Kyoyama Household
"So?" Yoh stared at the arc of pamphlets that were spread out on the floor, willing them to all spontaneously combust in his mind so that he wouldn't have to deal with it. "Pick one already."
He turned around to face the blond who was sitting cross legged behind him. "Jeez, Anna, don't you think choosing which college I want to go to in the span of five seconds is a little unreasonable?" He was met with an icy gaze.
"No. It isn't. Now pick." She pronounced each word sharply and motioned for him to turn back to the task at hand. "The ones on the left are the schools that are trying to recruit you and the ones on the right are the universities that we all know you'll get into for sure because of kendo." Man, she's making it sound so simple…
He carefully reached out towards one brochure but kept his eyes trained on Anna's face to gauge her reaction. "This…one…question…mark…?" he asked cautiously, drawing each word out to buy more time for himself. He clutched the University of Tokyo's brochure in front of his chest as a pathetic excuse for a makeshift shield. "Maybe?" He ducked his head behind the packet of glossy pages. Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me, he repeated over and over again as his mantra and squeezed his eyes shut.
Anna stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. I bet she could make the brochures spontaneously combust by staring at them. She gently took the pamphlet from Yoh's hand and he sighed in relief, thinking that he chose the right one…then she proceeded to roll it up and whack him across the forehead with it. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded.
"I-I thought that was the school you wanted…" he trailed off pathetically. What does she want from me? he inwardly wailed. Anna dropped the brochure-turned-weapon and sighed, placing her hands on the floor in front of her. He stole a glance at her and straightened up, waiting for what she was going to say next. Did I say something wrong? I bet I did…I always say something wrong.
If Yoh knew any better, he would say that she was looking at the floor sadly. Then again, it's Anna, she can't feel sadness. "But that's not the one you wanted…" Yoh's thoughts came screeching to a halt. Huh…? "Now pick up the one you actually like," she murmured. Yoh sat there, frozen by what he had just heard, gaping. WHAT?! She snapped back to her usual self. "Hurry up before I change my mind."
Ever since freshman year, all he's ever heard from Anna was the University of Tokyo this, the University of Tokyo that, when are you going to build me a five story house with a pool and two tennis courts in Tokyo so I can just walk to college, Yoh? And he'd gone with it all these years, not really caring either way where he ended up. There was an unspoken agreement between the two in which both Anna and Yoh would go to the same university, not open for negotiation, sir and/or madam.
He quickly grabbed the brochure of the college that he had been mulling over for the past year. When the school came to his attention he marked it as some place that would be nice to go to but in the end he had already resigned himself to attending the University of Tokyo with a wistful sigh. He looked down at the pamphlet like it was a baby he had just pulled out of a burning building at the last second. "Y-You really mean it?"
She glared at him in response. "But we'll be in different countries, Anna." True enough, she would stay in Japan while he would travel all the way to the United States.
She rolled her eyes. "No, of course we're not going to be in different countries. If you're going there then I'm going there—"
"Wow, Anna…th-thanks." Yoh was dumbfounded by her sudden graciousness.
"Because otherwise how else am I supposed to trust you going to school with thousands of girls?" she continued without missing a beat. Oh, so that's why she's doing this… He shook his head mournfully. I knew it.
"I always thought that going to university in Tokyo was your dream." Yoh leaned back and stretched out his legs that had started to fall asleep.
Anna sniffed. "It doesn't really matter as long as I get the necessary education to run my own business." She was, of course, referring to opening an onsen one day. Well, that figures. Quite reasonable actually. Yoh nodded and their conversation steeped into silence. He was enjoying the peace and quiet until suddenly he sat up in realization.
"Uh, A-Anna? How did you even know that I was applying there?"
"I asked Goldva for your file and looked at the colleges to which you applied…and so I sent in my own application." She looked at him incredulously as if he was the one who had done something so unbelievable. "Do you have a problem with that?" she asked slowly in a say-yes-and-I-will-rip-out-your-intestines-and-knit-a-sweater-from-them kind of way.
Yoh simply groaned and slumped down in a heap. Oh, Anna.
Patch Theater
"Ren! What are you doing up there?! Stop hitting Lyserg in the face every time you go offstage!" Ryu angrily shouted from his seat. The Tao boy gritted his teeth as he resisted all temptation to hurl the British exchange student at Ryu. He was nearly at the end of his rope. He could take dancing around the stage like a fool for two and a half hours after school each day (well, actually, it was less dancing and more like I'll try to convert each move into some kind of exercise so technically I'll be working out and not actually dancing and therefore retain some shred of my masculinity type of deal); he could take singing (albeit his "singing" was more like incomprehensible growling and halfhearted mouthing of the lyrics) show tunes that he never again wanted to hear in his entire life; hell, he could even take Ryu's incessant shrieking which sounded very similar to a dying, wet, angry cat. But what Ren couldn't take was—
"Hurry up, Pirika, or I'll leave you stranded at school without a ride home," Lyserg teased the younger girl.
That. That being British boy and Ainu girl going off together and having some weird, twisted adventures together. Okay, maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration on Ren's part. It was more like them unknowingly acting out the exact script of any typical shojo story. You can even see the sparkly, glittery flowers that inadvertently pop up every two panels, he thought, gagging.
He kept grumbling to himself as he sat outside and watched Ryu lock up the theater. The drama teacher looked sympathetically at the fuming boy. "You know, what you're doing isn't going to get her to be your lady love anytime soon." Ren glared daggers at the man. "You should take a more direct approach!"
He rolled his eyes. "One: I do not wish for that…girl…to become my 'lady love,' Ryu. Two: Just like your direct approach is working with Lyserg, right?" He returned to his slumped over position.
Ryu hmph-ed and placed his hands on his hips. "If you don't want her like that, then why do you look like you could kill an elephant with your bare hands every time you see them together?" Ren snorted at Ryu's interesting choice of description. "And you just watch, one day Lyserg will be mine! MINE I TELL YOU! But," he continued, sitting next to Ren, "I think that there is more to Lyserg than meets the eye." Ren quirked an eyebrow.
"And how would you know?"
"I wouldn't be so enamored with him otherwise. I like 'em feisty!," he exclaimed with a wolfish grin.
"Waaaaay too much information, Ryu." He spotted Jun waving from across the quad. "Um, I'm…going to…go…now…Have fun with your perverted reveries."
Kyoyama Household
"Tamao, can you answer that?" Anna called from inside the kitchen. Her cousin nodded and jumped up from the floor.
"Oh, hello, sempai! You're a bit early." She took the colorfully wrapped present Horohoro thrust in her face. "Anna's in the kitchen getting things ready."
"Whoa, am I the first one here? This is the first and last time that's ever going to happen. Need any help?"
Tamao shook her head and examined the box. "You really didn't have to get anything for me…"
"Eh, it's your first year here, might as well, right?" He bounced up and down excitedly like a little kid on too much sugar. "Open it!"
She laughed uncomfortably as she undid the ribbon. Well, at least I can go with Anna later to buy a present for…Her thoughts trailed off as the magnitude of the gift hit her upside the face. She gaped. "You didn't."
"Well, I, uh—ah—" Tamao put it down on the floor, leapt forward, and embraced the flustered boy with so much enthusiasm that it surprised even herself. "So I'm guessing you like it?"
She pulled back from the hug a bit awkward and embarrassed. "Yes…yes! Of course. How did you know? It's beautiful," she breathed, looking at the old typewriter fondly.
"Well, to be honest, when we all went out shopping after school a couple of weeks ago, after the LASNC meeting, right? I saw you staring at it in the window. So I figured…" He shrugged.
Her eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth. "Oh, no. I hope that you didn't spend too much on it. Oh dear—"
"Don't worry about it, Hime. And I don't think that the shopkeeper really knew how valuable the thing was anyways. Er, not to say that it was dirt cheap. But it wasn't out of my budget, I swear! Not that I had a budget when shopping for you. Of course I don't have a budget when I'm—you know what I'm saying?" he rambled incoherently before coming to a stop.
"Yes, yes. I'm afraid that I haven't bought your gift yet though," she said as they both walked inside the house.
"Hime, you don't have to get anything for—" Horohoro cut himself off after seeing Tamao's trademark Oh-you-hypocrite smile. The two looked at each other before bursting out laughing. The doorbell rang. "I'll get it." He went over to greet the next visitor as Tamao went to her room to set up her new typewriter.
Now I feel so guilty. I wonder what I could get him…He does seem very interested in snowboarding. And Pirika keeps complaining that they always go to the mountains for vacation. She ran her hands lovingly over the vintage keys of the typewriter. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of you!"
"Oh. It's you." He leaned against the doorframe. "How anticlimactic."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Joco huffed indignantly. "Who did you want it to be?"
"Someone prettier than you," Horohoro closed his eyes and tilted his head up in mock disgust. "Like Jeanne or even Goldva." Joco swiftly stomped on his foot. "Okay, okay, relax. Come on in."
"Nothing like the LASNC Christmas party, eh? Though I never get why we do it in the beginning of December." Joco shrugged off his jacket. "The only time of year I ever willingly submit myself to a whole night of Anna Kyoyama." The two boys laughed.
"You called?' Anna walked into the room, looking even scarier than usual in oven mitts and holding a tray of cookies. "If you set fire to the living room again this year, Joco…" The senior's eyes narrowed menacingly before she returned to the kitchen.
"'S not my fault I didn't know Windex was flammable…" he grumbled. His eyes suddenly lit up and he leaned forward. "Oh so, how'd it go with…y'know?" He whispered, winking and nudging Horohoro in the ribs with his elbow.
The Ainu boy quickly flipped him around and captured him in a headlock. "Shut up, man." He laughed. "And she liked it, just for your information." He released Joco.
"Good thing you took my advice, right?" He smiled triumphantly. "I have my ways with the ladies."
"Hey, jerkoff, I'm the one who came up with the idea. Stop trying to steal my thunder!"
"Well, you'll be thanking me by the end of this night…" He laughed evilly and rubbed his hands together. Horohoro winced. This can't be good. "You'll see."
The rest of the LASNC workers showed up shortly and the party got into full swing. Tamao was enjoying herself immensely. Though I wonder where Jeanne went off to, she thought, recalling the younger girl's hurried expression and promises that she'll join the others once she took care of something. She dismissed it as Joco began calling for everyone's attention.
"Hear ye, hear ye!" Not quite satisfied with the current volume of his intended audience, he raised his voice. "EVERYONE SHUT UP!" The room grew silent. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it? Anyways, as it is customary, Anna is going to go on with some formalities…and announcements and…stuff. Yeah." He jumped down from the sofa.
"Hello, everyone." She paused as she was met with a well trained chorus of Hello, Anna. "Let's get down to business. Our two newest members, Tamao and Jeanne, have done a great job this semester. Unlike some of our other staff." She turned and looked pointedly at Joco who merely grinned back. "Tamao, expect a promotion by the end of this year…that is, if you don't screw up. And Jeanne is our first ever photographer for LASNC which really makes it look very professional, doesn't it?" A resounding Yes, Anna filled the room. "Also, w—wait, what's that smell?" Smoke began curling up from behind the couch. "Joco! What did I tell you?"
"It wasn't me!" he shrieked and dove under the table.
Someone went to inspect the source of the potential fire. "It's a cigarette butt!" He called, holding up the offending object.
Anna turned around slowly. "Kanna…" The blue haired girl shrugged.
"So that's where I dropped it," she sneered as she lazily took back her cigarette. The two engaged in a glaring contest while the party started up again.
"Jeez, Kanna and Anna really do hate each other, don't they?" Horohoro shuddered as he sidled up to Tamao. "I wouldn't want to get locked into a room with them—whoa, watch it!" Horohoro called as he stumbled forward, thanks to a very hard push from Joco. "Sorry about that…"
"It's fine," Tamao said slowly as she watched Jeanne give an encouraging smile to Joco. "That's funny, why are they looking at each other like that?"
"Because Kanna almost burnt your house down with her cigarette. And we all know how much Anna hates smoking. Lung cancer and whatnot…I never really pegged her as a health freak." Horohoro turned around to see what Tamao was staring at.
"No, I mean, J—"
"Ah, Tamao," Jeanne called softly. She was pointing upward, above both Horohoro and Tamao.
The Ainu boy's face paled until it rivaled the shade of the newly fallen snow out. The girl's eyes bugged out so much that a few spectators feared that they would fall out of their sockets. Because what was hanging above the both of them, quite conveniently if one might add, was mistletoe.
"You have got to be—"
"Kidding me."
Both of them hoped to furtively shuffle away in opposite directions until—
"DO IT!" Horohoro could've punched Joco in the face. Or well, he would've if he wasn't already paralyzed by the situation at hand. It was too late. Everyone who hadn't been paying attention now turned to face a very flustered Tamao and a very motionless Horohoro. They both could feel every gaze drilling into the back of their heads. Tamao's eye twitched.
Snippets of the evening came rushing back to her as they stood staring at each other, unsure of what to do. Jeanne rushing into the house, something very uncharacteristic of the freshman, clutching what appeared to be a small paper bag. Joco taking a chair out of the kitchen and when Anna asked him what the hell does he think he's doing, he responded with a quick Nothing, Anna! and ran out of the room with said chair in tow. Jeanne asking if there were any metal clasps or thumbtacks around. Joco pushing Horohoro towards Tamao. The exchange of a smile and a thumbs up between Jeanne and Joco. Oh, dear God.
"Oh, dear God." Murphy's law states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Tamao had found this particular statement to be interesting but nothing more. Horohoro dismissed it as being, quote, unquote, "a bunch of bullcrap." But the two, turning to see the source of the voice, started to rethink their stance on Murphy's law when they were faced with Anna. Standing next to them. With a hand on each of their shoulders. And poised to force them, using any means necessary to, Tamao and Horohoro gulped simultaneously here, kiss.
But then, as with most parties, it seemed to Tamao, several things happened at the same time. Anna actually began to push her cousin and Horohoro apart from each other. Sirens began blaring in front of their house. And the front door flew open to reveal two firemen.
"Is everything alright in here?" Tamao and Horohoro couldn't believe their good luck. "Sorry to barge in like this. Your smoke detector went off and it's mandatory to check in whenever it isn't turned off." Anna left to go handle the concerned firemen while the rest of the LASNC workers went to follow their editor-in-chief dutifully like a pack of lost puppies. Or guard dogs. Anna preferred the guard dog image.
"Joco!" Horohoro stomped over to the guilty boy.
"Jeanne…" Tamao tearfully implored.
"What the hell was that about?!" he demanded
"Why would you do this to me?" she wailed.
"Oh come on. You should be thanking me for that push. You've been drooling over her ever since she came to our school!" Joco held up a hand to silence Horohoro's outraged squawk of protest. He lowered his voice. "And I just thought that you could use it, y'know. For the ten years I've known you, you never were interested in any girl… ever since D—"
"Who. Told. You. That." Joco's face flushed as he realized that he wasn't supposed to say that. "NO ONE knows about that. Not even Yoh. How did you find out?" Horohoro can be really scary, Joco concluded as he observed his friend. Joco had never seen Horohoro like this in all the years they had been friends. "It was Pirika, wasn't it?" The Ainu boy shook his head. "If you ever tell anyone..." Joco conjured up a mental image of his head on a chopping block and an insane, angry Horohoro in possession of a dull butcher's knife. Joco nodded his head vigorously.
"Oh, Tamao, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that it would upset you that much." Jeanne attempted to console her friend who looked like she was either about to melt into a puddle or burst into tears. Or both for that matter. "It's just that—Joco came up to me last week and told me about Horohoro. He guessed that he liked you. And from the way that I've seen you two talk to each other, I thought you felt the same way about him. I'm sorry, I didn't know what I was thinking."
Tamao sniffed. "It's okay," she managed to squeak out. "I'm fine. But you could at least warn me next time." Jeanne giggled and nodded. She sighed. "It seems that every time I'm at a party, I always end up embarrassing myself." Jeanne patted the poor girl on the head. "Well, at least that's over with. I hope it doesn't get awkward between us."
Funbari High School – Main Hallway
"Ah, sempai, does this look riiiii-aaaaaah!" Tamao dropped the streamer she was trying to attach as she lost balance. She wheedled back and forth before stabilizing herself.
"Careful there! That's a bit unstable." Horohoro jogged over and held the wobbling ladder.
"You're telling me," Tamao muttered. She picked up the streamer again. "Why are we doing this again?"
Horohoro coughed and batted away the cloud of glitter that had erupted when he tried to pull out one of the cardboard boxes from the supply closet. "Because we volunteered to decorate the hallways for the Christmas dance?"
Goldva's voice called out. "It's the Winter Nondenominational Multicultural Holiday Festival! Come on, Usui, get with it!"
Horohoro sighed. "Yes, Goldva." He turned back to Tamao. "Can't risk offending or turning people off with the word 'Christmas.'" That seems reasonable enough, Tamao and Horohoro thought. "Or the word 'dance,' apparently." That seems…wait. What? "Hey, Goldva, why can't we call it a dance?"
There came an incoherent mumbling and grumbling of "implications of one activity," "unnecessary restrictions," "different cultures," and "jeez."
Horohoro paused. "Well." He cocked his head. "That was informational." He bent down to open the next box. "How are you doing there, Hime?"
And with that, the two returned to their work. Horohoro kept commenting on the holiday season in Funbari Hill, telling stories about when Ren went iceskating for the first and last time with them, and confiding in her how much he was scared of Pirika's cooking. Tamao continued decorating in peace, enjoying the lack of stress that came after finals and Horohoro's cheerful ramblings. She was actually surprised at how much they had accomplished when she picked up the last streamer. She stared resentfully at the problem spot on the ceiling that had almost sent her crashing down to her doom last time she attempted to attach the streamer.
Almost. There! Reach, Tamao! She stretched forward, attempting to get the final piece of tape safely secured to the ceiling. "Come on, you almost got it," she muttered to herself. Just a little— Wood splintering. Her own voice screaming. Horohoro's voice calling out. And then…nothing.
"Ah! Guten Tag!" A face that Tamao had only seen in her nightmares flooded her vision. She yelped and pulled the blanket up until it reached her nose. Wait…blanket? She looked around and saw behind the depressing looking man a pretty little nurse who looked extremely sullen.
"W-Where am I?"
Horohoro popped up out of nowhere. "Oh hey, Hime! You took a nasty spill when you fell off the ladder," he explained, jutting a thumb in the direction of her forehead which had been bandaged up. She stared, slightly scared at the looming man that had been hunched over her before. "Ah, don't worry. It's a good thing we were right next to the nurse's office when you fell. That there is Dr. Faust." Said man waved cheerfully. "And Eliza." The nurse's somber expression broke momentarily to smile warmly.
When she sat up to get a better look, Dr. Faust rushed over, English and German intermixing as he warned her that she would feel light headed. "It is good that your shoulder broke your fall instead of your head." Tamao winced as she just became aware of the acute pain that shot through her upper body. The doctor motioned for Eliza to retrieve a bottle and she quickly hurried to Tamao's side.
As she downed a pill, she studied Faust's face which looked like he had covered in eye shadow. Either that or he had some major eye bag issues. Faust…Faust…that name sounds awfully familiar. "You are Tamao, yes?" She nodded. "You are a friend of Mr. Yoh?"
"You know Yoh?" she asked a little too eagerly. Horohoro's brow furrowed the tiniest bit when observing Tamao's outburst.
"Why, yes! I met him when he was just a child." Eliza tilted her head in agreement. "We have known each other for a very long time." It seems that everyone has known Yoh for such a long time…I wish I could've grown up with him. She sighed wistfully, completely oblivious to Horohoro's curious gaze. "Mr. Usui, you can take Ms. Tamao home, yes?"
He jumped off the chair he had been perched on. "Yup, of course, Faust. Come on, Hime." He rushed over to the bed and eased her up. "Careful now."
They walked in silence off campus towards the parking lot. Only when they reached Horohoro's car did the boy start laughing as he revved up the engine.
Tamao furrowed her brow. "What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing." She pouted. "Fine, fine. It's just that you seem to enjoy fainting in my presence." He glanced over at her with a wolfish grin.
Her face burned up and the atmosphere became a bit awkward as they both recalled the last two parties. "What can I say, you make me weak in the knees," Tamao mumbled without thinking. Ah, what am I saying? Now he'll think I'm weird or something. I shouldn't have said that. The mistletoe incident was only last week! And just when I thought things weren't getting awkward between us. To her relief, he laughed instead, both just as surprised at the other at Horohoro's reaction.
"You really are full of surprises, Hime."