Special Property (BxB)

Chapter 10. End of the Longest Day

Sportsweek (or, Sports Week) is such a joyous time throughout St. Catherine's. It's fair to say that it even rivals Christmas Week as the children's favorite time. It happens but once a year and begins on the first Monday of July and ends on the following Sunday. All students are encouraged to participate and compete in the sports they practiced at all year. The winners are lauded as kings by both staff and students for Afterweek—the one-week period of celebrations immediately following Sportsweek. Even the students who don't win are showered with praise for cooperation and growth and are given many little prizes.

We provide for all our student's needs, but we realize that many students do not have outside resources or family that could provide some of life's wants, such as: toys, games, books for leisure reading, personal clothing (or, street clothing as its commonly called here) and the like. We have set up Sportsweek as an avenue to fulfill many of the students wants, and only through your generous donations and support of Sportsweek has this been achievable each year.

Many children would like to express themselves on Volunteer and Donor Appreciation Night, which is held on the last Sunday of Afterweek. We will have yet more handmade gifts from the students and awards to present to our most generous volunteers and donors here at St. Catherine's.

Please RSVP by June 1st so that we can adequately prepare for our guests. Thank you, and we look forward to the continued cooperation with our community to make Sportsweek a success.

—Volunteer and Donor Appreciation Letter, Sister Francine, Programs Coordinator, St. Catherine's Boarding School.

As Kato entered the room, Tachibana, who was lying on his bunk, looked up from the book he was reading and asked, "So, how'd it go?"

Kato wasn't quite sure what to say, but the first thing that came out was, "He didn't rape me."

Tachibana chuckled and replied, "Disappointed?"

Kato shook his head, and almost immediately blurted out, "No."

Tachibana smirked. "So, he's already training you, is he? Stopped your head from rattling around. Good."

"Training?" Kato weakly asked.

Tachibana smiled, "Yeah, but he sure hasn't been able to do anything about the dumb questions."

Kato just stood there stupidly.

"It's what all we semes do to our ukes. We train them. We try to help them become better people."

Kato thought that this was a load of bullshit. But, said nothing.

Tachibana continued, "He will train you to be his uke. It's part of the process. What his training will entail, I don't know, but from what I just saw, I'm sure it will be effective."

Kato felt like he really could stand no longer so he sat in a chair and looked to the floor with his heads in his hands. A couple of tears worked their way through his fingers and dropped on the floor.

"Kato-san. Come on, don't cry again. You'll be fine," Tachibana tried to speak consolingly. It sure didn't prove to be very effective when he followed it with "And I missed out on game night because of this shit."

Kato looked up at Tachibana and really couldn't believe how bad he was at consoling people.

"Yeah, we were supposed to have game night tonight but that all got thrown out the window by Takahashi-san. He wanted to meet you, and you alone, in the game room. So, all the semes agreed to put game night off until tomorrow and the ukes agreed to skip their turn at game night so you could meet him."

Kato felt a little bit bad for being the root cause of so much trouble, but he really didn't know what he could do about it.

"I know Takahashi-san can seem a little rough, but I didn't mean what I said about him being the kind of seme to use force. I only saw him do it once and most of us semes felt it was warranted." Then Tachibana quickly added, "I meant physical force to beat someone up, not rape. He just wanted me to say that if you asked to see how you react. He was trying to feel you out."

Kato had already stopped crying at this point. He didn't honestly know what Tachibana was trying to do, cheer him up or make him feel more depressed.

"Anyway, I need to finish reading this book for a project I have with my uke. I don't have any more time to spend on someone else's. I suggest you try to get some rest. The errand boy was here while you were gone and left you a bunch of blankets and a pillow, by the way."

Kato replied, "Thank you." He made up his bed and climbed up top. Tachibana went over to the light switch by the door and shut it off, leaving only the light from his desk lamp to illuminate the room, probably sufficient enough for him to keep reading.

Kato had a lot to think about, and he really did try to assess the situation he was in but, alas, that would have to wait for another time. He fell fast asleep.