Stormy Summer

An Unexpected Visit

"What's this?" Rose asked.

When I turned around to see what she was talking about, I could feel my heart skip a beat. A completely unjustified reaction, may I add.

Rose was holding up a small, stuffed keychain, her eyebrows raised at my reaction and despite knowing the answer to her question, I just blushed and tried to take the keychain away from her.

I wasn't successful. Rose, being taller than me, held up the keychain, just out of my reach, "Tell me. If it's making you this embarrassed, I need to know," she laughed lightly when I tried to jump on her and pull her arm down. She just switched the keychain to her other hand, holding it up again, "Did you get it for yourself? A souvenir? I obviously wasn't supposed to know about it..." she trailed off as she was trying to stop my advances at tackling her to the ground.

She wasn't successful, as she ended up tripping over her own feet, flailing as she pulled me down with her, resulting in the both of us tumbling down onto the futons we had pushed together as we had planned on talking before going to sleep. I cursed myself for not just answering her question, I wouldn't be in this situation if I had.

I would have if I and my stupid pride wouldn't get so embarrassed all the time.

This keychain is a small, stuffed Tanuki. I didn't even plan on buying it but couldn't resist after seeing it. I didn't buy it for myself though, which is also the reason I didn't want anyone, especially Rose, to find it.

"You're heavy, Summer," Rose groaned and pushed me off her, not noticing when I slipped the keychain from her hands in the process, "Sorry," I just laughed lightly. I felt unexpectedly better after this whole ordeal, Rose joined in my laughter before getting a little more serious again, "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about," she paused a bit, seemingly collecting her thoughts, "I-" she started again, nervous as she stopped again.

She rubbed her palms against her legs and sighed, "Never mind..." she trailed off, "It's not that important anyway," she laughed nervously as she averted her eyes away from me.

I looked at her quietly. I knew something was bothering her, though I had no idea as to how to address the topic. I felt so helpless right here, sitting next to my childhood friend. I wanted to help her but didn't know how to do that.

Anyway, I needed a decision.

At first, I didn't say anything at all. I just placed my head on her shoulder. A silent sign to make sure she's aware that she can talk to me if she needs to.

It was silent for a while after she returned the sentiment by leaning her head on mine. I was about to break the silence but was interrupted as Rose herself decided to break the silence that consumed us, "Can we go out tomorrow? Just the four of us?" her voice was quiet, almost as though she had been scared to ask. Tomorrow would be Saturday, and I hadn't made any other plans.

Confused, I hesitated for a second but nodded anyway, smiling widely, "Of course! Where do you want to go?" Rose seemed relieved and worried at the same time, which confused me even further, though I didn't question her about it, assuming that she'd tell me once she was ready, or if she wanted to tell me at all.

"How about Tokyo? There are a few places I wanted to go to but hadn't had the time to do so," before I could answer, there was a knock on our door only seconds before

Anna and Charlie barged in, closing the door behind them.

"What are you talking about?" Anna asked as the two of them sat down on the futon in front of us, "We were just talking about whether we'd go out tomorrow. And where to go, too," Rose answered and Charlie nodded.

"Anyway... Did we talk too loudly?" I asked, looking guilty. It was already pretty late and they might've tried sleeping, disturbed by out constant chattering.

Anna and Charlie looked at us, confused, "Not that I'd know of, why?" Charlie asked, "I just assumed since you were asking what we were talking about..." I trailed off at the end, "did you need anything?"

"Bokuto-kun and this other weird guy are downstairs, they're asking whether we would like to go out right now," at first, we just looked at them, confused, "'This other weird guy'?"

Anna huffed, "Yes, Sally, this other weird guy. How come you don't know him? You were close just a few hours ago..." her voice was laced with sarcasm, her brows raised at me. I just looked at her, my expression blank, about to retort something when Charlie piped in, trying to resolve an oncoming conflict, "This... Weird... Cat guy... The one we met at the store, earlier..." she trailed off, hoping I knew who she was talking about, "Kubo," Anna tried to help, failing in pronouncing his name.

"Kuro-chan?" I asked, trying to ignore Anna who muttered something along the lines of "pretty sure his name was 'Kubo'" starting an argument about names would get us nowhere, I was aware of that fact, as well as Anna was, which resulted in a winning smile on her face. One that I itched to get rid of, but there were more important matters at hand here.

"Why are they here? And why would we go outside now? It's dark... And cold..." Rose whined, "It was just a question," Charlie said quietly, shrugging, and Rose visibly panicked, "That's not what I meant... It's just... Where do they even want to go?" she settled on asking.

"The park," a voice from the doorway answered, making the four of us jump in surprise. We hadn't even noticed the door opening. When my eyes turned to the doorway in surprise, my eyes immediately locked with golden ones. Bokuto was standing slightly behind Kuro, who was leaning against the doorframe. Kuro grinned from his spot when I turned my eyes to his.

"What are we doing in the park?" Rose asked, getting up. It was decided, then.

"That's a surprise," Kuro grinned, motioning for us to follow them as they went to go downstairs again.