12. Dead Wrong

She shouldn't have gone to school today and she knew it. Her eyes could hardly stay open during morning lessons. She didn't even make a peep or any physical action when Io talked to her. By the time lunch rolled around, Tsumiki had all but gone to the nurse's office to rest.

"Tsumiki-chan is really out of it today, isn't she Mayoi-chan?" Hime mentioned as she opened her bento, sparing a glance at her blue-haired friend who had a spacey look about her. Tsumiki had yet to open her lunch box.

"Ohohoho! And I know the perfect way to fix it!" The mechanic cackled loudly as she left the classroom in search of her equally dubious counterpart. The door slammed shut and Hime sighed. This would be interesting. Though she was worried about Tsumiki's health. The minutes passed and Hime became increasingly concerned, Mayoi and Sakaki shouldn't be taking that long, especially since it had to do with Io and Tsumiki. Io stood up, the chair scratching on the floor.

"Tsumiki, why don't we go to the nurse's office?" His brows were furrowed as he leaned next to her. Hime struggled to internalize her need to release a stream of blood from her nose. But Tsumiki hadn't even responded, not even a single twitch. Just a simple hum exited her mouth. Io looked even more worried (if that was even possible) and gently helped her stand up, leading her out the door. More minutes passed and Hime was left to her lonesome, munching away worriedly on the rice in her lunch box. Suddenly the door slid open with a loud bang and the terrible two entered, quietly muttering their opinions on the plan to each other.

The evil buried in their minds—though more of a light hearted jesting plan—dissipated when they found that their two targets weren't even in the room. Then the quietness was no more.

"Sakaki! This is all your fault! If I didn't have to explain it to you three times because you failed to lis—"

Hime interrupted her rant to clear up the situation with, "Io just offered to take Tsumiki to the nurse's office just minutes after you left to Sakaki's classroom. They left a couple minutes ago."

"Oh..." Mayoi let go of her iron grip on his now stretched shirt and allowed him to drop to the floor.

"Thanks Mayoi, such a pleasant landing," he scoffed, rubbing his bruised bottom, wincing the entire time. He rose, brushing the dirt off him in a huffy way to imply his ego was also bruised. The sympathy request didn't exactly transfer over well since Mayoi turned to Hime sparing Sakaki a moment's glance to tell him one thing:

"You'll be fine. You always are anyway. So Himecchi, what do you think will happen?" Mayoi's hands were clasped together, giddy, expectant, waiting for the prediction. Not to mention the shark like grin was very apparent on her half hidden face.

Not a second after asking, Io walked in with a hand on Tsumiki's shoulder holding her steady. "The nurse told me to take her home. I should be back by the last class." Ignoring the usual antics of their group, Io grabbed Tsumiki's bag and turned to lead her out of the classroom. Only to find her missing. "Mayoi, she's actually sick, I want to make sure she gets home safely so she can come back soon." He sighed, turning to face the accused. Io's face remained impassive.

Mayoi gave him a blank stare in return, "I never kidnapped her, what are you talking about? Ohohoho is that so...?" She let a grin crawl up her face to join her leering voice, but she was still concerned as to why Io accused her of kidnapping. "Back to the topic at hand, I have no idea where—Io. Did you even think to look down further and not the space Tsumiki-chan typically is?"

Said boy glanced down to find her crumpled on the ground before bending to pick her up. This was going to be a long walk... Particularly in growing heat of the approaching summer.

Moments after they left through the school gates, Tsumiki woke up, and, no surprise given her awkward forms of social interaction, flailed and asked to be let down, saying she could take care of herself.

"Really Io," she coughed. "You can go back I'll be fi-ah-ah-AH-CHOOO." Tsumiki shivered. He merely gave her a look before setting her down regardless. "T-thanks..."

For once, Io really didn't have a reply for that. He simply held a hand a few inches away in case she fell backwards.

"Tsumiki! Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?" His worried gaze focused in her view, words kept tumbling out of his mouth as her hearing flickered in and out, much like the light before her was.

"Oh wait... That's just me closing my eyes... Sleeping sounds nice..." She let out a long sigh and fell silent.

"TSUMIKI!" Io yelled, an abnormal outcry, even for him, kneeling beside her on the grassy hill she had just tumbled down, now worrying he'd lose his closest friend to death.

She breathed in softly, breathed out just as quietly, though labored, with her cheeks flushed.

"Fever...?" He muttered while feeling her forehead temperature by placing his own on hers. "Seems like it... She's shivering too...

He couldn't believe he was stupid enough to believe she was alright earlier, because really, she was wobbling all over and occasionally crouching on the ground to recover her breath. But she claimed her sight was better and oh he was a complete fool. And now here he was, carrying the feverish girl. Thankfully, it wouldn't be more than 5 minutes until she was home. And hopefully, her parents were home.

Tsumiki stirred awake just before Io rose his hand to knock. "Io. Bag. Key." She managed to slip out in her sick stupor.

Io set her down and began rummaging-though carefully as it was a female's bag—around the pockets. Quickly, without any embarrassing events, he found the key and unlocked her door. "Tsumiki, can you get up?" She shook her head, suddenly stopping to hold her head as the world spun. Nevertheless he picked her up, as a prince would a princess, and put her on the couch inside before heading to the door to close it.

A few days later, Tsumiki was back at school and though still recovering, she only suffered an occasional cough.

"How are you feeling Tsumiki-chan?" Hime immediately felt her forehead and then smiled, feeling cool skin beneath her dainty hands

Tsumiki nodded slowly-already having learned her lesson once. "Better." She turned to face her savior. "I-Io. Umm. T-thanks." She turned back to the front of the room, hiding her embarrassed face as Hime collapsed to the floor as usual.

"Tsumiki, are your parents home?" Io asked."No. Job. Trip. Couple more days." She managed to sniffle out."Well I can't just leave you here, I'll make you some soup."Her face colored more, "it's what I want. But. But. But." Her feverish mind frantically tried to spit out a response but she could hardly form words, she was just so sleepy...

"It's no problem, no problem at all Tsumiki." He gave her his usual smile and turned away to which she promptly passed out on her desk with a nosebleed, the interaction having been too much.

"It's good…" Tsumiki mumbled as she swallowed (albeit painfully) bits of soup. When she finished she leaned over slowly onto the pillow Io had gotten and blinked owlishly at him. "Thank you." She smiled serenely before falling into a deep sleep.

Io remained frozen on the spot. That smile. Where had that come from? He shook his head, best he stay until her fever broke. He covered her with the blanket before quietly pulling out a workbook to keep up with the classes he was missing today.

A/N: First of all I'd like to offer a formal apology. For being inactive for so long. Long story short, I'm a senior in literally a week. So obviously my writing is extremely immature and junior year was a frightening eyeopener as to how difficult life can be. However, as I said, I am becoming a senior in high school, and hopefully with the classes I've planned (excluding work, college preparation, musical lessons, and my lack of concentration at times), I fully intend to fill the requests of the reviewers inquiry as to the continuation of particular themes.

Which brings me to another point. And you'll have to forgive this. Oh my god thank you so much you all are so precious can I just hug you all just sfklageruhhlanueurgrg. Okay, now that that's out of my system. To answer a few of you, it was out of order on purpose. The goal was to create short drabbles out of given themes. I saw a dennor fiction in which she/he mixed up the prompts, and created a vaguely oriented timeline that was left up to the reader to put into a proper order. Which was my goal, and in the eyes of some, I accomplished.

Now then. Last portion. I'm going to mark this story as incomplete. And post the extension of the themes as follow up chapters. However. I decided that with particular ones I'm going to put them in a relative order and put them as a separate fiction. So those shall take a bit longer. I quite like the idea of the two of them (Io and Tsumiki) and their life during and after college and whatnot. But until I can actually create a working plot it'll be posted here.

So. Thank you for reading/sticking with me/etc

Sorry for taking so so so long I'm going to fix that in the next coming months somehow someway I will or so help me.

And I do not own Acchi Kocchi

But I really want a second season. I forgot how cute this series is. And I desperately need a canon conclusion.

*PS: During the month of November I will be attempting NaNoWriMo (oh boy) and won't be able to post anything.

I think that's it. Wow that's probably as long as the fiction and I probably just wasted your time Dx Sorry... But yeah, be patient and I shall give. Just... Don't expect speediness. My muse as of late has been spotty and I happen to like quality work...

Have a nice day/week/month! Until next time!