WOW! I am all caught up! If you are a returning reader, you will notice i am missing two chapters about Iemitsu. I just felt that I let him find evidence about Tsuna way too fast. I hope this will give the story better pacing.
Chapter 8: Puppy Love
I managed to fall asleep shortly after Hibari-sempai left despite my embarrassment. I stayed that way for half an hour until the nurse came back and woke me up. I must have looked rough because she excused me from the rest of class before sending me on my way at lunch with stern instructions to eat something healthy. I was grateful she had let me stay that long, but I wouldn't have minded sleeping through lunch too.
I thought about eating the bento I had packed, but I didn't think my stomach could handle real food at the moment. Instead, I wondered back to the classroom to see if I could find Yamamoto-san. When I got to the classroom though there were very few people still in the room, and Yamamoto-san wasn't one of them. The only two people I recognized by name were Sasagawa-san and Kurokawa-san. I wanted to go over and try talking to Sasagawa-san, but I didn't have the energy to deal with a confrontational Kurokawa-san if I annoyed her; beautiful roses, sharp thorns and all that. Sometimes it was better to be safe than sorry when dealing with women.
I wandered over to my desk and plopped down in my chair. I lazily let my bag fall to the floor. I was wiped. I had hoped that napping would help wake me up, but now it felt like I had a sleep hangover.
I rested my head on my desk as I leaned over to fish a bar of dark chocolate out from my bag. I slowly peeled back the wrapper and popped a chunk into my mouth. I relaxed as I felt the chocolate melting slowly in my mouth, the bitter-sweet flavour taking the edge off the thirst. It wasn't doing a lot to make me feel better, but I could think a little clearer and my throat didn't burn. My stomach clenched in protest though. A wave of nausea rolled through me. I hoped mama would bring a blood bag home from the hospital today. Maybe some B positive would cheer me up.
I tried dozing off again at my desk, but the scents and sounds of the few students who were in the classroom made it difficult, so I started listening to their conversations instead.
"Hey, isn't that the new kid? He missed a class today." Said one student.
"Yeah, I saw him get up and leave. You think he's sick already?" said another.
"On the second day of school? Talk about unlucky. Maybe he really is a dame?" said another.
"Shh! Hahaha, he'll hear you!" whispered the first one. I stopped listening to them and turned my attention to the other side of the room, where Sasagawa-san was talking.
"… need to return a couple books soon. I nearly forgot last time until the day they were due!" she said.
"Ah, yeah. Late fees suck, and then the librarians look at you all disappointed like." Kurokawa-san said with a sigh.
"Haha! You sound like you are speaking from experience Hana-chan." Laughed Sasagawa-san. I chuckled quietly to myself too. This was a much more pleasant conversation to listen to.
"Depends on who is asking. Oh, look. The new monkey has fallen asleep." Said Kurokawa-san.
"Hmm? Oh, you mean Hikawa-san? He must be very tired…" said Sasagawa-san. I could feel my ears start to burn. Ugh, please don't pay me any mind!
"He left before Math class too." Said Kurokawa-san.
"Oh my, do you think he's okay? Starting a new school must be pretty stressful." said Sasagawa-san.
"Beats me. He seems to get on with a few of the guys in this class, can't be too bad. Doesn't he hang around with Yamamoto-san?" said Kurokawa-san.
"I don't know, Hana-chan. Maybe I'll go see how he is. I don't really want to wake him up, but it won't be good if he sleeps through lunch. Look, his ears even look red, maybe he does have a fever?" said Sasagawa-san. I could feel my face heating up more than ever after she pointed out how red my ears were. This is so embarrassing! What am I going to do if she comes over here!?
"You really are too kind, Kyoko-chan. It's his own fault if he doesn't eat." She said. Oh god, here she comes! What do I do? Just… just play it cool Tsuna. There is nothing scary about a girl… even if she is pretty.
"Excuse me, Hikawa-san? Are you sleeping?" said Sasagawa-san, I startled at her feminine voice despite already knowing that she was standing right beside me. I really needed to stop getting so worked up. I took a deep breath in through my nose before raising my head.
"Hello, Sa-sasagawa-san. N-n-n-no, I'm awake." I replied. Sasagawa-san tilted her head to the side and smiled.
"Oh, that's good! Are you feeling okay, Hikawa-san? I noticed that you missed a class today! Did you go to the nurses?" she asked. I nodded my head.
"A-ah, great! Good. I am! Ahhh…. That is, I'm okay…. Thank you…" I replied, face burning. Come on tongue, stop tripping! Sasagawa-san frowned a little.
"Are you sure? Your face is awfully red. If you need to go home, I'm sure someone could bring you your homework." She said. I ducked my head.
"Ah no, no, no! I'm fine really!" I denied, waving my hands. "I just needed some rest! Besides I told your brother that I would go meet up with the boxing club today…. Although I'm not really sure how that happened." I replied, muttering the last part to myself.
"Is that so!" she exclaimed with a bright smile, "Onii-san was talking about try-outs all evening yesterday! He said they managed to find more recruits than usual this year, I didn't know you were one of them!" she said.
"O-oh! That's… that's good. I'm not really a recruit though, it's only on a trial basis." I replied. I only agreed because I felt bad! … Kamiyama-san not withstanding. I thought to myself.
"I see, well I hope you like it! I'm sure it would mean a lot to my Onii-san. Boxing is his life. You should really eat something if you are going to exercise later, Onii-san says fueling your body with the right nutrients is important! Don't you agree, Hikawa-san?" she asked. The sound of rushing blood was loud in my ears as I thought about exactly what kind of nutrients my body needed right now. I swallowed thickly as I nodded my head, my throat was burning with a vengeance.
"Yeah… very important." I agreed, feeling a little dizzy. Sasagawa-san smelled like vanilla.
I mentally slapped myself. Quit that!
"Well, I'll leave you to your lunch then. You should come over and talk to us sometime, Hikawa-san! Everyone is very curious about you. We don't see new faces around here very often." She said. I nodded my head and exchanged polite farewells. I watched her for a moment as she returned to her group of friends. It was official, she was by far the sweetest girl I had ever met. I turned my head back to my own desk and broke off another piece of chocolate. Two days into my new school and I was already crushing on two different people. This was going to be a very long day…
This was going to be a very long year.
The day was very long indeed, and by the time the end of it rolled around I had been reprimanded twice for not paying attention and produced a collection of mostly incomplete notes with unidentifiable scribbles in the columns. I may as well have listened to Sasagawa-san and gone home for the rest of the day, these notes were useless. On the bright side I was feeling a little better by the end of classes than I was earlier that morning. The combination of rest and chocolate had helped clear my foggy brain and boost my mood. I wasn't exactly looking forward to meeting with the boxing club now, but I wasn't dreading it either.
Yamamoto-san also had a club meeting after school and offered to walk with me down to the gym. I was grateful for his consistent happy chatter and relaxing scent, instead of annoyed, as we navigated the busy school halls. I would have bumped into a lot of people if I didn't have him there parting the crowd and leading the way. We parted ways when we got to the gym though, he had to change into his uniform and meet up with his teams. I wondered if I should have changed into my gym uniform too, but I wasn't really planning to participate today. I hoped Onii-san wouldn't be too put out that I wasn't feeling up to any EXTREME exercise.
"Yo! Little dude, I'm extremely glad you made it!" Shouted a voice across the gym. I spotted Onii-san in bright yellow shorts waving me down. I made my way over to the enthusiastic sempai and smiled in return. He really was a friendly guy, even if he was a little extreme. Several members of the boxing club had already joined him and were busy laying down mats or wrapping their hands in tape. I spied Kamiyama-san among them and couldn't help the heat that rose to me cheeks. He really was too handsome.
"Hello, Onii-san." I said in greeting, he beamed and patted me hard on the back.
"Yosh! You're the first of the new members to arrive, but you are extremely not dressed!" he exclaimed. I nodded me head and bowed it in apology.
"Ahh… to be honest I'm not feeling very well today. I'm very sorry." I said.
"Hmm, you are looking a little pale." Said Kamiyama-san. I looked up at the unexpected reply, I didn't think he would come over here to greet me. "That's too bad. I was looking forward to seeing what you can do." He said. I flushed a little at his words, a little regretful that I had decided not to participate.
"That's true!" Exclaimed Onii-san. "But it is extremely important that you take care of your body too! Don't feel bad if you can't practice some punches with us today, Little Dude! At least stick around and watch though!" he said, surprisingly defending my decision not to join in. I blinked up at him.
"O-of course!" I quickly agreed. Kamiyama-san shrugged one shoulder and agreed.
"In that case, you can act as our cornerman today. Just hand us water and a towel in-between spars while we practice. Make sure you pay attention to the techniques we show the new guys today! Having proper form is important." Said Kamiyama-san.
"That's an EXTREMELY good idea Kamiyama! Yosh! Look, more of the new guys are showing up. Let's get everyone one together and do some introductions!" Onii-san enthused. I had to admit that playing corner man appealed to me a lot more than boxing did. Maybe I could make it a regular thing?
It turned out that being corner man was even better than I expected. I got to sit up close to the ring and watch as two sweaty men tried to gain the upper hand against each other during friendly spars, and when they needed water or a towel I was right there to hand it to them and offer words of encouragement. Near the end of class Onii-san got the bright idea to show the new recruits how "real men" fight, which resulted in Kamiyama-san and Onii-san stepping into the ring together.
The two men sized each other up. Kamiyama-san was a little bit taller, but Onii-san was heavier. When they were sparring you could tell they had fought each other before. Their movements were fluid and fast. They hit each other a lot harder than they had hit anyone else during practice. They knew the other's limits and pushed them. I was transfixed.
When the round finished Kamiyama-san collapsed into the chair placed in my corner of the ring. He was sweating and panting heavily.
"Hey, corner man." He called. "Bring me some water." He said. I quickly scrambled over with his water bottle and passed it to him. He sprayed water into his mouth and took a deep breath after swallowing. Sweat was dripping down his forehead, and standing this close to him his scent was the only thing I could focus on. Ginger and sage played across my senses. "Here," he said reaching over and grabbing the towel that was hanging over one of the ropes. He held it out to me. "Towel me off." He said. I couldn't help the thrill of excitement that shot through my gut, and suddenly my throat was on fire. I hesitantly took the towel from his hand. I pressed it to his face and diligently began dabbing the sweat away. How easy would it be to just lean forward and sink my fangs into his neck right now? I'd never felt so hungry. I carefully lowered my lids to shield my eyes, I was afraid that they were glowing orange. I needed to get a hold of myself.
Then, like a bucked of cold water, Onii-san's cheerful voice washed over me and knocked me out of my shameful state.
"Yo, Little Dude! Bring me some water too! Kamiyama tired me out to the extreme!" he yelled. I abruptly handed off the towel to Kamiyama-san and hurried to bring Onii-san his water bottle. What the hell had I been thinking about doing in such a public place? Biting someone out in the open? I hadn't even learned compulsion yet! I would have had no way to wipe the memory from their minds, and there is really no way to explain something like that! I had never come so close to slipping up before, and I hated myself for almost allowing it. I may be hungry, but I needed to get my shit together. I was going to end up getting mama and I killed.
