I feel like I'm being good now. Updating, two weeks in a row…woo me.
Pain Inside
Part 8
"This is such a stupid idea." Yaten grumbled as he stood at the doorway of the girls' locker room dressed in his gym clothes and watching to see that no one was coming. "Are you done yet?"
"No, and I won't be for a while. I don't know which one is hers." Seiya hissed back in irritation. "And if you think it's such a stupid idea, why don't you think something up next time. I think it's brilliant."
"Yeah, totally genius." Yaten rolled his eyes and checked his watch. "If you get caught in there, you won't think it's so wonderful anymore, that's for damn sure."
"Then keep watch, stupid!" Seiya stuck his head out from behind a row of lockers to be sure Yaten was doing just that. "Man, what's with you today? You always loved doing this stuff last year."
"Well, maybe Taiki's right. Maybe this stuff is too juvenile for us." Yaten huffed, checking his watch yet again and fidgeting slightly. "I mean, really. Pour milk all over her clothes? How is that supposed to be cool?"
"Think about it, Yaten." Seiya grumbled from where he was checking each locker in turn again. "She'll get out of gym, and her uniform will be soaked. Even if it dries, it will smell disgusting, cause duh, milk. And I will have you remember, it's that nasty milk from the back of your fridge. The stuff that expired weeks ago, and you haven't opened cause you're too afraid of how it'll smell. So she'll have to wear her gym clothes all day, and either way, she'll smell horrid. Not that it's much of a difference for a little freak like her."
"I don't think she smells that bad." Yaten mumbled from where he was standing.
"Did you just say something?" Seiya poked his head out again.
"No, nothing." Yaten felt his stomach clench slightly. Why was this giving him so much trouble? Seiya and him were born to play pranks like this. It made life more colorful. Was it because the target was a girl? Maybe it seemed a little too easy. After all, she didn't seem like a very powerful opponent. And why did he feel like ever since Seiya had suggested this, every time he saw her face, those purple eyes were accusing him? Why did he even care what color her eyes were? "Are you done yet?"
"Calm down, princess. I've just found her stuff." There was a shuffling noise and his head appeared around the edge of the lockers again. "Should I pour it on her books, too?"
"I don't know, that seems a little…" Yaten shook his head sharply and then bit his lip before answering. "Sure, that'd be pretty funny."
"Yeah, I thought so!" Seiya let out a little laugh before disappearing again. There were a few more shuffling sounds, the splashing noise of the milk being poured into the locker, and then Seiya reappeared, holding the empty carton and looking very triumphant. "I did it!"
"Great, want a gold star?" Yaten punched his arm a little harder than usual. "Throw that thing away or we'll get busted." He pointed at a nearby trash can, and Seiya tossed it from where he stood, also in his own gym clothes, doing a victory dance when it went in. "Come on, spaz, we're already late, and the sooner we get there, the sooner Taiki will finish his Irresponsible Delinquency Speech."
"Wouldn't want to miss that, now would we?" Seiya punched Yaten's arm as well, and the shorter boy rolled his eyes. This would all be very comfortable, usually. But something just felt wrong, and he couldn't shake that feeling. Maybe he was just experiencing preemptive annoyance at Taiki's imminent scolding, or maybe he was still irritated about Hotaru's eye color. Stupid color, really. Purple. No wonder she was so quiet. It couldn't really go very well with any sort of clothing decision. Unless she wore black, he supposed. But then, who'd want to wear black all the time? And why was he so preoccupied with what color Hotaru would look best in? She wouldn't look that good, anyway. Her skin was…clearly too pale, and her eyes were just too big. And purple. Purple was definitely a stupid color for eyes to be.
Clearly, he wasn't guilty at all. He just found her whole existence so…grating. That was all. So it was a good thing they were pranking her, because if it was someone else, he might feel remotely bad. And he certainly did not feel bad at all. Certainly.
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"Looking good Tomoe-san!" Seiya hooted after Hotaru as she made her way to choir, still in the gym clothes she'd been wearing all day. When she had returned from the locker rooms nearly twenty minutes late, she was made to stand out in the hall for ten minutes as punishment, and when she returned, Seiya had loudly asked what it was that smelled like something died, while Hotaru had flushed deep red and nearly melted into her seat. Yaten found himself secretly hoping she'd protest, or lodge a complaint, or do something, as she was so clearly upset by the whole thing, and she obviously guessed who the perpetrator had been. He tried not to dwell on this very much, and convinced himself that he simply found people who were pacifists to be irritatingly stupid. After all, how did they expect to be treated with anything resembling respect if they couldn't even speak up for themselves? "Hope you don't have to sit with her in choir, Yaten." Seiya patted his friend's back sympathetically as he spoke loud enough for the retreating girl to hear. "It should be bad enough just being in the same room." Laughing loudly, he turned to go to soccer practice, and Yaten idly wondered if his friend would trip over his own feet and manage another injury. Surely Taiki could only hope for another chance to visit the nurse.
"Were you there?" Hotaru's voice snapped him out of his trance as he found her waiting for him just outside the entrance to the choir room. Her eyes, still irritatingly large, still annoyingly purple, bored into his, and he felt sick to his stomach. "Did you…I know you two are friends."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Yaten brushed past her and entered the choir room with her just behind him.
"I mean, someone, probably Seiya, snuck into the locker rooms just before gym and poured rotten milk all over my things. He ruined my books!" Hotaru's voice was accusing, now. "Were you helping him? Were you there? I know both of you were late to class. I saw you come in."
"Well, Hotaru-san, I didn't know you cared." He offered her his best smile, but she did not seem flattered by it at all. She only seemed angry. "And besides all that, I don't know who put milk on your things. I was late because I went back to look for Seiya. I noticed he wasn't around, and as you said, he is my friend. Interrogation over?"
"It was him, though, wasn't it?" she asked, seemingly calmer now. "I know it was Seiya."
"Okay, first of all, I don't see why you care about a bunch of stupid books." He ticked items off on his fingers. "Second, you can just wash the clothes. And third, why would Seiya want to do something stupid like that in the first place?"
"I don't know." Hotaru bit her lip and looked sufficiently guilty. "I guess…it could have just been an accident or something. Like, maybe someone had milk in there and when they tasted how rancid it was, they just, I don't know, threw it, and then maybe it got in my locker just by chance." She supposed, but she did not look very convinced by this scenario.
"See? All this righteous anger over a little spilt milk. Very unflattering, Hotaru-san." Yaten again tried the smile, and this time he received a small grin in return. "Now, let's be good, attentive students for the poor choir teacher, alright?"
"Alright." Hotaru giggled slightly.
Yaten decided that he found her giggling even more ridiculous and stupid sounding than regular girl giggling. Or even Minako giggling.
"Hey, are you going to the soccer game on Friday?" he asked her, without thinking. He immediately wanted to smack himself in the forehead.
"I…wasn't planning to." Hotaru flushed deeply, another action which Yaten was sure he found utterly annoying. That was the only explanation for that weird clenching feeling in his chest. Extreme annoyance. "Why? Are you going?"
"It should be pretty cool." He answered vaguely, and then kept his mouth shut before he put his foot in it any further than he already had.
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"This is without a doubt, your peak of idiocy." Nephlyte told his friend calmly as they stood outside Kunzite's classroom, waiting for him to emerge. Well, that was part of the reason they were there. Nephlyte's morbid curiosity was another. That, and Jadeite's inability to understand when he was fighting a losing battle.
"Shut up, Dateless Boy." Jadeite hissed, ruffling his hand through his hair to give it a mussed look. "How do I look?"
"Ready to be kicked." Nephlyte answered easily as Kunzite joined them, looking a bit surprised and curious at their presence. "Hey, Jadeite's back for more."
"More?" Kunzite asked, but there was no time to explain, as Jadeite had suddenly moved to block the doorway, a sure signal that the target of his attentions had appeared.
"You?" A highly annoyed female voice told them that Rei was on the other side of Jadeite, trapped in the classroom by his quick maneuver. "Again? What, did I wrong you in some former life, so you've come back to kill me with annoying masculinity?"
"Rei, I love it when you're angry. It proves that you really do care about me." He flashed her his most brilliant smile, and she rolled her eyes in irritation.
"Would you move? And would you stop calling me Rei? I have repeatedly asked you to refer to me as Hino-san, Akahito-san." She ordered him, and he only smiled in more brightly still.
"I came to ask if you're working tonight." He asked her, his confidence seemingly unaffected by her harsh tone. "Because I thought you'd like to see the first soccer game. It's a six, and I'll be playing, so you could come cheer for me."
"If I went to that stupid game, it would be to cheer for the opposite team, simply because it is the team that you are not on. Also, I would be hoping they might injure you. Horribly." Rei smiled at him darkly, and he backed up slightly.
"Well, I had a slight proposition, you know, to make things more interesting." He recovered almost immediately. "You don't have to go to the game, but I think you might want to. See, if we lose the game, I'll agree to never bother you again."
"As if you'd hold to that." Rei looked rather intrigued, however. Her hand stroked her chin thoughtfully before she spoke again. "What if you guys win?"
"Then you have to agree to go on a date with me." Jadeite told her, feeling brilliantly skilled at improvising. "Just one date, and I swear I'll be a perfect gentleman. I'll even call you Hino-san. Unless, you know, you change your mind about that one." His stunning smile was slightly impaired as Nephlyte and Kunzite burst into barely muffled laughter, and he made a mental note to beat the stuffing out of them at the earliest possible opportunity. Rei was still surveying him shrewdly, and seemed not to have noticed or cared about his friends' outburst. Finally, she stuck her hand out.
"Okay, let's shake on it, then." She told him. "And if you go back on your word, I'll get my friend Makoto to beat the crap out of you."
"Kino Makoto?" Nephlyte spoke up suddenly, and all eyes turned to him. "Um, yeah, she's in our class…that is."
"Right." Jadeite chose to wait until Rei was gone to tease Nephlyte mercilessly. "Okay, that sounds like a deal." They shook hands, and then she brushed past him to go home and help her grandfather out. Yes, she would definitely be going to that game tonight. She wanted to be positive that he lost, and that she'd never have to put up with that arrogant smiling ass ever again.
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"So, could you, um, ask her…I mean, if you…yeah." Zoicite's face was completely scarlet as he hissed whispered requests to Taiki, who was sitting just between Ami and him that afternoon at Literary Criticism. "Cause yeah."
"Fine, I'll do it." Taiki thought it was rather adorable the way that Zoicite pined after Ami, and Ami pined after Zoicite, and both were utterly unaware of the other's feelings. He also found it vaguely annoying, and he wished they'd both just say something and be done with it. "Ami, do you want to go to the soccer game tonight?"
"Oh…um, will Zoicite be…I mean, um, what time?" Ami flushed almost as deeply as Zoicite before coughing and straightening herself slightly.
"It's at six." Taiki told her. "And yes, Zoicite will definitely be there. He wanted to know if you'd sit next to him." That was a lie, but Taiki figured that it wasn't really a lie if Zoicite clearly wanted nothing more desperately than Ami sitting next to him for an entire soccer match.
"Oh! Um…yes, sure." Ami went a deeper shade of red before they all returned their attention to the discussion.
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"So now we're all going, so I wanted to know if you wanted to come, too. Because, well, you know." Usagi flushed as she curled the telephone cord around her finger and spoke into the receiver. "And…if you wanted to bring your friend Hotaru, I'd love to meet her."
"Oh, yes, that sounds great." Mamoru answered her from his own phone. "I'll call her just as soon as I get off the phone with you."
"So you'll be there then?" she squealed happily. "At six?"
"Of course."
"And you'll bring her?"
"I'll try."
"Okay, I'll see you then!"
"See you." There was a long breathy silence, before they both hung up, and Mamoru dialed Hotaru's number. This would be a good chance to spend time with her, something he hadn't been doing much of lately, so he was very pleased when she answered the phone.
"Hello?" her tone was just as kind as ever, and he grinned as he answered it.
"Hey, Hotaru. It's me, Mamoru." He told her. "Usagi's friends are going to the soccer match tonight. Do you want to come and meet them? Because they're all really hoping to meet you, I know."
"Oh…um, well, I suppose I could." She smiled as she answered, though he could not see it. "I was just doing some laundry, but it should be done soon. What time should I be there?"
"We're all meeting at six." He answered her. "I'll be watching for you!"
"Okay, great." She hung up, and her smile dropped away almost immediately. She had thought about telling Mamoru about what happened to her at school, but it seemed stupid to ruin his good mood, so she thought maybe that wasn't the best idea. After all, maybe it had been nothing more than an accident.
And at least it hadn't been Yaten. She didn't think she could bear him being cruel to her. Not when she was so sure that they were becoming friends. She had very few friends.
The End (Of Part 8, That Is)