Chapter 10: A Time of Calmness

"I'm so tired," she groans as she slinks her way into her seat at the back of the class. Part way through the semester, she had been reseated to this portion of the room due to the fact that the teachers were tired of watching her nap right in front of them. At least now they'll be able to ignore her without trying as hard. It would appear they've given up trying to get her to learn on her own. She really shouldn't have stayed up so late watching movies back at her place. Why hadn't anyone told her that she should go to bed?...Oh, right. Because she's the only one that lives there. She sighs as she rests her cheek on the cool surface. By luck, the rainy season has come to pass, it giving way to even warmer weather and soon to be summer vacation. She would be up on the roof lazing about, however yesterday it was stressed that she should stick around for the entire homeroom session. And there's a reason behind it as well.

The Cultural Festival.

A time when students from each class and club get together and put together some sort of entertainment station be it a cafe, a haunted house or something else. Those part of clubs have the job of showing off what their activities consist of. Of course, it is not just a day for students only, but instead anyone willing to enter the school and adventure through the halls. Parents checking up on their children, wanting to see if the environment was still appropriate for them, middle schoolers wanting to know if Touou would be their preferred school to transfer to once they enter their next three years of education. It also is used to instill team work and time management into the children that in only a few years' time would become young adults and enter the working world or go off to college. As well as teach them some business related aspects.

Over all it is to be a grand ol' time.

…...Unless your name is Aomine Daiki or Tensai Tatsumaki.

The female of the two sighs a second time as she attempts to ignore the excited comments of various students each with an idea of their own or perhaps supporting a friend's. Votes for a cafe, or a haunted house being the most common, she can't help but wish for something more original. Everyone is going to be doing a cafe or haunted house, or something of the sort. Normal people are so boring. Of course, she could always try to think of something more interesting. Being that they don't have a club dedicated to games, she could suggest that they do a twister tournament with the prize being rather hefty. Watching people try to contort themselves into odd shapes in an attempt to touch a simple colored circle is always fun. It'd give the boys reasons to press close to their girl crushes or the other way around. It'd bring back memories of when parents were children and over all it would be different. If there wasn't a theater club- which there is- she would suggest that they put on a play. It could be a love story or an adventure story- hell it could be a musical for all she cares. Or they could have a no talent talent show. But putting in her ideas would mean that she would have to direct how things are set up, essentially. And honestly she has no drive to do that. Besides, Yuji will be nagging for her to help the Stride team set up a course for the to strut their stuff. There would be multiple races, and certainly normal people would be able to race against the real deal. In which case the course would be shortened which is stupid. And if she knows Hanabusa-taicho, which she does fairly well now that she's gotten used to the team, then he'll make her the main attraction.

Watch this girl finish this race in no time at all! Watch her out race five different people with a handicap! Watch her contort her body this way and that just to get gimmicks done! She's cute, she's pretty. Come one! Come all! She'd be the team's own little circus freak- something she doesn't appreciate the thought of. Just because she's the best doesn't mean she's something for them to show off all the time damn it.

She sighs again.

A grunt resounds next to her, her neighbor obvoiusly not amused by the amount of sighing she's been doing all morning. "Would you cut that out?" Aomine demands, head resting on his arms as he too attempts to block out all the childish excitement. He hates cultural festivals. Satsuki always drags him around this way and that, going to every single cafe and every single haunted house because there's a chance that one of them might be different from the other. Which they never are different. The basketball team is already alive with plans to show off their skill, an event he does not want to take part in. If people want to see him play that badly, they can go to the InterHigh tournament or something. Or just stay curious for all he cares. Maybe he should just skip that day. When Tensai's attention is given to him, he reaches over and whacks her on the shoulder for sighing even though he told her to stop. "I'm ordering you to stop sighing. It's annoying".

"What's annoying is all this," she returns blandly, the tone of a frustrated child sticking to her tone. She just wants to go up to the roof and nap already. Is that too much to ask?

"What's the Stride team doing for this?" Aomine questions.

She shrugs, disinterested, "I dunno. But I don't want to be a part of it. What about the basketball team?"

"Same," he drones, "Ah~ this whole thing is completely and utterly pointless"

However, he probably shouldn't have said that so loudly, because now the entire class is facing him, annoyed but also too afraid to voice their opinion of his words. And behind him is one rather annoyed class president. "Urusai!" She smacks rolled up paper across the tall ace's head fearlessly, surprising those of which are afraid of Aomine and his rather scary demeanor. "You have no right to talk! You have club issues to attend to! But...If you're not going to help your team, then you can help us".

"What? Like he- Oi!" Aomine defends himself from a second slap of the paper against his cranium. This girl is just like Satsuki. Annoying and demanding, a know it all. Hell, she could be worse than her for all he knows. Rapidly that is coming to be quite the notion. "Don't hit me!"

"Then either help or leave!"

However before Aomine can stand and argue more, Tatsumaki stands and groans, "Fine fine. We'll leave. Come on Aomine. We'll go take a nap in the library or something where it's quiet". She insists, tugging on the large blue haired teen's arm. There is a moment where he does not move, standing his ground with ease despite her powerful tugs on his person. As a man, of course he is stronger than her. The girl is forced to place herself between the class president and her tall friend, her hands splayed across his chest firmly. She looks over her shoulder to the gutsy girl and scowls, obviously not pleased by the chaos she's created, and then looks up to the blue haired boy before pushing. "Come on Aomine".

Navy glares down into forest, narrowed eyes stubborn if nothing else. However, the pressure on his chest and the warmth that meets his flesh through his shirt both urge him to comply. With a dark scoff, the basketball ace turns and shoves his balled hands into his pockets, offering his back to the Stride ace whom continues to guide him by placing both palms between his shoulder blades. "That bitch," he snaps once outside the room. "Why couldn't she have just left me alone?"

"I know," Tatsumaki allows as she now walks at his side, "She's annoying. But what can you do? There's no point in beating her up, it'd just get you put onto the bench and we both know you don't want that". Even if he doesn't bother to play half the time, that doesn't mean he loves it any less.

"Why did I even listen to you to begin with?" Aomine mumbles, "Shoulda punched her".

But in the end, Tatsumaki only sighs and shakes her head, finding slightly amusing that he still holds a grudge against the strict student that had bopped him on the head for napping. Honestly, she does not blame him; she would have out right smacked the other female for so much as taking an act of violence against her. Unlike Aomine's, the young tornado knows well, her Taicho wouldn't care in the least if she retaliated. The man is so bound towards victory that she could probably kill someone and he would still defend her. Never the less, the two make their way down the halls and without much care. It is a silent, comfortable walk as they pass class after class, unseen or ignored by the other students and teachers. She is however, surprised that he actually listened to her. Half the time she can't get her opinion to sit with him, or voice the fact that maybe she doesn't want to have her ass handed to her in basketball- even if she is slowly improving.

They traverse their way not to the roof, but instead the gym, with Aomine grabbing her wrist when she makes to turn one way and he the other. "Where are you going?" the blue haired male demands, curious with an air quirked to show it.

Tatsumaki looks down to the large appendage wrapped around her own slender one, noting how the fingers manage to circle completely around it with ease despite their similarity in height. Not fair. "I was going to go to the roof," she admits with a shrug, "You looked like you needed some time to cool down on your own, you know? Is that so wrong?"

Aomine purses his lips as though uncertain, though it is a minute motion that probably most would not notice, however he does not release her all the same as she thought he might. There have often been times like these, when she's taken him away from a bad situation and then separated from him for her own purposes. To go do some random stretching, go for a jog, that stuff. Just alone time really. She gets plenty at home, yes, but that's when she actually doesn't want to be alone- living in a house by your self is actually fairly annoying and lonely. And annoying since it means you have to wash the dishes every time. All the same he would let her go as she wanted, going his own way to do things Aomine does when she's not around- which is probably the same basic stuff he does when she is around. Never the less, she is curious as to why he would make her stay this time around.

"Yes," he answers at last, turning and pulling her with him as he makes to head towards the gym once more.

"Hold on, why?"

"Because I said so," he answers blandly, not taking any sort of disagreement it would seem, "I order you to come and hang out in the gym with me".

She's again a bit shocked. She hasn't ordered her to do something in a while. She was hoping that now that they'd become friends, he decided to stop that. Apparently however that is not the case. So instead of fighting and becoming defiant, she simply sighs and shifts her position to be at his side again. "Hai hai," she grumbles, slightly peeved but not enough to glare or snap. "I assume you're going to want to play some basketball when we get there?" Although there by now is only a few meters away, their long strides making traveling easy on the both of them.

"Nah," he denies, "I just wanna sleep. You can be my head rest".

"...No thanks," she disagrees, "That's what your hands are for". In return though she gets herself a scoff and a look of disapproval. "Did you think I'd agree to do as you say? You're funny".

And yet, the next thing she knows is that there she is sitting on the stage with a head in her lap. Aomine's usually stern features are calm and relaxed, his lips slightly parted as he faces upwards to breath through his mouth with a slight snore. It's nothing loud, thank god because otherwise she would have woken him up. Although this gives her the moment to for some reason entertain herself by looking the tall ace over. It's something she hasn't honestly done before. Sure, she noticed his basic looks- tall, tan skin, that kind of stuff- but upon closer inspection she can see different features she probably wouldn't have noticed before. Like how gentle his face looks over all upon resting completely. There is no constant scowl or sneer on his face, each wrinkle that's normally there smoothed out and making him look younger. His short bangs ghosting across his forehead harmlessly. The fact his jaw is a bit more square than she figured and the scar along the side of it that blends in well with his bronzed skin. The rising of his chest is slow and steady, but with his shoulders and a portion of his back touching one of her bent legs she can feel the muscles in those body parts flex ever so slightly as his lungs inflate and deflate. She can see his eyes twitching, obviously dreaming about something, and every now and then his lips will move as though about to utter a single word. Likewise, his arms and legs will twitch now and then, making her wonder if he actually is dreaming about basketball or something different.

While she leans back on one hand, her mind falls into something of a daze, allowing the other to act of its own volition. Slowly, as though afraid to move, it hovers up and forward towards the young man's smooth skin upon his face, hesitating to touch though it obviously would like to. The hand wonders. Would the rough callouses of its flesh irritate his unblemished cheeks? Would the heat of her palm disturb his slumber? Would he wake up, feeling someone about to touch him, thus driving the hand away? How would it feel to run a finger along the edge of his jaw? Would he lean into her touch? What does his hair feel like? Is it soft? Dry? Would running her fingers through it wake him up or lull him further into slumber? The hand ponders as though it has a mind of it's own, uncertain as to what the answers to these questions may be.

Looking for these answers, the hand lowers, ever so close to the surface it wants to inspect. However what the hand nor its dazed and blank-minded owner doesn't expect is the grasp that keeps it from advancing and succeeding in its inquiry. The hand's owner jumps, a gasp escaping her lips in her sudden surprise, eyes coming from their lack of focus and landing on the owner of the other palm. However, when she realizes that his breathing is still calm, that soft snore still trilling its way between his lips, and his eyes are still closed she relaxes. It's okay, he's still napping. But feeling his hand around her own is a new sensation that her brain decides to ponder about. It is rough and calloused, much like her own, due to the sport he plays. From constantly handling the surface of a certain type of ball, from doing exercises that have built his body into the condition it is in today. His fingers are long and spidery, reminding her of a pianist's bony appendages, but his grip is strong. Not an ounce of fat belongs on this hand, a sign of his healthy form and the work he's been through. She sees thin long scars here and there, most likely left over from rough housing as a kid or perhaps scuffles he's gotten in to thanks to his hot temper.

When she attempts to pull away, wanting to not bother him or intrude on his dreams, the grip tightens, his fingers curling tighter around the whole of her hand as though it were his now. The clashing of his bronzed skin against her lighter tone is interesting. Almost like white against black. She doesn't know why, but it's interesting. With some amount of interest, she notes that his own body temperature is much warmer than her own- and she thought she was a human heater. But all the same, it is a comforting sensation that crawls up her arm, soothing the tense muscles caused by the sudden jolt a few moments ago to settle down and relax again. It tangos over her shoulders and up her neck all while also spreading down her back and around her sides. It slithers its way down her hips and to her legs before finally ending at her toes. Odd, it's like being covered by a blanket despite the fact that he is only holding her hand.

None the less it's a nice sensation.

One that's actually making her rather sleepy.

She wants to fight the drifting of her mind again, a familiar haziness coming over it as she focuses on nothing again. Certainly their last class will be over soon and then club activities start. Of Aomine's team finds them like this, not only would it be a bit mortifying- she doesn't need rumors of her and Aomine dating when they're not, there's certainly more than enough lies about her roaming around somewhere as it is- but also annoying. After all, Aomine would whine about her not waking him up or something. And the team would try to make him practice.

But...She's just so sleepy.

Staying up so late last night was seriously a bad idea. One she'd probably repeat knowing her. Slowly she lays back on her back, her other arm giving way to instead become her pillow as her eyes close and her body relaxes. Well, she supposes five minutes won't hurt. It's a bit of stretch since Aomine still refuses to let go of her hand, but after a little bit of pulling she manages to coax his arm into at least straightening a little to allow her some comfort.

Yea, five minutes won't hurt.