Title: Passing a Note of Friendship
Fandom: GARO Makai Senki
Rating: PG
Length: 1369
Content notes: Spoilers for episode 19 events and characters. High school AU.
Author notes: My brain decided a high school AU might be fun for the "anywhere but here" challenge. A random choice of fandoms later, with some encouragement from my friendslist (apparently it is possible to write a highschool AU of a horror series, despite what I thought), caused this.
Summary: Mio tries to introduce her friend's brother to the girl he's been mooning after, and Kaoru makes a new friend.
 

"Oh, hi!" Kaoru hadn't seen the girl leaving the library before nearly colliding with her. Somehow, the school uniform looked almost too big and poofy on her. "Sorry for almost colliding with you." She vaguely thought that the girl might be part of the library club.
 
The girl was writing something on a notepad, before holding it up to Kaoru, who read it out loud. "It's all right. I wanted to meet you anyway. Can we talk?"
 
"Um, sure," Kaoru said. She didn't really know the girl, but she was always willing to try to make new friends. And if she was in the library club, she probably knew a lot about the library, which could only help Kaoru finish her schoolwork.
 
More writing. Kaoru had to admit the girl had gorgeous handwriting. "Let's meet outside. I'm Hirano Mio."
 
Mystified, Kaoru followed the girl outside. "So, what do you want to talk about?" she asked.
 
Another piece of paper. "I want to talk to you on behalf of my friend's younger brother."
 
"Oh." Kaoru tried to think of who that might be and why he might want to talk to her. Maybe he wanted to get painted! Or maybe he wanted to join the club but he wanted to talk to somebody first. She didn't blame him; she'd tried joining the cooking club and had been kicked out - something about accidentally poisoning the teacher.
 
She had to admit she enjoyed the Painting club. She'd been sketching Kouga-kun fighting with Tsubasa-san during Kendo club. Kouga-kun was probably the gruffest, most anti-social person she'd ever met, but he'd saved her several times from bullies and she'd like to think that he liked her. It might be that he was just a protector at heart, though. She knew that Kisargi Gentaro was trying to get him to join the Protectors' club, but he seemed uninterested in it. Or maybe it was just that he dislaked Kisargi Gentaro.
 
"He keeps telling his brother and me that he'd like to go out with you, but he never seems to work up the courage," Mio-chan wrote. "Last time, he was so busy looking at you that he wasn't very careful with what he was making, and it blew up on him."
 
Kaoru vaguely remembered an accident that happened with the engineering club, but she couldn't remember the details.
 
"So, could you go out with him?" Mio-chan wrote. "Or at least talk to him?"
 
Talking Kaoru could do. She liked getting along with people, and she tried to be easily approachable. She didn't think that she could date someone, not while she was trying to get Kouga's attention. Or maybe she had it. She wasn't sure, never with him.
 
"I think I can do that," she said. She made sure her bag was securely on her shoulder before getting up. "Lead the way."
 
"Thank you," Mio said via her notes. "Sigma and I will be so happy if you would."
 
Kaoru suspected that Sigma was the shy man's brother, but she didn't ask. She didn't want to tire Mio out, as the girl probably had to write a lot of things each day just to communicate.
 
As she and Mio walked, Rei-kun caught her eye. She sometimes thought that Rei-kun was interested in her too, but it was hard to tell. Whereas Kouga-kun was stoic, Rei-kun was easygoing and it was hard to read what he really felt behind his smiling face. Kouga-kun just basically failed to communicate most of the time, but Kaoru tried to not let it bother her.
 
Rei-kun smiled at her and waved, and she waved back, but she was more interested in where Mio was leading her.  She followed the girl to where the labs were, where a young man was leaning against a wall, arms folded. "Hi, I'm Sigma," he said, giving her a bow. "My little brother Leo's gotten busy on a project - he'll probably be a while."
 
He wasn't bad-looking in his own way, but nice-looking didn't always mean nice, as Kaoru had learned the hard way.  She'd take frowns over smiles any day if it meant that she could trust a person.
 
Mio-chan signed something with her hands at Sigma-kun, and he signed right back at her. They exchanged several sets of signs before Sigma turned back to her. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "Mio and I are used to talking that way. She's mute, but not deaf."
 
Kaoru had figured that out, but only smiled. "You two are part of the Library Club, right?" she asked. It would pass the time while Sigma-kun's brother was in the lab.
 
"Yes," Sigma-kun told her, smiling back. "I'm the book lover of the family and Leo does wonders with machines. And swords - I keep telling him he should join the Kendo club, but he's stubborn. But I guess everybody has to grow up and away from their family a little, don't they?"
 
His smile turned bitter for a moment, but he shoved it back to a happier smile. If Kaoru hadn't been an artist, used to looking at peoples' faces and movements, she might not have noticed. Mio-chan seemed to have missed it.
 
"I'd really like to meet your brother," Kaoru said, deciding that she might not want to hang around Sigma too much. Something in him made her unsettled. "Do you think you could disturb him?"
 
"Normally, I wouldn't. But I think I will, this time." He shook his head at something, and went inside. Mio-chan folded her hands and smiled at Kaoru.
 
After a few minutes, two figures emerged. One was Sigma, still dressed comfortably in his jacket; the second had obviously discarded his, and he had a pair of goggles around his neck. He was protesting at Sigma-kun for interrupting his work, while his brother nudged him outside. He stopped arguing once he got a glimpse of Kaoru, however. "Oh, um. Hello! Pleased to meet you. I'm Fudou Leo."
 
He looked at his brother as if asking permission to escape back into his lab. "Pleased to meet you too, Leo-kun," she said, returning his bow. He looked identical to Sigma-kun, except his hair wasn't as neatly brushed. "I understand you wanted to talk to me?"
 
"Um. Yes! But now's not a good time." He looked at Sigma-kun again, then Mio-chan. "I… I have to finish this while I still can."
 
Sigma-kun rolled his eyes, signing something to Leo-kun. Leo-kun signed back, and there was another exchange that Kaoru wasn't privy to.  Finally, Sigma-kun pushed Leo-kun forward. "Just go talk to each other. I'd like to get you back."
 
Back to what, Kaoru wasn't sure, but she smiled. "Let's go, Leo-kun. I promise it won't take long."
 
Leo-kun took one last look at his brother and then followed her out.
 
"I'm really sorry that Mio and my brother interrupted what you were doing to have you see me," Leo-kun said, looking down once they stopped. "Mio's a romantic. She always wants people to be happy."
 
"Oh! I was just walking down the hallway! Don't worry. I always like to meet new people and make new friends." He probably needed them, given his brother, who was probably overprotective of him. Sometimes people just needed a little help to bloom. Or a lot.
 
"Thank you," Leo-kun said. He seemed prone to bowing. And being polite. "This might be too forward, but I'd like to be your friend."
 
"Would you like to be a model for Painting Club sometime?" she asked. "I'd take you to lunch!" It might bring him out of his shell a little and she'd get to know him more.
 
"I'd like that very much, thank you," Leo-kun said, folding his hands in front of him. She doubted he was volunteering as a model for that reason, but first steps were first steps. "If you're sure...."
 
"I'm very sure."  She smiled at him. He might turn out to be like his brother, but he might not. It was a little hard to tell, but Kaoru was willing to take the risk. Friendship, with him and Mio and maybe even Sigma, might be worth it.
 
Maybe, someday, she'd get the courage to ask Kouga-kun out too.