Hello fesitval!

Chapter Five

I know about you, Mizuki…

W-What?

I know that you're a girl. I've know about it a long time…

Sano…

Mizuki…

Sano…

Mizuki…

Sa…no…

"Mizuki! Hey!"

Ashiya's eyes immediately opened, Sano was upside-down in front of her…why was he upside-down? Wait a minute…why was her stomach so cold? Was her shirt hiked up?

"KYAAA!"

Mizuki sat up, bumping her head on the ceiling and immediately falling backwards again, her legs, which had been tangled in the covers, flailed as she twisted and toppled out of the top bunk.

"Watch out!"

Mizuki's eyes bugged out of her head as she collided right into Sano, knocking him down onto the floor, the sheets fluttering down over them much more gracefully then the teens had plummeted down. Sano groaned beneath her, his hands had instinctively coiled around her and when he moves, his hands were touching her shoulders; opening his eyes he watched her push herself up onto her elbows and her knees, straddling his left leg.

Wide eyes locked for a moment as they sat there in shock for a moment before Mizuki's face turned crimson and she immediately tried to push herself off of him, blurting out rapid apologies until Sano's hands suddenly pulled her back down, arms wrapping around her and holding her against him.

"You're so warm…" he murmured.

"S-Sano…"

He peered down at her head, "which is good 'cause it's so cold in here."

"D-Don't use me as a hot water bottle!"

Sano released her as much as he hated to and sat up as she scrambled to get off of him, forgetting her legs were still in the blanket's hold, she toppled over again in a ball beside him.

"No…it's too early for this!" she groaned.

Smiling slightly, Sano started to help her unwind the blankets from her legs. "I got you up because it's Friday."

Mizuki's eyes widened. Friday, the first day of the festival had arrived already…that was the reason she was so tired, because their entire afternoon after school was dedicated to helping finish the preparations as the festival area at the Shrine. Sano didn't come until later because of practice but by the end of the day, they were worn out. But even as Mizuki watched Sano unwind her legs from the sheets pulled from her bed, she remembered that this was the only day she could truly enjoy the festival without worrying about the contest.

Saturday was the true day she dreaded, the contest was to take place as seven o'clock and it would end whenever a participant reached the finish line. She didn't know if they would let her watch with Sano on the side lines or if she had to be somewhere specific…but if Sano could be beside her, she knew she wouldn't be so nervous.

"There, now you should get dressed, we're going to be late if you keep stumbling over yourself."

She scrambled to her feet, gathering up her uniform before slipping into the bathroom to change, Sano smiled thoughtfully after her, turning back to the beds and tossing her sheets back up onto her bunk. It was best not to tell her that he was competing…that would give him away, even though it may have taken her a long time to figure it out…

Fixing his uniform tie, Sano grabbed his jacket from the back of his chair, swinging it around and sliding his arms into the sleeves, eyes focusing on the calendar that Mizuki had yet to hang up on her wall. He edged towards it a little, picking it up from the desk. The plastic had been torn off and one of the corners was bent from obvious human contact. He flipped through the pages for a moment, a doggy-eared page caught his eye and he opened it up. At first glance he saw "High-Jumping" printed at the bottom of the page over a blue background and the typical boxes. Little dates of importance were filled in with Mizuki's miniaturized handwriting in English. But when he looked at the picture, he could see the real reason why the page was doggy-eared as it had been. There was a large picture of him in the middle of a high jump from his better days before he had stopped jumping…

Sano could feel his face starting to burn a little, looking at his own picture he noticed how incredibly smooth the jump appeared…he made it look so easy in this picture too. A lot easier then it actually was. He closed the calendar abruptly, laying it back onto the desk just as Mizuki emerged from the bathroom, dressed and ready to bolt.

"S-Sorry for taking so long. I had trouble with the tie." She panted, straightening it.

"You could've asked for help." He said, noticing how her shirt was slightly un-tucked still. He wanted to tuck it in for her…feel her hips briefly if not longer…just once…

No! Stop thinking like that! Sano inwardly snapped at himself, What are you thinking?

"Let's go." He murmured, passing her and grabbing his bag from where it rested beside the door. "We're really going to be late if we don't get out of here…"

"Girls…"

"Onigiri…"

"First Prize…"

"Girls…"

"Onigiri…"

"Mizuki in a dress…"

"Girls…"

"Will you three knock it off?" Sano said flatly, looking at the three males sitting across from him and Mizuki. Noe, Nakatsu and Kyogo all hung their heads guiltily. Well, who could blame them? They were all excited about the up-coming festivities later that evening. But it was lunch for crying out loud; the festival doesn't come until after this scene is rudely cut off b the lazy author.

Wait…

"Mizuki."

Ashiya immediately looked back at the sudden voice and saw Nanba standing there with his usual smile on his face as he stuck his hands into his pockets.

"What is it?" she asked, puzzled.

"Your wing arrived today, some of the seniors wanted to see you try it on." He grinned, holding up a box, Mizuki's jaw dropped and he laughed. "But I won't force you into it, I'm going to have them wait until tomorrow so you can rest easy tonight."

"Thank you, Nanba!" she said, clasping her hands together, "Thank you!"

"Sempai!"

Minami's eyes widened and he looked towards the voice calling out to him, spotting the feminine Nakao closing in fast.

"Shit…I'll talk to you about your job tomorrow." He said before striding off, Nakao calling after him as he too strode past.

Mizuki turned back to her lunch; her nerves were once again crawling into her stomach, making the food much less appealing as it had been earlier. She stared down at her rice and oden rather passively, as if she were looking right through the food and the table along with it. Sano peered over at her, nudging her with his elbow to snap her out of her staring spell.

"Don't worry about it so much." He said, "Now eat your food."

"Ok…" she murmured, picking up her chopsticks again.

Nakatsu watched them for a moment, unknowing that the chunk of meat he was about to eat had slipped back out of his chopsticks and plopped back into his oden.

Sano's not going to join the competition…is he?

When Mizuki was eating again, Sano made an uncomfortable face, rubbing his chest a little near the center of his ribs. It was where Mizuki had elbowed him in her fall earlier that morning, of course he didn't make a fuss of it before but he had a feeling that she might have made a little bruise there…or maybe it was just a little sore there.

"Do you guys want to meet by the gateway of the shrine when we go to the festival?" Noe asked, resting his chopsticks back onto the table, his lunch gone.

"That's a good idea…" Kyogo murmured, nodding in agreement.

Sano frowned a little again, Mizuki following suit.

"You think Nakatsu and Sano will attract girls, don't you?"

"Well…Sano is the god of sexiness…" Kyogo said, pushing his glasses straight when they started to slide down his nose, "And a lot of girls go for Nakatsu as well so we thought it wouldn't hurt to bring them along."

We're not your bitch monkeys. Sano thought bitterly, sipping a canned tea.

"Let's just meet if we see each other there, ok?" Mizuki said, "You two can meet girls on your own." She was feeling a bit possessive by saying this…but Mizuki couldn't help herself, she was a little jealous at the thought that girls from other schools would catch Sano's interest.

Just the thought gave the poor girl chills…

The day went by surprisingly fast, an evening of festivities in sight at last as Mizuki walked in between Sano and Nakatsu up the sidewalk towards the shrine. A few girls ran past in kimonos, holding thick decorative wraps around their shoulders and giggling little puffs of breath into the air, Nakatsu watching them with little interest since his only heart-throb was walking beside him.

Mizuki began to wish that she could dress up in a kimono just a freely, but if she could…she wouldn't be close with Sano like this…they may not have even met at all if she did. This thought was enough to knock some sense back into her and she continued to walk with them up the steps to the shrine, voices were already filling the air and Mizuki could see colorful kimonos among the bodies along with an array of uniforms and casual dress.

"Wow! There're so many!" Mizuki gasped, her eyes widening as they reached the top of the stairs. "And all of these people are teenagers that go to the local schools?"

"Public and private schools alike from freshmen to seniors." Nakatsu said, looking at the booths that lined the wide walkway and following the lines of paper lanterns arching down towards the crowd from where they were suspended in the air.

"I didn't know there were so many…" she murmured, amazed.

"Did we come just to gawk?" Sano asked, "Because if we did, I'm done."

"I wanna go to that Ramen stand!" Nakatsu said, pointing towards the suggested stand, "What about you, Mizuki?"

"I'd like some Ramen…maybe try a few of these games as well…" she tapped her chin a little, "I wonder what kinds of games we have here…"

"Games that you'd find at any other festival." Sano shrugged, watching a few teens bustle past. A girl was kneeling on the ground trying to fix a broken strap of a sandal, the people shuffling by continuously knocking into her and making already shaking hands miss-tie the knot.

Mizuki saw this girl as well, she watched her sympathetically.

"I'm going to help her." She said, moving forward to go to her aid. Nakatsu immediately followed, Sano taking the rear.

Reaching the stranger, Mizuki crouched beside her, "Can I help you?" she asked.

The girl lifted her head abruptly, she looked a bit pale with trembling hands clinging to her broken sandal, her clothes were another kimono but it was white with a few clusters of hydrangeas decorating the fabric, a red obi around a thin waist.

"You don't have to…" she murmured.

"I know, but I want to." Mizuki smiled. "Please…" she reached for it.

The girl hesitated but soon handed over the sandal. Mizuki took it, looking over the broken strap.

I guess…I just tie it for now…

Sano watched as Mizuki struggled to tie the broken strap back together. "There…here you go, I'm sorry it's not very good but I think it should hold for now." Mizuki smiled.

The girl's lips curved into a little smile. "Thank you…" she murmured.

"Are you alone?"

"Yes…my friend had to work tonight…" she said thoughtfully, "He has a lot of jobs since he lives on his own and needs the money."

She slipped the sandal back onto her foot, both girls standing up, the one in the kimono hiding her hands inside of the sleeves timidly.

"What's your name?" Mizuki asked, Sano and Nakatsu both staring, Nakatsu's gaze more jealous.

"My name?" she stared.

"Yes your name." She laughed.

"I-I'm Shia."

"Nice to meet you Shia, I'm Mizuki, this is Sano and Nakatsu." She indicated the boys.

Shia nodded a little to them and looked back to Mizuki, with whom she was more comfortable speaking with for some reason even though she had a great fear of men.

"I think…I've seen you three before…" she murmured, "But I can't remember where…"

"Really?" Mizuki looked at Sano but he shrugged.

"Stupid, I know…" Shia laughed wryly.

"Oh no! Not at all! Hey, do you want to hang with us tonight?"

Shia paled, "I-I would…but I'm not staying much longer." She lowered her eyes, "I…wanted to stop by my friend's job to pick up something then go home, let him know how the festival is so he might go tomorrow night with his girlfriend."

Mizuki noticed how subtly painful Shia's face seemed as she said this. Mizuki watched her with sympathy once more. Shia…she loved her friend, didn't she? Even though he had a girlfriend she loved him…but couldn't tell him how she felt. It was a case some-what similar to hers…

"Thank you for offering though. I wish I could." Shia bowed to them, "I'd better go now…thank you again for your help, I hope I will see you around some other time."

"Yeah, you too." Mizuki said and waved her off. Nakatsu breathed a sigh of relief that the supposed threat was gone, Sano watched Shia with the same thought that Mizuki had.

She loves someone…but can't tell them because of an obstacle.

He smiled thoughtfully.

Funny how some people are suffering the same problems as you are…

"I GOT IT!" Nakatsu exclaimed, throwing a fist into the air as the man in the stand grumbled to himself, gathering the weighed down bottles that he had completely knocked over.

"Pick your prize, sir." He said with an unfriendly smile.

"Uh…" Nakatsu looked up at the prizes, none of them caught his attention but Mizuki, who had been watching with Sano at the side wait talking about how cute a purple penguin was that was suspended from the stand's ceiling. "Gimme that penguin!"

The man stared for a moment before pulling it down and handing it to him.

Nakatsu whirled around and presented the penguin to Mizuki, who stared at the sudden gift with a perplexed expression, eyes wondering up towards the blond. "For me?" she asked, pointing at it.

"Yeah."

The perplexing stare melted into a smile and Mizuki took the penguin happily. "Thank you!"

Nakatsu's face burned but his heart swelled, ready to burst at the unbelievable cuteness that Mizuki was radiating as she hugged the penguin against her chest, looking up to Sano.

"Isn't it cute?"

Sano smiled a little, shaking his head slowly at Mizuki's actions, she made it so obvious sometimes…

"Yeah. Come on, let's keep looking around some more…I'm getting hungry."

"Oh yeah…that ramen was good but it didn't fill me up at all." Nakatsu added.

"Oh! Ok, we'll go look for some other things to eat and then maybe we can play some more games." Mizuki said; her face suddenly looked more thoughtful, smile fading. "I'll only be able to do this tonight and Sunday after all."

Sano peered down at her, reaching over and ruffling her hair.

"Stop worrying about it. Let's just go."

Nakatsu walked beside Mizuki, resting his hand on her shoulder as he guided her after Sano through the crowd, Mizuki seeming un-bothered but the blonde's heart was racing once more.

Don't worry Mizuki…I'll make sure you have fun tomorrow as soon as that competition is over. I won't let you miss anything this festival has to offer…

Oh my faithful reviewers, the next chapter will contain the fateful competition day. I'm going to have a hard time writing this one so give me some time on this chapter, not much, I'll try to get it done quickly while still making it readable and finish my Environmental Science nots and World History homework all at once!