XI
When Tadase tried to sit up from his strange dream, he felt a slight weight on his chest. For a brief second, he panicked, thinking it was sleep paralysis. He'd only really read about it, and from that knowledge, he knew he did not want to experience it. However, upon looking down, he was relieved to see it was just Amu's arm loosely draped across his chest. She had rolled into the pillows and had one wedged between her legs. It was quite the scene, honestly.
She was sleeping on her side, her left arm splayed past the pillows and onto Tadase's chest, her right arm tucked under a pillow. Her legs were curled up, with the previously mentioned pillow wedged between them. Somehow, though, she was above the blankets. Tadase had no idea how she even managed to achieve that. Perhaps she kicked them off while Tadase was deep into his dream, so he didn't feel or notice anything.
He looked at her with an amused smile for a second before carefully taking her arm and moving it off of him so he could get up. Instead, he placed it around her torso gently, careful not to wake her. As he stood up to get ready for the day, he fixed the blankets so Amu was under them and warm before glancing at the clock.
It was six o'clock in the morning, which was normal for him. He had to wonder if Amu woke up this early also, but decided against waking her since she seemed more like someone who woke up later. Plus, she deserved the extra rest. This gave him some time to clean himself up and get ready for school like he usually would. He also made a mental note to make breakfast for the both of them.
His father had probably just left for school as well, and usually never ate breakfast, so it was up to Tadase to make himself breakfast and lunch. Tadase didn't usually mind; he liked cooking anyway. Sometimes he'd even make dinner for them both. That was just how the family worked since his father was always too busy.
He glanced at the time again. If he woke Amu up at seven, they would get to school right on time. Not as early as Tadase usually arrived, but it didn't matter too much, as didn't have many class president things to do that day in the first place.
Once he was in his uniform and fixed his hair, he made his way into the kitchen. He put on an apron and started cooking a small breakfast for the both of them. He briefly found himself having strange thoughts about the current situation if it were taken out of context but pushed them away. He also tried to push away remaining thoughts from the strange dream.
Unfortunately, he failed to brush away the thoughts of his dream as quickly as he brushed away the oddly romantic scenario he was in. What did that dream even mean? Tadase did like Amu, but he wasn't sure if it was romantically or not yet. He wasn't sure if he was even ready for a romantic relationship again. Was the dream a premonition or just something his brain came up with due to the situation he had put himself in.
As he carefully made some omurice, he pondered on his own feelings. It was hard to judge a person from only knowing them for a week or two, and he wasn't too keen on the 'Love at First Sight' philosophy. Amu was indeed very cute and had an interesting personality, one which intrigued Tadase to the point of wanting to get to know more about her, but was that considered as like-liking her? Or was it just curiosity? Maybe just wanting to be a friend for someone new? Tadase was confused. He knew he liked being around her but was there something more too it?
When he first saw Amu, he felt an immediate pull towards her. Maybe it was because of her lost expression, or even because of her unique look. The more obvious answer was that he could tell she was a new student and just wanted to help her, as Class President. He sighed, briefly forgetting about the cooking eggs in front of him, which came very close to becoming burnt. In the nick of time, he flipped the omelet over. Any longer and they probably would have shrivelled up and turned black. He heaved another sigh, this time of relief that he didn't mess up their breakfast.
By the time breakfast was finished, it was almost exactly seven o'clock. Perfect timing. After plating the food, Tadase rushed towards his room again to wake Amu up, still clad in his apron. He crouched down in front of Amu and nudged her shoulder gently, saying her name a few times. She rolled over onto her back, mumbling incoherently.
"5 more minutes mama…" were the only coherent words that formed a sentence that Tadase caught, which made him bite his lip to keep from laughing.
"I can allow 5 more minutes, dear, but I feel like in five minutes I'd come back and you'd say the same thing," he said with a quiet chuckle, trying to imitate what he heard Amu's mother talking like. He then added, in his normal voice, "Not to mention I'm not your mother and we'd be late for school, plus the food would get cold."
At the sound of Tadase's voice, Amu's eyes snapped open. She sat up quickly, looking at him with wide eyes and a flushed face. Had she accidentally called Tadase her mother? And he just went with it to tease her? How much more embarrassing could she get? She scratched her head slightly, looking down. Well, now she had to try and come up with an excuse.
"S-sorry…" she stammered quickly. "I-it was part of the dream I was having, I swear!"
Tadase gave a lopsided grin, nodding his head a little too exaggeratedly. "Sure, Amu-chan. Whatever you say."
Amu could hear the sarcasm but was too tired to come up with any comeback. Instead, she just snorted and got up from the bed, stretching slightly, covering a large yawn with her hand when she remembered Tadase was watching. Tadase just laughed and made his way back toward the door.
"I'll let you do your thing," he said, leaning against the door frame. "Since you probably don't know, the bathroom is just down the hall. When you're done, meet me in the dining room, okay?"
Amu nodded slowly and watched Tadase disappear from the doorframe. Still slightly embarrassed, she got up, retrieved her uniform and tried to follow Tadase's verbal instructions of where the bathroom was. Once she managed to find it, she looked in the bag with her uniform. She belatedly realized she didn't bring her accessories. Not even a necklace or hairpin. She let out a soft, slightly annoyed sigh but shrugged it off and closed the bathroom door, throwing her uniform on.
Deciding to work with what she had, she just used the ponytail holder she had been wearing the day before and the few extra bobby-pins she had in her school bag to throw her hair up in a quick, horribly messy bun. She'd much rather have her hair out of her face anyway, plus it looked cool.
She folded up her pyjamas and put them in her bag, poking at her hair still, pulling out and fixing small strands until it looked messy enough that the 'tough' personality still showed. Finally, she left the bathroom and made her way out to the dining room, where she was met with Tadase preparing tea at the table, which had a fair amount of food on it.
"Did you…make breakfast?" she asked slowly, somehow surprised at this for some reason.
Tadase glanced up at Amu from where he was upon hearing her voice, blinking at the change in hairstyle. She looked different. The good kind of different. The simple yet oddly cute hairstyle suited her. The messy hair gave her the rugged look she seemingly wished to achieve, while her lack of accessories made her look so much more approachable. He hadn't noticed that he was staring for long until he realized Amu had moved closer and was waving her hands in front of his face.
"Helloo? I asked if you made breakfast?" she said. Her hands instinctively went to cover her head as a sort of defence."Do I look that weird?"
Tadase shook his head quickly, also shaking himself from his thoughts. "No, no! You look fine. Sorry." he rubbed his nape. "Yes, I made breakfast. My father doesn't usually eat breakfast, so I make it myself. Just something small. Have a seat."
Amu gave Tadase a questioning look but sat down nevertheless. Tadase joined her after placing a teacup next to her, trying not to get distracted by Amu's new hairdo and look once again. He fidgeted slightly, watching Amu as she picked up a spoon.
"I hope you don't mind omurice," he said. "I didn't know what you liked, so I just made what I usually do."
Amu shook her head, already happily scooping into the omurice with the spoon. "I love omurice! Don't worry about it, Tadase-kun. I eat almost anything anyway."
She gave him a small smile as she took a bite of the spoonful she'd pulled. Her eyes widened in delight at the taste. She paused momentarily, humming. At first, it was still in delight at the taste, but soon it changed into something more thoughtful as she pondered something. Tadase was glad she seemed to like it, but quickly noticed she had zoned out for a reason that couldn't possibly have just been from the food. Perhaps she had thought about something, or was thinking about something. She absentmindedly scooped up another spoonful of the omurice.
"Say, Tadase-kun," she said slowly, breaking from her thoughts. "Saaya probably knows I got the letter. Right? As scared as I am… I don't want to seem cowardly, you know? Should we…wait to see what happens if I don't stop talking to you right away? We might be able to get more evidence and maybe even open a police report."
Tadase stared at Amu as if she had a third eye. "Wouldn't it be safer to listen to the letter…? Or we could just tell my dad right away and get the problem solved immediately?"
Amu shook her head. "She could find a way to call a bluff or become the victim herself. Everyone already thinks I'm a 'dangerous' person. If I give in to Saaya now, she might try and say I'm a-pardon my French-pussy."
Despite the vulgarity of her words, she elegantly picked up the teacup Tadase had placed in front of her and lifted it up to her lips, pausing to blowing on it to cool it down. The warm steam curled up against her nose but dispersed quickly as she blew. Tadase stared at her in a slight daze, both slightly mesmerized but also trying to understand her logic. He saw so many flaws in this plan, yet didn't have the heart to comment on them.
Sensing Tadase's gaze, Amu looked at him over the cup, making eye contact with him. "Alright, I know I probably sound crazy so how about this? Let's leave the house at different times to throw her off. Maybe even not talk to each other for a little bit. After that, we can just act as if the note never happened."
Tadase just hummed and nodded in understanding, his mouth full of food. Amu nodded again as she sipped the tea, which was honestly pretty well brewed. She continued eating the omurice happily. She didn't want to admit it, but Tadase's omurice was almost as good as her mother's omurice. Almost.
After both of them had finished eating, Tadase had started to get up to clean up the dishes. However, just as he went to pick up Amu's plate, the pink haired teen stopped him by holding his wrist gently. She insisted that she took care of the dishes for him. Tadase opened his mouth to complain, but Amu shook her head, using her index finger to halt any complaints he had.
"You leave first." She said. "I'll take care of the dishes to kill some time and then I'll see you at school."
Tadase looked like he wanted to complain again, but nodded reluctantly and grabbed his bag. He waved to Amu before leaving the house, a little warily of Amu's safety. Though he was sure Saaya would be at school by this time, he still felt nervous letting Amu walk around alone. Call him over-protective for a friend he's only had for a little over a week or two, but Tadase just really didn't want Saaya to be hurting innocent people. Especially someone as sweet as Amu. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do, since apparently, Amu was more stubborn than he had anticipated. Maybe if he saw Saaya on the way he could distract her? He pondered these things as he continued walking, peeking behind him every so often in hopes of spotting Amu leaving.
It was close to 5 minutes after Tadase had left when Amu finished washing the dishes. She for obvious reasons, she had no idea where to put them so she just left them on the drying rack and hoped for the best. Then, once that was done, she grabbed her bag and left Tadase's house and made her way to school.
She tried to stay as vigilant as possible as she walked, looking over her shoulder and side to side every so often, unsure whether Saaya was an early bird or arrived at school late like Amu often did. Regardless, she made her way to the school like usual. She really hoped no one from school noticed her leaving Tadase's house. That would have been bad for both of them.
Meanwhile, Tadase could just see the school building coming into view ahead of him. The entire way, he had hoped Amu was safely on her way. He hadn't seen Saaya on his way, which could have been either a good or bad thing. As he approached the gate, he slowed down a bit to greet people. Amu had said to ignore each other in the morning, so when he caught sight of her unmistakable pink hair drifting through the crowd of students and eventually passing by him wordlessly, he tried his best to pretend he didn't see her, much like had she just done to him.
Instead, he tried to focus on a fan who was fawning over him but quickly looked around for an escape or a friend to call out to. Luckily for him, Kukai and Nagihiko weren't too far. They seemed to be talking about soccer just at the front steps of the school. He ducked away from his fans with a half-hearted apology and joined in their conversation until the bell rang for class.
After the bell rang, he jogged to his classroom, absentmindedly wondering how much longer he had to ignore Amu for. Her noticeable pink hair kept him somewhat distracted whenever he spotted it and on two occasions, he almost smiled and waved at her. How was it so hard to ignore her? It had barely been 15 minutes since they both arrived at school and he was already having a hard time keeping himself from talking to her.
Amu was late to come into the class, purposefully for once. As she walked in, she threw the door open a little harder than she had intended, promptly drawing everyone's attention towards her, including Tadase's. She ignored his gaze, instead, trying to own up to her previous actions by coolly walking in the room and (not as harshly) closing the door behind her. Maybe, subconsciously, she felt she had to own up to the personality she made up for herself despite the drastic changes to her uniform and overall current look.
Tadase tried not to watch as she sauntered in as if she meant to be that aggressive. Amu may not actually be very intimidating to Tadase, but boy was she good at pretending to be. Tadase almost jumped from his seat when she loudly dropped her books on her desk and sat down, spreading her legs out in front of her under the table and leaning back in her chair as if she had not a single care in the world.
Unfortunately, Amu didn't feel as aggressive and 'cool' as she looked and acted. All she could hear were mutters. She was used it by to by now. Part of her knew she drew the attention to herself on purpose. The thing that was throwing Amu off, now, though, was that…not all the murmurs were about how scary she looked nor were they rumours about who she supposedly beat up at which point or how many schools she was kicked out of. Some were talking about how she didn't even look at or greet Tadase—Yes! Amu thought. The plan is working!—while others were mumbling about how 'normal' she looked today. She casually rested her hand on her chin and turned her head to stare out the window, purposely looking away from Tadase. Though it may not have seemed like she was listening to the gossip about her, she was definitely hearing it all.
She had decided mentally that the best time to stop ignoring Tadase was at lunch. She thought—rather she hoped—it would satisfy Saaya just enough to think she had won. Then, Amu would crush any of the triumphs she had by casually asking Tadase to eat lunch with her. It was genius. Perhaps it steeping to Saaya's level but hey, at least she Amu wasn't threatening anyone.
Was it evil? Probably. However, Amu did not want to be made out as being a wuss. Especially after making herself out as a tough baddie. Still, she had to admit, she was a bit terrified about this situation. She may not be entirely how she tried to act at school, but it was still part of who she was and she really hated seeming weak. Especially in front of people who were just really horrible like Saaya was.
She was going to face Saaya until she had enough evidence to go to the police. Or maybe until Saaya tried to actually kill her. Whichever came first. Though the latter seemed fairly probably at this point. Not to mention attempted murder was a much larger case than simple bullying and threats. Regardless, she was going to stick this out for as long as she could. It was obvious to Amu at this point that maybe Saaya wasn't completely in a sane mental state. It didn't hurt to match that level of craziness herself, right?
Amu tried her very best to ignore Tadase for their first two classes. It started getting a bit harder at a certain point since he was her only friend, but somehow, she managed. Tadase seemed to be keeping up quite well, too. However, he did keep glancing at her with a confused and oddly longing expression that Amu managed to understand as him trying to ask how much longer he'd have to ignore her for. Amu would just shrug nonchalantly in response or pretend not to notice his looks all together.
Lunch came around while Amu was in the bathroom, a poor choice on her side, but also quite advantageous at the same time. By the time she got back to grab her lunch, Tadase was already gone from the classroom. She frowned slightly but spotted Saaya looking for Tadase as well and decided to followed her carefully. She made sure she was close enough that she could still see where Saaya was going but far enough that Saaya wouldn't be able to notice anyone following her. The best way to find Tadase was to follow someone who was also probably looking for him as well. As long as Amu didn't get caught, she'd find Tadase and then be able to crush Saaya's triumph like a bug.
Word Count: ~3300
A/N: Hi, it's been a while. I figured in attempt to bring people to my profile , I'd upload a new chapter of this (because I need opinions on what type of fanfic I should post first pls check the poll on my profile since I'm 1) probably getting too old to be writing about Tadamu, and 2) I've been posting exclusively Tadamu for like more than 5 years at this point so I felt a change was necessary). I'll try my best to finish this 'reboot' of the series, too, don't worry I'm not abandoning this yet (and even if I planned on it, I have 17 chapters complete so I'd still have more to post until then anyways)
I am in school and my classes require a LOT of work outside of class, so who knows my availability. I'll probably post one more chapter after this to make my life easier. And if I'm up for it by the end of this story, I'll reboot/finish its sequel.
Anyways, I'd appreciate your feedback on anything. If you review to this one and the next chapter, I might even respond in the next (next) chapters authors note (mainly bc I don't like how replying to a review sends you to pm)
Oh, and the only Japanese word I used is omurice which I'm sure most of you know is just omlette+rice.
(also since I already have this A/N and probably won't have anything new to say in the next chapter I'll post tonight, it probably won't have an author's note unless I used a Japanese word. It'll just be a word count bc it's become a habit of mine to write out how many words a chapter is)
