Disclaimer: I do not own Gokusen or any of the characters, except for the characters I made up.
Shin couldn't help but side glance at Natsumi as they walked along the semi-crowded streets of Japan. Shin was always good at reading his sister and right now his instincts were telling him that she was hiding something, she kept biting her lip nervously like she always did when she was scared or nervous. Shin sighed then turned to Natsumi.
"So, are you going to tell me what you're hiding from me or am I going to have to force it out of you?" Shin asked with a casual smirk, Natsumi looked up at him with a similar expression.
"I'm not hiding anything from you." Natsumi said defensively, hoping Shin wouldn't see through her lie, unfortunately he didn't.
"You were never good at lying to me either." Shin stated dragging his feet, Natsumi sighed heavily.
"You'll see in a minute, just don't be too mad at me when we get there. I truly believe that this is the right thing for you." Natsumi said quickly as they slowly came closer to Kuma's restaurant, leaving Shin in the dark, who looked back at her with a puzzled expression.
"What in the world is she talking about?" he thought, and suddenly a knot formed in his stomach that had nothing to do with bacteria as they rounded a corner.
As soon as the two siblings rounded the corner, Shin figured out exactly what his sneaky sister was up to. He stopped walking when they were a few feet away from the restaurant.
"I can't Natsumi." He said softly and began walking back in the opposite direction. He was only able to take two steps when a pair of hands grabbed his shoulder and forced him to turn around. Shin glared at his sister a combination of anger and anxiety filled his eyes.
"Come on Shin, they're your friends and they care a lot about you, they always have and they always will. They deserve to at least know that you're in town." Natsumi retorted giving her brother a reassuring smile, Shin however was still reluctant.
"You don't understand Natsumi…I can't see them…not yet at least." Shin said, he kept his eyes downcast and let his hair fall over his face.
"Go on." Natsumi said rubbing Shin's shoulder and back in a comforting manner; she sensed that Shin had more he wanted to say. There was an awkward pause, then Shin took a deep breath and looked up at Natsumi.
"I'm…I'm afraid that if I see everyone and they find out about me being…sick, well…I guess I'm afraid of how they'll react. I don't need everyone's sympathy." Shin managed to say. He was never good at expressing his feelings and it still felt strange when he did.
Natsumi stopped stroking Shin's back and gently squeezed his hand.
"I know, but like I said, you're not alone." She said smiling, Shin just nodded and after a minute or so he took a deep breath and walked the rest of the way to the restaurant.
"I guess this moment had to happen sometime." Shin thought bitterly as he desperately tried to keep his nerves under control. Natsumi opened the door and together they walked into the restaurant.
"Welcome, welcome take a seat." A young woman near the front of the restaurant said.
"Thank you." Natsumi said, Shin's voice seemed to have temporarily failed him.
Natsumi made her way to the other side of the restaurant, Shin dragged behind her, his mouth had gotten very dry since he entered the restaurant and his stomach was doing nervous summersaults.
"Natsumi!" Uchiyama said happily, she grinned back at him, then his mouth dropped opened in shock as he noticed the male figure behind her, the other boys had turned and had similar looks of astonishment on their faces.
"SHIN!"
"ARE YOU FOR REAL?"
"I DON'T BELIEVE IT!"
Shin shifted his weight nervously as he watched his friend's reactions to his presence. He was only spared a minute or two of relief before he was engulfed by several bodies at once. Natsumi stood back and smiled at the reunion.
After everyone had had a chance to knock Shin around a little bit and Kuma had walked out from behind the counter nearly dropping a tray, the group settled back down at their table now joined by Shin and Natsumi.
"So, how long have you been back?" Noda asked Shin after they had all ordered their food, Shin shrugged.
"Uh, a little while." He replied not wanting to hurt his friends feeling by not letting them know the minute he got back home.
"I see, so we are the last one's to know that you're back?" Uchi said smirking at Shin who shook his head.
"No, actually very few people know that I'm home, Natsumi only found out because she surprised me at my apartment." Shin replied taking a staggering breath. Every eye at the table was on Shin.
"I might as well get this over with." Shin thought as the unsaid question of why hung over all their heads.
"Look, let's just say that some things happened in Africa, I don't want to go into detail, but the best thing for me was to come home." Shin said, carefully choosing his words.
"You're not in any trouble are you?" Kuma asked seriously, Shin shook his head.
"No, it's nothing like that." He muttered looking down at the table. There was a very awkward silence where everyone was trying to think of something to say, finally Minami spoke.
"You can trust us Shin. If something's wrong, you can tell us." Minami said with a slight grin, Shin nodded, then sighed and shifted in his chair.
Natsumi looked at Shin trying to read him and see if he was going to open up to his friends as he had done with her.
"I know." Was all Shin could manage to say as his mouth had gone dry again.
"Well, what can you expect, Shin will always be Shin." A voice said from behind them, they all turned to see the face of Kurosaki who wore a slight grin and was starting at Shin.
"Hey Kuro." Uchi said, Kuro acknowledged him with a hand then sat down.
"I was just going to grab something to eat before I had to go back to work; I guess it's a coincidence that I chose to come here." Kuro said smirking at Shin, who gave him a small grin in return.
The rest of the afternoon passed rather nicely Shin thought. Nobody had pushed Shin to tell them why he had suddenly came back home even though they were all extremely curious and had the sense that something was wrong.
Once the group had finished eating and had paid, they all slowly made their way outside.
"Come back soon, I'll give you a meal on the house." Kuma said, Shin smirked.
"Sure." Shin replied then walked out the door.
After Shin had promised all his friends that he would keep in touch and that they would get together soon they all took off on their separate ways.
"Hey Shin, you up for a walk?" Kuro asked, Shin looked at Natsumi, who gave him a reassuring smile.
"Go ahead, I have a key and I need to do my homework anyways." Natsumi said smiling then went off walking in the opposite direction back towards Shin's apartment while Shin and Kuro continued walking up the street.
"So, are you going to spill or what?" Kuro asked bluntly. He was worried about his friend and he wasn't afraid to hide it. In high school they had wasted too much time being mad at each other and he was determined to find out what was up with Shin.
Shin looked up at Kuro, the knot in his stomach returned at his question.
"I…I already told you, some bad stuff happened it's not that big of a deal, it's just not something I like to talk about alright?" Shin said sounding more harsh then he had meant to, Kuro however was not surprised by Shin's tone, in fact he kind of expected it. It was what Shin did when something was bothering him; deny and avoid the situation.
"Shin, we're not all idiots you know, it's obvious that's something's wrong? What happened in Africa?" Kuro asked, they had stopped walking and Kuro was staring Shin straight in the eyes with a serious expression. Suddenly, Shin put a hand on his stomach as he felt it spasm, he desperately hoped that Kuro didn't notice his face expression harden as he tried to keep himself from wincing in pain.
"I'm fine Kuro, it's nothing important. I have to go, I have some things to do, and I'll keep in touch." Shin muttered and turned around to leave, he felt bad about blowing Kuro off, he knew he was just concerned about him but concern and sympathy was the main reason he was keeping his illness a secret from everyone.
"Shin wait!" Kuro cried out, but he knew it was useless, Shin wasn't going to talk. He had the impression that Natsumi knew what was wrong with Shin, but that was to be expected, after all she was his sister. Kuro sighed then pulled out his phone, he only knew one person who could always get to Shin, who could help Shin be honest with his feelings and open up. He called information and got the number for Shiroken High School.
"Hello? Yes, I'd like to speak with Yamaguchi sensei." Kuro said politely over the phone.
Once again, I apologize for not updating as frequently as I would like, and I'm sorry that the chapter isn't that long. I hope you are enjoying this story and continue reading. I have an idea of how I want to end the story, so it will probably be maybe three or four more chapters, because I don't want to drag the story out.
Thank you to all who have kept reading the story and reviewed, I really appreciate it. I promise to update as soon as I can.
Thanks,
Fantasyforever1989
