Your Careless Heart (part 6 of 9)

a Street Fighter fanfiction by Kaiser

Back to Part 5
Recognize Your Contagion (Green-eyed Monster)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Wow! Look at that!"

Hazes of blue, yellow, red and green exploded into the night with short 
yet lingering blasts. The whole of the sky was set afire with the gleam 
of the festival's fireworks. The collective peoples of the carnival had 
gathered together by a pavilion to the far side of the area. All to see 
the biggest moment of the event. The fireworks display. Once they were 
lit on the other side of the pavilion, those explosive bursts of colour 
illuminated the sky over and over again. Leaving behind a glazed glow on 
the men and women who had gathered together to watch them. Elena and 
Narumi stood at the head of the crowds, watching all that was taking 
place. While Elena's big innocent eyes absorbed the sight of the 
fireworks; Narumi was less concerned with them and more concerned with 
the person she was standing next to. Winning that prize for Aiko was 
such a selfless thing to do. She had known Elena to be that kind of girl 
from the beginning. But to see her kindness in person was just something 
else. It made the attraction she was feeling for the taller girl even 
harder to control. 

Maybe she could just get a little bit closer to Elena... 

..Just a little bit. 

Narumi adjusted her glasses for one second, then nudged herself to left. 
Just enough for her arm to press into Elena's. It was obvious that she 
felt more comfortable that way. And Narumi found herself just... wanting 
more. She didn't know if it was the romantic setting (crowded as it was) 
or the longing she had felt since the last time she physically saw 
Elena, but the previous divide between the two of them was allowing her 
to express herself in ways that she might have thought better of long 
before she met Elena. The shorter girl sighed and rested her head upon 
the taller one's shoulder, casting her gaze up into the brightening 
skies again. That, Elena did feel. She looked down at the young woman 
who now had a very peaceful expression on her face. 

But for all her brilliant perceptions and connections to those around 
her, Elena really couldn't see why Narumi did that. "...Naru-chan? Is 
everything okay?"

"Yeah," She replied breathlessly, "it is."

That was enough for Elena to know. The African woman smiled at her pen 
friend and then looked upwards again when the bang of a new firework 
went off. The two of them stared up at them and enjoy the sight. And to 
see them standing there together... you would have believed it 
impossible to see another two people to be anymore comfortable with each 
other than they were. But such times are always disturbed, cruel or not, 
willingly or not. Narumi was not the only one to be enchanted and 
allured by the cinnamon-skinned foreigner. Most of the people at the 
festival weren't really bothered by her presence. But a couple of young 
men at a neighbouring crowd couldn't help but be attracted to this girl 
too. And unlike Narumi, they acted on it. The two young men walked from 
their own section of the fireworks crowd to the two distant friends. 
Narumi was the first to notice them and instantly pulled her head up 
from Elena's shoulder to see what they were after. The boys stopped in 
front of Elena and paid no mind whatsoever to Narumi. 

"Hey there," One of them said smoothly, "...I'm guessing that you're not 
from around here, right?" 

When Elena noticed that particular boy speaking to her, she addressed 
him. "Oh, hello! To be honest, no, I'm not from this town. Or even from 
this country. My name's Elena."

The second dude smiled and replied. "Elena, huh? Cute."

And thus began the conversation that triggered off something nasty 
inside Narumi. Cute to others, but unpleasant to some. That feeling was 
jealousy. The oblivious and cheerful Elena was so innocent that she 
didn't see what these guys were after. To her; these boys were speaking 
to her out of a will to forge a new friendship. All those guys really 
wanted was to get inside her kimono. Yet Elena couldn't see that. Which 
was one of the reason that Narumi's dreamlike expression morphed into an 
irritated one. To be fair, the boys were doing nothing wrong; but it 
didn't feel like that to Narumi. All she saw was a pair of bees buzzing 
around a flower that she herself wanted to pick. And the feeling of 
powerlessness to do anything about it forced her to remain silent. What 
could she do? It wasn't like she owned Elena. She couldn't stop her from 
meeting other people. Even if those individuals wanted to get closer to 
Elena than Narumi could tolerate. 

She couldn't do anything to stop it...

...But she refused to stay there and watch it. 

Narumi stepped back a little. Elena was fully in conversation with those 
two young lads. So before anything more happened, Narumi ignored the 
wetness in her eyes and dashed off to get away from this. She didn't 
exactly know where she was going until she was gone. And by the time 
Elena began noticing an absence of her friend, it was already too late 
to stop her. 

"So..." The first youth prodded, "Wanna come to my house for a little 
fun?"

Elena accidentally ignored that and looked around. "...Where's 
Naru-chan...?"

Onwards to Part 7


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