Chapter 3: Usual Unusual Occurrences

As soon as Oikawa's eyes met Hiroko's from across the crossroad he nudged Iwaizumi who seemed to be scolding him and both boys looked in her direction sending her a wave.

Usually in animes, people at opposite side of the crossroad would have a train, maybe a couple of cars, a crowd of pedestrians, or maybe even a strong gust of wind trying to somehow divert the characters from each other (even though those characters never seem to look away). But everything around them was quiet and still in the goddamn neighbourhood, and Hiroko couldn't even pretend that she didn't notice, or got distracted by something.

Awkwardly, she waved back hoping that they'd hurry up and turn the corner before she did so that she can walk quietly behind them. Of course, they didn't. They didn't even know she was really trying to avoid talking to them. Iwaizumi, though, would at least notice her pretty obvious discomfort. 'He knows me best', Hiroko though albeit bitterly.

Iwaizumi was the first to stand next to her and fall into step with her. He assumed his usual position to her right, with Oikawa standing on Iwaizumi's other side.

"You should've told us you got better before going to school this morning, Hiroko-san. I heard you're not going to Kitagawa Daiichi?" He looked pointedly at her light blue collared shirt with a bow tie, grey sweater, and strikingly purple skirt- the standard Shiratorizawa girl's uniform. That is, other than the fact that her skirt was longer than the standard, ending halfway past her knees when it usually went down till only mid-thigh.

Hiroko watched his face that wasn't looking at her, but straight ahead. She observed that he was around as tall as her, if not taller, disappointing her a bit when she realized that the two boys who were slightly shorter than her a couple of years ago has now surpassed her height.

"Which school are you going to then, Hiro-chan?"

"I'm going to Shiratorizawa," she replied the less stressful question first, licking the roof of her dry mouth before answering the former. "I'm sorry about that, Hajime. My fever only broke this morning so I decided to go to school suddenly. It'd be a waste skipping a day of school anyway, now that I'm fine."

He sighed and Hiroko knew that was a sign he didn't buy her lie but would go with it anyway, for her sake. Paying too much attention to Iwaizumi's reaction, she missed how Oikawa lightly scoffed at her lie from beside Iwaizumi.

"If you're alright, then it's all good. Ne, ne, Hiro-chan, Iwa-chan and I are in the volleyball club together still even in Kitagawa Daiichi. Wouldn't it be nice to be playing the same team till high-school? Who knows? Maybe even college. Pity you didn't go to Kitagawa Daiichi with us. We could have been in the same class. Or maybe you could've been with Iwa-chan. There's this gir..."

"Have you made any friends in school yet, Hiroko-san?" Iwaizumi asked politely, ignoring Oikawa's rant.

"Well, my seatmate's really kind. She's a bit loud, but she's funny. And she's got a friend apparently from the next class. They're pretty interesting, so I hope they don't mind me hanging out with them tomorrow too."

They talked for about a minute or two until Oikawa seemed to really notice that even though they were talking among themselves, they weren't paying him any attention, at all.

"IWA-CHAAAN! HIRO-CHAAAN! YOU TWO ARE SO MEAN!"

Before they can even finish laughing, they shoved Oikawa pushing his own house before going on to their own homes up the same street. They stood in front of the two houses exchanging a short farewell before jogging to the front doors of their respective residences.

Hiroko was folding paper planes with Hideaki just before bed that same day, when the frazzled young brother yawned and asked Hiroko to get him some chocolate milk.

Hiroko tried to put up an argument about how lazy he was and that she was tired as well but went to get him a drink anyways.

Hiroko tried to enter the dining area as soundlessly as possible to get to the open kitchen and quickly grab some drinks from the refrigerator, so as to not disturb her parents' conversation with the guests. She heard snippets of the talk and picked up something about a hospital and a leave from work.

As Hiroko passed the table and crossed the bar counter, she couldn't help but slightly eavesdrop on the discussion.

"Of course Hajime can stay with us for the time being," her mother said softly.

"I hope it won't be much trouble. It's just a week that we'll be away. And we can't bring him because of school and…"

"Hajime is a good young man," Hiroko's dad said, "He won't cause any trouble for us."

She then proceeded to close the refrigerator after grabbing two cans of guava juice, quickly making her way out of there.

"I hope that your…"

Hiroko swiftly closed the door of Hideaki's room and sat on the mat cross-legged. She placed the cans on the low table.

"Hey, I said milk. Go back and get me milk."

"You go and get it if you want it. I'm not you're slave."

"Sure you are," Hideaki grinned.

Hiroko stuck her tongue out to him.

"By the way, I think Hajime is going to be staying with us for a while," Hiroko informed.

"Why? What happened?"

"His parents are leaving for somewhere. I think. Maybe out of town? Something about a sick person," she shrugged.

"That's so cool. Then we can play games together against you. Boys versus girls," Hideaki made a face at her.

"Oh stop it! You disgusting pig!" Hiroko threw a nearby pillow at him.

They continued to argue friskily, their voices echoing through the windows into the still night. In a room nearby, within another house, young Hajime's attention quickly shifted from his computer game to the louder clamour from the next house.

Iwaizumi made his way towards his window and moved the curtains a bit to spectate the activities of the Takenaka household.

He saw the shadows of his two friends tossing things at each other. Suddenly the sound of a door slamming open resounded and a female adult silhouette came in to scold the two children. Hajime smiled a little at that.

Hajime heard the click of the front door and quickly shut the curtains of his window. He ran to his computer, closed the monitor and unplugged the speakers.

As the knob of his door began to turn, he quickly hit the switch and jumped unto his bed.

His mother opened the door and poked her head into his room to find the lights already off the red nightlight winking on the ceiling. Her son was already asleep in bed. The only sound that could be heard within the small room was the soft whirring noise emitting from the CPU cabinet.

Hajime's mother frowned. "That isn't safe. He must have forgotten to turn it off," she muttered to herself, turning off the main switch and pulling the plug of the extension cord.

She made her way out of the room soon after, closing the door behind her. Hajime hissed in frustration to himself, "Aghh. I didn't get to save the game."

After the long lecture about having to be disciplined especially about when there are guests around and even when there aren't any, the same mundane repetition, Hiroko's and Hideaki's parents beckoned them to the dining room.

They all sat down at the dining table, the two children eager to hear the news.

"The brother of Yoriko-san has fallen very ill during his business trip abroad and is confined and in a state of coma at a hospital in Manila right now. The Iwaizumi's are going to visit him and will be away for about a week. Their flight is early in the morning tomorrow. Now they can't take Hajime-san with them because he has to go to school."

"So…," Hiroko and Hideaki said together in anticipation.

"So Hajime will be staying with us for the time being from tomorrow onwards," their father finished.

Hiroko was not very surprised that Iwaizumi's parents approached them about this rather than Oikawa's parents. Although Tooru and Hajime were closer friends to each other rather than Hiroko, Their parents were closer to hers than with each other.

They were just about to jump in joy when their mother gave them a stern look that immediately drained them of nearly all emotion.

"You're dismissed. Now go to your rooms both of you. And don't forget to pick up the trash and brush your teeth before you go to sleep."

"Yes ma'am," The children said in unison, giving their parents a salute and running away giggling. Unbeknownst to them, the parents were smiling proudly.

The sun had barely risen the next morning, but the two neighbouring households were awake already. The sky was dark with only a few stars twinkling. The parents of both households were standing outside next to a parked taxi, along with a barely awake Hajime.

"Now Hajime, be a nice boy and don't make any trouble, okay?"

"Yes, kaa-san"

Hajime's mother nudged him towards the Takenaka parents, Hiroko's mother gently telling him to go wait inside. After bidding his parents farewell, a little bit teary eyed (although he tried to hide this from the adults), he approached the front door.

Hiroko and Hideaki, who were so not stealthily watching the scene in the shadows from the window, ran to the door to greet Hajime.

They opened the door to see a drowsy Hajime rubbing his eyes with his right arm. He was dressed in a plain pastel blue shirt and white baggy shorts. Hajime then realised that he was being stared at expectantly and dropped his arm smiling sheepishly.

"Hey."

The two siblings grinned at him wordlessly. They each grabbed one of him arms, pulled him in and shut the door. They dragged him into the living room and watched their parents from the windows.

The Iwaizumis and the Takenakas bid each other farewell and Hiroko's parents wished them a safe trip. Hajime's dad put his duffel bag into the front seat and then joined his wife at the back.

Hiroko's parents turned and began to walk back into the house. The children ran and seated themselves at the sofa. The parents came and looked at them.

"Hiroko's going to share Hide's room for now because it's big enough to contain typhoon they're concocting in there. Hajime, you'll be using Hiroko's room if that's okay with you. It's big even for one person."

"It's fine. Thank you," Hajime beamed respectfully, dipping his head a bit. Hiroko made a face. Her mother glared at her.

Hiroko and Hideaki returned to Hideaki's room to resume their slumber, Hiroko having to lay out a futon for herself beside her younger brother's bed.

Hajime found himself staring at the interior of Hiroko's room. Although he's been in here many times, he's never really had the luxury to take a proper look at it, without anybody else in the room with him.

The walls were a plain colour, although the white walls seemed have developed a slightly yellow tint over the years, with grey bruises especially closer to the floor. There weren't any posters or anything on the walls at all that could've hinted at Hiroko's interests.

Across the room from the door was a double sliding window. Pushed against the right corner next to the windows was a low laying mahogany bed. 'That's new', Iwaizumi thought, vaguely recalling that Hiroko only had a futon before. The white sheets messily covered the bed and the sloppily folded blanket was simply thrown across the flattened pillows.

Pushed up against the left corner, on the other side of the window, lay a study desk. Right next to the door was a large cabinet that stood against the wall. Hajime knew that it not only contained her wardrobe, but her large assortment of books, her arts and crafts materials, and her collection of scholastic and extra-curricular awards over the years.

He walked up to the bed, glancing at the desk again that was heavily littered with balls of paper and books that were most definitely related to the material they were learning at school. On her desk lay a heavily dissected miniature wooden with tubes sticking from its open chest leaking something that had a strong appealing aroma. Some more unused tubes were placed next to it along with a bottle of camphor oil.

A toolbox was placed under the desk overflowing with knives, measuring tapes, screwdrivers and other stuff. It was barely visible, hidden patially with more balls of crumpled papers and even torn pages from travel, food and sports mags with scribbles and circled texts. He knew that she valued even 'what looked like trash to others' and had seen her throw fits whenever someone tried to clean up or even organize her things.

Hajime was curious to see what Hiroko was up to, but feeling weary again decided to do it some other time and fell asleep, only to be woken up a few hours by the Takenaka siblings arguing about who was going to wake him up right outside the room.

~A/N~

So my tweaks are changing the direction of the original story. The original author came up with the Iwaizumi staying over but the original published story ended at this chapter, so I'm taking over mostly now.

Thanks for reading and following. Ya'll are the MVPs of my day. Also for reviewing again, it means the world to me (geneee and bla). I'm a bit later than I expected, but I'll try to update again before the weekend if I have time between school and procrastination ;)

Bla: Update's up! Thanks for waiting and I hope you liked this chappie too!

A/N (Papillon Mystere): I don't really know the name of Iwaizumi's mum, so I just made something up.

Anyways, enjoy!