Can't run fast enough,or do not wish to?

"It is too early for me to be doing this and too late to be awake.Cookie I need your advice.What should I do when I get off the bus today?"

I count off on each finger in front of Cookie as he sits happily wagging his tail.

"1:Should I just ditch today?"
Tongue lolling.

"2:Should I beat him up? He is bigger,likely a black belt."
Tail just blissfully wagging at me.

"Last one.3:Do I just see what it is he wants face to face and not allow a second of him trying to swoon me again?Well my dearest friend.What do I do?"
His soft little brown eyes just stare at my fingers,almost considering an answer,he stares at my "1,2,3."Fingers and he does make a call for me.

He attacks my face with dog kisses and I scold him most harshly with a belly rub and a treat for answering me so promptly.

ONE HOUR LATER

Oiha and the others in her group are happily waiting by the bus stop when I arrive.

I shove in my ear buds and hope and pray that my feet suddenly grow wings to become faster than there comments but I try very hard to wear a mask that keeps them occupied by wondering if today will be the day I assault them like the feral animal I am to them.

They do not appear as  gullable as usual,bold instead,halting me at the gate instead of the door as per usual.

"I saw what happened yesterday.What was that about?No way a guy that gorgeous could even blink your way unless something happened or,oh do you have dirt on him,the family?"

I look at her and just blink away about four seconds of life,inciting her and I fight the urge to smirk like that Kendo-guy.

"Did you and him....No,no, no way no.Did you....?"

I walk fast her goons,the guys who were bugging me yesterday all look on at me like now I am a curious cut of meat worth inspecting and I keep my head up high but do not resist the urge to glare at them.

They think what?

That he and I are friends?Dating?Slept together....

"I haven't seen that guy in the flesh since I was six years old.Get a grip"

I reach my locker and remove my shoes only finding my slippers are filled with some kind of melted fruit candy.

I lightly slam it for the sake of needing to graduate and my sentence here isn't much longer.


I hear goofy squeaks from behind me,guys are watching from the stairs at who is coming in now and even Arata sneaks his way beside me.
Hair slick,looks like he just came from a practice swim and his body is so tense beside me like he is ready to say something angrily inappropriate but pauses himself.

When I turn after everyone else has I see that HE has arrived,made a spectacle of it too.

Kenshin is a head above most the guys here and his uniform is pristine in comparison to most of ours but he simply can just walk in here and leave no one to not notice.
His arrival is impressive somehow,even more so is the many people with cameras watching from the doors and windows when he arrived.

He kept up a confident face when he arrived but I noted something when he got into closer view.

Those eyes?

Those eyes of his looked tired,like they did not want a crowd right in front of them,though that changed like he had been struck by lightening when he caught sight of me.

Not a word was uttered but the boldness came back into his eyes like every word in the notes yesterday,Arata stills beside me and I try to just return to my activity of grabbing my books and putting on my slipper-

"Ew...did you have a bit of a mess Yukikabuki?Is it that weird food you prepare all the time for your uncle and that cross breed thing of a dog you have?"

Oiha laughs hard at her own words,even her group doesn't seem into it but she looks at them hard enough to inform them of whatever she has on them it is still open game for her so they all laugh at me.

I try not to even look down,it feels disgusting Arata is still beside me like he has been struck dumb then abruptly,he walks off.

Not even a word or help-

Tap on my shoulder stops me cold in my tracks almost at the third step,turning I spot Kenshin sliding his own slippers off and kneeling towards my slippered feet.
He looks up at me,eyes not playful now but insistent.

"What do you want?"I ask him.

"To be a hero,obviously.Give me the slippers and take mine."
"I will be fine."
"Please don't be hard headed about this,someone told me what they did and you will be in pain if you don't take them off..."

Too late for that,I feel a sharp stinging in my toes going up to the top of my foot and I bite back the furious growl I want to unleash instead I look to the girls and the boys who smile like the villains they are and I make them see it in my eyes.

Pain.
Kenshin tries to follow me but I wave him off.

LATER


"Why did you wait so long to get checked?This could have left you blistered rather than just a minor skin rash.Oh it looks like it really hurts!I will get you some extra ointment to take home with you.I may have an extra pair of slippers you can borrow until you can buy another pair."

Refusal is next to impossible with Nurse Sadaka-San so I do not even try.

I sit on the hard table,taking brief notes to make my homework quicker tonight,afterwards I text Uncle Goji I will be late.

"Are you okay?"

I look back expecting to see Arata with an apology in tow in the form of a stuffed puppy phone chain but instead it is Kenshin.

His expression is warm,inviting to a point I want to say something girly and awkward probably,yet I keep it simple.

"It is only a rash,I will live on a little longer I believe."
"You must,my life would be a bore without you in it,brief as it has been."

My eyes stupidly look up at these words and those eyes just seem to sense why I looked at them because they seem to brighten as does his smile.

"Like the view?If it is a painkiller for you I will gladly prescribe a full dose of my presence at your earliest convenience."

I hear Nurse Sadaka-San laugh,while I am struck momentarily dumb.

She returns and I hastily take my ointment,give my thanks and am out of that room before my enemy of a face can tell on me that I liked that comment a bit too much.

"Hold on for a second..."

I hear him coming and I try,fail miserably to pick up my speed and give up for the sake of my feet.

"Can we talk?You need help getting home anyway right?"

'Stop with that evil smirk you',is all my brain is saying.
'You should apologize for such inappropriate behavior',my brain says again.

Kenshin spots my brain overworking to get out of this and puts his outstretched hands back into his pockets and takes only one step forward to me and I stay put.

"You know why I am here,why I came to this school.You don't fully get why,I am a gentleman but I prefer a bit of mystery on one half of the reason but the other half I freely tell."

Spill already....

"No one has the heart of the sword like you do,your stories that were in the papers and on the internet.You more hearts than you know and I want the help of that pull to get more kids,teens and anyone if this works out ,To have a means of education.I want people to be healthy,to have an easier funding system to get schooling for there dreams without burdening the family.The idea came from your stories I still read."

I almost feel my knees go out from under me.

Until he speaks again.

"Also, you are my absolute dream of a girl and I am rather aflutter with feelings of wanting to woo you."

I am gone.
Very slowly and he stays behind me wordless.
I refuse his hand each offer until he stays back,even until I get to the bus but I do look at him and say softly.

"I want to help people too.Just don't expect any lovey-dovey-ooh-goo-goo from me."

He replies with a drop dead smile and a salute,adding a wink leading to the others in the bus staring so hard at me that I fail to even put my eyes anywhere but at the clouds.

Looking anywhere else far too dangerous for my betraying heart.