Sorry for the recent delay. I was in a car crash and things have been pretty messed up because of it.
Pain Inside
Part 10
"You look pretty smug this morning." Yaten commented as he sat down next to Seiya in their classroom. "I mean, sure, that was a good win on Friday, but you look like the cat that got the cream or something."
"That was a rather sharp observation, Yaten." Taiki commented, though it was hard to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not. "Maybe he's been up to no good. That seems to cheer you boys up noticeably."
"Oh, you'll see." Seiya's smile was so wide that Yaten immediately knew that some sort of prank was about to reach it's fruition. "Should be an entertaining morning."
"What'd you do now?" Yaten hissed. "And why'd you do it without me?"
"Well, now that you're such good pals with Hotaru, I thought you'd rather not help me with this morning's festivities." Reaching into his satchel, Seiya produced a small brown paper bag and handed it to the curious silver-haired boy. "Look in there if you want to know what I did."
"What's…oh." Yaten discerned a half-empty bottle of syrup in the bag. "Where did you put the rest of this?"
"I'm sure you can guess if you think very hard, Yaten." Taiki was clearly not pleased with them, as was evident in his tone.
"Why are you mad at me? I didn't help him this time." Yaten wanted to know, and Taiki shook his head, pulling out a book.
"The key term there is this time." The brunette explained shortly just as the object of their conversation entered the classroom, wearing her newly cleaned uniform and carrying a bag of books. Yaten wondered if they were the ones that had been covered in milk, or if she had been able to afford new volumes. He didn't actually know how wealthy she was. Seiya was trying not to laugh, so he knew that soon enough, he would see what had been done with the rest of the syrup. Sure enough, Hotaru sat down, and almost immediately made a face of confusion while Seiya had to bite his hand to fight back the laughter. Yaten was just starting to guess what was going on when the girl moved around in her seat, or at least attempted to. It did not seem to want to let her move at all. Making a short noise of exertion, she leapt from her seat, and seeing the trailing bits of syrup sticking to her clothes, gasped in disgust.
"Ugh, Tomoe-san, what's all over you? You're supposed to do things like that in the bathroom." Seiya called out loudly, drawing all attention to the clearly upset girl, who went utterly pale, shot a look of hope toward Yaten, who was busy studying his hands, and ran out of the room so that she could no longer hear the laughter following her.
"It wasn't really funny." Yaten muttered in annoyance. It had not been funny. It was just stupid, and the only reason anyone was laughing was because Seiya was already so popular, and so whatever he thought was funny demanded laughter. He looked around to see if everyone was part of his friend's flock of admirers and saw that predictably, Taiki was not entertained. Other than that, there were a few others who seemed to be either annoyed or irritated by the display, including that Ami girl that Taiki liked to study with. Another girl who was in choir, but whose name Yaten could not remember, seemed rather disapproving, and then there was Kakyuu. She looked almost as though Seiya had pranked her, or maybe like her puppy had just died. Well, at least Seiya would not get any gratification from his new crush due to his stupid antics.
"If you don't like it, tell him." Taiki hissed, and Yaten felt his face coloring for no apparent reason.
"What do I care what he does?" Yaten hissed back, annoyed that Taiki's moralistic speeches were actually bothering him for once. "It's just some loser getting laughed at."
"Do you think I'm really that stupid?" Taiki wanted to know, and then suddenly, Seiya was between them, still clearly pleased with himself.
"See, Yaten? It's funny." He patted the aggravated boy on the shoulder and then turned to Taiki. "Don't mind him, he's always got to pretend he doesn't think it's funny so he can be our voice of reason, right Taiki?"
"I have no involvement in this nonsense." Taiki returned with a very annoyed voice. Yaten thought it was very hypocritical that he was supposed to tell Seiya that his pranks were not funny or cool, while Taiki totally removed himself from the situation. If neither of them was doing anything, how was Taiki so much better than him? And why should it be Yaten's place to speak up? Seiya was being stupid, but he wouldn't listen if he was told so, and therefore it was better just to go along with him.
"I bet she's crying in the bathroom, or maybe she's off changing back into those gym clothes." Seiya seemed to think this was utterly hilarious, and Yaten noted with some sort of vindictive pleasure that Kakyuu was now actually glaring at the dark-haired soccer player.
"Hey, I don't think your girlfriend thought that was very cool." Yaten indicated the redhead, and Seiya fell silent as his gaze rose to meet hers, but she turned away, burying her nose in a book.
"She was looking over here?" he immediately began fussing with his hair, and Yaten utterly regretted saying anything. "Did she look impressed?"
"No." Yaten answered shortly, but apparently Seiya did not believe him.
"I knew she'd notice me if I started this up." He was now straightening and preening like a peacock on display. Yaten felt like vomiting. "And I heard she was at the game on Friday. She totally digs me."
"You are so delusional." Yaten snorted, ignoring the accusing gaze Taiki had leveled at him, and instead turning to doodle in the margins of his notebook.
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"Rei, are you all right?" Mamoru thought that it was probably his girlfriend's job to ask such questions, as it was her best friend so clearly moping along beside them on their way to the arcade after school that day, but Usagi seemed not to notice her friend's state, and so he took it upon himself to inquire after her wellbeing. "You seem a little down."
"I'm fine." She informed him in a voice that snapped so strongly with defensive anger that he determined immediately that not only was she clearly lying and obviously upset by something, but also that she was not going to tell him what it was, and that he did not want to attempt to find out again.
"Come on, Rei." Of course, Usagi seemed fearless when it came to such things. "If something is bothering you, you can tell us. Are we being too mushy?" she cuddled closer to Mamoru as though to illustrate her point, and Rei made a short noise of annoyance.
"You are definitely too mushy, but that's not what's bothering me." Rei sighed and turned a measuring gaze on both of them. "I got myself into a bad position recently, and now I have to deal with it. It's as simple as that."
"What kind of bad position?" Usagi released Mamoru slightly so that she could get a better look at Rei as they walked along. "Is there something wrong at the temple? Did you need to go home early? Because you don't have to stay if you don't want."
"No, nothing like that." Rei shook her head vigorously. "No, everything is fine at the temple right now. It's just…well, you'll see soon enough."
"What do you mean?" Mamoru couldn't stop himself asking. Rei was being rather cryptic. "Are you in trouble at all?"
"Well…not really." Rei sighed deeply and stopped as the reached the arcade. "I have a date."
"What?" Usagi squawked as Rei opened the door and nodded to a far table where a blonde boy was waiting, and shot her an extremely stunning smile when he saw her at the door. "Rei…is that…Jadeite Akahito? The soccer guy?"
"Yes, he plays soccer, but that's hardly the point." Rei rolled her eyes slightly. "He's been…harassing me lately, and I agreed to a wager. If his team lost on Friday, he'd leave me alone. If they won, I'd go out on one date with him. He's here to carry me off and claim his prize."
"Doesn't he have soccer practice right now?" Mamoru asked the first question he could think of, as about twenty were all swirling in his brain, and he thought half of them would end with him in extreme pain.
"Well, he told me some things are more important than soccer." Rei's snort of disgust left no doubt as to what she thought of Jadeite's sincerity. "So I'll be leaving you guys. I'm sorry, just…don't worry, okay? I have no reservations about kicking his ass."
"Rei! You came!" Jadeite sounded so utterly pleased that Rei was a little surprised. Usually he just sounded unbearably arrogant and smug. "I don't believe I've met your friends."
"Please…" Rei looked as though she wanted to cram Jadeite into the nearest trash receptacle, but she overcame her urges and instead politely introduced him. "This is my best friend Usagi, and her boyfriend Mamoru. Usagi, Mamoru, this is the bane of my existence, Jadeite."
"You did really well on Friday!" Usagi chirped eagerly before intercepting a glare from Rei and stopping herself. "I mean…um, just because you're a good soccer player doesn't mean you can mistreat Rei. She'll hit you really hard."
"Wow, thanks for that, Usagi." Rei sighed deeply once more and waved to the couple. "I'll see you lovebirds later."
"It was a pleasure to meet you both." Jadeite gave them each a short bow, which Mamoru returned jerkily before Rei snapped her fingers in the air in a beckoning gesture and began storming away down the sidewalk. "Rei, please, wait for me."
"Hino-san." She hissed. "I have repeatedly requested that you address me as Hino-san. And why did you insist on doing that?"
"What?" he blinked at her innocently and she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder toward the arcade.
"The polite gentleman act. I already told them about you, so don't think you can win them over. They're my friends, not yours." She lectured him. "Now let's get a damn cup of coffee or whatever it is you insist on so that I can go home and forget the day I was tricked into going on a date with you."
"I will have you know that I am a complete gentleman, Hino-san." He informed her. "Why, if it were raining right now, and we had to cross a deep puddle, and I had a cloak, I would sweep it off like so," he made a broad gesture, "so that you could cross without ruining your dainty shoes."
"Oh, piss off." Rei snorted. "Don't pretend to be chivalrous. I know you're an ass, and I personally like you better that way."
"So you do like me!" Jadeite nearly danced, his smile covering his entire face. "I knew it!"
"Would you stop?" she snapped at him. "Where are we going? I haven't got all day for this waste of time."
"Oh, this isn't our date." He informed her. "This is just so we can calmly discuss what you might like to do while on our date, which will be taking place on Friday, since everyone knows that you can't have a really good date at the very beginning of the week. This is only business, discussing the terms of my victory."
"What?" Rei stopped completely, and Jadeite had to turn around to rejoin her. "This…isn't our date?"
"No, of course not." He shook his head and laughed as though the idea of a Monday date was a great joke. "You thought it was?"
"Of course I did, or I wouldn't be here!" turning on her heel, Rei started right back toward the arcade with Jadeite right alongside her once he caught back up to her. "You are such a bastard, trying to weasel out two dates instead of the one."
"I never did!" he protested. "We can plan wherever you want, of course, but I just wanted to be sure we agreed on what was going to happen so there would be no misunderstandings."
"A little late for that, don't you think?" she asked him angrily. "And for the record, I don't care what happens on our date as long as it is short and painless."
"Are you officially forfeiting any say on what happens on our date?" Jadeite asked, his eyes lighting up in a way that gave Rei pause as she stood at the door of the arcade once more.
"Well…okay, come and tell me what you had in mind. But then you leave. And don't try to touch me or call me by my first name." she warned him.
"Of course not, Hino-san." He winked at her and produced a grin that would have put the Cheshire cat to shame. "After all, am I not the perfect gentleman at all times?"
"I hate my life."
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"I hate my life." Hotaru sighed as she flopped back on her couch, listening to the washer droning in the background. One day without having to severely wash her uniform would seem nice, she was sure. She was positive now that Seiya was the one behind the attacks, but she couldn't prove it, and even if she could, there was nothing that would be done, she was sure. He was the kind of student that got away with everything. The very rich kind.
Of course, Hotaru was rather well to do, but she did not have parents as rich as Seiya Kou, she was positive. Her mother was dead since almost before she could remember, and her father was a college professor who spent his off time researching and developing with the money he received in the form of grants. She wished sometimes that her mother was still around to remind her father what it meant to be a human, to have emotions, to care for your daughter. It wasn't that he didn't love her. She was sure that he did. He just never said it. He never showed it.
It was a lonely life, and while she had grown used to it, she had also been Mamoru's best and only friend since they could barely walk, and now…and now…
Now he had a girlfriend, and while she seemed very nice, and Hotaru could tell he was happy, and was therefore pleased about it all, she still missed her friend. She knew that he would not mind her tagging along with them, but it would somehow seem odd, being the third wheel to Mamoru and his girlfriend.
It made her wish she had someone special like that. But she couldn't even go a week without having her uniform ruined, so the chances of a boy ever liking her seemed very slim indeed. She wondered sometimes if she wanted to fit in, or if she just wanted to be loved. She craved both, but she thought that she would rather have the latter than the former. If she had to choose. If she even had the choice. Hotaru was beginning to believe that her life was only going to get worse.
And she couldn't tell Mamoru. He was so happy. She couldn't ruin that. And she wasn't completely without comfort. Yaten still seemed to treat her just the same, as if his best friend had not launched some horrible campaign of harassment against her for reasons she could hardly fathom. Yaten seemed very mean and very cold, but it was odd the way some things appeared. Seiya seemed very open and friendly, but in her experience, Yaten was the kinder of the two, and Seiya only used his friendly exterior to hide a viciousness that she was beginning to fear.
The only good thing that had happened recently had taken place that day in choir. There had been auditions for the two lead solos of one of the songs they'd be performing in concert, and she had secured the alto part, much to her own surprise. She was very happy that Yaten was the tenor, but she tried to pretend she did not care one way or the other. If he thought she had some sort of feelings for him, he would no doubt treat her the way he treated poor Minako.
It was enough just to be his friend.
He was such a nice boy, really. A very beautiful person that she felt privileged to know. She wished she could be more like him. He always said what he believed, and never let others overrule him without justification. He had a strong will, and she admired that.
Yes, Yaten was like a light in the darkness for her.
The End (Of Part 10, That Is)