Everything, an Ayamiya story

2

  "Ayato?" I called out as I rounded the corner into Ayato's office area with Thoma behind me. "Ah, Ayaka, there you are. Come, sit." He motioned to the space in front of the table. I kneeled down, and Thoma left the room, probably to go start lunch.

  "I'm sure you've already guessed why I asked you here?" Ayato said. I nodded. "Ayaka, you need to start thinking about marriage, and I'm going to tell you right now that I'm not going to force you to marry anyone you don't want to, but you do need to start considering the options." I sighed a bit "I understand but-" "Before you ask why I haven't gotten married yet myself, I'm also thinking about it." "Have you found anyone suitable yet?" I asked, letting curiosity get the best of me.

He hesitated for a moment which was unusual for him "There is someone I'm in love with but they're not exactly someone I can marry." He hushed his voice and avoided eye contact. "That's... Not what I expected you to say." He cleared his throat "Moving on, I don't want to put you under any pressure, and you also have plenty of time to decide. Just start considering it. That's all." I began to stand up "Thank you for your time."

  I turned and left the room. The meeting went, for the most part, as expected. I already had an idea of all the men around my age who would be suitable, but none of them stuck out to me. I would probably just go for whichever one had the highest status.

-time skip-

  With the festival approaching fast, there was plenty to do. One of the vendors could no longer fill his position so we were scrambling to find a replacement, and there were still many things we needed to gather. I had volunteered to supervise the site as I most likely wouldn't have an opportunity to see it otherwise.

  "Miss Kamisato, does this look nicer hung like this or like this?" a worker called out to me. "I think the first positioning looks nicer but it's up to you." "Thank you ma'am!" "Miss Kamisato! Where do we set this up?" "I believe that there should suffice?" I replied pointing at an empty space "Thank you!" "Miss Kamisato! The fireworks are here!"

  I turned around to see Yoimiya and a few others holding large crates filled to the brim with fireworks. "Yoimiya! That looks dangerous, you walked all the way over here holding that? You could have hurt yourself!" I said worriedly. "I'm fine Ayaka, do you want to help set these up?" She said gesturing to the box in her arms." "Oh, I'm not sure. I don't have the experience I'm sure you all do."

  "These two?" She asked, looking at the guys carrying the other crates. "Nah, they're just friends I got to help so I wouldn't have to make three trips." "Still, I'm already quite busy, sorry." "Aww that sucks. C'mon guys, over here."   And with that, she turned to go set up.

  It only took them about 30 minutes, most of the work being done by Yoimiya. She looked like she was really in her element, her gorgeous eyes locked in on the colourful explosives. Her tongue stuck out of the corner of her mouth, a habit she's had since we were little that I always thought was adorable.

  I continued to help out with everyone as much as I could, despite their hesitancy. People tried to insist I just sit and watch, perhaps because of my status. After a while, everyone needed a break, so I decided to go sit at the very tip of the small island, overlooking the water.

  The wind blew softly, causing little petals from the trees to dance through the air. The evening sky reflected across the water, and the city in the distance began to light up. The Grand Narukami Shrine's purple aura overlooked the whole island. It reminded me of the sort of thing that would be in a romance novel, too good to be true.

 "Ayaka! Mind if I sit with you?"  I recognized the voice instantly but still turned around. "Yes, of course." Yoimiya grinned and plopped down beside me. Her smile shone a million times brighter than the stars, just beginning to dot the quickly darkening sky as the sun disappeared further beyond the horizon.

My heart began to beat a bit faster in my chest, and I could feel my cheeks growing pink. Was this... Love? No. That can't be right. We're just close friends. That's all it is. That's all it will ever be. Even if this feeling in my chest really is what I think it might be, it must be one sided.

"Ayaka? You ok? You're staring at me funny." I was startled and jumped back a bit "Oh, yes, I'm fine. Thank you for your concern. I was just spacing out." "Ah, ok! Anyway, look what I got!" she smiled as she held up a handful of sparklers. "Sparklers? You use those all the time don't you? Of course they're still very pretty." "These are special ones! Just watch."

I watched her grab the first sparkler, and as it lit up, the first thing that struck me was that it was a different colour than the usual goldy orange colour. "It's... Rainbow?" "Yep! Isn't it cool?" "It's beautiful..." I say, mesmerized by the lights and colours, just like when we were kids.

"Take a look at the other ones!" she said holding up different coloured sparklers. The colours seemed quite familiar... "Is that... My hair colour?" "Yep, that's what I was going for! I made these ones based on your dress colour too!" "That's so sweet of you, they're very pretty." I said, smiling at her.

She was so much prettier than any sparkler. We talked and laughed together until the sun set, and the colourful sky turned a deep blue, covered in shining little stars. Even for just an hour or so, it felt like we were kids again, without a care in the world. I almost forgot about all my responsibilities.

Word count: 1031

Ok, I did chapter two! I think this turned out pretty good. To be entirely honest I don't have an actual plan for the direction this story is going so it might take a bit for the next chapter. Thank you so much for reading, and have a great day!