"In this day and age, I can't just say that no parent would ever hate their child. But in your case, I can guarantee this: you are loved, even if your mother is a bit obnoxious about it."
On the bus ride to Ibaraki, those words in Doujou's head seemed nothing particularly strange or inappropriate. But when he said them out loud, he couldn't help but feel that he said something he shouldn't have said because, even though he wasn't looking at Kasahara directly, Doujou felt her intently eyes on him. The sense of unsettlement in simply telling Iku a person loves her brought suddenly became so palpable, he was glad Komaki or even the super-dense Tedzuka was not here to witness it.
Ah, as her superior office, I had no business in saying that. Not knowing what else to do, he retreated as much as he could when the person center of his embarrassment was only a few inches away, and attempted the near impossible task of getting comfortable in a place where he suddenly felt exposed.
What is this? God. This doesn't even make sense. A quick flash of heat surfaced to his face and he knew that if he didn't turn his head now, it would only make him want to crawl into a hole even more. It might have been a strange thing for an officer to say, to make an remark intimate in nature about their subordinate's familial relationship, but why should he feel flustered for it? "I guarantee you are loved." It was the truth wasn't it?
Doujou snatched a glance at Iku, while still annoyed at his lack of reasoning for his response at her reaction. It is that impossible, you idiot!? Get that stupefied look off your face! Iku's expression was a cross between surprise and...softness? The passionate defensiveness and stubbornness Iku displayed when she had been talking about her mother had suddenly melted into a display that just made him heat up even more.
"I'm going to sleep!" I need an escape. Now.
Doujou didn't escape anytime soon.
An hour later Iku's head was heavy against the top shoulder, resting in the crook between the base of his neck and left shoulder.
Well, shit.
This was partly his fault. Since they both had suddenly become quiet after Doujou's seemingly innocent remark, Iku quickly started to fall asleep, while he wasn't able to. Instead, to his slight amusement, he spent some time seeing Iku's head nod several times in her lethargy, her eyes firmly shut.
Eventually, one nod cause her body to kneel forward till her forehead bumped hard into the seat in front of her. Luckily, the seat had belonged to Genda and he was already far into dreamland, snoring just as loudly as he was when he's awake. Genda obviously wasn't disturbed, and from Doujou came an exhausting thought, Can that geezer ever be quiet in his lifetime?
Immediately after from across the aisle, Doujou heard a quick snort from Komaki. Apparently Komaki found Kasahara's little sleep dance culminating to a heavy thump with her forehead and a seat a short-lived sensation to his funny bones. Doujou lifted his index finger and thumb to rub the wrinkle that appeared at his temple. "I'm working with a bunch of idiots," he murmured to himself, his voice reflecting his annoyance.
Iku's only response was to drowsily place a hand folded into a tight fist under her chin, with the same arm's elbow balancing on their shared arm rest. Oh? Doujou wondered if Iku finally solved the problem of finding a posture to sleep peacefully. Just as he was taking in her new form in light interest, he heard another chuckling sound from Komaki.
This time, Doujou leaned slightly forward in his window seat to see past Iku's reclining figure to make eye contact with that other figure across the aisle. Komaki was smirking, the corners of his mouth making a fine line and his eyes gleamed as he returned Doujou's glance.
What the hell is he all dandy about? Komaki quickly gave Doujou a...was that a fucking wink!? The smirking onlooker gave a dismissive wave of the hand, the gesture telling Doujou to go back to whatever he was doing, as he turned back to his own interests on his cellphone.
Knowing Komaki's antics whenever he had that playing facade as a face, Doujou immediately switched into high guard and alert mode, and his looking over to Komaki's now detached posture turned into a glare. Knowing from past experience, it had something to do with him and Kasahara.
What in god's name does he think he is seeing between me and her-oh.
Go back to whatever you are doing...staring intently at Kasahara, that is.
Komaki's expressions said it all.
Oh...
OH.
It also showed Doujou probably had, to what Komaki thought, a pretty interesting expression on his face while looking at her.
"WHAT THE HELL!" he cursed loudly inside his head.
The realization dawned upon him as abruptly as his face paled before turning hot once again. Doujou sharply turned to sit properly back into his seat. Fuck..no. That's not what was happening. He grimaced.
Doujou searched for jusification that it wasn't what at all in the nature that Komaki seemed to be suggesting with that stupid wink and familiar smirk of his. I wasn't doing anything for you to be worth to be winking for, you idiot! This bus ride seemed more mentally tiring than it should have been.
But...the reason for Doujou's sudden anger was his confusion at his inability to deny that he was, indeed, not staring at her altogether. And, he wasn't able to set upon a facial expression, a thought or line of reasoning inside his head to get that stupid growing warmth that lightly clouded his face.
Doujou decided to try feign sleep in an attempt to put away the unsettled thought processes upon the things Komaki's subtle gestures just had to suggest. Hopefully, faking sleep could lead to the real thing; that could make him forget of this abrupt self-consciousness that descended suddenly from the blue (for the second time today). It seemed likely that Doujou could get his mind back together if he sensed time had passed after he would wake up.
Out of habit of sleeping on his left side, Doujou placed his left elbow on the seat's arm rest, forgetting that Iku's own arm had just recently been settled there, too.
By sliding his own elbow at the back of the rest, he unintentionally pushed hers off the rest altogether only by moving her elbow (that was situated at the front end of the rest) a smudge, and the fragile balance of Iku's arm-head-folded hand posture was broken. The sudden lack of support for her head caused it to fall downwards in the opposite direction. So, instead of running into Genda's seat, her forehead bumped and fitted not so gently into the angle of the base of Doujou's neck and left shoulder.
He jumped.
Doujou eyes shot open, before promptly shutting again. The crease between his brows deepened, and he was sure that even though he just lost the warmth to his face from Komaki's insinuations, the heat just resurfaced to his ears.
Well, now I'm the only one just really screwing myself this time. The reason why he should feel like he was in trouble at her sudden movement he didn't dare think about. That would lead to the full recongition of something he just wasn't ready to completely acknowledge yet.
Doujou's thoughts turned into a slight panic that Iku might have waken up, and then that would mean Doujou would be in a situation that he wouldn't be able to explain. He didn't have confidence that he could use his signature face-mask to portray a carefully blank or exceedingly neutral expression whenever he had to keep the feelings of inner turmoil in place, at the very moment.
To check if the jolt awakened her, he glanced down, and Doukou could only see the top of Iku's head and a few teasing parts of her face. The tufts of coffee-colored hair, and a slanted aerial view of her face: the gentle bridge of her nose, the highest points of her colored cheekbones, the darken wings of her eyelashes, and her lightly shaded lips.
No.
Fuck no.
This should not be happening.
Oh yeah, she was sleeping, alright. Doujou could see that. Iku was slowing inhaling through her nose, but she exhaled a slow whistle of air from her mouth. If Doujou kept looking at her face from above, he was all the more drawn to her lips because she kept that annoyingly distractive repetition of blowing air slowly out of her mouth over and over again.
The rhythmic sound of her breathing was complimented by the slow rise and fall of her chest and abdomen. Its movement highlighted the slenderless of her torso. She feminine.
Doujou closed his eyes, willing the newly acquired images away from his head. In the process, he lifted his head up, as if trying to gasp for air, and swallowed. Iku's head in return slid more towards the center of his chest to nestle underneath his chin, enabling another curse of the senses to hit and shatter him.
She smells good.
Doujou could only hope, with his hands tightly cletched, that Komaki or anyone else on the bus wasn't looking at him.
...I'm so fucking screwed.
He wasn't going to get sleep any time soon.
FIRST THINGS FIRST, I APOLOGIZE FOR THE AWKWARD GRAMMAR STRUCTURES OF MINE. This has always been a thing with me.
Ahem.
Oodles of thanks to melithiel for providing translation the toshosen books, in which the first quote Doujou says comes from (Toshokan Kiki). If you hadn't read this part in Kiki, 1. you are missing out and 2. I apologize that this is out of context.
Iku's being seductive without even trying, and considering how much of a otome (virgin) she is...that's pretty awesome. And Doujou, I think you would an oxygen mask after all your malfunctioning this chapter, ha. Komaki is a sly fox as always (but he shall not be laughing in his every appearance I swear, lol, though he does that often in the books). And Genda...you are Genda. No other way to describe a tiger.
Doujou is cursing here...he never severely cursed in the books but I feel like it was fitting here. (Oh, Doujou : )
For future chapters I definitely want to include interactions among characters besides Doujou and Iku (Tedzuka and Shibasaki was sorely missed :/ ) Also, I would love to make up more dialogue where silent gestures aren't enough to express this OTP. I like variety; which also means that I will be writing both re-imagined scenes from the books and some of my own...once I think of them. However, they are more likely to be one shots or snippets of things rather than a chronological story. I have yet to reach the creativity for such things.
Thank you for the first reviews! They were all sweet. :) Special thanks to SheSailsShips, your words especially motivated me. :D
Until next time!