Chapter Text
“Soda!” A voice called from the other side of the door, followed by a barrage of knocking. “I know you’re in there, open up!”
Soda groaned as he gazed over at the wooden threshold where the noise had been coming from. Letting out a yawn, his eyes moved to where the clock on his wall was. Seeing that it had already been five in the afternoon, and he had unknowingly skipped class. His stomach ached as the knocking continued. But when he looked down at the engine he had spent all day working on, a sense of pride overcame his anxiety. That was until the next set of knocks broke him out of it.
“Maybe Miss Yukizomi will let me off with a warning if I made her a car.” He told himself, tying the arms of his jumpsuit around his waist.
He opened the door a crack, and cautiously began to peak through. Only to have his visitor to shove the door open all the way.
Forced backwards, Soda fell down onto the wooden floor in a position rivaling one of Mikan's. When he gazed up, he was met with the feisty glare of Mahiru Koizumi. She wore her usual look of annoyance as she stood over the mechanic.
“So, are you trying to become a rotten orange?” She asked with her hands on her hips. She leaned forward so her face was mere inches away from his.
Their teachers’ phrase of choice stabbed into Soda as she said it. But not enough that he couldn’t notice Mahiru’s choice of attire. She wasn’t in her school uniform, choosing instead to don a yellow polo shirt with an olive green and yellow jumper dress.
“N-no! I just lost track of time is all, I’ll be sure to go to class tomorrow!” Soda excused, waving his hands in fear. “It’s only my first day missing class, and this is a really important project!”
Mahiru raised a single eyebrow at her panicked classmate. His pitiful look was enough to tell her he was genuinely sorry for missing class. Closing her eyes, she wearily stood up straight.
“Jeez!” Mahiru sighed, placing a stack of papers on his desk. “I brought the study plan from today’s lesson. The homework isn’t due until Monday, so if you need any help ju- SODA!” She screamed, “W-W-What is that?”
Soda turned his head and instantly noticed what she was referring to. A pile of dirty laundry had sat along the base of his empty hamper.
“They’re just my clothes!”
“They’re going all over the place! Jeez!”
“I’ll wash them when you leave!” Soda lied, wanting the red head to leave him be.
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
“I’ll do my laundry! Promise!”
“Well,” Mahiru caught a hold of herself. “Everyone was talking about going to Karaoke later tonight, and I thought you might like to go too. How about you let me help you pick out something to wear?” She made her way to the closest, shamelessly throwing it open to see Soda’s lack of clean clothes. She looked at the empty closet for a moment, before slowly turning to him with a concerned look on her face. “See, you don’t even have anything clean! How many days have you worn that jumpsuit?”
Soda ran over and slammed the closet door.
“Hey, y-you can’t just come in here and go through my things.” His voice cracked from obviously being uneasy with how little she valued his privacy.
“Well if you took better care of yourself, I wouldn’t have to worry about you so much!”
As Mahiru said this both of them went red. They awkwardly starred at one another, before quickly looking away.
“Stay there, I’ll load the washer!” Soda ordered, to which Mahiru silently obliged.
After he picked up the clothes from around the hamper, Soda began shoveling the mass of cotton and wool into the circular entrance of the machine. When it was full, he grabbed the soap and began pouring it into a measuring cup. His hand shook anxiously, causing some of it to fall onto the floor.
“Jeez, let me help!” Mahiru groaned, unable to watch in silence anymore. Only to be forced to a halt by the sound of loud tearing the second she began making her way over to him. Slowly she turned to look behind herself, noticing a piece of torn green fabric lodged inside the closed closet door. She then looked back over to Soda who wore an odd expression, trying not to stare at her. As Mahiru finally realized her situation, her face turned as red as her hair.
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The sound of the washing machine churning echoed through the fairly small dorm room. Soda sat at his desk with a needle and thread in one hand, and Mahiru’s dress in the other. The dress’ owner had been seated on a nearby stool that was hidden behind a tool rack. A position used to protect what dignity she had left. Her face not losing the bright red hue none the less.
“I swear it was an accident!” Soda claimed defensively, while he swiftly but thoroughly hemmed the torn fabric.
“I know, I know! You don’t have to keep saying that!” Mahiru groaned, trying to avoid eye contact. “It wasn’t alright of me to just go through your stuff like that. But jeez who puts off laundry to the point that their closet is completely empty?”
“It’s not completely empty, I’ve got a couple of toolboxes in there.”
“Yeah, but still I’d expect you to keep junk, or dirty magazines, or something!”
“No, my mom burned those in middle school. Now I don’t buy them because I feel guilty!”
Mahiru rolled her eyes before starring at him again.
“But I’m kind of glad she did. Because if not, this whole thing would have been a lot more uncomfortable! It just goes to show how much she looks out for me even when she’s not around.”
Mahiru watched him as he continued nonchalantly sewing the dress. His stitching was almost professional compared to most boys she knew who couldn’t even thread a needle.
“So, was your mom the one who taught you to sew?”
“Yep! And to cook, write, and dye my hair.”
“Your mom was ok with you dying your hair?” Mahiru asked, surprised that someone would be so casual as to allow their son to dye his hair such a loud color.
“Sure, I mean she’s not like my dad who’d simply beat my ass and tell me to stop being such a good for nothing- well you know.” Soda recalled; his tone was weirdly casual while talking about such a harsh subject.
Mahiru wanted to say something, but couldn’t think of the right words. Instead they sat in silence for a few minutes as the washer came to a halt. Soda set Mahiru’s dress down as he went to put the soggy clothes in the dryer.
“So, your mom sounds great!” Mahiru said, breaking the silence around them. “I like my mom too, but aside from teaching me photography she’s never around all that much. She never scolds me, or really holds me to anything for that matter. Jeez, that’s probably why I’m so bossy.”
Silently, Soda sat back down and finished hemming the final touches on the dress. His hands worked fast as he became hyper focused on completing it. It was like he was trying to be done as soon as possible so he could to avoid making a comment.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing!” Soda finally said, tying the thread in place. “Saionji, Tsumiki, Owari, heck even Miss Sonia. None of them have what you have.”
“Huh? What I have?” Mahiru asked, tilting her head.
“Nobody has the guts to talk to everyone like you do. Straightforward, but not insulting. You genuinely seem to care. At least enough to come scold a tactless guy like me! I really respect that about you!” He said, handing her the dress. “Here, how’s that?”
Stepping down from the bench, she took it from him. Admiring the stitching, her face lit up from the pleasant surprise of how nice it looked.
“Wow Soda, I guess I’m going to have to eat my words on the whole tactless thing!”
Soda smiled as the dryer buzzed, signaling the clothes were done.
“Oh, I’ll go take care of those. It’ll take a bit, so you go ahead and get dressed. I’ll give you some privacy ok?” Soda said escaping into the bathroom.
Mahiru stepped out of her hiding place, taking a second to really admire how well Soda had fixed her dress. So infatuated that she didn’t notice the doorknob of the dorm room turning.
“Huh? Who’s there?” Soda screamed running out of the bathroom in his undershirt and boxers as the door swung open.
“Hey Soda? I noticed you missed class bud. Do you wanna go to kare-OK!” Nekomaru casually barged in. Taking one good look at Soda being barely dressed, and Mahiru once again bright red and pulling her shirt down over her legs. “I see…Bye now. I’ll be sure to knock next time!”
“W-wait! Nekomaru, it’s not what you think!” Soda gasped, reaching for the larger boy.
“J-jeez!” Mahiru groaned.