Okay, so maybe this hadn't been the best approach, and maybe just rushing in without a plan had been a stupid idea; but hey, it was how he always did things, and who was he to break his daily routine?

Besides, it wasn't like he was the only one who had rushed in, Yō and Asuka had been right there along with him. And yet, he was the only one getting scolded. Granted, it had been his idea to begin with, but it still didn't seem quite fair, now did it?

Still, he couldn't deny the fun he was having while watching and listening to Kuro Usagi angrily stomping (or was she hopping?) around the room as she lectured him for his actions. They had been in the room for about an hour now; an hour filled with angry pouts and disappointed looks thrown his way. Kasukabe and Asuka had certainly gotten off easy.

"Izayoi, are you even listening?!" She bit out, fists clenched as her pretty blue locks dyed itself pink. She was glaring at him just adorably, honestly looking more endearing than anything else. Izayoi was sure that wasn't her intention at all, which, oddly enough, just made it all the better.

He popped one eye open lazily, arms folded behind his head and fingers interlocked with each other as he stayed seated on the dark red couch, his ever-present smirk never fading. "No," he admitted quite bluntly while shrugging his shoulders, clearly enjoying the way her expression seemed to darken as she got more and more irritated by his words and behavior.

Sometimes, she was just too easy to play with.

Her red eyes glared at him as her pink ears twitched in both irritation and annoyance. He had to admit that it was very fun to mess with her, but it wasn't quite enough for him just yet.

"Oh, calm down, you dumb rabbit," he cooed affectionately, voice sounding almost loving as he pushed himself off the couch and to his feet. From the way her expression immediately changed from anger to surprise alerted him that she had picked up on the shift in his tone too. Her ears were highly sensitive, it seemed. Impressive.

He was almost certain his purple eyes were twinkling with mischief by now, but he tried to keep his expression as neutral as he could manage to, not wanting to tip her off on his plans just yet. "I was just having a bit of fun, wasn't I?" He took a step closer. "You should've known what you were getting yourself into when you brought us here, I very clearly stated my intentions of having as much fun as possible when we first met. Or am I wrong?" He took another step forwards and her eyes hardened.

"Your idea of fun may be a little destructive." Her tone was reprimanding, but he could easily tell how she really felt by the way her eyes were watching him warily and her cheeks tinted a light pink color; light enough for him to almost miss it if he hadn't been paying so much attention.

He shrugged. "Collateral damage."

"Izayoi, you can't just-"

He was in front of her now. "Relax," he breathed, face dangerously close to hers and smirk never leaving as he gently tilted her chin up using just the tips of his fingers. Her hair turned an even lighter shade of pink than before and his brows raised.

Oh? Well that was interesting.

"I-Izayoi!" She stuttered out nervously, voice turning high-pitched while her face matched the color of her hair and he just loved it. "Wh-what are y-you-"

"Didn't I just tell you to relax?" He cut in, fingers moving from her face and to the top of her head so he could lightly tug on her ears. "Don't tell me these are just for show, it'd be very disappointing if they were."

She yelped, hands shooting up as she protectively shielded her ears from harm and looked up at him with puffed out cheeks while sporting a just adorably annoyed expression. "K-Kuro Usagi's ears are not just for show! These wonderful ears are-"

"Connected directly to Little Garden, I know." He chuckled, playful smirk fading into a soft smile as he watched her. In response to that, Kuro Usagi felt her cheeks heat up even more and she quickly looked away.

What was going on?

Kuro Usagi watched with alarmed eyes as the blond's expression suddenly turned absentminded the longer he stared at her, he reached up, and she yelped in surprise as his hands started running through her hair, taking one strand to play with and weaving it between his fingers before letting go and restarting the process. "You're really pretty, you know?" He muttered, voice sounding distant and eyes focused solely on the lock of pink hair between his fingers.

The Little Garden Aristocrat stilled completely, eyes snapping up from watching his fingers in favor of focusing on him to try and read his expression. He was playing with her, he just had to be. No way would he say something like that just out of the blue and with no ulterior motive-

Izayoi's eyes glanced up to meet hers, head tilted slightly and her hair still in his grasp as he smirked devilishly up at her. She tried looking for anything that could tip her off that he was just playing when he uttered his previous words, but as she looked more thoroughly and behind his sinful expression; all she could see was sincerity hidden behind it. "What's wrong?" He asked almost innocently and the rabbit nearly laughed at the absurdness of it. Sakamaki Izayoi was many things, but innocent was not amongst those things. None of the three Problem Children were, not even the soft-spoken and withdrawn Yō. Still, Izayoi was by far the worst out of all three. The current situation was enough proof of that.

He tugged a little on her hair to get her attention to shift back to him, and she blinked up at him in surprise. He was standing straight now, wearing an almost thoughtful expression on his face as he stared down at her. His lips twitched up after a moment and it didn't take long for his smirk to resurface like it usually did. Kuro Usagi leaned back in surprise as he suddenly moved closer, leaving almost no space between them as he moved his head close enough for their noses to almost touch. "Aren't you going to tell me?" He spoke, voice dangerously low and enough for it to force shivers down Kuro Usagi's spine. "Or should I guess? Which is it going to be, little rabbit?"

"T-tell you w-what?" She questioned, voice nearly a whisper as she stared straight into his eyes. Her mind wasn't working at one-hundred percent at the moment; still set on the fact that this was actually happening and she didn't know how to react or if she should run away or not. Little rabbit? Where had that come from? She thought he was content with just calling her a dumb rabbit, as insulting as that may be.

"Guessing it is, then," he grinned, blatantly ignoring her question as he faked a thoughtful expression. "Let's see... You're trying to figure out why I'm doing this, aren't you? You're obviously wondering if I'm being serious or if I'm just messing with you, and I have to admit; it can be pretty hard to tell the difference sometimes, but I'm pretty wounded, Kuro Usagi. Do you really think that lowly of me?"

He pulled back, enough for her to breathe again as he put on a hurt expression with one hand over his heart. She knew that he was faking it, that much was pretty clear. Still, seeing him looking at her with those hurt purple eyes just made her own heart ache for some strange and completely illogical reason, and she was quick to correct her apparent mistake. "N-no!" She exclaimed quite loudly. "K-Kuro Usagi didn't mean that at all! She thinks that Izayoi is actually a pretty gentle-" she needed to stop, now. "-And smart person and that you have many-" stop it! "-Great qualities!"

By the stars of Little Garden, what was she saying?

Izayoi took in her mortified expression with a hint of surprise, not having expected to hear that at all. It was a nice confession, don't get him wrong, nice enough to boost his ego by a mile, in fact. It just was a little unexpected, that's all, but that didn't mean he wouldn't mind hearing more of that. Not at all.

He smirked, eyes turning hooded as he leaned down again to meet her at eye-level. He waited patiently for her to react, since she still wasn't looking at him, but when she sensed his presence, she peaked up at him from in between her fingers and let out a soft squeak that had Izayoi wanting to just pull her closer and not let go because even he couldn't deny how adorable that little sound was. "Kuro Usagi~" He sang lowly, and she tensed up; her rabbit ears mimicking her body. "Don't-"

The doors burst open. "Izayoi, get away from her!" Asuka ordered, being careful not to use her powers on him. Yes, she was ordering him, but she absolutely refused to control her friends and betray their trust in that way. Besides, she wasn't even sure she could use her powers on the purple eyed trouble maker. Many other Gifts had failed to work on him in the past, so why should hers work? Asuka had to admit, she was a bit curious to find out if it would work or not, but again, she refused to defile her friends like that.

With a smirk, the blond pulled away from the stuttering and reddened rabbit, hands in his pockets as he turned to face the two girls walking in. "Relax, Ojou-sama*, I wasn't doing anything wrong."

"You really shouldn't mess with her too much," Yō cut in softly, gently stroking Calico Cat's fur on top of his head with her fingers as she stared at the pair. "I know you're just playing, but I think you overdid it this time."

Izayoi raised a brow and turned to look sideways, grin just widening as he saw the state the trembling and madly blushing rabbit was in. "Okay, maybe you're right. I may have overdone it, but it was worth it."

Asuka sighed and shook her head, eyes cast downwards as her fingers touched her forehead, wondering just why this boy was one of her closest friends to begin with. Sure, they all liked messing with the somewhat uptight rabbit, who wouldn't? But from the looks of it, Izayoi had done more than just play with her, Kuro Usagi looked nearly ready to burst.

"What are you two doing here anyway?" He questioned, expression looking bored and contradicting directly with his voice as he actually sounded interested. "Were you hoping to get lectured by this dumb rabbit as well?"

Kuro Usagi glared at him, slightly regaining her composure. So they were back to 'dumb rabbit', weren't they?

"Heavens no," Asuka responded, a little too quick for Kuro Usagi's taste. What made it worse was Yō frantically shaking her head at the question. She didn't know if she should be proud or not, she settled with not. If her lectures were that terrible, the Problem Children shouldn't be causing so much problems in the first place. Maybe she should start making her lectures worse, although she doubted that it would work. They were just too stubborn for their own good.

"We heard Kuro Usagi scream, so we came rushing in to see what's wrong," Yō spoke softly.

"Quite loudly, I may add," Asuka commented, succeeding only in making said rabbit blush again; her hair had shifted back to dark blue though, a sign that she wasn't as worked up as she had been before, at least. "Kasukabe and I thought that something may have happened after hearing you scream, but apparently, we were wrong. After seeing what we walked in on, however, it's a good thing we told Jin and Leticia to stay behind."

Izayoi smirked as the girl beside him let out a mortified yell. "Well, that would've been awkward," he joked, clearly not caring if they had walked in or not. "Although, it may have been fun to see their faces, right, Kuro Usagi?"

Her eyes turned fierce as she glared up at him, whipping out her paper fan seemingly out of thin air and hopping up to smack him in the head with it. "Kuro Usagi does not find that funny at all! You were clearly out of line just now and-"

"Oh?" Izayoi cut in, smirk turning dangerous again. "Was I really? You didn't seem to mind all that much, you know?~"

At seeing his devilish expression return, Kuro Usagi faltered, her face reddening again.

"Kuro Usagi, we know about your affections towards him, but you aren't really trying much to hide it, are you?" Asuka scolded, tone disapproving but expression clearly betraying her by showing how much enjoyment she was getting out of this.

"Affection, huh?" Izayoi smirked, playing along. "Well isn't that interesting."

"N-no! Th-that's not t-true!" Kuro Usagi yelped, completely mortified at what was happening right now.

"Really? Your little confession earlier seemed to hint at that though, I think you're just lying to me."

"K-Kuro Usagi is not!" She cried out, hopping slightly in place to emphasize her point as her ears stood upright and her hair dyed itself pink once again. She was so worked up and focused on the two demon children in front of her that she didn't even notice the third one slipping behind her and grabbing her ears with amazing speed and an evil glint in her eyes that contradicted with her usual personality.

Yō grabbed both ears in her fist, tugging lightly at them with a mischievous grin. "Your ears move according to your emotions, just like a real rabbit's!" She noted in part adoration and part mischief. They were ganging up on her now, and Kuro Usagi didn't like it. She always felt helpless whenever the three worked together just for her torment.

"Stop it!" She cried miserably, drawling out the words longer than necessary while her hands reached up and held her ears out of reach for the animal-lover to touch and play with.

"Come on, Kuro Usagi!" Izayoi comforted playfully. "Didn't I tell you before? We're just playing a little!" His eyes darkened as he set his eyes on her, sinful smirk returning. "Surely you remember, I don't think you'd forget all that easily; or do you need me to remind you?"

Kuro Usagi's face reddened once again as she let out a yell of frustration.

In the end they really were Problem Children, and from the looks of it, they wouldn't be stopping anytime soon; enjoying her despair way too much to quit.

But then again, they wouldn't be themselves if they would.


*I usually stay clear from using honorifics and such because I don't understand shit when it comes to that, but Izayoi calls her that in the light novels, so I stuck with it.