Some Misunderstandings (Shirou x Michiru)

Chapter 3 - The First Misunderstanding

     "So, how are you liking Anima-City so far?" Michiru was sitting on one of Asahi's chairs in his apartment. He smiled as he handed her a cup of tea.

     "It's pretty nice, but I keep getting dirty looks from the beastmen." He sighed as he sat down on another chair and started drinking his tea. 

    "Oh, that sounds about right. Over the years, beastmen have had to deal with quite a lot, so please forgive them." She smiled at him, sipping her tea. "You know, I didn't give you my number last time I was here. Want to trade?" She asked as she took out her phone. He looked over at her.

     "That sounds nice." He smiled back at her and they traded numbers.

     Just as she was getting back to her tea, her phone started ringing. Looking down at it, she saw 'Shirou Ogami' on the screen. "Oh, could you give me a second. I need to answer this." Michiru quickly ducked into the kitchen.

     "Hey Shirou, what's up?" 

     "The mayor wants me to help her with something again, you want to come?"

     "I'm at Asahi's house right now, sorry."

     "Oh, alright. I'll see you when I get back home."

     "M'kay, see you when you get back. Stay safe, Shirou."

     "I'll be fine. Don't get into trouble while I'm gone." He snorted.

     "I think I can walk next door without getting into trouble." She giggled.

     "Alright, I'll see you at home, Michiru."

     "See you at home, Shirou."

     Michiru came back from around the corner and sat back down. "Okay so anything you want to talk about?"

     "Yeah, I was kind of curious about something. You don't have to answer if you don't want to but..." Asahi was blushing a little and scooting further into his chair.

     "Curious about what?" Michiru looked at him and blinked, tilting her head to the side.

     "Well, um. Is that Shirou your boyfriend?" He blushed harder with every word, but managed to keep wobbling eye contact. 'Oh.' She started to turn red.

    "Why would you think that?" She could feel the heat rising, but her curiosity kept her from answering him first. 'Why would you think that?'

    "Well, the other week I saw you walking down the street in his jacket and you were both wet even though it hadn't been raining." Asahi must have seen us heading back home after we chased that shark beastman into the ocean. 

     "And there was this other time that I saw you guys hugging on the roof in the early morning." He'd seen the time when I was trying to teach Shirou how to play Basketball and he thought he was supposed to start wrestling me instead of blocking me.

     "I saw him pinning you to the wall in the middle of the street another time." The mayor had texted me some pictures for a case and Shirou needed to look at them.

     "I saw you two huddled together and holding each other while walking down the street last week." They both got food poisoning from the ramen cups Jackie had given them.

     "And you guys just give off that vibe, with the way you talk and walk and even look at each other." He curled up a bit and put his empty cup onto the table. She felt the blood heating her head, but shook her head at how such incidents could be turned into proof of a relationship.
    "Asahi, that's not what's going on. We're not together, you just happened to see some things without any context." She breathed out and smiled at him to the best of her ability despite the massive and unexplainable blushing.
     "Then what was all of that?" His blush toned down a bit and now he could hold normal eye contact.
     "We were wet because we had to chase a thief into the water and I got cold. And we weren't hugging, I was teaching him a game and he mistook one of my instructions for wrestling. He was leaning over me because he wanted a better view of a message from the mayor, and we got food poisoning from a friend last week. As for the vibes, I don't know what your talking about, but we're just friends." She blushed, but tried to keep it down by breathing and avoiding eye contact. 

     "Oh, I see. Sorry, for bringing it up. Anyways..."

---

     "Hey, what are you reading?" Shirou leaned over the back of the couch and Michiru could feel his breath on her cheek. 

     'Is that Shirou your boyfriend?'

     She could feel the blush rising and tried her best to stop the swirling in her stomach or the blood rushing to her head or at the very least act normal. 

     "Just some notes Nazuna gave me the other day." She turned her eyes to him, it's just Shirou. Everything's fine, Asahi was wrong, it was just a silly mistake. "How was your day?" She put Nazuna's notes on the table and turned to look at him without any strain or hot breath going down her neck. She leaned into the couch arm and spread her legs out on the couch.

     "Fine, I just questioned that shark from the other week." He looked tired and agitated.

     "Dang, I wish I'd come with you. You okay, you look like something horrible happened." She tried not to think of how nice and warm his coat was that day. Shirou sighed, melted onto the back of the couch a little before standing back up, walking around the side, picking up her legs, and sitting down. He planted his elbow into the other couch arm and leaned on it, absentmindedly laying his other hand on her legs. Just ignore his hands, he's tired.

     "He thought lying to my face would clear him, then he thought attacking me would free him, and finally he tried to sway me with a song. It was terrible." He massaged between his eyes and squeezed her calf a little. She got up and scooted closer to him, almost climbing right into his lap.

     "You okay?" She offered him a smile and pat him on the shoulder. He looked over at her and nodded.

     "I'll be fine, I'm just tired." He went back to leaning on his hand, but his left hand hadn't moved, and the hand stayed on her until after Melissa brought them their dinner for the night. But by that point she'd started to lean on him and the couch, relaxed her curled up legs into his lap, and they'd fallen asleep.

---

     Shirou woke up first, the tanuki was apparently very warm because he was overheating when he woke up. He picked up her legs, swiveled her to the left and laid her down before looking at the visible moon and checked his phone for the time. "11:35 PM" He rubbed his eyes, noticing the plates and letter on the table next to Michiru's notes. He leaned forward, picked up the note and put it in the moonlight.

     "Hey, you two fell asleep and just looked too tired and comfortable for us to wake you up so here's you food. Good night, Melissa and Gem Horner."

    He chuckled and put the note down, looked over at the still sleeping Michiru and smiled a little. "I should probably heat up this food, huh."

---

     "Gem, honey, those two have been closer lately. Like really close! Maybe it's just me, and them being close isn't bad, but what if it grows into more?" Melissa worried as she got into bed.

     "So, I'm not the only one seeing it. Yeah, I noticed. But if they end up becoming more than friends, we just have to remember that they're both responsible adults and Shirou is too responsible to do anything stupid. Besides, nothing has happened yet, so let's not worry tonight, alright?" Gem got into bed next to her and laid down.

     "Yeah, you're right.  They'll be fine no matter where they go. Good night, honey." She laid down too and kissed her husband's cheek.

     "Good night, honey." He replied with a kiss. And off the lights went.

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Finished chapter 3! Aren't misunderstandings fun? Oh well, I'll see you in the next chapter!