Chapter 3

Calm Before Hell

When he reached his home that day, he did it as tired as he could be.

Not really physically mind you, although still not having his bike sure wasn't helping things, but rather mentally.

And by that he meant that Miura's threat was hanging over his head with each step that he gave towards his home.

Because that's what it was, in his humble opinion.

a threat.

One that he didn't know just how serious it was...

But he was now here, in his home, and as much as he would have enjoyed maddening over Miura's words, he was not going to give her the satisfaction of that.

"I'm home." He muttered as he entered his abode, not really expecting anyone to be here at this hour.

Unless his mother had taken another day just to marry him off to someone else, of course.

He shuddered at that thought, deciding that maybe he should stop trying to tempt his luck like that.

When he reached the living room though, he realized that he wasn't alone right now.

Not that Komachi seemed to show any interest in even greeting him though, given that she was paying far more attention to her phone as she sat on the sofa, also ignoring the T.V in front of her.

"Komachi." He called out to her, more than a bit weirded out by how she hadn't even acknowledged him once he had entered the room.

And it seemed she was doing it on purpose, given that even after calling out to her, she still remained focused on her phone while sporting a frown.

Honestly, it almost made him wince. He was not used to Komachi giving him the cold-shoulder, to say the least. To think she would still be angry at him even after two days...

Not knowing the why was not helping either.

But then again, maybe this was his chance?

He moved slowly, almost fearing as if any sudden movement would make things worse somehow.

He took a seat on the opposite end of the sofa, his eyes glued to the T.V although he was barely paying attention to it. Some news about some big Yakuza apparently being released over a technicality or something like that.

His attention was far more focused on Komachi, although he was only giving her side-glances from time to time. It was impressive to be honest, how she was ignoring him still.

"Hey, Komachi." He called out once more as he gave her another side-glance, and if it wasn't because he saw her fingers stop moving, he would have thought she hadn't heard him. "Is everything all right?"

Maybe it wasn't the best approach, but considering he didn't even know the cause of her anger, what else was he supposed to say?

At the very least though, he finally got her to look at him.

Sure, it was with a mighty glare, but it was better than nothing, right?

"I don't know, Onii-chan." Alright so perhaps it wasn't actually better given how her tone felt as if she was talking to trash. "I think things are just mediocre right now."

That was a... very specific way to describe things, and not really helpful at all for that matter.

"But that's just me." Komachi continued, her tone going from angry to mocking. "I'm sure Onii-chan would say they are average at best."

Now he felt as if he was missing a key part of the conversation. A really important one at that.

"Whatever." And it seemed the confusion on his face wasn't of Komachi's liking. "Bye bye, Onii-chan."

And with no more words she was gone, with the sound of her slamming close the door of her room with enough force to make him cringe slightly from his seat in the living room.

A sigh left his lips soon after, for not even Kamakura rubbing against his leg helped his demoralized state.

"Good morning, Hikigaya-kun."

"Good morning, Yukinoshita."

Today he had gone into Yukinoshita's limousine without complaining even a bit

This wasn't him accepting this screwed up betrothal stuff or anything, of course, but between going willingly and being thrown out of the house by his pissed-off mother, the decision has been an easy one.

His bicycle still being without a tire also contributed a bit, he had to admit.

Besides, he had no idea how Yukinoshita would react if he told her he didn't want to catch a ride with her.

He could only imagine it would be bad, to say the least, given her prideful nature.

Sure, he was going to make her angry anyway since he was going to tell her to drop him off a couple of blocks before Sobu, but still...

He knew where to pick his fights...most of the time.

Which was why he was throwing side-glances towards Yukinoshita from time to time. He had honestly expected her to say, well, anything by now, especially since she had been obviously upset about his decision the last time he saw her.

At the very least, she hadn't asked about Ebina's request so far. He was not ready to open that can of worms, not so early in the morning.

Instead of any of that though, Yukinoshita was simply sitting there, her eyes glued to a notebook resting in her lap.

She was also sitting closer to him than yesterday, choosing to sit in the middle rather than on the opposite end of the limo.

If he was being honest, a part of him thought the whole ride would be like this: In complete silence. It wouldn't be the first time he saw Yukinoshita too engrossed on something anyway.

That though, changed when, while giving another glance at Yukinoshita, his eyes ended up meeting hers.

"Hikigaya-kun?"

"Sorry, I was just..." He was pretty much caught red-handed by her, but he wasn't without an excuse ready. "Wondering what you were reading, that's all."

A humming sound left her just as her eyes moved back down towards her book for just a second, right before they met his own once more.

"It's just an instruction book." She explained casually, but her answer still caught him by surprise.

The super woman Yukinoshita was reading an instruction book? That was unexpected, to say the least, especially since said book didn't look like any instruction book he had ever seen.

It looked far more like a personal notebook, if he was being honest.

"About what?" He couldn't help but to ask, his gaze glued to the book in question.

Only for Yukinoshita to close it a second later, followed by her hugging it to her chest, almost as if protecting the thing.

"N-nothing you need to concern yourself about." Even her voice had a hint of nervousness, which combined with the way she seemingly started to find the corner of the limo quite interesting with how focused her gaze was over there, made for quite the sight.

Seriously, what was he supposed to think against such reaction?

"A-Anyway." Yukinoshita followed her little act by clearing her throat however. "I think there are a few things we need to discuss now, Hikigaya-kun."

He had to keep himself in order to not wince slightly, for he could only wonder what she thought they had to discuss.

"It's about Yuigahama-san." That made him frown, for a part of him was hoping that she didn't bring up Yuigahama so soon. "I think we should tell her about u-us as soon as possible."

He had to bite his tongue when she said 'us', knowing that Yukinoshita was as much of a victim as he was in this...whatever this was.

Sure, a lot more lenient of a victim, one that seemed to not be against the idea in the first place, but a victim none the less.

Going back to her proposal though, the answer he came up in his mind was a simple one.

No way in hell.

Not only because just the idea of telling anyone he was engaged, to Yukinoshita no less, was enough to make him feel dizzy, but telling Yuigahama of all people...

Even he wasn't insensitive enough to ignore how much that would probably hurt her, and contrary to what some might believe, he didn't enjoy making Yuigahama suffer.

"We can't tell her." He responded swiftly, and given the way Yukinoshita narrowed her eyes at him, he could tell she thought he had answered wrong. "...not yet at least."

"Why not?" She asked pointedly and with a raised eyebrow. "The more we wait, the more it would...affect Yuigahama-san."

She had a valid reason; he wouldn't deny her that much.

But that only worked if this whole ordeal was inevitable.

And he was still not ready to accept that fact, not when he had so little info about it in the first place.

But he also knew saying it like would most likely upset Yukinoshita even further, so a bit more of tact was needed right now.

"I... need more time, Yukinoshita." His words weren't a lie, that was the justification running in his head. "Maybe you were already prepared for it, but I wasn't and it's...a bit too much all of a sudden."

Although the context behind him not wanting to tell Yuigahama wasn't exactly that, the feelings he had poured out were in fact, real.

It was simply the difference in the worlds they lived in. Yukinoshita had said so yesterday, that she had prepared her entire life for something like this.

Meanwhile, the only thought he ever had when it came to arranged marriages was whenever he read it on a novel or saw it in an anime somewhere.

To say he was overwhelmed would be an understatement, and he could only hope that Yukinoshita understood that much, even if he was only using it as an excuse to buy himself more time.

Fortunately, it seemed that she did, with the way he saw her gaze softened right after he finished talking.

It was a bit strange, he had to be honest, to be on the receiving end of such a look coming from Yukinoshita herself. He would even dare to call it a caring one, but that much was honestly too embarrassing, even for just the depth on his thoughts.

"I... understand, Hikigaya-kun." She even smiled at him, in a way that could only be considered cute, even for Yukinoshita standards. "If it is time you need then, I wouldn't be a good p-partner if I ignored your feelings like that."

Oh god, was she trying to give him a hearth attack or something? How did Yuigahama survive dealing with such a... dare he say it, adorable version of Yukinoshita almost every day? Scratch surviving until he found if there was a way to break this engagement, he wasn't even going to be able to survive his way to Sobu today!

Speaking of Sobu though, and this wasn't just because he needed a change of subject pretty desperately right now...

"This is my stop." He declared, his eyes recognizing the exact same place he had been dropped on yesterday as he looked at it through the window.

Which gave him a first seat look at it as the limousine passed by said stop without even a hint of slowing down.

"Yukinoshita." His voice grew in concern, his eyes going back immediately to glare at her. "Why isn't he stopping"

She was still smiling at him, but now that smile could not be considered cute, not even for a bit.

It told him though, that she knew exactly what she was doing.

"We're almost there, Hikigaya-kun. If I were you, I would just relax until we're there."

"What happened to listening to my feelings?" It wasn't often that he could throw Yukinoshita's own words right back at her, but even so instead of satisfaction the only thing he was feeling was rightful indignation.

"A good p-partner also knows when the other one is being stubborn for no valid reason." But of course, Yukinoshita had a reply ready, although the slight pinkish hue that lighted up her cheeks did her no favor in his head this time. "A lot of people will see us t-together in the future, so you should see this as a good practice for such endeavors, Hikigaya-kun."

Suddenly, his desire to find a way to break the engagement grew ten times in size.

Sobu's rumor mil was as fast as it was inaccurate.

It was something that he had learned in the two years he had spent in this place. It didn't matter if this was considered an elite school where the likes of the Yukinoshita and Hayama families would send their children, for in the end, teenagers would be teenagers.

And in such a period of youth, to gossip was like breathing air for some.

Source? Well, how about the fact that ever since he had arrived with Yukinoshita, the only thing he had heard as he walked towards his class was stuff about his relationship with her?

Seriously, he only got here like ten minutes ago, how could news travel that fast in the first place?

Not like he ever paid much attention to said gossip, but when you had people muttering your name as you walked by, although many of them keep mixing up his last name, it became hard to not pay a bit of attention.

At the very least though, it seemed that the popular consensus was that Yukinoshita was simply a kind soul that had taken pity of her rebellious clubmate today and had decided to give him a ride to school.

Which, considering the alternative, was not that bad all things considered.

Not that he cared, but at the very least he doubted people would bother Yukinoshita about it.

Because even if she didn't care about her reputation either, he did care when it came to her.

Not that he would tell her that, but still.

Sadly, once he entered his classroom, it wasn't the safe heaven that he had hoped for, considering the looks, glances and even the few glares that he got here and there.

None of that mattered, however, for the only thing that he wanted to do right now was to go to his seat and rest his head on his desk, even if it was for just a few minutes before class started.

He wasn't able to do that though, the reason for that being...

"Morning, Hikigaya."

Kawasaki was sitting on the desk right to the left of his own.

That was not her seat.

She had her things out though, and her bag secured on the back of the seat itself, so she was definitely treating it as if it was her usual seat.

It was not.

"Kawasaki?"

"Yeah?" Her nonchalant response, almost as if nothing was wrong, did little to help.

"What happened to the guy that sits there." He asked, deciding to do things step by step.

"Beats me." Her answer didn't help much though, but the way her eyes shifted momentarily to the front of the class did.

And there he was, the previous owner of Kawasaki's apparent new seat, now sitting in Kawasaki's original desk.

He was also trembling like a leaf in a storm.

The guy even turned around for just a second, seemingly looked at Kawasaki, right before making himself as small as possible in his new desk, a borderline terrified expression on his face.

And while there were many, many ways in which he could interpret this whole...situation, the only idea popping up in his brain was about how it was way too early to be dealing with stuff like this.

Classes were...strange.

It was the only way to describe it, if he was being honest, only that this time, it wasn't because of Miura or Kawasaki.

Sure, Kawasaki now sitting beside him was weird to say the least, but unlike yesterday she wasn't trying to get his attention every ten minutes or something, so he couldn't consider her a bother right now.

Miura though... was actually doing nothing, surprisingly enough. After everything she had said yesterday, he kind of expected, or rather dreaded, well, something today, but instead she didn't even once turn to look at him.

Not that he was paying attention to her or anything, of course.

Why was it weird then? Because while Miura seemed fine with ignoring him now, the rest of her little friend group were seemingly trying to redouble her previous effort by themselves.

Yuigahama, maybe, he would understand, heck, even Ebina if he squinted hard enough. Maybe she was just curious after her little stunt yesterday?

But why the hell was Tobe of all people grinning at him from time to time? He wasn't even being subtle about it! It almost felt like a dog who had just gotten a new cheweing toy or something.

Even the other two guys of their group, whose names he couldn't for the life of him remember right now, were throwing glances at him every so often.

Was this the death of his Stealth-Hikki? He wasn't naïve, he knew without a doubt that Miura must have done or said something. What, he didn't know, and frankly he couldn't have cared less as long as it didn't come to bite him in the ass.

Maybe if he ignored them long enough, they would simply stop? He could only hope.

"I made steak today so I hope you like your meats."

"..."

"I know you don't like tomatoes, so I made sure to not add them. The salad is still good though."

"..."

"And here. I don't how you like something so sweet, but I got you a can of that drink you like so much."

That's because life is bitter, so at the very least coffee should be-no wait, he shouldn't get distracted by that right now.

"So, what are you waiting?" Kawasaki kept looking at him though, with a look that could be described as...earnest? "Eat already, would you?"

It was easier said than done in his opinion.

Sure, the food looked great, smelled divine, he had no doubt it would taste amazing, and the can of MAX Coffe alongside it was the perfect finishing touch.

But all of that did little to help his utter bafflement at the situation itself.

Had he misunderstood something? Yesterday he had understood. Kawasaki was not someone that liked to be indebted to anyone, so her cooking lunch for him, he believed, has been a way for them to be even.

But surely, just once was enough for that, right? No need to cook him lunch the next day too...

How did she even know he didn't like tomatoes in the first place...?

And then there were Ebina's words of yesterday, although given how that rotten woman had tricked him already, he was less inclined to believe anything that came out of her mouth.

So, there were definitely a lot of things that he wanted to say, but it was a bit hard to when you had someone like Kawasaki watching so intently.

"Thank you for the meal..." He ended up simply whispering in gratitude, right before digging in on her well-crafted lunch.

Suffice to say, it was delicious.

It did little to sooth his confusion, but delicious none the less.

"Hey, Hikigaya..." It was Kawasaki's voice that broke the silence between them, for apparently, they weren't just going to eat in silence like yesterday. "Are you busy tonight?"

The hand that was holding his chopsticks stopped immediately, his gaze landed swiftly into an apparent slightly nervous Kawasaki if the way she was smoothing over her already pretty smooth ponytail was any indication.

"Why?" He asked immediately, with warning bells already resounding in his brain. Surely, he was overthinking it, right?

"Well..." She cleared her throat, right before a sigh left her. "Keika kind of spilled the beans about what happened to our parents and... they insisted I invite you to eat dinner with us..."

Oh...

That was different from what he had expected, so he wasn't able to hold the sigh of relief that left him.

It was his fault for overthinking stuff in the first place anyway...

But still, dinner at the Kawasaki home? He had to admit it was more than just a bit unexpected, but what Kawasaki had said made enough sense.

As in, he could definitly imagine Keika blurting out the truth, and he understood the idea of grateful parents trying to pay back what they saw as a debt.

Perhaps though, that was the key to this?

"Sure." He ended up answering. "I can be there tonight."

Sure, it wasn't how he would have preferred to spend his evening, but perhaps this was the push that needed to happen so Kawasaki would finally consider themselves even.

Not that he didn't enjoy the food she was making for him, but he didn't need things to become weird between them.

He was already having enough of that with Yukinoshita and Miura.

"Great!" Kawasaki's reply was surprisingly upbeat, just to then follow it by clearing het throath again. "I mean, cool cool...I'll tell my parents then..."

He nodded at her, only hoping that it would be a pretty uneventful dinner.

Sure, he didn't know her parents, but he had already met Yukinoshita's mother, so surely they couldn't be worse than her.

Right?

"What's up with you now?" There was only so much pouting Yuigahama that he could handle in one sitting, and with her having that expression ever since they had left the classroom, his patience had already run thin.

"Hikki got to come to school with Yukinon before me." She whined, right before crossing her arms over her chest. "How's that fair!?"

"It definitely isn't..." He muttered under his breath, low enough so Yuigahama wouldn't hear him. He would have gladly swap places with her in the morning if he could have, but alas, that wasn't one of his skills.

At least Yuigahama had finally stopped with the pouts, but the frown she now sported was far more concerning if he was being honest.

"Hey, Hikki..." She started, right before looking up at him in obvious worry. "Did something happen between you and Yumiko?"

He had to hold himself from almost tripping the moment she said Miura's name, but even then, he wasn't able to stop the slight grimace from appearing in his face.

"Why, did she say anything?" He asked, already fearing the worst, and he didn't even know what the worst was in the first place!

"Well..." It looked like Yuigahama was uncomfortable, although if it was because of him asking or because of what Miura had done, he didn't know. "She told us to keep an eye on Hikki...but didn't say why, it was weird."

Weird was putting it too lightly in his opinion, and now he could only wonder what sort of angle Miura was trying to play here by throwing her friends on him like a pack of wolves.

Once more, he found himself wondering where the hell Hayama was. Not even a week without him and Miura had seemingly gone insane already.

"Hikki?" It was when Yuigahama spoke again that he realized he hadn't actually answered her question in the first place.

"I don't know, she's probably bored without Hayama around or something." He knew he was lying, but he didn't want to drag Yuigahama into an issue like this.

And she seemed doubtful enough, but even still she simply nodded at him with a small smile, for which he could only be grateful.

Everything might be going crazy in his life right now, but at the very least he could find solace on Yuigahama Yui still being Yuigahama Yui.

Rest of the day had been a pretty mundane one if he was being honest.

No strange request, or any for that matter, coming through.

No Ishiki to suddenly demand his help with some asinine thing.

And even Yukinoshita had acted fairly normal, although that had probably more to do with Yuigahama's presence more than anything.

He could have lived without her throwing victorious looks at him whenever she thought Yuigahama wasn't looking, as if what had happened this morning was some sort of competition that she had won.

So it was in an actually relaxed state that he reached his home that day, knowing that he still had to go to Kawasaki's house, but that there was no way such endeavor would be more stressful than the earlier part of the day.

"I'm home." He announced, expecting no answer in return just like the day before.

And while he did not get one, the sound he heard became an ominous chord in his heart.

It was the sound of people giggling and talking. One voice, he recognized pretty well, but the other one...

He pretty much dashed towards the living room, an expression of utter bewilderment present on his face. Surely, that couldn't be the case, right? It was just his mind playing tricks on him, right?

But what he saw confirmed his growing suspicion

For his mom was there, sitting, laughing and talking, with an album that he knew held family photos resting on her lap.

The problem wasn't her, however, but rather the person sitting beside her.

"Oh, Hachiman, we were wondering when you were going to arrive."

"Yeah, what took you so long, Hikio?"

Another chapter done. Not much to say for this one, to be honest, as it is meant to mostly setup the next one while throwing hints at some other stuff.

Next chapter will be a fun one to say the least.

Once again, thank you all for having read this far and for your continuous interest in this fic. Specially with the reviews. Totsuka sure is popular huh.

Next Chapter: Declaration of Intent.

Plots so far:

1) Yukinoshita Yukino: "Because of my grandfather, my high-class Club President suddenly became my fiancée."

2) Miura Yumiko: "I discovered the most popular girl in the school is my old childhood friend and now she won't leave me alone!"