Forbidden Protege

Ch. 11: Getting Serious (Part 1)

"What the hell is Eijun doing?" Alexia asked around her mouthful of food. Her eyes tracked the scene unfolding near the food line. Eijun had piled Chris's plate full of food and the latter was thoroughly unamused.

"I have no clue," Kuramochi sighed beside her. "He came back to the room last night and started going off about taking baseball seriously. Looked like he had smacked his head against a wall, too."

Alexia hummed thoughtfully. As a though hit her, she locked eyes with Miyuki across from her and quirked an eyebrow. He shrugged in response. If neither of them had told Eijun, what were the chances that he had figured out Chris's injury another way? "Well, the idiot aside, what about the project that we'll be getting in English today?"

Kuramochi groaned. "Don't remind me. I don't want to even think about it."

"I heard that we'll have to read and do a report over an English book. Apparently it's a group project, too," Miyuki replied, taking another bite of his rice.

At that, Kuramochi perked up and turned towards Alexia. "No," she said flatly. "If we're in the same group, I'm not going to do the whole damn thing."

"Aww, but it'd be so easy for you."

"I'm not giving you a free ride through English class," she replied as she stood from her seat. "See you guys in class."

Miyuki and Kuramochi said the same and Alexia dropped off her tray on her way back to her room. Once there, she pulled on her school uniform and redid her braid. Glancing at the clock, she determined that she had enough time to grab a coffee to make up for her lack of sleep. And while she was at it, she might as well get an extra one to stick in her bag for later.

As she left her room, she glanced over towards Miyuki's door, realizing that he was still holding her laptop hostage. Sighing, she knocked twice and waited. No reply came. 'Screw it, it's my laptop,' she thought to herself as she tried the handle. It turned easily and she pushed the door open. "Excuse me."

"Oi!" Miyuki exclaimed, turning sharply towards the door. He gripped his school shirt to his chest and stared open mouthed as Alexia stood in the doorway. "Do you always just walk into guys' rooms?" he sputtered.

Alexia smirked as she saw the red across his cheeks. "Hey, you saw me shirtless."

"That... I mean... You were the one who told me to enter!" Miyuki stuttered out.

"I knocked and there wasn't a reply," she shrugged. "Besides, I came to get my laptop back, thief."

Miyuki rolled his eyes. Sighing, he dropped his arms to his sides. "I wouldn't have had to take it if you weren't so irresponsible."

"I am not irresponsible," Alexia complained, crossing her arms.

"Yeah because you weren't about to stay up until midnight watching videos," Miyuki said, his smirk reappearing.

"I was going over footage for my team," she defended herself. Her eyes snagged on her laptop sitting neatly on Miyuki's desk and she crossed the room to it. Miyuki didn't reply as he put on his uniform shirt and did up the buttons. "Sorry. Next time I'll make sure to wait for a reply."

Miyuki blinked once as he caught back up to the shift in topic. He shrugged, "Nah. I don't really care, you just surprised me is all." He grabbed his tie and started to fasten it around his neck.

"Well, in any case, sorry about that," Alexia said, giving him a half smile as she left his room. She quickly made her way back to her room and set her laptop on her own desk. After that, she left her room again and made her way to the vending machine where, once there, she bought two coffees and set them in her school bag. Content with her supply of caffeine, she started to make her way back towards the school building.