Destined to Collide - Inumaki Toge

16. Falling

Maguro got better after resting for 2 days. Ieiri-sensei had dropped by as requested by Gojo-sensei, but it was nothing she can fix. Her stamina was the one that is depleted, and that is something she couldn't heal because it was 'used'.

And so, Maguro got 2 days leave from her classes.

Despite that, she insisted still to drop by their classes, checking in with Inumaki on their whereabouts before appearing with a basket of sandwiches and drinks. Gojo-sensei chided her for not taking a good rest, but she said she had rested enough, and if needed be, she'll rest in the shades.

That counted as rest too. 

"Green is good for the eyes, Gojo-sensei," Maguro replied him with a smile, passing a sandwich over to him. "I'm good with company. I can rest here if I am tired. I promise, Gojo-sensei."

Bribed by a good sandwich, Satoru gave in to her request and allowed her to sit in the shades.

"Here," Maguro got a sandwich for Inumaki, who crouched right next to her waiting patiently for his turn to get the sandwiches in the basket. They looked good from afar, and he had quickly squeezed between Gojo-sensei and Maguro in order to get her attention before anyone else can get to her. "This is yours, Inumaki-kun. Your favourite."

Maki, Panda and Satoru snapped their heads quickly to look at Inumaki. 

Inumaki's eyes light up when he noticed what was in the fillings.

"Tuna Mayo!" Inumaki cried happily, unzipping his high collar and teared into the sandwich. "Mmm! Tuna Mayo! Shake!" (Mmm! This is so good! Thanks Maguro!)

"How sweet, Toge-kun," Panda started, beady eyes staring at the Cursed Speech User after he got his share of sandwich from Maguro. "Maguro-chan making Tuna Mayo sandwich just for you while the rest of us got ham and eggs."

"Smooth, Toge. Smooth," Maki piped in, tearing into her ham sandwich with relish. Maguro is good at sandwiches. They're delicious!

Inumaki ignored their poking and smiled brightly at Maguro, both cheeks full of sandwiches.

"These are really good, Maguro," he said to her in thought, happily munching on the Tuna Mayo Sandwich Maguro made. She smiled and passed him a cup of iced hojicha. 

"Glad you liked them so, Inumaki-kun," she said bashfully, glad that the sandwich is to his liking.

Iced tea and sandwiches in the shades gathering passed by quickly.

Summertime came. True to what Maki said, bugs started to crawl into her open windows.

She had tried to set up a Curtain around her room, but to no avail. Bugs are not a Curse; they cannot be denied entry to a Curtain set up to ward off curses. 

She tried with barrier – it doesn't work too. She will need to close her windows to avoid them coming in.

To survive the Summer, she will need air conditioner.

But loo and behold – her air conditioner doesn't work. The power turns on, but it doesn't blow out cool air. It blows out hot air instead and it worsens the hot temperature in her room.

Determined that the air conditioner is just dusty, she pulled a chair over to the air conditioner and stood up on it. Giving the appliance a few hard slaps, she then opened the hull of the appliance and try to check for something that she didn't even know.

It was then, Inumaki slides her room door open.

Surprised, she gives a small scream of surprise when she felt the chair wobble and fell backwards. She had prepared for the impact, but instead of falling onto the floor, she felt Inumaki's arms around her. 

He had caught her. Just in time again.

"Maguro! What are you doing? You could have gotten hurt!" Inumaki reprimanded Maguro, his heart pounding hard against his chest when he sees her falling from a chair. He only came by to check on her but when he heard pounding sounds, he thought she was in some sort of danger and barged in instead.

He remembered her telling him of her Nullifying abilities whenever she panicked. So instead of using his Cursed Speech, he opted to catch her instead.

That was a good decision.

"Inumaki-kun!" Maguro exclaimed in surprise. Burying her face in his neck, Maguro cried in relief as the adrenaline rush of almost falling down from the chair at that height caused her heart to pound hard against her chest. "Oh, Inumaki-kun. Thank you. I was surprised."

"I'm sorry for startling you, but what were you doing?" Inumaki apologized, setting her back down on the floor carefully. Looking at the chair and looking up at the air conditioner, Inumaki looked back down at her and raised his left eyebrows.

That got Maguro's attention.

"You can do that!?" Maguro cried in surprise, grabbing his arm as leverage to tiptoe up to his height. Inumaki blinked in confusion.

"Do what?" Inumaki thought out to her. 

"Do the eyebrow thing! Like this!" Maguro demonstrated to him by holding onto one side of her eyebrow with her hands, and the other twitches up and down to imitate what he had done earlier.

That got Inumaki to burst out laughing.

"I couldn't do it like you, Inumaki-kun! Don't laugh!" Maguro slapped his shoulder, miffed that he was laughing at her. Inumaki rewind the scene in his mind again and laughed all over.

The fact that Maguro had to hold down one of her eyebrows in order to raise and twitch the other eyebrow individually made him laugh. Because he saw the eyebrow she had held down still twitches, following the other eyebrow's movement.

She couldn't do single eyebrow twitch.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Haha! But that was really funny," Inumaki thought out to her, chortling still over the image of her doing that eyebrow thing.

Maguro huffed. 

Inumaki smiled and patted the top of her head gently. "So, what happened?"

"It's the air conditioner. I couldn't get it to blow cold air. It's summer, and I can't open the window because of the bugs," Maguro explained, looking up forlornly at the air conditioner above them.

Inumaki looked out the window. It was nearing sunset. No one will be able to drop by to fix the appliance so soon. Plus, Maki and Panda is out on a mission, and would not be back for another few days. 

Inumaki sighed. This appliance really spoilt at the wrong timing. 

"Mine is working just fine. If you're alright, you can sleep in my room tonight. I'll try to get someone to fix it soon," Inumaki offered bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck as he felt his neck heats up.

Maguro looked up at him, her eyes wide with surprise as she watches Inumaki started to turn red.

"You..." Maguro started, caution of her words.

Lest she scares away Inumaki.

"You... had never have a girl over to your room before...right?"

Inumaki bite his lips.

Man, this is awkward, Inumaki thought quietly to himself. He just realized he had unashamedly invited her to spend the night in his room.