Heartbeats and Floured Hands

[kamina]

[This takes place ooon.. May 5th, Monday - 2003, at let's say.. 4PM]

Dust.. sort of an intricate thing, wasn't it? It came in many forms - though Akio knew there was a more general meaning of it, the actual substance itself consisting of small particles of filth and God knows what else. However dust could also be a shape or entity, a form of something.. like sawdust, or-- what else had dust in it? Whatever! The sort that filled the small room in the back of the bakery now was flour, beautiful flour that'd allow their business to continue thriving steadily in sales. He'd grown accustomed to the texture of it all, and by the end of each day his hands were bathed in the stuff; and he did whatever he could to entertain himself with the process, dusting it off in small waves of mist or clapping his hands together to create a sort of airborne shock wave of the powdery ingredient.

He let out a small and deep laugh before returning his hands to kneading the dough on the table in front of him, his fingers delicately molding the material into the perfectly desired shape of an orb, before gripping the rolling pin to flatten it all out and spread it across the table's surface to repeat the process. He repeated this quite a few times just as he had all the other years he'd worked here, flipping it across in a small skillful manner, happy to find an excuse to play with his food. His hands slap the dough back onto the table, rolling it up around into a large clump before separating them by hand into ten separate chunks.

Akio sighs softly in satisfaction with his work as he peers down toward the now rounded mounds of dough ready to be baked into delicious Pastries. He gripped the side of the pan, making sure all the chunks were equally spaced before he gave a gentle tug to the handle of the oven - allowing the heat to wash over him as the inferno within was exposed to the open air. He carefully pushed the tray forward onto the upper rack and closed the door once more. His fingers gingerly roamed over the panel on the side before tapping lightly on a few buttons; a small timer that'd remind him of when exactly to retrieve the pastries so they wouldn't burn as he use to mistakenly allow.

Akio turns back to begin stepping out toward the front, dusting his hands against one another to kick up small clouds of flower into the air that radiated upwards before trickling toward the floor and vanishing. He took his usual spot behind the counter while adjusting his footing to better suit the needed comfort of his aching soles.

His eyes scanned quickly to make sure the store's front was in an acceptable condition. He checked to make sure the door was indeed unlocked, the windows were clean and the bread was placed out in plain view for display. Satisfied with the results he slowly picked up the magazine from the counter top and flipped it over to the page he'd previously been engaged in reading. A small hum slowly escaped him as time passed onward, his attention only really drawn to the smaller articles and pictures over all the collected information in the thick paper-back tome within his hands.

For a magazine its size was rather impressive yet even such a feat was incapable of drawing his full attention for extended periods of time, at least on that day in particular. It was around the half-way point in the day he believed.. it'd been a while since he'd glanced toward a clock and refused to do so for fear of only making the day drag on longer. He anticipated more customers' arrival. In truth he was rather eager to simply end the day so he could return to taking care of Nagisa, unfortunately she'd fallen ill, but Tomoya was kind enough to bring her home. Hmph, that kid.. Akio already had a bad feeling and subtle dislike toward him, even if he was a friend he'd never allow himself to be entirely comfortable with boys like him around his precious daughter.

Lately they'd received a bit more business as a result of a few more curious and new faces wandering down the sidewalk being drawn in by the abrupt location of a Bakery of all things. Akio didn't believe they needed full publicity or advertisement, as long as they were able to make people happy with their products and support their family he was perfectly content with the way things were. He spoke to himself with a small shake of his head, sighing.

"Heh.. you say that yet you still wish you could do more.."

[Mizukami Ayumu]

OC: Yes, Open does mean anyone can enter.

A little introduction: This is Saz, and I'm posting with Mizukami Ayumu, who's a character who knew Nagisa last year ICly, through a mutual friend... however, it's his first time coming to Furukawa Bakery. I'm reusing most of my opening post from Bread and Butterflies, which is discontinued. Sorry for the laziness XD

Is this it?

It was a bakery; and he had been looking for a bakery. An establishment that sold bread and pastry, overlooking a park. That was Furukawa-senpai's home, her place, at least from how he remembered it, how it had been described to him. He wasn't sure who had told him about it, maybe one of the Akasakas (probably in one of their half-joking sessions), but he was sure in the veracity of the directions. (After all, the two would probably be happier to find the Mizukami and the Furukawa interact in the latter's turf. Even if they weren't here now.)

He had known the location for quite a while, and of course he had been tempted to visit it, but in the same vein from which his urges came from, doubts also sprouted. And so it would be his first time to approach the house of the person he liked; quite the momentous occasion.

The gift... well, he meant it to be a gift, the plushie of the meatball character that she liked, that he had won in that crane game in the hot springs... he carried it now in his hand, concealed in a cloth bag, and it was the only thing with him; it gave him a bit of courage. There was also the message that he wanted to bring to her, that he had reached a decision, and that spurned him on.

He had originally decided to approach her in the club room, like he did before, when classes started. There really was not much difference between telling her here and telling her there (though of course he would be a great deal more embarrassed with the former), except for when she would know the news.

There were even chances that his upperclasswoman would not be present; perhaps she would be out and he would only come across her parents, or if in the drama club's place, his upperclassmen, who he had slightly investigated about. But the idea of visiting her had taken root in his mind, like a plant in a hurry to grow, and its development overthrew his apprehensions.

He reflected on the message that he would be delivering; that he would be joining the club, the organization that she was attempting to resuscitate. He had thought about it a great deal, too; he had decided to gamble, to try. Perhaps there would be a limit to the good things one can reap with certain ulterior intentions... he had promised to himself that if his selfish presence beside her became an obstacle, then he would remove himself. But he had to try, even for a while, just once. And so he prepared to take the plunge.

The place was quaint; glass doors barred the entry of the body, but not of the sight, and showed different edible goods, some the likes of which Ayumu recognized, and some which he was not entirely sure of; perhaps those were specialties, or something. Neatly they were arrayed, and he spied a little farther the register, and something that seemed to be a passage to the inside, to the more private parts of the establishment, he assumed.

Belatedly he noticed that the doors were not exactly closed; he had already rapped at the panes. There was a man behind a counter, another detail he did not realize immediately, who had hair similar to Furukawa-senpai... and it looked like he was reading a magazine. There was no telling if she was there, if she was inside, if he was right or wrong. He stood like a scarecrow outside the store, the strangest of possible customers. Hesitation took hold of him again, his voice getting trapped halfway through his throat, and then tripping out.

"He-hello?"

[Iwashima Yuki]

It was such a peaceful day... the sun was visible in the clouds, the clouds were in the sky, and the sky was a magnificent blue. As Yuki walked, she could feel the sun's rays beating down on her. But it wasn't a bad feeling, not at all. In fact, it was a really good feeling, as Yuki would describe it she felt 'toasty' in the sun. It was a real shame that one couldn't stay outside in the sun for too long. The breeze was equally refreshing, cold mixing with hot. It left you... wanting to fall asleep. That's right, Yuki wanted to fall asleep. Only just a tiny bit, mind- but she still wanted to fall asleep.

Now there was no real reason why Yuki was wandering around today; she didn't know the place too well and had decided to explore. So far there had been an interesting book store, a clothes store, a fortune telling stand and then she'd managed to get herself lost. All these places, how was she going to get to know the area with so many? Not to mention that she hadn't even seen the vast majority of places around the town yet. It was, in actuality, a small town. The problem was that even small towns could prove to be quite... well... big at times.

Continuing on, there was a park. Was that a baseball pitch? Either way there were children playing baseball. A couple of them looked over as Yuki stopped to watch. The girl disliked playing baseball quite a bit, but watching a sport and playing a sport were two completely different matters. Another thing was that she found it more fun to watch live sport than on, say, TV. Watching kids play it? They were pretty cute, so she gladly obliged. It looked like the red team was winning, but since it was the blue team batting, it could probably be changed either way.

Swing... swing... clunk! A ball went flying. It went diagonally through the makeshift pitch, and the picnickers around (there were surprisingly a lot of them at this park) looked, a few clapping and all of them having fun with huge smiles on their faces. Friends, family, sometimes both. It looked absolutely wonderful! Yuki thought to herself that one day she'd like to try that at a place like this, with this kind of weather.

So far, the only thing that the lone girl had with her was a plastic bag in her right hand, holding the things she'd bought so far today. Remembering all the places she'd been so far today, it was about time she began her walk again. But she'd gone no further than the boundary of the park when she caught sight of a bakery. Wow, that was great! A bakery sounded perfect for this weather. Without delay, Yuki made a beeline.

Hmm? There was already a boy at the door, holding a bag of his own. He was ever so slightly shorter than her, and thin with quite odd grey-white hair. Well, she'd never seen that before. As he moved to enter, Yuki caught up. She wore an average smile on her face from what she'd seen, and mostly just hoped she didn't look weird. First impressions were always important, after all! Of course this could go either way. He could view her smile as slightly creepy and scary, or he could see it as friendly. She meant the latter, but whether he actually took it that way or not was another thing entirely.

"Hello!"

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[kamina]

Akio let out a small grunt as he flipped the page, his eyes scanning dully across the pages beneath while he awaited for the next customer to arrive. It was a fairly slow day just as it usually was, save for the few people that regularly stopped by just for the sake of charitable purchases of their products. He seemed to notice the small shadow of the figure standing in front of one of his windows, his eyes lifting upward before returning to the magazine.

In just the brief glance Akio was able to make note of the boy's appearance, even with the sun partially in his eyes he could recognize the School Uniform anywhere. He was sure that the other would be able to see the open sign on the door.. Wait.. Did he even have an open sign!? He couldn't be that stupid did he? Or maybe some neighborhood brat stole it, that could be it!

The magazine began shaking in his hands at the very thought of it, the very thought of someone stealing HIS property, the thought of possibly losing customers over something so simple and stupid. It can't be, it just can't! It would -never- allow it! He slammed the magazine down upon the counter and reached over to grab the metal baseball bat beside him.

He made a note of the boy still standing there oddly but the sight of that only further fueled his ridiculous assumption that their sign had been stolen. A small list of who could possible have committed such a crime ran through his brain as he trudged angrily and quickly toward the door. Of course to anyone unaware of his intentions he'd seem fairly intimidating rushing to the door wielding a bat out of nowhere. He gritted and ground his teeth as he knocked open the door and stepped onto the sidewalk.

"You won't get away with this you little punks, you hear me!? I work hard to make a honest living!"

He seemed to rant to absolutely no one in particular considering the entire ordeal was ludicrous at best to begin with. He blinked a bit as he turned for a moment, peering over to the boy still standing there practically gawking. He lifted the bat to rest comfortably over his shoulder as he blew out a small bit of smoke from the corner of his lips. He sized the male up rather quickly, letting out a small "Hmph.." after doing so.

"Sorry about the sign and all, but yes we -are- still actually open, didn't mean to leave you waiting out here all this time but sometimes those kids have a weird sense of having fun, don't have any sense of right and wrong when it comes to the importance of a man's hard work."

He sighed and shook his head slowly, tilting his head to look toward the door and staring plainly as he noticed the newly acquired sign still hanging upon it, having never once been stolen or so much as moved at all unless by his hand. And secondly what caught his attention, was the fact that the sign was on the -inside- of the door as well, and had been there the entire time, somehow escaping his sight amidst his abrupt blind rage.

"Wait a minute.. you knew we were open.."

Once again he began quickly jumping to conclusions, and his presence began to become quite a bit more menacing as he almost glared down to the boy standing in front of him.

"Your uniform.. that's the same as my Daughter's, yet you've never been around here before, and as far as I've heard she's never said single thing about you buddy, so just who the hell are you? Are you some kind of freak following my daughter for laughs? You some sort of stalker, figured she'd just be easy pickings? Well think again kid!"

He brought the bat out from over his shoulder, poking the rounded and partially chipped head of the object against the other's chest somewhat threateningly, but also as a test of reaction to the accusation. As to how he came to such a thought of why the boy was there to begin with was unknown to anyone else other than Akio, and perhaps Sanae considering she was one of the few who understood his way of thinking. Regardless he continued.

"My daughter aint just some eye candy for you to bother and chase around like a pet! She's a good girl and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let some creep come after her in -MY- own house, that's just unacceptable! What kind of Father, no, what kind of MAN could allow such a thing to happen!?"

It didn't take much to keep Akio going once he began rambling on and on, and it seemed to all grow much more confusing and pointless as time passed during the strange and intimidating speech. Akio blinked as another thought suddenly passed through his mind only just now after he'd spent so much time snapping at the boy; there had been something else he never even stopped to consider.

"Wait a minute, if you're from the same school you wouldn't happen to be a friend of Nagisa's would you?.."

He stopped to turn and look toward the girl who'd neared as well, having been standing there the entire time and once more completely evading his gaze during the entire outburst. His eyebrow twitched and a small sweat dropped formed on the back of his head at the realization of his over-reaction.

"Oh.. hey there.. Why don't you both come inside and we can settle this all over some of delicious pastries!"

He quickly recovered and grinned, sliding the bat back over his shoulder and nudging the door open once more. From working and relaxing, to crazed rage and intimidation, all the way to a warm and sincere invitation into his place of business to satisfy whatever consumer needs the two had, Akio sure did present himself as a fairly odd fellow, but it was his behavior as usual, and he had no intention of changing anytime soon.

[Mizukami Ayumu]

A slight tilting of the head made the doors reflect the sunlight from the horizon, and for a moment the second-year was forced to shield his eyes with his hands, his treasured package dangling from his grip.

"Hello!"

His momentary blindness allowed him only the perception of a silhouette; it was a girl's voice, and so he thought it was Furukawa-senpai, catching him red-handed (well, maybe not exactly, but still).

He flinched, startled, and then theorized that, while Furukawa was older than him, she was... smaller than him (he hoped such a thought meant no offense; some people could be touchy about their heights, and when someone was smaller than Ayumu, that someone really was rather small), so this couldn't be she who he was looking for. This silhouette was roughly his height.

He blinked furiously.

He was only getting the details of this newcomer who had come out of the blue and greeted him, when the man he had observed sitting and reading was suddenly also in his face, yelling certain things that he did not understand... well, he understood his words, but not their intent, and his first sentence did not seem directed to him... but the volume made him flinch again, though less than his surprise before.

Well... perhaps the bat should surprise me... baseball bats can be pretty hard, right? But I guess it's not that out of place, since there're people playing baseball outside...

The bakery's caretaker then turned his attention to them... he, again, did not understand just what he meant by kids having fun... playing pranks on him? He did not really understand what he had seemed to be so aggravated about. The man's eyes had flickered to the 'open' sign... to be fair, he did not notice that, but did the sign mean something to the man?

Before he could ask questions and clarify the situation, the 'batter' had started rambling again. Daughter? Is he Furukawa-senpai's father? He looks rather young... but there's a resemblance. Well, I am probably not that important to be talked about by Senpai... following? She might not want that, although I've been tempted...

The aloof teenager did not catch everything the 'father' was ranting about, so he was not sure how he should talk. Was he accusing him of something? He backed off a bit at his usage of the bat, around half a step, but his face, at the most, looked a little confused at what was going on.

He was just about ready to ask him to stop and make things a little slower and clearer... when his prosecutor leapt upon a different conclusion altogether. Friend? Am I good enough to be called that?

The older male then seemed to notice the presence of the girl who had earlier called his attention; she was taller, as he had observed, than his adored upperclasswoman, but her hair was similarly short and brown. He was befuddled more than ever, but if there was a good thing about the previous events, it was that his nervousness had been dispelled, to make room for the entropy of his brain.

"Uh... okay."

Having accepted the invitation, the rattled, but recovering student gave a small smile, tinged with uncertainty, to his yet nameless comrade, bowed in recognition, and went in.

[Iwashima Yuki]

Woah. Woah Woah Woah. Was he actually going to- yes, he grabbed the baseball bat. The kids were playing, so it was altogether possible that was going to play with them and hadn't noticed them, but this guy looked angry. Akio stormed out of the store, and the look in his eyes was one of 'I HAVE A BASEBALL BAT, PREPARE TO BE BLUDGEONED TO DEATH'. Wait, why would he try to murder someone he'd never even met? Unless he was after the chap in front of her. Or maybe he was just going to hit people for fun! Was he one of those people that enjoyed things like that! Oh no, why had she come to the bakery today! Why?

He got outside and despite panicking inside due to the aforementioned pile of rubbish, Yuki kept a straight face. Maybe if she acted brave, he wouldn't attack her... And it worked! He instead began yelling to some non-existent children about an open/closed sign? Wait, this was what it had been all about? Kids stealing his open sign? So... He wasn't going to bludgeon her to death? He was going to bludgeon some children to death? That... Was too terrible for words! How could he- wait, she was overreacting again, thinking too rashly. And she knew it. He probably just wanted to look threatening. Then the non-existent kids wouldn't want to mess with him any more! It was a smart plan, but what if something happened? Ahh, Yuki needed to get off this train wreck of a thought path, and quickly.

"O-okay..." Yuki replied sheepishly to Akio's offer to go inside and glanced again at the boy beside her. Akio was a caring father, that much was evident in his words. He wasn't off the hook though, the girl kept her eye on the hand holding the baseball bat. He was, after all, in prime position to attack when they entered. What was Yuki doing by entering? She didn't know, but however afraid she was inside she pressed on. Bravery in the face of mortal danger! This man shall not have his way, because Yuki would keep a good eye on his movements! No, there would be no murdering here today!

"P-please don't do anything rash... I just want to buy some pastries!" Yuki blurted out. Well, cat was out of the bag now. She covered her mouth with her hands, looking at Akio and the boy. Then she realised she was looking incredibly strange. So she removed her hands. "S-sorry... I got a bit carried away with my thoughts there..." She admitted, before breathing out heavily and perking up.

She had nothing to fear!

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