autumnleaf16

Title: Poisoned hands
Written at: November 23, 2007
Summary: A incident at the weekend caused a misunderstanding amongst some of the regulars in Shtenhouji to wonder whether Shiraishi’s left hand really is poisoned or not!
Word count: 1099
Note: This is more of a random drabble, so no overall theme.

Due to the approaching Kansai regional, the regulars of Shitenhouji were all quite tense in their own way: Shiraishi was even more obsessed with getting everything to perfection; Koharu and Yuuhji were telling more jokes then usual; while Watanabe seemed to be smoking so much more then before.
That was why Kenya was not really surprised to see Zaizen being a bit absent minded. But since he was a good fuku-buchou, he decided to talk with his kohai even at the risk of being told to leave him alone.
“Kenya-fuku-buchou…” much to his shock, Zaizen actually addressed him this way before he even said anything. As the two of them were quite close, Zaizen would only address Kenya as fuku-buchou instead of senpai if the situation was quite serious.
“I know that this is going to sound really stupid,” Zaizen began, his tone rather hesitant, “But do you think it is possible that Shiraishi-buchou was not lying about his hand?”
A long silence passed as Kenya spent a very long time staring at Zaizen before he started to laugh.
“Are you really Zaizen?” Kenya finally asked. “Or is this Kintarou in disguise?”
“I am being quite serious!” the second year protested rather indignantly, which naturally caused his senpai to laugh ever harder.
“Zaizen…you are telling me that you actually believe that Shiraishi’s left hand is poisoned?” Kenya asked when he finally managed to stop laughing.
“Because I saw Shiraishi-buchou during the week end and he actually put his right hand in a bucket before he poured sand over it! And haven’t you realised that he kept his right hand hidden completely today?” Zaizen explained, his tone rather worried.
Kenya had to frown as this was true. Shiraishi hade his right hand in his pocket the whole time, deliberately doing every thing with his left hand. Whenever Shiraishi recorded stuff down during tennis practise, he would hold a clip board with his right hand and write with his left hand, but today he actually placed the clip board down first before he started to write with the same hand.
It was possible that Shiraishi’s right hand was injured, but why would he be putting his hand in the sand- the method to make his hand ‘poisoned’?
Kenya quickly shook his head as he realised the absurdity of his thoughts. Was he turning into a kid in pre-elementary school by believing in stuff that can only happen in fantasy manga?
“He probably has his own reasons in…”
His word trailed off as Shiraishi happened to enter the club room. Both boys observed their buchou carefully, especially taking account of the fact that his right hand was still in his pocket, and due to the slight gap between the end of his jumper and pocket, they could see that bandages were around it.
“There must be a valid explanation,” Kenya whispered out.
“But what about the sand?” Zaizen hissed back. “And why is he deliberately hiding his hand as if he doesn’t want any one to know that it is bandaged?”
“What is with you two?” Shiraishi finally asked, since the two of them were both looking at him in a very strange way.
“Buchou…your hand…” Zaizen began.
“Oh, I got injured during the weekend, my cousins’ cousin’s dog bite me.” Shiraishi explained rather easily as he began to unwind the bandages. The two other boys exchanged a slight look before they both slowly walked up in order to get a closer look.
“Is my wound really interesting or something?” Shiraishi asked dryly as he threw the discarded bandages into the nearby bin. He frowned a bit as he raised his right hand in order for a closer examination. “I don’t really need to have my right arm bandaged, but my aunt just panicked and grabbed a whole roll of bandage.”
“Why were you hiding your right hand the whole day?” Kenya asked.
“What do you think? It is because I look really stupid with both hands bandaged.” The answer was so simple that Kenya and Zaizen could only blame themselves for not having thought of this themselves.
“And I can’t have my left hand un-bandaged. Well, I could, but there is no way I am going to wear a jumper the whole day.” Shiraishi continued.
“What about the sands?” Zaizen butted in as he shared what he saw on the weekend.
“Zaizen…please don’t tell me that you actually believe that my hand is poisoned.” Shiraishi finally said after having a similar reaction as Kenya.
“No, but I was just wondering why buchou was having sand poured over his hand and then bandaging that hand and hiding it! It just all seems too strange.” Zaizen pointed out.
“I got bit by that dog as it was trying to bite this cat and…”
“Gosh, Shiraishi, I didn’t know that you are that type of guy! Rescuing kittens in your spare time.” Kenya teased.
“Well I didn’t think that either of you will actually believe that my hand is poisoned.” Shiraishi retorted back calmly, immediately silencing them. “I had to rescue that cat because my cousins wanted me to. They then wanted to keep that cat so I went to buy some sand for them- which is necessary in keeping a cat. I had my hand in the bucket because I was trying to measure how much sand that I should buy.”
“And that’s it?” Zaizen and Kenya examined out in the same time. There was nothing out of ordinary in his story at all, yet they had both been mislead into thinking that some strange factors had been at work.
“That’s it. Now, are you two going to practices or not?”
As he watched the two of them leave, both teasing the others for having ever consider the possibility that his hand might really have been poisoned, Shiraishi couldn’t help but to laugh again.
His day today has been quite good. He told Ashita that he had to use his left hand to write as his right hand was injured as soon as she arrived. It was important for him to tell her because she was right handed and sat to his left, so his elbow might bump into her’s if he did not warn her about the fact that he would be writing with his left hand.
She had not answer him, but later on she wrote him a note asking him whether his wound was serious- making him wonder whether she might actually still care about him.
This was enough to make him smile and be happy for the whole day.