Title: Fiddling While Rome Burns

A/N: There's not a lot of Kimi to Boku fics here... Makes me sad. ;-;

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the anime/manga Kimi to Boku, or it's characters.

Prologue

"Good afternoon, my fellow peers!"

A boy with straw-colored hair left a trail of dust as he sped through the hallways of Homare High school. Once he past a couple of unfamiliar faces, he waved at them excitingly with a smile that radiated pure bliss. The boy Tachibana Chizuru was running himself out of breath; bullets of sweat were dripping away from his form. Yet his pace was composed.

"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just taking a little stroll!" He continued to chime, as if he were having a normal conversation while drinking tea and eating biscuits.

How calm for someone who was running for his life.

Not too far behind him was his classmate and friend, Tsukahara Kaname, and his underclassman and quite-possibly-maybe-friend, Satou Masaki. Neither of them looked in the least bit jolly as the blond.

In fact, they looked about ready to kill him with their danger-like glares.

"Get back here, Monkey Boy!" Kaname called out. His were veins popped in that anime/manga fashion.

Without daring to look back, the blond answered with sincere casualness. "No thanks."

"I'll kick your ass!" Masaki spat this time.

"Little ladies shouldn't be saying stuff like that!"

"Shut up!"

Times like these would remind a guy like Chizuru to not mess with people like those two. It unnerved him at how feisty that girl can be. It's really un-cute. And why is Kaname-chi so damn hot-tempered? He wasn't even this-… no wait, he was! Hell, he was far worse even with those two combined. Or back in the day, anyway.

'Back in those days…'

—scratch that thought.

Damn it! Why the hell would he be reminiscing about his shitty past? Now's not the time!

Almost instinctively, he began to sprint. The thought of what his two fired up pursuers would do to him once they catch was all finally starting to sinking in.

Seeing that his only escape was up the stairs and through a fire-escape, Chizuru decided to take that route.

The beating sensation in his ears, as if his heart had rushed to his head, had prevented from hearing anything clearly. He could tell that there were people yelling at him, but he didn't slow down. The adrenaline kept him going.

Up the stairs he went. At a speed only the track team could be proud of, and heart-attack prone for mothers.

And there were plenty sets of stairs. At least eighteen steps before the path would force him reeling to the opposite direction. In other words, falling from them could lead to a serious head or body injury.

'It's been so long,' a pause, 'since I last used this much energy…'

He felt like a dog being let out of its leash for the first time.

There goes his new year's resolution for self-control.

(If Kaname could read minds, he would have laughed at the thought of Chizuru having self-control. Yes, it was that absurd.)

Standing at the top of the stairs with the exit door wide open stood Asaba Yuuki. His hand was full, carrying a cardboard box filled with heavy assortments (judging by the smidge of contort in his expression).

He didn't look in the least bit surprised when he saw Chizuru running up to him. If truth be told he only spared the blond one glance before turn around and started heading back towards the exit.

Not good. His path was now blocked.

The blond made a mental note to swiftly pass the Asaba twin by without knocking him over. Because he had this sickening feeling that he didn't need a third pursuer. Although he doubts that someone as indifferent as Yuuki would even bother… unless it pertained to manga. He could probably set the boy's uniform on fire and the lad wouldn't even bat an eye.

Speaking of which, has he ever blinked before? Like ever? Chizuru could not recall.

At the immediate sighting of the younger twin, his grin had widened to the point of almost reaching his ears.

"Ah! Yukki—"

And that was it. He could say no more.

A squeaksound hadresonated from under his feet.

It was the sort of sound that always made him giggle silly, even though it was something only infants found amusing. Kaname-chi always said it was stupid of him to laugh at something that was 'below toilet humor'.

Well, he wasn't laughing now.

Take that, four-eyes.

Anyways, what was the first thing that ran through his head at the time? Here's a little list of options to choose from:

a. Someone had spilled water. And s/he will get a stern talking to later.

b. He had slipped. And railings everywhere will rejoice that their purpose in existence will soon be met.

c. He was falling backwards. And promises to later give gymnastics the proper respect they deserve.

d. All of the above. Given that thinking about this any longer will give him stress.

e. None of the above.

…

The answer is e, none of the above.

Also note that all of the above did actually happen.

In a split second he saw the same horrified face that Yuuki had shown when they were younger. The incident when Chizuru's footing had slipped and he fell to the ground from the tree branch. Frankly, the blond blamed himself for the incident. If he hadn't provoked, or rather challenged Yuuki, he wouldn't have fell. Although the fall did not traumatize or injure him severely, it was the look on Yuuki's face that sent him limp.

The whole time Chizuru was under the impression that Yuuki was some sort of humanoid. The boy's face never cracked.

He was completely unreadable.

So when in that one instance that a concealed emotion was exposed, in a form of horror, Chizuru felt a pang of guilt surge into him.

He couldn't stand the look of hurt in Yuuki's facade.

So just like back then, he thought: 'I better smile it off and tell him I'm alright after this.'

Which was right before his vision blurred, and darkness overtook him.

!

tbc