Chapter 4

Tsumiki sat at her table, groggily eating a bowl of cereal. Her eyes were glazed over and she almost fell asleep, narrowly missing falling into her cereal. Her doorbell rang, but she was so out of it she didn't even realize that it did. She just sat there, zoning out.

Souda waited for Tsumiki to answer the door. When she didn't, he began to freak. Why wasn't Tsumiki coming to the door? He knew that he should be freaking out so much, but he really wanted to see her and he really couldn't stop himself. He started ringing the doorbell excessivly.

"TSUMIKI! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" Souda screamed.

Tsumiki finally snapped out of it and rushed to her door, pulling on her shoes and grabbing her backpack. She opened it quickly to find Souda still ringing the doorbell.

"I'm so sorry!" Tsumiki said, looking at the ground.

"Oh no, it's not your fault. Let's go to school," Souda replied.

Tsumiki nodded her head, stepping outside and locking her door behind her.

The walk to school was somewhat silent. Tsumiki kept her eyes on the ground. For some reason she was so nervous when she was with Souda but she liked it all at the same time. What was wrong with her?!

Souda couldn't help but sneak looks at Tsumiki. She looked super cute today and he blushed every time he looked at her. What was he thinking?! He can't like Tsumiki. He loves Sonia! Well, using his extremely twisted version of logic, he decided that the only way to solve this was to just ask Sonia out! Then, when she said yes, he wouldn't have to worry too much about the shady Gundam Tanaka character. It was bullet proof in Souda's mind.

All through out the day, Souda planned how he would do it. He would have to tell Tsumiki to go home without him and he would wait after school for Sonia to finish her club meetings. Then, he would just ask her. He figured that being as forward as possible was the best way to ask.

Tsumiki knew something was up just by looking at Souda all day. Imstead of ignoring his studies and sleeping, he was ingnoring his studies and thinking. Whenever Souda dared to think, his face would scrunch up so his eyebrows looked like a unibrow and his mouth formed a frown that caused his nose to look like a pigs. Right now he was making that face and electing snickers and giggles from his classmates. Tsumiki even caught herself giggling once, but quickly stopped.

When it was lunch time, Souda walked over to Tsumiki and sat down in the chair so his legs straddled the back rest. He set his lunch down on Tsumiki's desk and started eating.

"What's wrong?" Tsumiki asked quietly.

"Hmm?" Souda hummed, popping a Goldfish in his mouth.

"Why are you thinking? Is something wrong?" Tsumiki asked, a bit louder this time.

"Oh! How did you know I was thinking?"

Tsumiki bit down a laugh before replying with "Just a hunch."

"Oh. Well, nothing's wrong I assure you. I'll tell you this afternoon! Don't wait up for me after school, just go home. I'll meet you at your house," Souda said, munching down the rest of his Goldfish and opening his bag of Oreos.

Tsumiki sighed, wiping her mouth with a napkin. She noticed one of her bandages was loose and promptly fixed it, making sure it was tight around her wrists.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly for Souda, but painfully long for Tsumiki. She sat squirming in her seat, wanting to get out of class. Whatever Souda decided to put thought into had to be big and she wanted to know! However she was willing to bet it had something to do with Sonia.

Souda spent the rest of class day dreaming about his new life with Sonia. They were going to be a perfect couple that no one could match.

Finally the bell rang and Tsumiki gathered her stuff and exited the classroom. On her way out Souda gave her a thumbs up and she slightly blushed.

Souda waited outside of the classroom for an hour. He picked at his shoe, did push ups in the hallway, and braided and unbraided strands of his hair. Finally, her club meeting was over. Souda ducked around the hall, trying to make the encounter casual. This was it! He was going to ask Sonia to be his girlfriend.

Once he spotted Sonia, he turned the corner and called out her name. She turned and smiled at him.

"Sonia, I have a question to ask you," he said when he had caught up to her.

Before Souda could continue, Tanaka came and stood next to Sonia.

"Tanaka!" She said, scooting closer to him.

"This guy bothering you?" he asked, his scarf pulled up to his nose in an attempt to hide his red face.

"I was having a conversation with her until you butted in!" Souda exclaimed, completely offended by Tanaka's intrusion.

"Well, I have to talk to her. She is my girlfriend."

Sonia blushed at the title, but didn't refuse it when Souda gave her a questioning look.

"You should leave," Tanaka said.

Souda felt anger roll over him quickly. Without even realizing it, punched Tanaka in the face, which didn't turn out good because Tanaka was stronger than he looked. He easily doged Souda's next swipe adn kneed him in the gut. Tanaka hit his elbow against Souda's back, causing Souda to drop to the ground. Tanaka gave him a kick to the nose, causing Souda's nose to bleed.

"Don't mess with me next time. The four dark gods of destruction are on my side," Tanaka said before turning and leaving, Sonia trailing behind.

...

Tsumiki laid still on her plush couch, hair fanning out from her head. Her eyes were closed as she tried to take a nap. However, her doorbell started ringing rapidly. She groaned as she got up. As much as she wanted to know what Souda was up to, did he really have to interrupt her nap?

Tsumiki opened her door to find Souda, as she expected, holding his nose and visible bruises forming on his face. It was safe to say tha whatever he had been planning, did not go over too well.

"You know the drill," she said as she went to her in house hospital, Souda trailing behind.

Souda jumped up on the table as Tsumiki grabbed her supplies.

"What happened to you?" she asked as she cleaned up the blood from Souda's nose.

"Stupid Tanaka. I hit him and he hit back, hard."

"I can see that. This is going to hurt."

Tsumiki put her fingers on either side of Souda's nose and forcefully pushed until it was straight. Souda gripped the table and tried not to scream in pain. Tsumiki put a tent shaped cast over his nose and tapped it to his face with medical tape. Next was his knuckles. Since Souda was not a trained fighter, he basically broke his fingers every time he hit someone. For now all Tsumiki could do was wrap his bleeding knuckles.

Souda tried to get off the table, but winced when he felt pain shoot through his side.

"You're not done. Let me see your ribs," Tsumiki said.

Souda rolled his eyes as he unzipped his jump suit, pulling his arms out of it. He then took off the white tank top he was wearing underneath. He couldn't help but blush.

Tsumiki noticed a black bruise forming on his left side.

"There's not much I can do other than wrap it to stop inflammation and give you pain meds," Tsumiki said as she began to wrap his side.

"Why did Tanaka hit you?" Tsumiki asked not looking up from her work.

Souda didn't respond. He didn't want to think about it. Sonia didn't like him and he got beat up by the jerk Tanaka. It was a little too much. He felt tears sting at his eyes, but he tried to hold them back. However, one escaped and hit Tsumiki's arm.

Tsumiki looked up at the sudden feeling of wetness of her arm. She saw a streak of water down Souda's cheek and she knew exactly what he had been planning and how it failed. Tsumiki sighed. That idiot just had to learn the hard way. She finished up warpping his ribs and said "Sorry."

Souda looked up at her. Without thinking, he reached out and hugged her. She was warm and smelled like strawberries.

Tsumiki was startled when she was suddenly hugged by Souda, not to mention just a bit flustered. She figured that he probably did just need a hug right then and wrapped her arms around him.

Souda blushed when Tsumiki hugged him back. He felt odd. Like someone had decided to unleash a flock of butterflies in his stomach. However, he couldn't help but think that he liked hugging Tsumiki.