Firsts

A Midori no Hibi Fanfic

(Disclaimer: I own nothing from Midori no Hibi, though if I had a choice I'd get dibs on Seiji.)

Chapter One: Seiji's Weakness

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"Sawamura - the Mad Dog - has gotten AMBIDEXTROUSLY devil-handed!"

"Whaaaat? His right hand was quite enough to be getting on with, but now he's WHAT?"

"Damn it! Now it doesn't matter which direction we attack him in."

"Uh, I'm not sure it ever did..."

"SHUT UP! Listen up boys, we are going to take Sawamura DOWN. That jackass has disgraced the name of Shin Sakura High multiple times, but now he has gone too far! He punched in Kazenawa-senpai's nose the other day."

"I thought that senpai won a gold medal in the Karate competition last year."

"He did."

"Wow. The Mad Dog really is crazy."

"Don't sound impressed!"

"How do we take him down, Norobi-san?"

"Send out our first years! We'll find out a weak spot, I'm sure of it! And when we find out what we can use against him, WE'LL CRUSH HIM LIKE A BUG!"

"AH-CHOO!"

Seiji sniffled, blinking.

'Funny... is it 'cause the weather's getting colder?'

He glanced out the window, where the morning snow lay glittering on the school-grounds. A small sigh escaped him as he forced himself back to advanced differentiation.

'I can't lose concentration,' He told himself forcefully, 'Not after all Midori did...'

The memory of her studying at his house came to his mind; she looked at him with a slight frown as she said a bit reprimandingly, "You aren't going to slack off this year, are you?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Well," She said hesitantly, "you're not studying."

He'd looked up from his manga, raising a brow. "Must I? I know I'm going to fail half the exams anyway, even if I do try-"

"NO!" Midori had shouted, so suddenly he'd fallen over onto his side from shock, "You can't give up now, not this close to the mid-term exams! Seiji-kun, please, you mustn't!"

"Hey, what more can you expect from a delinquent?" He replied incredulously, when he felt a jolt in his heart as her eyes filled up with tears. She whispered,

"You're much more than just a delinquent, Seiji-kun..."

'I can't let someone who believes in me that much down, huh?' He tried to set his mind back on track, but it was difficult now that Midori was in his thoughts.

Midori.

He could remember, in painfully clear detail, how she had left his hand; how she'd given him the most cheerful smile while tears streamed from her eyes... and then how she'd returned to him in full form.

Sometimes, he didn't know how to take it. By being his right hand they'd been intimately close, and the Midori on his hand had been very different to the real Midori in person. The Midori on his hand had been loud, confident, spontaneous and at times outright silly. The real Midori was terribly shy, quiet, sweet and somewhat reserved.

He knew he'd fallen in love with the girl on his hand, so after he'd accepted her confession, doubts had started creeping into his mind. He'd thought that maybe he was only deluding himself with an illusion of the old Midori by dating the quiet girl. She'd never fulfill his old expectations...

Once they'd started walking home together, however, Seiji had come to realise that the quiet Midori had the loud one inside her - and occasionally Seiji would draw that side of her out. To his surprise, her diminished straight-forwardness did not cause his feelings for her to waver. It actually helped him pace his thoughts and feelings - it gave him time.

Seiji had grown to love the boisterous Midori on his hand, but he found all the best elements in her - her honesty, sharp intuition, sweet smiles - in the real Midori, and with Seiji being able to bring the more confident side of her out, Seiji found himself falling in love with her all over again.

It was bizarre to see her so big now, but Seiji thought that this was the way it was meant to be.

Recreating memories was still a little tough, but being able to see her smile and sit across him at an ice-cream parlour was worth it all. It just felt a little... well, empty without her on his hand now.

Not that he wasn't doing anything to fix that; he'd given Midori a copy of his house key and told her to pop in anytime she liked, if just for the sake of- er, being there. He'd skipped out the 'for him' bit on that, but she seemed to get the message; she'd blushed deeply as him and told him, "Only when you want me to."

He hadn't had the guts to say "I want you to always be there. Maybe even sleep over, next to me if you like." But then again, that sounded terribly wrong, so he wasn't too keen on letting on his wistful, lonely side yet.

They'd been together for several weeks by now, and the most daring thing they'd done was study together at his house and... hold hands...

Yes, he could remember holding her hand for the first time - it had only been two days ago. It had been amazingly weird; the Midori on his hand had had little palms barely able to cover his fingertips, but the real Midori had hands that were much larger, yet... they seemed just as small when he clutched it.

He had always wanted to hold her hand since the colder weather settled in, as he saw her rubbing her gloved hands together and blowing at it fruitlessly. She'd try to hide the chatter in her teeth and say with a shivering smile, "I'm fine, Seiji-kun" just like she'd done when she'd been on his hand- and like then and now, she hadn't really meant it.

'Maybe girls get cold all the time 'cause they're small,' he mused, 'or maybe it's just Midori since she's sort of small... er, not as small as she was before, but definitely smaller than me anyway...' By any rate, he'd decided to take the initiative and grab her hand - but he'd never been able to accomplish it. He'd start lunging at her hand with his, but when her eyes flittered to him he'd grow bright red and pretend to be swinging that hand up to scratch at his temple or something.

In the end, he'd-

"SAWAMURA!"

He blinked rapidly, snapping his head up to see his Mathematics teacher and all the students looking at him.

"Page 217, question 7b," Ayase muttered under her breath.

"Thanks," Seiji mumbled back, flicking over a page and standing up with the textbook. 'I am so screwed.' He thought inwardly as he walked slowly to the blackboard, and it was with some trepidation he picked up a piece of chalk and let his eyes run over the question.

Midori's neat writing covered the side of the question, and it was with a pang Seiji remembered he'd gone through a couple of these questions with her in advance. By the time he'd set the chalk down, the class and the teacher were staring.

"That is correct, Sawamura," The teacher said finally, "well done."

Seiji noticed they weren't gaping in shock, or narrowing eyes in suspicion. Some looked impressed, some looked surprised, but they all seemed to accept him.

As he sat back at his seat, he let out a soft sigh of relief. 'You're my saviour, Midori,' He thought, and couldn't stop the blush creeping up his neck as he thought of her.

Midori waited beside the park gates, as usual. She shuffled around a bit, trying to keep herself warm in the cooler weather. As she rubbed her hands together, she flushed a little, remembering...

She could still enter states of disbelief and shock when she recalled Seiji confessing right back to her. She had imagined before her confession just what the outcome of the confession would be. In the worst-case scenarios, he'd tell her he didn't give a jot about girls he didn't know, or say something cruel like 'You're too ugly and uninteresting for me'. And in the daring chance she'd let herself consider him actually accepting her confession, he'd still be saying something like 'uh... thanks... er, what was your name again?'

She hadn't even considered the idea he'd actually know her... let alone like her. Midori always felt like sobbing hysterically when she remembered his blushing confession, and his sweet smile straight after; it was almost to much to believe that this was actually real, and that he really did like the boring, shy her.

And two days ago... she felt a smile tug at her lips as she remembered her taking off her gloves and setting it carefully on the bench next to her before tying up her shoelaces. Seiji emerged next to her, saying a bit too squeakily, "Let's go!"

"Sure, Seiji-kun- oh, no!" She'd looked at the empty space next to her in dismay, "I think I lost my gloves!"

"Oh. Well, that's too bad, isn't it? Let's get going, it's freezing out here."

"Oh, but-" Midori hesitated as she'd glanced at her trembling fingers, already numb from the whipping cold wind, "...oh, alright."

She had stood up and glanced at Seiji, who was determinedly not looking at her but was sticking his bare hand before her face. When she looked at him confusedly, he'd said very quickly, still looking every place but her eyes, "Come on, your hand will freeze to death."

Midori had blushed to her roots before slipping her hand into his. His hand was like a furnace, and she found her fingers clasped very snugly in his. She could remembering grinning like an idiot every now and then along the walk, her heart thudding loudly at the sensation of his warm hand carefully holding hers; but it had been much harder to suppress her giddiness when she spotted her gloves sticking out the side of his bag.

He'd returned it to her yesterday, claiming he'd found them, and it had taken all her wits to not laugh out loud in delight at his clumsy sweetness. Seiji was sweeter than she'd imagined, even in her silly fantasies.

She loved him.

And yet... she was worried. There was something about her that Seiji seemed to desire badly, but hadn't asked about. He'd given her a copy of his house key, but she hadn't had the courage to actually go. She had a feeling that the key had something to do with this unspoken wish of Seiji's, except she just didn't know what. She doubted he really wanted her to come in and clean his house for him, or go and do 'unmentionable things' in the middle of the night - so she wasn't sure exactly what his intentions were.

She wanted to know badly but she knew asking directly was not the way about it. She'd wait for him to tell him...

Midori suddenly heard a noise nearby - a loud click of something mechanical. She looked around in surprise, wondering what it had been, but was unable to see anything out of the norm. She was frowning when she heard a voice behind her say, "How long did you wait?"

Midori spun around to see Seiji standing there, and she felt the involuntary smile of happiness blossom as she said happily, "Not long."

"I got out of my extra lesson early 'cause I solved a hard question during class," Seiji said, shaking his head, "and you're still here earlier than me? Midori, you shouldn't wait for me so long in the cold!"

"Oh, but I don't want to make you wait," Midori said brightly, and Seiji sighed exasperatedly as he held out his hand.

"Come on then," He said, his voice irritable but his blush betraying him, and he gave a start when Midori grabbed the edge of his glove and tugged it off. "Wha-" He was cut off as she slid the glove off her left hand and then took his bared right hand in hers. "Oh." He said dumbly. Then he turned quickly so she couldn't see the immense flush that had filled his face.

Midori in turn was glad he wasn't looking at her. She thought she might die in shock at her own audacity, if she didn't die from the blood pressure in her cheeks. "Seiji-kun, do- do you want to drink some hot chocolate?" She managed to stutter.

"Hell yeah, that sounds great!" Seiji said enthusiastically, and tugging at her hand gently they began to walk out of the park.

The loud click sounded again unbeknownst to the two, and the first-years of Shin Sakura High School watched the greenish tones gradually reveal Sawamura, the Mad Dog, holding hands with that new girlfriend of his. They grinned.

Seiji went to the park gates the next day to find that Midori wasn't there.

"Huh? Midori?"

He walked over to her usual bench, winds rustling his clothes and coolly carressing his neck, when he noticed a piece of paper ruffling in the breeze that was attached to the bench with a knife. Pulling the knife out, Seiji brought the paper to his eyes. It said:

NOROBI UBE OF SHIN SAKURA HIGH CHALLENGES THE MAD DOG 6 PM AT ABANDONED PETROL STATION, SHINTAKA STREET

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes; he was sick of these sort of dumbass challenges. He flipped the attached photo behind the note to the front, wondering where Midori was as he did so; then he thought his heart would stop as a terrible shock seeped through him.

The photo depicted an unconcious Midori tied up and crumpled on the ground.

For a moment, Seiji was so overcome with rage he couldn't say a word. He punched the bench and dented its steel frame, kicked a cement block that lined the flowerbed out of place, then threw the bench at a lamp-post. He barely managed to pull out the crumpled note and photo out of his tightly clenched fist (it refused to loosen) before checking the time and location once more. He then threw the tightly twisted papers onto the ground with all the force he could muster before checking his watch.

He had a quarter of an hour to get there. His mind grimly set, Seiji spun on his heel and ran out of the park at full speed.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Author Notes: Another update, to fix the format AGAIN. (sigh)