Yours to Hold (An OHSHC fanfic) [Completed]

Chapter Twenty-Four

A/N: So, that song over there on the side? Ignore the video itself, this was just the best translation I could find for the song. It's such a pretty song... Anyways, it's the one that's played during the chapter.

“Nao-chan~”

I almost hit ‘end’ on my phone to at least get his voice to stop being so cheery this early in the morning. Sitting up, I blearily stared at my alarm clock for a moment.

Who gets up at seven on the weekend?

When I’d come home from school yesterday, I’d ended up having to practice with uncle most of the day, despite my hand and my schoolwork. He’d recently decided that I should increase practice with my non-dominant hand even though kendo happened to be a two-handed sport. Somehow he’d gotten it into his mind that, that was the solution to my not being able to perform for the board until my wrist was checked on in a month from now. Apparently it would keep my skills “sharp”. This idea of his had been the theme of my entire week after the beach trip.

By the time I’d gotten to my room that evening, I was so tired that I didn’t even bother to snap at Ren for his “goodnight Nao-kun”.

Needless to say, I was tired. That, combined with the fact that I’m not a morning person, made this a horrible time to be awake.

“Nao-chan, I just wanted to say that I won’t be coming to Takashi’s house today~” He continued.

What?

“It’ll just be you guys~ Have fun!”

“Wait, Honey…”

“Bye!”

“Honey!”

My protest was met with dead silence and a quick glance at the screen told me that he had actually hung up on me.

Wait, this meant that Mori and I were going to be alone.

Dropping my phone, I let my head collide with my pillow. Why wasn’t Honey coming? It wasn’t fair, making me be alone with Mori after everything that had been going on recently, not that he could know about any of it.

Damn.

Time passed with me still laying there, unable to to will myself to get up. I didn’t want to. That would mean adjusting to the idea of getting dressed and going to Mori’s. By the time I finally did get up, over an hour had passed. I was in no better a mood than before and found myself glaring at the window.

I planned on walking, yet the sky looked like rain.

Stubborn to the point of insanity, I decided to continue as I’d planned. At least I was smart enough, however, to stuff my exercise clothes in my school bag instead of putting them on. Instead I found a simple blouse and jeans ensemble to put on, that way if I did get soaked I would at least have something to change into. It took me at least ten minutes after that to locate my rain jacket and put it on.

And pour it did. I hadn’t even made it two blocks before I ended up tugging the hood of my jacket up to attempt and keep my hair as dry as I could. When that didn’t help much, I ducked into an alley between two buildings so that I could adjust it. That happened to be the moment when I heard it.

A soft, whimper-like whine.

My first thought was that I should walk away. There was no way that I was getting involved with some stray animal that had been caught in the storm. Even knowing that, I ended up feeling as if my feet had been glued to that spot.

When I turned, my eyes were met with the sight of a drenched, shivering puppy pressing itself up against the side of the building. It couldn’t have been very old from how big it was and had red fur that was so matted and dirty that I couldn’t have begun to guess it’s breed.