by deina-kun
Disclaimer: Characters are the creation of Akiyoshi Hongo.
Chapter 4
Everything was black. Mimi stood up and a spotlight fell on her, causing her to squint. It was absolute pitch darkness around her, and not a single drop of noise or movement. 'Am I even conscious?' She blinked and rubbed her eyes to try to find anything outside of the spot of light she stood under, but there was nothing. "Am I even conscious? Am I even conscious?"
Her eyes widened. 'Huh? What's going on?'
"Huh? What's going on? What's going on?"
She covered her hand over her mouth and realized that everything she was thinking was being echoed out into the darkness. Her hand fell away from her mouth and she frantically searched around her. "Is anyone there?" No answer. "What is this place??" Silence again. She took a step and the spot light followed her. A flood of screens filled the spaces of the darkness, filling her thoughts up with distorted black and white images of battle scenes, a group of kids playing with little monsters, four dark shadows conspiring together, a guy and a girl hugging together in front of a lake under a full moon, a stream of light coming down on a barren battlefield and pulling a person up with it.
The images continued to flood through her mind in brief scenes. Not a single face could be seen. The only sounds she could hear was the sinister laughter of the four dark shadows and the loud explosions of the battlefield. She covered her ears in an attempt to drown out the sounds and stop the images from flashing through her thoughts. It was coming to the point where it was too overwhelming for her to manage. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground. A hazy image of a green-colored monster with a pink flower on its head appeared before her, begging for her.
"Mimi, save me!"
She sat up in a cold sweat. The afternoon sunlight peeked its way through the thin curtains of the school infirmary. There was an eerie feel to the campus as she rubbed her eyes to adjust to the darkness. 'It was just a dream..' she heaved out a sigh of relief, but couldn't get the image of the green plant and its voice out her thoughts.
Her head throbbed as she tried to think about the dream, but she forced herself out of bed and shook the headache off. As she stood in the cold infirmary, she noticed that she was still in her PE uniform. "The last thing I remember was seeing Taichi and Yamato arguing at one another and then everything turned black.. I can't really walk around with PE clothes still on or people will think I'm in a sports club!"
The walk to the girls' locker room wasn't far, and luckily, it was still open. After dressing and tying the tie on the chest of her uniform, her hands slipped into her skirt pockets and felt something cool and smooth inside. She pulled it out to find the two flowers, one pink and one blue. Her mind wandered to the scene in the garden where she met with Jyou again and she couldn't help but feel her anxiety go away. "It was just a dream."
She poked the two flowers playfully only to make some of their petals fall to the ground. She couldn't help but leave a little smile as she stared at the half naked flowers. The light through the windows seemed to have grown darker, so she decided that she should hurry up and head home. As she closed the door of the girl's locker room behind her, the hallway greeted her with the light wind howling against the window. She trembled, but continued down the hall to class 1-A.
The door slid open with a clack and the room was empty. The afternoon light flooded into the window through the thin curtains. A light breeze caused the curtains to blow freely. She went to get her book bag from her desk and tucked it under her arm. A lingering thought tugged at her concentration as she slid her chair under her desk, "How did I get to the infirmary? And how long have I been in there for? I missed the rest of the lessons.."
Another gust of wind blew the curtains into a frenzy, catching her attention. Deciding that the windows shouldn't be left open, she walked over to the window next to Taichi's desk. The wind blew the curtain in her face, making it hard for her to take hold of the window without getting the curtain caught in her hands. When she finally placed her hand on the window's glass, the classroom door opened with a loud bang. She flinched and turned her head to where the door was, the straps of her shoulder bag sliding down her arm. Standing at the door with his hands stuffed in his pockets, shoulders sulking, and an agitated frown upon his lips, a pair of blue eyes blinked at her in confusion and disbelief. He began to open his mouth, but Mimi, at the relief of seeing who it was, dropped the book bag onto the floor and quickly dropped to her knees to pick up the pens, erasers, and makeup that fell out. Without hesitation, he quickly ran to help her.
"Ah, no, you don't have to!" her words rushed as she saw his frantically trying to help her.
He shook his head, "It's okay."
"But--!!" she lifted her head up to look at him, but bumped it on the bottom of Taichi's desk, instead. A throbbing pain overwhelmed her head and she rubbed at the spot, hoping to ease the pain. "It hurts..."
A hand outstretched to her, and in it was a handkerchief. "You can use it... to wipe away the tears in your eyes."
Mimi stared at the handkerchief in surprise, forgetting about the throbbing pain. She quickly glanced at his face and began to hesistate, but he oustretched his hand out more, "Take it. It's not like I need it right now."
Hearing this, she took the handkerchief and he returned to gathering the things she lost. For a few moments, she sat watching him as she held his handkerchief in her hands. She began to speak, but he cut in before she could, "How come.." his voice stalled and the quickness of his hands gathering her things slowed since a stray eraser was the only thing left sitting between them. She raised her head as he continued, "You always seem so anxious when you're around me?"
He raised his head to look at her. "Are you.. scared of me?"
Hearing this, she felt something tighten in her chest. She bit her lip, unsure of how to react, and he noticed this. He inched toward her and looked directly at her. There was hurt in his eyes. Fear, even. She inched back instinctively responding to his advance, and remembered the handkerchief in her hand. She held it out to him and shook her head. "No, I'm not." she stubbornly turned her head away from him in embarrassment, "I just thought you hated me."
He was silent for a moment, but a gentle smile spread across his face. With the handkerchief in hand, he softly wiped the tears brimming her eye. In surprise, she turned to look at him and he quickly wiped the tear from the other eye. He smirked and spoke teasingly, "You idiot."
She frowned at hearing those words, but while she fumed, he had already stood up and held a hand out for her. It was taken hesitantly, but he helped her up with the greatest care. After helping her to her feet, he stooped down to get the book bag from the floor and handed it to its rightful owner. "See, I'm not such a bad guy."
"Your mouth is still pretty rotten." she spoke through gritted teeth, but he just laughed. Mimi's eyes opened at the realization, 'This is the first time I've seen him laugh,' but he fell silent and stared out the window to the setting sun. Mimi felt a shiver run through her.
"Was something wrong earlier?" he walked over to the window and rest his hands in the windowsill, looking out over the garden. "During lunch."
Mimi's eyes widened, "Not really.."
"You know," he turned his back to lean on the window and rest his elbows on the opening, "you can tell me anything if something's bothering you. I'll listen."
"Ehehe, don't worry about it! I was just feeling a little lonely," he blinked in surprise at her response, but she continued, "Besides, I found Kido-senpai and he made me feel better."
She turned to him with a wide smile on her face, but a silence fell between them. He shoved a hand in his pocket and put the handkerchief away. "Be careful with who you meet, though. I wouldn't go around trusting too many people."
Mimi furrowed her brow in confusion at the response. "What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it," he walked over to his desk, to get his book bag, even though he knew that Mimi was fuming at his response, "It would be better if you didn't have to figure out what it means."
"There you go again, giving me those strange answers," she crossed her arms and pouted her lips. He had slid his chair underneath her desk and turned to face her. She continued, "I really don't understand."
He stretched his arm out to ruffle her hair. She blushed in embarrassment and looked up at him, "Does this mean I have to call you senpai? ..Because of the way you're treating me?"
"What are you talking about?" he couldn't help but let out a few shorts laughs, "We're the same grade, aren't we?"
"But you're older than me."
"That doesn't make a difference."
"Then should I call you -sama or obocchama?"
"That would be weird."
"But you are letting me stay at your house."
"It's okay. We have the rooms to spare."
"Then..." she paused a moment to think "How come you stayed after school so long?"
He pulled his hand away from her, "It's because of me that you got hurt."
Her eyes widened.
He lowered his head and leaned against his desk, as if he needed support to continue, "If I hadn't moved out of the way, you wouldn't have gotten hurt."
"But Taichi kicked the ball, didn't he?" she forced herself to laugh, hoping to raise the mood, "You don't need to blame yourself."
"But..." he paused and turned his head away. 'I promised to protect you.'
"But what?"
"Nothing, I lost my train of thought." he lied and could tell that she was trying to get the truth out of him. He heaved out a sigh and pushed away from his desk to stand up straight again, "I went to visit the infirmary to make sure that you were okay, too."
"You did?" her voice seemed to grow higher pitched, "When?"
"Just before I got back to the classroom," he started laughing, "and I scared you so much that you let everything go flying out of your bag."
Mimi's cheeks turned red, "That wasn't funny! I was really scared!"
"I'm sorry," he couldn't keep himself from laughing.
"Quit it already!" as she watched him laugh, she couldn't help but smile at the gentleness of his actions. 'It's nice talking to him this way.'
"But don't get any ideas," he regained his composure so fast that Mimi blinked at him, wondering how the change came about. "I had class rep work to do other than check up on you."
"What's with this change of attitude!"
"What? You deserve it," he shot her an evil glance and turned around to pull out a stack of papers from his desk that made her stomach sink, "This is all of the work you left me with since you were sleeping in the infirmary the whole time! I had cleaning duty, too."
"It wasn't my fault that I got stuck in there!"
He smiled. "You get flustered so easily. You're really simple, aren't you?"
Mimi tugged at the sleeves of her uniform as she still had her arms crossed, "Well, I'm sorry for being simple-minded."
"There's nothing wrong with it." his face was serious. It was undeniable that there was no trace of deceit in his words, "It's kind of nice."
"You'll end up being like Taichi if you keep up being overfriendly like this."
"Whaaat? Are you seriously pairing me up with that guy?"
"Why not?" she smiled..
"That's terrible."
"You were terrible for dodging that ball," she poked in a sing-song tone, but the moment she stopped her teasing, a loud growling noise cut through the silence and she quickly wrapped her arms around her abdomen.
He couldn't help but laugh as she lowered her face in embarrassment, "You didn't eat, did you?"
"Hehe, I guess not. I couldn't eat the cakes you gave me since Taichi ruined them after we ran into you. I'm sorry."
"Let's go then." he took the stack of papers in his arms and motioned for her to go with him. She nodded and followed, talking to him about random things.
As they were about to head out of the door, a girl came running through the hall in a hurry, clothed in tennis gear. "Mimi-chan! Yamato-kun!"
"Sora-chan!" Mimi's eyes lit up. "It seems like I haven't seen you in ages."
"Are you okay now?" Sora asked, pointing at her own head. Mimi nodded, but Sora clapped the palms of her hands together and bowed in apology. "I'm sorry!"
"Ehe, don't worry about it, really!" Mimi forced a smile in embarrassment, "I'm able to walk! At least I really didn't get hospitalized."
"That's true." Sora's eyes shifted over to the guy standing next to Mimi. "I didn't know you were on good terms with Mimi-chan. You guys finally settled your differences?"
"As if," he continued walking on his way, "not someone simple like her."
"What?!" Mimi fumed at his contradiction as Sora laughed, trying to assure her that he's his usual self.
'What's with the sudden change?! I kind of liked talking to him back then.' Mimi sighed and trailed after him. As she continued to walk, keeping an eye at his frame that briskly walked ahead of them, she couldn't help but smile as she watched at him, 'Oh well!'
A/N: Please review!
Changes: (previous chapters will be revised, too)
- Yamato and Mimi are now the class representatives
- Mimi's first day of school is the start of the school year (they missed the opening ceremony)
- Yamato and Mimi's home ec pairing was assigned because of class seating
Translations:
senpai - upperclassman; used by lowerclassmen
-sama - very respective honorary (more than Mr./Mrs.), equivalent to Sir/Madam
obocchama - young master; often used by butlers and maids of a rich boy