Hanabi 40/40 - ReitaXRuki
Title: Hanabi
Chapter: 40/40
Author:
akichuu
Fandom: JRock, Gazette
Pairings: ReitaXRuki. Some other pairings in the background that you might find later on...
Overall Rating: PG
Genre: Drop dead fluffy.
Warnings: n/a. Un-beta-ed mistakes.
Summary: It was Uruha's birthday party, but sure did feel more like an early summer festival for Reita. Everyone was wearing summer yukata - exactly what they had been asked to wear - but apparently Nee-chan had other plans as to what Ruki should wear tonight...
Comments: It's the eeennnddddd~ *bawls* I'll save my babbling (and, a little warning, it's a long~ babbling) at the end-note down there, just in case you don't want to wait any longer to read the final chapter. So go ahead, Hanabi, chapter 40, end.
Hanabi: 40
Feeling his left leg become numb (again), he shifted to put his weight onto his right leg, sighing irrepressibly, deep inside his chest asking when this would be over. There wasn't a clock lying around for him to be able to check on what time it was, and how long he had been spraining his legs to stand as still as possible - just like he had been asked to do. He knew it from the very beginning that this would take a long time to finish, but he had never guessed that it would take FOREVER. Something in his mother's determination of making him look as crumple-free as possible was making him a little worried and definitely confused; it had been ten minutes or so now that she had been adjusting the obi. Did it really matter how it would look like, neatly tied or not? As long as it would keep his yukata in place he supposed it would be enough.
When his mother finally stood up from where she had been kneeling, flashing one big grin towards his direction, Reita could finally heave a long breath. She patting his shoulders signifying that she was finished dressing him up made him feel very relieved, and he was just about to make a move towards the door when she spoke up.
"You look just like him wearing his yukata."
It took Reita several seconds until the words sunk into his heart, and once it was obvious for him what his mother had meant, he felt as if there was a huge rock falling down from his throat through his digestion system and finally made a harsh thump in the bottom of his belly. He looked at her and felt the nauseas climbing up his throat at seeing some moisture gathering on the corners of her eyes. Crumbling up on the inside, he distracted himself by lowering his gaze, studying the outfit that his mother had dressed him with.
It was a dark grey, red momiji-leafs patterned yukata, and the obi that was tied around his hips was of a plain black clothe. As a result of his mother's extremely meticulous method of dressing him up, the yukata fitted him like his second skin. Now that he understood what was so special about this yukata, Reita couldn't help feeling a little queasy wearing it, feeling as if he shouldn't have been wearing it at all. He was afraid that he would ruin the very few remainings of memories they still had about his father.
When his father passed away, Reita was only five years old, and being a boy of that age, there wasn't so much that he could remember. All he knew that he had had a figure of a man that he could look up to and he could count on, but suddenly, he was gone. His mother, on the other side, must have experienced the hardest, bitterest loss one could ever go through, and she must have remembered the smallest detail of the pain all too clearly. Even as the days, weeks, months, years had passed, she still carried that heart-ache in her. It must have been so very hard for her just to look at this yukata again...
"I can almost hear him saying how proud he is of you..." Her seemingly distant voice broke Reita's heart even more, but the most painful thing of all was the sight of her melancholic face and everything that it depicted. Reita knew her all too well to be able to know so much, even down to the things she was keeping underneath her silence.
She was quick in catching herself, though, and with a swift tapping on Reita's shoulder, she drew a wide smile across her face and hid her sorrow almost perfectly. "Come on," she said, "Let's go join the party."
~
Half bored, half lonely, Reita let out the nth sigh of the night. He honestly was starting to feel a little sleepy, sitting here, doing nothing in particular. Summer nights in this town were especially hot, but Reita felt it was kind of breezy out here at the backyard of Jii-chan's inn. The wind was blowing gently; the tall himawari pillars swayed slowly amidst the darkness, their folded crowns swinging to and fro as if they were people with mellow heads hung low and were merely seconds away to doze off. Reita sat on the porch (the porch that had been wonderfully decorated with the paper lanterns he had made the day before), lazily flapping his uchiwa in front of his face, watching Baa-chan, Hayama-san, Uruha's mother and his mother getting so busy around the barbeque stove.
A little distant from the rather-noisy crowd of 'house wives', slightly hidden beneath the shadows of the night, stood Jii-chan and Uruha, side by side; from afar they looked like two gorgeous statues. Reita just couldn't deny how perfect they looked together. For tonight, Jii-chan had dressed himself in a black, silver bamboo-patterned yukata, while Uruha was dressed in a dark red, white fan-patterned one. Uruha was flapping his own uchiwa, laughing along with Jii-chan over something that Reita couldn't hear from where he was sitting - not that he would want to hear what they were talking about, really. The light that was shining on Uruha's face made him look beautiful tonight, beautiful and happy, and Reita could bet that Jii-chan was feeling even happier to see that.
He was feeling kind of lost; he couldn't be joining the 'ladies' because he didn't understand about cooking and would prefer to sit back and wait until the foods were ready to be served and eaten, and neither could he join Uruha and Jii-chan because he knew those two were having their 'private moment' and Reita would be utterly rude if he barged in on them without permission. He really wished Nee-chan and Ruki would finish whatever they were doing soon and then the party could really start and he really was getting very hungry and the smell coming from the stove as they had started cooking those meat was just...
"OH MY GOD!!"
Baa-chan's squeal sure did steal everyone's attention from their businesses; the man's round eyes became even rounder when he looked at Reita, which then made Reita frown. What happened? Did Baa-chan burn his hand or something? But why was he looking at Reita? For certain, Reita hadn't been in a range close enough to cause any harm to that man, so it couldn't have been him.
Or was it something behind him?
Reita's guess was confirmed when both Baa-chan and Uruha came running towards his direction but passed him without giving him as much as a glance and screamed over an... orange, furry, chubby and tailed creature that had bright and messy blond hair and cheeks that were as pink as sakura bloom. Oh, and let's not forget about his orange, furry pair of ears now, shall we?
While Reita stood motionless in utter shock, staring with his eyes wide open and his mouth even wider, Uruha and Baa-chan practically harassed the poor chibi-fox to an extent where Ruki finally yelled in frustration. The blond flailed his hands around, trying to smack all those prying hands that were busy poking on almost every inch of him, but unfortunately his efforts came to no avail. Uruha and Baa-chan obviously became more excited at seeing Ruki's reaction, the sight of the blond punching and kicking around made them even more eager to try to annoy Ruki even further. Baa-chan swung his arms around the orange fox and pulled him into his hold, and by the looks of it, he was probably trying to squash Ruki to death. Uruha messed the already messy hair, shuffling his hand through the blond locks while his lips were stretching the biggest and goofiest grin Reita had ever seen on him.
Finally waking up from his stupor, Reita walked over to where Ruki was panting, hardly catching his breath, but still stubborn enough to try and push Baa-chan off of him - which didn't do much good, regrettably for the little fox. Reita heard Uruha squealing "So cute! Be my pet!" and stuffs when he came close enough to him, but he didn't spare a second to argue with Uruha (because Ruki couldn't ever be his pet! Ruki was Reita's...), he just unwrapped Baa-chan's arms from a-barely-breathing Ruki and, once the fox was freed, pulled him into his hold. He could feel Ruki immediately clutching on his waist with death-grips, the blond still yelling at Baa-chan and Uruha to leave him alone.
"Awww... Reita, come on, share him with us..." Uruha pleaded, his hands were still trying to steal chances to poke at the squirming fox in Reita's hold.
"Ahh... Liking my work of art, aren't you guys?" a voice came cutting through the chaos they were making; Reita looked over Uruha's shoulder to find his sister, she was strutting down the alleyway towards them, a big grin was stretched over her face. And suddenly it all became clear for Reita.
This was all Nee-chan's doing, this was that plan of hers that Reita had suspected the other day when he saw her carrying that big plastic bag. Apparently this was what she had been hiding inside that plastic bag: the fox costume. What had gone through her head when she decided that Ruki should wear this again for Uruha's birthday party, Reita didn't understand at all. All that he understood was that, seeing Ruki dressed like this again, it brought memories - very precious memories - to him.
"OWWWW!!! Ruki, that hurts!!"
When Reita looked up in surprise, he saw how Uruha was rubbing on his left arm with one hand, his lips pouting.
"Eat that! Stupid Uruha!" Ruki retorted, still holding his thick, furry tail in one of his paws - it seemed that the blond had lost his patience and had hit Uruha with his tail. The blond had some sort of a threatening glare in his eyes, signaling that if Uruha ever dared laying one finger on him once more, he wouldn't hesitate on whacking him with his tail again - maybe even on his face, if Uruha really crossed the line.
Baa-chan and Reita's sister laughed almost congruently; they might be thinking about the same thing as Reita was, about how a kid could look scary but also unbelieveably cute in the same time. But here they were, looking at a certain example of such thing, wrapped up in an orange fox costume.
Without a warning, Uruha lifted his arms and grabbed the fox, pulling him away from Reita's safe hold. Ruki shrieked as he was being dragged across the floor, his legs kicking on empty air, Uruha was laughing so loud behind him.
"Let go of me!! Uruha!!! I'm gonna kick you for this!! Uruhaaa!!!"
For this once, Reita felt very much compelled to lay off and not help Ruki, although he was pretty sure that afterwards, Ruki would give him hell for it. The sight of Uruha and Ruki wrestling on the floor was just too valuable for him to meddle in, and Baa-chan and Nee-chan and also Jii-chan (who had joined them to see what the noises were all about) obviously thought so too. The four of them stood around the two boys, holding their stomachs as they felt like they were about to burst from too much laughing.
It didn't take them fully five minutes until Uruha had completely ruined his previously neat yukata and Ruki had transformed into a disordered little furball. Ruki had succeeded on escaping Uruha's restraints and now he was running towards the backyard, full speed ahead, screaming and laughing excitedly when Uruha jumped off the porch and chased him.
~
Dinner was over and the crowds had disassembled into several groups, each of which was doing its own business. Reita picked a quiet corner on the porch and lay down there, alone. Jii-chan had gone inside the inn and returned to the backyard carrying a big sack which contents Reita knew nothing of, and the man was now busy strutting around the area, seemingly to be preparing something. Nee-chan had gone to stash the fox costume (that Ruki had taken off during dinner because he had gotten upset trying to grip his chopsticks with paw-formed hands - but the boy had left the ears on, fortunately) in a safe place. Around the wooden table (that was situated near the stove, where they had placed all the foods and stuffs for their dinner) were Baa-chan, Hayama-san, Reita's mother and sister and Uruha's mother, the four of them busy cleaning up the used dishes and glasses.
It might have been easier to finish cleaning up the dishes if only there hadn't been an extremely hyperactive Ruki running around the area, the blond had been close to bumping or knocking a plate or a glass down for too many times, and even though Baa-chan had scolded him several times already, Ruki just wouldn't quit it. It didn't help that Uruha was chasing right behind him, the two seemed to be continuing what they had been doing before they had eaten dinner. Reita wondered how could anyone be doing any sort of physical activities - not to mention playing chase and run - with full stomachs, and while he chose to lay down and let his drowsiness slowly taking over, watching his surroundings, Ruki and Uruha were tossing uneaten foods (the vegetables, mostly) to one another.
Oh... Baa-chan would NOT be happy to see that...
And before Reita could think any further about that man's reaction, said man was already there, standing between the two mad boys, pulling Ruki's left ear with one hand and Uruha's right ear with the other. Both of the boys were screaming, begging for Baa-chan to let go, but they should have thought about the consequences before they started throwing spinach and parsley through the air. Reita felt pity for them, but he couldn't help feeling amused as well, looking at their scrunched faces and hearing their pleading squeals.
"EITHER YOU CLEAN THAT UP OR I'LL MAKE YOU EAT THEM!!" Baa-chan howled and even Jii-chan winced and drew back half-a-step hearing that. Who would've guessed that the usually overly-nice, friendly and ever-smiley Baa-chan could turn into this terrifying creature, growing horns and a tail for all that Reita could see?
He saw Ruki and Uruha recoil in horror and nod their heads repeatedly - just like two kids being scolded by their angry teacher - promising they would clean everything up and that they would not do anything like this again. Well... they all - including Reita - should have learnt something from this incident: you shouldn't judge a person by their looks. Even a person like Baa-chan could have a scary side hidden beneath his sunshiny appearance.
~
The pair of orange, furry ears had stayed in place, no matter how violent the blond - who was wearing them - moved. To think of what he had been doing with Uruha (the wrestling match and everything), it was kind of magical that those things hadn't fallen off of Ruki's head already. Reita was currently studying those exact items, eyeing Ruki's hair meticulously to learn how those ears were placed there, while Ruki was being oblivious and just kept on prattling to Uruha about his summer plans (that didn't go much further than a regular 'study trip' to the game center and some occasional visits to the swimming pool). The blond was laying on the tatami, toying with Reita's uchiwa, his eyes trained towards the object of his attention, while Reita lay beside him, propping his head on one hand. Uruha was splaying not far from them, nodding his head slowly as if he was approving on what Ruki was talking about, when in fact, Reita knew he was snoozing to sleep.
But he couldn't blame Uruha, honestly; it was so peaceful Reita knew that he, too, was going to fall asleep anytime at all. He did wonder, though, what Jii-chan was still so busy doing at the backyard right now, when it would have been so much more convenient to start preparing some futon and get ready to bed. The party was over, wasn't it? The mess had been cleaned up and now the guests were sitting around (or laying about) in the living room - the ladies all took one spot and chatted there, except Hayama-san who had gone to accompany Baa-chan to the backyard, saying they both were going to help Jii-chan with 'something'.
The first loud sound bursting through the air certainly startled Reita, but not as much as Ruki's reaction did to him. The blond jumped up to his feet in what could be considered as a speed of light, screaming on top of his lungs: "HANABIIII!!!", and then, making loud thuds on the wooden floor of the alleyway, he ran towards the backyard. Reita and Uruha followed suit, running right back towards the porch that they had left after dinner, Reita soon finding one of the most magnificent sights he had ever seen throughout his life.
What Jii-chan, Baa-chan and Hayama-san had been preparing happened to be this: a Hanabi party, a private one, right on the backyard of the inn. Baa-chan and Hayama-san were standing at one spot on the lawn, faces aimed sky-ward to where the first rupture of bright, colorful lights took place. Jii-chan was standing a bit further from the couple, a big smile spread on his face, and within no time, Uruha ran to him, practically jumping into his open arms. Reita could hear plentiful of 'thank you's spewed from Uruha's mouth and he figured that this might be some kind of a birthday surprise Jii-chan had prepared for him. A grin stole its way to Reita's mouth; he couldn't evade the warm, comfortable feeling blooming inside of him at seeing how cheerful and happy the atmosphere at the backyard was.
The rest of the guests had joined them, but Reita hadn't the chance to check on them as someone took his hand and pulled him down to the lawn. Ruki was laughing so merrily and was dragging Reita towards the wooden table; Reita tagged along, uncomplainingly, to wherever he was leading them to. It became obvious to him that Ruki wanted him to sit on top of the table, so he did just that, situating himself on top of the now-cleaned table. As soon as he had settled himself, Ruki climbed onto his lap, and sat there.
"Hanabi, Reita!! Hanabiii!!" the blond squealed and clapped his hands, and Reita couldn't approve more of how pleasant the whole thing was, not only because of the glorious sight of sparkles of firework blasting off one after another up there on the skies, but also because of the closeness between them. He couldn't help himself as he had the urge to put his hands on the blond's waist, pulling him closer, while Ruki only giggled in lucid amusement and leaned back onto Reita.
Oh gods, his smile is just... precious...
Soon enough, Reita had his arms encircling Ruki around his body, and Ruki grasping his arms in return. The deafening sounds coming from above had become some sort of a background music to accompany his beating heart, making a fuzzy rhythm that no one else could enjoy but him. Reita burried his nose into Ruki's shoulder, eyes rolling sideway to find Ruki's face. He found that it was almost glowing, reflecting the colorful lights flickering from above, and... gods... wasn't he extraordinarily beautiful? A smile was splayed unceasingly on his full lips, and his eyes were glimmering so much brighter than the hanabi above - or maybe it was just Reita's opinion, but honestly, for him, nothing was more dazzling than Ruki. Almost unconsciously, Reita leaned closer, and the next thing he knew, he was planting small kisses on Ruki's cheek.
Ruki chuckled softly, Reita pulled back to watch the blond turning his face to meet his gaze.
"Nee, Reita..." he said, "You know I'm watching the fireworks..."
Reita didn't reply but only stared at him, sheepishly. It wasn't like he could control himself when he was with Ruki... Ruki was still smiling, though, so Reita knew he hadn't felt genuinely disturbed. His intuition was proven right when Ruki didn't just return to watch the hanabi show, but kept his gaze locked with Reita's for quite some time until Reita could just feel his stomach twisting and turning in nervousness.
"Nee, nee, Reita..." Ruki spoke again after a while.
"Hm?"
"Umm... Do you mind if I tell you something?"
Reita shook his head, "No. What is it?"
"Well, it's about..." Ruki whispered, his eyes blinking several times, "I just want to tell you that I... Well, I just want to let you know that, ummm... tonight, I wore that costume for you."
Reita could feel his own brows arching up at hearing Ruki's statement. "For me? Why?"
"Well, uh... it's that..." the blond shifted a bit on Reita's lap, "Nee-chan told me that... well she said that you liked seeing me, in that costume. You know, back then... during the school festival." He took a hold on one of Reita's hands, "And she said... she said that the costume meant a lot for you. I just wanted to impress you, I guess..."
"Yeah well..." Reita sighed, grasping Ruki's hand in his, "She's right. The costume does mean a lot to me. It makes me think of that night..." Softly, he pressed a kiss on Ruki's blond crown, "And it was such a special night for me, Ruki."
Of course it was a special night, it was in fact one of the most precious nights ever in his life, the very night when he first saw Ruki wearing this costume. That night was his turning point. It was the night when he came to realize his feelings for his best friend, and it was also the night when he kissed Ruki for the very first time - well, actually, it was his very first time kissing anyone at all. Reita held that night precious above all because it was the night when his life had changed, because that night, he finally figured out what he had been searching for his whole life: his treasure, Ruki.
Ruki sank deeper into his hold, one of his fox-ears was nearly poking at Reita's eye because of the proximity between them, but Reita couldn't care about anything else but having Ruki in his embrace. He even felt as if there were only the two of them, there at the backyard of the inn, there were only them and the skies and the hanabi bursting above their heads. There were no Jii-chan and Uruha, no Baa-chan and Hayama-san, there was absolutely nobody. For all he knew, the world had melted into a warm, fuzzy, merrily colored universe that only belonged to him and Ruki.
They stayed like that for a moment, Reita breathing in Ruki's sweet scent and Ruki wandering his sight upward to the hanabi-lit skies. The silence was nothing of an unpleasant kind, Reita found, it was actually soothing, it swayed his feelings and he felt as if he was on a boat, floating heedlessly following the random course of the sea. It became obvious that he was lost... Lost in love. And Ruki was the one who had gotten him here. Without any directions to follow, Reita was only going further and further into the wilderness he knew nothing of, as of yet, but he found that he didn't care. It didn't matter. If he had to drown in this perplexing world in order to be with Ruki in the very end, he'd stay still and let himself drown without a single fight.
Reita was slightly surprised when the blond shifted his face a bit until his nose was merely inches from Reita's, his small, twinkling eyes lurking up to meet Reita's. "Reita...?" he whispered. His voice sent tingles throughout Reita's body, crawling around underneath his skin, but it wasn't an unlikeable sensation at all. Reita hummed, signaling his response to Ruki's mention of his name.
The blond's eyes flickered downward several times before they returned to look at Reita again - this time there was some sort of timidity sparkling in them. "Do you remember..." Ruki started, his voice soft and shy, "That time when you told me... You'd wait for me?"
It didn't take Reita too long to understand just which event Ruki was talking about. "I remember," Reita answered, recalling that very day when he promised Ruki he would wait until Ruki finally loved him. It was impossible for him to forget about that, because, since then, he had done nothing but praying for the day to come soon, the day when Ruki would tell him the three sacred words.
"Umm..." Ruki pursed his lips, "Is it... Are you... Are you still..."
"I still love you, Ruki, I'll always do," Reita firmly cut off, knowing that this was the affirmation Ruki was trying to ask for. "And I'm still waiting..." he continued, "Until you love me too."
Ruki sighed, shakily, halting momentarily before he spoke again. "That's good to know... Because I've been wanting to tell you that..." A short but intense pause (while Reita's blood froze in his veins), a blink of a pair of magnificent eyes, "I love you too, Reita."
It took him nearly a whole minute to fully understand what Ruki had just told him.
Reita could just cry from the excessive happiness that suddenly exploded in him and the sprinkles of joy that were splattering all over the place. To think about that night when the closely similar event had taken place, also with the hanabi-festival exploding above their heads, to remember what he had gone through that time, he knew he could only be grateful now. It certainly felt like a dream coming true. Well, it WAS a dream coming true. Ruki loved him too, and that was even more than everything he had ever wished and prayed for, and he knew he could never find a decent word to describe his maddening feelings; even his conscience was baffled as to express its thankfulness for this blessing.
Knowing only one way to convey his gratitude, Reita held the small body tighter in his embrace. He searched for Ruki's lips, planting kisses after kisses on them, whispering "I love you" within the short gaps. One final "I love you" was whispered so softly, from the very core of Reita's heart, a conclusion of all that he had gone through and everything that he had wanted to say and do; and then Reita kissed Ruki again, fully, deeply, unbrokenly.
Beneath the colorful, glittering raindrops of fire-light, a story came to its end. But, as they all say, an end is just a beginning of something new. Thus, for Reita and Ruki, the story actually had just begun.
~ THE END ~
* notes:
uchiwa: Japanese paper fan
*cries*
You know the hardest thing for me to do was to write "THE END" there, at the bottom... T____T It broke my heart, honestly. The truth is I needed a while and had several unsatisfying attempts until I finally finished this one, because, hey, this happens to be one of the most precious creations I've ever worked on, and this is its GRAND FINALE. I really don't want to disappoint anyone, or worse, ruin the entire story by writing a crappy ending.
A historical background, the idea of Hanabi was born from a picture of Ruki and Reita, where Ruki was piggy-back-riding Reita (this is what I'm talking about). And also from a song by Soroban titled "Sora Hanabi" (download here, if you're curious). From simple ideas, the story had grown into these marvelous 40 chapters. I've tried to maintain the 'fluffiness' (even to the extent of excessiveness, I think) throughout the whole story, I hope I've managed to do that. I kinda promised myself that this story would tell only about 'highschool crush', 'innocent first love', 'shy little glances', 'furtive first kiss' and stuffs alike. NO SMUT, CHILDREN!! XDDDD
So... How was it? The whole story? I kinda wish for everybody who has been reading this from the first chapter to the very end, or had read any of its chapters but quited somewhere along the way (boooo~ >:O) to drop in a comment here at the final. Tell me anything, whatever you think about it. It'll be nice to know just how much this story effects people - well, it sure does effect me, as its writer.
I know the first chapters need a lot of fixing (grammatical mistakes and such, you know), I'll get to work as soon as possible and edit them and reload them up into my journal.
Anyways. Hanabi ends here *cries again*, the fluffiest story I've worked on, as of yet. I know we all love Chibi-Ruki and his hyperactive-ness, and Reita and his naivety, and all the silly interactions between them, but there's an end to everything, right? But as I've mentioned in the first chapter, Hanabi is just half part of one gigantic idea, thus, from here I will start on a new title... err... that hasn't any title yet *giggles*... starring Aoi-jii-chan and Uruha. For those of you who have been wondering what the story behind Uruha's amnesia and everything, you'll find out in this new series.
... But I haven't started writing on it yet so you'll have to wait a while. XDDDD *gets kicked*
Yes. Okay.
OMG, what a long end-note! Do you even read this? *laughs* I guess I should wrap it up naa~ So, ummm... see you later?
A little fan-art I've made to cheer you up:
previous chapters and other titles ==> my fanfic list
Chapter: 40/40
Author:
akichuu
Fandom: JRock, Gazette
Pairings: ReitaXRuki. Some other pairings in the background that you might find later on...
Overall Rating: PG
Genre: Drop dead fluffy.
Warnings: n/a. Un-beta-ed mistakes.
Summary: It was Uruha's birthday party, but sure did feel more like an early summer festival for Reita. Everyone was wearing summer yukata - exactly what they had been asked to wear - but apparently Nee-chan had other plans as to what Ruki should wear tonight...
Comments: It's the eeennnddddd~ *bawls* I'll save my babbling (and, a little warning, it's a long~ babbling) at the end-note down there, just in case you don't want to wait any longer to read the final chapter. So go ahead, Hanabi, chapter 40, end.
Hanabi: 40
Feeling his left leg become numb (again), he shifted to put his weight onto his right leg, sighing irrepressibly, deep inside his chest asking when this would be over. There wasn't a clock lying around for him to be able to check on what time it was, and how long he had been spraining his legs to stand as still as possible - just like he had been asked to do. He knew it from the very beginning that this would take a long time to finish, but he had never guessed that it would take FOREVER. Something in his mother's determination of making him look as crumple-free as possible was making him a little worried and definitely confused; it had been ten minutes or so now that she had been adjusting the obi. Did it really matter how it would look like, neatly tied or not? As long as it would keep his yukata in place he supposed it would be enough.
When his mother finally stood up from where she had been kneeling, flashing one big grin towards his direction, Reita could finally heave a long breath. She patting his shoulders signifying that she was finished dressing him up made him feel very relieved, and he was just about to make a move towards the door when she spoke up.
"You look just like him wearing his yukata."
It took Reita several seconds until the words sunk into his heart, and once it was obvious for him what his mother had meant, he felt as if there was a huge rock falling down from his throat through his digestion system and finally made a harsh thump in the bottom of his belly. He looked at her and felt the nauseas climbing up his throat at seeing some moisture gathering on the corners of her eyes. Crumbling up on the inside, he distracted himself by lowering his gaze, studying the outfit that his mother had dressed him with.
It was a dark grey, red momiji-leafs patterned yukata, and the obi that was tied around his hips was of a plain black clothe. As a result of his mother's extremely meticulous method of dressing him up, the yukata fitted him like his second skin. Now that he understood what was so special about this yukata, Reita couldn't help feeling a little queasy wearing it, feeling as if he shouldn't have been wearing it at all. He was afraid that he would ruin the very few remainings of memories they still had about his father.
When his father passed away, Reita was only five years old, and being a boy of that age, there wasn't so much that he could remember. All he knew that he had had a figure of a man that he could look up to and he could count on, but suddenly, he was gone. His mother, on the other side, must have experienced the hardest, bitterest loss one could ever go through, and she must have remembered the smallest detail of the pain all too clearly. Even as the days, weeks, months, years had passed, she still carried that heart-ache in her. It must have been so very hard for her just to look at this yukata again...
"I can almost hear him saying how proud he is of you..." Her seemingly distant voice broke Reita's heart even more, but the most painful thing of all was the sight of her melancholic face and everything that it depicted. Reita knew her all too well to be able to know so much, even down to the things she was keeping underneath her silence.
She was quick in catching herself, though, and with a swift tapping on Reita's shoulder, she drew a wide smile across her face and hid her sorrow almost perfectly. "Come on," she said, "Let's go join the party."
~
Half bored, half lonely, Reita let out the nth sigh of the night. He honestly was starting to feel a little sleepy, sitting here, doing nothing in particular. Summer nights in this town were especially hot, but Reita felt it was kind of breezy out here at the backyard of Jii-chan's inn. The wind was blowing gently; the tall himawari pillars swayed slowly amidst the darkness, their folded crowns swinging to and fro as if they were people with mellow heads hung low and were merely seconds away to doze off. Reita sat on the porch (the porch that had been wonderfully decorated with the paper lanterns he had made the day before), lazily flapping his uchiwa in front of his face, watching Baa-chan, Hayama-san, Uruha's mother and his mother getting so busy around the barbeque stove.
A little distant from the rather-noisy crowd of 'house wives', slightly hidden beneath the shadows of the night, stood Jii-chan and Uruha, side by side; from afar they looked like two gorgeous statues. Reita just couldn't deny how perfect they looked together. For tonight, Jii-chan had dressed himself in a black, silver bamboo-patterned yukata, while Uruha was dressed in a dark red, white fan-patterned one. Uruha was flapping his own uchiwa, laughing along with Jii-chan over something that Reita couldn't hear from where he was sitting - not that he would want to hear what they were talking about, really. The light that was shining on Uruha's face made him look beautiful tonight, beautiful and happy, and Reita could bet that Jii-chan was feeling even happier to see that.
He was feeling kind of lost; he couldn't be joining the 'ladies' because he didn't understand about cooking and would prefer to sit back and wait until the foods were ready to be served and eaten, and neither could he join Uruha and Jii-chan because he knew those two were having their 'private moment' and Reita would be utterly rude if he barged in on them without permission. He really wished Nee-chan and Ruki would finish whatever they were doing soon and then the party could really start and he really was getting very hungry and the smell coming from the stove as they had started cooking those meat was just...
"OH MY GOD!!"
Baa-chan's squeal sure did steal everyone's attention from their businesses; the man's round eyes became even rounder when he looked at Reita, which then made Reita frown. What happened? Did Baa-chan burn his hand or something? But why was he looking at Reita? For certain, Reita hadn't been in a range close enough to cause any harm to that man, so it couldn't have been him.
Or was it something behind him?
Reita's guess was confirmed when both Baa-chan and Uruha came running towards his direction but passed him without giving him as much as a glance and screamed over an... orange, furry, chubby and tailed creature that had bright and messy blond hair and cheeks that were as pink as sakura bloom. Oh, and let's not forget about his orange, furry pair of ears now, shall we?
While Reita stood motionless in utter shock, staring with his eyes wide open and his mouth even wider, Uruha and Baa-chan practically harassed the poor chibi-fox to an extent where Ruki finally yelled in frustration. The blond flailed his hands around, trying to smack all those prying hands that were busy poking on almost every inch of him, but unfortunately his efforts came to no avail. Uruha and Baa-chan obviously became more excited at seeing Ruki's reaction, the sight of the blond punching and kicking around made them even more eager to try to annoy Ruki even further. Baa-chan swung his arms around the orange fox and pulled him into his hold, and by the looks of it, he was probably trying to squash Ruki to death. Uruha messed the already messy hair, shuffling his hand through the blond locks while his lips were stretching the biggest and goofiest grin Reita had ever seen on him.
Finally waking up from his stupor, Reita walked over to where Ruki was panting, hardly catching his breath, but still stubborn enough to try and push Baa-chan off of him - which didn't do much good, regrettably for the little fox. Reita heard Uruha squealing "So cute! Be my pet!" and stuffs when he came close enough to him, but he didn't spare a second to argue with Uruha (because Ruki couldn't ever be his pet! Ruki was Reita's...), he just unwrapped Baa-chan's arms from a-barely-breathing Ruki and, once the fox was freed, pulled him into his hold. He could feel Ruki immediately clutching on his waist with death-grips, the blond still yelling at Baa-chan and Uruha to leave him alone.
"Awww... Reita, come on, share him with us..." Uruha pleaded, his hands were still trying to steal chances to poke at the squirming fox in Reita's hold.
"Ahh... Liking my work of art, aren't you guys?" a voice came cutting through the chaos they were making; Reita looked over Uruha's shoulder to find his sister, she was strutting down the alleyway towards them, a big grin was stretched over her face. And suddenly it all became clear for Reita.
This was all Nee-chan's doing, this was that plan of hers that Reita had suspected the other day when he saw her carrying that big plastic bag. Apparently this was what she had been hiding inside that plastic bag: the fox costume. What had gone through her head when she decided that Ruki should wear this again for Uruha's birthday party, Reita didn't understand at all. All that he understood was that, seeing Ruki dressed like this again, it brought memories - very precious memories - to him.
"OWWWW!!! Ruki, that hurts!!"
When Reita looked up in surprise, he saw how Uruha was rubbing on his left arm with one hand, his lips pouting.
"Eat that! Stupid Uruha!" Ruki retorted, still holding his thick, furry tail in one of his paws - it seemed that the blond had lost his patience and had hit Uruha with his tail. The blond had some sort of a threatening glare in his eyes, signaling that if Uruha ever dared laying one finger on him once more, he wouldn't hesitate on whacking him with his tail again - maybe even on his face, if Uruha really crossed the line.
Baa-chan and Reita's sister laughed almost congruently; they might be thinking about the same thing as Reita was, about how a kid could look scary but also unbelieveably cute in the same time. But here they were, looking at a certain example of such thing, wrapped up in an orange fox costume.
Without a warning, Uruha lifted his arms and grabbed the fox, pulling him away from Reita's safe hold. Ruki shrieked as he was being dragged across the floor, his legs kicking on empty air, Uruha was laughing so loud behind him.
"Let go of me!! Uruha!!! I'm gonna kick you for this!! Uruhaaa!!!"
For this once, Reita felt very much compelled to lay off and not help Ruki, although he was pretty sure that afterwards, Ruki would give him hell for it. The sight of Uruha and Ruki wrestling on the floor was just too valuable for him to meddle in, and Baa-chan and Nee-chan and also Jii-chan (who had joined them to see what the noises were all about) obviously thought so too. The four of them stood around the two boys, holding their stomachs as they felt like they were about to burst from too much laughing.
It didn't take them fully five minutes until Uruha had completely ruined his previously neat yukata and Ruki had transformed into a disordered little furball. Ruki had succeeded on escaping Uruha's restraints and now he was running towards the backyard, full speed ahead, screaming and laughing excitedly when Uruha jumped off the porch and chased him.
~
Dinner was over and the crowds had disassembled into several groups, each of which was doing its own business. Reita picked a quiet corner on the porch and lay down there, alone. Jii-chan had gone inside the inn and returned to the backyard carrying a big sack which contents Reita knew nothing of, and the man was now busy strutting around the area, seemingly to be preparing something. Nee-chan had gone to stash the fox costume (that Ruki had taken off during dinner because he had gotten upset trying to grip his chopsticks with paw-formed hands - but the boy had left the ears on, fortunately) in a safe place. Around the wooden table (that was situated near the stove, where they had placed all the foods and stuffs for their dinner) were Baa-chan, Hayama-san, Reita's mother and sister and Uruha's mother, the four of them busy cleaning up the used dishes and glasses.
It might have been easier to finish cleaning up the dishes if only there hadn't been an extremely hyperactive Ruki running around the area, the blond had been close to bumping or knocking a plate or a glass down for too many times, and even though Baa-chan had scolded him several times already, Ruki just wouldn't quit it. It didn't help that Uruha was chasing right behind him, the two seemed to be continuing what they had been doing before they had eaten dinner. Reita wondered how could anyone be doing any sort of physical activities - not to mention playing chase and run - with full stomachs, and while he chose to lay down and let his drowsiness slowly taking over, watching his surroundings, Ruki and Uruha were tossing uneaten foods (the vegetables, mostly) to one another.
Oh... Baa-chan would NOT be happy to see that...
And before Reita could think any further about that man's reaction, said man was already there, standing between the two mad boys, pulling Ruki's left ear with one hand and Uruha's right ear with the other. Both of the boys were screaming, begging for Baa-chan to let go, but they should have thought about the consequences before they started throwing spinach and parsley through the air. Reita felt pity for them, but he couldn't help feeling amused as well, looking at their scrunched faces and hearing their pleading squeals.
"EITHER YOU CLEAN THAT UP OR I'LL MAKE YOU EAT THEM!!" Baa-chan howled and even Jii-chan winced and drew back half-a-step hearing that. Who would've guessed that the usually overly-nice, friendly and ever-smiley Baa-chan could turn into this terrifying creature, growing horns and a tail for all that Reita could see?
He saw Ruki and Uruha recoil in horror and nod their heads repeatedly - just like two kids being scolded by their angry teacher - promising they would clean everything up and that they would not do anything like this again. Well... they all - including Reita - should have learnt something from this incident: you shouldn't judge a person by their looks. Even a person like Baa-chan could have a scary side hidden beneath his sunshiny appearance.
~
The pair of orange, furry ears had stayed in place, no matter how violent the blond - who was wearing them - moved. To think of what he had been doing with Uruha (the wrestling match and everything), it was kind of magical that those things hadn't fallen off of Ruki's head already. Reita was currently studying those exact items, eyeing Ruki's hair meticulously to learn how those ears were placed there, while Ruki was being oblivious and just kept on prattling to Uruha about his summer plans (that didn't go much further than a regular 'study trip' to the game center and some occasional visits to the swimming pool). The blond was laying on the tatami, toying with Reita's uchiwa, his eyes trained towards the object of his attention, while Reita lay beside him, propping his head on one hand. Uruha was splaying not far from them, nodding his head slowly as if he was approving on what Ruki was talking about, when in fact, Reita knew he was snoozing to sleep.
But he couldn't blame Uruha, honestly; it was so peaceful Reita knew that he, too, was going to fall asleep anytime at all. He did wonder, though, what Jii-chan was still so busy doing at the backyard right now, when it would have been so much more convenient to start preparing some futon and get ready to bed. The party was over, wasn't it? The mess had been cleaned up and now the guests were sitting around (or laying about) in the living room - the ladies all took one spot and chatted there, except Hayama-san who had gone to accompany Baa-chan to the backyard, saying they both were going to help Jii-chan with 'something'.
The first loud sound bursting through the air certainly startled Reita, but not as much as Ruki's reaction did to him. The blond jumped up to his feet in what could be considered as a speed of light, screaming on top of his lungs: "HANABIIII!!!", and then, making loud thuds on the wooden floor of the alleyway, he ran towards the backyard. Reita and Uruha followed suit, running right back towards the porch that they had left after dinner, Reita soon finding one of the most magnificent sights he had ever seen throughout his life.
What Jii-chan, Baa-chan and Hayama-san had been preparing happened to be this: a Hanabi party, a private one, right on the backyard of the inn. Baa-chan and Hayama-san were standing at one spot on the lawn, faces aimed sky-ward to where the first rupture of bright, colorful lights took place. Jii-chan was standing a bit further from the couple, a big smile spread on his face, and within no time, Uruha ran to him, practically jumping into his open arms. Reita could hear plentiful of 'thank you's spewed from Uruha's mouth and he figured that this might be some kind of a birthday surprise Jii-chan had prepared for him. A grin stole its way to Reita's mouth; he couldn't evade the warm, comfortable feeling blooming inside of him at seeing how cheerful and happy the atmosphere at the backyard was.
The rest of the guests had joined them, but Reita hadn't the chance to check on them as someone took his hand and pulled him down to the lawn. Ruki was laughing so merrily and was dragging Reita towards the wooden table; Reita tagged along, uncomplainingly, to wherever he was leading them to. It became obvious to him that Ruki wanted him to sit on top of the table, so he did just that, situating himself on top of the now-cleaned table. As soon as he had settled himself, Ruki climbed onto his lap, and sat there.
"Hanabi, Reita!! Hanabiii!!" the blond squealed and clapped his hands, and Reita couldn't approve more of how pleasant the whole thing was, not only because of the glorious sight of sparkles of firework blasting off one after another up there on the skies, but also because of the closeness between them. He couldn't help himself as he had the urge to put his hands on the blond's waist, pulling him closer, while Ruki only giggled in lucid amusement and leaned back onto Reita.
Oh gods, his smile is just... precious...
Soon enough, Reita had his arms encircling Ruki around his body, and Ruki grasping his arms in return. The deafening sounds coming from above had become some sort of a background music to accompany his beating heart, making a fuzzy rhythm that no one else could enjoy but him. Reita burried his nose into Ruki's shoulder, eyes rolling sideway to find Ruki's face. He found that it was almost glowing, reflecting the colorful lights flickering from above, and... gods... wasn't he extraordinarily beautiful? A smile was splayed unceasingly on his full lips, and his eyes were glimmering so much brighter than the hanabi above - or maybe it was just Reita's opinion, but honestly, for him, nothing was more dazzling than Ruki. Almost unconsciously, Reita leaned closer, and the next thing he knew, he was planting small kisses on Ruki's cheek.
Ruki chuckled softly, Reita pulled back to watch the blond turning his face to meet his gaze.
"Nee, Reita..." he said, "You know I'm watching the fireworks..."
Reita didn't reply but only stared at him, sheepishly. It wasn't like he could control himself when he was with Ruki... Ruki was still smiling, though, so Reita knew he hadn't felt genuinely disturbed. His intuition was proven right when Ruki didn't just return to watch the hanabi show, but kept his gaze locked with Reita's for quite some time until Reita could just feel his stomach twisting and turning in nervousness.
"Nee, nee, Reita..." Ruki spoke again after a while.
"Hm?"
"Umm... Do you mind if I tell you something?"
Reita shook his head, "No. What is it?"
"Well, it's about..." Ruki whispered, his eyes blinking several times, "I just want to tell you that I... Well, I just want to let you know that, ummm... tonight, I wore that costume for you."
Reita could feel his own brows arching up at hearing Ruki's statement. "For me? Why?"
"Well, uh... it's that..." the blond shifted a bit on Reita's lap, "Nee-chan told me that... well she said that you liked seeing me, in that costume. You know, back then... during the school festival." He took a hold on one of Reita's hands, "And she said... she said that the costume meant a lot for you. I just wanted to impress you, I guess..."
"Yeah well..." Reita sighed, grasping Ruki's hand in his, "She's right. The costume does mean a lot to me. It makes me think of that night..." Softly, he pressed a kiss on Ruki's blond crown, "And it was such a special night for me, Ruki."
Of course it was a special night, it was in fact one of the most precious nights ever in his life, the very night when he first saw Ruki wearing this costume. That night was his turning point. It was the night when he came to realize his feelings for his best friend, and it was also the night when he kissed Ruki for the very first time - well, actually, it was his very first time kissing anyone at all. Reita held that night precious above all because it was the night when his life had changed, because that night, he finally figured out what he had been searching for his whole life: his treasure, Ruki.
Ruki sank deeper into his hold, one of his fox-ears was nearly poking at Reita's eye because of the proximity between them, but Reita couldn't care about anything else but having Ruki in his embrace. He even felt as if there were only the two of them, there at the backyard of the inn, there were only them and the skies and the hanabi bursting above their heads. There were no Jii-chan and Uruha, no Baa-chan and Hayama-san, there was absolutely nobody. For all he knew, the world had melted into a warm, fuzzy, merrily colored universe that only belonged to him and Ruki.
They stayed like that for a moment, Reita breathing in Ruki's sweet scent and Ruki wandering his sight upward to the hanabi-lit skies. The silence was nothing of an unpleasant kind, Reita found, it was actually soothing, it swayed his feelings and he felt as if he was on a boat, floating heedlessly following the random course of the sea. It became obvious that he was lost... Lost in love. And Ruki was the one who had gotten him here. Without any directions to follow, Reita was only going further and further into the wilderness he knew nothing of, as of yet, but he found that he didn't care. It didn't matter. If he had to drown in this perplexing world in order to be with Ruki in the very end, he'd stay still and let himself drown without a single fight.
Reita was slightly surprised when the blond shifted his face a bit until his nose was merely inches from Reita's, his small, twinkling eyes lurking up to meet Reita's. "Reita...?" he whispered. His voice sent tingles throughout Reita's body, crawling around underneath his skin, but it wasn't an unlikeable sensation at all. Reita hummed, signaling his response to Ruki's mention of his name.
The blond's eyes flickered downward several times before they returned to look at Reita again - this time there was some sort of timidity sparkling in them. "Do you remember..." Ruki started, his voice soft and shy, "That time when you told me... You'd wait for me?"
It didn't take Reita too long to understand just which event Ruki was talking about. "I remember," Reita answered, recalling that very day when he promised Ruki he would wait until Ruki finally loved him. It was impossible for him to forget about that, because, since then, he had done nothing but praying for the day to come soon, the day when Ruki would tell him the three sacred words.
"Umm..." Ruki pursed his lips, "Is it... Are you... Are you still..."
"I still love you, Ruki, I'll always do," Reita firmly cut off, knowing that this was the affirmation Ruki was trying to ask for. "And I'm still waiting..." he continued, "Until you love me too."
Ruki sighed, shakily, halting momentarily before he spoke again. "That's good to know... Because I've been wanting to tell you that..." A short but intense pause (while Reita's blood froze in his veins), a blink of a pair of magnificent eyes, "I love you too, Reita."
It took him nearly a whole minute to fully understand what Ruki had just told him.
Reita could just cry from the excessive happiness that suddenly exploded in him and the sprinkles of joy that were splattering all over the place. To think about that night when the closely similar event had taken place, also with the hanabi-festival exploding above their heads, to remember what he had gone through that time, he knew he could only be grateful now. It certainly felt like a dream coming true. Well, it WAS a dream coming true. Ruki loved him too, and that was even more than everything he had ever wished and prayed for, and he knew he could never find a decent word to describe his maddening feelings; even his conscience was baffled as to express its thankfulness for this blessing.
Knowing only one way to convey his gratitude, Reita held the small body tighter in his embrace. He searched for Ruki's lips, planting kisses after kisses on them, whispering "I love you" within the short gaps. One final "I love you" was whispered so softly, from the very core of Reita's heart, a conclusion of all that he had gone through and everything that he had wanted to say and do; and then Reita kissed Ruki again, fully, deeply, unbrokenly.
Beneath the colorful, glittering raindrops of fire-light, a story came to its end. But, as they all say, an end is just a beginning of something new. Thus, for Reita and Ruki, the story actually had just begun.
~ THE END ~
* notes:
uchiwa: Japanese paper fan
*cries*
You know the hardest thing for me to do was to write "THE END" there, at the bottom... T____T It broke my heart, honestly. The truth is I needed a while and had several unsatisfying attempts until I finally finished this one, because, hey, this happens to be one of the most precious creations I've ever worked on, and this is its GRAND FINALE. I really don't want to disappoint anyone, or worse, ruin the entire story by writing a crappy ending.
A historical background, the idea of Hanabi was born from a picture of Ruki and Reita, where Ruki was piggy-back-riding Reita (this is what I'm talking about). And also from a song by Soroban titled "Sora Hanabi" (download here, if you're curious). From simple ideas, the story had grown into these marvelous 40 chapters. I've tried to maintain the 'fluffiness' (even to the extent of excessiveness, I think) throughout the whole story, I hope I've managed to do that. I kinda promised myself that this story would tell only about 'highschool crush', 'innocent first love', 'shy little glances', 'furtive first kiss' and stuffs alike. NO SMUT, CHILDREN!! XDDDD
So... How was it? The whole story? I kinda wish for everybody who has been reading this from the first chapter to the very end, or had read any of its chapters but quited somewhere along the way (boooo~ >:O) to drop in a comment here at the final. Tell me anything, whatever you think about it. It'll be nice to know just how much this story effects people - well, it sure does effect me, as its writer.
I know the first chapters need a lot of fixing (grammatical mistakes and such, you know), I'll get to work as soon as possible and edit them and reload them up into my journal.
Anyways. Hanabi ends here *cries again*, the fluffiest story I've worked on, as of yet. I know we all love Chibi-Ruki and his hyperactive-ness, and Reita and his naivety, and all the silly interactions between them, but there's an end to everything, right? But as I've mentioned in the first chapter, Hanabi is just half part of one gigantic idea, thus, from here I will start on a new title... err... that hasn't any title yet *giggles*... starring Aoi-jii-chan and Uruha. For those of you who have been wondering what the story behind Uruha's amnesia and everything, you'll find out in this new series.
... But I haven't started writing on it yet so you'll have to wait a while. XDDDD *gets kicked*
Yes. Okay.
OMG, what a long end-note! Do you even read this? *laughs* I guess I should wrap it up naa~ So, ummm... see you later?
A little fan-art I've made to cheer you up:
previous chapters and other titles ==> my fanfic list