Y-yes?"
"Are you okay?"
"Perfectly fine!" She flashed him an unsteady smile. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, normally when girls start talking to themselves I take it as a sign something's wrong."
"I'm fine, really!" Ayu insisted, widening her smile to fist sized proportions.
"If you say so," Hiroki reluctantly surrendered, chuckling softly at the forced expression on her face.
"I do," she nodded firmly.
"Okay then," he returned the nod with his own, swifter version. "But I just have to say I'm surprised your folks go to bed this early. I noticed all the lights in your house are off and it's only around seven thirty."
"Oh, they're not sleeping. My parents are out on a business trip for the next couple of nights, so I have the house to myself. Cool, huh," Ayu explained happily. "Finally I have complete freedom!"
Hiroki frowned. "I don't like this, Ayu."
"Huh?"
"What if a burglar breaks in? Who would be there to protect you?"
"I, uh…"
"What if you choke on some food? Who would be there to perform the Heimlich maneuver and call 911?"
"Well, you see-"
"What if you fall into a deep depression in the middle of the night and start contemplating suicide? Who will be there to convince you there's more to live for?"
"Uh, Hiroki, I don't think any of that stuff is going to happen to me tonight. Don't worry," she soothed.
"You think, but you don't know, Ayu. Someone needs to be there unless something happens," he replied seriously.
After a few seconds of silence, it dawned on both of them at the same time.
"No, no, no. You can't-"
"I'll stay."
"But-"
"I'm not taking no for an answer, Ayu," Hiroki stated firmly. "This is a matter of your personal safety, and when it comes to that I'm not taking any risks."
"I'm always careful!" she tried to convince him. "I know all the emergency phone numbers by heart and know what to do in case of any dangerous situation."
"You can't always protect yourself from yourself," he warned.
"I'm not going to get depressed, Hiroki!" Ayu argued, getting exasperated.
"You never know."
"But I do!"
"You can't be one hundred percent sure."
"But I am!"
"But you can't be."
"Yes I can!"
"Then prove it, Ayu!"
"How, Hiroki?"
"You tell me!"
"No, you tell me!"
And so it continued through the gate, up the walkway, and into the house. Even after Hiroki called his parents to tell them he'd be gone studying for tonight, the debate went on more earnestly than ever. Loud voices could still be heard a half an hour later over the soft whirr of the microwave and the unbelievable plot of the current sitcom on TV. The argument wasn't even beginning to wind down as homework was started, almost ripped up in frustration, then finished with sighs of relief all around.
The Grim Reaper was really starting to feel dejected. With an annoyed grunt, he clacked his bones down on the curb next to the house, adjusting his cloak to make sure it was hanging decently below the knees. With a frustrated moan, he angrily started to sharpen the blade of his scythe on the edge of the sidewalk.
He hadn't had a chance to kill either one of the idiots tonight. Plus, this was getting him completely off schedule. After the catastrophic deaths of these two teenagers, there was supposed to be a murder, an old codgers peaceful passing, and a few other great deaths.
But were they going to happen?
No! Of course not!
Grim never gets any fun! Grim always gets the short end of the stick, or scythe in his case! Whenever Grim gets to kill anyone it has to be on their time, not his! Does anyone even consider his social life? No! Never!
'Why would Grim need a social life? He kills people!' That's what they all say.
Just because he kills people doesn't mean he doesn't have a heart. And their words hurt. Well, until he kills them. Then he feels a little better.
He could really use a couple of killings to calm him down tonight. Sadly, it didn't look like tonight was the night for poor ol' Grim. To kill someone, he needed their absolute attention, because if Grim was anything, he was fair. He would never sneak up on someone and kill them by surprise. No, he was better than that. He would wait until they laid eyes on his grim grin and bloodied scythe. He'd wait until their face contorted into despairing realization.
Then he'd kill them.
It really was too bad about these two ignorant mortals. He could have used the kills. However, knowing when to give up, he sullenly took out his little black book and postponed their deaths for another day.
Grim, sighed into his rotting cloak.
No, it didn't look like too many souls were going to be snatched tonight.
A/N: And here we have the first chapter! What do you think? To tell the truth, this story here is more of a pet project for me that isn't on the top of my update list, but if a lot of you like it I may work a little harder on it. So, let me know. Should I continue?