A few minutes passed, and the rain started to weaken. Weak enough for people to walk under an umbrella.
"Don't you dare wake her up, Awagami!"
Yes, the rain is already weak, but why is Hina shouting this to him? Because Aoi was soundly sleeping on Yuu like a little kitten, and Hina doesn't want to wake her up from such a blissful rest.
"I know, and I won't."
"Good." Hina smiled, and followed it with a "Let's go, Sora."
Thus the two had gone on their jolly way home. The other students in their classroom also left, leaving only the two, Yuu and Aoi sleeping on his arm.
"..." Yuu stared at the sleeping Aoi for a while, "... Just a little won't hurt… won't it?"
And so, gently, Yuu patted her head and touched her hair for a while. She was soundly sleeping and didn't show any signs of waking up, so Yuu continued. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥… Yuu thought, and had stopped patting her, and took a textbook on his bag.
He decided to read the ones he didn't get to understand due to the glares all over him, so he used the free time he has to finally read it.
But, a problem had arisen that he just realized…
"Ow…" his arm began to hurt since Aoi was there, he tried to gently and slowly remove it, but one more problem had come.
… 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦, 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘶𝘱 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘮 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯…
And so, left with so little choice, Yuu took a face towel out from his bag which he usually carried for emergencies of getting wet under the rain, and placed it on his lap. Then, he took his other hand and supported her head with it, lifting it slightly, enough for him to take out the arm she was resting on, and replace it with the towel he folded.
𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴… Yuu sighed in relief that Aoi didn't wake up from it. Seeing her sleep so soundly again without any problems, Yuu decided to continue reading, but…
𝘜𝘶𝘶…. As expected, Yuu couldn't focus, the cute face of Aoi in front of him was too much for him, so he spent most of the time staring at it, rather than the textbook. So, he gave up. He closed his textbook, placed it back on his bag, lowered his head, and stared at her.
𝘔𝘮𝘮𝘮…. 𝘍𝘶𝘶𝘶𝘶…..
"Cute…." Yuu silently said as he stared at Aoi who was sleeping so soundly and so cutely while releasing some gentle breaths.
Once again, Yuu gently patted her head as she soundly slept.
"Nnn…" then, Aoi's eyes twitched and she began to rub them, as Yuu instantaneously pulled his hand away.
"Eh, Ah— G-Good morning, Aoi…" Yuu panickingly said as he tried to act natural, greeting her as she slowly stood up.
"Mmm… nnn? Ah— It's already this late?!" Aoi looked around at the surroundings, and eventually the wall clock on their classroom, seeing the shorter arm pointing at 5.
"..." after looking at the clock, Aoi immediately stared at Yuu.
"Wh-What?" Yuu said with a smirk on his face.
"You… stared at my sleeping face and decided not to wake me up. Right?" Aoi said, not loudly, not silently, but more importantly… not angrily.
"That's… uhm…. Yes…." Yuu eventually gave up on making excuses after looking at her calm, yet embarrassed face.
"..." after hearing his reply, Aoi immediately turned all red on it, and quickly hid her face down at the table, whispering "Dummy Yuu…"
"Yes. I'm sorry. I'm a dummy. I'm sorry." Yuu apologized as Aoi chuckled.
"Just kidding, it's not that I hate it… but… please refrain from doing it somewhere like this, at school…"
"Well… Hoshizora-san said so…"
"Hina, huh…. Well, she's the type to do those kinds of stuff. But…"
"Hm?" Yuu, who was keeping the textbook in his bag, looked at Aoi as she paused.
"...nothing…."
Aoi stood up and looked away, picking up her bag. In her thoughts, she knew that saying Thank you for only looking at me is too much for her, so she backed down with an embarrassed face.
"Ah, it's still raining…" Aoi said as she stared outside, waiting for Yuu who was walking behind her, seeming to have just finished putting his shoes on.
"Well, it's not that hard compared to earlier. Wait, you don't have your umbrella? Here." Yuu nonchalantly opened his umbrella and placed her under it. The umbrella he had was fairly big enough to fit two people, and they both aren't that big so it's the perfect size for them.
"Eh, th-thank you…" Aoi was clearly surprised, not flustered, as he suddenly offered him an umbrella.
The two began walking, or rather, they have stepped away from the school entrance, until Aoi suddenly paused and looked at Yuu.
"Eh, wh-what's wrong, Aoi?!" Yuu said as he saw Aoi practically teary eyed and pouting at him.
"W-We… can't hold hands?" Aoi asked him a question that made him chuckle.
"Pfft. Sorry, we can't. We'll get wet if we do. But…" Yuu handed her the umbrella, "We can at least do this much…."
As he had given her the umbrella already, Aoi was holding it firmly, until Yuu had placed his hand on Aoi's, firmly gripping it along with the umbrella. After that, Yuu walked and Aoi followed his momentum and walked by him, side by side, until they had left the school already.
"Your hands are cold… Aoi…."
"And yours are warm…."
"Is that so? Then…" Yuu held her hand tighter, but it was still gentle, not to hurt her hands. "I'll warm it up."
The two continued walking hand in hand, or rather holding the umbrella with both their hands, firmly. Until they had arrived home.