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The door opens.
I hear Erika's voice: "I'm home".
"You're rather later than usual" I call out from the kitchenette.
"Yes."
She sounds testy. I stir the spaghetti and check the sauce, half an ear listening
to Erika stalking through the apartment. Her bedroom screen slides closed with a
thump, and I hear the sound of two shoes being dropped to the floor.
"Bad day?" I venture.
Silence. Then I hear the screen sliding open.
"I'm going to bath" Erika says. I catch sight of her walking towards the bathroom,
arnica oil in hand, a sure sign she's had a bad one.
"Don't be too long, supper is almost ready"
"Mm" She answers non-commitally.
Oh well. I guess she's not feeling very talkative. I'll ask her about him after
she's eaten, she usually mellows a bit with food in her.
I tend quietly to the food, not really listening to the splashing of water. Erika
tends to overfill the bath, so occasionally there are lethal puddles
of tepid water on the floor. I learned that the hard way once, the bruise took a
week to fade.
I rescue the sauce, and put the pasta out to drain. Then I pour myself some
orange juice and sit down to wait for her.
I'm very confused about him. He's so kind, he took the blame for me lap-pouring
him; he didn't need to do that. And he gave me the rail-card... oh god, I still
can't believe I was such a bitch towards him last night. And he was apologising to ME for that. That's crazy, it was all my fault after all.
Maybe he just doesn't really remember what happened. Like me... all I have is fuzzy memories. And Erika's version. Which is probably close to the truth.
I look down at my hands, fidgeting slightly.
I doubt he would have forgiven me if he did remember.
Erika finally emerges, hair wrapped in one of her pink fluffy towels.
She looks more relaxed.
"How's the headache?" she asks, gently hand-drying one of her side bangs.
"More or less gone. Want some orange juice?" I ask her.
She raises an eyebrow. "I don't remember buying any. You been shopping?"
"Uh... yeah."
"Ah, good. It's fine, I'll pour myself some water. I had too much coffee today; I
had to wait at work for Piro to get back, he had to run some errands and he said
they took longer than he expected."
Eep.
I try to keep my face straight, but nothing ever escapes Erika. I watch her walking over to the fridge.
"I see you managed to catch him with the coffee. I hope it wasn't too hot.
Although, he didn't seem too badly hurt when he got back... no limp." she said.
"What did he do, try to give you a rail-card?"
I can feel the blush starting.
"No! Er... he bumped my arm when I was trying to pour him a cup of coffee. It
wasn't my fault. He even took the blame when my manager came to enquire."
"Really?" Erika says, in that deadpan tone of hers. She reaches up for a glass,
pours her water, and then turns and watches me from under her fringe as she
drinks, slowly.
I can feel that my ears are flaming. This is even worse than I thought it would be.
"He even walked me part of the way home." I manage. Erika raises an eyebrow.
"Part of the way, hmm?"
"Erika..."
"Explains why he was so late getting back to the store, then." she says, and turns
her head to watch the dusk through the window. Is she amused?
"No, I was sent home early after I...". I look down at my hands. "After I spilled the
coffee on him, I panicked. I thought my manager was going to dock me my pay or
something. Oh! I wanted to tell you, Cubesoft phoned me... they want me to do
Kotone's voice after all." I look up at her; she's watching me again.
"See?" she says. "I told you so. Now stop being so damned negative about
yourself, or I will kick your ass for you." Her mouth curves upwards
slightly, the standard Erika smile. "Feel better now?"
I sigh, and she raises that eyebrow again. "Not really. I told Piro about it, and at
first he seemed quite put out... then he calmed down. It was so weird. He said
that apparently he and a lot of other people have been waiting for this game for a
long time, and then he made some comment about how he knew Cubesoft were
going to ruin it. He seemed so upset..."
"Nanasawa-san, this is a good opportunity for you. Don't let it go, and don't worry
so much about what other people think about you. Just be true to yourself and
everything else will fall into place."
"You know what I'm like, Erika... it's so weird, though, Piro really seems to identify
with my character."
"He's a forgetful fanboy", she says. "Don't let his opinions cloud your mind."
"Uh huh. Wait. How do you know he's forgetful?" I ask, turning on my chair to face her.
"He forgot about his drawing lesson with that schoolgirl tonight." Erika walks over
to the stove and starts serving up.
That's so strange. He seems like such a nice guy... would a simple fanboy identify,
empathise so strongly with Kotone? And his drawing ability... Has Erika missed
something?
"That's strange. Wasn't it at seven or so? He should have had lots of time to get back to the store."
"Mhmm. Maybe he got distracted. Here you go" she says, dropping the bowl
unceremoniously in front of me. "Thanks for cooking. Beats take-out."
"Yeah, it does." I say. "Well, I hope you enjoy it. It's a recipe Megumi-chan told me a while ago."
"Smells good. Invite her over for supper sometime again." Erika comments as she
picks up her chopsticks.
"Okay."
Maybe I can show Erika the sketch he gave to me later. The thought of the
comments she'll make is a bit daunting though. But maybe she'll understand slightly better then.
I hope he likes me.
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