THE RESTLESS NIGHT

A young woman sat in quiet contemplation beside a small garden pond. The koi within were swimming slowly back and forth. The white patches on their scales made a stark contrast against the otherwise dark water. Her gaze was fixated upon the crescent moon's reflection across the water's gently rippling surface. Further off the murmurs of Town K's night life could be heard, but within this walled sanctuary all was peaceful; still.

She often sought solace amongst the living treasures that grew here. Especially at night, once the rest of the household had gone silent. Prior to the rift that had formed between her mother and grandfather this small piece of beauty had been her mother's pride. To this day, her grandfather kept the garden exactly as Yuriko had left it. She suspected he'd done so with the hope that one day her mother might return; that they could eventually reconcile their differences. She knew it continued to pain him greatly that he had lost his daughter before they managed to make amends.

She bit her bottom lip nervously as her expressive brown eyes grew more troubled. A sense of inner calm eluded her tonight. She was the type of person to always face her problems head on. She didn't stew in indecision. She took action. This state of confusion was unlike her. It was the first time in her all twenty-three years that Yamaguchi Kumiko felt the urge to act a coward and run away.

Right or wrong, she placed the blame entirely upon that brat's shoulders. How dare he make her feel this way?! It was all his fault; the jerk. If he hadn't said… said… that to her, then she wouldn't be feeling so jumbled up inside right now. She unconsciously tucked a stray lock of her long black hair back behind her ear as she frowned. Her usually graceful movements made jerky in her agitation.

From their first meeting the Brat had challenged her. Be it physically, emotionally, or intellectually, they constantly pushed each other to do better; to try harder. Whenever they drew near each other, one could almost see the sparks fly as they clashed. She had unthinkingly accepted this as just a natural aspect of their relationship. She'd never once paused to ask herself why it was so. Or what said sparks could possibly indicate.

This afternoon he'd opened her unwilling eyes to a fact she'd been hopelessly oblivious to. Today, Sawada Shin, the scarlet-haired leader of delinquent class 3-D, had confessed his love to his homeroom teacher. Though, if one were to give an honest assessment, it was less a love confession and more a simple statement of the facts. He had told her the only reason he planned to attend the prestigious Toudai University for law school was because he wanted to be useful to not only her, but the family she cared so much about. "Because I am in love with you and I want to be with you always," had been his exact phrasing. With those fifteen words he'd easily blown apart her, admittedly biased, perception of their relationship.

The conversation with Fujiyama-sensei that had taken place shortly thereafter helped to ease her mind somewhat, yet at the same time managed to add to her problems. It helped her put her whirlwind thoughts into perspective while forcing her to recognize things she had purposely been ignoring about her admiration for Shinohara-sensei as well as her relationship with Sawada. Conflicting as it was, the conversation had helped.

Fujiyama made Kumiko recognize that she'd never felt comfortable enough around Shinohara-sensei to share her worries with him. She didn't act like herself around him and he wasn't the one she went to when Class D was giving her yet another headache. No, Kumiko was shocked to notice that the person she'd relied on for the past two years had instead been Sawada. He was the first person she called when one of her students got themselves into trouble.

Of course, the music teacher hadn't stopped her little mini-therapy session there. Kumiko had also been frantically clinging to the mistaken idea that Sawada was simply teasing her; that the Brat wasn't serious. It was her last line of defense to keep the very un-teacher-like thoughts she was suddenly experiencing at bay. Fujiyama had promptly halted that delusional way of thinking. Apparently she had known of Sawada's true feelings toward his homeroom teacher for a long time and she wasn't going to let Kumiko play dumb about it now. According to Fujiyama, everyone had seen this coming. Everyone that is, except for Kumiko. She'd also been quick to point out that Sawada was no longer one of her students. The student – teacher boundaries therefore no longer stood between them.

It was her conflicted reaction to his admission that caused Kumiko to seek comfort within her mother's garden tonight. She had been able to push the emotional upheaval she was experiencing to the back of her mind for most of the day. She instead focused on her relief at still being employed as a teacher and the boisterous, impromptu celebration her family had started. However, with the coming of night she was left with nothing to distract herself anymore. So, she sat outside in her mother's tranquil garden and attempted to get herself under control.

Yet, despite her repeated attempts to soothe her chaotic emotions, they stubbornly remained in turmoil. Give her a mob of angry gangsters out for blood and she'd take care of them without breaking a sweat. No problem. It was matters of the heart that scared her spit-less while sending chills up her back.

The fourth generation yakuza heiress let out an exasperated sigh. Now her brain was beginning to think in circles. She was getting nowhere near to a proper resolution of her predicament. She sat with her knees bent close to her chest; her arms loosely wrapped around her legs. It was a new experience for the more action oriented Kumiko to try to mentally work through her problems like this.

Unbidden, an image of Sawada's smiling face rose before her mind's eye. It wasn't an expression one saw him with often. He smirked frequently enough, but a truly happy smile was a rare occurrence and, therefore, all the more precious. She had only seen it a handful of times herself.

He was the pretty boy type; tall and lanky with a wiry, muscular build instead of a stocky one. Add intelligence to his good looks and you almost had to beat the girls off him with a stick. He was a born leader. He possessed an ingrained sense of honor that Kumiko deeply respected. He could be a cocky little brat, but usually he had the ability to back up that arrogance. The more she listed Sawada's attributes, the more attractive she unexpectedly realized him to be. To someone else, mind you, not her of course.

Raised by a controlling Police Chief father, he learned from an early age to keep his emotions under tight control; masking them from the rest of the world. He became an observer. His reasoning was that it couldn't hurt you when someone betrayed you if you had never trusted them to begin with. He only let a select few close enough to see his genuine emotions. Kumiko found herself grinning goofily as she remembered the immense joy she'd felt at finally being included in that number. It had taken her quite a while to earn it, but she considered the reward of his trust more than worth all the effort she'd put in.

Calling his eyes brown was like saying a sunset was orange. Both were true, yet much more complex than a single color could describe. Around the pupils of his eyes are light amber spikes that gradually darken until the outer rim reached a color similar to molten chocolate. Kumiko had gotten inexplicably lost in those eyes this afternoon. Which was the main reason why she had taken so long to react to his confession. As cheesy as that realization may have been, it was disconcertingly accurate.

"Gah!"

Kumiko yelped as she covered her flushed cheeks with her hands. She had to snap herself out of those sorts of thoughts immediately! It was the shock of what he'd been saying that made it seem as if she was held captive by his gaze. The shock! Because she hadn't been paralyzed by a mere look from him. Not at all. He had not made her get butterflies in her stomach either. That was simply a late reaction to the heaviness of the food she'd had for lunch. She wasn't some airhead of a blushing school girl.

She stood up with new found determination. Why should she let the Brat affect her so? She was a strong, proud, and independent woman, damn it! She would not allow a boy five years her junior to do this to her. She didn't have to resolve all her feelings tonight. She wasn't required to reciprocate his either. She could and would handle this.

That settled, she decided her best course of action at present was to ignore the incident altogether and act as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. She wouldn't avoid him, but neither would she encourage his attentions. She firmly squashed the small part of her that thought it wanted said attentions; refusing to even acknowledge that it existed. Confident in herself once more, Kumiko turned on her heel and marched back inside the Oedo House, slamming the shōji smartly behind her.

SIA NOTE:

This has been sitting in a folder on my flashdrive for months. It was originally intended to be a Kumiko X Shin Short Story, but the next chapter is giving me fits. It keeps wanting to run off on random and strange tangents. Rather than leave it in obscurity on my flashdrive, I decided to post it as a temporary oneshot until I can work the kinks out of the rest of the story line. Which, knowing myself like I do, could be a while. .; Anyway, thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Sia

PS. This was based off the mangaverse. The only thing I changed was the Class. Instead of 2-4 and 3-4 I made it Class 2-D and 3-D.

EDITED: 9/1/13