Secrets, Socials, and Seigaku

Chapter 35

            “Oh, Tachibana." I looked at him trying to think of something to say. "Hi?” I asked with a less than confidant tone. 

His eyes only narrowed and I couldn’t help but take a step back. “What do you think you’re doing?” He continued.

I raised my head to answer, but Kamio interrupted. “Actually, we were-.“ Tachibana quickly turned his scolding gaze onto Kamio and he seemed to forget anything that he was going to plea for his defense.

“I’ll tell you what both of you were doing,” He started again. His tone reminded me of a mother telling a child what not to do, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had just broken my mother’s favorite vase.

“You two, both of you, were fighting like children at a tennis tournament.” He said sternly. “You are not children.” Kamio and I both looked down at our shoes not being able to face Tachibana.

“Sorry.” I managed to mutter. I didn’t look up to see whether he approved of my apology or not.

“I’m sorry as well captain! I was acting like a child, and children don’t belong on your tennis team! Please forgive me!” He shouted loudly, while bowing his head as low as he could. I couldn’t help but purse my lips at the fact that he had clearly tried to out do my apology, but left the argument for a time when I was much less likely to get in trouble for it.

I sneaked a peek up to Tachibana and to my surprise found a warm smile on his face as he looked at Kamio. I looked up in awe at the kind captain before me; a smile couldn’t help but slip onto my face as well. Tachibana quickly looked to me, for less than a second, and our eyes connected. “Next time remember your honor and pride in being a Fudomine tennis regular Kamio.” Kamio’s head was still looking to the ground, so he didn’t have the pleasure of knowing that his captain wasn’t extremely upset with him. Kamio stood stiffly and nodded with assurance that anything like this situation would never occur again. I chuckled quietly at how hard Kamio was taking this.

“Now, for you Clair,” An unpleasant shiver ran down my spine and I suddenly felt as if I should not be anywhere near the Fudomine captain, let alone talking to him. I stood up straight with wide eyes and seemed to look like a deer in headlights. “Shouldn’t you be with your team, why are you here?” A giant gasp of air escaped my lungs as I realized I had falsely prepared for a harsh scolding from him. I could feel the stress fly off my shoulders and thanked whatever tennis god had helped me from his lecture.

Kamio was at his captain’s side like a loyal, red-haired dog in less than a second. He spoke quickly and to the point. “That’s what we were arguing about captain, she was using our court.” He managed to slip in a glare without his captain noticing and I wondered where all the talk about not being a child had disappeared too.

“I just wanted to warm up.” I answered plainly. It was awkwardly silent as I watched Kamio look behind me and nod at Shinji. I turned around and barely managed to catch my tennis racket being thrown at me.

“Hey!” I shouted at Shinji once the racket was safely in my grasp.

“Your reflexes have improved since we met.” Tachibana informed me observantly. I wondered why I felt so intimidated right then, but the way he had said that freaked me out a bit, it was different than Inui’s observation where they are clipped and hold some point. He stated this observation like it was something to look forward too for him. I looked back over to him with a raised eyebrow and tried to ebb away the confusion spinning around my mind.

“I still have to play a match, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t have your team kill me before then.” I kept a close eye on Kamio, as his smile seemed to broaden at the thought.