Silver Bound Girl

Chapter 26

            Willow dropped the knocker, her ears picking up the sound of approaching footsteps. A moment later, the door opened. She smiled at the much shorter figure that stood in the doorway. “Hello, Mai,” she said.

            Rune’s mom’s eyes crinkled up as she held the door open for Willow to enter. “It’s good to see you again,” she said, before turning her head towards the rest of the house and calling out “Sora! Anata no kanojo wa koko ni imasu!”

            Thumping announced Rune’s arrival from the upper floor. He swung himself around the staircase’s adjoining wall, glaring at his mom. “Kaa-chan, yamenasai!”

            Willow smothered a chuckle at how disgruntled he looked. She didn’t know what it was his mom was saying to Rune, but it was definitely that annoyed him. She lined her shoes up in the little square depression as she had the last time before she looked back up at the parent-child pair in front of her.

            Mai’s eyes were bright as she looked at her son, her lips twitching as she fought what Willow suspected was a smile. Rune was still glowering until he turned to her. He nodded at her shoes. “You might as well grab them. You’ll need them.”

            She frowned slightly, but picked up her runners. “Where are we going?”

            That got a grin out of him. “You showed me your favourite place, so it’s only fair I show you mine. C’mon!” he said, hurrying back up the stairs.

            “Ki o tsukete,” his mom called after them.

            Rune paused on the second step long enough to roll his eyes and say “Hai,” back to her.

            Willow followed him down a short hall, into a room that held a bookshelf, desk, computer, and two chairs. Rune stopped long enough to open the large window that took up half the wall. He sat on the sill, pulling on the pair of shoes that were left just under the window. Then, with a grin at her, he slid out and onto the roof outside.

            For a second, all she could do was stare at him. He saw her wide eyes and chuckled. “It’s perfectly safe,” he said. “It’s just a bit further, I promise.”

            Willow approached the window slowly, poking her head out and studying the roof. There was a flat bit at least three feet wide before the roof slanted downwards. She sighed and pulled her shoes on. Climbing through the window wasn’t as easy as Rune had made it look, not helped by the fact that Willow could clearly see the garden that would be the only thing breaking her fall if she slipped.

            When she finally straightened, Willow kept one hand against the side of the house, ready to lean against it and drop to her knees if she felt her balance sway for even a moment. Rune laughed again. “It’s fine.”

            She made a face, but followed him as he led her around to the back of his house. There, a ladder stood, one end braced against the brick chimney that stuck out in the middle of the roof. The other end rested against the upper part of the roof, only a satellite dish visible up there.

            Willow turned to look at Rune in disbelief, but he was already clambering up the ladder with a speed she wasn’t about to try and emulate. Once up, he squatted by the top, grinning down at her. “I’ll hold the end for you.”

            “This is revenge for making you climb up the rise that first time, isn’t it?”

            He laughed. “Nope. But now you’ll know how I felt.”

            Sighing again, Willow put one foot onto the first metal rung. It felt solid. Knowing Rune would never let her live it down if she didn’t try, she slowly climbed up it. At the top, he grabbed her hand and helped pull her onto the much wider flat section at the very top of his house.

            Willow stood slowly and wiped her hands off on her pants. Just in front of her lay two lawn chairs, set up in the very centre of the roof. Below her lay the lawns and fences of the neighbours, with several other roofs at the same height as she was now. A light breeze wrapped around her briefly before moving on, a nice contrast from the sun that seemed to burn even hotter against her skin. But that probably had more to do with the fact that the whole roof was black, she decided.

            She turned to Rune, who was watching her carefully, and smiled. “Okay, this was totally worth the horrific climb up.”

            He grinned and gestured towards the chairs, dropping into one himself. “I find it ironic you thought that walking along a perfectly flat roof then up a ladder was horrible. That rise of yours is nothing more than slippery rocks and trees!”

            Willow shrugged as she sat. “But I know how to climb it and how to catch myself if I slip. If I fell off your roof... Still, it’s definitely a great spot. I take it you come up here a lot,” she said, patting her chair’s arms.

            Rune nodded. “Yeah. Me and Mom sometimes come out at night and watch the stars, or just come and talk. Once we even had a picnic. It’s been my favourite place for years.”

            “Thanks for bringing me up here.”

            “Don’t mention it. I thought you’d like it.”

            A comfortable silence wrapped around them for a minute, both of them just enjoying the sun, breeze, and company. Willow broke the silence. “You know,” she said. “You’ve got to be the best friend I’ve ever had.”

            Rune stared at her for a moment, then smiled. “That was incredibly corny,” he said. “But since I was about to say nearly the exact same thing, I can’t be too hard on you.”

            Willow grinned, and a moment later, so did Rune. They both turned to look back out at the town’s skyline, neither feeling the need to say anything else.