Chapter 2: A Rabbit and a Lion

After school Tsukishima and Yamaguchi headed off to the gym for their after school practice as Hotaru nervously made her way to the first class representative meeting. She fiddled with the hem of her sweater as she stood outside the classroom, 'You'll be okay Hotaru. You'll be okay. You're just class representative. It's not like you're the face of the entire school. You're just the face of… the entire…. Class…' Sweat began to form on her face.

"Are you alright?"

Hotaru jumped in surprise and turned to face a female student. She had short, pin straight, brown hair that barely touched the top of her shoulders and brown eyes hidden behind the lens of pink, thick rimmed glasses that perfectly sat at the tip of her nose. Hotaru bowed repeatedly, "Yes I'm fine I'm sorry for being in your way do you need to get inside the classroom I'm already messing up this class representative thing oh goodness why was I elected I ca-"

"Take it easy." The other girl placed a hand on Hotaru's shoulder, "Being class representative is a big honor. It means your classmates trust you to keep everything in order and be the middle man to the teachers." She smiled, "Plus I'm sure they believe in your abilities, Nadeshiko-san." She turned towards the door, "I'm the Student council Vice President, Kumoda Usagi."

Hotaru smiled and bowed, "Takenaka Hotaru. Class representative of class 1-4."

"Oh that's the college prep class isn't it?" Usagi sang, a bit impressed, "That really is quite the honor then, Hotaru-chan."

Hotaru's shoulders dropped, "That doesn't help the pressure…"

The two girls entered the room and were met with the gaze of a very tall boy. "You're late Usagi. I told you to get the papers here within a good amount of time before the meeting starts." He looked passed Usagi and noticed Hotaru quietly standing behind the taller girl. He smiled, "And if I'm not mistaken you have the school's yamato nadeshiko standing behind you."

Hotaru jumped in surprise as the boy made his way towards the two girls. Usagi voiced her annoyance, "Don't you even think about trying anything with her, Leo. You know you would have the entire male population of the school on your ass."

Leo walked up to the two girls, his blonde-brown hair, which was almost the same legnth as Usagi's, swaying a bit with each step he took. His piercing yellow eyes scanning Hotaru from top to bottom. He bent down to Hotaru's eye level and smiled, "I wouldn't even think about defiling the school's idol. My name is Kumoda Leo, I'm the older brother of this rabid bunny."

Usagi frowned at her brother as Hotaru bowed in greeting, "I am Takenaka Hotaru, class representative of class 1-4."

Leo smiled and patted her head, "I look forward to working with you, Hotaru-chan."


Once the class representative meeting was over the students began to file out of the school. Hotaru noticed that some students were leaving the area of the sports club rooms as well, 'I wonder if Tadachi and Tsukki are done with practice too…' She turned towards the direction of the sports club, but before she could even take a step she was suddenly grabbed by her wrist and spun back around.

"Hold on there, Hotaru-chan." Hotaru looked up and saw the student council president. Leo smiled down at the short girl, "Why don't I walk you home? It's getting dark outside and we can't have the school's princess walking alone."

"I-I see, that's very kind of you, Kumoda-ku-" Her eyes were suddenly covered from behind as she was, again, forcibly brought back, this time hitting what seemed like a wall.

"Sorry to say, Student Council President-san, but that's our job." Hotaru looked up and saw that the wall she had been pulled back into was Tsukishima.

Yamaguchi appeared next to the two, "We live near Hotaru-chan, so you don't need to trouble yourself." He honestly stated.

However, Leo saw this as a challenge. He quickly regained his composure and smirked, "I see. I must ask though, who are you two to Hotaru-chan?" He asked as he stepped forward to look Tsukishima in the eye. Yes. That's right. Leo was almost the exact same height as the giant Tsukishima. It was the first time the two boys have actually looked someone in the eye in a while.

Tsukishima smiled, "We're just old friends of Takenaka-san. So we've been walking her to and from school since we were very little. I hope you can understand why we wouldn't want to break this tradition, Student council president-san."

Leo smiled back, a bit irked, "I see I see. Well then I guess I'll just be on my way." He looked into Tsukishima's eyes, "Also, feel free to call me Kumoda. I don't want to seem so distant to my precious underclassmen."

"U-Um…" The two giant high school students looked down to Hotaru who was in the middle of this scary, very scary conversation, "Why do I sense some tension here…"

Tsukishima and Leo smiled, "Nonsense." They chimed at the same time, but quickly looked back up at each other and glared. Yamaguchi quickly pushed his two friends towards the gates of the school and looked back at his upperclassman, "I-If you don't mind, we'll be taking our leave now."

Leo frowned as he watched the trio make their way towards the gate. Tsukishima paused and turned back around, "Just curious, how tall are you, Kumoda-san?"

"187cm." Leo answered with a slight smirk.

Tsukishima returned the smirk and turned back around, "Is that so. What a shame, I thought I found someone as tall as me, but I guess not."

This probably irked Leo more than it should have.

Tsukishima retained his triumphant smirk as the trio made their way back to the Takenaka shrine. Yamaguchi let out a shaky laugh, "Are you really that proud about winning against the president, Tsukki?"

"Of course not." Tsukishima defended as he regained his usual stoic expression.

Hotaru looked up at the taller of the two boys, "Win? I wasn't aware that you two were fighting, though I did sense a lot of tension… Oh is it about the height? I mean it's only 1cm, Tsukki…"

Yamaguchi let out another small laugh, "Don't worry about it, Hotaru-chan…"

Hotaru turned towards Yamaguchi, "Oh right, how was volleyball practice?"

Yamaguchi smiled, "It was good! We've actually got a practice match against one of the top four schools in the prefecture tomorrow after school!" He smiled towards Tsukishima, "Tsukki is going to be in the starting rotation tomorrow too!"

"Really?" Hotaru's face lit up. She turned towards Tsukishima and smiled, "Isn't that great, Tsukki! Congratulations!"

"Doesn't really matter to me." Tsukishima state as he picked up his pace to leave the two shorter students behind. Yamaguchi and Hotaru looked at each other and smiled.


[[Aero's Afterthought]]
Short chapters are so short. (。_。)
Thank you for following and reviewing! Boosted my confidence a bit since, like I said, coming outta a rut. ヽ(;▽;)ノ
Hope I didn't make Tsukki too OOC. He's such a tsundere though. Heheh~