Let's Start Over... Aoi X Umeji

- Safe -

We stopped by the Pharmacy in Shisuta town before heading home, so I could pick up my meds. After around 5 minutes, we pulled back into the driveway of my house. I hopped off the Motorbike, taking my helmet off, resting it on my seat. Umeji followed suit, placing his helmet behind mine. I went to get the boxes off of the back, but as I did, I felt Umeji's hand grab my arm. I looked over at him, only to see worry on his face. I felt my face a little, before looking back at my hand, which was now partially stained red. In all the panic of leaving, I forgot my nose had been bleeding.

                 "Don't worry about it." I muttered, looking downwards. I wiped my nose with my forearm, getting a bit of blood on my jacket. "I've dealt with worse; it's not exactly like this will kill me."

                    "But he could've." He sighed a little, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Aoi, for all you know, he could've had a weapon; Hell knows he has a lot of those. Do you have any idea how dangerous that guy is?"

                        I crossed my arms, still not meeting his eyes. "C'mon, 'Mej, I told you it's fine. The guy barely touched me." I looked in the side mirror of the Motorbike, making sure I got most of the blood off my face. "Besides, you knew the way back to my place; worse comes to worst, you could've called Osoro or something."

                    "And what exactly would I have done if something had happened to you, huh?" He stepped a bit closer to me, his voice a bit louder than before. "Aoi, you could've DIED in there! Do you know how fucking scary that is to even THINK about?!"

                    I flinched a little, falling silent. I hadn't really thought about what could happen to me while I was in there; either that, or it just didn't register. I'm usually more vigilant than that. What's more, Umeji was worried about me. Just the thought of that was somehow able to make my face heat up again.

               I was pulled from my thoughts when I felt someone gently grab my chin, angling my face upwards. Umeji peered down at me, squinting his eyes a little, looking me over. "Aoi. Are you one hundred percent sure you're okay?" He tilted his head a little. "He didn't do anything else except hit you in the nose, right?"

            I could feel my face heat up once more, and I stepped back a little, fishing my house key from my pocket. "Jeez, 'Mej, how many times do I have to tell you that I'm fine?" I sighed a little, rubbing my nose a little; it still stung a bit. "I just need an ice pack and I'll be perfectly okay."

            I walked up to the door, unlocking it, opening the door. I undid the bungee cords on the bike, grabbing one of the boxes. Before I could get to the door, however, Umeji grabbed the box from me. I looked over at him as he proceeded to pick up the other box, stacking one on top of the other.

           "You've done enough for me for tonight." He gave me a little smile, shrugging a bit. "I'll take care of this." I was about to argue, but it was ultimately one less thing I had to worry about; I was already exhausted enough.

            We went inside, hanging our jackets up on the coat rack I almost never used, and leaving our shoes on the mat by the door. I opened the door to the room next to my bedroom; it'd always been "The Guest Room", since my Aunt always said I should have friends over more often while she was stationed in other countries. I mean, technically, I was just doing what she said to.

             "Alright," I said, gesturing to the room, "This is your room; you can decorate it however you want. My room is two doors down, and the bathroom is next door." I stopped to yawn a little, rubbing my eye. "We have a day off from school tomorrow, so we can worry about officially moving in tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm gonna put on "Sharknado" and make some popcorn; you in?"

             I could see Umeji's eyes brighten a little, before he nodded. "Oh, yeah, I've never seen that one..!" He pointed to the couch, smiling a little. "You go find the movie and get some blankets; I'll make the popcorn."

           I cocked an eyebrow, smirking a bit. "You're giving me the easy job, 'Mej, but okay. Popcorn bags are in the top cabinet above the microwave."

           I walked over to the couch, grabbing a few blankets from nearby. I set up the blankets around the couch, before sitting down, turning on the TV, looking through the lists of movies. I finally found "Sharknado", as I heard the beep of the Microwave going off.

           A few seconds later, Umeji came over with a bowl of slightly burned popcorn. I scooted over a little, making sure there was enough room beneath the blankets. He sat the bowl down on the coffee table, sitting down next to me. I hit "play" on the movie, eating a bit of popcorn.

          A few minutes into the movie, the exhaustion of the day started catching up to me. I payed less attention to the movie, and more attention to keeping myself awake. I pinched myself a couple of times, attempting to mind-over-matter myself into forgetting that the human body needs sleep to function. After around twenty minutes of this, I felt Umeji shift a little, as he scooted a bit closer to me.

           "Aoi, if you're tired, you can just sleep." Umeji whispered, just loud enough so I could hear him, "You're obviously exhausted."

               I sat up a little, resisting the urge to pass out. "Nah, it's fine..." I attempted to reassure him, smiling a bit. "It wouldn't be fair if I fell asleep during a movie I picked."

               I was about to continue, but I felt an arm wrap around me, pulling in to lean on Umeji's shoulder. "I already told you, it's fine." He looked down at me, smiling a little. "Get some sleep, okay?"

             I would've argued, but something about this whole situation seemed too good to pass up. After a few seconds, I finally rested my head on his shoulder, closing my eye. A little voice in the very back of my mind was telling me that this wasn't a thing normal friends did. However, while that was a compelling argument, I ultimately decided that I could deal with it in the morning.

A/N : Hey, all, thanks for reading! In all honesty, I was really excited to post this one; I had it finished and saved as a draft, like, a day after I posted the last one! Still, I'm staying true to the writing schedule. Let me know what you think!

- Ky