Destiny [Ai Mikaze x Reader] [FATE BOOK TWO]

Chapter 7 - His Fading Smile

Humming a small tune, I was arranging my and Ai's clothes in our room with a smile on my face. Ever since that day I talked with Ai, I haven't seen him because he would go to work earlier than me and come back when I was already asleep. But I didn't really mind. Ai was much busier than me and that isn't something I should be upset about. Right? And so here I was, cleaning and just arranging stuff in our room, having an hour of free time before my next meeting.
"Alright..." I hummed to myself once closing the closet door. "Yep, better get going."
Taking a quick trip to the bathroom and fixing my appearance a bit, I quickly grabbed my bag and left our dorm room.

"I sure hope this isn't some called off meeting like the one we had not that long ago," I mumbled to myself, as I walked down the hallway towards the meeting room that was written for our group to be at. Ai, Reiji and Otoya will apparently also be there, which left a nice feeling in me. This meeting will be a good one.
Grabbing the handle, I swung open the conference room's door. "I'm here."
"Nee-chan!" Otoya grinned widely, waving to me. "Nice to see you!"
"Nice to see ya too, Otoyan." I hummed to him, ruffling his bright red hair. "You too, Reiji."
The brunette hummed in acknowledgment from the other side of the table, playing around with a pencil in his hand. I still got that weird vibe from him that I got a few days ago, maybe even stronger than before. Something with him was definitely off. "You okay?"
"Eh?" he looked up at me. "Ah- yeah, yeah yeah!! I just went to sleep really late last night and I'm a bit tired, it's fine." he chuckled awkwardly. I frowned.
"Idiot, I told you to stop pulling all-nighters since they will eventually get to you."
"Yeah... sorry [F/N]-chan." he rubbed the back of his neck. To that, I could only sigh.
"Where's Ai, anyway?" I tilted my head. "He's supposed to be at this meeting too, right?"
"Ai-Ai always arrives exactly fifteen minutes before every meeting." the brunette answered, then looked at his watch. "Which means he should be here in... three, two..."
The door opened, and there came the long-missed cyanette. "I'm here."
"Hey, Ai-kun!" I gave him a bright smile. I could practically feel my heart jumping from joy, just like every time I saw him. 
"... Hello, [F/N]." he smiled at me. "I'm sorry I missed your birthday... I've brought you something."
"E-Eh??" I blinked. "No, no! It's fine, you don't have to give me anything..."
"... But... when someone has a birthday, people celebrate them and buy them presents. No?" he jerked an eyebrow at me.
"... I mean... yeah but..."
"Then be quiet and turn around."
"H-Heh?" I sweatdropped, as Ai grabbed both of my shoulders and made me turn my back on him. "I-I'm confused..."
"I told you to be quiet," he told me bluntly, and I quickly shut my mouth. I was standing there for a few seconds, questioningly glancing at the wall, then at Reiji who was sitting in front of me - who looked just as confused as me, his face as white as a ghost.
I soon felt a cold touch against my neck, which made me yelp a bit. I looked down, only to realize there was a beautiful golden necklace around my neck. I gasped.
"... A-Ai you shouldn't have!!" I stared at the crystal - this looked more expensive than my own life. Then I turned back to look at him. "How much did this even cost you!?"
"That's not something for you to care about," he said softly. "It looks beautiful on you."
"B-But...!! Some cheap happy birthday card would have been enough..." I grumbled. I could already feel my cheeks flush.
"But... that isn't anything special though." he frowned. "Look."
He stepped closer to me, taking the crystal on the necklace in his hand, then showing his wrist to me - with the bracelet on it that I gave to him five years ago. "It's the same gem. It's called aquamarine. It symbolizes clarity and purification. It lends calmness and balance." he jabbered bluntly as if he would be reading some Kiwipedia site. "Remember that you said when you had the bracelet with you, it helped with calming you down when you were stressed? That's possibly why. I want to give you that calmness back..."
I looked up at him, breathless. "A-Ai, there's no need to..."
"But I worry about you, and I want to give you this. No matter if there is a need to, or not." he sighed, slightly narrowing his eyes. "So just accept it and smile, that's all."
"... You dork." I sighed out, grabbing his tie and pulling him in for a kiss. He yelped, but it didn't take long for him to kiss back. "I love you..."

There was a quiet crack, then something flew across the room, smacking Otoya's head.
"Ow!" the redhead hissed, grabbing what hurt him. It was a pencil - well, half of it.
I looked at where the alternative bullet came from and saw Reiji, the other piece of the now broken pencil clenched tightly in his hand. His knuckles were white from pressure, as he stared intensely at the table in front of him in silence, almost completely motionless beside his trembling, clenched fist.
"Reiji...?" I whispered quietly, furrowing my eyebrows at the brunette. This wasn't like him at all. Could this really just be the tiredness taking the better of him...?
Before I could question him, the meeting room's door opened again - and there stood Ryuya Hyuga, looking ready to break an arm as usual.
"Alright everybody, take a seat and let's get things started," he ordered the four of us, smacking his thick book down on the table. Quickly doing as told, we all sat down and turned our attention on the blonde teacher.
"Your next project is a duet," he informed us, starting to search between his papers. I blinked and looked at Ai. Perhaps, is it our time to write our so--?
"The pairs are; Ai and Otoya, Reiji and [F/N]." Ryuya continued, lending both me and Ai a paper.
"E-Eh?" I blinked. "... Oh, okay!" I nodded. Well, this wasn't bad either. Writing a duet with my best friend is just as fun. "We'll do our best! Right, Rei-chan?"
"... H-Hai!" he gave a semi-bright smile.
"It's only natural you do your best! Shining doesn't ask for anything specific, so do what you're the best at doing. Got it!?"
Otoya's energetic, Ai's blunt, Reiji's unsure and my neutral "hai" could be heard at once.
"Good! Then start working! I've got other things to take care of." he grabbed his stuff just as fast as he threw it, and in a second, he said his hurried farewell and was already off.
Ai almost immediately gained Otoya's attention and got to the bottom of the matter, the redhead desperately trying to keep up with him.
"... Hmm... Alright, Rei-chan." I hummed once done reading our paper. "I'll leave the choice to you about what kind of song we should do. What do you think? Rei-chan?"
"A-Ah... well..." he rubbed the side of his head, the broken piece of the pencil still in his hand.
"... Reiji, you would usually throw hundreds of ideas at me within a minute." I frowned, tilting my head at him. "Are you really just tired?"
"... Yeah."
"Reiji..." I grumbled, trying to look him in the eye.
"I'm fine, I'm fine! Perfect, marvelous!! See??" he pointed to his cheeks, giving me his brightest smile.
"... hmm." I chewed on the end of my pen. "I gotta figure something out to relax your mind, but also help you concentrate..."
"[F/N], I-"
I snapped my fingers, cutting him off. "I know!!"
I grabbed his wrist, pulling him up from his seat. He let out a loud yelp.
"What are you-??"
"Hyuga-senpai didn't say we have to work in here. Let's go!!" I giggled out, energetically pulling open the door. "Bye, guys!"
"Eh?" I heard Ai's confused breath behind me. "Where are you going?"
"To work, silly. Bye, love ya - mwah!" I threw a kiss in the cyanette's direction, before slamming the door closed and dragging the clueless brunette after myself - leaving the robot's face to go from pale white to the deepest red he has probably ever blushed.

"Aaaaah ~ I love when the sky is so clear. It goes along with the water so well~" I hummed happily, as I danced forward towards the private area of Indigo's tank that we got from the staff. "My mind is already blowing ideas, doesn't yours, Reiji?"
I turned back around to look at the brunette with a bright smile. He stared at me, opening his mouth then closing it and nodding his head in silence.
"Gee. What's that spirit you've got there? We'll both fall asleep like this! Come on!" I pulled on his hand. "Hey, hey. What do you say if we--... hear that?"
"... Hear what?" he smiled awkwardly, but I shushed him with my pointer finger.
".... Hear it now? The water drops falling in the tank from that bush. It gives us a base beat."
I started snapping my finger to the beat of the water, then soon started humming a tune. "Do what I do, Reiji! This is the easiest way to write a song."
The brunette was first silent but after a while, he joined in. First quietly, then he got more energetic by the second. Before I realized, we had a proper melody.
"Start adding lyrics!" I snapped happily. "When I dance to the beat and look at the sky,"
"What I see is the sun there shining so bright," he continued happily.
"As everything around me is a deep blue!"
"And I wanna stay here forever with you~"
(I literally just came up with this in a few minutes. Like I literally watched out for beat and even syllables. AND OOOH EVERY LINE HAS THE SAME NUMBER OF SYLLABLES.
But it's still cringy. Wanted to be original.)
I froze to Reiji's line and blinked at him. His face expression turned to tense within a second.
"... So Reiji wants to write a love song. So typical~ You live for your fangirls, don't you?" I smirked, taking out my notebook from my bag and writing notes.
"... You know, always gotta keep that love of them...!" I only paid half of my attention to his nervous chuckle, as my brain was already blowing up from ideas.
"Hey, Indigo!" I yelled happily towards the tank once done writing, throwing my bag under a tree and sitting down by the edge, notebook in hand. "Come sit down Rei-Rei." I smiled as I started petting the sparkling dolphin. The brunette plopped down beside me and smiled at him as well, muttering a soft "hey buddy" over to him.
"Will you help us concentrate?" I purred while rubbing him like some giant cat, earning an energetic noise from him. "Good boy! Sooo ~ what do you say we continue where we left off?"
"Hai!" Reiji laughed out. It was nice to finally see a genuine smile from him...
Time passed quickly as I sang and laughed a lot with Reiji. He finally seemed to come out of that bubble he was in recently. I don't know what was his problem, but whatever it was, I'm glad I could make him forget about it even for a bit. An hour has passed.
"Oh, oh! We could dance!" I grabbed onto his arm.
"Dance?" he chuckled.
"Yup!" I jumped to my feet with an enthusiastic nod. "Like this!"
I started goofily dancing around, letting out giggles. Reiji smiled at me.
"Come on, you big dork, dance with me!" I snapped over to him.
"Well, I guess I-... W-Watch out!!"
A second after his yell, my foot slipped by the edge of the tank. I lost my balance and I was about to fall back in the water beside an alarmed Indigo. I let out a yelp, closing my eyes shut.
The impact never came - I never felt the cold feeling of water. What I felt was a strong arm tightly holding onto my waist.
Opening my eyes, I saw Reiji's surprised, deep hazel orbs staring right back into mine. I blinked, speechless. He was the one holding me above the water, like a groom his bride. I didn't know what to say or do, as I stared up at a just as surprised Reiji in complete silence.
I felt Indigo's nose slowly push me back on my feet - although even when I was on safe ground, Reiji's supporting arm never left my side - he wrapped his other one around me instead. I could hear myself gulp. My heart was pounding. I never saw Reiji with such a facial expression before. Not to mention from this close.
... Wait... what?
"Reiji...?"
As if snapping out of a trance, he jumped away from me. Several emotions ran through his eyes at once - like shock, sadness, and even some kind of fear. I tilted my head at him, as he stared at me despaired, opening his mouth to say something before getting cut off by his ringing phone.
"..." he continued staring at me for a few seconds, his phone still ringing in his pocket. "... Please... excuse me."
With that hurried, weak mutter, he quickly grabbed his bag and ran towards the exit.
"R-Reiji, wait!!" I yelled after him, to no avail. In a second, he was gone. I stared at the place where he used to stand in silence. For a while, I couldn't even think of anything. 
Then, a despaired realization hit me.
The stagnating feeling in my heart was back yet again.

A/N: Writer's block is still haunting me, but I hope this one is okay. Thanks for reading!