A Soft Touch
Christopher yawned as he left the apartment building. The streets bustled with early morning activity. Sally, walked beside him. One of the provisions for Christopher returning to school was that he had to be even more strict about having a buddy. Sally and Kaylee were the usual buddy, though today would be a little different. Sally nudged him with her bag.
“Yui’s walking you home, don’t forget.” She said. She looked uncomfortable, as if she was afraid Christopher would remember the reason she wouldn’t be his buddy on the way home today.
“Right, you have a date with Noah.” Christopher remembered.
“It’s not a date!” Sally protested, cheeks flushing a remarkable shade of red. “It’s a holy day of obligation for Catholics and--”
“Noah invited you to come to afternoon Mass with his family, I know, congratulations, meeting the family’s a huge deal.”
Sally discreetly, so as not to alarm passers by, held up her hand. Christopher grinned at the barrel forming in her palm. She wasn’t as scary as she wanted to be.
“Can I be in the wedding?” Christopher asked.
“Sure.” Sally answered, the empty barrel still pointing at Christopher. “Want to be the main course or a side dish?”
“Side, Noah’s already the main.”
That joke took Sally a second to process. She groaned, lowering her hand. “You’re worse than Inigo.”
“Did I hear a wonderful maiden say my name?” Inigo asked. He rode between the pair on his familiar dragon construct skateboard.
“Oh God did I summon him?” Sally asked in horror.
“Nah, you have to say his name 3 times in a mirror.” Christopher corrected.
“Only men need do such a ritual!” Inigo exclaimed. “Wherever a maiden utters my name so shall I appear.” Inigo did a 180 kickturn into a kickflip. He came to a stop, facing his classmates. He shot a wink at Sally. Sally nearly shot a bullet at Inigo. Christopher held out a fist, which Inigo enthusiastically bumped.
“How you doing Inigo?” Christopher asked. He started walking towards the school again, Sally on his left.
Inigo let Gigan return to his natural form. The dragon took its perch on Inigo’s shoulder with an exaggerated stretch and yawn. Inigo fell in on Christopher’s right. “Eh, can’t complain. Hoge’s been locked in her room because of your big competition, but whatever.”
“It’s not a competition, she’s just crazy.”
“Yeah, but that’s why I love her. How about you? How you doing?”
Sally nearly stumbled at Inigo’s bold-faced declaration of love. Didn’t he realize they were in public? Wasn’t he embarrassed to just say ‘I love her’?
“Still catching up on homework.” Christopher acknowledged. “Rosethorn added a 10,000 word tactical analysis of my shortcomings to my rehabilitation.”
“10,000 words?!” Inigo asked in shock. Gigan shook his head in disbelief.
‘If I could be that honest with Noah.’ Sally caught herself thinking. ‘Would today actually be a d-date?!’ Then she colored the bright brilliant red of a sunset.
‘No, don’t be silly!’ Sally assured herself. ‘Today is Chur—err, Mass, if I wanted to go on a date I’d--’ her face turned crimson. She grinned like an idiot imagining where all she’d take Noah. Then after some time… wedding bells.
Her eyes widened and she shook her head violently. ‘Dumbass you’re in public!’ She glanced over at her companions, they hadn’t noticed. Thank God.
“It’s tough.” Christopher nodded exasperated. “I’ve got it down to 20k, but I’m lost on what else to cut.”
“…” Inigo and Gigan stared at their friend like he had spontaneously grown two heads. Gigan seemed to reflect that everyone has their own struggles, while Inigo was lost trying to calculate how many hours of Visual Novels he’d have to miss out on to write 20k words.
Sally, satisfied they hadn’t noticed all the wonderful shades of red her face could turn, decided to reenter the conversation where she’d exited.
“What’s this ‘competition’ between you and Hoge?”
“A special condition for me to participate in Shiketsu’s internship program is that I have to get perfect score on our Exams.” Christopher said. “Not a huge deal.”
Sally’s eyes narrowed. She really hated that part of Christopher. The part that knew he was smarter than you. Know-it-all asshole.
“The big deal.” Christopher continued. “Is that Hoge found out. She also found out that since we’ve been neck-and-neck this entire trimester that if I get a ‘perfect sweep’ and she gets a 98 on one test, I’m beating her out for the top academic spot. 99 on one test and we tie, she has to get perfect scores to keep her place.”
Inigo sighed. Gigan patted him on the head. “We haven’t hung out in like a week.” Tears formed in the corners of his eyes, Gigan immediately transformed into a handkerchief, which Inigo gratefully took and began to dab his eyes. “I miss my Hoge.”
“Aren’t exams still months away?” Sally asked, ignoring her classmate’s display.
“You underestimate her… competitive drive.” Christopher said. “She’d get a perfect score if Exams were today, but the fact I’m going for perfect too is driving her to over-prepare.”
“I told her, ‘you got perfects in the entrance exam. Take it easy.’” Inigo sighed. “That… had the opposite effect.”
Christopher grinned, “how many hours did she study for the entrance exam?”
“Months!” Inigo yelled. “Literal months!”
“Why don’t you study with her Inigo?” Sally asked innocently.
Christopher laughed. Sally looked at him like he was kicking a dead puppy. ‘Do you really need to flaunt your superiority over Inigo like that?! HOW ARE YOU FRIENDS?!’ Then… Inigo, not taking any offense at Christopher’s outburst, answered her question.
“I tried!” Inigo began. Gigan went and landed on Christopher’s shoulder looking away from his master. Sally felt the cold fingers of dread creep around her stomach as Inigo continued to speak. “She accepted, but when I started studying Biology she said ‘THAT’S NOT ON THE TEST BAAAAAAAAAAKA!’ And she kicked me out! Can you believe that?!”
Sally could. She felt her face harden to stone as she looked away from Inigo.
Christopher was holding a hand over his mouth, trying to stifle further outbursts.
Gigan, held a single claw over his eyes, wondering where he could have gone so wrong.
“And now she won’t let me over anymore.” Inigo said with a sigh. “‘Not until after exams.’ Those were the last words she said before she slammed the door in my face.” Inigo’s shoulders slumped. “I’m going through withdraw.”
“That must be so hard on you.” Sally said, her face and voice betraying none of the sympathy that surely poured from her heart. That obviously wasn’t disgust. Who could be disgusted by true love?
Christopher stopped laughing, then looked at Inigo. Inigo couldn’t read that expression. “Wait. She gave you a date?”
“Yeah, after Exams.” Inigo answered with eyebrow raised. What was so shocking about that? Ah, Inigo nodded. Sympathy. Inigo wasn’t accustomed to seeing friend express sympathy.
Christopher was a lonesome soul wondering through the desert of life. He looked at people as curiosities, their struggles as not his own. But to be so long separated from your love? Every man could understand that pain. Inigo was almost grateful that his pain had enabled him to see a new side of his friend.
‘THIS DENSE MOTHERFUCKER!!!’ Christopher screamed in his mind.
‘Does he seriously not realize what she’s implying might happen after the exams?! No-one’s that dense right?’
Inigo put a hand on Christopher’s shoulder.
Christopher’s breath caught but he managed to stay grounded. He dug his right thumb into his pointer finger. That hand came awful close to his neck.
“Thanks, Chris.” Inigo began on the verge of tears again. “With the support of friends like you, I might just make it until Exams are over.”
‘You better be dense because I am NOT giving you THAT kind of support.’
“It’ll be hard.” Inigo continued.
‘That’s on purpose!’
“There’ll be nights I’ll need the support of every friend I have.”
‘It’s not on purpose is it?’
“But I’ll make it now Chris. I know I will. Thanks to you.” Inigo released his shoulder and punched the sky. Eyes filled with conviction. “You’ve given me hope.”
Christopher’s eyes were glazed over. Sally was on her phone looking at date spots near the Church. Gigan was looking at the sky, holding back tears. ‘My master’s a dumbass’ the dragon seemed to whisper in its squeaky native tongue.
‘My first friend in Japan.’ Christopher reflected. ‘And he’s like this.’
Christopher sighed. “You understand Hoge probably--”
Gigan poked Christopher in the neck. The neck. Christopher swatted at Gigan on instinct. Gigan smoothly dodged Christopher’s swat and floated just out of arms length, holding his hands up to show he meant no harm.
The spectacle caused Inigo and Sally to stop in their tracks.
“Chris you okay?” Sally asked as she began to slowly move to cut off his route to his apartment.
Christopher dug his thumbnail into his pointer finger. He was here. No rain. No alley. No Desolator. He was here, on his way to school. His brain slowly pulled itself back.
Christopher nodded. “I’m fine.” He looked at Gigan, still catching his breath. Gigan’s ears were lowered in apology, he had forgotten Christopher was sensitive about his neck nowadays. Sally had stepped around Christopher, towards their apartment building, ready to intercept him if he tried to run. Inigo glared at Gigan.
“I’m fine,” Christopher reasserted. He held out an arm for Gigan. Gigan perched itself on the arm without a fuss. Ears still lowered.
“Sorry about that.” Christopher whispered to the dragon.
Gigan shook his head and pointed to himself, ‘my fault.’
Christopher held out his fist for the little dragon to bump, “no hard feelings.” With that, he continued on his way. He was breathing heavily, but slowly, over time, he brought it back under control.
The dragon stayed on Christopher arm as they walked towards the school. Inigo walked beside them, shooting the occasional glance at Christopher and a glare at Gigan. Gigan kept his head lowered, he wasn’t used to being the one who fucked up. Sally trailed behind, still ready for Christopher to have an episode.
Sally was just being careful thankfully. Christopher hadn't had a full episode, just flashes and even then only when his neck was touched or otherwise constricted. It was the reason he’d been able to return to school so quickly.
The prognosis was extremely optimistic. To the point the hospital’s psychiatrist thought a quick return to normalcy would do Christopher more good than dedicated treatment. So far, it had. Christopher had yet to have more than a flash and it didn’t seem to effect his ‘resting state.’ But, just in case his condition suddenly worsened, certain precautions were put in place.
Christopher’s flashes showed his instinct was fight not flight. So his escorts to and from school were restricted to quirks he couldn’t make much use of. That left 6 of his classmates available. In order of primacy it went: Sally, Kaylee, Orochi, Yui, Sandatsu and Tame.
Sally was the most dangerous escort in theory. Someone having an episode being able to form firearm from their body was extremely dangerous. But… Christopher didn’t know how firearms worked, and he wasn’t gonna learn until he fully recovered. Also, she apparently had some experience with PTS, and was trusted, by Rosethorn if no-one else, to handle a possible episode well.
Christopher hadn’t tried to pry into what her experience with PTS was and Sally hadn’t volunteered.
Kaylee and Orochi were both mutants so Christopher couldn’t copy their quirks at all. Kaylee probably made Christopher feel the most at ease. They could shoot the shit while walking and even if Christopher had an episode, the fuck was he going to do to her? Short of Endeavor walking the street, it was unlikely he’d be able to do meaningful damage.
Orochi was more laid back than Christopher thought she’d be about the whole ‘escort the boy’ thing. She’d actually done a damn good job talking Christopher out of the shame he felt about his mental state. ‘All PTS means is you didn’t pick an easy fight.’ That simple sentence meant more to Christopher than she’d possibly know.
Yui was next. Christopher was absolutely abysmal with her quirk and couldn’t do more than make limp strings fly out of his hands. While Kaylee was the most relaxing escort, Yui was the most fun. Christopher didn’t have an issue reading Yui’s meaning when she spoke. Making her caustic comments more… funny than anything else. She also had the best reactions to compliments. Especially genuine ones.
Sandatsu was the only boy. Christopher could copy Sandatsu’s quirk, but he couldn’t make it work. That was a puzzle Christopher hadn’t brought to Owari’s attention. Mostly because the quirk… made Christopher feel sick.
The absolute last, no-one else on earth could possibly do it, option was Tame. Tame was weird.
Inigo was WAY off the list of acceptable escorts. With his quirk Christopher might actually be a threat to neutralize Kaylee during an episode. But he’d made the effort to ‘run into’ Christopher and his escort to and from school nearly every day. It left the Principal apoplectic at first, but Rosethorn… Rosethorn had stepped in. She somehow convinced Anzu to drop her objection to Inigo being an ‘off-the-books’ escort.
Christopher wasn’t sure why Rosethorn had stepped in, but he appreciated her intervention nonetheless. Inigo was probably the most attentive to Christopher’s state. Even if the blond-haired young man talked nonsense and was the densest pervert to ever live, Christopher believed Inigo was a major reason he was getting better so quickly.
After a few minutes had passed since Christopher’s flash. Sally returned to walking beside him, pulling out her phone, comfortably certain that the risk had past. At the sign of her guard going down, Inigo felt comfortable enough to ask, “so what were you about to say Chris?”
Christopher looked at Gigan. The little dragon formed an X with his talons. Christopher took the hint. There were three possibilities to why Gigan didn’t want Christopher to explain Hoge’s hidden meaning.
First, Christopher was wrong, Hoge had actually meant their, up-to-now, innocent flirtation could continue and Gigan didn’t want Inigo getting his hopes up. Plausible, Hoge was a moron when it came to wording and Inigo was worse at reporting the exact words spoken to him.
Second, Gigan didn’t want Inigo to get impatient and possibly screw up his relationship with Hoge through that impatience.
Third, Gigan was hatching a plan to protect Inigo’s purity and didn’t want Christopher’s revelations to fuck that up.
“I was just going to say, don’t worry so much about your time apart, Hoge will be in a FANTASTIC mood after she gets perfect scores.”
“… fantastic mood you say?” Inigo muttered. He got a distant look in his eyes. His mind was turning over the possibility of seeing Hoge in an actual fantastic mood.
Gigan narrowed his eyes at Christopher. Christopher had gotten too close to outright saying what he thought Hoge meant.
Christopher shrugged. He didn’t want to leave his friend in the dark, nor did he want to sabotage his other friend’s possible plans, this seemed a fair middle ground.
Christopher glanced at his other escort. Sally was buried in her phone, focusing on a picture ever a restaurant on a pier. Sally seemed to be in love with this little restaurant by the river. It was fascinating how many shades of red her face could turn when she thought of Noah.
‘Am I like that?’ Christopher wondered. With Nene all that would happen is he’d feel light-headed, really fucking dumb, and want to get away ASAP. Occasionally he’d been able to speak to that damn cat, though even on those occasions he felt the blood rushing away from his head, not to his face. What made him so different from Sally?
As Christopher ruminated on the possible differences between Sally’s twitterpation and his crush, Shiketsu finally came into view. The protests which, not long ago, had nearly overwhelmed the school’s gates were now reduced to a half dozen normal students’ mothers who seemed to take it more as an excuse to socialize than a cause worth championing. Signs reading ‘muties out!’ and about three other slogans were draped across the shoulders of housewives as they gossiped in a tight circle, not even looking at the object of their ire.
The three students, Sally, Christopher and Inigo ignored the laughably lazy protest and walked through the gates unmolested. Students of all years were milling about in the school’s courtyard, socializing. Majestic was on gate duty today. He didn’t even look at the three as they past, busy chatting up a 3rd year Christopher didn’t recognize.
As they began to approach the school, Christopher heard a voice in his head.
“Cain, Mio’s by the shoelockers.”
Christopher looked up and nodded at Imai staring out the second floor window. The three-eyed student, stoic even by Christopher’s standards, returned the nod.
Imai continued, using his telepathy. “I’ll let you know when Mio’s moved on.”
Christopher stretched as if the day was already getting to him. “I’m going to take a load off for a few minutes.” He began to walk towards one of the benches lining Shiketsu’s walls.
“Eh~” Sally began, she looked inside. Noah was next to the shoelockers. He was smiling the way that always made Sally melt. “But--”
“You already got him through the gates Sally.” Inigo chimed in. He held his arms out in ecstasy. “Your duty is discharged. Go! Pursue your love!”
Sally made a face at that last line, but still beat a hasty retreat towards the lockers, towards Noah, her love.
“Do you just snort VNs?” Christopher asked as he sat down on a wide wooden bench.
“How dare you!” Inigo began in mock indignation as he sat next to Christopher. “A Visual Novel is a sacred experience, which must be savored. Not snorted like some lowly drug”
“Is it savored with your clothes on or off?”
“Shirt on. Pants off.” Inigo clarified. Gigan hit his head with a squeaky hammer which read ‘No Horny.’ Inigo, so inured to the pain of that hammer by now, ignored the impact.
“But, seriously, how’re you doing?” Inigo asked. Now that Sally wasn’t here, they could talk more frankly.
Christopher leaned forward. “A lot better, I actually slept through the night.”
“Good!”
“Though, with that episode today, I guess I’m still not out of the woods.”
“That was Gigan’s fault.” Inigo said. Gigan nodded solemnly.
“Maybe, but it’s not like I can go to a villain and say ‘hey keep your hands off my neck please.’ I have to get over it eventually.”
“You will.” Inigo said without absolute certainty. Gigan formed into a foam finger which read ‘Go Chris!’ Christopher nearly smiled.
“She’s talking to her minions.” Imai whispered in Christopher’s head. “She probably won’t stay until the bell, but unless you want to confront her, you could be late to class.”
‘That’s fine.’ Christopher thought. He pulled his shoe off and rubbed his ankle. ‘Tell Rosethorn I tweaked my ankle so I might be a little late.’
“Wilco. You doing okay?”
‘A lot better.’ Christopher thought. ‘How’d I trick so many people into giving a shit?’
“Your charming personality.” Imai deadpanned. Christopher snorted to stifle a laugh. He forgot they were still talking.
Inigo glanced at Christopher as he snorted. Then saw his shoe was off. “You twist your ankle?”
“No.” Christopher answered honestly. “Need someone to think I did.”
Inigo frowned, “is this about that note you gave Gigan?”
Gigan promptly transformed into a mailbox, with a single letter inside, addressed to Inigo.
“Yup.”
“Still can’t tell me?” It had been nearly a month since Christopher had put that particular failsafe into motion.
Christopher shrugged. “I will if you want me to, but it’s more advantageous if Gigan lets you know in a worst case scenario.”
Inigo nodded. That was good enough for him. Gigan promptly transformed back into his base form. He pat his belly, presumably where the letter was ensconced.
The altercation with Mio had been too close a call for Christopher, Hoge and Imai. The three had agreed to pursue separate fail safes designed to prevent their class being targetted by Mio. What role Ashleigh would play had been left to Imai, partially to protect her, but mostly to protect Christopher and Hoge in case Imai’s contingencies went belly up.
Christopher had developed 3 contingencies.
The first contingency was to concoct this lookout routine with Imai. Every day, Imai would get here early, avoid Mio using his powers and keep watch from up top, surreptitiously keeping an eye on Mio. Through a lot of practice with Christopher using Mio’s quirk, Imai had figured out how to detect Mio’s quirk’s use without diving into the user’s thoughts. This allowed him to keep an eye on Mio in the mornings and afternoons, without violating his annoying sense of ethics, and make sure she didn’t edit the memories of any of their classmates, especially Christopher’s escorts. That was still a lot of time unaccounted for but it was better than nothing.
The next thing Christopher had done was give Gigan that letter. It contained information on Mio and what exactly Inigo should do in case Christopher suddenly acted hostile. Gigan seemed to have a separate mind from Inigo, so even if Inigo forgot the letter, there was a hope Gigan would remember.
The last thing he’d done was… well he wasn’t sure. He’d repressed his own memory of the event. It was supposed to be the final line of defense. It was his ‘why don’t you just put the world in a bottle’ gambit. He could remember enormous pride when he thought of it. He wished he knew what it was, but not remembering was probably the point.
Christopher had stopped at 3. He REALLY liked number 3, he just didn’t know what it was.
“MOVE!” A familiar voice shouted from over the wall, near where the protest had been occuring. A half dozen middle aged women clucked in disbelief as a hurricane tossed them aside.
“Yui’s early again today.” Inigo observed.
Yui dashed through the school gates. Drawing the eyes of nearby students. Majestic was oblivious, talking to another 3rd year, a male this time. Yui raced for the shoe lockers, huffing the whole way. Christopher and Inigo watched her examine the shoe lockers. Then she looked up. She saw Christopher and Inigo looking at her. She looked away quickly and raced upstairs without changing into her slippers.
“… it’s like 20 minutes before class isn’t it?” Inigo asked.
Christopher nodded.
Inigo stood, eyes wide. “She’s in love!”
“That’s a leap.”
“No, think about it. She’s here early? Examining the shoe lockers? She was going to put a love letter in a locker but noticed us looking at her and got cold feet!”
“Which VN is that from?”
“Kuraki-san wa koiwoshiteiru, but that’s not the point! Wait… but if it’s Kuraki-san’s story, then this is the moment she saw her longed for lover, and lost courage. Leading to act 4 where Melissa-hime nearly steals her lover away.”
“Am I involved in this conversation?”
“Yui looked over here. Oh Yui, this isn’t Kuraki-san’s story, I-I already have someone I like. Oh it’s just like a genderswapped Raburesutoraibu, a VN so vile every fan in the world destroyed their copies. No matter where the lead turns, no matter what he does, his love interests keep finding someone else.” Inigo sniffled. Gigan refused to turn into a handkerchief this time.
“… You’re into some weird shit.”
“Oh, don’t get me wrong. I burned my first copy of Raburesutoraibu too. But when I thought about it, when I really let it sink in. Isn’t it beautiful? The idea of the pursuit of love being a fruitless endeavour, but deep down, no matter how hopeless it is, you keep fighting for it? Because true love, even a hopeless love, is worth the fight.”
“… don’t give up on Hoge just so you can go back to an aimless love quest.”
Inigo looked at Christopher side-eyed. “I wasn’t thinking about doing that.”
“Gigan?”
The little dragon refused to acknowledge what was going on in his master’s head. Instead he looked to the sky. The little dragon envied the clouds. So free. So unburdened.
“Traitor.” Inigo muttered.
Christopher shook his head.
“Mio’s going to class.” Imai reported telepathically.
Christopher nodded, that was nowhere near as long a wait as he’d feared. Christopher put his shoe back on. ‘Thanks, see you in homeroom.’
“See you.” Imai acknowledged.
“Good to go?” Inigo asked as Christopher stood. Christopher nodded and both made their way into the building. Inigo stopped at the first row of shoe lockers. Christopher continued to the last, an aisle he shared with Yui. When he got there he saw a breathless Yui changing into her slippers. Her face a shade of red. She must’ve come back down after doing whatever ‘mysterious errand’ caused her to hurry upstairs without changing shoes.
“Good morning Yui.” Christopher said as he reached into his locker.
“What’s good about it?” Yui bit back.
“Well this afternoon I’ll get to walk home with you.” Christopher chided as he put on his slippers.
“You’re making fun of me.” Yui asserted.
“You’re fun to make fun of.”
“Tch.” Yui scoffed.
“Want to go to the arcade this afternoon?” Christopher asked as he slid on his first slipper.
Yui nodded, “got nothing better to do.”
“Well, if something better comes along, be sure to let me know.”
“I didn’t--” Yui began hurriedly.
“Afterall, I would hate to keep you from Nene’s arms.”
Yui threw a shoe at Christopher. It slammed into his shoulder with a loud pop then flopped to the ground. “Ow.”
“Thanks for reminding me that you fucking left!” Yui nearly shouted. Now Christopher saw her face, she was red, either from rage or embarrassment, even he found that hard to tell. It didn’t matter. Both were fun. “She groped me for like ten minutes before I could get away.”
Christopher swallowed. The thought of Nene groping Yui was a little… too stimulating. “What the Hell was I supposed to do?!”
“Get her off me!”
“Oh, yeah, doable. Nene groping you was something I was mentally prepared to see. I would not have passed out there in the middle of the arcade.”
“Why the Hell would you have passed out? I was the one being groped, not Nene.”
Christopher blinked as he stooped to retrieve Yui’s shoe. The most attractive girl in school groping the most attractive girl in his class was the fucking problem. And Yui, somehow didn’t see that she was part of the problem.
“… you have the self-awareness of a gnat.” Christopher said as he handed her back her shoe.
Yui snatched her shoe out of his hand and stuffed it into the locker. She kept her head down, not looking at Christopher, not showing her face. “Don’t throw lines at me.”
“That’s an observation, not a line.”
“...you’ve been spending way too much time with Inigo.”
Inigo leapt into Christopher and Yui’s aisle, only one slipper on, the other only protected by a thin sock. Gigan hung onto his hair for dear life. His face beamed.
“Did I hear a--” String gathered around Inigo’s neck before he finished that sentence.
Inigo looked at the string around his neck, then back up to Yui. That was not the face of someone who was joking. His face turned to stone.
“Understandable, have a nice day.” Inigo said. Gigan was hiding behind Inigo’s head, clearly terrified.
“Tch,” Yui retracted her string and hurried off in the direction of the classroom.
Christopher and Inigo locked eyes. Inigo, rubbed his neck and exhaled. “Remember when I said she was ‘a little rough around the edges’? I admit, I may have been mistaken.”
Christopher nodded, he agreed Inigo was wrong. He just disagreed on the reason he was wrong.
The two made their way to the classroom. Imai and Ashleigh were engaged in secret conference in their seats. Hoge was sitting in the back, three different books open on her desk, her pen moved like it was on fire. Kaylee was standing at the back of the room talking to Orochi and Jugo, she gave a short wave when she saw Christopher. Christopher waved back. Then, staring at the wall, barely moving an inch, was Yui. The wall must be terribly fascinating.
Inigo spotted Hoge in the back and quickly departed to spend a little bit of time with her before class started. Christopher made his way to his side of the room. Christopher glanced at Imai and Ashleigh. Imai nodded a hello then returned to the conversation. Ashleigh avoided eye contact.
Christopher came to his desk and sat down. Then, knowing what he’d find. He reached into his desk. He wrapped his hands around something soft and pulled out a teddy bear. The unreasonably soft brown teddy bear was holding a heart which read: “Get bearter soon!”
Christopher cradled the bear. He’d been getting a new stuffed animal every day since he came back to school. The person giving them was, of course, a mystery. That they were the sort you’d find in the arcade was, of course, not a clue. That only one person had been trying desperately to get here earlier than anyone else every day he got one of these, was also not a clue. Nope, no idea who could possibly be behind this. She was a mistress of subtlety.
The only mystery was why was Yui being so clandestine about this? Before his injury she’d have shoved the teddy in his hands and walked away without explanation. Yet… here he was, holding a gift she had no interest in claiming credit for. Christopher looked over at Yui, he met her eyes for a fraction of a second before she looked away, back to the wall.
Christopher looked back at the bear. There were several explanations for Yui's sudden shyness. The simplest, and Christopher’s favorite, was that Yui was worried. Despite, or because of, caustic words, the two were friends and Christopher had almost died. She’d almost lost a friend and Yui was struggling with how to process that. Worry was a new face for Yui. Maybe she didn’t trust her expression in front of Christopher well enough to shove the bear into his hands. Maybe the fact that Christopher got his ass beaten so badly he needed escorts made her see him differently, as more fragile.
‘She’s in love!’ Christopher heard Inigo yell in his mind.
‘Yeah fucking right.’ Christopher retorted.
There were simpler, more plausible, explanations than Yui suddenly developing shit taste in men. But in the end, it didn’t really matter why Yui was suddenly shy about her gifts.
Christopher gave the soft bear a light squeeze. The softness made him feel more in control, better.
It was a great gift. Christopher felt himself smile.