written for dicey because she is a gem.

(1)

Seijuro is playing with her hair when she says very quietly, "University is coming. There is an open house at the one I applied to a few hours away."

He pauses his ministrations for a few seconds, before picking the piece back up and twirling it around his finger. They lie across his bed, him in his boxers, her in his shirt and her panties, and he is way too comfortable to be talking about things like university. He'd only just gone on break a few weeks ago and doesn't want to think about it at all. He'd rather lie here with her and talk about his mom.

But she's looking for a reply, so he says, "Oh yeah?"

And she says, "Will you come with me?"

Sei frowns slightly, shifting so he can better see her face. She looks almost embarrassed, but he has no idea why she would be. Obviouisly he'll go with her, if only because it'll be time they get to spend together, and then they can get a hotel room and—

"Yeah, sure," he says, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to her temple. She grins at him brightly, darting forward to catch his lips in a proper kiss. Despite the fact that it's only been half an hour since their last round, he feels his dick twitch in his boxers as she shifts to straddle him, holding his face between her small hands.

His hand comes up to cup her bottom, pulling her more flush against him, but then she says, "I can't wait to tell Nagisa! Maybe the others will come now!" And Sei feels every sexual thought flutter from his mind, and he drops his head back onto his pillow, wincing.

"What? What's wrong?"

(2)

"I think," Nagisa says cheerfully, "It'll be very fun."

A collective sigh erupts from the people around him, all but Gou, who nods, and Seijuro, who really could not care less. Rin is looking particularly dramatic and stupid tonight, Sei thinks, so he is not surprised when the redhead says in a very loud tone, "No."

Gou slumps against Seijuro's arm, pouting at her brother for a second, before kicking Haru lightly in the leg. "Why not? Haru would love the pool there, and you guys wouldn't even have to spend the whole day with us—"

"—except you, Rei-chan, you would show us around!"

"—and it'll be a really nice bonding experience!"

Rin, ever the grump, looks at her like she's crazy. "We've already picked universities. Why would we want to go with you to pick yours."

"Why not?" Nitori asks on Gou's other side, frowning. "Senpai, it would be a lot of fun, and I would really like your opinion on which university I chose."

"Yeah!" Gou and Nagisa say at the same time. Rei sighs, Makoto rubs his head sheepishly, and Haru blinks at them.

"Okay," Haru shrugs, looking out the window beyond Gou's shoulder. "Why not?" And Sei figures if Haru's going, the rest of his fan club will follow along, too.

He smiles when Gou and Nagisa climb to their feet, dragging a very reluctant Nitori after them, dancing around in a very ridiculous manner.

(3)

He presses a few quick kisses to her face, hoping nobody spots them hiding behind the vending machine. Sei can hear the tour guide's voice as he talks about the building several feet away from them, but he ignores the guy and focuses more on kissing his girlfriend.

Gou is pressing her hands against his face and giggling as he presses his lips across her cheekbones, eyelids, nose. "You're so ridiculous; stop!" She's laughing when he kisses her, just a press of lips. "What's with you?"

Her eyes are bright and filled with mirth as she stares up at him, and Sei is reminded of just how lucky he is to have a girl like Gou, seriously. She tucks her hands between the crook of his elbow as he cups her face and pinches the skin as much as she can. "C'mon, as much as I like kissing you, I think we should get back.

"Ah," Sei smiles sheepishly, sliding his hands down and resting them against her neck. "I was wondering if you'd mind if I went with the others to the pool? I mean—I already go to school so this is all kind of…moot, I guess. And boring."

"Oh," Gou's eyebrows furrow for a second, before smoothing out once more. She gives him a small smile and nods, slipping out from under his arms. "Okay, I'll see you later."

"Wait, wait, wait," Sei calls, grabbing her hand and tugging her back to him, "Are you sure?"

"I—I mean, yeah. Sure." She shrugs, hefting her purse up higher on her shoulder. "It's whatever."

"'Kay," Sei grins, leaning down and pecking her on the lips.

(4)

"It's not a big deal," she hisses to him, tugging on the sleeve of his swim jacket. He's still glaring over at their tour guide, but when she hisses his name in an even lower tone and adds a kick in his shin for good measure, he pulls his gaze away from the tour guide and onto her, hoping all his annoyance is conveyed in the look he's giving her right now.

"Can you stop? He's my tour guide—he was just being friendly!"

"He was flirting with you," Seijuro sneers, pulling his arm out of her grasp. "Quite obviously, too."

"Well," Gou snaps, stepping away from him and staring hard at the small diner her brother and his friends told her to meet them at, "maybe if my boyfriend hadn't ditched me to go swimming, I wouldn't have put up with it."

Seijuro sighs, scrubbing a hand through his hair. So…so maybe he had ditched her, but he'd asked if she minded and she'd said no, although in hindsight that might have been one of those "girl things" his sister warned him about when they first started dating, especially since Rei and Nagisa had left her, too. Either way, he gets that it was shitty of him to ditch her to check out the pool, especially when it turned out to be pretty shitty compared to the one at his school, but that doesn't excuse her for—for letting that guy flirt with her! "Don't turn this around on me, Gou."

Sniffing, she turns away from him completely, stomping toward the diner with a very significant sway to her hips that he notes gets the tour guide's attention again. Seijuro makes sure to shoot the guy the finger and follow after her, though every attempt at trying to touch her is out-maneuvered by her slipping from beneath his arm or away from his grasp.

Damn.

(5)

Dinner is awkward, at least for Seijuro. Gou keeps acting like nothing is wrong and is forcing her brother to try the Western dish she'd gotten, despite his insistence that he's had it before and hated it and the only people who seem to think anything is wrong are Nagisa (who seems to know everything and gives Sei a weird vibe sometimes) and Makoto, who is like their team mom, so he's not exactly surprised.

Still, when Sei gets up to go to the bathroom before they leave, he's a bit surprised to see Makoto follow. He figured the guy cares about Gou, but Sei really hopes he isn't going to try and give him advice. His girlfriend is kind of pissed at him right now—things will blow over. Probably.

Regardless, Sei finds himself standing before a urinal while Makoto washes his hands, "So…is everything alright with you and Gou?"

"Fine," Sei says automatically, then, "It's…I mean it's not any of your business."

"She's our friend."

"She's my girlfriend," Sei argues back, feeling very awkward that they're talking while he's peeing. Still, he feels the need to defend himself.

Makoto laughs a bit, but it is all very humourless. Does he do this to each and every one of his teammates' boyfriends or girlfriends? Probably, he seems the type. Sei is just surprised he's getting the "treat her right" speech now. Rin had given him a very violent version when they'd first started dating, and Nagisa has given him a very strange and vaguely threatening version, but Sei though Makoto would have known better. "You know, our Gou-chan is very sensitive."

"Yup," Sei says, making his way to the sink, except Makoto is in the way. "Excuse me."

"I would fix whatever it is that has her upset," Makoto says very seriously, the smile never leaving his face. Sei is pretty freaked out. "Because if Rin finds out that you've done something to bother her, I can promise he won't be as nice as me."

"Does it bother you that all your little ducklings are fucking, mama duck?" Sei asks just to be a dick. And he's pretty sure that Rin and Haru are doing something of the sort, and naturally Nagisa is an enigma, but Sei had seen the hickies on Rei at their joint practice and Nagisa seems like the type.

Makoto breathes sharply through his nose, but doesn't make any further moves, doesn't even say anything back, which makes Sei feel a little bad. "I'll see you back out there, Mikoshiba."

Sei chokes when the other boy pats him on the back—it's more like a punch, really.

(6)

Seijuro feels a tick begin over his eye as they drive along the freeway, night air ruffling his hair. In the backseat, the Iwatobi swim club, Matsuoka, and Nitori are asleep, all curled into each other in some way or form, even though it all looks very uncomfortable. And in the passenger seat is Gou, who keeps playing with her window, opening it a crack and closing it, staring blankly on ahead. This, of course, is the source of his tick.

"Stop," he snaps after she does it three quick times in a row, much to his utter annoyance. Gou ignores him and does it several more times, obviously because she's difficult, and since he is too, he locks her window when she tries to put it back up. The wind whips her bangs around her face and she struggles with that for a few moments. Seijuro tries very hard not to feel bad, and when she finally stops and just glares at him he rolls her window back up, keeping the lock on anyway.

Huffing, Gou leans back in her seat and crosses her arms over her chest. Sei is very glad that her brother and team mates are asleep, or in Nagisa's case, feigning sleep, because he knows he'd probably get into an accident arguing with them about him arguing with her and things would just not turn out well. It's not his fault she's being difficult, and it's definitely not his fault he's got a temper. It's mother natures, obviously.

He wonders briefly if they'll talk about their little "problem" before they reach the hotel, but figures they won't; she belligerent when she's angry and he's explosive sometimes and he doesn't want to bother everyone else with their problems. Especially not her brother, even though he would probably agree with him on this, still. It's between them.

She's relaxing slightly now, shoulders dropping and she props her feet up on the dashboard of the van, wiggling her toes and pressing them against the window slightly, even though it leaves ten little toe-marks. She's tired and he is too, only the nearest hotel is an hour away.

He glances in the backseat to see if any of them had woken up, then curses all of them for ditching the tour and going to swim in the huge Olympic-sized pool and exhausting themselves, because if there is anything Sei hates more than ditchers, it's driving at night.

Gou's fingers are resting carefully on her arm rest in a very obvious manner. Or maybe he wants it to be obvious. Either way, Sei wonders if he should reach for it.

He does a quick pros and cons thing in his head—pros: she'll hold your hand back, cons: she'll dig her nails into your hand and yell.

Sei can handle a bit of pain. He reaches for her hand slowly, keeping his gaze focused on the road ahead and definitely not looking at her face, even though he can feel the heat of her gaze on him. They both jump a bit when their fingers touch, and then she links their pinky fingers together.

Sei exhales very slowly.

(7)

Makoto is getting them all rooms at the little inn they've stopped at when he catches Gou arguing very quietly and very angrily with her brother. Both their faces are red and both of them are pointing at the other. On Sei's left, Haru makes an unimpressed noise, and Sei figures the two of them will be sharing a room or something. He likes Nanase fine, but he also knows that had she never requested they all come with them, then they probably wouldn't be in the little fight they're having, and they'd probably be doing all kinds of sexy things up in a room.

He's hefting his bag up onto his shoulder when the Matsuoka siblings come back over to them, right as Makoto and the others come back with the room keys. He tosses one to Rin, gives another to Rei, keeps one for himself, and tosses one to Sei.

Sei narrows his eyes when he realizes Makoto and Nitori are going to be sharing a room, and while he understands it makes sense to do so, he almost…wonders if there is something there. Before he has a chance to think more on it, Gou is beside him and taking her bag from his hand, pulling it onto her shoulder with a quiet, "Goodnight," to her brother.

Dumbfounded, Sei watches her flit away, casting him a look over her shoulder. Rin is looking at him too but with a much angrier expression and it hits him suddenly that he is being allowed to share a room with her. It also hits him that they're not on the best of terms, even though they'd held hands the last half hour of the ride there.

"Uh," he should follow her, right? Why was everyone watching? Sei sighs inwardly and starts after her, glaring back at her brother over his shoulder.

The last thing he hears before he and Gou enter the elevator is Nagisa, his annoyingly high-pitched voice yelling, "Be safe!"

(8)

He has no idea why she fought with her brother about sharing a room when she won't even talk to him. Actually, he's tried to initiate seven conversations so far, five of which were outright ignored, while the other two he had to suffer through dirty looks and angry words that she definitely shouldn't know and that her brother definitely taught her.

Seijuro sits on one of the double beds in the room, wondering if he should try for an eighth apology or go to sleep. He'll probably be driving tomorrow, since it's his sister's van and the others either don't have their licences, don't want to drive, or literally cannot because they're that horrible (Rin). It would be infinitely easier to just let this little tiff blow over, knows that he'll probably wake up tomorrow and they'll be fine again, but he also knows that Gou can hold a grudge for a very long time and he doesn't want to be on the other end of that.

He could wait for her to come out of the bathroom or he could just go in there, which would probably start another fight or…or maybe some really angry sex that has always made him feel better, and probably her too. Hell, it could work out in both their favors if she's up for it, but the thought of her reacting really badly and making Nanase switch rooms with her so she can share with her brother keeps him from barging in.

It does not, however, keep him from pacing outside the door.

(9)

She jumps when she opens the door and sees him pacing there, but her shock and surprise is quickly covered with a scowl. "Excuse me," she says pointedly, pulling her hair over her shoulder and running her fingers through it. When he just watches her, she snaps, "Move."

Sei's wonders briefly if he should make things difficult and just stay there, demand that they talk, but Gou doesn't seem to be in the mood at all. And then she is looking really red-faced and frustrated and she runs her fingers through her hair, getting snagged on a knot, then, "Seijuro, please move."

The thought of her breaking into tears has him moving quickly out of her way, only she's not moving. She's breathing harshly and still very red faced. Despite his better judgement and knowledge that she is very capable of breaking his hand, he rests his hands on her shoulders, rubbing and kneading the tense muscles there. "Hey," he murmurs quietly, moving his hand and letting it rest against her neck, thumb tracing over her pulse point. If any of the guys from his university or Samezuka saw him like this, they'd laugh their asses off. "I'm sorry, okay? For everything today."

Gou lets out a breath that has her whole body slumping forward, resting her forehead against his chest. "You were being so dumb earlier… and I was too. Sorry."

"S'okay," he shrugs, dragging his hand up and down her back. They stand like that for what seems like forever, just breathing against each other.

Her fingers start poking up along his spine, and he loosens his grip when she pulls back. The smile on her face is sly, much like her brother's, which gives him mixed feelings. "Were you actually jealous today?"

Scowling, Sei snaps, "Yeah, he was all Kou-chan this or Kou-chan that. Like shut up, man!"

She's laughing at him, reaching up to pinch his cheeks. "You're cute, y'know that?"

"You didn't think so earlier."

"Well, you're also embarrassing, so there's that. Now, kiss me."

He complies.

(10)

"Rin-chan was up alllllll night," Nagisa confides to Seijuro the next day over breakfast. Rin, who does look very tired, is fighting with Gou under their breaths again while Haru watches on. "So worried for our little Gou-chan," Nagisa sighs, blinking up at Sei. Is it weird that he thinks the kid is actually pretty? It probably is. "You two look much happier today."

Seijuro rubs the collar of his shirt, which is just long enough to hide the dark marks she'd sucked into his skin last night. "Yeah," he shrugs, taking a long drink of his coffee. "We're great."

Gou turns away from her brother with a flip of her hair, and Sei laughs when it hits him in the face.