A/N: Soooo, I'm heading off to grad school, so there won't be as much time for fanfic writing in my future. But I can't exactly go on without writing it, so I had to find a solution to my upcoming lack of free time. To make things a little easier on me, I'm undertaking one of those 30 Day one-shot/drabble challenges for the Kuro/Fai pairing so I don't have to work on a single storyline or under a writing schedule. The one-shots will be interrelated (and not chronological), but will come out whenever I have a moment rather than on a weekly basis like my regular posting schedule.

I've also decided to do Horitsuba verse, because I haven't really done all that much of it yet. And it's fun!

For now, I have most of my challenges picked out, but I have about eight or so blank, so if any of you have requests, I'll see if I can work it in. As for now, enjoy!

Rating: T some chapters and M for others. Rated M for the protection of oh so innocent youth.

Disclaimer: Horitsuba is from the genius fangirl minds of CLAMP. Bow to them!

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One: Photograph

There was a large thunk on the door to Kurogane's dormitory, and a moment later his roommate Touya Kinomoto stumbled in, his hands full with the latest edition of the Horitsuba Student and Alumni Journal. Since it covered all of the divisions of Horitsuba Gakuen- the kindergarten, middle school, university, and even the students who had already graduated- it was about the same size as an encyclopedia, if not bigger. It was a bit of a mystery among the students as to how Yuuko and her many minions kept track of every student who had every existed within the Horitsuba community, but Kurogane frankly didn't want to know anything about what she'd dug up about them. He threw away his copy of the Student Journal as soon as it passed through his hands since what the other students in his university were doing didn't interest him in the slightest.

Touya slammed the Journal into the dead center of his desk, the only part of it that wasn't smothered with framed photos of his sister Sakura and boyfriend Yukito. Kurogane didn't know why he even bothered collecting pictures of them since Touya already spent nearly every waking minute either checking up on Sakura in Horitsuba's grade school or biking around campus with Yukito, but having them there did seem to give him extra inspiration when he was studying, so Kurogane let the matter drop.

"Did your sister do something spectacular again?" Kurogane asked, watching as Touya paged through the lengthy table of contents. Sakura was always winning service awards thanks to her generous personality, and if there was ever a drawing or lottery at a Horitsuba event, she was more often than not the grand prize winner.

"Not this time. This edition has an update on what our old upperclassmen are up to."

"Who cares?"

"I don't, for the most part. But I heard that one of the sempai was added to the roster as a teacher for Horitsuba High."

"And...?"

"Sakura will be graduating into the high school class."

"And...?"

"I can't have some creep teaching her, can I?"

"Ah." Kurogane made a mental note to avoid the High School division when filing for his placement preferences. He was currently in the education department with a special focus in physical education, but he hadn't decided yet which age group he wanted to teach. While he was sure he definitely wouldn't be any good with kids and might be better off with working with Horitsuba High students, he didn't want to get involved with anything Touya would be sticking his overprotective nose in.

"Oh, good," Touya said, sighing in relief. "It's just Fai-sempai. Looks like he'll be teaching Chemistry."

The pen Kurogane had been holding slipped from his fingers, clattering down to his desk. "Who," he said, gritting his teeth, "made that idiot a teacher?"

"You don't like Fai-sempai?"

Kurogane couldn't blame Touya for sounding so surprised. Everyone in Horitsuba had liked Fai-sempai. He was just one of those people who seemed to have something in common with everyone. Even the people who pretended not to like Fai-sempai due to his overly bright, overly affectionate personality secretly couldn't help but like him. Before he'd graduated from Horitsuba U, he'd been one of the most popular people on campus.

He was the exact sort of person Kurogane usually would have been more than happy to ignore. Except for some reason, he hadn't been able to keep from noticing him in spite of his best efforts. From the very first moment he'd laid eyes on him (Fai had been contorting himself to snag a drank from the nearly broken water fountain in the courtyard, Kurogane had just happened to be passing by), he would find his gaze falling on him as if led there by some sort of magnetic force. And no matter how many stupid, obnoxious, and downright annoying things he watched Fai do, no matter how much he grumbled and complained to himself, no matter how frequently he tried to convince his brain that it was processing everything all wrong, he simply couldn't stop himself from looking for Fai.

Needless to say, he hated Fai for making him weird. Because there was no way that he would ever have an interest in someone so positively sickening if he hadn't somehow been tricked into it.

"Wasn't Fai-sempai in the education department with you?" Touya pressed. "So of course they would make him a teacher."

Kurogane snorted. "That guy probably never studied anything in his life! How the hell did he manage to pass the Chemistry curriculum?"

"Er, Fai-sempai only pretends to be an idiot, you know. He's actually very smart, I've heard."

Kurogane knew that. He knew quite a bit about Fai from observing him for so long ("not my fault, it's all because that idiot somehow damaged my brain"), but all the same he had been hoping Fai wouldn't make it through the education department so they wouldn't end up having the same profession as each other.

He leaned over Touya's shoulder, skimming the article about Fai. It was accompanied by a picture of the blonde wearing a long white lab coat and holding up a beaker filled with bubbling liquid. Kurogane's heart suddenly felt like there was a rock sitting on it. He hadn't seen Fai since he'd graduated from Horitsuba U, and simply looking at a photo of him made him feel like he'd gone an unsafe amount of time without something he desperately needed.

"He'll probably end up blowing up a building or something," Kurogane muttered. He didn't actually think Fai was that incompetent, but just the act of saying something dismissive made him feel like himself again.

"I'm just impressed that you actually care about what he's doing," Touya said, slamming the heavy Journal shut and accidentally causing a tremor big enough to knock one of the pictures of Yukito over (Touya quickly righted it again, brushing his boyfriend's cheek with his thumb as if to apologize for hurting him). "You usually ignore everyone who has nothing to do with you."

"Hmph," Kurogane said, returning to his desk. If only it were that simple. If only he could just ignore him like he did everyone else.

Touya chucked the Journal off of his desk and proceeded to fill out his economics homework with record speed. "I'm taking Yuki, Sakura, and Tomoyo-chan out for ice cream, want to come?" It was a courtesy invitation; Kurogane usually preferred to work out by himself after finishing up his assignments, and as a future teacher, he didn't feel comfortable interacting casually with his potential students.

"Nah. You go on."

"All right. I'll be back before curfew."

As soon as Touya was safely out of the room, Kurogane dug through his desk for the blank Placement Preference form he'd been putting off filling out. His pen hovered over the words "Horitsuba High," prepared to circle it.

Do I really want to spend my career in the exact same place he is?

Do I want to spend it in a place he isn't?

He grit his teeth. "Someone sane needs to be there to make sure he doesn't do something stupid," he muttered. He quickly circled Horitsuba High and tossed the pen aside.

Before folding the sheet up and sticking it back in his desk, he reached down and grabbed the copy of the Journal that Touya had left behind. He opened it to the same page as Fai's picture and tucked the form in as a bookmark. Maybe he could understand why someone would want to keep a few pictures of someone else, someone special, around. Maybe just a little.

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