Chapter Text
As evening started to settle, so did our protagonists. A little over an hour after the bathroom talk for any of them, the four of them made up bad excuses yet again in order to split into pairs. Shuichi and Kaede smiled wide awkward smiles and pretended with the other two as if their individual conversations never happened. The excuses didn't really matter, as they were all determined to take the bait.
As soon as Kaede and Shuichi trotted and walked away, Maki engaged in a new conversation immediately. “Do you really think that that’s what they’re up to?” She asked pointedly.
Kaito averted his eyes and tried to hide his face as he spoke. “I may have convinced Shuichi to confess, actually,” He said.
Maki’s eyes lowered. The darkest expression she had was barely masked by her desire to be casual. “Oh?” she asked. She couldn’t help the slight twinge of sarcasm that came from her mouth.
Kaito nodded, as if he were completely convinced that their ‘deal’ held up. He still felt like he was being tricked. “Yeah, I ,” he dragged out the I for a long time as he looked around the park above her head. His eyes landed on the ferris wheel again. “I think we can get a better vantage point up there again,” he said. He pointed at it.
Maki’s eyes followed the vector of his arm up to the top of the wheel. They’d already done that before, and this time they already knew roughly where the other two were headed. It was far too suspicious if Kaito was using his brain at all. Maki tilted her head back. She knew that he wasn’t an idiot, and he wouldn’t copy her precious idea for no reason .
She wondered if they still had the same goal- or if this indicated a change in priority. Maybe the point was to keep either of them from interfering- which shouldn’t be a worry in the first place as far as she was concerned. Maki’s little smile seemingly bloomed out of nowhere. Maybe Shuichi’s terms required that they didn’t interfere. That was almost cute.
“What?” Kaito asked. He was paying close attention to her changing facial expressions.
“Nothing,” she said coyly, “lets go to the ferris wheel again.”
Kaito nodded quickly. They made quick work of the crowd and got to the wheel with ease, but every gaining moment made Kaito feel like his heart was caught in his throat. A throbbing heart that caught there felt like it was suffocating him with every beat.
Maki was suspicious, but her list of things to expect were less on the downside and more in the vein of another uneventful- if not frustrating- ride. Maki was quick to snatch her hand away in the line and used it to cradle herself at the torso.
Kaito spared her a single, missed glance of disappointment. His heart started to sink down back past his chest and into the pit of his stomach. He’d made a promise. He had to keep his promise. Even if that promise was a little toxic and manipulative at best. He told himself that he had to keep it anyways.
Kaito looked up and away when the operator gave him a particular look, having recognized them from earlier that day. He did not want to think about it. Maki noticed, but she would have her own dramatic assumptions to draw from that behavior. Was it casually feigned ignorance? Or simply rejection? She would decidedly focus on the latter.
Kaito held his arms out to signal that Maki should step into the orb first and pick her seat. She was even more off-put by this. Something was terribly odd, and she was ready to throw up her guard at a moments’ notice. She selected where she had sat before, next to him, in the middle of the left seat. A neutral choice, she believed.
Kaito, too hesitant to look at her for too long, also chose the seat he had best occupied by the window. He cleared his throat as the operator shut the door. His eyes focused on the floor.
She watched him carefully. Her hands gripped the thin, flat seat as the cart started to move. After a few moments in silent motion, Maki let go of the seat. “We aren’t here to look for Shuichi,” Maki said.
Kaito froze up. He knew she’d be able to see through the ruse, but even he was surprised at how direct she was about it. He took a deep breath. “No, we’re not,” he admitted.
“Then why are we up here?” She asked. She didn’t look him in the eye. Maki set her hands in her lap and waited. She didn’t have to wait Long.
“I wanted to talk to you- about something.” His palms were sweating. He dragged them across his knees.
Maki pivoted her head only slightly, robotically. “About?” Her hands pressed into the seat and slid backwards. She was looking dead at him now.
Kaito was ready to chicken out. “Well I uh…” he wrung his hands together. He had to hurry and deflect before things got too serious, too fast. “Wanted to know… if you hate me,” he said. That was somehow the best he could do. Kaito knew it was a little strong the moment it came out of his mouth, but he couldn’t stop it.
Maki’s hands released. She leaned back. She thought that they had already talked about it, but she guessed that he was wanting an answer sooner rather than later. Maki considered it for only a moment, with a million thoughts collapsing upon another at once. “No, I don’t hate you.” She replied simply. She wanted to say a million more things, but that was all she could manage.
She didn’t want to look at him anymore. The more she focused on it, the less she was able to look him in the eye. But… they were friends, weren’t they? Why did she really need to be super extra especially closed off? Was it the only way to keep her secret? She wondered about it. Was all of it really necessary to keep? She wanted to protect her feelings, but she didn’t want to hurt a friend in the process.
She looked at him again. He was quiet- still thinking- and maybe still listening. “I’m frustrated at myself,” she elaborated. And you , but she wasn’t about to admit that.
He perked up. His favorite outward persona started to overtake the nerves that had previously crossed haywire. “Whatever it is, I’m sure I can help!” he exclaimed, possibly a bit too loud.
Maki looked only mildly annoyed at this sudden change. He was often like this with her, but she couldn’t see how he could possibly understand. This was something she had to figure out for herself, she thought. There were no ways for him to help without her outright confessing. She crossed one arm across her chest, and used the other to cradle her cheek and think. “Hm,” she murmured.
He had a huge fake smile spread from cheek to cheek. He waited awkwardly while she seemed to be thinking about something. When there was no elaboration, his shoulders sunk. “C’mooonnnn,” he spoke gently, but leaned to the side.
Maki crossed her other arm over her chest. Her cheeks puffed up and she resisted the urge to turn her entire body away.
Kaito reached forward and grabbed her hands. Despite her struggling, he easily lifted her hands above her head. Her face was overshadowed and her cheeks stayed puffy. “I love… all my friends. Which, you are, so- we should be able to help each other!” He scolded her.
Maki closed her fists tightly and attempted to first pull her arms down again. She grumbled at him, “Let go,” she said darkly. Leaned back, and planted one of her legs on the bench.
Kaito looked down at her leg reflexivity as she pulled on his arms, and then looked away as quickly as possible. He was blindsided by Maki pulling a weird maneuver. She put her legs on his hips and lifted him in the air via all four of her limbs, and then flung him to the left and above her over the side of the bench and onto the floor, which forced him to let go of her hands.
He shuddered an “oof,” as he landed on his back at the bottom of the cart. The basket rocked a little, disturbed by the force of the throw. Kaito saw stars rotating at the top of the cabin. Above that, Maki peeked out from the bench above. She once again eclipsed the light at the top of the cabin.
“You are the moon,” he said softly, even though the wind had been knocked out of him.
The moon.
At first, she thought she threw him a little too hard. What a weird thing to say. She folded her arms and leaned back into the seat. She was going to humor it. “You want to go to me?” she mused out loud.
He leaned up on his elbows so that he could see her face. “Uh… yeah,” he replied. He had no idea how to elaborate further.
She was already far deep in the million things that that could mean. Kaito talked about the moon all the time- he’d even promised to take her and Shuichi there. Sometimes, he talked about it more than anything else astronaut related- like he was obsessed with it. Obsessed ? She wondered. That makes no sense .
She covered her mouth with her hand and slowly peeked over at him again, with her eyebrows taught inwards. “What?” She asked, with a bit of accidental vinegar sprinkled in. She sounded more offended than confused.
Kaito sat up and scratched the back of his head. One arm crossed his body and he looked away and back. “You are the moon…” he repeated quietly, “to me,” he added.
Maki felt a rush of goosebumps up her arms and stiffened up. Regardless of anything she could try to interpret that as, she couldn’t deny the romantic implication of the sentence when he said it like that. “You really…” she mumbled. The goosebumps climbed up to her throat. “You really shouldn't look away when you say things like that!” She crossed her arms.
Kaito looked at her, confused. “What.”
Maki crossed her arms. “Say it again. With- with feeling this time,” she pressed her lips together to avoid the smile that was threatening to spread across her face.
He stood up in the cabin. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but he couldn’t exactly stop it. “You are the moon to me,” he repeated. He titled his head back and forth. “And the stars, too.”
Maki’s hands gripped her sleeves. She was starting to consider that he might really mean it. “Louder,” She said again.
“ YOU ARE THE MOON AND THE STARS AND ALL OF SPACE! ” He shouted, stubbornly.
Maki balled her fists and yelled back, “ I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS ” She hit the seat with her fist. She was starting to turn red.
Kaito took a step forward and yelled again “ THE MOON, YOU ARE THE- ”
“ WHAT! ”
Kaito grumbled and closed his fists, too. “ I LOVE YOU! ” he shouted.
“...what.” Maki paused, her shoulders dropped.
“I said I-” Kaito also stopped and shook his head. “I said what I said.” His posture straightened out.
Maki blinked. “I…” her arms relaxed while she tried to formulate what to say exactly. She crossed her arms. “Okay, I heard you that time,” she said. She was trying to be monotone, but couldn’t help the little wobble in her voice.
Kaito wasn’t exactly sure whether or not that was a rejection, but he was nearly about to take it as one.
“If I’m the moon then… you’re a Katana,” she said quietly.
He tilted his head. “You’re bad with swords…” he mumbled, sadly.
“I mess up with you, but… you make me want to keep trying. I don’t get you but…” Maki tried to straighten herself out. Her breath was caught in her throat. “...You’re my weakness.” She said, exasperated. It took as she could to say just that. She cursed the things that were suddenly making her nervous.
Kaito pivoted, and then pivoted again. “Oh, that’s…” he pivoted back to the window, and then back to Maki a second time. “Really!?” He jumped in place. The cabin rocked again.
Maki’s eyes lowered. Her stomach was in knots. “Do not make me say it,” she crossed her arms over her chest.
Kaito sat on his knees on the floor and leaned onto the seat next to where she was sitting. “Please?” He asked sweetly.
Maki looked down at him. Was he… begging? His eyes were sparkling as if he’d somehow been revived. She turned her nose up, “Not in a billion years,” he usual tone returned, but she was smiling.
“What if I was like- dying or something?” he asked.
Maki twisted herself away, playfully, “Not even then!” She said.
He happily hit the bench with his fist. “Then I’ll wait. One billion years exactly, and we can both sail the stars until then!” He exclaimed.
Maki leaned towards him, and her arms loosened. “Then… I will tell you that I love you when we are done sailing the stars,” she said, somehow however nicely.
Kaito smiled. That counted. He hopped up on the bench next to her, no closer than he would have before, and offered his hand to her. She stared at it for only a moment before taking it, and then slid closer to him. She raised his hand in a loop above and around her until his arm was around her shoulders. She leaned herself in and closed her eyes.
The ride suddenly stopped when she was finally comfortable. “Oh,” she said, “We spent all of our time,” she said quietly. Her cheeks started to puff up- she obviously wanted to stay longer.
“Wanna go again?” he asked.
He cheeks deflated. That was right. They could just go again. She sighed and mumbled an “Mhm.”
--
Elsewhere, Shuichi and Kaede sat at one of the umbrella tables where their journey had started. Things were different, but it seemed like all things looped back to the beginning. Shuichi held her hand from across the table. “Do you think they’ll be okay?” he mused, with his eye on the ferris wheel. Kaede sighed happily and smiled.
“I think they’ll be just fine.”