If you're going through hell, keep going. XD

He stared at the words on the half-crumpled paper. Torn from a notebook, it seemed.

He had only to take one look at it and he immediately knew whose unruly penmanship it belonged to. He folded the note, stuck it in one his pockets (after all, littering was ungentlemanly.) Sighed, and finally left the locker room to go home.

Yagyuu Hiroshi was getting tired. No, he IS tired. He had to work hard in school, attend daily tennis training, and he even had to walk his little sister to her ballet lesson that afternoon. Not that they were bothers. They were the least of his problems. Heck, they shouldn't even be considered problems compared to this one. It was way worse. Yes, Yagyuu has a serious problem, it isn't a psychological disorder, it's probably he who has that anyway, and his name is Niou Masaharu.

"Niou-kun, it's 2 am. What are you doing throwing pebbles at my window?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"…"

"Wow Yagyuu, you're house is bigger than what it looks from the outside"

"Would you like some hot chocolate?" A yawn.

Grin. "Sure."

They both entered Yagyuu's room.

"I'm alright. Go back to sleep, Yagyuu." The chair near the desk occupied.

"And leave you alone?" In my house?! To wreak havoc?! I think not. You could practically see those words in the expression of Yagyuu's face.

"Aw, c'mon. I won't destroy anything. I'm gonna leave soon. I just… wanna look around a bit…" And then a weary Yagyuu hesitantly got back into bed, and fell asleep.

When Yagyuu woke up, Niou was gone and his books, CD's, and other stuff in complete disorder.

Well, he thought to himself as he picked some novels off the floor. At least he really didn't destroy anything.

"Niou-kun, why was it so important for me to be here?" he half shouted over the noise.

"Nothing. I just wanted someone to accompany me to this concert." Grin. Again.

" We skipped school for this? You could've asked somebody else… but you said it was an emergency and you needed me." An eyebrow twitches.

"Yeah, I needed you to have fun."

"…"

Yagyuu did have fun, thought he did NOT want to admit it. Well, it was the concert of his favorite (and probably only) pop singer. He guessed Niou had seen that CD the other night. And yes, he did want to attend that concert. For weeks now, but since it fell on a school day, it was simply impossible. That was Yagyuu's life. But that day, he cut classes, missed tennis practice, and still had to explain to his parents. Sigh. Niou-kun.

Late that afternoon, Yagyuu and Niou profusely apologized to their Yukimura-buchou for missing tennis. He replied with a smile. "It's okay. It's all right for Yagyuu-kun to have fun. He deserves it." As if he knew all that they did. He probably knew. And then he turned. "But not you, Niou-kun. You, on the other hand, have had too much fun." And ended their conversation there so that Niou could start on his laps.

Niou himself explained to their teacher. He didn't look like he believed at first, but as soon as Yagyuu backed the story up, as fast as lightning he took it as completely true.

Niou also left with Yagyuu to explain to his parents. They were both home early for once. Well, not really, they were in the middle of work, but the school called them to say that their Hiroshi had finally appeared and was safe. Because that same morning, the school called to check up on Yagyuu and if he was really okay. Yagyuu had a perfect attendance record, and it was must have been quite an emergency.

"My little brother had to go to the doctor for his shots, and he wanted Yagyuu-kun there with him, since he looks up to him so much, but we couldn't contact you, because in our hurry, we forgot our mobile phones, and my mom said it was okay, and she'd contact you for us but I guess she forgot, but don't try to call her now, because she's abroad and just left a few hours ago. We had to bring her to the airport too. I'm sorry. I thought she had contacted you and…" He ended up blabbering anything that popped into his mind to Yagyuu's annoyed parents. Sure, they liked Niou, but on this particular meeting, they were both getting pissed off. They had to get back to work.

Sure, Yagyuu's parents were worried, but as soon as they got their logical reason, (they figured Hiroshi would never cut classes for fun. Now that was just illogical.) they left. Back to work. Workaholics. Niou thought, and laughed out loud.

And so, Yagyuu was safe, for now. Who knew what other things the sly trickster had in mind?

Niou was missing the whole day. He wasn't in class, and Yagyuu found out he wasn't home- through his mom. Turns out she wasn't anywhere but home. Still nowhere to be found, Yukimura had given him permission to search for the trickster instead of joining practice that day. Fortunately, Yagyuu knew where the silver haired boy would be. Unfortunately, it was quite far from the city.

"Niou-kun! Niou-kun!"

"Ah, Yagyuu."

"Where have you been?"

"Right here. The whole time." He smirked.

The sun was setting and the waves were crashing against the shore.

"Come on, Niou-kun, everyone's been looking for you,"

"I don't see anyone. Besides you, 'course."

"It's 'cause they don't know where to look."

"Yeah, so I guess only you do." Grinning. Again.

"Come on, Niou-kun, let's go back."

"You're so uptight. Call me Masaharu, Hiroshi! We've known each other long enough."

"Oh. Okay. Masaharu…" "…-kun"

"Aww…" He complained, as he stood up, and started walking across the sand towards the train station.

Keeping up with Ni- er, Masaharu was hard, but Yagyuu guessed that only he was up to the job. His life may have its downs (most unsurprisingly due to Niou) and ups. (Actually, a lot attributing to the same trickster.) More downs than ups it seemed, but a friendship as close as that, to someone like that, Yagyuu thought, it was worth it, and worth going through any kind of hell. 'Cause he knew, he'd always keep going. 'Til the end.