Himawari for Midnight

(4) Chapter One

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The two entered his world, a small, stone-paved garden that featured a charming gazebo, decorated with fairy lights. Oddly, there were a dozen simulated goldfish and bubbles floating aimlessly around the modest structure, as if underwater. A lush forest humbly surrounded the area. Naomi got the sense, from the boy's decor, that he was a bit of a dreamer and, maybe even a hopeless romantic. The boy, however, was nowhere in sight.

"Haruyuki?" Naomi called, her gaze wandering across the area. She brushed her bangs behind her ears for a clearer view.

"Uhm-, down here..." Her head snapped in the direction of his meek voice. A little piglet avatar, whom she consequently assumed to be Haru, stared up at her, nervously tapping his stubby-hoofed hands together. His head barely surpassed her knees.

"Oh..." Naomi squatted down to closer match his exaggerated stature. "Your avatar is..." she trailed off, curiosity taking over as she looked over the boy's virtual form. Much like in real life, he was short and his chubby cheeks were exceptionally rosy and freckled, his eyes were a dazzling sky blue, his limbs were stumpy and his waist was noticeably plump. The resemblance stopped there, though, with the rest of his features being typical of a pot-bellied pig—if pigs normally stood on their hind legs. Naomi's mind filled with strange and alien thoughts about the boy and she felt her own cheeks grow rosy; not out of attraction but out of something akin to secondhand embarrassment.

"It's stupid, I know-" he started, his beady eyes avoiding her warm gaze. Naomi gracefully lifted a gloved hand to his head and placed it there.

"It's cute," she said simply while she rubbed her thumb over his forehead thoughtfully, "..But I have to wonder why you'd choose something like this."

Haru looked up at her while she pulled herself back and wrapped her arms around her knees. She had worn the kindest smile Haruyuki had ever seen, from a girl, and he felt his entire face grow hotter.

"O-oh, um, well..." Haru paused for a moment, desperate to collect his thoughts, then, out of courtesy, he continued, "You, uh, you remember that trojan that was spreading around a few years ago..?"

"Ah, they got you too, huh?" Naomi chuckled.

"Y-yeah..." he said, looking away shyly. He hadn't noticed that his hoofs had been pushed up against his chest, but Naomi did and she smiled at his adorable habit.

"You should've come to the student council, we rolled out a patch for that a while ago."

"Yeah, I know..." Haru sighed. "I just felt kinda... I dunno, dumb, I guess."

Naomi frowned. The ashy wings towering over her lowered and she sighed through her nose. "Is someone making you use this avatar, Haruyuki?"

"N-no," he blurted, staring into her deep umber eyes, for believability's sake. Naomi's suspicious gaze hardened. "..Yeah. But I don't mind it anymore, I swear..." he admitted, defeated by the girl's prying look. He couldn't bear to lie to her; maybe because of her angelic-inspired getup, or the altruistic values his grandmother had instilled in him over the years, or maybe it was something else entirely.

"Uh-huh..."

"It gives me a better view of the worlds. Like the plants."

"The plants?"

"Yeah... I'm kinda into gardening. This... body lets me look at them up close."

"Plants and skirts?" she hummed, shooting the boy a playful smirk.

"You saw that earlier?" he blurted. He hadn't meant to, but the guilty words spilled from him regardless.

"All of it," Naomi chuckled. Haruyuki groaned and his hoofs shot up to rub his temples as though the memory gave him a headache.

"I swear that wasn't what I was doing, I didn't even notice them until they started yelling!"

"Those girls make a fuss about everything. I doubt anyone actually believed them," she reassured the boy. He relaxed a bit, but his pink skin remained ever so flushed. "You learn to take everything they say with a grain of salt after a while," Naomi said and smiled again. "But, for the sake of clarity, I'd like to ask something."

"Y-yea?" Haru responded, all too eagerly. The mischievous look in the girl's eyes should have warned him of what was coming, but he was just happy for a change in subjects.

"What exactly were you doing in the bushes in the first place?"

"Uhm- Well, I, uh-," he stammered, unable to find the words to explain himself. He decided to change the subject. "Could we maybe go talk at the bench?"

Naomi, giddier than she should've been, stood up and followed the little piggy avatar which bounced as he walked. She took note of the spiraled tail bobbing behind him and smirked again.

'Even as a pig, he's too cute,' she thought, but she was quick to brush it away. It wasn't in her nature to fawn over cute things, but something about him caused her to go against her nature; this she was beginning to feel deeply ashamed of.

"S-so, I was thinking about our project but," he paused, struggling his way atop the bench. Naomi took the seat across from him. Once they were both comfortable he continued, "-most of the newer war machines are just, kinda too complex. So, I thought we could maybe go with this one?" he asked and loaded a projection of a bipedal robot.

"Oh, isn't that the robot dog that was popular, like, forty years ago?"

"Yea, I thought it would be a bit easier than, like, a tank, I guess."

"Much easier than the aircraft I was gonna suggest," Naomi said, pulling up a projection of her own. It was a rather retro-looking plane, donning many outdated parts.

"O-oh, well, uh, we could do that one instead if you wanted," Haruyuki sputtered, his hoofs thrown up as non-threateningly as possible. Though he wasn't very threatening in the first place, it seemed more self-deprecating than anything.

"No, no, I think we should go with the dog, I was just being ambitious," she said with a sympathetic smile. The boy stared up at her silently and Naomi sighed. "I'm insisting, Haruyuki."

"Okay," he said warily.

"Anyway," Naomi started, dismissing the holograms before her, "I think lunch is almost over. How about we work on this another time?"

"There's still another ten minutes, though..."

"You haven't eaten your lunch," she stated and crossed her arms.

"O-oh, right...lunch..." Haruyuki muttered, his voice lowered as he said it. The idea of eating in front of the girl made him cringe, but he couldn't think of a way out of it.

"I already have plans tonight, so, if you're available tomorrow night we could work on it at your place."

"O-oh, my... Place..?" Haru repeated, his body shifted as he grew more nervous. The thought of another girl, besides Chiyuri or his grandma, in his home was an odd one. He wasn't sure what to make of it.

"Yea, if that's alright?" she asked, her head tilted slightly. Once again, she had asked a question but didn't seem very interested in a real debate. It was as if she knew exactly how to get her way and work with people like Haruyuki. And again, Haru succumbed to her request.

"Yeah, um, that'll work, I guess."

"Good, send me your address before you leave."

Haruyuki nodded and the two disconnected from the net. The rest of the lunch was rather uneventful. They ate their lunches and went over the logistics of 3D modeling. Haru made sure to eat as little as his appetite would allow, and Naomi finished her tea, then they bid each other farewell and went their separate ways.

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