Ch. 3

Unconsciously

Akira felt weird, all tingly and light as a feather. She opened her eyes and saw a deep dark nothingness, her vision was blurred and she felt groggy. Above her she could see the shimmer of the sun on the water and realized that she was very far beneath the surface. The realization made something inside her snap and self preservation made her jump into action. She clawed at the water desperately trying to close the distance between her and the surface. Her lungs began to burn and a tightness began to constrict her chest, her flailing arms getting her nowhere. As if she could yell for help her mouth opened to shout but she was silenced by the water and her last bit of breath floated away from her to the light.

She'd never fainted before but she imagined that this was what it felt like right before someone did. Her eyes began to drift close without her permission, she blinked to keep them opened but found even that futile. Then a shadow swished by, quick as lightning. She couldn't see the shape of the shadow but reached out for it anyways, and to her relief it caught her hand and pulled her towards it. Suddenly she felt air enter her mouth and she could breath again, she opened her eyes wider and found a face pressed to hers giving her it's air. She looked down and saw a shimmering green tail with wispy fins that began to swish back and forth and carry her towards the surface with the utmost ease. Looking up she caught sight of human arms, strong, well defined, big arms that had wrapped around her. They broke the surface and the sudden bright sunlight blinded her, obscuring his, because she had seen his chest, face from her. Just as her eyes had adjusted to the light and she chanced a look at him...Beep...Beep...Beep...

"Ah..." Akira reached for her alarm on her nightstand and slammed the snooze button. Why was it that she always woke up right as she was getting to the good part of her dreams? She had really wanted to see the merman's face. Her phone binged to alert her to an incoming text message and she snatched it up.

Photo shoot Saturday, can you make it? - M

Akira quickly texted back that she would indeed be there and sent her reply, then shuffled from bed and went to get ready for school. She had been back for a week and as promised by the swim club hadn't had any more trouble with her enthusiastic classmates. She had told Makoto that he could have his seat back but he had told her to keep it and made a switch with the boy next to her. Now he sat next to her. For some reason it had irritated her that he hadn't wanted the seat back.

In fact a lot of things about Makoto irritated Akira. He was exceedingly polite, always congenial and avoided any kind of confrontation. He was the epitome of a nice guy, which equated to her to being a pushover. He had let a whole group of first years ahead of him in line to buy lunch one day and ended up having to settle for juice that day since the kids had bought the remaining melon breads. He hadn't complained and had happily sipped his juice, of course his friends had shared their food with him and he hadn't gone hungry but that wasn't the point.

What was the point? Akira, who now sat with the swim club at lunch, had thought that it irritated her simply because she was exactly the opposite. It shouldn't have irritated that much though, right?

Akira shrugged on a light jumper over her uniform and slipped her feet into her shoes before heading out the front entrance. Grandma was waiting by the gate with a bento in a black silk bag. She smiled lovingly at Akira and handed it to her.

"Have a good day dear." She said waving as Akira set off down the road, it was a twenty minuet walk. She had been offered to still use the car but she actually liked the feel of the morning air and the exercise. She thought about Saturday and mentally planned her trip out, she would take a train, and it was a four hour trip, and then a cab in order to be there by noon. She sighed, she'd have to wake up extra early, but she would get to spend the day with the girls. Akira reached the bottom of the hill that the Ryokan sat atop and stopped for a moment to look at the water. It was crystal clear and shimmering in the morning light, it made her think about her dream. He had kissed her in order to breath for her, and the thought made a dreamy blush dust her cheeks. She laughed at her own silliness and continued on her way to school.

She saw Gou at the gate and waved as the girl ran her way.

"Good morning Akira!" She said happily practically bouncing on her toes. Akira smiled at her and nodded.

"Good morning," They both went to change their shoes and walked to their classrooms together. Akira was one of the first students to arrive and sat her bag on the desk. She pulled out her phone to silence it, she checked her latest message from Momoe.

Yatta! We've missed you! - M

She smiled at the screen, Momoe was probably the kindest of all the girls of WakiZashi, Akira and the other girls all felt extremely protective of her. She placed her phone back into her bag just as Haruka and Makoto took their seats.

"Good morning Ootani-san." Makoto said as pleasantly as always. Haruka gave her a nod.

"Morning, Tachibana-kun, Nanase-kun." She said politely.

"You know you are welcome to call us by our given names." Makoto said just as Amakata-sensei walked in. Akira was glad for it, she didn't want to tell him that she didn't want to call him by his given name. Although he tried very hard to become friends with her, along with the others of the swim team, she still felt a gap between herself and them. It made her feel uneasy.

"Good morning class." And the lessons began.

As lunch rolled around Gou came by to walk with Akira and the boys to the roof, she complained about how she had been chosen to be in charge of her classes booth for the upcoming school festival.

"It's such a pain." She said opening her lunch. Makoto and Haruka had gone to get drinks and as Nagisa and Rei finally showed Akira was beginning to wonder what was taking them so long. She sighed, she had asked for tea, and didn't want to start eating without it.

"I'm going to go see what is taking so long." She said raising from her seat and heading towards the vending machines. As she approached them she could see a group of girls chatting and buying drinks, and behind them was Makoto and Haruka, the former looking less than interested. She wasn't sure if the girls had jumped line or if Makoto had let them in front of him, but she was suddenly angry. They clearly didn't care that they were holding up the line. She went straight to Makoto and frowned at him.

"What's taking so long?" She asked him loud enough so that everyone near them heard. Makoto smiled at her apologetically.

"Well they said they had a lot of drinks to buy for their friends." He said and she knew he had let them go first. She could feel her eye twitch in annoyance.

"You girls." She said looking their way and seeing the red ties that made them first years. They all turned to look and see who was calling them, and their faces lit up when the realized who it was.

"Akira-senpai!" Akira glared at them and then grabbed Makoto by the elbow and pushed him forwards.

"What does he look like to you?" She asked in her deep smooth voice. The girls looked confusedly from her to Makoto and then back. Makoto the whole time only looked confused.

"...Uh...Like Makoto-senpai." One girl said. Akira nodded and smirked viciously at the girl and nearly laughed when she shivered in fear.

"That's right he's your senpai, you should respect him not walk all over him. He kindly let you go ahead of him so that you could buy your friends their drinks, but you have taken advantage of his kindness and now are holding up not only him but the rest of these students." The girls looked around them and saw the angry faces of the students in line and suddenly felt very alienated.

"You should be more considerate, and if I catch you taking advantage of this idiot again I will make sure your high school life is so horrible that you'll have to transfer, do you understand?" They immediately nodded and apologized before running off. Akira pushed Makoto forward and pointed to the vending machine.

"Hurry up, I'm tired of waiting." He nodded and bought their drinks. Haruka stood next to her and none to gently brought his fist down on her head. She glared his way but saw that he was actually looking at her in a rather strange way. Almost like he was surprised, but what was there to be surprised about? She was always this rude.

As they made their way back to the roof Makoto finally cleared his voice and Akira stopped.

"If you have something to say then say it." She said haughtily. He seemed a little frightened but Haruka gave him a slight nudge.

"You shouldn't be so rude to them Ootani-san." Makoto said looked up at her, as she was two steps ahead of him on the stairs. For some reason this really ticked her off.

"I wouldn't have to be if you took up for yourself, you might as well be a door mat, you let the students around here walk all over you, it's annoying!" She said snatching her drink from him and practically jogging the rest of the way to the roof.

Makoto looked to Haruka for advice but he simply shrugged and followed Akira.

"I'm not that bad." Makoto said feeling that what Akira said was not exactly right but not far from the truth, though he had never looked at it that way. When he reached the roof he found everyone looking between Haruka and Akira, he had clearly smacked her again.

"Stop that!" She said sitting down and pulling her food out of the silk bag. Inside was a beautiful arrangement of professionally cooked dishes. Gou looked at it enviously.

"Makoto where's your lunch?" Rei said noticing that the tallest of the group had no food with him. Akira glanced up from her food and noticed this too. Makoto laughed nonchalantly and waved a dismissive hand.

"He didn't have time to buy it." Haruka said before stuffing a bite of mackerel into his mouth. Akira felt that twitch again and she glared at him.

"You see, that's what I mean. If you had just made those girls wait their turn you would have been able to get to the cafeteria or buy bread." She said as if scolding a child. She grabbed the lid of her lunch box and began to pile what she wanted of her lunch and then stuck out the rest, the bigger portion, towards Makoto.

"Ootani-san I cant take your lunch." He said looking helplessly at her. She glared harder at him.

"Yes, you can. You have swim practice today right? Just take it, otherwise I might strangle you." She said and Makoto slowly took the fancy boxed lunch from her.

"I can't eat it all anyways." She said giving him her chopsticks and using the plastic fork that was also in the bag.

"Thank you." Makoto said quietly. As the two ate in silence the swim club silently looked between them and then to each other. They looked to Haruka who shrugged but quirked an eyebrow at a sulking Makoto.

After lunch Makoto had been quieter than usual and Akira was in a bad mood, a dark aura emanating from her that had even teachers jumping out of her way. At the end of classes the class rep stood up and called everyone to attention.

"As everyone knows the school festival is in two weeks, does anyone have any suggestions about what we as a class should do?" A few hands shot up and each one was called on.

"Maid cafe!" one boy said, the girls groaned.

"Takoyaki stand."

"Haunted house!" At this suggestion people seemed to agree, and before anymore suggestions could be made the class had settled on having a Haunted classroom. Haruka turned in his seat to look towards Makoto which prompted Akira to do the same. She felt her eyebrows shoot up into her hairline. Makoto looked absolutely terrified and turned to look pleadingly at Haruka.

"Haru..." He said in a pitiful voice. Akira shook her head. On top of being a pushover he was also a coward.

"Aren't you a man?" She asked more to herself but Makoto heard.

"I hate scary things." He said wretchedly. She rolled her eyes.

"It's obviously not real." She said turning her attention back to the class rep.

"Alright then moving on, we'll need a few people who will be dressed as the monsters, ghost, ect. Anyone?" Again hands shot up.

"I vote Ootani! Her glare could scare anyone! Plus people would come just to see her!" One boy said and the class chuckled and looked her way. If she had to be involved she guessed that it wouldn't be boring to be scaring people.

"Fine." She said and the boy high-fived his friend next to him. The class rep wrote her name on the chalk bored.

"I will." Said one boy.

"Me too!"

"Makoto is the tallest boy here he should be a monster too!" Everyone seemed to agree and in his seat Makoto turned white.

"No." Akira said instinctively, immediately wishing she could clamp her hand over her mouth. She hadn't meant to say no, it had just come out. The class looked her way, some with confusion and others with trepidation. A very large part of the school already thought that Akira and Makoto didn't get along very well. They were pretty close.

"He's a crappy actor and clumsy, pick someone else." She said crossing her arms and daring someone to contradict her.

"I will then." said another girl with glasses. The class rep nodded and jotted down the names.

"I think that's good, alright then everyone else will be involved in selling tickets and building the sets." After a while of discussing who would be doing what the class was finally dismissed for club activities. As Akira was walking out the door a hand caught her arm. She turned to see Makoto staring at her with a wide smile.

"Thanks Akira." He said dropping all formalities and using her name. Akira went beat red and shrugged out of his hold before walking, more like stomping, towards the entrance.

"Idiot." she said lowly. Makoto watched her march away in confusion, apparently Akira still disliked him. Haruka tapped his shoulder.

"Practice."

At home Akira handed her empty bento to the chef in the kitchen. He looked at it in surprise.

"You ate it all?" He asked in his gruff voice. Akira shook her head.

"It taste great but I shared it with...a friend." She said really unsure of what to call Makoto. She didn't really think of him as a friend per say, he was more like an acquaintance who had a tendency to be taken advantage of. Like a lost kid that you felt obligated to help.

"Well then that's good to hear." He said smiling at her. She shook her head and went to start her homework.

She was floating, and felt warm. She opened her steel colored eyes and found that she was above a colorful coral reef. All around her fish of all shapes and sizes swam by her, the water was as clear as glass. She swam along with a school of bannerfish smiling at the scene. The soft beige of the sand at the bottom and the rainbow of coral was beautiful. Her feet sat down on the sandy floor and she watched as a handful of seahorses swam around her playfully. They all stopped in front of her and seemed to be looking behind her. She turned wondering what sort of fish would be behind her, and was shocked to find a sleek large shark staring at her, it's teeth revealed and almost smiling. She stood completely still afraid to move. All of a sudden it moved to strike at her but was smacked in a whirl of water, bubbles, and green. Akira had crouched and cover her head with her hands in a protective stance. It wasn't until she felt warm hands untangling her own and pulling her up that she opened her eyes.

All the fish had suddenly reappeared, she hadn't even noticed that they had left, and in front of her was the merman from her dream. He held her arms gently and was smiling at her with a very kind and familiar smile. She smiled back at him and he took one of her hands and led her around the reef. They swam for a while until he turned to her suddenly and brought her in for a very sweet kiss just before...

Akira shot up in bed and blinked the sleep away, remembering her dream. Her face was burning, and her mind going a million miles a minuet. She couldn't believe it. Her dream merman was Makoto.

"Good God."