Okay, so here's the next chapter! This story is actually getting pretty interesting...
Chapter 2: Thank You
“Nix! Catch!”
I put my hands out in front of me just to feel something cool and hard hit them. A bar of icecream?
“Thanks Kanaye.” I replied as I felt for the edges of the plastic before unwrapping the cold object and sticking it in my mouth. The sweet taste flooded my taste buds, making me shiver almost at the dramatic difference in temperature. Being blind, I was a lot more sensitive to these types of things.
I felt Kanaye plop down next to me and Zinan, who was munching on his own ice cream while we waited for Haru and Sachi to come back from the store. They were out buying us supplies just in case we couldn’t pay the rent, which was more than likely at this point seeing as we were wasting even more munny buying stuff like ice cream!! …But I’m not complaining! Then again, Haru did like to take plenty of pictures wherever we went, so we could be waiting for a while…
Recently I’ve been dreaming about that boy again. What’s weird is the fact that I can’t see his face, but I can… sense, I suppose, that he’s standing there, in front of me. Being blind for as long as I can remember, I never really seen my dreams, but I can dream about feelings and he leaves a strong sense of... security? …faith? …trust? There wasn’t really a way for me to understand the colors or beauty that people claimed to see or dream about because I couldn’t see it, but I could feel things. And that is what made all the difference in the world to me…
“Zinan! Nix! Kanaye!” I turned towards the sound of the Sachi’s voice right before she rammed into me, knocking the ice cream clean out of my hands with the impact and hugging me in a tight embrace. I laughed and hugged her backing greeting. Haru’s footsteps padded lightly to my left as he watched us, amusement radiating off of him before he sat down on the sidewalk next to Zinan.
Sachi was chattering excitedly like the little kid she was. “-and there was a ton of different candy there and I couldn’t decide which one I wanted, so I asked this one guy and he said to pick the green one because it looked yummy and I told him that it was mint and I don’t like mint and he laughed and asked if I had tried mint before and I told him no and he laughed again-” She kept going on, relaying every possible detail to me as Kanaye and Zinan talked to Haru, discussing what he had bought. I smiled patiently as I listened to Sachi’s story. “-but Haru didn’t agree even though I begged him to get the red sleeping bag but he said that the red one was too expensive so I told him that you’d like the red one, but then he said you wouldn’t care what color it was so we bought the blue one and then we left and he wanted to take a picture of this bird but the bird kept on flying away so we had to chase it to its nest and there were these baby birds there and Haru took a picture of them and- They got your present, Nix!” she stopped excitedly. I blinked.
“Wait, what was that?” I asked, confused. Sachi tugged on my arm, pulling me to my feet before guiding me to the three boys that I hadn’t realized had left in the first place.
“Hold out you hand.” Haru said quietly. I complied. He grasped my hand with his own and placed something in my palm. I wrapped my hand around it and realized it was a metal cylinder that was about an inch around. I ran my other hand over it, my eyes wide with shock.
“What –what is this?” I stuttered in surprise. They all laughed.
“It’s for your birthday silly!” Kanaye said, ruffling my hair with one of his hands.
“We wanted to get you something that would help you get around when you’re at work, so we got you this.” Zinan added. “Press the button that’s near your thumb. It extends so that you can use it as a walking stick of sorts.” I nodded and ran my hand down the short length of the rod. Sure enough, there was a small button next to my thumb. Pressing it with my thumb, I felt a gear click and the metal quickly extended to form a long pole that was taller than I was. I laughed.
“This is amazing!” I exclaimed in joy as I pressed the button again and it shrank back to its normal size. “How in the world did you afford this?” I asked in amazement. Their silence was eerie and almost… awkward? I waited patiently. No one said anything. “Okay,” I muttered harshly, stuffing the metal bar into the pocket of my jeans before folding my arms across my chest. “Start talking.” No one spoke at fist, but then Haru sighed and rubbed the nape of his neck with his hand, slightly embarrassed.
“We begged our bosses to give us a bonus, so that we would be able to afford paying the rent tomorrow. They agreed to give us each a bonus as long as we worked twice as hard as usual, so we did. We worked our butts off and got more than we had originally expected. It was enough munny to pay the rent and even get some more sleeping bags. When we were going home today, however, we realized we hadn’t gotten you anything for your birthday. We felt guilty.”
Kanaye spoke up. “We realized that we weren’t always there to help you out, like when you were at work, so we looked into things that could be there for you. We searched for hours trying to find something just right for you. A pet would be to rash and frighten you easily; a skateboard or a scooter would be nearly impossible for you to use because you wouldn’t be able to see if you are about to run into anything. We finally stumbled across this.”
“The vendor who was selling it wanted quite a lot of munny for it and we knew we wouldn’t have enough without spending some of the money that we were going to use to pay the rent.” Zinan added. “We knew that we wouldn’t be able to earn any more munny if we tried, so we looked at our options. There wasn’t much we could do. Sachi came up with an idea that if we each sold something that was precious to us, it would be enough.” I blinked. What did he mean by ‘something that was precious?’
Sachi put my hand on her mouth so that I could feel her smile. “We each wanted to contribute something.” She said quietly before she guided my hand to the top of her head. I gasped.
“Sachi,” I whispered softly. “What happened to you hair?”
Sachi smiled. “I wanted to help too, so I cut it off and sold it. Besides, you needed the stick more than I needed my hair.” I was in shock as I ran my fingers through her now pixie-length hair. I stuttered.
“But you loved your hair… It was so pretty…” I uttered softly. She shrugged.
“I love you more.” she replied, grinning. I fell to my knees with tears in my eyes that were threatening to spill over and I hugged her tightly.
“Thank you.” I whispered. I could feel her lips stretch into an even widen grin as she wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me back, pressing her small head into my shoulder. Oh, how I loved having a ‘little sister’ like her…
Kanaye cleared his throat slightly and I looked up towards the source of the noise. He snorted and said sarcastically, “What, no hugs for us?”
My eyes grew wide and I stuttered. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s okay! I kid! I kid!” Kanaye assured me before chuckling slightly. I smiled slightly before tilting my head in curiosity.
“What did you do, Kanaye?” I asked, curious now that he had mentioned it.
He stammered. “L- look! It was nothing really! I mean, it was just a pair of goggles and my skateboard- It was nothing, honestly! I don’t even really use it!” I couldn’t understand why he was blushing, but there was enough heat radiating off of his face that I could tell it he was embarrassed to talk about it. I smiled sincerely at him. He gave up riding his skateboard to help me out. That was way more than nothing to me.
“Thank you for doing that, Kanaye. It means a lot to me.” I said softly. He blushed even more.
“N-no problem.” He stuttered. I laughed slightly and one of the other boys snickered. I glanced over at him and grinned slyly. “And what exactly did you do?” He was silent for a moment, stunned at being caught, but then he answered.
“I sold my father’s camera and his old reading glasses.” Haru stated. “You wouldn’t be able to see the pictures anyway, so it made sense to sell it.” He shrugged. “They got more money than I thought they would.” I gaped at him.
“But taking pictures is your life!”
He shrugged. “I can always get another camera.” He replied. I shook my head.
“But that was your father’s camera! You won’t be able to find another one like it!” He smiled.
“So be it.” he replied. I blinked and smiled in gratitude.
“Thank you...” He snorted, slightly amused at my emotional state, but shrugged. I smiled at him and then looked down at the floor. I opened my mouth to ask, but he beat me to it.
“Before you ask,” Zinan stated, running a hand through his hair, “I sold my mother’s locket. An old lady that works at one of the inns was asking for it before, but I told her it wasn’t for sale. She said she would pay me triple the face value, but I still turned her down. That was a few months ago. Since the situation demanded it, I just went back to her and she bought it. She’s been pestering me for a while, so it was almost a relief to give it to her. End of story. No need to thank me.”
I was silent, but I nodded, respecting his wishes. “Thank you anyway.” I said quietly before smiling. “Thank you all. Now can we go home? I’m starving!” They all laughed, the previous tension now gone as a sense of normalcy took its place. I pushed myself up and grabbed the stick out of my pocket, pressing the button on the end to make it longer. I glanced down at Sachi and grinned, squeezing her hand. She giggled and began pulling me forward, helping me to get used to the bar that was tight in my grasp.
When we finally got back to the hideaway, I was semi-used to having the staff-like thing, but I still needed plenty of practice before I got used to it. Kanaye celebrated for about a moment when he found that they had bought him a sleeping bag, because the next moment he was asleep in it, curled up in his usual spot. Zinan laughed. “Too bad no one told him we bought a cake…” Less than a second after Zinan said that, Kanaye was awake again and standing next to him with a hungry look in his eyes.
“Cake?!” he asked excitedly. Everyone laughed.
Before I knew it, happy birthday was being sung and I was being asked to blow out the candles. Holding my hand out in front of me to feel the heat of the candles and to have a general idea of where they were, I closed my eyes (even though it was unnecessary) and made a wish. It was the wish I wished for as long as I could remember.
I wish I could find out who he is.
I blew and the candles’ heat disappeared, telling me that they had gone out. The group cheered and I blushed slightly. Haru cut the cake and Kanaye gobbled it down greedily. I felt someone put a plate in my hand and place a fork in the other. Guiding the hand with the fork, they moved my hand and touched the tip of the fork on the cake before releasing both of my hands. I felt a slight gust of wind as the person plopped down next to me. I looked up at them. “Thank you, Zinan.” I said quietly. He just shrugged. There was no reason to talk as I ate beside him, thinking about my wish.
Zinan made the silence comfortable as we (more accurately he) watched Kanaye beg Haru to let him have another slice before turning to Sachi when he got denied and asking for some of her cake. I giggled slightly when I heard him groan when neither of the siblings would actually budge and give him some. I felt the ground vibrate as he flopped down onto the floor on his knees and literally groveled for another piece of cake, saying that he would absolutely die if he didn’t get one. I laughed when I heard Haru say to ‘get off of him’ and they began running around the room, Kanaye chasing Haru as Haru tried to protect the cake. I smiled at my family. I never wanted this to end.
...when I re-read this, I realized something.
This chapter is extremely cheesy.
Oh well, I can't do much about it now. Any questions, comments, or concerns, put them in that little box and press submit! If you want to go to my DA account and see some of my other work, click here.
Nix, Kanaye, Sachi, Haru, and Zinan (c) by ME!!!!
Kingdom Hearts (c) by NOT ME!!!!
