The Accompanist

Chapter 12: Nostalgia

Boutarou's eyes watched the blue dot slowly grow closer to the orange one. With every sharp turn and skid of the tires, his body was thrown into a different part of the car, but he didn't care. Right now, the only thing that mattered was finding her before Katsumi did.

When the dots finally overlapped, Shiki slowed down. Boutarou not only felt sore; he felt like his head was going to come disconnected from his shoulders and his stomach contents were going to expel themselves from his mouth. But when his eyes caught the sight of long black hair swaying in the cool breeze, he managed to put a hand on Shiki's arm.

Without a word, Shiki slammed on the breaks and threw the gear shift forward into park. "Unbuckle yourself."

Boutarou hardly had time to think about where she would sit when there was no backseat, or what her reaction would be to seeing Shiki. He simply clicked the red button on his seatbelt and watched as Shiki marched up to Sayaka, grabbing her wrist.

To his surprise, Sayaka tried to fight back. She tried to pull her hand away. But when Shiki called her full name, the onlookers that suspected a kidnapping ducked their heads.

"You're coming with me whether you like it or not," Boutarou could faintly hear him say through the open car door.

"Where is that? I have somewhere else I need to be." Her cold and unforgiving voice was music to his ears. "If this is about Boutarou then--"

"This isn't about Boutarou. This is about you being so desperate for an accompanist other than him that you'd go so far as to sleep with an abusive creep."

"I didn't--"

Shiki opened the passenger door and shoved her inside, right into Boutarou's lap.

"Let go of me you--"

"Sayaka..."

When he said her voice in a gentle and yet pained whimper, she froze, giving Shiki enough time to slam the car door closed. In the few moments of silence that ensued before the driver's side door opened, her entire body trembled against him. And he lifted his exhausted arms and wrapped them around her.

For the first time in what felt like a decade, he wanted nothing more than to pull her close and tuck his face into her hair. But the moment his hand slid over her back, she sucked in a breath and winced.

Boutarou froze. Right... She's hurt... He slowly let his arms fall, limply resting them on her lap.

"Don't forget to buckle up." Jarvis' robotic voice commanded, bringing Shiki's hand to his seatbelt. But Boutarou didn't have the strength. He just wanted to cry.

"Shiki!" Sayaka yelled, her throat constricted. "Why did you--" She cut herself off as tears spilled over her eyes. "Why is he here..."

"Because he kept whining about wanting to see you," Shiki said with a smirk. "Keep the making out to a minimum, I still need to focus on driving."

"That's not funny!"

No sooner than the words left Sayaka's mouth, Shiki slammed on the accelerator. Her head was forced against the headrest, sideways next to his. He turned to look at her. Startled. Crying. Angry. Trying to hide behind her bangs. And as Shiki hooked a left, their faces collided.

It was only for a second, but the feeling of nostalgia and pain and longing washed over Boutarou. Half of him begged her not to pull away, the other half was startled at how familiar it seemed despite having no prior recollection of doing this before. The touch of her lips, along with feeling soft and intoxicating, felt... strangely familiar.

Sayaka jerked away in a matter of milliseconds, yelled at Shiki, turned her back against Boutarou and pulled the seatbelt around both of them. Just like that, their accidental kiss was over.