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Nene nearly drowned when she was nine and slipped into a river during a camping trip, and she remembered it with startling clarity: her short green hair whipped every which way by the rushing water of the river, her loose summer clothing billowing along with it — all but her stockings, caught on a rock.
She’d been screaming, she thought, but she couldn’t tell. Being underwater is the strangest sensation, everything you know being ripped out from under your feet. When Nene closed her eyes she didn’t know what was up, besides that it wasn’t where her legs flailed. When she opened her mouth, all she could taste was salty water. When she cried, she thought that she really shouldn’t have worn something like this, so easy to catch on a rock like that.
She’d been spending too much time with Rui, which might’ve been a given since their families had gone on the trip together, the two of them pressed in the middle of the Kusanagi’s van along with his cousin, Minori. But she was sure of it then, because her last thought at that time was a hazy realization that the salty taste that burned in her mouth and filled her throat was because the river connected to the sea.
Then, Nene woke just the smallest bit with the taste of salt water fresh in her mouth, and a drenched child in rather formal attire hovering over her, shrieking like she was dead. She tried to say something unintelligible. They spoke back nervously, delicate hands twisting together and fisting his odd hair. She stared at the mole by their (very wide, very panicked) golden eyes.
Finally, with the same amount of terror, they ran off promising help in mangled bits of sentences. She never saw them again. Later, her mom explained that she’d fallen in and out of unconsciousness until they arrived and very supportively watched Rui perform CPR on her.
(Nene found it dubious that, despite only being ten, a year older than her, Rui had been the only CPR-certified one at the trip, and so the one who performed it on her. Still, it was a very Rui trait. She wasn’t really sure if she had any room to be surprised with him any more.)
So after the departure of the child and arrival of her family, Nene had woken up to no mole, no faint glimpses of tearing eyes. She woke up lying in her tent in a sleeping bag next to Minori, who jumped up from writing in her diary and screamed immediately, absolutely shaken by her awakening. Nene was still sure Minori had thought she was dead, even despite Rui’s poor but passing attempt at CPR.
Nene asked her mom while she set up their dinner. “I found you alone…?” her mom said, looking up with a thoughtful expression. “Someone must’ve picked you up and left for help, because it doesn’t seem likely that you’d floated ashore yourself.”
“I saw someone,” she insisted.
Her mom ruffled her hair. “If you say you did, you probably did, I’m sure of it. Whatever it is, I’m just glad you didn’t breathe in too much water. Rui was nervously prattling off every drowning fact he could think of while we looked for you. Did you know if you’d stayed under for around five minutes, you would’ve suffered brain damage? We’ve got to go to a doctor when we leave this trip.”
Nene blinked. “I didn’t need to know that, and yeah, please.”
She popped into Minori’s tent and asked her. She blinked. “I got there so late…!” she clambered up, then hit her head on the roof and stumbled back down. Her brother wasn’t yet in his sleeping bag, luckily, because he would’ve thrown a fit over how clumsy she was. Nene sighed and turned her investigation elsewhere.
Her dad yielded a result of the same kind, and “I’m not sure,” followed by, “Oh, can you grab that stack of wood?” She begrudgingly complied, Rui popping out and following the two.
Then, she’d asked Rui, and his eyes, catlike even then, when he was without his colorful contacts, had lit up. He told her of a child he’d seen, her age, with strange hair and a mole.
“Him!” she said, fervently nodding. “I remember seeing a mole.”
“Ah, as much as I’d hate to admit it,” he’d sighed, “my only glimpse of them was them sprinting for the large lodge that overlooks the cape, and nothing more.”
“The big one? Over there?” her eyes widened and her body seized. Even as a child, she’d been so terrified of the idea of anyone with power, to a ridiculous extent. “I can’t go talk to him if he’s in something so big! He must be rich!”
“He looks like a violinist I’d seen on TV once,” Rui pondered. “It’s rather funny that you got saved Little Mermaid-style when you’re the one with an interest in the story, hm?”
“It’s not funny,” she said indignantly, shaking her head at her friend. His shirt and skirt were visibly damp from sweating during their current hike up in a forest. His hair came loose from the bun he’d pulled by the side of his head. Even then, Nene somehow always knew he’d undergo metamorphosis, because good things like him never stayed the same. She’d imprinted everything about the Rui that was a strange girl who discussed anything from weather to drowning to platypi to evil robots with the same amount of childlike eagerness.
Then, Nene’s dad called for them to catch up since they were falling behind. She attempted to walk slightly faster alongside Rui, since neither of them had any hope of athletics, even if just catching up with the rest of the families on the trip.
Four years passed, and Nene was right. The world could change tenfold in a matter of years. She saw Minori around occasionally, she’d Minori grown out her hair, swapped out her clothes for cuter, softer, more girlish ones, and began attending idol concerts with a stronger fervor. Rui had cut his own, and he’d forsaken his attempts at being more normal for what was a boy if he had to answer to anyone, but lied in the grey areas, and wore whatever he could find in his thrift shop of a closet. Nene found herself in a similar situation, a girl for ease yet nothing for certain, but in that same plain style that begged to not look towards her. She’d stopped taking NeneRobo around, forcing herself to speak even when it got hard.
She spent more and more time inside with her games and less and less with Rui and his family, who’d moved abruptly with a warning just a day in advance. They’d barely talked since, and never needed to with the difference in their years; it was just passing glances and long observations of each other. She’d been trying to keep up with how much he’d changed, how much his family changed too. Nene constantly wondered if he was doing the same with her, if he’d write it down in a little notebook as if he was ten again and she was one of his little science projects.
Nene was in her first year of high school, sitting and waiting on the teacher, alongside a good third of the class, when he came in and found his marked seat right next to hers.
“I’m Aoyagi Touya,” the boy next to Nene said.
Nene blinked, and four years ago flashed by her like a riptide — it was the same, the hair, the eyes, the mole. He was older now, but he was the boy from back then, the one who hauled her out of the river and ran off for help, but returned too late.
“K-Kusanagi… Nene…” she said, quiet. “I hope we can work together this year.”
“I do as well,” Touya said, avoiding Nene’s eyes. He seemed like a quiet boy, the silent type if anything. It would probably be something they shared through the years. “Are you a fan of music?”
“Yeah.”
“We have that in common,” he mused. Then he looked forward and didn’t speak again to her until they had to. She was used to silence, she didn’t know why this kind was so thick and uncomfortable. She felt like she was drowning again.
He hauled her to shore again with the words, “Can you lend me a pencil? I forgot mine.” She handed one to him and told him to keep it.
Nene saw him again at an arcade with three other kids: the hall monitor with the black and blue hair, the boy from the class next to theirs with piercings and too many layers, and an unfamiliar girl with curly blond-dyed hair. They crowded around him as he tried his hand and a claw machine. She watched him actually win against the dumb, rigged thing, a silly yellow snake with black diamond patterns, and hand it to the unfamiliar girl.
She thought about asking him to an arcade at some point. Later, she told herself. We’re not really even friends now. We could be.
She was friends again with Rui by the time they entered Wonderlands x Showtime. (Or, more like they became friends when they entered the troupe, because he’d made her attend it.) Nene received a text from an unknown number one night just saying, <charge nene-robo and meet me by my house~ - rui> with his new address sent right after.
Then, they pretended they’d never been friends like that around their troupe and they pretended it’d never broken when they were with their family. And it was fine. Poorly glued together art wouldn’t break again if you didn’t mess with it. So she didn’t.
It was during an English project on describing how they’d changed as they aged. That was when Touya realized when they’d met. The photo he brought looked similar to himself now, just smaller and dressed more formally. It was nostalgic, really.
Her own was much more different, more of a boy if anything, but rather the same besides that glaring aspect of it. He saw it and gaped, and she was sure it wasn’t for that aspect of it.
“I… think I met you before…?”
“My family found me and Rui did CPR on me before you could come back.”
“Oh,” he said.
At some point around then, they’d progressed into first names. She was wading through shallow water, traversable, easy, simple. She had no risk of drowning here unless she was a fucking idiot.
Nene began to find how close her and Touya’s seats were awkward, by around the first quarter, when Tsukasa Tenma decided to start visiting their class. The first time he had, she’d tried to duck under his desk as he made a beeline towards her. Then, he absolutely did not notice her under the table and slammed his hand on Touya’s desk.
“Touya!” he said, too loud as always. “How are you?”
“Good,” Touya said, looking up from his worksheet to Tsukasa’s hand. “Can I come to your house later? My dad’s a little…”
“My parents and Saki miss you greatly,” he assured Touya, patting his split hair.
“I visited just last week. Wait for me after school then,” Touya said with an amused smile, tapping the eraser of his pencil against his cheek.
Nene felt warm at his uncharacteristic smile. And she very reasonably decided to ignore it as soon as she rose from her hiding spot once Tsukasa left.
“You’re friends with Tsukasa?” Close terms, too, he called Touya by his first name…
“Since we were kids. Do you know him?”
“I’ve… eh, worked with him. Under a different guise, though, so he doesn’t really know me.”
“Hm,” he said, thoughtfully. “You work at Phoenix Wonderland then?”
“I’m a new part-timer.”
“Oh, interesting. I knew you liked musicals, but I didn’t take you for the type.”
“Mm-hm,” she said, looking away, hoping that her darker skin masked the blush she felt while thinking about how he’d leaned over while she watched a musical, taking the unused earbud and watching it with just as much interest.
Nene dropped her book a few hours later at home, the light of the moon and streetlamps peeking through the cracks in the blinds.
I like Touya, was her first thought. I am an absolute fucking idiot, was her second.
She made no effort to avoid Touya after that. It would be dumb and troublesome, considering their seats especially. She watched him a lot more though. His expressions were muted but nice, his smile especially. He was a pretty guy too, Nene thought that might’ve been a reason why she liked him. His hair was dumb but it was smooth and nice, his eyes and his mole were pretty.
Nene liked that he didn’t mind that she couldn’t speak sometimes, she liked that he was patient with her, she liked that he would lean over and watch whatever musical or play or game was on her screen. She liked that he was just Touya, and she liked that he would occasionally show her who that really was, under the silence and muted expressions.
Being in love with someone like Touya was like drowning, The sensation of everything you know being ripped out from you was something so painfully familiar. But love was better, she thought.
She still didn’t remember how it went, how she managed to tell him she liked him and how she managed not to die in the process. All Nene remembered was his eyes lighting up, his hug, and his response.
Touya Aoyagi liked a lot of people in the way they meant. He kissed his singing partners and took them on ridiculous dates. He looked at Rui with that soft smile sometimes, the one that made her heart hurt. Amia, her bastard of a self-proclaimed sorta-sibling, flirted with him and he tinged pink even despite his darker skin. Emu threw herself at him, calling him the most ridiculous petnames, and he didn’t shy away from it. But Nene was the same. She liked him, he liked her, and that was perfect.
They made plans for a date at an arcade a week after, and it was hysterically fun. He was good and claw machines and she was the best at most of the rest. They each won a stuffed animal each as a prize for each other, a soft green rabbit and a cartoonish blue bird.
Nene convinced him to come home with her, just for a little. He’d obliged, and they made their way into her house, glad her parents were out.
The moment they’d arrived at her room, Nene had tossed their things away and tumbled into her bed, hands gripped on Touya’s wrist to bring him down with her. He’d given no resistance, allowing him to fall softly next to her. His feet were inches from hanging off the edge and he looked like he was being smothered, but Nene could make direct eye contact with Touya, who was too tall for his own good, so she frankly could ignore his awkwardness in her bed.
It was funny. In Nene’s eyes, he’d been a prince before, plainly. It was a fact, the way that ice is cold, fire is hot, and playing games with thumbs was far more convenient. But he’s different when he’s screaming, smiling, shining, or pressed against another with his eyes smiling and his hair ruffled too far to tell when the two colors start and end. When he picked up the pieces of Nene's broken glass heart and mended them with all the strength he could, he wasn't so much a prince as he was Touya . Touya who was a loser, who did street music, who watched musicals with his friends and his not-just-friends, who could be duped by honeyed words, who saved her when she was a child and once more when she was fifteen.
“The Little Mermaid turned into sea foam at the end,” Nene said, quietly like it was a secret. It’d be pretentious whispering with anyone else, but, of course, Touya was Touya. She traced from the corner of his smiling eyes downwards, stopping her thumb against his mole.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Touya said, and his eyes somehow crinkled at the corners even more with his smiles. He was beautiful, Nene knew, but seeing him sprawled next to her was humanlike and it was somehow nicer. “I promise.”
“That’s good.”
“Besides,” he closed his eyes, furrowing his brow, and Nene realized he’s completely serious about this. It’s so like him that the fact made her chest warm and her lips twitch up, “if I can’t swim, I can’t be turned to that. I haven’t stepped foot into water since I brought you out of the river.”
“Avoiding water? A cowardly move, Touya.”
“Isn’t that something from one of your games? Avoiding water creatures?”
“Honestly, what do you think I play?” she huffed, but she knew she’s smiling like an absolute idiot. Touya is too now. “They're rock creatures. Idiot.”
He laughed. He even laughed nicely, somehow. “How may I repent for my grave error, then?”
“Stay longer.” Nene very romantically wiggled towards him, refusing to get up from the bed.
She imagined him looking up at the clock and down back at her. “Practice is in half an hour,” Touya caved in. He placed his chin over her head, cheeks tickled by her green hair.
She fell asleep quickly, and it was like a fading memory; the two of them so closely pressed together as she blacked out with bleary eyes. Touya was laughing this time, though, and it was so real that it made her hurt.
It’s another similarity, another allusion to their first meeting — with Touya, it's as if she was always drowning. He’d pull her back to shore, though, forever and always.
“Your friend left,” Nene’s mom called from the kitchen.
“I know,” Nene yawned, trying to itch her back. Her eyes were bleary with sleep and her hair was wild, but she didn’t feel like preening herself when she woke up.
“He’s a little familiar.”
“Classmate,” she said, neglecting to mention their incredibly informal first meeting by the river bed. Touya the Library Committee member who aced tests was the one her mom could know, not Touya who thought she was actually dead when they met.
Her mom nodded. “Oh, he did look like the boy from the cotton candy stand! He seems like such a sweet boy, he has an interest in music too… You should invite him more often.”
“I will,” Nene said. “You’ll see a lot more of him nowadays.”