I had what someone called an "art-attack" this morning. Anime/manga art specifically. But I can't draw so I've written it instead. I was highly entertained. Maybe some of you dear readers will have the cross-over enjoyment with me.
Wilant High School, "modern" Japan. Students are just arriving at school. Focusing in on one upper level hallway, a third-year male student, short black hair, tawny eyes, is holding hands with a second-year female student with very long black hair and eyes to match his. She's skipping by his side, her eyes alight with her smile. The first bell rings. He leans over to give her a peck on the lips. "Ilena-chan, skii desu," he whispers into her ear before letting go of her hand. He turns away from her, his close friends falling in with him to walk down the hallway towards their classroom.
She turns away from them to head for stairs that will lead to her classroom one level down. "Skii, Obi-kun," she whispers to herself, both hands holding on to the strap of her school bag tightly. She rolls that over her tongue a few times, then says loudly, "Skii desu! …Skii …daiskii! Daiskii desu! Daiskii, daiskii, daiskii deesssu, O-bi-kun!" The whole hallway has their amused attention on her as she waves a hand wildly in the air over her head, still headed towards her class.*
Blond-streaked Thayne gives a great teasing grin to Obi. Petroi on Obi's other side is shaking his head. Obi looks back over his shoulder. Thud, thud, thud, thud. Obi grabs Ilena in a great hug from behind. "Daiskii desu, Ilena-chan," he says in her ear. Ilena turns in his arms and plants a happy kiss on his lips as she grabs him in an equally tight hug. Obi lets her go as she releases his lips and turns her back around. "Now get to class before we're both late." He's laughing at her. She smiles a big smile at him over her shoulder, but obediently skips to the stairs and bounds down them.
Obi catches up to his friends quickly, shaking his head, but he can't keep his satisfied grin off his face. Thayne, holding his school bag on his shoulder with his left hand, shoves Obi a bit with his right. "Going over to 'study' after school again?" he teases.
Obi nods, not losing his grin, "Of course!"
"And are you going to get any schoolwork done at all?" Thayne presses him.
"Probably not," Obi admits, not at all ashamed of the truthful answer. Thayne hits him in the back of the head but Obi only laughs. Thayne complains that he'll show up, too, just to make sure they get real work done. Obi teases back that their work will be teaching him how to do it.
The black-haired Petroi next to Obi, who could be his twin except Petroi's hair is longer and he's wearing glasses, gives Obi a bit of a frown. But when he looks over his shoulder at the disappeared Ilena a small smile comes on his lips. Softly he says, "Well, at least my little sister is happy. That's a good thing."
A tiny shiver runs up Obi's spine and a slight bead of sweat comes on his brow. That's the one thing difficult about this relationship he's enjoying. If he doesn't keep Ilena happy, a very unhappy Petroi will be taking it out on him. Petroi already regularly bests him half the time they spar in their martial arts school, and slightly more than that in gym class, depending on what sport's being played at the time.
-o-o-o-
Ilena arrives at her classroom doorway where she's greeted by one of the quiet but pretty girls in class. "Hi, Ilena," Rio says softly, but she's quickly interrupted.
"The whole school heard that, you know," is said dryly by the short, dark, and well-put together young woman leaning against the wall outside the classroom doorway. Her arms are folded and she's giving a scolding look to Ilena.
"I know," Ilena says happily, grinning at Kiki. "At least they all get to be happy today because of it!" Kiki rolls her eyes. Ilena gives her a sly look. "You like being in love, too. You just won't make it loud, like me." Her eyes go to the young man arriving at Kiki's side. She grins again at Kiki's sudden turn to shy.
"Hi, Mitsuhide-san," Kiki says to him.
"Hi." Mitsuhide has stopped rather close to her and gives her a very brief peck on the forehead, since he's so much taller than she is. "Ready for class?" he asks her.
"Yeah," she answers, her ears turning red. He takes her hand and they head down the hallway to Kiki's classroom where Mitsuhide will drop her off before heading up the stairs to the third-year classrooms. They're almost trying to hide the handholding as they go. He comes up the stairs to this classroom to get her on his way to class from being in the student committee office before school starts.
Ilena gives a snort at them then turns back to the classroom and enters it. She unconsciously takes Rio's hand on the way in. Rio gives her a kind, tolerant smile and leads her to their desks, which are next to each other. "I'm glad it's a good morning for you, Ilena-chan," she says.
"Thanks!" Ilena answers as she plops down in her chair.
Rio waits to sit down in her chair by the window until after she's sure Ilena's settled and will stay put. The classroom is noisy for a bit as all of the students finish finding their seats and get settled.
Ilena stays lost in her head, daydreaming about Obi. The teacher eventually gets a bit frustrated with her lack of attention and calls on her. Ilena's attention is brought sharply back to the classroom. "The right answer is to take the square root of the legs, then divide by two: 13.45 is the mathematical answer." Her answer is prompt …and correct.
The teacher stands staring at her for a moment, then blinks and slumps. "Right. Eidetic memory. I forgot," he mutters to himself and gives up, thinking he should ignore her from then on. Ilena should actually be a first-year, and by intelligence she should be in college, maybe even a graduate student. He turns back to her. "Why are you here again?"
She blinks at him then gives him a smile. "Because it's fun!" The class groans at her, but she just smiles and winks at Rio when the teacher's back is turned again. He really has decided to ignore her now. Rio gives a smile back. She's glad to have Ilena there. It's nice to have someone in class with her who's fun and who helps her understand the subject matter. It's a good trade: that for being the babysitter when Ilena gets lost in her head and becomes scatterbrained.
-o-o-o-
Obi has been studiously paying attention in his class, but eventually even his eyes wander to what's outside the windows. He puts his elbow up on his desk to lean his chin on his hand and gives a quiet, long sigh. Thayne, on his left even in this setting, gives him a warning glance. Obi looks towards the front. The teacher is glaring at him and opening her mouth. Before she can get the words out, Obi gives her the answer in a rather bored fashion. Even though he's given the right answer she scolds him and he takes it humbly. It doesn't help him refocus, though.
The bell rings and the teacher collects up her things, giving the assignment to the class as she does so. When she's gone Thayne quietly asks Obi, "What's up?"
"School's so boring without Ilena to liven things up. It's hard to sit through all the classes just to get to see her again at the end of the day." The years don't share lunch hours, so there isn't even that opportunity to break up the monotony. He glances towards the board in the front. "And we can't do well in school if we skip, since we have to at least know where the class is at to keep up with everyone else."
"Transfer to Lyrias Uni," Petroi says dryly from Obi's left. "Mom and Dad have tried to get Ilena to agree to go, but she keeps saying she doesn't want to miss out on experiencing the 'High School life'."
Obi puts his hand down and looks at Petroi soberly. He gives a nod. "I thought I'd ask her tonight: if she'd consider the one year sufficient and come with us next year."
Obi can't decide if the silent studious look Petroi gives him in answer to that idea is one of interest and intrigue at the idea, or one of, "How long do I take to kill you?" It's pretty hard to read Petroi's face generally. Obi works hard to maintain a sober and thoughtful front instead of turn into a gibbering mess of repentance that he even opened his mouth. He likes his friend, and even needs his calming influence, but sometimes he wishes that particular relationship wasn't quite so difficult. Petroi and Ilena are complete opposites in the end. It's hard to fathom they're siblings sometimes - a common occurrence for Obi that he often slips into getting into trouble because of.
"Hmm, not a bad idea, actually," Thayne's been thinking about it and finally comments. His eyes catch Petroi's. "At least we'd both be there to make sure they still made it to classes and did really study ..for once in their lives."
Petroi blinks at Thayne, considering that thought, then a small crafty look comes on his face. Obi blinks and leans back, out of the way of the crossfire zone between his two friends. "Only because they'd both be able to hold your hands and see you made it out of Uni intact." The barb zings past Obi, sharp as always when Petroi attacks. Obi makes sure Thayne survived it.
Thayne is slumped over his desk, tears welling up in his eyes. "It's that or I'm just skipping Uni and going right to clerk at the convenience mart," he moans.
Obi chuckles quietly as Petroi takes the point he just won. "Even if she won't come, I'll help you get through it," Obi promises Thayne, patting his back. "It won't be as fun if you're not there with us."
Thayne sits back up, dashing his hands across his eyes. "Thanks, man," he answers with serious relief.
Petroi looks away, getting out his notebook for the next class as the teacher has entered the room. "I think she'll come," he says, surprising Obi. The teasing look is directed back at him this time and Obi braces. "She likes you too much. She won't want to be that sad next year."
Obi sits stunned as the teacher begins the class. He would never have thought that Petroi would have a serious answer. He finds himself quite relieved that Petroi isn't going to kill him for suggesting it, and then uncomfortable with how much relief he feels that Petroi thinks Ilena would go. He has to work hard to get himself under control after that thought. She's hard for him to let go of even for the few hours of school and then night-time sleeping. He'd like to fix that last one sooner than later …if Petroi won't kill him for asking her to marry him at the youngest possible age for her to say 'yes'. He's keeping that wish tightly locked behind tight lips for now. He doesn't need to be arrested for underage things that don't need to be happening. Two and a half years is a long time, though. He hopes he makes it.
-o-o-o-
And Zen and Shirayuki? Zen is student body president and Shirayuki is vice president. Both are studious yet trying to come to terms with the fact that they're getting more and more emotionally interested in each other the longer they work together. Only having Mitsuhide and Kiki on their committees keeps them from wandering too far off into directions of complete air-headedness. …Which they have no idea how to handle. The blushing and stammering commences in earnest once Zen finally admits to Shirayuki he's taken a liking to her. Kiki helps Shirayuki out, completely understanding - although that leads to a bit of awkward hilarity as Kiki is still very much a novice in such things herself. Only Mitsuhide's calm stability holds them together some days.
*skii - Japanese for the equivalent of "romantic interest love". daiskii - "very much romantically interested". (Please don't shoot me if I've spelled it in a way you don't. It's hard to get the Japanese sounds written out in English.)
desu - English speakers tend to translate it as "is" but it's more of an emphasis in this case. The casual way to say "I'm romantically interested in you", or "I love you" which has far too many meanings in English, is just "skii". "It's love" would be "skii desu", technically, but the Japanese usage is to emphasize they really mean it. Replacing the skii with daiskii just adds a "very" or "I'm seriously in love with you (romantically interested)." I could have had Ilena play with it even more and have her say "Ipai, ipai daiskii desu": "I'm seriously in love with you, lots and lots and lots!" but that wasn't what this story needed. ;)