Author's note:Hey lads and ladies
At the point of posting this chapter, I am already working on Chapter 19. So we at the point of writing this I am like a dweller of the future that can tell you what is awaiting… but i'm not gonna do that because why would I spoil the fun.
Next week wednesday is my release date. So i'll be home for a little while before I get to know where I am going to reside next. Plus the point that by then I will be held up by me needing to go into a job field. Because of Mandatory School time until I reach the age of 18. Which is only half a year damnit. The way time progresses is so weirdly shifted since I am at the clinic.
But beyond that. My new schedule from posting is that whenever a chapter is done i'll post it the next up sunday. I need to give My editor time as well as I need time to write these chapters. Other than that, things are gonna go into directions I could not have seen coming. These characters write themselves, I am but a simple medium channeling thoughts.
Enjoy!
Editor: SuperAverageFoxyboy
-Portal
Chapter 13: The Mentors of the youth
"Principal?"
"Yes, Louis?" Gon didn't look up from the papers on his desk, looking calm and concentrated on the outside. But to the knowing eye, he looked distraught, the faint cowering of his eyelids, a sign of disappointment.
"May I enter?" Gon nodded behind his desk, his eyes still not leaving the papers in front of him. Louis felt the frustration of the tiger just by standing in front of his desk. Gon was more than distraught. He was clueless about how to deal with whatever was in front of him.
"I wanted to ask how the UAB meeting went."
Gon leaned back in his chair and finally looked up from his papers at Louis. But this time, the friendly and accommodating side of him was gone. He was calculating and thinking. Not really in the room as he seemed to be. He was on stand-by in the real world as his mind was stuck in logistics. Louis's conclusion came pretty quickly that whatever had happened, it was nothing good.
"I've talked to no Beastar candidate more than I have with you, Louis. In part because of your exceptional heritage." Louis cringed on the inside as he heard the word. "And if you're as mature as everyone thinks you to be, then I'd like to be completely honest with you. Would that be alright?"
Louis heard animosity from Gon but not necessarily directed at him. Spoken into the room to address a person not currently here. Louis gave a short and clear nod.
"I had a few outcomes in mind when I went in there. This was probably the second-worst one." Louis's face remained stoic, but his insides were turning in circles. A higher-up had given an order that Gon didn't like. And Gon was one of the better principals that Louis had seen.
On the occasion that Oguma attended the UAB meeting in the company of his at the time 16-year-old son, the open voices in the room didn't sound like teachers talking about new matters in the teaching business. They resembled war generals that aggressively wanted the last laugh all for themselves. Gon had been well kept and well mannered, keeping his options to himself and being open-eared to change. His objective wasn't being right but the well-being of his students. This outcome could in no way mean anything remotely good if he was distraught, or rather, fearful of it.
"Usually, in war, you have a few things in your options. One of these always being the last resort if all else fails, nuclear type of decisions. Something as radical as deciding to answer atomic bomb attacks with a retaliation strike. Nothing survives atomic bombs. No animal, No plant, no nothing. So we decided to abolish it like the civilized and smart creatures we are." Gon's rage was palpable within the word "civilized."
"And this option right here." Gon pointed to the table. "Is no better than using atom bombs to answer atom bombs."
Silence remained in the room as Gon fixed his glasses and stared at the papers on the table. There was no hope in this office.
"What exactly have they done?" Louis asked, still keeping his calm tone as his thoughts were frantically trying to plan ahead or decide how to deal with whatever this tiger was battling with. Gon hooked his hand in front of his stomach and breathed out a sigh through his nose.
"Their last resort is actively segregating students. Herbivore and carnivore floors."
Louis, weirdly enough, wasn't shocked in any way. He was more disappointed in the board as he cursed them a moron in his head. He had told Legosi just a week earlier that he didn't expect anything more extreme to happen. This wasn't a lie at the time. Louis had believed that the earlier curfew and grouping rule was all that was needed. But he had forgotten the hostile room full of careless know-it-alls that didn't listen to anyone but themselves.
"This makes things complicated," answered the deer who crossed his arms, now stuck in thought.
"More than complicated."
"When will it take effect?" Louis asked with his thoughts now circling around a certain grey wolf couple in the gardening shack.
"Next week. They wanted to think about it a bit longer to make sure they didn't rush it. But prompted by the most recent murder… they decided faster." Gon leaned back in his chair with that distraught, fearful, and worrisome expression. That was the moment that Louis felt frustration flush up against the tiger. How inept the new guards at the school were and how they likely needed a special commando entirely for Cherryton itself.If you old idiots could have just been more thorough. Louis's remained quiet and collected.
"I want you to personally tell your club. All the different club presidents are asked to tell their members themselves. But I ask you to do it especially well." Louis felt more frustrated at Gon at that moment. How he asked him to tell his students because he was too nervous to stand in front of them himself and confess how it was he who had messed up.
"You are an exceptional student and an exceptional motivator."And you are a cowering asshole thought Louis to himself. Instead, he bowed and answered.
"I will do my best, Principal Gon." Louis came up to see the tiger smile, while more anger rose within him.
"The whole segregation thing won't stand for long. I'll take care of it as soon as possible."
"See where that leads us..." Answered Louis in a murmur.
"What was that?"
"Good luck, Principal." With that, Louis left the room and closed the door behind him. He realized that with so many things in his life, he would still have to take care of things himself instead of watching others make fools out of themselves.
After a long and mean-spirited fight with trying to grasp sleep, Bill went into the school community room and looked out the window. The policemen still marched up and down the pathways. But none would find the culprit that night.
Bill was angry at the lousy work of the police, angry at the killer, and angry at himself. It was that rage that forbade him from closing an eye for even a single second.
Bill tried to read, watch TV, or play something on the console. But nothing really distracted him from the fact that he felt the incredibly strong urge to finally do something about the monster that had caused so many problems on school grounds. The divide between the herbivores and carnivores is the thing that hurt him most. And so, Bill did what he always did when he felt horrible. He exercised.
In the middle of the community room, he did all that he could do. Using water jugs as dumbbells, jogging up at down the large room, and various exercises on the ground. When he sat back down, sweating and clear-headed, he felt like he was in a bleak room with iron bars stretching over the windows. He couldn't see his cell from the outside, but he knew that the outside of the fictive cell was plastered with the words Monster and Outcast. It was then that he remembered that night.
Legosi's helpless and grim face, telling him of the horrible truth that a herbivore's life was on the line. How the group made its way through the alley at all seemed so absurd. And thenhe showed up. That panda in the back alley, that truly made it possible to save Haru when they did. The clinic had no website, but an address and a phone number in the listing of the directory on the Edobutsu home page.
Bill had made his way to the clinic without calling. He knew that it would be more effective to tell him of his plans eye to eye.
Bill stared up at the dark, back alley building. As he knocked on the door, he asked himself why the panda would decide to help him in the first place. But the thought quickly became obsolete when he realized that there was no reason for him to have helped them three months ago after all.
Gouhin opened the door, a cigarette in his lips, dark eyes finding the brightly orange feline in front of his door. His face grew into a smirk.
"The tiger from our little quintet… I have been thinking about you and your friends… Come on in." He opened the door widely, Bill stepping through. Bill felt lead by fate itself. He just had known where to go.
Bill seated himself as Gouhin poured him a cup of tea. Bill accepted it with thanks and took a swig, slightly recoiling at the bitter bamboo taste. Gouhin didn't seem to notice.
"So, what brings you to my humble black market clinic. Haven't seen the likes of you and your company around here in quite some time. Granted, deers and rabbits are a rarity among the patrons here, but anything can happen." Gouhin spoke in a calm and interested tone that still made one feel intimidated right through the door. The Panda's large physique didn't help at all either.
"I need you to help me. Help me end someone," Bill spoke.
Gouhin puffed smoke out in surprise.
"You came out here to ask me to help you kill someone? I'm sorry to say kid, but the sign of the door outside was changed just a while ago. The hit-men agency was moved down a block." Bill almost felt mocked for his crazy idea, a hint of doubt starting to fade into sight.
"I know what I said. All I ask is that you give me a chance, train me. So that I have a fighting chance against that monster roaming the school and preying on the weak." Gouhin's face started to twist into a cautious and wary face.
"You do know he killed a carnivore already? What makes you think you'd stand a chance against whatever large fucker that is. What makes you different?" Gouhin leaned in close and whispered in as if they were in a crowded place and only Bill was supposed to hear. A challenging and angry fire burned behind his eyes, pulling his facial muscles.
"Because you will train me to be ready." The panda on the other side of the table leaned back in the chair and laughed.
"I'm starting to like your bunch more and more. Both times you've come up to my doorstep, you do something crazy. You're keeping it exciting." Bill's expression didn't change.
"Technically, you came to us that first time. That night three months ago, you helped us. You helped for no reason at all. My guess is good nature, but I really got no clue. And now I am asking for nothing more but your help again, and this time for something much less than the entire frickin' mafia." He leaned in close just as Gouhin had done. "So, train me in order to catch this monster of a fucking carnivore."
Those final words contained as much conviction as the young tiger could possibly muster.
The panda mustered all the pity he could into his face, which was to say not much if any.
"Look kid, I understand that it's hard to live in a situation like this but I assure you that the police are doing their part in this." Gouhin struggled to believe the own words that left his mouth just then. Whatever respect came from the sentence was only respect for Strightman. The rest of the police force didn't earn any. The tiger in front of him seemed to have picked that up himself.
"The police?" The question left Bill with an energy of hate. "They have done shit to help us. They've only caused more trouble in the end, riling up the herbivores and giving that monster a hard-on for blood."
Gouhin placed his hand on the table, flexing his muscles absent-mindedly. A gesture of intimidation that brought the tiger to sink into his chair.
"Easy now. No need to get loud."
"I need your help to do something good again. Doctor…?"
"Gouhin."
"Doctor Gouhin." He started again. "That night three months ago was us doing something out of good nature. Something good to actually change things. I want to do it again. If you would help me to stop a monster from costing lives."
What followed the already bizarre conversation was a long and thoughtful pause.
Gouhin didn't care much for sentimentality or clichéd behavior. And this young tiger here seemed like the perfect cliché of a little avenger. But something in him twitched. Something in his memories that was clear as day. Something as sacred to him as the memory of his wife and child. A memory of himself that felt bitter-sweet.This kid sounds just like me…
"Are you absolutely sure about this?" Gouhin asked.
"As sure as I can be."
Gouhin rolled his eyes, a movement that was not noticed by Bill.
"Alright, Alright. Stop these shitty clichés, tough guy. I'll help you under one condition." Gouhin held up his finger, Bill listening intently.
"We are not half-assing anything in this. That night three months ago worked and only worked because all of us were determined and with our minds on it. And I don't work with people that give up."
Bill nodded.
"I swear to you that I will concentrate on it completely."
The two stood up and shook hands on it, a solemn swear that couldn't be broken. Gouhin handed Bill a card, which he studied closely.
"You are to be here at six in the morning tomorrow. Then we'll start. I don't want to waste any time if we don't have to." Gouhin looked into the room and felt a horrible feeling of bizarre nature dwell in it. This was once again fate that intercepted his plans on how to proceed. But he would use it for his own good. No matter how stupid some things sounded. If it came down to it, he would have a policeman and a protege to battle this horrible problem. It felt like an adventure tale, which pissed him off.
"And I don't need no witty remarks from you. You made this decision. You humoring yourself about it can be kept to a minimum." Bill nodded in submission.
"I won't even think about it, Doctor Gouhin. I am grateful for your help." Bill expressed his gratitude and left the room. Gouhin watched the doors for a little while longer as the awkward pressure of how unreal and foolish the whole ordeal sounded came to a critical level.
"I've completely lost my mind."
Haru's ears twitched nervously, the atmosphere in the car being so dense one couldn't even cut it with a knife.
"My snowflake is nervous. You're doing it again, dear."
Haru looked around and noticed that she had once again pressed herself against him in absolute fear of the situation.
"Sorry, Louis. It feels like my ears could fall off." The young buck in question lifted his arm around the rabbit and hugged her closer to himself.
"I want you to relax, ok?" She looked up, and his face lit up like sunshine. "I don't care in the slightest about him. Whatever happens, you don't lose any importance to me."
Louis's remark made Haru blush. She puffed out, the dear placing a kiss on her lips. Her cheeks reached a color of peachy red.
"I know you charmer, you." Haru smiled at him for the first time of the evening. She was an absolute wreck, Louis could tell immediately. She was worried and agitated. She was feverishly warm to the touch, a fact Louis didn't like much.
She had also decided to wear a dress and jacket combo, another thing Louis didn't like very much. As if a dress would impress Oguma. You're really desperate. But with everything going on, he realized that keeping his mouth shut would be the best choice in this matter. Riling her up in any way would cause even more complications that he really didn't need.
Oguma's reaction in itself was what worried him most, contrary to what he told her.
It's believed that love prompts you to tell the absolute truth, but as Louis came to learn, his situation had special rules. Haru knew of his past, but she never exactly knew what was going on in his head. It was something that he liked to hope never the less. He was horribly worried about what Oguma would say, but not for the reasons that Haru might think. If he approved or disapproved didn't matter. But how it would affect Haru did.
Of course, he didn't say it. Remotely even hinting at the fact that he might care about what Oguma would have to say may cause a nervous outbreak of even worse proportions, no matter the context of such thing uttered. So, like many times before, he remained silent in order to appease others. Mostly because in the back of his mind, hope had risen.
The last meal had shown an opening to Louis that might hold potential in winning Oguma over, even if it was slight. His wits had battled to the very end. A few days before the dinner that they were now driving to, he had concluded that it had indeed happened. That his senses had not played any trick on him, the memory was too fresh to be questioned of such obscenities. Oguma had shown signs of actually caring about his heir.
Oguma was alone, raised in a cold and money-focused family that used and shaped him as he had done similarly to Louis. An heir to a powerful family. A staple of pride and good manners as the money rolled into the vast personal treasury. Figuratively, of course.
Nowadays, the treasury was replaced by various bank accounts, company bonds, stock papers, and ownership documents. A large collection being up-kept by a team of accountants of the highest quality standard.
And after many years of being trained as the perfect heir and successor to the conglomerate… he had gotten the diagnosis. He was sterile. Many tries with many suitors that all were perfect wife material, but none carried the heir that Oguma was forced to give.
A lifelong strife of learning the manners of old made him think like the old, and now all of them were gone. For years they had already been gone and now, here was Oguma sitting there thinking on how to deal with this problem of an impure heir. He was the first one not to show a bountiful marriage that carried children with them, and he would be the first to adopt. 'how could you adopt? How could you burden yourself with filth outside of your pure bloodline? How could you take a fawn that could hold carnivore genes in its muddy incestuous blood.' they would say. The pristine reputation of his would be ruined.
Louis didn't know much about the years leading up to his unceremonious conception. He didn't know much about his true parents, other than that they were commoners that were trapped under loan sharks that wanted their share of green, something they couldn't pay on their own. And in their desperation, they sold their child. Often Louis thought that he might have been a planned child just to be sold to the black market, that they had savagely mated with lustful pictures of financial freedom in their mind. He took solace in the knowledge that potentially, his parents had never escaped the loan at all. A child pays well, but never enough. Not for a period of nine months. Not for a loan of the apathetic greed held by bankers. Not for even the lowest interest rate.
The six-year period before his adoption, as far as Louis theorized, started as an escape vacation for Oguma from the horrible knowledge of how stuck he was in trying to find an heir and appease his peers. A time off to think of a solution, one that didn't taint his image. And as he sipped away whatever drink he was having on whatever mountain resort, beach lodge, or exotic hotel, he had an idea.
Louis thought that maybe he had seen a child being dragged away by carnivores on the street or the conclusion of such a business deal like the one Louis's biological parents had taken. No one could truly know, but a part of Louis was sure it must have been. A brooding man only gets into real thinking with outside influence. And he must have had plenty to come up with the genius plan that saved him out of his situation.
It was the perfect cover-up. He had met a wife out of the country, one that gave him his child. His wife of exotic heritage had died shortly after their honeymoon, which lasted longer than he liked to admit. A little admittance of carelessness made the entire story all the more believable. She died of a sickness that had a long history in her family and based on whatever species of deer he could get his hands on, he would base it on genetic sickness that is most common with said deer lineage.
If they would ask why the child wasn't affected, he would say it was maternal, and the males stayed completely safe and sound. And then came the truly ironic thing about it. Louis now came to the conclusion that maybe Oguma liked and cared for him after all. That the voice of guilt had finally found after trudging through layer and layer of plating the buck had built around himself.
Oguma was, for the most part, very hands-off, seeming more like a teacher than a parental figure for the first years at the residence. He hid him from the public eye as long as Louis learned how to talk and behave. And the better he got, the more hands-on Oguma got. After the first year, the one that corrected all mistakes that arose from the treacherous past of living in the black market. Oguma's best advantage was the fact that the mind repressed memories exceptionally well. And with the increasing difficulty of the learning material, so jumped Louis's personality from one level to the next.
Louis wasn't sure if he wanted to call the feeling between him and Oguma love. It was more a mixture of pity, sympathy, and the slightest hint of understanding that had blossomed from the rubble of their pasts. They had their similarities. Fine ones that made each other's lives just noticeable enough in one's own. And Oguma had fallen for the trap and grown attached to the fawn. His guilt had weighed him down in the end.
Louis wished he hadn't come home that evening. To be certain of losing is better than being uncertain of winning. In the end, you'll always be worried if you could've changed things. If you could have won instead of lost.
"Master Louis." The driver called from the cab. Suddenly Louis returned from his long barrage of thought and into the present. The car has stopped moving.
"We have arrived. Shall I wait here?" Instead of answering the driver's question, Louis looked at the manor outside of the car window. It held an air of cold hostility. Something he only felt because of Oguma. But he felt it nonetheless.
"Park in the back, Avon. Take a small break but do stay ready. We might be here for a while." Haru looked alarmed at Louis, his calculated reply making her feel the anxiety spike.
"You think we need an escape route?" Haru whispered. Fear was clearly within her.
"Better safe than sorry. Prepare for unexpected behavior." Louis would have loved to lie about that. Comfort her until she was calm, but right now, he couldn't. He didn't want to worry her with his own sets of problems. But he just as little wanted to give her false hopes.
He pressed her towards him. "I love you, Haru. Don't forget that."
She leaned upwards, her ears brushing over his forehead. She kissed him, holding onto him with sweet and delicate hands.
"I know my forest prince. I love you just the same." They held onto each other and exited the car. Avon nodded at Louis and got the car back into motion, rolling around the estate to the back entrance.
The two stood still, tightly holding hands.
The white dress of Haru was mature and well-meaning but wouldn't impress him in the end. Louis's own wardrobe was his dark burgundy suit pants and jacket, with a dark green sweater over the dress-shirt. In all irony of the evening, Louis just understood now that what he was wearing was a clear mirror of what Oguma would wear on important business dates. Louis felt the urge to laugh but remained quiet, almost in shame. It didn't feel right to laugh in a moment of importance such as this.
In all seriousness that he could muster, he knew he was scared of how she would take Oguma's open hostility.
The doors opened to servants taking Haru and Louis's jacket. Louis didn't fully acknowledge them due to his own thoughts throwing a fit in his head as they longed for control in devilish circles of self-doubt and guilt.
The walk down to the dining room was especially torturous. Haru stayed close to his side, worry in every expression she mustered. Even her smiles at him had the undertone of anxiety biting back ferociously. Louis, on the other hand, wasn't doing much better. The hallway was a long build-up that only let his fears grow. By that point, he really would have enjoyed it if Oguma had burst into the hallway shouting at them than letting them wait as long as they did.
Build-up could, at times, be a very positive thing. Like the slow incline of a rollercoaster, the anticipation of a song's next beat drop. But not this. This was a build-up to a horrible explosion of feelings that would cause him to take a critical miss-step in this proceeding.
A part of self-hatred shot in him as he realized how his own thinking in this matter had turned into cold calculation. Just like his "father…"
His grip on Haru's hand tightened, clutching her hand just shy of squeezing it. Haru looked up at him, but his eyes didn't leave the hallway. He looked like a scary shadow of himself. Haru could swear he aged by 20 years.
"Louis." Her voice was firm, stopping him in his tracks completely. They looked at each other, the rabbit and the deer. His youth returned and colored his cheeks, Her own maturity shining brighter than anything else. He sighed.
"I'm sorry, my dear. To say I'm not as scared as you would be a total lie." He looked away in shame, prompting Haru to squeeze his hand as well.
"He's not important. Like you told me. His opinion is secondary to ours." A smile appeared, and the pressure gauge sunk, a valve ejecting steam. He squeezed her hand again and took a deep breath.
"Alright… Let's get it over with." The two walked forward into the brightly lit room, hand in hand.
To Louis's complete surprise, Oguma was already seated. But he didn't pay them any mind. He was staring at papers beside his plate like he did so often when engrossed in his work.
"Good day, father," Louis said with a straight back and a tone of courage in the face of the cold mammal in front of him.
What Louis would have most liked to change about that night was not the awkward tension nor the conversation that would occur just a bit later. It was the fact that he had called for Oguma at the start of the conversation. Because no disapproving glance or rejecting sneer could ever stand eye to eye to the horrible sight his first reaction to the two of them was. He could read in his eyes, and he was damn sure Haru could too. He channeled his thoughts at them.The filth has arrived.
"Get to your seats." The channel of thought seized, and Louis was already in battle with his instincts after the first word he uttered. He knew what he could lose, yet he knew he also had to hold his ground. A paradox of behavior that pulled in two directions with strength only the fewest minds could handle.
Louis and Haru both took their seats, Both noticing that said seats were distanced from each other. Louis felt an impulse to grab the knife beside his plate and stab Oguma in the throat. The littlest hint of a smile sat on his muzzle as he saw the two realize how he had arranged them.
After they got seated, none of them had any clue what to say. Oguma stayed bitterly quiet. As the dinner rolled in, no words were spoken.
Haru felt her own ears puff up as she felt the tense atmosphere of the car follow them right into the room. The room was quiet throughout the entire first course. Delicious food that tasted dull to her as she didn't even hear Louis's voice try to bring something into this vacuum of words. But he remained just as silent as his father, looking like a younger one-to-one copy of Oguma, observing him from this side of the table. Even as the main course rolled out and Haru's appetite had dissipated. And as she ate the first bites, a quip of disgust wormed through her digestive tract.
"Excuse me." The young dwarf rabbit slipped off her chair and quietly hushed towards the bathroom, leaving the two bucks alone at the table. They stared at each other for an extensive period of time. All the while, Louis heard in his mind the same sentence over and over.In the battle of wits, the first to speak loses. At the same time, he knew that his bets were a lot bigger than the one of the mammal currently opposite to him. He had Haru to lose, and Oguma had a rebellious off-spring in front of him. One that in the right play could be corrected. And as Louis's thoughts tugged deeper and deeper, Oguma lost the battle of wits.
"You made a huge mistake," Oguma stated coldly with an undertone of bitter hatred. Louis smiled as he felt a returning sense of strength to him.
"Why? You've just shown me how afraid you are." Oguma's turned into a sneer or just a second and then returning to stoic nothingness. His eyes never stopped to burn with anger.
"You fall for someone like that? And then you decide to show her to me? You already have a fiance. Nothing will-"
"Oh, it will, old buck. You just lost. You're afraid of losing your heir… and here I am holding my ground." More anger tore through the stoic facade.
"Don't make me-"
Louis's smile grew wide.
"Don't make you what, exactly?" He spat. "If I'm not mistaken, when I make mistakes, you tend to reward me. Don't you remember?"
"You've finally decided to be a rebellious teen. You'll grow out of it," Oguma spoke with pain hidden behind his vizard of an emotionless void. A stressful headache that was costing him the energy to hide.
Louis was better at playing this game than he ever has been. The young buck still kept a smile on his face.
"Things will change now. If you like it or not because guess what, this is who I am. And she is who I choose. That's what you owe me."
Oguma smirked with the pain residing a bit.
"Without me, you would have never grown as old as you have, don't forget you owe me your li-"
"I didn't ask to be saved." The pain returned, and the smirk left for the rest of the night.
"I would have enjoyed it more to cut my own throat and be eaten by those carnivores when you kicked me out of the lift. Now see where I am. I am still an object. Just with a different owner."
That wasn't fair, Oguma thought.Louis had to know. He had saved the young fawn's life. He should be thankful-
"I would have gone with pride. Not with your pride stuck to me."
Oguma stood up, knocking against the table, spilling a glass. Louis smiled just the same. It felt good to win.
Oguma wanted to shout, but couldn't bring himself to raise his voice. You didn't discipline a youth like that, especially not a youth like Louis. He held up his finger at the younger buck, his mind fogged with anger as he heard Louis chuckle.
"I-" Before he could utter anything, the door opened a bit, the rabbit returning to see the two bucks looking at her, Oguma no longer sitting. Her cheeks flushed, and she looked towards Louis, who was now sporting the hint of a smile. Oguma let out a breath and snatched the papers on the desk, holding them under his arm.
"We'll talk about this soon enough. And you're sleeping in separate rooms." He turned for the door, hearing no reaction behind him. He felt discouraged as he paced further and could still hear no outcry. He turned around as he stood in the door frame. Louis still smiled, and the rabbit just wore a face of shock.
The door slammed in frustration, causing Haru to flinch, which didn't go unnoticed by Louis. She almost seemed to shiver as she stood there alone. She jumped when she felt Louis put his jacket around her.
"Let's go get food somewhere else. I don't think we're much welcome here." He held out his hand for her to hold it. But she remained still and simply observed him.
"You not surprised or… anything… by his behavior?"
He smiled at her with a smile to melt even the coldest ice.
"There is no reason to be mad at that fool. I'll work it out with him. Let's just go." And with that, Haru took his hand, and they left through the back entrance. Avon was drinking his coffee as they came by. A turn of the key and the car sped off into the night and left the manor behind, a dark shadow in one of the windows watching the car leave.
When they arrived back at Louis's room at the school, Haru placed a kiss on the deer's lips. She rested her forehead to his.
"Thank you… I love you." They kissed for a long moment. It was a moment in which Louis once again realized how important this was. She was important. Oh, so important to him. She slipped away with an expression of thankfulness. She hushed towards the bathroom, turning around for a teasing smile as she disappeared into the bathroom.
Louis leaned back on his arms, breathing in as his mind swayed around the things that were about to happen. The things that Oguma would surely do as a response. But he would have to fight for some things. Giving up was simply never an option.
His thoughts came to a stop as he heard a whistle. His girlfriend stood in the doorway in nothing but her undergarments. He smiled a sultry smile as he observed her attractive form. As she walked towards him, he thought:All in all, not a bad night.
