Imprecise
Wednesday after school
He wants to call out, and his legs are moving before he is even aware of what he is doing as if from instinct. He doesn't want to see something like that; he hates to see her hurt. Has he ever seen her hurt?
She sidesteps the arrow gracefully, turning, practically twirling actually, and when she finishes her arms are up and her legs slightly apart. Akihiko recognizes straight away: it's a fighting pose. He blinks, and in the next moment it's no longer there, but he can still see the after image. It's a familiar sensation that crawls in the pit of his stomach, concern and a need to… He can't exactly pinpoint what it is, and only realizes that he is standing next to her, when she half turns to him.
Yukari is out of breath; she looks down right irritated and afraid all at once. "Are you okay?" She calls out, running over to her friend.
"I'm fine! Don't worry." She smiles.
"Woaaah! That was impressive!"
"Did you see that?"
The students around are already applauding her; even the first year who was the one responsible for the accident is admiring her.
"Oh thank goodness." Yukari heaves a sigh of relief, before turning around again, "And you! What are you so impressed about Souske? Do you know how dangerous that was? This is why you do not fire arrows around arbitrarily. You are going to be setting up and packing up until the end of the school year and don't you dare complain about it!"
She keeps telling off the first year angrily, a stern expression on her face.
"And this is why you never want to get Yukari angry." The brown haired girl says giggling. "Look at how afraid he looks right now… I kind of feel bad for the guy."
"You shouldn't."
His abrupt reply surprises her. She looks up at her sempai, questioningly.
" I mean…" Akihiko stutters and she just smiles softly, waiting. "He uh… could have hurt you really badly. And… That would be bad." Really, what in the world is he saying?
"Well it's a good thing that I'm fine then. I don't think it would have hurt that much anyway though. It looked pretty blunt…"
"Still, I don't want to see you hurt." The words tumble out of his mouth before he is even aware of what he is saying. Akihiko almost expects her to laugh at him.
Instead she just looks up at him again, "Thanks… For your concern."
"It's only… it's okay."
She looks down this time, at her feet; her fringe obscures the view he has of her face.
"No really. Thank you."
She wonders if it's foolish to cling to such familiar words. Like déjà vu, a circle that she keeps running herself into.
This was originally much longer, but I decided to stuff all that superfluous stuff and just stick to this. I hope it reads okay…I've been trying to write without giving FeMC a name… Hopefully it doesn't sound too awkward?
Also, this is probably going to be longer than just the original three chapters that I had planned. OTL.
Uh, in this instance just to clarify because I know I suck at making things clear Akihiko is walking past and FeMC is going to go visit Yukari at archery practice. Someone misfires an arrow.