Burnt Hands. Warm Hearts.

Chapter Six: Embers

Toshinori watched Enji disappearing into the crowd as an uneasy feeling settled in his gut.

For a brief moment, Enji had looked...scared. Like he was a cornered animal. It had been shocking to see, and it had been unnerving to see how fast that fear transformed into rage with just a few words.

Toshinori shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the worry that was trying to capture him entirely.

He quietly went back into the coffee shop and packed up his own things before he started to walk back towards the school.

When he got to the dorms Toshinori was both surprised and embarrassed to find that Nemuri was waiting for him.

"Hello Nemuri!" Toshinori smiled as best as he could.

"How was it?! What happened?!" Nemuri nearly fell off the common room's couch since she leaned so far forwards. "Was it a great date?!"

Toshinori let out a slow sigh. "It wasn't a date..."

"Whatever!" Nemuri jumped off the couch and ran over to Toshinori, grabbing his arm and pulling him over to the couch. "Sit down and tell me what happened!"

"It really wasn't anything-"

"Hush I'm bored and was thinking about it the whole time you were gone and now that you're back I want the details!"

Toshinori figured she wouldn't be leaving him alone until he talked about this. "Well...um...he showed up in casual clothing so that was cool...then we went into the coffee shop and started to study." Toshinori decided that Nemuri didn't need to know how attractive Enji had looked wearing something that wasn't a uniform.

Nemuri frowned slightly, looking disappointed. "Nothing else?"

"Um..." Toshinori quickly decided to not bring up the 'flirting' thing. "N-not really? Some girls showed up and started talking to us and one of them made him so angry he left...but that's it."

Nemuri pursed her lips. "You're so boring...also a bad liar."

Toshinori was almost offended. "Excuse me? I can lie perfectly well!"

Nemuri rolled her eyes, smiling slyly. "You are fine at lying. You just have blaring signs that tell me that you're holding stuff back."

Toshinori frowned at her slightly.

"Come on! I promise I won't tell anyone! On my honor!" Nemuri held her hands up.

"Yeah no." Toshinori stood up and walked towards the stairs. "I'm going to take a shower."

Nemuri loudly protested but Toshinori was already out of sight. He sighed heavily the moment he got away from Nemuri's prying eyes and ears.

Even if Toshinori wouldn't admit it, seeing Enji run off like that had been disconcerting...Toshinori had always thought Enji was the sort to attack and stand his ground against everything, but it had almost looked like he'd retreated from that situation-

No. Toshinori wasn't going to think about this all day. He was going to find something else to do.
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Enji almost slammed the door behind him. His skin still smoking slightly.

The long walk home had done nothing to cool his temper. Enji was still pissed and ready to punch someone in the face...

Maybe he shouldn't have come home like this, Enji could have gone to a park or a beach or something so he could cool down a bit more. After all he didn't want to do something he'd regret around Shoto or Natsuo, who would hold onto anything that Enji does wrong.