Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
As she walked along the road to his house, she began to wonder about the rationale behind her actions.
"It was as Sunohara suggested. I suppose I am… interested in him."
A normal girl might have blushed, but she said it aloud with a straight face.
"I… guess I'll follow him for the time being, until I can completely confirm my feelings towards him."
With that, she pushed open the door and stepped into his house. She was greeted with silence; it appeared that Okazaki's father was out again. Climbing the stairs, she made no effort to lower her volume as she opened the door and made her way over to his bed.
She was planning to wake him up as she always did, roughly shaking him awake, but right before she put her palm to his shoulder she caught sight of his sleeping face, and it forced her to stop right before she could touch him.
He was smiling, in a way that she had never seen before.
He appeared to be a laid-back person, but she knew that it wasn't the case. Many things worried him all the time and he had never seemed truly at ease, and his smile had never been without a trace of reserve. Yet now he was smiling contentedly, and she knew that, even if it was only temporarily, he had been relieved of the burdens he carried.
…She'll let him sleep for another moment. She couldn't disturb him. Not like this.
After a while, she gave in to the strange urge to lower her face towards his to… take a closer look, but right when she did, he started stretching and began to open his eyes. As he took in his surroundings, there was first a flash of recognition, then momentary acceptance, followed by the rapid widening of his eyes and an ear-splitting exclamation.
"Tomoyo! What are you doing so close to me? It's kind of creepy looking at you from up close. Man… I think I get how Sunohara feels."
She saw no need to hide her actions, so she said it plainly. "I was taking a closer look. It seemed that for once, you were free of your troubles."
He stared at her. "Eh? I'm never troubled."
"…Get ready for school. We're already behind time."
"Alright, I'm awake."
"I'll be waiting for you downstairs. Don't be tardy."
Closing the door behind her as she exited, she realized that her heart was racing, it had started right from the moment he had opened his eyes. She didn't seem to be blushing though; he would have said something about it if she were.
She stepped forward towards the group of delinquents that had gathered in front of the school.
"What's up, Tomoyo? Wait… are these the people Sunohara had provoked yesterday?"
"I suppose. They wouldn't just let me go… not after what I had done in the past." He was puzzled for a moment, before he realized that her reputation really, wasn't just for kicks.
"So you did… are you going to fight them? What if you get caught by the teachers? Your council application would probably be thrown out for getting into a fight…"
"Someone has to teach them a lesson… and I won't let my actions cause harm onto the other students of this school."
She prepared herself, even if they were no threat to her. Just then, she heard a voice travel across to the courtyard.
"Hey, what's going on over there?"
It was a teacher, and it seemed as though he had a good idea of what was happening.
The teacher came up, glanced at the delinquents, some of whom were already running away, then at Tomoya, before his eyes settled onto Tomoyo.
"Tell me, what exactly happened here? Were you all getting into a fight?"
Tomoyo began to speak, to say that they were coming for her, and that yes, she was prepared to fight them if it were necessary. She knew that it would likely be the end of her council ambitions, but she had to take responsibility.
"They were coming for m---"
"---I picked a fight with them," cut in Tomoya.
"Eh? So it was you after all, Okazaki. You already have a prior record… this'll certainly be a suspension this time. Come with me."
What? What was he doing? Why did he say that he was the one who caused the trouble? Was he… did he… mean to protect her?
She looked down, and her feelings toward him began to well up inside of her. He… why? He… was such an idiot…
She was confused. She wanted to run after them, to insist that she was responsible.
But for some reason, she was unable to do so.
Ever since that incident, Tomoyo had been sure of her feelings.
"I like him. I really do."
Again, she was thinking aloud as she walked towards the changing room.
"…I believe he likes me too. He wouldn't be helping me so much with the election otherwise… would he?"
The sporting events that Tomoya had been organizing with the various sports clubs were greatly helping in raising her profile among the students. The talk about her past had all but evaporated in light of the discussion on her sporting prowess and the like. How that had to do with being a student council president was beyond her, but at least it was shifting the spotlight over to her more favorable aspects.
"Yet… he's said before that he's helping me for the sake of the theater club. Why… the theater club? It's not as though he's a member of it…"
She shook her head. "I'll tell him my feelings after today's tennis match."
She had wanted to confess to him since that day, yet whenever the opportunity arose, she found it hard to say the necessary words to him, even if she suspected that he liked her too.
She changed into her sporting attire and made her way towards the tennis court.
"Over here, Tomoyo!"
She looked over towards the source of the voice. He was sitting on one of the benches, and next to him was a brown haired girl whom she had… never seen before.
All of a sudden, she was overcome with dread. The feeling that she was about to lose something precious to her was unbearable, and all because she had seen this girl…?
But it's all right. Tomoya didn't behave any differently around her. There should be nothing.
The match started.
The match was hard, but she didn't let up, especially since she wanted to win in front of him. In fact, he was the main reason that she always did her best in the events. She didn't want his hard work to go to waste through her careless actions.
Yet it troubled her, whenever she turned towards the bench, to see that Tomoya was always glancing over towards the girl on his right.
She served, but it was too fast and too powerful. Her opponent still attempted to return the shot, but it went wide towards the right of the court… towards the spectators!
She turned to see the ball strike the girl, who was standing, on the leg.
The girl collapsed.
She noticed the look of horror on his face as he rose up and rushed to her side.
"Nagisa…!"
So her name was Nagisa…
Her opponent ran towards the injured girl. Right before he touched her knee to inspect her injury, Tomoya, for an instant, raised his hand over her as if to shield her and glared at him. Then he faltered, for he seemed to realize that his actions were out of place and that the person was probably the one best suited to look at her injury.
"Nagisa… are you alright…?"
Tomoya spoke with a tone of voice that she had never heard him use before. The girl looked up and tried to smile despite her obvious pain.
"I'm fine…"
"She's alright. It's just a bad bruise. There shouldn't be any problems, but I'll recommend that she go to the nurse's office to check, just in case."
"Tomoya…" For some reason, Tomoyo called out his name, but he paid her no heed. Instead, his attentions were completely focused on the injured girl.
"Come on. I'll help you to the nurse's office."
"Thank you… Okazaki-kun."
As they slowly made their way away from the court, Tomoyo looked down at her racquet.
"I see… so I never stood a chance in the first place… there's no longer any place in his heart for another…"
She looked up, and sighed.
"It was all just wishful thinking on my part, wasn't it…?
Somehow, it hurt, so very, very much. It hurt so much that she felt like her chest was about to burst. All the feelings that she had kept… that she had wanted to tell him… it was all worthless. There was no place for her… he was never in her reach.
She threw away her racquet.
She could feel tears welling up in her eyes.
Unwilling to let others see her like this, she ran. She wanted to be somewhere where she could be by herself.
Somewhere, where she could hide and forget that all of this ever happened.
A/N: This wasn't very well written, I know, but please pardon me. I just couldn't get going after the first section.