Dead in the Water, a Highschool of the Dead Lemon Fanfiction by ClockMaker411

Standard Disclaimer: Highschool of the Dead and its characters are not my property. I do not own, nor am I affiliated with the series in any way, shape or form. The following work is derivative, non-commercial fiction. If you're offended by explicit, mature themes, then read on and let me try to change your mind. Lemon in this chapter, so 18+ only, please.

Chapter 5

Push. Click. Rack.

The ejected shell spun end over end in a narrow arc, a blur of red and gold in the candlelight. Takashi caught it in his right hand before it could fall to the stairs and down onto the floor below.

The cycle began again. Push. His thumb forced the shell past the shell lifter and into the magazine tube. Click. His forefinger flicked the cartridge release lever in front of the trigger guard, releasing one shell from the magazine so that it lay on top of the shell lifter, right beneath the bolt. Rack. His thumb and forefinger snapped back the bolt handle, ejecting the loaded shell and chambering the new one as he released it. He caught the second airborne shell at the apex of its flight.

As Kohta had predicted, Takashi found Benelli more complicated to use than the Ithaca, at least when it came to reloads. Takashi had been practicing for the last hour as he sat on the winder in the middle of the staircase, watching over the silent, dimly illuminated entryway below. Unable to sleep despite how tired he felt, he had decided that familiarizing himself with his new weapon while guarding the stairs would be a more productive way to pass the time. At the very least, it was better than looking up at the ceiling from his futon, alone except for the regular snoring from Kohta and the irregular jumble of his thoughts.

Perhaps it was unnecessary to keep watch. After all, the front door had been barricaded. It was very unlikely that 'they' would suddenly decided to attack, having left the group alone throughout the more active hours of the night. And if something like that were to happen, the sheer volume of noise from splintering wood and shattering glass would wake everyone up. And because the defenses of the house were far from adequate, they had decided to sleep on the upper floor, allowing quick access to their makeshift bridge as a means of escape. If 'they' breached the house, then Takashi would probably have been the first over the bridge, making sure that their exit was clear, while leaving Kohta to cover the stairs and bring up the rear.

Push. Click. Rack. Again, his fingers plucked the shell from the air almost effortlessly. Takashi knew, deep down, that his pretense of keeping watch and of practicing with the weapon were just diversions, to keep his mind off of thoughts that he would rather not face at the moment. Thoughts that had kept him restless and awake in his makeshift bed until the late hours of the night, until he decided to give up on sleep and move to the stairs.

Amid those thoughts, perhaps haunting them, were a pair of brown eyes, and a pair of blue. After what had happened in the kitchen with Saeko, the meal that followed had gone exactly as Takashi had thought it would – awkwardly. The food itself had been excellent; Saeko was truly a wonder at cooking despite the scantiness of the ingredients that she had found. But dinner itself had been very, very uncomfortable. The kitchen being too cramped to accommodate them all, they had eaten by candle and lantern light in the living room, Kohta having squirreled away what remained of his arsenal after its culling by Saya. Saeko had seated herself to Takashi's left, and much to Rei's chagrin, Alice had plopped herself down on his right, before Rei could claim the spot for herself.

But if that had been the whole of it, Takashi would have slept soundly. He didn't know how they did it – female intuition, maybe? As far as he could tell, neither he nor Saeko had expressed any overt changes in behavior after they had shared the kiss. And yet somehow, Saya, Shizuka, and Rei had taken one look at the two of them sitting next to one another, and wheels had begun to turn inside their heads. They had known right away that something had happened between himself and Saeko, if not exactly what. Saya had smirked, covering it with her hand as she pushed her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose, golden brown eyes flashing with an infuriatingly knowing air. Shizuka had pursed her lips in thought, absently tapping her right cheek with her index finger as she held her chin. But Rei... Rei had darted quick glances between the two of them, and he could still see the progression of emotions that had played across her face. Confusion. Realization. Shock. Anger. Hurt. Even in his memory, each came like the crack of a whip, laying open great rents in his heart in lieu of parting the flesh of his back.

No one had remarked on the conclusions that they had drawn. Kohta and Alice had remained entirely unaware of anything unusual, too consumed by the luxury of hot food to pay much attention to anything else. As dinner wound down, Takashi had outlined his plan to reach Shintoko Third Elementary, interrupted every so often by a probing question from Saya or a cool comment from Saeko. Rei, though, had remained uncomfortably quiet, seeming to sink deeper into herself as the time passed.

Even the oblivious Shizuka had picked up on Rei's change in mood. Once the group had disbanded to prepare for sleep, she had tried to talk Rei into taking a warm sponge bath, Saeko having mentioned that there was still enough propane remaining to heat a few pots full of bath water. A glare from Saya, though, had wordlessly decreed that all the propane in the world wouldn't yield hot baths for Takashi and Kohta. Or perhaps it was just that Saya wouldn't stand for allowing the two of them a luxury in which she herself had been unable to partake. Either way, his shower had been a cold one out in the rain, and he had eagerly re-entered the house from the balcony and changed, shivering, into boxers and a spare shirt. And to add insult to injury, Saya had ordered him and Kohta to clean up the mess in the master bedroom and make it habitable again. He supposed he couldn't blame her too much; the spare bedroom on the second floor could barely accommodate Kohta and himself, so he should have known that the two of them would end up cleaning out the only room large enough to sleep four people. Rei, it had been decided, would have her room to herself; a courtesy to preserve a last memory of her home before having to leave it altogether.

Push. Click. Rack. By now, he knew the trajectory of the shell's flight so well that he could move his hand and wait for it to land in his open palm. Rei. Saeko. Did he feel guilty about the kiss? Well, yes, it was clear that he did. Yet why should he? A memory flickered in his mind, of a promise made with a young, brown haired girl with large dark eyes. It had been foolish of him to hold onto that memory for so long. Yet he had loved her, although his emotionally timid nature had kept him from ever expressing those feelings openly. And foolish or not, he had felt betrayed when she had chosen Hisashi over him. Perhaps that decision had driven a deeper wedge between them than Takashi had previously thought.

Takashi and Hisashi had been best friends until the trouble began with Rei at school. After that, she and Hisashi had paired off and slowly drifted away, leaving Takashi behind. Thinking about that still stung. But Hisashi was gone – bitten and turned into one of 'them', only to be killed by Takashi's own hand. A large part of him wondered if the affection that Rei now felt for him was simply a way for her to cope with Hisashi's death and the horrors of the Outbreak itself. Faced with that kind of impossible situation, it would be all too easy to latch onto something or someone who was familiar – in this case, a childhood crush – providing a lifeline to the stability of an earlier time.

She needed him, and he would be there for her, regardless of what had happened with Saeko. Yet did that necessarily mean that he loved her? Takashi didn't know. After yearning for her silently for so long, there was now a chance to have that love reciprocated, but he hesitated. Maybe he was just being his usual timid self. Or perhaps it was Rei's own apparent eagerness that caused his hesitation. Takashi feared that any relationship he started with her in her current state might be tainted by false premises, due to the intense level of attachment she now felt toward him. Perhaps that was why he had never allowed himself to go further than kissing when he had been together with Rei; it would have been like taking advantage of her emotional vulnerability to satisfy his own desires.

Takashi racked the shotgun again. A touch on his shoulder startled him so badly that he fumbled the catch altogether, only barely managing to keep the shell from rolling to the floor by trapping it against the stair.

"Sorry," came a soft voice from behind, and he turned to find Rei barefoot on the step above him, leaning down with one hand on the banister and the other on him, for balance. She had apparently taken Shizuka's offer of a bath, as she now wore a pale silk nightgown, sleeveless and accented with lace. Bending as she was, the gown also seemed very low cut, and the flickering illumination from the candles made interesting shadows of the soft curves nestled within.

Takashi looked away abruptly, toward the bottom of the stairs, to hide his blush, visible even in the low light. "That's my line. I didn't think the gun was loud enough to wake you."

"It wasn't you. I couldn't sleep. So I started to wonder what that sound was." A long moment passed with neither speaking, the silence disturbed only by the mechanical noises of Takashi pushing the shell into the shotgun and clicking it back onto the lifter. Finally, she asked, still quiet, "Can we talk?" Her hand lightly squeezed his shoulder, as if in reassurance.

He considered it for a moment. In truth, Takashi was somewhat surprised at how collected and calm she was – almost back to her usual self, though a bit more serious than he had expected. "All right." He moved over on his stair to allow her to sit beside him, but she only straightened and gave a shake of her head.

"Let's go to my room. It's a little cramped in here." She padded back up the stairs, pausing to scoop up one of the lit candles while extinguishing the rest with a puff of air, and Takashi followed with his shotgun leaning on one shoulder. As he trailed behind her, he let his eyes take her in, noticing that her long brown hair, usually held in a ponytail, was now flowing unbound down the length of her back. The nightgown she wore was also quite short, barely covering her hips to end in lace at the tops of her thighs. Despite himself, he sighed audibly once they were through the hallway and into Rei's room – whether in relief, or regret, it was difficult to tell.

Takashi shut the door behind him and leaned his shotgun against the wall next to the door. When his eyes found Rei, she was standing beside the unmade bed, her back to him, silhouetted by the single light source in the room – the candle, which she had placed on the night stand. Her long brown hair fell loosely around her shoulders and past her waist, and she had her arms crossed in front of her as if she were cold, holding her upper arms with her hands.

It took a few minutes of standing in silence before she could muster the will to speak. She still had her back to him, and her voice came as a quiet, even timbre.

"I know there's something going on between you and Busujima. At first I thought it was just flirting – I could live with that. I mean, I get it - she's incredible with her sword, and she's beautiful, and she likes you. In your shoes, any guy would flirt." Her voice took on a bitter note as she continued. "But then, you two went off together. Spent the night alone. And when you got back, it was... different."

It was at that moment that she turned around, moving toward him slowly, stopping when she stood just outside of arm's reach. Takashi was only barely able to make out her shadowed features, backlit as she was by the flickering candlelight. She seemed so fragile, standing there and hugging herself, her head bowed, eyes staring at the floor, a faint tremor to her words as she continued. "I thought I was imagining it. I tried to ignore it, but the more I saw you together with her, the more sure I was. It made me... upset. It's why I snapped at you today, more than anything. I was so frustrated." Her lips curved in a mirthless, bitter smile. "Then after we got here, you stayed with me... and I thought maybe things could go back to the way they were." She paused, drawing a deep breath, then said, "Until I saw what she was wearing at dinner."

Takashi jerked in abrupt understanding. He had been so off-balance after the kiss with Saeko that he had completely forgotten that she had borrowed his shirt! No wonder Saya had been smirking at him. Trying to act normally must have made things look even worse – as if they weren't bothered by it, or that they didn't care what the others thought.

"Listen, it's not-" She cut him off before he could get another word out in explanation.

"Please, let me finish." It took another deep breath before she could go on. "I know something happened. Maybe it's what I deserve, after going out with Hisashi. It's karma, you know? But I'm not like you. I'm not strong, the way that you are." Her voice quavered. "I told you, didn't I? If you ever fell in love with another girl, I couldn't bear it." Rei gradually raised her head, tilting her face up to look at him. In the near darkness, her red brown eyes shone with the glistening wetness of unshed tears, seeming large and luminous as they gathered what little light reflected throughout the room.

"I can't just stand by and watch her take you away from me," she said with quiet resolve. "I won't. I'd do anything to stop that from happening." The hands that had held her upper arms now moved to the straps of her nightgown, sliding them first off one shoulder, then the other. "If it's for you, I'd do anything you asked of me. Anything and everything." As she slowly lowered her hands, the nightgown slipped lower as well, exposing the upper slopes of tanned cleavage made more prominent by her crossed arms.

Takashi gaped in stunned silence in the few heartbeats it took for the neckline of the gown to recede to the cusp of modesty. Then he reacted without thinking, closing the distance in a eyeblink and crushing her body to his, trapping her arms and preventing the garment from slipping any further.

"God, Rei" he said in a ragged breath, "What are you thinking? Going this far..."

"I... I have to," she uttered quietly into his shoulder, "If I don't, then, Busujima will-"

"-Will nothing," he finished, "you've misunderstood. What's between her and I – it's not what you think."

"Isn't it?" she asked bitterly, a thread of anger and hurt rising in her voice as she continued. "I've seen the way she looks at you. don't bother telling me there's nothing going on!".

Takashi bit back a sigh. "It's... hard to explain."

"Try me." She shifted to uncross her arms and lay her hands flat against the front of his chest; he permitted it, as it allowed his fingers to surreptitiously ease the straps of the nightgown back onto her shoulders. His hands lingered there of their own accord, coaxed to stillness by the smooth warmth of her skin, the subtle firmness of the muscle beneath.

Takashi realized, belatedly, that grabbing her likely hadn't been the smartest course of action; his lower body responded immediately and traitorously, tenting the fabric of his boxers. He swallowed, hoping that she didn't notice, then spoke in a quiet but firm voice. "Yeah, I like her. And… well, we kissed." At those words, Rei's fingers tightened in his shirt, and Takashi shook her gently, encouraging her to meet his eyes. When she did, he smiled sadly. "But I've only known her for five days, Rei. Five days, against a torch I've been carrying for you since kindergarten. How can you even compare the two?" His right hand found hers, loosening her grip on his shirt and turning it palm up between them. Then he hooked his little finger and caught hers with his own. "Do you remember what we promised back then?"

She returned his smile with one that he felt held more regret than sadness. "Yeah. That I'd be your wife. I thought you'd forgotten about that." Dropping her gaze, Rei moved her other hand to join its twin, her smaller fingers questing along the contours and calluses of his palm. "I waited for you, for a long time… probably longer than I should have. But you never made a move. Why not?"

Takashi let out a heavy sigh. "Wow, that's a loaded question. I guess that, deep down, I didn't think I was good enough for you. And I was scared - that you'd reject me, or worse, that we'd get together and I'd screw things up and you'd end up hating me. But then that whole thing happened with you staying back a year, and I didn't get why, then you and Hisashi…. Well, the rest is history."

Her hands pressed his palm flat against the top of her chest, and he could feel the rapid fluttering of her heartbeat while the bottom of his wrist nestled into the valley between her breasts. He swallowed audibly. "There's nothing stopping you now."

Somehow, Takashi stayed firm, resisting the temptation clad in silk before him. "It wouldn't be right, Rei. Don't get the wrong idea - a large part of me wants to," the front of his boxers twitched, "But with everything that's happened… we're in the middle of a crisis, and I don't want to do anything that we'd end up regretting."

The silence stretched as she contemplated those words, her gaze searching as she looked up at him. "Okay," she said at last, "I understand." Rei let go of his hand and slowly slid her arms around his waist, drawing Takashi into a hug. He returned the gesture instinctively, encircling her shoulders, one hand finding its way to the nape of her neck, fingers idly intertwining with the silky gossamer of her hair. "You're wrong about one thing," she murmured lightly. "I wouldn't regret being with you. My only regret is that it took the world ending to give us the chance to be together."

Takashi let his fingers run through her hair one last time, and then, with more reluctance than he thought possible, he let her go, taking one step backward and dropping his hands to her shoulders once again. "I should go. It's late, and we both need to get some sleep before morning."

"Wait, Takashi." She glanced at him through thick, dark lashes, biting her lower lip before continuing. "Could you… stay here, with me?" Even in the faint light, Takashi could see color rising in her cheeks as she added quickly, "Just to sleep, and nothing else. The bed's big enough for two." He wavered, eyes darting to the twin-sized bed, its sheets in disarray. "I mean, this might be the last night I spend in this house. I don't want to be alone."

Takashi squeezed her shoulders and nodded. "Okay. You go ahead, I'll just be a second." He waited for her to slip under the covers, then turned to the door, checking to make sure it was closed and locked. Then he grabbed his Benelli and set it on the floor next to the bed so it'd be in easy reach, blew out the candle on the nightstand, and slid into bed next to her. Luckily the bed was positioned to give him a clear sight line to the door, with himself between Rei and the door.

As soon as Takashi was settled, Rei snuggled in close, tucking herself into his side and resting her head on his shoulder. He had to admit, she felt wonderful pressed up against him, and now that his eyes were closed, he noticed that she smelled amazing, like floral soap with overtones of strawberry shampoo. While she might be content to spend the night like that, as distracting as he found her, Takashi began to doubt whether he'd get any sleep at all.

"Takashi?"

"Hmm?" He cracked one eye open to look at her.

"What did Shizuka-sensei say to you before she left?"

His brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Rei propped herself up on an elbow, looking at him in the darkness. "When we first got home, and figured out that it wasn't my parents who were… you know. She whispered something to you, and you said you'd tell me later. What was it?"

"Oh right," he said with a nervous laugh. "She said, 'Don't do anything you can't explain to Alice if she wakes up'."

"I swear," Rei grumbled, settling back down and laying her hand on the middle of his chest, "sometimes I think that air-headed personality of hers is all an act." There was a brief pause before she added, "Still, it's kind of a shame, though."

"How's that?" When Rei didn't answer right away, Takashi tilted his head to look at her, finding her eyes not just closed, but squeezed tightly shut. She mumbled something incoherent into his chest. "Say again?"

"I said," Rei repeated, her voice both flustered and annoyed in equal measures, "...it would've been nice to have my first time in my room, in my own bed."

Takashi took a moment to process that, his mouth suddenly dry. "So I guess that means that you and Hisashi never, umm..." he trailed off sheepishly.

Rei hid her face in his shirt. "No. We fooled around a little, but didn't get that far."

Takashi felt his ears heating, and was grateful that the darkness hid what must have been an impressively beet-red face. "I… see," he stammered lamely.

"So? What about you?" The question sounded nonchalant, but he could feel the tension in her shoulders as she waited for his answer.

"Oh," he hedged, "I never did it with Hisashi either." Takashi yelped, caught unawares by her sudden pinch at the side of his ribs.

"Don't be a jerk. You know what I mean. Have you ever?"

Takashi twisted his lips in a wry smile, shaking his head. "No. See, the one girl I wanted to do it with, I never had the guts to confess to her, and she ended up with a boyfriend anyway. So I never have." The answer seemed to please her, and she relaxed again, tilting her face up and cuddling closer into his side. It was becoming harder and harder for Takashi to ignore the smoothness of her leg, shifting subtly to lay atop his own as she got more comfortable.

"Still, I'm kind of surprised. There were a couple of girls at school who were interested in you, you know." She sounded smug of all things.

"What, really? That's news to me." Genuinely curious, he asked, "Who?"

"Hmm, well there was Shinomiya from 2-C - apparently she had a thing for you. Short black hair, always wore a headband? And there were a couple of first years too."

Takashi chuckled. "Were you keeping tabs on me or something?"

"What?! Of course I wasn't! Don't be dumb," she said, clearly flustered, "I just heard through a friend of a friend, since she wanted to know if you were available after Hisashi and I started going out. Girls talk, you know!"

"Easy. I didn't mean anything by it." Free hand laying atop her own on his chest, he unconsciously stroked the silk clad side of her hip with the hand that was wrapped around her. "Short hair and a headband, huh," he mused, "I don't remember her."

"Yeah. Well I guess none of that really matters anymore. I doubt anyone else made it out of the school, except from the people who were on the bus with us."

That solemn statement dampened the mood, and the conversation lagged for a few minutes after that. When Rei spoke again, her voice was very faint, but it served to stir Takashi from the edges of drowsiness.

"Do you think things will ever be normal again? Like going to school every day, getting love letters in your shoe locker, and confessions on rooftops normal?"

Takashi considered the question for a long moment. "I don't know, Rei," he whispered, equally quiet. "Maybe, if we find a way out of the city and the government figures out how to stop whatever's causing the dead to come back to life. I just know that we need to get through tomorrow, then the next day, and the day after that. And if we do that long enough, maybe we can find our own new 'normal'. But for now, we have to take it a day at a time. That's all we can do."

She didn't answer, and when Takashi glanced down at her again, he found her eyes closed in gentle sleep. Unbidden, his hand rose to the side of her face, and the backs of his fingers stroked her cheek in the guise of tucking back a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Her eyelids fluttered but did not open, though a contented sigh did escape her lips at the touch.

Takashi didn't remember closing his eyes or falling asleep. But when he woke, it was to the sound of a gunshot.

End Chapter 5

Author's Note: Surprise! I bet y'all thought I'd never update this story. In truth, I have some spare time on my hands and a sudden urge to write again, so I figured I'd pick this up in an effort to shake off five years worth of rust. As to the story itself, I do have a direction that I want to take it, but nothing so concrete as an outline or an expected chapter count. Likely my interest in continuing will be proportionate to the interest of my audience, so if you want to read how this ends, review, follow, favorite, and/or PM!