Chapter 2: ********** Bubblegum

'I hope that one day, you will be the one stroking through my hair while I'm asleep...'

Hayate slowly opened his eyes. A light forced him to close his eyes again. Recovering from that shine, he opened his eyes again. The sun is shining bright into his face.

'It's sunny...,' he thought. Hayate felt warm. He felt embraced for some reason. Whatever this feeling was, it felt nice to him.

He just recalled this sensation. It was a very familiar feeling when he was younger. Feeling warmth throughout his entire body. Maybe it was sleep. The fact that he has never woken up in the sun before in a long time might have been the reason. Or at least that was what he thought.

Slowly sitting up from his futon and rubbing his eyes, Hayate comes to a few realizations. The first thing was that he was laying over his blanket in a breezy spring morning. The second thing was that he was in his butler uniform, feeling his cold sweat coming from the contact of satin on his legs instead of cotton.

He noticed one more thing. Hayate brought his right arm to his nose. Why does he smell like strawberries?

Not caring so much, Hayate looked at his alarm clock. It was 8:40 AM. He began to panic.

"Uwaaah! I fell asleep!" he said loudly, quickly standing up, "I missed making breakfast and now I have to go to class!" He quickly walked to his desk, put all of his notebooks in his messenger bag, and ran out of his room.

"Ah, good morning, Hayate-kun. I see you've woken up," said the maid of the house. Hayate stopped his tracks and looked to his left to see Maria and Chiharu, eating together in the living room.

"Maria-san! I'm so sorry that I overslept!" Hayate apologized as he repeatedly bowed standing up to Maria.

Maria sweatdropped. "Don't worry, Hayate-kun. You preparing breakfast early in the morning is just extra work," she said. "Why don't you have some orange juice before you run off to school?"

Hayate walked over to her and accepted her offer. He formerly thanked her and drank the whole glass of orange juice.

Hayate sat his glass down to the table. "That reminds me... I should wake up Ojou-sama," he said to himself, remembering that she always needs him to wake her up for school. He leaves the living room to Nagi's room.

"That was weird," said Chiharu, before taking another sip of her coffee. "Hinagiku-san also woke up pretty late before she ran out of the mansion."

"Ah, yes. Indeed she was," Maria said before she took her sip of coffee, 'Indeed she was... heheh...,' she thought with an evil grin on her face.

Chiharu bluntly stared at Maria's awkward grin on her face. 'What a weird morning...,' she thought. She looks at Maria pulling out her phone, snickering and making awkward laughing noises as she kept looking staring at it.

"Hayate! Why didn't you wake up me earlier?!" a little girl shouted, which could be heard all over the mansion.

'Indeed, a weird morning...,' Chiharu thought. She says bye to Maria, gets up, and leaves for school as well.

It was a bright sunny morning at Hakuou Academy. Many of the students were outside, enjoying the nice and cool weather, before each walked towards the building to class as lecture was about to begin.

"Here we goooo!" Nagi shouted. She held on to Hayate as he peddled his bicycle towards the building within campus speed.

"With you as my bicycle driver, we'll never be late!" she cheered to him. "By the way Hayate, why do you smell like strawberries?"

"Ah, about that... I really have no idea," he replied with a nervous laugh. "Ah-ha... ha..."

"Hmmm..."

Before she was about to ask another question, Hayate and Nagi arrived to their destination. He securely locked his bike to the bike rack and walked Nagi to her class before going to his. After dropping her off, Hayate looked at his watch. '8:58... just enough time!' he thought gladly. He walks over to the elevator and presses the up button.

As he waits for the elevator to come up, he recalls something in his thoughts.

'I hope that one day, you will be the one stroking through my hair while I'm asleep...'

Hayate begins to feel warm. This sensation felt familiar. 'What was I dreaming about?' he asked himself. He rubbed the back off his head and recalled another sensation.

'Hayate-kun...'

Hayate shook his head, madly blushing. 'Another one of those weird dreams I had, huh...?' he thought to himself. Whoever it was in his dreams, Hayate quickly shook off the feeling and came back to reality. "I must be focused," he said, "As a Sanzenin butler!"

The elevator opened. As Hayate walks in, his eyes unexpectedly meet with the student council president.

"Ah, Hinagiku-san!" said Hayate, "Good morning!"

"Oh! G-g-good morning, Hayate-kun!" Hinagiku nervously responded. 'Crap..,' she thought. 'I really didn't mean to fall asleep! I hope I didn't wake him up when I got up!'

Hayate walked and stood next to her. He glanced at her, noticing her looking distracted about something. 'Is she going to press that button...?' he thought. After waiting for her to press the button to the level where their class is, Hayate began reaching for that button.

Hinagiku ends her train of thoughts and notices his hand towards the button. "O-oh! Sorry!" she said, quickly putting her hands on that button.

Both of their hands meet. Hayate's hand laying on top of her's. They froze. How many times has situations like this have happened already?

The elevator door closed and began to go up. Both calmly removed their hands and faced the elevator door. Neither decided to look at one another, as both faces were flushed red.

'Hayate-kun's hand is really warm...' she thought, holding her hands together to hold on to that warmness.

'She has really soft hands...,' Hayate thought, still blushing from their contact.

"Um... Hayate-kun...?" Hinagiku softly called.

"Y-yes, Hinagiku-san?" Hayate responded, slowly turning around as his blush disappeared.

'C'mon Hinagiku, just say it! Admit that you cuddled next to him because you couldn't help it! Because you love him so...,' she thought to herself before looking in his eye, 'It's just him and I alone in the elevator! This should make the perfect scene!'

"We're almost becoming adults. This should be nothing to worry about!" she said. She turned around to him with a cheerful smile and a thumb up.

Hayate replied with a faint smile. "Yeah... you're right, aha...," Feeling rather silly about this situation.

'That was... really lame,' Hinagiku thought, looking down to her feet in disappointment.

'Hinagiku-san is so cool!' he thought. 'Besides, there's no way that someone as cool as her would like me! She's smart, beautiful, and has all of the boys' AND girls' attention! Meanwhile, I'm poor, dumb, and work the rest of my life for a thirteen year old who can't even lift! Yeah!' His hopeless thoughts even made the elevator door sweatdrop.

Meanwhile, a pencil that a thirteen year old was writing with suddenly snapped and died.

"Why do I suddenly feel insulted..?" Nagi asked herself in a low voice with a mug look. Her classmates were completely bewildered by the dark aura surrounding her.

The elevator has arrived to its destined floor, sliding its door open to reveal two young adults. Hayate, being a gentleman, lets Hinagiku walk out first.

"You first," Hayate insisted.

"Th-thanks," Hinagiku said timidly. She looked at her watch. "Hayate-kun, we're late!"

She quickly ran out of the elevator. Before Hayate could start running after her, Hinagiku's hair flew up to his face as she sped up out of the elevator.

'Strawberries...?' he thought. Hayate froze.

"C'mon, Hayate-kun! We're gonna be late!" she shouted before she continued to run towards class. Hayate began running after her, with her scent leading him to class.