12 Roses

25 | Sword Lilies Grow Best in the Sun

Maki was used to protecting people. You saw it where her face seemed used to creasing, in the way she held herself up, like a wall around a city.

You didn't think you would see the cracks in her knuckles after she rearranged someone's face for a reason she wouldn't tell you.

"Why can't you tell me?" you questioned before picking up a cotton pad and dousing it in disinfectant.

Maki sighed irritably, her eyes rolling as if you were inconveniencing her.

The end of lunch bell chimed and Maki tried to move from her seat on the metal bleachers, but you didn't carry 8 gallon flower pots for half your life to get dragged away by an injured person.

You held her by the wrist and gently wiped away the blood from her knuckles. If it were her choice, you likely wouldn't have known about her bloodied hands at all, but it was you who had found her beating someone's face in outside of the girl's washroom.

It only took you to physically hold her back, but it took three teachers to stop her from shouting profanities at the barely conscious boy on the floor.

You wrapped a gauze around her hand and looked up at her, meeting her golden eyes. "You really won't tell me why you were beating that guy up?"

Maki shook her head.

"What did you tell the teachers to make them not suspend you right there and then?"

She continued to stare at you silently and unmoving.

You sighed and stood and she almost followed until you moved to the bleacher behind her and took out her hair tie. Her dark hair fell down her back and you began combing through the strands with your fingers.

She let out a breath and closed her eyes, leaning back against your knees. It was clear to you that Maki didn't really have girl friends — just Toge and Panda.

You imagined all the times you combed through Tsumiki's hair on the days when her mother took especially long to get home — sometimes it took multiple days and the two of you would share your small bedroom. All the times you did Nanako's hair when she was crying over a guy that thought she was pretty and nothing else. All the times when you'd run your nails against Mimiko's scalp when people at school teased her.

It was nice to know the wordless conversation you could have with girls.

Maki rubbed her thumb against the gauze wrapped around her hand. You tilted your head; a wordless question.

"...You know that window that shows the inside of the washroom?"

You nodded.

"He was there, staring through it. He was on a call with one of his friends I think and he was talking about some 'hot chick in the washroom' or something. He said that he could say whatever the hell he wanted and she wouldn't even know and he started shouting... awful things at the window. I knew it was you. Everyone knows that if you shout as loud as he was, you'd be heard through the window, so I knew that it had to be you."

Maki paused and gritted her teeth, her words no longer catching up with the movement of her hands.

"God, I wanted to kill him."

You stared at her for a moment before smiling. "You're so sweet, Maki."

Her brows raised. "What do you mean?"

"I remember when Yuta was being bullied and your first instinct was to go and help him. You didn't even know him. And you protected me and refused to take credit for it. You're a lot kinder than you give yourself credit for, you know?"