Ken → 010

[insorrow]

Who: Ken Hidaka, Aya Fujimiya
Where: Espoir fountain.
Style: Starting in third, takes place after this toy-giraffe-related mishap.
Status: Closed.

Ground, swallow me up.

She hung up on him. Well, Ken honestly wasn't surprised. He had, he reflected as he stared at the phone in his hand without really seeing it at all, rather been asking for it.

Comments

[stillneedsakiss]

Aya's stomach continued to hurt as she ran out the door and down the steps. She raced through the streets and into the village. Scrambled around the corner. The moment the fountain was in sight, she slowed-- nearly stopped. Half of her felt like crying even before she saw Ken seated on the edge.

She didn't cry. Didn't greet him. Didn't say hello. Didn't comment on the plushie in his lap. Didn't push him into the water. She marched over, gaining the faintest hint of urgency as she drew nearer, and hugged him.

[insorrow]

Ken had been watching so hard for Aya that when she showed up, he almost missed her - and, when he saw her, saw her hesitate, he very nearly got up and walked away. She didn't look happy to see him and that was - well, it hurt,. but it wasn't a surprise. It was no surprise at all

[stillneedsakiss]

It hurt that he seemed so stiff. Stupid thing to be in a fuss about, but so was everything else making her feel upset. It also bothered that it took him so long to return the embrace. And that he wasn't even getting up. And that the only thing he had to say for himself was sorry.

She almost could have gone on a raging, ranting fit at Ken, but when she spoke her voice was only a quiet pout.

"Stand up, you idiot, and hug me properly."

[insorrow]

But shouldn't you be slapping me or something?

It was a stupid thing to think: it would have been an even stupider thing to say. Bewildering and utterly unwarranted though it seemed to him to be Ken was rather enjoying the whole hug thing and wasn't really all that eager on reminding Aya that she should really have wanted to do something far quicker, far more painful and about a hundred times less enjoyable to him than... well, what she was currently doing.

He got up anyway, just about remembering to retrieve the giraffe as he went and sitting it on the basin of the fountain: a ringside seat, so to speak, of whatever happened next. Giraffe dealt with, Ken put his arms about Aya, pulling the girl closer to him and resting his head on her shoulder and he could smell her shampoo and maybe, he thought, I should apologize again...

He still half-expected her to slap him.

"Man," he muttered to nobody in particular, "I really am, aren't I."