The Dream Shifter

Chapter 148

It caught her a little off guard, but Yumi hastened her pace. "I'm free. Did you need something?"

"Oh thank you, Yumi! It's been a while since we sent some water for Ayumi and Yuki and I've been trying to find someone." Kaede looked exhausted and flustered from running around unable to find someone to help her. "You know someone that could…"

"I'll do it!" Yumi said quickly losing her composure for a moment before she fell back into an embarrassed reserved stance. 'Oh why did I just say that out loud so fast without thinking?!'

Kaede bounced up pleased and relieved to have found someone that would help her. "Oh thank you so much Yumi!" She grabbed a hold of her hands thanking her. "You're a real friend!" After a quick round of gratitude she handed over the bottles that she needed delivered.

Yumi took them a little too delicately trying to overcompensate for her embarrassment early and tried to appear more natural. Unfortunately, one of the bottles did not make it fully to her hands as a result and dropped on the ground. "Oh no! I'm so sorry Kaede!" She bent down picking up the bottle that was dent and dirtied from the fall starting to worry over its appearance. "What am I going to do!?" She showed Kaede the bottle's damage.

"It's okay, we have plenty more!" Kaede swapped out the bottle and made sure that she had a good hold of it. "Thanks again!" She waved Yumi off and smiled a little to herself. There had been a little bit of an excited glow in Yumi's cheeks that she had caught making her sigh a little.

"That's pretty sneaky of you," one of the other girls said coming up behind Kaede having watched the scene unfold.

Kaede returned her a mischievous grin of someone that was playing matchmaker. "Sneaky?!" she exclaimed feinting being offended. "I was just having my best friend deliver water. I don't know what you're talking about."

The female student stopped to stand next to Kaede watching Yumi very eagerly heading off to Yuki, who sat in front of the school concentrating. "You accepted him pretty quickly."

"He's different from before. I can trust him with her now."

"What's the betting at for how long it takes him to realize?"

"He's a boy, so we're all saying never," teased Kaede grinning back at the girl. "We'll probably have to do a little more meddling."

"Definitely!"

Yumi rushed along towards the school until Yuki started to become very near and she suddenly became more self-conscious about her actions. She stopped herself immediately and tried to calm herself down before approaching him. 'He's right there! No! I need to calm down! I don't want to be out of breath and unable to speak to him! Can I speak to him? What should I say?' Her mind spun thoughts as quickly as they came to her. It had practically shut her down left stalled behind Yuki. The only thing that saved her was Yuki noticing her. 'Oh no! He can see me and I'm just standing here not saying anything! I must look so strange to him right now! I should just leave before I embarrass myself anymore!'

Yuki had his eyes closed, but felt a sense of someone or something behind him. He had turned his head over his shoulder staring at Yumi expectantly waiting for her to talk. The longer that he stared the more it seemed that she was shaking and looking like she wanted something, but only seemed to confuse Yuki even more. Eventually curiosity managed to save Yumi from self destruction. "Were you needing something?"

"N-needing? Some-something?" The more that she stuttered the deeper she fell into regret for saying anything. Her face was turning red so fast it looked like she had suddenly developed a sunburn or fever. 'I'm talking to him, but I can't even say anything! What should I do!? What he must think…' Yumi fumbled over her hands with the bottles becoming increasingly nervous. One of the bottles of water slipped out of her hand and slid down her leg. She quickly scrambled to catch it before it hit the ground making a reflexive jerk of her leg that through off her entire balance knocking her on her butt, but managing to rescue the bottle in a very clumsy manner.

Each second that passed for Yumi felt like an eternity of being the absolute center of attention of everyone in the world with them only possibly thinking how stupid she looked at that moment. She had completely frozen up sitting on the ground turning her face the deepest shade of red she could possibly muster up. Yumi did not think it was possible to feel as embarrassed and small as she did at that moment.

Yuki was not sure what happened, but got up to try to help her out. "Are you hurt?" He offered her a hand up.

'Yuki's hand! He's staring right at me! What do I do!? What do I do?!' Yumi looked down at her hands trying to decide her action. It was then that the bottle in her hand suddenly reminded her of what she was supposed to be doing. She quickly jerked her hand forward not even looking at what she was doing, so nervous still, trying to hand off the bottle. "W-water…bottle! I-I…"

The attempt to hand it over failed a little as it bumped into his hand and went to the side out of reach. He realized that she was giving it to him and accepted the water taking a short sip. "Thanks a lot, Yumi!" he said sounding a little overly excited by it. "Did you need help up?"

When Yuki started to move near to her again Yumi's face, which had been starting to recover, turned back to red instantly. "N-no-no! I'm fine!" She jumped up on her own a little too quickly, trying to prove to him that she could do it. It left her a little lightheaded, but she stumbled away wanting to run away as soon as she could. "I'm sorry for interrupting your work!"

"No it's quite alright!"

"I-I'll be going then!"

"Thanks, Yumi!"

"You're welcome!" Yumi hustled off quickly fearing already that she had over stayed her welcome with Yuki. She turned her head a little back to look at Yuki one last time. He had already started to focus back on his work with the school. There seemed to be something off with him. She could not tell what was wrong, but the way he was acting felt different than before. 'He seemed so distant when he wasn't talking to me…' Her mind began to dwell on the matter even more as she lost focus on the world around her.

She could remember the last couple of days seeing Yuki. Each of the images that she could recall from memory had Yuki with a similar appearing distant look. It looked like he had a heavy weight on him always somewhere else in his mind. Calling it pensive did not seem to cover how deep it seemed at times. The more that Yumi thought about it the more it bothered her. 'Should I ask him if I can help? But if he wanted help he would have asked me, right? Yeah, I shouldn't intrude! But…'

There was a different image of Yuki that came to her suddenly. When she had been just talking him to he seemed happy. 'He's usually happy and expressive, but he seemed even more than normal…I think… What's he hiding?' Yumi started to feel as though he would not be acting as he was if there was not something he was keeping to himself. The behavior seemed to be trying to cover up for what was troubling him; that she felt she could be certain. '…but would he talk to me? Doesn't he talk to Saki all the time?'

Yumi caught out of the corner of her eye Ayumi walking out to met with Yuki. 'Ayumi! I've got her water! I can't believe I forgot it! I'm so stupid…' She began to walk over to meet her, but could see her already standing next to Yuki. When she had seen them talking it made her hesitate not wanting to interrupt them. However, she could not turn herself away. There was something compelling her inside her to stay and watch. She became lost in the scene not realizing what she was doing.

'I wonder what they're talking about…' The longer that she watched the more she could see that Ayumi looked like she had a brighter glow around her than she remembered. 'Did she always look that happy?' Yumi had suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest that forced her hand up to press against the pain to comfort and relief it. 'What's this feeling…why does it hurt so much all of a sudden?' The pain seemed to grow stronger for her as Ayumi's expression grew while talking to him. She thought that she could see Yuki look like he was starting to respond with a natural smile not pressed down by the thoughts that clung to him. It had reached a point that Yumi's hand was tightening around the water bottle for Ayumi warping the plastic where her fingers pressed.

Eventually, they separated and it felt like she had just been released from shackles that had held her suspended for weeks without rest. All the strength in her legs drained out of her dropped her to her knees. She still had no idea what to think or feel. The pain that had been stabbing at her chest seemed to have faded. 'Why do I feel this way?!'

Yuki had been so focused on Ayumi that he never even noticed Yumi watching them. When she had left he returned back to concentrating on his work to keep it stable. From what Ayumi had explained to him before their powers were not meant to be used for extended periods due to the fatigue that would be caused to the mind. An individual would simply become so exhausted that they would no longer be able to stay conscious. So it had been a struggle for him to keep it going for hours at a time. He saw it as further training for him as he had realized that there was still a lot of refinement that he needed.

The work on the school had not left him very much time to think since he did not was to risk losing focus. However, his mind would wander from time to time. It had become increasingly more difficult to keep the thoughts out of his head in the most recent days. Yuki knew that it was not going to be a subject that he could avoid forever. It had troubled him when Demosthenes had arrived and as a result it allowed him to forget about it for a time. There was no more running away from the facts or the problems that he faced. He knew that he had to start facing them and accepting what he had to do. Yet knowing it did not making it an easy for him. Hesitation was still deeply rooted in his heart.

Late afternoon arrived for Yuki quickly giving him the end to his work day. He had released his field and began walking out to the tent to get a cloth to wipe away the sweat. It might not have been physical labor, but his body still seemed to get worked out as though he was doing exercise. Yuki looked around the school grounds taking note that most of the students were heading out as well. He waited for Ayumi and Saki to return before leaving to go home. Saki had insisted on traveling together after the fight that Yuki got into with the super human g**g members.

Saki had been the first to meet up with him, which frequently seemed to be the case lately. Yuki did not understand it, but was starting to notice that she was finished faster than others and typically out pacing everyone else. He had not thought too much of it since he knew that she was part of the track team and her training made her more capable. There still remained a nagging feeling that he was missing something.

"Ready to leave?" Ayumi called out as she arrived a few minutes later. Saki and Yuki turned to meet her approach.

"Yup!" Yuki shouted quickly.

The walk back had remained fairly quiet between them as Ayumi and Yuki did not have much energy to hold a lengthy conversation. Saki became accustomed to the pattern and simply walked not saying anything until the intersection brought her to where she had to leave them. Yuki broke from Ayumi at his house watching her walk away. As he stared his mind started up with his hesitations and fears that had been endlessly replaying for him.

'They aren't your real family!' shouted Ayumi's voice in his mind recalled from the past.

Yuki's hand tightened as he felt his chest squeeze in pain. He turned away from watching Ayumi hoping that he could forget what he had heard. His house was before him, but hesitation had become too strong for him. Yuki forced himself to walk to the door and enter. Jun and Ken greeted them cheerfully. He accepted their insistence to drag him out into the living room. There were some cards spread out across the table from something that they had been playing.

"Let's play!" Ken said speaking up for Jun. Jun gave Yuki an affirming nod and matched Ken's anticipating eyes.

A small sigh escaped his lips before he gave them an eager to please smile. "Alright, but I won't go easy on you!"

"Yay!"

Momoko came into the room a few minutes later having been watching from the kitchen threshold. She stared across the table down at Yuki, who was seated on the floor playing around with Jun. There had been brief glances at each other and Momoko knew that he had been avoiding her. It reached a point for her that she could no longer ignore it. "Yuki…we need to talk…"