Yours to Hold (An OHSHC fanfic) [Completed]

Chapter Nineteen

If you think about it, things weren’t as bad as they could have been. Afterall, at least the fall hadn’t been bad enough to put me completely out of it. Although I had a good feeling that I might have cut my head open, at the very least I was probably getting a nice sized bump. Either way, Honey must have figured out that I wasn’t going to be able to keep a very quick pace, because he kept it rather slow and simply chattered as we walked. At first it was the usual chatter that didn’t hold much purpose behind it, but at a certain point it changed.

I couldn’t decide if that was a good thing or not.

“Nao-chan?”

“Hm?”

My head had been spinning ever since I’d stood and it was actually pretty hard to continue to focus on his every word. As such, it wasn’t until he called my name that I realized I’d zoned out.

“Oh, sorry Honey,” I added on, a sheepish smile reaching my lips.

“It’s okay Nao-chan,” he replied cheerily. “I don’t mind.”

He paused for a moment as the trail between the trees we’d been walking on split off. After a moment’s thought, we decided to take the path that seemed to go up with the idea that the higher we were the better chance we had of spotting the others.

“I was wondering…” Honey continued when we’d started walking again.

“Yes?”

“Nao-chan, you don’t love kendo, do you?”

I frowned, confused and gave him the only answer I could think of.

“I practice it all the time and participate in as many competitions as I can.”

Honey shook his head, a wry smile appearing on his face.

“I thought you’d say that. That’s not what I mean. You don’t love kendo, do you?”

I stopped walking and gave the question a bit of thought. After a moment I gave up and shrugged.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted.

Honey spun around so that he was facing me directly, his wry smile turning into an amused one. Clasping his hands behind his head, he cocked it to the side and studied me. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized that somewhere between the start of this adventure and when I’d woken up off the side of the river, Honey had lost his tube.

“I looked up Nao-chan from when you used to be in dance,” he began, and I tensed, suddenly deciding that the change in topic was a bad thing. I didn’t need to think about those days- they were gone. “You looked really happy.”

Shaking my head, I started walking again. I stopped, however, when Honey dropped his hands to his hips with a disapproving frown.

“I enjoy kendo,” I grumbled, not looking directly at him.

“But you don’t love it,” Honey argued.

Sighing, I turned my eyes back to his, unable to hold back from reacting to the topic.

“What’s your point? I play kendo now. I’m fine with it. Things change, Honey.”

My voice might have been a bit sharp, but I honestly didn’t even consider apologizing for that matter. If he could have just dropped the conversation, I would have been happy. There was no need to keep dwelling over something that didn’t matter anymore. When I’d moved in with my uncle, I quit. He didn’t approve. It was easier- and we’d made a deal. That’s all there was to it.