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2023-05-31
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The Fall Breeze Brought Me To You

Summary:

Nene Kusanagi has had a crush on Rui Kamishiro for quite a long time. Now that the two are older, she was looking for a moment to confess to him. Rui tells her about a theme park and Nene decides that she's going to tell him her true feelings there.

Notes:

omggmgm i love ruinene

Work Text:

"See you later!" The purple-haired boy had shouted, walking away along the concrete path. 

 

Nene, left alone at her house, watched silently, waving her hand as he walked further and further away. 

 

 The emptiness consumed her. 

 

'Come on, stupid. Do it.'

 

She hated when Rui left her. She wanted to spend every minute she could with him, close to him, safe with him. Nene felt an irresistible urge, and soon enough…

 

Rui heard the pitter-pattering of running feet behind him and turned on his heels. What he felt at that moment was the warmth of the short girl and her soft arms wrapped around his torso. His mouth opened for a second, then was pulled upwards as he lightly started to caress her hair. The brisk fall wind had almost blown them half over, but they withstood. The two could be placed in the coldest of environments but their combined warmth could surpass anything. 

 

Nene remained silent, holding on to him for as long as she could. 



________________________________

 

It had been a couple of weeks since Rui and Nene had last seen each other outside of school. Nene longed to feel his strong, soft arms again as he held her close to him. It was an ethereal moment, one that she considered herself lucky to have experienced— multiple times. 

 

Unfortunately for Nene, she had no classes with him. The two didn't get to spend much time together in classes. 

 

After another long and silent day of slouching down in a hard, metal chair and drowning everything else out, it was finally the time to leave as the last— albeit loud —bell of the day blessed her ears.

 

She walked out of her history classroom with Tsukasa, who rattled on and on about a new role he had recently gotten to play. As per usual, she silently listened to him until they had to split ways and go to their respective homes. 

 

"Bye, Nene!" Tsukasa shouted as he started to leave. 

 

She silently waved goodbye and started walking the other way. 

 

Nene wanted to get home soon, as the wind was getting unbearable. Her heavy, full backpack was weighing her down and painfully digging into her shoulders. She tried throwing it off her back and dragging it behind her, but that turned out to be even worse. She threw it back over her shoulders, grimacing as the heavy weight of it slammed back down onto her frail body. 

 

Soon enough, she could see her house. It was just a couple of blocks down. 

 

Nene stopped in her tracks when she heard a rustle in the large bushes to her left.

 

Rui's bushes . 

 

'Is someone in the bushes?' She wondered, slowly getting concerned.

 

She stood still with hints of fear creeping up her neck, and she wasn't sure if she should just check quickly or flee. 

 

'They are Rui's bushes but… usually he gets home from school after I do…'

 

She took a step away before it rustled once more.

 

"Hello?" she mumbled silently.

 

She held her stance until she saw a tall figure jump out of the bush and land on top of her. She was knocked down to the ground of the path, her backpack catching her. 

 

Nene felt a bright red blush creep onto her face.

 

"R-Rui?!” She looked up at his face, his arms on either side of her head. His peculiar scent was filling up her senses. It didn't smell awful at all. In fact, he smelled like honeysuckles. 

 

"Hey," he smirked.

 

"W-what are you doing?" 

 

"I ran home really fast so I could ambush you," he replied honestly as a shit-eating grin formed on his face. Nene tried to look annoyed, but she secretly thought it was cute. 

 

He looked away for a moment, the wind pushing his purple hair around. 

 

He pushed the flyaways away from his face as he looked back down at her. "I was going to ask if you wanted to come to a carnival with me. The one near us is closing today and I thought we could check it out," He smiled softly. 

 

Any thoughts she had in her head about saying no immediately vanished as she succumbed to his sweet smile. It made her giggle. 

 

"I would love to go," Nene accepted as she stared up at Rui.

 

He let out a chuckle as he got off of the green-haired girl and backed away. He extended his hand to Nene, and she firmly grabbed it and pulled herself up— quite the struggle because of her awfully heavy backpack. 

 

"Did you shove Robo-Nene in there?" Rui joked. 

 

She laughed at him. It had been some time since she had last had the chance to let out a genuine expression of joy. A soft laugh felt like a relief from her stressors. She had a moment of escape where she wasn't thinking about school or talking to new people. 

 

"What time should I meet you there?"

 

"19:00," Rui confirmed. 

 

"See you later," Nene nodded, walking back to her house to get ready. 

 

________________________________

 

Nene was not one for makeup and fancy things, but she plastered on some random makeup she found in her mother's drawers onto her face. She wanted to impress Rui. She also borrowed some of her mother's fancy jewelry to go with her green dress and white cardigan. 

 

'Am I really doing this?'

 

Nene thought, considering whether she should wear all this stuff she doesn't normally dress in. 

 

Nene grabbed the wet wipes package and pulled one out. She held it up to her face, about to remove the makeup. 

 

Her hand remained in place for a moment before she shoved the wipe back in the package, grabbed her small purse, and headed out the door. 

 

'It's fine. I'll just keep it on.'

 

________________________________



Nene stepped away from the main concrete side paths of her neighborhood and onto the ones hugging the busy streets, getting closer to the location of the carnival. The fall breeze was calmer this night, trees barely shifting. 

 

Nene momentarily pulled her phone out to check the time. 

 

18:52.

 

She opened Rui's number. 

Nene Kusanagi

I'll be there soon :))  

 

Rui Kamishiro

ok! btw emu and tsukasa r already here we're just waiting on u, we all arrived a bit earlier  

 

'...Emu and Tsukasa?' she thought with concern.

 

Nene Kusanagi

you never mentioned they were coming

 

Rui Kamishiro

is that a problem?

 

'I mean… not really- but I wanted it to be us alone.'

 

She decided against typing that thought aloud.

 

Nene Kusanagi

no, its fine

 

________________________________



The clocks had switched to 19:00 the moment Nene took her first step on the carnival grounds. Her eyes started to dart around, aiming at the bright colors and large rides. The noises of screaming children and loud music echoed through the fall night. Nene started to shyly make her way through the crowd, looking for the rest of her troupe. 

 

Nene Kusanagi

where are u guys??

 

Rui Kamishiro

ferris wheel

 

Nene did a spin to look around for the ferris wheel, spotting it momentarily and starting to shift her way toward it. She carefully avoided stepping on anyone's heels and went as fast as she could to her troupe, expecting her arrival. 

 

"Nene! Over here!" A familiar voice had called her. 

 

She knew whose voice it was: Rui's. 

 

Her dull and tired expression was pulled into a smile as she saw him wave at her. 

 

Occasionally, there was a special moment where as if nothing else existed except Rui and herself, she loved when her brain suddenly snapped into that reality. It did it again just now but snapped back as she saw Emu and Tsukasa. 

 

"Hello, Nene-chan!" Emu squealed into Nene's ears.

 

"Hi Nene!" Tsukasa followed. 

 

She waved at both of them as Rui stood up from the bench he was resting on. 

 

Nene gave Rui her full attention, ignoring anything else at the moment. She wanted to hug him so badly, but she was so awkward and scared of rejection that she would patiently wait for him to do it first. After he had said a couple of things to the troupe, it didn't seem like he had a hug on his mind. 

 

She sighed sadly. 

 

Nene's body was turned away from the troupe, looking around the carnival and what there was to do. Her focus was on the things in the carnival and not on the friends behind her, tuning out whatever they were saying. 

 

She turned her body back to the troupe and saw Tsukasa say something to Rui and then proceeded to hug him, leaving Emu in a different direction. 

 

'How can Tsukasa just do that? What if Rui is silently judging him? Is Tsukasa not scared of internal rejection?'

 

Nene nervously brushed her hair. 

 

'Rui's looking at me. At first, I wanted to be alone with him but now I don't know what to say. Maybe he'll say something?'

 

Rui stared at Nene for a couple of seconds. 

 

Then he grinned at her.

 

"Emu and Tsukasa wanted to go on a roller coaster that they saw in the distance. I knew you wouldn't have wanted to join them, so I stayed behind with you."

 

Nene's heart pounded against her chest. 

 

'I told him that I had a fear of roller coasters years ago…'

 

'He…he remembered…' 

 

"Y-Yeah…" she stammered.

 

Nene loved when Rui remembered little details about her. It made her feel special.

 

'Rui remembered my little details.'

 

'I love him so much.'

 

Nene smiled at the ground. 

 

"Hey, Nene? What do you want to do first?"

 

Rui snapped Nene out of her thoughts. 

 

"Uh…I'm not sure."

 

Rui placed a hand on her shoulder and shifted her to face a carnival game that involved shooting targets to win prizes. Nene looked at his hand, then looked up at him. She smiled and took a risk by grabbing his hand and taking him over. 

 

'Why can't I be normal when it comes to romantic gestures? Why am I so afraid?'

 

'...'

 

Nene exhaled as she sat down on the brown leather bar chair and picked up the carnival gun to shoot at the targets. She shot every target with perfect accuracy and Rui cheered her on the whole time. The wind had started to pick up, and one of the large stuffed animals was loose on the hooks, so it fell off and Rui caught it. It was a large panda bear. 

 

"Would you like that as your prize, o-kyaku-sama?" The game operator asked. 

 

Nene peered at Rui, who seemed to already be in love with the soft plush. 

 

"Yes."

 

Rui chuckled as he moved his hands up and down the panda plush. "It's so soft!" He threw it up in the air and caught it as it fell back down. 

 

"Can I keep it, Nene?" Rui begged. 

 

Nene looked up at him and got lost in his eyes. "Of course you can," she beamed. 

 

The wind started to pick up, and Nene almost fell over. She took a deep breath, as a lot was going on around her. 

 

Nene started to recognize the scent of caramel popcorn nearby.

 

"Rui, let’s get something to eat," Nene pointed over at the place with the popcorn.

 

"Ah. I knew you would have wanted some caramel popcorn."

 

________________________________

 

Rui and Nene had gotten a tub of caramel popcorn to share. They were next to each other on a bench between two stands, the tub of popcorn between them. 

 

They were both picking away at it, eating in silence. 

 

"Hey. Look at me," Rui held a single piece of popcorn in his fingers.

 

Nene turned. Rui placed the piece of popcorn into her mouth. 

 

She giggled, and she once again felt that slight bright red blush creep and cover her face.

 

She looked at Rui, whose eyes seemed to have noticed something on Nene's face. 

 

Rui cupped his hands around her cheeks and leaned in a bit. Nene's heart pounded. 

 

He let go, placing one hand on her chin and lifting her view to fix on his, then he rubbed his thumb on her cheek. 

 

He pulled away and looked at his thumb. 

 

"You have makeup on? That's not very you."

 

"I- uh…"

 

Rui pulled a wipe from his small backpack, wiping the contents of the makeup off her face. Nene felt that familiar brush of wind and she faced away from him, looking down at the ground.

"You look more natural and beautiful without makeup, you know," He smiled. 

 

Nene's entire face was probably bright red now. Rui could see it since he removed the makeup. 

 

Nene executed a fake cough to fill in the patch of awkwardness. 

 

'Holy shit. He's being romantic. I think this is my time.'

 

"R-Rui?" Nene placed a hand on her heart, feeling it beat uncontrollably hard. 

 

Rui's attention was focused back on Nene. "Hm?"

 

"I—"

 

Nene paused. She looked down at her legs, going up and down and her hands, shakier than she's ever noticed them. She took a deep breath but couldn't push the words off her tongue. 

 

Rui grabbed her hands to stop the shaking. "Continue?" Nene noticed the soft blush that had formed on his face. 

 

'!'

 

"Rui…I…" she faltered, but pushed on, "I love you."

 

Rui's face went soft, and formed into a gentle, caring smile. 

"I was waiting for you to say it,"

 

He pulled her close and placed a passionate kiss on her lips.