Magnanimous (Blue Exorcist ~ Yukio Okumura)

Chapter 35

"Hey," Yukio greeted softly from his seat as I approached our table in Literature.

"Oh my God," I exclaimed quietly, "You will not believe what happened in Tsubaki's class today."

Yukio gave me a small chuckle. "I know he's teaching hand-to-hand combat, did it get a little out of hand?"

I gave a small laugh as I sat down next to the boy. "Not the fighting, but his rules."

I told the story of gym class earlier that day to Yukio, who watched me explain what Tsubaki was doing. "The man is crazy! For once I was hoping he'd get another call from his wife so he would leave mid-class again!"

Yukio laughed, then pushed up his glasses. "Maybe you'll get lucky and he'll loosen up about it a little, maybe he'll even pair you up with Suguro."

"Oh God, please no," I shook my head, "The dude is a freakin' tree!"

.

At the end of the day, I walked down the pathway with Yukio back to our dorm buildings. He told me about a class he was teaching to some younger Pages, and a particularly stubborn thirteen-year old. 

"Wait," I said softly, and Yukio paused mid-sentence. 

"What's wrong?" The boy turned his head to me, pushing his glasses up. 

I heard the bushes behind us move again and some whispered talking from feminine voices, but there wasn't anyone behind us.

Kashino.

"We're being followed," I whispered to Yukio, "I think it's those girls."

Yukio remained silent for a moment, pushing his glasses up again. I heard more whispers before they fell silent. "You're right. Just keep walking."

I nodded, and Yukio continued talking, but changed the subject away from Cram School. He started talking about our Chemistry homework, and I went along with him. It wasn't long before we made it across the high bridge and to our dorm buildings. 

"Do you want to come over to our dorm for tea and work on some studying?" Yukio turned to me. Then, he added in a quieter voice "I also want to make sure you'll be safe."

I gave the other student a soft smile and a nod. "Sure."

"Rin and Ukobach make very good green tea," Yukio admitted as we walked towards his dorm building. "Just as long as you aren't allergic to ginger."

"No, I'm not," I grinned, holding my books tightly to my chest. "Thank you," I told Yukio as he held open the front door for me. 

The boy nodded with a small smile, then closed and locked the door behind him. "Just a moment, please."

Yukio turned to the wide windows in the front of the building, shutting the white blinds completely. "Sorry, just to be safe," he commented.

"No, I would, too. It's really kinda creepy that they're not below this."

"Honestly," Yukio agreed, pushing his glasses up again. "Nii-san," he called loudly to his brother.

"Yeah," the raven-haired boy shouted back, coming out from the kitchen. "I made udon. Hey, Akilina!"

"Hi," I greeted back to Rin. 

"I can make tea, too," Rin offered excitedly, his tail moving back and forth behind him. "There's enough udon for all of us, Kuro, too."

Yukio smiled with a nod. "Thank you, Rin."

The elder twin turned, his tail still sticking out of his belt line as he walked back into the kitchen. "Now that he's started cooking for us on a regular basis," Yukio commented softly, "It's matured him some. He's good at it."

"That's good." I smiled, nodding.

After eating, Yukio and I sat on one of the couches in the large living room of his dorm, and I leaned with my back against his chest, as I reclined perpendicular to the boy, his left arm around me gently as we went through our homework after changing into more casual clothes. Yukio had one of his textbooks on his right thigh to be used as a desk as he wrote on the papers on top, and his feet were crossed on the coffee table only a foot away. My head was pressed against the inside of his shoulder as his left arm continued to rest around the width of my shoulders, with his hand layed on my torso near my stomach. 

Every once in a great while I would feel Yukio make the not-quite-a-sigh deep inhale and exhale he would do to hide his stress. I turned my head, the side of my head pressing against his chest as I looked up at him. "You okay?"

Yukio looked down at me with a soft smile. "Yes. Just... Trying to remember everything I need to add and edit in my lesson plans while working on this."

I turned my head to the boy's lap, where his homework was still placed on a hardcover textbook. His calculus homework stared up at me half-finished with an equation filled with eraser marks.

"You didn't derive it properly," I told him in a soft quiet voice that was barely audible, taking one hand off my History book to point. "It's d-z over d-y times d-y over d-x, not d-x over d-y."

Yukio turned his pencil to the eraser side again. "Ah, I see," I looked up again to see him with his trademark gentle smile again. "Thank you."

I hummed, nudging the side of my head against him gently as I looked back at my History homework. Then, there was a soft knock at the door.  I looked over at the white wooden entrance, watching. Someone knocked again. I looked up at Yukio, who stared at the door. "Do you want me to answer it?" I whispered. 

The boy shook his head, trying to give a reassuring smile. "No, don't worry about it."

"Yukio?" A feminine voice called from the door, knocking again.

It's Kashino again.

I sighed, pressing my curled back farther into Yukio's side and curling my legs up closer to me with a sigh. Yukio kept his arm tighter around me, pressing his face gently into my hair. "I'm sure she'll go away."

"It can't be too hard to get a restraining order here, can it?" I joked quietly with a small laugh, and I felt Yukio smile against my hair.

The girl knocked again, calling his name once more. Then, the locked door pushed and we heard the sound of her trying to turn the doorknob and open it. I felt Yukio's heartbeat quicken, and there were a few moments of silence before he sighed and relaxed, then made a half-hearted joke:

"What was that you said about a restraining order?"