Chapter Thirty-Five: Back to School

Sunohara was waiting for me when I arrived on the first day back at school.

"Okazaki! Where were you all summer?!" he shouted; it looked like steam was coming out of his ears.

"Get out of my face, idiot!" I yelled, shoving his face away from mine. "I don't want you kissing me by accident or anything!"

He suddenly took on a knowing expression, which made me more than a little anxious. "Ah, I see; the two of you have gone farther in your relationship, eh?"

I felt the blood drain from my face. "How did you know about that?!"

"WHAT?!" Sunohara bellowed, his previous composure gone. "YOU MEAN…!"

I grabbed him into a headlock. "What do I mean, Sunohara? Tell me!"

"You know…" he wheezed. "…this…and that…"

"Like hell I'd do that!" I retorted, releasing his head, only to grab him by the collar. "Or this! She's a lady, and you may not talk about her like that!"

"Okazaki-kun!" I looked over to see Fujibayashi standing a short distance away, with her hands folded before her and a worried look on her face. The rest of my classmates stood behind her as though she was some kind of shield. "P-Please control yourself!"

I looked from her to Sunohara and back. Finally, I released him. "Sorry about that, everybody; I'm a little stressed right now." I bowed to Fujibayashi. "It won't happen again."

"Eh?" she started blushing for some reason. "No! No, it's okay now. It's nice that you want to stand up for your g-g-girlfriend, but-"

"But violence has no place in the classroom," I finished for her. "You're right, and I apologize. If I need to beat someone up, I'll make sure to do it after school and off of school property," I said, giving her a wink.

"O-Okazaki-kun…" she giggled.

"What's going on here?" demanded a familiar voice. I looked and, sure enough, Kyou came storming into my classroom. "First day back and you two are already being too loud!"

"My fault," I admitted. "Your sister's already called me out on it, though."

"Eh? Ryou?" Kyou actually looked stunned as she turned to her sister. "Really? You did?"

"S-Sort of," Fujibayashi said with an awkward smile. "Okazaki-kun was quick to take responsibility, so I really didn't have to do much."

"See?" I said. "So you can go back to your class now; your sister can handle things in here just fine."

Kyou looked to me with mild annoyance. "I can be here if I want to, you know?"

"Sure, I know that," I said, walking up to her. "But you don't need to police her classroom anymore, right? Unless…" I gave her my best shocked expression. "…you don't think she can handle it?"

"Huh?" Kyou looked at me with wide eyes.

"Well, yeah, right? Fujibayashi's my class rep, but you keep coming over here every time something goes wrong." I fixed my gaze on hers. "Don't you think your sister can handle being class rep?"

"Well, yeah! I mean, no! Wait, I mean…" Kyou took a step back from me, apparently trying to pull herself together. "Ryou can do it, sure!"

"Great!" I said. "Then you won't be coming over here to scold me or anyone in this class anymore, right?"

"Y-Yeah…" she licked her lips. "B-But…I can still come to talk to y-you, right?"

"I don't see why not," I replied in my best conciliatory tone. "You could even pick on Sunohara if you want, as long as you don't make trouble for our class rep."

"Hey!" I heard Sunohara protest.

"I could do that," Kyou said, nodding eagerly. "If there's trouble, then Ryou can handle it. I'll come if I want to talk to her or you or to pick on Yohei."

"Hey!" I heard Sunohara protest.

"Sounds good," I said with a warm smile. "I'm glad we had this talk, Kyou. I look forward to seeing your sister take charge of this class."

"R-Right." And with that, Kyou blinked several times before turning and slowly making her way to the door, sliding it open and stepping through and shutting it behind her.

I sighed in satisfaction, then felt several pairs of eyes on me. I turned to find the rest of my class staring at me with looks of wonder. "What's the matter, guys? Something on my face?"

Ichigo stepped forward. "Who are you and what have you done with Okazaki?"

"Tomoya! Welcome!" Yukine greeted as I entered the Reference Room for the lunch hour. "Would you like some coffee?"

"Actually, I'd like a little Yukine right now, but I'll settle for some coffee. Thank you."

As expected, she covered her face with her hands to hide the blush. "T-Tomoya!" I had to resist the urge to mouth the words along with her. "It's too early for me to start blushing!"

"Sorry about that, Yukine…I just…"

She peeked out from between her fingers. "Thank you for the compliment."

"You're welcome," I replied. "Your pleasure is my pleasure."

"R-Really?" she asked, removing her hands from her face and moving to the coffeemaker. "Do you mean that?"

"Sure," I said, then gave some thought on how to elaborate. "It's like…I like making you smile, so if I can make you happy then you smile, which makes me happy."

"Making me happy makes you happy…" she trailed off as she looked out the window. "That's…wonderful…" She sounded pleased, if a bit distant.

She was quiet as the coffee percolated, and as she poured a mug, and even as she brought it over to me. "H-Here you go, Tomoya."

"Thanks," I said, feeling more than a little puzzled. "You okay? You kinda vanished for a minute."

She looked up at me with watery eyes. "I want coffee, too."

"Well," I said, getting to me feet, "I can make some for you if-"

"No," she said, taking hold of my arm. "I…I-I want T-Tomoya-flavored coffee."

I smiled softly as I sat back down. "I feel awkward about it, to be honest…but, if that's what you want…" I took a sip of the coffee. "That enough?"

She nodded, and we both got to our feet and circled the table to stand before each other. I reached out and cupped the back of her head with my hand and brought my head down to touch my lips to hers.

Light exploded behind my eyelids, and the next thing I knew I heard a gasp come from behind me. I opened my eyes, only for them to widen on their own. "Wha…?"

Without realizing it, we had somehow backed her up against one of the walls of the Reference Room, thankfully one without a bookcase. Her arms were circled around the back of my neck, one of her legs wrapped around the back of mine, and one of my hands was full of her butt – over her skirt, fortunately. Her normally sleepy-looking eyes, widened as well, had a fire to them that was rapidly fading. I could feel her hot breath puffing against my face, and I was sure she could feel mine, too.

"I'm sorry," she mouthed as she slid her leg back from around me.

"Me, too," I mouthed as I released her backside, carefully lowering her to the floor. We then sheepishly turned to see who our unexpected guests were.

The Fujibayashi twins both stood in open-mouthed shock. "O-O-Oka…zaki…ku-"

"I'm really sorry!" I exclaimed, bowing repeatedly. "I – well, we – didn't mean to go that far!"

"R-Right!" Yukine squeaked from beside me, and I looked to see her bowing as well. "It's my fault! I wanted to do something cute with Tomoya, and it got out-of-hand!"

"L-Looks like it w-was really in-hand," Kyou tried to joke, though her voice had an obvious tremor to it. "S-Sorry to interrupt."

I took a deep breath, trying to flush out my embarrassment. "It's…okay. We shouldn't have been acting like that at school, anyway…it just took us by surprise." I gestured to the twins. "D-Did you need something from me? Or from Yukine?"

"Could you do that to me?" Kyou blurted before slapping her hands over her mouth, and I heard Yukine gasp behind me.

"Onee-chan!" Fujibayashi cried, adding one of her hands to the pile on her sister's mouth. Addressing us, she said, "Onee-chan wanted to talk to you, Okazaki-kun, and I came with her to give you some papers that were handed out after you left."

"Oh! I'm sorry." Was I starting to apologize too much? "I thought I was okay to leave."

"You're fine!" Fujibayashi said, then blushed furiously. "I-I mean…it's…okay." She removed her hand from her sister's mouth, picked up her schoolbag, and dug around in it as she approached us. "The teacher forgot to hand them out until after you left," she explained as she handed me the papers with a shaky hand. "H-He asked me to find you and give them to you."

"Thanks," I said as I accepted the papers and examined them. They were just a few homework pages; I figured I could finish them in about an hour or so. "Again, I'm really sorry about the spectacle; we'll be more careful in the future."

She stepped back, pressing her hands into her chest so hard that it had to hurt. "I-It's okay. I-I'm glad you two are d-d-doing well…please excuse me!" she turned and ran from the Reference Room, apparently forgetting her sister, who stood there, frozen, her hands still over her mouth.

I cautiously walked up to the statue of Kyou and waved my hand in front of its eyes. "Kyou? You in there? You okay? Kyou?" I gently knocked on the top of her head.

"Kyou-san…" I heard Yukine breathe in a teary voice.

"Eh?" My purple-haired friend suddenly stood up ramrod straight, her arms dropping to her sides. When she saw me standing right next to her, she yelped and jumped away from me. "I-I'm sorry!" she yelled before bolting from the room.

I stood there, scratching my head, until I felt myself gently embraced, and I turned to hold my lady as she cried.