Shooting Stars
By Deona Lindholm

Author’s Note: This is a Knight Rider songfic that takes place during the fanfic Marissa Chapter 4: Learning, Realizing. The song used is “Shooting Star” by KOTOKO, which is the Opening song for Onegai Teacher (Please Teacher!). The lyrics can be found at AnimeLyrics.

Within the forest that was close to the city of Helena, Kitt scanned the area while monitoring the tiny passenger within him. Currently, Marissa was taking a nap, as he suggested that she do. After all, those two would be up a little later than usual (To think that the two of us being asleep by nightfall is usual! Kitt thought), and for good reason.

“U-up? At night?” Marissa had asked as she turned pale. “Ohh, I knew it…you’re wanting me to do night chores.”

“No, not at all! There’s going to be something real nice happening tonight a couple of hours after sunset. I’ll just say that it’s a surprise for now, Rissie,” he had quickly replied.

The little child let out an audible “whew” and didn’t ask any further about it and snuggled in for a nap.

He double-checked the reports as well as the weather forecast for this area, then made a small sound of satisfaction. The weather would be perfect, with not a cloud in the sky. The AI had found himself taking simple pleasure at the smallest things, like the first day he had met Marissa, when he played Pachabel’s Canon at sunset, or later on, when she had surprised him by covering him with a tarp, knowing that the night would get a bit cold. He fervently hoped that tonight would be one such time.

Kitt woke the little child in time for dinner, which he was able to keep warm, for the most part, and while she ate, he felt something inside him be a bit playful and decided to tease her a bit as to what the surprise could possibly be. While the analytic part of him balked at the way he was acting (Have you forgotten that you are a program designed to protect Michael and that you are his partner? It yelled a couple of times), the rest of him saw the reactions and circumstances as something purely natural and, in its own way, miraculous. At the same time, he drove to a spot that was further than the city and the forest, just to get a good view of the sky.

Slowly, (almost too slowly), the sun set and the stars came out, all of them, with still no clouds in the area at all.

“So what’s going on, Kitt?” Marissa asked an hour and 50 minutes after sunset, truly curious.

“Have you ever watched the sky at night?” Kitt asked as a reply, “Like during a meteor storm?”

“Meteor storm…? Are you talking about shooting stars? I know you mentioned it yesterday when you were teaching about the weather, but…no, I don’t think I’ve seen them.”

There was a very definite smile in the AI’s tone as he replied, “We’re about to see our first one, then.”

“Our first one…? Kitt, you mean there’s really gonna be one tonight?”

“That’s right,” he answered her, “I haven’t actually paid attention to one before either, other than where possible driving hazards are concerned…so this will be my first too.”

She chuckled and then craned her head to the left and right, saying, “I’m gonna have some trouble seeing them.”

“That’s true. Rissie, I have a better idea.”

“What’s that?”

“Climb onto my hood and then sit down. You’ll get a much better view that way.”

“A-are you sure that’s okay?”

“Come on and climb up already,” was the slightly testy-yet-amused reply.

“Okay!” she said, quickly got out, and then quickly moved to the front of Kitt, looking carefully before she began to climb on. Within a couple of moments (after an almost-slip), she was sitting on the hood, with her legs crossed underneath her.

“Are you okay? I felt you slip for a second.”

“Oh, I’m fine. I just went a little too quickly, that’s all.”

tooku ni hikaru ano hoshi futari miagete
kimi ni deatta unmei o omou
nanigenai furide te no hira furete miru kedo
kimi ha yasashiku hohoemi dakede

Marissa looked up at the sky, wondering how she would know when the surprise would begin, and her voice became even smaller, quieter when she asked, “Hey Kitt…do you believe in destiny?”

There was a pause before Kitt replied, “…I can’t clearly answer that, Rissie. In some ways I do, but mostly I don’t.”

She nodded and asked, “Do you think it was destiny that we met, that you found me when I was ready to take my life?”

“That I can answer with an emphatic ‘yes’,” was the answer, “and I’m glad that we did meet.”

For the first time, Kitt found himself wishing that he could touch the hand of Marissa’s that was on the hood, and felt sharp remorse because he knew he couldn’t…then decided on another way of doing something to the same effect. The little girl felt the spot beneath her palm and only that spot heat up to a degree that would be the same as a warm, human hand.

“So am I, Kitty—I mean, Kitt…So am I,” she replied.

There was a sound coming from Kitt that was close to a quiet laugh, followed by, “…I don’t mind, Rissie…as long as if it’s coming from you and nobody else, not even Michael.”

She smiled gently and said something that she had heard this RC say when she first met this amazing being, “Deal!”

kimochi ga tsuyoku naru to fuan no kazumo fuete yuku kara
ichido dakishimeta kokoro ha donna toki mo hanasanai de

hiroi uchyuu ni hitori dake no
kimi ga soba ni ite kureru nara
koware ta toki no hari mo yagate
yukkuri ugokidasu mirai he
kimi ha sono mamade ite

Kitt never let on to her about it, but he did worry. Even though the days that passed by were wonderful, more than he had imagined happening before, he knew that before long, the day would come that he would have to leave this place with Devon, Michael and the others…and he found that he didn’t want to. No, it wasn’t leaving this place that he felt this way over…it was Marissa herself that he didn’t want to leave behind.

He had no idea how she knew what he was thinking about, for she said, “Kitty, don’t worry about it, let’s just enjoy tonight and the storm, okay? We’ll figure something out. I don’t even want to think about--"

There was a definite catch in his voice as he replied, hoping that he understood the half-statement correctly, “Rissie…I’m not letting go of you either, no matter what happens.” He paused before he continued, “This universe is truly so vast…It sounds illogical, but the one thing I wish for, right this moment, is that I can always keep you alone near me, even if time continues on.”

She giggled and replied, “Poetic, huh? To stay just as we are, just like this…”

nagareru hoshi ni negai o sotto tsubuyaku
"Kimi to isshoni iraremasu youni..."
kono jikan dake o GARASU no hako ni tojikomete
zutto nagamete ire tara ii no ni

Marissa added, “I know just what you mean…” and then said very quietly to the night-time stars, “I pray that I can always be with you, Kitt…” Beneath her hand, she felt a small tremor and smiled quietly. “You know, if we had a glass box, I’d close up this part of time into it, even though it’d be better if we could always see this.”

yasashii kimi no egao fuan de kumo rasetakunai kara
namidashita kunaru toki ni ha kono yozora o omoidasu yo

Kitt felt a new emotion go through him, one that was stronger than the joy and contentment…and more mixed than anything. He wanted to laugh…and perhaps this is what humans called wanting to cry…he had truly never felt it before, yet he knew that if he were able to right then, he would have. He didn’t want to cloud that smile of Marissa’s with worries, not tonight, so he looked in the sky, “Rissie…”

hiroi uchyuu ni taata futari no
shiawase no basho o mitsuketa ne
koko ni aru no ha tsuki to hoshi to
futari o tsutsumu yoru no kaze to
kimi he no omoi dake

Marissa chuckled and then added, not quite aware of Kitt’s state that moment, “You know, Kitty…in this vast universe, we’ve found the place, the first one, that we can be happy together, didn’t we? The forest, where you found me…and now this one, outside the city and forest, where the moon and the stars are so clear, and the night wind so nice.”

“…that’s very true, Rissie,” he replied, then felt as the aforementioned wind caused the child to press closer to him. There was a quiet chuckle, then he called out, “M-Marissa! Look, to your right!”

She did and gasped at the sight before them. In the sky, the “surprise” had begun. First they came slowly, streaks of light going across the night sky before disappearing, then eventually, there were more at the same time, sometimes two or three, sometimes as many as six in a row before a lull, then starting again.

“Wow!” she exclaimed, “This is really pretty!”

“Yes, it is,” Kitt agreed, “Bonnie once called it nocturnal nature at its finest. She wasn’t far from the truth after all.”

She didn’t bother asking who Bonnie was, figuring that more than one person was around the AI usually.

The wind suddenly blew, sending leaves swirling around the two of them, going higher with each twist before they scattered .

Marissa grinned at the sight, and from the hum underneath her, she could sense it from him, too.

“You know…they’re kinda like us.”

“What are?”

“The shooting stars, of course. If we had our way, we’d be running long and fast into the night, shining brightly as we do so.”

“…now who’s being poetic?” he teased her, the bemusement evident in his tone, “But you’re right…”

tooi kuni kara tadoritsuita
kimi ha ano hikaru hoshi Shooting Star
taemanaku sou matataku youni
mirai mo kimi mo dakishimeru to
kono yozora ni chigau

“You know what, Rissie?” he stated, “In several ways, we’ve struggled here from far off…although now, there’s something within you that I see shining brightly.”

She merely chuckled, “Maybe so…shooting star. And don’t say you’re not, you’re twinkling quite a bit yourself.”

The two of them shared laughter for a long moment before they continued watching the meteor storm, but at one time in that silence, there was a single thought that passed through their minds at the exact same time: I swear to this night sky, I’ll embrace both you and the future.

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