I just wanted to say "Thank You" (Shouhei)

Ever since assuming her true dragon form in that fight in Susie Q, things had seemed clearer in Mariko's mind. She couldn't pin down the why of it, just knew it was. It was like some force had arrested the spinning shards of memory. She could sift through them now, try to piece back faces and places and connect the bits in between.

She felt like she was thinking more clearly, and that she had a direction she was moving in. It was a strong feeling. But also, it was a feeling that made her realize how frail she had been lately. It was late, and Shouhei had gone straight to work from his evening classes. She was alone in his apartment, as she often was during the day with him attending school. Today would be different, though, she told herself. Today, she felt different.

She started by cleaning. She found places for things that needed them, folded clean clothes and found a basket for dirty ones. She took out trash and organized things in a way that seemed familiar. It was...like reading a book you'd read years before. The important parts were all the same, but there were little surprises along the way from things you'd forgotten, or things you missed. Shouhei's dorm room was just a newer printing on the book of their childhood. It was revised, different, but the frame of it was the same.

It was scattered with touches of her as well, too. She'd claimed a dresser in the bedroom as her own, and had started hoarding empty bottles from the Bar. Mostly just ones with interesting shapes or colors. They grew with each shift, and one of the bartending girls had even started setting them aside for her. In the morning, the light came in through the bedroom window and filtered through the bottles like a prism, dancing colored flecks over the plain painted walls.

They were silent and still now, though, in the dead of evening. Mariko was in the kitchen, hair pulled back out of her eyes into a small ponytail, and wearing a short-sleeved summer blouse and shorts. Her bare feet tapped the tiled floor as a song drifted over the radio. She couldn't hear the words over the frying of the pan, but she could hear the melody, and couldn't help moving to it a little. She'd lost track of time along the way somewhere. She still had some time before Shouhei returned didn't she? She wanted to surprise him with a meal, hopefully he wouldn't return too quickly...It would ruin the surprise.

Though she supposed a clean and orderly apartment would be surprise enough.

True to Mariko’s thoughts, the moment he laid eyes on his dorm upon entering, he was surprised.  Surprised that she had managed to transform his near garbage pile of living quarters in to an immaculate haven, in such a short amount of time.  Almost overlapping with his former memories, there were countless times Mariko had removed Shouhei’s squalor and turned his room into a pristine place.

His nostrils carried him towards the kitchenette, with its enticing aroma leading him to her.


Again, his memories flickered back in conjunction with reality- this was a scene he found commonplace back in Japan- the two of them preparing dinner for one another.  Shouhei watched Mariko silently for several moments, adoring her all the while.  Noticing she was preoccupied with the pan and music, her back turned to him, he almost wanted to wrap his arms around her, give her a tender embrace.  Perhaps peck the side of her neck in gratitude.

Instead, rationality snapped Shouhei back to the real truth.  Mariko and he no longer were lovers. The past was where it belonged, in the past.  

“...Smells amazin’,” Shouhei said aloud, getting Mariko’s attention.  A tender smile lit his features.