Hollow Point

Noire ran into the kitchen, Daelen following close behind. "Oh, hi." she said quietly to both her mom and dad.

"Hello, Noire, Daelen." Haruka said, bowing respectfully. "I was just about to start making dinner. Would you guys like to help me?"

Tomi bowed as well and smirked as he looked at Daelen. "Haruka, think we should let them cook for a change. Daelen-kun is a chef, am I right?"

Noire stiffened. "I wouldn't lie to you, Daddy. Of course he is. Though, since he isn't used to cooking Japanese food, I'm going to go help him." She wrapped her arm around his waist, plastering a smile onto her face.

"Oh no you aren't, Noire. We're going to go look at this beautiful wedding kimono I found today." Haruka pulled her daughter away from Daelen and tugged her off into the other room.

His eyes widened in panic. "But, I." He looked desperately to Noire. He couldn't cook at all, nevermind Japanese food...What was he going to do?

Noire sat impatiently as her mother flipped through wedding books.

"Oh, sweetheart look how pretty this kimono is. You've always looked stunning in pink and white. Do you want to get this one?" Haruka picked up the phone, ready to order it as soon as Noire agreed.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Mom. It's beautiful. Just get that one." With that, she stood up and strolled back out into the kitchen, seeing Daelen frantically running about the room, obviously trying to find something.

He looked up as she approached, whispering frantically, "What am I supposed to do?!" while Haruka showed her husband the wedding kimono.

"Get out the skillet under the sink and grab the peppers from fridge." Noire glided across the floor, grabbing the other necessary spices and pastas she was going to need. "You have to cut the peppers into thin strips. You put the pasta in boiling water, then combine them both in the skillet. Grind in some pepper and these Japanese spices and just mix them all in until it smells good." She smiled, putting everything on the counter. "You'll do fine."

Daelen did as she instructed and set to work. But a half hour passed, and it proved that he was doing everything but fine.

"Oh god, Noire," he groaned, looking at the mess he made.

She laughed, hugging him around the waist. "At least the pasta didn't burn too badly. We could just have pasta with meat sauce."

Daelen nodded. "Maybe we should rethink the whole 'chef' profession for me," he said quietly.

Noire looked at the ground. "I don't think we can, Daelen. You don't know how my dad feels about lying." She shifted her weight awkwardly. "Maybe sometime we can start out with something simpler and at a time when we're not rushed."

"Alright." Daelen desperately hoped he got better at this cooking thing, for both their sakes.
--
Noire bounced into her favorite CD store, dragging Daelen along behind her. "I'm going to buy 3 CDs of my three favorite Japanese rock bands. You'll learn to like them." Smiling, she ran off to the back of the store, searching through the racks.

After 20 minutes, she turned to Daelen, holding the 3 CDs out for him to inspect. "I got Nightmare, Dir En Grey, and The GazettE."

He took them in interest, inspecting Nightmare the longest. "Can we listen to them?" he asked.

"Of course. Let me just pay for these, then we can drive around the city while we listen to them in the car." She went up to the cashier and gave him the money, before heading outside and getting in the car. "Here, put it in for me." She handed Daelen the CD and got onto the highway.

He placed the CD onto the tray carefully and pushed it in. He pressed play and waited as music began to filter in, a guitar playing a particularly catchy riff. He bobbed his head to it.

A new song came on within a few minutes and Noire gasped. "I love this song!" she exclaimed, turning the music up louder. "Kono saki wa, nanimo nai boku wo. Waratta, taiyou to, semi no koe, sonna sekai no owari ni…" she sang.

Daelen just smiled as he listened to her sing the foreign words for a few moments. Suddenly, he wanted to know what she was singing. "What's this song about?" he asked curiously.

She turned to him and smiled a bit. "It's actually really sad and powerful. It's about having a bad past and wanting so very badly to disappear, but knowing you can't. And every day, you must face the pain. But then, it becomes upbeat. It talks about when the person is reborn again, they'll have a smile on their face, and is basically saying at that time, it'll be okay."

Daelen looked down at his hands. "It sounds almost as if...as if they wrote the song about my life," he said, pain obvious in his voice.

Noire frowned, placing her hand on his knee, before removing it, afraid it was too intimate. "I know, Daelen. We can change the song, if you want to."

He shook his head. "No, it's alright. I can't understand what they're saying, anyways."

"Okay, Daelen. Feel free to do so if you don't want to listen to it." she said smiling sweetly.
--
"So, Noire. I meant to tell you. Your wedding kimono should be in the dress shop around the corner in a week or so. We'll be going there as a family to try it on, okay?" Haruka said quietly, picking up the small square of tofu with her chopsticks.

Noire's heart raced and she glanced over at Daelen, a worried expression on her face. "Yeah, that sounds great, Mom. Daelen and I can't wait."

Daelen blushed incredibly deep. Noire's family seemed really excited about this wedding thing. He wondered what was going to happen when they finally had to tell them they weren't even together, nevermind engaged.

Almost as though he knew and wanted to make Daelen feel more guilty, Tomi joined the conversation to talk about suits. "We should probably get you a tuxedo pretty soon, as well," he said.

Haruka nodded and kissed her husband's cheek. "We'll get it when we pick up Noire's kimono."

Noire sighed quietly and got up, taking everyone's plates. "Thank you for dinner, Mom. It was wonderful." She placed the plates in the sink and sulked off to her room.

Daelen followed after a moment, shutting the door behind them and leaning against it. He blew out air in exasperation and looked at Noire. "How are we not going to get married at this point?"

"I don't know, Daelen..okay?" She threw herself down on her bed and buried her face deep within her favorite pillow. "I'll tell them after we get the stupid kimono. That way, if I ever really do get married, which is becoming doubtful at this point, I'll have it." she mumbled through the pillow.

He frowned and went over to the bed, sitting beside her. He started stroking her hair without realizing what he was doing. "Why is it 'doubtful at this point'?"

Noire looked up at him, her eyes red and puffy. "It just is. It's never been easy for me. No one liked me in high school. I barely had any friends besides Asa. Everyone made fun of me because I was such a technology person. No guy has ever shown interest in me." Anger ran through her voice as she continued to recall her past, tears flowing from her eyes

"You know, I was like that, too," Daelen said quietly. It pained him to talk about his past at all, but he wanted to make her feel better. "I actually skipped a grade, but I was never good at talking to others. I was a bit of the weird kid.".

"You're good at talking to me.." she said timidly, sitting up next to him. "In fact, you're really the only other friend I've ever had besides Asa. In college, no one really liked me because everyone thought that I was a teacher's pet and that I was stuck up, because honestly, I was really good at what I studied. People never got to really know the person I really was, because they truly never took the time to come up and say 'Hello.'"

"Well, it takes courage to do that," he replied. "Everyone's always worrying about what others think. So much sometimes that they stop living their own life and try to live it as others expect them to."

More tears streamed down Noire's face. "I was one of those people, Daelen. I lived to please my father. Every time I messed up, my dad would get really upset with me. I always had to do what he wanted me to do and I had to do it perfectly."

Daelen grimaced. He had wanted to make Noire feel better, but instead, he had said the very thing that made her cry even more. He hugged her, trying to convey comfort through the contact. "You can be just you around me, you know that right?" he murmured in a soothing voice.

"I know, Daelen. I am myself around you." She rested her head on his shoulder, trying to calm down.

He kept his arm around her, trying to make her feel better. As their comfortable silence stretch on though, Daelen wondered if distraction would be a better option. He needed to learn some more Japanese anyways. "Are you up for some more lessons, then?" he asked softly.

"Of course, Daelen. What do you think you should be learning now?" Noire pulled back from him, running her fingers through his hair again. "Soooffttt.." she said, giggling

He flushed as he felt her hands on his scalp, remembering what had almost happened last time they were touching each other's hair. He refrained from reaching out to comb through hers again. "Uhh," he said dumbly, his thoughts in a jumble. He mentally slapped himself, forcing himself back onto subject. "How about basic courtesy?" he suggested, saying the first thing that popped into his head.

"Okay." she said blushing. "To ask someone 'How are you?' you have to say 'O genkidesu ka?'" She smiled. "If someone was to ask you, and you were doing well, you would respond 'Watashi mo anata ni kansha shite imasu. Soshite, jibun jishin o?'..Now, practice on me."

"Alright. O genkidesu ka, Noire-chan?" he asked, stumbling slightly over the pronounciation.

Noire giggled quietly. " 'Watashi mo anata ni kansha shite imasu. Soshite, jibun jishin o?" she asked back to him.

He looked a little confused. "What's that last part mean again?"

"And yourself?" she said, traces of her accent hidden within those two words.

He laughed. "I suspected so. So I guess I don't have to say it when you ask me, then." He cleared his throat. "Watashi mo anata ni kansha shite imasu," he replied, smiling.

Noire grinned widely. "Good job, Daelen. Here's your prize." She took a small Japanese glass candy. "I hope you like pineapple. That's the only one I didn't eat last night."

He looked at it, smirking. "It's got a tiny pineapple on it," he remarked, popping it into his mouth.

She nodded, trying to pull an emotion from his reaction. "Is it good? If you like it, maybe we can go to the general store and get another bag."

Daelen made a face and threw the candy into the wastebasket. "Pineapple, not for me. However, I'm sure the rest of the candies will be better." He stood, holding out his hand for her to take. "Let's go."

Noire blushed, grabbing onto his hand. "Okay."
--
They stepped in the store, the bell on the door ringing loudly.

"Konnichiwa." the clerk said, bowing slightly. Noire and Daelen did the same to him, before beginning to look around.

"If you find something else you want to try, just let me know. I'll buy it for you. Don't go too crazy though." She smiled at Daelen, before going in her own direction to get more candy.

Daelen looked around, inspecting each shelf thoroughly, trying to read the strange inscriptions for objects he didn't recognize. He bumped into Noire on the third aisle, and looked up, blushing. "Sorry," he said.

She smiled. "Show me what you have interest in. I can tell you what it is." In her arms, 5 big bags of the candy nearly fell to the ground. She grinned sheepishly.

He pointed to a bag of what looked like sticks with chocolate, looking puzzled. "I've never seen anything like that before," he answered.

Noire shoved the bags at him and took all 7 Pocky boxes. "These are man's greatest gift, Daelen. They're vanilla sticks and you dip them in chocolate. At the ends, they have cute animals." She squealed. "Let's go check out."

Daelen followed, amused by her enthusiasm, but a little confused as to what was so great about them. As they approached the counter and set all their things down, he let her handle the money, looking at in interest.

"Arigato!" she said to the clerk, bowing once again, before grabbing the bags filled with goodies and dragging Daelen out of the store.
--
"Are you ready to try the greatest thing on Earth?" Noire asked in anticipation.

Daelen looked thoughtful. "I don't know. Maybe not."

She glared at him, picking out a stick with a cow on it. "Have a moo cow."

He coughed. "A what now?"

Noire blushed slightly. "When I was little, I called cows 'moo cows.' I've called them that ever since. Now eat the damn stick."

Daelen looked confused. "Sticks aren't edible."

She frowned. "Why are you acting like this? You know what I mean." Hurt was apparent in her voice.

"What?" His confusion seemed to deepen, until realization struck. "I...I'm sorry. I forgot that they were candy," he explained quickly. "Honestly, I wasn't trying to mock you. I'd never do that," he said earnestly.

Nodding, she dipped his vanilla stick in a generous amount of chocolate, handing it to him. "You can double dip. I don't mind sharing your germs." She managed to crack a small smile.

He nodded, taking a cautious bite. Finding the pocky satisfactory, he smiled and dipped into more chocolate.

Noire handed him another 3 boxes of Pocky, before reaching for a new one herself. "My moo cow will defeat your dog." she said, pulling out a stick with another cow at the end.

"There's no doubt about that," Daelen murmured, distracted. He was looking at her mouth. "You have chocolate on the corner of your mouth," he said softly, hesitantly reaching out.

"O-oh. Thank you, Daelen.." she said quietly, blushing from her neck up.

He smiled vaguely and wiped the chocolate away softly. A blush came over his face as he realized what he did, and he looked up at her for her reaction.

Noire leaned forward, making it so there was barely any space between their lips. "Daelen..I've wanted to tell you..I..I-"

"Noire, what did you get at the general store? I saw that we were out of sugar again. Did you happen to get some?..Oh..I'm sorry." Haruka stood in the doorway again, a smirk appearing on her face.

"Mom! Seriously, again?" She pulled away quickly, blushing furiously.

Daelen felt the heat increase in his face. His heart was beating against his ribcage. He looked down, fiddling with his hands. Honestly, Haruka-sama probably plans this, he thought illogically. Although, I'm sure she's assuming we kiss all the time... A shiver ran up his spine at the thought.

"Sorry, Noire. I'll go get the sugar now." Haruka rushed out the door, her casual kimono flowing behind her.

Noire looked at the ground, still blushing. "I'm sorry."

Daelen likewise refused to look at her. "No it's uh...it's fine. I'm going to...to..." He got up and took a step to her room. "Uh. Shower." he invented, not sounding very convincing. What he really needed was time to think things over. He remembered her words before the interruption. Daelen...I've wanted to tell you...As he softly closed Noire's door, butterflies burst in his stomach. Was it possible that this 'charade' was becoming genuine? He shook his head and stepped into the shower, complicated thoughts swirling through his head.