EVERYDAY'S TIME

Chapter Two - Watching

Fuji Syusuke loved to watch.

Perhaps it was the influence of photography that made it so, or perhaps it was because visual images appealed to him so much that he took pictures. He only knew that if he found something intriguing, he liked to sit down and observe it for a while, first and foremost.

"What are you staring at?"

Fuji smiled at his girlfriend, pacifying. They had been dating for quite a while now, but Tezumi Sachie still hadn't got over her wariness of him. Especially when he openly gawked at her like the way he was doing now. "Don't mind me. I'm just watching you."

The girl, who was kneeling on a desk with a rag in one hand wiping a window pane, rolled her eyes. "If you find cleaning so interesting, you can help me do it." She held out the rag.

Chuckling gently, Fuji reached out to take it. He didn't mind the extra work, despite having just finished tennis practice. It was the turn of Tezumi and another classmate to tidy up their classroom after school, and the task had lasted even after the tennis club had been dismissed. He was looking forwards to having her to himself soon.

"Just kidding." Before he could touch it, Tezumi retracted the cloth. "It'll be your turn to do this soon enough, and it's not like I'll be hanging around to help then."

Fuji only smiled wider. He would have believed her, had it not been for the fact that the girl had stayed behind after her tennis practice and worked alongside him the last three times he'd been assigned to the job. Leaving the wall he was leaning on, he took a broom and began to sweep out the corners of the room.

"You heard her, you don't have to stay," Ishizaki Ryo joked lightly from where he was mopping down the blackboard. Everyone knew he used to have a crush on Tezumi, but had given her up—albeit unwillingly, some said—after she'd agreed to date Fuji.

"I'm making sure she doesn't cheat on me," Fuji explained as though that were obvious. Not that he really didn't trust Tezumi alone with the other boy, but it had nonetheless bothered him secretly that these two were always paired together for these afternoon cleaning sessions.

He supposed the teacher thought that if he, Fuji, and Tezumi were teamed up, they'd never get any work done.

Perhaps the teacher was right.

For now, Fuji contented himself with gazing steadily at her while he swept and she wiped, admiring her lithe limbs, toned by tennis, moving diligently, and the way the sun made her black hair glow golden and her green eyes glitter almost ethereally.

He congratulated himself for securing such a beautiful girlfriend.

Sometimes he wondered why no one else had got her first. Surely such an exotic girl couldn't walk around for too long without receiving a few offers? After extensive interviews with samples of the male population and getting lots of weird looks, he had eventually come to the conclusion that the rest of the world didn't find her as attractive as he did. He'd even heard some absurd comments on how she was 'too plain' to be dating him.

Seigaku was full of blind idiots.

"Well, I think I'm done." Tezumi hopped off the desk. "Ishizaki?"

"Yep," the boy confirmed, giving the blackboard a last flick.

Gathering up the remaining dust he'd collected, Fuji herded it into a pan, dumping it inside a garbage bin near the door. Tying up the black plastic bag full of the day's refuse, he took the trash in one hand and his belongings in the other. "Maa, let's call it a day, then."

They locked and left the classroom.

"I hope you're hungry," Tezumi said to her boyfriend as they headed for her home. "My parents are going to stuff you with food."

Fuji nodded in anticipation. He enjoyed dinner at Tezumi's immensely—besides being able to spend time with her, he adored her father's cooking. He was invited to her residence often, and knew her family well. 'The in-laws', as they called themselves—to Tezumi's frequent and violent objections—liked him for his friendly and polite manner.

It was nearing twilight when they reached her house. Tezumi let them in.

"Sachie?" A feminine voice called out. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," the girl said loudly in reply. "With Fuji."

A middle aged woman came into view. She had her daughter's emerald eyes. "How are you doing, Syusuke-kun?"

Fuji regretted wistfully that Tezumi's mother called him by his first name while his girlfriend still refused. 'I'm well, Tezumi-san. I hope you are in good health?"

The woman beamed. "Fit as a fiddle, thank you. Sachie? Entertain Syusuke-kun for a while. I'll be getting dinner ready."

"Sorry for the trouble," Fuji said sincerely before following a grumbling girl upstairs.

"My mother's more in love with you than I am," Tezumi declared as she breezed into her room, setting down her bag and gesturing for him to do so as well.

He pounced on her words. "Ah, so you finally admit you love me, Chie-chan!"

Realizing her mistake, Tezumi reddened. 'Do not call me that." She shuddered.

Fuji laughed delightedly. "Your mother said to entertain me. You're doing very well."

This exasperated her no end. 'Oh jeez," she grinned wryly. "There goes my plan to annoy you into leaving." She plopped down on her bed, sifting through a pile of novels stacked haphazardly on it. "Go play with my cacti collection if you're bored. There's a book I want to finish."

After a bit of cajoling and cuddling on his part—"No, I do not want to play with you," Tezumi said, terribly embarrassed—Fuji allowed himself to be pushed away. He turned to the small plants in tiny pots on Tezumi's windowsill. They were a collection of cacti she kept solely for the purpose of occupying his attention when he came over and she wanted time alone. As all things under her charge, they were well provided for, but Fuji could see they lacked the care of a truly passionate gardener.

He tended to the prickly little things carefully. In order to please him, in order to make him happier dating her, she had taken up this particular hobby of his. He treasured these cacti above his own, for this was how he knew she loved him.

"They're growing very nicely, aren't they?" he commented after a while.

He got no reply. Turning around he saw Tezumi curled up on her bed, propped up against a pillow. Her book had fallen out of her grasp and dented the fluffy blanket she was on.

Fuji smiled in pure adoration. Sitting down on the carpeted floor next to the bed—she had fallen asleep on her side, and now faced him—he gazed at her, taking in minute details of the strands of black falling over her face, a limp arm dangling across the pillow. He rarely ever saw this stillness, this peacefulness in the girl whose days he had filled. He felt a strong desire to take a picture of her, in her state of calm. But he hadn't a camera.

Getting up silently, he crossed the room and brought back a notebook. Settling down again, he began to draw.

At that moment, the door opened and a man with raven-colored hair stuck his head inside. He seemed taken aback to see his daughter sleeping and Fuji in front of her with pen and paper. 'I thought I needed to check on you two, since it got so quiet."

Fuji nodded, showing he understood the man's concerns.

"I'm rather surprised at you, young man. My daughter…she's still a bit naïve at times. But you haven't tried to take advantage."

"Of course not," Fuji smiled reassuringly. "If I tried anything now, she'd throw me out the window the instant she woke up."

Tezumi's father shook his head as he left, though Fuji could faintly ear him say fondly with pride, "That's my girl."

Fuji returned to his drawing. He had never been taught how to do it properly. Somehow he couldn't get the exact shape of Tezumi's fetal position right. He stared at her, his pencil motionless. He stared at the locks of black curling softly and tried to put down every individual piece, hair by hair. He moved on to her face, her closed eyes, her parted lips. The sketch grew from her head and moved down her body, faster and faster, her features appearing one by one.

Finally, the sun set completely and Fuji couldn't see the paper anymore, but didn't want to turn on any lights so as not to disturb her. Putting down his notebook and pencil, he moved closer to the bed until one of her hands was inches away from him. He noticed the book next to it, sinking into the smooth covers.

It taunted him, for some reason.

He touched the bed sheets with his fingertips, marveling at how the material yielded under the pressure.

He looked at Tezumi.

He didn't want to be thrown out of the window.

But she was sleeping so soundly, he doubted she would notice.

Removing the book, he lifted her hand and moved it aside to make space. Slowly, he lowered himself onto the bed beside her, stretching out and wriggling closer until he could feel her breathing on his skin. He could see every eyelash clearly now, even in the gloom.

Suddenly she shifted and he almost jumped, but she didn't wake, merely snuggled up to him and took fistfuls of his shirt in her hands, her bangs tickling his neck.

Something rose up from his stomach, strong and commanding, making him tremble. He wrapped an arm around her back lightly, pressing his chest against her curled fingers.

Tezumi was happy. She was drowsing comfortably against something radiating heat and moving slightly, up and down, resembling the rhythm of her own breathing…

Her mind, though not yet fully awake, ground in to action.

Heat? Her pillow didn't give off heat.

Where was she?

Home, in her room, wasn't it?

What had she just been doing?

She remembered reading, and then feeling very tired. She'd dozed off watching someone at her desk with a small watering can—

Her eyes flew open.

Abruptly, she awoke. In a flash, she had rolled over out of his reach, and was sitting up, glaring at him. 'What, exactly, are you doing?"

Thankful that he was still there talking to her and not flying through the air into the front yard, Fuji tried to placate his girlfriend. "I was watching you."

Her eyes narrowed on his lame excuse. "Wouldn't you have had a better view from over there?" She pointed out the door.

Fuji agreed with her readily. "But you looked rather cold…"

"It's summer and I'm sweaty."

"Well…" Fuji attempted to look innocent, as though there was a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why she had found him in bed with her. "You looked like you wanted a hug…?"

For a moment, Tezumi simply stared at him haughtily. "Idiot."

She swung her legs off the bed. "Come on, it's time to eat."

Fuji stayed where he was. When the cat's let out of the bag, a tensai goes all the way. "I haven't had enough of you yet," he said daringly.

She sniffed. "What do you want now?"

Pulling her to him, he licked his lips impishly. "You."

He thought this would shake her, unnerve her, most likely. He thought she would blush and look away, submitting quietly to his lips which were inching steadily nearer to hers. Hey, she was his girlfriend. He knew what worked.

But all she did, after shoving him away unceremoniously, was say one word.

"No."

"Tezumi," Fuji wheedled, embracing her from behind.

Disentangling him from her, she said, "Nope, no kiss. You already got a lot more than a kiss's worth."

Except he hadn't even done anything. Not really. "But Tezumi…"

Ignoring his whines, she marched him down the stairs.

"Just in time for dinner," Tezumi's mother said warmly. 'Sachie, your father said you'd fallen asleep. Did you leave poor Syusuke-kun with nothing to do all this time?"

Fuji observed the girl out of the corner of his eye. What would she say?

"Of course I didn't. He amused himself by watching me."

Fuji smiled broadly. "I drew her," he elaborated.

Tezumi looked at him, wide-eyed and horrified, but he only smiled all the more. He was already looking forwards to…watching…her again.

Author's Note: I don't know whether I should raise the rating to this. I mean, it's a bit sensual, even if nothing did happen because of course Fuji is the perfect gentleman. Seriously, I thought so too. But then this came out the way it did, and there went his gentlemanly image. But he just hugged her, so it really shouldn't be categorized as T or higher, should it? If you think it should, please let me know so I can change the rating.