Chapter Text
Hiyori finds herself waiting on the blue bench at Faraway park, not really paying attention to anyone or anything. She leans back on her hands, swinging her legs slightly, just looking up at the sky. She’s waiting for someone, someone she’s not sure would even show up. Honestly, why would he? She’s still surprised that Basil wants to talk with her, much less Rowan. She’s still surprised that she wants to talk with Basil! But honestly, seeing Sunny make so much effort to try and mend things, it…well, you could say it was inspiring. A little reaching out, a little talking, a little venting, and now he and Hiyori are friends again. And…not just with Basil. With Rowan too.
Her heart aches a little just thinking about him. Even after she and Rowan argued and fought hard after the truth came out, there was a small part of herself that dared to hope they could reconnect. She tried to bury that part of her deep deep down, but…she really couldn’t. Heh, maybe that’s part of the reason why she wanted to reconnect with Basil too. She lets out a long sigh. No, she shouldn’t think like that. She and Basil were close friends before…all of what happened, and she treasured his friendship back then, and treasures it right now. But whatever the case, she’s glad. So glad, because now, after all is said and done, they’re finally-
”Hiyo!” She’s startled out of her thoughts by the sight and sound of Rowan walking up to her with a wave. She stands up suddenly, starting to grin widely but trying to keep it down due to feeling embarrassed, hiding her mouth with her hand. He slows down as he gets closer, himself wearing an awkward but sweet smile. “Sorry for keeping you waiting, Polly was, uh…” He let’s out a sigh of frustration as he indicates his clothing, a rather nice looking black pressed shirt with matching dark jeans. “She was rather insistent I have ‘proper date clothing’, whatever the hell that means.”
Hiyo looks down at her own shirt, one of her favorites, a pikachu shirt that had the original fat pikachu design on it from before they made pikachu do cardio. “Well now I feel underdressed…”
”Right? I was gonna match with you, have my own goofy shadow shirt on, but Polly was all ‘oh no you can’t do that, you gotta show off your handsomeness’ and all that.”
”You think my shirt is goofy?”
”Yes.”
Hiyori looks up at him with her best pouting face. “It’s not goofy…it’s a cool shirt…it has pikachu on it…” Rowan chuckles as he puts his arms on the back of his head, starting to walk along. Hiyori starts following after him, and after pouting a bit, she walks faster, up closer to Rowan. She glances over at his face, which Rowan notices, glancing back. They both look away, feeling slightly embarrassed as the two of them arrive at Rowan’s car, Hiyori getting into the passenger seat.
Rowan starts the car up and starts cruising down the road as Hiyori looks at him again. “By the way…how’s Sunny doing? Is he ok?”
”Don’t fret, Basil isn’t gonna stab him in the eye again or anything.” Rowan looks over at Hiyori, who doesn’t look amused in the slightest, before letting out an awkward cough. “Though…they are sleeping in separate rooms. They’re fine, though, really.”
Hiyori nods slightly. “Kel’s parents have been really nice too, letting me stay there.” They’ve been here for summer vacation for the past week or so, Hiyori more or less tagging along with Sunny.
“They’d better be, or I’d have to do something about it, heh.” Rowan grins widely as Hiyori covers her mouth, smiling again.
“That sounds like something you’d say when we were kids.” Her voice is quiet and wistful.
“Oh. Y-yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Hiyori suddenly feels embarrassed and can’t bring herself to look at Rowan, looking instead out the window. Though, if she did look at him she would see his face beet red.
- - - - - - -
The two of them arrive at the Nearby movie theatre, Rowan stretching his limbs out as he gets out. He hears Hiyori start to get out and hurriedly speaks up. “H-hang on, wait a sec!” Hiyori flinches, unsure of what’s happening as Rowan speeds along to the other side of the car, with the car door unfortunately still open. Aw well, this’ll still work, hopefully. He clears his throat, dusts off his shirt, then offers his hand towards Hiyori. “Would you like some help getting out, there?” Agh, he was supposed to add a compliment at the end! But all the things that came to mind were too embarrassing to say. Things like lovely lady, pretty lady, sweet girl. Ok maybe that last one would’ve been a dud.
Regardless, Hiyori blushes as she slowly takes Rowan’s hand, lifting herself up with his help. “Thanks.” She manages to squeak out a word before Rowan closes the door behind her. He then starts leading her towards the movie theatre, still holding her hand. Her heart feels fluttery and she can’t help but to start slightly swinging her arm as the two of them walk on. Rowan notices and glances over towards her, giving a smile as he also starts swinging his arm.
Once they get close to the entrance of the movie theatre, Hiyori stops swinging her arm. Rowan, however, wasn’t finished swinging and almost yanks Hiyori’s arm out of its socket, pulling her closer to him. She almost trips and Rowan catches her, putting his hand around her waist to do so. The two are still for a moment, looking into each other’s eyes, before they separate really quickly, both avoiding each other’s eyes. “W-we sh-should get in now.” Hiyori stammers as she leads the way, Rowan nodding and following her.
”So, what movie are we watching anyways, Rowan?” He insisted that it ‘be a surprise’ when the two of them planned this, though Hiyori insisted she pay. Rowan grins as he puts his finger to his mouth. “Go ahead and get our popcorn and stuff and I’ll show you.” Hiyori nods as she walks to the concession stand. She quickly buys a big tub of popcorn (for them to share) and a couple drinks. She looks around in confusion at the many movies playing until she sees the title of one at the very end, and her eyes light up like stars.
Detective Pikachu.
Rowan looks over at her, and he’s a bit surprised at first, but then grins widely. He managed to see her smile without covering her mouth at all. It’s such a rare sight, and it’s always a treat when he manages to catch it. Her smile is so wide and happy and so…….pretty…… God she’s so pretty. Hiyori looks over at him, a question in her eyes that he only answers with a nod, which gets her even more excited. She grabs his hand and just bolts down to the theatre door, pulling him along and spilling some popcorn along the way. Rowan finds himself laughing as he’s pulled in.
- - - - - - -
Rowan finds himself in a predicament. He glances over at Hiyori, who is utterly enraptured by the story of this silly talking yellow rat. Which is good, perfect even, exactly what Rowan wanted and expected. And honestly it’s pretty good, Rowan finds himself liking it a lot too.
However he didn’t account for the fact he would wanna do things like hold hands during the movie. Hiyori, however, is not letting anything distract her from this. He even intentionally left his hand in the popcorn bucket they’re sharing once and when Hiyori brushed his hand, she just mumbled out a “sorry” before grabbing some popcorn! It’s like she forgot this is a date!
Rowan won’t lie, he is a little annoyed. Whenever he glances over at Hiyori, though, those thoughts start melting along with his heart. It’s not very often that she lets herself be so open. Maybe the combination of the darkness of the movie theatre and the fact it’s a pikachu movie has something to do with it, but whatever the case, Rowan knows he’s experiencing something special right now. He leans back in his seat, holding in a sigh. It’s fine, they can hang out still after the movie is over. May as well enjoy this movie while he can.
Holy shit did they just set that dude on fire?!?!
- - - - - - -
Hiyori and Rowan sit down together at the bench in Faraway, the cool air and darkness being a cool blanket around them as they keep a little bit apart, close to each other but bodies not quite touching. Hiyori swings her legs a little, occasionally sneaking a glance at Rowan when she thinks he’s not looking. To her own surprise, she’s the first once to break the silence.
“This was nice.”
Rowan looks at her, surprised as well, before he smiles. “Yeah. It was.” It’s quiet for a little longer, but Hiyori feels emboldened by the genuinely good time she had and Rowan’s sweetness. She slides herself closer to Rowan, their bodies touching. Rowan flinches at first, but quickly relaxes into it, himself bringing his hand onto hers and intertwining their fingers. Their hearts are both beating very fast, many different thoughts zooming in both of their heads. Hiyori can scarcely believe that she was so lucky. What did she ever do to deserve this?
What……..
What did she do to deserve this?
Hiyori starts….crying.
It’s as much a surprise to her as it is to Rowan. She doesn’t sob at first, but once she figures out she’s crying, she tries to cover it up, feeling panic rise up her throat, making it harder to be quiet. No! No! She was having such a good time! Why is this happening?! She’s gonna fuck it all up! She lets go of Rowan’s hand, the world around her shrinking, barely even able to acknowledge Rowan’s cries of concern.
She tries to keep it in, but it hurts too much to. She starts openly sobbing now, feeling her self-loathing take over her entire body. Her inadequacies. Her failures. All piling up in her thoughts, yelling at her. She’s just not good enough for him. She never will be. What was she even thinking, there’s no way that he would-!
She feels hands. Hands on her face, gentle hands. She struggles with opening her eyes, her sight blurred by the tears that the hands are wiping away. It hurts her heart to see him concerned for her. “I don’t get it. Why, Rowan? Why me? I’ve been…so horrible. I’m awful, I’m just…back then, I should have-“ Rowan quiets her down by pulling her into a tight hug, Hiyori gasping softly as he does so.
“We’ve…both done a lot that we regret, Hiyori. And, we’ve both done a lot to move on. You, and me, and Basil and Sunny too. And, despite it all, despite everything………..I cared about you.” He tightens his hug, grip intensifying, feeling like he might cry himself if he lets Hiyori go. “I never stopped.”
She lets out a shuddering gasp. Her voice is quiet as she speaks.
“Oh.”
The two stay together like that for a long while, Hiyori’s shuddering breaths getting quieter and quieter, until eventually they reach a somewhat comfortable silence. Rowan leads her back over to the bench slowly, the two separating as they sit down, but almost immediately coming back together, Rowan bringing his arm to Hiyori’s side and Hiyori hesitantly putting her head on his shoulder, managing to get herself to relax into him a bit.
”I’m sorry Rowan.” Her voice is soft and fragile. Rowan grips tighter onto Hiyori as she says this, bringing her even closer. He speaks even softer than her, Hiyori barely able to hear him.
”I’m sorry too, Hiyori.”
”Do you……still…..?” The last word is spoken in a hushed whisper, as though simply speaking more will make her fears real.
Rowan glances over towards her, then boldly kisses her forehead, giving her a gentle smile. “Does that answer your question?”
Hiyori is silent as she blushes, settling into Rowan’s shoulder more comfortably. Soon, the two of them calm down, breathing slowly, and simply enjoy each others company.