A fill from the Tiger and Bunny Anon Meme. Prompt: Genderbent Kotetsu/Tomoe, Male!Tomoe's awkward attempts to confess to Female!Kotetsu and utterly failing, until Female!Kotetsu confesses to him instead.

Amamiya Tomohiro took every part of his job as class representative to the student council for class 1-C very seriously, from fighting for student rights to scrubbing the hallways after school. He had been granted this responsibility by his classmates and needed to see it through, and with a flash of a warm, pleasant smile, his fellow council members usually followed suit. Adults adored Tomohiro, children admired him, boys his age respected him, and girls his age… Well, he had already gathered a sizable collection of broken hearts. Maybe it was the glasses.

But one day, Tomohiro's famous inspirational smile was nowhere to be found as he jabbed a mop into a bucket of soapy water and smeared it across the linoleum floor. His fellow reps on cleanup duty quickly noticed the change.

"What's got you down, Amamiya?" the rep from class 2-B, Kamijou Hiroki, leaned on his broom handle and peered up at Tomohiro. "You look like your cat just died."

"Kamijou-senpai! That's a terrible thing to say!" the other rep, Shizuki Hitomi from class 1-A, scolded her companion, but Hiroki dodged apology by sweeping further along down the hall. Hitomi sighed and turned back to Tomohiro. "Though, he is right. You don't seem like yourself. Is everything all right?"

"It's nothing," Tomohiro said, dunking his mop again.

"Is it a problem with school? Student council duties?" Hitomi guessed.

"No…"

"Trouble with your friends? Fights?" Hiroki joined in. "Or something at home?"

"No…"

"Another love letter?" Hitomi ventured. Tomohiro's cheeks turned pink. "Are—Are you in love?"

And with that, Tomohiro's whole face lit up like a stop light. Hiroki crowed with glee.

"The ladykiller is in love!" He dropped his broom and pulled Tomohiro into a headlock, rubbing his hair with a fist. "So who's the chick? Is she hot? She's a hottie, isn't she!"

"Kamijou-senpai, that's enough!" Hitomi struck Hiroki squarely on the head with her dry mop, and he released Tomohiro. "We'll never get him to tell us like that!"

"I'm not telling you, period," Tomohiro said, poking his mop around a bit more.

"C'mon, don't be like that!" Hiroki teased. "If you tell us who, we can help you confess!"

"How did you know I haven't confessed yet?"

"You just told us!" Hiroki cackled. "Man, you are off your game! Mr. Calm-'n'-Cool-Student-Council-Rep is falling to pieces!"

"Please, Amamiya-kun, will you tell us who?" Hitomi asked gently. "You've worked so hard with the student council, you deserve a girlfriend who will make you happy."

Tomohiro wrestled with the truth for a few more minutes, before he took a deep breath and blurted, "Kaburagi Tetsuko."

"Huh?" Hiroki cocked his head to the side.

"It's Kaburagi Tetsuko."

The truth dawned on his friends—awe in Hiroki's face, horror in Hitomi's.

"Seriously? Kaburagi Tetsuko? The girl in your class constantly getting in fights after school? Little Miss Delinquent?" Hiroki placed a hand on his chin in thought. "But then again, if you cleaned her up a bit, she's not bad. She's got a grade-A chest, at least. Or should I say grade-double—"

Hitomi whacked him on the head with her dry mop handle again. "Kamijou-senpai, that's enough," she said, and their companion fell silent, nursing his second head wound. "But Amamiya-kun, are you sure you want a relationship with her?"

"What's wrong with her?" Tomohiro asked, his peer's tone setting his teeth on edge.

"She's such an angry, violent person," Hitomi said. "How else would you explain all those fights she gets into?"

"She's fighting to help people," Tomohiro defended. "She's going to be a hero someday."

"Yeah, she's a NEXT, too, right?" Hiroki pointed out.

"A power-NEXT," Hitomi pursed her lips. "How brutal. That's a completely un-feminine power. It's not elegant at all."

"It's not like she chose to have that power," Tomohiro gripped his mop a little tighter. "And I think it's admirable she wants to use it to help others, even if it's not elegant."

"Amamiya-kun, for your own good, I'd tell you to forget about her. She's a problem girl, and you're a student council representative. Don't date her out of pity or to try and fix her," Hitomi said, taking her dry mop and walking off down the hall.

Though seething—this was exactly why he hadn't wanted to tell his student council friends—Tomohiro didn't have much time to stew, because Hiroki popped up and looped his arm across Tomohiro's shoulders.

"Listen, man, you're way over-thinking this. You've gotten love confessions often enough, you should know how to give them in return."

"It's not that easy," Tomohiro said. "She's not like the girls that leave confessions."

"She's still a girl, right? Can't be that different," Hiroki said. "Confessing your feelings is as easy as leaving a note and a gift in her locker!"

"A gift?"

"Chocolate or something. Girls love chocolate. Or poetry, that's cheaper, if you can write."

"Will she really understand those things?"

"Try it!" Hiroki pressed. "You should be more worried about her turning you down, man. Of course she's going to understand—how can you not recognize a love confession?"

"You'll be surprised," Tomohiro said. "Sometimes she can be a bit… clueless."

With no other ideas, Tomohiro had to at least start with Hiroki's recommendation: he bought a little box of fancy chocolates wrapped in pink ribbon, added a tag reading "For Kaburagi T. Tetsuko-san," and left it in her locker during lunch. For all his afternoon classes, Tomohiro couldn't focus, and he kept glancing back at Tetsuko's desk as she fidgeted, doodled, and stared out the window at the spring sunshine. She was just so beautiful, from the sparkle in her eye to the shine of her hair. Bell, hurry up and ring!

Once it did, Tomohiro wanted to bolt straight to the lockers to watch Tetsuko discover the gift, but with his usual classroom-straightening duties to attend to, he had to let her go ahead. He wished he could just skip it all! It's not every day the girl he loved was about to discover his feelings! The pressure was just too much to bear!

With cleanup at least satisfactory, Tomohiro bolted out of the classroom and through the halls, out to the front of the school, searching signs of 'Little Miss Delinquent,' when he finally caught sight of her near the school gate.

"Tetsuko!" he called after her, still running. "Hey, Tetsuko!"

She turned around and beamed at him. He could see his chocolates in her hand, the ribbon unraveled and the lid off. She accepts! Tomohiro thought as he drew closer. "Tetsuko, I—"

"Want one?"

"What?"

Tetsuko picked a little chocolate from the box and held it out to Tomohiro. "Want one? There's plenty, but I don't know what's in the center of this one. Got any allergies?"

"Wh—n-no," Tomohiro adjusted his glasses. "Tetsuko, those are for you."

"I know that. I mean, they had my name on them," Tetsuko twisted the box around, seeking to look at the bottom—the old top—without upsetting the remaining chocolates. "They don't say who they're from, though."

Initially, Tomohiro wanted to blurt out, They're from me, obviously! but then he realized that Tetsuko was right: he had completely forgotten to leave his own name on the chocolate. Tetsuko didn't know the chocolates were from him.

"Any… um, any guesses?" Tomohiro tried to lead her. "A secret admirer? Someone who might have his eye on you?"

"As if," Tetsuko popped a chocolate in her mouth and chewed on it. "Thish ish probably a late birfday preshent." She swallowed. "And it'd be rude to waste it."

"I see…" Tomohiro stared at the ground. I'm a total idiot. "I suppose it is more polite to eat it… Even if you don't know the sender…"

"So we agree!" Tetsuko beamed, and picked another chocolate. "You sure you don't want one?"

"I'm sure," Tomohiro said, turning away. "I'm sorry, Tetsuko, but I… forgot to straighten up the classroom. Enjoy your chocolate."

Tetsuko stared after him for another minute, strange worry etched on her face. But then she shrugged, tossed another chocolate into her mouth, and mumbled, "Hish lossh."

Okay, so while he couldn't compare his writing talent to the likes of Tanikawa Shuntaro or William Shakespeare, Tomohiro thought he had made a pretty good effort under the circumstances with the little ditty he scribbled out for Tetsuko. And just to ensure that he'd be nearby for damage control in case things went wrong, Tomohiro arrived at school half an hour early to leave it on her desk. This one had to work! It was a love poem, with her name on it, and he had remembered to put his name on it this time, too. He spell-checked it a fourth time:

Kaburagi T. Tetsuko-san:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
To my Wild Tigress
I'll always be true.

- Amamiya Tomohiro

That had to get through to her, right?

Tomohiro jumped every time the door opened, only relaxing when he identified another classmate. This happened over and over and over again throughout the morning, until Tomohiro felt his wits starting to fray. Come on, when is she going to get here?

With five minutes to spare, Tetsuko arrived, books slung over her shoulder. She and Tomohiro exchanged "good mornings," but he didn't engage her in conversation: she had five short minutes, more like four and a half, to go back to her desk and read his confession. Her every footstep resounded in his head as he stared at his desk, determined not to watch her and give himself away. She had to be close to her desk now. She had to. Ambient sounds threatened to drown her out, but Tomohiro strained his ears, listening, listening—

Her footsteps stopped. She stood for a long time. And she suddenly ran back to Tomohiro's desk, the little poem clenched in her hand.

"Tomohiro, you wrote this for me?" she gasped, eyes shining.

Tomohiro swallowed. "Yes. What do you think?"

"Oh, I'm so happy, Tomohiro!" Tetsuko pressed the poem to her chest. "This is a dream come true!"

"R-Really?" Tomohiro brightened, "Then, Tetsuko, that means you—"

"You're my first fan!" Tetsuko cut him off, bouncing up and down a little in excitement. "I have my first fan ever, before I've even been on Hero TV! You're the best, Tomohiro!"

…Fan? Tomohiro just sat there, gaping at Tetsuko.

"Hey, class is about to start, but I wanna meet with you during lunch to discuss attack names, okay?" Tetsuko reached out and ruffled Tomohiro's hair. "Just think about this for the morning classes: Wild Claw. So then I'd have a catchphrase like 'feel my Wild Claw!' or something, and it'd be totally cool!"

"Cool," Tomohiro repeated, despair bearing down on his head. "Totally."

"Great! See you then, Number One Fan!" Tetsuko bounded back to her desk, absolutely over the moon at Tomohiro's 'support' for her future hero career.

In recent weeks, Tetsuko had started listening to Tomohiro's 'nagging' about choir practice. Her attendance was way up, and even if she did nothing more than mumble the Alto 2 music part, she attended, participated in club activities as required by the student handbook, and even if she'd never be friends with the likes of Shizuki Hitomi, her apparent femininity did improve herself in their eyes and helped her school day run more smoothly.

Tomohiro watched her from time to time from his section with the tenors, thinking over his previous two confession attempts. The first one definitely failed because of his own stupidity; the second one probably failed because Tomohiro brought up the future Wild Tigress, and put Tetsuko in a Hero TV frame of mind from which nothing could shake her, not even a love confession.

Well, how about choir? There's no way Tetsuko could be thinking of anything very important sitting there and glaring at the music teacher. And when the teacher made an announcement about auditions for a solo in the upcoming performance, well, Tomohiro got the craziest idea ever, but in light of recent failures, it might just work.

He scoured the music books in the library for the right song, something he could pick sixteen bars of romantic lines from and not get cut off mid-word. He'd have to sing this song in front of the entire choir, because the teacher didn't want to pick a soloist with stage fright. So he could sing for Tetsuko, look directly at her the whole time, and then dedicate the song to her after. Even if she didn't understand at first, there was very little context to guide her mind away from romance. So he found the most perfect love song, submitted his selection to the teacher, and waited for audition day to come.

And then Tetsuko was absent. Not from school, no, she went to school and sat through classes just fine, occasionally forgetting to sit like a lady and trusting her undershorts to protect her modesty. Yes, Tetsuko had definitely attended school that day… and then deliberately decided to skip choir practice. Right on the day when Tomohiro had planned his extremely heartfelt serenade that turned to a flaming pile of humiliation if it lacked the intended recipient!

"Amamiya Tomohiro, please come to the front…"

Being first on the roster didn't help. But Tomohiro squared his jaw and crooned the first verse of "Love Me Tender" at the point where the wall met the ceiling, cursing Tetsuko's lack of interest in not just the choral arts, but her student life in general. Not to mention he found two more notes in his locker the next morning from other girls in the choir asking him to accept their feelings, which officially meant Tomohiro had defeated his own purpose, attracting all the wrong girls.

He stormed into class that morning and found Tetsuko at her desk, blowing bubbles in a wad of bright pink gum. He folded his arms and in his sternest Class Representative voice, ordered, "Kaburagi T. Tetsuko-san, explain to me why you skipped choir practice yesterday!"

The gum popped, and Tetsuko quickly gathered it up into her mouth before combating Tomohiro's Class Rep voice with the biggest, shiniest, roundest pair of Puppy Dog Eyes that Tomohiro had ever seen.

"Please don't be mad at me," she squeaked. "I wanted to go, I really did! But Antonio finished fixing the engine in that ATV he found in the junkyard, and I just had to go see it!"

"You cut choir practice to go play with a dangerous, half-busted machine? What if you had crashed?"

"We wore helmets?" Tetsuko offered. "Besides, Antonio invited me! I can't turn down an invitation!"

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Tomohiro had to let the issue go with yet another insistence that Tetsuko pay more attention to her time here at school, or else her future prospects may be severely compromised. But as he sat down for the first lesson of the day, her words, Antonio invited me pressed heavily against his mind. Maybe Tetsuko wasn't obtuse—maybe she was taken. And if that was true, there was nothing Tomohiro could do.

His hand curled into a fist at the very thought. We'll see. he promised himself. I'm not out of options yet.

As a rational individual, Tomohiro's first course of action is, of course, to ask Antonio outright. His question was met with a very reassuring bout of laughter from the hulking teen.

"No thanks," Antonio said. "She's a good friend, but I'd want a girlfriend with at least a little common sense."

"I see," Tomohiro nodded. That's one worry out of the way.

"So if you want to take a shot, be my guest."

"Bu—Wuh—What makes you think I like her?"

"Why else would you be asking?" Antonio smirked. "She's a firecracker, but I think you and Tetsuko'd be good together."

"Uh, thank you very much for your support," Tomohiro fussed with his glasses a bit. "But, do you know if Tetsuko has any interest in me? I've tried several times to confess, but even when they're on target, they somehow go right over her head."

"I guess… You're important to her," Antonio said. "I can't tell if she likes you or not, but I think you'll have better luck if you try a confession more in line with Tetsuko's personality."

"Personality?"

"She likes action. Sporty, physical stuff. Maybe she'll be more likely to notice you love her if you've already got her heart pounding, rather than trying to catch her with boring stuff at school."

"That's a good idea," Tomohiro said. "Maybe we could climb one of the nature trails, and I can confess when we get to the top! In person, outright!"

"There you go!" Antonio clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm rooting for you. And let me know if you need to run anything to the top beforehand. I'll take you on my new ATV! It's a tank!"

Though Tomohiro didn't admit it then, the main reason he declined such assistance is that he didn't want to be within ten feet of that junked-up ATV. He just didn't trust a vehicle that had spent the last ten years slowly sinking into a mud pit, no matter how much of the engine Antonio claimed to have replaced.

"Woah, this is beautiful!" Tetsuko leapt up on top of a large rock and cupped her hands by her eyes like binoculars. "You can see for miles!"

Tomohiro did not reply. He could not reply. They had been walking for miles, and climbing, and running when Tetsuko got bored, his lungs felt like rocks, and every inch of his throat from the back of his mouth to the middle of his chest felt scorched, drier than desert bones, and his pulse beat the inside of his skull like a damn base drum in a marching band, throbbing against his brain, and the whole world looked washed in sepia tones, with little licks of fire at the corners of his eyes preparing to burn away his vision…

And the last thing he'd see before his death would be Tetsuko, poised on top of a boulder, tall and strong like the hero she was, the hero she'd be even if he left this world forever and couldn't watch her, but he loved her—

"Tomohiro?"

—so much—

"Oi, Tomohiro!"

—more than… than…

"Tomohiro!"

The next thing he knew, he was staring at a great blank ceiling, sheets spread across his legs and back propped with pillows. His body felt cooler, but his throat still dry and sticky. But just a few seconds after opening his eyes, he found a glass of water just under his chin, tilting slowly back for him to drink. Probably just tap water, but it was still the sweetest thing Tomohiro had ever tasted.

After emptying that cup and a second one quickly poured for him, Tomohiro found the will to turn his head. Tetsuko sat beside him, a worried frown etched on her face, twisting the drinking cup in her hands.

A dozen questions flitted about Tomohiro's mind, but he settled for, "Tetsuko."

"How are you?" she asked.

"Okay," he said. "Thanks for the water."

Tetsuko giggled. "Anytime," she said, before her face fell again. "You had a heat stroke. Too much exertion and not enough rest. I carried you to the ranger station."

"Oh." Well, that was humiliating. But quite nice of Tetsuko.

"I'm sorry I pushed you so hard."

"You didn't do anything."

"No, I mean, I wasn't paying attention. I thought that if I felt okay, then you had to be okay, too, so I mean, I didn't notice that we weren't taking breaks when we should, and that's the basics of hiking safety and I just totally forgot and you fainted and I got so damn scared I just—"

"Tetsuko," Tomohiro said. "It's okay. I was skipping breaks, too."

"Why?"

"I wanted to reach the end."

"The end?"

In that moment, Tomohiro wanted to stick his foot in his mouth. He hadn't told Tetsuko about his destination, or the conversation he wanted to have with her, only that he wanted a hike. And how was he supposed to make her take his confession seriously when he had just fainted on the side of a mountain? Why in the earth would a fitness goddess and future hero like Tetsuko accept a guy who passes out not even halfway to their destination?

"I heard the sunset looks nice from the end of that trail," Tomohiro lied. "I wanted to make it in time… but I wanted a guide, too, so I asked you to come with me."

"Ah, you should have said so!" Tetsuko reached out and squeezed his hand, giving him warm chills. "We'll start earlier next time, and take more breaks. Okay?"

"Okay," Tomohiro said, still ashamed that she had to see him so weak and helpless, and he's not a single step closer to telling Tetsuko the truth.

He practiced truth-telling in other less direct, but still very important areas: his parents, for instance, making them aware that he did want to date his friend Tetsuko. They felt a bit conflicted, having heard all the rumors, but without any conscious will of her own, any time Tetsuko actually met Tomohiro's parents, she completely defied their expectations, for all intents and purposes appearing as a bright and well-mannered, if absent-minded, young lady. And Tetsuko was in a good streak at the time, so Tomohiro reported in good confidence that Tetsuko had been coming to choir practice and stopped fighting and was really thinking about her future. In the end, his parents wished them well, with a stern reminder for good behavior.

Kaburagi-san was very understanding as well. On a day when Tetsuko had gone out with Antonio to do stupid, athletic things, Tomohiro asked for permission to visit and explained his intention to date Tetsuko. The whole situation went over very well, especially since Kaburagi-san and Tomohiro weren't family, but Tomohiro knew he presented a much more appealing reputation for a parent than Tetsuko herself.

"Well, you're a fine young man, and I'm very proud Tetsuko's found someone who knows to pay respects to her mother," Kaburagi Anju said, taking a small sip of tea. "But you know, I'm not the one you need to permission from."

"Who else would give permission?" Tomohiro asked.

Tetsuko's mother pointed somewhere behind Tomohiro, and he turned in his seat to see Kaburagi Muramasa, Tetsuko's older brother—Tetsuko's adult older brother—standing in the doorway and staring at Tomohiro with blazing eyes.

You want to date my little sister. Tomohiro read, loud and clear. His blood ran cold.

"Um, g-good afternoon, Muramasa—san," Tomohiro decided on his honorific a second too late, then remembered he shouldn't be sitting for a greeting, so he stood and offered his hand to Muramasa. "My name is Amamiya Tomohiro. I'm the representative in Tetsuko-san's class, her classmate."

Muramasa shook hands. You want to date my little sister.

"I… want to apologize for such a late introduction. I mean, I've seen you around here…" Bad start. Very bad way to start. Tomohiro cleared his throat. "Well, in any case, I think Tetsuko-san is a very nice young lady, and—"

Eyes flared. You want to date my little sister.

"And—and as I said before, I'm the representative to the student council for Tetsuko-san's class, and we're in choir together, too. So… I've never had any trouble with the administration, or any teachers. I'm a very dependable person! My grades are excellent…"

You want to date my little sister.

"And… Y'know… We're way too young to be even thinking about marriage or children or—"

RUN.

Tomohiro barely stammered out a thank-you for the tea and an apology for leaving so suddenly before he shoved his feet into his shoes and ran as far and fast as he could, away from the Kaburagi household.

"C'mon, Super Spear!" Tetsuko's fists clenched as she bounced on her knees, mesmerized by the chase on Hero TV. "Get 'im! Go, go, go, you're almost there!"

And Tomohiro wanted to cheer, too, but at the moment it just wasn't in him. He couldn't make his body go through the motions of shouting for the current top of the leader board. He just felt dull and sad, with Tetsuko so close, but in reality, further away than anything.

"Tetsuko, can I ask you something?"

"Shoot," Tetsuko glanced his way.

"What do you think of me?"

"Awesome!" She threw her hands up in the air as Super Spear cinched the arrest, shrieking with joy. "You're awesome, too, Tomohiro."

"And… what do you feel for me?"

The question fell on deaf ears—the target had friends that the heroes needed to chase down, and heaven help him if he wanted any hope of tearing Tetsuko away from the thrilling spectacle.

"You're going to be amazing out there, someday, Tetsuko," Tomohiro mumbled, looking from the TV to Tetsuko. "But sometimes I feel like it's all you think about. I wish you'd think about me, too."

Tetsuko squeaked as a stray rocket struck a statue, sending the giant landmark tumbling in front of the beloved heroes—a perilous roadblock! How will our heroes evade the obstacle?

"But then again," Tomohiro continued. "I don't think you'd be you anymore, if you stopped caring about justice and helping people, just so you'd think of me more often. And that's really what I love most about you. The way you love others."

"No! The other way! The other way!" Tetsuko leapt forward and clutched the corners of the TV. "Dammit, they're gonna to get away!"

"I won't change a thing about you. Even if it means you don't love me," Tomohiro lay back on the floor, staring at the ceiling. "I love you, Tetsuko… but would it kill you to at least notice that I love you?"

By the time the episode finished, Tomohiro managed to fall asleep on the ground. Tetsuko looked back at him, blinked in surprise at her friend's sleeping face, then tiptoed over to the door and checked for Tomohiro's parents. Deeming the coast clear, Tetsuko crouched beside Tomohiro, removed his glasses, and tentatively reached out one hand to brush away the hair on his forehead. She grew bolder, soon threading his fingers through his hair and combing through it, spreading it into an obsidian halo around his head.

She suddenly withdrew, glared at her hand as if to scold it, then got up to turn off the TV and find a blanket for her sleeping friend, leaving his glasses just above his head where he wouldn't crush them if he rolled over. Usually, after Hero TV ended, Tomohiro would make them start their homework together, but since he was asleep, Tetsuko took the initiative and started the biology reading on her own, glancing every so often at Tomohiro on the floor.

Tetsuko blazed. She was a force of nature, a hurricane or an earthquake, flinging punches and kicks that connect with sickeningly audible force and taking every hit with barely a blink. Four of them: boys, upperclassmen, each at least six inches taller and broader. Versus one Tetsuko.

And though his blood was ice and his sweat even colder, he ran forward: "STOP IT!" Two seconds flat, one of the punks shoved him to the ground—Tomohiro was never the fighting-physicality kind of kid—and before he can blink, Tetsuko's patent shoe collided with the side of his head—she, the one who had spent her entire childhood running around and climbing trees and wrestling her brother, and then her adolescence picking fights and winning them. Tomohiro stood up, got pushed down again, but by the time he stood up a third time, Tetsuko was the only one standing, panting heavily.

Her lip is bleeding.

"I see any of you around here again," Tetsuko growled, pressing a shoe against one of their throats. "I'll rip your tongues out, you got that?"

They 'got that,' and scrambled away. Tomohiro finally remembered where he had seen their uniforms: Antonio's school. Residual members of his gang, most likely, still causing trouble.

But that didn't matter just then. "Tetsuko, are you okay?" Tomohiro held her shoulders and checked for injury. The split lip, her hair in complete disarray, her shirt stretched in odd ways, but still on her body. He didn't dare check if her shorts were still in place, but if since she was up and fighting when Tomohiro got there, he had to assume she was all right. But lower, her socks were ripped, and he saw some red splotches preparing to blossom into bruises where they had kicked her legs.

"M'fine," Tetsuko wiped the blood away from her mouth. "It's okay."

"Why were you fighting them?"

"It's nothing, I promise," Tetsuko said, trying to shake his hands off, but Tomohiro held on. Even though he knew Tetsuko could easily break his grasp, even injured, she chose not to.

"Tetsuko, you scared me. Tell me why you were fighting them. Please."

She looked aside. "They were calling you a pussy," she muttered.

Tomohiro's eyes widened behind his glasses. "You got in a fight over that? A stupid insult? I don't even know them! They don't know me! And now they've hurt you! You have to think before—"

"Doesn't hurt."

The small words somehow cut off Tomohiro's lecture. "What?"

She looked up with a small, sad smile. "It's like they can't hurt me, when I'm fighting for someone I care about. It's weird. I can feel it all," She touched her lip. "But it doesn't hurt."

"I don't understand."

"They were making threats, too. Wasn't the first time, either," Tetsuko admitted. "And if I had to choose between you getting hurt or me getting hurt, I'd pick me every single time. That's why I fight them."

"Well, I'd make that choice the other way around I'd rather get hurt than see you hurt!" Tomohiro insisted. "Tetsuko, you don't have to do this."

She just shook her head again, the bruised little smile widening. "Tomohiro… I love you."

"What?"

"You're never gonna talk me out of defending you, because I love you. Easy as that."

Easy as—? Though hardly the right situation, Tomohiro almost wanted to scold her for just blurting out her feelings for him with such little effort, when he had spent nearly two months trying to find the right way to tell her, but two other more pressing matters overrode his irritation: one, Tetsuko was still bleeding, and two, she loved him.

Tomohiro pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her, chin gently hooked over her shoulder as he held her, warm and real and finally his.

"I love you, too," he whispered in her ear. "More than anything."

He felt her fingers curl in his shirt, clinging back just as tightly. He never wanted to let her go, but rationality once again won over, and he pulled back just enough to kiss her forehead. In shock, Tetsuko let go just enough for Tomohiro to take a step back and set up his lifting stance. He caught a glimpse of her face—eyes wide, simultaneously frozen with shock and melted with happiness. So cute.

Before he could appreciate that beautiful face, he threaded one arm around her lower back and lifted her legs up into his arms. She was definitely heavier than he expected, but even after quick mental recalculation of his strength and endurance, he knew he could make it at least to the nurse's office.

"Tomo—Tomohiro, what are you doing?"

"If you're really so willing to get hurt for me, at least let me care for you after," Tomohiro cradled her a little tighter. Tetsuko blushed and folded her hands on her stomach, thumbs fiddling, and her head leaned ever so slightly toward Tomohiro's chest.

Was this the way he dreamed of it? No. Was this everything he wanted? Possibly.

Was he glad that, in the end, it all worked out?

Yes.