Hana Kimi Fan Fiction ❯ Years Away From What I Need ❯ Dance Lessons ( Chapter 15 )

DISC: I don’t own Hana Kimi or the characters. They belong to Hisaya Nakajo. Please don’t sue. I’m not profiting from this story, other than the benefit of the joy of writing it.



"Quit your complaining. At least you don't have to wear a damn dress like I did when I was learning how to dance!"

The boy cocked his head at that. "You had to wear a dress for the dance?"

Scowling at the memory he responded, "No. Just at the lessons. But there were several boys who had to dress like girls for the dance. St. Blossom's attendance was down that year." He struck a pose and made fun of himself, "Apparently, they didn't think I was pretty enough to be a girl. Can you believe it?" He feigned indignation.

Masa laughed. "Yeah, actually."

"Okay, back to the lesson. Just hold my hand so you won't get lost. Listen to the music. Hear the rhythm? ONE two three, ONE two three. Listen for the beat. Step with the beat. ONE two three. One two three. Okay, that's it. Feel the rhythm." He let go of the boy's hand and said, "Keep walking in time wih the music. One two three, ONE two three. You're doing WAY better than I did back then."

The boy stopped and turned to look at the coach. "Really?"

"Really. But I was a little too distracted to hear the music at the time. There was a girl I liked in the room, and I could only think about how it would feel to hold her in my arms."

Stepping in time with the music, Masa walked across the floor. "See, I knew they were full of it. You weren't gay in high school."

Nakatsu blushed and shook his head. "So, now keep in time with the music, but imagine that Sakura is in your arms." He was not at all surprised to see the boy lose the music and begin to stumble.

"Ah! You've lost the music. You need to make the music part of you." He put his hand on the boy's chest and started tapping the beat. "Feel it here. The beat is like a heartbeat. Like a string. And because she feels it too, it connects you. It gives you something that you share, so you don't have to worry about whether she likes you, whether you're good enough. You're connected through the music. Now, she's in your arms. She's got the beat in her. Feel it in your heart. And move."

He smiled as the boy stepped across the floor in perfect time with the music, a small dazed smile on his face as he imagined Sakura with him.

"Good. You've got it. Now let's try a 4/4 piece of music."

X

Moving with the music was the easy part. Box step, where to place his feet, he picked up on that quickly, too. Nakatsu even played the part of the girl so that he could practice the steps with a partner. After just a week of practice, the kid had most of the basics.

BUT, the hard part of learning to dance is learning to lead. For that, he could see he would eventually need some additional help.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Every Monday, Wednesday & Friday for two weeks, Masa came over, worked in the garden for about an hour, which was followed by a dancing lesson. Then a shower while Nakatsu cooked dinner. Officially, though, these nights consisted of gardening for two hours, followed by dinner. The home-cooked food was supposedly the going exchange rate for the manual labor. To allay any possible suspicion, Nakatsu offered to let others on the team join in the deal. But Masa kept it just the two of them by warning his classmates about what a tough taskmaster Nakatsu was outside of school. He came home just dragging - as if he'd been required to lift cases of bricks and dig ditches the size of the Erie Canal every night. He talked about how great Nakatsu's Osakan cooking was, but - as expected - no one was willing to join in on the "fun."

Throughout their sessions, Nakatsu grilled the kid on his motives: what made him tick, what was his interest in Sakura, why Sakura, what were his intentions, what he wanted to do with his life, why he thought Sakura should give him the time of day. Mostly, he kept this grilling concurrent with the gardening projects or dinner. The dancing sessions were grill-free.

As they were digging the hole in which the pond would be built, each of them a shovel in hand, "So what do you think you're going to do when you graduate, Masa?"

"I'm going to college - to study structural engineering."

"Really?" Nakatsu measured the depth of the hole. "And what will you do after college? Hey! We're deep enough for the pond now!"

"It doesn't look deep enough to me, I think we'd better go another six inches."

"The instruction kit says three feet." Nakatsu scowled at the brat who was making everything more difficult in every single one of the projects they'd started.

Masa just nodded his head. "Yeah, I know, but once we get the pond base in, we're going to build a little foundation around it with those landscaping stones, right? If we want it to look right in your garden, especially considering the groundwater depth in this region, and make sure that when the snows come it doesn't freeze solid and crack the base, we need to go another 6 inches. Trust me. Plus, we can use the extra soil over there - so that we can do a raised bed for the violets."

Smirking and shaking his head, "Well, if you want to dig another 6 inches..."

"Hey, I'm just telling you how to do it right. If you don't believe me, that's fine. What do I know? You're the teacher, I'm just a student. But you'll have to reinstall the whole thing when the freeze cracks the base."

"You're planning to be a landscaper?"

"Nope. I want to work on skyscrapers and find out ways to make them earthquake proof!"

'Hm... That's pretty cool.' Without another word, Nakatsu started digging deeper, and Masa followed suit.

XXX

As they were lugging stones to landscape around the pond base they'd installed - which went over and around the copper pipes that connected the base of the pond to the motor that pumped the water up so that it could then run down those same rocks in a mini waterfall: "So how do you know Sakura-imouto, anyway?"

"I... don't know her really. Not really. It's just... at the sports fest, there were displays and my roommate - well, my roommate from last year - they give us our own room as third years - anyway, last year, Tonami was part of the tennis event, and so I went to watch, and some of the idiots from Dorm 1 were commenting on how stupid it was to share the sports fest with St. Blossom's, because girls don't have it in them to be any good at sports." He began to laugh at the memory. "Sakura must of heard it, because she challenged that NO one could beat her at tennis, not a boy or a girl. They laughed and scoffed, they were actually gonna walk away from her. And she, she said, 'Well, I guess there aren't any real men here if you're all too scared of a girl to accept her challenge.’ Tonami leaned over to me and said, 'If anyone DOES take her up on it, they're a fool.' Of course one of the third years from Dorm 1 did. He talked all big about putting the little girl in her place. She just smiled and said, 'Coin toss for first serve? Or are you so scared that I need to just let you serve first?'

"That guy, I can't remember his name, but he was always such a jerk to everyone. And he about went apoplectic at her comment. He called a third party to do the coin toss."

Nakatsu noticed that Masa didn't stop working while telling the story, and he was pleased to see the boy grinning like a fool as he remembered it all.

"As luck would have it, she won the coin toss and he wasn't able to return a single serve. She won without him so much as touching the ball to his racket. Everyone was cheering, and she asked him if he'd like a rematch - she'd let him serve. Of course he took her up on it. She returned every serve, and he wasn't able to hit a single ball coming over the net at him. Man! We were dying, laughing at the fool.

"He ended up muttering something like, 'Yeah, well tennis is a woman's sport anyway.' I don't think he knew she'd be able to hear him, because she retorted, 'I'll take you on in any sport you like, any day. I don't think you look like that much of a challenge, though.' And the moron picked karate. She set down her balls and racket, walked over to him and said, 'You sure about that?' He grunted an affirmative, and she... LAID HIM OUT!" His story was interrupted as he began laughing so hard that Nakatsu couldn't help but to join him.

"The thing is, afterward, he called her a dyke, but... I saw her fighting him. Throughout all of it, she... was so beautiful. I thought I was watching a goddess." He sighed dreamily. "Well, back to work..."

He picked up the stone he'd set down as he'd begun laughing, and put it in place, finishing off the high wall of the pond.

Heading back to the house to clean up, he confessed, "After that day, I... I went to every tennis match I could, just to see her again. When you see her play, it's like... like... Like a sunset."

Nakatsu smiled, and said to the boy, "Inside. We dance."

X

As they danced, he said, "Do you think she'd ever like someone like me, Sensei?"

Nakatsu's face got serious. "If you're supposed to be together, it will happen, boy. That may be the only thing I know for certain about life. You can't control fate.

"BUT!" He smiled, "That doesn't mean you shouldn't go after what you want."

X

At dinner, Nakatsu asked him questions about his personal life - where did he grow up (Kyoto), any siblings (two sisters - one older, one younger), why did he come all the way to Ohsaka Gakuen (great, well rounded school where he could study hard and train hard, too) - things like that. Occasionally Masa would fire questions back, but Nakatsu dodged anything that might not already be common knowledge about the ex-football-hero.

Before Masa left for the night, Nakatsu stopped him. "Tomorrow. Extra practice. We'll have a guest teacher here, so that we can teach you how to lead."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


Tuesday. As Nakatsu & Akahori passed through the school gates on their way to "work on Sensei's garden", Nakatsu decided to check in on the boy's frame of mind for the special lesson.

"We've been working on the garden for two and a half weeks now."

"Yup." They continued walking in companionable silence.

"Any new rumors about me?"

"Hm. Not really. Except..." He blushed and got an angry look on his face. "Some guy from dorm one - he claims his oldest brother went to school here back when you were a student, and he..." He growled. "He keeps trying to claim that 'cuz I'm working at your house, that you must be missing your high school days when you had a thing for a classmate."

Nakatsu looked startled and replied, "No worries. I'm no Umeda."

With a look of shock that faded into genuine amusement, Masa started laughing. "I didn't know you knew he was gay!"

"Dude, a blind and deaf man would know he was gay. If you met his sister, you'd understand why he's gay, too! His OLDER sister, that is." Seeing the questioning look in the boy's eyes, he continued, "I worked for her one summer while I was going to school here. She can be really nice - and she can be REALLY SCARY!"

His student smiled at that, but Nakatsu could see the curiousity straining to be released.

"You want to hear about my time in school, don't you?"

Feigning indifference, Masa replied, "Whatever." He was a really bad actor, though. Like a comic book character, this was a boy who wore his emotions out in the open for everyone to see.

With a mock old-person voice, Nakatsu began, "Well... When I was a boy..."

Masa laughed, and he continued in his regular voice, "There was this transfer student from America. This student was roommates with my best friend at the school. And this student quickly became one of my best friends, too.

"Um...Have you heard the legend of the girl who disguised herself as a boy and came here to study - the legend that the board swears never happened?"

Incredulity was the emotion of choice, and Masa's jaw literally hung open.

Using a monotone voice that clearly declared that the opposite of what he was saying was the truth, Nakatsu droned, "For the record, there was never a girl from America who got into the school. She did not get found out by the students before any teachers found her out. She was not the most wonderful person I had ever met at that time, nor did I declare my love to her, thinking she was a boy, in front of the whole school. She did not choose to leave the school without being kicked out so as to not embarrass the school. And she did not fall in love with my best friend, marry him, and have three kids."

Masa practically jumped up and down shouting, "You're FREAKIN' KIDDING ME!"

Blinking his eyes repeatedly, he responded innocently, "What? I just said none of that ever happened."

Masa walked a few minutes in silence with his eyes wide. Eventually he came back with, "So I should assume it didn't hurt like hell when she chose your best friend over you?"

Nakatsu smiled sadly for a minute and said, "That's about it. But you know, if all those things HAD happened, it would have been for a reason."

"Like...?"

"Like, if there had been a girl dressed as a boy, and I had fallen for her, and I had - oh, I don't know, followed her to oh, say... Umeda's sister's summer resort to work as a busboy, then maybe I would have met someone that I would run into again 14 years later when she was all grown up and... maybe I would have fallen in love, and... Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'd buy a house and fix up a garden with all her favorite flowers so that when I proposed she'd know that she was more wonderful than... Anyone else on the planet?"

They walked along in silence for a few more minutes. Masa waited til they were almost at the house before speaking. "You really are a romantic, aren't you?"

"I must be. Otherwise I wouldn't be teaching your fool ass how to dance."

"So are you ever going to tell me the name of your girl - you know, just so I can keep an eye out for her for you while I'm at the dance?"

Nakatsu grinned. "I thought you'd be too busy with Sakura to even notice anyone else."

The boy blushed furiously and Nakatsu just laughed.

XXX

As they'd completed the pond/fountain, and all the associate landscaping, including the raised flower beds needed for planting violets in the spring - turns out you don't plant those in the fall - all that was left to do now was plant the iris bulbs. With the two of them working, it only took about 1/2 hour.

As they entered the house to begin the dance lessons, Nakatsu stopped the boy at the door. "Your guest teacher is here today. She got here about 15 minutes ago." He smiled, remembering seeing her sneaking into the house so that the boy didn't see her. "I just want you to know that if you tell anyone anything about this person who is here to help YOU, that I will make sure to let Sakura know that you can't be trusted - and believe me, she'll believe me."

Masa looked at him with a mixture of confusion and hurt that Nakatsu didn't trust him. "What? You got your girlfriend to help?" He'd meant it sarcastically, ironically. But when Nakatsu glowered at him he realized that this is exactly what was happening.

"She's not only my girlfriend, she's Sakura's roommate." And he muttered under his breath softly, thinking Masa'd never hear, "And a year from now, she'll be my wife."

"Sakura's r- roommate?" The boy paled as they entered the house.

Turning the corner, they saw Kyoumi sitting at the desk, working furiously in her notebook as she had no real homework that night. Nakatsu cleared his throat and Kyoumi said, "Just a second, love," and continued writing fervently.

Masa looked at the back of the girl ahead of him - damn if she didn't have the most beautiful hair he'd ever seen - then turned to look at Nakatsu, who had the goofiest grin on his face as he saw her there writing. His teacher turned to him and whispered, "She's a writer," like it was the most amazing thing, and he couldn't be prouder of her, and Masa struggled not to laugh. Seeing his expression, the former blonde got a bit indignant. "What?"

Masa lost it and started laughing out loud, just as Kyoumi closed the book and turned around. "Sensei, you're so Cuuuuuuuuuute!"

Turning to Kyoumi with a help-me-out-here look on his face, she responded, "I can't disagree with him, dear. You are very cute." She raised her eyebrows at him, smiling.

"Gah!" He groaned. "Now I've got three of you to pick on me. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all." But he was smiling throughout.

X

The dance lesson began with Nakatsu taking Kyoumi and dancing while Masa watched. He called out the important parts before he did them: "I'm about to run out of wall, so you'll note that my hands gently will guide her to turn - left hand on her waist pushes forward a bit, and the right one pulls just a bit on her hand. She understands this subtle cue to turn." Or: "I want to spin her now, so what I do is I hold tightly onto her hand and push on her waist in the direction of the turn - like so. Did you notice that when I pushed on her waist while holding her hand, she knew it was a turn so dropped her hand off my shoulder?"

After they'd run through the basics once, it was Masa's turn to dance with Kyoumi. His hands landed on her very tentatively, and then Nakatsu stood behind him, putting his hands on Masa - hand on waist, other hand on his arm. They began a basic waltz, and Nakatsu would gesture with hand signals, then Masa would mimick the hand signals, and Kyoumi followed the leadings. There was some timing confusion, but soon, he'd gotten the trick, and Nakatsu let him go on his own.

After they'd managed a couple of dances with basic moves, Nakatsu took Kyoumi back into his arms, and they began to demonstrate some more advanced moves. Then it was the three of them til Masa got the feel of it. And finally, Masa alone with Kyoumi. The last dance, Masa ended with a giant flourish-dip, and they all knew that - provided he didn't get all flustered - he'd be able to keep up with Sakura.

Nakatsu watched this boy take his girl, dance with her, and was surprised that he didn't find the urge to kill rising. That is, until he dipped her. At that point, he heard his inner voice yelling, "MINE!" and he had to squash it down.

For revenge, he sent Masa to take the first shower while he had one last dance with his girl. Then he took her in his arms and danced with her - the way they had on their second date, letting his love for her flow through his body, down his arms, through his fingers, and into her. At the end, he dipped her and then pulled her in for a searing, passionate kiss that lasted several minutes. Finally, their lips parted, and, foreheads still touching, they looked deeply into each others' eyes.

An "Ahem" from the doorway brought them out of their embrace, and the two jumped apart guiltily.

"Um. Shower's free," Masa said, his cheeks glowing with embarassment.

Nakatsu squeezed Kyoumi's hand and then sauntered off to take a shower - leaving the two high school students alone.

"Akahori-kun, please, come into the kitchen and I'll get you something to drink while Shuichi starts dinner."

"Thank you, Kagurazaka-san," he replied very formally.

"Ramune okay?"

"That'd be great." He followed her at first a bit timidly, then as he thought about it, a bit more eagerly. "So... uh... you're... Nakajo-san's roommate!"

She smiled, "Yup!"

"We don't have roommates for third years here - they want us to concentrate on our studies more."

"I know. We're lucky enough to get the option, and... I got used to having Sakura around - I don't know if I could get along without her very well."

His eyes got dreamy and he said, "That sounds nice." Realizing she might take that the wrong way, he quickly added, "Being able to keep such a nice roommate, I mean, not having Nakajo-san around all the time. Although, that sounds great, too, but... I mean..."

She started to laugh. "I know what you mean," she said, kindly, as she handed him his bottled beverage.

He was quiet for a few minutes as he expertly popped of the seal and then snapped the marble down into the neck. He took a small sip and then decided to ask her. "So... um... I know I'm nosy and all, but..."

She looked at him curiously, and he continued. "Coach hinted that you guys met a long time ago, and I was just wondering - mostly because I've spent so much time with him lately, and he always seems to want to talk about you, but he stops himself because... well, because of the school board being idiots. But... You know, I've kind of fallen for a girl that I've spent time around, but I don't think she even knows who I am, and so, I get worried that maybe we're not destined like you two are and then I think, well, I don't even know how they really met or anything, so how will I even recognize destiny if it hits ME, and... I'm rambling. I do that."

She was chuckling and she said, "Just a bit. That's okay though. Shuichi warned me you do that when you're excited or nervous."

"Man, it's so weird to hear him called anything other than Nakatsu-san, coach, or Sensei."

"Yeah. Well, we talked about whether to let you even know that I'm the mystery girl from St. Blossoms, but he thought he could trust you to not tell tales."

Standing proudly, he declared, "I'd rather be hit by a car than betray my sensei's trust. Besides, anyone could tell just by looking at you two that it's the real thing you've got here. Anyone who wanted to try to get in the way of that would have to just be messed up!"

Laughing softly, she said, "I'm actually surprised that you want to hear about Nakatsu and I rather than about Sakura-chan."

He grinned at her and said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I know enough about Nakajo-san to want to get to know her better, and I'd really rather do that in person. Anything I hear from you or Sensei will be third hand, and, well, that's not the way I'd like to know her. If she doesn't like me, then... I'll probably be happier that I don't have too much to hang on to, and if she does like me enough that she wants to get to know me, too, then - that's really the best way to go about it!

"But Sensei - I get the feeling that he'd like to have someone - hell, everyone! - know that he's in love with you, but he really doesn't seem to have anyone he can really talk to, and... well... I just really like the guy. He's the coolest teacher - the coolest PERSON - I ever knew, other than Nakajo-san, and, well, since he's not ALLOWED to tell me anything..." He spread his hands, one of them still holding the Ramune bottle, in a helpless gesture.

She smiled softly. Then raised her head and looking over his shoulder said, "I like him. I think we should keep him around. If he and Sakura don't hit it off as a couple, I know she'll at least like him as a friend."

Placing one hand on the boy's shoulder he said, "You think so? Hmmmm... Well, he does work pretty hard - he makes a damn good gardener."

Masa rolled his eyes. "Oh great! Today you finally find yourself capable of taking a quick shower instead of leaving me bored out of my mind and starving to death. Today! When I have someone to talk to -" he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You don't actually think I'd try to steal your girl, do you? Cuz I'd have to be a moron to even think about trying for a girl who was so obviously in love. Not to mention you might get pissed off and kick a rock and break your foot."

Kyoumi laughed so hard at their new friend's comment that she almost fell out of her chair, while Nakatsu threw his hands up into the air in defeat, then spun and said, "You're funny," before walking into the kitchen to cook them all dinner.

Akahori leaned toward Kyoumi conspiratorially and said in a stage whisper so that the cook could hear, "It's okay. I was just joking. I'd really never try to steal you because if I did try it, he'd actually kill me. And I'm kind of fond of being alive."

Kyoumi just giggled, and the two sat down in the living room to chat until dinner was served.

X

"Wow. That's some kind of history you two have. I have to say, you...You were kind of..."

"Dedicated?" she queried, hopefully.

"I was gonna say psycho, but that too."

She laughed and replied, "Yeah. I knew it, too. But, still... I couldn't give up on it. I tried. A lot."

Masa's face grew thoughtful for a moment and he said softly, "So is that how fate works?"

"I don't know," she replied honestly. "I think in our case it feels like fate. All I know is that I've always felt like a part of me was tied to him. Of course, that could just be part of the psychosis. But since I'm happier than I ever remember being EVER, I don't care if I AM crazy."

"Well, personally, I think it's cool. Really romantic. And I guess, I'm almost as much of a romantic as Sensei."

Popping his head into the living room, Nakatsu responded, "You know, you used to call me Coach like all the others on the team. When exactly did I get promoted to Sensei?"

Blinking up at him, the boy calmly responded, "When you agreed to teach me about romance."

"I never agreed to teach you about romance."

Masa rolled his eyes. "Riiiight. Building a flower garden to match the one your girl grew up with, teaching me how to dance... There's no lessons in romance THERE!"

Kyoumi giggled, and looked up at her love. "Just think how much fun this is going to be when Sakura and he are in the same room!" Nakatsu groaned in response and turned to leave the room moaning, "Dinner for anyone who still has an appetite. I think mine may be ruined."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX