A Song For Another Time - A Hikaru Hitachiin Story

Chapter Eight - She Took My Hand, I Don't Know How It Happened

Rose stared at the message on her phone for a minute as a wave of emotions threatened to drown her. How did a day that started off so full of joy suddenly turn into cancelled plans and immense humiliation?

 The answer jolted her out of her thoughts when he spoke.

"Earth to Rose," he said, waving a hand in front of her face. She turned to him, fire in her eyes as she inched closer to him. She grabbed his shirt collar and started shaking him roughly.

"Hikaru Hitachiin, what kind of obsessive freak shows up to a practical stranger's house, unannounced, with ill-intentions," she yelled at him.

Shock raced across Hikaru's face. Obsessive... Freak... The insults stabbed at him from all sides.

"I'm...I'm not obsessive," he practically whined. "Or a freak."

"You seem pretty freaky to me," she said, releasing his shirt as she rose from the floor and brushed the dust off her jeans. "Why are you here anyway?"

Hikaru was silent for a moment. He couldn't just tell her he was there to mess with her, but he also didn't have a cover story. He had trapped himself.

"Uhm... well..." he started. He was grasping at straws, trying to find an excuse, but his mind was blank.

"It doesn't really matter," she said, grabbing her purse and pushing him out the door. "Since you're here, and my friend ditched me, let's go get something to eat." She continued to push him down the narrow dorm hallway, struggling to keep momentum. Hikaru wasn't sure what was going on and his feet weren't really moving.

"What? Eat?" He muttered.

Around the corner, behind the stumbling pair, Kaoru was trying his hardest to stifle his laughter. The look on his brother's face was priceless. Hikaru had succeeded - thoroughly besting his white whale - but had the victory snatched from him almost instantly. And now, after all their planning had come to this, Kaoru figured he wouldn't be needed to help his brother anymore.

But, that didn't mean he couldn't follow them.

He watched Hikaru and their newest toy walk down the hallway, waiting for them to move just out of sight before he trailed them. This wasn't the first time he'd followed his brother on an outing with a girl, but something told him this time would be much more entertaining.

Hikaru and Rose stopped, side by side, the moment they were outside of the dorm. She turned and began to size him up. As far as she knew, Hikaru had led a pretty sheltered life and, judging by his demeanor thus far, he probably hadn't done much exploring in America.

In addition, she had already had hopes for the evening's meal - hopes that a certain teenage boy had sent spiraling to the ground. So, without much more thought on the matter, she had made up her mind.

"We're getting tacos," she said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him behind her.

Hikaru looked at the back of her head, bewildered. He had never been ordered around by such a small person before. Looking down at his wrist, he wondered how she was able to drag him along with hardly any effort.

She wasn't even forceful. Her touch was gentle despite how determined she was and Hikaru could almost see the joy radiating off of her. Shrugging inwardly he decided nothing bad could come from eating with her.

"I think there is a nice (read expensive) Mexican restaurant up the street," he offered, pointing in the opposite direction.

Rose stopped in her tracks and turned around to face him with her nose scrunched.

"Have you ever even had tacos before, Hikaru," she probed.

"Of course not," he responded, incredulous. "It's commoner food."

The f--- is a commoner? she thought. It didn't matter. She knew an insult when she heard one.

Rose huffed at him, almost as if she was puffing out her figure to seem more domineering. She was clearly angry but a sly smile was on her face.

Without another word she grabbed his forearm, more forceful than before, and began running. The sudden change caught Hikaru by surprise and he found himself stumbling to catch up.

Rose laughed over her shoulder, watching his free arm and legs flail as she pulled him along. He was so ungraceful, like an air sock flapping in the wind. She continued dragging him through side streets, winding through crowds of people. The wind brushing her cheeks exhilarated her and she kept looking back at the changing landscape of Hikaru's face.

When she was finally satisfied with their location she stopped suddenly, let go of his wrist and moved to the side slightly - letting Hikaru stumble and fall to the ground.

With Hikaru moaning on the sidewalk Rose tried earnestly to hold in her laughter. His hair was covering his eyes but his mouth couldn't betray his emotions.

She leaned down and extended her hand to him, offering to help him up as if it wasn't her fault he was there in the first place.

"You're so clumsy Hikaru Hitachiin. What am I going to do with you," she said with a smile.

Behind a tree, a few feet away, a particular redhead couldn't keep a smile off his face. Oh, she's going to be fun, he thought.