Work Text:
Nice Nature shook her head and held it between her hands. Her fingers were curled in against her palms as fists and she screwed her knuckles into her flesh. Hard but not too hard. She didn’t want to hurt herself but she didn’t not want to do that either.
“Another third place…” she mumbled under her breath.
At this rate, she was never going to escape her moniker of “Bronze Collector”. It just seemed like some inevitable title that she couldn’t shake off, couldn’t outrun. It was like some cosmic force was keeping her tie down to third place and there was nothing she could do about it.
She couldn’t run faster than Tokai Teio, she couldn’t outspeed Mejiro McQueen. It was useless. Why even bother? Why even try?
The sun was warm. So warm, in fact, that Nice Nature could feel it on the back of her head, in her hair. It was going to melt her brain. It was unrelenting as the sun shone down on her and the turf all around her. Summer camp was next week but at the rate that Nice Nature was going, she wanted a vacation. Not a training expedition.
“Yippee, I finally finished the race!”
Another voice called out and Nice Nature looked around. Huh? She didn’t mean to but the sweet jingle of that girl’s voice caught her attention. Nice Nature turned to look behind her, on the race course that she was so close to abandoning when she saw none other than Haru Urara who was ever blithe in her smile and her last place finish.
But even though she had come last…
Look at her. She was happy. She was smiling. She was even receiving lots of attention and praise from their peers for it. Nice Nature couldn’t believe what she was seeing and honestly… It made her sick.
Not sick towards Haru Urara, no, sick towards herself.
Sick as in guilty. A twisty, topsy-turvy feeling in the pit of Nice Nature’s stomach. There was always something about the grass being greener on the other side of the fence. Like here was Haru Urara, a perpetual wooden spooner and she was smiling and embraced for all her efforts even if they did not bear a respectable accolade, like coming first. Or even second.
It made Nice Nature feel so utterly ungrateful and worsened how she felt about herself. It was all a matter of perspective and not letting the chip get too deep. That’s what Nice Nature realised as she was honed in on by the one and only Haru Urara.
Out of everyone in the crowd, of the people who congratulated her for finishing the race and telling her how cute she looked, somehow, it was Nice Nature that Haru Urara spotted through all the faces and her own expression lit up. She thanked her friends and peers graciously but for reasons beyond Nice Nature’s understanding, as though a work of flippant providence, it was her that Haru Urara wanted to speak most with after the scrimmage.
She waved her hands, huge and over her head. Her smile was enormous and bright as she bounded on the spot. Nice Nature shivered. This seemed like it was going to be a lot of social interaction she didn’t have the energy for. But even so, it was in motion all the same as a train derailment as Haru Urara’s voice burst out over the usual din of girls chatting and trainers instructing.
“Ah, Nice! Hello, hello! Hey!” Haru Urara exclaimed when they locked eyes. On pure accident, by the way.
Nice Nature had doggedly tried to keep her gaze low and her face away from the fleeting glances she and Haru Urara had exchanged but there was no escaping it now. Nice Nature grimaced as she let whatever happened, happen.
So, to be polite if awkward, Nice Nature hailed Haru Urara over to properly say hi. They were kind of acquaintances. That was probably the best way to put it. They had mutual friends but they were not necessarily in the same classes. Nice Nature, more often than not, hung out with her friends on Team Canopus but was on good terms with the likes of her rivals such as Mejiro McQueen and Tokai Teio. The latter two of whom were good friends with Special Week, El Condor Pasa, and Grass Wonder who were friends of Haru Urara’s. So, though they had never sat at the same table at lunch or similar, they knew of each other and were friendly to that extent.
Actually, now that Nice Nature thought about it… This was probably their first time talking. Or at least, saying more than a basic introduction. As such, she didn’t quite know how to act.
Especially since Haru Urara was so sparkling, so dazzling. It didn’t suit the mood of a lustreless bronze medal collector like Nice Nature. So, it made her a bit uncomfortable but she put up her best smile. Which wasn’t very good but Haru Urara mustn’t have minded as she smiled and chatted ever so blissfully.
“That was a really good race you ran.” Haru Urara said. “I wish I could come in third place just like you, Nice Nature.”
Urk. This was going to be trouble. Especially if Nice Nature’s heart was going to pound and her palms were going sweat. To say nothing of the flip turning which remained on going in her stomach. It was enough to make her queasy as she struggled to acknowledge Haru Urara’s blinding positivity. Nice Nature foresaw no way they could possibly get along, let alone be compatible as anything more than acquaintances.
She needed an exit strategy. But she wasn’t really seeing one.
Their fellow racers were clustered obnoxiously in this zone of the race course. Chatter filled the air. People intermingled and socialised and hydrated in the aftermath of a scrimmage that they just finished. It was light-hearted and merry but enough to leave Nice Nature feeling like an outsider. The pariah. There was no group she could latch onto, no one else to say hi to except, well… The obvious person right in front of her.
Nice Nature tried though. She tried to find that exit strategy amongst the familiar faces and the pleasant weather. She furtively glanced around, left then right and back in front of her again. Haru Urara watched with those huge, pink eyes of hers but didn’t seem to register Nice Nature’s rudeness. Instead, she completely mistook it for something else.
“Yeah, it’s really nice weather we’re having today.” Haru Urara, blissfully ignorant, commented on thoughts that Nice Nature was not having. “It's perfect weather for racing, don’t you think?”
Okay, to that end, Nice Nature couldn’t disagree. The weather was wonderful. Everyone and their dog could agree to that. The pleasant breeze, the clement skies and the sunshine which was palpably overbearing. The way the sun warmed the back of her head was relaxing even as she got all bitter and gloomy over her yet another third placement. And in a race with no grade at that.
Gosh, Nice Nature finally realised it. She was making herself feel worse and squandering the little pleasures of life by fixating on something as insignificant as a school scrimmage. It's not like this was an official race, the only one keeping a record was her.
But it made her wonder…
If that’s just the way she was and that’s just the way Haru Urara was… Maybe she could lie amongst it on that green turf and look up at the skies, basked in warm sunlight and just once. She could look on the bright side.
“Mm,” Nice Nature quietly agreed, “it is nice weather. I hope it sticks around for a little while longer.”
“Absolutely, me too.” Haru Urara agreed.
Nice Nature’s lips twitched, she toed the grass with her boot, and she glanced at Haru Urara. She had grass stains all up and down her baggy trackpants.
“How do you do it?” Nice Nature asked. She was worried she was gauche too but Haru Urara didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Do what?” Haru Urara asked.
“Come last all the time and smile, enjoy the weather, and just. You know. Be you.” Nice Nature knew she was asking a zebra to explain its stripes in the hopes a cheetah could change its spots but it was worth a shot. Right?
Haru Urara took the moment to think, surprisingly. She hummed to herself, hung her head and placed her finger against her temple. She screwed the pad of it against her skin as she thought and she thought really, really hard about it. Which alarmed Nice Nature.
She threw hands up in front of her chest, acting a little panicked, and assured Haru Urara, “If you don’t know or can’t answer, don’t worry about it.”
“I dunno.” Haru Urara gave up. “I just do.” Her shoulders slumped. “I’m just not the kind of girl to think too hard about things, I just… Enjoy it, I… I feel that’s the most important thing. Not fame, not good scores, just if I enjoyed it.”
Nice Nature sighed and she reached out fondly. A small smile on her face as she gave Haru Urara a pat on her head. Her hair was fine and silken, warmed by the sun.
“It’s all good.” Nice Nature replied. “I’m kind of the same.” Well, that was a lie but was it? She couldn’t help herself either as she got lost in the weeds of her gloom, unable to see the shining turf for what it was: boundless opportunity, a time amongst friends as much as it was competitive between rivals. She really was just a cynic in the sunshine wishing it would rain on all their parades. “But I wish I could look on the bright side like you do.”
“Really?” Haru Urara screwed her face up. “No one’s ever said they want to be like me before.”
“It takes all types.” Nice Nature shrugged.
She receded her hand back but on her palm, she could still feel the tingle of sunshine, the sensation of Haru Urara’s hair and her kindness, too. Her simple brilliance.
Haru Urara giggled, “It’s been nice chatting with you, Nature.”
“Yeah, it hasn’t been too bad.” Nice Nature replied. And the darndest thing happened, even though Nice Nature hadn’t been wanting any of it, she felt something unusual leap to her throat from her heart as she asked, “Wanna hang out again, sometime?” It’d be nothing deep or heavy but it would probably be fun.
“That’d be super duper fun!” Haru Urara chirped. “It’s a date!”
“Eh?” Nice Nature’s eyes went wide as she could intone little more to convey her confusion at Haru Urara’s exclamation.
Nice Nature wanted to flail her hands in front of her, deny it all the way to the Nile but she copped it better than her cowardice would desire. No, no, no, this wasn’t a date at all, they were just going to hang out together but what was that about looking a gift elephant in the mouth? Maybe she shouldn’t. So, she swallowed it all down and fidgeted slightly. She pretended to inspect a stray curl of her ruddy, auburn hair for split ends as she hazarded a smile.
“Yeah, that’d be nice, Haru.” Nice Nature relented.
“Ooh, let’s go to my favourite burger restaurant, it’ll be so much fun.” Haru Urara agreed, hands in front as she bounced on the spot. “So long as they don’t give me any pickles.”
Nice Nature laughed amicably, “Yeah, that’d suck but… I’d eat ‘em for you, I don’t believe in wasting food.”
“Really? You’d do something that nice for me?” Haru Urara exclaimed. “Aah, you're the best, Nice Nature, I’ll look forward to it.”
“Me too.” Nice Nature quietly agreed.
Still wasn’t a date. They were barely friends and they were like chalk and cheese but at the same time, why did the idea of calling it more than a hang out kind of appeal to Nice Nature? It put her nerves at rest, at the very least. She let go of the tension that caused her stomach to turn queasy. Her heart calmed and soothed by Haru Urara’s positivity so maybe, just maybe… It could be a date in their future.