Shiori and Clyde - The Aftermatch

"Hmm...? What indeed..." Shiori replied with an intriguing smile. She looked up and around for a bit before she looked back at Clyde with the same smile still on her face. "I guess... he was the first one to treat me like a normal person... and he's cute too," she said, afterwards, chuckling to herself.

"You know, back in school days I barely had any friends," she began to explain. "Cause like, my parents are rich so most people thought that I'm a spoiled brat or something. I didn't care much either, but it did get lonely after a while. Then I met him one day. He's pretty much a loner, so maybe that's why we somehow get along well with each other," she giggled again after she finished her sentence. "Well, to be honest, I didn't really think that I loved him or anything back then. It just... as we got closer I grew fond of him. Every time we're together I felt as if I could be myself without having to care about other's opinion."

Shiori would look away afterwards. Telling Clyde about his former kouhai only made her wanted to meet him again. He's still alive, she's sure of it, even if she couldn't tell the reason.

"What's about you, Clyde-kun?" Shiori would then ask him. "Don't you have someone... special like that?"

"Heh... Treat ya like a normal person?" Clyde would ask. Saying that he was cute was reason on why she liked this kid made Clyde chuckle but he otherwise was a bit intrigued and curious as to why she wasn't treated as a normal person to meeting this guy. Clyde would get his answer when Shiori explained that she had few friends and that her parents money may have given others a different impression of her. She described this boy as a loner and felt this was the reason they may have gotten along but apparently did not love him, but seemed to care for him deeply, enough for him to make her worries go away. Clyde sympathized with her greatly. Part of him didn't understand completely but he knew enough to know he was important to Shiori.

Then she asked Clyde if he had someone special and Clyde frowned deeply, memories going through his head in a flash.

"I used to." He answered. "I was engaged to a woman named Heather Sunderland. First girl I ever really loved. That ended a couple months ago." He remarked with a deep sigh. He didn't mind talking with Shiori about his past love life either, he felt comfortable around her. Regardless if the past still had a tendency to bother him.

As Shiori heard Clyde's story, she was slightly surprised when he mentioned Heather's name. She sort of wondered how did their relationship go before it ended. Shiori hadn't see Heather for a while now, and she couldn't help but to miss the girl.

"Ah, Heather-chan?" she said in a rather curious manner. "I see..."

Shiori felt slightly bad towards Clyde now for asking. The boy's frown indicated that things didn't go really well between him and Heather. She decided not to ask any further and just enjoy the night's air as they continued to walk towards Clyde's place.

Clyde's head perked up upon hearing Shiori's statement. She sounded like she knew Heather. Clyde wasn't sure if he should even bother asking about her. Things were different after all and they weren't talking anymore. He was curious though. He expected something a little 'bad' as well, that didn't seem to bother him.

"Know 'er?" He'd ask curiously while the two kept treading down the sidewalk towards the hotel.

"Oh, yeah," Shiori replied. "We had a match once and some other fun time not long after that. Haven't seen her around for a while now, though."

That was back in her early days in AFW. Shiori was barely involved in any matches for a while until tonight, which was probably one of the reasons she didn't get to meet with Heather a lot. Whenever it's not a match day, she usually spent her time somewhere else, even when she's working out. Her apartment had its own gym, after all, and Shiori prefers to have her training in a place where not many people knew her.

"Ah." Clyde responded when Shiori replied to his words and stated that she knew Heather through a match they had together. Interesting, Clyde thought. But not as interesting as when Shiori stated that they had Fun together.

"...Oh." Clyde let out. He had mixed feelings on the news. He wasn't upset in any way but he just didn't know how to react to it. Still the thought of Shiori and Heather.... Doing whatever to eachother.... Made Clyde's face turn red as he thought about the encounter, taking a moment to look at Shiori and her figure for a moment before quickly turning away. Considering how flirty Shiori was, Clyde assumed that Heather had been trapped in Shiori's clutches and was too flustered to defend herself from the sensual onslaught.

"...Hot..." Clyde thought to himself but quickly shook the images out of his head.

"So...What will you do by tomorrow night or so when this POW thing is over?" Clyde asked.

Shiori noticed how Clyde's face began to turn red and how the boy looked away after taking a glance at her body. She smiled and chuckled, thinking that she might had known what have been going inside his mind. It's definitely a good opportunity to tease Clyde further and Shiori wasn't about to let it slip.

"Hey, you're not thinking any dirty thought, aren't you?" she asked teasingly with a rather mocking expression on her face.

He might have not. But knowing how Clyde reacted at her teasing during their match, Shiori thought that it had to be the case. A lot of boys were quite simple and easy to figure out, and the cowboy didn't seem to be a special case in this aspect.

"Hmm..." she would let out at his question, rolling her eyes before looking at him again. "No idea~ I guess it's back to the normal days..."

Clyde's face only flushed further when Shiori caught wind of the expressions on Clyde's face that indicated that he was indeed thinking of dirty thoughts that involved Shiori and Heather wrestling with the former doing things that were also quite dirty.

"W-Whut!? Me!? N-Naw! Never!" Clyde answered with a nervous laugh as he tried to deny it. He then asked what Shiori intended to do the next day once this whole POW thing was over and got an answer that kind of made him frown lightly.

"What are normal days exactly?" They sounded mundane to Clyde and he hate to see Shiori have to do nothing now. He asked this right as the two approached the hotel, prompting Clyde to go forth and hold open the door for Shiori as the two got inside.

"...You ain't gon be lookin' for that guy some more?" He'd ask.

"Hmm... it just like it sounds," Shiori said as Clyde asked about her normal days. "Wake up, eat, maybe doing some work out... shower... eat... sleep..."

That wasn't all of her activities of course, but that's pretty much covered most of the activities. She entered the hotel as Clyde held the door open like a gentleman, flashing him a smile as she went pass him.

"Well... I've tried everything I could do already," she would say, looking away from him. "If fate allows, then surely we're going to meet again..."

"That actually don't sound too bad at all. Just takin' it easy..." Clyde commented on Shiori's normal days, they sounded pretty nice and easy in his opinion, far from what he often had on a regular basis when he wasn't drunk.

Being a gentleman though wasn't too hard for Clyde when he just did those kinds of things naturally instead. He held open the door for Shiori because it was the right thing to do obviously and he did just that. He felt very proud of himself when he earned that smile from her.

He frowned disappointingly though when Shiori declared she had done all she could do in searching for her guy. This Toru-chan or whoever. He felt surprised when Shiori stated that they would meet again if fate allowed that to happen and frowned a bit more at the concept of 'Fate' controlling such a thing.

"...Do ya believe Fate controls everything?" Clyde asked curiously with a serious look on his face. He had his own demons to deal with right now regarding this concept of 'Fate'. He wondered if the tragedies in his life were really set to happen the moment he was born, or if people really could control their destiny.