A/N – please be aware that I'm only familiar with the film.

The First Week

Makoto had told Kousuke that her plans for the future were a secret – but she'd never been much good at keeping secrets. If it wasn't something important, that she hugged tight to her heart, then, sooner or later, she'd get distracted and blurt it out without thinking.

In the end though, it wasn't that tendency that gave her away.

It was only a week or so since Chiaki had left. Kousuke had been hurt that his friend had left without saying goodbye, but since that one conversation on the field, he and Makoto hadn't spoken about it. They'd barely spoken at all. They'd met again, the next day, to play baseball on the field, but Kaho and those two friends of hers had been there. Makoto hadn't seemed to want to discuss it either. She seemed...distracted. She seemed lost in thought constantly now. Kousuke didn't push her to talk; he wasn't entirely sure how she felt about Chiaki leaving, and thought it might be better to let her deal with it herself.

That night, he'd walked Kaho home. It wasn't entirely his own idea. Makoto had left halfway through their game, running off suddenly to god only knew where, and Kaho's friends had abandoned her. She'd looked so small and sad standing there all alone – he didn't have the heart to let her walk all that way by herself. Still, he wondered where Makoto had disappeared to.

*

Makoto had spent the time since Chiaki's disappearance wondering about how she could possibly make this work out. Her auntie Witch believed she could, and Makoto felt that she must. So she would. Somehow.

She'd spoken to Auntie Witch that first day, after baseball. Told her the whole story.

"I don't know what to do!" she'd wailed. Auntie Witch had smiled at her. That strange soft smile she got sometimes.

"You'll figure it out, Makoto." She'd said. Makoto didn't feel particularly grateful for that advice.

She'd been musing on the problem again, when she was supposed to be concentrating on fielding. Kaho had been batting, and Makoto knew there was little chance of the ball coming anywhere near her part of the field.

She didn't even know where to start. He was in the future, and she was here. Could she go there? How? Look for another of those little walnut things? There was no chance of doing that. Wait for someone to invent them? She didn't know how far Chiaki had come from, but she didn't think it was within her lifetime. And even if it was, it would have to be far, far in the future. She'd be old before then.

She didn't want to grow old before she saw him again.

Maybe she should learn about time. Maybe that would be a start.

As Makoto did with most of her thoughts, she acted on this one immediately. Waving goodbye to Kousuke, she ran across the field to grab her bag, then kept running, in the direction of the library. She could get there before it closed if she hurried.

*

Makoto wasn't used to being in the library by herself. Usually, Kousuke would be there, studying. He didn't mind being alone, but sometimes he'd dragged her along, making sure her marks weren't get any worse than they already were. Over the last few months, Chiaki had come along too, and neither of them had gotten anything done.

Makoto wasn't stupid, she knew she wasn't. She just didn't always pay attention. There was always something more interesting going on. She'd admired Kousuke's concentration, much as she admired his volunteer work, but she never put the effort in to emulate it. It just didn't seem important. Her memory was pretty good, and that had generally helped her to scrape through.

Since she normally relied on Kousuke to help her to study, she wasn't entirely sure where to start looking. Science, maybe? But where was the science section? She was quite embarrassed to realised that she had only a vague idea.

She did find the right section. It didn't even take her as long as she'd thought. But, when she saw the books there, she almost lost heart again. They were so thick! And the words were so long!

Groaning, she picked out a few that looked promising and carried them over to a table. After a few minutes of flicking through them, she got back up and fetched a dictionary.

*

Kousuke caught Makoto just after his weekly meeting with his volunteer group. He'd run back to fetch something he'd forgotten, and ran into her – almost literally – as she walked out of a classroom.

"Hey, Makoto, what're you still doing at school?"

"Ah – Kousuke!" Her hand went to the back of her neck, like she did whenever she got embarrassed. "I was – ah -"

Peering past her through the open doorway, he saw their teacher sitting at his desk. "Did you finally choose?"

She walked off down the hallway, answering over her shoulder. "Let's go play baseball! It's still light out!"

"Makoto! What'd you choose?"

They fell into step as he caught up with her.

"Science." She said. "Physics."

"Physics?"

She glared up at him. "Something wrong with that?"

"Makoto, you're terrible at science!"

She stuck her nose in the air, huffily. "That's only because I don't concentrate!"

*

Home, finally, Chiaki stared up at the ceiling. He thought about her. He tried to think about nothing.

The painting. He'd never seen it, and now he wasn't sure if he ever would.

"I'm sorry, Yasuo."