[ third person ]
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Makoto paused in her tracks, bending down to tie her loose shoelace. Bunny ears. Wrap around. Pull.
Before she could stand up from the ground, she felt someone bump into her back. She fell forward, quickly catching herself by placing her hands on the concrete. Close.
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" The woman exclaimed as she balanced groceries in her hand while holding out her free hands to help Makoto up. "I didn't see you there! I'm so sorry!"
Makoto politely took the woman's hand, using majority of her own strength to push herself off the ground. "Thank you, Miss. It's okay."
"I was so busy trying to get home that I wasn't watching where I was going!" The woman exclaimed, dropping one of her bags of groceries. "Shoot! Not again!"
Makoto quickly bent down, picking up the bag from the ground. It's kind of heavy. "Can I lend you hand with these?"
The woman wanted to decline, feeling guilty for doing this, but ending up accepting anyway. Makoto ended up taking two of the bags while the woman held one.
"My older son is out at work, and my younger son is busy studying with his friend, so I couldn't ask them for help." The woman laughed sheepishly, glancing at Makoto who towered over her by a few inches. She's so tall!
"It's dangerous to walk around with too many groceries. If you ever need help, feel free to ask me." Makoto said politely, smiling over at the woman who looked touched.
"Thank you, sweetie! That's so kind!"
The two females talked about everything and anything, making their way over to the woman's house to deliver these groceries.
Once they arrived, she knocked on the door and waited for someone to open the door.
Noticing Makoto's curious stare, the woman laughed sheepishly. "I forgot my keys inside."
Moments later, the door swung open to reveal the male who was supposed to be her son. His body went stiff as he saw his mother standing with this female.
"Oh." Both Makoto and Tsukishima said in unison as they made eye contact with one another.
"You know each other?" His mother asked, handing the male the bag she held.
He took it, nodding curtly. He bent down, taking one bag from Makoto's hands, leaving her with the other one. "Classmate."
"I'm the third group member of his project. I didn't know a ball of sunshine like you was the mother of him." Makoto said as she leisurely shuffled behind Tsukishima with the grocery bag in hand. His mother laughed softly, thanking Makoto for her compliment.
After assisting with the putting away of groceries, she and Tsukishima returned to the blond's room where Yamaguchi was sat on the floor.
"Yo." Makoto greeted upon meet Yamaguchi's dark brown eyes. She plopped beside him, crossing her legs while placing her backpack on the table. "I'm not late, am I?"
Yamaguchi quickly shook his head, flashing her a reassuring smile. "You're fine. We didn't even start yet."
Tsukishima took a seat on the other side of the table, sighing softly as he picked up his notebook. "Did you do your research I told you to do?"
His honey-colored eyes flitted in Makoto's direction, noticing how the female was busy digging through her back.
"I wrote out a bunch of stuff we could use for this presentation." Makoto admitted, pulling out her notebook that had a bunch of sticky notes coming out of it. She covered it with her hand for a brief moment. "Don't look at it. I was sorting out the pages last night, so it looks ugly."
Placing the notebook into Tsukishima's outstretched hand, she leaned back as he opened it up, reading the contents. Her eyes were trained on his countenance, taking note of how his face would slightly shift when he read something he found interesting or surprising.
"How long did this take you?" Yamaguchi asked, eyeing the pages full of notes with citations from its sources.
Makoto shrugged, "I started when I got home after club and fell asleep around two." She answered casually.
"You must be tired." Yamaguchi uttered with a small grimace, noticing the bags under her eyes.
As soon as he pointed it out, Makoto's head slammed against the table while she sighed. "Yes, I'm super tired. I haven't had decent sleep in almost three weeks."
"Ehh? Why's that?" Yamaguchi asked, visibly worried about Makoto who remained with her head down on the table.
Makoto grunted softly, "My body's still stuck in Okinawa mode, so I automatically get up at 5am everyday. My sleeping schedule is just messed up."
Tsukishima glanced up from her notebook for a moment, taking in her slightly pale complexion. She did look pretty pasty.
"I wanna sleep." Makoto mumbled softly, closing her eyes.
"Then sleep."
Makoto's eyes opened, sliding in the direction of Tsukishima who sat in front of her. His elbows was rested on the table to support his chin that sat in the palm of his hand. "Hm?"
"Sleep. There's a bed right there. Unless you wanna sleep in a box?" Tsukishima rose an eyebrow at Makoto, nearly snickering at the surprised look on her face. "Hurry up before I change my mind."
"What about the project...?"
Tsukishima lifted her notebook and shook it lightly. "I think this will suffice."
After a bit of arguing, Makoto ended up on Tsukishima's bed with a blanket draped over her body. She was curled up in the middle of his bed with her face buried in his pillow.
"She's knocked out." Yamaguchi chuckled, noticing how Makoto was quietly snoring. "To let her sleep was actually really nice of you, Tsukki."
Tsukishima's thinned eyes flickered upwards to meet the green haired male's ones. "Shut up, Yamaguchi."
"Gomen, Tsukki!"
[ t i m e s k i p ]
When Makoto awoke, she was greeted by a dark, empty room. She sat up, glancing around stiffly. Uh? Where am I again?
After a moment of racking her brain to recall where she was, the door swung open and the lights turned on. She blinked quickly, adjusting to the sudden light.
Tsukishima stood at the door with a brownie in his hand and another brownie in his mouth. "Oh, you're up, sleeping beauty."
"So you think I'm a beauty when I sleep?" Makoto joked, getting out of his bed to collect her bag and stuff. "Yamaguchi went home? What time is it?"
"He's long gone. It's like seven already." Tsukishima answered, glaring at Makoto who snatched the brownie out of his hand and popped it into her mouth.
"And the project?"
"It's almost done." Tsukishima rolled his eyes at Makoto. "Any other questions I can answer for you, Detective Nitwit?"
"Hmmm," Makoto hummed softly, tapping her chin in thought. "Nah."
Tsukishima followed the female down the hall, watching as she made her way to the door after saying goodbye to his mother.
"Well, see you at school." Makoto nodded, stepping out of the doorway to head on her way.
"Aren't you walking her home?" His mother called from behind the blond, making both Makoto and Tsukishima pause. Before Tsukishima could answer, Makoto quickly held up a hand and smiled politely.
"Ah, that's okay, Hitomi-san. I live quite far, and I think it'll be too troublesome for him to come all the way out there for nothing. I'll be fine on my own. Thank you for everything." With that, Makoto bowed politely and turned on her heels.
Before she got too far, she turned around, lifting an arm to wave lazily. The toothy grin sat upon her lips as she smiled warmly at Tsukishima from afar.
"See you later, Kei."