Déjà Vu

Chapter 9: Green Thumb

***

It had been a while since Kazuya had paid his father a visit. The idea of his old man doing time still amused him to no end, of course, even though it had been a month or so since he’d been reminded of the old bastard. This particular morning, he’d found himself lying back in his bed, not at all enthusiastic about getting up...it was Sunday, and there was nothing to do. Why not laze around for the morning, and sleep in for once?

He did just that; made himself quite comfortable curled up under the blankets, day-dreaming. For a while, he simply lay there...but after a short time he found himself fiddling with his earlobe. As he did, he couldn’t help but notice he could now feel his hair being tugged on; the nervous system had grown further up into his scalp now, and upon further exploration, he realised he could almost feel all the way down to his jaw line. Of course, he couldn’t pull his hand away, and kept fiddling with his ear. It made him feel almost human again...and day by day the feeling slowly grew.

After a while he decided he’d been lazing around for long enough, and rolled out of bed. It was nearly nine in the morning by now, which was a pretty hefty sleep-in for him. After grabbing some clothes from the chair near his bed, he sauntered into the bathroom to freshen up. Since he’d discovered he was no longer so artificial that he didn’t smell of anything, showering was no longer a luxury, it was a necessity.

After washing up, he found himself automatically looking for something around the basin. He couldn’t recall what...but he knew something was missing. A short glance in the mirror, and he snorted at his own morning air-headedness. The habit of shaving in the morning, after so many years, was still ingrained within his mind. He still did that at least once a week...reached for a razor, only to realise there wasn’t one there...then proceeded to wonder where the heck he put it. Synthetic skin didn’t grow hair...he had no need for a razor.

Putting that little issue aside, he continued to get dressed; a casual short-sleeved shirt, and dark slacks. The mirror watched him endlessly as he did so...he found himself staring at his reflection after a moment or so. Honestly, he couldn’t see what women saw in him...the few that did manage to see something. In his mind, even though he was young-looking once again, he didn’t see himself as anything that could be described as vaguely attractive. He didn’t have a charming personality either, so he believed, so that was another factor against him.

Maybe that was why he was still single, after all these years. Still, he didn’t care...he was happy alone, wasn’t he?

Dressed and refreshed, Kazuya left his room and made his way down to the cafeteria. As usual he wouldn’t be eating, but there’d be plenty of people to talk to down there. The workaholics all came in on Sundays around nine to ten in the morning and had their breakfast there.

As he made his way down in the lift, he found himself wondering exactly when he was...

...after all, it was only decade or two ago he was last standing in this lift, heading downstairs to engage in an activity he’d never truly mastered...socialising...

It was a strange feeling, Déjà vu. He could have sworn he’d done this before. As he cast his mind back, he realised he had...about fifteen years ago, when G-Corporation had helped him almost fully regain himself – everything but his memory. He’d found himself, though his proverbial slate had been wiped clean, uneasy when it came to making friends, but he seemed to make plenty of them anyway. He’d learned to smile and laugh like everyone else, to enjoy himself, to be one with the crowd...

It was almost a pity he finally remembered who he was. The old Kazuya that returned to his renewed body lost a lot of those friends with the regained coldness and seclusion, he remembered. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t maintain that man he’d become within the G-Corporation...the nameless warrior with a second chance at life...

Then again, he’d been made bitter and cold by his father’s treatment of him. The old bitterness was what really took over more than anything.

As he wandered into the cafeteria, he noticed there were fewer people inside than he’d predicted. He spotted Hanii in the far corner, and headed in her direction. She was, after all, his best friend. She was one of the few. He’d come to realise that with the passing of his father’s reign, he was a calmer, more relaxed and easy-going guy altogether...after all, him having any friends at all was remarkable in relation to his painful past.

Perhaps he was regaining part of that other man he once was. What was his name...?

Hanii didn’t seem to notice as he sat down in front of her...her nose was buried in a magazine. Silently, he kicked one knee over the other and leaned back, watching her as she avidly read through the page she was on. It seemed that over the last month, she’d recovered quite well from the loss of her uncle.

After a while she let out an enthusiastic giggle and slapped her hands over her lips, bounced about, and kept reading.

One brow arched higher than the other, Kazuya decided to ask the question that begged so; “What are you reading?”

She almost literally jumped out of her skin at the sound of his voice, and slammed both hands down on the double-page spread, her face quickly taking on a distinct rosy hue. “Nothing, nothing!”

Of course, when he pulled it out from beneath her, as much as she resisted, he had no trouble in doing so. She wasn’t quite strong enough to stop him, after all. Instead, she just giggled in embarrassment and hid her face in her hands. The page before him was hot pink and white in colour, with random paragraphs in blue. The title had a symbol in the same blue beside it...a circle with an arrow pointing upward above it.

The title itself almost made him drop the magazine and fall over backwards.

“What the hell...‘Twenty ways to estimate a guy’s size...’” He didn’t continue, just read down the page a little way to see if it was actually about that topic, his brows furrowing somewhat more as he did so.

For a moment, Hanii stared at his hands as he held the magazine, as if following through on some of the material within...then she realised what she was doing, and squeaked. She reached forward and snatched the magazine, then stuffed it hastily into her bag, still blushing profusely. “You saw nothing!”

“Uh...I saw a little more than nothing...” He smirked cheekily. “So, who’s your boyfriend?”

At that, she stared at him slack-jawed for a few moments. What boyfriend?! If anything, she wanted him to be hers...but she knew that was never going to happen. “What?! I don’t have a boyfriend! I...”

“Then why were you looking at something like that...wait, I don’t wanna know...”

She slapped her hands against her cheeks, shaking her head. This had to be the one most embarrassing thing she’d ever been caught doing... “I just was...oh, nothing, I was just...curious, I guess...”

Her seeming embarrassment made him wonder exactly who she was thinking about at the time...she wouldn’t be so embarrassed if she was just glancing over the page itself for the fun of it. “Well it can’t be me you’re wondering about...you’ve seen me naked enough times to know...”

Well, it seemed he’d hit the subject bang on the mark...if it were possible, she seemed to go redder, and squeaked softly, burying her face in her hands again. “Yes, I...NO! Kazuya, just...” She playfully lashed out at him with a hand, then slammed her forehead against the tabletop.

When he realised that it was him that more or less was on her thoughts, his cheeks pinked substantially as well. Half-laughing, he muttered down at the near-convulsing bundle of hysteric woman on the table before him. “Well, you could have just looked at the design blueprints for this automaton body of mine if you really wanted to know, couldn’t you?”

Of course, she was laughing too hard to respond. Chuckling, he put a hand against her shoulder. “I’m going to go and get some work done...how about you lie here in the hysterics for a while longer in the meantime, ne?”

Not waiting for a coherent response, he got up and headed toward the laboratory, smiling softly as he left the cafeteria. That had to be the first encounter of that sort he’d had. One thing he wasn’t used to was sexual attention...

***

Being a lazy Sunday afternoon, no one really did much work so to speak. After settling in just after nine, Kazuya and Hanii managed to work, along with the others, for a good solid five hours, before heading off for a late lunch, and for most, home. Most people migrated to the cafeteria as usual, but Kazuya himself was content with heading to his favourite spot...the calm and serenity of the Roof Garden.

He had about half an hour to himself, lying on the grass under a tree, soaking up the sunlight, before the faint ding of the lift arriving on the top floor interrupted his thoughts. A few moments later, Hanii sat down beside him, coffee in one hand, handbag in the other. It seemed she wasn’t going to continue work that day, and had just stopped by to drink her coffee in the relative peace of the garden.

A soft smile graced his face as he watched her gulp down the hot brew...she returned it a moment later, and continued to drink. A glint of pink caught his eye...the magazine was still in her handbag. With a cheeky smirk, he reached over and pulled it out silently, and began flicking through. Teasing her about this, after all, would prove to be fun. Of course, she noticed after a moment, and almost spurted coffee out her nose.

“Kazuya! What are you reading that for?!”

“Well you were so preoccupied with it before...and I always wanted to know if girly mags truly wrote nothing but bullshit...”

She sighed and smiled, watching his face as he read, holding the magazine above with both hands. After a while, he snickered softly. “Well, either it’s all bullshit or I learned something new today...”

“I’m inclined to think that you learned something new...” Grinning and blushing slightly, she grabbed it back again, and shoved it into her handbag. “So...what did you learn?”

He shrugged. “Well...I never knew ‘size’ could be roughly guessed by hand and foot size...personally I think it’s rubbish.”

Out of curiosity, she grabbed his nearest hand. “Let’s see...” She’d always marvelled at them; something she found sexy was men with nice hands. His were nice indeed; they were large, but slender...long, thin fingers with reasonably flat palms. His nails were neat and tidy since they didn’t grow, and thankfully, he had never had the genes for hairy fingers.

“Well, your hands are quite long...I’m guessing you’re a big boy...”

Shyly, he snatched his hand away and wrapped his arms around his stomach. He felt a little...exposed. “That’s not science, that’s a wild guess!”

Hanii couldn’t help but giggle softly at his reaction, and placed her coffee down next to her bag. A moment later, she yawned and leaned down, resting her head against his chest. Needless to say, at first, he had no idea to react at this sudden intrusion of his personal space, but after a few seconds, he decided it wasn’t so bad. She wasn’t causing any harm, and it had been a long, long time since he’d been physically intimate with another human – to any degree. With a yawn, he folded his arms behind his head, and relaxed once again beneath the rays of the afternoon sun.

For some time, neither said a thing. Kazuya’s mind had since wandered, thinking about a variety of things; his painful past, the work ahead, G-Corporation’s research and bad management, the bizarre moment at hand...Hanii, on the other hand, was completely intoxicated by the aforementioned moment. She was, after all, doing what she’d always wanted to...rest her head upon the chest of a physically fit male – fighter, athlete, warrior, body-builder, training fanatic...she didn’t care. The soft scent of cologne, the slow rise and fall of his chest, the warmth that radiated from the solid muscle...it was all enough to make her feel as if she’d died and gone to heaven.

The sun above was surprisingly warm, since both were wearing dark clothes, but neither seemed to mind. Kazuya, after all, couldn’t mind if he tried; he couldn’t feel it. Hanii was purposefully ignoring the slight burn on her legs and bottom, since ruining this precious moment was the last thing she wanted to do. He, she decided, didn’t mind or care either way about the intense feelings she was receiving simply by lying on his chest. In fact, he probably didn’t notice.

“Amazing how we still manage to get birds in the trees so far up here in the sky...” The deep rumble startled her as the vibrations shot through her cheek, into her hear...she couldn’t help but smile. Nope, he hadn’t noticed at all.

“I guess they like it up here...” From the slightly dozy sound of her voice, one would guess she was falling slowly asleep. She was, as a matter of fact, and for a moment, she completely forgot herself. One of her hands ran across his chest, taking in the smooth, hard muscle below, until she found a certain small item further across. Despite herself, she pinched it softly...only to nearly panic when she realised what she was doing. However, to her surprise, she received absolutely no reaction for her inadvertent troubles.

“Guess they do.” His reply was a bit delayed; it seemed he was deep in thought. And he hadn’t seemed to notice her pinching, either.

How annoying; for a moment, she’s forgotten he wasn’t human any more.

Since she wasn’t going to get smacked away for it, she continued, slowly and carefully tweaking the small lump through his shirt. If only he could feel it, she thought to herself as her body tingled. And if only I had the courage to take this as far as I could make it go...

For a while, again, there was silence. Hanii entertained herself blissfully and secretly with the marvels of his warrior’s chest, and Kazuya allowed his mind to continue to drift.

This was almost perfect, in his opinion. Lying in the sun, not a care in the world, with his best friend – his first friend – enjoying the time passing by alongside him. There was no need for talk, just the company; the sound of someone else breathing, the knowledge of their presence, their will to stay. For him, it was something he had grown used to, but would never stop appreciating. With a past like his, he would never take it for granted.

After a seeming eternity, he glanced down to see what Hanii was doing, only to be met with the sight of her toying with his chest. How cheeky!

“Are you enjoying yourself?”

Her eyes turned to saucer plates, and gawked at him, unable to hide their guilt. With her face reddening, she scrambled back up, clasping both hands together in front of her chest. “I...I...” How could she explain that one?!

His arm rested across his chest as he sat up, watching her reaction with little more to say for the time being. The situation left him completely baffled; why would anyone want to do such a thing to him? He wasn’t attractive, after all, and he was old enough to be her father. Maybe she was just teasing him, or was just bored; she couldn’t have feeling for him, could she? They were just friends.

The silence was clearly killing her, and she sighed softly. “Well maybe it’s time I told you Kazuya...I think of you as more than a friend...or at least, I’d like to...” She gulped quickly, and drew a shaky breath. To be honest, she’d never been so scared in her life – being rejected by such a man, after all, would be completely gutting to the soul. And to be even more honest, she had no clue as to what his response would be, because she had no clue as to what he thought of her, that is, between the realms of friend and lover. Where did she stand, in his opinion? She continued, before she lost her nerve.

“You’ve been fantastic the entire time I’ve known you...you’ve taken this whole issue so well, and you’ve never lashed out at anyone about it – except Carter...” She couldn’t help but smile as she said it, because she knew the nature of their mutual apathy toward each other. “That, and you’ve been the best friend I’ve ever had.”

He drew a breath, waiting for her to say something further. His mind was whirling with the sudden and rather unexpected turn of events, unable to think of something to say himself. Was this just a strange dream? Maybe the last half year had been one long, confusing dream.

“...and I feel like a real idiot right now, so it’d be great if you said something.” She stopped, and chewed on her lower lip. Yes indeed, she did feel like a real idiot...and somewhat of a little schoolgirl.

That was a tall ask, especially at the moment. It’s moments like these that leave him completely and utterly speechless. He drew a breath, then sighed, shrugging his shoulders dramatically. “I honestly don’t know what to say...”

She glanced away, thinking. Maybe he was really just rather shy deep down inside, despite how confident he always seemed. He was a rather deceiving person at the best of times; one could never assume with this man. Then again, maybe he was trying to find a way to gently break it to her that he wasn’t interested in someone half his age.

However, he knew he had to say something, because something told him that if he didn’t, he would very quickly break the girl’s heart. Did he love her? Yes. He did; as a friend. But what about love love? As of yet, it was a tricky decision. He had to admit, she was beautiful. A young, energetic Japanese woman, with short, heavily layered hair, dyed a golden copper, and a very nice figure; most of the men around desired her. For that very reason, Kazuya had excluded himself from the possibilities list. That, and his age was a definite barrier.

“Well...how do you feel about me?”

The killer question. “Let’s see...you’re my best friend...the first friend I ever had, to tell the truth. I’ve never thought of you in that way, mostly because I never even considered the idea that you’d feel the same. I’ve never thought anyone would, to be painfully honest.” He sat up further, drawing his knees to his chest, and put his arms around his knees. He felt thoroughly uncomfortable. “I just don’t know what to make of the situation at hand...I never expected you to think of me as more than a friend...”

Inside, Hanii felt herself dying of shame. Why had she let it slip? She should have kept the dirty little secret to herself! The more time passed in the still air of the garden, the more she came to realise she’d just ruined the most fantastic friendship she’d ever had. There was no way things could go back to what they were.

“I’m...I’m sorry Kazuya, I shouldn’t have said it. Let’s just...forget everything I said, and go back to what we had before...” She almost choked on her words as she tried to deny her feelings; she had to hold back the tears.

“No, Hanii...” How could she say such things? He couldn’t live with himself if he forced her to throw away anything she believed in. Slowly, he was realising that he felt almost too strongly about her for her to be considered just a friend. “If you feel a certain way, you shouldn’t have to repress it just to make someone else happy.”

The look in her eyes made his heart skip; the emotion was unreadable, but explicit. “You think so? But what about you?”

He shrugged again, and smiled softly. “I could get used to it.”

Hanii had no idea what to say to that. Instead she just smiled, blushed, and glanced down at the grass below her. What was there to say?

After a moment, Kazuya dropped his legs back down onto the grass. “Do you want a hug?” She sure looked like she needed one. He was never one to offer physical contact – in fact, that was the record first – but he’d taken a wild guess that the gesture might be appreciated.

She looked up at him, rather surprised. “You sure? Can I?”

Holding his arms out for her, he smiled and nodded. Of course, she didn’t need to be told twice, and crawled over to sit in his lap. Her arms looped around his neck tightly as she willed herself not to cry with joy...but it didn’t last long. As soon as she felt his strong arms around her, the tears came, silently streaming down her face. Willing herself not to make a sound, she just held onto him, enjoying every millisecond of the delicious, blissful contact.

What seemed to be ages, stereotypically, had ended up being only a minute or so before Hanii pulled away from his powerful shoulder, and stared into his dark eyes. She could tell he was completely baffled by the entire situation, but for her, it was a dream finally being realised. Before she knew what she was doing, she leaned up and pressed her lips against his, almost moaning in delight at their soft warmth. He flinched slightly, but didn’t pull away...in fact, he allowed her to do as she pleased, so it would seem. Cautiously, she slipped her tongue inside, toying with his as she explored within. Again, he offered no resistance, but didn’t respond to a great degree. He couldn’t feel it, after all.

She knew what he could feel, however. One hand drifted up toward the left side of his head, and, gently, she grasped his earlobe between her index finger and thumb. As she kissed him, her finger and thumb petted the lobe, and slowly traced up the side of his ear, over it, behind it, and went back to toying with the lobe. At first, he moaned softly into her mouth – enough to make her quiver in delight – then simply relaxed in her arms, drifting off into the bliss of pure and simple delight of physical contact and sensation.

After a moment Hanii leaned forward and pushed him gently but firmly, and toppled down after him as he fell back onto the grass. Well, she had to hand it to him; he certainly was easy to relax. Instead of leaning down to attack his mouth again, she rested her head on his chest, and continued to play with his ear, through the base of his hairline, and down to his jaw. She had a good idea that was as far as the nanites had gotten so far with their construction. He seemed to approve; eventually, his eyes drifted closed. From what she could tell, he was asleep.

Smiling, she curled up against his chest a little more, basking in both sunlight and the sheer bliss she felt in finally letting him know her dirty little secret – and surviving the aftermath.