The Golden Pear [YA - Featured]

♫~Notes 45~♫

 The next days went peacefully. Kenta had joined their group of friends. Only Rigaku gave him a few suspicious glances, watchful of any signs of ulterior motives. But the boy was a good guy.

Freya enjoyed listening to his poems, and Aiyoku poked a lot of fun of Kagetsu, calling him The Beauty and the Beast in the same body. His younger brother complained, fist-bumping Aiyoku's shoulder in the end, but no anger danced in his sparkling eyes.

Without noticing, the April ended, and May came, bringing more rain. On one evening like this, Kagetsu strolled through the school. He took it as his duty to patrol in case Ueno returned with some evil schemes. The nice days could be just a quiet before the storm.

However, that wasn't the only reason Kagetsu spent a lot of time on his own. For a while, he had an idea swirling in his head.

'Beauty and Beast in one, huh?' he remembered, finding it strange it left such an impact on him. 'If I'm a Beast where is the Beauty?' His reflection in the glass stared at him. A loud sigh escaped his lips as he added another one in his mind. 'Not to mention this.' He pulled out from his bag a big paper with a few scribbles.

'I really want to do this! But how? Asking Ai is out of the question. He would just tease me. I guess Ri could help, but'—his shoulders slumped—'I don't wanna bother him. I wanna do something on my own.'

"A plush toy?"

The voice next to him freaked him out. He jumped back, hitting the wall behind him. "The heck?"

The chestnut-haired girl bristled, stepping back. "I-I'm sorry! I just peeked over the shoulder..."

Kagetsu didn't listen to her as his eyes trailed down to the package of cloths she was holding. "Are you from the hand-craft club?"

"Yes."

His face brightened up. "Can you help me?" With a jump, he was in front of her.

"N-no problem." She leaned backward, and a big blush spread across her face.

"Cool!" He took the package off her hand, putting it over his shoulder. "Name's Kagetsu." Giving her a wide smile calmed the inch smaller girl a bit.

"Nice to meet you, Kagetsu-san. I'm Kanako-chan." The girl slightly bowed.

"Kagetsu-san sounds lame, how about Ka-san? If you want to use the honorific, that is." He blinked, realizing how similar this sounded to Okāsan.

"But that's!" The redness in Kanako's face deepened. They had just met, and she was supposed to call him by a nickname? That was too much for her.

Kagetsu headed down the corridor.

"K-Ka-san!"

"What?" Turning around, their eyes met.

"My club is the other way." She pointed over her shoulder.

"Ah, sorry!"

Together they headed there, entering a small room. It had four tables, two sewing machines, and small boxes full of sewing utilities like threads, needles, threaders, pincushions, and others Kagetsu didn't know how to call.

"Where is the rest?"

"I'm alone here," Kanako whispered, embarrassed. "The senpais had left, and nobody new came."

"Wow, this is cute!"

A picture of a dragon sitting in a teacup, enjoying a few biscuits hung on the wall next to a small fairy picking strawberries with her squirrel friend.

"Did you make those?" He came closer, putting the package on the table.

"Not me, my senpais did. I did this one." She pointed him at a bag on one of the chairs. It had an embroidered sunflower where petals had seven colors like the rainbow. "I designed it too."

"That's awesome! You must be good at drawing." Kagetsu felt the hand-made picture with his fingertips.

"Only something simple. The designs can't be too complicated."

"Why so?"

She took out a needle with the rest of a thread. "Depending on the material, you need a different needle and threads. The thicker it is, the less small the areas can be."

"I'm not sure if I get it, but it's like drawing with a needle, and that's cool."

"Cool?" Kanako repeated. "You don't think this is boring, lame, and girly?"

"No, why?" His shoulders slumped.

"T-That's what a lot of boys would say and some girls too."

"Those had to be idiots!" A quick snort dashed from his nose. "How can creating this"—his eyes moved from the bag to the wall pictures—"be boring or lame? It's art!"

More blushes invaded Kanako's face. 'Come on, girl! Keep it together!' She cleared her throat. "So what I can help you with, Ka-san?"

"Right!" Kagetsu took out his paper. "I really want to make this plush for my friend, but I have absolutely no idea how to do it. I just know how it looked."

"Do you know the measurements?"

With his hands, he moved them left and right, settling down on around twenty-five centimeters. "I guess this? I saw it only once."

She remained silent, the cogs in her head turning as she was calculating and cutting the cloth in her mind. "I have enough material for this." She turned around, picking a red polka-dot cloth. "This one will do. What was the other material?"

"Kinda plushy?"

The girl listened to him only on half-ear, getting into her comfort zone. What she lacked in embroidery, she put into making plush toys. There were a few of them sitting in the corner.

\\_(''>_<'')_//

Rigaku sat in his room, typing into his laptop when his phone rang.

"Hai, Kamini speaking."

"Yo, wanna big news or good news first?" The voice on the other had sounded young and cheerful.

"How about the big news, Nihil-san?" The chair moved back as Rigaku leaned, crossing his legs under the table.

Nihil was one of a few freelance IT experts his father employed, and he used to teach the brothers how to uses computers and work with the Internet. Of course, Nihil wasn't his real name but a nickname he went by on forums. And in reality, he was more of a hacker, but that was just his hobby. 

Okāsan - Mother