notes/warnings
+ this is an in-between sort of chapter. for those of you who might be wondering, we're approaching the final plot now.
+ fanart: I am lucky enough that someone drew some gorgeous fanart inspired by this fic. the link is here: seymour-ridmonton(dot)deviantart(dot)com/art/NT-deeper-misunderstanding-303933905. Seymour-Ridmonton is seriously amazing.
Part Eleven
"What is it with you and Natsume, anyway?" Sasada demands, for the eighteenth time since lunch.
She's twisted around in her chair, so that she can rest both elbows on Tanuma's desk and interrogate him as thoroughly as possible.
Tanuma stares at her silently, and wishes he actually had a good comeback. People have been mocking him all day, and his more polite classmates keep shooting him expectant looks, like they think he's going to snap and bearhug someone else any second now.
He doesn't mind being teased, but he wishes they'd leave Natsume alone. Natsume hasn't done anything to deserve this. He was only trying to be kind to Tanuma.
"You're just jealous," Nishimura says, haughtily, from somewhere above Tanuma's head.
"Am not," Sasada snaps at him.
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Shut up, before I put you on detention."
"You can't put me on detention, you're just the class rep."
"Can too."
"Can not."
"Can too."
Tanuma sighs and rests his head on his arms. It's still another two hours before he can go home, another two hours before he gets to see Natsume again.
"I want to be a doctor," Taki says, out of nowhere. "I want to be able to help people in as many ways as I can."
They're playing board games in Tanuma's living room. Or rather, Tanuma and Taki are playing, and Natsume is content just to sit as close to Tanuma as humanly possible.
"You'll have to spend a long time studying, then," Tanuma points out.
"Shouldn't you be the doctor?" Natsume asks, nudging him. He's okay with it, now. He can make jokes.
Tanuma nudges him right back.
"No thanks," he says. "I don't want to spend a decade at university learning how to do something I've been able to do since before I lost my baby teeth."
"Good point," Natsume says. He's a little disappointed. The longer he and Tanuma study, the longer they'll be able to stay together before they have to go out into the real world and get jobs and wives and mortgages and…
…and he doesn't want to think about that at all. One thing at a time.
"I think I have the perfect job for Sasada," Tanuma continues, his expression darkening a little. "Town crier."
"I'm pretty sure that's an outdated vocation," Taki tells him, smiling.
"I don't care."
Something taps on the window. Natsume looks up immediately, and sees a giant hoof hovering outside the window.
"What is it, Natsume?" Taki asks. "Is someone there?"
"It's Misuzu," Nyanko says, jumping onto Natsume's shoulder. "Shall we go and see what he wants?"
Natsume frowns. Spirits aren't allowed to come here. This is a safe place, where Tanuma lives.
"No," he instructs Nyanko. "Tell him to go away. Tell him to come and visit me at my house, later tonight."
He turns back to his friends.
"I don't want the two of you getting involved," he explains, gently.
He nearly misses the way Taki bites her lip, like there's something she wants to say. He doesn't miss Tanuma's barely-perceptible, exhausted-sounding sigh.
When they say goodbye, Natsume kind of half holds out his arms, like he isn't sure whether to hug Tanuma again or not.
Tanuma kind of mirrors his stance, and waits. He's not great at affection, but he desperately doesn't want to scare Natsume off, either.
He's not great at affection, but he wants Natsume to touch him all the time.
Natsume ends up pushing their hands together, like a weird sort of prolonged high-five. And Tanuma is so glad that Natsume is still his friend, still a part of his life. He's so glad that Natsume forgave him. He's so relieved that he didn't tell Natsume the whole truth.
"Call me when you're done with the spirit?" Tanuma asks.
He wants to know that everything is okay. He wants to know if there's healing to be done.
Natsume tilts his head to one side and grins.
"Okay," he says, sunnily.
"Okay," Tanuma echoes, and hangs on to Natsume's hands a little longer.
Misuzu is as intimidating and respectful as ever.
"Large and medium-sized spirits are starting to disappear, Lord Natsume," he says slowly. "The sickness spirit is destroying us."
"How do you know it's the sickness spirit?" Nyanko demands. "Spirits attack each other all the time. It could be anyone."
"I am confident. They only started vanishing in such numbers after that creature showed up," Misuzu informs him. A tiny, delicate-looking frog bounces out of his mane and lands squarely on Natsume's head.
"Aoi told me to stay away from it, though," Natsume muses. "What does it do? Am I strong enough to beat it?"
"I do not know," Misuzu tells him, reluctantly. "But I know that, for the first time in decades, I fear for my life. You must help us."
"If you use the book of friends properly," Nyanko points out, "you could summon an army."
"Or the spirits could organise themselves into an army," Natsume suggests, glaring at both of them.
They won't. He knows they won't. Misuzu is a powerful spirit. If he is afraid, then the others must be very afraid. And the sickness spirit keeps wandering around the streets. It's only a matter of time before someone important gets hurt.
"That will not work," Misuzu intones. Another frog falls from his ear, and starts croaking loudly as soon as it hits the floor.
"I'll do what I can," Natsume tells him. "But you must understand that I have precious friends and family. I won't do anything that will endanger them."
"Understood," Misuzu replies.
"So, will you just hug anyone now?" Sasada enquires. "Or is Natsume special to you?"
Tanuma eyes her wearily. Another student elbows him roughly as they pass, and he wonders if it's deliberate.
"I make a point of not hugging people who interrogate me about my friends," he says, balefully.
He's starting to get awfully sick of this.
When Natsume gets home the next afternoon, Aoi grabs him before he can even take off his shoes.
"You can't listen to that cow," she says, by way of a greeting. "You can't go near the sickness spirit. Not any human, but especially not you."
"Why?" Natsume asks, tiredly. He mostly just wants to go upstairs and lie on the floor and call Tanuma. "Because you like me?"
"Because you are strong, idiot," Aoi says. "Because it only attacks strong people."
"That doesn't make any sense," Natsume tells her. "Weak humans and spirits would be easier to attack."
And then another thought occurs to him.
"Do you consider Tanuma to be weak, Aoi?"
Aoi rolls her eyes dramatically.
"Your darling friend is safe," she sneers. "Probably. But you need to keep yourself safe, too."
"I believe you are mistaken," Natsume says, simply. "I should try and get rid of this spirit now, before it becomes more powerful."
"At least check," Aoi says, her voice strained. "If you don't believe me, at least research the sickness spirit. Talk to your exorcist friends. Sickness spirits devour the strong, and then they…"
"And then they what?"
Aoi tugs hard on her hair, and chews on her lip like she's really, truly frightened.
"Multiply," she finishes. "Please, Natsume. Please, please be careful."
"Have you seen Natsume today?" Tanuma asks, quietly. Kitamoto and Nishimura haven't teased him even once, but he's worried someone else might hear.
He's more concerned by how frightened and distracted Natsume sounded during their phone call last night. Something is happening. Again.
"No," Nishimura says, taking a long drink from his soda can. Then he shields his eyes and squints into the distance. "Oh, wait. Now I have."
A few minutes later, Natsume reaches them, red-faced and gasping for breath.
"Good morning!" Nishimura chirps.
"Is everything okay?" Tanuma asks, frowning. Natsume's next class is in the opposite direction. Tanuma knows this, because he knows everything about Natsume. Except the things that Natsume keeps hidden from him, of course. Everyone has their secrets.
"Yeah," Natsume pants, resting his head on Tanuma's shoulder. "I-I just wanted to say hi."
"Oh," Tanuma says, relieved. He reaches up and pushes Natsume's hair out of his eyes. He's glad that Natsume just wanted to see them, that he isn't being chased by some horrible vengeful spirit.
"Hi," Kitamoto tells Natsume.
"Hi," Nishimura chimes in.
"Hi," Natsume answers cheerfully, but he keeps looking right at Tanuma. He's all flushed and gorgeous and Tanuma keeps his hands fisted carefully at his sides.
Someone whistles at them anyway, and Natsume promptly blanches and hangs his head.
"I should go," he says, quietly, and rushes off in the direction he came.
Kitamoto clicks his tongue loudly.
"This is getting out of hand," he says.
"Right," Nishimura agrees. "People need to find something else to talk about, already."
Nishimura's voice sounds a little strange. He's coming down with a cold. Tanuma could maybe heal him, but first he needs to know that Natsume is okay.
"There's nothing we can do about that, though," he says, sagely.
"Hm," Kitamoto replies.
Natsume spends two days researching; talking to friendly spirits and studying Taki's textbooks. And yet, he still comes up with nothing. The books don't mention multiplying spirits, and all he learns is that the residents of the forest are scared and desperate for his help.
He learns from Benio that there are at least two sickness spirits at the moment, maybe more.
"You shouldn't be out here," Hinoe adds, tugging at her mask. The character for 'worm' is scrawled across the front of it. The stronger spirits are disguising themselves as weak spirits. "It will be able to sense how powerful you are. It's only a matter of time before it finds you."
"I see," Natsume replies.
He leaves shortly afterwards, with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. This isn't a simple situation. He needs help. Real help.
"Everyone is so useless," Nyanko complains.
"So are you," Natsume points out.
He wants to go and see Tanuma tonight. He wants to listen to his most precious friend talk about school and annoying classmates and embarrassment, and other normal things. He wants to remind himself that despite all of this worry and fear, Tanuma is safe.
But.
"You're going to go to Natori, aren't you?" Nyanko asks.
"Yes," Natsume replies.
He has no choice.
The cold is a particularly nasty one. Tanuma's head hurts, and he feels muzzy and uncomfortable. He's starting to regret healing Nishimura, because if he needs to heal Natsume over the next couple of days, he's going to make Natsume sick.
Sometimes Tanuma feels like he's still learning how to make good choices.
He goes to his afternoon class, occasionally stumbling in the throng of students. Someone makes an unkind comment, but he doesn't have the wherewithal to reply. There's some sort of incident up ahead. People have stopped moving, and Tanuma can hear people shouting.
"You never pay me any attention! You're always thinking about her!"
"Shut up! You never pay me any attention either!"
Tanuma freezes. He knows those voices. He supports his aching head with one hand, and manages to elbow his way to the front of the sizeable crowd, where he finds Taki.
"What's going on?" she asks, quietly. "Aren't Nishimura and Kitamoto supposed to be the best of friends?"
"You're immature!" Kitamoto shouts, damningly.
"Yes?" Tanuma ventures. "I have no idea why this is happening."
It's their final year. Everyone is getting stressed. Maybe they just snapped?
"You look awful," Taki says, sympathetically. "Did you get Nishimura's cold?"
For a moment, Tanuma is terrified that she's figured him out. And then he realises that she's just referring to the fact that colds are contagious.
"I must have," he mutters.
"His barely lasted a day," Taki comments. "You should be fine in no time."
Nishimura would probably be euphoric to know that Taki pays him enough attention to notice whether he's healthy or not. But maybe this isn't the best time to tell him.
"You're ugly!" he hollers back. "I hate your stupid face!"
"You love my stupid face," Kitamoto crows, sounding very unlike himself.
Tanuma is suddenly struck by the realisation that whatever they're doing, it isn't real. Kitamoto and Nishimura are putting on a show. But he doesn't see any cameras in the crowd, and nobody else seems to be in on the act.
Nishimura pretends to be deflated by Kitamoto's words.
"Yes," he confesses, miserably. "I love your stupid face."
Kitamoto hesitates, and scans the crowd. When he sees Tanuma, he nods, just once. Then he closes the gap between Nishimura and himself in three steps, and kisses Nishimura right on the mouth.
The girls standing to Tanuma's left start squealing, and Taki starts laughing, and Tanuma still has absolutely no idea what is going on.
It hasn't been a great day. Classwork is hard, Nyanko is being especially annoying, and Natsume is dreading the afternoon, because he has to go and see Natori and won't get to spend any time with Tanuma.
To top it off, everyone is spreading stupid rumours about his friends. Which doesn't even make sense, because they would never have a fight in the middle of the hall, and they certainly wouldn't kiss afterwards.
"Hii," Nishimura says, slinging his arm around Natsume's neck. He's apparently unperturbed by the gossiping. "Guess what? Kitamoto and I had a fight in the middle of the hall, and then kissed afterwards."
Natsume stares at him.
"What?" he asks, shakily. "Why?"
"We got sick of everyone talking about you and Tanuma," Kitamoto replies, easily..
Natsume gapes at them, struck momentarily dumb.
"But," he says faintly. "Everyone will spread rumours about you for months. You'll never live it down."
As if to prove his point, one of the passers-by whistles at them. Nishimura waves and smiles. He's probably ruined his chances with Taki forever. And he and Kitamoto aren't even close friends with Natsume. They're not even people he considers precious, and yet Natsume feels like his heart might explode.
Why would anyone do something like this for someone like him?
"So?" Kitamoto asks. "I've been in plays before, and Nishimura loves drama. We're fine with it."
"And our friendship is never strained," Nishimura adds. "Your relationship with Tanuma is really important, right? We didn't want stupid people making things hard for you."
"Oh," Natsume says quietly, and he loves this world, he loves everything about it. He will find the sickness spirit and vanquish the sickness spirit and protect everyone and then somehow find a way to repay all these wonderful people in his life. "Oh. Thank you."
"No problem," Kitamoto replies.
tbc
a/n
+ sorry for the late update. my real life is starting to get a little more involved, so updates may not always be weekly from now on. I promise to do the best I can.
+ thank you for reading.