Kiyotaka Ishimaru followed Oowada out of the shop, rubbing his hand. Oowada certainly had a strong grip. As well as that, he was acting strange – Ishimaru had thought so before going into the shop, and he thought so even more now. Oowada wouldn't quite look at him without turning red, and Ishimaru had no idea why.

Perhaps he had done something wrong?

Maybe he was not being a good friend on this day out, perhaps he was being too quiet or too loud or saying all of the wrong things, or maybe Oowada thought that he was thinking about Sonia Nevermind, or maybe-"

"Hey," Oowada said. Ishimaru had stopped walking while contemplating this, and Oowada was now on the motorcycle, waiting for him. "You coming?"

He held out Ishimaru's helmet, and Ishimaru noticed again that Oowada wouldn't quite meet his eyes. He frowned and took the helmet, fumbling a little with securing it. Oowada leaned forward to help him out, his fingers brushing against Ishimaru's chin, and Oowada flushed again.

"Brother, have I done something wrong?" Ishimaru asked. Oowada flinched on such a huge scale that he accidentally hit Ishimaru in the face while trying to get his hands away from the helmet.

"N-no," Oowada said. He turned around and hunched his shoulders. "Get on. You wanna go do something else, or just go back to Hope's Peak?"

"It does not matter to me!" Ishimaru said, though he should probably be doing his homework or studying or working on projects. "But I do have quite a bit of homework this weekend, so we should probably go back."

"'Course," Oowada muttered. Ishimaru frowned.

He was probably blowing this whole thing out of proportion. He got on the back of the motorcycle and barely had time to grab onto Oowada before the motorcycle started moving. The way back was just as invigorating, though Ishimaru had to wonder once again if Oowada was going at a safe speed. He suspected not, but he also thought that if he attempted to tell him this, he wouldn't be able to hear him.

So, he waited until they got back at Hope's Peak. Oowada stopped in front of the school to let him off. "Hey, uh," Oowada said. "You're right, we do got a lot of homework, and I figured… you went on my bike, so I figured… I'd do some homework-"

"That is wonderful!" Ishimaru said, getting off of the bike and nearly falling over. His legs were shaky again. He suspected it would take him several rides to get used to it. He took off the helmet and gave it back to Oowada, grinning. "Meet me in the library after putting your motorcycle away! I will bring all of my homework so that we have several different things to choose from! I will see you then!"

He hurried into the school, grinning so hugely that he thought his face would probably get stuck in that position. He headed back to his room and fit as many of his books into his bag as possible, and carried a few more. He wasn't quite sure if he'd need all of these, but it was better to be safe than sorry, and reference books were always needed. Of course, they would be in a library, but the books he needed could be being used by another student, so taking all of his own books was probably the best course of action.

He hurried up to the library as fast as he could while carrying all of his books and nearly ran down Souda, who was repainting the wall he had spray-painted pink the other day. Funnily enough, a reserve course student was accompanying him. "Hello, Souda-kun!" Ishimaru said cheerfully. He didn't have time to stop and hear what Souda said back or even think about the reserve course student. He had bigger things to think about, like studying with Oowada.

When he got to the library, he sought out the table with the best light and set up there, stacking his books up by subject and pulling out his planner. He scanned the assignments and projects and essays he had to finish and nodded. Yes, he could certainly get a good chunk of this done, even if he was studying with Oowada.

Oowada appeared a few minutes later with his bag slung over his shoulder. His entrance into the library made a few regulars look around as if wondering if they were actually in the library. Byakuya Togami muttered something and disappeared into a back room. Ishimaru waved and stage-whispered to get his attention.

"Brother! I am over here!"

Oowada spotted him and headed over, dropping his bag on the floor with a clunk and slumping down into the chair across from Ishimaru. "Hey, bro," he said. He eyed the stacks of books on the table. "Uh, you really planning on doing all of that today?"

"Well, no," Ishimaru admitted. "Probably not, at least not right now. But I like to keep my options open, because sometimes my mind feels more wired for mathematics and sometimes it feels more wired for history or whatever else, and I often do not know until I try to start working. What about you? What are you going to do?"

"What I need to do to not fail," Oowada said. He pulled the few books from his bag and dropped them on the table with another sound that was too loud for the library. Ishimaru glanced around, wondering if anyone was offended by it.

"Brother, you should perhaps be a bit quieter," Ishimaru said. Oowada rolled his eyes. He seemed to be back to normal now, if a bit irritated, which was good. An irritated Oowada was better than an Oowada who seemed sick. "Have you been feeling alright? I noticed that while we were on our outing that you seemed quite feverish."

"I'm fine," Oowada said. Perhaps this was the wrong thing for Ishimaru to say, as now Oowada would not look at him without growing red. Was it something to do with Ishimaru?

"Have I done something wrong?" he asked, repeating his question from the outing. He hoped that he would get a decent answer this time, but Oowada just stood up and grabbed his books. "Brother-"

"I got shit to do," Oowada said. "I'll – I'll see you later, bro."

With that, Oowada left the room. Ishimaru stared after him, confused. He must have done something wrong. He must have-

"A-a-a-aw."

Ishimaru glanced back, and there was Junko Enoshima, standing by a bookshelf as provocatively as one standing by a bookshelf could stand. Ishimaru frowned at her. "What, Enoshima-kun?"

"He's got a serious case of puppy love," she said, slinking forward and standing in front of Ishimaru. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Do about it?" Ishimaru asked. "He… does he have a crush on someone? Should I ask Kuwata-kun who it is and help him out-"

Enoshima just sort of stared at him for a few moments, then burst out laughing.

"Enoshima-kun, please be quiet. This is a library."

"You're so hopeless," she said. "This will be fantastic. Hey, why don't you ask our favorite little Princess on a date, huh?"

Ishimaru blinked. "I- I could not do that," he said. "It would be completely inappropriate. Anyway, I am not going to be dating until-"

"Blah, blah, blah," Enoshima said, waving her hand. She suddenly seemed very depressed. "I suppose Mukuro… well, it's nothing you need to know, anyway."

With that, she drifted away. Ishimaru watched her, more confused than ever.

Maybe he would just shake off all of this new information, because none of it made any sense and he needed to concentrate on his homework. Perhaps he would see Oowada at the next meal, and then he could speak with his brother and everything would be absolutely perfect.

Ishimaru's POVs are almost always 50% thinking about schoolwork.