Here's chapter nine... Maika's out of the hospital, and almost back to her old self... Read on!

Chapter 9

"Maika-chan!" She turned to see her friend, Kiyato, waving at her.

"Ohayou…" Maika smiled.

"Ne, did you get Tezuka-san a present?" Kiyato was one of the few which did not go utterly crazy at the sight of Tezuka, but nonetheless was still a devoted fan of his.

"A present?! Why? Is it his birthday?"

"His birthday? Have you forgotten what day it is today?"

Maika gave her a blank look. "Today is… the day we do our history test?"

"No!" Kiyato smacked her forehead. "You don't know what day it is? Kami-sama…"

"What day is it?" Maika was beginning to get a little tired of people throwing "Kami-sama"s at her everywhere she went.

"It's Valentine's Day, baka!"

"Oh!" She gaped. "I totally forgot about it!"

Kiyato looked at her friend. "Sometimes you're unbelievable…" She steered a dazed Maika to class. "You'd probably forget your head if it wasn't already attached to you!"

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When Maika got to class, she was not at all prepared for the crowd and noise that met her at the entrance.

"What the - !" She sputtered, as she elbowed and pushed her way to her place. The whole class was filled with screaming girls, and she finally found out the cause for all this madness when she reached her place.

There, sitting calmly in his chair, was Tezuka Kunimitsu, captain of Seigaku's famed tennis team and her seating partner. He looked unfazed by all the attention, which was quite a feat considering he was in constant danger of being hit by a gift landslide, thanks to the precariously teetering pile of presents and chocolates on his desk. Which, incidentally, managed to take up all her desk space too.

"Tezuka." Her voice cut through the screams of the fangirls, and he looked up to see an unsmiling Maika.

"Maika." He wasn't quite sure when he had started addressing her by her first name, but it was a lot less cumbersome than Tawako-san anyway.

"Excuse me," She pushed past a fangirl who was blocking her way, and finally managed to deposit her battered body in her seat. "My desk, Tezuka, my desk!!! How am I going to study?"

He could hardly fail to catch her meaning, but he merely replied, "Later."

"Later?! I'm being asphyxiated by lack of oxygen and all you can say is 'later'?" The screams were starting to grate on her nerves. "Can't you get rid of them?"

Some of the girls sent death glares her way, but she was past caring.

"They'll go away when the bell rings."

True enough, the rabid crowd was finally shooed back to their respective classes when the bell rang.

Maika stared at the overflowing pile of presents and chocolates and goodness-knows-what else on their adjoining tables. "Well?" She demanded.

He looked at her. "What?"

"What are you going to do with all these?"

"Oh, the janitors will clean it up later."

She was more than shocked. "You're just going to throw all these away?!"

Thank God I didn't give him a present! How wasteful!

"Well, what else can I do with them?"

He had a point there, she had to admit. It was a little too much to eat. But then she remembered something.

"But the janitors only start cleaning after school!"

"Yes…" He looked at her strangely. "When else are they supposed to clean?"

She buried her head in her hands. "You do realize, Tezuka, that this – this pile of thing is totally obscuring my visual field? I can't even see the blackboard! Besides the fact that I have no surface to do my..." Her eyes widened. "My history test! Tezuka! Get all these off my table now!!!"

"Maika – "

"Now! I need to study, you ninny!"

"Maika – "

"Just do it!"

"Maika!"

He finally got her attention. "Yes?"

"Stop it. You're making me nervous."

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"Class, your history test today…" This is it… this is it… I'm doomed…

"…will be postponed because the history teacher is down with a bad cold."

"YES!!!" The whole class broke out into cheers. Well, all except one.

"Darn! And I studied so hard for it!" Maika was quite literally on the verge of banging her head on the nearest hard surface.

Tezuka merely looked at her.

"However, he left some homework," There were groans all around the class at this. "Please copy down the questions on the board."

"Um… Tezuka?"

He looked up. "Hn?"

"I can't see the board."

Now that was strange. He could see the board perfectly well.

"I'm shorter than you, okay?" She glared at him.

"Oh." And he proceeded to lower the pile of presents a little. "Better?"

"A little bit more, please."

It was definitely not the sort of normal conversation you'd hear in an everyday classroom scene.

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It was a free period, and Maika was amusing herself by randomly selecting gifts and reading them out loud, much to Tezuka's annoyance.

"Oh! This is priceless!" She was laughing so hard, it was a miracle she didn't burst. "Listen to this – your beautiful russet orbs glisten in the moonlight, golden tints of your hair reflecting the sunshine – what poetry!"

Then she sobered up. "Hey, Tezuka?" She asked casually. Almost too casually.

"Yes?" He answered, not looking up from his book.

"Look at me."

"?!!!" He was so startled that he actually complied.

She stared at him. "It's true! You do have brown eyes! Why didn't I notice that before?"

"…"

"Saa, what colour are my eyes?" Her next question caught him off guard.

"How should I know? They're your eyes…"

"I know," She explained. "But every time I try to look at them in the mirror, I get all cross-eyed. So could you check for me?"

He gave her a perfunctory glance. "Brown."

"Really?" She seemed a little disappointed. "I'd much rather have blue eyes… what sort of brown are they?"

"What sort?" He frowned.

"You know, like deep, mahogany brown, or hazel brown, or chocolate brown, or – "

He cut her short. "Muddy brown."

There was a minute of silence.

"… muddy brown." She stared at him, and he suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle, for no apparent reason at all.

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Let us observe a moment of silence for the dearly departed.

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Tezuka massaged his temples, letting out a deep sigh. Who knew she was so touchy about such things?

He looked up as she slid into her seat beside him.

"Maika?"

She promptly turned her back on him.

He sighed. This was getting old. "Maika."

There was still no answer.

"Maika." He stated firmly. "Stop sulking and look at me."

She finally deigned to reply. "Don't want to."

"You're acting very childishly."

"Don't care."

Tezuka was really pissed now.

"Maika." He growled. "Turn around. Now."

The barely veiled threat in his tone made her turn to face him, albeit reluctantly. "What?"

What had he wanted say, anyway? Something about Science, if he wasn't mistaken… Darn it! He had forgotten what he wanted to say! And it was all her fault for being so difficult.

"… Never mind."

"You make such a big fuss just to tell me 'Never mind'?!" Her hands on her hips, she advanced on him.

He backed away just the tiniest bit. He had not, after all, forgotten her volatile temper that had been provoked just a few hours ago – at his expense, unfortunately. "I forgot what I was going – oh! Himada-sensei said he wants you to go for extra coaching for Science later after school."

"Science?! But I got 100 percent!"

"Apparently he has selected you to go for a quiz." Tezuka's expression was unreadable.

She made a face. "Ugh! I hate quizzes! Anyway, you got a perfect score too! Why aren't you going? You can take my place, then."

"…I am."

"You are?! But isn't it individual?"

The dreaded answer came. "Pair work."

"Not again!!!"

Sometimes Tezuka had to wonder whether he was really that dislikable.

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"The zygote makes its way into the uterus and implants itself there," He pointed to the diagram. "By that time, it has already developed into an embryo. Get it?"

"Yes, I get it," She replied impatiently. "What I don't get is how you get twins."

"Me?" He was momentarily stunned by her choice of pronouns. "I don't have twins."

Maika stared at him for a moment before she started laughing uncontrollably.

"Tezuka Kunimitsu!" She gasped. "Of course you don't have twins! You shouldn't even be having chil – " She was laughing too hard by this point to talk coherently.

His cheeks were the faintest shade of pink imaginable. "Then?" He tried to look as dignified as was humanly possible in such an embarrassing situation. "You were the one who said it…"

"But I didn't – " A fit of giggles overtook her again. "I didn't – mean – you!"

"…" Tezuka simply had no answer to that.

"You – getting preg – !" She couldn't even finish her sentence.

He took one look at the irrepressibly laughing Maika, the book, and the fact that he had just implied… that thing… He repressed a shudder, and thanked God that there had been no one else to see him make a fool of himself, and sat down to find a way he could deal with a immediate problem at hand.

He could always brainwash her, he supposed.

The infectious sound of her laughter broke into his thoughts, and he looked up to see her half-doubled over in mirth.

He cleared his throat. "Shall we continue?"

She wiped the tears from her eyes and turned meekly back to the diagram, but there was a smirk on her face that remained there throughout the rest of the afternoon. And try as he might to ignore it, Tezuka couldn't suppress the faint tinge of pink that had crept into his cheeks till long after the session was over, and they had both gone their separate ways.

It was a memorable day indeed.

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