Touché (🍋Lemon GarouxReader🍋)

Foil Me Once

After having satisfied yourself on Friday night you're quite calm and manage to keep Garou out of your mind for the most part on your Saturday outing with Tama. That is until you're sitting in a mall cafe after the movie, trying hard to concentrate on what Tama is saying while sipping your iced caramel coffee. You make sure to nod and say "Hmm," and "Uh-huh". You're pretty sure you're following the conversation, but obviously you're not since you just keep nodding when she, without missing a single beat, throws a spanner in the works:
"...and that's why Amai Mask can't possibly make a decent movie because was Garou any fucking good at least?"
You freeze. Wait. What did you just nod to? Your face goes pale, then candy-apple red.
Tama is laughing, mockingly, in the way only a life-long best friend can get away with.
"I mean...no...it's not...wait...I didn't...!" you stammer, but it just gives your guilt away even more.
"I knew it!" she hollers. "You're so transparent!" She wipes away tears of laughter. "I gotta admit, you've got some balls! Well no, he's got the balls...but right at school too! Good for you! Not who I would've picked but whatever floats your boat," she winks and shrugs, taking a loud slurp of her chocolate milkshake, draining the bottom of the tall glass.
Yes Tama, you sigh, we all know your love for the baseball captain, and only because he reminds you ever so slightly of Metal Bat.
"Don't worry," she looks at you kindly now with the teasing out of her system. She may enjoy poking a little fun at your very proper personality but deep down she really does care, "I won't tell anyone. And if he upsets you, I'll knock his teeth out," she gives you her brightest smile and you have absolutely no doubt that she will. You don't know whether to be touched or terrified.
As you walk out of the cafe together you realise you never answered Tama's question properly: incredible. He was incredible, you smile to yourself.

Sunday is taken up with homework, like the calculus you couldn't face on Friday night. Today, while you're doing your school assignments it's not too hard to keep your mind off your little Friday afternoon adventure. You only end up thinking of it every fifteen minutes or so before you have to refocus.
When you're finally done with it around four pm that's when your mind is finally free to wander. And that's when the panic hits you. You suddenly realise that you'll have to face him tomorrow. (If he's at school.) Too many thoughts crowd your head. What should you say to him? What was it that even happened between you? Is it going to happen again? Do you want it to happen again? (Yes.) Does he want it to happen again? (You certainly hope so.) Should you bring it up? Will he? What should you say if he does? And how will you keep yourself from blushing?
You're sure that as soon as you walk into class and see him everyone will know exactly what happened just as if you were wearing the scarlet letter A sewn onto your chest.
You curl up in bed, burying your face in your hands. This is much too complicated for you. Okuninushi senses your troubled state and jumps up on your bed, purring and poking you with his nose as if to say "Cheer up, I'm here." You scratch his head and he snuggles against your chest and it does indeed make you a little calmer.

To your infinite surprise, as soon as you walk into class 3-2 on Monday morning something in your mind switches on and you're automatically in class rep mode without even trying. Garou swaggers in just before the bell and you're not even wearing a hint of a blush. In fact you almost miss his entrance as you're too busy going over paperwork that's suddenly been handed to you and Jirou. The class trip at the end of the semester. It's that time of year and there will be much to be done in the weeks before.
"Good morning everyone!" Ms. Kanzaki smiles beatifically at you all. "So I'm sure you've all heard this morning, but just to confirm...for our class trip, we're going to the Southern Island this year!"
There are excited yelps and hollers and murmurs washing over the room. The Southern Island! That's almost a tropical paradise! The sea! Swimming! Bikinis! (That's Umi and Hina.) Local food! (Ryoma.) Historical sights! (Keiko and Jirou.) Four days in seaside heaven...
This is quite a coincidence. You're filled with nostalgia. Your grandmother lived there and you spent at least two weeks every summer with her until a couple of years ago. You know that island like the back of your hand.
There's so much to think about and organize and Jirou keeps adding more and more things to the list, consulting you even as you walk to world literature.
Garou slouches behind, not too bothered, knowing he'll get his chance soon.
It's not until second period when you slide into your lab bench in biology that everything hits you again.
He's close. So close. You can feel your heart start to beat faster. There's no paperwork or class rep duties to hide behind. You open your book and start to copy down Mrs. Hara's notes from the board, trying your hardest not to look at Garou to your left.
He can see that you're avoiding him out of your own self-consciousness and not due to any negative feelings towards him. He smiles to himself, expected something like this.
You keep writing as you brush a lock of your hair that didn't make it into your ponytail behind your ear with your left hand and rest it on your lap under the bench. It's not there very long before you feel his hand on yours, your fingers interlaced with his. Your pen and your heart stops for a moment. You want him to hold on to your hand indefinitely, clandestine under this grafittied table, but there'll be an experiment to set up very soon.
He says nothing, and neither do you, just enjoying this secret contact until you're forced to part.
He does the same in chemistry and physics. Well, until you finally make him write his notes that is.
He casually hangs around at the end of last period but Tama makes it very clear that she's not leaving your side. You don't know quite what to do until you remember that you're supposed to be meeting up with Shinbo right now. You make your relieved getaway, leaving Tama and Garou in a glaring face-off.