Nick woke up first, and quietly rolled over, sliding the shoji aside so he could watch Sumire sleep. He realized that she might consider this kind of creepy, but the thought of seeing her at peace, eyes closed, no worries clouding her brow, was too tempting. He sat on his futon as the rays of the sun lengthened and brightened their suite, enjoying how her slow breaths moved her narrow ribcage up and down, how her pretty lips were slightly parted as she inhaled and exhaled. Her long lashes lay against her fair skin, more clearly visible than usual because she wasn't wearing her glasses.

She stirred, possibly aware at some visceral level that she was being watched, and Nick quickly and silently shut the shoji so she wouldn't catch him staring at her.

He rose and used the bathroom, emerging to find Sumire dressed, and their bedding put away. The blinds were raised, the windows open to let in the morning air, and two women, different from yesterday, but just as cheerful, were already laying out breakfast.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, good morning," they called out, bowing as he entered the room.

How had they known Nick and Sumire were awake?

Mystifying.

As soon as the women were gone, they sat down to eat, and he asked as he poured coffee for both of them.

"How do they know when we wake up? I mean, they were in here while I was still washing my face!"

Sumire smiled as she took a sip of her coffee. She gestured to a button on the wall. "I push that, that's all, it's no mystery."

"Oh. Oh!" Nick laughed at himself. "I'm so stupid, god."

"No, Nick," Sumire protested. "You don't read Japanese, how could you know?"

He looked at her, smiling and blinking, and his look lasted maybe a beat longer than it should have.

Sumire felt a little uncomfortable, and looked back down at her food without saying anything. She rose to go brush her teeth as soon as she was finished, and Nick knew that she'd seen something in his eyes, something more than should be in a friendly look.

He really needed to be careful not to make her feel awkward about their friendship. She deserved to feel comfortable where she lived, and she deserved to feel comfortable around him. This suite was going to be her home for the next five months, and she was going to be in his presence pretty much nonstop for that time, so he absolutely had to make sure that she felt relaxed around him.

But she was so pretty. And nice. And funny. Smart.

He liked to be around her, dammit. He liked to look at her, he literally liked to fill his eyes with the sight of her. He liked to say funny things so she'd smile. He liked to be near her when she was tired so that she might fall asleep and lean on him.

He wanted to kiss her.

Oh holy shit, he wanted to kiss her.

When in the hell had that happened?

Nick was astonished.

He never wanted to kiss women.

Ever.

This was something that every single woman he'd ever been with had complained about. The "moment" would come during the date or whatever, and the girl would lean in, and sometimes Nick would actually pull away, out of kissing range, before he could help himself, and the expression on the girl's face would change, morphing into one of dismay.

"What?" she would say. "You don't want to kiss me?"

"Of course I do," he would answer, throwing in a laugh to show how ridiculous her words were. Then he'd have to kiss her, and really put himself into it, like he wanted to, to make up for how much he really didn't want to.

But kissing always felt so close to him, so intimate, way closer than he ever wanted to be to the woman in question. The truth was that he'd rather have sex than kiss some of these women.

But, for some unfathomable reason, he wanted to kiss Sumire.

WTF?

Sumire herself came out of the bathroom, tying her hair up in its usual bun.

"You ready to go?" she asked, grabbing a hat.

He nodded, trying to act normal.

"Great, let's get going, before it gets too hot. Come on, Nick-san."

🏮🍃🏮🍃🏮🍃🏮🍃🏮

They followed the road in front of the ryokan for about a mile as it wound along the creek, a road which was mostly shady because of the foliage on the trees which arched over the road.

"Wow, I bet this road is going to be gorgeous in a month or so, when the leaves start to turn," Sumire said, looking up. "Don't you think?" She looked over at Nick. "I mean, all of these are deciduous, so the colors must be lovely."

Nick blinked at her. "I'm sorry, is deciduous the kind that loses its leaves in the winter?"

"Nick, are you serious?" Sumire shook her head. "Yes! Evergreen keeps its leaves, deciduous loses its leaves."

"I'm sorry," he said sheepishly. "I know fuck all about botany, I thought I told you that."

They walked on, after Sumire shook her head again.

The droning of the cicadas was the only sound for a long time; even the cars were few and far between. It was very humid, and Sumire could feel the band of her hat getting soaked through.

"We're going to have to buy more water in the village," Nick said. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to run out in a little bit."

"Yeah, me too," Sumire agreed, tipping her bottle up for another drink.

"Man, it's like a jungle, isn't it?" Nick continued. "Like Vietnam or Thailand or whatever. Filming in this is going to be a bitch."

They finally arrived in the village, which was just as pretty as they'd been told. They entered the first shop they came to, just to cool off, and bought more water, and popsicles, which they ate inside the store.

The shop clerk was of course very interested in them. Not many foreigners came to such a tiny place, so she was full of questions for Sumire.

"I'm surprised more people from the shoot haven't been through here," Nick said as they finally left the store and continued walking up the main street.

"Well, most of that is going to happen about an hour up the road by car in the opposite direction from how we came, I think," Sumire explained. There's a bigger town in that direction, and I think that's kind of the base of operations for the shoot. Most of the cast is staying there, too, if I'm not mistaken. Not many are going to make it over here, probably."

A few village children followed them as they walked up the street, pointing out local sites, asking  them what they were doing there, trying out the few English words they knew.

"Kanojo wa nihongo shaberu, she speaks Japanese," Nick said to the kids with a smile.

First, they were amazed at his skill with Japanese, making sounds of surprise. This made Nick grin at Sumire. Then, they turned to Sumire to hear her Japanese, and were absolutely floored by her grasp of their language. After that, they wouldn't leave the young couple alone, pestering them non-stop with questions about why they were in town, how long they were going to be there, where they were staying, and on and on.

Finally, Sumire and Nick ducked into a restaurant, relieved to get away from the questions.

"Wow, look at how beautiful this place is," Sumire said, looking around. It was an old fashioned Japanese restaurant, with tables that over looked the creek, which had grown to an actual river by this point.

They both ordered somen, a cold noodle dish, as it was simply too hot to think of warm food, and it was delicious.

"I've never had this before," Nick said. "Thanks for suggesting it, Mimi-chan." He looked around. "In fact, thanks for all of this. I've already gotten more out of this trip to Japan than I would've without you, I can tell, so thank you."

He smiled at her, and again, Sumire felt strange and looked away, feeling embarrassed for some reason.

"It's okay," he reassured her. "You can smile back at me, you know? I'm not going to bite you or anything."

"I know you're not going to bite me," Sumire repeated, shaking her head. "I don't know, something feels weird since yesterday, for some reason." She looked up at Nick. "Don't worry about it, I'll adjust, I promise."

They left the restaurant, and as warm as it had been in the morning, it was even hotter now. Sumire wished she could take off the sheer, long-sleeved blouse she was wearing over her tank top, but she just couldn't. She wiped her forehead on her sleeve.

They wandered around the town, looking at the local artwork, and some pottery stores, where the local glaziers sold their stuff. It was really beautiful.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm about ready to melt, so how about we head back?" Nick asked. "We can watch a movie?"

"Sounds good," Sumire agreed, nodding.

They were walking down the shady road when Sumire wandered to the side to look at a wildflower. She tried to get closer to get a picture of it, and put her foot wrong.

She let out a little scream as she fell a little way down the hillside, sliding on her bottom.

"Whoa, Sumire, are you okay?" Nick ran to where she was, yanking her up by her arms, probably much harder than he had to.

"Yes, I'm fine, just stupid and clumsy, you know me," she said, rubbing her posterior ruefully.

They continued walking, but Sumire let out a squeak of pain when she put her right foot down, lifting it immediately.

"Fuck!" she muttered. "I turned my ankle." She hopped to the side of the road to let a car pass, and leaned against a tree.

"Let me see, let me see," Nick said, lifting her foot.

"What, are you a doctor, or a nurse, or even a Boy Scout?" Sumire teased.

"No, I'm none of those things," Nick retorted. "But neither are you, Purple, so shut up, and let me examine your ankle."

Her ankle was beginning to turn dark pink, and puff a little.

"I can move it, so I think it' just a little sprain, or even a what do you call it, a strain, you know?" Sumire said, gasping a little as Nick turned it this way and that.

"Well, that's really great, but you can't walk on it, and we're at least an hour from the inn, so what do you suggest we do?" Nick asked, releasing her foot.

Sumire sighed and was silent.

"Why don't you call Mino-chan to come and pick us up?" Nick said.

"I don't want to bother him on his day off."

"Or call the inn, then. They have a car, right?"

Sumire nodded. "But I don't want to put them out because I was stupid."

Nick raised his eyebrows at her. "What do you suggest, then?"

"Just give me a few minutes, I'll be able to walk on it," Sumire said gamely.

"Oh, come on!" Nick rolled his eyes at her. "Look at it, Sumire! It might be fine tomorrow, but you are definitely not going to be able to walk on it in a few minutes."

"You don't have to yell at me!" Sumire shot back, wiping her forehead again. "In fact, you don't even have to wait for me! Just go, I'll get back on my own, okay?" She glared at Nick, brown eyes on fire.

Nick looked at her, expression softening. "You're right, you're right, I'm sorry." Nick looked around, hands on his hips. "Okay, how about if I piggy back you?"

"What? No way." Sumire shook her head.

"Why? I mean, why not?" Nick looked at her. "You weigh hardly anything, it won't hurt me. I piggy back my nieces all the time. And it won't be like I'm carrying you in front or anything, there won't be any kind of romantic connotation to it, I promise." He smiled in spite of himself. "It will be like you're a little kid with a skinned knee, you know?" He nodded encouragingly. "Didn't your dad ever piggy back you when you were little?"

And Sumire could remember when she was a little girl, how her father would give her piggy back rides, or ombu, as it was called in Japanese, when she was tired.

"Come on, my little cucumber," Nick said with a smile.

Sumire gave a little laugh, then nodded.

Nick came and stood in front of her, and she leapt lightly up on his back. He grabbed her legs, and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"See? I hardly know you're there," he said. "You okay?"

Sumire nodded, and they headed off toward the ryokan.

"You promise I'm not too heavy?" she asked once.

"Honest." he assured her. "It's actually kind of nice," he added. "You smell very nice, Mimi-chan, it's a real pleasure piggy backing you."

"Really?" she laughed, and the sound was right in Nick's ear, and it made him feel like swooning a little bit.

"Really," he answered with a nod.

And Sumire had to admit that, far from being uncomfortable, which was how she thought she'd feel, she actually enjoyed being so close to Nick. This shocked her. The feel of his broad back under cheek and arms, of his slim hips under her legs, all of it felt...nice. She even felt an urge to run her fingers through his hair.

Wow.

They arrived back at the ryokan late in the afternoon, and the ladies at the front desk made a nice fuss over her, and brought an ice pack to the suite before they even had their shoes off.

Sumire was placed on one end of the couch, and fruit and iced tea were brought to them immediately, the air conditioner was turned on, and they were made as comfortable as they could be as quickly as possible. Nick sat next to her and they started watching a movie as they relaxed. He scooted as close to her as he thought he could without having her protest and move away. He thought about how she felt against his back, her warm, thin body, the weight of her limbs and torso, the scent of her hair...

"Nick?"

Nick was nearly asleep on the couch in the cool and darkened room.

"Hm?"

"Thank you, Nick."

"The pleasure was all mine, Mimi-chan."