(Wind Breaker) The Green Rose's Thorns

Part 15

The next day, Aoi managed to get to school before the other first years who fought Shishitoren. He was bombarded with questions, so much that his still half-asleep brain completely short circuited.

"Oh, the others're here!," one of the rowdier boys noticed the trio that just entered and redirected everyone's attention there. Suo successfully deflected most attention to Nirei for explaining what happened, leaving him and Sakura free to take the seats next to Aoi.

"Didn't sleep well?," Suo asked as Aoi yawned for a third time since arriving at school. The dark circles under his eyes were more than enough to answer that question, but he asked anyway. Aoi just shrugged, leaning over the back of the chair he was sitting on and resting his chin on his arms there. As he did so, another of their classmates approached the group. The one person who was able to get on Suo's nerves without even trying, and who made Aoi glad for his small stature just then. He dove straight into his usual, and Aoi tuned the conversation out for the most part to try and catch a few minutes of sleep.

"Hey, let's go to Muscle Power after school!"

"Pass."

"Busy."

"I'd rather not."

Aoi tuned back in just as everyone else found an excuse to check out, a pretty strong rejection to the loudmouth of the class. He was startled as a hand slammed down on his small shoulder, and a voice exploded in his ear.

"We've got those three, so you'll come too yeah? A small fry like you needs to get all the protein you can!"

"Tsugeura," Nirei tried to stop what was obviously coming, but failed to do so. Suo made no attempt to stop Aoi this time, just watching as the smaller boy's hand shakily rose up to grab the big mitt on his shoulder. In one instant a flurry of things happened. The chair Aoi was in crashed to the floor, Aoi spinning around and pulling Tsugeura's face down to his level just to ram his fist right into it from below. He knocked the much larger boy flat, standing tall in front of him and glaring down with an intense level of hate. Tsugeura sprang back up almost immediately, seeming unfazed much to the disappointment of at least two of the four in his immediate vicinity.

"Wow! So, we're goin' after school right?," Tsugeura jumped right back into his pushy invitation.

"I have work," Aoi answered flatly.

"No you don't," Suo, forced into the engagement already, took some of that frustration out by crushing Aoi's alibi.

"Why d'you know that," Aoi just gave him a tired leer and gave up. He spent the rest of the morning trying to get some shut-eye, failing to do so before the afternoon patrol. Finally, the school day was over and they could get their lunch date with Tsugeura out of the way. The restaurant had tables meant to seat four, so Aoi pulled another chair over from a separate table and sat at the end of the small table, leaning over the back of the chair again.

"You gonna order?," Tsugeura just refused to give him a break,

"They got coffee?," Aoi asked, knowing the answer was likely to be no, and he was right. Suo ordered water for him, and made sure to participate in the conversation just enough so that Aoi could have some peace. Before they could finish deciding their food order, another classmate entered the near-empty restaurant with a girl. They were holding hands, which got Sakura's face flared up again. The boy had dyed hair, and acknowledged Aoi with a little wave before turning around to sit at the opposite end of the room. Aoi waved lazily back, recognizing the voice even in his near-asleep state.

"Wait, you know Kiryu?," Nirei, notebook in hand, started to pester Aoi now.

"Sorta," Aoi answered without opening his eyes, pointing to his left ear where there were a number of piercings.

"You go to the same place for your piercings?," Nirei scribbled something down as he asked, stopping as a question popped into his head.

"Wait, I thought you didn't like people touching you?," Sakura voiced the question Nirei had, going straight for the contradiction.

"Well I'm not gonna do that myself," Aoi mumbled in response. A few more questions were thrown his way, but he didn't respond. Attention shifted back to the subject of Kiryu, Sakura curious about him. Tsugeura called out to him, got heartily rejected, then moved over to bother Kiryu at his table. There was some commotion outside that drew everyone's attention, minus one who had dozed off already.

Outside, things were heating up fast as an all out brawl broke out. Inside, Aoi woke up to see a mildly irritated shop owner staring daggers at the two tables with drinks, now void of the customers meant to pay for them. He sighed, stood up with a stretch, and settled the score there before stepping outside.

"Oh, guess it's almost over?," Aoi joined Nirei and the girl as Suo took care of a stray thug. He nodded at the girl to acknowledge her, feeling her eyes on him for a while now. Another yawn pushed its way out, earning more than one confused glance. Rather than acknowledge that, Aoi tugged at Nirei's sleeve and pointed to the notebook. Nirei surrendered it, and the pen, and watched as Aoi wrote something down and tore out one of the pages. He handed the notebook and pen back over, and folded the paper over as he handed it to the girl.

"Huh?," she took it, but wasn't quite following. As the fight wrapped up, Aoi stepped out to check the boys for any injuries. Tsugeura was the only one with any real injuries, and they weren't really too bad. The band of thugs ran off, the girl thanking them all before heading off. She kept stealing glances back at one person in particular as she walked, and Aoi groaned feeling the incoming commentary on that.

"Looks like you gained another admirer," Kiryu teased once she was out of earshot. He was facing Aoi, but his eyes cut to his right where Suo was trying to get away from another one-sided conversation instigated by Tsugeura.

"Another?," Sakura overheard it but missed the subtle implication. Aoi didn't, and Kiryu knew that, so he switched to getting the others' contact information.

"Apparently Aoi's pretty popular with girls, too," Nirei chimed in with something he had overheard from somewhere, while Suo shot a glance at Aoi's thoroughly exhausted face with a slightly questioning look. Tsugeura attempted to continue where they left off inside, but Suo dismissed himself and Aoi with the excuse that it was late and Aoi was clearly tired. Kiryu had disappeared almost immediately after getting contact details and teasing Sakura, so Tsugeura begrudgingly relented for the day.