Eliana focused on the lesson until it was over and then turned to him, opening her mouth to make a casual comment about his drawing when suddenly half the class was around her desk, hounding her with sudden questions. What type of tea did she like? Did she like Crystal Tokyo so far? Did she want someone to so her around the school? What were her hobbies? And so on the questioning went.
'How can they expect me to answer when so many questions are asked at once?!' she wondered, feeling slightly frantic with all the attention. She didn't know answers about preferences since she had no idea what she did or did not like. "U-um... I like Crystal Tokyo so far... and I've never had much experience with tea honestly... so I can't give a good answer to that. Though I always like trying new things so maybe after I've been here a while can tell you. And maybe later? I'd rather just take things sort of slow till I get my feet under me here." she told them. Hobbies... what could she claim as a hobby? "Well... I do a lot of singing in my spare time... so I guess that's my hobby."
"EH? Really can you sing a bit for us?" a girl asked, perched on the end of the desk beside her.
Eliana flushed and looked down. "U-um... I... I don't know... I haven't sung in front of people recently so..." She glanced at Hajime unconsciously sending him a silent plea with her eyes to save her from the interrogation.
Hajime hadn't noticed her looking at his drawing, but was there to notice the look she gave him when she was bombarded with questions. Standing, it was noticeable that the students seemed to back away from him a bit.
"Can't you see that Eliana is overwhelmed at the moment?" he asked. "This isn't the best time to bombard her with useless questions. She has to figure things out. And as for showing her around the school, I've already been assigned that job. So bugger off." Hajime took another step forward to stand directly at her side. Glaring at the other students til they all drifted away, he then turned to look at her. Instead, his eyes seemed to fix on the door of the classroom and he stiffened slightly, as if seeing someone that no one else could see. After a few moments, he relaxed, but his expression was unreadable as he looked back at Eliana. "Let's go to the roof. No one will disturb us there, and there is a lot you need to know about this text reader."
She did not miss how the other students back away. What sort of reputation did he have at this school? She'd have to see if she could figure that out at some point. She looked at the door but she didn't see anything that was there, which worried her. What was he looking at and why did it make his so tense? She smiled up at him and got to her feet. "Right." she followed him out of the room before speaking up again. "Thank you for helping me out back there. I'm... not really good at dealing with a lot of people all at once. Not when it's not on my terms anyway." She did fine when she had to introduce herself to the Senshi all those years ago, but that had been something she'd known she'd have to do for a while, so she was prepared. Plus she'd meet them in Sanctuary- which was her domain.
"No problem," Hajime said. "You were stumbling over yourself trying to answer their questions. I hate it when they swarm people." He tucked his right hand into his pocket, unconsciously making sure that the crystalline rose was still there, but leaving his hand in his pocket, while with his left hand he held the text reader. They soon got to the roof and he sat down on one of the benches, and motioned her for to sit next to him. Making sure that she had seated herself, he began to run through the basics of the text reader, making sure she understood each before moving on to the next thing, and then making sure she was sure of the basics before moving on to the advanced things, quizzing her the whole time.
She was so absorbed in learning how to use the text reader that she nearly jumped out of her skin when the bell sounded. She put a hand to her heart, feeling it hammer beneath her fingers. That had startled her. She took a deep breath to calm her breathing as well and looked at him. "Does that mean class is starting again? Are we late? Or is it a warning bell?" she asked, following his lead on whether or not to get up.
"It's just the first bell. We have a few minutes to get back to class." Hajime stood up, and held a hand out to her to help her up before heading for the door. "We should hurry though. The hallways might be a bit crowded on the way back to class." He led the way, and even though the hallways WERE crowded, the students seemed to somehow still shy away from him.
He didn't seem like a trouble maker to her- so why was everyone shying away from him? He actually seemed like a very descent sort of fellow to her. She definitely needed to ask about why everyone seemed so jumpy about him. It was critical she make sure that his power was something that could be kept in check. And an unstable personality made for unstable power.
They took their seats again and she asked to be allowed to try and get the next text book they would need up before he pulled it up himself. She made a wrong selection once but corrected herself after taking a look at the screen it brought up, making the proper choice the next time. She smiled, pleased that she'd managed it. "I think I'm getting the hang of this thing. Thank you for being so patient with me Tsukino-san."
Hajime smiled, the first time he had done so all day.
"No need to thank me. I enjoy being able to help others." He stopped talking when the teacher started to lecture the class; it was English. At one point, the teacher called on Hajime, and he stood, reading from the text in flawless English. Sitting back down, he sighed as some of the students looked back with jealousy written in their features. "I swear. They don't understand..." he muttered, his hand resting on the paper he'd drawn on before.
She hadn't had a chance to ask about the drawing yet. "Where did you learn English?" she asked quietly. "Or are you just one of those that picks up languages easily?" she glanced at the drawing but still held back a bit longer on asking about it. Maybe during the next break.
"I just pick up languages easily. Also, my parents really liked me to excel in school, so I tended to study a lot," Hajime said quietly. "But now, since they're dead, and strange things seem to keep happening to me, studying seems to be something that I really don't focus on anymore."
She was silent for a few reasons. One: his parents were dead. Technically she already knew that but how the heck was she supposed to react to that? I'm sorry was probably something he was tired of hearing and it never made since to her. Either you're sorry because you feel responsible or you're sorry because you pity their loss. And if the first wasn't true then the latter seemed almost rude to her. Two: what strange things was he talking about exactly? "C-can I ask what you mean by strange things?" she asked in a hushed whisper, glancing up at the teacher. He didn't seem to mind that they were talking. Probably because it was expected that as a new student she was going to have questions and as long as she didn't disrupt class to ask them it was okay. Or something like that. She left the comment about his parents alone entirely.
Hajime looked at her, then smiled a little, his eyes sad.
"You're the first to have asked. The others just avoid me..." he admitted softly. "I see a woman. Beautiful but always always sad... She seems to be looking for something, but also asking me for help at the same time." He sighed and shook his head. "And sometimes terrible things happen around me. When my parents died, I was in the same accident. I survived... And others have been hurt when hanging out with me..." He looked at Eliana. "I understand if you don't want to be near me now..." 'That must be why everyone has been avoiding him,' she thought. She smiled a bit. "I may be shy, but I'm not timid," she told him quietly. "Besides, being avoided when you're not even doing anything wrong is just cruel," she informed him and nodded her head towards the drawing. "The picture you drew earlier. Is that the woman you see?" she asked. She seemed to take what he said as truth, not crazy talk. If he was actually having visions of Serenity... what could that mean? Well... she knew that Serenity wasn't actually dead... so could she be reaching out to her counterpart to find someone to aide her? It was possible... but these incidents of people around him being hurt worried her. His power might already have started to go out of control.
Hajime's hand twitched on the paper, but he flipped it over, looking at the drawing. It was quite good, almost realistic in his depiction of Serenity.
"Yes, that is her," he whispered. "She's important somehow... I feel... Something for her. It isn't love. How could I fall in love with a wraith of a woman who doesn't speak?" He laughed, and it sounded almost bitter. "But something draws me to her..."
She giggled softly. "You're really honest huh?" she told him with a smile. Oh she knew what it was that he felt, but how could she tell him that. Maybe she could find a way to hint at it. "So- to sort of change the subject- you said people around you get hurt? How?" she asked and then looked up quickly when the teacher called her name.
"I don't mind you asking questions by try to at least pay attention," he told her sternly. "Can you translate these lines in the book?" he asked. It was a challenge- something he didn't expect her to be able to do since she wasn't paying attention and she was transferring in from being 'home-schooled'. She looked at the text tablet of the kid next to her and stood as she'd seen the others do, reading the section from her own book without even a hint of an accent. She sounded like she was an American. Then sat back down. It was only once she was seated that she realized that what she'd done might have been odd. Because she didn't sound like she had an accent when she spoke Japanese either. Everyone- even the teacher- was staring at her. She blushed and looked down, her light hair hiding her face. 'I guess... most people this age can't speak another language so well that they sound native...' she thought.
The teacher broke from his surprise first and moved on to the next person with a 'right-' and starting to write on the board.
She glanced over at Tsukino. "Was that weird that I can speak English?" she asked.
Hajime shook his head.
"No, I don't think so. You came from Rome right? A lot of the classes there are in English from what I've heard," he said. He had 'forgotten' her question about the others getting hurt around him. His mind shied away from the disasters and friends that he had lost due to his incredible bad luck. "And yes, you could say I'm honest. You've been the first person in a while to show an interest in me specifically, not my astounding bad luck."
She raised her eyebrow. 'Bad luck? Please don't tell me his power is appearing as bad luck,' she thought. "Is your luck really that bad? I haven't notice anything yet," she pointed out.
"Well, you've not hung out with me long enough either," Hajime pointed out. "And yeah, I think it is. As soon as I start to become friendly enough with someone that I would like to invite the over to hang out, or to go to a movie or something, something falls, or almost runs over em." He shook his head. "I think it would be safer if we just spoke during school hours. I would hate to have to pick up your corpse if something happened." He didn't say it sarcastically, but matter of factly. It seemed something morbid, but something that he had come to terms with long before now.
She stared at him. Yeah, that was bad. "Well, it's not as if I would force you to become friends with me but- I have pretty strong good luck. So don't write me off to quickly okay?" she gave him a smile again and then focused on the lecture. She'd have Apollo follow him to see if any of this 'bad luck' happened while he was away from school. She'd need to find out the extend of he damage of whatever leak his power was coming from and help him find a way to keep it controlled, or at least manageable.
Hajime nodded, turning back to the class. This girl seemed rather persistant it appeared, and he was just fine with that.