Ok, first thing's first, let me just reply to your kind reviews, alright? Let's go!

singer in the wind: yup, even though she hates to admit it, she WANTED to sit beside Fuji. She was physically and psychologically prepared. but oh well, in real life, these kind of stuff really DOES happen. i know from personal experience since i can never get to sit beside the guy i like. ANYWAY, i'm gonna stop being random, LOL. well, i certainly do hope that u are gonna read and enjoy this new chapter!!!

crazy bubbling blonde: hehe, that was so done on purpose by a sadistic me. it's certainly the worst place on the bus, for her anyway. on well, she still gets the window seat because it has been decided by ME, as a sometimes nice author. but except for that, everything is gonna get pretty ugly, hihi! i hope u will enjoy the new chap!!

anime-kunoichi: new reader?? bwwaah! sugoi!! welcome, welcome, nya! (how did u like that? its my special and now improved Eiji welcome!) im so glad you like it! and i hope you will keep reading! thanks fo ur review, it was awesome:p

Author's random notes: I bought the harry potter book today:p if i dont update soon, its cause i will busy reading it, hehe. unless... you know what to do to motivate me, riiight?

Things that make her sick: mountain paths and Inui

Harumi was looking resolutely outside the window, as the snowy road stretched far to the horizon, and dead trees were passing by, made blurry by the bus' quick movement. She could sense an ominous aura right beside her, but she forced herself not to turn around.

Ignore. Ignore. Ignore.

She couldn't believe the fact that she had to sit with Inui. That guy gave her the creeps, for God's sake! They wanted her death, or what?

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. Made Inui's pencil as it danced on his little notebook.

Harumi gritted her teeth. She couldn't stand that noise. If she didn't want to end up in an asylum, she had to make him stop.

Detaching her eyes from the window, she peeked over her shoulder to see what he was writing. On the cover were the words : Top confidential. Inui's property.

She had to twist her tongue in her mouth twice, before making it work.

"Probability of you asking me what I am writing : 98 percent" Inui said before she could open her mouth. She sweatdropped.

"Since you know my thoughts so well, why don't you just answer the question?" she said in an exasperated tone.

His glasses shimmered. He lifted his notebook at face level, sticking it before her eyes.

"Top confidential." He said.

"I know how to read, thank you!" A vein was pulsing on her head. "I don't want to know the content of those notebooks, but just what they are. I mean, aren't you too old for diaries?"

Inui didn't smile. He lifted his glasses with his hand. "This is… data." He said the word lovingly.

"Data? On what?"

"Everything and everyone. From tennis to habits to food. I have compiled these notebooks for three years now."

He rummaged through his bag and took out a notebook that seemed newer than the one he was writing in. Harumi saw her name on the cover, which made her jaw drop.

"You… you are gathering data on me???"

"Like I said, I do it on everyone."

"But… how does gathering data on me help you in any way? I mean, I understand that your teammates' tennis data must be interesting, but seriously, Inui-san, my tennis' level is far from theirs!"

Inui smirked, which made Harumi want to jump out of the window.

"Tennis is not everything. To know how they will react to certain circumstances, to know their true weaknesses, I must look beyond tennis. Interactions with other people are a good way of knowing more about the person I'm gathering data on."

His face suddenly got close to hers, which made her back off until her back was pressed against the bus.

"I… Inui-san…"

CREEPY. CREEPY. CREEPY. SOMEBODY HEEEEEEELP!!!

He raised his eyebrows.

"That's where you come in handy, Yamazaki-san." He whispered.

"Ah… haha… hum, I'm glad I can help…" she said in a distressed voice.

"Your interactions with Fuji are particularly interesting."

This time her eyes started burning. Her fist rose and fell heavily on Inui's head, making his glasses fall off. Inui gasped and quickly covered his eyes with one hand, while with the other he picked them up from his lap and put them on again. When he raised his head, he encountered the furious glare of Harumi.

"My interactions with Fuji are strictly normal!" she growled, daring him to contradict her.

Inui cleared his throat.

"I don't care about your relationship with him, Yamazaki-san…"

She felt her blood rush to her face.

"RELATIONSHIP? WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY RELATIONSHIP???"

Heads turned their way. She crossed the curious looks of Naoki, Chiharu and even Kaidoh. She lowered her voice:

"What do you by relationship?"

Inui sighed.

"What I'm trying to say is that I don't care about personal things. I am simply observing. I have catalogued all of Fuji's expression in this notebook – he showed it to her – during the past three years. It was a hard job."

He raised his glasses again.

"Good for you." she mumbled through gritted teeth. For some reason, the fact that Inui had been spying on Fuji, HER Fuji... ok, hum hum, actually just Fuji, made her sick to her stomach.

"However, he continued, the other day, when he was holding you in the caf… GAAA!"

In one second, Harumi was on top of him, both her hands squeezing his neck and shaking him like a doll. He saw that? No way! And I thought he was busy saving his notebook from the juice flood!

"Shut up! Shut up!" she commanded.

Heads turned towards them again. Harumi saw the questioning look of Eiji directed her way.

She let out a nervous laugh and passed a hand over her hair. "Everything is alright here! We are just having a nice little chat!"

She then let go of Inui and sank on her seat.

That's IT. I've had it! I will not listen to this nonsense any longer!

Inui massaged his neck and cleared his throat.

"I'm just trying to analyze something."

She closed her eyes and ignored him.

"Well, when that thing happened, Fuji had an expression on his face that was none of the 34 ones catalogued in my archive."

Harumi opened one purple eye. Despite herself, she was curious.

"Probability of you being interested now, 99.9 percent." Inui mumbled.

"Shut up with your statistics already! Tell me about it. What was that expression?"

Inui rubbed his chin. "It was an expression I have never seen on him before. I'm not so sure about it. But there is a 23 percent chance that it was a mixture of…" he stopped and rearranged his glasses.

"Of?" she insisted.

Inui shook his head. "It's still too early to tell."

"Just tell me already!" she growled.

Inui's glasses shimmered. "If you want to know, then do something for me."

Harumi grew suspicious. "What?"

"You will have to bring that expression to his face again while I will be watching."

She sweatdropped, then laughed nervously. "Yeah, right... like expressions could be brought forth on command. I can just go to him and say : "Hi Fuji, show me expression number 35 please! Inui wants to know!" Geez...!"

Inui didn't seize the irony."Not like that. There is a much simpler way. You just have to repeat what happened in the caf that day."

Harumi almost choked to death. She regained her breath difficulty and stared at Inui to see if he was serious. Seeing that he was, she contained a burst of laughter and dismissed him with a wave of her hand. "There is NO way I will do that, so forget about it. Find someone else to do the job. I'm absolutely not interested. Oh, and while I am at it, I do NOT have anything personal going on with Fuji, so stop using me as a step-stone to gathering his data!"

She sat back furiously and looked out of the window, clearly stating that this conversation was over.

Inui opened his notebook. "Probability that she will think about it…" he smiled. "100 percent."


"Fuji… Fuji… what are you doing?"

"Shhhh… it's alright. Everything is alright."

That feeling again. Soft and warm. Her hands were holding something.

Someone.

Tissue against her face.

She lifted her head and saw Fuji's face smiling down at her. He was holding her. Like the other day. His hands were pressed against her back. So warm.

Stay like this… forever…

She got closer to him. She closed her eyes.

Suddenly, the warmth disappeared. Fuji was gone.

"Fuji?" she cried out in distress, feeling cold and lost. Something hit her on the head.

BANG.

"Ugh!" she made as she woke up.

Her head was leaning against the window, and a bump on the road must have made her head hit it with more strength than usual. She sat up straight again and massaged her forehead. With sleepy eyes, she stared out of the window and saw that they were now climbing up a mountain path. We must be almost there, then.

Since when did I fall asleep? Oh, it doesn't matter. I think I even had a dream. A good one. I can't remember now…

Her mouth felt dry. She wanted to take out her water bottle, but recalled that it was in the big bag. And the big bag was underneath her feet right now. She sighed.

"Not even a little water over here…" she mumbled under her breath.

Inui's face appeared before hers, making her hair stand straight on her head.

"Would you like some of my special Inui vegetable juice?"

He handed her a blue bottle with his name written on it. Harumi remembered the look of disgust on the other players' faces when they heard they had to drink that.

"Ano… no, thank you! I will just… pass."

Inui was cackling behind his notebook. Harumi found herself unable to stand him any longer. She stood up quite suddenly, startling him.

"Excuse me… I just want to stretch my legs."

Inui didn't even look like he intended to make place for her to pass. Gritting her teeth, she lifted her leg and passed above his.

Pervert. Pervert. Pervert! I'm sick of it!

Feeling a little dizzy, she walked slowly towards the front of the bus. The majority of the people there were asleep. When she passed beside Fuji's seat, she couldn't help but to look. Fuji wasn't sleeping. He was reading a book. Taka-san, on the contrary, was lying back with his mouth wide open.

Before Fuji could notice her standing there, she quickly moved on. Kaidoh and Echizen were sitting together, and they both seemed asleep. Chiharu and Naoki were quietly playing cards. They didn't notice Harumi.

Mai Buchou was beside Eiji. Her head was leaning against the window, and her long light hair was covering her face. Eiji was rummaging through his bag, which was filled with different kind of snacks. Harumi stopped beside him and crouched to be at his level. Eiji lifted his head and said quietly, to not wake everyone up :

"Hoi? Harumi! How are you doing?"

Harumi suddenly felt like breaking down. She gripped his arm and squealed:

"I can't do it anymore! I can't sit beside that creepy pervert any longer! Eiji, you gotta do something!"

"Miu, are you talking about Inui?"

She nodded, her face very pale.

"I know, he can be a freak sometimes, eh?"

"All the time!"

She shook his arm. "Eiji, DO something."

He put on his sad eyebrows. "But… what do you want me to do, Harumi?"

"I… I don't know! Anything!"

Eiji's cheerful smile came back. "Here! Have some snack! I bet you want some of these shrimp chips! They just came out."

Harumi sighed, but seeing his cheerful expression, she felt a little better. Ok, the world is still normal. There is still hope.

"Are they good?"

"I don't know, I haven't tasted them yet!" he said enthusiastically.

However, Harumi didn't feel like eating. Probably because of her long stay with Inui, she felt nauseous.

"Actually, it would be better if you could give me some water?" she said.

"Oh, wait a minute, nya!" He rummaged some more and then came up with a red bottle with his face on it. "Here, nya!"

Harumi took it and drank the cold liquid inside. When she was done, she closed the lid and wiped away the water on her chin. Her throat felt better. When she lifted her head, she almost had a heart attack when she crossed the angry look of Mai buchou.

Crap, I must have woken her up!

Eiji, with his back turned to her, didn't see a thing.

"Neh, Harumi, wanna play cards? It's pretty boring over here!"

Mai's stare seemed to be able to pierce through stone. Harumi started sweating abundantly.

"Err… I… I guess another time. We… shouldn't… wake everyone up!"

Eiji had his sad pleading face on.

"Come on, Harumiiiii!! We will keep it low, I promise! Besides, you don't wanna go back to Inui, do you?"

Harumi felt like her head was being split in two by a huge iron hammer. Feeling dizzier than ever, she held onto his arm. Before her, Mai's burning eyes seemed to grow bigger and bigger.

"Why… don't you play… with Oishi?"

"Nya! He's too busy sleeping with Amaya on his shoulder!" he complained.

"Ugh…"

Eiji's voice seemed distant. The bus made a turn, and suddenly she really felt like throwing up.

"Harumi? Harumi! Are you feeling well?"

She stood up awkwardly.

"Yes… yes… I'm f…"

Then she collapsed on his lap. She heard Eiji calling her name in a worry voice, and then someone lifting her from the bus floor, then nothing.


When she regained her consciousness, she saw a sea of faces above her. Something cold was lying on her forehead.

"What's wrong with her? Does she have a fever?" someone asked.

"No, I think she is… ah, how should I put this? Bus-sick?"

"Saa, with this mountain path, I can understand."

"But she is going to be alright, nya?"

Everyone was talking at the same time. She felt her headache getting worse.

"Silence! - Someone commanded – all you people there! Go back to your seats! She will stay where she is until she gets better. Anyone has any pills?"

"But…" someone complained.

"Go to the back!" the commanding voice again.

"I… I think I have some pills."

"Give them to me. I will take care of her." Someone else said.

Fresh fingers lifted her face. Her vision was blurry. Someone put two pills in her mouth and forced her to gulp down some water.

"This should make you sleep for awhile. After that, you will feel much better, trust me."

The person took away the cold thing on her forehead and replaced it with another. She closed her eyes and dived into the darkness once more.


When she woke up for the second time, she felt normal again. She blinked twice and then rubbed her eyes. The bus was still moving, but the path wasn't as bad as before. They were almost at the top of the mountain, and were heading in a straight line towards Amaya's cottage.

She remembered collapsing on Eiji, and then someone giving her pills, but the rest was blurry in her mind. The first thing she realized while waking up was that she wasn't at the rear of the bus anymore, which meant that she wasn't beside Inui anymore. This realization alone made her feel a lot better.

She turned aside from the window and said:

"Eiji, I hope…"

Her tongue died in her mouth when instead of the redhead, she saw Fuji on the seat beside hers. He was asleep, his head tilting on his right shoulder. For a moment, Harumi's vision went red, than black, and she thought she was going to faint again. Then, her heart stopped acting all weird, and she regained her spirits.

What is he doing here? Where is Eiji? What the hell happened? Why, in Christ's name, am I always the one in ignorance when things happen?

For the moment, unsure and confused, she could only look at him. At his peaceful face. She was surprised and embarrassed to find herself thinking how handsome he truly was. She felt like she could watch him all day and not get bored one single minute. He was always smiling and being kind to others, but she knew that there must be a side of him that nobody could see. And she wanted to see it; she wanted to know him.

But… she would have to do that later because…

Right now he was waking up!

She looked elsewhere as fast as her confused mind would allow her to. She heard him shifting his position, and then yawning. She was wide awake, but she didn't want him to know that. Suddenly she felt that her insides were going to explode if he stayed beside her any longer.

In front of her eyes, the road became a snowy path, and trees were starting to pop up once again. But she saw none of that. All her senses were directed towards him.

Suddenly, she felt his fingers on her chin,fresh, light, soft... but commanding at the same time, forcing her face to turn towards him. She couldn't resist, and before she knew she would do it, she did : she closed her eyes. She realized she wasn't breathing, and forced herself to take in some air. She wanted to think of something, but her mind was once again utterly blank. She was scared.

Fuji took something from her lap. After perhaps twenty seconds (she was counting in her head, it seemed like the only thing she could do), something fresh and cool touched her forehead. She gasped and her eyes shut open.

She was welcomed by Fuji's usual smile. "Harumi-chan! I'm sorry I woke you up."

Harumi felt like yelling. She was doing it in her head, anyway. She sat up straight and gasped for air.

"Harumi-chan? Are you still feeling sick?"

"No… no! I'm fine now!" she couldn't look at him because she was blushing like crazy. "Ano… thank you very much, Fuji-san!"

Then she remembered she wasn't supposed to know that he was the one putting cool stuff on her head.

"… for worrying about me!" she added quickly.

"It's all good! I'm glad to see you are finally awake because I guess we will be arriving soon." He announced in his soothing voice.

Still, she wouldn't look at him. "Um, Fuji-san? What exactly happened? What… are you doing here?"

Fuji sat back and passed a hand over his hair. After taking a look at Harumi's back, he said:

"After you fainted, Tezuka asked if anyone had any pills for this kind of situation, and your friend Naoko had them. Eiji and Taka-san helped to carry you to Mai-chan's seat. Eiji was actually panicking a lot, and was being very clumsy, which I must say, was a pretty funny sight! So, I proposed to take care of you, and exchanged seats with Eiji."

She remembered the fresh fingers on her face, and the fresh towel on her forehead, and the pills in her mouth. So, all this time, the person who has been taking care of her was… Fuji? Her head felt like a locomotive. Finally, she lifted her gaze and looked at him. There must have been something deep in her purple eyes, because Fuji opened his, and stared at her, slightly surprised.

"You… you took care of me, all this time?" she was awed that she could pronounce these words.

Fuji smiled and nodded.

"But… why?"

The answer is critical! Do I want to know it?

Without knowing it, she was now half on her feet. Fuji's smile never departed from his face when he said:

"Do I need a reason for taking care of you, Harumi-chan?"

She was expecting something entirely different. The numb feeling inside of her was being replaced by a warm one. She even felt like crying. All this was so strange to her that she didn't know what to do or what to say.

The bus decided for her, or rather the driver. As he stepped suddenly on the brake, the bus jerked to a stop. Harumi felt her feet leaving the floor.

Eeeehhh? What the…

She was propelled forwards. Before she could even begin to understand what just happened, she flew over the front seats and fell, head first, on top of Amaya and Oishi.

"Welcome to your cottage, mistress Amaya!" the driver announced happily.

Amaya's only answer was a shriek, when she woke up with Harumi's foot on her face.

"Harumi! Get off me!"


Yup, one more done!!! so, like it? dislike it? neutral? tell me!