Author's Gibberish: Yes, I know, it's been a while. But this will be my first try at a multi-chaptered fic, so please, please be gentle. This will probably be updated between one-shots, so there will be no steady stream of new chapters, but maybe one or two every month. I'm sorry for the length of time in between, but if I force myself through the story I'll lose interest and most likely drop the story entirely.

So anyway, thank you once again to Kinyo, my wonderful beta-reader. And thank oh-so-much to my wonderful, wonderful readers! I hope you all enjoy reading this as I did writing it!

Tawnyb


Disclaimer: I own nothing. Get that? Nothing. I'm legally incapable of owning anything. In truth, my parents own me.
"You are so lucky."

Yukari sat on thee bed, knees nestled under her, starring out the window at the neighbor's yard. She was bright-eyed and attentive, much like a small child with ADD at the national convention of shiny objects.

"Want to trade?"

Hitomi looked up at her friend from her spot lying on the floor, one eyebrow lifted in a sarcastic way that made it seem as though she was considering to get up and leave at any moment.

Her longtime best-friend snorted loudly and rolled her eyes in a way that screamed, 'You must be friggen blind.'

"Shut up, you shouldn't even be looking. What would Amano say if he knew?"

The brunette simple gave a sniff. "Hitomi, I'm dating, not dead. There's no harm in looking at the scenery as long as it's available. Though," giving Hitomi a deadpan look, "there does seem to be some kind of harm in not looking. Your eyes will never work if you don't open them. "

Hitomi sighed in defeat and settled back down on the floor. Her friend may have won their little bout of words, but she had also apparently become very uninterested in the actions of the neighboring home.

It wasn't that Van Fanel was unattractive; on the contrary the boy was able to make half of the school's female population swoon with a mere glance and cocky grin. But it was that attitude; his view on life and his damned superiority complex that made Hitomi want to move across the planet as quickly as possible.

When she thought about it, it would be fair to say that the only reason she was able to stick around was because of Folken, the older sibling that had always volunteered to baby-sit her when both parents were out on business.

The two brothers were completely opposite in personality and style.

Folken was taller and slightly fairer than his brother, with dyed blue hair that seemed somehow natural. He was into light colored clothing that was casual yet nice enough for the work place. Many would say they could see him as a male model, but Hitomi knew him better than that. He was without the attitude or ego that came with such a job, and he wanted humanitarian, working in schools as a science teacher.

Van, on the other hand, was only slightly taller than average, with jet black hair and a thinner body type. The only colors had ever seen him in were incredibly dark and raggedy, with holes and wear that had been put there by the designer. Most of the school population thought of him as the next up-and-coming rock star, and Hitomi didn't know him well enough to approve or deny that.

Yukari shifted on the bed, her face coming into view a moment later, and blinked down for a few moments, obviously thinking. Hitomi felt no real impulse to push her into a conversation, not really wanting to talk much today.

'What is she going to say?' Hitomi wondered; something about Amano or the upcoming track practice schedule, a question about the rest of their senior year perhaps?

"Are you ok?"

'Well that was unexpected.'

Apparently taking a moment too long to reply, the opportunity was lost in a steady torrent of conversation.

"I mean, you know. You've been really quiet for a while now, and I really didn't want to ask you, because you can normally get yourself out of a rut. But, oh I don't know, it's different this time. You're becoming so… sarcastic. It started after Allen asked Eries out, and I know you really, really liked him while you two were going out, and you two were togetherforever. And Amano and I were just starting out when he asked, so I kept thinking it must have something to do with all that stuff happening, and…"

Her voice began to fade out slightly as Hitomi recognized that her friend was slowly slipping into a rant mode. She found herself nodding sporadically, and agreeing whenever there was an expectant pause.

Thoughts about dinner, and an upcoming trig test ran through her mind as the color of the ceiling, a once bright white that had dulled down to a slightly off color during the years of her residency, became boring.

Would Yukari notice if she fell asleep?

She rarely noticed other things while she ranted. Maybe a small amount of snoring would be excusable?

Hitomi tried to take a moment to figure out where the one-sided conversation was going before taking the chance.

"He really is hot, and haven't you known him forever? You've been neighbors for, what, ten years? Your families are so close, and all those pictures of you three in the hall. I mean, what even happened? Your parents said you two were joined at the hip, and then all of a sudden you hated each other. What happened, it couldn't have been that bad. I mean, honestly, he's completely dateable. A little broody, and all he does in class is listen to that junky radio-cassette thing, but otherwise, come on…"

Wait what?

Hitomi blinked, all thoughts of sleep vanishing with the nausea. She was obviously insinuating Van, because Folken was in college and their other neighbor was the type of old, fat, hairy man that liked to wear Speedos at water parks to traumatize small children.

Well, maybe she was lucky, and Yukari was insinuating Mr. Phillips.

"No way in hell I am ever even speaking to Van. He is an evil, cruel, moronic human being."

There was a long pause, and Hitomi realized with horror that she had cut into one of Yukari's inner monologues that were spoken aloud. She held them as sacred her jacket that was signed by all of The Click Five with accompanying hugs, and any type of interruption ran the risk of becoming a close to fatal mistake.

Luckily, however, Yukari was more concerned for her friend than the long speech that been building for the pas five minutes.

"What is he, the Anti-Christ?"

"Close enough."

Yukari scoffed and fell backward onto the bed, fingers intertwining in the blue bed spread. Hitomi prayed one of her nails wouldn't catch on the embroidered white and pink feathers.

"What'd he do?"

There was a pause, and shutting her eyes tightly, Hitomi scrunched her nose in what she hopped to be a sign of casual indifference. There was no reason to drag anything unpleasant into their conversation, so she slipped into a simple but direct evasion.

"Don't ask."