~ Day 9- Hands ~

Haruka had really large hands. Well, he was tall overall, so it wasn't a surprise, but his hands were huge. With their long, slender fingers, they seemed so elegant, mostly because they only ever held onto pencils like a professional artist or typed away quickly on keyboards as though they were the digits of a secretary.

It had taken a long time. A really long time. Takane knew how those hands felt, technically. They were warm and just the tiniest bit rough towards the fingertips. The nails were unhealthily soft and bent easily, the right index and middle finger both had a small, tough bump of skin on them. But only now, after knowing all of these things already, she wanted to hold onto them. That had been her goal for the week.

On Monday, she spent half of the time during lessons staring at Haruka's hands. It was no problem, for he was just happily scribbling down his notes, but it made her feel surprisingly anxious. When Haruka had looked up, Takane quickly hid her face behind her bangs. That went on for the rest of the day.

Tuesday wasn't quite as awkward. Takane had decided to stop looking at those two hands like they were something out of the ordinary. Because they weren't. She just wanted to hold onto them. Just... for a bit. And so, after school, they sat together as usual. Only then did the girl 'accidentally' let her fingers grace Haruka's hand. He hadn't noticed. Takane had just turned a bright red.

Wednesday, Takane was already starting to have doubts. There was nothing special about holding someone's hand, anyways, was there? So she went about, almost completely ignoring Haruka. In the end, he even asked her if she was feeling alright. "Splendid", she had then replied and stared at two large hands instead of a worried face.

By Thursday, her resolve was back in place. She knew that she had made Haruka uncomfortable the day before, and the selfishness of ignoring her urges was something she didn't want to burden the poor boy with. So, that day, she was finally back to her usual, not staring, less awkward, self. The nagging longing for holding onto Haruka's hand hadn't gone away yet, but it didn't matter. She could do this.

And soon, Friday came around. It was quite the usual day. Even as they started packing up their stuff, Takane found it normal. Mundane. Her goal could only still be fulfilled tomorrow, but she had no intention of really going for it. It was stupid. She was stupid. Haruka was stupid. She liked stupid. She liked Haruka.

"Hey Haruka", she called him when she put her pencil-case away in her bag. Said boy looked at her. Takane grinned awkwardly. "How about we walk out while holding hands?", she laughed and glanced up at Haruka's confused face.

"Why?", he asked her, simply, and she shrugged, frowning as her face flushed. Did she really have to answer that?

"I don't know. I was just blabbering. Ignore me", Takane said and pulled the strap of her bag over her shoulder, turning around to leave.

Then, a hand lightly held onto hers.

It wasn't holding onto her strongly, so she could and would have ripped away if she hadn't stopped dead in her tracks. "It's okay, I just don't see why you'd want to do that with me", Haruka muttered in embarrassment behind her.

Takane looked over her shoulder, face beet red. Haruka just smiled at her, though she thought he was looking a little more red than usual, as well. "No particular reason. I was only joking, anyways and...", she stammered. As Haruka made to pull away from her hand at that, though, Takane took his larger hand into hers instead, gripping it tightly.

Without arguing any further, Haruka moved a little closer to her, his arm stretched not nearly as far as before. Takane looked up at him through her lashes with a small glare and nodded, pushing open the classroom's door.

Haruka's hand was warm and soft.

Takane's heart agreed.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, as always. This one is no good at all. I'm feeling a little sick though and had lessons until four. I might stay at home tomorrow.
Also, I gotta tell this to you: you see, when I went to sleep yesterday, I didn't really think about it, but when I closed my eyes, I suddenly had an image of a very much disfigured Kuroha before me and I couldn't stop thinking of it when I shut my eyes again.
My subconscious was haunted by him, simply because I wrote about him.
Considering that I am prone to paranoia, I didn't sleep too well.