Fireworks Finally.. [Open]

Naomi was walking back home after a surprisingly active day of buying parts for the project she was working on. They were just some pieces needed for her pet she was working on. Chances were that she would start the thing and never finish it. She never really seemed to finish anything she worked on… Well, until several years later. She still had half of a clay sculpture sitting in her room because she couldn’t get the arms right. She was passing by the fireworks shop and a hotdog landed in front of her. She looked up at the person who had thrown it on the ground. He didn’t seem to really care about what he had just done. She picked up the hotdog, removed the meat from the bun, and threw it away. She tore up the bread, however, and scattered it around. She would follow the man into the building. She had never actually been in the fireworks store herself, but she recognized some of the stuff on the shelves. She was getting another idea, but cut it off before it could take root. She didn’t need even more crap in her room. Instead she would speak up, “Thank you for thinking about feeding the birds, but they don’t really like the meat part and the bread part is too big.” She hadn’t seen him steal it, and the only reason she could think of for throwing it on the ground was to feed stray animals, “It’s okay though. At least your heart was in the right place.”
 
She took note of the thing he was looking at and gave a wide grin, “Those things also have the biggest boom ever. They’re really cool when they go off.” She pulled out her tablet and tried to search for a picture of them, but she didn’t seem to take one saved and she wasn’t finding an Internet signal. She put the thing away and sighed, “Nevermind. You’ll just have to trust me when I say they are awesome.” Personally, she liked sparklers. If you set them off in the middle they burned two ways. Sure, they didn’t last as long, but they were twice as pretty, “Can I ask what the fireworks are for? Are you having a party or are you blowing something up? Oh, and your name? Names should always come first in an introduction. Sorry about that.” She laughed a little, “I’m Naomi.” Of course, your own name always came first.
 

Spoiler:

Naomi would wince when one of the boys hit the others in the back of their heads, “Are you two okay?” She would ask, seeming to ignore the insults thrown at her. It wasn’t that she didn’t hear him, it was more like she didn’t mind him saying those sort of things. If she let little things like that get to her, she would never be able to handle all the rude things people could say. As for if she was with the cops, “No. I’m not with the cops.” After all, she knew some of the work she did was less than legal. If she was with the cops, that could only end badly. She would give a little pout when he walked away without giving her his name. Had she done the introduction wrong? No, she didn’t think so. Her face would return to normal and she would wave when she saw him look back at her for the first time. When he turned away, she went back to looking at the
 
She could hear the sounds of disappointment coming from all three of their mouths. Did they not have enough for the explosive? She could only assume they didn’t, as they all seemed to be wonder what to do next and how to get money. She had to admit, it was sad that they couldn’t afford the rocket. They had seemed really excited about it. As the other two headed for the exist, she looked over to the last on still standing there. He was just staring and then closed his eyes in thought. She could read that one boy’s face like an open book. He really must have wanted that rocket to contemplate taking the thing. Naomi didn’t mind helping him out a bit, but she was going to do it legally. The question was: would he take a handout. Based on the way he spoke to her earlier, the answer was a big fat no. She had an idea though.
 
She went over to the rocket he had been looking at and grabbed it from the shelf. Fifteen dollars wasn’t a lot. She went up to the man who ran the shop and paid for it with a smile always on her face. She went over to the boy who had insulted her before, “You said your names and the intention for this were none of my business.” She held up the firework, “I’m making it my business. This is a gift for you guys, but first I need to know who I’m giving it to.” There was no use in just giving them money since she hadn’t seen how much they were carrying. At least this way she could get them what they wanted and they could still keep what they had. She could tell the apparent leader didn’t trust her, but that didn’t change the fact that she wanted him and the other two to smile. Still, she wasn’t a complete idiot. She knew better than to hand the rocket over before she had gotten her answer.
 

Spoiler:

Akira was bored as usual. Having nothing to do, Akira wondered the streets of San Malarus with his black headphones on. AKira blasted his music from his headphones while glancing around for any interesting things to do. While walking down the busy streets, Akira came across a fireworks store. On the display cases were some pretty interesting fireworks which had caught Akira's attention. As he was observing it, Akira started smiling. The fireworks were quite large with some amazing designs. Akira had never seen any fireworks like those before.

After a few minutes, Akira found himself walking into the store. He shuffled through the store checking every shelf, before deciding on buying one. He never thought he would be buying it, but oh well it wasn't like he had anything better to do. As he was walking to the back of the store, Akira noticed three teens holding skateboards standing infront of the shelves. The one in the middle seemed like he was making a hard decision since he was closing his eyes and making a strange face. Akira walked over there to see what kind of fireworks were at the back but the three teens were blocking most of them so he couldn't see. He didn't really want talk to them but he had not choice. In order to see the fireworks, he had to ask them to move politely.

"Um, excuse me, could you move a bit. I'm trying to see what fireworks are there." Akira said smiling, trying to be as polite as possible. He didn't want to get into any trouble with them since they looked like they could get him seriously injured.

For the most part, today had been extremely boring. Ray was pretty sure the summer was going to kill him eventually. He wasn't used to having nothing to do. Sure, school was a bother too, of only for the amounts of people that loved to pry around his life, but at least it passed the time. He could got o the club at night, to maybe snag some job, but during the day it was generally a bore. What was he to do, sing on streets? Oh, technically he could, but that would attract the stupid kind of attention. Thanks, but no thanks. Entertainment was scarce if he didn't want to get himself involved too much in between.

That's why he was currently wandering around the streets of his home island, trying to find something that he would take interest in. He couldn't rely only on his talents all the time. It wasn't something he could do anytime, which left a lot of free space for other stuff. What, he didn't know yet. Silver eyes skimmed over the stores and everything he walked past, most of them not piquing his interest, until he stopped suddenly. 'Huh, fireworks?' That was a new one. He had not noticed they had something like that in San Malarus before. Maybe he really should go out and explore more often. 'Looks worth checking out...' While the idea of blowing anything up was a bit strange to him, fireworks were supposed to be a form of entertainment, right? And the rest of stuff around seemed boring as hell anyway. Whistling to himself quietly, he would walk in, sweeping his eyes over the occupants of the store, a bit surprised at the amount of people in this kind of shop. Since when were fireworks so popular?

Noticing a few guys with skateboards along with a girl in green who was enthusiastically speaking to them, he would raise his eyebrow a bit. This somehow seemed like an unlikely combination. Couple that with a guy wearing headphones passing around, and it was a complete rainbow of people. In a firework shop out of all places. 'Just what is going on here...?' Walking over casually, hands stuck in the pockets of his uniform, he would glance at the strange group again, before deciding to butt in. ''Hope you don't mind me asking, but is there some sort of celebration, or should I be worried about something blowing up in the near future?'', he would ask curiously. What, it was safe to assume something was going on with so many people in an unusual shop like this, wasn't it? Ray wasn't particularly worried about getting caught on fire, but it'd be better to know beforehand anyway.

Naomi was happy she was getting somewhere with the three of these boys. Sure, it wasn’t exactly what you’d call a good first impression, but it wasn’t the worst one in history. She would point to each boy as they spoke their names, “Beat, Rhyme, and Yatagarasu.” She would remember those names better than any others. Mostly because they were not common. She couldn’t think of anyone else that had those names in the entire world. Yatagarasu did mention that they weren’t real names, but that was okay with her. A lot of people didn’t use their real names. She held out the rocket to them so they could take it, “Well, if you don’t want it that’s fine, but you earned it.” She was laughing a little in her head. She could tell he wasn’t used to this kind of thing. At least he seemed to be getting a little less angry.
 
Until someone asked them to move out of the way. She was willing to step away from the shelf, but Yatagarasu didn’t seem to feel the same. Naomi would look at the other boy who had walked up to them with an apologetic look on her face, “Sorry. I didn’t realize we were in the way. I can move.” She didn’t want this to break into a fight in the middle of a fireworks store. That could only end badly. At this point, she was basically only trying to act as a medium to keep someone from blowing up. She would walk so that she was now standing to the skater’s side and not his front so that she could keep talking to him if he felt like it. Though, she doubted that after the reaction he had when someone else asked what the firework was for. She couldn’t keep everyone in here calm. She would sigh a little and keep her voice down so only the people close to her could hear, “Maybe we shouldn’t be having a fight in here. There are a lot of things that could go boom if we aren’t careful and that would probably get you marked with a big ‘Never Allowed to Enter’ sign.” She had her moment of logic and reasoning, but this one wouldn’t last long, “I’m just saying. Plus are they really worth it?” If he hadn’t taken the rocket already, she would hold it out to him again. It was his now, after all.

When Akira asked the teens to move out of the way, the young girl standing there moved a bit to the back while the red haired teen stood there. The red haired then said something incredibly rude to Akira. "Crap, now I made him made." Akira sighed as he looked down. He had no idea why the red haired teen was so hostile. All he wanted was to see the fire works that the skateboarders were blocking. Akira looked up at the red haired teen which called himself Yatagarasu and apologized. "I'm so sorry that I interrupted your conversation there, all I wanted was to see the fireworks you were looking at." Akira had no intention to get into any more trouble than he is currently in so the best action was just to apologize.

Just then, someone came in and asked what the fireworks were for. And judging by the way Yatagarasu looked and talked, Akira could tell he was not pleased. Akira could tell the teen was getting angrier and angrier. This is bad, if someone doesn't calm him down, then someone here will get seriously hurt. Akira thought while making a troubled look. Akira backed away slowly. Just then, the young girl tried to calm Yatagarasu down. What she said was pretty logical and would make sense. Akira sighed and went quiet after that. This was not a very good day for him. He feels like dealing with this would take a quite a long time. He decided not to say anything else in case he somehow anger Yatagarasu even more.

'Whoa, w-what..?' To put it simply, Ray was quite shocked at the outburst one of the skateboarders gave him. ''H-hey, cool it, it wasn't like I asked for something personal. And I don't think you can order me to get lost, unless you own this shop. Otherwise I can be here if I want.'', he would say, holding up his hands in defense. Sheesh, this guy was straightforward with his words. He just asked a simple question, didn't he? Then again, he had just yelled at the headphone guy too. Looked like someone was a brat by nature. What a luck to run into such person. The girl in green seemed to be trying to calm the ruse down, and Ray hoped it would work. He didn't exactly come here to start a fight. 'Although, I'd say I have a feeling it wouldn't be the fireworks that would go 'boom' in this case....'

''I think I agree with her. If you really want to pick a fight with someone, better take it outside. I think this shop would appreciate that. I doubt they would happily serve customers who make such a racket here.'', he would say, shrugging a little. Ray couldn't really say he was a good voice of reason, but he felt like giving it a try. Perhaps it would work beter if more of them agreed on a similar idea. Then the guy, Yatagarasu was it? - would have to at least acknowledge that. He would just hope, the guy wouldn't try to pick a fight with him for this. While he hadn't been trying to insuinate that, who knew how the other would take it. Still, Ray was wishing for a relatively harmfree day. He would even handle a few firework explosions and some fire if it meant not making enemies with a stupid reasoning like that.

She would sort of look down and to the side, unsure of how to say the next words out of her mouth, “Yeah, we didn’t do anything wrong, but he did ask us to move. I just thought it would be nice to let him see the fireworks.” She wasn’t one to make a big deal out of such a minor thing like not saying please. She was starting to understand that Yatagarasu was the type of person that must have gotten in fights a lot of the time. She wasn’t sure if he was just violent or if there was actually something else to it, but she wasn’t that type of person. She would smile in relief when he seemed to accept the other boy’s apology. Maybe they could avoid a fight today. Or maybe not, considering he took the last boy’s words as a challenge.
 
Naomi would move to take the skateboard from Yatagarasu as he shoved it into her hands. When he asked her to hold it, she would nod. When he cracked his knuckles, she would wince. This wasn’t really going to turn into a fight, was it? As he went outside, Naomi would follow behind him. She couldn’t stop them herself, she only had to hope that Yatagarasu wouldn’t really start a fight. She could see it on everyone else’s face: they didn’t want a fight either. She didn’t really understand why he was so eager to turn to the most violent option. This really could only end badly.
 
She would give a sigh of relief when him, Beat, and Rhyme gathered together and started having a conversation. She was hoping that they would come to their senses and not beat the crud out of the kid. When they broke up again, Yata would offer to pay her back the money. She hadn’t had any intention to have them pay her for the rocket. However, they would also offer to not beat the kid’s skull in. That, she could live with. She would slowly nod, “That sounds like a fair deal.” She actually didn’t care if she got the money back or not, but she didn’t want anyone here to get hurt. She would hand his board back to him with one of her smiles still on her face, “This seems like a really good board. It suits you.” She meant that as a compliment, but he wouldn’t necessarily take it that way, “I mean, I don’t know how to ride one or what makes one better than another, but it seems to be put together well. You also…” She would trail off a little before finishing her sentence, “You also seem to really take care of it.” She had noticed the way he held it up until then. He also seemed to treasure it, since he had threatened her life if she took it. It was possible she was misreading the entire situation, but she still thought he was a good owner for the board. It didn't seem to be abused, at least.
 

Spoiler:

After Akira gave the apology, the hot headed teen known as Yatagarasu accepted his apology. Akira sighed in relief and then started smiling again. "Thank god, he accepted my apology. This didn't turn out as bad as i thought." Akira looked up as Yatagarasu told the young girl to hold the skateboard. Akira watched Yatagarasu move towards the boy. Taking the boy's word as a challenge, Yatagarasu started cracking his fingers. I guess there is going to be a fight after all." Akira would follow the three skateboarders as they moved outside to see what will happen next. When the three skateboarders gathered together, Akira walked over to the young girl.

"The name's Akira, thanks for trying to calm everyone down earlier." Akira would say. Akira tried to listen in on the skateboarders' conversation but he couldn't really hear exactly what they were talking. As soon as they finished talking, Yatagarasu would walk over to the young girl and offer to pay her back for the fireworks. As the Yatagarasu and the girl were talking, Akira glanced at the skateboard which the girl was talking about at the moment. Looks like everything was going well now and nobody got hurt in the process of cooling things down.

'...!....Should have guessed.' Of course it wouldn't have gone the way Ray initially planned it to. The guy with heaphones was lucky to get off easy enough. 'Was I supposed to apologize too?' Like hell. He didn't do anything wrong, so why should he have? If there was something he would do without fail, then it would be standing his ground. Brawls weren't his thing, but it didn't mean this conversation wasn't irritating him. Rolling his silver eyes a bit when Yatagarasu pushed past him, calling for a fight, he would spin around to follow. He had wanted to avoid a strife, but whatever. If that was what it took to cool some steam off the guy, then so be it.

...Or maybe not. Guess not all his skateboarding companions had the same idea as Yatagarasu himself. It sort of made him wonder why were they so badly interested in that piece of firework, that he would step off from a fight he seemed into just for that. Either way, it appeared he wouldn't have to fight after all, when Yata offered an exchange to the girl at last. Still, he wasn't particularly happy with the outcome. Not only had Yatagarasu called him a pretty boy, but he also made it look as if it was obvious he would be the one to do the beating. While Ray didn't consider himself a pro brawler or anything, remarks on his person like those annoyed him a lot. Rude people can be such a bother. ''Sheesh, looks like I'm not going to get a say in this, am I?'', he would say airily. Hey, they were technically deciding stuff without his consent. How nice was that, eh? ''But fine, if that's how you want to do this. I would however appreciate you at least don't call me names if you're not going to follow through with your challenge.'', he would shrug afterwards. If nothing else, he would at least make sure not to be called a pretty boy. Sure he didn't look macho, but that didn't immediately make him 'pretty'. Besides, it was obvious it was meant as an insult.