Just Smile Forever~A Mikaze Ai Fan-Fiction

Emotions?

"Good morning!" I greeted Camus-senpai cheerfully, as I sat down carefully beside him on the couch of their dorm.

"Greetings," Camus replied.

"Ah um........here's the song that I wrote for you. You can have a look at it, and tell me if there's anything you would like to change," I handed the song to him, and he inspected it slowly.

After an awkward 10 minutes or so, he finally handed the sheet music back to me, "It's okay."

"I'll make that change as-wait what?" I corrected myself in mid-sentence. I was so sure that someone as picky-looking as Camus (no offense, he just had really high standards I guess), would have something to say about my composition.

"It's okay," he repeated.

"Okay?" I echoed, "but I want it to be better than okay. What can I do to make it even better?"

He gave me one of his rare smiles, "I like the way you think."

He took the sheet music again, and then started telling me all the parts he wanted to change. Surprisingly, there wasn't as many parts as I thought there would be. His song I had written half from my view of him, since I didn't really know him as well as Reiji and Ai.

After about an hour, Camus finally sat back and nodded, "if you fix that, it'll be good."

"Thank you so much," I bowed towards him.

"You may go," he waved his hand casually.

I stood up awkwardly, "do you know where Ai-senpai is?"

"Upstairs. His composition is done as well?" Camus asked, looking at me.

I nodded, "yes."

"Be prepared," Camus said out of nowhere.

"Prepared?" I echoed, but he said nothing else. I bowed towards him once again, and walked up the stairs slowly. I knocked on Ai's door quietly, and heard him place down his laptop before opening the door. His teal eyes met mine, and then saw the sheet music in my hands.

"Is that for me?" he asked.

I nodded, and he let me in slowly. I walked in, and handed over the sheet music to Ai. He scanned over the music, and I awkwardly sat down on one of the chairs.

About 5 minutes later, he handed it back to me silently, and sat on the opposite side.

"What do you think?" I asked nervously.

"I don't like it," he replied simply.

For some reason, that hurt me way more than I thought it would, "w-why?"

For the first time, he seemed at a loss for words. He stared at the sheet music, and weirdly placed one hand over his heart.

"It makes my heart feel weird," he explained, "I've never felt that before."

"That means you can feel the emotions that I tried to put in this song," I replied slowly, "um....isn't that a good thing?"

Emotions?" he echoed, looking at me blankly. I felt this unexplained chill run through my body as I met his eyes. For the first time, I realized that his eyes weren't just pretty and calming. If you looked really closely, you could almost say that his eyes looked........empty.

"The song I tried to write for you is about love. The hope.....the purity of innocent love," I said slowly, smiling wistfully, "I think your voice would suit it perfectly."

"What is........love?" he asked. And the scary thing was, he didn't look like he was joking.

"You've never fallen in love before?" I questioned. He shook his head.

"Well.........love isn't something you can put into words. It's a deep affection that you have for someone.....and it's the one thing in the world that can solve everything, I believe. However, love also has the power to break you, and the power for you to lose all hope. It's dangerous, but worth the risks," I slowly searched for the right words.

"Have you ever loved someone?" he asked.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at Ai. What was I supposed to say?

Yes, and believe it or not, you look exactly like him. Except your personalities are different, and it's not possible that you're him. Because he.......

"I don't know if you can call that love," I replied out loud, "it was more of a childhood crush."

"And now do you still love him?" Ai asked carefully.

I bit my lip, and slightly shook my head, "I don't think so."

"What was his name?" Ai questioned.

For some reason, this question scared me. But I tried to ask myself why it would matter. Mikaze Ai was clearly not Kisaragi Aine......right? So what if they looked almost identical? Their personalities were almost nothing alike. But.......

"Do you not remember?" Ai tilted his head slightly to the side, confused.

I shook my head slightly, "no, I remember. His name was Aine. Kisaragi Aine."

At my words, something flashed in Ai's eyes, but the moment he blinked again, it was gone.

"I guess this song is okay," he said, and I blinked, caught off-guard. When did we get onto this topic? Weren't we talking about something completely different just a second ago?

"Oh um.....thank you," I took the sheet music back slowly, "I'll make a good copy as soon as possible."

He went back and opened his laptop, and I slowly inched my way out of his room, feeling chills for some reason at his sudden change in topic. It was almost like.........he completely forgot what we were just talking about.

Out in the halls, I bumped into Reiji who was just heading downstairs. Once he spotted me, he eagerly waved and skipped up to me.

"What did Ai-Ai say about your song?" he asked cheerfully.

"He said it was okay," I replied, my voice still kinda unsteady.

Reiji observed me closely, and frowned, "are you okay? You sound shaky."

"Well um........" I reasoned that if Ai had any problems, Reiji would probably know. Or maybe it was just something Ai did on a daily basis. Change topics suddenly, I mean. I guess I just needed some sort of reassurement that what just happened was......normal?

"Does Ai change topics usually during conversations?" I blurted out, before I thought better of it, because I knew what a weird question that would sound like.

"Pardon?" Reiji asked, confused.

"We were talking......and then he suddenly acted like he completely forgot what we were even talking about before," I explained slowly.

"What were you talking about?" Reiji asked, his eyes sharpening.

"Um.....the emotions I put into his song...." I trailed off, as something in Reiji's eyes flashed. He blinked and that look was gone, to be replaced by his carefree smile again. He laughed.

"Akiko, there are some things that just happen out of pure coincidence. Don't think too much about it."

"Yeah, that's what I thought too....." I replied, smiling back at him.

He smiled, and glanced behind him, "well, I have to go to my room to do something so......are you okay to go home by yourself?"

"Of course," I nodded, starting to walk downstairs.

Reiji winked, and tilted his hat towards me before entering his room and shutting the door.

My smile faded, and I leaned against the staircase, closing my eyes.

That look in his eyes. I was sure of it.

He knew something, and he wasn't telling me what.