(no subject)
Title: Jealousy
Author: ekas
Fandom: Horitsuba Gakuen
Pairing: Kurogane/Fai
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,485
Warnings: This fic contains a crossover character in the form of Elliot from Scrubs.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa, xxxHolic, Holitsuba, or Elliot. They are the intellectual property of CLAMP and Bill Lawrence.
Summary: Kurogane thinks he might have some competition when a visiting blonde doctor comes to the school.
For alys_wonder and caroline_chan.
Kurogane was working after school in the teacher’s lounge, the only other person in the room being the crazy blond science teacher. He was annoyed at the other’s presence, mostly because Fai had kept inching his chair closer to him until he was no longer at his own desk. Just when it got to the point he was seriously starting to wonder if the blonde was just going to crawl into his lap, the chairlady entered the lounge with a new woman behind her. It was not the chairlady’s appearance that disturbed him, but the woman with her. Blonde hair, blue eyes and a white labcoat were enough to make him suspicious of a prior or future connection to Fai.
“Fai-sensei.” She was completely ignoring him, and Fai moved his chair away. “This is Dr. Elliot Reid,” she said, indicating the woman who followed her. “She’s going to be teaching the six-week intensive endocrinology course in the medical department. She’s from a hospital in California; I was hoping you could show her around the school and spend some time with her while she’s visiting.”
Confusing Kurogane, Fai eagerly stood up and extended his hand to her. “Dr. Reid, it is a pleasure to meet you.”
The blonde woman took his hand and shook it vigorously. Kurogane was getting a cramp in his neck from looking back and forth between the two blondes. “Oh, well, it’s nice to meet you too, Fai-sen…sei.”
“Please, call me Fai.” Wait, he was putting her on a first name basis with him already and they had just finished greeting each other? The worst part was he was smiling so happily while he was doing it. Kurogane found himself frozen and gripping the armrests of his chair.
“Coolio.” What the hell was that? That did not even sound vaguely Japanese. Was it some sort of Spanish? “In that case, call me Elliot. Dr. Reid is what my boyfriend calls me in bed.”
“Well, Elliot-sensei,” Fai had switched his hand to her arm and started escorting her from the room, “shall I give you the grand tour?”
Kurogane blinked at the spot they had just vacated. “What the hell just happened?” He turned to the chairlady for answers, the witch who had brought that devil woman into the teacher’s lounge.
“I would say Fai-sensei has made a new friend.” The chairlady left the teacher’s lounge, and with a sigh, Kurogane turned back to his paperwork. At least with the science teacher gone he should be able to get some of his work done. Except, the papers remained untouched as Kurogane kept looking at the empty chair still touching his. Frustrated, he kicked the chair, and it clattered to the floor.
Sakura, who had just been entering the room, froze in the doorway. He had not intended to glare at her, but he did. “I’ll just come back later, Kurogane-sensei.” She scampered away before his brain had fully processed who had been standing there.
He threw the pen down on his desk and slouched in his chair. “Damn it.” He did not know why he felt so agitated. Fai was simply doing what the chairlady had told him to. Besides, it was not like Fai didn’t act like an overgrown puppy towards everyone that paid attention to him. And it got Fai away from him long enough so that he could get some work done, and he really should have been grateful that this tour forced Fai to stop trying to be his personal lap dog. He should have been thanking the blonde woman for taking Fai away from him for at least an hour.
Yet somehow he was still agitated by the situation and was gritting his teeth as he thought of that skinny woman with the perfect body and the wavy golden hair and those sparkly blue eyes. Not to mention her stupid most-likely-non-existent boyfriend. He hated that woman already, but he would never admit to wanting Fai back in the office with him.
The longest he had ever gone without being tormented by Fai before while they were both on school property had been four hours when there had been an accident in one of the chemistry labs and the blonde had been forced to stay and make the lab safe again. Six hours passed, and Fai had yet to come back to the teacher’s lounge. Kurogane knew he was still somewhere on school property because his coat was still in the lounge. His body ached and he was starting to get a headache, but he refused to leave.
He heard the laughter first, genuine loud laughter coming from Fai which was unusual enough in itself, and the high-pitched laughter of the new girl. She was clinging to Fai’s arm, and Fai was looking at her in a way he never looked at him. The laughter died and they froze when they saw Kurogane brooding at his desk.
“Kuro-tan-sensei, what are you still doing here? Normally you would have been home for at least two hours by now.”
“Where have the two of you been?” he asked aggressively, and the woman looked nervously between the two of them.
“We went for dinner after we finished the tour.” Fai explained as he picked his chair up and rolled it back to his desk without expressing his curiosity as to why his chair was knocked over when Kurogane thought he should be asking and perhaps even worrying about what had prompted the violence to his chair. “It’s late, so I was going to drive Elliot-sensei home,” the blonde continued as he swiped his keys off his desk.
“Isn’t that so chivalric of you,” Kurogane growled, slamming his hand down on his desk before storming out of the room with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched.
“Kuro-sama-sensei,” Fai called weakly after him. “I’m sorry,” he apologized as he turned to Elliot. “I don’t know why he’s behaving like that. He’s not normally that sullen.”
“Is he your boyfriend or something?” Fai was momentarily caught off guard. “He seemed like he was jealous.”
“That’s ridiculous. Kuro-rin-sensei never showed any romantic inclination towards me before.” Still, he had to ponder Kurogane’s strange behavior as he escorted Elliot to his car. He was certainly unhappy about something and his sour mood had started after they had been introduced to Elliot. He couldn’t help but think about Kurogane’s odd behavior as he drove back to his apartment that night.
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
The blonde was definitely spending far too much time with the new blonde, Kurogane decided after three days of having to buy lunch at the cafeteria because the science teacher had neglected to provide him with lunch those days. Cafeteria food just wasn’t the same as a home prepared meal even if said meal was prepared by a crazy man. Not only was he not being provided with lunch, but he was left alone during his lunch hour.
Kurogane had taken to watching the blondes from a distance as he forced himself to swallow the bland cafeteria food, watching as Fai laughed and flirted with that American woman. When he had managed to walk by their table one day to hear their conversation he was disgruntled to learn they conversed in English, so eavesdropping would have been pointless. Fai had smiled broadly at him and invited him to join them, but Kurogane had refused and stalked off.
Kurogane watched the two of them every day at lunch. Normally he only managed to get halfway through his lunch because his stomach would get so twisted, especially when he watched the intimate way they laughed together. He was sure the two of them had had sex. He supposed the girl was pretty enough with her perfect breasts. Of course Fai would be attracted to her; she was an almost perfect example of what a female Fai would look like. All she needed was paler skin.
Kurogane supposed he should have been grateful the chemistry teacher was no longer pestering him for attention every time he turned around. He was finally getting some work done, and he thought he should have been able to concentrate more. Except his concentration was failing at school because all he could think of was where Fai was instead and more importantly, with whom. The worst was thinking about what they were doing and wondering if that woman was as clingy as Fai. Naturally his mind could never produce anything innocent. The two of them were always making out in the supply closet, or the doctor was kneeling in front of Fai, or they were having sex on his desk while feeding each other chocolate. He didn’t quite understand the chocolate, though Fai had given him chocolate for Valentine’s Day every year since he started at the school. He would have preferred the blonde to be pestering him because at least that way he would know that they were not having sex with each other. His only consolation was that the blonde doctor was only going to be there for six weeks before going back to America. Hopefully, she would stay there.
He had actually managed to go through an entire class without thinking about the two of them, and was feeling rather proud of himself as he walked down the hallway. Until the blondes burst out of a supply closet in front of him, laughing hysterically. Elliot was clinging to Fai’s arm, and Kurogane could only stand stock still and stare. It was like all his worst nightmares were coming to life in front of him. It was a very tiny supply closet, and Kurogane could see the disarray inside.
“I can honestly say I have never done that in a supply closet before, and I have done a lot in supply closets. I could tell some stories about my hospital.” Kurogane did not know what was so amusing; they could have been doing any number of kinky things in the supply closet. Kurogane’s imagination could provide quite a few, and he was sure the science teacher could think of many more.
“Kuro-myu-sensei, is something wrong?” Fai asked when he finally looked over.
“Everything’s fine. You have a new friend that obviously makes you lack the need for other human companions.” He stalked angrily away before he could say something else or look too long at the blonde’s hurt expression. As far as he was concerned, Fai deserved what he had just said to him, even if it was a little harsh.
“Kuro-sama-sensei, wait!” he heard the blonde calling after him. He didn’t stop and quickened his pace so the chemistry teacher would not be able to catch up with him. He would be better off if he did not have to see the two of them together.
Kurogane was unsure why Fai sleeping with that new woman bothered him so much. The blonde was technically free to be in a relationship with whoever he wanted. Just because he had previously treated Kurogane like he was the only person he wanted to spend time with did not mean the blonde actually harbored any special feelings for him. Besides, it was not like Kurogane had ever shown any reciprocation of the man’s hidden adoration. But that was mostly because he had distrusted the man’s feelings. Now, he was starting to think he had been right to mistrust them.
The next day, Kurogane decided he was not going to watch the two of them at lunch. He might not be able to eat anything if he tried. After two minutes, he was surprised to see the visiting blonde doctor sit down at the table across from him.
“Kurogane-sensei, right?” she asked as she sat down at the table without asking permission first. “It’s so hard for me to make new friends around here because everyone knows I’m leaving in a few weeks.” He glared at her in an attempt to scare her away, but she remained oblivious. “Are those sweet potato fries?” Before he could react, she had reached over and taken a fry. “You and Fai-sensei are really the only people I know.”
Kurogane wanted to point out that she did not know him and this was the first time they had actually spoken with each other. “Where is Fai-sensei?” Honestly, he as surprised the blonde was still not fawning over the girl.
“Oh, he had a lot of work to do and was just eating lunch in the teacher’s lounge.” The woman was showing no indication of leaving and was munching contently on her lunch.
Kurogane could tell the woman was lying to him; he had just been in the teacher’s lounge and Fai had not been there. He wondered if the blonde had told her to eat lunch with him and tell him that lie so he would not get too suspicious about their activities. He growled and lost the appetite for the rest of his lunch.
“You know, Fai-sensei has told me a lot about you.”
Kurogane decided he could pay attention to her when she was talking to him about things like that.
“I don’t think he can go four hours without mentioning you. I swear, you are his most favorite thing to talk about in the world.”
Kurogane’s interest had been aroused and he pushed the rest of his fries towards her. “What else did he say about me?”
“Well…” Her cellphone rang and she pulled it out to check the number. “Frick!” She pushed herself away from the table. “I’m sorry, but I really need to take this phone call. But I really do want to finish this conversation with you.” She scurried away from him with her phone at her ear.
“Damn.” He had finally been so close to understanding part of that crazy science teacher and his source of information walked away before she could do more than tease. Kurogane was unsure he had patience to wait until the blonde decided to finish their conversation. Besides, none of what she said changed the fact that the woman was taking too much of Fai’s attention away from him.
Kurogane wondered what the blonde was going to do when the six weeks were up. His fling with the woman would be forced to end. Still, he wondered if they were going to stay in contact with each other, if she would ever fly to see him, if Fai would go to America to see her. Maybe he was obsessing too much about the blondes, but Fai’s attention had never been away from her before as long as she had worked there.
Kurogane saw less and less of the blonde as the weeks passed, and he was sure he was losing weight without the blonde’s meals and with the anxiety. Four weeks after the blonde doctor had first been introduced to the two of them, Kurogane managed to catch the science teacher alone in the teacher’s lounge.
“Oi, have you been avoiding me recently?” he asked as he sat down at his own desk and swirled his chair to watch the science teacher.
“I haven’t been avoiding you. I just haven’t been going out of my way to see you, Kurogane-sensei,” Fai said without looking up at him.
“Kurogane-sensei?” The blonde never called him by his full name.
“I’ve been telling Elliot about you and she thinks given your demeanor it would be best if I backed off for a bit.”
“You’re on a first name basis with that woman?” he growled.
“She’s more comfortable that way. You don’t know what it’s like to be all alone in a place you know very little about.”
Just because the girl was feeling lonely was no reason for her to take all of Fai’s attention from him.
“Kurogane-sensei, do you know what I’m trying to tell you?”
“That that woman is more important to you because I’m from this country and she’s not.”
“Kurogane-sensei…” the man started. He sighed and looked away again. “Nevermind.”
Kurogane didn’t want to know what the other man had been trying to tell him. His imagination had been working overtime formulating possibilities, and he did not need to know which was correct. He had not known it was possible, but he saw even less of the blonde in the following days. Now he was certain Fai was avoiding him, and he didn’t like it. He stopped going to the cafeteria at lunch because he knew he would see the blonde smiling and being happy with that woman and it made him both sick and angry. He could no longer be comforted by the fact that Elliot was leaving soon because he was now unsure if Fai would resume interest in him once she was gone. The worst part was, he was getting incredibly lonely without the blonde there constantly by his side, giving him his attention.
Kurogane knew Elliot was leaving in a few days. He had forced himself to walk into the witch’s office and ask her when exactly the blonde doctor was going to be leaving to return to her hospital. He thought Fai would be wanting to spend as much time with her as he possibly could before she left, and he nearly forgot about the conversation he had started with the woman a few weeks prior. He had taken to eating lunch at a secluded picnic table far from the cafeteria and had been forcing himself to eat his bland meal when again the doctor appeared out of nowhere and sat down at the table across from him.
“Good, Yuuko-sensei was right. I’m glad I was able to find you.” Kurogane was not pleased with her presence at all. Unless, of course, it meant the blonde was following her and would be willing to give some attention to him. “I really wanted to talk to you about Fai-sensei before I left.” She reached over to grab some food off of his plate and he swatted her hand away. “Look, I know you don’t like me very much, and I think I know why you don’t like me. You think I took Fai-sensei away from you.”
“Then why are you trying to have lunch with me?” The two of them could have been spared a very pointless meeting.
“Because I’ve seen the way the two of you interact with each other and I wanted to offer you some advice.”
“I don’t want your advice.”
“Stop being so stubborn. The very fact that my presence makes you jealous indicates you have feelings for him, but you’ve been too afraid to act on them.”
“He hasn’t exactly done anything either,” he pointed out. All Fai had ever done was tease.
“That’s because he’s afraid too,” she told him. “You have no idea what it’s like to be different in this place and wondering if people are ever going to accept you. He’s Scandanavian-”
“European,” he corrected, trying to prove that he knew more about the blonde than she did, but she actually laughed at him.
“I have a friend back home who’s terrible at geography too.”
Kurogane scowled.
“Anyway, the point is, he had the same problems meeting people that I did, and he probably still doesn’t feel accepted.”
Kurogane was forced to admit that he had not always been as welcoming to the man as he could have been.
“You need to be the one to make the first move and show that you accept him. And, I know, it’s terrifying. I was so petrified of commitment that I nearly made the biggest mistake of my life. Kurogane-sensei, you have to take this chance, or you’ll just regret it for the rest of your life. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s better than spending the rest of your life wondering.”
“I’ll think about it,” he told her.
She smiled, reached over to grab his hand, and wished him the best of luck. Two days later, he went with Fai to see her off at the airport, still thinking about what she had told him.
The day after she was gone, as soon as school was done for the day, Kurogane actively went in search of Fai. He found him perched atop a low stone wall on the edge of campus. The gym teacher leaned against the wall next to him. “Are you lonely?”
Fai shook his head. “No, I’m just…” Fai lowered his head and slouched his shoulders “…lonely.”
“You don’t have to be, you know.” Damn it, he was no good at the romantic stuff. Why couldn’t things be simpler? “You can spend as much time with me as you want to.”
“Kuro-tan-sensei…”
An awkward silence fell between the two of them and Kurogane thought the visiting blonde doctor had grossly deceived him. He only thought that, of course, until the blonde’s lips pressed tentatively against his. “… Thank you.”
Author: ekas
Fandom: Horitsuba Gakuen
Pairing: Kurogane/Fai
Rating: T
Word Count: 3,485
Warnings: This fic contains a crossover character in the form of Elliot from Scrubs.
Disclaimer: I don't own Tsubasa, xxxHolic, Holitsuba, or Elliot. They are the intellectual property of CLAMP and Bill Lawrence.
Summary: Kurogane thinks he might have some competition when a visiting blonde doctor comes to the school.
For alys_wonder and caroline_chan.
Kurogane was working after school in the teacher’s lounge, the only other person in the room being the crazy blond science teacher. He was annoyed at the other’s presence, mostly because Fai had kept inching his chair closer to him until he was no longer at his own desk. Just when it got to the point he was seriously starting to wonder if the blonde was just going to crawl into his lap, the chairlady entered the lounge with a new woman behind her. It was not the chairlady’s appearance that disturbed him, but the woman with her. Blonde hair, blue eyes and a white labcoat were enough to make him suspicious of a prior or future connection to Fai.
“Fai-sensei.” She was completely ignoring him, and Fai moved his chair away. “This is Dr. Elliot Reid,” she said, indicating the woman who followed her. “She’s going to be teaching the six-week intensive endocrinology course in the medical department. She’s from a hospital in California; I was hoping you could show her around the school and spend some time with her while she’s visiting.”
Confusing Kurogane, Fai eagerly stood up and extended his hand to her. “Dr. Reid, it is a pleasure to meet you.”
The blonde woman took his hand and shook it vigorously. Kurogane was getting a cramp in his neck from looking back and forth between the two blondes. “Oh, well, it’s nice to meet you too, Fai-sen…sei.”
“Please, call me Fai.” Wait, he was putting her on a first name basis with him already and they had just finished greeting each other? The worst part was he was smiling so happily while he was doing it. Kurogane found himself frozen and gripping the armrests of his chair.
“Coolio.” What the hell was that? That did not even sound vaguely Japanese. Was it some sort of Spanish? “In that case, call me Elliot. Dr. Reid is what my boyfriend calls me in bed.”
“Well, Elliot-sensei,” Fai had switched his hand to her arm and started escorting her from the room, “shall I give you the grand tour?”
Kurogane blinked at the spot they had just vacated. “What the hell just happened?” He turned to the chairlady for answers, the witch who had brought that devil woman into the teacher’s lounge.
“I would say Fai-sensei has made a new friend.” The chairlady left the teacher’s lounge, and with a sigh, Kurogane turned back to his paperwork. At least with the science teacher gone he should be able to get some of his work done. Except, the papers remained untouched as Kurogane kept looking at the empty chair still touching his. Frustrated, he kicked the chair, and it clattered to the floor.
Sakura, who had just been entering the room, froze in the doorway. He had not intended to glare at her, but he did. “I’ll just come back later, Kurogane-sensei.” She scampered away before his brain had fully processed who had been standing there.
He threw the pen down on his desk and slouched in his chair. “Damn it.” He did not know why he felt so agitated. Fai was simply doing what the chairlady had told him to. Besides, it was not like Fai didn’t act like an overgrown puppy towards everyone that paid attention to him. And it got Fai away from him long enough so that he could get some work done, and he really should have been grateful that this tour forced Fai to stop trying to be his personal lap dog. He should have been thanking the blonde woman for taking Fai away from him for at least an hour.
Yet somehow he was still agitated by the situation and was gritting his teeth as he thought of that skinny woman with the perfect body and the wavy golden hair and those sparkly blue eyes. Not to mention her stupid most-likely-non-existent boyfriend. He hated that woman already, but he would never admit to wanting Fai back in the office with him.
The longest he had ever gone without being tormented by Fai before while they were both on school property had been four hours when there had been an accident in one of the chemistry labs and the blonde had been forced to stay and make the lab safe again. Six hours passed, and Fai had yet to come back to the teacher’s lounge. Kurogane knew he was still somewhere on school property because his coat was still in the lounge. His body ached and he was starting to get a headache, but he refused to leave.
He heard the laughter first, genuine loud laughter coming from Fai which was unusual enough in itself, and the high-pitched laughter of the new girl. She was clinging to Fai’s arm, and Fai was looking at her in a way he never looked at him. The laughter died and they froze when they saw Kurogane brooding at his desk.
“Kuro-tan-sensei, what are you still doing here? Normally you would have been home for at least two hours by now.”
“Where have the two of you been?” he asked aggressively, and the woman looked nervously between the two of them.
“We went for dinner after we finished the tour.” Fai explained as he picked his chair up and rolled it back to his desk without expressing his curiosity as to why his chair was knocked over when Kurogane thought he should be asking and perhaps even worrying about what had prompted the violence to his chair. “It’s late, so I was going to drive Elliot-sensei home,” the blonde continued as he swiped his keys off his desk.
“Isn’t that so chivalric of you,” Kurogane growled, slamming his hand down on his desk before storming out of the room with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched.
“Kuro-sama-sensei,” Fai called weakly after him. “I’m sorry,” he apologized as he turned to Elliot. “I don’t know why he’s behaving like that. He’s not normally that sullen.”
“Is he your boyfriend or something?” Fai was momentarily caught off guard. “He seemed like he was jealous.”
“That’s ridiculous. Kuro-rin-sensei never showed any romantic inclination towards me before.” Still, he had to ponder Kurogane’s strange behavior as he escorted Elliot to his car. He was certainly unhappy about something and his sour mood had started after they had been introduced to Elliot. He couldn’t help but think about Kurogane’s odd behavior as he drove back to his apartment that night.
~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~
The blonde was definitely spending far too much time with the new blonde, Kurogane decided after three days of having to buy lunch at the cafeteria because the science teacher had neglected to provide him with lunch those days. Cafeteria food just wasn’t the same as a home prepared meal even if said meal was prepared by a crazy man. Not only was he not being provided with lunch, but he was left alone during his lunch hour.
Kurogane had taken to watching the blondes from a distance as he forced himself to swallow the bland cafeteria food, watching as Fai laughed and flirted with that American woman. When he had managed to walk by their table one day to hear their conversation he was disgruntled to learn they conversed in English, so eavesdropping would have been pointless. Fai had smiled broadly at him and invited him to join them, but Kurogane had refused and stalked off.
Kurogane watched the two of them every day at lunch. Normally he only managed to get halfway through his lunch because his stomach would get so twisted, especially when he watched the intimate way they laughed together. He was sure the two of them had had sex. He supposed the girl was pretty enough with her perfect breasts. Of course Fai would be attracted to her; she was an almost perfect example of what a female Fai would look like. All she needed was paler skin.
Kurogane supposed he should have been grateful the chemistry teacher was no longer pestering him for attention every time he turned around. He was finally getting some work done, and he thought he should have been able to concentrate more. Except his concentration was failing at school because all he could think of was where Fai was instead and more importantly, with whom. The worst was thinking about what they were doing and wondering if that woman was as clingy as Fai. Naturally his mind could never produce anything innocent. The two of them were always making out in the supply closet, or the doctor was kneeling in front of Fai, or they were having sex on his desk while feeding each other chocolate. He didn’t quite understand the chocolate, though Fai had given him chocolate for Valentine’s Day every year since he started at the school. He would have preferred the blonde to be pestering him because at least that way he would know that they were not having sex with each other. His only consolation was that the blonde doctor was only going to be there for six weeks before going back to America. Hopefully, she would stay there.
He had actually managed to go through an entire class without thinking about the two of them, and was feeling rather proud of himself as he walked down the hallway. Until the blondes burst out of a supply closet in front of him, laughing hysterically. Elliot was clinging to Fai’s arm, and Kurogane could only stand stock still and stare. It was like all his worst nightmares were coming to life in front of him. It was a very tiny supply closet, and Kurogane could see the disarray inside.
“I can honestly say I have never done that in a supply closet before, and I have done a lot in supply closets. I could tell some stories about my hospital.” Kurogane did not know what was so amusing; they could have been doing any number of kinky things in the supply closet. Kurogane’s imagination could provide quite a few, and he was sure the science teacher could think of many more.
“Kuro-myu-sensei, is something wrong?” Fai asked when he finally looked over.
“Everything’s fine. You have a new friend that obviously makes you lack the need for other human companions.” He stalked angrily away before he could say something else or look too long at the blonde’s hurt expression. As far as he was concerned, Fai deserved what he had just said to him, even if it was a little harsh.
“Kuro-sama-sensei, wait!” he heard the blonde calling after him. He didn’t stop and quickened his pace so the chemistry teacher would not be able to catch up with him. He would be better off if he did not have to see the two of them together.
Kurogane was unsure why Fai sleeping with that new woman bothered him so much. The blonde was technically free to be in a relationship with whoever he wanted. Just because he had previously treated Kurogane like he was the only person he wanted to spend time with did not mean the blonde actually harbored any special feelings for him. Besides, it was not like Kurogane had ever shown any reciprocation of the man’s hidden adoration. But that was mostly because he had distrusted the man’s feelings. Now, he was starting to think he had been right to mistrust them.
The next day, Kurogane decided he was not going to watch the two of them at lunch. He might not be able to eat anything if he tried. After two minutes, he was surprised to see the visiting blonde doctor sit down at the table across from him.
“Kurogane-sensei, right?” she asked as she sat down at the table without asking permission first. “It’s so hard for me to make new friends around here because everyone knows I’m leaving in a few weeks.” He glared at her in an attempt to scare her away, but she remained oblivious. “Are those sweet potato fries?” Before he could react, she had reached over and taken a fry. “You and Fai-sensei are really the only people I know.”
Kurogane wanted to point out that she did not know him and this was the first time they had actually spoken with each other. “Where is Fai-sensei?” Honestly, he as surprised the blonde was still not fawning over the girl.
“Oh, he had a lot of work to do and was just eating lunch in the teacher’s lounge.” The woman was showing no indication of leaving and was munching contently on her lunch.
Kurogane could tell the woman was lying to him; he had just been in the teacher’s lounge and Fai had not been there. He wondered if the blonde had told her to eat lunch with him and tell him that lie so he would not get too suspicious about their activities. He growled and lost the appetite for the rest of his lunch.
“You know, Fai-sensei has told me a lot about you.”
Kurogane decided he could pay attention to her when she was talking to him about things like that.
“I don’t think he can go four hours without mentioning you. I swear, you are his most favorite thing to talk about in the world.”
Kurogane’s interest had been aroused and he pushed the rest of his fries towards her. “What else did he say about me?”
“Well…” Her cellphone rang and she pulled it out to check the number. “Frick!” She pushed herself away from the table. “I’m sorry, but I really need to take this phone call. But I really do want to finish this conversation with you.” She scurried away from him with her phone at her ear.
“Damn.” He had finally been so close to understanding part of that crazy science teacher and his source of information walked away before she could do more than tease. Kurogane was unsure he had patience to wait until the blonde decided to finish their conversation. Besides, none of what she said changed the fact that the woman was taking too much of Fai’s attention away from him.
Kurogane wondered what the blonde was going to do when the six weeks were up. His fling with the woman would be forced to end. Still, he wondered if they were going to stay in contact with each other, if she would ever fly to see him, if Fai would go to America to see her. Maybe he was obsessing too much about the blondes, but Fai’s attention had never been away from her before as long as she had worked there.
Kurogane saw less and less of the blonde as the weeks passed, and he was sure he was losing weight without the blonde’s meals and with the anxiety. Four weeks after the blonde doctor had first been introduced to the two of them, Kurogane managed to catch the science teacher alone in the teacher’s lounge.
“Oi, have you been avoiding me recently?” he asked as he sat down at his own desk and swirled his chair to watch the science teacher.
“I haven’t been avoiding you. I just haven’t been going out of my way to see you, Kurogane-sensei,” Fai said without looking up at him.
“Kurogane-sensei?” The blonde never called him by his full name.
“I’ve been telling Elliot about you and she thinks given your demeanor it would be best if I backed off for a bit.”
“You’re on a first name basis with that woman?” he growled.
“She’s more comfortable that way. You don’t know what it’s like to be all alone in a place you know very little about.”
Just because the girl was feeling lonely was no reason for her to take all of Fai’s attention from him.
“Kurogane-sensei, do you know what I’m trying to tell you?”
“That that woman is more important to you because I’m from this country and she’s not.”
“Kurogane-sensei…” the man started. He sighed and looked away again. “Nevermind.”
Kurogane didn’t want to know what the other man had been trying to tell him. His imagination had been working overtime formulating possibilities, and he did not need to know which was correct. He had not known it was possible, but he saw even less of the blonde in the following days. Now he was certain Fai was avoiding him, and he didn’t like it. He stopped going to the cafeteria at lunch because he knew he would see the blonde smiling and being happy with that woman and it made him both sick and angry. He could no longer be comforted by the fact that Elliot was leaving soon because he was now unsure if Fai would resume interest in him once she was gone. The worst part was, he was getting incredibly lonely without the blonde there constantly by his side, giving him his attention.
Kurogane knew Elliot was leaving in a few days. He had forced himself to walk into the witch’s office and ask her when exactly the blonde doctor was going to be leaving to return to her hospital. He thought Fai would be wanting to spend as much time with her as he possibly could before she left, and he nearly forgot about the conversation he had started with the woman a few weeks prior. He had taken to eating lunch at a secluded picnic table far from the cafeteria and had been forcing himself to eat his bland meal when again the doctor appeared out of nowhere and sat down at the table across from him.
“Good, Yuuko-sensei was right. I’m glad I was able to find you.” Kurogane was not pleased with her presence at all. Unless, of course, it meant the blonde was following her and would be willing to give some attention to him. “I really wanted to talk to you about Fai-sensei before I left.” She reached over to grab some food off of his plate and he swatted her hand away. “Look, I know you don’t like me very much, and I think I know why you don’t like me. You think I took Fai-sensei away from you.”
“Then why are you trying to have lunch with me?” The two of them could have been spared a very pointless meeting.
“Because I’ve seen the way the two of you interact with each other and I wanted to offer you some advice.”
“I don’t want your advice.”
“Stop being so stubborn. The very fact that my presence makes you jealous indicates you have feelings for him, but you’ve been too afraid to act on them.”
“He hasn’t exactly done anything either,” he pointed out. All Fai had ever done was tease.
“That’s because he’s afraid too,” she told him. “You have no idea what it’s like to be different in this place and wondering if people are ever going to accept you. He’s Scandanavian-”
“European,” he corrected, trying to prove that he knew more about the blonde than she did, but she actually laughed at him.
“I have a friend back home who’s terrible at geography too.”
Kurogane scowled.
“Anyway, the point is, he had the same problems meeting people that I did, and he probably still doesn’t feel accepted.”
Kurogane was forced to admit that he had not always been as welcoming to the man as he could have been.
“You need to be the one to make the first move and show that you accept him. And, I know, it’s terrifying. I was so petrified of commitment that I nearly made the biggest mistake of my life. Kurogane-sensei, you have to take this chance, or you’ll just regret it for the rest of your life. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s better than spending the rest of your life wondering.”
“I’ll think about it,” he told her.
She smiled, reached over to grab his hand, and wished him the best of luck. Two days later, he went with Fai to see her off at the airport, still thinking about what she had told him.
The day after she was gone, as soon as school was done for the day, Kurogane actively went in search of Fai. He found him perched atop a low stone wall on the edge of campus. The gym teacher leaned against the wall next to him. “Are you lonely?”
Fai shook his head. “No, I’m just…” Fai lowered his head and slouched his shoulders “…lonely.”
“You don’t have to be, you know.” Damn it, he was no good at the romantic stuff. Why couldn’t things be simpler? “You can spend as much time with me as you want to.”
“Kuro-tan-sensei…”
An awkward silence fell between the two of them and Kurogane thought the visiting blonde doctor had grossly deceived him. He only thought that, of course, until the blonde’s lips pressed tentatively against his. “… Thank you.”