The training camp hall had grown quieter as the day had progressed. Dinner would be soon and the day's round of mah-jong matches would soon come to a close. The last hanchan was pleasantly underway on multiple tables, closing up as the setting sun was enveloped by the horizon. The sound of clicking tiles could be heard constantly, interrupted occasionally by the voices of the players as they completed melds.

"Haramura-san," Mihoko said in wonderment, gazing with one eye open to Nodoka, "It's your turn." She smiled at the dazed high school student to her right, half hoping the well-recognized player wouldn't realize she had just dropped a pinzu-five. The tanyao in place beside Nodoka was easy to see and she had good reason to believe someone would take such a useful tile.

Especially Nodoka. Especially the esteemed player that systematically played through every hand, comparing odds in her mind with each draw of a tile and just as simply shutting out other players from taking her discards by the same logic. She was well known for never leaving an opening, but perhaps even more well known for always being in tune with the tiles on table.

However, it didn't seem that way now. Nodoka turned to Mihoko with an almost dumbfounded expression on her face. "Ah, I'm sorry," she said at last.

"Are you okay, Haramura-san?" Mihoko asked hesitantly, concerned about the underclassman from Kiyosumi who was not unlike her own.

"Yes, I'm okay." Nodoka replied simply, smiling as she gazed down at the board, her neutral game face soon returning. "That was a dangerous discard," she adding, promptly dropping the same tile.

The game continued on, and yet as it rolled through the last South wind, Nodoko's mind was not particularly focused on it. It had indeed been a long day, most of the high schoolers in the room were rather frazzled from playing for so long, but neither of these were fitting reasons for Nodoka's present mood.

"Tsumo. Toitoi."

Saki's voice carried clearly through the air. They had been practically sitting back to back during the whole of this last round, and Nodoka once again restrained from turning around to glance at the androgynous looking girl she had spent so much time with that day. Towards the end of the afternoon, that voice had captured Nodoka's attention more then once. And more then once, she had dropped the wrong tile or missed a discard.

"A simple toitoi isn't like you, Saki-... Saki-san," Nodoka thought, staring blankly at her own tiles that couldn't match the score of even the two-han hand of a basic toitoi. She blushed at the thought of using Saki's first name, and suddenly the realization of Saki's strange play was out of her mind. She glanced at the strange creature resting in her right hand at her side. Saki had given it to her earlier that day during their gift exchange. Nodoka had picked out a penguin like creature, and yet while Saki's gift was a mystery animal, it still managed to be completely adorable at the same time.

"Adorable... Like, like... Saki-san."

"Hey, Haramura-san..." Mihoko prompted again, this time a look of concern on her face. Even her closed eye was furrowed in worried curiosity. "You're doing it again."

Nodoko looked back up quickly, blushing more. "Ah, I'm sorry, again..." She pulled a tile from the wall, and seeing that it was a North tile, dropped the rather useless and currently completely safe discard back onto the table.

"It's not good to be spacing out during a match," Mihoko added, secretly hoping for an explanation, but no luck.

Nodoko continued to face the table. "I know."

Etopen was firmly in Nodoka's grasp, staring blankly back at the curious opponents that stared at her. She glanced back down to her hand without noticing their expressions. The strange animal had not moved, but she had hoped that perhaps maybe it would have been replaced by the one thing more meaningful than a gift from Saki, that one thing being Saki herself.

"Kan."

"That's more like her," Nodoka noticed silently. Saki's voice overwhelmed her senses for the briefest of moments, and as the sensation faded away she was left with the desire to be overwhelmed again. She wondered if it would be possible to lean back just enough to feel the warmth of Saki's body against her own. She wondered if she could hold the dear girl that night.

"Ron. Ippatsu Riichi Dora-dora. 30 fu." Mako said, excitement in her voice as she needlessly adjusted her glasses. "3,900 from each." A groan could be heard from the other players at the table, and Mihoko sighed as she pushed her meld of East dora towards the center of the table.

"Oh, that's right: Mako is dealer,"
Nodoka thought to herself, fishing for scoring sticks from her tray. When she found that she could only pull two from the stash, she looked down to find that she had not only forgotten who was dealer, but that she had had a meager 2,000 points left for the last four plays. "Oh."

"I guess that's game, Nodoka-san." Mako mentioned easily, and Nodoka nodded. "It looks like you could use a good meal and some rest."

"And a warm Saki-san..." Nodoka smiled to herself, looking up at Mako. "You are probably right." She turned around to find the beautiful person known as Saki looking at her with a worried expression on her face.

"Are you okay, Hara... Er, Nodoko-chan?" Saki asked, a blush spreading from ear to ear. She averted her eyes from Nodoko only to find a grinning Mako staring at her with an expression of absolute understanding.

"I get it now," Mako laughed. "I'll leave you to it." She finished pushing the tiles into the drum under the green felt surface of the mah-jong table, then stood up to leave.

Mihoko and the quiet Momoko followed suit, and soon Nodoka found she had little reason to be so far from Saki, who's game was still in progress, hanging on as Yuuki, the third dealer of the South round, tried valiantly to get out of third place with what appeared to be a sanshouku.

"Mind if I watch while you finish?" Nodoka asked softly, and Saki nodded, smiling. She moved up to Saki's side and sat next to her, watching in silence as the lucky girl pulled a souzu-three into her hand to complete a concealed quad. Saki was going for a toitoi again, but this time it was more her style.

"Kan."

"It would have been fabulous if she had been in tenpai,"
Nodoka mused, wishing that she might have had the opportunity to witness another rinshan kaihou. A fresh tile came into Saki's hand, but it was not particularly useful and promptly dropped back on the table. "She's going to stick to her toitoi... It's her best chance at her favorite play... I guess I don't know about this luck thing, but... Saki-san still has something."

"Oh well," Saki whispered uncharacteristically, not seeming to mind if she gave away a hint at her position this game. A smile peaked across her face as she took Nodoka's hand into hers, glancing quickly at the champion mah-jong player she adored so much. "Rinshan... would have been fun, hmm?"

"You could have held the tile a bit," Nodoka whispered back, but Saki shook her head.

"Not this time. I'll manage." A mysterious, yet happy expression appeared on Saki's face, and Nodoka couldn't help but let butterflies wander around in her chest. Saki glanced back to the table. A souzu-one had been dropped to her right, and now the player across, a Kazehoshi girl, had just dropped a South wind tile. "Pon."

Nodoka looked back to the tile in Saki's hand. It took a moment to realize what Saki had meant, but as the South wind tile was brought in from across the table, it was readily apparent why the brown haired prodigy had not waited to kan. If she had kept the tile in her hand for even one round she would have had to drop a tile from a pair - After a pon is always a discard... Not a kan, and if Saki had dropped any tile, she would been furiten for at least a few turns as she cycled her wait. Another two tiles clicked on the table, and it was East's turn again.

Tentatively, Nodoka glanced to Saki's right to find a rather disgruntled Yuuki with a pinzu 1 through 3, and a manzu 1 through 3, sitting haphazardly on the end of her right corner. Nodoka smiled behind the poker face she was wearing. Poor Yuuki. There was no way she could complete her hand like this, and what's more... Saki was tenpai.

"Saki only sees Rinshan kaihous too, I guess. But it won't happen this game." Nodoka mused. "In order to block out Yuuki from a possible win, she rushed the kan rather than risking the possibility of having to drop a souzu-two or three."

Grumpily, Yuuki pulled a tile, then subsequently dropped it after quickly scanning the discard piles, having found one already on the table from not very long ago, and glancing at Saki's discards she noticed two souzu-five. She would have no need for inner tiles, her best chance now was to go for a chanta, and so the souzu-six dropped from her hand without a second thought. Saki removed her hand from Nodoka's, and Yuuki's mouth dropped open in realization before any words could be uttered.

One needed two hands to flip a row of tiles over.

"Ron. Honitsu dabunan toitoi dora. Haneman." Saki rolled her hand face-up on the table, then returned her left hand to Nodoka's waiting grasp, giving her's a gentle squeeze. "I guess that's it for this game."

"You can't even see my scoring sticks!" Yuuki protested animatedly, the left shoulder of her yukata falling down yet again to a not so modest position.

"No, but I've been keeping track of your points this whole game," Saki replied easily. "I'm sorry I spoiled your hand."

"Well..." Yuuki started, but she looked at the tray in front of her to find that she was 700 points short. "I could have sworn I had a few thousand more."

"Maybe there will be tacos for dinner," Nodoka chimed in, putting a smile on Yuuki's face instantly.

"Ah, you're right! It's dinner time!" With renewed vigor, Yuuki shoved her tiles into the center of the table and stood up. "I'm off to the food!" Just as quickly as she had recovered from her defeat, she had disappeared out of the room and down the central hallway. The voice of Hisa scolding Yuuki followed soon after.

Saki turned back to Nodoka, a gentle smile and blush on her face. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes, shall we go eat together?" Nodoka responded, a similar expression occupying her features. Receiving a nod from Saki, she stood up, offering her hand back to the delicate seeming girl still sitting at her side.

Brown eyes followed Nodoka up, staring with rapt attention. Saki's blush grew as she raised her hand to meet with Nodoka's, but it wasn't out of embarrassment. The remaining girls in the room were still intently playing mah-jong, but they wouldn't have wondered or asked questions anyways. Perhaps they had even already assumed that they were close. But certainly, it must have been apparent too.

Regardless of the external conditions, Saki didn't blush because of them. Receiving Nodoka's full attention was all it took to make the blood rush to her face. All it took was the knowing that Nodoka was there for her like she had been earlier that day, chasing after her after she had been upset over the status of her family situation. It was Nodoka that always came to save her, and now that same hand was reached out to her again. Saki took it gratefully.

Walking down the hallway together, hands intertwined peacefully, Saki turned to her companion.

"I feel bad that you lost your game, Nodoka-.. chan," Saki commented.

"It's okay, I wasn't paying attention."

"Is everything okay?" Saki asked, letting her body sidle closer to Nodoka's as they continued their stroll. Nodoka turned to her, the pink in her face had not yet disappeared. It was clearly not helping that Saki's shoulder was lightly brushing hers.

"Everything is great, sometimes I forget I am here to play mah-jong." Nodoka replied, scant hesitation in her voice. "I am just happy being here with you."

Saki blushed, fumbling for words that she didn't know how to use. It seemed like she wanted to convey something with detail, but she couldn't bring herself to action. "Thank you," she said at last. She was shy with her finer words even though her actions sometimes spoke very loud and clear.

"You're cute when you don't know what to say; when you are embarrassed, Saki-san..."
Nodoka thought to herself, smiling and looking back towards the end of the hallway. "I guess I won't embarrass you anymore, for now."

- - -

Beta: karaus (Thank you!)

Mah-jong Notes:
pon: take a player's discard to meld into triplet
kan: take a player's discard to meld into quad or take four of the same tile from your hand and display then on the table as a concealed quad. After a kan (which is then treated as a meld), a supplemental tile is drawn.
pinzu: Circle/Coin Tiles/suit
souzu: Bamboo Tiles/suit
manzu: Kanji/Character/"10,000" Tiles/suit
pinzu-five: The five of pinzu. Fives are usually dangerous discards because they are the middle tile of every suit, and additionally because they are prepared for pon/chi/ron because of the red dora tiles
tanyao: No terminals (1's or 9's), No honors (Wind/direction, Dragon)
tsumo: Self-drawn winning tile.
toitoi: 4 triplets and 1 pair
han: scoring unit in Japanese Mahjong
dora: worth 1 han
dora-dora: 2 dora in hand
riichi: Can be declared when you have a concealed hand and you are waiting on for one last tile
ippatsu: winning within one turn of riichi
fu: small scoring unit in Japanese Mahjong.
meld: 3 tiles, either a triplet or sequence.
chinitsu: single suit hand. 5 han open/6 han closed
sanshouku (doujun): same sequence in all three suits. 1 han open/2 han closed
tenpai: waiting on one tile to win
dabunan: A meld of South tiles worth 2 han
chanta: terminal or honor in each set
yaku: Essentially the basis for hand that can be won with, each yaku are worth different han
furiten: Being unable to win because it is possible to win on a tile you have discarded

Saki's Hand Through Kans:
So - South, S# - Souzu
After First Kan: [So][So] [S6][S6] [S3][S3][S3] [S1][S2][S2] Table: [S8][S8][S8][S8]
Pre-Second Kan: [So][So] [S6][S6] [S3][S3][S3][S3] [S1][S2][S2] Table: [S8][S8][S8][S8]
Post-Second Kan: [So][So] [S6][S6] [S1][S2][S2] Table: [S8][S8][S8][S8][S3][S3][S3][S3]
Post-South Pon: [S6][S6][S2][S2] Table: [S8][S8][S8][S8][S3][S3][S3][S3][So][So][So]