bus ride
A week later a tourbus is waiting on a parking lot of the school, filled with the contestants of the 9-school tournament only waiting for the council president herself.
"Mayumi you're half an hour late." Mari berates her, leading her into the bus where everyone is already sitting in groups for the most part, chatting happily with only Miyuki frowning due to her brother having to ride on another bus.
"I'm sorry everyone. I got held up." Mayumi apologizes, standing at the front of the bus.
She then goes through the isle, looking for a seat and sees one empty besides Sosuke, on the window side.
"Do you want to sit here?" Sosuke asks the girl, standing up and going into the isle to make room for her to take the seat at the window.
"Sure. Thank you." She agrees politely as always while Mari fumes on the front of the bus, 4 rows in front of them not having seen that coming.
"So what kept you busy?" He asks her curious.
"Family matters." She replies with a fake smile.
"That bad?" He asks chuckling bitterly.
"No, just exhausting." She answers.
"Alright. If you want to take a nap, here, you can have my jacket." Sosuke offers, taking off the white and green jacket and holds it out for her, wearing a black dress shirt underneath.
"Thank you." She says smiling and accepts the clothing, rolling it up and puts it on the window while resting her head against it, squirming around while they start the drive however, not finding any good position to rest while the other students around them are chatting.
While trying to find a comfortable position she ends up leaning against his arm and wraps her hands around it while napping on his upper arm with his jacket as pillow.
"Why is the president so tired?" Shizuku asks Sosuke, sitting next to Honoka, who looks away flustered when her eyes meet Sosuke as he looks over to the two.
"Family business. Something I'm sure you're familiar with, you're family is one of the ten right?" He says, receiving a nod positive from the smaller girl.
Shortly after a boom is heard and a exploding car slides right at their bus, which stops but is exposed to the burning vehicle headed towards them. The students panic and all try to use magic at the same time, cancelling each other out "what happened?" Mayumi asks quickly focusing, only making a mental notice that her seat neighbor is gone while trying to get her fellow students under control and calm them down.
The group stops trying to cast magic and Hattori takes the lead, he is about to cast a slowing magic on the car wreck, only for it to fly right off the highway with no sign of how.
"What was that?" Mari asks relieved but surprised.
"At least the danger is gone now we can continue on our way. Everyone kewp this as a reminder that you need to stay calm as magicians. If you panic you will do more harm then good." Mayumi explains to everyone while the bus starts driving again slowly.
"Has anyone seen..." Mayumi then is about to ask looking around for Sosuke while standing in the bus' isle, only to see him right back where he was before.
"Sosuke. You disappeared." She says concerned.
"Don't worry president. Come, rest again." He says, holding out his jacket pillow for her.
"O-OK." She says confused, retaking her seat next to him and leans back against his arm, noticing him tense up and flinch at the contact slightly.
"Is something wrong?" She asks, looking up at him from against his arm.
"It'll be fine." He replies, although she can see him sweating a bit, which worries her.
"Tell me what's going on." She says pouting while looking up at him with puppy dog eyes.
"Fine. It seems Tatsuya used his disruption magic at a bad time." Sosuke says, pulling up his sleeve and shows her a burn on his forearm.
"You pushed off the carwreck." She realizes, receiving a nod as confirmation.
"You should get that treated." She says, getting up to talk to Mari.
"It's fine, really." He says but Mayumi is already bringing Mari over with a first aid kit.
"You don't need to make such a big fuzz out of this." Sosuke insists when Mari and Mayumi stand in front of him expectantly.
"Take off your shirt." Mari says, leaving no room for objection.
"Seriously?" He asks raising his eyebrow.
"Yes seriously." Mari says and he takes off his shirt, both girls getting eerily quiet at seeing his scar riddled body.
"What? Too sexy for you?" He chuckles trying to play off his own uncomfortable state.
Hearing a gasp from the side he spots Honoka and Shizuku looking over at him as well with tears forming in the busty brunette's eyes.
"What happened to you?" Mari asks curiously while starting to treat his burn with some ointment and a bandage.
"That's private." He says with an unaffected smirk, buttoning up his shirt again once she's done treating the burn.
"Either way, thanks for the quick action. It could've gotten really dangerous." Mayumi says gratefully.
"No need to thank me. But any idea why someone would launch a suicide attack on our school bus?" He asks quietly.
"We need to talk about this later. With Juumonji." Mari says before bowing in thanks to Sosuke and heads back to her seat next to Suzune.
"You can retake your seat you know." Sosuke says, Mayumi standing awkwardly in the isle of the bus.
"But your arm." She says worried.
"Here. This one is healthy." He says, taking the seat at the window and offers his other hand to her, Mayumi hesitating for a moment before quietly taking the seat, sitting in it uptight as if she were being judged on the matter.
"Now that's not the cute Mrs. President I have gotten to know." Sosuke whispers in her ear, before patting her head gently and pulls her into his side, Mayumi freezing up a bit before gradually enjoying the action and leans into his shoulder while closing her eyes contently.
"We will need to talk about this sometime though, you know." Mayumi says quietly, receiving a hummed yes in reply.
2 hours later the school bus stops in front of the hotel the students are staying at while competing in the tournament and everyone gets off while fetching their luggage.
"Wake up Mayumi." Sosuke says softly, brushing through her long dark hair slowly.
"Huh? Did... I nodded off again?!" She says surprised and embarrassed, red hue on her cheeks, while she quickly sits up from her napping position half on his arm, half on his lap.
"Don't you worry. You're very cute even when you're sleeping." He says with a smile whilw getting out of his seat and offers a hand to help her out of hers.
"Thank you." She mumbles quietly while blushing deep red, accepting his hand and gets off the bus ahead of him, Suzune already waiting with Mayumi's luggage. She hands the president her bag and notices her flushed appearance, shooting a look of suspicion at Sosuke, who only waves at her with a small smile as he leaves to fetch his luggage.
"You didn't have to get involved you know." Sosuke tells Tatsuya while fetching his bag.
"My sister was on the bus. Of course I would take action." Tatsuya says.
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Did the commander talk to you too about the presence here?" Sosuke asks. And receives a nod positive from his former coworker.
"Planning to do something about that?" Sosuke asks.
"Not yet." Is the emotionless reply from Tatsuya.
Sosuke then heads into the hotel after his schoolmates.
"Who am I?" He hears Erika's cheerful voice moments after entering the hitel and has her soft hands over his eyes.
"Erika, what are you doing here?" Sosuke asks chuckling lightly.
"Guess sneaking up on you is impossible." She says pouting playfully, Mayumi watching their interaction from the reception area with a feeling of uncertainty spreading in her chest.
"Not entirely. Seriously though, what are you doing here? I thought you hated using your last name to get into places." He says.
"I do, but I'll be working here. Or rather we'll be working here." Erika tells him.
"We?" He asks, seeing no one else from their group of friends.
"Yep. Now, you better check in." Erika tells him, nodding over to the reception.
"Yeah, probably a good idea. I'm guessing I'll see you around?" He replies, looking at the redhead.
"Yes. Very soon in fact." She says smiling excitedly.
"Good. I won't have to miss you then." He tells her in a whisper as he walks past her to the reception, making her blush and get determined to get back at him.
"Miyuki, you are close with Sosuke right?" Mayumi asks casually as the students are walking towards their rooms.
"Not that close. He knows my brother though." Miyuki replies.
"Do you know what is going on with him and Erika Chiba?" Mayumi asks.
"Ohh, are you afraid he will loose interest in you?" Eimi, a short redhead girl asks intrigued.
"Wha... what are you talking about?" Mayumi says feigning ignorance.
"Well Sosuke seems to like you maybe you want that all for yourself?" The girl says teasingly.
"Don't embarrass the president with her doomed love life." Mari says walking behind them.
"Mari!?" Mayumi says disappointed.
"What? Tell me I'm wrong." Mari says challengingly.
"Mean Mari and Eimi." Mayumi grumbles embarrassed and walks ahead of the rest of the group and disappears in hers and Mari's room quickly.