You guys are such good reviewers! You review all the chapters and everything. I feel so nice giving you another chapter. Should I give out another chapter of Boys Before the High Seas? As well? Am I feeling that generous. Maybe. I have black hair! Operation: Jade Is A Weirdo Who Dyes Her Hair Black has been very successful!
Disclaimer: I don't own Hana Yori Dango.
Warnings: There's cussing. There's some violence. There's…chicken noodle soup???
Never Quite As It Seems
Chapter Six
"Let the say weak say I am strong,
Let yourself say I was wrong,
Let your heart move on,
Let your heart move on,"
-Another Song Quote.
"I'm not sick." Doumyouji insisted to me a week later. "I feel fine."
"I can tell." I said, his voice sounded weird because his nose was completely stuffed and he was sneezing all over the place. I put my hand on his forehead, much like I had to do my little brother not too long ago. "You have a fever."
"I do not." Doumyouji muttered.
"Yes, I'm making this all up." I rolled my eyes. I pulled out a thermometer. "Let's see if you believe this thing." I stuck it into his mouth before turning and walking out of the room. Akira, Soujirou, and Rui all had their coats on and were giving me questioning looks.
"Well?" Soujirou prompted. "Can he come?" I felt like a mother all of a sudden.
"No he can't go with you guys." I felt bad because we had all planned to go to some video arcade that had just opened up downtown. Soujirou and Akira had begged us to go, so we agreed. Now Doumyouji was sick that I didn't think he should even leave his bed.
"Are you going to come?" Rui asked me.
"No, I better stay here and make sure he doesn't make himself worse." I sighed tiredly. "You guys can go on ahead though."
"It's too bad. It won't be the same without you guys…" Soujirou shook his head. "Oh well. We better get going."
"You guys go have fun." I told them. We all waved good-bye to each other before the boys took off. I turned on my heel and marched right back into Doumyouji's room. I took the thermometer out of his mouth and examined it. One-oh-one.
"Am I okay?" Doumyouji asked, trying to cover up his cough.
"No! You're over one hundred. You're staying in bed today." I put my hands on my hips to show that I was not going to tolerate anything less. "The others already left anyways."
"You stayed here?" Doumyouji sounded surprised.
"Well someone's gotta take care of you!" I exclaimed. "Sheesh… I'm going to make oatmeal, I know we have some. Now just be good and stay in bed." I walked out of the room, taking the thermometer with me. Doumyouji sure was dumb sometimes. I made oatmeal though I had to search for it because Soujirou had made some and put it in the wrong cupboard of course.
I brought the steaming bowl of oatmeal up on a tray with a glass of orange juice. (I had no idea we had any but things often just popped up in our fridge, courtesy of Akira and Soujirou I supposed.) Doumyouji was watching his TV glumly.
"Breakfast in bed, alright." Doumyouji grinned at me. "This would be nice every morning."
"Don't hold your breath on it." I retorted. "Your lucky I even made you breakfast. I could have just as easily made you do it."
"I would have just eaten Lucky Charms." Doumyouji shrugged. "Thanks though."
"What are you watching?" I asked him. He patted the empty bed spot next to him. I rolled my eyes at him and sat down next to him. Doumyouji took a huge bite of oatmeal and spat it immediately back out.
"It's hot!" Doumyouji exclaimed, drinking down some orange juice.
"No duh. You have to blow on it." I told him as if he were ten years old. He looked a little embarrassed but blew on his hot oatmeal. He began to eat again.
"Aren't you worried you'll catch what I have?" Doumyouji asked me.
"Then I'll get to skip school and take a vacation from girls glaring at me wherever I go." I joked. The doorbell rang suddenly. I hopped up and ran down the stairs, wondering who could be there.
It was Junpei, standing there with a small bouquet of daisies. I wasn't a daisy kind of girl but I didn't really think they were for me. It seemed a little nervous.
"Hey Junpei, what are you doing here?" I asked him, Junpei and me always sat next to each other in class, really enjoying each other's company. Sometimes I wondered if I liked him because he was him or because he reminded me of Rui. I think a mixture of both in an odd way.
"I wanted to see if you were busy." Junpei said shyly, handing me the bouquet. "I got these for you, for being such a nice friend to me."
"Well…" I felt a little bad, I would like to go with him but I had to take care of Doumyouji. "See my friend is sick and I'm kind of taking care of him."
"Oh, that's okay." Junpei smiled sadly. "Maybe some other time then?"
"Of course! I'm really sorry though…" I trailed off. Junpei looked a little happier.
"Don't worry about it." Junpei told me. "I'll see you around, Tsukushi."
"Bye!" I called after him as he left. Then I closed the door and leaned against it. I really did wish I could go do something with Junpei but I still felt like I had to stay with Doumyouji. Was that strange or what? I went back up to Doumyouji's room forgetting that I was still carrying the daisies.
"Who are those from?" Doumyouji asked me sharply.
"Junpei." I told him.
"Huh." Doumyouji grunted eyeing me with suspicion.
"They really are from Junpei!" I insisted, for I knew it was true. You'd think that Doumyouji was jealous or something…
"Well I don't doubt there from him. I just don't trust a guy who gives flowers to a girl who everyone knows has a boyfriend." Doumyouji explained to me.
"What are you, jealous?" I asked him incredulously. "I don't think it's a crime to give flowers to friends."
"He didn't give them to you because he wanted to be friends." Doumyouji told me, as if I was younger and dumber than him.
"What are you talking about?" I raised a skeptical eyebrow at him.
Doumyouji gave me a superior look. "When a guy gives you flowers, it means he really likes you."
"Rui once gave me flowers!" I countered.
"How old was Rui?" Doumyouji asked.
"Ten." I answered. I wonder why I was defending this whole thing to Doumyouji. Like it was any of his business whether people gave me flowers or not.
"Well, he was just a kid then, he probably didn't really understand it. Once they discover girls, and I'm sure your friend has unless there's something you don't know about him, that's what the real meaning is." Doumyouji folded his arms in a sort of satisfaction.
"Thank you Dr. Love." I turned to go put the flowers in a vase. They were pretty but like I said I'm not really a daisy kind of girl so I didn't really care. But they had been a gift from Junpei and I had to smile at his gesture. I put the flowers in my window ceil. I went back to Doumyouji's room though to see what he was doing and to take the tray back downstairs.
"I think you like looking after me." Doumyouji teased me.
"Show's what you know." I cracked. "I just wanted to come take your tray down. You gonna watch TV all day?"
"I'm bored with TV." Doumyouji whined. "Let's do something." I took his tray down and then tried to think of something to do. Doumyouji was such a little kid sometimes! I grabbed a deck of cards from my room and brought them back to Doumyouji's room.
"Do you want to play cards?" I asked him waving the deck in the air. He nodded eagerly, shutting off the TV. We began playing a few rounds of War and started to go through just about every card game that we knew for hours on end. In fact I had no idea that any time had passed other than when I got up and made Doumyouji some soup to help with his cold. We were interrupted late in the afternoon though.
"This is what you two have been doing all day?" Akira asked as he walked in followed by Rui and Soujirou. I was temporarily distracted and just flipped a jack in Slap Jack.
"Ha!" Doumyouji yelled triumphantly as he slapped the pile. "I got you that time!" Then he realized the others were there and looked a little embarrassed.
"Doumyouji, I'm so disillusioned." Soujirou shook his head. "You're supposed to be like our leader and you sit around playing Slap Jack with your girlfriend when the house is empty."
"How do you know that's all we did?" Doumyouji asked them with a raised eyebrow.
"No one plays cards after sex." Akira informed them. I picked up a shoe that I had taken off earlier that day and threw it at Akira's head.
"If all you guys are going to do is talk about me and Doumyouji's love life than you can just leave!" I told them. Why am I blushing? We didn't do anything and we wouldn't do anything either…
"I think the real problem is that Tsukushi gets all red in the face if we talk about sex. Meanwhile, Doumyouji is going blue in the face from holding back." Soujirou seemed to have forgotten that we were there. And that I had another shoe.
"I'm serious you guys! It's none of your business." I stomped past them with my cards.
"Thanks a lot." I could hear Doumyouji's voice say. If only we could just tell the others the truth! Then we wouldn't have to play this huge game of pretend. Of course it was entirely up to Doumyouji. Not me. I put my cards away and collapsed on my bed. My daisies seemed to be a reminder of Junpei staring straight at me. I groaned a little. Boys were just complicating my life way out of proportion. I remember coming here at the beginning of the semester thinking only of how I had to see Rui. Now Rui and I were not nearly as close as we had been.
Of course when it came down to it, everything was far more complicated than I thought it could become. I was posing as someone's girlfriend, I was good friends with a boy who reminded me so much of the only boy I thought I'd fall in love with, and I was just lost in the whole mess. It sounded like something that happens to someone else.
I decided to go downstairs and see what the others were doing. It seemed like it was quite the Tony Hawk Pro-Skater competition going on. You'd think after a whole day of playing videogames they'd be sick of them but oh no, not Akira and Soujirou. Rui was half asleep on the couch behind them.
"Tsukushi, watch this!" Soujirou called out as he did some great trick that earned him a huge amount of points.
"A-mazing." I told him in a patient voice.
"This game is boring." Rui announced in a sleepy tone. "I'm going to sleep."
"Thanks for the insight man." Akira muttered as he tried to pull a trick similar to Soujirou's and failed miserably. I think that this was not Akira's game but he didn't seem to want to admit it, blaming everything from the fact that the controller wasn't working right to the angle the screen was at. (A.N. Sound familiar Teresa?)
"I want to play." Doumyouji, who seemed to decide that he could get out of bed. I gave him a look but he ignored me.
"No way, you suck worse than Akira at this game." Soujirou scoffed. "Which is pretty sad."
"Doumyouji, you should really be in bed unless you want to get us all sick." I told the curly haired boy.
"You weren't in there anymore. It was boring." Doumyouji complained sitting down on the couch.
"Yeah Doumyouji, you could make yourself worse." Akira said in a high-pitched voice, which seemed to be a sort of impression of me although it was worse than when Doumyouji imitated me.
"Shut up Akira!" Doumyouji threw a cushion at the longhaired boy.
"Why do people keep throwing things at me?" Akira asked. "Come on, give me a break."
"Gee, I wonder." I giggled. "I am serious though Doumyouji, you don't want to make things worse. Goodness knows I might have to walk on Monday." Doumyouji frowned slightly.
"You aren't walking." Doumyouji got up. "I'm going to get better before Monday." I was totally confused. Was it really that big of deal? Of course I wasn't Doumyouji and had about as a good idea of how that guy worked as just about anyone.
"That's a short-ass leash." Soujirou joked. I threw a cushion at him.
"You know what? It's only Doumyouji and Tsukushi that throw stuff at us!" Akira realized. Another cushion flew, hitting him square in the face.
"Shut up Akira." Rui rolled over in his sleep and I smiled.
__________
I was walking into my classroom when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and my jaw dropped. There was no way…
"Hey Tsukushi!" Makiko greeted me happily. I squealed, hugging my second oldest friend in the whole world.
"Makiko! What are you doing here?" I asked her, excitement running through my veins. I thought I wouldn't see her for so long after I transferred colleges.
"I transferred! There was no way I was going to a different college than you, not in a million years!" Makiko explained. "I'm glad we have a class together!"
"Wow! We have to hang out this afternoon! When did you get here? What house are you in?" I couldn't help all the questions; I was so excited that she was there. Makiko would understand everything and possibly have some sort of solution to my interesting situations.
"Woah, slow down!" Makiko laughed as we took our seats. "First of all, let's hang out this afternoon! Alright, now second, I got here Sunday and third, house F6."
"I'm in F4!" I told her. "Oh! There's so much I have to tell you about!"
"We'll have to wait till after class. I bet there is! You have to tell me all about how things are going with Rui." Makiko whispered as the teacher started to take roll. That's right there was an awful lot that Makiko didn't know. She knew that I was in love with Rui, when I told her she said it wasn't all that surprising. All day I waited till I was free to talk to Makiko. We had separate classes so I had her meet me in the parking lot that I knew Doumyouji, who had recovered from his sickness, would be waiting for me in.
Finally when I was free I ran towards the parking lot. Doumyouji had just pulled up, fresh from a day of his own classes.
"Excited to see me?" He asked with a smile.
"Nope!" I loved the way his face dropped sometimes, it was just comical. Makiko emerged from another direction. "Makiko!" I waved to her.
"Hey Tsukushi!" Makiko's smile widened as she ran over. She spotted Doumyouji in his car immediately. "Who's this? Great car by the way." Makiko's face held a tint of pink. Makiko always was a bit boy-crazy.
"Um this is Doumyouji." I told her. "He's my boyfriend." Makiko looked like her eyes were going to pop right out of her head and roll a few feet.
"N-no way!" Makiko gasped. "Your so lucky Tsukushi!"
"Hurry up." Doumyouji looked a little annoyed.
"Can we give Makiko a ride? We were going to hang out this afternoon." I explained him. Doumyouji's eyebrow twitched.
"I guess." He finally answered. Makiko squealed in excitement.
"Tsukushi," She grabbed my arm and whispered. "This is the coolest car I've ever been in." Makiko informed me as she got into the backseat.
"Just wait till you see how he drives it." I joked. I buckled my seatbelt and Doumyouji took off at a speed that would suggest he was in a race with a beam of light. Makiko seemed to like it though. We finally pulled up in front of the house. We ran inside ahead of Doumyouji.
"Oh wait," I stopped her as we passed the living room. Akira and Soujirou were at again at some video game. "This is Soujirou and Akira." The two boys looked up at Makiko studying her.
"Eh, not too bad." Soujirou whispered to Akira, loud enough for the rest of us to hear. Makiko was in too much of a daze.
"I'm Makiko." Makiko finally got out. Soujirou grinned flirtatiously and I made a note myself to watch him around my friend.
"Nice to meet you Makiko." Soujirou's voice held an air of double meaning. I shot him a look that said that if he tried to pull anything then I would kill him.
"Come on Makiko." I tugged at her sleeve. Makiko followed me waving at them as she walked up the stairs.
"Those guys are soooo cute!" Makiko was acting like her normal self. I smiled. It was nice to be back in the days of all my friends. "Tsukushi, how do you do it?"
"Do what?" I asked as I opened the door to my room.
"Have so much luck! You have a cute boyfriend who I might add, has an awesome car, you live in a house full of cute guys, and oh I don't…It just seems like you are always so lucky!" Makiko flopped down on my bed. "But I'm confused, what happened with Rui?"
"Rui…Rui has a girlfriend now. Her name is Shizuka." I felt that familiar pang to my chest.
"Oh Tsukushi, I'm sorry." Makiko gave me as comforting smile as she patted my hand.
"It's okay." I told her.
"Now tell me how you met Doumyouji! He lives here too doesn't he?" Makiko asked.
"Yeah he does. We um…" I had been meaning to tell Makiko all about how I wasn't really Doumyouji's girlfriend but then I realized that I couldn't. Doumyouji hadn't told anyone at all and how could I go back on him and tell? It just felt wrong. "We got together while scrubbing bathrooms."
"Wow, that's weird." Makiko was always very truthful with her opinions. "I can't imagine a guy like him scrubbing a bathroom!" Yeah, neither could I…
"That's basically all that's happened though." I concluded.
"Still, that's a whole lot! Imagine…it would make a good story." Makiko did like to write so this comment didn't surprise me. Although the thought of a story based on what was actually happening to me sounded rather unappealing at the moment.
"Now tell me what's been going on with you." I demanded while smiling. Makiko took a deep breath.
"Okay so you remember how…" Makiko began. I was glad to have her around again; she was so understanding and fun to be around. I felt a little bad about lying to her but figured it was probably all for the best.
_________
Woah, I really need to go to bed! Ah I do not want to go to school tomorrow but I shall for I must graduate from high school someday. (I wrote 2006 on my hand so I wouldn't forget when I graduate! ^_^!) Oh well, no one wants to hear the lament of a freshman so I hope I can bring forth yet another chapter to please all my gracious fans. But now I must go to bed!
Favorite Line In This Chapter: "No one plays cards after sex." (Any truth to this statement?)
