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"Excuse me?" He said as he frowned at the teacher.
"It'll take two hours a week, tops." The teacher seemed desperate. Apparently, Midorima hadn't been the first person he'd asked.
"Why me, sir?"
"You're good at maths," he sighed, "something I can't say for everyone these days. Look, this won't affect your basketball training at all and it'll only be for a little while anyway. So please?" The teacher pleaded. Midorima sighed, then nodded.
"Fine."
"Thank you so much," the teacher held out a paper, "here's her marks so far. Good luck!" The teacher had hurried away before Midorima had even had the chance to look at the numbers.
"Shiromi Asuhi." He murmured.
'Great, I now have the privilege of tutoring an idiot.'
"I'm looking forward to working with you." She said as she bowed. She'd asked the teacher if he could tutor her, but she never imagined he'd pass the job to someone else.
'Let alone Midorima Shintarou...'
"Sit down, I want to get this over with." Midorima said with a sigh. She sat down as asked and swallowed down the lump in her throat. His presence was so ... pressuring? Was that the right word? She felt as though she was being put on the spot and they hadn't even started the lesson yet.
"So, what do you find hardest about maths?" Midorima asked as he uninterestedly stared out the window.
"Everything?" She said on a questioning tone. It was the one blemish on her near perfect score and with parents like hers, that was a huge problem. Midorima pulled up a brow and sighed again.
"There must be some of it you do understand, right?" She shook her head solemnly.
"I get the basics, but everything else is just impossible."
She seemed earnest in wanting to learn, even he could see as much, but he wasn't much of a teacher. He'd looked at her other marks and admitted that he'd been rather surprised. She rivaled him in many subjects, something not many even at this school could do. That proved that she wasn't stupid, but he simply couldn't understand why this was so hard for her.
"So if I multiply these, then divide them by that, I'll get the answer, right?" She asked with a frown seemingly lodged in place.
"Look at the formula, it doesn't even contain a dividing step."
"Ah crap," she laughed nervously, "I guess I'm overthinking things again." She entered everything into the calculator and wrote down the answer before moving to the next question.
'Maybe her problem is that she's overthinking things.' He thought, seeing how she seemed to have no problem with the numbers themselves.
"It seems easier somehow, thanks Midorima." She said as she had no trouble completing the next few questions. "This way is much easier than when the teacher explains it."
"I'm saying the exact same things though." He said with a frown.
"Really?"
"Of course, there's only one way to do maths, so it's impossible for my way to be different."
"Oh, well then I don't really know what's different, but whatever it is, it works." She laughed, glad to finally understand even a small part of the maths mountain she was climbing.
He glanced at her answers. They were all correct.
'As I thought, it may be about the way she looks at the problems rather than how she handles them.' She flipped the page and sighed.
"Algebra..." She looked at him with sad eyes. He looked at the page. Those were hard problems for someone who didn't understand the basics, if that's what the problem was in the first place. He tore a piece of paper from his notebook and wrote "a x a = 1".
"What times what makes 1?" She looked at it and frowned.
"Well, 1 of course."
"So 'a' is 1."
"That's it? That's the answer to the entire question?"
"It's not always this easy, but in the end all the letters are actually numbers, so just think of that." Her face suddenly lit up and with a nod, she leaned over her notebook and eagerly started handling the questions.
'If this is all it takes for every aspect of maths, then this won't take long.' He thought as he looked out the window again. He was glad she wasn't absolutely clueless though, he probably lacked the patience to deal with such a person. Knocking came from the door and they both looked up.
"Shin-chan, I was looking for you." Takao said as he walked in and pulled up a chair.
"What is it, Takao?" Takao shrugged.
"I heard you were tutoring and I just had to come see for myself."
Takao turned to her and smiled a broad smile.
"Yo."
"Hello." She returned his smile, uncertain of how to handle the situation. He patted her shoulder.
"Don't worry, I'm not very good at maths either."
"She's still leagues ahead of you, Takao, now please leave." Midorima said, more or less as though he was giving out an order.
"Ohh, you're so scary, Shin-chan!" He stood up. "But fine, I'll leave you be, don't forget about practice later."
"As if I would ever forget practice." Midorima snapped as he watched Takao leave. Midorima sighed loudly.
"Sorry about him."
"That's alright, he's a good guy."
"How do you know?"
"He plays fair, he's nice to his opponents and he's optimistic. I think those qualities make him a good person."
"You watch our games?" She nodded.
"Of course. I can't really play sports myself, so I'm content watching others." Her eyes widened when she realized what she'd said and she prayed he wouldn't ask on.
"Why can't you play?" She nervously looked at her watch.
"O-Oh dear, look at the time, I really have to go," she started packing her things while talking, "I wouldn't want you to be late for practice either," she stood up and bowed, "thanks for the lesson, I'll see you tomorrow, bye!"
She was out the door before he could even get a single word in. Why was she so defensive about that? He went over a few reasons in his mind, then put it aside for the time being. He couldn't afford a lack of focus during practice. He packed his things and stood as well, glancing out the window one more time before leaving.
'Interesting.'
She let out a deep breath of relief as she walked out the main entrance and into the fresh winter air. It would've been easy to make something up like she always did, but she knew that Midorima would see right through such a lie. Avoiding it would be best for now, avoiding as many questions about her personal life as she possibly could.
'Granted, this one was completely on me.' She thought as she shook her head disapprovingly. 'I need to keep my head cool.'
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't quite get her off his mind. He still made all of his shots, but they weren't performed as quickly and as smoothly as he'd like. No one seemed to really notice besides Takao. The coach wasn't there, so that was a bit of a relief too.
"Shin-chan, what's wrong?" Takao asked with an annoying smile. "Is it that girl?"
"Shut up."
"Oh it is, is Shin-chan in love at last?"
"Like hell I am." That was the truth and Takao knew it too. He didn't even know her. To him, she was nothing more than a face in the crowd.
One thing she hadn't taken into account when she'd fled the scene yesterday, was the fact that Midorima was actually in the same class as her. Well, he didn't really stand out so it was pretty easy to forget that. He stared at her awkwardly from the other side of the room, he squinted his eyes as if he was trying to read her mind or something along those lines. She ignored him and went back to her math problems. She would master this subject too, no matter what.
She was good at ignoring his gaze, but she couldn't run from him forever. He'd make her pay for distracting him by getting the truth out of her one way or another. As soon as the bell rang to mark the start of lunch break, he got up and followed her out the door.
"Hey." She halted and turned to him, looking even more nervous than yesterday.
"Hello."
'Calm down, maybe he's forgotten about it already.' She tried to reassure herself.
"Hand me your phone." She frowned.
"Then we can text if one of us can't make it." She got her phone from her pocket and handed it to him. Had he forgotten? No way... Maybe he just didn't care, yeah, that was probably it. She felt relieved and smiled as he returned her phone.
Her smile meant she felt at ease again. Maybe she thought he'd forgotten? Oh quite the opposite, but he wouldn't be hasty in his attempt to uncover the truth. This required a more elaborate plan than simply cornering her.
"Thanks, so after class then?" She asked.
"Sure."
She happily moved to the other classroom after her classes were over. Midorima had said he needed to take care of something and that she should go on first. Upon entering, she found his sports bag with a basketball lying on top.
'I guess he dropped off his stuff first.' She guessed as she went to sit down and unpack her things. 'I'll just get started then.' If there were any difficult problems she could just skip them and ask Midorima later. However, it was hard to keep her attention focused on the problems when that basketball was just lying there. She looked around, then at the door.
'Just a little then.' She thought as she picked it up and rolled it around in her hands, smiling at the familiar feeling that flowed through her. She spun it on her finger and sighed. That was all she could do now anyway.
"Good afternoon."
She dropped the ball as she turned to Midorima. He'd had his theories about why she couldn't play; injury, trauma or a simple lack of time. He picked up the ball and sat down, placing it on the table.
"You seemed quite happy just now." He said.
"Did I? Can't imagine I did, must be your imagination." The way she looked at him made it clear that asking on would be unwise one way or another.
"Maybe you're right." He said as he took out his notebook and opened it. "We finished algebra, didn't we?"
'How odd...' She thought as she nodded at him. There was no way he'd let her off that easily, right? Maybe she was right then, he didn't care?
"Next is fractions." She said a bit sadly. She hated fractions and this didn't make focusing any easier. This being Midorima's ever so tiny smile. He knew exactly what he was doing and she knew it too.
'I should just watch for now.'
It was the same with fractions, apparently. Once he'd explained how it worked using a very basic problem as an example, she had no trouble solving the harder questions.
"I have a training camp tomorrow and I won't be back until five. If you want to wait, we don't have to cancel the lesson."
"Of course, I'll wait. Thanks."
"Not a problem."
She patiently waited in the cafeteria after classes the next day, trying to solve some of the next problems on her own, but without much success. Without Midorima, it all looked like some obscure language to her. In the end, she just made a few doodles before nearly falling asleep.
"Bad night?" She nearly fell out of her chair at that.
"Wha- Yeah... I didn't get much sleep." She said as she yawned and rubbed her eyes. Looking up, she found Midorima in his training suit with his bag hung over his shoulder. She gathered her things and stood.
As they walked over to the usual classroom and opened the door, they were faced with a group of girls and their musical equipment.
"Ah sorry, we rented this classroom because someone got to our usual place first." One of them apologized.
"Okay, one two three, go!" Before even waiting for the two to close the door, they erupted into a loud rock song.
"That sounds ... special." She said as she rubbed her ears.
"Incredibly special..." He agreed with a sigh.
"We can try the cafeteria." She opted.
"Christmas festival?" She asked surprised as she read the banner that'd been erected in the few minutes they'd been away from the cafeteria.
"Yeah, we're going to exhibit Christmas traditions from all over the world!" One of the passing students said excitedly.
"But it's a surprise for Monday, so don't tell anyone." Another said, just as happily.
"That came up suddenly." Midorima noted as he looked around. She did as well and found that pretty much everywhere she looked, students were scurrying around and building things. Today was Friday, so they would probably work the entire weekend to get it ready by Monday.
"I'd forgotten it's almost Christmas." She murmured.
Seeing as the school was completely taken over by the Christmas festival preparations, there weren't many other places left to go. Something that would tie in amazingly well with his plan, he realized.
"We can go to my place." The surprise on her face was priceless.
"If it's not too much trouble." She said, uncertainty in her voice.
"Otherwise I wouldn't have offered."
She couldn't help but feel slightly uncomfortable as they walked together. The silence was heavy and her uncomfortable feeling only increased when they neared a street basketball court with some very familiar people on them.
"Hey, Shiromi!" She sighed and half heartedly waved back at her two brothers.
"Do you know them?" Midorima inquired.
"Sadly, yes." She murmured as she feigned a smile at her brothers who walked up to them.
"Who's your friend?" One of them asked. Of course they didn't know him, they played, but they liked to think that they were the absolute best. Hence they didn't bother with other players, be it the high school teams or the NBA.
"Shinji, Hiruki, this is Midorima." She introduced them.
"You play too?" Hiruki asked Midorima upon looking him up and down.
"I do, as a matter of fact." Midorima answered.
"How about a game then?" Shinji said with a smug smile. Midorima turned to her.
"How about it?"
"No don't bother, she can't play." Hiruki said disdainfully. She felt anger rising within her, but managed to keep her cool.
"I asked her." Midorima said on a heavy tone.
"I'll play." She said with a nod.
He detested people who thought others couldn't do anything without even knowing them. That was one of the reasons he didn't like Murasakibara sometimes. He unzipped his jacket and put it down on the bench along with his bag. The ball was thrown at him and he caught it.
"You guys can go first, we don't mind." Hiruki said confidently as he took a defensive stance. Midorima threw the ball at Shiromi and nodded.
"You heard him."
She gave him a thankful smile before turning to her brothers. At this point she didn't even care about the possible risks anymore. No one simply told her she couldn't play and got away with it, no one. She dribbled a few times before darting forward, effortlessly moving past both her brothers and dunking the ball.
"At least try." She said with a grin as she moved back to the other side of the court and high-fived Midorima.
He was glad that his suspicions had been confirmed. She definitely had talent and even though he hated dunks, he had to admit that the one she'd made just now was quite impressive. The two brothers weren't too pleased by the fact that their sister had scored with such ease and seemed to take this more seriously now.
'Good.' He thought.
Shinji took the ball and slowly dribbled over. After an obvious fake which she didn't fall for, he simply shoved her out of the way as he jumped to score. She fell backwards and was glad to see that Midorima had blocked the shot.
"That was a foul!" She said annoyed as she got up. Hiruki held a hand up to cup his ear.
"Do you hear that? No, I don't either. The referee's completely quiet."
'I figured they'd get to this sooner or later...' Their one year with the Kirisaki Daīchi basketball team hadn't done them any good.
Midorima took the ball and shot it effortlessly across the court and into the basket before the brothers had even made it back.
"I was hoping for some more resistance." He said with a grin. "Now you're just disappointing me."
---
After a smashing victory for him and her, the brothers quickly gathered their things, claimed that there wasn't a clear victor here and walked off. If the end they'd taken their anger out on their sister by pulling similar tricks as before.
"You okay?" He asked as she stretched out.
"Yeah sure, I can take a hit." She said with a nod. "But I'm seriously glad we beat them."
"It was to be expected, they weren't very good after all."
She was sore all over from falling and being pushed, but she was thankful for their victory. Her brothers' disdainful way of treating her probably wouldn't change, but this definitely made for some consolation.
"Have a seat, I'll make some tea." She sat down and looked around. His apartment wasn't very big, but it was far from small. If she had to name it, it'd probably be 'just right', because that's how it felt. The decor was very simplistic and it was well visible that he didn't spend much time here besides at night. She got out her books with a sigh and stared at the mix of problems and doodles.
'I wonder why.'
When he came back with two cups of tea on a tray, he found her soundly asleep on top of her books.
'That must've been tiring, especially for someone who doesn't play sports at all.' He thought as he put the cups down and sat at the table, leaning on his elbow as he stared at her. He got his phone, plugged in his earphones and listened to the zodiac and horoscope forecast for tomorrow.
Cancers will be in for a good day as long as they carry an owl statue with them! Leo's will be having a bit of an off day, but if they have a silver spoon with them things might just look up! Pisces on the other hand-
He paused it and recalled the data on Shiromi's report card.
'August 11th, so that makes her a Leo.' He stood and moved to a box from which he recovered an owl statue. He looked back at her, still sleeping soundly and nodded to himself as he moved into the kitchen.
She woke to someone gently tapping her shoulder and looked up.
"Mi-chan?" She shrieked and held a hand over her mouth as she shook her head. He simply frowned.
"I was dreaming and you were there and I sort of called you that and you didn't mind and I don't know just forget I ever said it it's not important I'm so sorry."
"So you were dreaming about me?" The blush on her cheeks became about 90% more visible and she raised her shoulders.
"I-I guess, I don't really know why. I mean why do we dream certain things, right?" She knew the answer to that, or at least the generally accepted answer, and she hoped that he didn't.
"Our dreams are a reflection of our desires, most of the time." He answered, using exactly the same words as she was thinking of.
"Right, I've heard that before, but who knows for sure right?" She looked at her watch. "Oh look at the time, I should really get going."
He was at the door before her and blocked it off. He couldn't quite explain it. The feeling he felt when she said she'd dreamed about him, even given him a nickname in said dream, that feeling was so amazing it was hard to put it into words. It was like joy and fear and something else all mashed together into some sort of euphoria he'd never experienced before. He'd never experienced it before, but he'd read about it. Every novel he'd ever laid hands upon had had that feeling described in different ways, but it always ended in the exact same thing.
"Don't leave." He could see a spark of fear in her eyes and instantly backed up. "I mean, please. Please don't leave."
The look in his eyes was something she'd never expected to see from him. It was vulnerability. This man, who rarely showed anything besides his stoic expression, was completely vulnerable before her and he too knew that very well.
"I always try to run from situations I don't know how to deal with. It's a bad habit." She said ashamed as she leaned sideways against the wall, keeping her eyes to the ground. "Sorry."
"Don't worry." He said as he moved forward and put his arms around her.
Holding her felt so good, as though he was complete now. He knew how clichéd that sounded and he'd always hated such statements, but now that he felt it for himself, he couldn't deny it. He looked down in surprise when she returned his embrace. She looked up at him with a smile. Before he even knew it himself, he'd leaned down and fiercely pressed his lips onto hers.
She was surprised at his forwardness, but found everything about her more than willing to adapt to his pace. She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment, but somewhere along the line her admiration for him had turned into affection.
'And quite honestly, I couldn't be happier.'
When they'd finally found their way back to the table, her stomach growled wildly, immediately followed by his own.
"I can't cook very well." He admitted.
"I can make something, if that's okay with you."
"Please do." He realized it was quite late, but he couldn't ignore his stomach and he figured that she couldn't either. She stood and moved to the kitchen, he was quick to follow. She opened the fridge and eyed him curiously.
"That's a lot of red bean soup."
"I just like red bean soup." He said as he shrugged. "Is there anything else in there?" He rarely ever looked at the contents of his fridge, because he either ate out or ordered in most days.
"Not really..." She closed the fridge and turned to him, a worried look in her face. "Do you eat properly?"
"I do, I just don't make it myself." He said. "We can order in." He said as he held up a stack of menus.
'That's an amazing collection...'
After ordering a pizza and eating said pizza while watching a movie, she'd fallen asleep in his arms.
'This feels strange, but it's a good strange.' He thought, then smiled. 'I could get used to this though.' He carefully picked her up and put her on the bed before pulling the sheets up to her chin. He wanted to move back to the couch, but she'd grabbed onto the hem of his shirt.
"Mi-chan, don't go." She murmured half asleep. "...don't wanna be alone." Without even thinking it over properly, he flicked off the lights and crawled into bed with her. With his arm around her and her head resting on his chest, he'd never felt safer.
'I could certainly get used to this.'
She slowly opened her eyes to find Midorima sleeping beside her. Normally in such a situation she would've had a panic attack, but not this time. This felt good, natural even. She got out of the bed ever so quietly and walked over to the window. Her mouth dropped open as her eyes were met with a beautiful white world.
"It finally snowed." She whispered before shivering. His arms wrapped themselves around her from behind and as his warm body pressed against her back, the cold disappeared slowly.
"Good morning." She said as she arched her head backwards to look up at him. She was met with a smile and a kiss on her forehead.
"Good morning." She looked back out the window and smiled to herself.
"I'll go make some tea." He said after a while of staring at the whiteness outside. She sat at the table and yawned.
"You have a game today, don't you?" She asked as she straightened some creases in her uniform.
"Against Kaijō, yes." He answered from the kitchen. He came back with two cups in his hand, looking slightly embarrassed.
"Will you be there?" She nodded.
"Of course, I've never missed a game."
He wondered how he'd never seen her at any of the previous games. He'd probably seen her, but not noticed her. He sat down and put one cup in front of her.
"Thanks." She said as she wrapped her hands around it.
"You're a pretty good supporter then." He said as he took a sip.
"Yeah, I can learn a lot from watching, plus you guys make it so exciting to watch."
"You learn simply from watching?" She nodded.
"And I go over everything in my head a few times before I completely get it though."
'That sounds almost like Kise...' He thought. He had little time to finish his train of thought, however, as the bell rang. He stood and went to open the door.
"Yo, Shin-chan." Takao said as he barged in, easily dodging the block Midorima put up.
"You ready for-" Takao halted upon seeing her. Now, she did have a small panic attack. Her head nearly exploded as a million questions bombarded her mind. Some she could answer, some not and others she had no clue what to even do with.
"G-good morning, Takao." She said as she smiled uncertainly.
"Y-yeah..." Takao said before turning back to Midorima, likely in search of answers.
'This is troublesome...' He thought as he simply stared at Takao, whose questioning expression was all that was necessary to know he wanted answers.
'I wanted to take this slowly, but so much for that.'
"She's my girlfriend."
'Eh?' The blush on her cheeks now spread to every inch of her face. 'Well, I'm not complaining. Hahaha.'
'She doesn't seem to have a problem with it.' He thought relieved. Takao, however, seemed to be having a lot more issues in handling it.
"I'll see you at the game." Takao said with a nod as he fast-walked out the door. With a sigh, Midorima closed the door and sat back down at the table.
"Sorry about that." Her face was so red it looked like it'd go up in flames any second. "Are you okay?" She nodded.
"I'm just a bit surprised." She quickly shook her head and made a gesture he didn't quite understand. "Not bad surprised! Good surprised!" She clarified.
"I'm glad to hear that." He said with a smile as he sipped his tea.
She let out a satisfied breath when she heard the fresh snow crackle under her feet. She turned to Midorima, who wasn't paying much attention to the snow.
"Be careful you don't slip."
"I never slip!" She said as she laughed, took one step and slipped. Midorima crouched beside her and sighed.
"Liar." He held out a hand and helped her back up.
"That was just bad luck." She murmured as she brushed the snow off her coat and skirt.
'I did pack..?' He saw it glistening in her bag and nodded to himself. 'It did say things might look up, not that they would.' He reminded himself.
"You should be a bit more careful." He said as he took her hand. She nodded.
"Thank you."
She nodded at him from her seat on the tribune and watched how the game went full pace right from the start.
----
Just before the first half was over, she heard the people behind her whispering and she turned to see what the fuss was about.
'Shit!' She thought as she saw the big security men scouring the public. 'If I just...' She slid out of her seat and swiftly crawled away on all fours.
As the buzzer sounded to mark the end of the first half, he briefly looked up at her, only to find that she wasn't there. He frowned and looked around the entire area, maybe he'd mistaken the place? When he could find her nowhere, he noticed a few shady looking men with sunglasses looking around the crowd as well. Just a bit further, he saw her head peaking over the railing before ducking down again.
"I'll be right back." He informed his teammates as he went right where they went left.
"Where are you going?"
"To get some fresh air."
She was glad this happened just before the break, she didn't really want to miss the game because of her annoying pursuers. If they were here, that meant their boss was too.
"Makoto." She said angrily as she saw him standing by the entrance.
"Shiromi!" He charged up to her and went in for a hug, but she deflected it.
"Why are the security guys in there?"
"To search for you. You can't just stay away for an entire night and expect your parents not to worry." Makoto was the head of security and a very nice guy, although he was a little too fond of his job sometimes. She sighed.
"I have a cell phone, you know. How about a call before you send your entire force after me."
"All that matters now is that you've been found safely." Makoto knew well enough that he could've called. This was one of the examples of him being too fond of his job. He clicked a button on his walkie talkie and leaned into it.
"All units return. I repeat: All units return." He turned back to her and nodded.
"Now, let's get you back home." She took a step backwards and shook her head.
"Please let me stay, Makoto, I promise I'll come home afterwards."
"Why can't you skip one? You always go to these and it's not like anyone will notice." He said, sounding impatient.
Midorima leaned in closer to hear the conversation better. He wondered if he should step in or not.
"I would never skip one. And," she looked his way and smiled, "I think someone would notice this time." The man sighed and raised his shoulders.
"Well, as long as you come home afterwards, I suppose it's fine."
"Thanks, Makoto, I owe you one." She said as she turned and ran Midorima's way. He made it look as though he was walking toward the entrance and feigned surprise upon seeing her. She did the exact same thing.
"What're you doing here?" Midorima asked curiously as they started walking back.
"Got some fresh air." She replied. "More importantly, why are you here? You're supposed to be resting! What if you're not back in time? What time is it now?"
"I'm here for the same reason." He answered calmly. "And there's still plenty of time." She let out a deep breath and patted his back.
"Well, you're doing good. So keep it up, okay?"
"Of course."
After the game ended with a victory for Shutoku, she texted Midorima she'd be going first. Who knew what Makoto would do if she wasn't home on time. Within seconds, she received a call from Midorima.
"Stay right where you are." He sounded as a though he was panting way more than he should after a game. She frowned.
"What do you mean? What are you even doing?"
"Just stop." She stopped and looked at her phone as the call was ended by him.
'What am I supposed to do now then?' She thought as she wiped the snow off a small stone wall and sat down.
'He sounded... almost as if he was scared.' She looked around, seeing no one else on the road. 'Dammit, now I'm getting scared.' There wasn't really any reason to be scared. Sure it was dark, but there was no one around anyway. She drew figures in the snow beside her and thought of calling him back. Maybe he was joking.
'Wait, no, he doesn't really joke.' She corrected herself.
When he finally saw her in the distance, he felt relieved. 'An off day' could mean anything from slipping in the snow to getting into a serious accident. He halted in front of her and planted his hands on his knees while panting heavily. He'd been tired after the game against Kaijō, but now he was exhausted. She stood and grabbed his arm, pushing him down onto the spot she'd just sat in.
"Did you run the whole way?" She asked in disbelief. He nodded.
"I'll walk you home." He felt a fist softly hitting his head, followed by a hug.
"Don't overexert yourself. You're making me worry."
"Sorry."
She leaned back and wiped some more snow off the wall to sit down, but Midorima took her hand and pulled her onto his lap.
"You're pretty tired and I'm kind of heavy so-"
"Nonsense." He said as he embraced her. She could feel his heart beating hard against her back even though he'd been seated quite a while already.
"Are you feeling better?" She asked after a moment of silence.
"Yes, we should probably move along soon." She stood and held out her hand, which he took, much to her surprise.
'He really is incredibly tired.'
He was determined to walk her all the way to her house, which was further than his own, but he wasn't sure whether he'd make it back to his house again or not. Sure he'd trained his stamina, but that didn't mean he could handle that much running after a game against one of the Generation.
"Are you really okay?" She asked with a worried look in her eyes.
"Of course, there's no need to worry." He replied with a nod. "Your house is a bit further down the road, right?"
"How do you know?" She asked slightly surprised.
"Everyone knows where the Asuhi family lives." She froze in her step and stared at him with what appeared to be terror, but he couldn't quite tell.
"I've known all along." He said, hoping to reassure her.
'He's definitely not a gold digger, that's for sure.' She thought to herself, remembering all the guys who'd approached her because of her family's wealth.
'So he doesn't mind? If he did then he wouldn't have.., right?' She decided that the best course of action would be to simply ask.
"You don't mind?" He pulled up a brow.
"Why would I mind?" She shrugged, she didn't even know why herself.
"Some people do."
"I don't."
"Thanks."
He wondered why anyone would mind. The Asuhi family was the owner of a big electronics company, Asuhi Electronics, and they were quite rich.
'She's probably seen a lot of people who were only after her family's money.' He thought as he looked at the large manor behind the gates.
"People always act more... fake as soon as they find out. They try to pull off the stereotypical rich person act. Then they get mad when you ask them why they're doing that." She explained as she looked at her home. "And I never really minded, because those people were never close friends. But with you it's different, I guess, so I got a bit scared. Sorry." She felt bad for not trusting him enough, not knowing him well enough, to realize that he didn't mind. She felt a hand on her head and looked up, seeing how pale his face was all of a sudden.
"Don't apologize, I understand." She nodded and sighed relieved.
"You don't look so well, though. Why don't you come in and rest a little?"
He felt as though his legs couldn't carry him much further and nodded, perhaps slightly reluctantly. He cared very little for her heritage and wealth, but entering a manor like that would be a bit unnerving for anyone. She hit a button and waited patiently for a response.
"Welcome home, milady. And welcome, sir." A male voice answered as the gates opened.
"Thanks, Fuhi." She said before turning back to Midorima and beckoning him to follow. The path leading to the manor was surrounded by trees, making it seem as though they were walking a forest path. He couldn't deny that he was impressed. His family wasn't poor, but this was on a whole other level. When they finally reached the front doors, which were huge, they opened into a majestic entrance hall completely on their own.
"It might look fancy, but it's nothing special if you walk through it day after day." She said as she grinned at the amazement on his face.
"Repetition dulls the senses." He said with a nod.
"Can you still do stairs or do you want to go by elevator?" Only when he stared at her in disbelief, did she realize that wasn't normal.
"Stairs are fine." She nodded and led the way up the stairs. She felt a little bad that her room was at the back of the manor, but was glad when they arrived there without any issues.
---
"Here," she said as she guided him to the bed, "lie down for a bit." She pressed a button on the intercom panel and cleared a few things from her desk. The door opened before long and a maid poked her head through.
"You called, milady?"
"Yeah, Haru. Sorry it's a bit late, but could you bring us some tea?" The maid nodded.
"Of course, milady, I'll be right back." The door closed again and she moved over to the sink and filled a cup with water, before moving back and handing it to Midorima, who was still sitting.
"Here, it's important to stay hydrated."
"I'm just a little tired." He tried to ease her worries as he returned the cup.
"I don't want you getting a cold, so just to be sure..." She gently pushed him down and pulled the sheets up to his chin after which she nodded contently. "There."
"Now just rest, okay?" He nodded solemnly, realizing there was nothing he could do to change her mind, and closed his eyes.
She set the cup back by the sink and walked back to the bed, finding Midorima asleep already. When she heard the door open she quickly tip toed over and met Haru in the hallway.
"Sorry, he's asleep." She whispered. "Want to have a cup of tea with me?" Haru nodded happily. Haru was her personal maid, she'd insisted it wasn't necessary, but she'd been ignored. However, she'd found that having a personal maid was like having a close friend, rather than a servant, so she'd left her objections behind her.
---
"So, who is he then, milady?" Haru asked curiously as she poured the tea into the cups.
"He's a basketball player." Shiromi avoided the true question. Haru noticed and made a 'really?' face.
"I don't really know. He said I was his girlfriend when he explained it to a friend of his, but it's not really come up yet." Haru sat down and nodded excitedly.
"I'm so happy for you, milady. How long have you known each other?"
"Mutually for about... a little less than a week?" Saying that made her realize that what had happened, had happened in a very short period of time.
"Well I did sort of know him before that. I always went to see his basketball games." She tried to justify it.
'Great, now I sound like a stalker.' She thought.
"This may sound a bit clichéd, but don't they always say love isn't bound by time? I think that can be applied here too, so don't worry, milady." Haru reassured her.
"You're probably right." Shiromi said with a nod as she sipped her tea. "I'll sleep here tonight. I'll hang a note on the door in case he wakes up."
---
After discussing some more ordinary things, Haru wished her a good night and left with the empty tea pot and its matching cups on the tray in her hands. Shiromi wrote a note on a piece of paper and taped it to the inside of the door to the room where Midorima was still sleeping soundly, right on his eye level.
I'm in the room opposite to this one if you need anything.
~Shiromi
'That should do it.' She nodded and moved back to the guest room across the hall, leaving the door slightly ajar.
'I'm glad the bed sheets in all the rooms are cleaned every now and then.' She thought as she dropped down onto the bed, relieved to not suffocate in a cloud of dust.
When he woke, he felt refreshed. Whatever it'd been that got to him yesterday, it wasn't around anymore now. He sat up and looked around.
'So this is her room.' The room was quite large, but held little furniture besides a desk, a bed and a table. There was an enormous bookcase, filled to the brim with all kinds of books. When his eye fell on the door, he saw a note taped to it and he got up to inspect it. He opened the door slightly and looked up and down the hallway. When he saw no one, he quickly moved into the opposite room. This one looked like a typical guest room, with a much more neutral decor. He heard groaning coming from the bed and walked over. He was met with an extreme case of bed hair and had trouble holding back his laughter. A hand wiped her hair backwards, revealing her face.
"Mornin'." She said with a yawn. He petted her head and nodded.
"Good morning."
"Sorry I didn't wake you." She said as she threw the covers back and swung her legs off the bed. "You looked like you could use the rest."
"Yes, sorry for the inconvenience." She shook her head and got up.
"No inconvenience, no apologies." She frowned at her words, it seemed her head wasn't fully awake just yet. She raked a hand through her hair before tying it in a pony tail. Both their stomachs growled wildly.
"You didn't have dinner either?" Midorima asked.
"No, I sort of forgot about it. How about a big breakfast to make up for it?"
"Sounds good."
'A big breakfast' meant something else to her than it did to him, because what was in front of them wasn't 'big', it was gigantic.
"Thanks, Haru." Shiromi said as the maid poured them some tea.
"Yes, thank you." He also said with a nod.
"Make sure to eat to your heart's content, okay?" To Shiromi, this was apparently very normal. He was amazed by how ordinary she'd appeared at school.
'No, she's perfectly ordinary either way.' He scolded himself. She was just used to other things, that was all.
"I will, thank you."
She prayed that her brothers would continue their tradition of sleeping in till midday, but of course, her prayers were ignored.
"Morning, Shiro." She received greetings from Shinji and Hiruki.
"Good morning, guys." She replied, eying Midorima nervously.
"Oh, look who's here, Hiruki." Shinji said on a mocking tone. At least the table was incredibly long and their plates were way on the other side.
"Yeah, basketball boy! What're you doing here?" Hiruki cockily pulled up a brow.
"I invited him." She said on a threatening tone. Her two brothers recoiled ever so slightly and looked at their personal butlers.
"We'll eat in the living room." They informed them before walking off.
"My brothers and I may hate each other with a burning passion," she said as she leaned back, "we know when to back off too."
He was very glad that he and his little sister got along splendidly, save for the occasional fight.
"What do you want to do now?" She asked as she turned to him. He could go home, but if he was honest with himself, he didn't want to leave.
"Want to go for a walk?" She offered.
"That sounds nice." He said with a nod.
---
"I almost forgot. How're you feeling?" She asked as she looked him up and down.
"Better, thank you for letting me stay the night." She waved his gratitude away.
"No problem. It's what those kinds of people do, right?" She ran ahead and sat down on a park bench. He sat beside her with a frown.
"Those kinds of people?" She blushed and nervously looked up to the sky.
"Well, you know..." She shifted uncomfortably. "Ah, I can't say it after all." He pulled up a brow.
"You mean lovers?" Her entire face turned a dark shade of red as she turned to him in surprise.
"Y-yeah." She murmured as she looked down at her lap.
'Now that I think of it, she's never...' He wondered if it meant something. If this was something he'd made up and he was actually unconsciously forcing her. She took a deep breath and turned to him.
"I like you, Midorima." His eyes widened ever so slightly and he brought up a hand to her head.
"I know." He was glad to know his thoughts had been wrong.
"I just hadn't said it before, so I thought-" He interrupted her with a kiss.
"Thank you." That it wasn't fake.
"I wonder what the Christmas festival's going to be like." She said as she smiled at the kids by the fountain.
"You're going?" He asked slightly surprised.
"Of course, the students worked hard on it, and it sounds like fun." She smiled faintly at him. "You're not?"
"If you're going, then I'm going."
"You don't have to if you don't want to." She quickly said. "I don't mind."
"I want to." He reassured her with a nod. She stood and leaned down to him.
"Shall we walk together then, tomorrow?"
"Of course."
She was woken up early by knocking on the door, and she nearly fell out of bed in fear.
"Sorry, milady, I didn't mean to scare you." Haru said as she looked at a panting Shiromi with a pitiful look in her eyes.
"No, it's fine." Shiromi said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "I had a nightmare is all." Haru opened the curtains and put on a worried expression.
"The same ones again?" Shiromi nodded solemnly as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"I didn't have them yesterday or the day before. They just suddenly returned." Haru suddenly chuckled.
"Maybe it's because of him."
"R-really? You think so?" Shiromi asked in disbelief.
"I'm a superstitious person, so I have no trouble believing that." Haru moved to the door. "You on the other hand." She walked out, but the door quickly reopened. "Oh right, that boy is here to pick you up." With a gleeful smile on her face, Haru closed the door once more.
Now that he actually took a good look at the entrance hall, he found that it looked exactly like in one movie he'd seen, even to the finest details. He looked up when he heard loud footsteps and saw her racing down the stairs.
"Careful!" He said as she nearly tripped a few times.
"Sorry," she panted, "I didn't want to make you wait."
"I'd be happier if you took longer than if you rushed and broke something." She nodded.
"Makes sense, sorry." He petted her head and smiled.
"Good morning."
"I was wondering... Was your house ever used as a movie set?" She frowned.
"Yeah, how do you know?" He shrugged.
"I noticed it was similar to the set of a movie I like." She laughed.
"I played a tiny role in that movie, to be honest."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I was about five at the time and they wanted me to move around in the background a few times. So you can't really call it a 'role', but it was fun to see myself on tv."
"I see."
"I don't even remember what the movie was about, actually."
"Come over and watch it sometime," he smiled evilly, "I'd love to see the five year old you running around." She blushed and gave him a little push.
"Okay."
"Oh, do you smell that?" She said as she sniffed the air.
"Smells like cookies."
"Cookies for Santa." She tugged at his sleeve with a smile. "Can we try some?" He felt a slight blush spreading across his cheeks. She looked so innocent, so cute.
"Of course. We'll try everything you want to try." She laughed and gave him a small hug.
"Thank you!" She grabbed his hand and gently pulled at it. "I can't wait!"
"You really like festivals, don't you?" He asked as he sped up slightly.
"Yeah, everyone always puts so much work into them and there's always so many things you can try out."
"I've never really attended the festivals much." He disliked crowds, so it was natural to avoid them.
"They're really fun, I promise!"
"You're awfully cheerful today, aren't you?" She nodded.
"I get to do fun stuff with you, so of course." He squeezed her hand slightly and nodded with a smile.
"I'm looking forward to it."
They walked through the gates and were faced with dozens of lovely smelling stalls and several Santa's with bells. Combined with the snow, it made for an absolutely perfect scene. Everything about it screamed Christmas.
"What should we try first? There's so many things, it's so hard to choose." She said as her eyes switched between the cookie stand and the candy stand.
"How about we start from the left and move along every one? That way, in the end, we'll have visited every one." He suggested. She nodded and took his arm and gently pulled him along to the first stand on their left.
"Then first up is the cookies."
"Whew, I'm stuffed." She said as she fell down on a bench.
"You can say that again." He agreed as he sat beside her with a sigh.
"But it was all delicious, wasn't it?" He nodded.
"Everything was really good." He leaned back and looked around. He couldn't shake the feeling that everyone was watching them.
"Feels a bit weird, doesn't it?" She said before laughing. "Maybe I'm being a bit too clingy." He put his arm around her shoulders and shook his head.
"Absolutely not."
"You don't mind?"
"Never."
"I can't believe we tried everything already." She said as she leaned on the window sill. He leaned against it with his back to the window and sighed.
"You were pretty eager to move on to the next stand every time."
"I guess I let my excitement get the better of me." She said disappointedly.
"We could go one more time if you want." She excitedly turned to him.
"Really?" He cupped her cheek and leaned down to kiss her.
"Really."
~END