Drabble Twenty-Five: Reality

Midorima watched as her small fingers curled around the warm cocoa he had gotten her a few moments ago. She was dressed in a spare jumpsuit that looked a tad bit oversized on her, and her blue eyes were swimming with remorse and cast downwards.

"Was that occurrence common, Inoue?" Midorima touched on the topic tentatively. She stiffened a little, bringing the drink to her mouth for a hesitant sip.

Then it occurred to him. "Takao knows," he muttered, feeling slightly surprised - but it was not a difficult conclusion to come to with how the male had acted to get him to "chance upon" Inoue and the lowly bunch.

"Did he tell you, Midorima-kun?" Natsuki questioned nervously, squeezing her cocoa can a little. He scoffed lightly, taking a drink from his red bean soup.

"No," he replied easily, "I found out by myself. Now, Inoue, you haven't answered my question." She pursed her lips, unsure.

"Perhaps..." She replied cryptically. Midorima gave her a critical eye, and she seem to shrivel up in guilt.

"I...just don't want you to get involved as well. I am dealing with it just fine, Midorima-kun!" Natsuki burst out, clutching the cocoa can close to her chest. Her blue eyes held a frustrated shimmer and a sheen of tears. Usually, the sight of tears (or even an inkling of them) would have sent Midorima into a frenzy - but not this time. The green-haired male seems too determined to weasel out an answer than to notice.

"'Just fine' does not include getting mugged and messed up by a couple of lowly cowards in the hallway, Inoue," he reprimanded, feeling much like the same way he does when he scolds his little sister or Takao. "And I am perfectly capable of handling myself, you do not have to worry about my involvement as it will be of my own choice."

Natsuki started down into her warm cocoa. Only until after a few moments of silence and a few shuffles as she shifted uncomfortably did she opened her mouth.

"Midorima-kun, I am scared." She confessed, the tears clouding her eyes. "I am very, very scared. It doesn't usually show, and I try to hide or ignore it most of the time just so I can convince myself to come to school. It started right after the school year kicked start." In his mind, Midorima growled angrily. Those cowards were at it for the better part of the year?

"When I see them and they start backing me in a corner and I realise I have no claws against them - the fear overcomes me and I am scared. Exhausted... Frustrated. Tired of this. Sometimes I wonder why I bother scrubbing those water bottles and refilling them again and again and again, or why I even bother coming to school anymore, but then I think of my parents and all those who care about me and I just can't give up." She wiped her tears and chuckled.

"Fear and the stubbornness to not give up makes a very bad concoction, and soon enough they get to me more than I like it," she said quietly. Midorima watched her carefully.

Something's not right, he realised, as the small thought floated around his mind, her smiles are not there.

Natsuki dashed her eyes once, twice, then blinked up at Midorima. A small, resigned smile captured her lips as she met his green eyes.

"I try not to blame it on fate, but sometimes, when I am alone at night and everything is dark and quiet and my wounds are aching and my hair feel like they have been pulled out by overzealous farmers who thought it as weeds, I inadvertently blame it on fate. What else can you do, other than resign to it?"

There was a moment of silence just there, and Midorima thought he could almost hear the silence. The birds had gone quiet from outside the infirmary window, and no one was moving in the room itself. He resolved himself to make the first crinkling sound of the aluminum can in his hand.

"I would walk you home today, Inoue."

Natsuki's head snapped up quickly, her blue eyes wide and unbelieving.

"Hah?"

Midorima clucked his tongue in annoyance. "Is that the only sound you can make? Because it is unintelligible."

She closed her mouth to stop gaping, but her eyes were still shining with astonishment. It reminded him of the time when they first met, and she still called him "Mister Tall Guy". He let his lips quirk up at that.

Natsuki however, did not notice the reminiscent look Midorima had on, and was looking down at her bare hands in odd wonderment.

"Why, Midorima-kun?" She asked, befuddled.

"Because you're my friend," he replied simply, bringing the red bean soup to his lips.

He thought he will never forget the grateful eyes filled with disbelief Inoue Natsuki gave him for that moment. A small part of his heart felt relieved - so this was what her eyes were trying to tell him, the time he said something similar.

"And also because Pisces' lucky colour is green today," he muttered.

A teary yet full-blown smile erupted on her face along with a short giggle (oh thank goodness, he can't stand tears).

"Thank you, thank you... Thank you, Midorima-kun," she sniffed, her words getting punctuated by her sniffles. He patted her head awkwardly, feeling a warm ache spread in his heart. Nobody should ever deserve treatment like that, and he felt his heart go out for the girl curled on the chair beside his.

"Ah, Midorima-kun," he removed his hand, and met her warm blue eyes, not filled with hard-earned or even pretended cheer, but now with a trace of pain but gratefulness lining it.

(Her eyes looks nicer like that, nanodayo-) ((the thought was immediately banished and the only tell-tale sign that he ever had that thought was the red rising up his neck))

"Please call me Natsuki, Midorima-kun," before he could move to protest, she cut in again, "we are friends, aren't we?" She beamed, and it was a beam dimmer than the previous ones he had seen from her, yet filled with so much warmth that he felt attracted and addicted to it like a moth to a fire.

"...yes, I believe so," the prim-and-proper forced himself to reply. The line "it is not proper to call a lady by their first-name" repeated like a mantra in his head.

"Thank you for being my friend, Midorima-kun... I never had friends," she admitted quietly to more seemingly herself than him. Midorima, though, was more to himself even though he had filed the words she said in his mind for future processing.

(Should I let her call me by my first name as well? Ugh, this never happened with Takao because being so insolent he had just upped and used my first name since we met - ugh...)

"You never had friends?" He asked, though mindful to keep his incredulity to a minimum in his tone. Even he had the Generation of Miracles in Middle School...

She smiled brightly at him. "It doesn't matter now, Midorima-kun and Takao-kun are my friends, right?"

He nodded absentmindedly to that statement, telling her to quickly finish her cocoa that was getting cold. He sipped on his red bean soup. Perhaps these days he could call Momoi up and introduce her to the brown-haired girl...

"Natsuki, your e-mail address please," he inquired politely, tilting his head slightly at her. Too occupied with the new plan of his to introduce a girl friend to the former, he did not much realise that he had instinctively used her name.

She blinked, but obediently recited her phone number. Midorima filed it in his mind, not willing to run back down to the gym to grab his mobile phone.

"Aren't you going to tell me something like 'I don't want to be friends with you anymore', Midorima-kun?" She offered in a small voice.

Midorima regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "And why would I do that?"

She fumbled with her words. "'Cause-! Cause...it wouldn't be cool to have friend who gets bullied," she recited sullenly, as she had been told that before. Midorima reckoned that she probably did, and so awarded the dooming atmosphere with a roll of his eyes and the best sneer-slash-scoff he could muster.

"I am not such a person, Natsuki," he replied calmly, disgust coating the undertones of his voice, "it is not in my manner, and certainly not common courtesy to abandon a friend just because it would not fulfill the social requirements of what is 'cool'."

For the second time that day, she gaped at him. Fortunately, the girl gotten over it easier than she had the first time, and instead burst into laughter so hard that she was wiping her eyes of stray tears forced out by her laughter.

"Midorima-kun, you sounded so regal for a second!" She giggled. "Almost like Professor Snape from Harry Potter."

He let his lips curl up a little at seeing Natsuki bent over in laughter. "I assure you that I do not belong in Slytherin, nor do I have goodness forbid - greasy hair." He tried for dry wit, only to be rewarded with peals of laughter.

(Midorima decided that her smiles may be - cough - pretty, her giggles - er, excuse him - soothing, but her laughters were another world entirely.)

"You read Harry Potter too?" She grinned, and for the first time, the green-haired male felt that he was really seeing Inoue Natsuki - not the girl-who-gets-bullied, girl-who-refills-water-bottles, girl-who-has-bright-smiles - just Natsuki. And she is content with it.

(Well, he is as well.)

"Yes, for one cannot be considered well-read until they read the series," he tipped his glasses up, and caught a flash of the clock.

"I will have to go back down to the gym now," he caught himself before her name flew out of his mouth naturally. Ugh, did he really just call her by his first name without tact for the past five minutes?! Damn. Midorima felt the red rise up to his ears, and he averted his eyes from the brown-haired girl and coughed into his fist.

"I will see you at the main gate," he caught himself again before he said her name. (But he already started - and- ugh.)

"I-Is it really fine to call you by your first name?" He asked, queasy. She gave him an amused-slash-queer look, before breaking into one of her bright smiles.

"Yeap!"

Her smile really is worth a thousand suns.

"Then call me Shintaro as well, to return the favour as per common courtesy, of course..." He stammered out his voice soft, touching his nape self-consciously in embarrassment. At that moment, Emi-sensei burst into the room, taking the attention of the two students.

"Oh, Natsuki-chan, I am so sorry, was attending to some urgent business at the office... What happened this time?" She bustled in, and after giving Midorima a quick look over to assure he is not the one hurt, she quickly fussed over the girl seated on the chair.

The green-haired male processed his former words and almost foamed at the mouth, his face burning brightly. Did he just request someone - much less a girl - to call him by his first name?

He quickly excused himself from the infirmary, feeling that Natsuki is well taken care of in the hands of the capable nurse Takao is infatuated with.

"A-Ah! See you later, Shintaro, at the front main gate, after your practice!"

His stunned eyes only captured the shy smile Natsuki sent his way before the infirmary closed shut behind him.

(She. Accepted. His. Request.)

Midorima didn't know why, but at that moment, he didn't care much for being severely late for practice and going missing on his break.

(Takao probably weaved a thousand excuses for him anyway.)