Monopoly
By: Shozetsku
Disclaimer/Warnings/Authoress Notes:

-I do not own Juvenile Orion, Sakurako Gokurakuin does, nor do I own "If Only She Knew" by Michelle Branch but I suggest listening to it while reading this, it's very fitting and the initial inspiration behind this fic. The monopoly bit was just an 'add on' I thought of later, but I don't own that either (but I own a millennium edition of the game.)

-ItsuKana, KanaMana, cursing, one sided love, threats of suicide and shonen ai. -- Don't approve of some of this? Don't read, but don't worry I'm religiously adverse to character death and don't think I have the stomach to write such a thing.

-Again, I got the inspiration from listening to a song and it will be angsty. This is the first JO fic I've posted so, be honest, but gentle. Oh, please note, this takes place not long after the manga ends and I will, to the best of my ability, try to keep them as in character as I can. My word as a humble writer to you, I will try!

X-X-X-X

If Itsuki's life were to be portrayed in the game of monopoly his card would read as thus: "Do not pass go. Do not go to Jail. Take your damn piece off the retarded game board and return all the little plastic houses or hotels, your fake money, and any cards you have. You lose. Goodbye." Admittedly Itsuki had never played monopoly in his life. The game of life would probably be a better comparison anyways, but Itsuki knew even less about that game. But he felt that Monopoly was a good way to put it because his most treasured thing in this world was being monopolized. Hence the name. But I digress you're probably wondering what was the source of his melodrama, well, the ugly truth was that it was skipping towards them at a speed that should not be possible to humans.

"Itsuki-kun! Haruna-chan! Have either of you seen Kaname-kun?"

"No, sorry Master, we just got here but Naoya was headed over to the gym and I think he might be there. I'm sure nii-san would love to be your escort."

Itsuki shot a dirty glare at his sister before hitching his trademark grin on his face and holding out an arm like gentlemen used to do when escorting ladies. "Of course, I'd love to infuriate Shiba-sempa—I mean, walk you to the gym." Mana giggled at Itsuki's antics and obligingly took his arm. "You're so funny Itsuki-kun."

Haruna watched them go and contemplated on the way to her own classroom why she'd gotten such a look from Naoya.

On the way to the gym Itsuki kept Mana smiling with various stories of his late night jobs. One on one she was really fun to be with but when the others were around Itsuki regretted being so near her. When they got to the gym Mana spotted Kaname right away started to stare in an awed sort of way. As soon as Mana Entered the room Shiba turned and looked incredulously at Itsuki, which cause him to get hit in the face with a ball. When Mana shouted above the din, "Kaname-kun!" Shiba missed an easy pass and most of the noise was deposited directly in Itsuki's ear. Kaname ran over to them, gave a quick 'Hi, Mana.' then began poking the twitching form of Itsuki who was asking for someone to make the ringing stop. "Are your ears bleeding?" he asked offhandedly, "Only if it'll get Kirihara to put my head in her lap again." Itsuki said hopefully, Shiba bounced a basketball dangerously close to Itsuki's face and gave him a curt "No." Itsuki shrugged and sat up and rubbed his ears as Mana apologized for shouting. Shiba muttered something about being a weakling.

X-X-X-X

Shiba and Kaname went to go change, and Itsuki told Mana to get to class so she wouldn't be late. "Aren't you coming with me?" she asked him. He shook his head, "No, I wanna get a cigarette in be fore I go to class. You go on like the good little student I'll never be." Mana didn't look approving but went anyways. This left Itsuki as the only one to be seen in the gym, he took a shortcut to the roof that he knew of that was in the storage room and headed for the roof.

When he got there Kaname was already there, "I thought I told you to quit, several times." He said. Itsuki grinned, "You did, and I did, I just said that to get rid of Kirihara. That, and I Knew you'd come up here to tell me off. I just wanted to get you on your own, without the others."

"And now that you have me up here all on our own what are you going to do with me?" At this Itsuki's mind was flooded with different ways to interpret that remark and there was a slight coloration to his cheeks. "I was going to ask you a question."

"And, that is?"

"Are you and Kirihara really going out?"

"What kind of messed up question is that?"

"An honest one; that would like to be answered instead of mocked." Itsuki said with the coloration in his cheeks worsening.

"Yes, we are OK?"

"NO! Not OK, OK? What about us Kaname? What about what we had? What would Master say if she knew what we--"

"Naoya." Kaname never raised his voice, he didn't sound angry, he didn't even look affronted, but his voice calling out Itsuki's given name always made Itsuki stop. He would stop talking, stop moving, stop breathing, he swore even his heart stopped beating, all at one word from Kaname's mouth, he had that much control over the E.G.O.

"Mana is back, it's different now."

"It's no different! We were so much closer then we are now! You were mine before she came!"

"No, she had me first, she was my dear friend and my mind breaker long before I met you."

That's when Itsuki said something he regretted for the rest of his life. "And a lot of good it did you! Look where it got you! An orphan living with your older sister with part of your memory gone for about eight years and nightmares about it!" Even before the words were finished leaving his mouth he'd known he'd gone far too far. His hand flew over his mouth and he looked too shocked and hurt to realize that Kaname was talking, but he heard him.

Kaname glared at him. "What was it you asked earlier? 'What about us, what about what we had?' listen good Itsuki, we never had anything, there never was anything." There was anger in his voice now to be sure.

"You can just deny it, just like that? How could you Kaname?" Itsuki's vision was being blurred by the tears he was holding back.

"What are you suggesting? You have feelings for Master too, same as I; could you make her suffer that kind of heartbreak? Could you hurt her like that? Do you care so little for her?" Kaname asked him furiously.

"Do you care so little for me?" Itsuki asked in a small voice that Kaname almost didn't hear. Itsuki looked up, waiting and dreading Kaname's answer.

Kaname didn't answer. There was some invisible force driving a nail into Itsuki's heart, further and further in it went with each painfully slow second that Kaname stayed in silence.

"Whatever happened is over now, because I could never hurt her like that." Without another word Kaname took the stairwell that would take him the closest to their class. Leaving Itsuki alone on the roof.

Itsuki looked over the edge of that rooftop at the city expanding before him into the horizon, the sun partially concealed by a building, the shades of the sky steadily changing to the light blue they would become. At the flock of birds flying towards the sun... It was so hollow, and meaningless, and... and...

And he really wanted to jump.

X-X-X-X

Chapter 1 End!

Sorry it's short but the rest of it's for later chapters and this is all I wanted to get across in the first chapter. The beginning is cheerful and a bit comical because there is a serious side and a façade to Naoya Itsuki. The X's will show the beginning and ending of chapters as well as any 'time breaks' so to speak; really they'll just to keep the story for getting monotonous. Again, I DO NOT own the song "If Only She Knew" By Michelle Branch but I suggest listening to it while reading the fic; especially later on in the fic.

Reviews will help me update!

-Novelist!