The Drunken Demon
It was closing time at the Maid Café and Misaki Ayuzawa was leaving through the back door. Turning back after saying goodbye to her manager and coworkers, she gets the shock of her life. Leaning against the back wall is none other than Takumi Usui, the 'perverted alien' and one of the few boys at Seika High who isn't intimidated by her.
"Leaving early, Misa?"
"Yeah, the manager said she had business to attend to tonight. Rather than having me close up for her, she let us all have the night off early."
"Well, if you're off already, let's go somewhere."
"Usui, I've got studying to do; and work involving the student council."
"Please, Misa, just let me borrow a little bit of your time tonight. Please? I promise I won't keep you long; I'll bring you home right after."
After some hesitation, "OK, but just for a little bit, perverted alien."After a couple of minutes of walking in the night-lit streets, Misa started thinking to herself, "It's kind of chilly tonight. I wonder where he's taking me."
"Usui, where are we going, dammit? It's getting cold. I left my jacket behind at the Maid Café."
"Don't worry, we're almost there."
"When are you going to tell me where we're going?"
"Don't have to. We're already here."
"What? Wait a minute, this place looks familiar… Oh no! I'm not going in there. I'm not doing this again. No way!!"
"But we're already here… You had fun last time, didn't you? Wouldn't it be a waste if we came all the way here and just went right back? We're here now, so shouldn't we enjoy ourselves?"
"Dammit, Usui, this is the last time."
Once they made their way into the karaoke bar and found their room, they placed their drink orders.
"We'll take two iced teas, please."
"Who said I wanted tea?"
"Well that's what you always get, isn't it?"
"Well, who said that I wanted to come back here anyway? That reminds me, why didn't you tell me that we were going to come here?"
"For that exact reason. I knew that you wouldn't come if I told you where we were going, would you?"
"Probably not, but I don't know why you wanted to come here anyway. It's not like you know any songs, and I only know the one from last time we were here. All this is just a waste of time and money."
"You're wrong there, Misa. I do know a song. I've heard that its actually pretty popular in the US and the first time that I heard it, I immediately thought of you."
"Whaaa? What song? What are you talking about?"
"You'll understand when you hear it."
"You better not be up to anything funny, stupid Usui."
"Don't worry, Misa. Oh, our drinks are here."
Apparently, the server had come in while they were arguing and neither of them had noticed until just that moment.
"Here, I'll take those. Thank you."
Usui took their drinks from the server and gave him a huge tip as thanks, much to Misaki's dismay.
"What the hell? Why do you keep wasting money like that, dammit? Don't you have better things to spend your money on than this kind of stuff?"
"What could be better than this, Misa? I can't think of anything more important than the chance to spend time with you."
While trying to hide the blush that was slowly spreading across her cheeks, Misaki argued,
"Dammit, do you like embarrassing me? I hate it when you say that kind of stuff."
"I know you hate it, but why should I lie?"
"Ok, enough of all that. Just sing already so we can get out of here. I really need to go home already."
"This is my first time singing this song, and only my second time doing karaoke, so try not to criticize too much."
"Will you just get on with it already?"
Usui searched through the list of songs until he found just the one he was looking for. Unknown to Misaki, he had called the shop before they came just to make sure that this song was available. Luckily, the first shop that he called had it, and was incidentally the same one they had previously visited."So far, so good", Usui thought to himself.
"Just remember what I said, ok?"
"Ok, whatever."
The music that started playing was kind of surprising to Misaki. It was different from what she was used to so she didn't really hear the words that were coming out of Usui's mouth. At least that was how it was until the chorus started playing. When she heard, "I wanna kiss a girl," she started choking and automatically took a sip of her tea.
"I wanna hold her tight…"
"Usui, what are you singing and what the hell am I drinking? This isn't tea. What is this nasty crap?"
"Maybe make a little magic in the moonlight,"
That was about all that Misaki could handle and she ended up finishing her drink and half of Usui's by the time he sang, "Don't wanna go too far, just to take it slow…"That final verse was the last straw- she almost inhaled the last of Usui's drink. That was when she began to notice that she wasn't feeling right. It was strange because she'd never felt quite like that before. She'd never felt awake and asleep at the same time. She was shivering, but she wasn't cold. In fact, she felt a warm glow radiating from deep inside her body.
"Oh no, I hope I'm not coming down with something. I can't afford to get sick. I knew we should've gone back to the café and picked up my jacket. It's all his fault. That damn Usui. I knew I never should've gone with him in the first place. All this is his fault!"
It was around this time that the server came rushing back in apologizing about an erroneous drink order. Apparently their drinks were mixed up with the room next door. In the middle of apologizing, the server realized that the drinks were empty and he rushed back out the door in a hurry.
"Oh God, no. What am I gonna do? Instead of the iced tea that they ordered, I gave them Long Island Iced Teas. I just served alcohol to minors. I'm gonna get fired if I don't think of something quick. What should I do? What should I say? Wait a minute, they're kids, they'll believe anything I say. If I tell them that the tea was spoiled, apologize like crazy, and offer free passes for next time, I might be able to pull it off."
After a lot of apologies and the offer of free passes, Usui figured out what was really wrong with Misaki.
"I should've realized it from the start."
Usui decided that he had better get Misa out of the place before anything else happened. She was already starting to get giggly and was definitely not acting like herself and there was no telling how this night was going to end up.
He started debating with himself over whether he should let her know now what was going on or if he should wait until she slept it off and then explain it all later. He had to admit it; she was really cute when she was like this. It was kind of like the time when Kanou hypnotized her and convinced her that she was drunk. When she was like this, she was so carefree. She let all her inhibitions go, unlike her normal self. It was so nice to see her actually enjoying herself for a change and he wondered if she would ever be this comfortable around him and let this side show naturally, without outside influences (the alcohol).
They were almost to Misaki's house when he realized that she was probably going to be in some serious trouble if her mom saw her in this condition. He had to think quickly about what he was going to do about her and where he could take her at this time of night.
"Well, I guess it can't be helped. I'm just going to have to take her back to my place and hope she'll sleep it off there."
Misaki was too far gone to realize that they were suddenly changing directions and heading back the way they came, away from instead of toward her house. She was too busy with enjoying every new sensation to realize that they were now coming closer and closer to Usui's place. It wasn't until they finally reached his door and Misaki realized that they were at his apartment instead of her house that he finally made his decision.
"Usui, why are we here? I thought you were taking me home."
"Misa, you're drunk. Those iced teas weren't spoiled. The server brought us Long Island Iced Teas instead of the drinks that we ordered. In case you haven't realized it yet, you can't go home in this condition. There's no telling what kind of trouble you'd get into if your mom saw you like this. I don't want you to take the risk, so I brought you back here. You can sleep it off and I'll take you back home when your head clears a bit."
When Misaki started to argue, "But", Usui countered with, "No buts, I'm not taking you back until your head clears and that's it. You don't have to worry. You can trust me. I would never try anything on you when you're in this state. Don't try to argue with me because you know you can't win when I've got my mind set on something."
The next words that came out of Misaki's mouth shocked Usui. He honestly expected her to beat him up or run away, but not this.
"Thanks, Usui. You're right and I wasn't thinking straight. I'm glad one of us is."
"Hmmm, Misa's actually agreeing with me for once? Maybe I like this side of her after all. No, this isn't the reason I feel the way I do about her. I love her fire and the way she always finds a way to disagree with me. She's not the same without her fighting spirit. Might as well quit arguing with myself. Misa is still Misa, no matter how she acts. I'll still feel the same either way."
After letting themselves in, Usui ushered Misa over to the couch and covered her with a blanket.
"Now try to get some sleep. You'll feel a lot better if you just sleep it off. I'll wake you up in a little while and then I'll take you home just like I promised."
As he headed to the kitchen to get himself a drink, he looked back at the room he just left. It might be sparsely furnished but he preferred things that way. It was simple and less troublesome like that. Maybe that was one of the reasons he felt so connected to Misa. Unlike the other girls, she wasn't flashy. She knew her worth and she never tried to pretend to be anything other than what she was (unless you counted her working at the Maid Café)."Usui? I'm hungry."
The words wafted from the other room. He searched around the almost-bare kitchen for something that would be mild enough for her stomach in its currently agitated condition.
It seemed like an eternity before he finally found her some crackers and he made a cup of warm green tea.
"I think this will do the trick." He brought them in to the drunken girl now sitting on his couch."Thank you", came out of Misaki's mouth, shocking Usui into silence once again.
"Ne, Usui, come here." He came closer, expecting some form of retaliation for all the trouble today. Misaki grabbed him by the back of his head. He thought he knew what was coming next.
He was wrong.
Misaki pulled him closer and kissed him. First, soft and slow, but gradually increasing in intensity. It was like something broke inside her and she was reacting the only way that she could. For the first time in his life, Usui pushed Misaki away.
He was shocked.
"Misa, what the hell do you think you're doing? Do you realize what you just did?"
"Of course, you idiot. I just kissed you. That's what you wanted isn't it. After hearing that song tonight, I know that's what you wanted. Never mind, apparently you didn't so I'll save us both the embarrassment and just go home. Don't worry about taking me; I'm sure it won't be that hard."
"Dammit." Usui grabbed her arm and pulled her forcefully back toward him.
"Of course that's what I wanted!" and he kissed her with the same intensity that she just showed a minute before.
"Hope I don't regret this later."
The next morning, Misaki awoke to a strange sight. She was in a dark room that seemed somehow familiar to her. Trying to remember what happened last night was pointless. Everything was cloudy.'Why can't I remember? Is there something I'm trying to forget?'
She tried to get up but something wrapped around her stomach was holding her down.
"Whaaaa?"
She felt something warm and wet against her cheek. A kiss?
"Morning , Misa."
Suddenly, she realized where she was.
'Usui's place? What happened last night? Why am I here?'
Misaki jumped up and realized for the first time that she wasn't wearing her own clothes. These were obviously made for a man. Were they Usui's? She didn't even want to know how she ended up in his clothes but she had a good idea of how it happened. She looked around for her clothes and noticed them sitting on the counter.
"I've gotta go."
"Misa? It's not what you think."
"I said, I've gotta go,"
With that, she ran toward the only means of escape.
"I'll return these to you later," she yelled as she ran out the door.
She was halfway down the hall, so she didn't get a chance to see Usui run his hand through his hair and sigh, "Guess it can't be helped."
As she ran home, Misaki could tell it was still early morning. The streets were quiet compared to how they were during the daytime. Since there were no distractions, her mind was running a marathon. 'What happened up there? How did I end up in these clothes? What'll I tell my mom and Suzuna when they ask where I was? Should I lie? I can't tell them the truth. I still have to study. Damn Usui. This is his fault!'
Due to the streets being so still at this hour, Misaki made it back home in record time. The lights were all off when she made it to the door. She'd never stayed out so late before and it was making her nervous.
"Looks like they're asleep. Now I just have to make it upstairs quietly", Misaki whispered to herself.
Misaki made it to her room silently and was careful to not make a sound as she shut her bedroom door. Looking at the clock, she realized it was still pretty early.
"I'll have time to study and still get a little sleep before I have to go to school. I guess I can tell them that I ate something that upset my stomach and one of my coworkers insisted on me coming back to their house until I felt better. Technically, it wasn't a lie. Usui did work with her occasionally and her stomach was upset."
After she changed and set Usui's clothes to the side, Misaki sat down at her desk to study. However, she didn't make that far. She fell asleep the second she sat down. She dreamt about Usui that morning and woke up blushing from head to toe.
"He torments me while I'm awake and now he's invading my dreams too . Why can't he just leave me alone? Does he think it's fun to mess with my head like this?"
After washing up and getting dressed, she eventually made her way downstairs for breakfast. She answered any and all questions that they had for her. She'd been expecting them so she was ready. They seemed like they accepted all of her answers as the truth, but for some reason Misaki felt like they could see right through her to the whole truth.
"It's all right. I'm just not used to leaving things out. If I told them 'everything' that went on, I don't know what they'd say."
She headed out the door with a small package in her hand. It contained the clothes that Misaki had 'borrowed' the previous night.
'I'm just going to hand these to him and pretend that nothing happened. If I avoid bringing it up, maybe he'll do the same.'
In her head, Misaki knew the possibility of that was unlikely but she couldn't help wanting to try. That thought popped back up in head the minute that she came within sight of the front gates. Sure enough, Usui was waiting for her at the front gates and she knew it wasn't going to go as smoothly as it had in her head.
"Here, Usui", she said, handing him the package and attempted to walk by. She had just shaken her trepidation away when she heard, "Wait, Prez," from directly behind her.
She knew he was following, but she didn't acknowledge it.
"She really is determined to pretend nothing's changed, when she doesn't even know what happened. She is too stubborn for her own good", Usui thought to himself as he followed behind on his way to his own classroom.
"Hey, Prez, wait up. We really need to talk."
"We're going to be late for class. I don't have time to talk."
She turned and headed into her classroom, leaving Usui out in the hall. He knew that she was daring him to follow her, but he knew how to be patient. They would talk about last night and he knew it would happen before the day was out. She couldn't avoid him forever.
For Misaki, the rest of the day went by in a blur. After the first class, where she had problems concentrating and had to ask for a question to be repeated, everything went by smoothly. After school she had a quick meeting lined up with the other members of the student council, but she didn't have any expectations of anything happening there. She managed to avoid Usui the whole day and didn't think he would interrupt there. She should have known that it wouldn't be that easy. When she entered the student council room, it appeared that none of the other members had shown up yet. However, the cause of all her problems was sitting in her seat, at her desk.
"What do you want now? You know you're not supposed to be here.."
"Prez, we really need to talk about what happened," Usui replied as he slowly walked her way.
He was a couple feet from Misaki when the door opened and the other members made their way in for the meeting. No one seemed to even realize he was there except for Vice President Yukimura.
"We will talk about this, Prez", Usui muttered as he strolled out the door.
"Talk about what?" Yukimura questioned, pausing beside Misaki as he watched Usui head out the door.
"Don't worry about it. It's time to start the meeting."
Misaki and Yukimura headed over to where the other members had already begun the meeting without them.
Later that night, Satsuki and Misaki's other coworkers noticed her distraction as she tried to work- she wasn't as efficient as usual. They tried to figure out what could have caused it, had many different theories about what was wrong, but only one person knew the most likely reason. Satsuki knew that Usui had met Misaki last night. In fact, she had been the one to call Usui and let him know that they were all going to leave early last night.
'I wonder what happened between the two of them last night. It would take something pretty serious to bother Misaki enough to affect her work. Maybe I should call him again tonight', Satsuki thought to herself. 'They both have feelings for each other, but Misaki is too stubborn to take any kind of action.'
Meanwhile, across the room, Misaki was unaware that she was the subject of her coworkers' ramblings. She was wondering why the 'perverted alien' hadn't been in yet tonight. Usually, he would always come in and bother her. His absence tonight seemed to annoy her more than usual.
'Is he upset because I've been avoiding him? Should we talk about what happened last night?' Misaki shook the idea out of her head. 'It was his fault. We never should have gone there again. I told him I didn't want to go.'
Closing time came sooner than expected to an extremely preoccupied Misaki. It was a quiet night and that didn't happen very often. Usually, the three idiots were there to cheer her on, in addition to the 'alien'. She kind of missed that. The way it was tonight, she had too much time to think about what had been going on lately. She took out the trash and noticed that Usui wasn't out there waiting tonight. As much as she'd hate to admit it to anyone even herself, she was kind of hoping that he would be out there waiting again tonight.
She started to walk home when she realized that she was about to leave her jacket at the Café again for the second day in a row. She had to get herself together. She was letting that damn Usui get under her skin and she was tired of it. He's just going to do what everyone else does. 'What reason does he have for sticking around when all I do is push him away?' Shaking that thought out of her head, she went back inside to get her jacket.
When she came back out, a sight that she hadn't been expecting greeted her. Usui was leaning against the same wall as the night before. In fact, it was like a replay of last night, not including her jacket of course. Unlike last night, however, the teasing glint was missing from his eyes and he had a serious look on his face. Misaki was sure that she knew why he had that expression on. It was partly her fault. She didn't have to avoid him today but she just didn't want to find out that he wasn't as perfect as he appeared. The scene this morning pretty much explained itself. As the day went by, she started to remember more and more of what happened last night, at least up until the kiss he gave her when she tried to leave.
'He promised me that he wouldn't try anything in the condition that I was in last night. I woke up in his clothes. How can he expect me to trust him after that? Something obviously happened and he can't deny that.'
"Ayuzawa?"
He was definitely upset if he was back to calling her that.
"Why are you avoiding me?"
Misaki pretended she hadn't heard the question even if they both knew she had. He repeated the question loud enough that anyone that happened to be walking by could hear. She couldn't avoid it a second time.
"I haven't been avoiding you. I told you that I've been busy. I don't have time for this." The tone of his voice brought out Misaki's defensive side and she didn't like the way it made her feel.
"I'm not going to leave you alone until you at least hear me out. I want to talk to you about what happened."
"After this morning you don't need to explain anything. An idiot could figure out what happened last night. I do remember enough to recall a promise that was made. One that wasn't kept."
"That's why we need to talk. It didn't happen the way you think it did. Come with me and at least hear me out before you condemn me."
Misaki decided she could at least give him the chance to explain himself . It wouldn't be fair to either of them if she didn't and she'd learned enough over the past year to know that things weren't always as they seemed.
Usui started with their meeting at the Café last night. He went on from there to explain everything that occurred at the Karaoke place last night. She still couldn't believe that she got drunk last night. It was an experience that she would be sure not to repeat again. They had finally arrived at the park where she first told him about her family. It seemed that this was a place for confessions and it appeared that it would be appropriate for this tale too.
He went on to explain what happened when they reached his apartment. She blushed at hearing how she acted even though she did slightly recall what happened up until the second kiss. When he got to the second kiss he started blushing too and had to pause to compose himself. What he said next shocked her and was actually kind of funny when she thought about it later. Apparently, sometime during the second kiss, Misaki started to feel light-headed. Usui stopped the kiss and helped her to the couch. That was when she started to get really irritable and tried to tear her clothes off at the neck. She said they were bothering her and she needed to get them off now.
Usui remembered telling her, "Just hold on for a minute and I'll get you something to put on."
He came back with an old shirt and pair of shorts that he was sure she would be more comfortable in. After helping her change her clothes, he took them and set them on the counter for later. He turned around and she was already asleep.
Rather than wake her, he found a way to climb in without waking her and tried to go to sleep. It was their first time ever being this close and he was actually nervous about it. Giving in to the moment, he put his arms around her and tried to sleep.
It wasn't long after he finally fell asleep that she awoke and went on a rampage. He was barely awake when she stormed out the door or he would've stopped her and prevented all the misunderstandings of the day.
"You don't have to believe me, but I just thought that I should at least try to explain."
"You may irritate the hell out of me, but I have to admit that you've never lied to me. As shocking as the story might be, it doesn't surprise me because it involves you. Strange things always happen when you're around."
Usui thought about what she said for a bit and looked up to find her walking away with a slight grin on her face.
"I have to get home. Don't think that you're going to get another chance like that, you perverted alien."
Usui laughed to himself. "Misa is difficult, but I wouldn't change her for anything."
He walked away in the opposite direction, still chuckling softly.