Unyielding Resolve - Cecilia Alcott x OC

Chapter 19 - Secrets

Bold: Time/Location
Italic: Character Thoughts/Internal Monologue
Underline: Author's Note(s)

IS Academy - Ichika's POV

Charles and I had just narrowly managed to escape the horde of girls that were obsessing over me and James, as they usually did. James would just use his IS to cloak and bypass the crowds entirely leaving me to run for myself, but unfortunately for Charles, he didn't have such luck. While I was dragging him by the hand through the halls, I wondered why he seemed so anxious. At first Charles was confused why we needed to be in such a hurry, but when the girls started amassing and I explained it to him, he seemed to understand. I eventually let go of his hand when he realized he needed to keep up the pace.

We had finally made it to the locker, panting heavily in exhaustion from having to run so fast. If using an IS wasn't a workout, this certainly was. "I think we managed to lose them somehow." I said. "I'm sorry, I've already gotten you into trouble!" the new French boy apologized between breaths while he bent over with his hands on his knees. "No problem. I mean, you're my savior. It's tough to be one of the only guys in the entire school." I replied, reassuring him that what happened was a regular occurrence. "No, really?" he asked, but I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or were just genuinely terrified. I turned to him and smiled as I replied "Yeah, so I owe you one." followed by a chuckle. "My name's Ichika Orimura, but just call me Ichika." I introduced myself. Charles straightened up after finally catching his breath and replied with a smile "It's nice to meet you Ichika. You may call me Charles if you like. Are you friends with the other male IS pilot?" That was a good question, and one I really didn't know the answer to.

James and I had kind of gotten off to a rocky start, but after he apologized, it seemed like he started to not absolutely hate talking to me. Thinking about it for a moment, I truthfully answered "You mean James? I don't know if I'd call us friends, he kind of hated me at first. Some stuff happened after our first week or two here at the academy, and eventually he started to relax a bit. He actually agreed to spar with me at some point the day before yesterday, but I had to turn him down because I was going to hang out with some friends when we had some time off yesterday." Charles looked at me curiously and asked "Is he someone you'd describe as mean or scary?" I placed a hand on my chin as I thought about it, remembering the first match we had with Cecilia and then when he demolished that unmanned IS the day before yesterday. "I wouldn't say that, but he's definitely a little...intense at times. At first he was really cold and distant from all of us, but he isn't like that now. Nobody really knows much about him except for maybe Chifuyu or Cecilia. Cecilia seems to want to know a lot about James, and I usually see them spending time together now and then." I answered.

The blond haired boy looked at me with intrigue after I finished speaking. Before he could say anything, I panicked as I saw the time we had to get to class was running very short. "Oh man! Look at the time! We've got a long run so hurry up and get changed!" I nearly yelled as I began to undress. Soon after I took my shirt off, I heard Charles yell out in fear, placing his hands on his face as he quickly turned around to face away from me. "Come on. You'll be late if you don't get changed fast. And our teacher happens to be very insistent on punctuality." I told him in confusion, after I had stopped changing to try and help. I really didn't see what the big deal was.

Charles seemed very flustered for reasons I didn't know. "I'm going to change now, but would you mind looking the other way, s'il vous plaît?" he responded, still hiding his face from me. "I wasn't going to stare at you while you were changing, but whatever." I kindly obliged him, wondering why he was so insistent that I not look, not that I wanted to. I turned to my locker to place some of my clothes inside, and after a few seconds of silence, I quickly turned to him and added "Just hurry it up, okay?" When I looked at him, I let out a gasp of astonishment that he had managed to change so quickly. "Uuuuhh is something wrong?" he nervously asked me while tugging the top of his jumpsuit toward his stomach. "It's just that you changed incredibly fast, do you have some secret trick to that or something?" I replied with wide eyes in disbelief. "Ooh not really!...I don't...!" he answered, followed by an anxious laugh. "Ah that's a shame cause these things are a pain to put on. Since you can't wear any underwear beneath them, my things are always getting caught." I replied, implying that things were a little difficult in the private parts area.