Across the Crowd

By

Hannio

Chapter Twenty

Spotted

Disclaimer – None of the characters mentioned in the below story belong to me in any fashion. I'm merely using them for my own entertainment.

Author Note - *Hannio tiptoes in and gently leaves the chapter before hightailing it out of there* I'm soooooooooooo sorry!

Kushiro 'Brainiac' Izumi POV

There was something which was going on but I couldn't figure out for the life of me what it actually was.

I was a genius, give me something electronic and I could look at it, take it apart, rebuild it and it would be miles better then it was before. Give me a computer and within minutes I would have upgraded it, mathematical problems were easy, science was a breeze but the minute I was faced with an emotional situation my brain would simply freeze in whatever it was doing and I would be left staring blankly at whatever caused the reaction.

The day that Tai and the others took me under their wings had to be the best day of my life. Being a Brainiac didn't exactly mean you had people banging on your door wanting to be friends. The only reason they had spoken to me was to ask me to do their homework and I did it. Not because I particularly wanted to but because the one time I did refuse I was beaten up, perhaps it was cowardice but I decided after that to just agree to everything. I'd keep my head down and I would have an easy, quiet life. A lonely life but at least I wouldn't have my head handed to me on a platter.

I'm not even sure how I ended up with Tai, if memory serves me right I sat next to him in a lesson once because we had to work in partners and it just so happened that the person I sat next to and he sat next to were both off with the flu or some other infectious illness. Tai had watched me throughout the lesson with serious brown eyes which somehow still managed to portray the warmth that was an essential part of his personality before asking me to have lunch with him and his friends if I didn't already have plans.

The rest was history. I began sitting with them every lunch time and not one of them asked me to do their homework for them. I kept expecting them to but nothing, instead they would include me in their plans, ask my opinion on things, laugh at my occasional joke. I felt like I belonged.

They made me promise not to do other peoples homework for them and I agreed, surprised when they stuck up for me when my refusal was met with anger. Soon people stopped asking and I was able to do my own thing, to focus instead on all the projects that are constantly floating around my head begging to be worked on.

I had friends who liked me for me and although it meant I got some unsavoury attention because I hung around with them it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle.

There was nothing I wouldn't do for them all and I like to think they know that which of course leads me to my present problem.

There's something going on and I have no idea how to approach it or how to be any help. As I said emotional problems are not my forte, if it was something physical like a computer I could fix it for them but this… this was slightly beyond me.

The good thing about being quiet is you are observant, perhaps it's because you're not busy being the centre of attention it gives you a chance to see what is happening around you. Problem is what was happening around us wasn't good.

It was clear to me that there was something happening between Tai and Yamato and Dai and TK. I would go as far as to say that perhaps they had developed feelings for the other person, perhaps even an emotional attachment that they weren't aware of.

It didn't bother me greatly the fact that this was happening. It was simple human biology, clearly the chemicals were reacting and it just happened that it was reacting in the case of Tai and Dai to Yamato and TK. So be it. Basic human principles were something I had a strong grasp on. This was something I could understand.

What worried me was whether they were noticing the reaction that was happening around them, mainly the reaction of Sora or whether they were so caught up in their own emotional and physical turmoil that somehow it had pass them by.

Because from what I can tell Sora knows that something is happening and she isn't very pleased about it.

The only question is did she know exactly what was happening or was she only sensing that something had changed?

I shifted on the wooden bench feeling uncomfortable, my hand tightening on the can of coke I held in my hands. It was morning break and we were crowded round one of the picnic benches that for some reason were littered around the school grounds. Tai was telling one of his stories, probably a highly amusing one if the sound of laughter was anything to go by but I had stopped paying attention about five minutes ago.

My attention was fixed by Sora's gang seated near to us. I wasn't sure whether anyone else had noticed, I doubted they had, once Tai started on one of his stories that was normally it, everything else ceased to be.

Normally I paid that group no attention, there seemed little point. Apparently they hated us and therefore we hated them in return. You would think that the fact we hated each other would mean that we would keep away from the other group but that wasn't the case. If anything since term has began we seem to have seen them more then in any other term. Quite the feat considering it was only Wednesday and three days into the new term.

Yet there had been something which had made me glance away from Tai to look at them and that's when I saw them and more importantly that was when I saw Sora. She was looking over at us, her attention clearly fixed on Tai where he sat on the table, his feet resting of the bench as he told his story. His hands moving rapidly around him the same way they always did when he was amused or excited about something.

She didn't look amused though, she looked like she wanted to strangle him with her bare hands only to stop and let him recover before she began to do it again.

The look made me shiver.

A quick look at the rest of their group showed them all engrossed in a conversation, it could almost be mirroring us since they were all laughing as well.

I watched as Yamato turned and caught sight of Tai, even from where I sat I could see his eyes widen as he took in Tai, a look on his face that made my own eyes widen. I had seen that look before on Tai's and Dai's face when they fancied someone.

Unfortunately I wasn't the only one who saw it, Sora had caught the movement and twisted her head slightly so she could see Yamato's face. Her face twisted before quickly smoothing into a smile when Yamato looked at her.

I glanced away quickly before they realised I had seen the exchange.

I had to talk to Tai and I had to talk to him urgently before this whole situation blew up in our faces. Whatever was happening it had landed us in a whole heap of trouble that I wasn't sure we could deal with.

I glanced back at Tai and felt reassured, whatever was happening Tai would know what to do. I didn't even want to think what it would mean if he didn't.

Author notes – Erm please review but no flames *hangs head* I'm just sooooooooo sorry for the delay!