Firinne shrugged herself to the classroom, and plopped behind a smiling Makoto.

"Are we studying tonight?" He asked to the top of her head.

She was absentmindedly going over notes for a quiz they were taking in a few moments.

"Ah, it's up to you. If we do I don't think we need to go more than two hours."

He glanced out the window, past Haru, to gaze at the dark clouds, and the small patter of rain that had started.

"I heard we were getting out of school early because of flood warnings."

"Probably, I wouldn't be surprised." She looked out the window for herself, and ran a hand through her messy, tangled, damp hair. "So would you like to study?"

"Yes," he said all too quickly. "Unless you have other plans, and maybe after we can go get something to eat? My father won't be home yet, and my mother is taking Ren, and Ran to a doctors appointment, and she won't be home with them until late."

"Are they sick?" She asked drearily.

"Huh? Oh, no they just both needed physicals." He looked out at the rain, and the memory of nearly drowning once again hit him. "I'm still sorry. About the other night. You shouldn't have had to save me like that. I don't even know how you carried me."

"Mako-chan!" She whined, but gave him a teasing glare. "Stop saying that. It's fine. We really weren't that far away from the shore when you passed out. Besides with all the intense exercise, and being up for so long it wasn't too surprising. Just be glad that we're both alive." She sighed.

There were whispers all around. Firinne glanced at the group of girls talking in a serious way, glancing at the two every now, and then. Makoto noticed too eventually, and glanced at them.

"Don't worry," he said. He opened his mouth to continue, but one of the girls approached. She had long, chocolatey hair in two long braids, and a deep blue hair ribbon.

"Are you the girl that saved Tachibana-kun from drowning?"

"Ahh...Hai." Firinne was mildly dumbfounded by her question, but took pride in answering. She had expected them to praise Mako for something.

"Wow, that's so cool! Nagisa was telling us all about it!" She threw a hand back at her friends.

Mako turned away, red to his ears.

"Nagisa…" he muttered gravely.

Thankfully, school was let out early, but the downpour didn't make it too much more enjoyable. Firinne stretched up, and glanced back at Mako. The swim team had already decided, much to Haru's disappointment, to cancel practice for the day.

"Come on, Firinne!" He nearly yelled, grabbing her by the elbow, and running her out of the classroom, and down the halls, and stairwells.

"Mako!" She yelped as they paused in the locker room to slip on their regular shoes. Firinne grabbed her umbrella out of her locker, suddenly remembering the mysterious person who had placed a note there. That seemed like so long ago now.

"Ah, Firinne, I sort of didn't bring an umbrella, and, ah…"

"C'mon," she said, walking toward open archway exit, "We can just share."

'Just sharing' was not as pleasant as it had sounded.

"Firinne." Mako sighed again.

She had brought her arms down too low, and the umbrella was resting nicely on his head. They were heading out to eat first, so had to walk a longer distance.

Looking back up at him, and muttering more apologies, she handed him the umbrella.

"Just carry it." She said at last. He took it gracefully with a small thank you.

By the time they came to a nice, warm coffee shop, they were both soaked.

As they walked out, the rain hadn't let up. If anything it had gotten worse. Makoto opened the umbrella was a flourish, and walked out in front of Firinne. Shivering a tiny bit, she followed.

In no time they were back at his house.

"Alright," she sighed, shivering still. "Well, I have a few things planned, but not too much."

"I can show you my progress in my newest English project." He offered.

"That sounds alright."

She followed him up the stairs, and plopped herself where she usually sat on the floor in front of his bed. They talked for a bit in English, going over basic phrases, and having little meaningless conversations.

Though there was nothing for him to read or watch, he had slipped on his glasses.

"Okay," she popped off the ground, and put herself on his bed beside him, "Show me your papers." He was already pulling out the notebook. She held them with one hand, and began reading. As she went, she felt something warm brush against her hand. With a small quiver she pushed it away, and muttered an apology.

Firinne read page, by page as carefully as she could to ensure he hadn't made any major errors. When she was done, she let the papers fall into her lap, and she looked back up at Mako.

He was much closer than she had anticipated. He must've been looking right over her shoulder, reading along, because their noses were touching now. Firinne felt her own face get hot as Mako's was dusted in pink. Her jaw locked itself in place while her mind seemed to blare just behind her temples. She felt she was thinking everything, and nothing. She was calm, but her chest had constricted, and she was suddenly aware of nothing but herself, and Makoto.

She could feel his hot breaths brush against her lips, and cheek, and felt her face grow pinker.

Mako wasn't any better off.

He could barely look away from her beautiful hazel eyes, and when he did, his eyes flashed down to her pink lips. She smelled like cinnamon, and honey, and so did her breath, he came to realize as their air mingled.

Slowly, as slowly as possible she leaned forward.

He was paralyzed. He didn't know what he was waiting for, and then he began to lean in little by little.

Their lips nearly brushed, and then…

"WHELP!" Firinne stood, and walked two paces across the room to pick up her bag, and unceremoniously shove her things inside. "That's all, your essay is nearly perfect, I just left some, uh, notes! Bye!" His door slamming shut brought him from his daze.

Nothing had happened.

"I can't catch my breath." He marveled at the door.

His feet were up, and moving before he knew what was going on.

"Firinne! Please wait!" He nearly tripped over himself running down the stairs. "Ple...she's gone?"

Mako knawed at his lip, and rubbed the back of his neck before he slowly shut the door, hoping maybe she was closeby; that maybe she would come back.

Firinne stood, hands on knees, bent over, and trying to catch her breath. She was certain that she hadn't run that fast in years. Her cheeks burned, and her head felt light. She wasn't sure whether it was because of the lack of oxygen, or if she was still in shock from the close contact. If she touched her cheek lightly enough she could still feel the trace of his breath on her. And if she closed her eyes, and thought for only a moment, she was back in his room, and she could smell the soft sandalwood, and vanilla of him.

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