********* (I Love You) Aki XXVIII: NatsumatsuriFollow

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This aki took a while to write, but I am pretty satisfied with it. As always, read and review.

Previous chapters, aki, and Interludes

Part I - Connection (Enishi)

Kasho II - Kodoku (Solitude)

Part III - Reunion (Saikai)
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Interlude III:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=1120830198339317613

Aki XVI:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=35&mid=1121087964210903847&num=1

Chapter XVII:
http://ffxi.allakhazam.com/forum.html?forum=10&mid=112135249855718466

I don’t own anything FFXI related.

Also...to Mikaru...

*drops down to his knees in front of you*

Being sleep deprived is no excuse for how I talked to you last time we spoke. I keep saying I have faith, but yet I keep acting like I don’t. I can only thank my lucky stars you haven’t gotten tired of me yet, and turned away.

I...I am incredibly sorry...and I am more than willing to shout out how sorry I am and beg in front of the entire world if it will only show you how truly apologetic I am...

This chapter is dedicated this time to Anita, the person who pointed out to me that I could go goldfish-scooping last year in FFXI.
*****
Fighting...

Disagreeing...

And even surprises...

Are all a part of love.
***
-fin Aki XXVIII: Natsumatsuri
***
I blushed slightly at Hitomi’s words myself, and an uncomfortable silence fell in between us both for a couple of minutes until finally, Hitomi spoke up with a tiny bit of hesitation in her voice.

"Explore now Dimitri-chan?" She said as she snapped her fan shut, and gently placed it in her purple obi belt, against the small of her back.

I closed my eyes and bowed my head slightly, a smile starting to stretch all the way across my lips. "Certainly..." I replied, my voice trailing off at the end as I turned around towards the opposite end of the docks.

"Then escort me!" Hitomi commanded of me with a giggle as I then felt her slender, abeit warm, hands suddenly grasp my right arm while her face pressed tightly into my shoulder. My eyes went wide for a moment, and I then unsuccessfully tried to tug myself free from her grasp a couple of times half-heartedly.

"Hitomi..." I said quietly, slightly annoyed with her.

I turned my head, to look over at her, ready to scold her gently and tell her to not be so silly...

But when I saw her green eyes floating up towards me...

I found that I couldn’t.

And for some reason...

I felt as if I couldn’t say or do anything...but instead just try to gaze deeper and deeper into those twin jewels locked safely in her face.

What’s wrong with you Dimitri? Snap out of it!

Almost, almost, with regret, I tore my eyes away from hers.

"If I am gonna escort you Hitomi...lets do it right." I said slowly, giving Hitomi enough time to translate my words as best as she could in her head. After about a minute, Hitomi giggled again, and then broke away from my body.

"Okay, show me." She said, with more than a clear trace of happiness in her voice.

I crooked my right arm, the hand making a limp fist at my waist. "Okay...your put your left hand gently onto my right arm" -I took her left hand gingerly with my own left and placed it on my right arm- "and you just ever so softly clasp around my arm." With that, I then closed her fingers around my arm with my free hand.

Hitomi picked up instantly on what I was trying to show her...

But instantly laid her face against my shoulder, and pulled in closely against me, closely enough that I could smell the rolanberry lotion that she always seemed to be wearing.

"Okay, lets go Dimitri!" she exclaimed as she half-dragged me back to Selbina-proper.

Back at town, we lazily walked around, oohing and aahing in pure enjoyment at all of the decorations that had been put up for this celebration of summer. There were all sorts of games and activities to do, each looking more and more fun that the last. Hitomi’s head never left my shoulder, and she never let us stop at any of the activities to my disappointme-

"Kyaaaaaaa!!!" she exclaimed all the sudden, and then broke into a run away from me. I stood still for a moment, letting my eyes tracing Hitomi’s body until I could see where saw her sit down in front of a booth, and then I calmly made my way towards her slightly dumbfounded.

Why...a goldfish-scooping booth?...

The man running the booth was getting on in years, and with a fleeting realization, I suddenly knew that this was the same man who run the booth back when I was a child. His hair was mostly gone, his skin cracked and wrinkled, but I knew at once that it was him.

"Come be one with your Aquarian brothers...embrace the universe of goldfish-scooping..." the old man said, his voice just as crazy sounding as it did when I was a child. I nodded my head gently trying my best to tune out his words as I knelt down next to where Hitomi was sitting, staring with a childlike fascination at the different colored goldfish all swimming in the wooden water container in front of her.

"Heh...let me have a go at it, okay?" I said, remembering with quiet confidence all of the bubble black-eye and lionhead goldfish that I had managed to catch with nary a problem.

Hitomi nodded once absentmindedly, never taking her eyes off of the fish that she was so enamored with.

I looked over to the sides of the water holder, and found a stack of paper scoops laying there. I picked up one in my right hand and dipped it into the water on its side near one of the ends of the tank. After holding the scoop still for a couple of moments, a tiny goldfish finally swam into the scoop’s bowl, and started to push against the paper. Immediately, I snapped the scoop upwards and out of the water, eliciting a startled cry from Hitomi as she jumped backwards somewhat.

"Dimitri-chan!" she said angrily while pushing her finger into my chest, "I watching goldfish!"

"And I was trying to do what you are supposed to do here, scoop up goldfish with paper scoops, like so." I said trying, to keep from getting angry also.

"Baka!" Hitomi screamed back out at me.

"What in Mordion Goal does THAT mean, Hitomi?!" I shouted back at her. "And for another thing, stop clinging so tightly to me when we walk together! Its not like we are dating or anything, Hitomi!"

Hitomi opened her mouth to reply to me, but before she could say anything, it was then that the bottom of the paper scoop that I had been holding chose to broke.

Hitomi and I both stopped our fighting for a moment, and watched paralyzed the goldfish that had been residing inside of the scoop fell out of the tattered bottom, and landed not-too-gracefully with a plop and a splash back in the tank. The goldfish froze in the water for a moment, until a lionhead ran into it and the goldfish, seeming shocked out of its paralyzation, started to swim on its own again.

"Hey, get away from your betters!"

We both looked up from the tank to see the old man glaring at us with his piercing blue eyes.

"You dare to hurt Altana’s greatest creations?...Then be gone!" he shouted at us as he snatched up all the paper scoops and hugged them closely against his aged chest.

Hitomi and I just turned and stared at each other, and we could obviously see that we were both trying to keep from breaking out into laughter.

"Sure...sure..." I said with a shake of my head as I lead Hitomi by the arm away from the booth, and back into the main way of the festival where we finally broke out into laughter.

"Crazy man..." I wheezed out, as Hitomi nodded her agreement while she was doubled over with tears streaming out of her eyes.

"Hai! Hitomi replied with once her laughter died out finally.

Both of us with smiles upon our faces, we rounded the corner of the Selbinian branch of the clothcrafting guild, and happened upon a small tarutaru dressed up in lavish robes, wearing a plump purple hat that seemed almost too big for her. She stood in the middle of the street alone, watching as all sorts of people passed her with an almost zen-like reverence.

"Hello..." she said in a high-pitched voice (not too much unlike Satmanda’s) her voice as Hitomi and I tried to pass her, "would you care to have your fortune read? Its free, just like everything else during this wonderful festival."

I paused for a moment, in wonder of HOW a tarutaru managed to talk without that silly accent that they always seem to be parading around with.

Unfortunately, the taru took that as a sign of interest in her fortune, and quickly grabbed my free hand to drag both me and Hitomi over underneath a tiny purple and yellow striped umbrella.

"Umm...I really don-" I started to say before Hitomi squeezed my arm to quiet me down.

The tarutaru picked up a small deck of Tarut cards from a small stand off to her side, and started to shuffle them into each other.

"The power of the ‘eye’ for the Tarut cards relies upon the will of Patchoulie...one of the many GM guardians to the Goddess Herself. Patchoulie is the mistress of divination, and with it, will allow us to see what lies in fate for you in the coming months. These cards can predict the future for any child of Altana, and are never wrong..."

With that, the tarutaru abruptly stopped her shuffling, and quickly delt three cards upright onto the ground before us in rapid succession.

"Hmm...the death card is upright...the hermit card is also upright...and the king is upside down..." the diviner mumbled to herself as she studied the cards intently. Finally, after a moment, she looked up at me, and I couldn’t help but notice that her eyes had gone all hazy.

"Soon enough...you will be forced to make a very difficult choice. But you will know the right decision when the time comes..." she soothed out towards me, "and now for the lady..."

The taru picked up the three card that were laying out, and proceeded to shuffle them back into the deck. She then cut the deck in half, and proceeded to mix the cards up all over again. Once that was done, she dealt out three more cards...

Only to exclaim in surprise when they turned out to be all blank on the picture side.

With surprise on her face, the taru then turned over the deck and fanned all the other cards out into sight, which were also blank.

"What in Patchoulie’s name..." she said before throwing the cards away from her in disgust. "Foul being! Get away from here, before you soil my eye!" she then shouted at us both with her face turning the same shade as the ridiculous hat sitting on top of her head that was now threatening to fall off.

Hitomi grabbed my hand and yanked me away quickly, with the tarutaru still shouting at us.

"What happened?" I asked Hitomi, my mind puzzled a tiny bit at how those cards could have mysteriously turned blank without any warning.

"I kno know...I do nothing" Hitomi said quietly, before a smile broke across her face and she pointed over to where a bunch of people had gathered together in front of a stage. "But let us there!" she finished with.

As Hitomi ran in that direction, leaving me behind...somehow I realized, though I knew I couldn’t prove it...

Hitomi had just lied to me.

-fin Aki XXVIII: Natsumatsuri