ENTITLED: Our Eyes Closed
FANDOM: Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
GENRE: Adventure
DISCLAIMER: Stop picking on me!
NOTES: So I've decided to make these drabbles part of a continuous plot. This means that they're not all going to be as out-there as the first one. Sometimes they'll be more…genre influenced, rather than a faithful interpretation. This chapter is a pretty good example.
LENGTH: 2/21
SUMMARY: Natsume and Sasayan tackle every genre fiction has to offer. And it is sexy. – drabble collection, second: adventure.

Natsume woke up. It was a state of complete alertness, an immediate transition from sleep to wakefulness that can be brought about by only the most traumatic of emotional experiences.

She spent several minutes staring at ceiling with an expression of extreme discontentment.

Her alarm went off.

"Be silent," Natsume hissed, in her evilest voice. And then she punched it. Her final accomplishment was knocking her alarm clock off her bedside table and into a position where she could no longer reach it without getting up. Natsume pounded her heels angrily against her mattress.

"ASAKO," her mother yelled, after the alarm had been blaring for a solid five minutes. Natsume sulkily rose to shut off the noise, and considered her mother's many villainous traits. Too bad her mom hadn't been in the cowboy dream with—

Natsume screwed up her face. She marched into the kitchen.

"I can't go to school. I'm sick."

Her mother looked up from the newspaper. The expression in her eyes was incredible. "You're fine. I can tell. I'm your mother."

"FINE," Natsume wailed, and went back into her room.

As she dressed, she considered first the many ways in which the universe had failed her, and then how she was supposed to get to school without running into Sasayan. It would be tricky. There was about a ten-block overlap in their shared commutes, and those ten blocks fell in a perfect straight line.

Plus, he had a bike.

But it wasn't like she could look at him right now! Not after she'd dreamed about them riding off into the sunset together. Fever or not, that was just inexcusable. Wondering if he really would look that cute in a cowboy hat was EVEN WORSE, WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HER?

Natsume reached for the ugliest hat she owned. It would not do to venture into hostile territory without a proper disguise.

"Nice hat," her father noted as she re-entered the kitchen. "It looks cute on you."

"Thank you," Natsume replied, with what she thought was a good deal of valiance, "I'm wearing it to protect myself from contracting further illness, since mom is forcing me to go to school despite my ailing condition—"

"You are ridiculous," her mother said, utterly unmoved. Natsume fumed and stomped around for a while and ultimately began marching to school.

There were many obstacles.

Endless possibilities of enemy encounters.

Natsume walked quickly, checking over her shoulder every now and then, and peering nervously around the corners to alleys and side streets she had, admittedly, never seen Sasayan ride down. Her quest repeated insistently through her mind: get to the school undetected.

"Natsume!"

Oh no.

"Hey, you feeling better?"

Natsume peeked over her shoulder. There was maybe half a block between them. He'd managed to cleverly disguise himself by walking behind some of his taller teammates. The scoundrel.

"I, uh—" Natsume stammered. Her face burned. She turned slowly away from him, and bolted.

"Natsume!"

"No!" she yelled back, still tearing down the street.

"What are you doing?"

His voice did not seem to be getting further away. Natsume looked behind her and squeaked.

"Why are you running?" Sasayan asked, now right behind her as he'd hopped on his bike, "Are we late?"

"No!"

"Do you want a lift or something?" he asked, and she remembered that this was exactly what he had said in her dream. She gasped.

"Stop chasing me!"

"We're going to the same place!" he said indignantly. Natsume spluttered. She floundered. She paused to stamp her foot. She took a deep breath.

"I feel like walking," she said, in what she decided was an extremely normal and not-suspicious tone of voice.

"Oh, I get it," he said, and then jumped off to walk along beside her. Natsume shot him an extremely suspicious look, certain that he had misinterpreted her on purpose. Sasayan whistled.