Painted With Roses (Oreki x Chitanda)

Chapter 12 - Relationship Curiosity

[A/N: DAMMIT! GUYS, PEOPLE WHO ARE HYOUKA EXPERTS PLEASE ANSWER THIS QUESTION: IS MAYAKA CALLED MAYA-CHAN OR MAYAKA BY ERU? I'M SORRY I KINDA FORGOT SOME STUFF ON HYOUKA SO... PLEASE ANSWER THIS IF YOU'RE CERTAIN OF THE ANSWER! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Right now I'm gonna stick with Eru calling Mayaka "Maya-chan" and Satoshi calling Mayaka "Mayaka" so I hope you're fine with it (I just rewatched episode 2 of Hyouka and found out that Satoshi calls her Mayaka) :P]

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"Houtarou," Fukube said as he stuffed his notebooks into his bag, "I might be quite late today since there's gonna be a meeting in the Handicrafts club. Gomen!"

Oreki nodded an 'okay' and stood up, his bag over his shoulder as he walked out of the classroom. Fukube smiled a bit as he exited the room as well, heading towards a different direction.

Oreki headed up the stairs and dragged the Classics club's door as he arrived, revealing Chitanda in the room who was reading a huge pile of books scattered around the table. She looked at him, rejoicing. "Oreki-san! Perfect timing! Can you help me understand this?" she asked, pointing at arich-vocabulary paragraph forcefully. 

He walked to the table and sat, his hand reached out politely, asking for the book. He was too lazy to look at it together. Chitanda gave him the book as asked, her face filled with enthusiastic energy. He read it and plopped the book on the table afterwards. 

"Chitanda, why are you reading stuff about relationships? It's not even related to our club." he asked, one of his eyebrows raised a bit. 

Her face was still filled with absolute curiousness. "I could feel the aura in the field trip at that time-"

"Chitanda."

"Yes?" she replied enthusiastically. 

"The field trip ended a week ago."

"Yes, I'm aware of that!"

"So why are you still curious about... these stuff?"

"Well," she began, "I'd like to know the feeling when you are in a relationship! And I'm just curi-"

"Just?" Oreki reassured, his eyes looking at her. "You're just curious?"

"Yes!"

"I'm not helping you with this." 

She stood up, slapping her hands together with a clap! and begged, "Please Oreki-san!" She banged the table, her eyes opened wide as she leaned in. "I'm extremely curious about this topic!"

"Definitely a no."

"But I'm curious, Oreki-san! About this topic and about why you disagree with this!" she half-shouted mildly, walking around the table to him. 

He shot her an unobtrusive glare, taking out his book from his bag, reading it so that he could avoid reading a long paragraph about relationships. He then noticed at the corner of his right eye that Chitanda was suddenly so close to him that he jerked and nearly fell onto the ground. 

"Gomenasai, Oreki-san! I didn't mean to scare you!" she said, backing away.

As he maintained his balance back, he sighed, giving her another glare. He obviously lost, and so he decided to help her before her curiousness starts to spill all over the place. "Fine," he murmured, closing his eyes, "I'll help you."

She rejoiced, moving back to her seat, sitting properly like a proper lady. She flipped the pages from some other books and gave them to him as she, herself, read other books with the same topic. Unexpectedly, there was a figure coming into the room, short-haired, and its eyes darted at the messy table. "I was late, sorry! And what in the world happened!?"

Chitanda looked at the figure, clapping her hands once, running immediately towards it. "Maya-chan, come look!" 

Ibara walked over to the table and glanced at all of the books. She giggled all of the sudden, then glared at Oreki. "Why is he here?" she asked, pointing at him.

"He's helping me so that I can fully understand about the feeling between love relationships!" Chitanda exclaimed, smiling a determined smile. 

"I'll take my leave if you don't want me here." he said, taking his bag as he stood up, walking towards the door. 

Immediately, he felt a strong pull on his arm. He could tell that it was Chitanda. "You can't leave, Oreki-san! We must look at this properly!"

He stayed silent and looked at her, then Ibara afterwards. With a sigh, he returned to his seat, glaring at the short-haired girl. Suddenly, there was a loud noise that jumped both of the girls. Oreki stared at it with no interest, knowing that it was Fukube. "Satoshi, what are you doing?"

The door slid open and there stood Fukube, wearing a colorful, huge costume, and a pair of sunglasses to look cooler. "How do I look?" he inquired, making a pose just for fun.

There was silence in the room and Ibara broke it. She giggled, and he joined in by laughing aloud. He stepped towards the table and saw all the books and magazine that spread everywhere.  "Love relationships? What's this all about? Surprised that Houtarou is a part of this."

"Ahem." Oreki cleared his throat, giving a sign to his friend to shut it. Fukube grinned at him, looking back at the girls soon enough. 

"Fukube-san, Maya-chan, do you know anything about these?" Chitanda asked curiously. 

"The feeling? Well, you need to ask someone who's experienced, Chitanda-san," Fukube said, his lips forming into a grin as he adjusted his sunglasses up. 

Ibara nodded slowly, flushing. "Y-Yeah..."

"Ah, I see! Thank you very much! I'll ask some people who are experienced tomorrow..!" Chitanda replied, starting to feel a bit weak. She sat on her chair again, and Oreki noticed her nose reddening. 

"Oi, Chitanda, if you're sick you can go to the school's infirmary." Oreki said, pointing towards the exit of the club's room. 

"Eh, Chii-chan!? You're sick!? Are you okay?" Ibara ran to her, placing her hand on her forehead warily and carefully. "Chii-chan, you have a high fever! You need to go and rest in the infirmary! For once, Oreki's right!"

He stayed silent and Fukube laughed a bit. "Aren't you always right, Houtarou?" he whispered to his friend. 

"Possibly."

"You should go and take Chitanda-san to the nurse. She needs you."

"Not necessarily. Ibara can do it for me. It's a waste of energy walking here and there."

"C'mon, for once!" Fukube winked at him, and was answered with a glare. "No," Oreki said simply. He added, "I've done this once before."

His friend looked at him. "Oh! Her ankle, wasn't it?"

Oreki nodded. The boys and Ibara saw Chitanda struggling and forcing herself, trying to ignore the headache spinning around her head.

"I-It's okay, Maya-chan... I'm healthy..." Chitanda was wobbling by now; she felt so weak that she almost didn't had the energy to speak. 

"Chitanda. Go to the nurse. If you keep on forcing yourself, you'll only get worse," Oreki uttered abruptly. 

Fukube nodded in agreement. "That's right, Chitanda-san. If I were you, I'll go immediately. So it'll be best to not endure it and get it treated right away." He looked at Ibara. "Right, Mayaka?"

She nodded. "Let's go, Chii-chan!"

Ignoring the others, she staggered herself towards the magazine in front of Oreki, and before she could even look at it, she accidentally fell onto Oreki, her head on his lap, unconscious. 

You've gotta be kidding me.

[A/N: Uh, thanks for reading. Sorry for the lack of creativity and the long-awaited update. I don't have other words to say. Okay then. Sayounara :P]