The Ultimate Stride | Prince of Stride Fanfiction |

7 | Bathroom Trips

    She had a bad habit of over exerting herself whenever something really important was coming up, and I was fully aware of this problem.

    I waltzed over to Nana and snaked my arms around her shoulders from behind, trapping her in my embrace. I always had the tendency to hug people whenever they looked tired or upset, so hugs were considered a very casual and comforting thing in my book.

    "It's okay Nana, it's not like I say anything important whenever I speak in English. I just like insulting people without them knowing," I informed her with an innocent look as I played with the ends of her ponytail, speaking truthfully.

    "You're so funny, Kyouko," Nana laughed as she turned around to properly return my hug, me fully accepting it.

    "I'm not funny. I'm just mean and people think I'm joking most of the time," I told her as I pulled away from our hug, poking her nose affectionately shortly afterwards.

    "I think Kyouko has a dark side that most people don't know about," Ayumu observed, receiving nods of agreement from nearly everyone in the room. I shot him a playful glare and shifted my gaze over to the windowsill, suddenly deciding that I wanted to rest my arms on it.

    A dark side, huh...

    "Well, you guys know about that side of me, and that's all that matters," I smiled as I stared out the window alongside Nana, the soft breeze from outside wrapping me in it's warm, kind embrace.

    I can't remember the last time I've felt this relaxed.

    "I wouldn't care if Kyouko had a hundred different sides to her, I'd still want to run by her side," Hozumi declared sweetly, my cheeks turning a soft shade of pink in response.

    Hozumi's randomly bold words always had such a weird affect on me, and most of the time, I had absolutely no idea how to react to them. I burrowed my face in the crevice of my elbow in a pathetic attempt to hide my burning cheeks, not really in the mood for teasing. Nana saw this and she giggled at my dilemma, an all-knowing look painted on her features as she peered down at me.

    Nana was fully aware of my recent boy troubles, and she thought it was funny to see me get all embarrassed over such things.

"I agree with you, Hozumi. It's hard to keep up with her, but it's always worth the chase once you finish. Then you get to see that big cheesy grin of hers," Heath teased as he horribly imitated my smile, resulting in a room full of laughter.

"That's true, Kyouko's smile really is fantastic," Riku added as he lifted himself into a sitting position, half of his body still strewn across the floor.

"I don't smile like that!" I lightly snapped, Heath rolling his eyes at me in return.

"Yes you do, and it's a beautiful sight," he smiled as a strong breeze made it's way though the window, triggering my senses.

It smelt like Spring, and I suddenly felt the urge to be outside, following the wind.

I feel like running.

It was the day before a race, so we were going to go for an easy jog once we got our whole uniform situation figured out. Heath was too busy chatting the day away with Riku and Hozumi about my stupid smile, and I was beginning to grow impatient.