Transition And Restart

Over a week had pa.s.sed since that peculiar evening at the café. Urufu was absent the next Friday as well but at least this time Kuri-chan hadn"t left in anger, which made Yukio feel at least a little better.

"We"re growing closer by the day. All six of us are dropping the honorifics from time to time now. Just Kuri-chan (Kuri, Kuritina?) and Kyoko who stick to those between them."

Yukio waved at Noriko as she left for the cafeteria and looked for where they sat. And calling her "Noriko" wasn"t an option. "You made it clear I don"t get to be that friendly with Ryu and leave you on the outside when it comes to dropping the honorifics."

He could see them through the windows, and it should be bright enough for them to see him where he sat under the sails.

Ryu came after her, happily chatting with Kyoko while at the same time trying to juggle with the atrocities he had forced the vending machines to vomit out. He failed, and what looked suspiciously like a sub filled with yakisoba fell to the ground. Suspiciously, because the baker needed to suffer from a hangover to produce that… thing that subst.i.tuted for real bread. Whatever ailments the cook creating what pa.s.sed for yakisoba suffered from, that was something Yukio preferred not knowing.

Ryu picked up his wrapped… could it actually be called lunch? Yukio wasn"t certain. There should have been laws against it.

Kyoko laughed and caught up with Noriko just as she went through the cafeteria doors.

"Kuri and Urufu?" Ryu asked from where he stood wiping dirt from his… food.

Yukio sat down on one of the benches under the great sails. "Prep, just as I told them," he answered after he had opened up his bento. He scowled. "In the best of worlds both of them will even believe I spoke the truth when I said the club members wanted them prepared for our activities."

"In the best of worlds they"re snogging," Kyoko countered. That was a surprisingly blunt and improper statement coming from her but Yukio had seen her trying out a wilder side the last weeks. He liked it. She was more alive this way.

Noriko apparently wasn"t as used to it as Yukio. At least not if he was to guess from the burst of tea that left her mouth.

"I stand corrected," he said. "You can correct me any way you want." "Snogging, making out, kissing, whatever. As long as they spend some time alone, together."

"I don"t know about "whatever"," Kyoko said. "That could be bad." At least she had the decency to blush at that.

"What"s bad about making babies?" Ryu suggested.

"Ryu! Idiot bro!"

"Ryu, really!"

"Man, that"s awful!" Yukio exclaimed just as he realised that all three of them had reacted in the same way. "It"s Urufu we"re speaking about," Yukio needed a way to defuse the situation, "and knowing him they"re probably actually preparing club activities."

Those words seemed to work, but now the s.e.xual innuendo was replaced by a subdued silence of discomfort.

Kyoko was the first one to break it. "No!" she said. "I hate that! Kuri-chan loves him. She needs to feel loved back."

Yukio looked at Kyoko. "You really care that much for your friend." "I"ll sneak a look. I left them by the pool. They had their bags open."

Kyoko groaned but rose from her seat.

The four teenagers left their food by their seats and hugged the left wing wall. Slowly they reached for the corner from where they could see the pool.

"Shush!"

"Don"t push!"

"I can"t see!"

Yukio peered around the corner. He could see Urufu and Kuri. They were snogging. And then some.

All four of them quickly withdrew their heads and looked at each other. Yukio watched three fl.u.s.tered faces and guessed he presented a fourth.

"I think we can take our lunch to the main school yard," he said.

"And tell our members that the president and vice president are currently otherwise occupied," Ryu filled in.

"With the last, ah, touches to their preparation of our activities," Noriko snorted pointedly.

"And snogging," Kyoko finished.

"Kyoko! Idiot girl!"

"Kyoko, really!"

"Man, that"s awful!" Yukio laughed, not giving a d.a.m.n that Kyoko very much wasn"t a man at all.