Only A Fool (Raylaigh)

[Deleted]

To: Ray
Date: 07/10/2014
Time: 7:15 am (UTC+9) [6:15 pm 07/09/2014 PST]


Hello, Ray!

I'm sorry I'm only just now contacting you. As soon as I arrived, my aunt had taken both my little sister and myself and put us to work at her beach restaurant. Since then, I haven't had a lot of time just to relax. When I'm not working, I'm taking care of my little brothers and sisters. They like to go out and swim a lot. I have another long day ahead of me today, because it's Friday, so I'm texting you now before I have to leave the house. I'll have my phone on me, so feel free to text me back whenever you can.

-Nao

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh was sitting at home with his parents for a week summer vacation from Hammel. His phone rang and he jumped up when he saw who it was from.

To: Nao
NAO!!!

He got trigger happy and sent it before he actually said anything.

To: Nao
I MISS YOU!!! How are you? I’m sorry you’re so busy Are you at least having a little bit of fun???

[Deleted]

Naozumi smiled at the excited response he got back almost instantly.

To: Ray
Yes, it’s not all bad. Just busy. The customers can be really nice. And I still get to swim with my siblings. And my cousins are nice people too. They’re all about my age, so it’s easier to talk to them. I found out my cousin, Chiriko, manifested this year too! So she’s going to Eisai. I didn’t expect that.

Naozumi sent the message, then realized that there was something else he wanted to say. He felt his face flush as he punched in the letters.

To: Ray
I miss you too.

Would that be taken weird? Ray said it first, so it should be okay, right?

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray was already in the process of responding when he got the second text and it gave him pause before it made him smile warmly. It gave him all of the warm and fuzzy feelings to know that Nao missed him. He’d have to rethink his text.

To: Nao
That’s awesome! Is Eisai like Hammel? What’s her power? I’m super jealous I wish I could be at the beach! I bet you’re getting really tan When do you get back??

[Deleted]

Nao was still in the middle of getting ready for the day, so he didn’t have much time before his aunt called him downstairs. He could hear his twin brothers running down the hall and getting yelled at for it.

To: Ray
Yes, Eisai is the school for Japan and the countries around there. I’m not sure I understand it, but her power has something to do with cooking. Either way, she’s been helping out a lot at the restaurant because of it. It’d be nice if you were here, though! I think you’d really enjoy the clear atmosphere. I don’t know if I’m getting a tan or not. I’ll be back during the first week of August, I think.
What have you been doing with your vacation so far? I hope you’re having fun.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

As soon as his phone rang with the ‘la la lalala’ of the intro to ‘Self Esteem’ he snagged it.

To: Nao
Nice, that’s really cool! Do you do any cooking? I wish too! Or I wish you were here! I KNOW! I’ll fly to you! I’ll be there in like… a month lol
UGH! First week of August, that’s soooooo far away!! D:

To: Nao
It’s been a lot of fun. I’m home now, hanging with the family. We went to the beach earlier and I went camping with my dad and bros, you’ll never believe it! I flew next to an eagle! It was sooo cool. You woulda loved it!

[Deleted]

Was it bad that Nao was smiling the whole time he was texting? He sure didn’t realize it, even not as he was finishing up this next one. His sister sure did. “Nii-chan. Hana-ba-chan says it’s time to go!” The girl tugged on his shirt. “Who’re you talking to?”

“Noone,” he told her. “I’ll be right down.”

He pressed send.

To: Ray
I don’t cook well, so I just work the tables. Yes, it’d be nice if you were here, or I were there. But I’ll be back before you know it! How’s your french coming?
Camping sounds fun. I’ve never been camping before, unless you count sleeping on the beach with my family. I really do wish I could see the things you see when you fly though. It must be amazing.

To: Ray
I have to go help at the restaurant, so I might be a little slow to respond, but don’t hesitate to keep texting me. ^^

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray laughed aloud earning himself a raised eyebrow from his older brother. French, right, he hadn’t been doing any studying, it was vacation. Who did Nao think he was?

To: Nao
Uh………… <_< >_> no comment?

To: Nao
lol That depends… did you have s’mores? It’s only legit camping if you have s’mores. Oh that’s easy, just grow wings! lol I do too, I wish everyone could. I wish I could take you with me.


Ray was all on top of the important things in life, like s’mores. No one could go wrong with s’mores. Raylaigh’s smile dropped at the next text.

To: Nao
Noooo!!! NAO!!! Don’t leave me! Q_Q

To: Nao
How crazy is that, you’re just starting your day and I’m winding down lol it’s 9:30 here what time is it there?

Ray was throwing these text out rapid fire, he almost forgot about the time change and almost asked why he was starting to work so late at night. Right, the benefits and curse of living on a round planet.

[Deleted]

Nao was already following his siblings out of the house when his phone chimed again and he pulled it out to look at Ray’s response. They still had time enough to talk before getting to the restaurant, right?

He smiled at Ray’s no comment.

To: Ray
I thought so. ^^
We’ll work on it more when I get back then.

To: Ray
I don’t think so. I don’t think my cousins know what s’mores are. We had ice cream though. It gets really hot here, so it was very refreshing.

Nao’s sister teased him again for not paying attention to the happenings going on around them. Everyone else was engaged in loud conversation, but Nao was off in his own little world. Not surprising, but it was unusual for him to be on the phone texting.

To: Ray
Ha ha. I’m still here a little longer. It’s 7:30 am here. We open the shop at 9, so we have to be there early to get it ready.

To: Ray
How late will you be up?

He wanted to know how much longer he could afford texting Ray without disturbing him. Timezones were definitely a pain.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

“Hey!” Ray exclaimed aloud with a bright smile on his face. He giggled and got a raised eyebrow from his brother.

“Doin’ okay over there birdbrain?” Kyle asked teasingly.

He stuck his tongue out at the older boy, who returned the gesture. Van wasn’t home, he was hanging out at his apartment, but Andrea scoffed a little and flipped her hair as if she couldn’t believe the immaturity of her older brothers.

To: Nao
Haha sounds like a plan! Mmmmm Ice cream, okay ice cream counts. That sucks, but at least you have the ocean. Oh! Have you guys gotten hit by any of those hurricanes have you???

He’d heard that China and the Philippines had gotten hit by a lot of typhoons on the news and well, let’s be real Raylaigh’s geography was about as good as his French.

To: Nao
Boo work! I’ll prob be up forever! Or really prob til like 1 or 2, it depends. Do you get a break?

Really it only depended on how long Nao was talking to him, he’d go for as long as he could or until he passed out on Nao.

[Deleted]

“This way, Naa-kun!” shouted one of his younger cousins. Nao looked up from his phone to realize that he’d kept walking when everyone else had turned and crossed towards the beach. Oops…

“Sorry!” he urged, scampering across the street to join them. Nao stopped just as a car sped past out of nowhere, then continued to re-join them.

“Who’re you talking to? Girlfriend?” asked his aunt.

“No…” he said quietly, lowering his head and trying to hide a blush. It was several minutes before he felt comfortable enough to reproduce the phone and look at the messages Ray had left him.

To: Yeah, there were a couple of typhoons that blew through here. But they always do. We’re pretty used to it. We had to board up the house to keep it from getting too damaged.

To: Ray
I’ll get a break in a couple of hours, but it might not be until lunch. I hope you’re still up by then. If not, don’t worry about it.

To: Ray
And the work isn’t all bad. Besides, I get paid a little too.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

To: Nao :)
Oh no! You guys are alright, right??? That must be scary!

It occasionally crossed Ray’s mind that it might be fun to fly in a hurricane, but then he remembered that upwards of 150 mile per hour in the radius of maximum wind was nothing to sneeze at.

To: Nao :)
I will try my best, it’s not like I have something to do tomorrow lol So this is prob gonna be a stupid question… What do you guys normally eat? Is it like the kind of stuff we can get here?

To: Nao :)
Work is work and work is boooorrrriiinnnngggg!!!!! zzzzzzzz

Ray giggled he was so mature.

[Deleted]

To: Ray
We’re fine. I promise! We get them often enough here that we’re well prepared.

Ray’s concern did have Nao smiling, however. He didn’t pay attention to his sister and cousin’s snickerings.

To: Ray
What do we eat? That’s kind of hard to answer. We eat food.

To: Ray
We eat a lot of pork dishes. And sweet potatoes. We had a bunch of papayas the other day. Those were good. And soba noodles, though we don’t have that that much

It was hard to really explain it. Nao though it’d just be easier to show Ray instead of tell him, but that wasn’t really possible. Or was it?

To: Ray
I guess I can take some pictures if you really want to see it.

To:Ray
Work isn’t boring! I work everyday and I’m not boring!

Unless Ray was trying to tell him something? No, it couldn’t be that.

To: Ray
You should get a job and see for yourself.

Of course, Nao had no idea if Ray had ever worked before, or if he was working now. Naozumi had his private business as a translator that he worked on almost every day(except during vacation). He hadn't told Ray about that yet, however.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Raylaigh wasn’t convinced, he’d never gotten slammed by a hurricane because they were in northern Virginia, not many hurricanes had made it up that way in his lifetime. He’d been keeping up with the news lately on that because the Nothern Atlantic had been rather boring this year.

To: Nao
I’ve never had a papaya, what do they taste like?

Raylaigh was fascinated by other culture’s foods, mostly because food was the skinny flyers favorite hobby. Nao might want to speak his way around the world but Ray would be completely content to eat his way around the world. Then he offered pictures and Ray nodded his head.

To: Nao
Oh yes!!!

To: Nao
BOOOOOORRRIIINNNGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!! lol <3

Ray hadn’t worked a day in his life, which was probably a problem. The flyer was really very lazy, he kind of thought a paper route would be fun but he didn’t know what he could do. He didn’t want to do food or retail, with his clumsiness neither of those boded well for him.

To: Nao
I tried, nothing here is hiring I’ve been helping my mom though… I’m being paid in ‘love and affection’

Granted Raylaigh hadn’t looked very hard but, well his mother was willing to let him run around all day by letting him play page for her. He was her errand delivery boy, very much paid in love and affection. And housing. He was good at it too, his wings made the work quick and it also gave him extra training opportunities.

[Deleted]

To: Ray
Papaya? It’s kind of sweet, like melon, but has a weird smell sometimes. I like it.

Though Nao’s little sister hated it. She said that it smelled like butt. Nao, obviously, didn’t agree.

To: Ray
Okay. I’ll try to take some pictures today and send them tonight.

Because while he might be able to get away with texting in the middle of work, Nao was certain he couldn’t get away with taking pictures as easily.

To: Ray
Really? Places usually hire like mad during the summer. I’m sure you could find one if you looked.

Nao wasn’t exactly pushing for Ray to get a job, but he did think that the flyer could benefit from the experience. But if Ray didn’t want to, then he supposed that was all his choice.

To: Ray
It’s good that you’re helping your mother, though. I’m sure she appreciates it.