VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter twenty-four

act ii

how do we do this?
( carefully. )

chapter twenty-four

❛uncomfortable questions, uncomfortable conversations❜

━━━━━━

The day of her birthday, Amara rouses from sleep at the sound of Asano and Chris talking. She cracks her eyes open, wincing at the brightness of the overhead light, and props herself up on her elbows, trying to blink the bleariness out of her eyes.

"What is going on here?"

They're standing by the entryway, Chris already in his socks, on the landing, a duffle bag slung over his shoulders, in a thick jacket and sweats, while Asano is wearing her tennis uniform, her shoes already on.

Asano bows politely. "Happy birthday, senpai."

"Turn off the light," she mutters before rolling over and burying her face in her pillow.

Asano murmurs something else before the light turns off and the door opens and closes. There's some shuffling before she feels a gentle poke on her shoulder.

"Have any more room?" Chris asks, sounding fondly amused.

She obligingly scoots over, letting him lift the blankets so he can slide under. She half-expects him to say something, but he doesn't, he just pulls her close and draws the blanket over their bodies. She falls back to sleep with the reassuring heat of his body against her back.

When she wakes a few hours later, he's still there but partially turned away from her, the sound of keyboard clicks from his phone filling the silence.

She stretches then turns over, blinking sleepily at Chris. He's on his phone, squinting a little at the display; he looks tired enough for her to assume he probably woke up a couple minutes ago. When she scoots closer, he turns off his phone, which isn't suspicious at all, but she's still too tired to call him out on it. Birthday shenanigans, she assumes. Which might be a little vain of her but . . .

He puts his phone on the nightstand and turns, pulling her into a crushing hug. "Happy birthday."

She groans in response.

"What do you want to do today?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

She sighs. "Just . . . not a lot. I have to be back home by six. Did you want to stay for dinner?"

She still doesn't know what he or Chiyo and Hiro are planning but whatever it is — it'll be fine. Probably. Until anything is revealed, she'll go on about the day like she usually has in the past two years. Doing whatever during the day, then dinner with Eiko — maybe Aiko, too — in the evening.

"Sure," he agrees. "If you don't mind, too, since my parents are out of the country —"

She pulls away from him, frowning. "They are?"

He doesn't appear too disappointed as he nods. "They flew out this morning to California. They're helping my family plan a wedding next year in February for my cousin. But they told me to wish you a happy birthday and that they're sorry they couldn't be here."

"Both of them said that or was it just your mom and you're trying to save my feelings?"

"Both of them. My dad does like you. He likes you a lot, you know. It was just the problem of our relationship but he's admitted defeat. He won't change my mind. Actually, the next time he sees you, he'll probably apologize."