Disclaimer: The characters belong to Inoue Takehiko, and the base idea belongs to Hiro Fujiwara (Maid-sama)

Prologue: Crack

"Okay! That's enough for today!" Akagi announced to his team as soon as the practice match had ended. Immediately the players panted for breath, while some wiped their sweat off. The training had been tougher than usual, they gave him that.

Then the players marched to the locker room to clean up while Akagi observed. He noted that several players were better with their stamina with his new training regiment as their breath were more controllable than usual, most notably the secondary players.

This amused him. He was one step closer to the goal he desired. He would eliminate those words about Shohoku's bench no matter what! No more weak bench! No more-

Akagi's thought came to a halt as he saw Rukawa slipped out of the room silently like a spy. With the ace's everyday attitude, such act was not unusual. But this time it was different. Curiosity beat him into asking.

"Where are you going?"

"Home." He replied short before leaving the gym. Impolite, Akagi called it.

"What's with that brat and attitude?" Akagi complained.

Ayako, who was packing her belongings, came to hear his captain's complaint. Concerned, she approached him. "What is it, Akagi-sempai?"

"Rukawa," Akagi sighed. "His attitude and a new habit for sneaking out."

Ayako laughed at his words, causing Akagi's face to turn slight shades of red. "Rukawa has always been like that! No need to worry." She assured with a smile. Akagi opened his mouth to argue with her statement, but decided to shut it back.

Ayako giggled at her sempai's reaction. "Come on, sempai. Go clean up and let's go home." Ayako invited as she accompanied him to the destination. Akagi walked in silence, still unable to shrug the suspicions off.

'I think he's hiding something big.' He finally decided the answer, regardless of Ayako's words.

Rukawa, while busy making his droll bubble, drove his bicycle inside a narrow lane. Its tires were rolling rapidly on the path as he made his way snoring to the destination. Then,

CRASH!

The bicycle hit the wall so hard that the driver flew straight to head-butt the wall. A man in violet tailed-tux came from the back door upon hearing the loud noise.

"You should stop comparing your strength with the wall, Kae-kun." The man mocked with a smirk on his face.

Kiyota "Do'aho." Rukawa struggled to stand up by himself with his twitching forehead since the other man didn't even bother offering a hand. He even heard Kiyota snickering at him with his monkey-like laugh. What a friend…

Kiyota's laugh came to an abrupt stop when the door he was leaning at was opened so hard that he flung into the wall across in the same way as Rukawa's.

"Do'aho." Rukawa gave him a nearly invincible smirk.

"You-!"

"Rukawa, Nobunaga, stop wandering around and get your ass back to work!" Kiyota was about to argue with him when the third person interrupted. He also wore tux like Kiyota but red in color.

Kiyota grumbled with a scowl on his face as he rubbed the aching lump on his forehead. "You don't need to hit me that hard, Koshi-san!"

"DON'T CALL ME KOSHI-SAN WHEN WE'RE NOT WORKING!" He shouted so loud that Kiyota had to cover both ears.

"Fine, Koshino-san! Sheesh…"

Rukawa sighed at the sight before leaving the area, followed by a furious Koshino and a grumbling Kiyota.

They entered to what seemed like a changing room with several lockers inside. Rukawa leaned his bike beside the door before proceeding to his locker while Kiyota went to the locker across him to check the lump of his head.

The time passed silently as Koshino watched Rukawa undressed his sweaty shirt and Kiyota combing his hair so that it covered the lump. It was the first time when the two of them could be in the same room peacefully, beside the working place of course.

Koshino nearly jumped when Kiyota slammed the locker like he was to break it.

"Okay, I'm ready!" Shouted Kiyota.

Koshino watched him storming out prideful when he noticed something missing. He frowned his brows and quickly ran toward Kiyota and jerked him by his collar.

"Ack!" Kiyota yelped automatically. "What is wrong with you?"

Koshino's temper went to the level maximum as soom Kiyota finished talking.

"Tie your hair! Wear your mask! Do you want the whole people to know you work here as a butler?" Koshino shouted furiously, even going as far as giving him a lump in the head.

He had always been like that. The unofficial employee discipline manager, people called him secretly. Sometime Kiyota found himself wondering why the owner hadn't promoted him yet.

Nonetheless, Kiyota did as the 'manager' told him to. After he had worn his violet mask and tied his hair elegantly, he posed in front of the mirror-

-and got another lump on his head.

"Stop wasting your time here and get out!" He yelled as he dragged the wincing boy out. All the sudden he stopped his tracks at the door.

"Don't spend too much time or Maki-san will be angry at you, Rukawa." Koshino advised with slight anger in his tone. Then they exited the changing room, leaving him alone.

"Two Do'ahos." He sighed as he changed into his suit, an icy blue tux. He put his blue rose on his pocket and his belt on. Next he combed his hair before putting a resonance ice blue mask. The mask only covered most parts of his eyes, so he was still capable of walking.

A brief though crossed his mind as he looked at his self. He remembered what Koshino had said.

'Do you want the whole people to know you work here as a butler?'

Rukawa closed his eyes, trying to find the most perfect answer. Is it shame? Is it failure? No, those weren't right. Is it guilt?

'What am I thinking?' He shook his head in attempt to discard those thoughts. He closed the locker's door and made his way to the exit. Just an inch away from the handle, he stopped.

"What will happen, huh?" He grabbed the knob and twisted it, opening the door to the kitchen.

"Who cares about that."

Then the door was slammed shut.

"Thank you for coming, Master." The blue tux butler bowed as three women made their way out with hearts on their eyes. He sighed as the last costumers made their way out when he heard someone clasping.

"Nice work, Kae-kun." A white tux butler congratulated. "Glad that you are more accustomed in serving people now."

"Thank you, sempai." He replied.

"Sei-san," Kiyota called while cleaning the wooden tables. "He nearly destroyed the wall every time he came, he's always late, and he never smiles to the costumer. How come you call that good?" He scowled, directing all his anger to his hand and mopped the table harshly.

The white butler grabbed a mop from the side and helped him with other tables. "Well, when Ruka-kun first joined, immediately he earned the nick 'ice butler'. It's been a month now, and seems that the ice may change into a puddle." He chuckled, earning a glare from Rukawa.

"But-!"

"It's true." Koshino joined the conversation. He was leaning to the wall nearby Kiyota while watching Rukawa took his mask off with a sigh. "Not much, but at least he's starting to greet people, even with that way." Rukawa's glare turned to him at once as everyone laughed along.

"Do'aho." Rukawa said, but his voice was muted with the amazingly loud laugh courtesy of Kiyota. Slowly became annoyed, he put his hand on the knob and opened the door to exit the room.

BRAKK!

The door seemed to have a life of its own for it added more force than necessary to Rukawa's side that made him lost his balance. To make matters worse, someone just happened to bump onto him, causing him to fell onto the hard floor. Two lumps in one day.

"Kyaa! The ice butler!" The person who bumped onto him happened to be a little fan girl who was squealing with hearts on both eyes. Great…

"Sendoh-niisan, I found him! I found him!" The girl squealed again. Rukawa was trying to get the girl off when her words stopped him abruptly.

'Don't tell me-!'

"Really? Let me see the ice butl-?" Words were stuck on the girl's brother as he saw who she was sitting at. The guest and Rukawa were in a staring contest as the little girl's squealing filled the atmosphere. None could let their stare off each other as both were stunned with shock.

Fear was visible in Rukawa's stare. At that moment, Koshino's words flew inside his head.

'Do you want the whole people to know you work here as a butler?'

Right on the same day as the question, he got the perfectly made answer for himself by none other than his rival from Ryonan,

Akira Sendoh.

A/N: When I wrote this, I was actually laughing at Rukawa worked as a butler. Oh, how random that idea came *snickers*. If you review, I'll continue writing this, so for all readers (anonymous or not) please tell me what you think!