After Story: Resolve

Chapter Twenty-Six: Yearning

I cracked my eyes opened to a mostly-dark room. A glance over at the clock told me it was eight-thirty in the morning. "Ugh..."

The day before had been quite the adventure. We had gone to the beach to celebrate all our hard work, but instead we ended up with a drama involving swimsuits, a drama involving kissing, and a drama involving Kyou. Truth be told, I felt more drained after the celebration than before.

I started to stretch, only to feel my arm weighed down. "Huh?" I pulled the covers back and uttered an R-rated word.

Mei, still in her clothes from yesterday, slept peacefully on my arm. She had a small smile on her face as she slept with her hands folded under her chin. It took my breath away again at how adorable she was.

But she was in my bed! I quickly but carefully slid my arm out from under her and slapped myself awake as I hurried downstairs to the phone and quickly dialed the number to the boys' dorm.

"Hikarizaka Boy's Dorm. This is Sagara."

"Sagara-san!" I panicked in a whispered tone. "Please tell me Yohei's there!"

"Sunohara? Yeah. In fact, he's headed this way right now." I heard her talking briefly with him. "Here he is."

A rustle. "Tomoya?"

"Yohei I swear I don't know why Mei's here at my place and sleeping in my bed I swear I didn't do anything to her I didn't ask her to stay and honestly I don't remember much of what happened after getting off the train last night and-"

"Whoa, Okazaki, slow down!"

I took a slow, deep breath. "Sorry. It's just that I woke up this morning to find Mei in bed with me, and I panicked."

"Yeah, I get that. Have you asked her about it yet?"

"No, she's not up yet. At least she wasn't when I came downstairs."

A pause. "Look, all I know is that you seemed pretty upset when we got you home, so Mei asked if she could keep you company for a while. I came back here and started reading and the next thing I knew I woke up at about seven. I was just heading out for a short run when you called."

"Okay, I get it." I didn't know how much I got, but I was just glad that Yohei knew about her being here. "Did she tell you that she'd be here all night?"

"Naw, man; I don't think she even knew what she was doing." Another pause. "Look Tomoya, the reason I said I didn't mind her having you as a boyfriend is because of stuff like this."

"What do you mean?"

His voice became intense. "You're not like other guys our age! You like girls, yeah, but you're not like that! I know you wouldn't take advantage of my sister because you're not that kind of guy."

I blinked; I guess he had more faith in me than I did.

"Anyway, it sounds like you two have a lot to talk about, so I'm getting off the phone. I'm late for my run, anyway."

"All right, Yohei. Thanks."

"Yeah, later."

"Tomoya?" I turned as I hung up the phone to find Mei coming down the stairs, rubbing her eyes. "Are you okay?"

I licked my lips. "Yeah...well, I think so." I made my way over and put my hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay? I didn't...do anything...to you, did I?"

"No." Wait, was that a look of disappointment on her face? It was gone as quickly as it had come, but... "I was too tired to go back to Nii-san's place, so I stayed here. I hope that was okay."

'Nii-san'? Well, first things first: "Mei: why were you in my bed?"

She shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she looked at the floor. "I was...lonely."

"But-"

"We didn't do this or that!" she blurted. "I just missed you and wanted to be with you! Honest!"

I felt myself relax and smiled softly. "Thanks, Mei. I've missed you, too." She smiled briefly but kept on fidgeting. "Something still bothering you?"

"Tomoya...? Tomoya...?"

I leaned down to try to see her face. "Yeah?"

"I really wanted...I wanted..."

"What did you want?" I asked, still trying to see her face.

She suddenly grabbed me in a hug, burying her face in my shirt and her next words came out muffled, but I could hear them clear as day: "I really wanted to do this and that with you!"

My blood froze. A boy and a girl, by themselves in a home... "Mei, we'd...we'd better go outside."

"No!" she cried. "I want you!"

"Mei..." Talking was becoming difficult, with the walls closing in the way they were. "We can't do this. Or that. I'd go to prison. But more than that..." I licked my lips again. "That's just not who I am, Mei. Why do you want this so badly, anyway?"

She pulled away to look up at me with teary eyes. "Because I won't see you for a long time, Tomoya!" Heaved sobs started to interrupt her words. "You're going to go back to school and be around pretty girls like Sakagami-senpai and Kyou-senpai and I'll be so far away!"

So that was it; she was feeling insecure. I took her face in my hands and looked her in the eyes. "Listen up, Mei: I don't care about Sakagami and Kyou and Fujibayashi and whoever like that, you got it? They're friends. Friends!" I paused to wipe her tears away with my thumbs. "I fell in love with you, Sunohara Mei! You! So it doesn't matter how far away we are from each other with however many Kyous and Sakagamis between us; my eyes are for you, you got it?"

"But Tomoya..."

"Do you think so little of me that you think I'd fall for the nearest skirt or shortest skirt or something?"

I swore she almost turned green; I didn't think she realized how her words could be taken. "NO!" she cried. "You're a good man, Tomoya!!"

I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Then believe in me, okay? I know I'm not very smart or wise, but I do know when I have a good thing, and I have a very good thing with you."

I guess she had run out of words, because she simply cried.

"So we don't need to do this or that," I concluded as I pulled her back into a hug. "We just need to enjoy the rest of our time together, see each other off at the train station, and..." I had to swallow a lump in my throat. "...and talk to each other over the phone a lot, okay?"

I felt her nod against my chest, still sniffling.

***

Several hours later I woke from my nap and smiled as I found her asleep in my lap, with her arms wrapped around my shoulders.