A Firefly's Glow

Chapter Seventeen: Part One

“Hanabusa-sama?” a hurried voice sounded. What followed after was a round of rapid knocking.

My eyes immediately opened and the first thing I saw was the tall ceiling above me.

The knocking continued.

“Hanabusa-sama! It is time for school!”

I recognized the rushing voice as Megane. My lips anxiously pursed together. I whipped my gaze from shoulder to shoulder in search for Keita.

“Hanabusa-sama!”

I quickly reacted with my best monotone. “I’m awake. I will be outside in a few minutes.” I nervously bit my bottom lip.

“Do you have a sore throat, sir?”

This told me everything I needed to know about how terrible my impression of Keita was.

“Y-Yes, Megane! In fact, if I keep talking, I’ll lose my voice forever! Please do not make me speak!”

“Yes, sir!” Megane’s voice seemed to stiffen in obedience. “I will wait downstairs for your breakfast.” And a series of fainting footsteps followed.

I grunted in slight relief as I craned my head over the side of the bed. The dim sunlight bled through the curtains of the windows so I could see just the dimmest of the silhouettes that surrounded me.

I slowly crawled off the bed and kneeled on the soft covers that sat over the carpet. “Keita?”

No response.

I outstretched my hands, searching through the darkness. “Keita? Keita, wake up!”

When I felt my hand rest on something made of fabric that differed from the covers on the floor, I tugged on it.

“Keita?” I continued to tug on the fabric. “Keita! Keita! Keita, get up!” I was sure that I was yanking the fabric hard enough for Keita to shake back and forth, possibly enough to wake up.

But instead of calmly sitting up, I felt a hand swing across my face. I let out a high, ear-piercing shriek.

“I am so going to get you back for that!”

I felt something tug against my sleeves. A dim, drowsy voice murmured with mild frustration. “How do you turn this alarm clock off?”

“I’m no alarm clock!” I let out a loud screech. “Hurry and get up!”

The hands that tugged on my sleeves pulled me forward. I found myself collapsing into something firm.

“Gah!” I began to squirm in place, attempting to pry off his grasp from my sleeves. “Keita, let me go! We’re going to be late!” I found his fingers and began to dig at them with mine. “Let go! Leggo!”

“Shh.”

I froze, pausing my shifting and squirming. I didn’t notice before how it was possible that Keita’s mouth was just inches from my ear. His whisper was loud and clear.

“Be quiet,” he murmured, and I felt his hands release my sleeves. “Go back to sleep.”

“But we’ll be late for school—“

“I don’t care.”

I noticed the faint breathing and the warmth that pressed against my cheek. I knew that my head was lying against his chest.

I peculiar feeling ran through my stomach. I felt my cheeks redden. I immediately sat back up, running my hands up his chest until my fingers curled around his shoulders.

I yanked them upwards, shaking them back and forth. “You do care! Don’t you care about your education?! Do you not want to learn?! Do you want to be stupid?!”

“Hey! You’re hurting—“

“I know! Endure the pain you get as punishment for saying you don’t care about school!”

I felt hands grip onto the edges of my face, and within the next second, my cheeks were being squashed together.

“Ow!” My shriek emanated as a muffle. I knew my face was being molded into a fish face.

“I’m going to hold your face like this so that it becomes your permanent face.” Keita’s calm voice whispered. “Your face with stay like this forever and ever and ever—“

I ran my fingers up his neck until my hands were against his cheeks. I immediately mimicked what he did to my face.

“Ow.” Was what was murmured monotonously in response.

“How you do like it, huh?!” my voice remained muffled. “Now your face will stick like this forever!”

I wished it was light enough to be able to see Keita’s face, but I only saw his silhouette. It would have been extremely amusing to see such an emotionless person like Keita with a fish face.

“Let go of my face.”

“Never!” I retorted, narrowing my eyes. “This is karma!”

But I as spoke, I noticed that my voice wasn’t muffled anymore. My face no longer felt squished, but his fingers were still tightly covering my face.

I froze. Perhaps he was still squishing my face. I didn’t trust his bluff of releasing me so I could be tempted to release him.

But his hands felt just as warm as they were in the car the night before.

They felt just as warm as Amanatsu’s hands.

I was so focused on how warm Keita’s hands felt against my face that I didn’t notice the lights had flipped on.

I heard a mild cough and I swung my head over my shoulders.

A figure stood before us with her mouth hanging open. Her dark, black hair was tied in a ponytail. A frilly maid outfit sat over her shoulders.

It’s the evil maid! Was the silent thought that immediately ran through my mind. I automatically froze in place, glancing at the maid for a response to what I knew she was seeing.

“Breakfast is ready,” her voice sounded somewhat wobbly. “I wondered if something was wrong, so I came inside.”

I slowly turned my head back towards Keita. His hands were still over my cheeks, and my hands were still over his. But when I caught a glimpse of his face, it took all the self control inside of me not to laugh.

Keita looked extremely peculiar with his face squished together the way it was. His eyes bent into a glare and his lips hardly moved when he enunciated, “Let—go—of—my—face.”

I immediately obeyed him, yanking my hands away. He released my face as soon as I released his.

He hurried onto his feet. “Thank you for the notification.”

The maid stiffly nodded, her eyes still wide.

Keita peered back at me with his arm outstretched. “Hurry, or we’ll be late for school.”

I would have shrieked at him for telling me to hurry when he had stated that he didn’t care about school. But instead, I reached up towards him and grasped onto his sleeve.

He yanked his arm, shoving me onto my feet. As soon as I was able to stand up, he whipped his arm out of my grip.

The first thing I did next was turn towards the evil maid. I abruptly lowered the upper half of my body forward into a bow.

Once I lifted my head, I turned towards Keita and followed him out the doors.