After Story: Resolve

Chapter Eleven: Evasive Maneuvers

My eyes opened to see the ceiling of my home.

"Are you awake, Okazaki-san?" Mei's voice came from somewhere nearby.

"I think so," I replied to the disembodied voice. "What happened?"

Mei's face appeared above my own. "I think you fainted."

"Fainted?" I said, annoyed. "I don't faint."

"Well, you suddenly collapsed in any case," she remarked.

I tried to sit up, but she gently pushed me back down by my shoulders. "Not yet. You've just woken up, and I don't want you to hurt yourself by moving too soon."

I sighed and let my head settle back down onto the pillow. Pillows, actually. "Thanks for the pillows, Mei. Where did you find them?"

She didn't answer right away. After a long pause I heard. "They're...not pillows, Okazaki-san."

Now I was curious. "Then what-"

"Just rest," she said soothingly. "It's okay."

I relented and simply lay quietly as she gently caressed my face; it had an interestingly calming effect on me.

Eventually she let me up, and I turned to see what pillows she had used...and my face heated up.

The 'pillows' my head had been resting on were, in fact, her thighs. She sat in a kneeling position as she looked at me with a shy smile. "I worked with what I had," she offered as an explanation.

I rubbed at the back of my neck. "Um, thanks Mei. You, uh, have a comfortable lap."

Her face reddened before she hid it from me by looking down at the floor. "You're welcome. I'm just glad you didn't hit your head."

"I didn't? Wow, lucky me." There was a long way between my head and the floor when I was standing up, so...

"I caught you when you fell." She chuckled in her unique way. "I'm not strong enough to hold you up, but I was strong enough to slow your fall."

I felt all over my head and, sure enough, it didn't hurt anywhere. "Thanks...again," I said to her.

"You're welcome," she repeated. "Are you hungry? I can reheat dinner if you want."

"That'd be good, thanks."

As we ate she asked me about the items on the list to make sure she understood what I needed. I suggested talking to her parents myself, but she refused. "I'm not ready for you to meet my parents just yet."

"Um, okay." It wasn't like I was asking for her hand in marriage or anything, but I neither mentioned that nor even pressed the point. As long as I could fill out the applications I was fine, so I excused myself to take a bath while she talked to her parents.

As I soaked in the tub I thought about what we had done so far and what still needed to be done. Sunohara seemed to be doing well with his routine, so I didn't need to worry about him. Mei's presence seemed to be encouraging to him as well.

"I'm the weak link here," I told the bathroom ceiling. "Sunohara has the easy part, in a way."

I sat up in the tub and rotated my injured shoulder. It didn't really hurt; I guess I did it out of habit. "Well, I got him into this mess; I need to do my part."

I soaked and complained for several more minutes, then got out of the tub, dried off, and put on my nightclothes. Then, I wandered into the kitchen for my post-bath glass of milk.

Mei was still talking to her parents as I made my way into the living room with my glass. I sat against the wall and stretched my legs out in front of me.

Mei turned toward me as she spoke and, when she saw me, her eyes widened and she quickly turned away as her speech faltered.

I looked down at myself. I was wearing my usual light blue T-shirt, but it wasn't one of my printed ones. I didn't have any shirts with profanities or suggestive language on them, anyway. I didn't have any holes in it or my shorts. Of course, I didn't smell bad; I had just taken a bath. Ah, maybe that was it; I gathered my shirt and smelled it. It smelled fine to me.

I heard a gasp interrupt Mei's conversation, and I looked up to see her spinning away from me again, so I decided to leave the room. I didn't mean to be a problem, so I took my milk up to my room. At least I wouldn't be a distraction there and I could work on my studies. I would have to ask Mei about her problems with me later.

'Later' came a few minutes later when I heard her coming up the stairs. I turned, but all I saw was a sheet of paper on the floor just inside my room. I picked it up and, sure enough, it was my list, with about half of the questions answered. But Mei was gone. "Mei? Mei-chan?" I picked up my robe on put it on. Maybe I was dressed to casually for her liking; she was a middle-schooler after all, and she might have been sensitive about these kinds of things.

I made my way downstairs to find her tidying up in the kitchen. "Mei? Are you okay?"

I noticed that she wouldn't look at me. "I'm fine. I'm sorry I couldn't get all the stuff you needed."

"No, it's fine," I said, still worried. "You told me you'd only be able to get about half, so it's okay." I paused to think of how to ask my question. "Did I do something wrong?"

She glanced at me, did a double-take, and put down the sponge. "Y-You didn't do anything wrong."

"You seemed uncomfortable with me earlier. Do I smell bad?"

"No! Not at all!" she exclaimed while vigorously shaking her head.

"Was there something rude on my shirt? I mean, I didn't see anything, but..."

"No! Not at all!" Now she was hugging herself as she shook her head.

"Was I too casual or something? What'd I do?"

"Nothing! You're fine! I'm taking a bath!" she yelled as she ran from the room.

I was starting to think she was just using the bath as an excuse to avoid me.