Chapter 18: Aftermath of a few Kisses
Azami blushed, she'd slapped Lei harder than she had intended to. He looked at her with haunting eyes and a blank expression on his face. She flashed him an angry looked, crossed her arms and closed her eyes. 'Why doesn't he stop looking at me like that! It's HIS fault!'
"That was totally unnecessary." Rae blurted out.
"Why? Should I just let him harass Yukino! She's incapacitated for God's sake." Azami retorted.
"That's all the more reason we should believe Lei."
"Why are you siding with him?"
"Cause I think he's right."
"But—" before Azami could finish her sentence, Rae turned her back on her. Azami hated that, she was about to lay a hand on the girl's shoulder when Rae spoke. "I'm beginning to think your jealous." even Lei snapped out of his stupor with that last remark.
"OF COURSE NOT!" she shouted in protest.
Rae sniggered. "Then why are you all fired up about it?"
Azami shuffled her feet and bowed down her head in embarrassment. "Whatever." Rae elbowed her friend lightly and grinned. "You take things too seriously you know."
Lei was amazed, Rae had so easily calmed Azami down. She made it look so easy. Usually it took him a really big gesture to get on her good side again. Lei brushed of the dust on his robes. "At any rate, its getting late. We better bring Yukino to the clinic quick."
Yukino nodded half-heartedly and hoisted her arms around his back. "Let's go."
The next morning Yukino woke up with no recollection of last nights events, all she could remember was passing out before the last act of the play. Yukino brushed the hair away from her eyes, still adjusting to the light she rubbed her eyes. To her surprise she found herself looking at the ceiling of her room. She was still feeling dizzy and strangely hot. "The Play!" she said out loud.
Something stirred beside her pillow. Lei was sleeping there! She quickly crawled towards him on all fours. He was sitting on a stool with his head and arms resting on the bed. Yukino had to admit, despite being clumsy, extremely unlucky, and embarrassment to himself… He had his good points. He looked cute just snoring there.
The door swung open and in came Azami with two plates with pancakes. Yukino greeted Azmi with a smile and she returned it. "How are you feeling Yukino-chan?" Azami asked cheerily.
Yukino shook her head. "Not so good, I can't remember anything from yesterday." Azami nodded, she understood the situation perfectly. This time she would keep her emotions in check.
Azami put down the plates on a table nearby. She approached Yukino and placed a hand on her forehead. "Your still feverish, but it's really mild now. According to the nurse that drug should have worn off by now."
Yukino's eyes snapped open. "What drug!"
Azami sucked her fingers, a habit of hers whenever she was in deep thought. "Someone deliberately drugged you so you couldn't perform last night."
Yukino shook her head. "Why would anyone do that?"
"There's a prize for anyone who wins, I checked into it. Other groups were sabotaged as well."
"That explains enough."
Azami sighed. "But there's something I have to tell—"Lei yawned loudly cutting her sentence short. He groggily got up. He straightened and stretched his arms into the air. He smiled ath the two girls "Morning Yuki, Azami… Hey what's up with you two?" he blinked stupidly. Both girls wore horrified expressions on their faces and both were blushing furiously.
Lei followed their gaze, to the bottom of his waist… The large bulge down there was fairly obvious. He felt a chill run up his spine when he looked up at Azami, instead of the girl, what he saw was the flat-side of the katana on a collision course with his face.
"GOODMORNING TO YOU TOO!" Azami screamed into his ear, she picked up the now dazed mage and kicked him outside the room. "To think I even made him pancakes." she muttered under her breath.
Rae entered Yukino's room with a mildly amused look on her face. "What did he do this time?" she said before drinking her cup of coffee.
"It's something we'd rather not discuss." Yukino said calmly.
Rae pulled out the school paper from her robes. "Hey, have you guys thought up a booth for the foundation day fair?"
Azami shook her head. "I don't plan to volunteer" she looked at Yukino. "Me neither." She said.
Rae sighed. She opened the paper and pointed out to the bottom of the paragraph. Rae read it out loud "…students must have a booth by the fifth; groups must consist of four people or less. This is compulsory for freshmen students." Rae rolled up the school paper and took another sip of her morning coffee.
"So you wanna team up with me? I've got the perfect idea for a booth. It'll combine all our best assets in such a way that everyone's sure to notice." she said with an air of achievement. "What do I have to lose, Lei's already taken my dignity, sanity and everything else in between in just the span of a few weeks." she said bitterly. Yukino nodded enthusiastically "Sure, I'd love working with you guys." Rae held out a paper form and asked the two to fill it up.
Azami was reading the letter when Rae suddenly leaned over her side. "Was he a good kisser?" she asked. Azami lost track of what she was reading, she just quickly scribbled down her signature over the form. She thrust it over to Rae's hands.
Once they were finished she stuffed the forms in her pockets. Rae grinned devilishly. "Do you guys know what the prize for best booth is?" her voice was seeping with excitement. Yukino scratched her head "No idea."
"The booth with the most people gets an extra twenty points on their final grade! The runners up get some secret prize… I'm aiming for the first prize though. I can just fool around for the rest of the year and still be sure I'll pass!" her voice was bordering on pure bliss and her face in a mad expression of twisted glee.
Azami rubbed her chin. "What will our booth be?"
Rae slammed her palm on the bed "A Kissing booth of course!"
Both girls looked scandalized. Rae grinned from ear to ear.
"I've seen you two girls in action… Plus our looks!" Rae burst into a fit of devilishly bone chilling laughter.
"I want out! Lei stealing my first kiss was bad enough! Don't you agree Yukino!" Azami exclaimed angrily.
Yukino looked at Azami with a confused expression on her face. "Say what?"
"You kissed him last night as well, you should—' Azami caught her tongue before she could say anything else. Yukino was shocked to the core.
"I-I did!" Yukino's face was flushed, her voice trembling.
Rae gave Yukino a friendly pat on the back. "It's alright, you were intoxicated… You really don't remember anything do you?" Rae asked.
The brunette nodded weakly, her eyes had a vacant look in them. More notable was her now rosy-red cheeks.
Rae shook her hand menacingly. "Azami I'm sorry, but you've already filled up the forms, irreversible process and all that—" Azami cut her off by shouting "Shit! You tricked me with that question! So that's why you asked all of a sudden."
Rae had a smug look on her face. "Anything is fair in love and war. In this case it's both." She stuck out her tongue at Azami.
Yukino sighed in exasperation, she was too busy trying to remember the events that had transpired last night.
"Who's our forth member?" Azami asked with a hint of barely suppressed rage in her voice.
Rae beamed at the girl. "Who else?"