Tree house
A Suikoden fanfic, by Suzume.
For Amber.
Meg, the girl Nanami and her younger brother met on the Greenhill-Muse border, was quite interesting, Nanami had realized. At first, she had thought Meg, with her animated barrel companion, was just strange, but as time passed, it dawned on her what a simplification of the truth that idea was. Instead of "strange," Nanami began to regard the slim and pretty brunette as clever, intriguing, and somehow quite attractive. She felt it might be worthwhile to get to know Meg better. However, Nanami was not certain that she and Meg had anything in common, and was therefore unsure of how to approach her. In the end, she decided to do a little fact-finding before making a move.
Walking out past Tony, who has hard at work pulling weeds out of his vegetable patch, and Yuzu, who waved at the older girl as she went by, Nanami found the friendly person she was looking for. Millie stood by the wooden fence, smelling some daisies with Bonaparte wriggling about by her feet. Nanami came closer and hopped up onto the fence. "Good morning!" Millie said, her large eyes shining.
"Millie, I see you spending a lot of time with Meg," Nanami commented to the friendly girl with the unusual pet, "Do you know what her hobbies are, or what she likes to do for fun?"
Millie scooped up Bonaparte, ending his attempt to secretly scuttle away. "Meg likes to build thing and to explore the countryside. She's very adventurous," Millie answered cheerfully, scratching Bonaparte's stomach.
"Thanks Millie!" Nanami chirped, "That helps a lot!" She hopped down off the fence and hurried off to put this new information to use.
Down by the docks, Nanami encountered Miklotov, searching through his pockets for spare change. The small girl came up to him and, holding her hands behind her back, smiled sweetly, "What are you doing, Miklotov?"
He looked up suddenly, a bit surprised, then smiled back at her. "I thought I might take a small break from training and go fish for a while, but I'm not sure I have enough money to buy any bait."
"Hmm..." Nanami considered the knight's problem, "Well, I know a way you could earn the potch very quickly."
"You do?" he asked eagerly.
"Yep!" she grinned, "I need someone to move some lumber for me, and if you help, you'll be rewarded for your services."
The Blue Knight nodded and rolled up his sleeves, "I'd be happy to help you, Lady Nanami."
Nanami and Miklotov marched over to the back of the dojo, where scrap wood from all the construction that had taken place over the past month had accumulated. They sorted through the planks to find ones that Nanami deemed suitable for her task, and once they had picked out what she felt were enough, carried them up the hill to Nanami's favorite sycamore tree. Once all the wood have been moved to the correct location, Nanami took out her pink and white change purse and counted out three thousand potch for her helper. Miklotov took the money gratefully, and wishing her good luck with her project, headed off in the direction of the docks.
Next Nanami went off to find someone to borrow tools from. She knew exactly were to find some, and Tetsu, whose bath was already finished, saw no reason he couldn't loan them to her. Taking the tools back to her place under the tree, Nanami put herself whole-heartedly into the task. It took only about twenty minutes of work for Meg to appear.
At that moment, Nanami was kneeling on a plank wedged horizontally between the branches of the tree and pounding nails into another board to left to keep it in place. Meg stared up at her, wide-eyed with interest, "Hey Nanami! What are you working on?"
The pink-clad girl was so involved in her work, that Meg's question greatly surprised her. "What?! Oh, hi Meg! I'm building a tree house!"
"Do you need any help?" the trickster inquired, stepping over the scattered boards and tools to draw nearer, "I know a lot about woodworking."
"I'd love that," Nanami said breathlessly, color rushing to her cheeks. They were soon as pink as her headband. She gave a hand to Meg, helping her to climb up onto the main board.
"What would you like me to do first?" Meg asked, surveying the work site approvingly.
"Well...could you hold this plank in place for me? It'd be a lot easier with an extra pair of hands."
With Meg's help, the tree house�s construction began to pick up. Each day they spent several hours under the tree sanding planks, hammering nails, and making general adjustments to their project. Millie and Viki eventually joined in the task, attracted by the vast strides the other girls had made in just a week. Viki often made a bit more trouble than Nanami would have liked, especially when the sawdust made her sneeze, but she was their friend after all, and it was only fair that should she be able to help with the work.
When the whole little house was built, Nanami went into town with her brother and bought some pink and white paint. He was curious to take a look inside the tree house, but his older sister forbid him from entering. "It's for girls only!" she declared adamantly. "Sorry," she added.
The tree house was painted that afternoon in a flurry of sloppy brushstrokes and spilled paint. Meg giggled and flicked pink paint onto the large off-white shirt Nanami had borrowed from Flik to wear so she wouldn't mess up her clothes. Later, when Nina heard that the shirt came from Flik, she waited patiently until Nanami took it off to put in the wash, and then swiftly stole it out of the laundry basket before Yoshino carried it away. The schoolgirl would treasure it, dried splotches of pink paint and all, for years to come.
"Meg," Nanami whispered to her companion, as the four girls who had done the majority of the work on the treehouse stood looking up at their handiwork, "Tomorrow morning, before everyone else is up, will you meet me in the tree house?"
The trickster glanced at her paint-spattered friend curiously and nodded, "Sure. I'll come as soon as I can wake myself up."
Nanami's face blushed pink with excitement, "Okay, try your best. See you then."
The following morning Nanami awoke before dawn. She had barely been able to sleep at all as she pictured her meeting with Meg. Nanami changed out of her pink and yellow pajamas, washed her face, and fixed her hair. She paced back and forth in her room, wondering when the sun would rise at last. She stood silently, watching her younger brother for a time as he slept peacefully. The distant rays of the sun began to poke between the curtains and somewhere on the castle grounds a bird broke into song. Surely the time was right now.
Tiptoeing stealthily, Nanami headed out of the main building of their headquarters and made her way to the pink and white tree house. Other than Feather, striding powerfully through the grass, she did not see a soul.
Hand over hand; she climbed up the rope ladder and into the little tree house. She gasped in surprise. Meg was already there, waiting for her.
"I...I couldn't sleep," Meg explained, with a nervous chuckle, "Eventually I just decided to come down and wait here instead of in my room. Gadget was driving me nuts."
"Ha ha..." Nanami laughed, getting over the small shock, "Well, good morning."
"So..." Meg began again, chestnut brown eyes shining, "What did you want to see me about?" Her gaze was quite deep and intent, giving Nanami a feeling of growing confidence about what she had come to say. Somehow she thought there was a good possibility that Meg already felt the same way she did.
"Meg...I like you," Nanami said slowly and seriously, leaning closer to the brightly clad trickster as she spoke, "Do you know what I mean? I think I love you..."
"I didn't know you that well for a while," Meg answered, "But ever since I met you, I was interested in you...and now, working on the tree house with you was so fun..."
"Do you think we could be more than just friends?" Nanami asked.
"Of course," Meg replied sweetly, putting her arms around Nanami and drawing her into a gentle embrace. The two girls gazed into each other's eyes as the morning sun climbed inch by inch higher in the sky, sending a soft yellow light into the tree house.
Nanami put her lips together and closed her eyes. Meg did likewise, and the resulting kiss was as sweet as a cupcake.
********
The boys never knew the real reason they were not allowed in the tree house.