Continued from: Decisions
Tsukiro arrived at the Squad Thirteen barracks and was surprised to find it in silence. No Kiyone and Sentaro fighting. No other members fretting over their captain. Maybe he was out roaming around already?
He walked through the grounds to the dorm area, easily finding Kairo’s room. He knocked and a short while later, the door slid open to reveal a still groggy, bed-headed Kairo, his eyes half open.
“Is the term ‘sleeping in’ even in your vocabulary?” Kairo yawned.
Tsukiro held out the tickets to the Aoiya. “Here.”
Kairo took them and looked from the tickets to Tsukiro and back. “Making it up to me are you?”
Tsukiro shook his head. “Not now, but someday. Those are for you. You can use them to go with someone else tomorrow.”
“Uh… thanks but… “ Kairo looked at his best friend, confused. “Who exactly am I supposed to take?”
“Kiyone.”
“Whaa~?”
“Kiyone. You like her. Why don’t you ask her out. She’s a firecracker, just like you. I’m sure she’ll be psyched.”
Kairo stuttered as he made fish-eyes at Tsukiro. “H-how did you--?”
“Don’t be stupid, Kai. You know me too well to think that something like that would escape me.” Tsukiro turned to leave. “Have fun with Kiyone tomorrow.”
“What makes you think she’ll say yes?” Kairo blurted out, stumbling out of bed.
“She will. I’ll bet you on that.”
“Er--Hey! Don’t you want to come in for a while? I’ll make tea or something.”
“No. I have things to do.”
“You always have things to do…” Kairo muttered as he closed his door, Tsukiro walking away.
Stopping at the Koi pond on the way back to the front gates, Tsukiro looked at the huge white and orange-gold fish swimming around.
No turning back now…
~~~~~~~~~~~
