Jellyfish en Vogue - A Kuragehime or Princess Jellyfish Fanfic

Chapter 25

     There are those moments in life where you realized it seemed like no time had passed at all, and then suddenly it catches up with you. It slowly begins to dawn on you that it wasn't a matter of days that passed so fast but weeks. In the soon to be Princess Jellyfish Boutique the passage of time could be measured in the amount of discarded ideas that had littered the hardwood finish of the second floor studio before being tossed in the trash. It could be measured in the transformation of the blank space that had once been the first floor. Where there had once been completely bare gray walls there was now a framework mock-up that charted out what would go where. It became more than an intangible idea of what the boutique would look like. It became more solid and real. It could be measured by the initial annoyance the creative designers had with the noise of carpentry tools in use; to the transition of being able to block those noises out. And yet, Kuranosuke almost felt as if no time had passed at all. It had taken the news written in poorly legible kanji on the crumpled letter that he held tight in his left hand for time to catch up with him.

     Kuranosuke's eyes froze over Tsukimi's bent over diligent form. Her back was to him so she couldn't see the frown that was frozen on his face. Could all of this? His career? His future? His happiness? Could it all be taken away by one person?

     He hadn't had to scrutinize the words overly long before he began to feel overwhelmed and perhaps even threatened. Not the type of threatened where you felt you had to always peer over your shoulder. Not the type of threatened where you felt all of your moves tracked by a shadowed enemy. No, this was far worse. This was the type of threatened that you really had no physical control of. This was the type of threatened where it felt like your life was cartwheeling away from you in expedited repetitions.

     He knew what he had to do next but he simply didn't want to. He wanted to wait out the inevitable as long as he could. But Kuranosuke knew that the sooner he shared what he learned with Tsukimi the better he would feel. The stress would become more manageable once he got it off his chest. It would cease the rolling turmoil he felt in his stomach that would eventually make it unable to eat or sleep properly. No, the sooner he told her the news the better.

     The crisp white paper crinkled as he clutched the letter tighter in his grasp. He knew as it became even more crumpled that the already nearly indecipherable kanji would be even more difficult to read. At the moment though he didn't really have much mental control over his actions. His left hand curling into a fist of its own accord.

     Tsukimi was knelt over her sketchbook at the drafting table in the far corner that had somehow over the course of time passing had become "her" station. He knew she had chose it because of the two windows. Her favorite time to draw had become the later part of the afternoon into early evening. It was the perfect time for her location. The time when the sunlight streamed in both at the corner of the window to her right and just behind her over her right shoulder.

     Tsukimi was engrossed in what she was doing. He took a moment while he had caught her off guards to gaze at her handiwork. He was a preoccupied but the beautiful artistic dress she was sketching still resonated with him regardless. Her tongue stuck out at the corner of her mouth while she concentrated heavily on shading the folds to give the dress more of a three dimensional effect.

     She currently wore her hair high on the back of her head. It was one of those swift knotted bun hairdos that took no time to accomplish and always came loose rapidly because of the little effort that was put on clasping the strands out of the way. He watched as a few strands escaped their confines and fell to the base of her neck. He couldn't have stopped reaching out to her even if he had made a conscious effort to do so. He winced as she flinched in surprise responding to his unexpected touch.