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Of Butterfly Wings

Chapter Three: Entertaining

He was starting to understand one thing about Kagome and that was the fact that she was completely unpredictable. She practically chased him down this morning and forced him to attend the entrance ceremony. Now she was nose deep in her textbook ignoring the crowd forming around her.

"Hey," Another male classmate leaned his elbow on the ledge of her desk. "Can I get your number?"

A sleazy smile played across his lips, as if he thought that his face alone would get her to break and hand it over.

Touya had to admit that their classmate was what most would consider 'attractive'. With smooth skin, a strong build and perfectly angular facial features, there wasn't a girl in their class who wasn't fawning over him.

Save for Kagome.

Who was still buried nose-deep in her textbook.

"I'm busy. You can entertain yourself with some other girl stupid enough to fall for that line." She pointedly shot down his request.

Touya turned his head towards the window as he struggled to keep himself from laughing at the other teen's look of absolute shock.

Clearly this was the first time anyone had told him no.

"Come on, it's for school purposes anyways." He slid into the seat in front of her, bracing both arms over her desk and casually tugging her textbook away from her face.

Kagome slammed it shut, narrowly missing his fingers as she did.

"No is a complete sentence," Her tone grew sharp. "Just because it's not the one you want to hear, that doesn't mean that you'll be able to change it. Now beat it. You're in the way."

The classroom became filled with shocked gasps of outrage from their female peers. Each one of them glowered at Kagome while some took a few threatening steps forward.

"Now don't be like that," The teen pressed. His sleazy smile returning in full force. "Don't you want to have some fun?"

Touya felt his own brow twitch in irritation. Far be it from him to judge another guy's approach when flirting with the opposite sex. However something about this situation was starting to grate on his nerves.

"Our definitions of 'fun' are so contradictory to each other that they're not even in the same universe." Kagome finally met the other boy's eyes. "So no, I have no interest in entertaining you. I've given you my answer and it's not going to change." She lifted her hand and gestured towards the gaggle of girls huddled together at the far side of the room. "Now if you want to find someone you mesh well with, you might as well start with people who find you appealing like them."

"Are you saying that you don't think I am?" The daring tone in his voice caused Touya's brow to twitch again. It almost seemed as if he were goading her.

"There's more to a person than just their physical appearance." She gave him a lazy scan before plucking her book from beneath his arms. "On that aspect alone you would score quite high for most people. I, however, have almost no interest in something as shallow as an outward appearance."

Kagome shoved her book into her bag, "You approached my desk and hovered over me for several minutes in order to break into my personal space. After that you demanded my number, took a seat that wasn't yours and then tried—and failed—to get my number after you'd been shot down." She tucked one foot under the other as she shifted in her seat to face him. "Even now you refuse to accept that you've been rejected. That is not a quality I appreciate in a potential partner. In fact, it's the biggest red flag for me to not date someone."

She rested her cheek against the back of her curled fist. She'd taken a confident pose and her firm tone was doing more to ward off unwanted attention than Touya expected. The boy's friends had stepped back while his face had grown flush with embarrassment and rage.

"I don't think you're a bad person but there's such a thing as overconfidence. Be humble and accept 'no' without complaint when taking your shot. That's the best advice I can give you. Now if you excuse me, I've got plans." Kagome took to her feet. She reached over and tugged on the sleeve of his shirt once more, "I don't appreciate you cutting into our lunch time."

He felt her gently pull him to his feet and tug him out the door.

All eyes were on them as he allowed her to drag him along. The rest of the class would misunderstand their relationship with each other now. They were barely anything more than strangers. He'd known her for less than five hours. There was absolutely no way he was going to be getting himself involved in her personal life.

"Hey," Touya interjected, "I don't recall agreeing to go to lunch with you."

She shot him an apologetic smile, "Yeah sorry but it was the fastest way to escape. Sorry I pulled you into it like that. I won't pester you to hang out with me if you don't want to though."

He rubbed his palm against the back of his neck.

Great, now she just painted a giant target on his back. He wasn't blind to the attention she was receiving from the male population in their school. From the moment she walked into class, every set of eyes were riveted towards her. She possessed a cheery attitude and her smile was enough to make a complete stranger approach her for her number.

She could easily become one of the most popular students in class. Yet she snubbed the masses and chose to spend her time with him instead. Sure he was flattered by the attention but he also knew that envy and jealousy was sure to rear its ugly head soon enough. Guys like that wouldn't accept that sort of rejection without a fight.

Touya fought down a sigh.

He grabbed her hand and gently pulled her towards the main line for the cafeteria.

"It's only the first day and you're already picking fights." He cast her a baleful look. "Are you sure you're not a delinquent?"

He felt her fingers curl around his own, causing a small shiver to run down the length of his spine.

This was not a date.

She was not asking him out.

There was nothing about him she found attractive.

He kept repeating those three lines over and over in his head as a defense against the warmth of her hand that seemed to sink into his very pulse.

"I'll have you know that I'm an honor student!" Kagome offered him a wide grin, "And I intend on keeping those grades up."

A smirk pulled at the corner of his lips, "Yeah? Good luck with that when you've got every social group calling you weird for hanging out with me."

It was a legitimate concern at this point. Being a social outcast was a quick way to find oneself struggling. He'd been in the position so many times even before he'd lost control of his quirk. Making friends had always been an impossible task when every child aspired to be a hero. He'd been confronted with reality earlier in life than most and had been shunned for it.

Now he had no expectations of forging any sort of meaningful relationship with anyone.

The warmth of her palm caused his cheeks to flare.

Not even this brief reprieve would last. Once she was marked as an outsider, she would distance herself from him. Just as everyone always did.

"Does that really matter?" Kagome's voice was calm and soothing, as if she were trying to assure him of some deep-seated fear. "Being popular and being good at studying are two different things. Sure it's great if you're able to make a lot of friends but I've learned that the best friends a person can have are the ones who don't push you before you're ready. Although it can also be said that friends who challenge you to step outside your comfort zone are also a source of strength."

He felt her fingers intertwine with each of his own individually. He knew that if he looked back, then she would see just how embarrassed he truly was.

His face and ears had grown hot but he refused to meet her gaze.

"Yeah, yeah. Enough of the lecture and go grab yourself some food." Touya loosened his grip on her hand.

Kagome took his cue and slowly released him from her grasp.

"You're not going to eat anything?" The concern in her tone made him shift on his heel.

He hated eating in front of people. It was an awful sight for anyone to see, let alone the singular girl brave enough to approach him. He wasn't interested in disgusting her with a side view of his food while eating.

"Not hungry." Touya shot back after a short pause.

He rarely took his meals in front of anyone these days. When he got home every evening, he would purposefully wait until his family had finished first and then grab whatever scraps were left over. His sister was often kind enough to ensure she had something saved for him despite taking his food so late in the day. Although their house was far quieter these days than it'd been in the years previous, there was still a thick silence that stifled the atmosphere. It always made it hard to breathe and every sound felt like nails on a chalkboard.

He hated it.

He hated knowing that he was part of the reason why 'normal' would never be in their family's vocabulary. His own actions had brought about the injury that'd altered his life forever. More importantly, he also knew that their father's attempts at atonement were only adding an additional burden to the rest of his siblings. It was difficult to look any of them in the eye and not see his own hopes, dreams and failures staring right back at him.

School wasn't much different.

"You know," Kagome's tone was soft as she broke through his reverie. "There's an access door to the roof. I found out when I was exploring campus after the entrance exams."

A small smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, "So little miss honor student did some snooping after all of her exams were done? I knew you were on the delinquent side."

The teen folded her arms over her chest petulantly, "I am not a delinquent! I'm just… inquisitive."

He didn't miss the stark flush that crossed her cheeks as she uttered out the final word of her sentence. It seemed that he struck the nail on the head given her reaction.

"So Miss Delinquent," Touya teased her, "What about this access door?"

He already had a feeling where she was going with this but he was curious.

"Well for starters it's not locked. They've got a huge fence around the roof and several benches. So I think it's safe to go up there without getting into trouble. Plus when I scoped it out, it didn't look like it was used all that often. So we should be okay to head up there after we grab some food." Kagome flashed him a wide smile, "That way we can eat in peace. That sound good to you?"

Touya leaned back on his heel as he folded his arms behind his head, "You make it sound like I'm just going to agree."

Her smile turned playful, "Are you going to agree?"

He closed his eyes.

Somehow, this girl always seemed to turn the tables on him when he least expected it.

Touya dropped the palm of his hand over her head and gave her hair a rough tousle. Wordlessly, he made his way into the line and watched as Kagome struggled to keep up with his long strides. He didn't fight back his laugh as she jumped up to try to return the favor, claiming that his height was an unfair advantage.

If there was one thing, he was certain about for this year then it was at least going to be the most entertaining one yet.