Illuminated
Monday Morning.
It was Monday again; the same Monday every week, with the same routine to go with it. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. Sometimes, it would be nice to drown myself if it meant getting out of going to school... And facing chipper Sakura... And Naoko's recent horror story... And Chiharu's scary, bright, yellow inflatable hammer which represented the gentle sun... And Rika's freakish silent mode and sparkling eyes when she spotted the infamous Terada-sensei (known for his absolutely delicious good looks but boring teaching methods)...
Sometimes it would be better to drown, she agreed with herself. It wouldn't be so bad, swallowing a few thousand mouthfuls of chlorine water... At least it would be clean... Hopefully... And it wouldn't be so bad if she could see the other end of the pool in her moment of triumph, when she would finally leave Terada-sensei's evil history textbook.
No, everything would be just dandy if she jumped into a pool right now! ...Though the closest pool which didn't need an entry fee would be in the Seijou Boys high school and she didn't feel like having her body floating in the water where anyone and everyone could watch and laugh... What's worse, she couldn't have any heroic little Seijou hero come and save her now could she? No, of course not, those almighty males would stop her from her task! She definitely could not and would not have that!
She glared at the running train tracks. Run train tracks, run, or face my terrible wrath!
"Tomoyo, stop glaring, those tracks have done nothing wrong to you at all." Chiharu prodded her on the shoulder.
"No, they have done something very evil to me, so evil, that I must glare at them." The words were grinded out of her teeth as she kept her gaze on the tracks.
"Oh, and what would that be? They are taking you to school on time for once?" The sarcastic words were followed by a muffled half snort half laugh of amusement.
Tomoyo turned and glared at her friend. "Be serious Chiharu, I don't find it funny."
"What? You're telling me that the reason you're angry is because you're going to school on time?"
Tomoyo nodded."Right... I thought you wanted the trains to come early 3 days ago..."
"Yes, well I've changed my mind. Who wants to be stuck with Terada-sensei on a Monday morning anyway?"
"Rika obviously does..."
The duo turned their heads in Rika's direction and watched her as she stared at her history book lovingly, stroking the cover and tracing the letters.
"That's a bit disturbing..."
"I don't care! We all know that Terada-sensei's the best looking guy in school, but I want to go home Chiharu! No, I don't want to be with that boring old teacher for almost two hours learning about castles! Take me home Chiharu! Take me home and I'll give you all the chocolate in my secret stash!"
"Serious?"
"I'm serious! I'll even give you my candy!"
"...really... What does the 'expired by' date say?"
Tomoyo blushed and returned to looking out the window of the empty train.
"Tomoyo, tell me now before I unleash my mallet rage on you!" Chiharu took out her mallet and waved it around threateningly.
"26 February..."
"26 February when?"
The mallet came dangerously close to her head.
"Two thousand and n..." Tomoyo mumbled.
"Sorry, I didn't hear that."
"One, two thousand and one..." Tomoyo edged closer to the window and away from the mallet giant.
"See, that wasn't so hard, was it? No it wasn't. Now tell me dear friend of mine, what date is it today?" She slammed her mallet menacingly on the train seat.
"... 20 October 2004..." Tomoyo sucked in her breath and waited.
"Excellent..." Chiharu turned away and started a conversation with Naoko.
Tomoyo sighed in relief and calmed her racing heart. She was saved. Nothing could beat Chiharu's mallet rage, nothing at all. She could consider herself blessed.
"Three years, can you believe that? More then three years! Do you still honestly think that she is a friend? Friends don't feed each other rotting chocolate and candy just so they can escape history! Are you listening to me Naoko?"
"Of course I am." Naoko flipped the page of her new horror story, "Mirror, Mirror". "Do whatever you want Chiharu, I don't mind. Just remember to play nice now, you know about that fiery temper of yours." She turned another page.
"Of course Naoko, I'll try to remember, but I can't guarantee that my memory is as large as my temper. Now... Where were we...?"
Chiharu turned around and caught sight of dark purple hair flowing down the aisle of the train.
"HALT IT!"
The hair came to an immediate stop before flopping lifelessly onto a uniformed back.
"And where do you think you're going?" Chiharu grabbed her mallet and marched down the aisle towards the shivering mass.
"Please forgive me Chiharu! I really wasn't going to feed you chocolate that has gone off! I'll buy you some delicious Belgium chocolate alright? I'll even buy you 5 bags of candy if you want to! Please don't hurt me!"
Chiharu ignored her pleas and marched steadily onwards. "DIE DAIDOUJI, DIE!!!"
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Tomoyo shot of down the isle and into the next carriage.
"Come back Tomoyo! Running won't get you anywhere now! Not when you have unleashed my mallet rage!"
Tomoyo ran on into the next carriage. She was terrified, petrified, horrified. The carriages won't last forever! She'll be trapped!
"Ooof..."
Someone grabbed her around the shoulders and steadied her as she woke from her dazzled state. She had tumbled into someone!
"Oh no... Please forgive me Chiharu; I'll get you a new mallet! And the chocolate and candy! Don't set your mallet rage on me!" She squeezed her eyes shut.
"Mallet rage, huh?" A soft voice whispered into her ear. A very soft voice... A very soft, deep, male voice...
She squeaked and tried to squirm out of the grasp of two very large, very slender, very perfect hands. After squirming for ten fruitless seconds, she stopped and allowed her eyes to travel up from the wonderful hands (must get a picture if possible) to the arms covered in a long sleeved white shirt, past those perfectly shaped shoulders, up the slender neck... and stopped to let her neck return to it's natural position and rest for a second. She had to say, this person was extremely tall. She'll have to try again.
This time, she ignored the hands, the arms, the shoulders and the neck as much as possible, but it turned out completely pointless because they were just so... Tomoyo sighed. She wouldn't let her neck bring her down this time!
She jerked her head up with amazing speed and was met face to face with the deepest, most alluring azure eyes she'd ever seen. Her breath caught in her throat; not even her neck screaming in agony could get her to move from that position.
She remembered now. That Friday, just last week. That guy, this guy. They were the same. Her wishes, her hopes and her fantasies had just come true.
She had seen him... Again...
Their eyes stayed locked together, and they each sought each other out, each trying to find their own emotions and also the person's standing before them.
So beautiful...
She longed to touch him, to cup his cheek in the palm of her hand. She wanted to...
"Tomoyo! What are you doing? You're fraternizing with the enemy!" Chiharu ran up to the couple, wheezing and spluttering.
Tomoyo brushed those hands off her shoulders gently before turning around to face Chiharu. ...but those hands had found their way back to their original position again. She shivered and stifled a sigh.
Heavenly...
She coughed and pulled her attention back to the matter at hand.
"Chiharu, you're in bad shape. I think you should go to that gym club in Tomoeda, they have wonderful activities there for you to participate in. I'm sure you'd be able to catch me next time if you want to use your mallet rage." Tomoyo teased her as she tried to forget that a certain pair of hands was on her shoulders. "Anyway, what do you mean by fraternizing with the enemy? Who's our enemy?" The clueless expression caused Chiharu and the male behind Tomoyo to sweat drop.
"Tomoyo, are you sure you don't know?" Chiharu spoke as slowly as she could to make sure that every word was understood.
"Of course I don't know! Who's our enemy? Are you talking about..." Tomoyo trailed off, unsure of what to say.
"Yes, Tomoyo, your 'friend' comes from Seijou Boys, our enemy! Don't you remember? We have wars at least once a month! Remember the water bomb war? And the dirt war? And the candy war? That one was yum, but still, they're the enemy!"
Tomoyo paused, and then turned around to face the guy. She inspected his uniform thoroughly. He was very good looking... He made an unfashionable set of uniforms seem more fashionable then the most fashionable piece of clothing in the world. ...and because she was speaking about the Seijou Boys uniform... That was quite impressive!
"So, you are the enemy." She grinned up at him nervously while he flashed his pearly whites her way. "Thanks, for before."
She held out her hand to him while Chiharu looked on in shock.
"Daidouji Tomoyo."
He clasped her hand in his and brought it up to his lips, planting a soft kiss on the back of her hand.
"Hiiragizawa Eriol."
They both blushed softly.
"Tomoyo!" Chiharu stormed up to them. "What are you doing?"
"Thanking the man who saved me from your evil mallet rage." She turned to Eriol. "Looks like we'll be getting off on the same stop."
He nodded and turned to his friends who were silently watching the show in amusement.
Tomoyo blushed. She didn't know she had that much of an audience!
"Come on Tomoyo! We're leaving; enemy territory isn't a good place to be in!" Tomoyo was plucked out of Eriol's grasp and dragged away from the group of males.
"Eh, thanks!" She waved to Eriol.
He nodded. "We might talk sometime!" He waved his hand in one swift motion and turned to fix his attention on his friends.
Tomoyo sighed. She was feeling all bubbly inside. She might be able to face Terada-sensei after all.
She smiled and locked the memory of today in her mind.
Boy, was she happy, was she blessed.
AN: WAH! Thank you very muchly reviewers and readers! I'm glad you don't think my story sucks... You don't right? Right...
I'm sorry for the late update, but I love to procrastinate and writers block gets me no where... although... I can't really call myself a writer... I'm sure all you lovely people have wonderful writing skills though!
Anyhow, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter!
All your wonderful reviews make me feel extremely happy! Thanks!