Found (Chapter 2) - Morisawa Chiaki/Reader
Summary: Chiaki can vaguely remember that time in kindergarten when he saved a girl during a school field trip but he knows that it was the first time he became someone’s hero. With only a dolphin plush and a worn-out handkerchief to remind him of that memory, he finally meets her again.
A/N: This chapter took longer than i expected but hopefully the length is worth the wait~ Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 2: Lending A Hand
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“She’s what?”
“Hmm? She’s the cafe’s owner. Kaoru told me last time we went there with Souma.”
Chiaki didn’t realize the fact until after they left the cafe, and the first thing that concerned him was if he was at any point rude to her while they were talking the other day. Judging by her reactions, she probably wasn’t but he’s really not the type who can read people’s emotions accurately. Plus, that was just the first time they met, so he wouldn’t really know. Kanata should’ve really told him. But Chiaki can’t really blame him since Kanata must've thought the brunette already knew.
Chiaki shakes the thought off as he rounds the corner to the street where the cafe is located.
Visiting the cafe in the morning would probably be a bad idea since the children might recognize him and cause a commotion. He recalls a lot of Ryuseitai meet and greet events where the children would just gather around and cling onto him in adoration. Not that he dislikes it one bit, but he might cause too much ruckus in the cafe that it disrupts the rest of the customers. So he decides a late afternoon visit would be better, where the crowd would be thinner.
Or so he thought.
The moment he enters the cafe, a pair of children run past him, almost bumping into his legs if he hadn’t moved away in time.The children’s area is completely full and the quiet, relaxing atmosphere from two days ago was gone.
He spots the owner by the display case, reaching for a stuffed bear to lend to a waiting girl by her feet. “Alright now. Take good care of her while we get your Ranger Pink parfait ready, okay?” She says, her voice in a gentle and soothing tone.
The girl sniffles and rubs her eyes before taking the bear. “...Okay. Thank you, Onee-san!” She gives her new friend a pat before trotting back to her mother. The mother mouths a small ‘thank you’ as her daughter approaches and the owner waves in reply.
Chiaki walks over just as the owner turns to the door. “Oh, you really came!” She says, a hint of excitement in her voice. However, as soon as she realizes this her cheeks turn a light shade of pink and she clears her throat to hide her embarrassment. “–I mean, welcome! Please have a seat and we’ll get back to you for your order.” The change of her tone to a more business-like one didn’t go unnoticed by Chiaki, but he passes the observation as simply being courteous.
“Thanks. I’ll be over there, then.” Chiaki points to an empty table near the children’s area and she nods before getting back to work. Now’s probably a good time to go over the script for another job while he waits, and so he opens the folder he brought with him and starts skimming over the lines.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when a glass of water was placed on the table in front of him and was greeted again by the owner, just like the first time he visited the cafe. The only difference is that this time, she is looking more troubled than cheerful.
“I am so very sorry!” She suddenly blurts out, bowing her head. “We haven’t had this many customers at this time of the day and… well our other staff is still sick so–Ah! Sorry! I shouldn’t be blabbering all this to a customer!” She says and apologizes once more. He’s never seen her this flustered before.
“Ah, no it’s fine really. I didn’t even notice how long it has been since I started reading through this.” Chiaki quickly replies, trying to ease her worries. He had a habit of getting too engrossed in whatever he’s reading and losing track of time, after all, so a few minutes of waiting shouldn’t bother him too much.
“But it’s already been an hour since you arrived and we haven’t attended to you yet,” she regretfully explains, “so please let me take your order now and I'll get started on it immediately!” She takes out a notepad and waits for his reply.
An hour, huh? Chiaki thinks and peeks over behind her to the children section. It’s still packed, with the most children holding stuffed animals from the display case. They must already be waiting for their orders too. The barista counter has several parfaits on it, ready to be served. There are also a few new customers who are looking around and probably waiting for a staff to attend to them. It’s one heck of a war she’ll be returning to once she takes his order.
“Umm… Sir?” She hesitantly calls, clearly still anticipating his response, and Chiaki looks back at her.
“You have a lot of people today, huh?”
“Y-Yes. I’m really sorry for–”
“Would you mind me helping out?”
“What?” Her tense shoulders drop in confusion as Chiaki stands up and takes a quick view of the cafe once more.
“I can go wait tables and entertain the kids to free you some tasks.” He offers, hands now on his hips and wearing a confident smile on his face. She was surprised by the offer but she quickly shakes her head.
“But that’s– We can’t possibly let a customer do that and not to mention an i–”
“It’s fine, really. A hero would never pass up any chance of helping others!”
But despite her best efforts to dissuade him from taking the place of their sick employee, she eventually gives in. Partly because she had a long queue of orders that needed preparing and she no more time to waste arguing, but mostly because of Chiaki’s persistent convincing. He had good intentions, after all.
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Chiaki is a natural at this, being an idol and all, and is able to settle down the waiting customers, especially the children. It was only a matter of time before the chaotic atmosphere died down.
He stops for a moment to look back at the counter to see how they’re doing with the orders, and he sees her trying her best to calm an upset boy, who was stomping his feet in front of the display case.
“I want to play with the dolphin!” The boy cries, pointing his finger on the worn out dolphin plush at the top shelf.
“I’m really sorry. That one’s only for display.” She gently replies, crouching down to meet the boy’s eyes.
“But I want to see what it looks like up close! Mommy and I went to an aquarium yesterday and I didn’t see the real one because I was scared. So I want to play with the blue dolphin!” The boy raises his voice, already on the verge of tears. She bites her lip, not knowing what to do.
“...Mr. Dolphin up there is really old, you see? If we suddenly take him outside, he’ll… um… he might get hurt.” She tries her best to explain it to him in a way he can understand but the boy was not budging, still holding that disappointed frown on his face. “A-Anyway, I can’t really take Mr. Dolphin out. You can play with the other animals, if you like–”
“It’s just for a few minutes until Mommy comes back. Why won’t you let me play with him?!” The boy shouts and stands on his tiptoes, pressing his little hands on the glass screen and attempting to slide it open.
“W-Wait! It’s dangerous, don’t–”
Chiaki is quick to rush over, reaching out for the boy to lift him up and away from the display case. The boy was stunned by the sudden action, with eyes staring wide at Chiaki as he put him down.
“Now, now. Good boys should listen to the grown-ups. It’ll be hard for you to be a hero if you keep causing trouble.” Chiaki then says.
“But the dolphin...” The boy looks back up at the dolphin, frowning even more.
Chiaki places a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “You said you went to an aquarium, yeah?”
The boy nods and wipes little beads of tears forming on his eyes. “...Yeah.”
“What was it like seeing the other fish up close?” Chiaki asks, and almost instantly the small tantrum is forgotten as the boy looks at him with excited eyes.
“There were so many colorful fish and they were swimming together!” He spreads his arms wide as he tells the brunette. “There was this one fish with… um...”, the boy looks at his hands and tries to count on his fingers, “... eight legs!”
“Wow! That looks cool! How does a fish with eight legs swim, I wonder?” Chiaki exclaims and the boy looks happy to have someone listen to his stories.
The boy's face lights up at an idea. “Oh! I can show you what it looks like!” And he starts tugging at Chiaki’s hand. “Let me draw it for you.”
Before Chiaki is dragged away, he turns to her, who was still surprised at how easily he handled the situation. “I’ll take care of the boy here, you go and tend to the other customers.” He reassures her, giving her a quick wink to ease her worries and she gives a relieved smile.
“Alright, thank you.” She nods before heading back to the counter to retrieve the next batch of orders to serve. Chiaki continues to listen to the child as he draws with the crayons and sheets of paper on the table. The eight-legged fish the boy was talking about was actually an octopus. The boy then starts to tell Chiaki about the other creatures he saw on his aquarium visit and the brunette listens patiently.
From behind the child, Chiaki sees the owner slowly making her way to the display case, careful not to alert the boy of her presence. He and the boy were seated at a table with the boy having his back turned from the shelf, so when she opened the glass door and reached for the dolphin, the boy didn’t notice.
She meets Chiaki’s eyes for a moment, and signals him to stay quiet and continue distracting the boy. He nods and she quickly ducks behind the counter and into the staff room with the dolphin. She is probably hiding it so the boy would forget about it.
The rest of the afternoon went smoothly thanks to Chiaki’s help and they were able to reach closing time without incident. That was probably the busiest day they’ve had, and it would’ve brought them a bad reputation if there were too many unsatisfied customers due to being understaffed. Chiaki was glad he could help.
–
“Here’s your Ranger Red Parfait!” Chiaki eagerly watches as his red parfait is placed in front of him. The dessert looked more appetizing now that he can finally have his own. It would be a lie to say he was not thinking about finally tasting it while he was serving them to the children earlier. The glass is tall and wide, containing a generous amount of whipped cream over the red velvet cake and cream cheese icing. It’s also decorated with walnuts, strawberries, blueberries and a chocolate wafer on top. It really makes one excited to just dip their spoon onto the dessert.
“Ah, I can’t wait to try it! Thank you!” Chiaki replies a little too enthusiastically, earning a small laugh from her. The cafe has already closed for the day and it’s just the two of them left. Chiaki decided to sit by the children’s area and he invited her to sit across him.
“You sure are as excited as those children earlier.” She comments, placing her arms on the table as she watches him.
“Well, I really am excited to try them out ever since I saw it on the flyer.” He explains in reply. He was looking forward to visiting the cafe again with Ryuseitai too but unfortunately, their schedules didn’t match up so he ended up going alone.
A small chuckle escaped her lips. “Yeah, I can see you practically drooling over the other parfaits you were serving earlier.” And Chiaki’s eyes grew wide at her statement. Was he really that obvious?
“Just kidding~” She then says, giggling again at his reaction. Chiaki can feel his cheeks getting red in embarrassment but he tries to hide it with a loud laugh.
“You got me there.”
She watches expectantly as he finally takes a careful scoop of the parfait, making sure to get a part of all the elements so he can taste how well they would all combine. He places the spoonful on his mouth and as the wonderful flavours fill his taste buds, he notices the nameplate on her uniform, a defining gold plate with her name and the title “Manager” under it. She really does run the cafe, huh?
“Um… Is something the matter? Did it... not live up to your tastes?” She nervously asks. He was lost again in his thoughts so she must’ve interpreted his silence as dissatisfaction.
“Uh, no. It actually tastes amazing! I can see how well they all come together.” He quickly replies and she lets a breath she’s been holding. Ah, he made her worry again.
“It’s just that I didn’t realize you were the owner until a friend told me when we left last time.” He says sheepishly and she responds with a small “oh ” before laughing.
She leans slightly on the table. “Well, I didn’t realize you were an idol until our barista showed me one of your concerts. The children were all fawning over you earlier too! I’m surprised you were able to handle them.”
“Well, being in the job gives you more experience in learning how to calm them down.” Chiaki somehow feels a sense of pride as he speaks and he gives another of his confident laughs. She has a thoughtful look before nodding in understanding.
“I see. So I guess we’re even.” She grins and Chiaki takes another spoonful to his mouth before continuing.
“I hope I wasn’t rude to you in any way.”
“No, not at all! You were actually a big help today.”
As if remembering something important, she lets out a horrified gasp. “Oh god, I can’t believe I let an idol wait tables in my cafe! I’m gonna get in trouble with your managers, aren’t I?” Her hands are on her cheeks in panic as she spoke.
Chiaki quickly shakes his head at the question. “What? No! I already told you before but it’s totally fine! It’s not like we’re bound to just do whatever job our agency gives us.”
“Oh, well that’s a relief.” She breathes out, chuckling a bit at her own reaction. If Chiaki was being honest, though, seeing her get flustered again like this, he can’t help but find her a little cute. He grins at the thought.
She excuses herself as Chiaki is finishing his parfait and disappears into the staff room. She comes back out with the dolphin plush from earlier and begins inspecting it for any dirt or tears. She had a small sewing kit with her as well just in case. Chiaki starts to think back to what happened earlier with the boy and wonders if the old plush holds some kind of significance to her, with how adamant she was on not letting the boy touch it.
“This actually holds great sentimental value. And you can’t find it anywhere anymore because the shop I bought it from closed down.” To his surprise, she answered so easily when he asked her about it.
It was from a field trip when she was young, she narrated. Her class went to an aquarium and in one of the animal shows they had, she was chosen to come up and play with the sea lion. The creature, however, got a little too playful and pulled the young girl into the water by her dress and was dragging her to the bottom of the pool.
“I thought I was gonna die, you know. I didn’t know how to swim and I was panicking so hard I took in a lot of water.” She ghosted a hand to her throat, as if remembering the sensation she felt when she was drowning. Chiaki listens intently as she continues.
“But then there’s this boy who was also chosen to come up on stage with me. He jumped in after I was pulled underwater and was pulling me upwards by the arm. I don’t remember much of what happened then but the aquarium staff were the ones who eventually rescued the both of us. That was one heck of a near-death experience, huh?” She then chuckles, all the heavy feelings from earlier forgotten.
He wonders then what happened after the incident. Was she still haunted by the experience of almost dying? What happened to the boy who saved her? All these questions and more were lying unsaid in his mind but he was hesitant to ask.
She lifts the dolphin from her lap. “This dolphin’s from that aquarium’s souvenir shop. I may not have remembered the boy’s face, but that boy, probably the same age as me, bravely saved my life and this right here is my constant reminder of that fact.” She fondly runs a hand onto the plush’s soft fur, her eyes giving off a soft twinkle which for some reason makes her entire face glow like the early morning sun. Chiaki almost got lost in them, until she breaks the silence.
“That’s why I don’t want this out of my sight, nor on somebody else’s hands.” She says sheepishly, as if it was a silly reaction. But Chiaki didn’t think of it as silly at all, in fact–
“It’s a precious memory of your first hero, huh?” Chiaki smiles at her, not showing any sign of ridicule. How could he laugh at something like that? He was glad that someone was able to become a hero for her and it wouldn’t be silly to cherish a memento of that time.
Her eyes widened for a moment at his reaction, surprised he hasn’t laughed it off like the others did, but then softens into a small smile as she looks down again on the plush.
“...Yeah.”
She has told him a story of her childhood, and not just any story too. It was a memory that she kept and treasured for so long. It might not have been a story she tells to just anyone, either. It was like she was sharing a part of her to Chiaki, a complete stranger she just met a few days ago, and for that Chiaki felt honored.
“Thanks for sharing all this to me.”
–
The two stayed for about an hour more talking, the conversation mostly led by Chiaki with his numerous stories about his unit and his high school days. After hearing a story as personal as hers, he couldn’t help but also share something he holds dear to his heart too: all the friends he made in Yumenosaki and most especially, Ryuseitai. She was eager to listen to each one, sharing a few more stories of her own when a similar experience happened to her too.
Night falls too soon, though, and she really had to close shop for the day. It would be another war again tomorrow so she needed the time to rest and unwind. The two part ways after helping her lock up, with her inviting him to come visit again
Chiaki finally arrives home, happy to have made a new friend and goes to the kitchen for a glass of water. He passes by his storage room, door ajar from when he rummaged some old stuff the night before. It’s in need of a little re-organizing, with all the boxes left open and some with its contents spilling out. He’s finished reading through the script this afternoon anyway so he decides to clean it up.
As he begins to take out the boxes from their shelves, an old paper bag tumbles off from the top shelf. Curious to know what’s inside, Chiaki takes out its contents and to his surprise it’s a dolphin plush, covered in dust and its pink color starting to fade away. Chiaki was racking his brain on where on earth he got this from when he saw the tag on the plush. An aquarium theme park, from a school trip back back in kindergarten., he now recalls. But did he actually buy a pink dolphin before?
Another interesting thing that was inside the bag was a small white handkerchief. It was decorated with sunflowers at the corners and Chiaki can already tell this wasn’t his. It was only after he unfolds it that he notices a name embroidered at the bottom.
The same name as the cafe owner.
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hey, heyyy~! this fic is also up on my ao3, @lightspeedrobin ~
Ch.1 | Ch.3