Chpater 12
Despite warnings, Omi did decide to go to school the following day. A packet of tissues didn't come amiss in the teenager's pocket as he sat, again in his English class, and pulled them out.
"Now then," the English teacher scribbled on the board as she spoke, "Shakespeare used pathetic fallacy in the storm that Lear goes into, because it reflects his mood and…"
Omi took this unfortunate moment to sneeze – loudly – into his tissue. He rubbed at his nose a few times before noticing people staring at him oddly. Sighing, and his cheeks tingeing red, he laid the packet carefully on the desk and took up his pen again. Nothing had gone right so far, why should they start to now?
"After the lesson please, Mr. Tsukiyono."
Omi just nodded wearily and let her continue the lesson, returning into his own thoughts and letting the entirety of what she said glide blissfully over him. He didn't care if King Lear had daughters who didn't give a damn about him. The sting of being squeezed out of the mission was still hurting, but it wasn't something you could really explain to anyone. Absently he began drawing kanji on his exercise book, all types of moods, sad, miserable, irritated, all sorts of words to explain himself.
Richard nudged him. "Owch… Something bugging you?"
Omi nodded, staring at his page, which was by now full of kanji. And not one of them appeared to do his present frame of mind justice.
"Anything I can help with?"
Omi shook his head. "Not really…"
Richard paused for a moment, watching Omi continue to scratch at his notebook. "You seen much of the town yet? There's not much around but…" The blonde boy cautiously let the offer hang, as the rumble of casual class chatter rose again, letting them speak more freely.
Omi blinked and looked up. "Honto ni?" [Really?]
"Magi." [Really.] Said Richard, smiling a little at Omi's tone of voice.
"Demo..." [But…] Murmured Omi before checking himself and switching languages. "I have to go straight home."
"Why?" Richard shrugged and rested his head on a hand, watching the Japanese teenager intently. "You live with your brothers, right?"
Omi nodded.
"So, who are they to boss you around? If it was your parents, fine I get that. But brothers aren't parents. They've got no right to be bossing you around."
"Yeah, but…"
"But what? You don't let them boss you around do you?" There was a hint of scorn in Richard's voice that Omi couldn't miss, no matter how sick he was. He rubbed at his nose again with a tissue, thinking. There wasn't really a reason he had to go straight home, they just got twitchy if he was out too long. They said he was 'vulnerable'. Even as he thought the word he was angry again. How old did they think he was anyway? This was beyond stupid. If they were going to kick him out of a mission, they obviously didn't need him around for anything important, so why shouldn't he go out?
He nodded for a few moments before speaking. "Sure, I'll go. I have nothing important going on."
Meanwhile, the three others of Weiss weren't exactly having a peachy time of it. There was to be precision timing in this mission, not least because of the fact that there were two targets to be taken out simultaneously. Aya didn't understand the specifics of that, nor did he want to. It just was. And if it was, one thing it wasn't was to be argued with.
However, what all this precision meant was that Weiss was to get very bored, very quickly. Yohji had been given the title of "lead shopper" with Ken as his helper. They got out of the house at least. And Aya was grateful of that. It gave his mind a little room to think about what was going on. Most of that afternoon Aya spent berating himself about letting Omi even go to school. They knew that target was Omi's age. They'd even placed him in the area. So why the hell were they letting the brunette even go to school? He was ill, and he'd been having a hard time of it as it was. He wanted to go, Aya reminded himself sharply. He wants to be treated like an adult. The redhead looked up then, his gaze on the ceiling. "So... if he wants to be so mature, can't I even treat him like a friend?"
AN: Another reeeeeeeally short chapter. I admit. And don't look for any regularity... I apologise for that :( But many many thanks to Ryoko who sent me email demanding I get my butt in gear ^_^;; See? Mailing authors does reap rewards! And don't ask about the "simultaneous targets" – that's a problem to be solved in another chapter ~_~;;